Random things in old archives

[brooksmoses]

I happened to be going through some old archives this afternoon, and came across some bookmark files.

Most of the links in my bookmark file from 2000 are dead. Some aren't, though.

Also, based on "date added" data in the 2002 bookmark file, I started reading Schlock Mercenary on March 30th, 2001 -- making it by far the longest run of webcomic that I've read. (I started reading Ozy and Millie in January 2001, but it ended. And although Sluggy Freelance is still going, it went strange and I stopped reading it a very long time ago.)

So now you know.

Comments

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I miss Ozy and Millie.

I did buy my dad a Dragon Daddy T-shirt at one point, though. Because I Could Relate.

[seawasp]

How did Sluggy "go strange"? I'm not sure you can go stranger than trying to summon Satan via the Internet by spamming him, which was the very first strip?

Or did you mean it went SERIOUS with its strangeness? It did do that (although it has occasional returns to the original fluffy lunacy).

[brooksmoses]

Fair enough. Re-reading the original bits, I think it's entirely possible that what happened is simply that its strangeness got old (for me, anyway; I assume others still like it!), rather than that the strip changed that much.

[nipernaadiagain.livejournal.com]

I am an archivist.

I nearly fell off my chair seeing your use of "old archives".

While my first thought had been of paper records, I am unable to consider even emails from year 2000 old.

Come to think of it - even when we talk about items that have gotten expired or gone off, I will call them expired or rotten rather than old.

... and now I am testing myself: "But what if you would find an abandoned sandwich from year 1990*, would you be ablke to call it old?" ... and I think not. Less than 50 is VERY hard to call old. Unless it is a dog or a cat, I think.

* not likely, those were hungry times here

[brooksmoses]

Hah! Yes, well; a fair point.

I suppose I do tend to use "old" a bit more relatively -- and these are just archives in the sense of being computer backups that I made and then kept around mostly because it was easier just to keep all of them around rather than sorting through them for what's actually useful, rather than things that have much archival value. They're "old" to me within the context of my personal computer archives, rather than being old in any global sense. (Still, I'm going to keep the bookmark files for personal historical interest. The web has now been around almost three times as long as it had when I created some of those bookmarks!)

[brooksmoses]

Also, the ancient Egyptians set some pretty high bars for leaving foodstuffs sitting around to get old. Twenty years is trivial in comparison.

[nipernaadiagain.livejournal.com]

Thanks for mentioning the Egyptians!

I hope you did not mind my random comment - I often get strolling on other peoples friendlists (Mrissas this time - as she has interesting and satisfyingly long one, I have been an occasional reader of her friendlist for around a decade) and sometimes I comment, forgetting that this could be creepy for diarists who have had no idea that I have been an occasional reader.

[brooksmoses]

Not a problem at all -- that's why I left the post public. And Mrissa's friendslist is indeed a good place to find interesting people; I have several friends that I met that way!

[aedifica]

I think Sinfest is the one I've been reading longest now. I started reading Sluggy earlier (did you know my main email address is @sluggy.net ?) but I stopped at some point, too, when I gave up on having certain old tensions resolved and wasn't as interested in the new ones. But here, appropriate icon!