A Journal of Sorts

10 February 1999

Tobias, my husband

I ran across a piece by a person named Alethea Cheng. ". . . being online is like having procrastination fed to you intravenously . . ." Her website is called Too Many Words. I had to laugh at the truth in THAT phrase. I first discovered computers nearly 20 years ago and have been through several phases of living in front of my monitor.

First it was a computer game that kept me from my life, a game called Silent Service that ran on a Commodore 64. Every day when I came home from work and ALL day on weekends, I was diving around in my submarine looking for enemy fleets. Although the tankers were easy prey having no defenses, I got the highest point count from the destroyers. I had a technique to torpedo them and make a fast, quick dive under them before they could shoot back. Shane, my step son, and I had a competition. He would play every day when he got home from school and in the wee hours of the night after I went to bed trying to beat my high score, then I would beat his high score . . etc.

That was nothing compared to when I discovered BBS and chatting. My typing speed increased to over 100 WPM. I stayed logged in nearly ALL the time if I was at home. My best on-line buddy, PrisnerofQ (America OnLine was Qlink back before the advent of the DOS machines) and I terrorized the nation every day and night. My handle was MsGodiva. On weekends, Prisner and I would connect terminal to terminal and go about our chores. I'd come in from the grocery store and find some report of what he had been doing and a note saying he went to mow the yard. I'd update my status to him - back from the grocery store, need to go make a pie. Ahh, the days.

Then, I put up my own BBS, Godiva's Place. It was up for years and years on first, a Commodore 64, then a fancy Commodore 128. It migrated through my computers all the way up to the 486 before the regulars got distracted with the Internet. I remember when I took the BBS down. It was the first time in 10 years or so that I had to sleep with no computer noise. What a trauma!

All in all, I don't consider that time wasted. It prompted me to change careers; now, I'm a computer scientist with a degree and everything. I've met so many warm, loving people over the years - Vickery, Prisner, JohnGuy, Robinanne, Linda, WillPower and of course, Tobias, my husband.

I don't do the chats now, although I wouldn't be surprised if I venture back one of these days. I do start up AOL Instant Messenger if I'm on the Internet during the day because my sister and I sometimes find one another that way. In the evenings, I often start ICQ to find my son or my best friend, Dede.