Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice.
-George Jackson
I think I should do some explaining right about now.
Where I come from, it's very easy to get shot for saying the wrong thing to the wrong person. Hell, you can get shot for simply being in the wrong neighborhood if you don't know how to act. It might sound like a cliche, but it's true. I dare you to walk the streets of Roselle, New Jersey or Hialeah near Miami and feel safe. You can't. Thus is the nature of our inner-city areas.
In my car, I keep a tire iron within arms reach at all times. I find pissed off drivers are a lot easier to handle when you come out of your car with a 16 inch metal stick in your hand. In fact, just a few days ago I had to produce the tire iron to keep a particularly angry redneck in check. I'm not proud of this, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
Growing up, I quickly learned that if you don't stand up for yourself firmly the first time someone disrespects you, you won't get a second chance. In this respect, the happenings of last night are my fault. I let a few people on this site get away with insulting me too many times, and they got used to it. I let this happen because this is the internet, and I generally don't care what people think about me on the internet. There is a limit to everything though.
This entire "social interaction via the net" thing is very new to me, and because of this I wasn't really expecting people to say some of the things they've said to me. I didn't know people could have such huge egos, even on the internet, and thus I didn't know how to deal with those egos when I had to. For this, I apologize. I acted rashly and said some things publicly that I probably should have said in private. I'm sorry some of you had to see that.
I think a huge part of the problem with the internet is that you can't tell when someone is making a joke and when someone is serious. In live conversation, body language and tone communicate these things. On the internet, body language doesn't exist. The solution to this is to make sure people know when you're messing around and when you're serious.
For the time being, I'm willing to let any animosity between myself and anyone else on this site go, simply for the sake of the community. I have a great deal of respect for each and every person on this site, despite what anyone has said to me. At the same time, I'd like to make it abundantly clear that I will treat you the same way you treat me. Don't expect me to simply ignore or accept any kind of disrespect anyone shows me, because I won't. That's simply not the way I do things. All I ask is that you be civil with me, and I will try my best to be nice to you. If anyone feels they've been slighted by something I've said to them (aside from last night), please let me know. I assure you there has probably been some kind of misunderstanding.
That's all.
We now return to your regularly scheduled programming....