To the one I love.
Okay, technically, I have had many loves. In fact, too many to count. To be honest, I don’t even know if I could remember all their names at the moment, there have been so many. But there was that one, in the beginning (not my first but definitely my most intense) who stands out, head and shoulders above the rest. The one who makes me forget all the others, and the moment I hear their name, I get lost in that madness all over again. Every time I get a reminder of our relationship, I get the shivers (the good kind, of course), and I’m immediately immersed in the world of, “What if?” What if things had continued longer? Where would we be now, and how would things be different?
I’m speaking, of course, about the television show that first turned me from a fan into a fanatic. Wait, what? Did you think I meant something else? *evil grin*
At any rate, my first official Fandom Friday has to be about Farscape – the show that sent me scampering for teh interwebs after viewing the first half dozen or so episodes way back in 1999 (yes, the intertubes existed back then). Because of the wonderousness of the show, I jumped head first into the scary and previously-unknown-to-me world of Usenet and newsgroups. Before I knew what had happened, I’d helped to create alt.tv.farscape, and put together the document known as the atf FAQ that I hosted on my brand spankin’ new website.
Here’s a little love note…, errr post from February 10, 2000, recounting how the whole affair started for me –
Hey Venom,
I didn’t see your post (thanks to Anna for replying to it), so I’ll jump in here. For some reason, I have April 24th as the date of creation in my posts from around that time, but I’m sure Anna’s information from Deja is correct. This is how I remember it – someone named Carol (aka NINJA ) sent out a bunch of creation messages for a bunch of groups (including a.t.f. and alt.tv.first-wave) without going through the alt.config process. Jay from alt.config almost immediately sent out cancel messages for them, but it wasn’t until Venom posted to the newsgroup on May 1st that I got involved (remember Venom – this is all your fault ). I posted a formal proposal and charter on May 1st, and after bouncing it around alt.config for a couple of weeks, I was told I could send out booster messages as soon as the second season was confirmed. Someone from Jim Henson Productions mistakenly told me on May 21st that she found out the second season was a lock, so one of the alt.config regulars posted a booster message for me.
Just for kicks, here’s the justification from the “official” booster message on 5/21/99 –
“Justification:
In the 28 days since the newsgroup was created, there have been 250 messages from over 40 different posters. There are already 13 websites, a webring, fan fiction websites, an FAQ, and a plan for action figures to be released. It will begin airing in the UK and Australia sometime later this year.
With the Scifi Channel and The Jim Henson Company involved, it should be around for quite a while (they’ve already committed to a second season). I expected 20 to 50 posts per day once the group is propagated.”
And the rest, as they say, is history………
—
Traci (to reply, remove “NOTHANKS”)
“Am I wrong to believe in a city of gold/that lies in the deep distance…”
Genesis – A Trick of the Tail
Creator/Maintainer of the alt.tv.farscape FAQ http://pages.prodigy.net/cailibear/alt.tv.farscapeFAQ.htm
Because of that amazing show, I learned so many technical web thingies that I can’t even count them on my fingers and toes. I hung out in chat rooms and on message boards, and got to “unofficially” talk to cast and crew, who were so incredibly awesome that they hung out online with the fans whenever the chance presented itself. When our son had medical issues at eighteen months old, Pilot’s lead puppeteer was kind enough to email me a sketch done by the lead puppeteer for Rygel, of Rygel (which still exists, in hard copy form, somewhere in my file cabinet).
I could go on and on (and believe me, I will – this is only the first of FF posts to address my ongoing love affair with all things Farscape), but I’ll stop here.
Oh, wait!
How could I do a Scaper post, and not mention the most awesome of the Farscape Fan sites – A Snurcher’s Guide to Farscape? She has an incredibly comprehensive database of all kinds of Scaperdom info that totally puts my website to shame. But given that she’s also such a drad nixa, I’m happy to call her friend (yes, we’ve met many times in RL, and she’s even cooler in person).
Have a frelling fantastic Friday!
Feel free to shout out!