1. What is your name?
The Persians called me Enmebaragesi. The Rus called me Rurik for some reason. The English called me Longshanks, again, for reasons that I don’t fully understand. The internet calls me Roninspoon. My mother always just called me Ed.
2. Tell us something about you, your background, and what you've been up to lately?
I am a disabled Veteran of the US Army. I grew up in Alaska. I was run over by a truck in Keflavik in 1975. I’ve met Joss Whedon twice. I have never lost an Indian Leg Wrestling match. I can drink an entire bottle of bourbon in a single sitting. I write comic books. I have push started an M113 Armored Personnel Carrier. I’m allergic to Mango. I qualified for an Expert marksman badge by shooting 30 targets with 29 bullets. I have never taken a human life. I can ride a horse without saddle or harness. I play tested the beta build of Command and Conquer in a hotel suite at the Las Vegas Hilton. I’ve never met my father, although I tracked him down via public records. I cooked an entire pig in my suburban backyard. I have captured and killed game with my bare hands.
All of these statements are accurate, save one.
3. How did you discover Everything, and how did you become a noder?
At some point in the 90’s I was in attendance at COMDEX when either Slashdot or Blockstackers were exhibiting in the Linux portion of the expo. I overheard someone say that pictures of CowboyNeal wearing a ridiculous penguin hat would be available on his website. I checked out the website the next day and followed a link to Everything. It seemed interesting, but lacked something appealing to me. I read some, but did not participate. I returned later, noticed the change from E1 to E2 and a satisfactory evolution into something that seemed interesting, and created an account.
4. What are your favorite writeups -- both your own and from other noders?
Undeniably, my most popular writeup is Two Stories of the Pistol, a nearly true collection of two experiences I had during the Gulf War. Popular is not the same as favorite though, and I don’t think that one is a favorite of mine. I fought strongly, many times, for the life of the Ultimate Zen Node. But, in the end, I think my favorite writeup of my own is Airline Hero, and not just because it’s hilarious. Airline Hero was the result of an extended riffing joke between myself and Igloowhite over the course of a long car drive. The process for creating that writeup was a beautiful and organic process of free reign humor among two close friends.
Other people’s writeups? It’s been so long since I’ve browsed E2 that I’m not sure I can answer that question well. Most of the wus that stick in my mind were written by noders that ended up becoming close personal friends of mine, people like Igloowhite, Icicle, Ouroboros, Quizro, Witchiepoo, Jessica Pierce, Perdedor and others that aren’t noders anymore like Donred, Wharfinger, stand/alone/bitch and Sensei. There are countless (18) others whom I’ve not mentioned by name, but are close in my mind.
If I’m being forced to pick a favorite, I will choose Welcome To Role Playing Game.
5. What are your favorite and least favorite memories from E2's history?
Undeniably, my favorite part of E2 was the people. Some of my closest and oldest friends were people I first met through E2. Many of them are brilliant in a variety of heart pounding ways. Some of them, though, are no longer with us. If making friends was the best part of E2 for me, losing them has been gut wrenching. Some of them just checked out and never came back, disappearing into the internet. Others have slipped the mortal coil and took a piece of me with them. I did not like that part. Not at all.
6. What keeps you coming back (or not coming back, as the case may be)?
E2 is like the house I grew up in. For a long time, it was the only place I could imagine being. After a while though, I noticed that I had changed, and it had not. Like all children, I wandered off to see something else, but I still return from time to time. To visit. To remember. To pay my respects.
7. What do you hope for E2's future?
Evolution.
8. What does E2 mean to you?
My time with E2 was among the most special and interesting of my life. It may have been a function of my age at the time or a function of what was happening at the genesis of the social networking evolution, but E2 in the late 90s and early 2000s was a magical place where brilliant and fantastically talented people converged to collaboratively write some of the goofiest shit ever to see the light of day. Not all of it was goofy of course. Some of it was brilliantly obtuse with very clever titles.
All of that was damaged by a persistent belief by some that everything should be that way, or be this way, or be another way. There was a time when I bought into this paradigm, and I was wrong. Is E2 a writer’s forum? A repository of information? An extended free form joke? A community of people? A complex Turing Test?
Sure. E2 was, is, all of those things and more. It is what you make it. Literally.
You are E2.
You don’t have to fight the system. You ARE the system.
9. Who are your favorite noders? Which ones do you miss the most?
I have never stopped missing Sensei. The loss of Ouroboros is still fresh and very raw. I’m not sure I will ever stop missing him either.
10. Who would play you in the Everything2 movie?
Someone cheap and untalented. Probably a drunk.
11. Please fill in the blank: "E2 is to the Internet as ___ is to the world."
Underscore.
12. Any questions that I didn't ask that I should've?
Where did you hide the canisters?
Which pentacle engages the eclipse?
When is it grammatically acceptable to repeat the word ‘that’ in a sentence?
If the Mandarin can heal almost immediately from any conceivable wound, how did he get tattoos?
Everything2 Decaversary Interviews
If you have questions or comments, please contact Roninspoon or Jet-Poop.