Spork
August 9th, 2004, 11:55 AM
The only thing that makes this worse is the fact that he lives in my home state. /shutters
http://www.twincities.com/images/twincities/twincities/9355/87521300220.jpg
Bloomington: Jay Maynard, 44 of Fairmont, is dressed as a character inspired by the movie "Tron." He was waiting backstage during a costume contest at Convergence-Con, an annual science-fiction and fantasy convention held at the Sheraton Hotel South. "I'm wearing 10 double AA's and a 9-volt," said Maynard, who made his costume from spandex and electro-luminous wires.
"I've had about 15 radio interviews, three or four magazine stories, I have been on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' four times now and there is at least one more segment in the can ready to run. I certainly didn't set out to do all that, but I thought, 'I'm on the tiger. I might as well grab his ears and enjoy the ride.'
"Not all of the attention has been flattering. A couple online stories have drawn about 1,000 comments and only about 30 of them have been positive. Most of the rest were along the lines of: 'Fat guys in spandex don't look good' and 'My eyes will never be the same, where's the bleach?' That really got to me. I was in Detroit after one story hit the Web and had to drive 12 hours alone with all those comments ringing in my head. It was like the eighth-grade class bullying the unpopular geek all over again.
"In high school, I tried to do whatever it took to make that stop. I wanted to be one of the 'in crowd,' but I couldn't think of anything that I could do to change the fact that I wasn't. I've worked through all that now. I learned that if I don't accept myself, nobody will. But that doesn't mean it didn't still hurt. It hurt quite a lot. I wouldn't recommend anybody to spend hours on Interstate 80 after that kind of treatment."
http://www.twincities.com/images/twincities/twincities/9355/87521300220.jpg
Bloomington: Jay Maynard, 44 of Fairmont, is dressed as a character inspired by the movie "Tron." He was waiting backstage during a costume contest at Convergence-Con, an annual science-fiction and fantasy convention held at the Sheraton Hotel South. "I'm wearing 10 double AA's and a 9-volt," said Maynard, who made his costume from spandex and electro-luminous wires.
"I've had about 15 radio interviews, three or four magazine stories, I have been on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' four times now and there is at least one more segment in the can ready to run. I certainly didn't set out to do all that, but I thought, 'I'm on the tiger. I might as well grab his ears and enjoy the ride.'
"Not all of the attention has been flattering. A couple online stories have drawn about 1,000 comments and only about 30 of them have been positive. Most of the rest were along the lines of: 'Fat guys in spandex don't look good' and 'My eyes will never be the same, where's the bleach?' That really got to me. I was in Detroit after one story hit the Web and had to drive 12 hours alone with all those comments ringing in my head. It was like the eighth-grade class bullying the unpopular geek all over again.
"In high school, I tried to do whatever it took to make that stop. I wanted to be one of the 'in crowd,' but I couldn't think of anything that I could do to change the fact that I wasn't. I've worked through all that now. I learned that if I don't accept myself, nobody will. But that doesn't mean it didn't still hurt. It hurt quite a lot. I wouldn't recommend anybody to spend hours on Interstate 80 after that kind of treatment."