competetion within the brotherhood.

Sitting here listening to the 80s Alternative Station on Yahoo Radio and is it ever rollin.

I remember Scott and I held the upper ranks when it came to dating and girls during the high times of the Offmen years. Hell, Ill even step up and say him and I competed for top notch. As a whole, I think Scott and I managed to date every single girl that hung around the crew. We were that damn good.

Were we actually that hot or was it something else? Scott, chime in here, help me out.

OK, sure, we were boyish cute at the time and we had charm, but why were him and I always competing? I can remember we went back and forth with a certain girl named D many, many times and I can remember me losing out to Scott over her on a few occasions.

Ah, to be that age again...women droolin' everywhere we went.

On my end, I can say I dont know what happened, but that ended quite some time ago.

Oh well.......

The Man In Black

Johnny Cash Fucking Rules.

Thats all I can say right now because thats all that is worth saying.

Chaos and Disorder

Chaos and Disorder.

The Offmen were rooted in punk rock because we were all punks ourselves. This is where Scott hopefully chimes in and adds a picture or two of some of us. WE all didn’t look the punk imagine but we were punks. Our outlook was punk, our political principles were punk: we were punks. Our music was punk. Okay, maybe not pure punk, but it has its roots in the movement. We were industrial music lovers, hardcore lovers and punk lovers too.

I think though, more than anything, we were ingrained in punk rock because we were punks at heart. Even though we had a reach for the sky outlook on most things, at the same time, our attitude was shitty and very downtrodden. We were hard workers, maybe not all of us in the sense where we all held jobs, but we were hard workers at being what we were. We were hard workers in the purest sense. We just would not give in or sell ourselves short and that made us punk rock the most.

Hell, I will step out on a ledge here and say we are still all old school punk rockers. You wanna know why? Because in this day and age, being rebellious and being a punk rocker is holding down a 40 plus hour work week, being parents and being responsible.

That is punk fucking rock today. So yeah, piss off, we are punk rock.

Filthy mouths, good intentions, and OFFMEN slang

To say that at the time we were a group of vulgar and profane young punks might be an understatement. See bellow a list of slang common to OFFMEN culture. I find irony in my years that even though we meant to express something so specific in our words, many around us must have really thought we were quite the opposite of what we intended to portray our selves as being. I can’t speak for all of the OFFMEN but it is my opinion that most of us believed ourselves to be a part of a very noble cause…. But again you could never tell by our language.

And Twice on Sundays (Yes, I can whip you with one hand tied behind my back you punk)

Blow it out your ass (your being ridiculous, often asked to be repeated by Frank, because he really did perform this slang to perfection).

Chucky Chicken (this little phrase usually preformed as a drunken sailor would, slurring and staggering included, was actually a reference to the darker side of humanity and was often applied in parody towards some one or something we felt had crossed over to the dark side. Chuckey’s character, a clown loving pedophile who lived in children’s closets…quite simply a very sick character.)

Mongo like you (a reference to Frank’s hazing, or Wow your actually quite intelligent and now I feel rather stupid)

Purdy little faggots (Ironically used to describe homophobic jock types who occasionally harassed us. The OFFMEN as a group were very much against any thing that was tainted by ones fear of homosexuals)

Piss Off (our nerdy way of saying fuck you)

Rice Man (Any one suspected of stalking our club, also a reference to an unknown individual who compromised our campsite…and was almost shot!)

The OFFMEN Informer (A one time news publication that will keep most of us from ever considering life in the public spotlight.)

The OMIDD (Official club rules)

Urination Proclamation (Official OFFMEN document signed in 1990 having to do with not peeing on one another)

Wha Wha Wha my pussy hurts (Please stop crying over spilled milk, when the going gets tough the tough get going)

Your what hurts (I did not hear you, or I find what you are saying to be absurd)?

Do I think of you?

 Do I think of you? I only think of you In the silence between each heartbeat In that moment of stillness before I draw my next breath In that split second of darkness as I blink an eye And during the eternal space of time between dreaming and waking That's when I think of you...

You know who you are and this is for you.

my creation, well, partly.

