Always At The Crossroads

Me and Harley at our usual spot

Fractal Gets Married! 8/29/97=====>

I should put a huge *UNDER CONSTRUCTION* banner here because it is definitely incomplete, and so shall it remain until more important websites are finished. That aside, I'll tell ya a bit about myself, aka "the vagabond" on this and following pages. I call my personal pages "the Crossroads" because it's the meeting place of all the many roads I travel out here on the Net. As I trot/gallop between my online projects, I stop here to scribble a note or two, say hi to a friend, post a few new pictures of my cat or whatever, TAKE A NAP or bitch and moan about my current most despised corporation or politico.

But this is the *real* me!

I began my involvement in cyberspace some three and a half years ago. It was all so new to me, and fascinating; I couldn't get enough of what was out there just for the taking. From email forums to MOOs, I made a home in all of them with ease. Many personas harboured my cyber-spirit: Kamala, Rhiannon, Enigma, Winachi, Gone, oojie, TreeT, Nemesis, and most frequently, Fractal. Anonymity is one attraction of cyberspace; it's allowed me to be both the occasional scounderel and the judicious wizard/administrator. I still spend a good bit of time in cyber-communities, mostly for purposes of developing support networks for target groups in crisis, for other community outreach programs, and for political organising online. But the novelty of purely social communities has worn off and I spend almost no time in social MOOs except to meet my daughter there to talk: I live in Australia and she in Florida, US. Communication and connecting, not billboards and cyberglut, that's the only real value to the internet in the end.

I met an Australian bloke one night on a dark back street of Chiba Sprawl. Chiba is a MOO, and 200 Chiba Blvd is where I met the guy I married three years later on 8/29/97 in Perth, Western Australia. Don't let anyone tell you that internet relationships don't deepen into lasting commitments because they certainly do. Our wedding vows are listed below--the first half came from a Sprawl object I made over three years ago and left for my current husband; the second half is the response he then left for me to find next time I logged in.

The Wedding Vows From Cyberspace

I said:

In a place that's not, and with a partner unknown, a bond was formed, of spirit alone. There's a mystic song that runs through all human interaction, a song so powerful its energies defy conceptual fences. To touch the fire of Being is to enter, and become, that song. It is to refuse to be defined by the earthbound, to fly, to sing across the electronic space daring someone to follow you.

Will you follow...this song's for you if you will.

And he replied:

Where you soar, I shall soar.
Where you land, I shall land
If you break your wing,
I will break your fall.
If I break mine,
I'll have no fear,
--for I've heard your song
and have given you my trust.
Lead on...

And I said:

Still hearing the song, I, Fractal, call upon everyone here to witness that I take Ribit to be my lawful wedded husband.

And he responded:

Still hearing the song, I, Ribit, call upon everyone here to witness that I take Fractal to be my lawful wedded wife.

So there ya have it folks--a virtual romance reaffirmed by a real life wedding 3 years later...what wondrous things from ugly trogladytes are born..heh...