Tag Archives: Not Now Silly Newsroom

A Man Without A Country ► Unpacking The Writer

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Edward Everett Hale

When I was in elementary school — back when they still taught Civics — one of my favourite short stories was The Man Without A Country, by Edward Everett Hale. These days, whenever I cross the border between Canada and the United States (as I did recently), I am reminded of this heart-breaking story.

SPOILER ALERT: It was many years after I first read it that I learned that The Man Without A Country is not a true story at all. It was a newly-minted (in 1863) allegory about patriotism and The Civil War, which was currently ripping the country apart.

None of that meant a thing to the young, unsophisticated, me. It felt true, like a good Onion story. Like a bad Michener novel, it was peopled with real folks. Like Citizen Kane, it is the story of one man piecing together the life of mysterious man. It would always bring me to tears. I can still remember the disappointment I felt when I discovered I had been hoodwinked by a brilliant writer.

The Man Without A Country was written as if the author had only just read an obituary of a little remembered figure in history and expounds on why this man should be remembered 50 years after the events described. The author relates how Philip Nolan, whose obit he stumbled across, had been friends with Aaron Burr and was tried for treason along with him in 1807. In a fit of pique Nolan renounces his country and proclaims, “I wish I may never hear of the United States again!” The judge sentences him to be put on board U.S. war ships, never allowed walk on U.S. soil again, nor could people tell him of news back home. The WikiWackyWoo picks up the story:

As it appeared in The Atlantic in 1863

Deprived of a homeland, Nolan slowly and painfully learns the true
worth of his country. He misses it more than his friends or family, more
than art or music or love or nature. Without it, he is nothing. Dying
aboard the USS Levant, he shows his room to an officer named Danforth; it is “a little shrine” of patriotism. The Stars and Stripes are draped around a picture of George Washington. Over his bed, Nolan has painted a bald eagle,
with lightning “blazing from his beak” and claws grasping the globe. At
the foot of his bed is an outdated map of the United States, showing
many of its old territories
that had, unbeknownst to him, been admitted to statehood. Nolan smiles,
“Here, you see, I have a country!” The dying man asks desperately to be
told the news of American history since 1807, and Danforth finally
relates to him almost all of the major events that have happened to the
U.S. since his sentence was imposed; the narrator confesses, however,
that “I could not make up my mouth to tell him a word about this
infernal rebellion.” Nolan then asks him to bring his copy of the Presbyterian Book of Public Prayer,
and read the page where it will automatically open. These are the
words: “Most heartily we beseech Thee with Thy favor to behold and bless
Thy servant, the President of the United States, and all others in
authority.” Nolan says: “I have repeated those prayers night and
morning, it is now fifty-five years.” Every day, he had read of the
United States, but only in the form of a prayer to uphold its leaders;
the U.S. Navy had neglected to keep this book from him. This is the
supreme irony of the story. Nolan asks him to have them bury him in the
sea and have a gravestone placed in memory of him at Fort Adams, Mississippi or at New Orleans. When he dies later that day, he is found to have drafted a suitably patriotic epitaph
for himself: “In memory of PHILIP NOLAN, ‘Lieutenant in the Army of the
United States. He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but
no man deserved less at her hands.'”

Had I known when I first read the story that I would come to feel like Philip Nolan, The Man Without A Country, I may have cried all the harder back then.

Unlike Nolan, I have never renounced my ‘Merkin citizenship. I did, however, take up Canadian citizenship. To do so I swore an oath to “the Queen, her heirs and assigns” that I’d not vote, nor serve in the armed forces of another country. I take that oath seriously. Renunciation, on the other hand, is an overt act.

The only time my citizenship gets complicated is when I am crossing from Canada back into the United States. When I am going into Canada all I have to do is flash my Canadian Citizenship picture ID and — Bang! Zoom! — I’m in.

However, I’ve learned that coming back into ‘Merka it’s best that I don’t mention my Canadian citizenship if I can help it. When asked “citizen of what country” I answer truthfully. “United States” precisely because I have not renounced my citizenship. I learned a number of years ago that the United States does not recognize the concept of “dual citizenship” and claiming such only complicates matters at the border. Hoo boy! I am made to feel as if I am The Man Without A Country.


