Archived from groups: rec.games.video.classic (
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Did anyone who has listened to the speech found themselves thinking
that her storybook childhood seemed, well, storybook? I listened to a
bit of it and was surprised that she never gave any names and ditched
fairly interesting storylines after barely starting them. Her father
seemed to be almost a cardboard cutout character... He provides raw
materials, disappears, Jeri makes [neat widget X], it blows up, he
eventually returns and gives her [a 'real', commercially-made widget
X/a fixed version of widget X/etc]. No real interaction, and nearly
always the same MO.
Take the phone story -- She gets Radio Shack breadboard kit, etc.
*Thinks* she hooked it up to a casette player (hey, I remember my first
phone, and it was hardly as big a deal to me -- I am older than Ms.
Ellsworth, btw), talks about Morse coding zeroes, starts talking about
listening in on her father's conversations, ditches that story with no
specific examples, father clues in, buys her a real phone. Wash.
Rinse. Repeat.
The bit about racers copying fake weights at the top/middle of her car
seemed particularly suspect, especially if she wasn't winning that many
races (which I may have misunderstood). I was also confused on how
many parts shows she'd gone to (they were yearly events?), and how she
got so much stuff (like transistors, not known for being huge) given to
her that she had to take more than two trips to get it all... Her
friends don't have names, the businessman across from the initial
computer store isn't named, she talks about mentors constantly without
naming any (sometimes without even listing them), etc.
At best, and this is likely what I'm taking it for, she seems to be the
only child of a widower/divorced father who tends to exaggerate her
stories just a bit -- and might be a bit paranoid about using names.
In any event, I did enjoy hearing the stories and the C=64 joystick is
certainly real enough. A *very* neat contraption. Too bad they don't
come with Novaterm installed with RS-232 and PS/2 ports on the back!
Ruffin Bailey
/www.wavestarinteractive.com/jeri/jeri.html
/www.dickestel.com/images/classic19.jpg
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