I was working "outside the home" in the 80s. This was before "Windows". I had to learn DOS and such stuff. Ya know....the "old days". I learned enough to do my job. I got some hardware experience which was very helpful. I wasn't at all interested in computers. I didn't even have one at home. (gasp!)
But then... I married the Wizard Extrordinaire in the fall of 1994. He came with a computer. My life would never be the same again. In a good way... I think.
Anyway, he signed us up with an online service provider. That's what started it. I just know it. I think the first time I looked at the weather in Toyko and Paris, I was on my way to becoming a Cyber Goddess. There was just something so magical about sitting in my family room in Houston, looking at satellite pics of the clouds over France. Awesome!
I had always heard about the infamous "chat rooms". I decided to investigate. I found chat rooms all right! And I lost them pretty quick too. It took me about a week to get the low down on those huge banks of chat rooms. Cyber Goddesses do not "hang out" in chat rooms, thank you very much!
Although, one of my most fun chats online, took place in one of those early chat room experiences. I was using the name "TX Mom" one day. I thought it would negate the oft asked first question, "Where are you?". I also thought the "Mom" part would help. Wrong. It just became, "Where in TX?" and then I got cute little replies like, "Will you be my mom?" (blech! yuck! ptooey!) from the sex bombers.
Ewwww...sex bombers. That's my name for them anyway. I just don't get sex bombers. I mean, I have never seen such a group of low energy types in my life! There I'd be minding my own business, and up would pop these little chat windows. In the little windows would say some of the weirdest garbage I have ever heard. I learned about "squelching" real quick that day. I have tried to imagine a sex bomber sitting at the keyboard sending out all that junk. Eww. Doesn't feel like a happy individual to me. Like I said, I just don't get sex bombers.
Anyway, that day of being "TX Mom" taught me a lot about cyberspace. It was my 6th or 7th day on line. I had gotten the navigation around my service down ok, and I was feeling confident in my abilities so far. I monitered a chat room for a minute, and was captivated. This was my first introduction to RPG, (Role Playing Games).
I "walked" into the room, and here's these two guys having a huge dramatic sword fight. They both have big, tough, mystical-sounding names. Their weapons are tremendous. I'm reading away, "watching" these 2 guys battle, when I realize that they, of course, did not know I was there, because I hadn't spoke. They seemed too engrossed to be following any tracking windows.
So I decided to play too. In cyberspace, actions are denoted in brackets. Since I'm writing this in HTML, I'm going to be real lazy here and use ( ) instead of the correct symbols.Using the others would confuse me, and my page (S). See, that means I just smiled at you. Refer to the glossary for other interesting "emoticons".
I typed that: (TX Mom bursts into the room). I "stood" there with my (hands on my hips surveying the room). One of the two, had just finished (cutting the floor open) with his sword. He thought an awful lot of his sword, but then I guess most men do. He gave it a name and everything. ( Who says cyber-space isn't real?)
I first admonished the two for all the noise coming out of the "room". "I could hear you two all the way outside!", I told them, and, "Look at this mess!! Do you know how much it costs to replace a floor?!?!" There was a pause. One guy said "I didn't do it!" And the other guy said nobody could "tell me what to do!" We bantered back and forth for a minute, then I let them go back to their fight, with a stern warning not to get any blood on my good curtains! It was fun.
It was then, when I first understood the nature of cyberspace.
I liked it.