INTENSITY
Sorry about the screaming.
I wrote this 33 years ago for a BBS in Alto Vista CA through a WorldGroup BBS link that our son was running through (2) 56k modems and a phone line in our Cape Coral house.
<I post them as I get them. DT>
IN ANOTHER PLACE, ANOTHER TIME, THESE CONDITIONS MIGHT BE CONSIDERED INTOLERABLE.
BUT HERE IN THE SHROUD OF DARKNESS IT’S PRESENCE REIGNS SUPREME, FOR IT IS…AN ENTITY OF THE NIGHT.
THE MASSIVE BULK, ONE HUNDRED TIMES LARGER THAN IT’S MOST COMMON ADVERSARY, ALONG WITH A NEVER ENDING HUNGER, TO KILL AND DEVOUR, IS PERPETUAL MOTION ON PATROL.
SENSES TUNED TO RAZOR ACCURACY, NOTHING STANDS IN IT’S WAY.
A SMALL CREATURE SHUDDERS IN IT’S BLACK, DAMP RECESS AS THE TELL TALE SIGNS SHOW THAT IMMINENT DANGER IS APPARENT.
PARALYZED WITH FEAR, THE POTENTIAL VICTIM HOLDS IT’S BREATH, BLOOD COURSING THROUGH IT’S ARTERIES AT OVER FOUR HUNDRED BEATS A MINUTE, IT IS TIME TO DIE.
BUT THROUGH MILLIONS OF YEARS OF EVOLUTION THE SMALL CREATURE HAS DEVELOPED IT’S RESOURCES ALSO.
THE PRIMARY REASONS FOR BEING, ARE CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT THE LIFE WEB.
PROCREATE AND IMPROVE.
WITHOUT THESE, NO LIFE CAN BE.
THIS IS HOW IT LIVES.
SELF DEFENSE AND NUTRITIONAL ACQUISITIONS ARE TECHNIQUES DEVELOPED TO SUPPLEMENT THOSE EFFORTS.
STEALTH AND COURAGE, OR BLIND FEAR, TO TAKE A CHANCE AND THE ABSOLUTE NECESSITY TO PERSEVERE, ARE THE TOOLS OF THE SMALL CREATURE.
IT IS STRICTLY DEFENSIVE TO THOSE LARGER THAN ITSELF.
TO THOSE OF THE DIMINUTIVE NATURE, THE OBVERSE IS SIMILARLY TRUE. PREY BECOMES PREDATOR.
THE LAST PAGE IN THE LIFE STORY OF ALL SMALL CREATURES IS SIMILAR.
A FIGHT TO THE END, OR SUCCUMB AS A VICTIM.
IN IT’S FINAL DEATH SPIRAL, ULTIMATELY, IT TOO CAN WIN.
ERRATIC CONVULSING AND FLAILING MAY SOMETIMES INFLICT WOUNDS THAT EVENTUALLY DEFEAT THE ASSAILANT.
AT FIRST, THIS MAY SEEM TO BE A FINAL ACT OF RETALIATION.
MORE THAN LIKELY IT WILL SERVE TO TEACH THE AGGRESSOR TO BE MORE CAREFUL NEXT TIME….IF IT’S WOUNDS ARE NOT FATAL.
Well I learned something new today Mr Ghost, thanks for that.
Your note preceding the “Intense” posting was like Greek to me. So I looked up all the funny words and now know all about world link and BBSs!
The rest of the post was definitely anxiety inducing.
hmmm. . . me too. Please explain what a BBS is–thank you!
From Wikipedia a quick definition:
“A BBS link typically refers to a connection to a Bulletin Board System (BBS), which is a computer server that allows users to connect and exchange messages, upload and download files, and participate in online discussions. BBS links can also refer to specific services or games that are accessible through those systems.”
Yes, from back in the old “modem” days, before the internet.
It was sort of an underground society and most people never heard of it. I never heard of it until our 12 yo son told me about it.
There were 10’s of thousands of hubs across the country and around the world, each a tiny portal, that a clever person could leapfrog to (to avoid long distance phone charges) anywhere.
To get to the server in alto vista CA I had to type in dozens of modem strings in the proper sequence and hope everybody along the way was “online”. If there was one break in the chain it wouldn’t work.
At that time I had an IBM 286 computer with, get this, 2 mb (not gb) of RAM, a 40 mb (not gb) hard drive, a 5-1/4″ floppy drive, and a 13″ monitor that had green letters on a black background.
For all you youngsters out there – anyone not really recalling the glorious 90s (30 years ago??? Huh?), this is what you’ve been missing every single, pray to God, time-wasting time you wanted to connect. Sometimes you’d get a blazing connection speed of 2Mb/sec.
56k modem
“In early 1993, the fastest available modem was capable of transferring data at a maximum speed of 14.4 kilobits per second (kbps), equivalent to 864kb per minute, or 51.84Mb per hour. The launch of the 28.8k modem in 1994 doubled this theoretical maximum. 33.6k modems followed in 1996, and eventually 56k ones arrived in 1998.
In theory, the launch of the 56k modem allowed for a maximum data transfer speed almost four times as fast as the 14.4k one, with the promise of 3.36 Mb of data transfer per minute, or 201.6 Mb per hour.
However, in practice the maximum advertised speeds were never attained for any dial-up modems as a result of latencies in the infrastructure serving data to end-users. For example, it was common for large file downloads requested on a 28k modem to run at an average of between 1 and 6kbps. Thus, the true speed of data transfer in a real-world setting was often only about one fifth of the advertised one.”
As a reference, each photo from my 10yo camera is 75Mb.
Got my first computer in 2004. AOL dial-up.
Kept it as is until I moved back to Ohio in 2012.
It’s all I knew and it did all I wanted including starting my blog in 2006. If it was slow I didn’t know it. Ignorance can be bliss.