The Booze and Waffle Thread, Long Live The Wild Wild West (Read 401 times)

wcrunner2


Are we there, yet?

    If protesters toppled a statue of Sleeping Beauty, how would you know?

     

    She'd no longer be up on her pedestal.

     2024 Races:

          03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles

          05/11 - D3 50K
          05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour

          06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.

     

     

         

    Seattle prattle


       

      She'd no longer be up on her pedestal.

       

      Ok, fair enough,

      But by the same token, if protesters toppled a statue of Humpty Dumpty, I hope they realize that they are just playing into the established narrative.

      Seattle prattle


         

        She'd no longer be up on her pedestal.

         

        And it really ought to be Snow White they knock off her pedestal. I mean, she looks so much taller than those seven guys with her.

        ch17


        It's Tuesday every day

          You assumed correctly. And now I know to follow my instincts to be precise in stating ingredients! (Had edited "maraschino liqueur" out for brevity.)

          My bad, I had assumed their maraschino liqueur.

             

            ... I stopped using when I got the boot from the maniacs.

             

            what the what?

             

            consider that a question

            "Famous last words"  ~Bhearn

              Thanks for answering my first question Mr. RL

               

               

              what the what?

               

              consider that a question

              If I’m allowed another question, I second This one.

              rlopez


                Oh that is old news. 5 years ago, in fact. You won't find me listed on their site (it skips #111) and they removed me from their hall of fame.

                Long story.

                  Another victim of Cancel Culture.

                   

                  If I had a nickel for everytime someone wiped me from their history, or better yet, a penny for every bridge I've burned...

                  60-64 age group  -  University of Oregon alumni  -  Irreverent and Annoying


                  tomatolover

                    Oh that is old news. 5 years ago, in fact. You won't find me listed on their site (it skips #111) and they removed me from their hall of fame.

                    Long story.

                     

                    Not for nothing, but we’re all stuck at home in a pandemic...we’ve got time.

                    rlopez


                      Another victim of Cancel Culture.

                       

                       

                      I laughed.

                       

                      The deal was that I used to volunteer 10-20 hours a week for the maniacs... for 10+ years. First getting people race discounts, then managing the race calendar. This involved working with races and members and also making lots of rulings on "what counts" toward the club. Starting around 2011, there was a HUGE spike in "let's make up this tiny race so we can jack up our counts!" and all kinds of shady business. I helped them set up Half Fanatics from scratch (you will note that #11 is also missing from that club's list). I coined the term double agent and pushed them to make it a thing. The fb group for DA, Spy Mountain, was also mine. I moderated their fb groups for a couple years, and oh brother did that suck. (side note, my girlfriend is who came up with the term 'quadzuki'. Another former maniac who had a huge falling out with #3 and became persona non grata - she is the one who coined 'quadzilla').

                       

                      Somewhere around 2015, they decided to redo the website. It needed redo-ing. #3 hired a couple non-runners and created a mostly unusable site (it has gotten better, so I've heard) and it destroyed the calendar. They gave me about 3 days to test it before launching... I gave them lots of feedback about how gnarly it was and how it wasn't going to be manageable from my side. Nope. In the middle of the night before the Victoria Marathon, they launched the site... and then proceeded to go to Victoria to act famous while ignoring the 20.000+ members who were now confused and rightly pissed that everything was scrambled. And they all started filling up my inbox. I tried escalating it to #3 to no avail, and it just got worse from there. And since the club is worldwide, yup, my phone was going off non-stop 24 hours a day. Thanks, yall. Good job.

                       

                      A few days later when it was apparent that everything sucked bad, I was relieved of my duties in Trump-like fashion. They defriended me in fb and erased me from the club. THEN #3 blocked me (and my girlfriend, whut???) and started posting shit about me. My favorite was when he took a picture of himself in that creepy mascot suit with the big head... sitting in front of a computer. The caption was something like "Our calendar is so easy, even our mascot can manage it!"

                       

                      Yeah, fuck those guys. 

