[Alexander]

Waldo? He was an odd character, around at the very beginning, then tried to kill himself and wasn't around much after that
Acheron? Another very early writer and member
Jackwright? A fascinating character
Aussie? Somewhat abrasive but entertaining

[Alexander]

Dark_father - the only US grinder I ever met in person. Nice young lad.

[The_Roach]

Waldo's fine. Exchanged words from him the other day. He's living in Chicago and is involved with a performance art community there.

[Alexander]

That's great, I always liked Waldo. And performance art isn't a surprise at all (in a nice way).

[Indieaei]

I remember Waldo and Aussie. Do you have any other information on them?

[Alexander]

Not sure if Aussie ever resurfaced anywhere, certainly I didn't keep in touch with him.

Morbid thought - how many grinders are now dead?

[ghoti]

mysteri passed away a few years ago. i know she was here but i don't remember how active she was, but she and i were friends. we met in worlds (dot com) and then we went to cybertown, and then second life there for a while after that. she kept up with me via my blog, and when i wasn't blogging, we emailed back and forth until almost the end.

she had an agressive brain cancer. i think her wee boy might have been 10 or 12 when she passed. he's in good hands with her parents.

she was a good friend who i never met IRL. we were pals for about 15 years. i invited her to FL many times but it never worked out.

RIP Leslie Farrell.

[Alexander]

That's very sad. Thanks for the update, though.

[VanGogh]

What about VanGogh? That saucy bastard was probably...

Oh, never mind.

[Alexander]

Ah VG! Whatever happened to that old rogue.

Good to see you again my friend, welcome back.

[Grapey v2]

The_Roach, on 02 January 2019 - 09:25 AM, said:

Waldo's fine. Exchanged words from him the other day. He's living in Chicago and is involved with a performance art community there.

Always wondered what happened to him. We had a weird/interesting meeting very briefly. He disappeared from his folks house when he came to visit me. I seem to remember they were not amused. Please give him my regards.

[Alexander]

I still follow a few people on Instagram who were grinders, it's pretty cool/weird to watch them grow up and have real lives and so on.

Interesting how the internet turned us from handles and avatars into a much richer (but no more real/less curated) version of our online selves.

[Acheron]

I can't believe my login just worked... I tried to look this site up a while ago and thought it had died. What a joy to see it still alive.

I really wonder how many people here would remember me, but in case anyone is curious, here is a reckoning of my current life:

I finished my bachelor's degree (2005), master's (2007) and doctorate (2012) in trumpet performance. I am a professor at the same mid-sized Canadian state university where I did my undergrad, and I have an active life as a performer outside of my teaching. In 2017 I married my beautiful wife, who is a professional cellist. This past summer we got a dog.

Being on this site was so important to me when I first stumbled on it (~2001-2004). I loved writing and it was a great outlet. I had a lot of angsty feelings and wasn't great at making friends back then, and the relationships I had on here sustained me. Looking back, I was pretty immature (which was obvious to many of the forum's wiser members) but somehow people still kept embracing and forgiving me after every social debacle.

I often think about this site and the kinds of social interactions it fostered. Today's internet is such a different beast, built for maintaining ties (facebook) or incredibly shallow interactions with strangers (instagram, reddit), but not for the kinds of conversations and friendships that seemed to arise when I first went online. Maybe things like discord are helping, though.

Anyway, if you've been around long enough to remember me: hello, it's nice to see you again old friends, and I hope wherever you've ended up, you're doing very well.

[Alexander]

Hi Acheron! Great to hear from you - I seem to recall you were one of the first batch of active members, so consider yourself an OG.

It's always super uplifting for me to hear that people all over the world got a real connection with others through this site, because that was the whole point of me creating it in the first place. I don't think it will ever have any kind of resurgence, as we've all grown up too much to have the time to converse in depth online with each other, and the younger generations don't have the need/attention span for something like akpcep. I'd love to be proven wrong, and maybe Discord and its ilk are the new equivalent of IRC etc, I'm not sure.

Anyway, it's great to see you again, if you know of any other ex-Grinders please send them this way to give us an update.

Congrats on your marriage, dog and trumpet blowing!

[kretil]

I would love to hear how Jackwright is doing. What a character (in a positive way) he was, always interesting to talk to a bit. One of those cases where he life was just so intensely different than mine, which made it immediately fascinating.