I'd hate to be the bearer of bad news

...for anyone who has been away from BOL for a long while.

Straight to the point: BOL is on the very edge of shutting down, going offline, and ceasing to exist. No one can seem to foot the $300 monthly server bill, so by 30 April, if things continue on the way they were, BOL will be no more.

:(

I for one have not lost complete hope, but it is indeed dwindling. There is an understanding side and a hopeful side of me which says, respectively, "If it is BOL's time, so be it," or "BOL won't shut down; we'll gather enough funds for it to stay alive."

BOL has been the most homiest place besides, well, home. Being a military "brat," one cannot cease to express the hardships of moving often and not being able to be grounded someplace, just to enjoy a sense of community, friendship, and basically, belonging. Even though I've moved twice, I always had BOL to go to. Some would say I absolutely had no life, and by george, perhaps I didn't, but what I gained mentally and spiritually from BOL cannot be dismissed. I've actually made better friends on there than I have in person, and the discussion held there have indeed helped me develop myself as a Catholic and a person. The being able to relate to other homeschoolers, Setoners, people around my age, sharing my Faith and who were like-minded was a relief from the years of being a "loner." My confidence in myself has heightened a bit, and an improvement as compared to previous years of being insecure and doubtful of my intelligence and opinions. I attribute most of these self-improvments to having discovered BOL on the Seton Message Board and having interesting and thoughtful discussions on various aspects of life, living life as honest Catholic, striving to do God's will.

Most of my good friends are from BOL, and I hope to retain their friendships in the years to come. It sounds silly to say that I've never had truer friends who were concerned for you enough to pray for you and listen to your woes, not to mention be honest enough to give you the truth as you needed it always. It really isn't silly though. I'm very much grateful to have met their acquaintance and I hope they know that and take my word for it.

I must also mention the administrators of BOL, and the founding members of this awesome, Catholic board. Joe Sparks and Tony Marzi. I didn't have the honour to be made a mod under the headship of Mr. Sparks (and hopefully, Fr. Joe in some years), but from his posts and from other's accounts, he was a great guy. A true leader which people could look up to, and ever rarely doubt what he had to say. As one friend said, "He'd make a great priest." I hope you do, Joe. After Joe and Rob left to tend to other things in their lives, Tony Marzi footed the financial concerns of BOL. Unfortunately, being the busy college student-now-intern that he is, he could no longer manage to provide funds. However, many of us are quite grateful for him to have even done so.

As I said earlier, I'm still hopeful. Several members have been discussing ways to continue BOL. Contributions are still being urged, and I for one could indeed contribute if I had access to my savings. :/

The Cantina HTML has been saved, thank goodness. A piece of BOL history: my only thread that lasted 42, darn-good pages. But it's not all mine. Thanks to Theophilus (Adam), Ilia22 (Julie), Princess Tenel Ka (Hannah), and a relatively newer member, Inene, the thread has grown much, not with incessant spam, but with lengthy, colourful, and delightful posts of inside jokes, literary genius (:P), and a seemingly never-ending story. So, the Cantina wouldn't be the Cantina without this charming group whom I've lovingly christened the "hodgepodge gang of heroes."

Ah, I'm rambling again. I should head off.

Pax.