Essay assignment about MC-Please Help

jediX

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Alright everyone, because I'm in essay school (AKA college English class) I have yet another assignment this week; the topic being online communities and how they have effected your outside life.

This is due Wednesday (the 15th), so I'd love to have your comments before then about how MC has effected your outside life, mainly how you interact with others because of your experience here.

Thanks a lot, and I really hope people reply. :smile:

-Matt-
 

frogboy4

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My brief bio with Muppet Central. I started dropping by years ago, but only lurked. I finally registered officially and began posting in January of 2001. I was kind of timid at first because of all the passionate cliques, but soon found my place on the forum. I began ending all of my posts in new colorful signatures that caught Webmaster Phillip Chapman's attention.

I had sent an email offering help with the site. Months later, he got back to me. I designed some buttons for Muppet Fest and joined the staff soon after. We then began the project of redesigning the website. This took many months and was finally released last fall, 2002 to great reactions. Everyone from video clerks to Muppet performers have recognized and complimented my work. It has opened a lot of doors to me and provided me with valuable portfolio pieces. It also facilitated my freelance relationship with Palisades Toy's Muppet action figure line. MC has improved my life in ways I would never have imagined.

I have also met many friends through the forum. It's great to know you're not the only Muppet freak out there and there are people that know even more than you about the subject! Now that's freaky, cough...Warrick. :wink: We're a motley and sometimes dysfunctional family here, but a common bond much like the Muppet characters unites us. This forum has sparked heated debates; brought tears to my eyes with loss and given me great joy on days I've really needed a lift.

I haven't personally met many of the active members, but have formed great friendships. I also met Muppeteer Karen Prell and became involved in my local puppet guild for a while. This forum has also inspired members to begin others such as Tough Pigs and Palisades. This just increases the joy and contact with people who share the same passion. Muppet Central hasn't cured disease or won a Nobel Prize, but it has enhanced my life and the lives of others in a unique way.
 

jediX

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Awesome... just what I was looking for. :smile:
 

Chilly Down

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You've only got two days to write a report? Yipes! Or perhaps you're just getting around to it now. :wink:

Well, it's late, so I'll have to keep this short. I found MC in 1998 and started posting in Jan. of 2000. I find it a great stress reliever at the end of the day (except when flamewars start, of course! Then the Internet is a CAUSE of stress). It is wonderful to meet people who share my interests, whom I would have never met in years past because we were seperated by geographical location. It is important and healthy to have friendships outside of the Internet, but I find that I love having lengthy discussions with people who are just as passionate about a particular subject as I am. Some of my best friends are online. And I have Phil and Muppet Central to thank for that!
 

jediX

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Yep, I was just assigned it Monday and its due Wednesday. We only get 2 days to do the 3 page essays and a week for the 6-10 pagers... sometimes it gets pretty hectic. Oh well, I've already done all my essays on Muppet-related topics and have gotten A's so I might as well keep up that trend :wink:
 

Beauregard

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This is the first forum, I have ever visited. I finally joined after ages of wanting to, and have never looked back. I love the site, and everyone here.
 

Fozzie Bear

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Oh, sorry I'm so late on this!

How has Muppet Central affected my life? In a good way. I've formed friendships over the internet that have been pretty long-lasting. Many of the folks here know all about me, my puppet/cartoon/suit character Muley, my grandfather, Papa Roy, and my other hobbies and interests. Likewise, I've been located via MC by an old comrade of mine that I used to work with here in Memphis before he moved away to Boston. I also got in touch with another good pal o' mine, RadioNate, and am now a big fan of his radio show...not to mention that the station he works for sponsors our Haunted Attraction each year.

Along with a few others from the old Delphi MC Community, we've had a few role-plays, traded e-mails, snail-mail, so on. I've met lots of my friends from both MC and Toughpigs.com at MuppetFest! which was a life-changing experience (both the Fest and meeting these groovy friends of mine). I've participated in voice-chat online, where we exchanged character voices and even sang "Kryptonite!" to Byron online in the voice of Sam Eagle!! :attitude:

I've been inspired by many of my friends around here, seen good peoples come and go, lost one good friend from MC to an illness, and made many new good friends along the way. So many friends that I can't remember them all, and sometimes when I get IM (when I get time to chat) their screennames are different, and some even have to tell me what their MC Moniker is every time they write! LOL!!