This 3rd filming of the story was a Made For TV
Movie. Earlier versions were filmed in 1917 and 1937.
The Monthly Top Ten

Here’s how you can help:

Apologies to my regular readers who have noticed I’ve been neglecting Not Now Silly for the last little while. If you’ve been paying attention, you will know that Pops was hospitalized in June and spent 7 weeks there. More recently he was transferred to a rehab center, where he’s made amazing progress.

Then there was the 3 week Road Trip, details of which are still to come. I thought I would have time to update the Not Now Sill Newsroom while I was on the road, but there was so much to do that I never got around to unpacking the laptop.

Even though I’ve been away, the Not Now Silly Newsroom archive has had quite a workout. Here’s this month’s Top Ten. (The All Time Top Ten is in the column to the right.)

1. Who Is To Blame For The Destruction of the E.W.F. Stirrup House?
2. The 4th Annual Sunrise to Canton Road Trip for Research
3. Javier Gonzalez Kicks Off His District 2 Campaign
4. Say Goodbye to the E.W.F. Stirrup House While You Still Can
5. The Detroit Riots ► Unpacking My Detroit ► Part Five
6. Coconut Grove in Black and White
7. Did Roger Ailes Dupe James Rosen, Or Did Rosen Dupe ‘Merka?
8. Tribute to Don Knotts ► Morgantown’s Favourite Son
9. Is Marc D. Sarnoff Corrupt Or The Most Corrupt Miami Politician?
10. Harry Nilsson ► Thursday (Here’s Why I Did Not Go To Work Today) ► A Musical Interlude

I’ve stoked the fires under the Steam-Powered Word-0-Matic and the Newsroom is back up and running full-tilt, balls out. I already have several stories in the pipeline that include: A brand new, exciting Don Knotts and Morgantown Update; another Pastoral Letter, following my most recent visit with my oldest childhood friend, Pastor Kenny, who has written a very important book; Notes From A Road Trip, which I’m still collating and trying to make sense of; and a long, involved investigative article about a Miami institution that I’ve been researching for almost 3 years and writing, on and off, since early June. There’s a just a small amount of research left on that one and it’ll be ready for prime time.

And, along the way, there will be some surprises. Consider tossing a little bit into the Tip Jar above and help support Investigative Journalism from the Not Now Silly Newsroom.

The Best Laid Plans ► Unpacking The Writer

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Toronto’s own Johnnie Lombardi and Me

My Go Fund Me campaign:

In our last exciting episode of Unpacking The Writer — my monthly look behind the curtain at the Not Now Silly Newsroom — I got all nostalgic. To quote myself from Where We’re At & Where We’re Going: 

I’ve taken care of Pops for the last decade and I’m simply burned out. It’s time for me to return to Toronto, the city I call home, to recharge my batteries.

Ironically, I’m returning to Kensington Market, which has a similar Hippie feel as Coconut Grove. I lived in Kensington Market many years ago, but was able to experience it again anew when I visited Toronto in September. I spent most of my time in the Market and felt comfortable and at home. Soon I will be able to call it home.

When I wrote that (at the beginning of January) my departure date was tentatively scheduled for the end of February; so tentative that I didn’t mention it. Now, due to circumstances beyond my control, I won’t be leaving the Yew Ess Eh ’til the end of August. That means I have more time to tie up all the loose ends down here and promote my Go Fund Me campaign, to help defray my moving expenses.

My best ever month and my All Time Top Five

SOUR GRAPES MAKES FOR A BITTER WHINE: I’ve been looking at the stats again for the Not Now Silly Newsroom. As of this writing, I have served up 410,958 pages for my readers to … err … read since launching this place almost 4 years ago.

My monthly count averages 9,000-10,000 views. My daily hits range anywhere from 150-300, depending on the subject matter and how much promotion I do. On the odd occasion my monthly readership has reached heights that even I have trouble believing. Pictured at right is when I hit almost 18,000 views just one year ago, twice my general average.

