Really Good Quotes

Archive for May, 2009

May 29, 2009

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Really Good Quotes "A mind, once expanded by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Dear Quotaholics,

Today’s issue will be a departure from our usual fare. Today is dedicated to our friend “Sied”.

On Wednesday I mentioned that Sied was going to be taking some time off. In fact he had notified me, just last week, that he had been ill and was no longer able to continue writing. He had been diagnosed with cancer but wanted to be able to write an occasional article when he was “up to it”.

I planned to take on another writer yet save Sied’s spot for his return. On Tuesday night the staff and I were informed that Sied had unexpectedly passed away.

As you can imagine I was stunned. I was still reeling from his diagnosis, but having spoken to him only a few weeks ago, I never expected this news.

It’s funny how the internet has changed our relationships. Even though we never met face to face I feel that Sied was not just an acquaintance, but a friend, a part of my extended RGQ family, a family that was there for me in my time of need. I hope that Sied realized that we were here for him. I hope there was comfort in that….

Being a Marine Sied had everything under control. He had written this weeks articles ahead of time. His last article appears in it’s regular spot today. He even thought of his fellow staffers in his final hours. We received the following note from his children;

For all the friends and family regarding our beloved Dad, MgySgt F.P. "Sied" Siedentopf has passed away on Memorial Day 05/25/2009 about 11:15 pm. He is loved by all and will be greatly missed. I know you’ll miss all of his emails that kept us busy trying to read all of them!!! His final request was for us to send his last email for him. He loved and enjoyed sharing all the jokes,etc with all of you.

For information on funeral arrangements please contact Anderson Funeral home 843-524-7144

With Kind Regards,
Cindy & Debra

I hope his family knows how important Sied was to all of us. His articles were only part of his contribution to RGQ. Many of the jokes I have used came from his joke newsletters. Almost daily I would receive links to funny videos, pictures, story ideas, etc..

I know that Memorial Day has been an extra special day for Bruce and I since we lost our father’s who were veterans. Now Memorial Day will be a day for me to also remember a special Marine. A Marine who’s face I had never seen before today.

Farewell Sied,

Cindy and Debra-

I was traveling in Denmark when this mail was sent. As a matter of fact, my birthday is May 25, and you can imagine that the news is shocking.

My name is Bruce Marshall, and I founded the e-zine Really Good Quotes for which he was writing. I saw his talent and asked if he would like to be a regular contributor, and that is how my relationship with him started.

I’m at a loss for words, but I imagine that you are as well. There simply are no words to express both the shock and great sense of loss that accompany his passing. For that reason, I will not attempt to try.

I will tell you that although I never met him, I had immense respect for him as a man, as a humorist, and as a writer. His witty, eclectic thoughts graced our pages and helped to make RGQ a far better publication. Speaking as a publisher, I know his loss will leave a great void in our little e-zine for both readers and staff.

Speaking as a friend, I can just tell you that I will miss him greatly. He was a unique character and just an all-around wonderful guy.

Rather than trying to focus on my own feelings of loss, I feel it far more appropriate to focus on yours. The emptiness and shock that we who knew him peripherally feel can only be infinitesimal compared to what you are going through.

I was very fortunate. My own father passed when he was 92, so I was able to have him far longer than most. At his age it was not unexpected to lose him, yet it was still extremely difficult. I still miss him and think of him daily.

I truly believe that missing someone is nothing more than a tribute to what they meant. It’s only those who had a true impact on our lives in one way or another that we remember, and Sied will be one of those who will be remembered by all who knew him.

I can only wish you peace in a difficult time. We all understand that death is a part of the cycle, yet that knowledge does not make it easier.

Good luck, and please accept my my most sincere good wishes for you and your family.

Bruce Marshall

P.S. In case you’ve never seen the writings he offered for our e-zine, you can go to the group homepage at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reallygoodquotes/ and scroll midway down the page to the search box and enter "The Bad Sied" within quotation marks. That was his signature line. If you just searched for Sied, you’d find comments and reactions to him as well as his writings, but the narrowed search will allow you to see just how much a part of the crazy internet community he really was.

