Let's Get Silly

I read some things today, exciting things, tiresome things, and it occurred to me that I am a big fan of the internet. Man, when I was starting out I remember the internet being a local network for my town's university and if you wanted to chat with someone you "fingered" them. I've forgotten how I used to learn new things before the internet. Oh! Right. Talking to my peers. Or asking an adult. Well! That's me now, suckers! That's me!

Before the internet was graphical (I know!), before you could just pop onto the computer for a nice little email check, there were things called MUDs. You created a character and you operated this character in a geek-made world of hours and hours and hours of reading text. Now, I was probably (definitely) too young for these shenanigans and it probably (definitely) was the seed that sprouted my anti-social tendencies (oh, you didn't realize? You thought maybe I just didn't like you? No, I like you VERY much) today but who cares? What good comes of successfully sustained social interaction? Money? Fame? Yes. And everyone knows money and fame corrupt your soul and make you ugly on the inside.

I am also a big fan of books. My parents are very literary. Both advanced readers and writers and respected by all. There was really no way I would have turned out to be anything else besides this. There was only one answer to "Mom, I'm bored" and that was "read a book." My grandmother (Nana, to you) had one of those big sets of green encyclopedias that smelled of ink in her living room. During the two years my mom, sisters, and I lived with her when I was a kid, I sat for long periods of time when no one was home turning each page of a volume, one by one, skimming every useful bit I could find. Rocking horses, sea cucumbers, snowflakes.

I still do like reading books but the frequency of doing so really dropped off when that scratchy modem-connecting sound started giving me a thrill.

Man, I still love that sound. Reeeeeeee-oooooooo-chhhhhhhhhhh! To me, it said, "your friends are waiting and they are not worried at all about how cool you are. Only that you spend a lot of time reading the same things they have been reading."

Gosh. Sigh.