Hi People,

In response to King of Spain's request, I'm posting under all 3 aliases that I've used in this forum: Runway Cat, Blue Himalayan, and Count Vronsky. It is interesting how a handle has to go with a personality. But are any of these online avatars our true selves ? I think not, though I've never consciously mis-represented. But each handle is pegged to a unique phase.

I work in a senior position in a famous hi-tech company. Rather than go into professional aspects, I'll stick to personal and psychological stuff.

Phases:

1. I had known about y2k since my first programming class 20 years ago, when the instructor mandated 2-digit dates and ridiculed a student who raised a concern.
2. When I first stumbled on Ed Yourdon's book, I didn't believe the scenario at all. I reasoned thusly: Only 50% of the world's code uses dates at all. In only 50% of that code is the date critical to the system's functioning. Only 50% of that code, in turn, is doing something really important for our health or properity. Only 50% of that code would fail to be remediated, leaving 6% important, un-fixed code. I figure we could deal.
3. However, I must admit that Gary North got me thinking. Darkly.
4. I subsequently went into doomer-prepper-overdrive mode. I'll spare you the details. This was my 'Runway Cat' phase.
5. By the end of 1998 however, having made the decision not to relocate and completing all the in situ preps I could manage, I became more relaxed about y2k, but I retained an intense 'academic' interest in it. I wasn't feeling superior, but I'd taken all the concrete action I could. I ended 1998 by writing my "Game Time: The Bug that Failed" satire on Polly's (at least I thought it was satire at the time!!). I then pretty much stopped posting as Runway Cat, and started my Blue Himalayan phase.
6. Blue Himalayan (a type of Cat, after all...) was a much lighter character, pretty useless to the forum actually, but I couldn't stay away. I had learned so much from the great posters here, and didn't know how to give anything back. So I just hung around and made a nuisance of myself. Yes, there is a tie to Iceland (though I actually live in Puget Sound region), but in Spring I began to reconsider relocation. This was because I had become convinced that y2k wasn't going to be serious, but that nuclear war was increasingly likely. I reconsidered my relocation decision and pondered a move to my farmland in Hawaii.
7. So I said goodbye as Blue Himalayan, intending to post no further.
8. But relocation was just too difficult in the time frame I'd set for myself, so I stayed put, and just like a junkie I found myself lurking again. I found the Polly attacks were so nasty that I just wanted to respond occasionally with some fairness on behalf of the GI mentality which I basically share, regardless of details. So one night, needing to write I grabbed a book off the nearest shelf, which happened to be Anna Karenina, and posted a few lines under 'Count Vronsky'. As I continued occasional posting, I wanted Vronsky to be neither as 'deep' and involved as Runway Cat, nor as frivolous as Blue Himalayan, but just tough and neutral and calmly concerned, which I was.
9. I think overall the reason I tend to be paranoid is a terrible childhood and teenage history of numerous near-fatal injuries and illnesses, and seeing similar things destroy people around me. It's given me a 'dark' view of the world. I remember one y2k commentator early on wrote something like "When I see somebody panicked about y2k, I ask what kind of childhood they had." Yes, it is psycho-babble, but anyway 'truth is a pathless land', and I like to weigh everything I hear for what it may have to teach.
10. From now on, everything I post would be truly 'OT' thus this really has to be my last post!

    My summary of the whole thing is as follows:

    • I sincerely respect Ed Yourdon for taking a stand and working sincerely.
      
    • I love all (well, most) of the posters here. You guys are canaries in the post-industrial coal mine!
      
    • I feel that modern civilization is in many ways, and increasingly, at odds with our ideals of freedom. But I also know, from a lot of reading of history, the horrors that our ancestors suffered. Is it a fair trade ? Most of humanity has never been free anyway, and the greatest shackles are in our own minds.
      
    • I feel that computers are the early proto-forms of a new type of life, which will first assimilate, and then replace, homo sapiens. But is this a bad thing ? I remember in one of my 3 aliases, I once posted that I didn't mind the fact of death, but I thought it was embarassing to leave a corpse behind. Some wise person (a woman I think) responded in a way that really made me think. She said something like "you weren't embarassed to be born were you ? Somebody took care of things for you then, it'll be taken care of at the end too." And I think maybe this wisdom might apply to the birth and death of the human race overall. So, perhaps this inevitable transition is nothing to be feared.
      