I bring these stats up because, to be perfectly honest (and a bit of a whiner), I am disappointed in the lack of response to my Go Fund Me campaign to help me get back to Canada. If people knew how much work went into these posts, and how few pennies I get from the few advertisements that Google feeds me, they’d wonder why I do it at all.

There are times I wonder myself. Times like this when I look at the stats and see that I made a dime yesterday, or $1.78 in the last 28 days, which comes to slightly over 6 cents a day.

I know that over the course of the next month this particular post will be read by an average of 300 people. If every person chucked a quarter into a Tip Jar for every page they read, I’d be bringing in about $2,500 a month. I’ve not even earned 1/10th of that since starting this blog almost 4 years ago.

Having said that, I didn’t start this blog for the money. I would write regardless because it’s what I’ve done my entire adult life. However, I did have it in the back of my mind that this blog could ‘top off’ the other income I produced. It’s been a disaster in that respect.

While still on the subject of stats, you’ll find in the column to the right the Not Now Silly All Time Top Ten Posts. However, just for the fun of it, I broke out the Top 10 stories that caught your attention just this month, from highest to lowest:

TITLE OF POST VIEWS PUBLISHED TOTAL VIEWS
Paul McCartney Deported From Japan 280 Jan 25, 2016 280
A Civil Rights Champion Born 187 Feb 4, 2016 187
Del Shannon & Me 179 Feb 8, 2016 179
The 45 Is Introduced 179 Feb 1, 2016 179
Take the “A” Train 171 Feb 15, 2016 171
The Detroit Riots 132 July 22, 2012 6401
Remembering the Challenger Crew 30 Years Later 125 Jan 28, 2016 125
The Palin Family’s Greatest [Literal] Hits 81 Jan 21, 2016 264
It’s Only A Northern Song 75 Feb 22, 2016 75
Unpacking The Writer 68 Dec 1, 2012 1285

That’s 1,477 views on just the Top Ten posts in the last 30 days (which doesn’t even include those evergreens that didn’t make the Top Ten). A dime per visitor would earn me more than in the past 30 days than I have received in the 4 years since launching the blog.

Recently I was having this discussion with a friend on the facebookery: Our mutual profession of writing has been seriously devalued since Bill Gates made the World Wide Web a Point & Click environment. Anybody with a keyboard and mouse now believes they can write. And, we can see the sad results all over the innertubes: People can barely create a 10 word meme without serious grammar and spelling errors.

Speaking of sour grapes: I’ve groused several times previously about the Coconut Grove Grapevine. I have even truthfully and non-ashamedly admitted to being jealous; jealous that such a poorly written blog has so many more readers than I. That a blog so devoid of actual journalism is able to sell a passel of advertisements. Yet the actual news stories I write about Coconut Grove — as opposed to Falco’s commercial fluff — earns almost nothing at all. [I know I am repeating myself from previous posts, but it’s only a rerun if you’ve seen it before.]

Consequently, a profession I spent my entire adult life perfecting is no longer considered worthy of adequate remuneration. [A big shout out here to all my musician friends who find themselves in the same sinking boat.] I remember how excited I was, way back when, that an editor agreed to pay me 5 cents a word for a very long article she commissioned. I thought I won the lottery because that seemed like a fortune in those days. Now I am constantly approached to write for free because it will be “good exposure.” No, seriously. I also stopped writing “on spec” 4 decades ago. Either I will pre-sell an article or keep it for the Not Now Silly Newsroom.

I need to be more like Al Crespo, of The Crespogram Report,
who publishes the best muckraking blog in Miami. He doesn’t take any
advertising at all, so he obviously doesn’t peg his words’ worth to the
almighty advertising dollar.

Hopefully next month I won’t feel so sorry for myself and my profession.

HOP ON POPS: The last week has been very busy around here. Pops celebrated his 90th birthday on Valentine’s Day. Relatives started arriving last week for the party on the 20th. We took over one of the condo clubhouses and invited over 60 of his friends to help us celebrate this great day.