We are family.

The RGQ community at large is one big extended family. To my mind, and surely in my heart, the writers here have become my brothers and sisters. There are even times when Tim is acting up, I want to scream out "I’m going to tell on you."

Sied recently told us he was ill. He first began feeling under the weather in April. He was going to take time off from writing. This must have been a monumental decision for him. Sied, Master Sergeant Siedentopf, did not give up his hard won perks. And writing here was a perk.

He also wrote for Milspeak and became an integral part of the organization. I first heard the news of his untimely passing from Sally Drumm, owner of the Milspeak domain.

Sied was family, there, too.

None of his families, not his flesh and blood family, nor his Milspeak family, nor us here at RGQ - no one was prepared for this sudden loss, the empty space, this rift in the time-space continuum.

Sied, a private man, a stoic man, a Marine was gravely ill, but only recently diagnosed. He was waiting for test results to come back on Tuesday. Monday evening, he felt poorly and went to the emergency room. He died at 11:15 PM.

Sally sent us some pictures, one is here in the Image ‘N That space.

I miss you already, dear sweet sied. I hope you are in some better place, a place earned during your time here with us. Until we meet again – Semper Fi.

Your little sister,

Frederick Paul Siedentopf, Jr. was born Feb. 5, 1942 in Queens, NY, to Frederick Paul and Madeline (Stoffel) Siedentopf, Sr. Fred passed away on Memorial Day, May 25, 2009. He was predeceased by his parents and survived by devoted wife Judy, whom he married Dec. 2, 1972; a sister, Patty Moakly of Phoenix, AZ; two daughters, Cindy K. (Michael S.) Gay of St. Helena and Debra D. (Robert “Andy” V.) Anderson of Augusta, GA; two grandchildren: Steven L. King, Jr. of Augusta and Ashley M. Boyles of Beaufort; and three great grandchildren.

Master Gunnery Sergeant F.P. Siedentopf retired from the United States Marine Corps after serving thirty-one years on active duty. Starting as a Reservist “grunt” in 1959, he integrated into the Regular Marine Corps upon graduation from recruit training and opted for training as an avionics technician. After training at NAS Memphis, TN and assignment to Sea Duty aboard the USS Boxer, LPH-4, Fred participated in Cuban Missile Crisis rescue operations. In 1968, after Sea Duty and various postings to aviation units in the states and abroad, he retrained as a technician on the Tactical Air Operations Center (TAOC), at the time the most sophisticated computer system for aircraft interception. Fred was a Cold War Veteran and Vietnam Veteran, who served with the first combat Marine Air Control Squadron in Vietnam. Until his retirement in 1990, he served in various technical billets and logistics billets as both a Supply Officer/Supply Chief and Logistics Officer/Logistics Chief. He developed the MIMMS system, still in use, to track resupply in the Corps. His personal decorations include the Good Conduct Medal, the Navy Achievement Medal (2 awards), the Navy Commendation Medal (2 awards), and the Meritorious Service Medal.

Fred’s service to his country continued after active duty, as public affairs officer of Marine Corps League YFD #1154, in service to Beaufort Military Affairs Committee, Beaufort Chamber of Commerce, and Beaufort Military Retiree Council. His passion, beyond love of family, Corps, and community, was writing. An avid Letter to the Editor writer, Fred was also a contributing writer to Bruce’s Really Good Quotes writing the column, “Imp-Revised News” as “The Bad Sied.” He was co-founder and co-editor of Milspeak Memo. “Sied” was a warrior, master leader, mentor, loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend with a wonderful sense of humor who will be genuinely missed by the many people whose lives he touched.

The family will receive friends Sunday, May 31, 4-6 pm, at Anderson Funeral Home. A memorial service will be held Monday, June 1, 1:30 pm, Anderson Chapel, followed by full military honors at the National Cemetery and a reception at the VFW Post, Castle Rock Road, Burton.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” - C.S. Lewis

“Friendship is Love, without his wings.” - Lord Byron

A Writer Dies
(Thanks Sied)

A writer died and was given the option of going to heaven or hell.

