Well, it was bound to happen. I got a friendly letter. Remember folks! Anything sent to Tyger becomes the sole property of Tyger and all his representatives (Of which there are none.) So, on with the show!
You may notice I've removed the flame-o-rama background. This is to ease in the page's readability. Hense, the grey and black. Standards are good when you're reading.
I got this in the mail a while ago, and it begged to be posted. I liked it SO much I framed it!
Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 15:05:12 -0800 > Hey! Who let HIM in here?!?!? Not me. > More to come, as I think of things to place on here. Ya know, that's Yeh, funny thing, seems like your page... Ya know, we players have to |
If I were a better person, I'd go on with my life, ignoring such a sad case of humanity. Lucky for you all, I'm not.
Let's begin at the beginning, yes? First, the annonymous address. Cute, precise, and to the point. Unfortunately, I don't think my flamer here knows anything about the internet. I followed his e-mail back from the source. And I got this :
| Return-Path: Received: from riverside.mr.net by luminet1 (5.x/SMI-SVR4) id AA27122; Fri, 1 Mar 1996 14:52:20 -0600 Received: from piper.hamline.edu by riverside.mr.net (8.6.12/SMI-4.1.R931202) id OAA06521; Fri, 1 Mar 1996 14:55:27 -0600 Received: from [138.192.3.249] by piper.hamline.edu; (5.65/1.1.8.2/08Feb96-0140PM) id AA11727; Fri, 1 Mar 1996 14:55:58 -0600 Message-Id: <313782A8.1E2@aol.com> Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 15:05:12 -0800 From: fuckyou@upyours.com Organization: Hamline University X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.0 (Win16; I) Mime-Version: 1.0 To: tyger@luminet.net Subject: Homepage X-Url: http://www.luminet.net/~tyger/ Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii |
Not to besmirtch the fine name of Hamiline University, but that's where it came from. This lead me to a few ideas on how to backtrack this one, and I ignored them all. Instead of returning the flame in kind, I decided to answer this person, who I've apparently torqued off for some reason or other. Apparently, to this person, I whine.
This all got me thinking. And I became very happy that the winners DID write the history books. If they didn't, I'd get sick of reading the Nazi history of "Those Jews! Always whining about being treated unfairly." The Alabama plantation owners "Those slaves! Alwyas whining about this or that!" Or even the rich "Thise whining homeless people! Always complaing about nowhere to stay..." You get the idea.
When I hear someone saying "Hey! Stop whining" it always dawns on me that they're the ones causing the problem to begin with. See, when someone calls another a 'whiner', they are actually saying "I don't want to deal with you." So they brush it off. Follow along with me here.
Player 1 shoots player 2. Player 2 turns around, without checking themselves, and lights up player 1. Player one gets angry and yells for a referee. Player 2 runs for cover, the paint getting wiped off as he dives. Referee shows up, and player 1 tells him to check player 2. Player 2 is checked clean, player 1 is checked 'out'. Player 1 is livid. Player 2 says "Hey! Stop whining and get off the field!".
All too common-place.
"Whining" is in reality an unsolved problem. And this causes strain between players, staff and field owners. Many a 'twib' has screamed "Stop your damned whining!" to some newbie who they just lit up. And this loses players from the game.
Every complaint is a legitimate complaint. You may have heard it a million times before, but that dosn't remove it's validity. If someone is complaining about their goggles fogging up, is this invalid? Someone complains about the other team moshing them 4 games straight. It's valid.
Is ther an invalid complaint? No. Everything has a root to it. If Player 1 complains about Player 2 (see above example) this is a legitimate complaint. If other players complain about player 2, is it somehow illigitimate? No. If player 2 complains about player 1, is that whining? No. It's a disagreement, yes. But not 'Whining'.
If blowing off a problem is worth losing players, teammates, and even your field (if it happens too often), then go on ahead and tell people "Don't whine about it to me." That's what's gonna kill your favorite field in the end. Take some time to figure out what the complaint is, where it's coming from, and why it arose. You can stuff a problem before it gets out of hand.
You'll be a better player for it.
Oh yeah. To answer to my adoring fan here, I'm surprised at you. I may use a surname of 'Tyger' on the 'net or 'Catt' on the field, but I do not hide from people. I try to iron out my difficultys with players, fields, and so on face to face, on the phone, or at the very least on the 'net. Choosing to hide behind the monitor only shows how truly gutless you are. Obviously you're not willing to come to common grounds, so I won't deal with you anymore on that level. If you wanna speak, feel free to mail me with you return address and I'll be more than happy to chat with you about my ideals, theories, and general practices in paintball.
Enjoy life!
-Tyger
(C) 1996 Panther Free Press, All Rights Reserved