Re: Re: bbsing   
     By: Nancy Backus to Damon A. Getsman on Tue Apr 21 2015 20:40:32   
      
    NB> I suspect we'll never know... ;)  I THINK, though, that we are back on   
    NB> track now, both of us...  A few days before I left on my trip, the bbs I   
    NB> send DADS and ASIAN_LINK messages from went down inexplicably, and   
    NB> wasn't back up until I got back from my trip.  I sent the reply packet   
    NB> I'd prepared over the few days before leaving finally AFTER I got   
    NB> back... ;)  Turned out he'd had a massive crash... thankfully he's back   
    NB> up and running well again.  :)   
      
     Heh.  Yeah, seems like it.  ;)  I don't know what might've happened, dun bun   
   can't be undone. ;)   
      
    NB> We come to the hobby from different places...  :)  I came for genealogy,   
    NB> where real names are the lifeblood of the area... :)  Games (mostly word   
    NB> types or trivia) were an addition... as was getting somewhat involved in   
    NB> messaging in the local areas, getting to know the other users and the   
    NB> sysop better.  It helped that the sysop of that early board was a   
    NB> friendly sort, and encouraged good interaction.  :)   
      
     Yeah I was definitely a naive kid who'd gotten into coding beforehand and had   
   really romanticised dreams from reading the book 'Hackers' by Steven Levy and   
   wanted to change the world through freedom of information and coding.  The   
   persona was the really interesting aspect to it.  Struggling to have a life   
   with more meaning in a pre-portioned society, I guess, at least that's what it   
   felt like at the time.  'Course I spent plenty of time with the online gaming,   
   as I got telecommunications ability and I found that now I had software for the   
   computer that I'd salvaged and no longer had to write my own.  It's kind of a   
   shame, really.  I would've come a lot farther with my programming and sysadmin   
   skills probably if I would've kept that hobby going as strong through my teens   
   as it first started in my pre-teens.  I didn't really resume it in force until   
   almost my mid-twenties, and even then it was only my minor, while my major was   
   in partying.   
     The first couple of boards that I was on, as far as local dialups, didn't   
   really have that sense of community so much.  I guess they were really   
   indicative of the culture in North Dakota, now that I reflect on it a little   
   bit.  It was when I first got some cracked accounts to access major online   
   BBSes (ie ISCA BBS) that I first started to feel a real sense of community.    
   There weren't any people in my community who responded very well to my sense of   
   repression fighting for outlet...  Going against those grains instead of just   
   taking what was handed to you in play was kind of frowned against.  Nobody   
   could understand that a kid with problems might be a product of parents with   
   problems...  I don't know, I could write a million page essay on all of that   
   crap, but it's really neither here no there anymore.  It taught me to be a   
   better father, that's all that should really matter at this point.  Well that   
   and to fight to find things that can help me to keep those haunting nightly   
   revisitation hours under control where the demons of the past try to pour back   
   out at me.  ;)   
      
    NB> There was some of that here, too.  And for some, I'm sure it was a   
    NB> similar lifesaver as for you.  :)  I remember one teen boy I spent some   
    NB> intensive time in chat on one bbs (he'd started by trying to "hit" on   
    NB> me, until I told him I had a son already out of college, at which point   
    NB> he responded by asking for advice on how to deal with his parents)...   
      
     Heh.  I think I've probably made that mistake a few times myself.  I think   
   that the whole atmosphere of online interaction can be really great for kids in   
   that situation, where they're repressed and kept from normal socialization by   
   parents or whatever cause.  Unfortunately I've seen the opposite, too.  It   
   doesn't help much that the internet has been so popularized at this point that   
   it doesn't really require a sense of community in the discussion boards or   
   anything of the sort.  I don't think quite as many people experience the   
   original senses of community that were so helpful to people in my position when   
   they were younger, now-a-days.  Though no doubt the reblogging and soul   
   dumpings on facebook, diaspora, tumblr, and [maybe even] twitter spurts still   
   serve the same purpose.  It's just so much more likely to get lost in the   
   flood.  Plus the newer media makes it a lot easier for people to just spend   
   their time reblogging and 'liking' the different content that other people put   
   up, instead of spending time in really meaningful interactions.  Kind of   
   reminds me of people sewing band patches and other people's quotes onto their   
   clothing so that they can be an 'individual'.  *looks guiltily at bathrobe   
   emblazoned with many band patches and other designs*   
      
