Hercules and Xena |
And For The Rabbit There Are Dreams In The Talons Of The Hawk |
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Hercules and Xena |
And For The Rabbit There Are Dreams In The Talons Of The Hawk |
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And For The Rabbit There Are Dreams In The Talons Of The Hawk
I wrote a story once about a soldier who takes command of a lonely garrison on a frontier land. His men were an unruly sort, gathered up from broken companies and lost posts on the edge of a great war. The outpost they were ordered to man was assailed day after day by ruthless barbarians, and eventually the soldiers withdrew. They were not defeated, but they were not victorious. One of the barbarians was captured, however, and he faced death bravely, telling the soldiers who took him, "There is life, there is death, and for the rabbit there are dreams in the talons of the hawk." Well, the point of the story is that if you have to die, you should die well. The rabbit, when caught by the hawk, can still dream one last dream. And it's not always clear which is which. Online fandom is just a corner of our real lives. We seldom meet each other, though some people get together at conventions. But we can develop special relationships with other online fans that lead us down foreign roads. And when you're as active on Usenet as I am, you don't just win friends and influence people - you make your enemies, too. So those people who stand by you during the unwanted flame wars, the months when interesting discussion dies down, or just your own personal troubles offline take up your time, are special friends. Herc and Xena fans recently lost a special friend. Ron Martin really loved Xena, but when he proposed a binary news group he ensured that it covered both Hercules and Xena. He wanted to be fair to all the fans, especially when he learned just how difficult it was to get an alt.binaries.* group propagated. Ron spent six months lobbying America Online to carry the group and announcing it to every person who expressed a desire for such a group. I didn't know him in real life, but we communicated via e-mail. Ron came to me for help in creating alt.binaries.multimedia.xena-herc. We had spent months trying to persuade people not to post binary articles in the Xena news group. Why not just create a Xena binary group? For a long time I felt there would be little interest, since most screen captures were being posted on the Web. Ron felt otherwise. And he believed that both Hercules and Xena should benefit from the effort to create a binary group. Of course, he went for the multimedia solution. Audio files should be included, and discussion, Ron told me, because you often saw them in other binary groups. Why not have foresight? Why not indeed? From what Ron told me of himself I gathered he had quite an offline life, somewhere in the northern US. He was a grandfather and a man with a great sense of humor. He would often follow up to crazy or inflammatory articles with some offbeat comment. He was a devoted fan of Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor) and one of the Pirates of alt.tv.xena. The Pirates evolved from a collective effort to respond to trolls in creative ways, rather than to just flame them. Ron was naturally drawn to the group because of their sense of humor as well as their creativity. When I had my down days, getting dragged into flame wars, Ron was sure to be one of the people who sent me reassurance via e-mail. His advice was often sound, and sometimes I wish I had taken it more often than I did. :) Ron hated intrusions into the news groups, but he welcomed new participants with open arms. He was often one of the first people to try and make someone feel welcome when people stopped lurking at least long enough to say, "Hi." He had strong opinions on what he considered to be "spam" - unwanted commercial announcements. That was, perhaps, his online weakness, and Ron was well-known for crusading against a merchant who struck many fans as being somewhat overzealous. One of the last messages Ron posted to the Xena group was a welcome aboard to another AOL user. And he made fun of a Make Money Fast article that same day. Some of us knew Ron was getting on in years and he once told me he was ill but he never gave me any details. I didn't want to pry. Ron was a true Xenite, a soldier for fandom. In 1997 he posted the following article. I include the text here as a tribute to his great sense of humor, his sense of team play, and his undying devotion to a great world of fantasy. So, long, Ron. I hope that last dream was a good one.
A Xenite's Guide To LifeA DISCLAIMER: Romar666 is only the compiler of this document, not the author. The author is all of you as I compled this list several months ago. Because of a recent hardware upgrade I am now able to store all my Xena texts and favorite things.This started as a thread called, as I recall, How to live like Xena. Read them closely as I am sure there is a book on management theory hidden in there somewhere. |
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