    All in all, the whole y2k experience I've gone through, from beginning to end, has carved into my soul with a knife of fire the essence of the quote below, from a famous martial arts master :

    Do not look at this world with fear and loathing.
    Bravely face whatever the gods offer.

    
    
    -- Runway Cat, Blue Himalayan, Count Vronsky (Vronsky@anna.lit), January 03, 2000

Answers

Good luck, Runway Cat. I've enjoyed all your posts from all of your aliases.

Day 3.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.~net), January 03, 2000.

Another shocker! *MUST CREDIT RC-BH-CV*

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 03, 2000.

AHA! The masque comes off!!!

Most of the posters here, even those of us who use alias handles -- multiple ones -- do not ruminate for long on the "dramatis personae" we adopt. It's very easy to do, and it's easier to mistake something posted under a "persona" as an honest expression of someone's position; while in fact it's a passing expression of the mood of the "character". At least, it often is for me. "All the world's a stage ..."

>"< ain't nobody else.

-- SH (squirrel@huntr.com), January 03, 2000.

Runway Cat/Blue Himalayan/Count Vronsky!

Different in style, but all were very interesting persona to me. I missed Runway Cat's insights and philosophy the most.

-- (AnOldTimer@home.com), January 03, 2000.

Coolness.

Does this mean that "E Coli" is still posting here as well?

I have frequently pondered the dropping of "BigDog" for another alias. Not sure whether failing to do this is a sign of consistency or mania. One of the charms of TB2K is the mix of "real" person and "role" -- cf Hoffmeister for a "role-driven demon" (using the latter term technically, not spiritually, or at least I don't think so).

You may be right about Y2K impacts, but then again, you work for Microsoft, which is a MAJOR strike against you.

You may also be right about nukes. I take at face value the evident fear of our own leaders about cyberterrorism against the infrastructure, their amazing admission that suitcase nukes are "real" and their near-predictions about biological attacks.

Y2K is the beginning of an era of info-era danger, not the end -- and you know I still hold to my Y2K expectations at this time anyway.

Hideous, disgraceful, profane, shallow and petty as TB2K is, I still don't know of any better place on the Net to discuss such matters and others up ahead. I predict you may have yet another alias up your sleeve and further "addiction" issues.

But you know what I would like?

I'd like you to start posting again as Runway Cat and help us re-kick start the serious conversations.

Meow. That's not easy for a dog to say, you know.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 03, 2000.

Runway Cat, Blue Himalayan, Count Vronsky -- one cool cat we've always adored :-)

When we missed you tooooo much, we asked Diane to run a search trace on you, so found out about your multiple lives :-) Made us feel better, but we still tried to get you to come back briefly as Runway Cat -- it wouldn't have hurt, you hold-out!

And yes, E Coli reincarnated too, thank God -- almost everybody morphed and has been held spellbound by this tenacious addiction.

We are so happy, thrilled, running on air, still kissing our faucets and waving at our light bulbs: our life, attitudes, shopping habits, and suppositions have been permanently changed, and for the better, by this amazing Forum.

It too will morph and meld to changing concerns. Computers, viruses, bugs, technology, being prepped, disasters, intrusions, privacy issues, government trends -- all these still have the power to elicit passion, research, commentary and thought, and deserve deeper consideration than the commercialized media flicks thru them.

Thank you for outting yourself, Cat!

And here is the thread you were referring to:

Death is more Humiliating than Terrifying

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 04, 2000.

Hi Count etc...

In all three personas the thread that tied them together it seems was the "swashbuckling libertarianism" Maybe thats why I liked your uh their posts.Keep postin'.

-- capnfun (Sybil@Simon.com), January 04, 2000.

omedeto gozaimasu.

-- boku (donata@doko_demoii.jp), January 04, 2000.

DANG!!!

Does this mean that ARCEEJAY could still be floatin around here??

