Hey Andy don't you love us anymore?

-- BB (peace2u@bellatlantic.net), March 26, 1999

Answers

Where is Andy? Where is Robert Mangus? Where is E. Coli? Where is Paul Milne? Where is Runway Cat? Where is Elbow Grease? Where, oh where, are quite a few old-time regulars?

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 26, 1999.

Most of them will be back when the times get more interesting. I speculate that Milne, who is a very practical man, doesn't see much benefit to pushing prep (which was always his sole objective, though few understood that) when it's mainly too late.

I've thought of dropping out for a couple of months myself and may do it. There are rhythms and this is the "slow news" phase, inhabited largely by trolls ..... it's not the forum's fault and the forum's best days still lie ahead (September 1999 thru December 2005, if the Net stays up), but those days aren't now.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 26, 1999.

Hi BigDog, we drop back from time to time, but it's just too interesting! Now with a war thrown in ... which we think is spurred by "use it or lose it," it's hard to stay away. Nobody we know in the real world is the slightest bit interested in the news, putting the puzzle pieces together, researching, thinking about it, etc. So here we end up for the social-mental nourishment ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 26, 1999.

I agree with Leska. I would like to stay away for awhile but have found that I live in two diffenrent worlds. One is the net with all the news and views, the other a place where few people know what is going on in the world. I said somehting to someone about Kosovo and their reply was that they did not watch tv and didn't know what was going on.

I went to the beauty shop and started talking a woman that is an xray technician in a small hospital. I asked if her hospital was Y2k compliant. She asked what it was and I told her had to do with the computers. She answered that they just now got on the Net and seemed very happy at the fact. I asked if the medical devices were compiant and she said she did not know what I was talking about. I didn't try to explain.

There are still a lot of people that do not know about Y2k.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), March 26, 1999.

Ashton & Leska --- Yes, very true what you say. Besides, trolls aside, the regulars, whatever their varied views, are great fun.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 26, 1999.

Hi Big Dog, glad to see you back.

Yeah, I thought about diverting my attention to other sites and after cruising, I found out the other sites just don't hold my interest. I may not take the time to post often but it's interesting to see what has been posted. (Even by the trolls). I don't intend to follow as closely as I did over the winter. I've got too much to do outside to get this place ready before fall. Don't be a stranger...sometimes things get posted on here that takes a veteran web-runner to untangle. I'd hate to see this forum get as messed up as some of the others and us newbies need a guiding hand frequently. Thanks for all you've helped me with in the past.

-- Lobo (Hiding@woods.com), March 27, 1999.

It's a "critical mass" thing. Just having a couple dozen regulars who you know are posting, lurking, or "will be back shortly".

Also, as a January newbie, it's fun to watch old regulars, like Hallyx, welcomed back. Thanks to the welcomers, like Leska and Diane, who let us know about the community's roots.

We need each other, even in pre-September "lulls". We've never been through this before, and we are amazingly creating something that probably has no parallels in history. ("Think HARDER, J -- there must be something!" London in Blitz? Leningrad under siege? whatever...)

Anyway, we need YOU to keep up critical mass in the life of this forum/ online community. So don't be afraid to post "inane", just plain fun, or OT-topics (like Hallyx on the hystery of vibrators-- all I can say is "WOW!" -- what great nerve!).

One brief preference that occurs to me just as my kid is waking up and will likely take me outa here:

LET'S HEAR LESS ABOUT "THE GOVERNMENT" and what they are or will or aren't or won't be doing. We know what they've decided to do for now, and they're riding out these months same as us, waiting and watching (with probably less freedom to express and share info).

We may not be exactly a "shadow government" but we are something that has a type of power and maneuverability they LACK. Let's not spend our lives and energies looking at them -- let's find something different to do -- there must be something we're not emphasizing enough (or seeing AT ALL) in our preoccupation with .gov!

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.com), March 27, 1999.

Hi Jor-El! You know what has helped? Meeting you & Diane & Suzanne & her hubby, and Ed, and EC (who is so way cool!) and others, so we know there's real living working struggling wonderful people behind the addys. That added a lot of magnetism to the Forum for us. Also reading about events where others meet each other, and where community prep is having some success -- heartening.

We too are done looking at .mil .gov -- ain't worth sifting the * for milli-truths. We agree with Ed -- progress, survival, and the real news will (or maybe tragically won't) well up from the grassroots. Been thinking & posting that all along, but then Ed confirms it -- he's been dealing with both .gov on the bigger scale, AND his local community, so he's had a good opportunity to compare.

Always a pleasure to see your posts, Jor-El! How 'bout those blazes of 5-minute sunshine, eh?!

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-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), March 27, 1999.

Congratulations!! Many of you are getting it that government (at least all the governments in existence today) are useless, even downright negative. Their only purpose is to keep a gang of politicians, bureaucrats, and favored contractors "high on the hog" at the expense of the rest of us.

"Our" government has defaulted on its charter, which basically is to keep the peace and provide for the common defense. Just looking at the various budgets, you see that the money allocated for constitutionally authorized functions are but a small percentage of the total.

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 27, 1999.