Computer Communications
Communications. I could barely spell the word, much less comprehend its meaning.
Yet when Mrs. Rubin made the announcement about the new club she was starting at the junior high school, it triggered something in my mind.
Two weeks later, during the last month of my eighth grade year, I figured it out.
I was rummaging through the basement, and I ran across the little blue box that my dad had brought home from work a year earlier. Could this be a modem?
I asked Mrs. Rubin about it the next day at school, and when she verified my expectations, I became the first member of Teleport 2000, the only organization in the city dedicated to introducing students to the information highway.
This was when 2400-baud was considered state-of-the-art, and telecommunications was still distant from everyday life. But as I incessantly logged onto Cleveland
Freenet that summer, sending e-mail and posting usenet news messages until my fingers bled, I began to notice the little things. Electronic mail addresses started popping up on business cards. Those otherwise-incomprehensible computer magazines that my dad brought home from work ran monthly stories on communications-program this, and Internet-system that. Cleveland Freenet's
Freeport software began appearing on systems all over the world, in places as far away as Finland and Germany - with free telnet access!
I didn't live life as a normal twelve-year-old kid that summer. I sat in front of the monitor twenty-four hours a day, eating my meals from a plate set next to the keyboard, stopping only to sleep. When I went back to school in the fall, I was elected the first president of Teleport 2000, partially because I was the only student in-the school with a freenet account, but mostly because my enthusiasm for this new, exciting world was contagious.
Today, as the business world is becoming more aware of the advantages of telecommunications, and the younger generation is becoming more aware of the opportunities, it is successfully being integrated into all aspects of our society. Companies are organizing Local Area Networks and tapping into information resources through internal networking and file sharing, and children of all ages are entertained by the GUI-based commercial systems and amazed by the worldwide system of gopher and search services. As a result, a million more people join the 'net every month, according to a 1994 article by Vic Sussman in
U.S. News & World Report.
They say that the worldwide community used to double its knowledge every century.
Right now, that rate has been reduced to seven years, and is constantly decreasing. I've learned more since I started traveling the information highway
It was my senior year of high school, I was sixteen, getting ready to turn seventeen. It was my senior year of high school. I was not your typical girl wearing makeup everyday and worrying about getting dolled up for school. I did not play sports. Don’t get me wrong, I would get all dolled up if I had something special to do like go to a school dance. I had a part time job at Olive garden because my parents motto was “if you do not play a sport you need to work!” My mom used to say to me “you know Alana back in my time I was not able to work so you are very lucky you're able to work.
We were traveling thought all the beautiful places and cities in the country. During our vacation, one day we stopped at a restaurant in a small town. As we were eating, my 16-year-old cousin said to me hurry up, finish your meal and we’ll go play outside. I was a little boy just turned six years. I was excited to go play outside with my cousin, so I was the first one to finish with my meal.
and tried to return to sleep. Soon after I came to the realization that sleep was a hopeless
court yard, in the cafeteria for breakfast, playing in the hallway; life was good till the next year
I was so excited. I could hardly breathe through the hour drive it took to get there. I was squished between my two ten-year-old best friends in the back seat of a white Saturn, but I didn't care. I was practicing over and over in my head what I was going to say to all the smart-alecky adults who would tell me I was too young to ride the water slides. I was simply going to reply, "Actually I'm ten, going on eleven."
Easy as pie. The next day, I whipped through the 5 sheets of paper like a bullet. At least I was born with high memory capacity. Just in case, I eyed the turn-in basket and waited for two other people to turn in their test papers, so I wouldn’t be “too fast” and “too suspicious”. As I wandered back to my seat, however, Mrs. Pool called me over.
On that fateful day in March, I was a couple months shy of my third birthday. My family and I lived in New Mexico at the time and were renting a house with an outdoor in-ground pool. The day was beautiful. I was outside with my oldest sister Rachel and my father. Rachel was diligently reading curled up on a bench that sat against the house, and my father was mowing the backyard. My mother and my other sister were in the house. Off to one side of the house there was a group of large bushes. I was playing over there with one of her large cooking pots, off in my own little world. At one point while amusing and en...
One Saturday night, Kasi, Beth, Beka, Amy, and I had nothing to do. Like always, at times like this, we decided we would ride around town. We let the top down on Kasi’s vehicle. It was a red Jeep Wrangler, with red interior and big mud tires. We climbed in the Jeep one by one until we were all inside. Amy, Beka, and Beth all sat in the back after a fight about who had said “shotgun” first. The back was the most uncomfortable. The Jeep was only built for two backseat passengers, so with three back there, it was a tough ride. Kasi and I slid into the front seats. We strapped on our seatbelts, trying to convince the three of them in the back to do so. Our friends did not want to bother strapping in because they were too crowded, and there were only two seatbelts anyway. I was sixteen at the time, and they were all seventeen. We were the perfect picture of youth, five young girls packed into a Jeep with shorts, sweatshirts, and ball caps on.
was warm and steamy. I was tan and happy. My dad, my two sisters and I
It was in July, and we wanted to go camping. I asked my dad if we could go up to our family's cabin in Elk Springs, which is near Montrose. He agreed, so Chase, Tyler and I, all sixteen years old, packed our stuff and were ready to go camping. With excitement, we jumped into Chase's truck, and took off to the woods.
outside to hang up all of the icicle lights. I set my tea down and go into the
I’m on a muddy, yellow bus coming back from camp. I'm twelve and so are you. Prior to leaving for camp, I had imagined it would be just me and three, maybe four, other boys that I hadn't met yet, running around all summer, getting ourselves into trouble. Playing games and just enjoying our summer. You know, typical boy stuff. Ultimately it ended up being me and this one girl. That's you. As long as we are still on the bus its like we are still at camp. Once we reach the pickup point where our parents would be waiting for us camp will be over.
with the white scrunched up piece of paper that told me my classes, I tried to
It was the second semester of fourth grade year. My parents had recently bought a new house in a nice quite neighborhood. I was ecstatic I always wanted to move to a new house. I was tired of my old home since I had already explored every corner, nook, and cranny. The moment I realized I would have to leave my old friends behind was one of the most devastating moments of my life. I didn’t want to switch schools and make new friends. Yet at the same time was an interesting new experience.
computer. One day my parents went for a trip without me because I was in