TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: reader mail

  • 5/5/06 From The Mail Sack: A Survivor’s Opinion

    5/5/06 From The Mail Sack: A Survivor’s Opinion

    I received comments today from someone claiming to be Columbine survivor Richard Castaldo on my entry about Dylan Klebold’s car being up for auction. I have no reason to doubt that claim. Here’s what he had to say…

    i saw some shit on the news about people having websites paying tribute to the assholes that did this shit, and it bothered me for obvious reasons. so i hope people would be disuaded to do fucked up shit by this site and others like it. And its completely fucking ridiculous to admire what they did in any way. In contrast to popular opinion a lot of people that were shot didn’t do a god-damn thing to these fucks (me included). I have no idea why you’d admire dipshits wwhod kill people over absolutlely nothing. snd what thy did was definatley in no way noble and in no way brave, as they claimed. it doesn;t take shit to kill someone who isn’t expecting ir and with no armor. so i dont know what the hell that proves other than what pussies they really were. REal men would never think of doing something like that. And they brought being nade fun of on themselves, i saw them a couple times and they acteed like they were above it all. oh, and its also moronic to blame games and music and whatnot. cause i play and lisen to the exact same stuff, and am not negatively effected in any way.

    I hope the mutants were paying attention.

  • 4/27/06 From The Mail Sack

    4/27/06 From The Mail Sack

    It’s been a while since we dipped into the mail sack. All the mutants just seem to be repeating themselves, so I haven’t been inclined to respond.

    Until today, when I received an e-mail that made my jaw drop from the sheer stupidity of it. It’s from someone who calls themselves Rogue. Rogue has been previously banned for saying that they should give back a would-be school shooter’s weapons. Anyway, you’re not going to believe this one…

    Hi

    Cool page. Like what you do here. But I find you only look at the story one way. Not once have I read a comment you’ve made, about even one of these school shootings being acceptable, or needed.

    Did you use to be a police officer or something?

    I’m not even going to respond to that one. I’m just going to let it stand on its own merits, or lack thereof.

  • 2/20/06 From The Mail Sack

    2/20/06 From The Mail Sack

    It’s been over 2 months since we dipped into the old mail sack. Don’t worry, this one is mutant free. It’s just a nice little e-mail I got from someone named Fynn. The subject read “My Apologies”.

    I have been reading comments left on your brilliant website, but I’d like to apologise on behalf of other readers. They dont know how to spell, they use abusive language and I think it brings down the tone of the good writing that you create.

    Thank you for the compliment, Fynn, but no apologies are necessary. The abusive language just shows that they lack the intelligence for a legitimate argument. Thanks again for your e-mail.

  • 12/8/05 From The Mail Sack

    12/8/05 From The Mail Sack

    Let’s dip into the old mail sack, shall we? Today’s offering is from one of my banned mutants named Edgar…

    Enough of the Defense-Attorney bashing

    This is from Ed

    they’re just doing their job. Besides, there are worse things than a greedy lawyer. Like, how about, a blogger who makes a living by being a cyber-bully? Yeah, I’m talking about you.

    I’ll take this in order.

    First, I’ll stop bashing soulless defense attorneys when they stop trying to get murderers released into the custody of their parents.

    Secondly, I am hardly making a living doing this. It would be nice if I did, but I’m not. I got my first payment from advertisers last week for a whole $19. Considering how much I’ve paid over the years for web hosting and domain names, it’s not even close to making a profit.

    And lastly, how am I a cyber-bully? Have I threatened you? No, of course, I haven’t. You’re pissed because I’ve banned you. That’s my prerogative. I own this site. I pay for it so I can do with it what I want.

    Think of it as any business you might go to during the course of your day. Most businesses have the right to refuse service to anyone they choose within reason. And with some of the comments I’ve received, I’m well within reason. If you don’t like it, you can always go somewhere else.

    Hell, you can even start your own blog, and you can ban whomever you want.

