Callahan's Bar Rag March 1994 Edition!

Newsletter of the Callahan's Saloon Custom Forum on Delphi

In this issue:

Welcome - New Books - Conference Commands Part 3 - Starfox

Welcome!!!

To those of you who have joined us recently, welcome. I think you will find us a fun group of people. I hope you find the conversations fun and interesting. Feel free to add your comments to any thread of conversation in the forum that strikes your interest, or start a new topic of your own.

Our Happy Hours are on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evening starting at 10:00 PM EST, however there are plans in the works to expand those times. You may come on line any night and find people in the bar, though. If you arrive and no one is there at all, feel free to start your own conference, and invite anyone you wish.

For you who are new, or some of you older regulars who have not read the Callahan's Crosstime Saloon stories, read post 640 for a quick synopsis of what Callahan's is all about.

New Books In March:

Hardbacks:

Night Relics by James P. Blaylock; Ace -- 18.95

Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold; Baen -- 21.00

Rama Revealed: The Ultimate Encounter by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee;
Bantam -- 22.95

Out of This World: Book 1 of the Three World Trilogy by Lawrence Watt-Evans;
Del Rey -- 20.00

Star Trek: Sarek by A C Crispin; Pocket -- 22.00

Sacred Ground by Mercedes Lackey; Tor -- 23.95

Trade paperbacks:

Grails: Quests of the Dawn Edited by Richard Gilliam, Martin H Greenberg,
& Edward E Cramer; Penguin -- 11.95

Moonheart by Charles DeLint; Tor -- 12.95

Flight From Neveryon, & Return to Neveryon both by Samuel R Delaney;
Univ. of New England -- 14.95

Paperbacks:

The Hour of the Octopus by Joel Rosenerg; Ace -- 4.99

Fleet Action: Wing Commander III by William R Forstchen; Baen --4.99

The Jedi Academy, Book 1: Jedi Search by Kevin J Anderson; Bantam -- 5.99

Skybowl (Dragon Star #3) by Melanie Rawn; Daw -- 5.99

Outworld Cats by Jack Lovejoy; Daw -- 4.99

The Talismans of Shannara: Book Four of The Heritage of Shannara
by Terry Brooks; Del Rey -- 5.99

The Prince of Ill Luck: Book One of The Warhorse of Esdragon
by Susan Dexter;
Del Rey -- 4.99

Deadly Quicksilver Lies by Glen Cook; Roc -- 4.99

The Elementals by Morgan Llywelyn; Tor -- 5.99

Conferences:

(This is part three of a three part article. In this issue, we'll talk about some of the things that make conferencing fun.)

Conferences, due to the fact that they are being typed rather than spoken, can be somewhat slow and cumbersome. Consequently, people have come up with a number of abbreviations in order to speed things up. Here is a small sample:

AAMOF As A Matter Of Fact
BBS Bulletin Board System
BCNU Be seeing you ....
BTW By The Way
CU See You

CUL See You Later
CYA Cover Your A**
CUL8R See You Later...
DIIK Damned If I know
EMFBI Excuse me for butting in

FYI For Your Information
FUBAR Fouled Up Beyond All Repair
FWIW For What Its Worth
GD&R Grinning, Ducking & Running (usually left at the end of a mean or digging message)
GROK As in "I GROK" means thorough understanding. From Heinlein)

IC I See
IMCO In My Considered Opinion
IMHO In My Humble or Honest Opinion
IMNSHO In My Not So Humble Opinion
LOL Laughing Out Loud

POV Point Of View
ROFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO Rolling On The Floor Laughing My A** Off
SNAFU Situation Normal, All Fouled Up
SYSOP System Operator

TANSTAAFL There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch
TPTB The Powers That Be
TTFN Ta Ta For Now
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get

One of the fun things we do in conferences sometimes is called a Fuddle. It's a way of typing in something, and having DELPHI's programming change it around. For instance; if you type:

"/fuddle pig Check this out."

When you hit return it will come out as "Eckchay isthay outway. " There are many styles of Fuddles. If you wish to know what is available, type "/fuddle ?". Here is a list of the Fuddles available:

You can befuddle people in any of the following ways:

NONE how you normally talk, I suppose.
NERD 4E45524421
NEATEN "AAnn eecchhoo!!" instead of "AAnn eecchhoo!!"
WEAVE "W!ehasviiwn ge wa bweewb aw eg nwiivsahe!W"
EXPLODE "T h i s i s r e a l l y w i d e !"

SQUISH "Youappeartobeapersonwhotalksveryrapidly."
PALINDROME "Madam, I'm Adam!"
MIRROR "... llaw eht no ,rorrim ,rorriM"
ECHO "Tthheerree sseeeemmss ttoo bbee ..."
REPEAT "There there seems seems to to be be..."

DOUBLE "There seems to be ... There seems to be ..."
HAL "Gdkkn? H"l sgd GZK 8999 bnlotsdq,"
FLU "I dhing I habe a gold in by node."
DELPHISH "Djere zeenz do pe zonedjimk vummy jere."
FLIP "rorriM, rorrim, no eht llaw ..."

SPDWRT "If y cn rd ths, y'r smrt."
PIGLATIN "Igpay Atinlay isway eatgray."
VOWELERIZE "Jist o lettli wierd."
RTWIST "Rstagne neibghors rthouhg elerctonics."
LTWIST "Trsagne neihbgors hrtouhg eletrconics."

Separate combinations by commas (e.g., /FUDDLE PIG,MIRROR).

I hope you've enjoyed these articles on conferencing, and that they have been informative. If you are still confused about something, feel free to drop me a line, and I will try to answer your question. Or, stop in on Monday evenings at 10:00 PM Eastern for my Newcomer's Conferencing training.

Starfox:

Stand by a small still pond and drop a pebble in. Notice the concentric circles of ripples moving away from the point of entry in all directions. A good deed is like that, it not only affects the one it is done for, but those around him as well.

Stand there long enough, and you will notice another phenomenon. The ripples, having struck the edges of the pond, will return to the point of origin. This too is like the good deed, except the returning ripples will lose strength, while the returning good fortune will gain.

"All paths of light lead to Oneness. Paths of darkness lead to Nothing."
- Starfox

If you have a question for Starfox, please Email them to me, until we get his Email address set up. He will be answering questions starting in the next issue of The Bar Rag.

Nick (NGREENE)

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