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by RabidWolf In the Beginning...
I originally started using a BBS (Bulletin Board System) and off-line email
readers back in 1985 -1986. There were a lot of funny threads and I met some interesting folks. I also learned a TON just reading the more technical stuff (and they were all more technically oriented then and a lot less
cluttered than newsgroups) on Dos, Windows (2.x, 3.x) and the modems we were using (1200 & 2400, then 9600!), and how to tweak them. And there was the great shift to PKZip over the old ARC format for file
compression… anyway…Towards the end of my BBS days, I got involved with the Papyrus IndyCar and then Nascar racing sims, and joined the leagues they had. I was horrible and was running on my once state of the art
386/20. But the BBS emails after a 'race weekend' were hilarious. League members sent their 'results' and saved replay clips via email to one or two persons who scored the players. (I did this as an alternate once or
twice.) But then everyone would describe his or her race in another email. Some very funny stuff! Since I was never in the running, I decided I was just the owner, and 'Crash' was my driver. Crash tended to be unruly
and have some exotic excuses for his poor performance. This, I think, was my first 'virtual self'. Vague Bits (Can you
hide yer own Easter eggs?)
I am really unsure of some of the timing of a lot of this, but bear with it.
At this time (1994) I also picked up another 'high end' PC. A P90! Even had 16MB of RAM! (Go ahead, laugh.) One day I read something
in an article in one of the PC magazines I get about some 3D software thing. I've always been a sucker for a new download, so I tried it. It turned out to be ActiveWorlds. (I think it was all called AlphaWorlds then,
but I'm not sure, and it was from Worlds Inc, who now has something else. Wish I could remember which magazine it was, too.) Some kind person and I now forget her nickname, tried to drag me to a party in a castle
somewhere. I don't remember if I made it or not. It was a long slow crawl, though! (But later, when they started to charge the $20, I remember her being with the "NEVER" crowd. Yes, I 'immigrated' before the
$20 fee was started. Fee started in October of 1997. I think.) At some point a friend donated a 28.8 modem, and I may have tried AW again. (Told ya this was vague!) This seemed much better, so I wandered around for a
while at what is GZ, which was not really crowded at the time. There was a hilly area with some pictures of people just outside GZ, which I then thought of as 'downtown', hehe. The picture of the little girl with the
monkeys was there, by the way. At this point I was too busy to use the software again, and the modem was annoying, but I never removed the software. My boss had started calling me Wolf, and then Wolfie, on a good
day, in early 1996, for a rather convoluted reason. That's how the Nickname started: 'Wolf' was taken, so I tried something a little more unusual. Now I'm stuck with it! In 1996, with finally what looked like a job
that wouldn't go belly-up within months, I bought a condo and moved. And just as I was shopping for another ISP, lo and behold, they were offering cable-modem service in my town! Kewl, I thought. Dropped the second
phone line and the old ISP like they were red-hot, and was the 6th
person in town with some real bandwidth. I added a bigger hard drive somewhere in here, maybe that's when I noticed the software and tried it again. Then I spotted that old AW program, so I fired it up again. Much
better, even though I was still on the old P90. Now I started doing some serious wandering around, lurking and checking things out in general. A very nice and patient person named 2ndChildhood (you may know her) then
got me started building. It was all over but the screaming. Many a night would fly by as I tried to get things to line up and learn to count, and eventually I got the hang of it. Since I had never used a chat
program, I was mostly into the building. I even tried a pyramid. I won't make that mistake again! I was never at GZ much. I ended up with the original huge place in AW, where there were never any neighbors to talk to,
and where I spent a lotta time right-clicking things. Then I made the Pile 'O Rocks campground in Yellowstone, and then my favorite, my Mansion in America, and the park across the street. I spent a lot of time wandering
around building yards as I discovered them, too, and noticing all the neat tricks folks were using to create what they wanted. Around this time I got hoodwinked into stopping at a world named Imagica. I don't even
know who got me to visit it. Might have been 2ndChildhood, or Govoni, or Merlin the Wise, or… There was
a clever 'TikiBar' thing, and anyhow, they seemed like a fun bunch, once I lurked around for a bit. Then I figured what the heck. Toss in an off the wall comment. Duck. Amazingly, I was not booted, nor branded a vile outcast. Again, all over but the screaming... Uhoh!
