What would you be doing 15 years ago instead of being on the computer?

[rug]

[SPKrazy]

1. Probably

watching a movie :shrug:

dunno for sure

[rug]

6. VHS or theater?

[SPKrazy]

25. either one

went out to more movies then

but rented VHS then too

[HamstersFromHell]

2. Um, 15 years ago..

I was on the computer...just not the same one as I am now.

[rug]

4. Windows 95 was a watershed in civilization.

[HamstersFromHell]

13. So was Trumpet Winsock

going back a little further.

[rug]

15. That sounds like a Dickens character.

[Gormy Cuss]

73. So was I.

I was either on the work mini with a remote dial-up or an office PC with that #$))@)*@$ Windows. I hated Windows because I could write instructions in DOS faster than I could find the tasking in those crude pull-down menus.

[Capn Sunshine]

82. me three

I joined AOL in 1991 because I got lit up as research for a hedge fund stock purchase. So it was deductible. Boy, did I look like a freaking genius. Most of this business is skillfull luck.

[BarenakedLady]

3. Hanging out with a boyfriend

I don't remember who it was 15 years ago exactly.

:blush:

[rug]

8. Tsk, tsk.

[BarenakedLady]

23. pffft

I'm old with a shoddy memory.

Plus, some things are best forgotten.

:P

[Blue-Jay]

5. 15 years? Probably playing on my computer.

Old School-style.

[rug]

9. Must have been a mac.

[Blue-Jay]

14. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

Wait. That's 22 years(more or less), not 15...

Fuck, I'm old.

[rug]

17. That squirrel's starting to look a little mangy too.

[Blue-Jay]

19. Check out my non sequitur!

Soup!

[rug]

21. I don't follow you.

[jpgray]

122. The fucking thief always waxed me in that game.

Of course, I was like seven years old... but still!

[mainegreen]

59. Playing on a computer: Tandy 1000.

Probably writing some spaghetti code apps in BASIC

[Bunny]

7. 15 years ago, I would have been busy with a one-year old,

also reading, watching tv and doing crossword puzzles. I'm just as much a load today as I was then! :)

[rug]

11. That's exactly what I was doing, to a tee.

[DS1]

10. by this time, I'd be up in my barracks or coming home from lunch

at the chow hall

[rug]

12. I noticed the military discipline in your posts.

[trogdor]

152. Since I was in Korea at the time...

...I'd be sleeping off a soju experience and thanking God Bill Clinton just got himself elected President.

Actually, I returned from my tour in Korea December 8th, 1992. I'd be at Dad's playing with his POS Win3.0 box trying to get it to play Reversi.

[MrScorpio]

16. I was on a huge drawing, painting and writing binge

Won a few art contests at comic conventions and was just digging on being in the DC area and working at the Pentagon

[rug]

18. You should post them.

[MrScorpio]

24. I have before and here we go again

[rug]

26. That's definitely from your Pentagon period.

Nice technique.

[DarkTirade]

115. Holy crap.

You are one talented DUer... :P

[Kutjara]

20. Using my Powerbook 140 and a 9600kbps modem...

...to explore the nether reaches of the phone network. Or to engage in flamewars on CIX and other BBSs. Or to log onto CompuServe to chat with my friends.

[rug]

22. Those flamewars must have had a different quality to them.

[Kutjara]

27. They were glacial.

It was like having a knife-fight in slow motion. Some of them would last for weeks or months, depending how often the participants could log on.

Me: How dare you call me an asshole?!?!
Him: Wait...I didn't call you an asshole.
Me: You most certainly did!
Him: When???
Me: June 14, 1986.
Him: That was six friggin' years ago!
Me: Maybe, but it was only three posts ago. Asshole!

By which point, it was already 1998 and we were all using the "real" Internet.

[rug]

34. LOL, like a mime throwdown.

[trogdor]

153. Kind of like finding the Botany Bay.

Poking around in space for a couple hundred years until Captain Kirk found it riding around on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701).