She decided to check out each place first. As the writer descended into the fiery pits, she saw row upon row of writers chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they were repeatedly whipped with thorny lashes.

"Oh my," said the writer. "Let me see heaven now."

A few moments later, as she ascended into heaven, she saw rows of writers, chained to their desks in a steaming sweatshop. As they worked, they, too, were whipped with thorny lashes.

"Wait a minute," said the writer. "This is just as bad as hell!"

"Oh no, it’s not," replied an unseen voice. "Here, your work gets published."

The Bad Sied

“Leading as a SNCO technician and as a SNCO Marine required different skills but the same determination.” - F.P. Siedentopf

“I’ve always found that the expression, ‘It’s a small world’ is more than applicable to the Marine Corps family. After a few years of service, it’s difficult to go anywhere and not find a friend or two.” - F.P. Siedentopf

“Faux News will be news, not earthshaking and maybe not very current. But it will be based on actual news, government reports, scientific findings, or celebrity interviews. The ‘Faux’ part comes in with a little embellishment on my part, taking it a step into the absurd, into the ridiculous, or maybe just the weird. Somewhere along the way, we may even discover that contortionist transgender mime.” – from November 2, 2005, the first article by The Bad Sied

The Bad Sied

I’ve written several pieces dealing with the development of “City Cars”, these are small, urban, transport, vehicles, which use little fuel and take up very little space. Whether these vehicles are designed as all electric, electric-fuel hybrids, or strictly fuel powered, they all share some common features.

They are diminutive in size to save on weight and to be more maneuverable in city environments. When you shrink a car that much, you either end up with something that looks like an egg on a roller skate or a box with casters. It’s hard to design in a sweeping hood with exhaust pipes like the great roadsters of the 1930’s. At least we aren’t assailed by the absurd wings of the 1960’s.

Designers need to ensure that there is adequate room for the driver and at least one passenger, some storage room for taking purchases home, and of course room for a spare tire and jack. It makes me think about “Clown Cars” in the circus…they were, or are, smaller and you’d have what seemed like a dozen clowns climb out when it stopped. I’ll bet that some production “City Cars” on the road will eventually be found hauling four or five people which certainly can’t be very safe.

Then along comes a nut. This Brit has created the world’s smallest roadworthy car. If I encountered it while driving, my first thought would be that it was a cardboard box blown onto the road and might just run over it. Dora in Denver likes the “Smiley Face” in the Peapod, and at least it’s big enough to advertise itself. This thing should be kept around and used on roads only as part of a parade.

The Bad Sied

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Friends

My best friend from childhood lived in the house behind mine, diagonally. A quick run through our back yards and we were together. My best friend from high school lived about two miles from my house, as driven in my car – okay, my mother’s car. Closer as the crow flies, but neither of us were crows, so we drove or had to be driven. My young adult friends were neighbors or coworkers. Close at one part of the day or another. In 1996, we got our second computer and it had a modem. I was not very computer savvy, but I did have AOL and could finally send and receive e-mail and met many nice people in chat rooms. My community of friends now spanned the globe.

This new phenomenon, friends you have never met, isn’t really entirely new. In ages past, there was something called “pen pals” and people who had never met would write long letters to each other with weeks or months or even years passing between correspondence. They knew they were separated by distances too great to travel, but they still wrote. Some were established in school days as a teacher’s project and kept going. Some were people interested in some topic and writing to others who were like minded, some famous and some not. Some of these pen pal letters blossomed into more. Elizabeth Barrett met Robert Browning this way.

Beginning in 1996, my insular world became global. I could instantaneously communicate with people on every continent. It was amazing. You can’t imagine the speed of a 2400 baud modem as compared to the Pony Express.

