You can take the GRITS out of Florida, but you can't take Florida out of the GRITS!

Friday, June 20, 2008

Excuse this, but I need to vent

I'm writing this as a vent after reading someone's post on their blog about the geocachers in South Florida. It was an extremely negative post that seems to have come out of the blue. What started this person's petty ranting? I have no idea. So, if you're not a cacher, feel free to skip today's post.

This person, on their blog, (it will remain nameless on here) ranted a couple days ago about how they have quit caching due to the pettyness and nastiness of fellow cachers in South Florida. I made a couple comments, the last of which, it appears she deleted. If you can't stand the truth, delete it, right?

This person and their spouse took it upon themselves to create a website dedicated to us cachers down south. It's a very nice site and we all appreciate it. But it seems that they did it so they could bask in their own glory. All bow down to the Royal Webhosts! Then they startde complaining of all the work that's involved to keep up the website. I know nothing about that, but offered to help, and suggested they ask others for help in running it, too. That was met with no response. Guess they like being martyrs. Again, all bow down...

In this person's post, they complained about nastiness and how certain cachers had taken the fun out of it for them, yet they failed to remember how they had done the same thing to others. They talked about belittling on their website, of which I have no idea what they're talking about. They were the ones who did the belittling, mainly at one particular young cacher who liked to get on there and be a goofy kid. THAT incident caused a few of us to create a yahoo group, mainly to give that young person a place where he could talk about anything he wanted without fear of having his comments deleted. Oh, but that was taken by them as being traitors or something. Get a life! WE were tired of their pettiness, high school behavior and nasty comments.

These people called South Florida the "Black Hole" , but now whenever I make a comment about that (ie. "caching has slowed down...looks like we're living up to our name!") I get slammed for being negative. Wake up people! In the hot, humid summer, caching slows down...PLUS that was a reference to how some people seem to have dropped off the face of the Earth...

These folks seem to think all the cachers in South Florida owe them for all they have done. Well, I'm sure we are all appreciative, but I don't think anybody owes you anything. We didn't ask for a website, you just did it. You made the tshirts and coins without asking anybody's opinion on them. Again, nice, but...I feel like it was done more for your own glory than the group's. See what we've done for you! "We put everything we had out there to improve the geo world for everyone and we got shit on and stepped on and bitched at time and time again." HUH?!?! Because no one bowed down and kissed your ass????? So I guess as revenge, you refuse to go to any CITOs or Events that you weren't a part of setting up. Oh, but if they weren't YOUR events, then YOU wouldn't get the glory, right? So silly of me...

This is not a dictatorship. It is a GAME. There was no BS until some so called "royalty" showed up to try and run the show. So a few of us got tired of the high school crap and went our own ways. So what? We still play the game, have lots of geo-friends and have good times. Who cares if you don't log your finds anymore? Is that supposed to mean something?

Just remember that you are not high and mighty. You have hurt plenty of others with your words, both written and spoken. People get tired of hearing about your martyrdom. I don't see a halo over your head.

I don't know what in the hell started this off, but I am now done with it.

So. Ok. I am done ranting and venting. You non-cachers out there, sorry for this, but I had to do it. I tried to do it as a shorter comment on her blog, but I her highness deleted it (so juvenile). So I had to write it out here to get it off my chest. Not just for me, but for others, too. She will try to make everyone else look the bad guys. I don't care. Those who know me, know better. Petty, nasty, immature...go look in the mirror your highness.

Oh, and I know that I have been guilty myself of being overly emotional and "saying" things on here that I later regretted (sorry Eliana! I love you!). Just remember that people read these blogs...they lurk...I know of quite a few cachers that lurk on here, rarely making comments. I think it's cool! So don't accuse me of starting the "gossip train" when I didn't say a thing! The whole world can read your blog.

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Coming up soon...the return of the GoogleEarth Challenges!!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can tell from your inferences who you are speaking of, but I wanted to say that unless you really want to make bad blood, maybe you might rethink how things are posed like this. Now, this isn't my blog, so you can do what you want, but I have found that annoyances and irritating things with other people that may or may not read my blog are usually best kept off site. But that's me.

As for the geocaching black hole issue...it isn't the cachers, it is the lack of public access land. Part of that problem is the national park service and their inaccesibility to geocaching, but their catering to hunters etc in Big Cypress. I know for us, personally, most of it is a time and hobby change of interest as well as the lack of hiking type caches. We aren't micro people.

SwampAngel65 said...

Misti, I agree about both of your comments, but I chose to put this on my blog only because my comment was deleted and I wanted anyone who might read the other person's blog to get the other side of the story, should they also read mine. I'm mainly pissed because I don't know what happened to set her off all of a sudden. I don't appreciate being attack and/or my friends being attacked out of the blue. Bad blood? She's already started that a while ago. Attacking unprovoked just adds to it. Not my decision, it was hers.

I try to keep my blog rant-free, as far as this type of thing, but sometimes, ya gotta do what ya gotta do. Usually, yes, this type of stuff would remain off-blog for me. Just had to stand up for myself.

You know...we may be able to cache in ENP with Ranger approval...just no one's gone and talked to them about it yet. That would be great, wouldn't it?!?

Cane said...