[Writer]

28. Taking finals at the Univ. of Texas. n/t

[rug]

31. I was watching Solid Gold reruns.

:P

[Writer]

35. Sounds like you were having more fun than I was.

;)

[CreekDog]

108. Watching Baywatch

Didn't get email until early 1993.

[billyskank]

29. 15 years ago I was 16 and I probably was on the computer.

When most 16 year olds are out getting drunk and losing their virginity, I was learning machine code programming on the family computer.

[rug]

33. Now, 16 year olds are losing their virginity on the family computer.

[fizzgig]

30. whatever the hell 11 year olds did back then

i really don't remember

edit: i can't even remember how old i am right now x(

[billyskank]

32. It's an odd age. What do you do when you're 12?

You're not a little kid any more, but you're not an adolescent yet either. :hi:

[fizzgig]

36. i really can't remember

i might have been hanging out with friends (not that i had many) but most likely i was reading

:hi:

[billyskank]

45. Now you edited you made me look weird.

:P

[fizzgig]

49. it doesn't make you look weird

it makes me look silly that i can't even remember my own age :P

[BarenakedLady]

52. You are weird.

Embrace your weirdness.

:hug:

[billyskank]

60. Okay.

:hug:

And don't be sorry. :loveya:

[CreekDog]

109. When i was 12 i rode my bike, went to the park and spent lots of time in the pet store

inside? what was that?

[rug]

38. At least you weren't posting rants about Hannah Montana tickets.

[rug]

56. (billyskank looks weird, what's he smoking?)

[RevolutionaryActs]

37. Playing with Barbie dolls?

:shrug:

[rug]

You mean you no longer do?

:wow:

[RevolutionaryActs]

51. Well, maybe every now and then...

:rofl:

[SPKrazy]

39. pfffttt....

:rofl::rofl:


:hi:

:pals:

[RevolutionaryActs]

54. What?

I was six! That's how I rolled. Sheesh. Or I was probably playing in the snow with the neighbor kids.

[fizzgig]

47. i think i might have been, too

of course, by playing, i mean giving buzz cuts to and amputating hands and feet

i was a sick kid

[RevolutionaryActs]

57. I cut the hair on one or two of mine

I thought it would grow back.. who knew it wouldn't! :o

[RFKHumphreyObama]

40. Finishing off my final year of primary school and preparing for high school

[rug]

44. I bet you did your papers on a typewriter.

[Solar Power]

41. Sitting in front of the TV playing a video game..

I played Nintendo 64........for hours and hours and hours..........you get the idea..like we do on this home computer for hours and hours and hours..................

[rug]

48. There should be a Wii version of DU.

[Solon]

104. Oh hell no, can you imagine what the sex threads would involve...

What does this thing resemble again? And do keep in mind that it vibrates as well.

I have a dirty mind. ;)

[hellbound-liberal]

42. Drinking in front of the TV. Thank God those days are behind me!

Though I was enjoying myself at the time!:beer:

[rug]

50. I was already 8 years sober. Now I hardly watch TV. Got a better couch tho.

[hellbound-liberal]

64. Good for you, Rug! I would agree that my life has gotten much better since I got sober.

I've got a much better couch too!

[Rising Phoenix]

43. smoking pot

and drinking beer.....then going to Kings restaurant for fried mozzarella and calling safe rides for a trip home.....hey I was 15!

[rug]

53. Pot, beer and mozzarella.

I can see that.

:thumbsup:

[Rising Phoenix]

55. good times

:hi:

[supernova]

46. Volunteering for Clinton/Gore in Charlotte

[rug]

58. Yeah, but you weren't blogging about it.

[trogdor]

154. On the inaugural committee, right?

Bill would have been the President Elect for over a month by then.

[lightningandsnow]

61. 15 years ago today...

My parents would have been eagerly anticipating my first birthday!

[Breeze54]

62. In 1992, I was in college full time days (again)

studying Juvenile Criminal Justice and working full time at a Boy's Detention Center

I was also raising a 3 1/2 year old.

