GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Letters From The Bush...

POSTED BY: ZOID
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 3, 2005 12:53
SHORT URL:
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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 1:59 PM

ZOID



Greetings, Fellow Fire-Fie Flans...

As some of you will remember from the thread "Thanks, fireflyfans!" ( http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=9292), Browncoat minime (her Profile at http://www.fireflyfans.net/showprofile.asp?u=8297) was leaving her home in Australia to go to a remote location in Papua New Guinea to ply her profession as a health care worker. Long story short, she will not have access to the Internet and thus will not be able to partake of FFFn-y goodness until after 1 Nov 05. I volunteered to try and download snapshots of FFFn, burn them to CD-R and post them to her. Well, she got the first one yesterday, the 26th of April (I sent it on 7 April from my Fortress of Solitude secretly located here in the Heartland of America... What is that thumping noise anyway?).

At any rate, with her permission, I'll be posting excerpts of her letters here, to let y'all know how she's doing. I'm sure she'd appreciate hearing from y'all as well. If anyone would like me to forward a message to her I will be most happy to oblige. Normally, I'd just give y'all her email, but the hospital she's working at has only got a very unreliable POTS ('plain old telephone' line) email service, and they'd freak if she got a ton of email, regardless how well-intentioned. But again, I'd be happy to forward your well-wishes and questions, and any return responses she might have for you.

My next post will be the aforementioned excerpts...


Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'


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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 2:35 PM

ZOID



Okay, the story thus far:

Regarding my (unsuccessful) attempts to contact Haken and get permission to abuse his bandwidth downloading the entire site, minime wrote, on March 30th:
Quote:

Hi! Thanks again for your amazing offer.
If things work out and Haken agrees, I can be found as of April 4 at... very slow email, i'm told, etc.

Again, thank you for your generosity in wanting to share firefly.

(minime)


While I don't think there'd be any problems posting snail mail letters and shindig pics, etc. to the address she listed (and which I withheld), you'd have to have her real name to put in the ATTN line. She hasn't given me permission to reveal that yet; but I'll get back to you if she does...

In a separate email she wrote:
Quote:

Thanks again for your amazing offer... just before I turned my computer on I
had been having a bad day. Needless to say your post was an amazing reversal
of 'fortune' (or whatever it is).
Hope all is well with you and yours on the other side of the world...
Minime


On March 31st she wrote:
Quote:

...Seems that the snail-mail might get me in the least amount of trouble
(actually, I am starting out with a bit of trouble... long story and not a
happy one), if that's still ok with you... unless there is something that I
haven't thought of yet...is there? Lurking from a distance is more that I
thought that I would get to do!...


The upshot of which was that I couldn't attach HTML files to email to her. Within the same conversation (for those familiar with Gmail), she later wrote:
Quote:

... frantically packing things (I've been living with my
parents since I got back from Africa a year ago, and they're moving before I
get back... busy) -
cheers!


On 5th April I received:
Quote:

Hi,

I'm not (minime), actually I'm her younger brother. She arrived safely in Port
Moresby today and rang home to say a few things, one of them being "Don't
use surface mail. Use air mail." I presume that has something to do with
sending her firefiy updates (which she has been raving about constantly)

(minime)'s brother


I then got a kludge of a CD-R together (it's tough to get a snapshot of something that's always changing like FFFn) and air-mailed it to her on 7 Apr 05, asking her if she had any message she'd like me to pass along to y'all. I got this response on the 17th of April:
Quote:

Hi Zoid,
Got your email! Haven't received anything in the post yet - I've been
told 3 weeks mailing time, so not worried yet. The postal service from
Port Moresby (the capital) is notoriously slow. Plus, the post office is
about 45 min down the road from the station I'm working at, so sometimes
it takes awhile for someone to decide to go and check the mail. Will let
you know as soon as I get it!
Definitely the adventure of a lifetime... only been here a week, and
seen and done lots of exciting things (could have done without seeing
that number of fleas in my bed, though!). Medically very challenging but
also exciting and growing (but I don't think that verb fits
grammatically into that sentence).
Love to all the Browncoats! I do miss my regular dose of FFFn, but I do
have my laptop and the FF dvds... although I had to wrestle them back
from 2 newly-converted Browncoats who were reluctant to part with them!
'Keep flying' is a bit appropriate for this area, since all medical
supplies etc are distributed to outstations by plane (bad roads).

