October 29, 2008

Mouse Art and Moo's.


The title of this post might seem strange. I am not talking about mice, the small rodents (at times cute). Nor am I referring to cattle or the sound cows make. I am referring to two separate, yet connected issues of my past.

The first one is associated with drawings or art created using a computer mouse. I was inspired to write about this by Stevyn. He recently posted a delightful piece on these kind of drawings, which made me think about a little creation I did about a decade ago. Actually, come to think of it, almost 15 years ago (now I feel old). It was a drawing of horse, as horses were (and still are, although to a lesser degree) my great passion. I was at that time, member of one of the first Internet based communities connected to tripod.com, called Moo. Now that brings me to the other part of the title. Moo stands for Mud Object Oriented and describes a text based virtual community, where several players can be connected at the same time, interact with each other and create objects and can build and extend the environment around them. One of the most famous Moo's is LammdaMoo. Ok, this makes me sound like a nerd, and perhaps I am.

At that time, tripod tried to move this text based environment into the web browser, allowing players to interact not just through text, but also images and pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed creating rooms and objects using my imagination and my humble artistic skills and the drawing depicted here was one of them.

Unfortunately, tripod decided after about a year of its creation to shut this Moo down, despite petitions and protest from all the players. Luckily, after digging through my back-up system, I found all my pictures posted there intact.
Thank you Stevyn for inspiring me to take this walk down the memory lane.

9 comments:

Stevyn Colgan said...

Protege - That is fantastic!! I couldn't draw a better horse than that with pencils and pens! You are one very talented lady.

I also remember MOOs. Or, at least, I remember MUDs - Multi-User Dungeons - where groups of us could meet online and play games, chat and swap stories and art. It was like the MSN or Facebook of its day. Except it was all done on dial-up speed modems and had almost no real graphics capability. Still, it was somehow more fun than gaming today. You felt like you were doing something new - like a pioneer. Great post!

Zuzana said...

Stevyn, thank you so much for that incredibly kind comment and the compliments.

And I could not agree more - I love the muds and moos! I am still a member of Lamda and enjoy visiting it once in a while. I always felt it was feeding my imagination and improving my writing skills, as there were no pictures and the text had to intrigue and capture the players.
And I too enjoyd the games, all the wizards, witches and the dungeons.;)

Diane said...

Nerd-girl!! ;) Serioulsy, I can barely get my mouse to draw a straight line on a resume (stupid mouse!).

Were you blonde back then?! Great pic!

Zuzana said...

Diane, you always make me laugh and be in a good mood.:)
Yes, I am a true nerd.:P
The picture was taken on my birthday in July, during my North Carolina "bleached blond" days.;)

Hilary said...

I've never heard of a moo.. this was new to me. Your horse drawing is wonderful, and I can see its lovely blond mane was probably inspired by your own beautiful hair. I'm glad that Stevyn moooootivated you too. :)

Holly said...

Once again....so impressed! That was fascinating. And...the picture is amazing. I have nowhere near that kind of control over my computer mouse. Lets be honest, I have no cotrol. :) You are so multi-faceted!

Love the photo of you on the horse!

Melanie Gillispie said...

NERDS UNITE!!! I love the drawing!

Hazel Designs said...

WOW! You did that drawing using your mouse? It's incredible - you're very talented! And that picture looks like it's from a magazine ad - very cool!

Zuzana said...

Hilary, I am glad you like this, somewhat naive and romantic art of mine.:) Yes, I was blond in my younger days; now I am mostly grey.;)

Holly, thank you so much; compliments coming from such a creative and talented lady, as you yourself, are always much appreciated.:))

Mel, thank you.:) And I am a nerd and very proud of it!:)

Hazel, considering the beautiful jewellery you create, this drawing pales in comparison.
Thank you for the compliments.:)