The Things We Do
I
still didn't know who was who, or what they were talking about half the time. (I still don't.) But once, the 'floor' in Imagica disappeared from the bar, and we were all underwater. That has to be my one of my favorite
memories of the Tiki! I would spend time talking with folks like Govoni and Merlin the Wise; or building things like the Rabid Industries place in Marcellus' AW community; or talking to WingsOnite and making what became
the Nova Conference Center in Nova, or the little Irish Gallery in AW; or adding the Quickee Mart to my stuff in AW. And the Mars Bar (now linked by tram to the NoTel Motel!) And making signs with CorelDraw for things
like the Quickee Mart. Then I would stop in the Tiki for a few beers and a lot of laughs. Gradually I became kind of a regular, which always seems to happen when you're not paying attention.
Then, out of the blue, Likeness, the
Imagica Tiki Omnipresent Person, asks me if I can build, and would I like to make something in Imagica! "Well, heck yes!" I replied. I was running out of ideas for the regular worlds, anyway, and the possibilities of new objects had me drooling. So I made a little beach house place, another one of my favorites. (At only a couple of hours a night these things take weeks, of course.) And RocketChild opened Starz and I got to make yet
another one of my favorites, and use some more really good new objects. In May or June of '98, Likeness and I even talked over one of those old analog devices they call a telephone! Always amazing
to actually hear the voice behind the words you see on the screen. Gives those words a new perspective. You can hear them as well as read them. Then one day I got wind of something called OuterWorlds. I think it was Likeness that told me first.
I said sign me up! (since the AW Tiki was pretty quiet for my time zone, anyway) I now realize where everyone was, of course! Live and In Person
Out of the blue, Likeness informs me that she and retsmah are going to be in
Massachusetts and could we get together for dinner or something. This was around Sept 1998. I must admit that up to this point I had never even considered the possibility that I would ever actually meet anyone from AW
or OW in person. Just didn't seem like something that would happen, what with everyone so geographically scattered, for the most part. Certainly not accidentally! Those things never happen, at least not to me. So, I
said sure, expecting it would probably not really happen, or they'd be on the other side of the state or something. But then I got a call wondering where to stay, and where they should go in the next day or so!
Eventually I met Likeness and retsmah in Braintree, MA! We had a lot of laughs, and I even made it to work in the morning. That is when it really sinks in that there are real people behind the avatars and
emoticons. If you ever get the chance to meet someone you chat with in person, do it! Apparently, I passed the audition, because shortly thereafter I was then invited to a mini-reunion in San Antonio! At this point I
thought, "Airline tickets to San Antonio and back, cab fare, Hotel, meals, drinks, more drinks. For roughly what, 1 full day, and a night. Hmmm. Oh, what the hell!" Am I glad I did! I may have seen a bit more
of San Antonio than was planned for the afternoon I arrived, but the hotel was good and the company Great! In addition to Likeness and retsmah, I met the famous TEXAbeth, GentlemanJ and his lovely wife Summerlove, Hex,
lost1 and Danaidae, fishface, and probably a few others. Did the Alamo. Had a blast! Also, before the San Antonio Trip I got a call from Massal, wondering if I could pick her up in Providence if she needed me
too. I said sure, and it turned out I needed to, so Massal and I spent some time together, visiting a small portion of Boston's attractions. Now there is a rumor some OW folks may get together in St. Pete’s Beach, Florida. That should be
a hoot! And they’re talking Seattle in 2000? Yikes! Web Pages as a Substitute for the Building Trades
I don't know WHEN the brain cells that would have prevented me from trying to make web sites died. So I
started. First with notepad, MSIE and a 12-pack. Later I tried FrontPage. I should have known better. Now I use NetObjects Fusion. There's a few things that may be of interest on my web site: www.rabidwolf.com. I'll be updating that now that I
have a new web host and my own dotcom. For a truly boring site with just a few links, try
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/martell, the place I get for having this cable modem.
OK. You've had yer fun. Move along. There are people behind you…. RabidWolf (A.k.a. RabidDuck, VillageIdiot, CtrlAltDel, etc…) |