Here’s a pic of him getting about to blow out his candles and you can follow THIS LINK to a slideshow.

What a great time it was. Pops loves being the center of attention (Who doesn’t?) and he sure was this weekend. People hung on his every word and laughed at all his jokes, even the ones we’ve heard for decades. He couldn’t have asked for a better time and neither could we.

Now that things are returning back to what qualifies as normal around here, I have several irons in the fire. Hopefully, I’ll be able to reveal more about these projects in our next exciting episode of Unpacking The Writer, coming soon to a web browser near you.

A Terrorist Alert or a Simple Mistake?

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The traveling Not Now Silly Newsroom

Let me introduce you to my knapsack, which I often call the traveling Not Now Silly Newsroom. Yesterday the traveling Not Now Silly Newsroom almost made the news.

Everything I could ever possibly need to write a Not Now Silly story is contained within my knapsack, including pads of lined paper, notebooks, clipboard, extra pens, Post It Notes, spare batteries, small camera, and a big clamp to be used as a handle for my smart phone video camera.

When I left Starbucks yesterday afternoon, I inadvertently left my knapsack behind. Amazingly I didn’t realize I had left it there until this morning, when I went to get something out of it. As they say in Quebec, “There she was, gone!”

It only took a minute to realize I’d left it back at Starbucks. Even though I was about to jump into the shower, I jumped into my clothes instead. Then I jumped into the car and rushed right over to get my knapsack — never exceeding the speed limit, even in the 15MPH school zone.

When I arrived, the first person I encountered was the manager, Issac.

“Did somebody turn in my knapsack yesterday?”

“Oh, that was yours?” Then he preceeded to tell me the following:

It seems as though my knapsack was noticed by a European couple only minutes after I left. Because people in Europe are far more sensitive to potential terrorist packages left lying around, they wanted to call it in as a suspicious package, but Starbucks staff wasn’t quite so sure. They were pretty certain they knew who it belonged to. However, the two Israelis, also on the patio, concurred that it cannot be ignored, especially as a new Mideastern restaurant was being renovated in the space right next door.

If you see something, say something.

That’s when police were called.

Apparently the bomb squad wasn’t brought in because, if they had been, my knapsack would have been blown to bits as a precaution, just to be on the safe side. Instead, the officers glanced inside my knapsack, determined that it was something its owner would definitely return for, and turned it over to Starbucks for safe-keeping.

Now I’ll go take my shower and see if I can wash off the embarrassment that I wasted everybody’s time.

Webbitez Bitez ► A Consumer Report

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Avoid this company at all costs
Ladies and gentlemen of the internets: 
I would like to warn the world about a Web Design company operating out of
Ireland called Webbitez. 
A year ago I met the owner Ian Christie through my
sister. In a general and casual discussion about the Not Now Silly Newsroom, I
mentioned how everyone told me I should abandon the Blogger platform in favour
of a Word Press template in order to better monetize my site. However, I stated
that what has kept me from doing so were the hundreds of posts already made,
which I would lose.
I’ve had this discussion with several people over the years. They all shrugged and said, “Oh, well.” 
However, Christie was the only person who told me that I would not have to lose any of my previous posts; they could be imported to the new site and he knew exactly how
to do it.
That’s when we entered into an agreement that he would build
my web site and import all my previous posts into the new site under my own
domain name. I paid him 50% of the agreed upon fee as a down payment, the
balance to be paid when the web site was finished. We shook on it at his
insistence.
I could go over chapter and verse of why, a year later, I’m
still trying to get a web site out of him, but it’s all water under the bridge
now. He has used my anger at his obstinacy and inaction to withdraw from the
project, blaming me for being rude.
I have every right to be rude. I have waited a year for my
web site to be finished and he has made excuse after excuse on why it’s not
been finished. Among those excuses are that he had to go to school to get his degree and that was
his first priority. Then why did he take on the project? 
However, my favourite excuse is that his server was
attacked by Russian hackers and he was forced to rebuild his clients’ web sites
at his own time and expense.
Aside from the fact that this is EXACTLY the service one would expect from
a web host, Russian hackers? Really?
Time after time I have attempted to resolve these issues and all I
got were cryptic responses. My direct questions went unanswered or he would point to
previous answers that didn’t really answer my direct questions. It was all passive-aggressive games.
However, today was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Six
days ago, while I was traveling, he told me the site was finished. Three days
ago I asked for the URL so I could see my site. After waiting a full 3 days I finally
sent the following message:

Please read this with an open mind,
something you’ve shown little inclination to do in our previous exchanges.