Thanks again,
(minime)
P.S. Pardon my ignorance, but I assume that USAF is United States Air
Force?


I wrote back:
Quote:

Just to let you know, your outbound email is working, too. If you're
not worried about the CD yet, then I'm not either. I will go ahead
and create the next archive on my days off this week. I will likewise
trust the mails and post that next one on or about Friday the 22nd of
April, 'coz I'd really like to be on a bi-weekly schedule. It makes
things a lot easier on my end if I can ignore all the files on the
FFFn server that are older than 14 days (don't ask, it's a bit of a
nightmare).

Although you didn't specifically permit it, I'd like to post your
email and my response (probably just in part, with yours truly as
trusted editor), excluding any personal info like name and addresses.
It'll be titled "Minime's Report From the Bush" (unless we can think
of a better title), and will let folks know you're getting on okay.
But I'll wait 24 hours or so to hear back from you, if you have
objections...

And, yep, USAF is U.S. Air Force (1986 - 2000). Much like FFFn's
'Static', who is a U.S. Army attack chopper pilot, you and I have
shared a common 'enforced wanderlust': ordered by our organizations to
forsake family and friends and spend extended vacations in strange
lands, meeting exotic new people. Only you don't have to do the whole
'...and then kill them' part that's parenthetically tacked on to the
end of a soldier's job description. You get '...and then enrich their
lives', which sounds a whole lot more palatable and noble to me...

If you decide not to respond to this email because it's too hard to
get onto a machine, I'll understand. If you do respond, is there
anything you could share about your occupation with the other
Browncoats? In either case, please let me know when you receive the
first CD, and what kind of physical shape it's in.

Sincerely,

(zoid)


She replied:
Quote:

You are very welcome to post any of my rambling from the
rim on FFFn. At the serious risk of repeating myself - what an amazing
community of people. For anyone's information: I'm a doctor, not a very
senior one and probably not a very good one. No speciality, but I've
worked a little in Africa, worked in Australia in Paediatrics and Paed
Surgery and am now a jack-of-all trades (jill???) in Papua New Guinea.
Not convinced about the enriching of lives at the moment - medical care
here is very basic (they're letting me make decisions and do procedures
I wouldn't be doing in a western hospital!) minimal access to
investigations and equipment, and I'm trundling along, knowing that if
anything serious happens to me, I'll be medi-vac-ed to Australia faster
than you can say 'sorry there's nothing I can do for your condition'.
But, lest I sound ungrateful and despondent, I am having a great time, I
enjoy the responsibility and the challenge, I picked this gig because I
like the work and I have a bit of an un-enforced wanderlust and the
people here are wonderful. I'm sure they'd be Browncoats if any of them
owned tvs... (minime)


She then wrote me on 25th of April:
Quote:

...got the 1st CD this morning! Very exciting - I will hopefully
have a chance to put my feet up with FFFn this afternoon...
unfortunately not feeling great at the moment (cold? malaria?) so it is
exceptionally good timing!

Thanks heaps,
(minime)


Which brings us up to date. Sorry about the length of this, but I really wanted to make sure she had received one of the CD-Rs first so there'd be good news to report. In the future, I'll post pertinent excerpts as they come in, so it won't be so long next time...


Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:14 PM

MALICIOUS


I think we should mail her a dead guy!

Mal-licious

"Let's go be bad guys."

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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 3:31 PM

ZOID



Or at the very least an orange tuque, which will undoubtedly make her look very cunning. She walks through the jungle wearing that hat, people know she's not afraid of nothing...

(Either that or she's gone delusional from the malaria.)


v/r,
-zed

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Wednesday, April 27, 2005 4:53 PM

CYBERSNARK


Quote:

Originally posted by Malicious:
I think we should mail her a dead guy!

Hmmm. . .

Obviously not a real one, but perhaps a toy (a Ken doll or something), done up in a browncoat uniform (with eyes painted so as to be shut), sealed in a properly-scaled little metal casket, itself in a suitably-scaled little wooden box with all appropriate labels. . .