With this new method of communication came a new set of problems. For me, a word person, one of them was what in the hell do I call these people? They aren’t acquaintances since I’ve never met them. In fact, one could have walked past me at any time and I wouldn’t have known. They weren’t friends for I hardly knew them. I mean, how much of what we say online is the honest, to goodness, all out truth. I never told about the stupid things I did. I never confessed to being less than the picture I wanted to paint. This realm was a world where I could remake myself in my own image. I wouldn’t be petty or mean spirited. I wouldn’t be a klutz or graceless. I would deliver the perfect bon mot or riposte in each verbal dual. Who would know any different? And how many other people were going to reveal their flaws and so why should I? So, how well did any of know each other. That’s not real and it’s not friends. That’s what I told myself. But I’ve been online for over a decade now. I’m a little more comfortable calling my long standing … I still don’t know what to call them, really. We write back and forth. We celebrate and commiserate. We share successes and console over failures.

And now, I not only have e-mail, I’m involved in forums where people are dear to me. I know so much about so many of my friends, but not how they look. They could still walk right past me and I wouldn’t know them. But when something happens, it is real. Cyber is the way we converse, but cyber isn’t where my heart lies.

I still care about people and there are real people on the other end of the electron stream. Many of them I have come to know. I’m still talking to people I first met in an AOL chat room over a decade ago. I’m closer to my online friends than I am with old neighbors from places where I used to live. I still e-mail with them, but not as frequently. Unless I have no e-mail address, then it’s once a year Christmas letters.

But I still feel funny. Some of my best friends, some of the people I run toward to share my happy moments, reach toward for consolation in sad times, and offer a virtual shoulder to when times are tough for them … these people are “virtual” in the world of electronics. But they are real in my heart.

What happens in Vegas may stay in Vegas. What happens online remains with me, cherished and tended. My friends. Yes, they are my friends.

Sied, I’ve know your first name for a long time, but you are sied to me and always will be. Dear friend, I miss you already. Though we never met, we talked on the phone a couple times and we were … what? Internet Idiots? Cyber Sidekicks? Network Ninnies? Friends. Coworkers. Supporters. Cheerleaders. Always just a click away.

Sleep well. Your friends are still rooting for you.

Patti

M.I.A.

I have had the priviledge, no, honor, to get to know a fine human being. Fred P. Siedentopf passed away from cancer. We here at RGQ knew him as "The Bad Sied" (pronounced "The Bad Seed"). Others knew him online as "Bat Rastard".

Sied, as I knew him, had been a contributor here for a good long time, and his articles often made me spend way more time surfing the Net than I had planned. Our commonness wasn’t in writing, because, gawd knows, I ain’t no writer, but it was the geekiness of interest in gadgets, technology, and inventions that bonded us.

Sied was a U.S. Marine, and that was itself a defining attribute. I never had the pleasure to meet him in person, and I bet I wouldn’t have known him if I bumped into him on the street. However, if I had heard him describe something he read about or saw, I’d have known him in an instant, even if he were mixed in with 20 other Marine geeks.

Sied had a pleasant, jovial, poke you in the ribs kind of way about him. He wasn’t shy about picking on people that he respected. It was his way to let you know you were accepted. His intelligence showed through everything he said and wrote. And, he’d use that to find the "tender spot" so he knew the best poking place.

Sied was a terrific fellow. I liked him. I respected him. I felt a special closeness to him as we had a lot in common. We found a common arena to enjoy our creative side (RGQ). We were both veterans in a time when being one wasn’t all that popular. We saw the good and the bad humanity had to offer. We both were technonerds in so much as we liked gadgetry and innovation.

It was utter shock that engulfed me when I learned of his passing. He had only recently told the RGQ staff he was ill. He said he would write as he felt up to it as a guest contributor. I still have one of his articles that will be published in this very same issue. His last. He sent me articles in advance, and, as the Marine he was, he annotated them with the date to be published and the topic it contained. If that article is not included, it is because someone else, out of respect for Sied and his family, decided to exclude it. For myself, I submitted it to be included for the very same reasons.

