Time Capsle - FanTek Campout review I wrote in 1991 (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I found this in a collection of old files from my AtariST that got copied to DOS, then Wordperfect, then was saved as ASCII text and somehow carried to my new systems. Thought you'd might like to peek.

________________________
700 Miles Since Wednesday
The Tragedies of Aberdeen by Grig Larson

On May the 31st, 1991, a rag tag fleet of FanTek members bundled a few scant belongings and traveled away from their homelands to find the FanTek Campout. Only five of us made it. To call the campout a fiasco would be unkind to the word "fiasco."

The problems plagued us from the beginning. Over the years, there have been many "regulars" (myself included), but this year, many FanTek members would have to attend to duties at home. Our hope was to get new people to come and share the experience. There were some pledges, and we began to get the ball rolling. Then the rolling ball turned into a cube, and came to a dead halt.

"SUSQUAHANNA CAMPGROUNDS CLOSED"

What an odd thing to do in the beginning of camp season. Some had rumors of budget cuts, but it would be silly to cut your business hours in half when you are also losing money, right? Humph. Bureaucracy. We also had just found out this interesting fact TWO DAYS before the campout. Hastily, a message was scribbled
on the BBS, and everyone who pledged to go was called. Our fearless leader, Bruce, fenagled his old parent's house (being in the process of being sold) for the weekend. It was a great plan! Not a camp-out, but a camp-in! We would cook from a stove and oven, have a shelter from the bugs, and have AIR CONDITIONING!!!! Great plan, huh?

I hitched a ride with Scott Ripley, and we rode up to the house in Aberdeen, braving I95 in the LeCar. When we got there, we were met with interesting news. The only other people there were Bruce, Cheryl, and Eden Miller. They told us we had no air conditioning, no stove, and no oven. Even the kitchen faucet leaked. The only cooling we had were faulty ceiling fans. They called The House and had Ralph cancel the campout, but what if people actually read their Castle and decided to show up? We decided to stay until Saturday and see if anyone else would show up. So it was "Wagons Ho!" to the nearest K-Mart for a camp stove and to the supermarket for food and disposable dinnerware. We had a wonderful dinner of spaghetti cooked by Cheryl and Bruce. Then we sat on the hardwood floors and talked into the darkness of the night. Then sometime around 3 in the morning, Aberdeen decided to dust the area for gypsy moths. Unfortunately, the poison also decided that Eden and Cheryl were also big bugs, and they had a bad reaction to it. So Bruce, Cheryl, and Eden made a convoy to IHOP to clear them of poison. It was a good thing, as Bruce and Cheryl were also being attacked by mutant ceiling fans.

Then morning came. Everyone wanted to take a bath or shower. Oh, dear, did we forget to mention that the cold water faucet did not work? Cheryl nearly got scalded. But there was a working cold water faucet in the stand up shower. But the nozzle was broken, and water just dribbled out. So we all took turns under the dribble all morning to get a shower.

We all voted on going to the Deer Creek vs. driving to New Jersey and forget this all ever happened. It was a good idea. In New Jersey, they had storms all day. At Deer Creek, the sun was warm, and water was cool. Eden went sun bathing, Bruce relaxed, Cheryl waded around, and Scott and I did the manly thing, and went beige-water rafting (too calm to be the white kind, but violent enough to make me lose my watch somewhere out there in the currents). Cheryl cooked delicious hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches. Then we all packed up and toured the local wonder, Havre De Grace. Even in this vast wasteland, there were Bayside Condos for sale. There was a great chocolate store there, though, and we all drowned our sorrows in sugar. We then went to Harford Mall, and hung around looking at RV and Campers until we all said our goodbyes and went back to our homelands.

All and all, it was a disaster, but we had fun on the last day. And we all decided that the Campout next year will be held somewhere else. We need help with your suggestions. These are the requirements for a FanTek campground:

1: It must be within 2 hours of metropolitan DC.
2: It must have facilities with running water, toilets, and places to cook (ie, BBQs or fire pits).
3: It must not be overcrowded during the tourist season.
4: and... it must be OPEN!

