Squishybear
Or why my smileys are all backward: ( =
In the Spring of 1997 I dropped out of college for a semester to figure myself out. I was having a rough time of it trying to adjust to several new situations (my parents’ divorce, my newly discovered epilepsy, college life)... basically, a lot of stuff was rattling around in my head and my heart that I hadn’t yet taken the time to fully explore and incorporate into myself. I felt at war with who I used to be and who I was to become and was getting torn apart in the process. A semester without the pressures of college was just what I needed to straighten myself out.
Rather than do any of that I spent a lot of time in AOL “Bornagainonline” chat rooms making fun of fundamentalist Christians.
I’m not proud of this anymore. It’s hard to regret formative experiences since that would be, in effect, regretting the person that you have become… which just seems like a bad policy. I wouldn’t do that now, certainly, since a respect of other people’s beliefs has become a rather core part of my own personality… my personal war against zealotry notwithstanding (and I mean you, Pat Robertson), I can’t attack people just because they do not believe as I believe. That is the utmost hypocrisy for one who champions the freedom of ideas.
The part of this chapter that I don’t regret is the people that I met online that I, at first, only knew by the sobriquets that AOL forced upon us: Daemongrrl (or TalaDrake, or KaliDrake or whichever… ( ; ), Newagegeek, Jokolondo, thefatguy, Hakuin69, Arwen33, wnstnsmth… I was caught up in some larger swirl of events… all of us making the circuit, poking fun, causing mayhem, night after night… getting to know each other, becoming friends in this weird late-night habit.
Naturally, one night, when quizzed by a befuddled “Xian” in one of the chat rooms, “are you guys in some sort of cult or something?” one of us (Joko?) quickly replied, “Yes, we are.” I’m pretty sure it was Newagegeek who elaborated: “The Cult of Squishybear.”
Because Harvey (a.k.a Newagegeek) owns this stuffed bear, see… and he’d written a song about it, and it was Awesome, and, well, gosh darn, a bear is a pretty funny thing to build a cult around… and voila! The Cult of the Graphites, the Worshippers of Squishybear, were born.
Graphites because our holy books were written in pencil for easy revamping.
And lo! The sign of the Bear will fly in the face of reason! And it shall be backwards and written in pencil thusly: ( :And the Masses shall cry, “Wakka chika” and Be Glad. – The Apocrypha of Squishybear
The reason I’m writing this is because I have this funny habit of Googling the people that I know. And, for no particular reason, today seemed like a good day to fire up the ol’ web browser, go to Google, and type in “jokolondo” and “newagegeek” and “daemongrrl” and, eventually, “graphites cult” and “zeligx”... wait, who? Seems that things have grown since this Saint of the Graphites went on sabbatical.
So I’m posting this as a signpost, an open letter. Hey guys, it’s me… it’d be neat to talk to you again sometime… and I’ll try and get that “Wakka Chika” song up in mp3 form real, real soon.
( =
P.S. By the way: Gil, that comment was me saying hello.
P.P.S If there’s any way I can get in contact with Harvey that would be great, too.
P.P.P.S Not to exclude anyone else on the list… these are just the people I successfully found. ( ;
April 22nd, 2006 at 8:48 am
My Dear Friend Raven,
Many of times I have wondered what happened to that great spirit who went by the name “Raven6777”. I’m so glad you dropped in and said hello. When you entered a room (albeit a virtual one), you made everyone who knew you happier. Really. Life was better when Raven was around. Your creativity was astounding (yes, please do mp3 the wakka cheeka song), and although you stood there with us, loyally engaging and criticizing the fundamentalist Xtians with weapons of wit and rationality, you never did so snootily or maliciously. As for regrets, remember, we went into their turf (bornagainlonline chatrooms) initially as a response to some of them boorishly making nuisances of themselves in our free-thinking Metaphysics chatrooms. Their intolerance of other ways of thinkings was, and is to this day, in a word, wrong. What was it we used to say? Intolerance will not be tolerated.
Ah yes, our group of Graphites grew, changed, split apart, grew some more, and now, like a really old star after its gone nova, hangs around inertly like a White Dwarf, having expended most of it’s combustible matter. From the early days of exploring all the creative avenues that a lot of really interesting and funny minds brought together as an internet community, we started attracting a lot more people who didn’t really share the core values and characteristics of the early group. We became just sort of a mailing list with a stuffed bear mascot. We even attracted enemies, who scoured or webspace looking for anything they could report to AOL. Sure, there were some interesting e-mails going back and forth, but eventually, the internal conflicts became tiresome. The humor, creativity and understanding under which we were founded took a back seat to bitchiness, petty conflicts and just plain lame content as the interesting core group wandered away, finding other things to do.
Still, I look back on it as something I’m happy I was involved in. We were an internet community back when that was a relatively new thing. I’m looking forward to exploring this space to find out what one of that community’s most loved and influential members is up to now.
Wakka Cheeka, ( :
Joko
April 24th, 2006 at 8:43 am
I didn’t know they were raiding Metaphysics online! Whoa. I just went straight into their rooms without a real reason, just stirring up trouble. So there you go. ( =
Enemies? That’s fantastic! Or, y’know, um… Who gets mad at culty bear people?
I gotta agree: I am absolutely happy that I was involved. It’s a weird thing to be able to say to people: “Oh, yeah, I was in an online cult… yeah, we worshipped this stuffed bear, it was great.”