    DAG>> I hope that I can roll out this shell that I'm working on to them   
    DAG>> soon here so that I can give back a little bit to the community   
    DAG>> that gave me so much.    
    NB> A nice repayment..  :)   
      
     I'm just sad it's taking so much longer than I thought it would.  Such is the   
   curve for projects of this size though, I guess.  Well, that, and I'm hampered   
   a bit because of the fact that I've never coded with frameworks, never coded   
   with testing, never learned any decent software engineering techniques.  I've   
   only worked on my own code, and that's bitten me in the bum a bit.  Especially   
   since I've had somebody else contribute good portions of work to this project,   
   now, and I'm having trouble getting up to speed on the flow of their code in   
   order to fix it where it's broken with recent additions.  Regardless, I hope   
   some of them appreciate it once I iron out these last 3 bugs that are keeping   
   me from putting it up public.   
      
    NB> We get that, too... nothing but rain in the forecast, but look out the   
    NB> window and there's sun and maybe some clouds...  ;)   
      
     Heh.  It's been a lot nicer around here lately.  Got a nice trip to the river   
   beach planned here for this weekend, if all works out.  I want my son and I to   
   be outside for awhile, but nothing quite so stressful as this last campout.    
   More of just a day to be a beach bum, maybe cook some hotfrogs, throw some   
   recreational spheres around, all of that jazz.  ;)   
      
    NB> Sounds perfect.  :)  Most of our large parks are outside the city limits,   
    NB> but it's not that large a city anyway... and there's lots of woodland   
    NB> and green space around... :)   
      
     I definitely miss a less urban setting right now.  Hopefully this contract   
   work helps me fill the coffers soon enough here that I can save my kittie's   
   life and then get ready to relocate to an area where he'll have more kids   
   around, more space to play, and not quite so many yuppies packed in like   
   sardines.  :)  Not that I mind them in the slightest, hell I aspire to be one,   
   though the 'y' part might not apply to me any more.  The lack of kids, though,   
   and the fact that kids wandering to the park alone in this area are subject to   
   sheltered dipshits calling them in to the cops, leaves quite a bit to be   
   desired.  Didn't really forsee that in the cards when I moved here.   
      
    NB> So, did you do your camping trip, yet...?   I sure hear you on the cabin   
    NB> fever part, certainly is the season when it really is time to get back   
    NB> out and doing again...  :)   
      
     Sure did.  It was a lot more stressful than it could've been, due to some   
   issues with other people's children on the way, but all in all it was a good   
   experience, and I'd still call it a net positive.  I need to get some of the   
   pictures off of my phone and up onto a site somewhere where I can share them,   
   no doubt.  It was absolutely beautiful setting, although I'll admit I was   
   haunted that night trying to sleep due to proximity to Mt. St. Helens and the   
   subsurface geology of the area.  ;)   
      
    NB> As far as I could tell, this was the first reply to this... ;)  I did go   
    NB> back and check my saved messages, to be sure... and to make sure that I   
    NB> hadn't answered it back already...  ;)  I think part of it is that we   
    NB> are having similar threads in three different echoes at the moment.. ;)   
      
     It's nice to have an archivist in the threads.  ;)  That's on my list of   
   things to do, also...  Time is such a horribly limiting quantity, though.  I   
   suspect that you are very much right in the bit about the similar threads.    
   Perhaps at some point I'll go through and consolidate here.  That may well fall   
   back onto the 'load-shedding pile', as my roommate so aptly puts it, though.    
   )   
      
     -D/K   
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