Chuck

BTW When PNG told me that He'd seen you and that Runway Cat would NOT be returning for rollover I was REALLY disappointed, cause I thought we'd need his/your insight.

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 04, 2000.

Blue aka Runaway aka Count,

You underrepresent yourself in #6 in that I derived great giggles from your DiEtEr script. However, if you are indeed with Microsoft, I respectfully disagree that it is a high tech company :-) :-).

Until the t-epoch,

Zy

-- Zygote (zygote@zygote.zygote), January 04, 2000.

Ashton & Leska: What is E. Coli's new user name?

-- dinosaur (dinosaur@williams-net.com), January 04, 2000.

I don't believe it! Here all that time? And after I was paging you and people were trying to contact you? Hell, I just sent that Paging Runway Cat thread up again last month I think. And others here knew? Great. Just great. I am glad that you are ok RC, but I really don't know what to say.

I think it is time for me to leave before I post something I will regret. Goodbye.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@trust.verify), January 04, 2000.

Rob, I never saw those bumps. I was out of the country for 2 weeks and looked in only once. Even before that I didn't look that often. YOU, sir, have been GREAT! The most-replied-to poster of all time! ...Thanks for not saying whatever it was you might have regretted.

-- Count V (vronsky@anna.lit), January 04, 2000.

Runway Cat/Count V: I am glad I stopped also. Thomas Jefferson said something like 'If you are angry, count to ten before you speak. If it is with a friend, count to 100'. I guess in Forum terms it would be 'engage brain before hitting submit'.

There have been so many times I wanted to ask you something over these months. Please excuse me while I try to catch up. Before I start, I should tell you that I am fairly well burnt out from lots of overtime. Being a Y2K project manager for two years has been a challenge to say the least, and since last Thursday it has been incredible. Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel and I hope to resume something resembling normal hours soon. I tell you this because it will be lights out after this post and I plan to check back in tomorrow. Actually, it already is tomorrow here!

Now to some questions. Is your email real? Someone (BigDog?) mentioned having serious discussions (like we used to) - something I am not even sure is possible here anymore. Perhaps I have been reading all of the wrong threads. I have wondered about this recently and would value any thoughts you may have. Do you think discussions like we used to have are still possible here? I miss them.

I was surprised by the 'most-replied-to' remark. So many of my threads have but a handful of answers! Are you referring to the FRL? Are you an FRLian? LOL.

I have often wondered, and not just recently, why it is that out of the hundred or more threads I have started there are only a handful of troll/flame posts. That's another of the things I wanted to ask you about. Why do you think that is? I thought you might know because out of all the posters here, you frequently asked the same kind of 'vexing' questions that I did. And more importantly, if we can identify reasons would it help us to make some progress in returning to the type of discussions that we used to find so stimulating?

I have missed your insights Cat, and made no secret of it. And thanks for the very kind words. Coming from YOU they mean a great deal. Answer what you can. I'll check in again on this thread - maybe lunch time (I am on the East Coast). It works both ways too - should you have a question or two for me :) BTW, I have a valid 'e'. Let me know if that is an option to consider.

BFN, Rob

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@count.to100), January 05, 2000.

Hi Rob, yes those earlier discussions were what really addicted me in the first place. Yourself, Hardliner, E Coli, PNG, Leska, Nikoli, so many others, too many to name. One reason though that I ducked out of being Runway Cat was that I began to wonder how such interesting acrobatics could be sustained. There is such a fine line between quality and overkill. There are many authors, for example, who've written fantastic stuff at some point, then you read later stuff of theirs and it just doesn't have that 'duende' (as they say in Spanish).

So I was thinking that as long as the board is primarily, and legitimately, on a y2k focus, where could it really go from the interesting things we've already considered ?

What I'm looking for is a board whose primary interests are, in no particular order: literature; intersection of technology and humanity; and the meaning of FREEDOM - past, present, and future.

But then I look at some of the other Greenspun boards, some of which seem to have interesting themes vaguely along these lines, and they get only 1 or 2 desultory posts a day, sometimes 1 or 2 a week.

There was something about the dark immediacy of what we perceived as the y2k threat that was able to bring out the energy of a lot of disparate people for some blowout fusion/fission over the past 1.5 years. But without that iceberg dead ahead, the mind tends to wander back to its wonted channels.

