Personal

Photo by Bob Fayne

I've been playing around with modems since '88, starting out with a 1200 baud modem,
which I thought was fast after briefly trying a 300 baud and finding that it wasn't
going to cut it. I quickly found out that I wanted to be on the operating end of
things & joined a local SysOp (Mike Mendillo of IBM World) to help run his board.
That lasted a little over a year before I put up my own board (IBM World II) to help
the new users find their way around and avoid the pitfalls that I had encountered
when I started. We then added yet another BBS to the line. It was called IBM
World's Kitchen and was operated by a Chef (Allen Shevach) and his wife (Teresa).
They now have a nice son, Joshua.

NOTE 2006:

I've lost touch with Allen, Teresa and Mike.
If they see this, it would be nice to hear from them. Joshua must me a teen by now.

In '92 I started a network, centering on a women's only conference. We branched
out from that one conference to many and from a few boards in RI to others in other
states and eventually Brazil. It was a small net (WinCnet) and had the feeling of
being at home. The network was closed in '93 due to the fact that I just didn't have
the time for it anymore. The BBS ceased to exist January 1, 1997. All this was back
before the Internet was used by anyone other than Colleges and Universities. It was
a great way of communicating with people all over the world without having to leave
your chair. Other networks were also around such as RIME. Basically it was just a
chain of BBS's doing relays throughout the chain of boards delivering messages all
over the world. USNET news was also around at that time, but only boards with some
type of internet access could get it. IDS was one of those boards.

I've known Andy (Green) since late '89 or so and have followed IDS from a local
multi-lined board to what it is today. I started answering the phone for IDS in
August, 1993. I enjoy getting the new user up and running successfully and then to
hear how much they are enjoying their new experience. I can still remember what it
was like to be faced with a modem and a program and not having the foggiest notion
what to do with them. Programs and modems change, but it's still basically the
same.... a state of confusion.... I left IDS in 1998. It was sold in 1999.

Update 2006:

Last I knew, Andy was in Florida. I believe this is (or was) his website:
http://www.fboweb.com/

While I was running IBM World II I registered a domain name.. ibmii.com. When the
internet really started to take off I found I had IBM (the real one) on my case.
Since I was using IBM in my domain name, they decided they didn't want me to
continue. I had a couple of phone calls from them and their attorney's and then one
day this came in the mail. I decided not to respond because I really wasn't taking
them seriously and before I knew it I had a more official letter arrive. Page 1
(That's a lot of names!) and Page 2 . I again chose to do nothing and just let
the domain name drop. I'm not sure just how far they would have taken
it, but it wasn't worth it to me to find out. :-)

I've lived in 5 states (Massachusetts, California, Virginia, Missouri and Rhode
Island), traveled thru 45 states and lived in Spain for a short time. Weatherwise, I
prefer San Diego, but the best time was on the farm in Missouri where we raised
cattle and pigs. I'm not crazy about the weather in the east or the fact that we
only get 3 months of summer if we are lucky. San Diego is beautiful year round and
even in Missouri it's nice from April to November. :-)

Update 2000:

Since writing the above, Bob and I have moved across the country to California.
He is working in the Silicon Valley in networking and we are loving the
weather out here.... sure beats snow and below zero cold. :-)

Update 2006:

Another update: 2002 found us moving back to Missouri - ended up in St. Louis,
where we are now (2006). We hope to be able to go back to California someday - time will tell.

Update 2006: #2

Another update: We moved from St. Louis in October to Louisville where we bought a house, Bob's first ever.
Click on Ky Home above to see where we are now.

So, that's about it for me except that I'm the mother of two, the grandmother of
3 and Great Grandmother of 2. Debbie is in Missouri and Stephen is
in Rhode Island, with his own Excavating business.

Update 2006:

Bob and I were able to go to Australia in 2002 and had a wonderful time. He went
on to China as it was a 5 week business trip for him. :-) He had a ball and saw the
Great Wall of China and the Panda's in their natural home and a lot of other things
we only see in pictures. He also went to Denmark on business.
And to think he had never been west of the Mississippi when I met him. :-)

Send me some e-mail