HAPPY BIRTHDAY RWD!!!

[BC]

Dan's first post on this board Sat Jan 22nd, 2005

In lieu of candle ---> 

[Bruno]

Let's party...

 

[Bruno]

And toast for the birthday :

[Bruce]

I'll third that..............:brightidea:

[ConnerVT]

Congrats!  I brought cake...

 

[TigerPaws]

   

[color="blue"][size="4"]Yum, yum I like cake, may I have a chomp?

Damn has it really been a year?
[/size][/color]

[RacerX]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RWD!seems like we should do something to celebrate.... maybe members could re-post their first post and we could have some laughs?

[Admin]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RWD!

seems like we should do something to celebrate.... maybe members could re-post their first post and we could have some laughs?

Hard to believe it has been a year.

Congrats to the MEMBERS of RWD, who make it the great discussion board it has become.

- Dan

[Son of Clyde]

I have spoken on the phone with a number of guys from RWG and several from RWD.

Is it possible to have a meeting somewhere mid USA or just to exchange phone numbers or emails?

If anyone wants to contact me please send a pm.

I like getting to know the members.

Happy year one.

[Admin]

[user=130]Son of Clyde[/user] wrote:

I have spoken on the phone with a number of guys from RWG and several from RWD.

Is it possible to have a meeting somewhere mid USA or just to exchange phone numbers or emails?

If anyone wants to contact me please send a pm.

I like getting to know the members.

Happy year one.

Did you notice that one of the features of the board software is that it facilitates people from the same geography getting to know one another?

If you go to the Members button at the top of the page and click on any one of them that has a US state in their profile - it will bring up a map of the US.

The board will show you how many members include that state in their profile.

If you want to go to a different state, just click on it, and you will get the number of members with that new state in their profiles - and it provides you a list of them which makes it easy to send a PM.

Canada is also represented, so there is a map of Canadian members. IIRC, the UK (United Kingdom) is also shown.

Obviously, this works best when all the members include their location in their profiles.

- Dan

[KenC]

Congrats Dan!

I am sure that this next year will show even more growth than the last.  That map feature is too cool.

KenC

[Jack]

I forgot and was curious as to my first post. Hard to believe it was a year ago.  Happy 2006 RWD

.............................................................................................................

Jan. 22 2005

 

Their are a lot of guys here posting on the RWD that I am sure have many good photos of their trips to the FSU.

Here is, as I recall, my first photo of St. Basil's in Red Square. I took this photo in 1996, but it looks much the same today as it did 444 years ago when it was completed.
You ever hear of the "holy fool" Basil the Blessed (1468-1552)?

Moscow's, and one of the world's, most recogizable landmarks, St. Basil's Cathedral, was named after him. I write that Basil died in the year 1552 but I have read other accounts that say he died on August 2, 1555 and August 2, 1557. According to tradition Basil was clairvoyant from an early age. In the burning summer heat and in the winter's harsh frost, Basil walked about barefoot through the streets of Moscow. Often Basil walked through Moscow wearing nothing more than a long beard. He would throw rocks at wealthy peoples houses and stole from dishonest traders in Red Square. Especially for the wealthy, he was an annoyance. In the eyes of some, he was a troublemaker. There are tales of him destroying the merchandise of dishonest tradesmen at the market on Red Square. Once he upset a stand with kalachi, and then he spilled a jug with kvas. Angry merchants throttled the blessed one, but he endured the beatings with joy and he thanked God for them. Then it was discovered, that the kalachi were poorly cooked, the kvas was badly prepared. The reputation of Blessed Basil quickly grew: in him they perceived a fool, a man of God, a denouncer of wrong. Czar Ivan the Terrible feared no man but Basil. Basil was also given to eating meat on Good Friday. Once he went to Ivan and forced the Czar to eat raw meat during the fast saying, Why abstain from eating meat when you murder men? Countless Russians died for much less, but Ivan was afraid to let any harm come to the saintly Basil. Basil was so revered by Muscovites that, when he died, his thin body was buried, not in a pauper's grave on the city's edge, but next to the newly erected Cathedral of the Protection of the Mother of God. The people began to call the church St. Basil's. Not many years passed before Basil was formally canonized by the Russian Church.


The Protection of the Mother Cathedral was ordered built by Ivan the Terrible and was built starting in 1555 and completed in 1561. On completion of the church it is said Ivan ordered the architect to be blinded so he could never build such another beautiful Cathedral like it again. St. Basil's is a delightful array of swirling colors and redbrick towers. Its design consists of eight chapels, each topped with an onion dome. The cathedral's beautiful exterior mask a much more modestly decorated and somewhat less spectacular interior.

Located at the southern end of Red Square, St. Basil's has narrowly escaped destruction a number of times. In 1812, the French army stabled their horses in St.Basil's Cathedral. Before leaving Moscow, Napoleon ordered it to be blown up, but cold, hunger and fear of sabotage by the people of Moscow prevented the order from being carried out. Although another version has said that Napoleon was so impressed with St. Basil's that he wanted to take it back to Paris with him, but lacking to the technology to do so, ordered instead that it be destroyed with the French retreat from the city. The French set up kegs of gunpowder and lit their fuses, but a sudden, miraculous shower helped to extinguish the fuses and prevent the explosion. Early in this century the cathedral almost fell prey to the atheist principles of the Bolshevik regime. In 1918 Lenin's communist authorities shot the church's senior priest, Ioann Vostorgov, confiscated its property, melted down its bells and closed the cathedral down. In the 1930s Lazar Kaganovich, a close colleague of Stalin and director of the Red Square reconstruction plan, suggested that St. Basil's be knocked down to create space and ease the movement of public parades and vehicle movement on the square. Stalin rejected his proposal. Years later St. Basil was ordered destroyed again. This time the courage of the architect and devotee of Russian culture, P. Baranovsky, saved the church. When ordered to prepare the cathedral for destruction he refused and threatened to cut his own throat on the steps of the church, then sent a bluntly worded telegram to the leader of the party himself relating the above. For some reason Stalin cancelled the decision to knock the church down and for his efforts Baranovsky was rewarded with five years in jail.