Seein' as how she would get the joke. . .

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Thursday, April 28, 2005 9:02 AM

MALICIOUS


Quote:

Originally posted by Cybersnark:
Obviously not a real one...



Damn!

Mal-licious

"Let's go be bad guys."

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Thursday, April 28, 2005 7:59 PM

ZOID


Fellow Browncoats:

The next installment:
Quote:

minime:

Good to hear, 'mini. I was actually getting concerned that the disc
wouldn't reach you. I had this fantasy based on a scene from Mel
Gibson's "Gallipoli" in which some backwoods PNG 'postman' (barefoot,
loincloth, military-surplus jacket and postman's hat) was actually a
rabid Joss Whedon/Firefly fan, saw the CD-R and decided that the
address or postage paid was incorrect, and so confiscated/appropriated
it for himself. Of course, in the fantasy, he doesn't have a computer
to spin the CD on yet; but, he's sure one will come along sooner or
later. (NB: A psychologist once commented to me, "You have a very
rich internal landscape." I'm still not sure if that's a good thing
or not, but I choose to think of it as a compliment.)

I've got a sneaking suspicion that your physical ills are just because
of the move to PNG. There's different microorganisms in foreign air
and teeming on damp surfaces. At some point your body has to stop
fighting these critters (because they're gonna win anyway) and strike
a new balance with them by letting them settle into their new home
(*your* physical internal landscape). Of course, anyone who's spent
time in a jungle knows that even an inconsequential scratch can turn
septic in less than 24 hours; so definitely take care of yourself.
But -- to the maximum extent possible -- I'd let my body do it's job
and let it take care of itself without prying too much. Otherwise,
the 'finding balance' negotiations between your body and the
local-variety microorganisms might take longer, or even turn *nasty*.
I think there's entirely too much resorting to antibiotics and other
medicines, which only effectively hampers the body's
millions-of-years-of-evolution-learned ability to fend for itself, and
adapt to new environments.

If ya' start running a fever or develop a chronic cough, you might
think about taking some meds. Or you could just do it the
old-fashioned way and get pretty well-lit on grain alcohol (preferably
a dark variety like Jack Daniels, or other bourbon, scotch or irish
whiskey). Five or ten shots of alcohol in a three-hour time frame
should get you beyond tipsy (depending on body weight) and teach the
local critters that you ain't afraid to break out the toxins on their
ass... Just remember to avoid members of the opposite sex when
self-administering the 'beyond tipsy' dose of grain alcohol; no sense
complicating your physical maladies with morning sickness. A decent
hangover should be expected, and is indicative that the treatment is
working; but it shouldn't last more than one day and there should be
no continuing increase in waist size...

Anyway, enjoy the disc. There's another coming along in about 2
weeks. I'll continue sending the biweekly updates until about 1 month
before you go home. If everything stays the same (about 3 weeks
delivery time), you should get one on or about the first week of that
last month, and get the last CD-R on or about the third week of that
month. Then, you'd be getting home the next week, with no CD-Rs
orphaned in the bush mail system.

I suspect the disc is gonna be a little difficult to decipher, since a
lot of it doesn't link up (the links get broken during the download
process). Think of it as a book of one-page essays: The binding is
broken and all the pages are loose in the mailing envelope. Even
though it is no longer recognizably a book, all the content is still
there. One must simply select an individual page to read, rather than
the erstwhile book's table of contents. Analogically, when you get
the CD-R, it may work better to open the individual HTML pages from
Windows Explorer (the file manager) by double-clicking each filename.
If you strictly use the FFFn contents pages, you'll miss a lot of good
stuff that's actually on the disc, but that won't open because of
broken links.

If you can't figure it out, I can probably walk you through it. Or
maybe some cute co-worker is a 'computer geek' and could assist you,
in exchange for you converting them to a Browncoat, as y'all scour the
FFFn disc and your DVD set. (Mine is an evil laugh.)