[baldguy]

63. I was a CS major in college.

I would have been on the computer.

[sniffa]

65. on my Sega Genesis

most likely playing Bill Walsh College Football. it was the only time Kordell Stewart was ever good.

[DarkTirade]

66. ... instead of?

I'm not sure I understand the question... :P

Some of us have been computer geeks most of our lives.

[pink-o]

67. Are you talking "exactly" 15 years ago: December 15, 1992

at 5:40 pm?? The reason I ask is that the 16th is my b'day, so I can say in '92 I was probably out to dinner to celebrate b'day 37 with my now ex-husband.

The sucky thing is, I was also probably complaining about having a Bush for president. But except for the fucked up societal situation we're in now, my life is far better @ 52 than it was @ 37 when I was in a nowhere marriage.

[Ivan Sputnik]

68. I think by then I was already on the computer

with a dial-up modem, of course, on Genie or something.

[reyd reid reed]

69. That's easy...

I'd be reading. That's what I always used to do -- and still do.

Just not enough these days.

x(

[Broken_Hero]

70. Playing Zelda

on the SNES, or reading a book.

[reyd reid reed]

80. Ah, the good old days...

even Zelda on the NES. That was fun.

[Broken_Hero]

88. Yes, it was good times....:)

Nice seeing you around, :hug:

BTW, I got most of the earlier NES/SNES Zelda games for my Gameboy Advance...its pretty sweet, to bad the screen on those things are so.....tiny.

[reyd reid reed]

92. One of my boys...

#3 son, as a matter of fact, LOVES Zelda (he dressed as Link for the Ren Festival this year) and we got him that (I think) for his. They have some kind of setup down in the basement on his brothers' computers so that he can play.

I just wish I could get him to find a happy place between Link and safety pins with liberty-spiked hair.

[VenusRising]

71. I was at the mall with my two best friends.

They were both older than me, and one of them had their own car.

We lived in a town of about 10,000 people, so we had to drive aout 45 minutes to the nearest two with a mall.

It was also about the same time I met one of my boyfriends. He turned out to be the one that caused the most pain and drama in my life.

Glad that's over with, and it's 15 years later, and I'm at home with my wondreful husband making cookies.

This rocks much harder than 15 years ago.

[bicentennial_baby]

72. I would have been studying for finals, boarding school,

sophomore year.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

74. I bought a Kay-Pro computer back in about 1988

so I might have been on that 15 years ago. It used something called "Wordstar" where instead of using the mouse, you had to press various combinations of keys to get it to do anything, such as printing or saving a file. I don't remember anything about it but if I had it now, it would probably seem pretty primitive. I bought it to write screenplays on, when I got tired of using an old Underwood non-electric typewriter.

[fudge stripe cookays]

75. Living in Austin..

Dating a complete PENIS.

Thank God he finally revealed himself to be one of the most evil human beings I've ever met.

[GreenPartyVoter]

76. I woulda been in the campus computer lab on mIRC

:shrug:

[Deja Q]

77. 15 years ago I was on the computer! Just a different one...

Commodore Amiga, I think it was... if not a 386-era PC...

[Bongo Prophet]

95. Also on Amigas then -composing music or animating video

They still run, too - and for midi/algorithmic composing, they still are useful.
Talk about extended value.

[Deja Q]

113. Ironic, the Atari ST of the time catered to MIDI enthusiasts...

I haven't seen an ST in ages...

I still see running Amigas, even at the cable company...

[momophile]

78. I probably would have been drinking under age with

my older friends. oh, and pining over some asshole. can't leave that out. that's what I did for all of the '90s - pine over some asshole and drink.

[MissMillie]

79. eating

I can pretty much guarantee that I was indeed eating

[mike_c]

81. usenet....

Those were the days.

[China_cat]

83. Playing in the mud.

I owned a ceramic shop at the time.

After I closed up I would go play with my Commodore.