Had you treated me as a CLIENT from the
very beginning, we never would have had any of the problems we had. Instead,
you treated me like something you stepped in. I maintain that you would have
never have opened our LAST exchange the way you did had I been treated like a
CLIENT. Nor would you have tried to make all these problems about me, or my
rudeness. After a full year of inaction, I have earned the right to be as rude
as I need to be.

You said where you come from people don’t
discuss money. Where I come from people discuss money when they’ve been screwed
out of it.

You may consider my down payment a small
amount of money, barely worthy of your consideration. However, to me it was a
sizable chunk of my disposable income, which I actually made clear at the time.
It’s all relative, isn’t it?

However, even that shouldn’t matter. We both
entered into this agreement as intelligent men, or so I thought. There was even
a handshake at your insistence. Remember?

And now we have come to this latest
impasse. Several days ago you told me the site is finished. I asked for the
URL. I’m still waiting for a reply. Would you have treated a CLIENT this way?
Answer honestly, Ian. Would any of this have happened had you simply treated me
like a CLIENT, instead of a source of frustration?

In our last conversation you told me that
you will refund my down payment, but will withdraw all continued web support.
Will you also refund the money I spent for a year’s worth of my own domain
name, at your insistence, that I was unable to use? You further told me you
will not host my site, which will be an added expense I had not anticipated.
[Thanks for blowing my budget and making me scramble at the last minute to
locate a web host, something I have no experience in doing.] As well, you now
refuse to help me with the SEO, which was one of the things I was most excited
about. Furthermore, if you ever produce the URL to my site so I can simply take
a look after waiting all this time, I suspect you will present me with a fait
accompli, on which I have had almost no input and will not be allowed to
request any changes.

Just to remind you: I am the client.
Imagine you were a tailor. Would you have me in for a fitting or two? Or, would
you just present me with the garment when you were finished?

I honestly don’t
what game you’re playing now. I honestly don’t know why you wouldn’t just
respond to my request for the URL. Did I forget to say “Please and thank
you” or is there some other agenda here?

Just let me know what hoops I still have to
jump through so we can conclude this business transaction. Or, has it been your
intention all along to not conclude this business transaction and this is
merely your passive-aggressive way to get me to walk away?

Mr. Passive-Aggressive

He sent a return message that made it appear as
if he understood what I was saying, but then, very soon after that, he started in
with his passive-aggressive bullshit all over again.

I asked him several times this morning for the URL that
would allow me to see my site. He kept saying I had the URL already. No, I didn’t.
I had the URL to a COMING SOON landing page. Finally, after asking for the URL
several times he admitted that:

As is your other blog, page has an admin section. You get access to that
when I suggested we talk Thursday you would have seen that. But you as always
jump head first and argue pointless issues. But yes I’m wrong.

But, you see, I never asked for admission to the Admin Section. I asked over and over again for the URL that would allow me to view the web site that he said was finished.

So . . . why couldn’t he have said this from the very beginning? Why did I have to ask over and over again to see my site and all he would do was answer with some cryptic bullshit about I already have the URL. No, I did not have the URL which would allow me to see my site, just the landing page.

And, let’s talk about that landing page, because it’s a perfect example of the kind of crazy bullshit I’ve had to deal with up to now.