Hope you get to feeling better,

(zoid)



To which she replied:
Quote:

Hi (zoid),
Disc was great! Probably safe from maurauding postal workers by virtue
(?) of lack of technology... if there was post containing food or

something they could trade, it'd be a different story.
Speaking of... can I delicately raise the issue of... reimbursement for
expenses incurred while keeping my FF addiction supplied?
Really enjoyed some of the Blue Sun items, was able to open all the
'General Discussion' links, and if I wanted to access anything else, I
can work out the page link by holding the cursor over the link, then
open that file seperately. I'm trying to think of an analogy that
works... and can't. Sorry. Anyway, been having a great time. And only
just now read your post about wanting details of my time here for
FFFn... feel free to post whatever, but remember I'm no... BDH. More
like the statue that someone needs to believe that health care is
possible. Except that statue was one of the BDHs. Maybe I should try and
steer clear of analogies.

Feeling a bit better now, and suspect that your diagnosis is correct...
although I have been slack about taking anti-malarials, and there are
oodles of patients with TB on the wards, so my default diagnosis setting
is permanently tuned to 'panic'... not just for me, though. No
anti-biotics required! Although trying to 'drug up' enough to be fit to
assist with an emergency caesarian operation this afternoon.
Thought about the creative prescring, although I'm fairly sure that the
local brew would be horrendous, and also frowned upon on a church
mission station! (church of PNG is fairly conservative, even by Southern
Baptist standards)... also - five to ten shots? Are you kidding? I'm a
small female person of Asian descent. Try 2-3. Well... you could have
2-3 and see if it does me any good!

Here's a FFFn-type thought. If the 'verse is doing as well as
Firefly-lore indicates in 500 years, we'll be doing well. If people on
the rim have access to protein (standard village diet out here is the
most revolting carbohydrate conglomeration I've ever come across... and
that's saying something) and immune boosters and horses! and things,
they'll be streets (except they won't have those) ahead of where they
are now, and the progress will have been a lot faster than it has been
in the last 500.

Rich internal landscape is good! There's a rich external one here, too!

Cheers!
minime


That's all for now. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...


Journalistically,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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Monday, May 2, 2005 4:38 PM

ZOID



The next installment of "Letters From the Bush". On April 29th, I replied:
Quote:

(minime):

First, don't think twice about reimbursement. I may not be a man of
means, but I can easily afford to send you the discs. It's no
problem, and my pleasure to do so.

Second, *do* take care of yourself. TB's nothing to be trifled with.
Same goes with malaria (my Dad caught it in WWII just down the road
from New Guinea and never really got over it). I was only
semi-serious about the grain alcohol suggestion. You *can* chase off
some bugs with it; but in many cases the cure is worse than the cause.
I'm 5'11" and 215 lbs. of Gallic stock, built like a bull. So, 5-10
shots for me to get 'more than tipsy'. I can easily absorb 2 drinks
an hour for 3 hours without going over .08. But the fact is I haven't
even had a beer since New Year's Eve, whereupon I had a bottle of a
nice white wine throughout the evening and split a bottle of Cristal
with my wife on the hour. I didn't even get tipsy (although I did get
sleepy).

Third, the Firefly thought. It has often occurred to me that those
fans who complain about the backwater existence of folks living on the
rim -- how it seems so dubious -- do not have any comprehension of how
the vast majority of humans live on the Earth today. While we in the
West have gas-guzzling cars and high-speed, instant communications,
widescreen plasma televisions and multiple networked,
Internet-connected PCs in a growing number of domiciles, the vast
majority of the world's population lives in amazing (terrifying)
poverty and need. Rather than rousing my incredulity, Firefly's
social commentary seems tame when compared with our reality. I believe
there is not only a deeper gulf between the rich and poor in our world
than in Firefly's, I believe that chasm is growing wider each year.

It's something that is constantly in my thoughts. We must find some
way to address this discrepancy; but until we of the West can learn to
sacrifice our toys in the name of equality, that can never happen. As
a result, I must sadly conclude that the inequality will continue to
grow -- that we of the West will continue to exploit the labor and
resources of the rest of the world, in order to provide ourselves with
more useless amenities. One day that strained link will snap; with
each year it grows tauter.