By the way, Rob, don't you find the performance of Joel Skousen remarkable ? He is a friend of Gary North, and was completely consistent in telling North that Y2K would be no more than a BITR. Yet he (Skousen) has been in full disaster-prep/bug-out mode for many years, anticipating nuclear war by 2008. Just another nutball ? I don't know, but in retrospect I think he's got something to say.

Well cyberspace can be a lonely place. Maybe we all spend too much time online, looking for some kind of enlightenment that isn't too be had, I don't know.

Though I'm not on the FRL threads, I've loved all your other threads, the thoughtful, careful, deep writing. Those kinds of posts usually don't get very far now though, too much breaking y2k news. Which is maybe as it should be.

By the way, you are from Atlanta area, have you read Tom Wolfe's Man in Full ? Is Atlanta really that wild and strange ??

Ah! See ? Going OT already...

I can be reached at my 'real' email, yes another kind of cat:
lynx5_5@hotmail.com
Love to hear from you or any of the 'classic' people here sometime.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), January 05, 2000.

Runway Cat,

Glad you've named three of your nine lives.

;-D

"Most" unexpected, eh? Feel like another shoe will drop... eventually. Beware of flying souls.

*Grin*

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 05, 2000.

Count Vronsky -- Is it you who runs Gold-Eagle, also? It has cost me many a night's sleep, and given me the education I didn't get in college economics. Thank you.

The forum may and ought to morph into whatever area(s) the intelligences here take it. The key is that we have come to know and trust each other, and therefore we will do the best that is to be done with ANY topic brought before us (including deflating each other's "overkill" ego-stroking).

Y2k may have only been a pretext to bring together able minds questioning the "foundations" of Bubble Nation. Perhaps offshoot sites could handle more specific topics, and we would happily refer new arrivals to those sites.

New identities are a fascinating concept you have brought to us. It could be handled creatively anywhere from Halloween "costuming" to trying out Multiple Personality Disorders. Those are always fun to come across in real life, huh? (Church Lady:) "Now who could this be? Satan? I suppose you're going to tell us something so, so SPECIAL..."

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), January 05, 2000.

I'm looking forward to threads over at the prep forum that explore a number of the themes we've talked about here as we consider long-term lifestyles that are more intelligent, self-reliant, prepared and just plain fun.

And it is all about freedom, isn't it?

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 05, 2000.

I have had only one face, timid to speak my own little mind. But I agree that having a a difficult and lonely childhood, with early adult disasters, and middle adult disaster (loss of oldest child) has given me an advantage in life.

I no longer harbor illusions of a yuppy party on Garth mentality... Stuff can happen at a nano-second, and it can be TEOTWAOKI. It may not be universal, but it is nevertheless a soul-wake-up.

Those who have had Job-like experiences stand with one foot in and one foot out of the modern-media-American-experience. We continue to function, fulfill our responsibilities to others, serve our communities, love our families, but we no longer feel immune, and we are innoculated against complacency. We understand the need to always be ready to "brace" against a sudden gust that might signal a coming gale.

Enough of metaphor. I think I have overdone it. I am sick of modern civilization, yet am hooked on it. It suckers us all in, even though we know it's not really good for us. It takes a lot of self-discipline to live outside the easy technology-driven culture. I am working on it, and am eternally grateful to your above post for luring me out of my safe little hole.

just a housemou

-- housemouse (inlittlehole@nevermind.now), January 05, 2000.

Good thing I wasn't holding a cup of hot tea when I read your post! Holy cow! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!

What can I say? Words are not adequate to describe my appreciation of your contribution. Oh how you forced me to stretch my thought process!

RC/BH/CT post = Food for thought - ambrosia!

Thank you for providing the answer to one of the most perplexing questions of 1999: "Where in the world is Runway Cat?"

Answer: "He walks among us, though we know him not."

Blessings to you & yours,

-- Bingo1 (howe9@shentel.net), January 05, 2000.

Jor-El, no - that Vronsky isn't me, I didn't know about that Vronsky til AFTER I'd started using this handle! The trickiness of it all...

