New reputation system

[brekk]

Originally Posted by Zistrix

Nevermind the fact that I was down on these boards before they even became a reality after noows, as some others here are as well. Most posters now on this board joined within the last handful of years.

So you don't like a system of your peers voting you up/down, but you support a person's importance being based on their join date? You don't like being at -23 internets because it feels like a hole, well by your logic joining recently is the same hole... with no way out.

Originally Posted by Millie

But if a lot of positive comments are really just about trying to get in my pants, or are done simply because of my position, that's unfortunate. I'm sure there's some of that going on, but I sincerely hope that most of the positives I'm getting are due to my actions and contributions.

Does that mean there will be no getting into said pants?

[Gigfc]

This internet is serious business!!!

[James]

Here's a fuckin story.

I was introduced to The Box the very first day of basic training. The Box is all seeing, all knowing, and all powerful. It was our direct communication to the TIs downstairs, and there was always somebody down there, and always somebody listening. Now, the first mistake people make is that they push the button to talk into the box. Our TI demonstrated why you should never push the button the very first day by, you guessed it, pushing the button. "WHAT" came out of the box, a female TI. So our TI smiled, let it sit for a couple of seconds, and then pressed it again. "WHAT YOU SON OF A BITCH," came the reply. By this point we're all smiling. Who calls a TI a son of a bitch and lives to tell the tale? He pressed it a third time, "I WILL COME UP THERE AND PERSONALLY SKULL FUCK YOU UNTIL --", "Hi Jessica." The Button on The Box was only to be pushed in emergency situations, one that we actually never saw.

This isn't to say that the button wasn't pushed. On the contrary, it was pushed all the damn time. I remember one time just before TAPS a voice came over The Box, "REPORT, TURD." The Fire Guard at the time, a guy who I only remember as Alabama simply because he embodied the very definition of the state, ran over to The Box and pressed The Button,

"Sir, trainee --"
"GOD DAMN YOU STUPID SON OF A BITCH."
"Sir?"
"DON'T PUSH THE FUCKING BUTTON, THE BUTTON, GET YOUR FINGER OFF THE FUCKING -- you know what."
"Sir?"
"What's your family tree look like son? Does it have branches? Fairly large?"
"Yes sir?"
"NO YOU DEGENERATE PIECE OF SHIT, YOUR FAMILY TREE IS A STRAIGHT GODDAMN POLE, GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE AND BRING ME SOMEONE COMPETENT TO REPORT THE GODDAMN COUNT."

Every once in awhile you'd catch a gem like that, especially in the mornings when that particular TI was just about to end his shift. The fact that they could hear you 24/7 didn't really register with me until after the fact, making sense of a few different things in hindsight. I mentioned before we bonded as a flight after that first Sunday, and we did it by basically making fun of every single TI we had met up to that point. Some of it was telling stories about the shit they pulled on flight mates, some of it was making fun of the one fat TI who we had no idea how he got to where he was, but all of it was shit that would have gotten us into serious trouble. They were listening to the whole thing and letting it roll on into the wee hours of the night, something they never ever let happen again. Sometimes when we were asleep they'd call up the fire guard to wake a few people up because they were "snoring too goddamn loud." Which was a fairly accurate assessment I suppose, night time in the dorm sounded like a fucking wind tunnel.

Mayfield was my 'bunk mate', though we didn't really have bunks. He slept in the bed next to me, and we were paired up as if we were bunk mates. The best way to describe Mayfield is 'hypnotic', he was as redneck as redneck can be, but came from the Houston area. He had this way of talking that was more like telling you a story than anything else, and I swear to you he could list you out numbers from the phone book and still be pretty goddamn interesting. Our TI hated him for it, even if he himself got hypnotized more than once by him. Mayfield marched like a duck, something the TI gave him no end of shit about, but he shrugged it off every single time without once showing anger about it. "Well, it's how I walk, how can I change the way I walk?" One time we were organizing our wall lockers when our TI strolled by and asked Mayfield a question about his uniform, and Mayfield started off in his story-like explanation of whatever was wrong and how he was going to fix it. Our TI entered a deep trance and nodded his head every so often, only to shake his head as if he just realized "wait a minute, I hate this duck walking motherfucker," half way through Mayfield's explanation, and left without saying another word. Mayfield looked at me, shrugged, and went back to his business. He had a way about him.

You would figure the last week of basic training to be fairly relaxed. We had made it through Warrior week unscathed save for a few trips to the infirmary for a few things here or there, and that was easily the hardest part. The last week was little more than get your shit in order to see your parents and GTFO. But for some reason, everyone picked that week to have a fight. The first one was the resident piece of shit, King. This kid was the very representation of shit bag, and no one in the flight liked him. We ran an exercise during our fourth week where we all did jumping jacks without a count, but on the fifth jumping jack we all had to clap our hands in unison. After 3 uncoordinated claps, we had to start back over. Our goal was 20 claps. That's 100 jumping jacks for a total run with no set backs, if you're following along with the math. Our first few tries we all failed out at around 3-4 claps, but 10 tries later King was the only motherfucker who didn't know how to clap in unison. One time we made it up 19 claps before having to start all over because of fucking King. We must have been out there for a solid 3 hours before finally getting the 20th clap, but needless to say if our collective hate for King wasn't cemented before that, it was then. So one day in our last week he has fire guard duty and tries to tell someone to quit writing a letter because it was against the rules. The guy writing the letter, of course, told him to fuck off, at which point King tried to forcibly prevent him from writing it (i.e. he screamed like a bitch and tried to take it out of his hands). This pissed the guy writing the letter off, and he stood up and beat the living shit out of King. King crawled over to The Box and pressed The Button.

"YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT, I HEARD EVERY FUCKING THING THAT WENT ON AND YOU PRESSED THE FUCKING BUTTON. QUIT BEING A FUCKING PUSSY AND MAN THE FUCK UP. DON'T WASTE MY FUCKING TIME."

The whole dorm literally cheered at that shit, because not only was he being a pussy about it, but he would have put the flight at serious risk of trouble -- something you DON'T want your last week of training.

But the most important fight was between a guy named Sepulveda (whose name I only remember because he went to Tech School with me), and one of our black flight mates. Now, I only bring race into this because it helps to understand the culture he came from. He showed up to basic training with four gold teeth. Our TI, who was also black, walked up to him and asked him, "why would you show up to basic training with gold teeth?" To which my flight mate responded, "dey my teef, sir." He got to do pushups every so often for them, which he didn't seem to mind too much. To tell the truth, I liked the guy a lot more than Sepulveda, because he was competent, capable, and not quick to anger like some of our other flight mates. But one day during that last week of training he was pushed too far. He wanted something from the supply closet, I forget what, and Sepulveda happened to be the supply closet guru for all intents and purposes. Anything that went in or out of that closet was only because of Sepulveda's express consent. So he walked in on our black flight mate trying to get something, and assumed almost automatically that he was trying to steal something. This pissed my black flight mate off something fierce, and he said that he better apologize or he was going to beat the shit out of him. Now, I'm not sure what happened next, as I was folding clothes with Mayfield in my side of the dorm, but as I understand it one of our element leaders went over to restrain the black flightmate, because he was FUCKING PISSED. This made Sepulveda even more bold, throwing even more insults at the guy and calling him all sorts of names -- and he couldn't do anything about it because he was being restrained. So he did the only thing left open to him -- he took his four gold teeth and took a chunk out of Sepulveda's neck.

I heard what sounded like a girl's scream for about 20 seconds and looked towards the supply closet. "HE BIT ME, HE BIT ME, WHO BITES SOMEBODY, I CAN'T BELIEVE HE BIT ME," followed by Sepulveda running through my bay like a chicken with its head cut off, splurting blood from his neck and getting it all over everything. Mayfield looked at me and we LAUGHED OUR ASSES OFF. The voice on The Box chirped in calling us stupid sons of bitches and someone came up to take Sepulveda down to the infirmary and our black flight mate to, I don't even know. Some kind of restraining room. Sepulveda was back that night with a bandage around his neck, and was ready and able enough to fall out for dress right dress the next morning. Dress right dress is a command for inspection, where our TI goes from Airman to Airman to inspect their uniforms, gig lines, and anything else that may or may not be wrong. He got to Sepulveda and started from the bottom up, your shoestring is loose and your shoes need a little bit of polish. Straighten up that gig line a little bit. And Sepulveda? Yes sir? You know you have some bite marks on your neck? Yes sir. You might want to put some neosporin on that. Yes sir.

Sepulveda would have four teeth marks clearly visible on his neck for the next 4 months that I knew him.

[FoghornDeadhorn]

Jesus christ, James, I hope that has a point for whoever has the patience to read it.

[James]

The point, and I think we can all agree here, is that you shouldn't scream racial slurs at a large black man being restrained by another large black man.

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by James

Great Fucking Memories

Man, you brought me back. What Squadron were you in?

[James]

Hmm, I think I was in the 320th in Basic and the 361st in Tech School. But don't quote me on that.

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Zistrix

I am gaining negative reps because I am going against the decision of the popular and those negatively repping me are doing only to fit in with the lemmings that are following it.

You're gaining negative rep because you're a fucking crybaby.

Seriously, who gives a shit? You get up on your soapbox and QQ and bitch and whine about nothing like some 5 year old brat throwing a temper tantrum over the color of his lollipop and you're getting negative rep because you're going against the "popular people"? Wrong. Everybody else realizes that this has no real meaning and it's just for the fun of it, so you look like an idiot when you cry about it.

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by James

Hmm, I think I was in the 320th in Basic and the 361st in Tech School. But don't quote me on that.

I was 331st. Man, those were fun ass times. Kinda awesome that the kid who got attacked by a wolf ends up in the Wolf Pack.

[James]

320th WAS Wolf Pack then? That's what I remembered, but I couldn't remember if Wolf Pack was 320th or 321st, and if I was in 360th or 361st in Tech School.

And I got attacked by a boar not a wolf .

[Tyen]

Originally Posted by Vatoreus

I was 331st. Man, those were fun ass times. Kinda awesome that the kid who got attacked by a wolf ends up in the Wolf Pack.

~~~~

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by James

320th WAS Wolf Pack then? That's what I remembered, but I couldn't remember if Wolf Pack was 320th or 321st, and if I was in 360th or 361st in Tech School.

And I got attacked by a boar not a wolf .

No, I was attacked by a wolf and 331st was Wolf Pack.

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by Tyen

~~~~

When the hell did I put that on here?

[James]

Originally Posted by Vatoreus

No, I was attacked by a wolf and 331st was Wolf Pack.

What the hell, I thought I was Wolf Pack. What was 320th then?

[Vatoreus]

Originally Posted by James

What the hell, I thought I was Wolf Pack. What was 320th then?

The Rock