Anyways, back to real life free of aliens and Offmen Strippers. This is my partial creation, my perfection, my muse and my life: Ava Sophia, my baby girl. Enjoy!

Ground Control to Major Tom a.k.a. Im flippin ass here!!!

Scott will relate to this and hopefully get freaked out at the idea of too.

One Word: COMMUNION!

Remember that damn scene where the Gray sticks his head out from around the dresser? GOOD GOD, just thinking about that still freaks me out!

I am reading a book by Strieber called Conformation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us. Its kinda freaking me out a little bit. I just got the book today from the library and I am already half way through, I cant put it down. Maybe its them that is compelling me to read it at such a fast pace? MWUHAHAHAAHAHA!!!!!

But really, this book is from 1997 and it still reads like it was just written a couple of days ago. Its freaking me out. Scott, if you can, check it out, it will freak you out too!

E.

OFFMEN Rick where are you (first of many where are you posts)

OFFMEN Rick where are you? Your days as a young stripper and OFFMEN are seen here immortalized on a page stolen from a phone book at Dennys. I don’t have to tell any of you which one he is… if your in the know than you know, just in case Rick wants to run for political office.I’ll never forget the time the two of us drove down to the city to see a Die Warzau concert at Medusas. We had with us a large thermos jug filled with Vodka and lemonade… You drove your moms burgundy Oldsmobile 88, and I drank more than my portion of the thermos. You objected to my behavior and demanded that I save some for you when we got down town. I personally just thought it was great fun to get drunk while riding down the Kennedy all the while pissing you off by drinking more than my share. I guess I felt confident with our friendship to pull those sort of shenanigans.

Medusas

Medusas.

I remember we used to go there just about every Saturday night for a while where we would dance the night away, or at least try to. I remember we never really fit in with the regular crowd there, but we made out pretty well. I remember Rick R. almost getting in a couple fights there and I can remember Scott, John and Mike going into the HUGE pit down on the main floor during songs like “I will Refuse” and “Stigmata”.

I always liked the 2nd floor better: the video room was a lot more fun and a lot more to our liking anyways.

Got any memories of Medusas Scott?

E.

sick days....

Being sick as an adult is no fun! You remember when you were little and you got sick  how someone would try and baby you  back to health: wait on you hand and foot, cook for you, get you things to drink when you wanted it and you were allowed to lay in bed all day. Granted, I have been pretty damn sick, but now with this cold Ive gotten, its just no fun. No one will baby me.

My Saturday Night.

This was how I spent my Sat. night, getting stickered up and made over by my beautiful daughter. I would not have spent it any other way!!! =)

Wha-Hoo!

January 21 and it finally snowed! Our area received over 10 inches. We Went for a walk by the river and enjoyed every bit of this glorious white stuff!

white stuff and another Offmen memory...

Written By Eric
So just yesterday I was commenting on how we havent seen snow here in quite some time, well, yesterday evevning we got about 2 inches of the white stuff. Kinda ironic. The weekend is here and I find myself with not too much to do besides spend time with the kid which is always nice. Shes getting so damn big.

Anyways, here is another Offmen memory that just came back to me:

The rice man. First let me explain his name. We aptly named him “Rice Man” because when he walked through the woods, he made a snap, crackle and pop noise through the brush and for some reason, Rice Crispies Cereal came to our minds. With that said, lemme tell ya about The Rice Man. It all started the 1st night we were there at the campsite. It had rained terribly when we arrived so the first night we decided to turn in early and regroup for the following day of chaos. We were all in our tents and cars for that matter…it had gotten late and some of us were playing cards inside our tents: that I do remember. It was myself, Mikey S., Joey S. and a couple others…maybe even Scott. Then we heard the first noise.

It happened right outside my tent and at first we thought it was one of the other guys playing around. I remember someone from our tent yelling at the others to stop messing around and the guys from the others tents quickly said they weren’t playing around and for us to shut up. It was then that we realized that someone, not one of us mind you, was in our campsite. Needless to say, we were all set on edge by this incident.

