*CHEEEEEEEERING LUSTILY!!!!!!!!!!!*

You GO, Boy!!! GIVE 'EM HELL FOR HASSLING YOU!!

*STANDING ON CHAIR* *WHISTLING, HOOTING, CHEERING LOUDLY*

Some folks seem to forget that just because we communicate via computer
does *not* mean there isn't a real, live person on the other side --
one who has a family, a life, a job, not to mention *feelings*.
Computers are cold machines, but it takes real people to operate
them, folks.

I've been a member of this list for -- three years now, I think? ---and
Kris always seems to put his heart and soul into the Tree. If some of
you want to bash him, ream him, get cranky because he doesn't move fast
enough to suit you personally, please take it elsewhere. I think that
the vast majority of folks sincerely appreciate what he does and has
been doing -- and the fact that he is taking a stand and declaring that
he will CONTINUE is a feat in and of itself, considering how much
trashing he has taken this year.

You don't think you've "trashed" him?

Try putting yourself in HIS place.

Imagine coming home from work, tired after a long day (it's the
holidays, after all...). The wife/family/ferrets/<insert name>
want/need/deserve attention. But wait! He has a new group of ferrets
that aren't up on the Tree yet! -- so he props himself in front of
the computer, and instead of merely having a few gazillion ferret
pictures and descriptions to edit, posts to put up, Trees to check off
his list, Secret Santa forms to read & assign ferrets, etc., he has
fifty emails -- perhaps four of which are thanking him for his efforts;
the rest are complaints. Well, let's see here...he could be playing
with fuzzies, eating dinner, watching Christmas specials on TV, loving
on his wife, drinking eggnog, relaxing after a long day -- but no, he
chooses to wade through all the nasty remarks about how he does his
job. His VOLUNTEER JOB. And he spends the next several hours entering
info on the Tree, because he does it for the fuzzies, not for you, not
for me, not for any of the folks who can't seem to remember that he is
a man, not SUPERman...he does it for them. And every slight, every
snide remark, every demand for attention, every query about where the
H#*! so-and-so's ferret shelter is posted, hangs over his head. And
these remarks HURT, people.

Yeah. They HURT. Imagine that.

He's doing his damndest to keep up with the amazing number of ferrets,
and mostly he hears complaints, not thanks.

Personally, I thanks the Good Lord that there ARE people like Kris who
are willing to forego the holiday distractions & family obligations to
volunteer time & money & effort & a LIFE to do something this massive.

Next time, before you go pounding away at that keyboard to vent your
frustrations at the name on the screen, remember that there IS a
living, breathing, warm human on the other side of those words. And
words CAN hurt you, people.

And they have.

~Eri & the Texas Toobsox: Indy, Pixie, and Tucker

-- 

  /\_/\
 (>"<)
 (")_(")~~ (<(<(<(ERI)>)>)>)

[Posted in FML 5841]