MC has pretty much become a part of my life at least 5 days out of each week on some level, and I enjoy my communication with people here and actually care a lot about many of them (in other words, there are several that I know enough about that when I see something I always think of that person: Labyrinth I think of Chilly Down, Scarecrow I think of Scarecroe, Rubber Duckies I think of Quinnnnnnnn, Rowlf I think of Zack, and the list goes on and on and on. Oh, and Muffins/Envelopes/Steve's Hair/Dave's Glasses/Jerry's Beard/Bill Baretta/Richard Hunt/Martin P Robinson all remind me of Jackie and Emmy).
 

matleo

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I actually have two stories I can put in here. For one thing, one of our forum members here (Pezbalubah) e-mailed a little over a year ago cause at the time my location actually listed what town I'm in and he also lived there. Anyway one night we agree to meet for dinner nearby and it turns out not only does Pezbalubah live in the same town as me, but he actually lives in the same apartment complex. We have several other shared interests and since we met have gone to dinner, hung out, met Carroll Spinney, gone to see The Muppet Movie at a drive-through, gone to Great adventure, are about to go see the Henson screening at the Museum of TV & radio together, and are also hard at work on a cable access show together (with help from some friends). It's been a great friendship and I coutn Pez amongst my closest friends. See I had been livign here for close ot a year with my wife and honestly at that time we had been so busy that we never had time to 'meet' people and it wasn't like college or whatever when we always had people around because we met them in classes. but Pezbalubah and all the folks I've met through him have been great and it's a friendship i value quite highly.

ok, story #2. Around this same time, two incidents that seemngly hve nothing to do with each other take place. 1) My wife loses her job and 2) Annika Abel (Muppetquilter) and I agreed to work on the FAQ for the Palisades figures. In doing this, Annika suggested I download AIM so that we could actually tlak with each other instead of e-mailing and takign all this time getting back ot each other. So I do this and Annika and I start talking and one night I end up in a chat with her and Warrick. So naturally Warrick and I start talking regularly (Sideonte, I probably talk to Warrick online more than anyone else!! great guy! and another online friendhsip I'm glad to have made) Anyway, one morning Warrick has me in a chat with Jes Evans (FellowWLover) and of course NOW I'm talking to Jes online. Another frienship made!! Anyway, one night Jes and I are chatting about this and that, and whatnot, and the conversations turns to my wife..."Is she in puppetry too?"..."No she was a music major in college"...."What does she do now?"..."Well she's kinda between jobs."...."Oh, she doesn't teach music by any chance does she?"..."that's what she'd like to do."....."Really?!?! Cause the school I work at is desperatly seeking a new music teacher. She should apply!"....'Well, she never finished her certification"....."I teach at a private school. it doesn't matter. We can help her take care of that."

Needless to say, my wife is now in her second year as a music teacher and is working on getting her certification too. Jes has been a great help to Siobhan (my wife) and I'm so glad that it's happened the way it has. this job is the best thing that could have happened to my wife at that time and while I'm greatly to Jes for actually ebing the on to help get the job, I can't help but acknowledge that MC played and it's members played quite a role in helpign her find it.

So MC has done more for me than anyone could possibly imagine. The online community not only helped me meet someone in my own community, but directed me in IMing the other side of the country, and then the other side of the world, before finally making it back to NJ and getting my wife a job. That really boggles my mind sometimes. I mean the internet, has made the world into a much smaller place than it was before and in a good way. Of course there are the chats and the conversations and the analysis of the latest Muppet appearcne and all that stuff and thats' good too, but when I think of MC, those two stories are the first things that come to mind.

Hope this helps and good luck with your paper.

--Matt
 

jediX

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Now all I have to do is write the thing :smile:
 
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