[Roon]

84. WOw! I was 25 15 years ago

Way to make me feel old! But I was managing a Gay motel and keeping the boys off with a stick...it's not like that now, I hasten to add...

[IzaSparrow]

85. i'd be 10 yo and i'd be eatin' pizza...

watching step by step, b/c suzanne somers was, and forever will be quite a looker.

[CreekDog]

110. I worked with Suzanne Somers mom, in 1992

Maryann Mahoney was a medical transcriptionist at Kaiser Hospital in South SF where I was a part time file monkey going thru college.

I don't think she needed the money.

Somers grew up in the neighboring city of San Bruno.

[IzaSparrow]

116. did you get to meet suzanne?

LUCKY!

[CreekDog]

136. Oh heck no.

We never even talked about her. I'm sure she was living in LA then anyway.

[tigereye]

86. studying!

reading grad school stuff.

[Ellen Forradalom]

87. Watching obscure classics of cinema on VHS

with my videophile BF. Seeing a band in a club. Reading. Spending the evening in the computer lab doing my homework. Sitting in the Charleston having a drink.

[doc03]

89. In 15 minutes would be watching SNL when it was funny

[opiate69]

90. Band practice. Or a gig.

[Swede]

91. Saturday,bar hopping I suppose.

And loving it.

[Tektonik]

93. I'd have been playing my Nintendo

or reading my encyclopedia set

[amitten]

94. Having A Life. n/t

[RushIsRot]

96. I got my first computer 15 years ago. Haven't looked back since.

It was a Packard-Bell.

[qnr]

97. Being on the computer. Have to go back 29 years for me

Edit: Originally 28, but I had the computer 28 years ago, so technically 29.

[Digit]

100. Atari 800 here also, even ran a BBS in the 80's

But 15 years ago, I had a PC and I used Prodigy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodigy_(ISP).

Primitive days, primitive days.

[qnr]

101. Yup, I know Prodigy, but I used other networks, I was a SYSOP on GEnie and

CompuServe

[Digit]

123. Did you ever in your wildest dreams dream we would have all this when ou first got your Atari 800?

We are so fortunate to have been a part of this evolution in technology.

I don't know if you recall Protocall. It also was pre=internet and was had a role-playing segment.
I operated two SIGs there while it was operational.

It is a long story and I don't know all the details, but the person who initiated it ended up in jail.

[qnr]

133. Not to this extent, to be sure. Funny thing is, I still have my original Atari 830 in

storage (the 300 baud accoustically coupled modem, for those who are just browsing).

I know the name Protocall, but I never actually used it.

[CreekDog]

111. is that a typewriter? where do you put the paper?

:rofl:

[krispos42]

98. Bomb the shit out of the Soviets in my F-19 Stealth Fighter

Or sinking German U-boats and downing Stukas in my Destroyer Escort.

Powered by Commodore 64, of course... :-)

[leeroysphitz]

99. Stoned with my Ex Listening to my FABULOUS five disc CD changer

reading Larry Niven while half-watching sci-fi movies with the sound off. (and probably cuddling with my pug Yoshi.) At some point I probably would have swapped out the Niven for some homework but given my grades who knows?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

102. Grading papers, probably

I was still teaching college then.

[sakabatou]

103. Kindergarten, I think.

[Lyric]

105. 15 years ago today I would have been

13 years old, in my junior high school, 8th grade, waiting for first period Earth Science to end. We were probably learning about Mr. Shoaf's famous "Z chart" for the metric system of weights and measures.

Mr. Shoaf was The Greatest Science Teacher EVER. Hands down. He taught us deductive reasoning and how to form a hypothesis in the most creative method that I've ever seen a teacher use. Every day, he wore an outfit with a multicolored tie. The tie *always* contained three colors. The shirt and the pants would match two of the colors in his tie, and his socks (which we couldn't see) would match the third. Every day when he came in the door, our first assignment was to deduce what the color of his socks must be by examining his tie and eliminating the colors represented by his shirt and pants.

