HG's Internet, A History

or How I came to Be or Not to Be Standing On Bodies

(Best Viewed on Netscape Navigator vs. 2.1)

In the late 1980s my Junior High School received computers for students to use. We played Odell Lake and tried not get eaten by other fish. We played Oregon Trail and hoped that when we decided to ford the family wagon rather than caulk it or take a ferry (for $5.00) we hadn't made a catastrophic mistake. The geeky kids typed a few lines of code on the computers, typed "run" and phrases such as "School Sucks!" rolled down the screen endlessly. I watched, feeling something flutter in my chest - impressed yet trying desperately not to be one of the loser computer kids.

In 1991, I was in High School. I was forced to take a typing class using pretty computers. There were a few students who tapped away at their keyboards so fast it was amazing the keyboards didn't start to smoke. Me, well, by the end of the class I was quite proud of myself. I could type the super zippy speed of 16 wpm without even looking at my fingers. And with no errors. Obviously, I was totally made of win.

In 1994, or there about, my uncle visited with a laptop! It was running a test copy of Windows 95, complete with error messages written in Spanish! Plugging into our phone line, my uncle let me browse the net, such as it was. I found Star Trek: The Next Generation episode guides and bulletin boards on Earth2, Seaquest and pretty much all of my secret geeky-love shows. I typed a question on the BBS about Earth 2, and was so excited when someone actually answered me - within 24 hours no less!

1996 brought me a computer of my very own. She was a pretty LC 475 Mac. Sweet little pancake hard drive, external CD-Rom drive, fat 15 inch monitor and something like 8 KB RAM. (We later expanded the RAM to 16 KB!!!) I used her to write stories, play games, and, the amazing closet Star Trek fan I was, fall in love with rec.arts.startrek. Sometime around that time (maybe 1997), my mother bought me the new 28.8bps modem. I was FLYING online. Zipping past everyone still using 14.4. HAH!

I became a regular at WBS (Web Broadcasting System/World Broadcasting System/We Be Shit), the Star Trek chat room called, by us, The Nexus. It was shiny and I made friends there - some of whom I'm still close to today. Nexusians for life, they're a big family of people and like a family, there are loads of conflicts to keep anyone content. But then, back then at the WBS I was part of the Night Shift. I was online every night seven days a week for 6+ hours. Pretty sure that during this time most of my real life friends though I was dead. In late 1997 or maybe early 1998, I bought a PC. I still have this computer...

1997, my boyfriend and I broke up. We both role-played at WBS (I was into Trek, he was into Star Wars). One thing led to another and I killed off my main role-play character Barin T'rel (she was married to his character in the game) In the Star Wars room. By paying a bounty hunter with her wedding ring. My friends in the Trek room were aghast... and threw a spontaneous memorial service for her. They made me laugh, they made me cry. And I was 100,000% hooked on the Internet.

Over my tenure at WBS, I proudly started the Lesbian trend. Okay, so I misbehaved a bit... and my bi-sexual Vampire got it on frequently with her girlfriend much to the delight of our audience. Yes, yes, I was such an attention whore. Please note my use of the word "was." Thank you, sis.

Excite (a snazzy defunct web browser) bought WBS and allowed all users space for a FREE WEBSITE! This was almost as cool as Geocities, where we got to pick our "house" and have a cool address like... http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4515/ . GO Network, lovingly referred to as Go To Hell Network, then bought Excite. And KILLED the WBS. Those rat bastards. They changed the html chat rooms to Java. JAVA! Like anyone would ever use that! Within a year, GO Network died a bloody, unmourned death itself.

At this time the Net was still new, and shiny. It still had that new-car smell. HTML websites were popping up everywhere. Words blinked and the Goth Goose was everyone's hero. Goth Goose was mean, picked on silly "goth" wannabes and generally amused everyone. The Spark was the coolest website ever created. Christian ran The Spark, and I loved him. I still love him. I would have kissed the ground he walked on, been his little slave girl, or maybe even sacrificed a half dozen people to his altar. He was that cool! ICQ was becoming popular among the cool kids. Celebrities were promoting AOL as the "In" online service.

The Nexusians moved from chat site to chat site, many times paying out of pocket so that their friends had a place to call home on the web. I followed along, still loving the Internet, still hopelessly devoted. I role-played instead of slept. I joined the White Wolf website so that I could play darker vampiric characters on the side. I changed my handle from Barin to HG after deciding, one night, that Hackers needed groupies. I wrote fan fiction and original fiction and received emails from scary men who asked me if my stories were based on reality because it was "really hot" to have sex on a gravestone. My Net Life was more full and rich than my real life. And I have no idea how I managed to do musical theatre, work 40 hours a week, attend community college and devote so much time to the net. I must have been manic.

One day, Pookabean (aka amanda_finch, whom I'd met at White Wolf) told me about this cool service called LIVEJOURNAL and asked me to join. She'd give me an invitation code for it and everything! The second time she offered, I took the invite code... And my world was changed.

So here I am (except when I'm not here), living the LJ Loca, and loving nearly every minute of it. Every minute, that is, except for the drama bits. Because drama sucks, unless you're in high school and it's a class. Instead of being immersed in the world of Star Trek with a bunch of wacky loons, I'm swimming through a dense lake of Harry Potter and Buffy fans who tend to amuse me far for then anyone else in the netverse. Also, the folk at Livejournal are better at giving bribes. Which makes LJer's superior.

To: Gilora, Merlock: Gold Dragon, Don MII, xLore, Digital Wizard, Rachel's Hamster, nicolethecheerful, JanewayUSA, theweave, deannachocolate, Treaghon, and all the other fallen players...

I'm still standing... after 10 years... of living online...

And yes, papa_zito, the Net is still a shiny place.


This has been a History of HG's Internet. Yes, I own the Net.

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Slytherin means never having to say you're sorry

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=+Accurate Harry Potter Housing Quiz+= (pictures!) by: Evey
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You're a Slytherpuff!: This is a rare combination
but those that are true Slytherpuffs are not
people you want to make your enemy. You take
loyalty very seriously and if someone gives you
their word you expect them to keep it. You
either project a cold exterior and have a heart
of gold inside or you seem all cuddly and nice
on the outside and you are ruthless on the
inside. People frequently underestimate you but
this usually suits your purpose. Whoever has
your loyalty is a very lucky person because you
will fight tooth and nail to protect them. You
have a protective streak and you like to
champion the underdog. In life, experience has
taught you that it's better not to be too
idealistic or expect to much of other people.
Still, deep inside you, you still have hope
that everything will always turn out for the
best. Your weakness is that sometimes you trust
blindly, follow without question and this can
lead you into trouble. With the loyalty of a
Hufflepuff and the ruthlessness of a Slytherin
you are a formidable person!


Which Mix of the Hogwarts Houses are You?
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Lucius Malfoy


Who is your ideal Harry Potter man?
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The above is what I got before I tweaked my answers to get:


Severus Snape


Who is your ideal Harry Potter man?
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"I can't believe Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was ugly!" "His name was 'Wolfgang' - I've never seen a cute Wolfgang!" "But he was so talented, he should have been cute! But no, he's ugly" "He's long dead - it's not like you could sleep with him anyway." "Still!" (HG and AJ in a very involved dialogue.)....................................... oh yes, and Slytherins Rule!