Shorah from Michigan

[Seamus26]

Shorah, friends!

My name is Jon and I live in Michigan, USA. I've used my internet handle "seamus26" since 1995. I was registering with AOL at the time, ran out of options for user names and picked the last song on side 1 of Pink Floyd's "Meddle". And history was made, I guess.

It was at that time that I discovered MYST. It actually came with the Mac Performa 638CD I had just purchased. Ah, those were the days ... 33Mhz, 8MB RAM, 14.4K modem ... back when it was a lot of fun to be a Mac user. But MYST ... what can I say? It was the first computer game I ever felt connected to.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I bought the 25th anniversary linking book with Gehn's inkwell. I don't often buy things just to "have", but this was worth having. It came with all the disks on DVD. I had already played Riven through, started Exile, but never really kept up because life happens. URU felt SO cool to me, and I had completely missed that it had been online. Of course, the DVD version wasn't. And I'm a Mac user, so ...

Fast forward AGAIN a few years. COVID had happened. I also found the need to run a Windows only program. That required me to buy a little Lenovo laptop that was just good enough to hate, and I struggled to make Uru work online. It gave me a taste.

In 2022 I bought the M1 MacBook Pro I'm running now. I decided to spring for Parallels to run that software I mentioned. And then it hit me ... you know, I COULD install Uru. And it works just fine. But time constraints and all kept me from investing much time, and let's face it ... the entire MYST series consumes time in large quantities. And then I got sidetracked by AI, and that was a downward spiral.

But, here I am, hopping around the ages in my spare time at work, meeting folks from around the world and enjoying every minute of it.

But outside of the digital realm I am a bit of a music fanatic (I have a basement full of instruments, records and CDs), I am a scooter fanatic (I have five in the garage right now in addition to our two cars), enjoy cooking and camping and inline skating and ... more hobbies than I could ever make time for.

So I really, REALLY needed to join another forum.

[Swifthawk]

Welcome, Jon. I'm glad you're here! I recall seeing you recently in-game.

Your story seems pretty common and I share many of those details, including a room full of instruments - that I almost never play.

If you ever need help with any kind of tech, please let me know. I'm currently quite enthusiastic about web development and almost anything to do with audio/video and home theater. The crossover between them has become my latest obsession, so it's all I talk about.

Thanks for joining us, and I hope to see you around here and the Cavern!

[Seamus26]

I hope to hit more of the meetups. The fact that there's a whole community of outsiders hanging out in the caverns ... I'd move there if I could.

And thanks for the info. Sounds like we have much to talk about.

I love the musical gatherings, although I have to admit during the Christmas music yesterday I was listening to Gary Numan and Joy Division. Shhh ... don't tell anyone. I hear "Feliz Navidad" and it's like a switch in my brain gets flicked and I can't be held responsible for my actions.

[Swifthawk]

I hope to hit more of the meetups.

Our friend Minasunda has created a Discord server where they announce meetups. A link to join is at the top of our home pages.

I'd move there if I could.

We (the wife an I) have wished for a theme park and hotels for years. Like, we'd pay good money to vacation there.

Sounds like we have much to talk about.

Yes! I look forward to chatting. I'm in Discord every day. Feel free to start new topics here all you like.

... I can't be held responsible for my actions.

No worries, there are lots of different tastes in MOULa and here.

I'll take some lemonade ... with vodka?