From there on out, night one was pretty sleepless for most of us. We went into the woods in groups of two and three guys looking for this mysterious invader. I remember the 2nd night we even offered him a bottle of vodka to come out and introduce himself. He didn’t go for it. We built traps, climbed up trees in wait but yet we never were able to discover whom this mysterious, yet noisy woods person was. Whoever it was had guts: they would get within five or ten feet of us before darting off. We also knew that they or he knew the woods in the area really damn well.

To make a long adventure short, we never did find out who it was, well, not then at least. If I remember right, The Miller boys went back up to the campsite some time later to meet a young man who had admitted to coming across some campers near his land and he was worried about them coming across his large crop of grass that he had growing near to us. We never found any weed, at least I don’t think.
The Rice Man was a young kid, protecting his crop! Regardless who he was, he had us pretty fired up for a few nights during that camping trip. I wonder if he still remembers us today like I do him.

OFFMEN dance party, remembered

The OFFMEN Dance Party, yeah I remember a few details. Like the 55 gallons of popcorn we made, and that lousy complex manager stealing our $200 dollars by accusing us of scratching a folding table. Yes it was a learning experience that I carry with me to this day!!! Before I begin any project I.E. trade show or other similar type event I photo graph the property before moving any of my equipment in period! I do not intend on getting burned twice by assholes like that again! I was very embarrassed for our organization with that incident because we had been taken advantage of our own naiveté. Anyhow there really is only one other detail that stands out in my mind from that evening, and that was a situation that occurred with my then girlfriend D. In the weeks before this OFFMEN event D and I had decided that we should be dating and so we made it so. If I remember correctly we agreed on this relation ship while parked in front of Eric’s house ironically. Well some time during the dance Ion went and played “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell, and I found my self-having a very sexy dance with an old girl friend J. Long story short D was very angry at my behavior and let me know every detail of her anger in the men’s bathroom. It was the end of D and I, kind of a bummer because I really did like her and did not participate in the dance with J to hurt her. Fortunately we still lived in the same social circle and managed to remain friends…I wish D well to this day she is a very good person who I have a lot of respect for.

Scott

Offmen Dance Party, Invite?

Not so sure there are any photo's from this event, however I can see that by observing our musical taste Frank indeed was around... maybe before the "Mongo Hazing" he recieved?

Scott

Offmen Dance Party

My memory of the Offmen dance party is kind of fuzzy at times at best. Maybe Scott can help me out here and add his own 2 cents to the mix and maybe if we are all really lucky, he will have a picture or 2 from that night. I remember we held it at the clubhouse by my old Townhome in Wheeling. I also remember the cops came at one point because the music was too loud. Ian was our DJ that night and my mom and step dad were there because an adult had to be present...that was how young we ALL were when it took place! I think this took place even before Frank was inducted as an Offmen. Im talking winter 1990 at best. Jesus Almighty....16 years ago...WOW!!!!!

I think we had a decent turn out that night: maybe 20 or 30 people. I remember it was winter and there was snow on the ground- if my memory serves me right I think we held it in February because it was right around Valentine's Day I think. I remember one of the girls, Jen B. slipping and falling on some ice outside and busting her knee wide open. She spent the night at my house in the basement that night =)

I remember dancing to the likes of Front 242, Ministry, Janes Addiction, Pailhead (God do I miss that CD) and many others. I also remember Scott and I putting our "fins" up in the bathroom at my Townhome. Haha.....the fins. Damn, we were pretty damn hot with those fins.

Lastly, I remember we had the party to raise money for something or another and we ended up losing our shirts in the deal because we left the place filthy and someone carved up one of the tables there. Bad, bad kids..

Yep, The Offmen Dance Party.

Eric.

is it getting hot in here, or is it just us?

Written By Eric
Ok, so here I am, almost dead center in the Midwest and it is late January and we have yet to see any real snowfall. Now, let me make my stance right now: as I have become older Ive realized Im not a huge fan of snow anymore, but still, that isnt my point. Im just curious to know where it all went. I mean, just last weekend, it was 58 degrees here.

Anyways, I ramble a lot.

I hope you like the picture...tis me, this past Christmas.

Morning run!