Somehow I was supposed to be satisfied with this ugly page.
Last year, when this entire process began, I asked him to create a COMING SOON page for me. I was excited to be finally blogging under my own domain name and wanted to promote it. He never produced that page. 
And, he hung me out to dry with my readers because I promised month after month that a new site under my own domain was COMING SOON. In fact, I stopped mentioning it because it made me look foolish.
In fact, I stopped mentioning the entire project months ago. Originally we had scheduled a weekly Wednesday Skype (still in my calendar) to go over the web site. After a while he stopped answering my Skypes. Once I got hold of him and he went off on me, making me feel so guilty, that I didn’t contact him again for months. Because it seemed to be such an unpleasant task, I avoided it completely.
However, recently, I convinced him that I was truly the aggrieved party here and not him (and THAT took typing up a blue streak before he would finally admit that, paraphrasing, “Oh, yeah, maybe a year to wait for a web site might have been a tad over the line.”). That’s when I demanded an action plan (which in the end he didn’t stick to either) on when EXACTLY my web site would be finished. Then I demanded, as a show of good faith, he do the first thing I asked him to do a year ago: Give me a COMING SOON page. He argued against it, told me I didn’t need a COMING SOON page, but I made it a condition of going forward. I identified 2 Not Now Silly logo graphics that he could use on a COMING SOON page. I never assumed he’d use both of them. That was just stupid on his part.
This is the correct aspect ratio.

Stupider still was how he screwed up the aspect ration of both graphics. There’s nothing that crawls up my back faster than someone who screws up the aspect ratio of a graphic and he did it to two of mine. So, I told him that it wasn’t right and it was *NOT* something I would share with my readers. I had to explain it to him because he didn’t seem to understand what I meant by aspect ratio. 

However, he blew up. Again, he told me that a COMING SOON page was unimportant. And, how could I dare criticize something he worked so hard over. And, that making a COMING SOON page was just a waste of time when there was a web site to build that he already had a year to build.
I let it go. I said nothing in response. I thought a COMING SOON page was a dead issue. Then, without warning, he came back with a new COMING SOON page, despite telling me he wouldn’t bother. And, it was ugly, with a capital U. [See above.]
Why would I want a stained floor background? Why would I want an email sign-up, something we never discussed? Why wasn’t the whole thing centered properly on the page? Why wasn’t the email sign-up centered on that other part that wasn’t centered? Why are there several ugly symbols for my Twitter, Blogspot, and Facebook accounts? Why aren’t those ugly graphics hyperlinked so that they actually have a function? Why not my YouTube channel as well? Why wasn’t I consulted anywhere along the way?
While there was all kinds of wrong with this COMING SOON page, I kept my criticism to myself this time, because I had already seen how he was unwilling to accept any criticism from the CLIENT. Everything he does is so fucking great, you see. He made a point to tell me it had taken 8 hours of work, something that I could have done here in the Not Now Silly Newsroom in 2 minutes. TWO FUCKING MINUTES!!!

Today I offhandedly said I thought it was ugly, and he went nutz on me again:

ME: All I know is that when I click on [the domain name] I get the COMING SOON page. I don’t care about that ugly page. I want to see the web site. I need the URL for that.

IAN: Oh[,] man. Seriously[,] did you just type that? Ugly? Lol. Good man Headley. [sic] Keep up the insults from a man that is so great full. [sic]

BTW: He never seemed to spell my name right and, he’s absolutely right, I’m an ingrate because I dared insist on quality.
The IM continues:

ME: You expected me to share that COMING SOON page with my readers?

I have higher standards than that.

IAN: No I don’t. When did I say that? Nobody shares a coming soon page but if you knew anything about SEO you would know why it’s there. [After telling me several times it was unneeded.] Regardless of what I say I’m just wrong. So I’m wrong.

As is your other blog, page has an admin section. You get access to that when I suggested we talk Thursday you would have seen that. But you as always jump head first and argue pointless issues. But yes I’m wrong.

And even spending a day on that graphic for you, you insult insult insult. Read your messages, that’s all my fault. Despite what I have said u continue to be an asshole.

So my point of drawing a line, well if that’s drawing a line and deliberately offending my work….yes, I’m wrong to be offended for doing something for you for free and my time. Yes, indeed I’m wrong. Not you, you, you are a totally innocent bystander. By me explaining why we are at this juncture is excuses to you. Please

let’s move on.

