11 thoughts on “Reclaimed”

1. That’s gorgeous – I’m glad that you’re beyond it.

2. I don’t know if you know the story of “The Potential Pedophile”, but there he became big time into anti-aging. He apparently raised a bunch of money and then he made a YouTube video explaining that he used that money to buy his family a car.

   Then he goes on for 90 minutes about how his research is over. The secret to anti-aging is a vibrating bed.

3. I don’t think I know that story; I think I’d remember the name, though. Is he someone you know, or does he exist under that name on YouTube? (That seems like a poor choice, if so.)

   I sort of call b.s. on a vibrating bed being the secret to anti-aging. Wouldn’t all hookers who went to cheap motels in the 60s still look 16?

4. Here is the video:

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC3rAuul1Qg

   There is a little more to it. The bed plays music, if I remember correctly.

   I don’t know if I have a short version of the story. This is it as concisely as I can tell it:

   He sent an email to a discussion group that included pictures of a little girl and a story about having sex with her. We forwarded this email to the police.

5. I’m listening to Kermit right now. Also, at the risk of sounding horrible, judgmental, and mean, he looks like almost every child molestor I’ve ever seen on Law & Order: SVU (this is admittedly not a huge sample).

   I’m so glad you reported him. That makes me absolutely sick. Almost nothing in life makes me more ill than hurting children (I know you and I have discussed this and have similar views, see the “Gone Baby Gone” conversation). I hope he went to prison.

6. He actually didn’t do anything illegal. So he didn’t face any criminal charges.

   He was working at Iowa State, so the DPS alerted the girl’s parents. Then he was fired from his job.

   I do remember getting emails from other people in the email discussion group telling me that I had overreacted. One that was particularly sickening explaining that the discussion had actually “enlightened” them somehow.

   Nason actually claimed that the story was set in a future when she was grown up. However, the encounter took place in the girls bedroom and it was still decorated with My Little Pony posters.

   The story ended with the girl’s dad calling up to them to come down stairs for waffles.

   Waffles, were not ruined for me however.

   The reason for cloud photography being ruined for me is that at the beginning of the web, he ran a website called Cloudmaster, where he posted “free high quality cloud photographs”.

   He definitely sounded like Kermit. One thing good I can say is that he was never really my friend. He was the acquaintance of friends.

   He will probably show up in a couple of stories someday when I write that auto-biography.

   But even a fool can tell you, someday never comes.

7. You know, I remember hearing the name Nason. But I’m positive I’d remember the whole story, so I’m wondering if I just heard his name in passing prior to the event.

   I’m so glad that Iowa State is so responsible as to fire him – my respect for the university just went even higher. I am sickened by the thought that anyone would defend him. “Enlighten?” That’s revolting. In what manner can reading a story about harming a child be enlightening? And that’s the absolute most ridiculous excuse I’ve ever heard – it was obviously about a little girl.

   Waffles are sacrosanct. Clouds, however, are not. They’d make me feel ill, too. I pray that he’s not inhibiting dark corners of the internet now, that’s terrifying.

   Someday only comes in Bollywood Nights.

8. I should point out that the other reason that Iowa State was involved was because the parents of the girl were his co-workers.

   He had been invited over to their house and they had went with them when she did some kind of horse show. That is where the pictures came from.

   The email started out with this really weird story about how he had went over to their house when the husband wasn’t around and he felt this really strong connection with the wife.

   Then he explained what followed was a fantasy of a possible future. I was 100% sure that what was going to follow was some kind of fantasy where he had an affair with the wife or killed the husband and took his place in the family.

   This all seemed horrifying, but what was actually written was so much worse.

   I often never read the emails from this group because I was the square peg in their world of round pegs. It was lots of emails about how great the original STAR WARS were and how horrible the current STAR WARS are.

   But most tedious was lengthy tomes on how THE LORD OF THE RINGS movies were failing THE LORD OF THE RINGS books.

   My favorite turn of phrase, that I still sometimes use when I’m mocking somebody or something was found at the end of one of these diatribes. “In closing, it is safe to say that the definitive LORD OF THE RINGS has yet to be made.”

   If you ever hear me use the phrase “the definitive XXXXXX has yet to be made.” I’m still mocking this guy. Even though only 1 other person (maybe you now) knows what I’m doing.

   But let’s face it, I’m mostly trying to entertain myself in this world.

   So as a bonus, I was already thinking of leaving this group. The sad part, is that I believe I was the only person to leave the group and I believe it continued along for some time afterwards.

9. I should point out that it occurred to me that the “enlightened” email, didn’ say enlightened.

   I remember the phrase more accurately now. It was:

   “Expanded my horizons.”

10. What the heck? This guy WORKED with the potential victim’s parents, and thought he could/should still share? I had hoped that this was a girl who he’d seen on the internet or something (not that it’s better), not one with whom he’d had actual contact.

    …Are ANY of the Star Wars really good? Wouldn’t a “definitive” Star Wars just be one that’s good, period? I’m glad to be in on the joke – but has the definitive “definitive” joke yet been made? Only you can know.

    WTF, those aren’t horizons. Those are terrible, awful, sick perversions.

11. He was almost right. There were like 6 other people in that discussion group. I was the only one to send it to the police.

    In fact, I almost didn’t read the thing at all. Somebody else contacted me about my opinion on it. I hadn’t read it. I had some discussion with this person, but they didn’t think it was necessary to call the police. There idea was to somehow track these people down (true story) and leave a copy of this stuff on their doorstep.

    You know, like doing something, but not really doing something.

    I actually called and talked to Lowell’s dad about it, because I wasn’t sure the police would do anything since nothing legal was done.

    I should point out that it wasn’t STAR WARS, but LORD OF THE RINGS that brought this phrase into existence. However, to your question, the best STAR WARS movie is middling at best.

    Yeah, I didn’t even know how to respond to that email, so I didn’t. However, yeah, those aren’t horizons. At least not any that need to be broadened. There are a million reasons why this isn’t socially acceptable.

    So reading that, there never should’ve been a point when somebody read that and thought, “Hmmmm… maybe this kind of thing isn’t so bad…”

    I also recall now that when the “In this fantasy, she is grown up” defense was given. The broaden-your-horizons guy swallowed that one whole. I believe he stated, that was “pretty obvious”.

    But really. Let’s say it was obvious and I was just misinterpreting this writing. Still not okay. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

    Best guess by the way is the girl was about 10 years old at the time.

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