Aloha.
You've stumbled
into The Hornet's Nest -- Kevin “Kato” Higgins’ time suck, intermittent
hobby, home page, creative outlet, and web tech experimentation
station. Perhaps you found this place due to a serendipitous,
errant click from a spasming mouse hand or because Google coughed
my site up like some digital hairball in response to an Internet
search on some topic best left undisclosed. Perhaps you were drawn
by the tidal pull of my Internet presence like some kind of jacked-in
lemming. Or perhaps you're humoring me because you're sick and
tired of my whiny question: "Have you visited my web site
yet?" It makes no difference. As long as slow drivers keep
to the right and the non-qualified check their firearms at the
door, I'm pleased that you've arrived at The Hornet's Nest.
So,
why "The Hornet's Nest?
"A long time
ago, before the great unwashed masses heard about the Internet,
let alone found any way to access and use it, online communities
revolved around small bulletin boards that users dialed into (often
using their blazing new 1200 baud modems (I don't admit to being
old enough to use 300 baud modems as a reference here)). Online,
people would log onto bulletin board systems (BBS) to "chat"
via message boards, exchange files, and play online games, much
as they do today, although it was a much more localized phenomenon,
often only one person at a time could be on many bulletin boards,
and the conversation was usually more intelligent, because you
had to have at least half a brain in order to
figure out how to get DOS software to dial your modem and connect
to a BBS!
Often, users
who tended toward obsessive participation in this cool new medium
and who had some technical aptitude--or the drive to acquire it--set
up their own boards, or became System Operators (Sysops) themselves.
It was the 80's equivalent of putting up your own web page, but
a helluva lot harder.
I ran one
such board from 1989 to about 1993. I called it, "The Hornet's
Nest." Being just as limited in creativity and imagination then
as I am now, I thought it would be fitting--since I'd long carried
the nick-name, "Kato," and used that as an online nom de plume--to
extend my persona into the bulletin board I operated. The name
was my way of referencing the series, "The Green Hornet," which
used to be one of my favorites. Of course, anyone with any familiarity
with superheroes knows that the Green Hornet's sidekick was Kato,
played by the late Bruce Lee. Thus, "The Hornet's Nest." Yeah,
it's lame but give me a break--I was young.
So, what was "Melee?"
The tagline, "Original Home of 'Melee!'"
refers to an online BBS "door" game I developed and
marketed called "Melee!" It was a gladiatorial combat
game where the object was to develop a gladiator by taking his
initial abilities roll-up and develop his skills, characteristics,
and tactics during his finite "life-span" to earn him
a place in the Melee Hall of Fame before he started to decline
as a result of wounds received and the effects of aging. If one
waited too long to retire, one risked having his gladiator go
"over the hill" because Hall of Fame candidacy was a
combination score based on stats, skills, win/loss record and
total fights. Each day, a person could fight a couple fights,
setup the scripts that govered how his gladiator would fight when
someone else challenged him (and the scripts had to govern what
tactics the gladiator would use in any given melee round, and
set a training emphasis. The game was fairly popular, earning
me about registration fees from about 240 bulletin board operators.
Not bad for my first computer program (written in Turbo Pascal!).
Anyway, this
Web site is the Internet-age evolution of that original BBS, sans
some of the community aspects, for now. I hope one day to add
them again. So,
what is your quest?
The site is
here simply for fun. Certainly mine, hopefully yours. It's the
easiest way I have to keep in touch with friends and family and
those whom I've grown to know well in the many online communities
that have enriched my life since I dialed into my first BBS. Having
led a nomadic life, this kind of communication has helped me keep
in touch with people with whom I'd have otherwise lost contact.
I use this bit of virtual real estate to let them know what's
going on in my life and to give people an opportunity to preview
an occasional result of my inconsistent creative energy (a la
my "Writings" pages).
So, welcome.
I'm glad you've managed to keep your powder dry all these years.
Please, get comfortable. In this house, we encourage leaving your
shoes at the door.
-Kato
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