I first heard about this crazy internet thing in High School. (1993ish?) And I did everything in my power to try to reach it. Mostly, I just found dial-up bulletin boards. They were usually full of dorky guys talking about things which did not interest me one iota. Occasionally, I'd dial into a board with several modem lines and get to chat with one or two other people.

But, I really started using the internet in 1994, when I went to college. My wonderful friend Oscar taught me how to use IRC. And I met so many of my now-current friends during that time period! Efnet was a crazy-space back then, with scrolling-scrolling-scrolling text you could barely read. I was hooked on the ability to speak to 50 people at one time! The exchange of ideas! T he crazy op/ban wars! THE DRAMA OF LEMURS.

I recall using email shortly after that, but I never really got INTO email until I joined the SubG Lyst in 1995. Even wackier people! Even stranger concepts! Plus, they didn't mind my poems about cancer and clowns. I have been on and off the SubG Lyst since then, with current status being ON.

Usenet was also cool. I dabbled a bit in it using the rn/trn clients. At first, I trolled a lot of random groups. But, then I mostly read alt.religion.kibology and alt.discordia. I didn't always know what the hell these people were talking about, but I found the conversations fascinating.

Before HTML we used Gopher, which I guess nobody uses anymore. If I am remembering correctly, it was sort of like a cross between HTML and ftp? Anyway, the first picture I ever downloaded was a live (every 15 minutes) picture of Bonfire. It took almost those whole 15 minutes to download it.

The first time I downloaded Mosaic Netscape, in 1994, it took four hours to complete the (4mb?) 8mb download. (And that was lightning fast, because I downloaded it from the lab, rather than at home.) I learned HTML 1.0 in one evening and created a truly horrible linear webpage for myself. I remember surfing through pretty much every link in Yahoo! during one of its first months.

I also learned how to MUD, which (for those who do not know?) is a multi-user-dungeon. Like online D&D with other people, except it was text based instead of graphics. I played on a game called MeatMUD, where I spent countless hours leveling my Warrior in Elemental Canyon. Around 1995/96 I switched to Bad Trip (which may have been called something else at the time, I don't remember). Eventually, a set of us got irritated with the God there and left. Temporal Rifts was formed, and that MUD is still around today. I visit on occasion to say hi, and have a perma-immortal status as my character "Wintermute".

(I also played a MUD with DragnLady for a while in New Orleans. Final Realms. I was a wiz/immort type. But, I totally lost my mind and flipped out and they banned me. For good reason, really. *chuckle*)

Ah, the simple days. I miss them, I miss them. My first modem was a 2400 baud modem, and I used Kermit. Lightning fast, motherfucker. Lightning fast. I was living in the FUTURE.