Ah Bluemax is still alive!
Some might say, more alive than ever.
His growth as a human being was stunted by being handed GAF on a whim at a very young age and he's never recovered.
His identity revolves around a video game forum. We joke and jab at people caring too much about GAF, but no poster meltdown would equal Tyler's meltdown if GAF went by the wayside. He makes his living off the forum. He decided to become the face of the forum. His personality is formed by the popular trends of the forum. He feels he should belong to every community in the forum even when he doesn't really fit in. When he finally goes outside and sees the world, he does it to visit other GAFfers. He then runs a journal of his vacation on the forum he should be vacationing away from.
I'm not a friend of the guy. I only interacted with him previously in IRC and on the forum. It's just hard to see any part of him that is independent of GAF.
I had no idea that bluemax was perma-banned.
Part of what I did to piss him off was suggest he get some therapy/help. We are talking about a guy who spent 7 years in almost complete isolation from human contact (aside from the internet), who suddenly lost a ton of weight, moved across the country, and came into a lot of money. I mean any one of those 3 things can have an effect on a person's personality, but all of them at once?
He used to be a fairly nice, mostly level headed person. But he's morphed into this weird person who isn't sure of his place in the world and who he is or what he wants to be.
He didn't go to school, and he doesn't have any marketable skills that I know of, so the forum is kind of all he has. Which I think is why he didn't want to sell it even when offered a ton for it. Its not that he's protective of it (even if this is what he says outwardly) its that inward feeling of knowing he has literally nothing else to show for his life if he loses control of the forum.
I don't harbor any ill will towards him for perma banning me. More than anything I honestly just feel bad for the guy. The majority of the things that I said to him that upset him were things I would've told any real life friend. I probably would've been more direct with a real life friend than I was with him, but such is life. I did say some dumb things at one point when I was at a really low point. I admit that it was rude, but in all honesty I think the guy needs someone in his life willing to call him on his shit and his ridiculously inflated sense of self. Unfortunately he's not willing to listen to anyone in that regard (and I'm not the only one who has known him for awhile who has tried).
Maybe some day he will gain perspective and mellow out a little. I hope so for his own sanity and mental well being.
