> > The_Scots"Visiting since November 1998,
> roughly"man
>
> It is fitting that I insert my response to this post
> as a reply to Scotsman's, since he is the one
> who introduced me to RinkWorks. I have a
> feeling he probably sent me the link to the
> Dialectizer the same day he received it, so I've
> been visiting this place since (roughly) the
> same month and year as he.

Hrm. After reading Grishny's post, I feel the brief one I gave earlier is beginning to look woefully inadequate. Therefore, let me elaborate.

In October/November of 1998, I was working a network support contract that really didn't have much for me to do. Some tape backups, and server maintenance was pretty much it. Thusly, I was bored stiff at my job. I had even done a complete hardware inventory of the entire building and they still didn't have anything for me to do. So I spent my time web surfing. Not the best activity to do at work, but hey, they couldn't come up with anything else, and I was current on my certifications.

It was during this dull job that a buddy of mine from the company that I work for (not on the same contract though) emailed me a link to the Dialectizer. I don't know where he got it from, but he obviously didn't check out the site other than to translate our corporate website into Jive and mail it to the CEO. I, on the other hand, had plenty of time on my hands. I decided to chop off the rest of the URL and take a look at the root site that had produced such an amusing utility. Thusly, I discovered RinkWorks. I really became excited about the site when I discovered Sam and Dave's Dual of the Ages, since Grishny and I had been writing something similar to that for years.

I had found the message forum as well, but due to regulations regarding chatting at work, I was (and still am, dangnabbit!) forbidden to post anything to the Message Forum while on the job. I suppose it was for the best, since I had by then switched contracts to one that actually NEEDED my skills, and my availability became much more limited. At the time, I didn't have home network access either, something that I wouldn't remedy until April 2000. Sadly, that meant that for over a WHOLE YEAR, I was a lurker on a site that I really wanted to post to. This is also why Grishny posted to the forums before I did. And why he posted much more frequently, too.

Okay, that's not the entire reason, either. Starting at around September of 2000, I had a really nasty string of bad luck with my PCs. If it wasn't my memory going bad, it was the modem. If it wasn't the modem acting up, it was static-filled phone lines. If it wasn't the phone lines, it was random freezing issues. The latest in all of this was that my motherboard finally kicked the bucket around last Christmas. Bah. Obviously, I now have a new motherboard, and a new modem, and a new house with new phone lines, so hopefully I'll be able to post more often now! (Just watch... now because of all this new junk, I won't be able to make my ISP payment and I'll be kicked offline again. It WOULD be consistant with my luck so far.) Do you see the lengths I have to go to in order to get my RinkWorks fix???

But I'm not bitter... Not in the least!
See... I'm smiling! :)

And so far, things are looking good, at least for the two weeks that I have been back online!

The_Scots"Okay, that's enough..."man