I've often thought the three greatest mysteries in the universe (or human life anyway) are:

1. Time
2. Quality (qualia)
3. Identity

The cyber world re-opens the discussion of all these, but particularly identity. Not only the 'Gold' Vronsky, but another example: as Runway Cat I often signed off using initials "RC". Long after that another poster became very famous here as "RC" (oil guy). I think the concept of personal identity is in for a rough time over the next 100 years.

I believe I'll migrate to the y2k prep/sufficiency forum, as Big Dog suggested, and return to the 'middle ground', Blue Himalayan, for which handle there seems as yet to be no competition. Or maybe I'll just use my own name (Scott)

For more on The Psychology of Cyberspace, click The Psychology of Cyberspace

-- Count (vronsky@anna.lit), January 05, 2000.

What a good link, Count, I am bookmarking it, and looking for you "over there"

just a housemouse....

-- housemouse (inlittlehole@nevermind.now), January 05, 2000.

Here are some subjects that are legitimately made to order for the prep forum (which may get a name change in several months, we'll see):

Time, Quality, Identity

:-)

Seriously, as well as understanding the relationship between legitimate future threats (which are preeminently, as they have always been, threats to true freedom - whether explicitly or implicitly coerced) and old-fashioned prepping (livestock, food, security, etc), we have the opportunity to think about technology afresh too.

Whether Y2K remains "2" or spirals to "8", tech is here to stay and is only in an infant stage.

How do "preps" include "Win98" (VBG) or "Linux"? Encryption and other privacy relationships? How is "identity" related to privacy? Integrity?

If Y2K has taught us anything, sure it is that we mustn't anymore divorce "HOS" (human operating systems) from "DOS". See you all over there, I hope.

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), January 05, 2000.

Count V: Thanks for the reply. Good points, as usual. I plan on sending you an 'e' after things calm down a bit more in my 'everyday' life. Regarding Joel, if you feel he 'has something to say' I would be interested in what that is. You can wait for my 'e' to reply or just post it here if you think it is appropriate. I will be checking this thread whenever I am able to 'pop in'.

I do have just one or two more simple questions for you: Who are we really? How well can we know ourselves, and by extension others? What is the meaning of Life? Why are we here? In fact, Are we really here at all, and if not, then where are we? (Sorry, just kidding, couldn't resist :)

-- (sonofdust@count.v), January 05, 2000.

"He who knows others is Wise;

He who knows Himself is Enlightened!"

Lao Tsu

Blessings upon all of you,

Rev ThunderLight

-- hiding in plain (sight@edge of.nowhere), January 05, 2000.

Speaking of other boards, it is interesting contrast this board with freerepublic.com, which I'm sure many of you know. I find that FR's 'articles' (thread initiator posts) are about 50% fascinating. I have dissatisfactions with FR however:

1. it has an ideological slant. Though I'm somewhat in sympathy with the slant, still it is a slant, and the focus is distorted by that, and the audience is too narrowly selected by that.
2. too much weighted towards politics for my taste, to the exclusion of other things (of course FR can and should choose its focus, I'm just talking about my taste).
3. Worst of all, after a cool 'article' post, there is rarely any interesting follow-up discussion! Totally unlike here. The typical follow-up reply on a thread is just a line: 'bump' or 'right on'.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), January 05, 2000.

Further proof that it was always OK to be a troll here at TB2000 as long as you were a doomer.

-- (no@wont.giveit), January 05, 2000.

'no' - I guess it was always ok to be OT here as long as you were/are a doomer. Perhaps OT and troll are synonymous however.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), January 05, 2000.

Count/Cat/Blue: If you can't find a better forum, you should definitely stay here -- where else are you so appreciated? (If you find a forum for devotees of female mudwrestling, please let me know.) At the very least, you should stay for a couple of more weeks, so that we can all get closure with Y2K....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), January 05, 2000.

Runway, Himalayan, Count - stay, join the frl and help us to stay on our toes ;-) Between you and Rob, I've had my mind stretched multiple times over the past year and a half. Please stay, it still isn't quite the right shape. (How's that for a nice solipsist request?)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 05, 2000.