Please call us at our number, show up at a meeting, post a note on the BBS, or write to us at our address. Posted in: campout , fantek

Some bad news for the FanTek/Bellydancing community (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

For those of you who were with FanTek in the 1990s, you might remember a bellydancer named Amira. She gave many talks, ran many panels on bellydancing and spiritual healing, and my family roomed with her during most of the "Fredrick Holodome" years of FanTek cons.

Amira had been battling a CNS lymphoma brain tumor, and in one of her last letters with me a few months ago, she stated she was under some part time home care. "Metaphysically I've talked to my tumor and agreed it may stay ONLY if it does not interfere with that which I need to live," she said. "If my cancer is to kill me, I want to be here with my dog." She was working on starting a new holistic cancer therapy.

Her friend Velvet just connected me and let me know Victoria "Amira" Bedford passed away last night.

I kept meaning to call Amira, but like so much else, it got pushed down the stack. I made one attempt to call her, and there was no answer. I really should have made more attempts. Some family friend I am.

I will miss her. I guess you just assume some people will be in your life because they are in the back of your head. She is survived by her son, Peter. Peter and the family still haven't made any final decisions about the Memorial Service, but if you'd like to get some information, it's being handled by the Botetourt Funeral Home in Buchanan, Virginia. Phone: (540) 254-3000

This was the last time I saw her, at the disastrous Imaginecon back in 2000. Not the best photo, given the dress, but she's on the right with her friend Miraj:



Rest in peace, Amira. Posted in: amira , bellydancing , fantek

How I Ended Up in Computerland: Part 5 - FanTek and the unemployed years (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Throughout high school, the only contact I had with computers was one at Kate's house where I made D&D; character sheets using a crude word processor on her TRS-80. That and my HP 11c, which was considered "weird." There was a computer club, but it just didn't appeal to me. I am not sure why. I thought computers were "neat" and all.

Then, in 1987, my mother took her own life, I had to live in a foster situation, and then was back with my dad for a short time before he threw me out to start a new life. My life had been jump started from the comforting blanket of ennui and depression to the harsh light of a real world. I needed a place to live, and thankfully, the previous year I had gotten to know Bruce Evry, head of FanTek. He hooked up with a girl named Cheryl Abrams, who later became his wife. They got a place in Hyattsville with three other roommates, Diane, Wendell, and Liska. And their Radio Shack Coco computer which served as their word processor and database for the Castle Fanzine in the very beginning. By the summer of 1987, they wanted a newer, bigger place, so they got a place in Mount Vernon, Alexandria. Wendell and Diane didn't move with them, so they needed roommates. I needed a place to live, and had money thanks to a job and some social security money I got from my mother's death. This was a mutually beneficial environment.

By the time we all got settled into Mount Vernon, Bruce and Liska had gotten Atari 1040ST computers. Because of my previous Mac experience, along with understanding some Atari, I grokked the ST quickly. Due to a small financial windfall of a land deal and some cash from my grandmother...

Okay, let me state for the record that my maternal grandmother thought I should have *always* gone into computers. She said it practically every call we had together. And try as I might, I could not convince her computers were for smart people, and not losers like me. And she was right. There. Happy, grandma? Rest in peace.

So I got an Atari 1040ST. The MAIN reason I wanted one was for "Wordwriter," a word processing program with automatic spell checker. Hooray! Some of my first real, published works came from this computer, including much of what would become my first published book, "The Saga of Punk Walrus." But it was more than a typewriter to me. It was a tool. It could play games, yes, but it could also draw. Degas Elite and Spectrum 512 could command up to 512 colors and do color cycling, making basic animations. My rudimentary drawing skills were heightened with this machine. There was another set of programs from a suite called "The Cyber Studio," where a crude scripting language could be used to draw models and animate them. I started to program yet again. I made some movies, drew, and enhanced by artistic nature.

I joined "ARMUDIC," a local Atari enthusiast group, which got its name because ARMUDIC spelled their first BBS phone number. I met many DC Atari Enthusiast, and exchanged a lot of German software. Why German? Because the ST was BIG in Germany, much bigger than it ever got here.

When I moved out of the FanTek house in 1988, I lived with Tim and Anita, a bohemian couple. They were completely computer illiterate, which wasn't that odd for anybody in 1988, but to give you an idea, here's how I hid the fact I had a microwave oven in my room: I put a keyboard in front of it. They thought I had 2 computers.

