Shotgun Prose has a fan

It is exciting to log in and regularly get fan mail from "Anonymous".

I recently posted some videos on You Tube where I did some recording off of the tv of old tapes. I received a number of really detailed comments from the same person with a screen name as the only identifier, where the writer decided to comment personally on me as well as showing displeasure for the videos themselves. Fine. If you don't like the videos don't watch them. I know that I don't have home internet or anything and rely on accessible computers in order to post online. The fact that these old videos were transferred the way I did was kind of funny for how low tech it was, but that was lost on the viewer.

As a single father and full time substitute teacher (a profession I was able to fall back on a couple years ago when faced with a changing insurance industry - my old job doesn't exist any more) I have to be extraordinarily careful about where I spend my resources. Things like cable and internet are luxuries I simply have to let go. I make no apologies as I work full time and very hard. Still, the reality is that I do not have a home computer and rely on what the computer systems I can get to allow me to do.

Shortly after receiving the messages at You Tube I started getting comments from an "Anonymous" reader. The tone and writing strike me as consistent with the You Tube comments. I clearly have a fan.

It is funny to read how much you seem to hate everything I have written and do. Nice to know you have so much free time. I know I wish I had that much free time.

It is even better how much you have to say when you don't ever disclose who you are.

So, no I don't feel stupid that the Sounders got 20K season tickets. I found one small element of their ad campaign to be tired and over used. My comment was after a general description of how much I liked virtually everything else that they had done. If you were capable of understanding the notion of context, maybe that would have been noticed. Also, when Adrian responded to me personally he commented that my point was certainly valid and would be forwarded to the department. The SSFC got 20K in tix because of a convergence of of a variety of elements, of which marketing played a small part.

And, when a person writes a check to someone their bank should honor that check at its face value; not as a service to the person cashing it, but so as to honor what their own customer intended. Check cashing is a minor part of modern banking and hardly a difficult or expensive consideration. When customers find out that their bank charges the people they wrote the check to in order to cash it they are usually very angry. I know that because I was once a teller and had that conversation with many account holders who were glad that the financial institution I worked for did not do that. In no way do I imply that many fees are not valid and justified. But, much like a courtesy cup of water is a minor service provided to a patron at a restaurant so to is cashing a check for a customer at the bank on which it was written. A simple knowledge of the banking system would show that by sending a person to their own bank and making that check then work its way through the banking system a significant amount of processing expenses are created that are avoidable otherwise.

I am reasonably certain that this is all from the same person. At first I found the comments to be funny. They don't anger me because my skin is pretty thick and I can take it. I just find it tiresome. Criticism is fine. Hiding behind anonymity while insulting someone personally is not something I can respect.

"Anonymous" comments will not be posted on this blog from today forward. All unidentified comments will be deleted unread when they show up in the "Comment Moderation" section.

So, "Anonymous" ... in the words of a Pearl Jam song I like, "This is not for you." Go back upstairs and see what your mother is making you for dinner.