The man, the myth, a good guy trying to do his best. A true American.

Our country would be better off with more KSKD's.

Ok, there must be an objective here some where.

Yep, more KSKD's and Americans missing them -- we'd be so much better off. No doubt.

Just imagine if Bush had put half as much thought into the planning, execution and aftermath of the war as Missing puts into a single post...

Great to have you here, man. You were one of the first to engage me in some good give-and-take when I first arrived, making me feel welcome and itching for more.

Now I can't go a day without checking in. (Thanks ALOT for that, by the way. )

This would be a very dry and dull board without KSKD. That was evident when you were sick recently and couldn't post. I know we all need breaks from this place, but from now on you can't be gone more than 2 days tops. We get worried and Skeptical has a hard time breathing.

Helpful, intelligent, a first class person.

Thanks.

Not bad for a leftie.

Herb

Seriously, dammit! I wanna go on record though --this wasn't the point of my post! Of course, that was clueless, but still.. it's true, for whatever that's worth.

Since it's here now, might as well enjoy it --so I will! Thanks for the good thoughts everyone.

When I can't sleep I just pull up a few of Missing's novel's and that always seem's to do the trick!

Just Kidding!

Something would be missing without missing! (Is that possible, to miss something if it's missing, how can you miss it if it was missing in the first place?)

On to 100,000 post's!

Note to Herb: Cmon man! Why don't you look at his post in your thread. Do you always have to make every thread about you and your views?

Aw, lighten up on this one, Darktemper.

If Missing had said "Herb's not bad for a right-winger," I'd have been flattered.

Herb

NO!

Have a good holiday!

Missing...
Been here almost as long as me. Posted more than me....
One hell of an American!

I don't like him. Not one bit. But if I did, here are the things I would say that I like about him;

#1. He likes lists.

#2. He's got real-life experiences that he has put to good use.

#3. The dude makes sense. I mean, there is actual logic applied to how, why and when he says something.

#4. His posts are unscrollable. Oh sure, the lack of paragraphs make it tempting to copy and paste them into a homemade bumper sticker computer program - but that would just take away from the picture as a whole.

#5. He can take more than he dishes out. For cryin' out loud, he BEGS for it...although it rarely happens because he has already considered most angles against his stance, acknowledges them before you even thought of it, therefore he has met you more than half-way on important ideas.

#6. Contrary to the length of some of his posts, they are succint to a degree that is unmatched around here. Dense. Rich.

#7. He's social.

#8. He would want to, if not fully succeed, at addressing not only an injustice, but possibly finding and almost certainly executing an actual solution.

#9. He's got his fucking priorities straight. And when I find myself disagreeing with him, I am forced to go back and reconsider my own position because, dammit, he did it for me before. He deserves to have me do it for him too. He's earned it.

#10. His brain is fully functional, yet he'll be the first to say it skipped a beat when it has. That ability to self-correct not only comes in handy while just, you know, walking the street, but it is a learning tool that is contagious.

To all of us.

So I raise my morning bottle of Starbucks Frappaccino to Missing KSKD...then I have to go to the bathroom.

CJ...
A satisfying dump to start the morning out! You did your body right by lubing it up with that crap called Starbucks.

Missing is one fine American!

So, are you saying it should be called a "Crappaccino" then?

Damn right!

Missing says the things I wish I had the time and was articulate enough to say. You know when you start reading a post of his that you will leave with something to ponder. That's a real gift.

Thanks for being here Missing!

Missing KSKD's posts are a huge value add . I love the way his thoughts open up a discussion further and offer another point for consideration. Fearless! His writing isn't "Pulp Fiction", it's "Epic" !

I would second Warner's sentiments exactly.

In fact, I wish I could articulate as well as Warner did about his wishing to articulate as well as KSKD.

Here's a gift.
Perhaps you wont be missing KSKD quite as much...

http://home.comcast.net/~rossmedia/KSKD-ID.wav

Cool!

Thanks Amus --damn cool to hear.

All I can say is thanks. I value being here, value all of you --nice to know it matters in like kind. It's a totally guilty pleasure, sharing time here with you all.

All of that (very) high praise and appreciation makes me wanna post up something here on fear.

(I'm not gonna lie, might be long!)

Fear is something I think about often. There is raw fear, like the mortal kind, and there is more subtle fear --inhibition really. The latter is of great interest to me, because it can have a huge impact on us, yet often rides under the radar.

Don't get me wrong on this. Some inhibition is healthy. However, this is something a lot of people don't know they can cultivate and exploit to help in their own empowerment.

