I attended Carnegie Mellon University, where students, faculty, and staff had access to an internal set of bulletin boards, the most popular being the graffiti.* hiearchy. A graffiti board is much what you would think it is, a place where a person can say and write whatever they feel like. It was common that each residental floor had their own graffiti board, and by the unwritten code of ethics, you subscribed to only your board, and perhaps your {boy|girl}friend's board as well.
My freshman year floor was very special. The people on my floor, with rare exception, were members of a new program called University Choice program. UCP was a program where students with interest in more than one area of concentration were admitted to more than of the colleges and had their freshman year to decide which area to pursue. This, of course, meant that these people were highly talented, and were, without question, some of the most intelligent members of the class. I, of course, was not part of this program as I had already declared my major (physics) upon acceptance of my admission. It was decided to house these students together, and they were roomed in the Mudge House, B-Tower, basement. As luck would have it, I drew a room in this area as well. You may be wondering how I was able to draw an upperclass room as an incoming freshman. I was an early decision applicant to CMU. Later that year, in a discussion with my advisor at the time, I learned that I was the third candidate who had accepted a place in the class of 1998.
Because we lived underground, we took to calling our floor, the Underpass. As with most silly things, the name stuck, and we started to be known as the Mudge Underpass. And it wasn't long before our graffiti board, graffiti.mudge-underpass was going full-out.
In our case, with the presence of so many CS majors, g.m-up became one of our primary methods of communication with each other about anything and everything. Meal plans, movie plans, bitching about courses, this, that, and the other, anything and everything was eventually discussed on the board. It was, for lack of a better, or less used term, an electronic community.
But, as with all things, this too had to end. The year came to an end, and while many of us stayed on the floor next year, the board never seemed as rich as in those halcyon days. Eventually it came time to even leave the campus, and with it, our accounts on the servers. As I was cleaning out my mail and storage account on the last day I would have access to the network, I came across some old g.m-up posts I had saved. I spent more than a few minutes lost in thought of the times we all had spent on the board...and I wrote a goodbye post to the board, even though I knew it would not be read. Here it is:
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Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 02:29:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Matthew Joseph Tarpy <tarpy+@andrew.cmu.edu> To: Bulletin Board Administration <bb+graffiti.mudge-underpass@andrew.cmu.edu> Subject: Goodbye Amazing, less then 24 hours until I lose my andrew account. I can VIVIDLY remember that warm August night so many years ago when I first was told what my andrew id was (mt45...that id seems so odd, so foreign, yet I still try to log into various accounts with it accidently at least once a month...). I remember thinking that college still seemed like summer camp...walking around campus...missing Amie more than I ever thought possible...trying to figure out all these new weird people I lived with. Wondering who I would become friends with...who I would hate. I remember wandering into the West Wing lab..and my introduction to unix...an old DEC 3100. I was so new at this stuff, I didn't realize I had to wait for the system to start up X...(and an embarassing moment that was). I remember the good and the bad of that first semester, and that first year. The night Robin's "boyfriend" died. I remember having to go to the hospital later that week because of a sinus infection. And I remember BC going with me...and walking me back, at 2 in the morning...with no concern other than to make sure I was all right. I remember the first Hunger Buster I ever had. And the first time I was present for "Critical Pie Mass". I remember Phil, and graffiti.phil.is.god. I still have saved a top 10 that Meltzer sent to it. It makes me laugh so hard I cry every time I read it, even now. I remember Dave. I still claim that he and I are friends, even if you won't believe me. I remember watching him slack til the last minute, and then bang out a 211 assignment as if it were nothing (and for him, it was ;-). I remember "My Dick Is SOOO Large". I remember Bob's stalker, and BC trying to hook up with her1. I remember when Jason came up from home, and that was the night I got smashed for the first time. I remember having to apologize the next day to Mindy...but I still don't remember what I did. I remember zephyr. I remember the flame wars where we would decimate another floor. I remember the night of "tarpy sux". I remember bi-planes...and what they did to my grades. I remember Magic, even if you won't ;-) I even remember, God help me, graffiti.misc.market.asian-women and Wob and Alex and Abe, and Donna and Jean. I remember trying to talk to Jean, and her being so scared of talking to me (she claims I threatened physical harm), she had to get her office mate to tell me she wasn't there (when she had just slammed the phone down on me not even 2 seconds before!) I remember wanting to be Herf's friend more than anything I had ever wanted before. I remember friendships that I still have today, and will have for the rest of my life. So much has changed since that warm night in August of 1994. We're different people now, with much richer, but different lives. It's true, we can never go back, but we can remember, and I do...I remember you, all of my friends that year...even though you can't read this rememberance. So many happy memories of this board. --Matthew |
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1From B.C.: "If you're going to mention that I was chasing Bob's stalker, you should at least mention that she was suffering from male pattern baldness as well ;)" |
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