Glossary

APA Centauri/AC

An amateur publisher's association which I joined at the end of 1998. Not the most genteel bunch you've ever met (a point in their favor in my book) but a lot of fun. Why hadn't I ever heard about APA's before?

Birthday Sis

Not really my sister. She's a friend of mine who is not quite ten years younger than me who has the same birthday I do. She's also a fencer and a pretty god one. One of these days I'll get to fence her. (06/2003) And I did! Three times now (in actual competition) and she beat me all three times. She'd better keep practicing if she wants to maintain that record for long!

Boru

A fellow wizard on a social MOO and a champion hugger. Look out for your ribs! He's also one of those amazing people who met his SO online and ended up making it work in real life. Unfortunately that means he moved halfway across the country from me.

The Candy Man

A co-worker who regularly comes by my desk with candy he's taken from someone else's desk. He also likes to give me grief about not having candy at my own desk, so sometimes I bring some in.

Cerebus

My favorite comic book and the only one I read regularly. It's the creation of Dave Sim with some help from Gerhard. It's been running since 1977 (I didn't start reading until 1984) and is due to finish at issue #300 sometime around the year 2002.(10/2002) Ok, let's make that 2003.

Charon

The editor and publisher of Point 5 and a charmingly crazy person I know only through email and his writing. (10/2002) He disappeared for awhile but I got back in contact with him this fall. Things are better but Point 5 is still defunct.

Darius

A good friend and fellow wizard on a social MOO and one of the few friends I have who is truly conservative, although I am convinced he's really a closet hippy. He on the other hand is quite firm in his belief that I'm really a conservative who just hasn't realized it yet. We don't get nearly enough time together to talk.

Elf

One of the zaniest and dearest online friends I have and one of the few I've met in person. Hanging out with Elf online is always a bright spot in my day.

Eric

A college student in the upper midwest. He's also one of the "kids" who most often bug me about helping them with MOO coding. Eric can get irritating sometimes but he's also one of the most loyal friends you'll ever have. (10/2002) No word from him in over a year now. I hope he's doing well wherever he is.

fiasco

Hey! That's me! I'm a 30-ish (creeping up on forty, good heavens) programmer who lives in the midwest. I'm married with two (now adult) stepkids, two cars, two motorcycles, two cats, too many complaints and not enough time. Have epee; will travel.

hubby

The spouse type person, the one I live with, the one I put up with because having him around is infinitely preferable to not having him around. Love, ain't it grand?

J

A friend who's asked to have his name removed.

Jon

One of my oldest and youngest online friends. Oldest in that I met him within six months of when I started MOOing. Youngest in that he turned nineteen less than I month before I started this journal, which makes him, well, a fair bit younger than I am. All of which is largely irrelevant as he's also one of my closest friends. (10/2002) He's in grad school contemplating a thesis topic as well as being recently married so he doesn't have much time for that online stuff these days, but he's also incredibly happy. More power to him.

Kernat

Zoe's spouse, Kernat is a crazy new friend as of 2001. New friends are good! He's also a bridge partner and occasional accomplice (instigator) of crimes like taking chain mail classes and other things. Ms.K.'s dad.

Lisa

Lisa is my stepdaughter. She is diagnosed as attention deficit and obsessive compulsive and has been on various medications to deal with it since about 1990. She turned seventeen the month I started this journal.

Louise

Louise is hubby's ex-wife. She lives in the same town and they share full joint custody of their kids. I complain about her a fair amount. It's not entirely without cause but I try not to assume that she's always the villain. She doesn't make it easy. (10/2002) The kids are both now over eighteen, out of highschool, and we no longer pay Louise any support for them. But they're both still living with her for now and life continues to be interesting. (06/2003) Louise and Lisa have moved south to live with Louise's mother.

Matt

A 50-ish professor, avid tennis player, and fellow wizard at the Brandeis MOO, and a well matched Scrabble opponent for me, even if we very rarely play these days.

Max

My stepson, who was fifteen when this journal began. He's rather a decent kid, even if he does have problems getting his homework turned in on time. (10/2002) He left high school this year without getting his diploma. Since then he's been looking for a job that won't compromise his morals while plotting how to move out of his mother's house. (06/2003) After a brief stint of semi-independence, Max is now living with us again. He's still looking for that job though.

Mica

Sweet, intelligent, built like a Hindu goddess, and likes to shop. I don't know her very well but Jon is happier when he gets to spend time with her so it would be hard for me to dislike her. (10/2002) Except that Jon broke things off and ended up dating and marrying her best friend. That caused the sort of soap opera wone would expect but I got to miss almost all of that. Mica didn't get invited to the wedding. Pam did.

MOO

One of the things I do too much of. MOO is an online, interactive, user-modifiable and extendable, text-based environment. I help run three different educational MOOs (one of those on a very part-time basis), and one social MOO. I also have characters on more other MOOs than I really care to count, but I only log in regularly to about ten or so. See? I told you I did too much of this stuff. (10/2002) I don't do nearly as much of it now as I did when this journal started but it's still a part of my life and I still have good friends there, but it's been a long time since I made any new friends through the medium so I expect the downward trend will continue.

Ms. K.

My cute little goddaughter, born April 5, 2003.

Ms. Technical Incompetent

Recently (11/1998) made the head of Technical Writing, this woman is nice, but one of the banes of my corporate existence. She has a lot of problems. I do my level best to ensure that her problems aren't my problems. (8/1999) I seem to have been successful in that she has now left the company.

Whatta Fiasco