May have written this before, but can't remember. As a younger person, I was exposed to a lot of fear based thought. The reasons are not important, just that it happened. Most of us were --and most of us are today too.

Ended up in a school play, largely because I could play piano, and that part called for it. Got roped in to a leading role, with a girl I grew up with. We knew each other well, so it was a blast.

Worked the lines, got into the character, etc... did all the things that I was told to do, but inhibition ruled the day. That first performance was flat. One scene involved a fight. We were not convincing --that teacher really only had one thing to say, "that sucked".

The next day, that teacher pestered me, poked, prodded, really got under my skin! I finally, just stood up and let her have it huge. Thought I was cooked, but interestingly, she said, "That's what I need to see tonight!"

(I was wondering if that was even legal for her to do, but listened anyway --out of morbid interest more than anything else.)

Our follow on conversation was about fear --the inhibition kind. Somehow, she cracked the nut. Convinced me I had nothing to lose.

Well, that second performance was quite good! Got some nice applause and the leading girl cried her way off stage. I didn't tell her any of this. I just did it, and she ended up pissed!

For a moment that night, I didn't have any fear. It was all about being able to just do what I was supposed to do, be able to feel it, express it, share it, almost BE it.

The next day was, of course, quite ordinary, but for the nice comments I got, etc...

That experience changed me --I still think about it, and others like it. For a moment, I was able to be great. I personally think all of us can be great, but for fear getting in the way.

One particularly damaging manifestation of this fear is fear of ones own self. We get taught norms --many of these make good sense, if we are to get along, but a lot of them just don't make any sort of real sense. Those are the fear based ones!

Understand those, work through them, and you will be a whole lot more free than you think you can be. With that freedom comes a whole lot of other things --good things, sometimes powerful things.

And I suppose that comes around kind of full circle to the really nice stuff you guys wrote. My first inclination is to back away and go, "sheesh! That's not me. I'm more of an ass than that, and posing too." That's fear and inhibition talking, so I won't do that.

Instead, I'll leave you with this:

It's all about work. Work on fear of the self. A whole bunch of us walk this world, not knowing who we really are, largely because others have taught us to fear that person, so we act instead.

(this is bad, but not murder kind of bad, just limiting kind of bad)

Talking to others, and I mean really talking, keeping the fear out of it, and just putting stuff out there, helps with this. If ones own self is good, then there is no fear of learning, sharing, adapting, empowering.

Really talking exposes the self, and that can't happen with the fear in the way. Exposing the self also means bringing the potential for change on the table. Can't fear that either. (mostly --that's something to be weighed each time)

If the fear is gone, then really only good can come from sharing, grappling, learning. Why avoid this, if it makes one better?

I suspect raw fear is the reason more often than not.

At this point, you may be wondering, "what's the point?" Don't have one specifically, other than to just share some of what I know about fear. maybe there is this too:

I share because I want to know I'm right about this. I want to know it's possible to explore every nook and cranny of one's own self, sort out the self-lies from the rest, build on that, and be at peace with that.

This is not being right about any one specific thing. That either is the case or it isn't. From there, it's either a self-lie / denial, or some acceptance and potentially change. And that's either scary, or it isn't.

If that's scary, think about it. Think really hard and ask, "why?" Start the journey I'm on. You may not like it, but I can assure you, you will absolutely not regret it.


---> Let's be sure and get some more of these done. Plenty of people are left.

Missing,

I hear you. I went through a major personal crisis three years ago, and realized I had to completely rethink my approach to things or else...or else I wasn't sure how I would be able to continue living with myself. Stumbled across a book called "Love is Letting Go of Fear" by Gerald Jamplosky - it clarified my confusion and put me on a much, much better path. You are absolutely right - fear is the enemy every time. Good in your own life can only come from extending good will to others, and that can only come from ending fear.

Life is a challenging journey. But I finally feel like I'm at least on the right road. Sounds like you are feeling the same way. Best of luck to you.

KSKD-You need to write your book. Or at least take some of your classic posts (and I would add this one to that group) and publish them.

When you get into your groove there is none better. Especially when you and Andrew (whom I believe along with you, to be the brightest two on this message board) get it going my head spins in a very educated way.

I hope that this Thanksgiving is one of your best Doug. You deserve it and have earned it. Blessings my friend.

KSKD;

Let me echo that book writing suggestion thing from Chris. Fear-based Thought would be a great first chapter. Some of the current (and exiled) PDXradio forum dwellers would be excellent examples of fear-based thinking gone bad.


Dig up your old posts and you're half-way there!

"Message Board Confessional: Missing KSKD's Greatest Posts"

I'd buy that one! Whaddaya think, maybe 500-600 pages at least?

