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Whew! Thanks for the fix, Michael!

Started by OzBenzHead, 28 April 2006, 01:39 AM

OzBenzHead

Boy, have I had a bad case of "forum deprivation"!  I suspect I must be an Internet junkie; I kept checking six to eight times a day to see if this board was back up (even though it's only one of five I have constantly loaded ready to peruse)!  Perhaps I should just get a(nother?) life.   ;)

Thanks for the fix (whatever you take that term to mean)!   ;D ;D
[img width=340 height=138][url="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png"]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png[/url][/img]

Denis

Hi fellows

Well, I am not as bad as Ozbenzhead but it was like having lost the phone numbers of good friends  :'(

Maybe we can all agree that servers are a royal PITA ???

Denis

Paris, France

OzBenzHead

Perhaps my "habit" is related to the convenience of being in front of a fast and powerful computer all day (often quite long days!) - it's where I work (producing books and such like).  To have a handful of forums idling in the dock makes no noticeable impact on the computer's performance, and it's easy just to dip in whenever I'm waiting for a print job to cross the network or a very large file to download/upload.

Well, that's my "excuse", anyway.   ;)

(But why, then, do I feel a sense of deprivation when a forum is inaccessible?  No need to answer.   ??? )
[img width=340 height=138][url="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png"]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png[/url][/img]

Mforcer

You think you guys were missing this place?!? I was having sleepless nights hoping you guys would still be talking to me!

Glad to have you all back and I look forward to the long future we all have here!
Michael
1977 450SE [Brilliant Red]
2006 B200

michaeld

Yes, I faced Southwest (toward Australia) and waved in appreciation! (perhaps the National Security Agency saw me from space and wondered what kind of conspiracy I was up to).  Thanks for your ongoing work in bringing us all together, Mike!  I agree with Denis - it WAS rather like losing touch with friends.

As some of you know, I'm a religious person (not to proselytize or anything!).  And one of the marvelous things about my faith is that I have found that I can meet anyone on the planet who is a Christian and have an immediate bond.  I can bump into a complete stranger from another race and culture and establish a powerful connection with that person.  We become like two old friends despite the fact that we have no history before that moment.  I've always found that to be miraculous.

I've had many hobbies - football, basketball, weightlifting, photography, reading, writing, gardening (the list could go on, but I'll stop there) - but I never found anything that could all by itself form the basis of a real connection with other people from disparate geographies .... until I got my 450SEL and became a part of this forum.

Through this forum I have communicated with people from countries that I will likely never see - and have experienced something of that same marvelous sense of connectedness.  And I can tell you that I never, ever thought I would experience something like that through the "vehicle" of a vehicle!  I really marvel how a car can bring people the world over together!   

I joined this forum because I found that I enjoyed my 450SEL; but now a big part of the reason I enjoy my 450SEL so much is this forum.  Enjoyment of one has fostered a greater enjoyment of the other.

So, be you my "fix" or my friends, I too am really glad to have you back!  Thanks again, 450SE!
mike   


Des

Glad to see the board is back up again, I missed the place too.

Thanks to everyone who makes this place what it is.

;D Des

116.025

Quote from: michaeld on 28 April 2006, 04:51 AM
As some of you know, I'm a religious person (not to proselytize or anything!).  And one of the marvelous things about my faith is that I have found that I can meet anyone on the planet who is a Christian and have an immediate bond.  I can bump into a complete stranger from another race and culture and establish a powerful connection with that person.  We become like two old friends despite the fact that we have no history before that moment.  I've always found that to be miraculous.

I've had many hobbies - football, basketball, weightlifting, photography, reading, writing, gardening (the list could go on, but I'll stop there) - but I never found anything that could all by itself form the basis of a real connection with other people from disparate geographies .... until I got my 450SEL and became a part of this forum.

I couldn't agree more, Micheald, on both counts.

