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[disnut8]

I got home from work tonight and logged into one of my email accounts.  It's a "junk" one but the address is where I ask people who read my Disney trip reports to send emails to (yes, I have a fan base and it's quite interesting).

I saw a new message entitled "Trip Report".  I ask that anyone who emails me about the reports use that as a subject line so I can filter out spam.  Then I saw just who was sending it.  Paul E. Smith.  I did a double take.  The only Paul Smith I've ever known was the best man at our original wedding.  RichN's best friend in college.  We had lost touch over the years but had a crazy weekend for his wedding.  RichN and I took Elmono to a Capitals hockey game, dropped the little guy off at a friend's house for the weekend and then drove all night to Columbia, SC for Paul's wedding to a woman we had never met.

Paul had googled our last name and found my Disney trip reports.  He's amazed that we are now grandparents (hey, Demon Child!).

Goes to show once again that when people started predicting the internet would be the end of all communications, they were flat out wrong.  It's not making the world a smaller place, but enhancing it so much more.  Just a super cool thing to get in the "mail".

[elmono311]

The internet is probably the reason why me and Super keep in contact.

[Supermercado]

Same with Rolando and I. Of course, you and I have been talking over the internet since like 9th grade. In fact, I'd just about be willing to bet that we've talked more online than we have in person.

[Vengeance]

You wouldn't be grandparents if it weren't for the internet. 

I think that's so great that he got in touch with you. The internet is really nice for looking up people that you've lost touch with.

[RichN]

Sigh, makes me feel old.  I remember when there WASN'T an internet.  I started teaching in the AF during the infancy of internet, with the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), and MILNET.  The only people who could afford internet access was the government.  The first computer I worked on occupied half of the bottom floor of this rather large concrete building known as the "blockhouse".  You walked through the vacuum tubes to get to the control panel.  The other half of the basement contained the backup computer.  Only two computers on an entire floor.  Ah, what memories.

[elmono311]

I tell people about that good ole 1952 computer and they're wowed by the size of it.

[RichN]

And it probably had the processing power of a Commodor 64.

[LostArtofRolando]

Probably less than that.  My grandfather worked for IBM from the 1940s til the 80s.  It's amazing how much things have changed.  He worked on designing components of the Space Shuttle at one point in time, and he NEVER even had a bit of college.
 
Yeah, John and I have talked more over the internet than in person as well, seeing as how i knew him the last two years of high school, and 5 years since then, haha.  But we've traded a lot more music in that time than some people have ever heard in their lifetimes.

[disnut8]

And let's not forget keeping in touch with family.  Thank goodness Elmono introduced us old fogies to AIM.  Now we get to bug him and Vengeance on a daily basis.

[Supermercado]

My dad used to bug me several times a day on AIM when I first started college. He'd ask me how every class was, what I had for every meal, what time I got up that morning, etc. I eventually changed my screen name. Email and at least one phone call a week is plenty, I think.

[Vengeance]

Dude...you blocked your Dad?!?!?! 

[Supermercado]

I didn't block him... It really got to the point for a while that every time I sat down at the computer, he'd start asking questions. There's really not very often that you can have a conversation with my dad and not have it turn into a game of 20 Questions.

He'd have made a great interrogator....

[disnut8]

I must be a different parent.  Most of the time, I wait for Elmono or Vengeance to ping me.  I figure they have their own lives.

You could always just put up an Away message and ignore the posts.

[LostArtofRolando]

My dad can't type fast enough to keep up with me.  He'll get online and i'll say like 5 things to him before he can even say hi back.  For being a guy who builds computers for fun and spends hours a day perusing the web, he has the typing speed and accuracy of an elephant (his fingers must feel that big).

[Supermercado]

My dad's kind of the same way. He can't type for beans.

[Vengeance]

I must be a different parent. Most of the time, I wait for Elmono or Vengeance to ping me. I figure they have their own lives.

Well I'm glad I know that since I'm always sitting here wondering if you're going to talk to me. hehehe.

BTW, my mom can't type either. She does okay, but only if she stares at her hands. Then she stops a bit at a time and looks over what she typed so she makes sure she doesn't have a mess on the screen.

It must be a parent thing. Although I think disnut and Rich type okay.

[disnut8]

That's because we both took this course in high school called Typing.  I guess these days it's called Keyboarding.  At one point, I could type 90 words a minute.  And just to show how old I am, the typewriter I learned on was *gasp* a manual one - it wasn't even an electric one.

[elmono311]

What are typewriters?

[LostArtofRolando]

keyboarding is now in elementary and middle school.  I know 5th graders who can type 90 wpm.  Crazy stuff... this might blow people's minds.  My job at the library required me to use a manual typewriters at times, so the last time i used one was December 2004, less than a year ago.  I hated that thing.

[Vengeance]

Grandma's got an ancient one somewhere. That thing just scared me.

[RichN]

Just don't get your fingers caught in the thing.  I remember growing up and putting my finger (or my brother's) in front of the striker and hitting the key as hard as you can.  Ah, wasted youth.  Nothing greater.