  • A parent who gets it

    A parent who gets it

    I’ve said before I don’t do this for the recognition. Every time I get some kind of national recognition, it’s usually bad. I don’t do this to become a Higher Being on The Ecosystem. I’m very happy being a Flappy Bird. I do this mostly to get a message out. A message to parents to be mindful of their children’s activities, online and in the real world. How many stories have we seen from Columbine to the present day where the parents had absolutely no clue what was going on in their own house? That’s why I switched the site from the black background to the beige background to make it more appealing to parents.

    Some days I feel like banging my head against the wall after reading story after story where it seems like parents were oblivious to their kids’ activities. But then every once in a while I get an e-mail like this…

    I discovered your site after the recent murder of the parents by the 18 yo in PA. I read their online blogs, which I then followed their links to other online blogs and discovered a very frightening world used by todays youth. My only thought is the same i have read several times in your writings…where are their parents? As a parent of young children this has left me feeling a range of mixed emotions from extreme saddness, to anger, to disgust, to utter hopelessness. I have always known these things existed but to read personal diaries and blogs from first hand perspectives of todays youth really brought it front and center for me. I have read things about drug use, girls with eating disorders, sex….you name it. And not only the words….but the images!!! These kids actually have their pics up!!! I would never keep a diary growing up because I KNEW my mom would find it….not “IF”. I am just thankful to have found this now….my kids computer use is still limited to the Jumpstart games thank God! But not knowing is no excuse for parents. This is their JOB as PARENTS!!

    I gave up my career to be a full time mom to my kids and after reading this I feel insanely guilty by gambling with their lives everyday that I send them off to school…..to SCHOOL for crying out loud!! It is not supposed to be this way.

    Anyway, my main reason for writing this is to APPLAUD you for what you are doing. People need to be informed and as painful as reading these stories are they need to be read and burned into EVERY parents brain….they certainly are mine.

    Thank You!
    Gina

    No Gina. Thank you. Thank you for letting me know what I’m doing is actually making somewhat of a difference and that I’m not doing this in vain. Hopefully, your e-mail can serve as a wake-up call to even more parents.

  • 10/9/05 From The Mail Sack

    10/9/05 From The Mail Sack

    Just one to speak of this time, and it’s from my entry on the Columbine Rampart Range Tapes…

    Fan Says:

    You know, i wish there is a hell, just so i can shake their hands and thank them for what they did. People are so fucked up, that they think they can mess with someone for years, and then flip out when they kill some1. That racist POS that posted is the reason things like this happen. I just wish i could have the balls to do what they did, they are my fucking hero. So if you dont like them, then dont wast your time talking bad about them

    Saturday Oct 8, 2005 @ 11:37 pm

    Of course, he or she is talking about Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as his or her heroes.

    Just think, that’s someone’s son or daughter. I wonder what those parents think their kid is up to.

  • All Worthwhile

    All Worthwhile

    Yesterday was not a good day in my little empire.

    It seems that I went way over my bandwidth allotment in just 5 days. It turns out then when I started doing the podcasts, I left the test MP3 file on my server and forgot about it.

    It was only 418kb in size. However, some unscrupulous persons, which I traced back to several IP addresses in Germany, downloaded the file repeatedly over and over and over again until it generated 13GB of bandwidth.

    At that point, between trying to deal with the spammers and what was basically a denial of service attack, I was really close to packing it all in.

    Then after I got all the sites up and running again, I received an e-mail from someone by the name of Mike. The subject of the e-mail was “Credit to Society” and it went a little something like this…

    First off, I want to thank you for debunking and debating the rumors spread by so many medias today regarding Goths, trenchcoats, and their connection to school violence, and a crumbling society in general. I myself cannot stand labels, but am commonly given the label of “Goth”, just because I choose to wear what I like. It’s not a means of expressing angst, or hatred, or a desire to be different. I just wear what I think looks good. It’s a relief to see someone that can appreciate an opinion such as mine, and agree with it, to any extent. Granted, I know my style of dress invokes such harassment from those that consider me awkward or different, but that doesn’t make it right. Thank you so much for voicing your opinion in the face of those who disagree. you are a real credit to Freedom of Speech, and society in general. People often don’t listen to me, or my beliefs and morals, being that I’m only going on 17, and it’s great to have someone to relate to, regardless of how much older you may be, or that I’ve never met you. I want you to know, for what it’s worth, that regardless of how many people may call you a menace or scum to society for having the will to disagree with them, you’ll always have me as an avid reader and supporter. Keep on voicing your feelings, and I’ll keep reading. Thanks again, for making life that much more livable. Keep on living, my friend. =)

    Mike, it is I who should be thanking you. You single-handedly restored my will to keep this site up and running for a long time.