It seems kinda simple and silly to think about it now, but as 13 year old kids, we absolutely worshipped this guy. He injected some fun into every single day of his class, and I'll never forget him. :)

[lizziegrace]

106. 15 years ago

Lelapin was 5 and her father was teaching and taking every gig he could. We rarely saw him, so I was working full-time, had just finished my degree and was raising Lelapin mostly alone. :shrug:

[yellowdogintexas]

107. nagging my kid to get dressed for church. getting dressed for church myself

now I am just going to dress for church now and see you folks later.

[hippywife]

112. Reading a book. n/t

[Turbineguy]

114. Interesting...

I made the worst voyage of my life then. Company had already filed bankruptcy. Captain was drunk, idiots in the Engine room, I slept in my clothes for two months. Two major boiler leaks, collision in Greece. Asshole from the head office screaming and cursing at me. Had to go for 96 hours straight in Livorno. Christmas morning got ship underway. After 3 hours rest Captain comes in yelling "Hey, asshole! Where's the corkscrew?" Loads of other repairs. Blizzard of 96 in New York. Luckily I got fired at the end of the trip. That was the good part.

And it resulted in my friendship with DU'er Cloudbase. A definite plus.

On edit: WTF? that wasn't 15 years ago!

[MrSlayer]

117. Band practice and drinking heavily.

Now I'm just drinking heavily.

[RoyGBiv]

118. Same thing, with less hassle ...

Just not in an web-based forum, which, despite my affection for DU, I still think are technologically backward.

Give me Usenet and a sane moderation system any day.

You'd have to go back about 25 years before I wouldn't at least be trying to find a computer to play on. Fifteen years ago I guess I was grudgingly accepting frakking Windoze 3.1.

[Connonym]

119. Playing Tetris :-P

[Rhythm]

120. Writing to pen-pals, and getting ready for roadtrips...

15 yrs ago, i had about 20 pen-pals, to whom i wrote weekly. Some i still hear from occasionally even now.

I also had a core of crazy pals with whom i rambled all over this beautiful country...
15 yrs ago, my "twin of evil" (Liz) and i would have been putting the finishing touches on the plans that, between Dec. 26th and January 3rd, would take us to Atlanta, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, and Knoxville, TN... all to see the last dates on Danzig's "How the Gods Kill" tour.

[Chovexani]

121. Er. I was 11, and still on the computer?

But instead of this one:


It was this one:


And I was using it to play Theldrow, and Glider. Goddamned electrical sockets! :banghead:

That's when I wasn't using my 2400 bps modem to MUD and play D&D on a local BBS. I kicked it old school. :smoke:

[Kucinich4America]

124. 15 years ago I would have still been on the computer.

Granted, it was a 386 and a dial up BBS rather than the Net as we now know it. Managed to talk my way into a moderator gig on a BBS network called "SurvNet" "Surv" being short for "survivalist", so you can imagine the type of people who frequented the network. And of course, I was moderating the religion forum, which made things even more interesting. The cast of characters included a couple of Texas Secessionists, a "Christian Identity" minister from North Carolina, a pilot who wouldn't even have a checking account, much less use a credit card, and your usual cast of militia types. Certainly had my hands full with that group. Sometimes I wonder if any of them today would concede that Chimpy was a far worse nightmare than Bill Clinton. :evilgrin:

[Omphaloskepsis]

125. I have a electronic diary dating back this far.

I hit it up and found this..

"Amber Lee was on the top bunk me bottom while we studied about air conditioners for auto-tech. Went to Dairy quenn for dinner."

[Orsino]

126. I would have been trying to sleep...

...after a graveyard shift in an Army satellite earth station in Germany.

[kwassa]

127. Working for a huge computer company that no longer exists

going to school at night, working on my Compudyne 386, my first PC. Lots of cursing and swearing trying to understand how computers made my studies simple.