Trying to move on you’ll note that he finally provided his rationale for not giving me the URL that I had asked for time and time again this morning in order that I could see my site. In a very roundabout way,
without actually coming out and saying so — which is how he passive-aggressive answers everything — he told me that I wouldn’t
get to see the site until he was damned good and ready to show me
because – – and get this:

Read
my messages. Read the one i sent last week where I said we would go
through it together. That we needed a window to look at it TOGETHER. You
have no clue how to view it and that was the purpose of the window.

Are you kidding me, Ian?

WTF? I have no clue how to view a web site?  Are you fucking kidding me, Ian?

Or, did he just want to sandbag me with a fait accompli on Thursday? Did he want to give me no time to click around on MY SITE and get a feel for it from my readers’ perspective? There is no logical reason why he couldn’t answer me all those times I asked for the URL. There is no logical reason why he thinks I need a tourist guide to look at my own web site.

Then, on Thursday, maybe we could discuss what is right and what is wrong with the web site designed without my input and without my ever having seen it.

This is what really sticks in my craw. All morning I asked for the URL to view my site. He *NEVER* gave me the URL. He just kept telling me I already had it. Like it was a fucking treasure hunt. Eventually I figured out ON MY OWN that he was talking about the COMING SOON page.
That’s just another one of his passive-aggressive games.
He did the same thing the last time we texted. He said he needed some info. I said what info. He said it was upthread. I kept looking for it, but couldn’t find it on a thread miles long. I kept asking specifically what he info he wanted and he kept telling me it was already answered. It became another one of his fucking treasure hunts. He falsely insisted I knew exactly what he was talking about. After I finally found it and answered he said, “See, you knew all along.” If I knew all along I would have answered when he asked!!! When I said, “You could have just told me,” he said that he didn’t want to patronize me by cutting and pasting it. What kind of shabby excuse is that for his passive-aggressive behaviour? Had he patronized me with a cut & paste, it would have saved us almost an hour’s worth of argument. [All saved for posterity. Feel free to request the text file.]
Today, I never asked for the COMING SOON page. I asked to see my web site. I asked to see it many times. It took a very long time before he FINALLY told me that I couldn’t see it until Thursday, as per his previous message. Why couldn’t he have started there instead of playing another one of his passive-aggressive games where we kept going around in the same circle over and over again?
Here is what I consider the punchline to the whole story: I never told my sister what had been occurring with her friend Ian. It had nothing to do with her. However, recently she told me she was thinking of going to Ireland. Because I already knew that Ian Christie had passed another production deadline and that I would probably be forced to blast him when I returned home, I decided to bring her into the loop, so she wasn’t sandbagged. She thanked me for the info, told me that blood was thicker than water, and asked to be kept up to date. 
What made him think my sister would take his side?

Today, when it all started to go sideways — almost immediately — I informed her as it happened. Neither of us could believe how crazy Ian had become. When I finally told him we were done and our business was concluded, my sister asked whether she could take a crack at him. At that point it was FREE KICKS, as far as I was concerned. Her message sent him into spin cycle.

First he said to me: “So now you turn *** * *** against me. That’s low mate. Low.” 

However, after he realized just how badly he had messed up, he started begging us to reconsider, because my sister is so very important to him. He should have treated her brother with a little more respect then. All I ever asked for was for him to fulfill his promises to me. Seems simple.
Neither my sister, nor I, would answer his IMs, nor would we accept his numerous Facebook calls, which just seemed to make him crazier. He seemed to think he could have a rational explanation for a year’s worth of crazy.

He has now blamed me for destroying his friendship with my sister. Ian Christie has no sense of personal responsibility whatsoever. It’s always the fault of someone else.

Anyway, internet friends: I have reams of archived
conversations with this monster. Feel free to ask for them. Meanwhile, I suggest you steer clear of
Webbitez. I am an extremely dissatisfied customer and would hate to see anyone
else get screwed over by Ian Christie – I mean, those nasty Russian Hackers.