  • Request from a mutant

    Request from a mutant

    I got an e-mail today from the webmaster whose site I got the quotes from for both Birthdays in Hell entries which can be found here and here. Here is the e-mail in most of its entirety…

    Hello Trench,

    My name is Chris and i’m the owner of (URL of mutant website).
    I received a note that you posted some text of my homepage:

    You didn’t ask for my permission to post whats on my website.
    I am copyrighted so therefore you must delete what youve taken from my website.

    Please put this stuff you copy off

    Thank you

    Chris

    First off, I wonder which mutant sent him a note. Like I need to ask. WMD.

    Anyway, as to your request, um…

    (more…)
  • Anatomy of a Mutant

    Anatomy of a Mutant

    I received an e-mail today from one of my usual mutants.

    For those of you new to the party, there are two breeds of mutant. Today we’re going to deal with the most predominant form of mutant, the school shooter-worshiping mutant.

    This particular mutant by the name of Edgar has a problem with the way I run things around here. He’s been previously banned for…well…being a mutant, so he sent me the following e-mail…

    This is from: Ed

    I just want to let you know, trench, that I’m deeply offended by some of the things you and your supporters say about the shooters. They were the only inspiration in my life and just because I am a ‘mutant’ as you childishly call us doesn’t mean I’m inhuman or less deserving of respect than any of you.

    Ok, Edgar, I want you to argue your point of view with me. For a limited time, I have rescinded your banishment to the cornfield in order to participate in this thread and this thread alone. Post in any other thread and your ban will be reinstated.

    I also want my regular commenters to participate as well, except there will be no name calling. No patronizing. We’re all going to discuss this like adults.

    My first questions to you, Edgar are…

    Are you still in school?
    If so, what grade?
    Why are two mass murderers your only inspiration in life?

  • This is why

    This is why

    Yesterday, Bookhouse Boy over at The Crime Spree did an entry where he made the following statement to me…

    Trench, in my opinion, wastes time when he bothers to debate these guys when they show up on his message boards. They’re the equivalent of Holocaust deniers, Trench.

    9 times out of 10 I would agree with Bookhouse Boy if it weren’t for instances like this.

    The other day I got an e-mail from someone named James and this is what he had to say…

    i haven’t processed this email into a verbal system so bear with me. i’m in one of those periods of transition, being 17 and a “pariah” at my highschool. it’s certainly of my own volition since i still enjoy acting the way i do…but, for about 3 years i was what you’d characterize as a mutant. i’m not anymore. this was because of stumbling across your site in one of my vapid searches for those two fuckers as well as other mass-murderers to re-read information that i already knew. when i read the articles on your site, scrolling down and down and down, the content seemed so disaggreeable. all of my reactions were anathematic, as though you just didn’t understand something. i now know this was utter bullshit on my part. for those years i thought that those two were something that i could relate to, but they were spoiled, unempathetic and utterly self-important in any sense of the word. they didn’t kill people who deserved to die, they didn’t leave the world a better place than they found it. there’s many other things…but i found your site a few times before i bought a computer, after i got one i joined one of those fucking message boards on the subject (and trust me it was pro-asshole), it took about 2 weeks of reading other peoples comments and opinnions of them to realize what the fuck this was all about, i saw myself by looking at all of the poorly typed idiocy. this was something of an existential crisis, because i’d been expelled/arrested/lost several friends/would have died because of this entire situation. i think you should display a copy of the script to the play Bang Bang You’re Dead, because after i read it, it really helped me realize that there’s no fucking point in having anything crossing the line of animosity for this kind of thing. also, i know a two paragraph blurb won’t change the minds of dumbass mutants, but you should try to clearly articulate to these people why the hell they should stay around and stop spending 70 percent of their day thinking about people they otherwise wouldn’t have liked in real life anyway.

    I don’t have to articulate it. You already have.