I remember trying to log on and saying, "Nooo!" when it told me forum.w116.org couldn't be found.  Glad it's back!  ;D

michaeld

Yes to that, Styria!
I'm only posting again because I had an encounter with the very thing you mentioned just yesterday.  I was surfing through some other Mercedes forums looking for info on "synthetic brake fluid," and saw a lot of harshness going on in quite a number of threads.  Often it just seemed gratuitous.  I am very thankful that w116.org has been a "safe place" to inhabit.  For that I thank our moderator, Mforcer, and all the rest of you "positive types."

Maybe driving a w116 just makes us happier than other Benz people?

Denis

Hi fellows

Michaeld, I understand what you mean about the christian bind but I can add this : most arabs like mercedes cars. I have "bonded" with a lebanese neighbour through my 350SE. In fact, the racists in France say that old benzes are for arabs...or gypsies ! different places, different views of the world  8)

An amazing thing is to hear the christian, moslem and judaic leaders in France declare that they all pray to the same god...but that there followers are not all ready to hear this !

Thank god for moslems, they are the only ones in France that can fix my car correctly at a decent price.

The internet goes further - it cross-binds people from different worlds. i often read posts that make me smile as I think "that sure is an AMERICAN", and then "ahhhh...a smiling Foster-drinker...wish I could visit Australia" and the other Euros that post here are so close to their image...and me ? encore un français !

If Internet clubs do only served to expose peple to other views &and ways of thinking, they would serve a great purpose.

let's get on with some postings  ;D

Denis

Paris, France

Mforcer

Quote from: Big Richard on 30 April 2006, 07:28 AM
... huddled in a corner, scratching yourself franticly, looking around wondering when your next fix of "w116.org" would come.

Isn't that what we are all like when not here or behind the wheel of our 116? :P
Michael
1977 450SE [Brilliant Red]
2006 B200

OzBenzHead

#10
Quote from: Big Richard on 30 April 2006, 07:28 AM
... I just got a mental picture of you huddled in a corner, scratching yourself franticly, looking around wondering when your next fix of "w116.org" would come. Now thats an addiction that needs attention :P

And I thought I'd seen it all when I ran the local needle exchange program in the late '80s!   ::)
[img width=340 height=138][url="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png"]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png[/url][/img]

OzBenzHead

#11
Quote from: Big Richard on 01 May 2006, 06:42 PMDamn, you've lead a colourful and interesting life, what an experience that must of been :P

All the colours of the rainbow - and then a few, I suspect!   ::)  No doubt, "interesting and colourful life" will be my epitaph!

I was minding my own business, cooking at the Rainbow Cafe (locally known as the "Brainblow"!) in Nimbin, when I was approached by a headhunter from the Health Dept, who claimed to know of my interstate (and somewhat radical and infamous) history as a community health-and-sex educator and counsellor; he declared that I was "just the person" they were seeking to run the planned pilot program (Australia's second; the world's first non-metropolitan one).

Frankly, I couldn't see his point (I wouldn't have known a "user" if I'd tripped over him/her), but it seemed that the skills and techniques lying there in my history were what they envisaged being useful in cranking up such a program.

It proved a fascinating - and highly educational (for the punters and me!) - three years; I finally quit because I got tired of dealing with idiot, power-freak bureaucrats who wouldn't know a human-services coalface if they walked into one.  The punters were easy to deal with; the bureaucrats were hell on wheels.

Guess we achieved something, though; Oz "enjoys" the lowest HIV infection rate amongst the IDU (Injecting Drug User) population of anywhere in the world (which, of course, makes it a safer place for everyone); unfortunately, knowledge of Hepatitis C came a tad too late, so we missed that boat.  Can't win 'em all, I guess.

PS: Just noticed a typo in my earlier post: Should be "late '70s", not "late '80s".
[img width=340 height=138][url="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png"]http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a215/OzBenzHead/10%20M-B%20Miscellany/OBH_LOGO-2a-1.png[/url][/img]