I write this with tears streaming down my cheeks. A man I never met, yet I respected dearly, is gone from us. To say he will be missed is one of the biggest understatements ever. The world has lost a terrific person. Yes, he was American, but he was more closely described as worldly. Yes he was a guy, but he was one helluva guy. Yes, he was a Marine, but he was that probably even before he enlisted. All I know is, he was a friend. He was a real friend. And he is missed.

Semper Fi!

Here’s your quiz:
How long did you know Sied?

M.I.A. - Marine In ‘Aven

Cliff (the High-Tech Redneck who doesn’t rate a fancy ’signature pic’)

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Email Kirsten

“Your prayers sustain me and your friendship uplifts me; which is a fine foundation to beat the devil.”
~ Sied ~

Usually when I write my articles, I spend some time thinking about what the opening sentence will be, how I will structure it, what links I will include, and what message I want to leave my audience with. Even if the article is written at the very last second - as it too frequently is - I cannot just sit down and start typing. A bit of mental energy needs to be expended first.

Today, however, is a big exception. Today I just have to sit down and spill out what’s in my heart. Hearing about the death of a friend is not easy for anybody. There is no “right way” to act, think or speak. At a time like this, we have to simply say what is in our hearts. And what is in my heart right now is this: The world has lost a remarkable man.

For me, and for all of the other writers here, Sied was a friend and a colleague. His mind went to some weird and wonderful places, and we saw the results of that here in his writings in RGQ. Through his contributions, I learned about some things that I would otherwise never have found out about in a million years. I think I told him only a handful of times how much I enjoyed and appreciated his writing. Now, I wish I had told him more.

On a personal level, Sied was an unexpected source of strength for me on a number of occasions. When my son was diagnosed with autism two years ago, it took Sied all of seven hours to send me an email jam-packed with links to research, tools, educational games, and articles. Many of those links found a good home in my folder of bookmarks, and now I wonder how long it took him to assemble all of that information. It was an incredibly kind gesture that I probably didn’t appreciate enough at the time. In the time since then, I received the odd email from him saying things like, “Your writing wasn’t quite you today. Are you OK?” He could be tough and ascerbic at times, for sure, and we had our little cyber-scraps. At the end of the day, though, he was a tough guy with a soft heart.

I am having a very hard time imagining RGQ without “Imp-Revised News”. I am having an equally hard time imagining my email inbox without all the weird and wonderful (and occasionally gross) stuff that Sied used to send to us.

In closing, I want to say this: Sied, I will miss you, my friend. I hope you are at peace and free of pain, wherever you are. I choose to believe that you are hovering around somewhere near all of us. Still, I am taking this moment to shamelessly shed a tear for you. Goodbye. But only for now.

Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten

Comment On This Article

Faithy is still having computer issues and was unable to contribute directly. She did ask that we pass along her condolences at the sudden loss of a great friend and co-conspirator. Circumstance sometimes puts at a distance, physically, or electronically, as in this case, to be able to share directly. She just wants everyone to know she is feeling the loss as deeply as we all are and shares the sense of loss.

the Freeloader
With a heavy heart

Last Thursday night, Mike forwarded an e-mail to us that Sied had sent him. Sied was sick, and the medications made it hard for him to write. He would no longer be able to write for RGQ regularly, but he hoped to be able to be a guest writer occasionally and return to his column when he was better. He sounded confident, as was his nature. Sied was a Marine. He was going to fight.

That battle was far too short. I learned that Master Sergeant Sied had retired from service on Memorial Day, 2009. He always did have pretty good timing, but he missed that day’s parade. Instead, his memory is now a part of it. When I remember the people that gave their life to keep us free, my friend is going to have a very special place in it.

He could have been a fisherman. A Master baiter. Or a mafia archaeologist, Masta Don. But no matter what he was, he was a friend. I am proud to have exchanged some ideas with him, and also to have been subject to his barbs. As he states in the last e-mail I got from him: “I have had a lot of fun writing with all of you and bantering about on serious matters, as well as the extremely trivial…mostly about Tim”

Retired Master Sergeant Sied, I am going to miss you, my friend.

