9999

[Vort]

• Site member for:
  A bit over 5.5 years
  
• Average posting rate:
  A bit over five per day (though that's misleading, since I've had two or three hiatuses)
  
• How much time I have spent:
  No good way of knowing. One guess might be that I averaged generating, let's say, four posts for every hour I spent reading. That would put me at 2500 hours. Judging by the 10,000-hour rule, that would mean I'm a quarter of the way to being a world-class LDS.Net participant.
  
• What I have to show for it:
  Um...well...let's see...
  - Some new friends I would not have had otherwise
  - Information from those on this site
  - A better understanding of how some people think differently from me
  - Experience in dealing with difficult people in a relatively anonymous forum
  - A more stark (no pun intended with my avatar) realization of my own foolishness, weakness, and impatience with those I (often wrongly) consider dishonest
  - A fondness for photographs of young Icelandic women with large brown eyes
  
• What it has cost me:
  - Time that I might have spent otherwise, for example: with my wife and/or children; reading scriptures; reading other books from my endless backlog of I-want-to-read-this; furthering my work efforts to be more successful as a provider; spending the time in my Church calling du jour for the benefit of my fellow Saints and others; pursuing hobbies; exercising so I'm not fat and out of shape.
  - Emotional capital in dealing with people and situations far removed from me instead of using it at home where it belongs
  (In the end, it's opportunity cost, mostly time.)
  
• The good I have done:
  - I really can't tell. I hope some things I've writte have been helpful to some. No way to know.
  
• The harm I have done:
  - Kind of the same as above. Judging from a few PMs I have received and many public rebukes, I have hurt many feelings and offended many people. When those people were openly anti-Mormon and/or seeking to hurt others here, I confess I don't have too much regret about that; but in many other instances, I offended either inadvertently or knowingly, and not to any good effect.
  
• What I'm going to post for #10000:
  Given the large number of posts I've deleted, which must number in the dozens or hundreds, I'm well past that mark already.
  
• What I'm going to do after finishing this post:
  Finish up my work, leave early for the airport, meet my wife and younger children there, and pick up my son whom I haven't seen in two years.

Thanks for the friendship and conversation over the last half-decade-plus. It's nice to have a community of friends, both IRL and of the online variety.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Vort

[pam]

Have a marvelous time with your son. That's so exciting. I'm not even sure how you can concentrate on work with something that exciting happening today.

And I hope this doesn't mean you are saying good-bye.

[Wingnut]

Congrats on your missionary returning home! Have a fantastic reunion!

[beefche]

Have fun with your returned missionary! Congrats to you and your family on such a momentous occasion! Lots to talk about with him as well as for you and your wife to discuss how much he has grown from a teenager to a man.

[Leah]

I have always appreciated your point of view and enjoyed your posts.

I am sure there will be much joy in the Vort household tonight!

[Palerider]

Enjoy your time with your son and all the stories he will share.

[LittleWyvern]

- A fondness for photographs of young Icelandic women with large brown eyes

[EarlJibbs]

Have a marvelous time with your son. That's so exciting. I'm not even sure how you can concentrate on work with something that exciting happening today.

And I hope this doesn't mean you are saying good-bye.

I know I wouldn't be able to focus with 9999 posts.

[Bini]

Oh come on, Vort. Don't keep us waiting.

[Maureen]

...What I'm going to post for #10000: Given the large number of posts I've deleted, which must number in the dozens or hundreds, I'm well past that mark already.

Deleted your own posts? That's crazy! I've never done such a thing to mine but others have.

What I'm going to do after finishing this post: Finish up my work, leave early for the airport, meet my wife and younger children there, and pick up my son whom I haven't seen in two years....

That's the best! Have a wonderful time hugging your son.

M.