I thought we fought the American Revolution to defeat having a Monarchy in our Country!!! It's Your blog, and There's still free speech! We had no idea that some people can harbor such animosity towards others in this a simple, fun game of geocaching. I thought we were all friends and enjoy this hobby for the same reasons, we do CITOs because we care about our enviroment, we host events to get more geocachers involved and to meet the people that sign the logs.
I would hope and pray these people will swallow their pride and "bury the hatchet" and become friends so they can enjoy caching again. There are cachers who enjoy getting as many caches as possible. There are enough caches in Florida to keep you very busy. There are so many new caches in Miami-Dade County that the Black Hole Term confuses the newbies. With the price of gas , Carpool to the next event or State park and enjoy the scenery while caching in a group. Try not to trample the beautiful foliage. And pickup as much litter as possible! Every little bit helps!

Ana said...

I was also very confused about the post on the other site. I'm not one to read blogs. I simply don't have enough time to read the blogs of so many people that I know that have one. Every so often, I will read some. It is a shame that people must express things so negatively and try to bring others into a dark pit of despair.

Is there a huge prize at the end of geocaching that I don't know of? I haven't seen one. Geocaching is a game, a sport where there are no winners, no losers. It is meant to be fun. We do it for many different reasons. That is everyone's choice.

Things that happened in the past - happened. Maybe things were taken/written the wrong way. Maybe one should not write about other people in a public forum. The bottom line is that people were hurt and offended. People that were considered friends. Then things just progressed. Little things here and there. One should not let a young teenager get on your nerves that bad on a public forum. I've learned to ignore things that bother me. Not dwell on it. I have never cared for others that think they are above or better than everyone else. I can't stand that. What makes one person better than another?

Yeah, the website was great. Thanks for the site, but yeah it's another site. I can live with or without it. As it is now, it is pretty much dead in there. As a top poster myself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Once the ugliness hit, the mood changed and it was no longer fun.

I don't believe that anyone really quits doing something they love because someone else hurt their feelings or didn't follow their own made up rules. That is is most certainly not the message I want my kids to get. There are always other reasons.

I've met great people during my geocaching adventures. I'm going on 4 years of this and still love it. I will not let anyone else deter me from why I do it and try to take the fun out of it. I've seen alot of people come and go in caching - it goes that way in many hobbies and sports.

Yes, this is a free country. Express yourself. Write what you want, but keep in mind, that you may be hurting someone. Something else I don't want my kids to learn. Sometimes blogging may be therapeutic, but other times, professional help may be wise.

SwampAngel65 said...

Well said, Ana...well said.

Wish you guys were coming tomorrow. I'm really excited, it should be great! Next time, ok???

Hopefully I'll have great pictures to post when we get back Monday. And hopefully we'll have out internet connection back, too :)

Unknown said...

Sometimes I think people forget caching is a game, it's for fun. :)

As for what Misti said about parks and not accepting caching but accepting hunters, we have the same issue up here!

Anonymous said...

I agree with the comments above - especially the last line of Ana's comment :)

I'm a South Florida cacher and I'm also a blog lurker! At some point, somehow, I came across this blog and those of other fellow cachers...without the help of a train. No one ever gave me a specific web address.

I believe you learn a lot about people from their blogs, not necessarily by taking what they "say" at face value, but rather by the way they express themselves and by the topics they write about. A blog is to meant to be read by whoever comes across it, however they come across it. If someone doesn't their blog read by others, perhaps they should consider keeping a diary instead.

Anonymous said...

Well, i'm not a geocacher, but I've seen this is what tends to happen to some people when they get their hands on a little bit of power, and it goes to their heads!

Good for you for standing your ground. There may be a lot more people who feel as you do,but don't want to speak up!

I tagged you for a meme, btw.
But as always, if you don't have time, that's ok! ;)

Anonymous said...

er, let's delete "I've seen" in the previous comment.
arrrgh! typos. I should have clicked "preview" first!

It should be, "...this is what tends to happen to some people..."

Anonymous said...

Have you ever heard a husband acuse his wife of being unfaithful, he usaly does this because he is the one cheating, because of his indiscretion he has lost trust in himself,he is the looser and assumes everyone is doing it to him. Does this make sense to you. I happen to know that these people you speak of have done things for you example website. They have also done this for our organization, we instead imbraced this gesture. Do you have any idea how much work it takes? These people also designed my webpage. These people no only did this for you but the opened their home and hearts to you. I was at a party with the geopeople and I have never seen such a clicky group in my life. Most sat at the same table looking like something out of a horror flick, perhaps zombies.
Knowing these people as I do, they are the most wonderful people I have ever met in my over 50 years on this earth. I can't believe that humans behave this way in todays world. What is wrong with you? Is this how you were brought up to behave? Shame on you.

SwampAngel65 said...

Well, anonymous...what can I say? I didn't appreciate the little self-serving rant on that other blog that not only offended me, but several other people. So, yeah, I decided I had to say something. I wouldn't have posted about it on my blog at all, but "Q" decided to delete my comment. SHE was the one who SO maturely posted about all this in the first place...crying about stuff that happened a long time ago. So, let me see...it's quite ok for her highness to whine on her blog, but I can't stand up for myself (and others) on mine?

And as for the zombie comment...so sorry we don't have to get drunk and naked to have a good time. We are past that. Keep partying!!