barrytoastmenOG 2003

A kid who didn't even have his driver's license yet but still managed to clock 38.5 miles per hour on a mountain bike — and get pulled over for it by his own dad — Ben Butler arrived on eZabel in September 2003 with the energy of someone who never wanted to miss out on anything. His top interaction partner was rocksupastar, to whom he fired off a steady stream of messages trying to coordinate rides, LAN parties, and hangouts. The pattern was always the same: Ben had somewhere to be, he just needed someone with a car to get him there. He attended a staggering 26 events — manhunt games, go-carting, Warped Tour, snowboarding days, concerts ranging from MxPx to Saves the Day and Taking Back Sunday, and even organized the Mountain Creek Trip himself. For a guy without a license, he got around.

On the forums, Ben gravitated toward Macking more than anywhere else, and his romantic streak surfaced in unexpected places — like the journal entry where he wrote a little scene about two people sharing a passionate kiss in the dark, prompting yodasucka to declare she wasn't the only hopeless romantic around and tinser to quip "then she slapped him!" He had a philosophical side too, musing about how "building character" was really just parental code for "I don't feel like doing it, you do it," and reflecting on how imperfect human nature makes forgiveness genuinely hard. specialk ribbed him warmly through most of these threads. His crew — skaorsk8, hunkpapap, and the rest of the NJ scene — kept him in orbit, and thatdarngirl once helpfully identified him for a confused member as "the Ben who you met at The Hulk that time." He also popped up under the alt accounts clydehater02 and traios, though barrytoastmen was unmistakably his home base. His last comment, in June 2004, was a classic Ben Butler line — just four eager words on a news post: "i want to go to!!!"

eZabel Personality Type: ESFP — "The Shotgun Caller." Ben never drove the car, but he always decided where it was going. Enthusiastic, social, and perpetually trying to rally the crew for the next adventure, he packed more into his brief eZabel run than most members managed in years — showing up to everything, romantic-journaling between events, and never once letting the lack of a license slow him down.