White Walls-Flourescent Lights-Rocking Out-Butthole Surfers-

[85 Day Jerk]

While going through the program during the "Boom Years,"  I found motivating in general to be simply insane.  C'mon, the fucking building must have been 90 degrees with 75% relative humidity, and them assholes expected me to 1.- Shake my arm 90 miles an hour and 2.- Smile while doing it?  Child please, I said 'fuck that shit' my first damn day.  In the raps, if I felt like relating, I simply held my hand up like I was in school.  I was world famous for having the girls side stand up and plead with me to get straight, and stop being so distruptive.  The guys did not know what to make of me, but some of them started taking after me and stopped jerking their arms around and simply held their hands up like I did.  We were even got stood up once and accused of clicking.  When confronted about it, one 4th phase guy named Mike Brunette told staff point blank that "motivating" was fucking stupid.  That goes down as one of my biggest victories.  For a while there, we just held up our hands calmly and waited WITH DIGNITY to be called on.  This lasted pretty much right up to the time of the big building change to Morgan Yacht, where it all digressed back to the same old shit.  Sort of like recurring diarrhea, but by then I was further along in the program.  One of my favorite tricks was to come in after school and sit behind the biggest kiss ass spazzoid relater I could find.  I would position my body behind theirs and just make faces like I was motivated, sometimes without even raising my damn hand, and I would get called on, because staff just 'assumed' I had my hand up.  Another favorite of mine with girl staffers was just to make goofy ass faces at them until they called on me.  It was pretty effective.

[ This Message was edited by: 85 Day Jerk on 2003-07-05 19:43 ]

[Anonymous]

You just reminded me how often I motivated just hard enough to not get called on. Here I am/ don't call on me/ but here I am/ but don't call on me.

[JDavid]

yeah "don't call on me" reminds me of times I would barely wave my wrists right by my ears

[Don Smith]

Yeah I remeber praying not to get called on too. (((LOL)))

I remember every once in a while a Staffer would come out, sit on rap stool and just sit there. After a while the group would start motivating.  (I was always confused as why we would start motivating, it's not like we were asked to, or told to talk about something, we just did it)  Any way after the group was motivating at full speed the Staffer would shake his head no and the motivating would stop!  Then after a few seconds a little slower this time, the motivating would start again.

I know I did that when I was a trainee.  Does anytone else remember this?

Don

[Anonymous]

Motivating was very controlling. Staff would always get a kick out of playing games with it. Walking around. I remember that this would have the effect of causing a "motivation wave". The closer the staff member, the more deliberate the motivation. It was a circus that they ran like a symphony where they were the conductors of highly trained motivating idiots.

Motivating was designed to degrade us to the uttermost. We had to motivate to talk about our shame! Stuff we never wanted to talk about in the first place! Oh pretty please may I tell you of all the messed up things I ever did? Me first! Mr. Kotta, ooh, ooh.

[Anonymous]

I remember motivating getting banned in Dallas a few times.  The rules changed a bit during my time.  A lot of people got tendinitus (spell check please) and people were hitting each other in the head a lot ::ftard::
At Dallas we were allowed to listen to Minor Threat, 7-seconds & any other straight edge band.  At one point we were allowed to listen to anything, but that didn't last long.

[Anonymous]

I have read all these posts and almost died of laughter...b/c in the Atlanta building the intake rooms were off the main "group" room.  So I spent the first 10 hours or so in the tiny 10x5 intake room listening to what sounded like gusts of wind rushing through the building.  The 2 old comers with me proceeded to explain motivating...after the visual dramatization I was sure I would never do such an idiotic thing...guess what, within a week, I am utterly humiliated to admit I was gyrating and flopping around like the rest of them.  I was surprised to hear that you all we able to rock out while motivating.  I was always to focused on what bs was I going to stand up and relate if called upon.  The only good news about that was I could always conjure up lots of tears.  Nevermind those tears were b/c I was in that place not b/c of the shame and guilt I felt.  This did end up backfiring some though b/c whenever staff was having a rap not go so well they could count on me to come up with the emotion and tears...lol

[Froderik]

Ah, HAHAHA! 7-Seconds. Mention the band name "Reptile House" to them and you'll see them cringe in disgust. Back in 1985 I had just gotten out and ended up back with my friends who were that band. I played guitar for 'em. We went on a US tour in a van. A low-budget, "sleep on your floor" tour. We stayed in Reno in a house where some of the guys from 7 seconds lived. We were kind of stranded there before we could move on to CA. Anyway, out of boredom we bought a case of beer and headed up to the surrounding hills. I drank 17 of those beers. We came back and I passed out on one of their girlfriends beds. Later on, she and her mom (lol) came in. She was showing her mom her new place. There I was naked and sweating my balls off. She said something to me, to which I replied, "Get the FUCK OUT & LEAVE ME ALONE!" or something like that. I only know this because I was told later. No, I wasn't in good shape. Fortunately, we ended up leaving the next day. Rock and Roll. :grin:

[ This Message was edited by: Froderik13 on 2003-09-15 10:55 ]

[Anonymous]

yea.......... that's rock & roll ::birthday::

[TinaMC]

Thats so funny, motivating always reminded me of Horshack too! I remember staff coming in and just sitting there and we all just wondering what was going on, so I guess it was some kind of ploy or rouse to get us all worked up about nothing. The first time I went to the Gasparella parade in Ybor city I remember telling my sister that I wasn't going to be jumping around like some idiot to get those beads they were throwing but after about 10 min. of not getting any b/c of all the hands/arms in the way I decided to go with the flow. By the end I had more than my sister and her friend combined, I think I had that extra added advatage of Straight motivating on my side. LOL
Tina

...it is worth discussing radical changes, not in the expectation that they will be adopted promptly but for two other reasons. One is to construct an ideal goal, so that incremental changes can be judged by whether they move the institutional structure toward or away from that ideal. The other reason is very different. It is so that if a crisis requiring or facilitating radical change does arise, alternatives will be available that have been carefully developed and fully explored."

http://laissezfairebooks.com/index.cfm?eid=103&aid=10247' target='_new'>Milton Friedman

[Therion]

Heh. That shit got cut out that same month that I left. I got pulled on 3rd phase.
 My parents got real active in Midland recruiting..and alot of the midland folks that went in after me were most likely there due in part to them
 But I think the more they got involved the more they started realizing something was very wrong.
 I remember it was like a major nono to tell any parents about the shit that was really going on.
 I remember that christmas ( I was on 3rd phase)
I said fuck it and took my chances and had a long talk with my parents...( keep in mind I volunteered myself into Straight.) Some lady came to my house after my mom caught me smoking some pot, and made this place seem like some badass place to go. Six Flags is there....she told me all kinds of shit. But anyway I knew when we got keyed in that night I was a free man In the morning. And sure enough I took my newcomers in and dropped them off in the little time out room, and made a beeline for the door..one of the staff members even tried to stop me to talk and I just kinda kept walking to the car...that was the end of that shit for me.

[ This Message was edited by: Therion on 2003-12-29 17:00 ]