I went for a morning run today and found that is was still very dark. Actually a lamp may have been helpful I really did not expect the degree of darkness on the Bike Path. It has been several months since Monty and I have had the chance to run before work. Lately I have had the morning shift with C seen as I find that caring for him in the morning more agreeable than my wife does. So lately instead of a morning run I have been running on my lunch hour. Running at noon is fine, however I have had it stuck in my head that I would rather go and visit C at his daycare during that time. Subsequently I have been wining about my altered running schedule to my wife for months, but what I discovered this morning was that even though I will get to see C at lunch today, I missed more time with him this morning than I will gain at noon. I think I will gripe no more about not having a morning run, and enjoy my new perspective I see now how good our normal schedule is.

Scott

Frank, found when Googled!

If you squnit you can see Frank working behind the controls of the crane that is lifting the train.

Middle age

I still don’t think of my self as being an adult, or even as a father. I still think of my self as an eighteen year old OFFMEN, and yet here I am with my boy. I'm married I live in the suburbs, and work for a gigantic corporate conglomerate. You would think that having to shave every day would change my perspective.

Sincerely,
Scott

One Step Back, Offmen Camping...Long Ago

With out going into details, let me suggest that I had a little to much to drink that day. On the Left.

empty room for Eric

Written By Eric
Ok, it feels like Im speaking to an empty room. It is lonely here. If I could have one wish it would be to have some of the old gang find this site and reply. I miss them; if youre reading this and youre an Offmen; I miss you!

Ive been working on my latest creation over the past few days. A radio controlled monster truck called the Blackfoot Xtreme made by the company Tamiya. Maybe you had a Tamiya RC car when you were a kid. Well, I needed to feel like a kid again, so there!

As an Offmen I think we never reached our potential. Sometimes, I sit and think about that and it can be upsetting. I think we slacked off towards the end of the journey. Sure, sure, we all grew older and apart, but there was a time when we were tighter than tight and I just feel that we fell short.

Granted though, I always felt a sense of strong brotherly love and friendship; that never fell short.

Eric.....

Finding Time to write, Scott

Monday, I actually have three blogs going at once these days, although two of them are of on old-fashioned media (pen and paper). The first one is a small blank book given to my wife P for Christmas. She thought it would be fun to do a daily journal specifically for our Son C just letting him know what his life was like on the day to day during those early years of his life. The other is a personal rant I have kept going since around 1992 or so and that’s the one that will keep me out of any political office for the remainder of my life. And so that’s the skinny on bloging for me.

Oh No! What are we doing? Scott's First Post

What a guilty pleasure this is for me! I have far to much on my to-do list to be sitting here writing about my daily life, however I am thrilled to be doing this as part of what could be a noble cause. Well maybe noble on the lowest order, but noble for my brothers I believe yes!

One: I have managed to lose touch with most of my brothers… Yes it’s my fault, and I find it to be a most serious of regrets, because the OFFMEN are a great bunch of guys.

Two: It bothers me to no end that when you Google OFFMEN International… well nothing that is NOTHING happens no OMI no dirty laundry no record of that which once was. This is to me small relief and a big bummer both at the same time.

Three: I had been toying with the idea of doing a blog for some time now but the thought of doing it anonymously is no so good for me. But may be bearing my soul to my brothers, and the rest of the world as an OFFMEN, is even more perverse.

Four: One step forward One step back, ever since reading the diaries of Samuel Peeps, I have been in love with the idea of creating a historical diary, not just the day to day stuff, but also the stuff that we keep in our memories.

I am not out to step on any ones toes with this blog, you see aside from Eric, I didn’t ask any of you if using the name of our club is appropriate as a blog. And I really hope you do like it. I hope that some how in some way it brings a little joy and hope to your lives. Maybe you don’t know this but the years we spent together were some of the best years I had ever known, and they continue to shape my person even today.

01-03-06,

Scott Cain

NOTICE:
If you are an OFFMEN then you are allowed to post here. IF not then you are only allowed to comment on postings. CHEERS!

Offmen Eric speeks! First Entry

Written By Eric

1^st blog entry….

