So this is absolutely true:

When I was 14, I wrote the (as far as I can determine) first parser-driven BBS in the world, basically creating the first purpose-driven, "multi-player" online adventure game, with the following caveats:

- Unis had such games themselves, but their access was limited to other university students and not the general public.

- It's also possible that someone else might have done the same thing before me, but I have never found any record of a such a BBS or online game existing prior to 1981.

The name of the BBS was 'New House of Wrath' and it featured a house that you explored via simple verb-noun syntax. Each room in the house was a BBS function (various text games which I wrote myself / a message base / a philez repository / a graffiti wall) as well as a simple underlying adventure in the style of Zork. The whole thing was written in sloppy TRS-DOS BASIC on a TRS-80 Model III and resided within 48k of memory including a primitive DB engine that I wrote. I still have a 8-pin dot-maxtrix print out of the code.

Shortly after my BBS went "online", a couple of multi-line BBSs sprung up, but these were straight BBSs without an overlying structure like mine.

At the time, I thought nothing of writing the BBS other than it was a fun thing to do. 80 Micro, the magazine that covered all things TRS-related, was going to write a story about my BBS, but nothing ever came of it. I ran it until about 1986 when I finally gave up because everyone was going to online service like Compu$erve and Prodigy.

I know I'll never get a single bit of credit for what I did, but I know what I did and I'm proud of my little contribution to the online world; that'll have to be enough.

The fucked-up part is employers will still hire Gen Z (or whatever the fuck they're called) over highly skilled Gen X because employers think that Gen Z are harder workers and not over-entitled and self-important cunts -- which they are.

Also, they can't code for shit, have never heard of Linux, and their entire lives revolve around spending endless amounts of time on Facebook, Instagram, and whatever else is presenting Short Attention Span Theater that day. Skills and experience? Yeah, OK, Boomer.

Man, that fish coming out of the hole reminds me of the time I won a burrito-eating contest.

Ok, who DIDN'T think I was gonna upvote this?

Also, foxes are astoundingly high-energy mammals. Sadly they pay for it with short lifespans.

In other news, meth has finally made it to Finland.

I don't know, but there's a few things that concern me:

1. Underestimating your advisory. We did this with Japan in the lead up to WW2. Great powers always fight the last war they won. In our case, that's WW2. China learned from the war they lost as well: WW2, and they're not going to make the same mistakes twice.

2. Ambiguous defense posture. This is how England got dragged into WW1 due to an uncertain position if Germany invaded France. Germany gambled that England wouldn't get involved because it had no spoken mutual defense agreement with France. Had the defense pact been made readily clear, it's possible Germany wouldn't have invaded.

2. Use it or lose it weapons. In WW1, one of the main issues with the initial invasion was train schedules. Things had to go perfectly to get men and material to the front line and any hiccup could delay a military victory. Once the very first German troop train left the station, there was no way to stop the invasion. Now we've got a situation where a war over Taiwan would be won or lost in about an hour of the first shot. China knows that should the US get involved, China's military assets are going to be blown up and fast. This puts China in a situation where they might choose the launch everything in a maximum impact first strike. Faced with overwhelming damage, the US would be forced to make some hard choices about how to respond. Would it go nuclear? It's according to how much Taiwan means to us.

"It won't happen". Go to Europe and see how many tombstones bear that inscription.

I'd say 50/50.

"Out of the Blue" is such an underrated album and ELO is a far better group than they've ever been given credit for.

In other ELO news, in 2022 Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs is releasing a SACD of 'Eldorado', remastered from the original master tape. This is the first ELO remaster ever issued by MFSL.

Auguste Lumière, who along with his brother, made what is considered the first motion picture ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers_Leaving_the_Lumi%C3%A8re_Factory ) lived long enough that he could have seen War of the Worlds.

I'll bet right now that there's a lawyer figuring out how to sue a whale.

"Money" by Pink Floyd is in 7/4.

I'm being cremated should I fail in my attempt at immorality, but I've already bought my plaque. It says simply:

"Thought I'd something more to say..."

I'm totally serious, too.

"Lies"?

No, there really were Nazis. Seriously. People all saw them, like in Belgium and stuff.

Belgium is real, too.

You think you've seen some shit? Spend five minutes behind these baby blues and Hellraiser will look like The Sound of Fucking Music.

You shouldn't try to get away, Judy; you know I'll always catch you again...

You don't slow down for AWESOME!!

No.