If one man could change that with a wish, I would. But,
unfortunately, I fear it's not in human nature to give things up for
the common good. And if we did, human nature dictates that someone
else would jump in and claim it for themselves. History proves that
the human race is nothing if not expansive and rapacious.

Okay, so that was kind of a downer. But, it's in Firefly and it's in
our world too, so I won't apologize too much. Which brings us to your
role in the world. I've never thought of myself as a Hero. And the
heroes I've met never thought of themselves as Heroes either. They
were just following their hearts, putting the needs of others first,
and helping where they could. If that's the standard, you'd be a
hero, too; but, I'd never presume to call you one.

To a certain extent, in order to be a Hero (capital 'H'), you have to
be looking for it. Heroes have a nasty tendency to get the people
around them killed (or at least walked on), in order to achieve the
fame they seek. The only truly good hero is a *posthumous* one. Only
the hero who achieves his status by laying down his life for others
can be said to be free of ulterior motives. So let's stop with all
the hero talk. You're much better than that: you're a living,
breathing person who has sacrificed her personal comfort and safety to
care for those who need your help to care for themselves. Now, let's
keep you alive and get you safely home again; that way nobody can ever
accuse you of being a Hero...

It may not be a Hero's acclaim, but you have my admiration and my
gratitude for making the world a more excellent place in which to
live.

Sincerely,

(zoid)



To which she replied:
Quote:

(zoid),
Just gonna say - thank you. At this risk of repeating myself.

Well, historically, fermented beverages have been used as anaesthetics
(in large enough quantities!), disinfectants, as well as treatment for
hypothermia, various kinds of pain, depression (that one really doesn't
help), and red wine is still supposed to be good in terms of prevention
of heart disease.
I take it 0.08 is the legal driving limit in the US? In Australia it's
0.05... I generally make it a policy to not drink at all if I'm driving
though.

I think you're right about the growing 'poverty gap'; I think most
statistics bear that out. I started being interested in sci-fi because
I'm interested in what people think the future will be like; Star Trek
used to fascinate me, less because of the actual content and more
because of the incredibly optimistic view of humanity. We'd probably be
quite happy to share our plenty as long as it doesn't diminish our
plenty - we'd be quite happy for everyone in the world to have the same
access to the things we take for granted as long as it doesn't mean we
have to give up any of it.
I'm supposed to be living the 'simple life' at the moment, and I still
have heaps more 'things' than the majority of nationals... let alone all
the stuff sitting in boxes back in Aus. I know that even if I was to
give away a bunch of my 'stuff' that wouldn't materially change the
situation.
Appreciate the postive endorsement; being sick makes me miserable and
all "what on earth am I doing here?" Thanks for helping answer.
Maybe the reason our BDHs are our 'heroes' is that they are actually
'anti-heroes' (hanging out to read Finding Serenity! my copy is waiting
at home); people who in the course of doing things that were closest to
their hearts did something beneficial for someone else at the same time.

thoughtfully,
(minime)


'Til next time...


Respectfully,

zoid

P.S.
Wait 'til I send her the trailer this week, as well as all the commentary on the trailer and the sneak previews. Wonder what she'll make of all that, hmmm? I'm not going to tell her by email, 'cause that'll just drive her nuts for three weeks 'til she gets the disk...
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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Monday, May 2, 2005 6:02 PM

SHINEY


Hey, while I haven't been a member on here for as long as most, the lady in question seems so nice! If I get my bf to burn his video of the Jewel Staite Q and A at I-Con do ya think she'd like it ? Just something more to fuel her FF Addiction. Course I'm not sure what kinda format she'd want and all, guess that depends if she'd like it.

Shiney Out!

"Oh My God It's Grotesque! Oh And There's Something In A Jar."

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 12:21 AM

ZOID



Shiney:

I daresay she would. She's pretty much stuck in the jungle in Papua New Guinea (PNG), like on Gilligan's Island: "No phone, no lights, no motor cars; not a single luxury". More importantly, no FFFn and she won't get back to 'civilization' until around the first week of November. So she's missing all the thrilling and enlightening conversations around here.

I'm trying to help by emailing and also by snail-mailing her CD-Rs of the website. (NB: They ain't pretty, but they work okay, I guess.)

