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Subject: Deejay (Champs Writeup Page)
Cc: scm@intercomm.com, deejay@prairienet.org, deejay@cu-online.com
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Hello folks.

Warning - downer.

I imagine you know Jack Wilson's "Unofficial Champions Character
Write-up Page", of the 370+ HERO format comic book characters,
        http://www.mactyre.net/scm/deejay/champs/writeups.html
I got your email addresses from the list of contributors to the site,
        http://www.mactyre.net/scm/deejay/champs/stats.html

If you haven't visited Jack's home page lately, you may want to
check it for yourself.
        http://www.mactyre.net/scm/deejay/
In short, he says he is dying. In fact, there are no dates mentioned,
and he hasn't been answering his email for months, so there is a good
chance he is no longer with us already.

About a year ago, Deejay was busy with a graphical MUD project,
and announced that he no longer had time to maintain the pages.
But first he sent a personal email to myself, Tim Larson, Sam Bell,
and Theala Sildorian (Amy Crittendon), thinking the 4 of us to be
more involved with the pages than anyone else, and asked us if we
could maintain and host the pages. I know Sam and I begged off,
no time, no Web space, etc. I don't know what Tim and Theala said,
but obviously they didn't accept either.

Well I still don't have any time I can guarantee to commit, and I
don't even have sufficient Web space ... but it seems like the time to
put up or shut up is here, so to speak. Deejay's site was a lot of fun
to have around, and I don't want to let it disappear into the mist.
He has a paragraph on his page about that:

  "They say that information lasts forever. Not true. One of these days,
  the incredibly alert people at the company formerly known as MSIlink,
  then CU Online, and now AdvanceNet the last time I checked, will
  notice that I haven't paid them any money for, like, a year now. And
  then you can kiss this epitaph goodbye.

  <EM>Information only lasts as long as someone's paying the bills.</EM>"

Shelley Chrystal Mactyre, of PRIMUS home page fame, has kindly
volunteered to pay the bills - i.e., to host a copy of Deejay's site
on her pages.
	http://users.intercomm.com/redwolf/scm/deejay/champs/writeups.html
Currently it is an exact copy of the original site, right down to the
misspellings - as time goes on, Shelley and I will update some of the
information, and generally maintain the site, as we get free time and
volition.

For my part, I have added a copy of my Java HERO Combat Applet that
lets all the posted characters fight it out under HERO rules. About a
year ago, Deejay got a copy of my first attempt at this program, in C,
and suggested that "if you made it into a Java applet, you'd really
have something."  Well, I have, even if he'll never know it. It's at:
	http://users.intercomm.com/redwolf/scm/deejay/champs/DeejayApplet.html

If any of you want to help, you can mail advice, bug reports,
and new writeups to me, and I will pass them on to Shelley.
She says: "I think I can deal with people sending files to me,
provided they're completely ready."

If you want to donate character write-ups but they're not yet in HTML,
send them to me first.  The closer they are to the finished product,
as it already looks on the pages, the sooner they will be put up.  I
don't have the program Deejay used to HTML-ify text-only characters,
though I will probably write one "when I get around to it." If any of
you have more time than that, please get in touch. If any of you know
exactly what happened to Deejay, please get in touch.

Sorry if I bummed you out, but instead, you can think of it as
something life-affirming -- electronic immortality in a way.
Hope someone does the same with the CombatApplet, when I visit HPL's
Dreamlands for the last time.

One more time, thank you Shelley Chrystal Mactyre.

George Ruban

George Ruban's Home Page:
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/2013/

Shelley Chrystal Mactyre's Homepage:
http://users.intercomm.com/redwolf/scm/