19 years old
I once was pushed into a deep hole by a wave while surfing in Santa Barbara. I could touch the sides of the hole as far up as I could reach and it was deep enough that I could touch the bottom with my feet. When I sprang up I was immediately pushed back into the hole by the next wave in the set. With complete panic and closing in on seconds before I would have to either take a breath of air or breathe the seawater into my lungs I sprang up again and took a sweet breath of air but the third wave crushed me and I coughed it back up. I wasn't pushed back into the hole this time, I was in that place where the power of the water is rushing around you mixed with sand and twirling your body around to the point that you don't know what direction to swim for. I was lost. I had no energy left to fight. I could feel my soul slipping.
Then I was pulled up by my friend who I was surfing with. Paramedics and a whole crew of people met us at the breakers. They carried me to shore and tried to convince me to go to the hospital they had an ambulance waiting on the beach! I refused to go, I felt fine, just a little tired. I found my friend and tried to thank him but he refused my gesture. He told me there was no need to thank him, that he didn't even know I was getting hammered, he didn't notice my board washed up, he was just paddling back out for the next set when he felt my arm by chance as he treaded.
When I got my energy back I walked down the beach to recover my board. One of the life guards approached me to ask how I was I told him I was fine and he said:
"you have quite a friend there, the other lifeguards and I gave up trying to find you we but your friend stayed out there fighting against set after set for almost an hour... and he found you. Its amazing!"
"What? I was only out there for five or ten minutes"
"No man, you were out there a long time. We gave up hope of finding you alive, except for your friend. You may think you were out there for a few minutes but you must have been in mild shock or something. It is amazing that he found you"
My friend didn't want to be a hero. He didn't want to take credit. He didn't want acknowledgment of any kind. I respected his wishes and never let on that I knew what he had done for me. I made up my mind that whenever that guy needed help with anything working on his car, a loan, a ride, any damn thing I was gonna be there for him.
Unfortunately I was never able to repay my debt to my friend. He committed suicide 2 weeks after saving my life. He was 19 years old.
If you are hoping for an explanation as to why he would take his life, I don't have one.
If you are curious about the details of his death. I will not offer them.
If you feel robbed, I'm with you.
MickGinny
Are we crying imposter? Or plagarism?
Those first two sites seem to be ... well I dunno, but you can rate posts and there was lots of feedback, so I'm assuming there is some sort of evaluation theme.
Odd. I dunno.
"Are we crying imposter? Or plagarism?"
If there is any crying going on it cannot be attributed to either of those. as I am the author.
Maybe it is not crying at all. Maybe it is something else...
Well, it mostly has to do with a post from last week that was blatantly ripped off from some other site. Sex with a very large woman, I believe.
Not contesting your being the author, if you say you are - just people over-reacting to a situation that so recently occurred.
Who knows. But great story, and I'm sorry for your loss as well. I had a good friend from high school who died in a car accident just two weeks after graduation - and she was supposed to come visit me (we went to boarding school) a week or two later. So many things that were never said during the last week of school ...
But......what's the plan? why post the same exact story on a bunch of sites? What motivates that?
Next time do us all a fucking favor and just post it somewhere once and then LINK to it everywhere else you would like it to appear along with providing a reason to follow the link and read it.
I'm growing weary of this spamination.
Possibly the new trend viewed above is "author-astro-turfing"? Quite frankly I don't mind the stories. It appears to be the result of many a creative writing one-upsmanship contest (read: pissing contest amonst peers). A link back to your normal posting domain wouldv'e been helpful but might have been viewed as "Overt" spamination.
Are you this person?
http://www.efmovie.com/cnn/us/law/090403/mickginny.arrest.htm
(haha)
or
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:auPAe6JshyAJ:fuggingonuts.com/52803/am_i_gay.htm+MickGinny&hl=en
Cheers....
......
Well let's call them, uh, Mr. X and Mrs. Y. So anyway, Mr. X would
say, `Marge, if this doesn't get your motor running, my name isn't
Homer J. Simpson.'