The cathedral is now a branch of the State Historical museum. The first divine service was held in October, 14, 1991, however regular divine services are not made.

[catzenmouse]

I guess this makes me 1 year old today!

Dan, congradulations and thank you very much!

Ken

[bbernard]

Dan,

Happy B-DAY RWD and Congrats on a job well done!  

This board has provided me with valuable insight into this process! The diversity of members make this a great forum!

Thank you,

bbernard

 

[2tallbill]

Dan's first post on this board Sat Jan 22nd, 2005

In lieu of candle ---> 

Not sure if the board will be here on Jan 22 2026, but as of today
it's still alive.

[ML]

I really miss most of the guys and gals who used to post here.

Hard for me to understand why they faded away.

I suppose:

1) Married guys got divorced and didn't want to return here to admit it.

2) Unmarried guys gave up the chase for one reason or another:
a) their economic situation changed due to covid, minor recessions, etc.
b) they grew tired of scammers.
c) concerns about the war.
d) they became willing to accept being with local porkers.

3) Grew tired of the idiots who continue to post here.

4) ?

[Admin]

Not sure if the board will be here on Jan 22 2026, but as of today
it's still alive.

Interesting that you responded that way Bill. As the site approaches its 20th anniversary, I've been pondering that same question myself.

[Admin]

I really miss most of the guys and gals who used to post here.

Hard for me to understand why they faded away.

I suppose:

1) Married guys got divorced and didn't want to return here to admit it.

2) Unmarried guys gave up the chase for one reason or another:
a) their economic situation changed due to covid, minor recessions, etc.
b) they grew tired of scammers.
c) concerns about the war.
d) they became willing to accept being with local porkers.

3) Grew tired of the idiots who continue to post here.

4) ?

Some died. Some developed dementia. Divorces and disillusionment, of course. Mostly, the utility of an independent discussion forum is replaced by social media sites which allow greater free access to people around the globe.

[krimster2]

"Grew tired of the idiots who continue to post here."

every public accusation you make regarding someone else, is actually a private confession about yourself....

nothin but bluesky from now on

[Trenchcoat]

I am personally thinking the opposite, that in a time when social media is sites are rampant it's all the more important to preserve a format that is older, different and offers something else. This forum I think offers a depth of knowledge, experience and life stories that go way deeper than the shallow one or two liners that you tend to get on social media.

Alone this site contains many fascinating stories set in times that are different from today. Technology and dating methods even culture have changed over the lifespan of this site and offer a great insight into the way things were and the journey past members have been on. Contributing members may be few in numbers now but I think that times can change again and people will In the future see value again in the Forums of old.

I personally see the end of the Ukraine War whenever that is of symbolic of a potential change in feeling out there. Once again I believe that men will see the value in traveling to Ukraine for dating and will come here like they used to genuinely seeking guidance on how to go about it and help with it. It's certainly great looking back at old posts and seeing the enthusiasm, effort and involvement that western guys were putting into the chase for a FSW and venturing into new and uncharted pastures in the FSU.

[krimster2]

depends on the Calendar
will the war's end cause Russia/Ukraine's Calendar to roll back to pre-2014?
or will the economy make our Calendar roll back to the 1930s?

I'd imagine that we're all gonna know the answer soonish
if Russia/Ukraine's Calendar rolls back to 2014, then there may be an uptick to travel
but if our Calendar rolls back....then NOPE!!

one day Chinese Yuppies will come to post-collapse America in their self-driving EVs to score blond bimbos in run down southern trailer parks
and they'll post on American Women Discussion or as it's officially known 美国女性讨论
and there will be this one left wing chinese guy who'll piss off all the right wing posters
I, Lord Krimster of the Dark Arts, predict that his name in Cantonese will be "sah mud" sand & grain

dilemma of using a Cantonese Dictionary (for Hong Kong and Shenzhen)
glyphs are indexed based on number of strokes
what, are ya supposed to do, if ya don't know the number of strokes?
that's fine if the glyph is on a sign, but what if you're trying to compose something
eh? how ya index it?
see the advantage of a phonetic system? it has a phonetic index!!!!
and why the French switched Vietnamese to Phonetic Latin Alphabet from Kanji
I was a diddy mao white boy in Việt Nam Cộng hòa in the 70s,
Today Ho Chi Minh City is a great place to buy gemstones
but those marathon flights are WAY too much for me, I really hate it
so instead, I like the back porch and cookies and my animal friends

me not care that ROME is burning
it looks pretty with all the bright flames

i'm starting to believe that nothing is actually REAL in America
in the sense that Disneyland isn't REAL
and that the REAL reason republicans don't like mexican immigrants
is they tried to sneak in to Disneyland without paying

sincerely,
Bardak Makak