Tippy here….mood---excited and tired as hell.

Today was a boring day like most. I’m living in the lovely corn filled State of Iowa nowadays, specifically Des Moines. The closest thing I can compare it to is a bustling pseudo suburb. I moved here from Springfield Illinois about 4 years ago now and I have grown to like it. My kid lives her and so does her mommy. We just get along well and having a child does truly change everything in your life from sleep to sex to foods to everything else in between and its pretty awesome. My little girl blows my mind she is so intelligent. Her name you ask? Ava Sophia. She will be 3 on Jan. 7^th.

I am not working right now and I am going through the process of getting Fed. Disability for a whole battery of physical and mental problems, most of which I really don’t wanna get into on here. To depressing and kinda even boring. Im 32 now and loaded with tattoos but no piercings; the idea of looking like you just tripped and fell into a tackle box just doesn’t do it for me. I have once again became fixated with my writings and I am in the process of getting some work published online.

For those of you that remember them or care for that matter, my Mom and Step Dad are doing so-so. They are inundated with some nasty health problems also, but they are still ticking. Also for those of you that met or remember him, my Grandfather (the man I used to call my Pa) died a year ago September to cancer. It rocked my world and really shook me up. I think of him everyday of my life now.

I don’t have a lot of fun. I collect a lot of music, stolen from the internet like a good American. I have no women in my life and I made the huge mistake of falling in love with a married woman on top of that. My advice, if you get that chance, RUN LIKE HELL! Bad pains and not worth it in the end.

Over the past years, I dabbled with a lot of things I was curious about, but never should have crossed over into. I think there is a few people here, once they read this, will get what Im saying.

Thast me in a nutshell right now.

A few other things I wanted to add on my behalf and Scott’s; This blog site was created for you guys in hopes of sparking some kind of Offmen fire in side you once again. We do havea a few simple requests though.

We ask that you please NOT link to other web pages you find interesting. We just don’t want this blog to turn into a site where all we do is link to things we find online.

We ask that you keep it porn free. We may have family looking at this sometime and keeping the XXX stuff off of here just seems right. We are not trying to censor you we just would like this it remain clean, ok?

We ask that if you want to leave an email address for other to contact you that’s fine, but we prefer it be a Gmail account so your Offmen reposnses will be separate and easier to maintain over your regular daily emails and such. You can get a Gmail account through www.google.com It is free and takes a mere 5 mins. To set up. The other nice benefit of this is so we can get our names into the google database as Offmen incase anyone wants to try to find us that way.

OK, your turn…….

Tippy.

Basic Concept Outline

offmeninternational.com

Objectives, Goals

Web blog for OFFMEN

An On-line, documented history of the OFFMEN.

To Google “OFFMEN” and get us!

Theme, OFFMEN International; one step forward one step back

Blog format, daily entries to be acompanyied by entries from the past; stories, photos, or other artifacts. Here is how it works, one of us writes an entry about their daily life then, they add an entry about the past may be its just an old photo or it could be a whole tale of OFFMEN lore. The concept is for every new blog submitted you add to the documentation of OFFMEN history (lore).

Example blog entry:

12/22/2005, It just did not make sense to me to write a blog so entirely anonymously, sure I tried one… I think I made just two entries. The thought of having a blog that not only was a journal but one that I was sharing with my brothers really appeals to me. And besides I have always been a bit disappointed that nothing appears when you Google OFFMEN.

Historical Document (scanned image) Urination Proclamation!

Signed,

Scott C

Blog Rules:

Any and all OFFMEN are allowed to post! All non-members are only allowed to comment!

No recruiting

Keep it simple

No links (may be a sub heading for website’s specifically made or owned by Offmen?)

Syntax Rules:

“OFFMEN” is one word, and should be typed as such in any posting.

Sub Headings:

MIA: a list of missing OF, just a list and nothing more. As we are found the list is updated.

Recent Entries

Archives

Contact us: Email account specifically for this blog site; may be (omi@gmail.com) accessible by any of the blog site stewards (as of today that would be you and me)

Marketing:

All blog business done through “g-mail” account

Get mentioned on friends blog sites