May 30th
There is a shock going through a certain collection of my friends, a sort of loss, a displacement. I've mentioned enjoying the BBS Three Way Action. I've understated it. It isn't just a vague thing akin to a passing fancy in a smut site or even a morning habit of the local newspaper online. Jane first told me about it, and I followed her there several years ago, and although she doesn't visit anymore I have made myself at home in the community there. I've made many good friends. I've made a couple of if not enemies, at least people with a virulent visceral reaction to any political opinions I venture. [Hard to believe, sweetness and light me, I know.] I've had visitors from across the country and exchanged gifts and watched people get married and children born. I check in the BBS a couple of times a day and as well have become one of the 'chat whores' who log in at all hours to chat, pout, rant, cry, lurk, or whatever.
An announcement was just posted that the board will close 6/10/03. The '3' of the 3WA title is not an allusion to puppypile sex, but rather to the three folks who started the boards. Two remain, Sara and Stee, and they've made valiant efforts to maintain 3WA as an ongoing free-of-charge concern for around 5000 users. They've sold many trinkets on Cafe Press, had various fund raising gimmicks and things have just run out of gas. Not out of will, but out of means. There is an effort from the grass roots to resurrect 3WA as a subscription service, and I'll be there if it is to be. These are the people who held my hand in chat while ill. People who have bucked me up during relationship crashes, and I've done the same. People who have emailed me privately with trusting questions about their sexuality issues. People who shriek and send love when friends from Norway or London or Brazil or Seattle have a baby, hangover, or question about a recipe. These are the people who lovingly held the hands of a woman and generations of her family as they went through the diagnosis, treatment, and eventual loss of her with cancer. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen on the net. I went into a flurry of Cafe Press purchases today when my paycheck was deposited. Much of the 3WA schtupf is inside joke sort of humor [a WW3WAD tshirt, for example] but one project in particular I wanted to mention to the Blue Blazer Regulars. It's my current favorite tshirt - "Dissent IS The American Way, Motherfucker!". If any of y'all are 1st Amendment inclined at all, give Sara a hand and pick up some of the usual Cafe Press line with the Dissent logo. It's a Good Thing. There is a lot of exchanging of AIM or ICQ id's, journal links, notify lists, wish lists, and so forth. Feels like graduation day when the school is being demolished. Feels like the family is suffering in a diaspora. I may be mature enough to handle unpleasant change, but I don't have to like it. The soundtrack going through my head as I compose this wistful and melancholy entry? It is the wonderful medley of Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What a Wonderful World by the late Iz [Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole]. Sara, Stee - heartfelt thanks for everything you've done.