Fuck yeah I remember! Come on man, may have taken a hiatus but I certainly did not forget you. Hyroot and Greasemonkey were legit too, for sure. But its heartbreaking to know they were pissy about soil tests. Just confirms what I was saying before. Most people on this forum are intermediate, at best. When someone elevates themselves to "expert" status, people here feel threatened and attacked. Fuck 'em.
But there's a reason I remember you the most. At first, you were the one asking me questions before you took soil testing seriously. Then you started testing your soil and gaining knowledge that I had zero concept of, and the roles were reversed immediately. It did not take long for you to start teaching me things, and I learned a lot from your soil results. You remember, right? I went from being the driver, to pulling over and telling you to get the fuck in the driver's seat. You have experience that I do not have, and will not have for years to come.
Like I said before, people probably just felt attacked.
They got bitter and not better.
I can't really call someone an "expert" if they get butthurt about someone calling their "authority" into question. If you're truly an expert, you should have no problems explaining things to people. Right?
I recently began an apprentice butcher training as of ~4 years ago. One guy had 27 years experience, but when I'd ask him questions he'd take my questions as a personal attack instead of me just trying to gain more knowledge and perspective. Meanwhile, the 82 year old with 50+ years experience said "I love that you ask questions, means you won't ever fuck anything up".
Wakatoo is a troll, pretty sure. Claimed that "cursory research" showed that Basalt doesn't have Sulfur when it is a fucking volcanic rock. My dumbass got butthurt too, until I realized I was being trolled.
Consider this my friend.
Only the people that are butthurt will go out of their way to talk. Those that are satisfied will typically say nothing. Customer service 101, lol.
I go out of my way to post on here now. I credit
@GrassBurner and
@PadawanWarrior for that. I just started seedlings again, after having not grown for over a year now. I came on here to see if anyone had experience with CropKingSeeds (they did not) and saw a few questions people had about organics. As I said, I'm certainly no expert/guru, but I spoke from personal experience and the knowledge I've attained in the last 10+ years growing. The two users mentioned above were happy to see me. Just like I'm happy to see you.
Truth be told MustangMan (don't find it disrespectful I call you that, do you? I'll stop if so. Always saw you as MustangMan for some reason, total irrational truth be told), I liked talking with you. Not only that, I never ONCE got the vibe that you were "rough around the edges" or that you were going through the struggles that you're currently going through. Makes me bummed that I didn't reach out more and shoot the shit with you via PM.
I can see why you're upset for sure, but I also admire you. My own Father never served, but he spends so much time complaining about his body deteriorating that he doesn't try to do anything to keep his mind off of it. Unlike you. You're kicking ass and taking names.
Most people are shitty. I won't ever try to argue that. What I will argue is that if just ONE person wants to listen to you, pick your brain, get your advice, then it is worth dealing with the bullshit just to help out that one person.
You also have to consider that some people simply don't want to be corrected. They're either too proud, love misery, or even worse are both!
I've lurked RIU since 2010, finally creating an account in 2012.
People were toxic and shitty back then too, just like they will be in another 5-10+ years. But, should that stop us from helping those that actually want to learn?
No disrespect here dude, but when you say "rough around the edges" I legit find that hard to believe. You were chill as fuck, always open to discussion, and constantly gave everyone the time of day. Sounds to me like your "darkest hour" still has not passed. Take it from this random stranger on an internet forum, I
NEVER got that vibe from you. I don't want to see you believe that, because then it will become a reality.
Most people are in fact entitled, and want to be spoon fed. Its a sad reality. But, we shouldn't let those people jade us.
And when I say given freely, I mean the information was readily available only and I didn't have to pay a dime for it. I never had to buy books, pay money to subscribe to someone's bullshit, or anything like that.
Much like you; I too put my blood, sweat, and tears into many grows and learned things the hard way.
But that is where our similarities end. As I said above, you quickly turned into a guru and I always treated you as such.
That K problem you had? I gave my personal perspective (while not being an ass, or a know-it-all.. at least I hope?), but you very quickly became a teacher.
I learned a lot from you.
I'm doing the same thing for you that Padawan and Grassburner did for me. I felt like this wasn't worth my time/effort, and stopped posting. I give random advice, and only then do I find out the input is valued. I'm trying to convince you of the same. I always valued your input, and I hope you know that.
Being a teacher, in any business, is thankless. That is the burden of being in a position to teach.
A lot of people here are in fact out for themselves. They think that growing weed is a get rich scheme, but its not. Growing hasn't been a get rich scheme since 2016, in my experience.
I'm a medium-scale grower, at best.
People have consistently told me that my product is the best, and they look at me like I'm stupid when I say that my product is shit.
I have smoked some incredible product, back when growers got paid $3200-4000/lb. Now, $2400/lb is the highest a grower can hope to achieve. Why would these people keep growing? They're not being paid what they're worth.
I know what good weed is, and I don't grow it. Again, people look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them my stuff isn't good. I've paid $25/gram for stuff in a dispensary on 17th St. in Santa Ana back in 2010 and will always remember how incredible that weed was. I didn't want to smoke anything else, it was that fucking good. Even still, people tell me how "amazing" my stuff is, and I rebuke them. Its not. Its nowhere close to amazing.
Its just because my shit isn't laced with chemicals, and I don't gouge.
Dispensary weed looks good, smells good, and possibly even tastes good.. but you only experience the effects for 15-20 minutes before you need to smoke more.
I stopped growing for a bit because where I live now, business isn't good. Small town. My in-laws, and my handful of customers started going through other people for their meds. THAT is when they realized how shit their product is. My in-laws legit gave me $2k just to start a new grow, because in the words of my 75 year old father-in-law "You grew some of the best weed I've ever smoked". It's decent side money, but hooking my in-laws up is the only reason I started growing again. I work, and have plenty for my own personal needs (tourette's syndrome, but I won't bore you with that story).
He's disabled too. Disc in his back is fucked. He fucking hates that he can't work on cars anymore, or do anything physical. He fucking hates it. But that's life brother. We get old, we get useless, and that's that. We can't stop ourselves from getting old and useless, but you know what we CAN control? Is taking people under our wings and letting them help us out in our time of need.
Find those that are worth helping, and focus on them. Don't make the people that want to actually learn suffer because of the handful of dickheads that are lashing out on you out of jealousy my friend. I'm legit heartbroken that you're dealing with that shit, but that's life. Human beings are shitty, and self-centered. But not every human being is like that my friend.
Much love, and as always, sorry for the book!