Seriously, that is a great idea. And you are so right on about fear, as regards to fear of self, or fear of rejection, or even fear of success. It's an anchor to personal progress. And fear can keep you from helping others in their walk of life as well. I know it has stopped me many times.

Thanks for the thought provoking post, again.

Missing KSKD is one of the reasons I check in everyday -- whether I have time to respond and contribute, or not. The depth and quality of his posts are second to none and would make a fine read in a collection.

Edward R. Murrow could easily have been writing an introduction to Doug's proposed book in his forward to This I Believe:

"I would suppose that men believe what they believe as a result of inheritance, indoctrination, the number of calories they are able to consume, the climate in which they live, the ideas they acquire from others. No route map can be drawn showing how an individual has reached the beliefs he now holds. No man can draw a chart for another which will lead that other to tranquil and tenable beliefs.

Conversely, there is no road block that cannot be surmounted or by-passed by the active mind determined to follow the truth wherever it may lead him. And there is as yet no law preventing a man from defending what he believes, although civilized social intercourse requires that he respect the beliefs of those who disagree with him.

I have been a reporter for much of my adult life, using the instruments of radio and television. But these are mass media where the speaker is remote from his audience. It is rather like putting letters in a rusty mail box and never being sure that anyone comes to collect them. The job of a reporter who can never see the eyes of his listeners is to provide information upon which opinion and belief can be based.

The only way of discovering what people believe is to ask them. We have discovered in preparing this series of statements that most people have never attempted to reduce to writing what they believe and why. Almost without exception they have told us that this is the most difficult piece of composition they have undertaken to say, in a few hundred words, what they believe to be the important and permanent landmarks they have found in their journey so far upon this minor planet."

Thanks Mister Dingus!

My Thanksgiving was a good one. We got together, helped my wife prepare a big spread. Basically, she just gave orders and it all somehow got done with no mistakes. That's never happened before. Everybody was happy to have her with us and able to participate.

(damn cool to see)

We ate, talked, ate again, then slept huge, leaving the kids to do what they do. Woke up the next day happy --really happy for the first time in a long time.

Got a bit of a cold today. Go figure, life is what it is....

I'm going to seriously entertain the collection. I think there are a lot of other posts besides mine that could go in there though! I write often, not just here, but just when something strikes me. Either I get it out, or it's often lost, and I really hate that!

Sometimes I do that here, because I know all of you and the discussion that happens means something.

After some consideration about how to assemble such a thing, all I've come up with is an intro story, that details how I got here, then some smaller stories to put stuff in context. Going back to read a good post in a vacuum won't quite hit the groove, IMHO. Maybe I'm wrong about that.

Of course, we all know the back story --well, we know enough of it for it all to make sense. Others wouldn't, so how to fix that, if it needs to be fixed.

One idea is to take the post, then expand on it to tell the story in place, so to speak.

Another is to tell the story that leads up to the post, then include it, then some follow on insight to maybe bridge the gap.

Any of you have other ideas?

I gotta say a coupla more things too:

Thinking back over the last 4 years, I'm bummed about the loss of the first year and half. (like my dodge list --gonna have to rebuild that) The current running PDXRadio.com is just full of stuff --enough stuff, so not a worry there.

We are a very good group. There is diversity and a degree of openness here that's somewhat outside the norm. I think it's because we are smaller than most venues, and the register to post bit keeps it all that way. The result is we know each other pretty well.

That dynamic inspires me personally. As we talk about stuff, and CJ's Homosexuality thread is a shining example of that, really good thoughts end up on the table. Often I play off of those. Seems selfish to just bottle that up, so I'll often knock out a nice post to share back.

I've been engaging people on the Internet for a very long time. Since 1991 actually. There is absolutely no place like this one. I've been in communities that are close, but this one is special. (and that's why it's a guilty pleasure) I'm almost afraid to write that, for fear of a Schroedinger's cat kind of thing happening.

So, it's not a pride thing with me. If I end up trying to do this, it's a genuine interest in sharing this story with others! I do share this site with others, and most of them have kept reading, addicted to the goings on here.

(why they don't post, I've no idea, other than fear, or maybe just not wanting to break it! I had one person say exactly that.)

I want to make that clear. I do write a fair amount, and it's often deep. That's just me. However, a lot of the fuel comes from all of us interacting. It's not just a KSKD thing, so any project like this can't be just a KSKD thing.

Ideas? Is this really something that could be worked into a thing others --outsiders, would enjoy? If so, how do you see it? Would you be interested in helping with it? What?

Maybe just dream about it happening, then move on?