Well, I guess some things are still around . . .
I had a thought today. It was relatively painful in more ways than one, and I know a few of you may have something to add to the subject, or perhaps it would behoove you to reflect.
I was talking on MSN to a friend of mine in the anime world, and we ended up on the topic of messageboards. She mentioned not being active on messageboards since sophomore year in college. It occurred to me that I too had not been active on messageboards in some time, since maybe my sophomore or junior year of undergrad. That made me think, huh, I wonder if the Duke-Out Festival board or the Scratching Post are still around.
So I went and looked. I found this. http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/2008/11/06/hometown-has-been-shutdown
Someone on that board suggested using the Way Back Machine, here: http://www.archive.org/index.php
So I did. And I found this: http://web.archive.org/web/19990428152107/www.subreality.com/cfan.htm
Stop and look at that last link for a few seconds. Really.
My first thought was, someday this archive will be gone, and everything Kielle worked on online really will vanish. Currently I am involved in a project that will start making all state records digital, and have been directly involved for many years in the transition from a paper to paperless workplace and society. My friend SF pointed out that even as we push for everything to become digital, there's another push to make it solidly tangible as a way to make it last longer.
My immediate reaction to that was no, I don't think CFAN should last forever, it's a waste of cyberspace because it will never be updated again. But what is this feeling, then? Is it that I am lazy and will regret the loss of triggers that remind me of times past associated with CFAN, and the boards, and the late night conversations and O SO SRS fights? Do I think my memories of the way I was, who I was back then, will fade as well?
What if everything Kielle had done, or Alicia McKenzie and Poilass and Red Monster and Kaylee had done with websites, had been on paper? Languishing in a library somewhere? It would eventually disappear too.
Which of course led me to another thought.
Damn, we do everything in a hurry these days, don't we.
Not the first time I've had that thought, but I'd never applied it to this before. We do see absorb study complete dream more as a society than we ever have before. And all that doing seeing absorbing studying completing dreaming is more fleeting as a result.
I wonder how much faster we can get, and who the hell is driving this bus. Whether my career is enabling or propelling. And whether I care.
And then Finny crawled into my sweatershirt hoodie with me, and my foot was getting numb from sitting on it, and I went back to the list of things I need to make sure I get done tomorrow.
I was talking on MSN to a friend of mine in the anime world, and we ended up on the topic of messageboards. She mentioned not being active on messageboards since sophomore year in college. It occurred to me that I too had not been active on messageboards in some time, since maybe my sophomore or junior year of undergrad. That made me think, huh, I wonder if the Duke-Out Festival board or the Scratching Post are still around.
So I went and looked. I found this. http://www.peopleconnectionblog.com/2008/11/06/hometown-has-been-shutdown
Someone on that board suggested using the Way Back Machine, here: http://www.archive.org/index.php
So I did. And I found this: http://web.archive.org/web/19990428152107/www.subreality.com/cfan.htm
Stop and look at that last link for a few seconds. Really.
My first thought was, someday this archive will be gone, and everything Kielle worked on online really will vanish. Currently I am involved in a project that will start making all state records digital, and have been directly involved for many years in the transition from a paper to paperless workplace and society. My friend SF pointed out that even as we push for everything to become digital, there's another push to make it solidly tangible as a way to make it last longer.
My immediate reaction to that was no, I don't think CFAN should last forever, it's a waste of cyberspace because it will never be updated again. But what is this feeling, then? Is it that I am lazy and will regret the loss of triggers that remind me of times past associated with CFAN, and the boards, and the late night conversations and O SO SRS fights? Do I think my memories of the way I was, who I was back then, will fade as well?
What if everything Kielle had done, or Alicia McKenzie and Poilass and Red Monster and Kaylee had done with websites, had been on paper? Languishing in a library somewhere? It would eventually disappear too.
Which of course led me to another thought.
Damn, we do everything in a hurry these days, don't we.
Not the first time I've had that thought, but I'd never applied it to this before. We do see absorb study complete dream more as a society than we ever have before. And all that doing seeing absorbing studying completing dreaming is more fleeting as a result.
I wonder how much faster we can get, and who the hell is driving this bus. Whether my career is enabling or propelling. And whether I care.
And then Finny crawled into my sweatershirt hoodie with me, and my foot was getting numb from sitting on it, and I went back to the list of things I need to make sure I get done tomorrow.