                      PS, I'm telling a 5 year old story. Aside from acknowledging it, I generally don't talk about it. It's just a goofy curiosity in 2020.

                      In real life, I'm actually friends with #1, and we have reconnected in fb. Steve is a GREAT GUY and I have nothing against him.

                       

                      Couple fun facts -

                      Turns out, I was the only volunteer. All the others that people would thank for volunteering? Nah, they actually got paid.

                      It's a for-profit business, so ok, but I don't think members really understood that #2 and #3 were spending the club money to fly around, act famous, and (per many many stories) cruise chicks.

                         

                        .... that #2 and #3 were spending the club money to fly around, act famous, and (per many many stories) cruise chicks.

                         

                        Wait. WUT?!

                        being involved with running can attract sexy people, not repel them?! 

                         

                        I spent all that time playing in rock bands when I didn't need to? I could have just worn race shirts around and got all that sexy attention? Here I always saw the running world as a small insular collection of misfits and introverts, and I now find out it's a whole world of jet-setters, parties, and supermodels.

                         

                        Dang, life lessons learned late!

                        60-64 age group  -  University of Oregon alumni  -  Irreverent and Annoying

                        rlopez


                           

                          Wait. WUT?!

                          being involved with running can attract sexy people, not repel them?! 

                           

                          I spent all that time playing in rock bands when I didn't need to? I could have just worn race shirts around and got all that sexy attention? Here I always saw the running world as a small insular collection of misfits and introverts, and I now find out it's a whole world of jet-setters, parties, and supermodels.

                           

                          Dang, life lessons learned late!

                           

                          Well, it wasn't because they wore the (really ugly) shirts with the creepy mascot on the back. It's because they were the founders and "famous". The club started in 2003 (I joined in mid-2004), right before social media. Social media helped it really take off, and I learned firsthand how some people could become popular and famous simply through acting like they are popular and famous.

                           

                          Anyway, my jobs before I settled into a life serving The United States of America (with a side-trip through Microsoft): lifeguard, musician, bartender. Yeah.

                          bhearn


                            I helped them set up Half Fanatics from scratch (you will note that #11 is also missing from that club's list). I coined the term double agent and pushed them to make it a thing.

                             

                            I had forgotten that... I will try to forgive you. To me that's about when MM jumped the shark.

                             

                            My # (543) was also excised from the Insane Asylum. I'm not sure exactly why, but probably for expressing support for Robert, though I didn't make a big noise about it. I did decline to renew, and explained why. But others I think are left on the rolls even when they don't renew; they just don't get the race discounts etc. (which I never once used anyway). Used to be I proudly wore my MM singlet in every single race (at least the ones where I wore anything). Around then I banished them from my rotation.

                             

                            At first it really sucked getting removed from the asylum. My race history there was kind of my identity. How dare they? Glad I am over that.


                              PS, I'm telling a 5 year old story. Aside from acknowledging it, I generally don't talk about it. It's just a goofy curiosity in 2020.

                               

                              It's a for-profit business,

                               

                              Thanks for sharing, I don't think I ever heard that story before

                               

                              Not to give this oxygen, but the MM have 15,000 members and the HF have over 18,000

                              Annual dues are $20.

                              That's a lot of cabbage

                              "Famous last words"  ~Bhearn

                              rlopez


                                 

                                Thanks for sharing, I don't think I ever heard that story before

                                 

                                Not to give this oxygen, but the MM have 15,000 members and the HF have over 18,000

                                Annual dues are $20.

                                That's a lot of cabbage

                                 

                                The math isn't that straightforward. Many (most? I dunno anymore) are long gone and stopped paying years ago. Also, a lot of people took advantage of the "lifetime membership" thingy that was 500 bucks or something. They still make ok money on renewals, but the REAL money 2003-2015 was from new signups. But then the running boom went bust, and the signups stopped spiking quite as much. So... 2014ish was when they started pushing the merch harder. Especially the limited edition shirts. Most of those are 5 minutes of work in Adobe Illustrator, color fill, boom new shirt, make some money, repeat. 10 dollar shirt they sell for 60.