Older IT games, before facebook there was neopets. Recently I’ve discovered I have pets on the game over 8 years of age… probably older than some of the people now playing on it strangely enough.

I remember times of Shareware games in DOS. Great fun in the olden times, sharing how to do things, get past codes and make our own versions and passing them on.

• Neopets
• Shareware
• DOS

I do get nosey, wondering how they’ve been and what they now do in life. I see friends leaving messages for each other from the “groups” of that time in life.

While at school, i was a quiet one. I was nervous frequently and not very confident. The only thing I was really confident with was my faith – I didn’t care what people thought of me when it came to that but anything else I seemed to stay quiet.

When I was in junior school I was loud, a lot. Which many people nowadays or even from secondary school would find it hard to believe. I was told for several years to be quiet, ignored and taunted/bullied and it was easier to be quite to please than fight it so I went quiet. Nowadays I get loud when excited but in general a quiet person.

School did shape me a lot, but college gave me a freedom I’d not known. People who were there, were there because they wanted to learn about the chosen subject and althou got picked on a little, it was a lot free’r and I could do so much more without so many limits.

Getting back to school, I knew lots of people – and lots knew me. I had a few base friends, most of which I am still great friends with and see often if not daily.

The majority of others, and maybe most that have now found me on facebook I wouldn’t recognise if out and about, but seem happy to talk via a virtual connection online. I find its great to see life changes in people. Many people i knew then are now married or in relationships… some with each other wheras at school they seemed to hate one another.

So many changes and yet still recognised to a point. Probably not by name, but the way some people looked. Its great the idea to litterally see how people are. I do like the way facebook allows you to see a kind of timeline through pictures and comments of just how some people have grown over time.

I can’t say I enjoyed school times, but do see it shaped me. Its where i realised I loved dance, but was too afraid to actually go for it. Its taken about 12 years after finishing school to finally start with dance, and I do love it althou know that I’m not particurlly good at it but its great fun.

I will try and go over the past few weeks over the next few but today I am just looking back and watching while I was completly disconnected from the online world – I felt more connected with people and friends than any online time.

I spend a LOT of time online, through work and internet. I’ve used the “internet” for a long time – I started back at college with it when it was “new” around 1996 where I tried making (really bad) websites on geocities and when hotmail wasn’t owned by microsoft. Using programs like telnet for access with a lynx browser or chat rooms that still exist today.

ie. The Gathering : Telnet gathering.org.uk 5000 – Many times of chat that are just not really used any more.

I used to think the internet was a place to chat – to get some information you wanted about pretty much anything you wanted but to chat and communicate with others – to get to know people.

It can be used, but i’m not sure if its a good thing – all this access to “information” and the communication of everything. I can say i’ve got in contact with some old friends that I talk and meet with reguarly and am thankful for that.

My point – Connections. While I was with other I was more connected, althou sometimes feeling totally alone. Online allows a virtual connection but its not real.

People meeting up, its all online – even while I was away I saw people connecting online while there was loads to do without the internet connection. I was glad to get away.

I think if I can find somewhere that isn’t online, but that I can be with people then I will be happier. The blog would be quiet too but would still be written on paper.

A strange dream is what I had or moved to an alternative reality for a few hours – in this place only 35 minutes passed – in the other days had passed.

While out with friends I was in a park, we were playing games outdoor – something we’d not done for years. It was so relaxing to get away from the work world and be with friends and just chill out.

Games like hide and seek, frizbee, tag, stuck in the mud, rounders, football – just a mixture of active games that we used to play as kids but never now relax and do anymore.

I feel so energised and was running around in a field and was suddenly walking down a street where everything had changed. Things around me looked very old but new at the same time. The style had been dated but seemed to be built that way.

I had fell into what seemed to be the past and for some reason I was in blackpool. I wasn’t there before so it was very odd. I don’t know if it was exactly as it should be.

I was watching the many people walking places, playing by the sea and talking to each other. The occasional arguments but generally a peace with kids playing in streets and calm weather.

One person invited me in, saying I looked lost and gave me some food and drink. They said I had a strange accent and they’d not seen me around. I felt relaxed and welcome and accepted the food and drink – it was tasty althou the water tasted a little funny.

I asked the date as people do, and they told me 19th April 1959 – I was suprised by the year as I was in 2009 earlier that day. The shock promted them to ask me more but I couldn’t share that – they’d think I was crazy.

I met with other people around the same age as me and younger – they were quite active, I remember asking one person lots of details to write here when I got back. If the young lady of 1959 in the shop by the side reads this, please get in touch – it wasn’t just a dream.

I wonder if they read this now in this date, I wonder if they kept the note – I said in 50 years checkout the internet and go to this address, I said to remember and lock it away til now – Who knows the alternative reality could truely be real and not just imagination

The dream feels like a series – a connection to somewhere else so maybe I’ll have a lot more to say. So for now…. End of Part 1