-- Homer Simpson
Secrets of a Successful Marriage
Next time do us all a fucking favor and just post it somewhere once and then LINK to it everywhere else you would like it to appear along with providing a reason to follow the link and read it.
I'm growing weary of this spamination.
You have charmed me right from the get go beestie but I just don’t know you well enough to start doing you favors.
So you are telling me that you are sick of spamination and would prefer if I spam the next time. That is a neatly packaged quandary you have charged me with. :3eye:
Possibly the new trend viewed above is "author-astro-turfing"? Quite frankly I don't mind the stories. It appears to be the result of many a creative writing one-upsmanship contest (read: pissing contest amonst peers). A link back to your normal posting domain wouldv'e been helpful but might have been viewed as "Overt" spamination.
Are you this person?
http://www.efmovie.com/cnn/us/law/090403/mickginny.arrest.htm
(haha)
or
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:auPAe6JshyAJ:fuggingonuts.com/52803/am_i_gay.htm+MickGinny&hl=en
Cheers....
......
Well let's call them, uh, Mr. X and Mrs. Y. So anyway, Mr. X would
say, `Marge, if this doesn't get your motor running, my name isn't
Homer J. Simpson.'
-- Homer Simpson
Secrets of a Successful Marriage
yes and yes.
But......what's the plan? why post the same exact story on a bunch of sites? What motivates that?
There is no plan jim.
My motivation is primarily the satisfaction of providing entertainment and also learning what people like or dislike about my submissions and why.
I like to write. I write everyday. most of it is garbage i am simply sharing the pieces that dont reek too bad.
There is no plan jim.
My motivation is primarily the satisfaction of providing entertainment and also learning what people like or dislike about my submissions and why.
I like to write. I write everyday. most of it is garbage i am simply sharing the pieces that dont reek too bad.
<bugs bunny voice>
Persistant, ain't he?
</bugs bunny voice>
Much to be said with *daily* excorcise of your craft, eh?
I have a suggestion....
Start a blog, draw traffic, set up comments so people can leave their thoughts.
Yeah....that um, sounds like a reasonable idea.
Well now, I do feel cheated.
I suppose that it does speak well of Mick's writing skills that I didn't pick up on his stuff the way I did the "Fat Chick" guy's.
There's skill in that thar keyboard, that's to be sure, but but where I'm feeling cheated is that now I wonder ... are we hearing you, or hearing a persona carefully crafted for the audience? Are these things which have happened to you, or are they crafted out of whole cloth? One of the things about The Cellar is that most of us here post as ourselves. We write about our experiences, our joys, our sadnesses, sharing ourselves with intimate strangers.
A fiction flag would be helpful.
Well now, I do feel cheated.
I suppose that it does speak well of Mick's writing skills that I didn't pick up on his stuff the way I did the "Fat Chick" guy's.
There's skill in that thar keyboard, that's to be sure, but but where I'm feeling cheated is that now I wonder ... are we hearing you, or hearing a persona carefully crafted for the audience? Are these things which have happened to you, or are they crafted out of whole cloth? One of the things about The Cellar is that most of us here post as ourselves. We write about our experiences, our joys, our sadnesses, sharing ourselves with intimate strangers.
A fiction flag would be helpful.
Well, what I post is non-fiction unless it is obvious silly shit. I really don’t see a need for a label.
Do I decorate the truth? Certainly I do. Sometimes, check that, most of the time life is plain and ordinary. The truth needs help at times to sustain interest in this type of medium. I could write and post brutally honest non-fiction about my bowel movements complete with time color size consistency and shape if you would prefer, I have extra time.
Is the issue simply that MG has posted this stuff on other sites? I only ask because I'm trying to differentiate in my mind how his stuff is different than my own. The only thing I can come up with is that I post only here on The Cellar...probably because I am too lazy to post elsewhere, and because I have very little ego about any of it.
