had partied my way through my freshman year. i returned to school the next year and wanted to do things a little differently. my friends, lisa sonin (psyche,saphire) and michael bidar (tobago) persuaded me to get a b account even though i didn't know anything about computers.

i picked the login pallas because i liked the name so much. i'd always enjoyed mythology and one of my friends had given me a poem that i liked very much with the title. it went like this:

They said: she is high and far and blind
in her high pride,
but now that my head is bowed
in sorrow, I find
she is most kind.
We have taken life, they said,
blithely, not groped in a mist
for things that are not­
are if you will, but bloodless­
why ask happiness of the dead?
and my heart bled.
Ah, could they know
how violets throw strange fire,
red and purple and gold,
how they glow gold and purple and red
where her feet tread.

I think it was by h.d. but I haven't found it in my brief attempt to search for it. i used 'niobe' for my gorn account but i like pallas as much as i ever did....

i made so many friends so quickly in the geek community that even though i am basically shy, i was able to feel comfortable. of course, lurking for a while before posting and meeting geeks in person (kevin wang, xzyquoph, convinced me to go to my first geek food run with him and we went to many thereafter) helped towards that comfort level, too.