What have you discovered today?

Ahh, this old train wreck. It's hard, isn't it, seeing the ones you once looked up to fail so miserably. I don't think they realize how racist they are. Their problem has always been that they can't accept negative feedback. Rather than admit a mistake, they will go to absurd lengths to explain why they aren't wrong. I don't hate them, I feel sorry for them. This isn't the first or only such incident.

I’m sorry

Nt

I’m sorry

Okay... you have a lot to say and I lack the words to respond to all of it. And some of it is your personal stuff and I don't know you well enough to comment on that.

Anyways, I doubt EQ will be seen as alt-right anytime soon. Tolkien was a racist, yet has many fans still all across the political field. J.K. Rowling turned out to be a transphobe, and yet people of all genders can enjoy her work.

Burning books is something I'd rather not take part in.

And diagnosing someone you've never met is something even a doctor would not attempt.

I would like to remind you that EQ began in the 70's. For that era, it was incredibly progressive, revolutionary and liberal. The story, in the shape it began, is quite simple, and I think you are reading things into it that weren't written there by the creators. I, a kid finding it in the 90's, thought it was wonderfully original that the blonde, pale, blue-eyed guy turns out to be a barbarian who attacks a civilized, peaceful village of brown-skinned people. It went against all the fantasy stereotypes I had read so far.

My apologies, the Pinis actions deeply upset me.

Soran: STOP!

But doesn’t all this make it not ok to like the work Anymore especially now that the embedded racism is obvious?

Embala wrote:

Soran: STOP!

I couldn't have put it any better. It's great advice, you should follow it

Treeshapers!

Actually I've rediscovered them. The woman was Blackash on the SoC.

Embala wrote:

Treeshapers!

Actually I've rediscovered them. The woman was Blackash on the SoC.

Wow. Thats even better that they were probably inspired by EQ.

Awsome treeshapers! thank you for sharing Embala

I'm reading African-American history, not just today in particular, and beginning to understand why some problems have spanned generations.

Since I'm still knee deep in this family research project today I learned that one of my Great Grandfathers killed a man in a saloon over 100 years ago. Apparently it was in self defense but still...eep!

Then I found out that a Great Uncle on the other side of the family was arrested just a few years later for bringing a concealed gun to a protest for his local coal miners union.

Good gravy...some of my ancestors were just a little bit crazy.

Imagine my surprise when I found out I was related to Helen Keller O.o

(a ### great aunt on my grandmother's side)

I tried researching my family tree once. I have a pile of old family paperwork that goes back to 1847. Birth and marriage certificates mainly. I hit a brick wall and sort of gave up after about 3 weeks

I have discovered my answers.

I am no longer upset by the critics. Their words can no longer bother me, for i have defeated them with logic and at the same time discovered their source is nothing new or something that we are inevitably headed for.

At the same time, i am willing to be critical of the authors if only for the fact that i would have responded rationally instead of destroying the whole message board. Despite her professed status in her work, she is still human and being on pain management for 35 years for a busted hip changes people. Empathy definitely goes out the window with opioids.

I hope we can continue, and i apologize for being upset. It upsets me deeply to be even told that i am hurting others, even indirectly, and that seems to be difficult for anyone to understand except as a disorder. It hurts even worse to think that aging is turning me into a default conservative because my brain cant keep up with "the times". But i have learned that such a fate is not inevitable...

That choosing an F/A-18 as your starter plane in FSX:SE because you want to fly as a Blue Angel is not the best idea.

Helen Keller? That's pretty cool, Kin!

Nibblet - keeping motivated through the brick walls is the toughest thing. I've researched so many dead ends that went nowhere but if you keep plugging along eventually you'll find that one little nugget that makes it all worth it. Like finding out that my Grandfather had a youngest sister that died very young...it was a heart wrenching thing to read but an important piece of family history to learn about.

But I'm about to turn into Old Maggoty over my paternal Great Grandmother! I have spent the last week trying to find out anything about her without even a whisper of a clue. I know where she's buried, I have a few pictures of her but otherwise I just can't find anything about where she came from besides rumors and hearsay.

It's out there somewhere...just waiting to be found.

one day I might enlist your guidance! Knowing where to start is the hard part

Keep going, IceTooth! It is hard, but rewarding!

My sister tried tracing genology a while back, but we have a lot of family in southern small towns, so there was a lot of dead ends due to poor records being kept, or a church literally burning down. Never mind how spread out they all are due to having so many children each. One branch was averaging 10 to 15 per female member.

Well Nibblet I'm still very much an amateur but I'd be happy to share my limited knowledge with you. Feel free to ping me whenever you are ready.

Thank you for the encouragement, Kojiyumi. My family is much the same...Italian peasants from little podunk towns who had some incredibly large families. There were at least 11 kids that I've confirmed so far just in my paternal Grandfathers family...and he told me once that there were 18 in his father's family.

The Great Grandmother that I spoke of earlier is the one that had at least 11 kids, possibly more. From what I've gathered she got married at 19 and was pumping out babies every other year until her early 40s. It's pretty insane. She looks tough as nails in the one picture I have of her during those years.

But all I have is one lead on one of her brothers and diddly squat about the rest of her family. I do have one relative I could ask but she's the definition of nastybad and then some. So that is only an option if I've exhausted all other efforts.

And when I say nastybad, she could probably give Winnowill lessons.

I just discovered that for an amateur, I'm getting quite good at family geneaology!

I had taken a break from researching old relatives and spent most of the day at work then doing some gardening and then washing my car. Just for fun I decided to look up the name of the town my Grandfather grew up in and then I found a new website that said it had old newspapers. I have looked at so many of these damn things...old databases, repositories and dozens of them have been dead ends. I figured this would just be one more.

It was just for fun and then I struck gold! So many articles about my family...it was unreal.

The first thing I found was some really tragic stuff about one of my ancestors that was really hard to read. I was pretty upset about this until I put in my Great Grandmother's name...and then I made the big discovery I had been waiting for. I not only found out her birthday and year of immigration, but most importantly the name of her father...all from her obituary.

From there I found the naturalization papers for her father and then suddenly I had it all. Her birthday, her brother's birthday, her father's birthday and the exact little town in Italy they were all from! This was a huge, huge find that has opened up so many new avenues for research. Words can't express how elated I'm feeling at the moment!

And the best part...I don't have to talk to my nastybad Aunt now! SUCK IT YOU EVIL BIAAATCH!!!

hey, congratulations, Ice Tooth, well done!

That it is possible to ghost ride your entire day through work when people don't realize you are back on your shift.