Marine Corps Hymn

Tim (Buffalo, NY)

Don’t Hesitate

If you have the opportunity to sieze the moment, don’t be afraid. Don’t lose the chance to meet someone you have come to know and respect just because they are "Internet Folks". If you trust them and respect them, don’t let the moment pass.

Next opening line…
There was an old Sergeant named Sied…

Hints: Here’s a great new rhyming/composition tool. http://www.writerhymes.com/
There’s also a great rhyming dictionary at http://www.rhymezone.com/
Limerick rules. http://freespace.virgin.net/merrick.sheldon/limerickrules.htm

Submit Opening Line
Submit Limerick

Final Memoir

I just wrote a memoir Titled “Characters” which was posted to Milspeak. In it I wrote about several characters that I’d met during my years in the Marine Corps and why I’d always remember them. I wanted to write about the types of Marines we all meet and remember, not the Chesty Pullers or the Dan Dailys.

Over the years I’d met Legends, and had time to have conversations on a personal level with a few. I’d met MGySgt “Dude” Gilbert, and Aviation Marine who had 36 years on active duty at the time, and was trying to stay on active duty for 40 years. He went thorough a hell of a time trying for a waiver to beat out that “Out by 30″ HQMC mind set. When it came down to passing the PFT, he made it. When it came down to passing the physical it didn’t.

I spent a few pleasant hours with LtCol Wesely Fox, Medal of Honor winner, at a Mess Night in Quantico during a Sergeant Major/Master Gunnery Sergeant Staff Academy. He was relaxed, spoke with the troops easily, not as a swelled head or as a superior…rather more as an equal.

I had conversations with General Robert H. Barrow early in our careers. I also spent an hour or so with him at MCLB Albany in 1984 after his retirement as Commandant. He was traveling to Parris Island for his son’s wedding, and MagGen Schaefer, MCLB CG, asked me to see him in quarters to set up the best route for him.

Not writing about legends seemed best because most of us know more “regular” characters in our lives and the reader would relate to mine more than to a Legend.

I’ve recently been diagnosed with Lung Cancer that has spread to the Liver. In my “Characters Memoir”, I wrote, “I’ve often thought about faking my own death in order to find out what people would be saying about me after I’m gone.” I’m sure most of us would like to know how we’ve been perceived by friends and family over our lives. Whether we were successful as friends, as parents and siblings, or as an attribute to our communities is important to an individual…a life not wasted.

I’ll never know, but I do have an idea. I’ve only told a few friends and relatives how serious my medical condition is. The rest will be told once a course of treatment has been established and is underway. The word still spreads and I’ve been astonished. Almost everyone knows I have back and leg pain, it’s hard to get up and down and walk, and that I have stomach pain from fighting off Pleurisy and hacking up that phlegm.

I can’t believe the number of people who called me to offer assistance to get shopping chores done, make doctor’s appointments, help with household chores,l or merely to wish me well. Even my barber tracked me down and offered assistance as a chauffeur should I need it.

I am humbled. I am blessed. I am deeply grateful. I feel fulfilled.

F. P. Siedentopf

The full text of "Characters" can be found on sied’s page on the RGQ website.

Disclaimer- All quotes printed in this publication are believed to be accurately attributed, but no guarantees are made that some incorrectly attributed, or even outright false quotes won’t get in here from time to time. I assure readers that I will do my best to weed out incorrect quotes, and will print a retraction as soon as I become aware of any errors.

Click here to see the archives of past issues, or go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/reallygoodquotes/messages. If you run across something really outstanding when perusing the archives, I’d appreciate it if you’d mail me at TheBestOfRGQ@yahoo.com and point it out to me. I’m in the process of compiling an e-book called, not surprisingly, The Best of RGQ, and I’d like to hear from you which pieces impacted you the most.

Questions? Comments? Want to contribute a joke or a quote or an image? Feel free to e-mail at reallygoodquotes@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you! We’ll even publish your comments, if they make any sense!

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