As I'm not a Barbelith member - I'm assuming, what with all the doom-talk, that Tom or whoever isn't processing applications to the board (either that or I'm just impatient) -  I'd like to introduce myself and encourage the rest of you, whether from the old school or not, to do the same.

So without further ado. I'm an artist/writer, currently on the verge of what I'm calling a personal intellectual and artistic renaissance. That is to say I dropped out of Uni a few years ago now, and I'm just beginning to claw my way out of that slump and back onto the road to my potential, whatever that is.

I've been into comics since finding my big brother's crate of 2000ADs, and some of the first things I remember reading were the Chopper storyline, Nemesis, Strontium Dogs and Zenith. Fast forward a couple of decades and I find the Invisibles (better 10 years late than never). I ploughed through it, just finishing when I got back from Bloc Weekender  in mid-March.

Now I don't know whether it was just the come-down (72 hours of techno and bars that just don't close takes its toll) or whether Mr Morrison's sigil did a number on me, or both, but I felt like my brain re-configured (in a very adolescent way), and when Barbelith came up on a letters page, I was straight in there.

So after a few weeks of Lurking, and getting more and more depressed at the death-knell seemingly going on there (its one thing being fashionably late but quite another getting to a party just as everyone's leaving..), Dustin's board cropping up seemed like a good way of getting my foot in the door, so to speak. So, hello (with ex- or not)Barbeloids, nice to reciprocate at last.

Apologies for length and abuse of parenthesis.

Well, here's my generic "about me" writeup, then I'll elaborate afterward.

     "So, a little bit about my past now. I grew up in Oakhurst CA, and lived there until 2rd grade, at which point I moved to Ecuador on the West coast of South America, most notable for it's political corruption and the Galapagos Islands. I lived there for 5 years while my parents worked with a nonprofit organization called MAF, my dad doing the networking at the hanger, and my mom did all around help. I went to school from 3rd through 7th grade at the Nate Saint Memorial School. Then we moved back to America, moving from our house in Cali to an apartment in Boise, the reason for this being MAF moving up here.

I really like Boise, but I'd prefer Cali any day. Anyhow, I went to 8th grade for the first time at Lake Hazel Middle School. This was quite an eye opener because I hadn't been exposed to most of the things that happen in normal middle schools.

So after 8th grade I wanted very badly to join the Meridian Technical Charter High School, but there's a lottery to get in, so I applied and by the end of summer I had made it in. So my first year of High School, 9th grade, was great and I had a good time, but toward the middle of the year I began to become unhappy. 9th grade finished up, and I had a lot of new friends, about 200 because that's the size of my school. Which is the main reason I wanted to leave. Toward the end of 9th grade (month before school ended) I got my first job with Sparrowhawk Creative Studio (www.sparrowhawkcs.com) where I was used in any area which I was applicable. I worked with them for 6 months, and quit on the 15th of November.

10th grade it going well. I'm still working, for myself now though, freelancing it. I've transfered to Mountain View High School and am very very pleased with my switch."

     I drive a Nissan 300zx, which I love. I'm 15 now and I'm thinking about going back to my old school. No reason really, I just felt like it.
I've been developing websites for 3 years now, started out with Flash and Actionscript 2, then learned how to use XML and a MYSQL database with Flash, which progressed into using PHP and Javascript with XHTML and CSS to build websites. I haven't done any flash work in about a year now, but I don't think I've completely forgotten it.

     I'm Agnostic. I was a professing Christian up until about a year ago, at which point I realized I couldn't continue lying to people, and lying to myself. I can't live a life based on faith. It just doesn't work for me. I'm also a Humanist.

     I rebuilt Barbelith with the intent to fix it, then we tried to decide upon a name for a new forum we were going to start up. So I decided to use the old name I had "Breefield" which is what the new forum, with a new design will be called.

     That's about it, I encourage all of you to hang with the board, even in this slow startup period. I'm working as fast as I can on the re-design, just trying to get it right.

Yeah, you can drive at 14 1/2 in Idaho, I was a little late getting my license actually. Mind you, I can't drive at night until I'm 16 on May 22 :p

That's one of Walser's plays, right? What's it like? I haven't actually read anything by him - I only know him through an essay by Susan Sontag, in the collection 'Where the Stress Falls'. She certainly makes him sound very attractive: "A Paul Klee in prose - as delicate, as sly, as haunted. A cross between Stevie Smith and Beckett: a good-humored, sweet Beckett."

I'm so late. I'm sorry.

I think "Breefield" is a fine name.

Is there any port here?

Well, hello there!

How interesting.  A baby B*****lith.  I'm tempted to swamp it with posts about things to see what will happen!