So, yeah, I'd think she'd be thrilled to have your bf's video. She runs Windows XP, so I believe any standard format video would do. QuickTime might prove problematic; but that's what the trailer's in, too. Anybody know where I can find a standalone QT install? They used to do those. Now it all seems to be a small EXE that requires a live connection to the 'net to finish. She hasn't got a connection to the 'net (except email under 50 KB), so that won't work.


It'd be funny (not) if I sent her the trailer and then she couldn't play it because she had no (or an outdated, incompatible) QuickTime installation...


Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 8:38 AM

SHINEY


My Bf's profession is as a computer technician. I'll ask him. He's always trying to find mods for this or that. He really is a Kaylee, only you know without the "womanly parts".

"Oh My God It's Grotesque! Oh And There's Something In A Jar."

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 8:47 AM

SHINY


We definitely need to find a way to get her the trailer...permaybehaps some enterprising FFFer has video editing software that will allow us to convert it to a file she can play?

Or perhaps include the QT installation file on the CD?

Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 9:34 AM

SOULOFSERENITY

The Man They Call Soul...


Zoid:

Do you think she might be interested in reading some fanfics? Something to entertain her by a bit? I would love to send her some of my fics if it means getting her the Firefly fix that she deserves.

______________________

Soul, Security Chief of the Sereni-Tree

Mantichorus: "So is there a reason they call you 'Soul'?"
Soul (after a long pause): "Yeah. Because I have one."

http://havenofsouls.blogspot.com/

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 12:10 PM

ZOID



Shiney:

I know a thing or three also, when it comes to computers; but, they don't seem to make a complete install version of QT anymore, at least not for free download. I daresay I could buy the Pro version and get a complete one; but Apple really want you to go through their website in order to get a full install of the free QT player.

Still, ask him though. Maybe he knows a site that has a 'wiggled' version of the full install.


Thanks,

zoid

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 12:21 PM

ZOID



Shiny (as opposed to 'Shiney'):

There is a bittorrent .mpg version out there, but I don't play file sharing. I've got enough problems on the Internet without inviting strangers into my processor, NIC and hard disks. Others are far too trusting, IMO.

If anybody finds a single-file download (FTP or HTTP) of an .mpg version, please point it out. As to the QT installer, yeah, that's what I'm looking for.


Thanks,

zoid

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Tuesday, May 3, 2005 12:53 PM

ZOID



SoulOfSerenity:

Well, I know that I got all the BlueSun Fanfics on this last CD-R (posted to her 10 days ago, should arrive at her location in about 11 more days). Do you have additional fanfics?

If you do, but they're not at FFFn (say at the OB or the NOB), perhaps I could download them and put them on the next disk? Sending them to her yourself is gonna be somewhat problematic, since she doesn't have a very good email system, and it takes 21 days to send her stuff by snail mail.

I still haven't heard back from her whether it's okay to release her name for snail mailers (because her 'real world' name must be put in the 'Attention:' block), but I know she couldn't get more than three(?) emails a day without getting her privileges revoked. This is the boilerplate at the bottom of her email posts: "Our radio phone lines are slow - please limit messages to 50kb
Our email is shared - please put recipient's NAME in the subject box...". Please note that they don't even have a landline; it's a radio phone.

Until I hear from her regarding snail mail, I'm probably the only means of contacting her. I encourage everyone to 'talk to her' through this page. I've already likewise encouraged her to forward responses through me, which I will post here unaltered and unedited. That way, when I send her next CD-R, she can see that I posted her words -- jot and tittle -- and read your responses to her. It's a lot slower than than the normal 'post and reply' cycle on FFFn; but, it's really about all she can do, and all the hospital can afford.


Respectfully,

zoid

P.S.
Bill Gates: If you're a closet Flan, you might think about dropping some tax-deductible cash on her hospital in PNG, and get them a nice satellite Internet setup, rather than their current radio telephone email system (which I daresay is mostly intended for critical hospital communiqués). C'mon, Bill. Have a heart (it's good PR).
_________________________________________________

"Sure as I know anything, I know this: I aim to misbehave." -Capt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity, a.k.a. 'the BDM'

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