You know how they say the past it is a foreign country

There's always a good reason to quote British Sea Power lyrics. I've been having lots of visits from the past lately. I just received a nice note from a gentleman named Jim, with whom I conversed 20 years ago on BITNET. Those were the days - hacking together chat machines in Rexx, being banned by a sysop named Hunter because I used the name "Pro-Death" in response to another user who had chosen "Pro-Life," being lectured by "Pro-Life" about how God had forgiven his former homosexuality so He could forgive my actions on BITNET too. Now that I think about it, the past was a foreign country back in 1986 too.

So Jim went to North Dakota State U. back then. The school was one of the early adopters of this pre-Internet technology, allowing people to send communicate without even being in the same room together at the same time! Voice wasn't supported, so we could only type messages and hope that they showed up within a few seconds so that the conversations didn't lose all context. It was truly a wonderful advance over the telephone.

I got to wondering what has been going on up in Fargo recently. I figured that the city has undergone a renaissance since the eponymous movie showed just how exciting it was compared to Grand Forks. The NDSU site actually filled me in about the current goings-on in the great north.

Local Top 10 CD Sales (Updated Weekly):
1. Rage Against the Machine Renegades
2. Wu Tang Clan The W
3. K-Ci & JoJo X
4. Alice in Chains Live
5. Backstreet Boys Black & Blue
6. The Beatles 1
7. Shaggy Hot Shot
8. R. Kelly TP-2.com
9. Master P Ghetto Postage
10. Sade Lovers Rock

Say what you want about its remote location, Fargo remains on the cutting edge of today's hottest trends and fashions! (Go to the page - you can almost see the thought bubble over Mick Jagger's head that says "We've got to get a new booking agent.")