Anyway, I got married in 1989 and moved into an apartment where Christine and I started a family. It was around this time I discovered dialup BBSs. My first was ARMUDIC with a 1200 baud modem. Then I went to others, and was a sysop of Starlight Trading Post for a while. It was here I found the BBS Crunchland, a name that I would live to regret almost 10 years later.

I helped found the FanTek BBS with Bruce in 1990. At first, it was 1 line, but Bruce quickly expanded it to 6. The FanTek BBS was run on an Atari 1040ST with NiteLite software and hardware by Paul Swanson. Port 0 was the home port, Ports 1-5 are run on ViVa 2400m Modems, (Port 6's phone line got commandeered for a voice line,) and Port 7 is a null modem connected to another 1040ST.

I still have one of those Viva modems. It had a super-heavy lead base, and makes a fine bookend. When we used to disconnect someone, we called it "to Green Button" them, because the power switch on thse modems were green. When you had a 2400 baud connection, a little green LED rabbit would light up behind the smoky plastic panel.

We had many sysops. There was me ("Punk Walrus"), webqatch (aka. "Sas"), Allon ("Skum"), Suzi ("Rosa Mercedes"), albedoblue ("Albedo")and seer_eridanus ("Darryl"). And of course, Bruce and Cheryl. It was on this BBS I met and made long lasting friends with ninjacooter, Suzi, albedoblue and most of Prune Bran.

Out of the sysops, two turned out to be the most influential to my career: Allon, a former Prune, who got me working at the University of Maryland at Bessel labs, and Suzi, who was the one pushing to get a job at AOL.

And good thing, too. In 1991, I was laid off from my retail job, and apart from a smattering of part time jobs and my book, I would be unemployed for the next two years. So I did what I could to pass the time, and my Atari ST computer, along with a used IBM XT, spent much of the day on the modem, blocking the swarms of bill collectors after us.

The server at Bessel was my first exposure to the Internet and UNIX. It was a Sun box, System V, I think. It was here I learned UNIX, got my foot in as far as my computer education which was a "lark" for me most of the time. I spent many years there, helping maintain the Bessel MUD, posting on Usenet, and underhandedly getting a computer education with one the east coast's top universities. I never got a degree there, and they have no records of my presence (if I did it right), but my heart is partially owned by the Home of the Terrapins. I spent some time on the campus, and I won't exactly describe why, but all I can say is that some professors have NO idea who is in their class... let's just leave it there. Thanks to Brad, albedoblue, Gadams, Allon, dptwisted, dglenn, and a few people who I probably shouldn't mention. You really pulled some strings, or helped in ways you'll never know. It was at Bessel I got addicted to E-mail and Gopher. IRC never really was my favorite, because I found them either too crowded or to empty. My instant messaging was Ytalk. You frequently saw me as walrus@bessel.umd.edu, or was we called, it, "Bessel dot um-dee-doo."

But all things must come to an end. When Allon graduated, his professor repurposed the Bessel server, TerrapinMUD was shut down, and I was without Internet for a while. Like two years. Imagine now, all of you, having no Internet for TWO YEARS??

Later, in 1994, I would get onto Capaccess and continue my limited Internet experience there. My IBM had died, but I was able to connect using an old DT80 Dumb terminal and a modem. I found out how to hack URLs to I could get Webcrawler, and I discovered the web as a text version for the next few years.

I saw the web for the first time in 1995 when takalya brought home a borrowed laptop from work, a Powerbook 540, I think. It was in black and white, but I could now see the web. We got a free AOL account, and STILL have those AOL accounts to this day (although I never check mine). Later, brad helped me put together a frankenputer, a barely-running 386/DX2, with some parts that he had, a hard drive and some RAM Suzi and Cambion gave me, and a sound card from albedoblue. My first post-IBM XT computer barely lasted a few months, but I got to see the web in 8-bit color with an old 256kb video card. I wrote my first website, thanks to Brad giving me a Digex account and the option, "View source."

But it was Suzi who really took my scattered skills and turned my "hobby" into a career.

