As The VAX Churns

(Or: If you don't understand, don't worry)

January 18th, 2008 - Sleep peacefully, Heather Bloom...

October 21st, 2006 - Rest in Peace, John Midtgard... 

Way back in the early 80's, the University of Florida put up a VAX system that became widely used by UF's student population (and a sprinkling of non-students). It was run by CIRCA for many years, but slowly started being phased out, eventually to be shut down completely. In the Fall of 1996, no more personal accounts were available to UF students on the VAX cluster. :(

All of the VAXen at CIRCA have been retired and are no longer in service. CSE is now full of PC's, from reports I've gathered.

Over the years, many traditions developed, numerous relationships were forged (and broken), and large amounts of hacking were done through the CIRCA VAX system. Of course, as time goes by many people graduate and move on. Many of the earliest VAXers have now married and started raising children.

This web page is dedicated to the Family of VAX, to everyone who found the system, or was introduced to it, and eventually moved on.
Please note, there are far too many people who have been on VAX for the past decade for me to list them all. I didn't even know more than a fraction of them personally. If you know what this page is about and don't see yourself mentioned here, please let me know!

Oh, and be sure to check out the new Yahoo! group created for VAXers by [TURLOUGH]! It's called UFVAXers.

Special Note!

If you happen to be part of the ICQ network, please send me e-mail with your ICQ number so I can include it in this listing (unless of course you want to keep it private). If you're on other Instant Messaging networks, go ahead and let me know. I'll start trying to add those links in over time.

If you don't know what ICQ is, it's a program that allows you to keep track of when other users are on-line, send them messages, chat in real time, transfer files, exchange URL's, and so on. It's highly configurable and customizable, allowing you to decide who you want to be notified about being on-line, whether they can talk to you or not, etc... A lot like the way VAX used to be for all of us, :)

For more information, see the ICQ Homepage.

Still Lurking

VAXers who are still in Gainesville. Some of them are still taking classes. Zonker would be proud, :)

Greener Pastures

Those that have since moved on (some even with degrees!) to get jobs, get married, and become really normal... NOT!

Honorary Members

They never actually got a chance to login to the UF VAX system, but they may still be familiar with CIRCA and UF. Or even just have managed to end-up dragged into our twisted social group. Now they have a place of honor on this page, :)

Lost Souls

Gone But Not Forgotten

VAX Lore Archives

Remember [TURLOUGH] 's Daily Quote's? Hell, do you remember QUOTE.COM at all? Well now you can peruse some of the selected best from Gary's own homepage... Just check out his daily quote page and revel in the nostalgia.
[CURRENTLY DEFUNCT: Gary also has numerous images and sound clips on his page, including some great images of VAXers and VAX parties!]

Gary also used to have a bunch of images from VAX parties, but he's revised his webpage several times since then. But he was kind enough to provide me copies of the files, so with that and some other images I've picked up over the years here is the VAXer Photo Album!

You may be able to find some VAXer tidbits in the UFVAXers Yahoo! Group.

Lyrics! Let's start with "I Want Your Vax"... Also available as the actual song!
And here's some new lyrics by SYLVAR, for "Good Morning MBBS".

Here's an old VAX Survey conducted by Jeff Mason (thanks to Gary for the file). Note: I am not that annoying!

You can now access a significant chunk of VAX Lore through the VVC Archives as maintained by [TRAVELER]. Check it out and relive your recent past! :)

The wonderful VaxTrek archives are on-line as well, thanks to Skippy Podar! And yes, the last one is there in its completed form, :)

I've started an archives section of my own on VAXer.net, though it's pretty skimpy at the moment.

Hopefully, other wonderful bits of VAX history and lore will be coming on-line in the future. Planned additions include the Man In Black original stories, and if I can locate 'em, the FiFi The Poodle From Hell stuff!

We Didn't Start The VAXing

This was written by [TURLOUGH] some years ago, but still holds true now. 
VAXA, VAXB,
EGNA and VAXC,
Warlock, ZBox,
Esoteric-O.
Spearthrust, a girl named Burt,
Dwatney Farthinghale the Third,
Viviane, Orear,
Kajira, Perignon.

ZBeeble, Turlough,
Something called the Daily Quote,
Softball, Weil Hall,
Elizabeth in charge.
Blondie, Gopher, Skyman,
Kitty, Yes, and Prothan,
Micronaut, Coldrot,
Silly Christmas Cards.

Chorus:
   We didn't start the vaxing,
      but we keep on sending
      is it never ending?
   We didn't start the vaxing,
      and perhaps it's sickening
      'cause it's so addicting.

Billy Bill's BBQ,
Trouble wearing perfume,
Monty, Eris,
Nyx's article.
Waiting in a fifty queue,
Seeing Mr. BooBoo,
Lennon, Evals,
Quota always full.

Chocolate from Vietnam,
MCR to log you on,
Tubing, Omar's log,
Blue-vested idiot.
Know I tried to send you mail,
but your quota extend failed,
Omnedon, Shadow,
Edward is a snot.

(Chorus)

Moving into CSE,
All the nodes are named for trees,
Catman, Louis Wu,
Cheryl and Messiah, too.
Asmodeus, CB,
Bruyante, Cave Party,
Avalon, I wrote a song,
Gorilla Rap for you.


SuperLogin, Prologue.Com,
Gladiator, Dive Bomb,
Vladimir, Norbert,
Wiz and bridge parties.
Teddybear, Wumpwoman,
Shadowcat, Pendragon,
Sandman, Myloe,
Both a different breed.

(Chorus)

Sexyblond, Shiva,
Titian and Columbia,
Katmandu, IMLost2,
Jerbear and Pegasus.
Breakfast Club, Fuzface,
GreatG's surveys,
Mindgame's sex, Anubis,
Monty's BBS.

Alligator Article,
Have you read my profile,
Riffer, Chipster,
Beanie and Thrud.
Ineedof, CaptKirk, and Arch
Signal changing of the guard,
Shelbeast, RAW copies,
Togas and the Death Punch.

(Chorus)

Buffie Party, Vaxing Guide,
Going Caving, Need a Ride,
Zelig, Nobody,
and Nobody's mom.
Relay, Purity Test,
Kashmir, Ginge, and Joyous,
Slave market, Aurora watchers,
a BBS called ARMS.

Zeppelin, VAX Bowling,
Go to Skeeter's, Watch Tim sing,
Cesoir, Pool League,
Weil Computer Robbery.
Smoking in the Weil Room,
Dudeman draws a cartoon,
Whippets become all the rage,
Monty's party has a raid!

Chorus:
   We didn't start the vaxing,
      but we keep on sending
      is it never ending?
   We didn't start the vaxing,
      but if we log on
      will we still stay on and on and on and on...



This is a somewhat rushed attempt at this parody -
Please excuse the mangled meter and please please forgive the omissions.
And thanks for many wonderful years...
Turlough.

Last Modified: Januaray 18th, 2008
Jeff The Riffer aka Jeff Mercer / riffer@vaxer.net