1. What is your name?
Well it isn't really fool4luv which I stupidly chose in a moment of critical introspection and the usual panic when one is asked to come up with a username and a password.
But since I share a given name (although spelled differently) with someone who literally made a sock puppet famous, why, oh why, didn't I choose Lamb_Chop as my username?
2. Tell us something about you, your background, and what you've been up to lately?
I'm a superannuated hippie who believes more in Mother Nature than "Our Father who art in Heaven." I was raised in the "Let's go skiing at Lake Berryessa" church, so that might help explain things. I am old, yet not very mature.
I've been retired for a number of years and can't believe how I got anything done before I retired because it seems the days just flash by now in an ever downward, rapidly tightening spiral of time.
Many of my interactions on E2 are in the form of messages when I've noticed minor typo errors on a node, so many of you probably think I'm a nit-picker (you're not entirely wrong), but due to some vision issues I read more slowly than the average noder which is why I notice these things.
I've decided to stop communicating about these unless a noder specifically notifies me that they want me to message them about any errors I notice in their writeups (I'll be keeping a list), but please do let me know if you find typos or other errors in my own writeups.
I can be quite long-winded and I use parentheses far too often.
3. How did you discover Everything, and how did you become a Noder?
I truly cannot remember how I discovered E2, so it was probably by accident that I came across The strawberry myth by clockworkgrue which tickled my funny bone. I lurked for a time, paddling through the nodegel using links which sounded interesting to me (both hard links and soft links) as my water-wings. After a very short time I decided to create an account.
4. What are your favorite writeups -- both your own and from other noders?
Standing on a mountaintop in northern Siberia under the rapidly descending bulk of asteroid McAlmont, with a calculating expression and a baseball bat by Sam512.
A lot of the nodes by phluid. They are hilarious and I'm sorry he left E2. Some favorites: When being chased by CIA trainees, don't mention Belgium to the waffle house physicist, So there I was, naked and hiding, facing the dissertation committee from the Isle of Lesbos, and The girls had gone wild and now my dad's cock was missing.
And, of course the various nodes in the Von Wicked Chronicles by Evil Catullus.
For my own, I think Slay Me With Kisses was the most enjoyable to write. I wanted to tell most of the story through dialogue.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite memories from E2's history?
My favorite memory was collaborating with IWho on A Modernized Dystopic Horoscope which was published under his username.
I also enjoyed running the Tell Me a Story Quest and if I think of another topic I may propose another one. NB: I waited until after the Quest was over to finish this Interview because I wasn't sure if it was going to be a "most" or a "least" favorite!
6. What keeps you coming back (or not coming back, as the case may be)?
Housework avoidance?
No, it's actually that I've always enjoyed reading and there is a wide variety here on E2. I may abandon the site for periods of a few weeks or months, but this place has a quirky charm that Twitter and other sites do not. I've probably come back more often during the pandemic as a substitute for "real" human interaction.
I also enjoy sharing my thimbleful of knowledge via my own writeups, and I'm just too lazy to create a genealogy blog (besides, Ancestry has cornered the market on that subject).
7. What do you hope for E2's future?
- That it continues.
- That it continues to support the Warm Understatement by DonJaime theme which I use due to my vision issues. The default small-print, blue-grey theme is hard on my eyes; "eye" need large font and high contrast.
8. What does E2 mean to you?
Entertainment.
9. Who are your favorite noders? Which ones do you miss the most?
Zephronias: The girl just seems so nice! Plus, of course, she's a good writer.
Evil Catullus: because he's just so wickedly funny, yet can also write deeply emotional nodes.
Clockmaker: Even though he believes Oregon is filled with weird hippies and trees (to be fair, it is). I assume from his name he is from Switzerland.
Hazelnut: he has an amusing and brash way of expressing himself, however I imagine it will get him in trouble some day when he calls the wrong person a cunt or a fuckwit. From his writeups I envision him as a cross between Prince Harry and Bigfoot, stomping around, angrily screaming like Sam Kinison. *
For solid, informative, and entertaining writeups I know I can rely on Jet-Poop, iceowl, Tem42, Rancid_Pickle, The Custodian, and Alex.
It makes me sorry when reading and enjoying a node to look at the top and see a username who hasn't been on the site for 10 or 15 years, or when I go to the homepage of someone such as Corvus, whose writeups I enjoyed and find all the writeups were deleted, but one of my favorites and also one I probably miss the most is IWhoSawTheFace. He was a truly charming man with a fun sense of humor and such a zest for math, science, and life (he was also a big flirt!). I was so sad to read of his death.
There are many others, like moeyz and NanceMuse who it seems haven't been around in a while, but I'm old so may have forgotten some of my favorites. And now, during the pandemic, I worry about those noders who haven't been seen in the time since it started.
10. Who would play you in the Everything2 movie?
I'd like it to be Frances McDormand, but it would most likely be some minor character actress whose name nobody ever remembers.
11. Please fill in the blank: "E2 is to the Internet as ___ is to the world."
Jack's Country Store.
The old regulars pop in often to pick up things and visit with friends; these people know where almost everything is kept, but the place still holds surprises. People new to the area and tourists wander up and down the aisles looking for what they don't even know they want.
There's a small group over near the kitty litter who've struck up a conversation. They flirt and banter back and forth for a time but two of them wander over to the meat market section while the rest eventually drift away to finish their shopping or ride out to do some beachcombing. An old woman who didn't want to interrupt their conversation takes advantage of their leaving to sidle over and get some treats for her many, many cats.
A lone man is staring sightlessly at the frozen T.V. dinners wondering how he's going to live--much less eat--now that his wife has left him.
A confident, happy, middle-aged man is in the hardware section choosing nuts and bolts for a project he's working on at home. He likes to keep himself busy.
A pretty young woman with a huge smile for the cashier hasn't got quite enough money to pay for the bread and peanut butter on the counter. She says she brought the wrong wallet. The man who is buying nuts and bolts is behind her and kindly helps her out, which is lucky, since she doesn't have another wallet and is living in her car. At least now she'll have something to eat tonight.
The cashier is just counting the minutes for his shift to end so he can go over to Doc's for a beer and a game of pool.
There's that one creepy guy in the kids' toy area. Wonder why he's wearing a trench coat on such a warm day ...
A woman is searching the large community bulletin board at the store entrance, looking through the many scraps of paper thumb tacked up. There are all sorts of ads and notices, some newer pieces covering up the older ones underneath. An old guy pushes the door open and a huge wind gust makes the papers flap and flutter, blowing some of them clean off the corkboard. She sees just what she had been looking for: an ad for a handyman that had been covered by a Yard Sale sign.
You can find almost anything at Jack's (and E2) if you look hard enough.
12. Any questions that I didn't ask that I should've?
"Do one's poor decisions in life truly make for the best stories?"
* Note: "Hazelnut says Ahahahahah. Bigfoot I'll agree to, but Prince Harry? Please, if I'm ever acting that cuntstruck please, for the love of cake, just take me out the back and shoot me." Objection noted, but overruled by user fool4luv. However she has now placed one of those little white wigs over the ginger locks in her image of user Hazelnut.
Everything2 Decaversary Interviews
If you have questions or comments, please contact fool4luv or Jet-Poop.