She got me a job at AOL. Posted in: allon , aoi , bessel , brad , bruce , capaccess , cherly , computer , computerhistory , dglenn , fantek , gadams , suzi , umd , web

Twenty years can sure make a difference (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

This was Bruce and Cheryl's VW Beetle. I am not sure where Bruce got it, I assume it was one of the many "used and dumped" vehicles he got from a relative. He had relatives that had a habit of buying a new car, driving it until it stopped working, and then buying a new car. Bruce found most of the "non-working" cars were simply because nobody did a scrap of normal maintenance on it except fill the gas tank. No oil change in 40,000 miles sort of neglect.

When Bruce hooked up with Cheryl (1986?), I don't recall if his family didn't approve (she was 19, he was mumblemumble), or what, but they kicked Bruce out of their homes, and he and Cheryl *lived* in this very car for like 6 months, often camping in friend's back yards until they got a house in Hyattsville.

Bruce taught Cheryl how to drive in this car. He joked that's why the passenger's side door had scratches on it; from his grip.

Then - 1987	Now - 2007

Cheryl wanted to sell me this car when the photo was taken, but shortly afterwards, it died and could not be resurrected. But they kept it, even when the moved to Fort Washington (now called Friendly).

I also still have one small white reflector from this car. A little round dot the size of a quarter. Posted in: bug , fantek , vw beetle

More housework (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I got a lot done today. Not as much as I would have liked, but a lot nonetheless. Several loads of dishes, many loads of laundry (yay) and more boxes from my old den to my new one.

In the move, I found (sniff) some old photos I thought were long gone. This is in GREAT thanks to my friend Neal, who sent me these photos in a package of "memories I got from you, since you lost a lot of memories in the flood."

Photos from 20 years ago. A few con photos, notably Disclave 87 when I was still in high school, and Evecon 5, when I lived with Bruce and Cheryl. I will post them when I have time to scan them. Posted in: den , disclave , evecon , fantek , housework , move

I tale from a guy named Bronto (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Years and years ago, there was a guy named Bronto in FanTek. He was a handsome dude; muscular and sort of reminded one of a young Michael York (like from Logans Run). He was part of a cable personality duo, “Bronto and the Bear.” I am not sure what the show was about, but sometimes he came to the conventions dressed in a lion skin (as in, wearing it like a chieftain, not in a furry suit). But it’s important to know that Bronto was a big and muscular dude.

So, he once sat down and told us this tale which I am not going to tell as well as he did, but it worth telling. It’s about how he put a seafood restaurant out of business.

Being a muscle builder, Bronto ate a lot. Being a muscle builder on a budget, he was always seeking places of cheap protein. He came along this seafood place in his town that had “All You can Eat Flounder” specials on Tuesday. It need say no more.

The first Tuesday, he sat down and ordered the flounder special. He got one fillet. He smothered it with tartar sauce, cut it into four pieces, and gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp... he asked for more. He also asked for more iced tea and tartar sauce. By the end of the night, he had downed 30 fillets, much to the consternation of the management.

The next Tuesday, he was back. They remembered him around the 12th flounder or so. Slather, cut cut cut, gulp gulp gulp gulp, “more please.” Repeat. This time, the manager came by and asked if everything was okay. Bronto said the service was great. The manager did not look happy when Bronto ordered his last fillet of the evening, #32.

Next Tuesday, same thing. But this time, around fillet #15 or so, the manager sat a few tables away, turned his chair backwards, and stared at Bronto. Bronto figured that the manager was making sure he wasn’t stuffing the fillets in some take-out box under his suit or something. The manager looked really displeased, but didn’t say much, possibly because he feared confronting Bronto directly.

Next Tuesday, the manager got clever. “Tell this man that he can eat all he wants of the fillets... but not tartar sauce.” Bronto always laughed when he came to this part. “No tartar sauce? Clever move. I could only eat about 15 then.”

Next Tuesday, the manager said, “Tell him we’re out of iced tea after his third glass. Only soda.” Soda has bubbles, and thus, swells up in your stomach. Bronto could “only stomach 8-9” without tartar sauce and iced tea.

A few weeks later, the restaurant closed down. They never did have many customers; Bronto said often he was dining with only 3-4 other filled tables even at peak evening periods. But he always felt a little guilty, like he might have put them out of business with “all you can eat” flounder Tuesdays he took great advantage of.

It reminds me of a bit by a comedian who said he was once told by management at an “All You Can Eat” Chinese buffet, “That is all you can eat! You go home now!” Posted in: all you can eat , bronto , fantek , restaurant , seafood