Still and all, the guy has some facility with words, and interesting things to write about. So why do we care if it was posted somewhere else? Is that like cheating on The Cellar or something? :blush:
No, this is simple community policing. This is not a creative writing course, it's a community. Your stuff is improved vastly by the fact that it's you posting it and we know you.
I could write and post brutally honest non-fiction about my bowel movements complete with time color size consistency and shape if you would prefer, I have extra time.
Search around. We have threads for that. Start a new one. Knock yourself out.
I would have posted a link, but I can't for the life of me find it right now.
No, this is simple community policing. This is not a creative writing course, it's a community. Your stuff is improved vastly by the fact that it's you posting it and we know you.
Officer toad, are you gonna slap the bracelets on me because I have wandered into your community like a vagrant?
I am a little put off by the apparent clique atmosphere here at cellar but I am too hardheaded for it to sway me from submitting here.
Officer toad, are you gonna slap the bracelets on me because I have wandered into your community like a vagrant?
I am a little put off by the apparent clique atmosphere here at cellar but I am too hardheaded for it to sway me from submitting here.
I can't decide if I want to yell "Cockfiiiiiiiiiight!" or if I should be curious about his S/M proclivities.
Both maybe?
i think what people are saying is: A) welcome to the cellar B) look around and realize that the cellar is a bit different than most of the boards out there. C) please respect that.
if you want to post your semi-fictional writings, then by all means, do so. but put them in the entertainment forum or otherwise flag them so that we know what we are getting into. other folks have come along and asked us to critique or just enjoy their writings. creativity is greatly appreciated here. honesty is probably the trait most respected here though. post as yourself and enter the fray, or indicate when you are just telling a story.
"i think what people are saying is: A) welcome to the cellar"
Thanks, I appreciate that.
I am a little put off by the apparent clique atmosphere here at cellar but I am too hardheaded for it to sway me from submitting here.
This is an attribute that has allowed The Cellar to becoming a rewarding experience for more than one member who wandered in and ruffled feathers. Hang in there. Oh...and post something original here that hasn't been posted elsewhere. That will help. :thumbsup:
Your stuff is improved vastly by the fact that it's you posting it and we know you.
Ah, damn...and here I thought it stood on its own because of its brilliance and literacy. :p
Little late here but I'm back.
I can see why you would "hit 'em with your best shot" on entering strange turf. Besides, you didn't know just how strange this turf is. :lol:
I like your stuff, MickGinny. I'll read what you post and tell you if I like it or not, fair 'nuf?
Finally found the
shit thread I was thinking about.
One among many.
Let's lighten up people. I personally don't want to call anyone a liar until I know for sure. As far as crossing the line between fact and fiction, well, try and find a true 'no-spin' zone on TV these days. I'll take everything written here with a grain of salt, but try to enjoy them. I guess where MickGinney's writing comes into it is that the writing is about a very emotional topic and people don't want to feel manipulated when it comes to things like that. With all of these Internet hoaxes about sick or dying children and post cards, etc, I can see why people are touchy.
Mickginny, if this really happened I am sorry. If this is some kind of fictional 'teaching story', label it as such and I'll share the one where I was hired to run a herd of unicorns and pegasii between San Antonio and Dallas. ;)
Yeah, and by the way, we really appreciated you taking the herd straight through downtown Austin, instead of going around. Traffic was a nightmare for hours. Thanks a lot.
I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but I had a problem with it because the Cellar is a community of people. If someone just somes along and posts a story that he also posts anywhere else, he's not really contributing to the community. He's (as wolf pointed out correctly) spamming the board.
Had he taken the time to get to know the community, he would have known how these posts would have been recieved. But he didn't take the time or effort, which again, comes off as simply spamming rather than being a part of the community.
We are cliquish, in the sense that we are a community of "intimate strangers". On the other hand, it's not hard to become part of the "clique". I don't think he wanted to be "part of the community", I think he wanted to post his stuff anywhere and everywhere, and we're not down with spam.