They were very concerned that they find this "up and coming" community, and for some reason seemed to think that I had the key to it.

My first thought on reading 'up and coming' was, "I bet this is what they call Viagra in Japan."

Gus, in Natter, brings birthday cheer:

Sweeps up Trudy and carries her into the Virtual Boudoir with the express intention of inventing an entirely new sin. The sin will be known as The Trudy Sin, in honor of it having been invented on her birthday.

And Cindy in Bitches, prepares her story for the case worker:

When Ben was brand new, I was feeding him one day, and Days came on the TV. When the theme music started, and MacDonald Carey started with the, "Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days of our lives..." voice over, he turned his little head right towards the TV. He did this consistently thereafter, so I know it wasn't a fluke. He was transfixed by it. When he was X months old, we got him a toy hour glass rattle (very simple, and shaped exactly like an hourglass). He couldn't say his "D" sounds--they came out as "G" sounds. He would grab it, and screech, "Gays of our Wives. Gays of our WIIIIIIIIVES!"

Cindy's on a roll today. In Natter:

tommyrot: Kissing her was nice and exciting. But what really caused the shock and awe was the first time she put her hand down my pants - because I wasn't expecting it.

Cindy: Nobody expects the Pantish Inquisition.

Gudanov in Natter:

Nothing really says get offa my lawn like an AK-47.

In Firefly:

Kalshane: The only issue I personally take with costuming is when it's inappropriate for the place in question (Klingons at a Renessaince Faire, for instance.)

tommyrot: The importance of Klingons to the Renaissance has been tragically ignored.

Kalshane: They did write Hamlet, after all.

Sometimes it's the most randome things that just crack me right the hell up. Allyson in Firefly ...

I balk. This is me balking. I am a Balkan.

Nicole in Bitches, ornamenting Tuesday as a crap day:

My ex and Bush are both in town today. This has to be a sign of the Apocalypse, right?

Lee: My alarm clock confused me this morning.

Ginger: First thing in the morning, air confuses me. I consider it a victory to be able to find the floor with my feet.

deb: I have to constantly remind people to spell my name the biblical way. Because, "Debra"? I am not an emerging daughter of the sun god, yo.

Matt: My mom goes through the same thing with people who insist on spelling her name "Sara." Some people are actually happy to have old-fashioned names, Kymburli!

In honor of the day, a blast from our WX past:

Victor: We are evidently a nomadic web community...

Jacqueline Zahas: I'm imagining the Buffistas wending our way from site to site in colorful wagons pulled by shaggy ponies. Dangling from the wagons is a wild, noisy assortment of bells, pots, pans, and bootleg OMWF CDs. A sea of dogs and cats dances around the wagons, nipping at the ponies' heels -- DXM's stupidest dog in the universe, Victor's ferret, Beth's nutty cats and Isabella and Amber B's kitty in the sink. And, though no longer permitted out in the non-virtual world, Malik and Smokey are running wild around our carts here. Resplendent in our corsets, ballgowns, and Bruins and Mariners gear, we wander the web, always in search of the Phoenix Board, our Mecca, our Jerusalem, for which we all long and in which we all believe, though few among us have ever actually seen it. We eke out a meagre existence crafting screencaps and porn; at night we dance wildly with platinum-haired photophobes, and conjure up magnificent feasts of everything from challa French toast to digestive biscuits to white chocolate bread pudding to Velveeta fudge, all out of thin air. We descend in a horde on an unsuspecting site and decamp just as quickly. Restless, wandering, porning away in our incomprehensible dialect.

I like the idea. I just hate the actual nomadism. Where is our board of milk and honey? Where?

Descriptions of some of the individual Travelers: Daniel the screencapper, squatting in a corner of an especially cramped and equipment-filled wagon, hunched over a dusty screen, poring over tapes, waiting for exactly the right moment; Googling Betsy, the seer, she who sees all, finds all, and knows all; Gigolo Hec; FayJay and Trudy, the pornmongers, hard at work crafting their wares in the Porn Wagon (always shaking and strangely lit, with odd indescribable noises emanating from it at all hours, rattling down the road with a trail of slash in its wake); the shimmering, hyperreal presence of the Canadians, who live one day ahead of the rest of us; and the Spoiler Whores, taunting us with their coy remarks and shamelessly flaunting their whitefonts in front of everyone.

Nilly, the Historian, keeper of the scrolls, she who has become a verb. And Miracleman, the Unholy Fool. And Mejia, who so closely studies the entrails of shows just past and scrutinizes the portents of what is to come.

DXMachina: JZ, are you referring to the penguin, or someone else's dog? Because my real dog is off playing with Malik and Smokey.

JZ: Ah, no, then, it's Miracleman with the stupid dog. But yes, your dog is there too. All of 'em are. All Buffista animals past and present, with the exception of Clovis the Devilbunny, who sits in a little wire birdcage in Jilli's lap, where he can't do more than growl at the rest of us.

scrappy: Hec is not only the Gigolo for our nomadic tribe, he's the stylist as well. John H. can be He Who Communes With The Mighty Chip. ita for protection. And Jon B can serenade us to sleep around the campfire with Theremin music.

Miracleman: If'n ya listen real close, late at night, you can hear the coyotes (*pronounced "kai-yoat") a-howlin' at the moon. The moon that is *always full*. And, if'n ya know *how* to listen, ya kin hear 'em talkin'. They're sayin' "Don't those damnfool drunk carvaners know how ta read a *map*?"

The phantom Buffista caravan has been travellin' these parts fer nigh unta a hundred years. Even though they only left last Saturday. They all blame Gudanov fer that.

But in the cold night of the high desert, ya kin see their ghostly forms windin' through the scrub. And ya kin hear them singin' their eerie song...

"Porn, porn, porn, porn. Porn, porn, porn, porn..."

"SHUT UP! Bloody Buffistas..."