My employer had a huge intranet that went round the world. My first "internet" experience. I was talking live-time to a guy in Australia as we listened to CNN coverage of the start of Desert Storm. My first experience of the world getting small via technology.

[Alter Ego]

128. Sitting in second grade?

I was 7.

[Snarkturian Clone]

129. I had a 386 25 mHz with a 40 meg HD -- ran DOS 5.0 (dos shell)

Use to play VGA trek, Life and Death, Police Quest, Space Quest, Simcity, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Rise of the Dragon... then Wolfenstein 3D came along and changed my life.

Edited to add:

I was on BBS's too! How could I forget BBSes. My handle was Yulon Gobi. Cheers BBS in central Jersey was the boooooooommmbbb!!!

[Digit]

140. OMG, I totally had forgotten Castle Wolfenstein!

I was a sysop(ette)...and to think that nowadays, people have NO idea what a BBS was.

[Snarkturian Clone]

141. There's an 8-part film called

BBS: The Documentary. I watched half of the first episode last night.. it was cool.

[MedleyMisty]

130. I was 12

The main thing I remember about that year is reading Gone with the Wind five times in a row, so we'll go with that.

[seemunkee]

131. 3D modeling on my Amiga

Or working in my woodshop.
I did models of my designs to show clients. Since my shop was at home I usually did some quiet bench work after they went to bed.

[yurbud]

132. drinking or going to the movies

[Burma Jones]

134. NES, Mario, Zelda and Tetris

The NES Tetris had nice music......

[Dora]

135. Reading, studying, smoking, drinking...

... fretting about a man.

[Greyskye]

137. At work? On a computer

Doing CAD computer chip design on an Applicon or MicroVax system.

At home? Very possibly playing around on my Apple ][e or a 386 PC.

[TrogL]

138. I'd be on the computer - ranting on Compuserve forums

[SoxFan]

139. Watching the Pats get spanked

2-14 that season.

Hard to believe now, isn't it?

[LeftyFingerPop]

142. I would be...

writing the following on a piece of paper with my quill pen..."LOL", "IMO", and "did you get my PM".

I would then stick it in an envelope and mail it off.

Then I would sit in an "office chair" for 3 weeks, and watch for the mailman.

I would then get the reply, open it up, and read the following..."can you please rewrite and resend your letter? I could not understand your abbreviations"

[Catsbrains]

143. Actually going to the library in person to get journal articles for research papers. nt

[meegbear]

144. Jerking off to porn movies on VHS instead of the stuff I download

[RebelOne]

145. I had a computer 15 years ago and I was always

on it playing games. And I also used it for freelance work.

[SteppingRazor]

146. I was 16. What I was doing is not suitable for a public forum.

:P

[Seashell Eyes]

147. drawing or watching Nickelodeon

[LeftyMom]

148. 15 years ago I was on my third computer. nt

[Rob H.]

149. I would have been on the computer back then, too

I still use 'em for a living--going on 18 years now. (Mac-only for most of that time, thank goodness.)

[Tommy_Carcetti]

150. If I was the same age, or the age I was 15 years ago?

Let's see, 15 years ago was 1992. In December 1992, I was 13. So let's see. I would probably be anxiously sitting by the phone waiting for Kelly from math class to call me because she said she would even though it turns out she was just being sarcastic and had no interest in me because unbeknownst to me she thought I was a goofy kid with unrealistic expectations and a really bad haircut so she would never call me and I would spend a whole night waiting for the phone call that never came. That's what I'd be doing 15 years ago.

Of course, if I was 28 fifteen years ago, I'd probably be banging my head in boredom. Probably doodling little pictures. Something to kill time.

[WinkyDink]

151. Right now? Teaching some godforsaken class!

[no name no slogan]

155. Looking for a job

In December 1992, I was unemployed-- during the Bush Recession I.

The sequel isn't much better, either.

[applegrove]

156. Working. I used to work 6 days a week often. Two jobs at a time. I loved it.

[electron_blue]

157. Some of us were on the computer wayyyy too much even back then....