regarding the perceived lack of serious conversation of a technical nature: may I submit the following for the membership's consideration.... perhaps some members have not fully grasped the importance of item #1, and ought to revisit gab and eti ........ (who, may I add, are near and dear to me, as I not only happen to personally know a privy excavator, but I have been called upon on several occasions to restore/rehab toilet partitions) and if there are members who do not find that gab and eti speak to them, then perhaps they should proceed immediately to the OTHER LISTS section near the end of this message and begin their search for a home in which they feel more comfortable.... ;) Deb (PS- let the record be noted that I was correct about Ken being a back-channel communications person! ) the following is the text of the welcoming message I received upon re-subscribing to BP..... please take the time to read it carefully, as it may have been a while since you first saw it: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Subject: Usage guidelines for BULLAMANKA-PINHEADS Welcome to Bullamanka-Pinheads Your first task is to send a message to BP introducing yourself. “Hello,” is technically accurate, but, if you are capable of stretching sentences beyond one or two words it makes for more engaging conversation. Feel free to be irrelevant, irreverent, and irrational. If you want to sit for a while and watch the foliage, feel free, but remember, you will be expected to say something once in a leaftime. If you do not know what a leaftime is, ask BP, “What is a leaftime?” The preservationeers, like mad linguistic elves, will be glad to NOT leaf you alone. They will be leafing all the way. If you decide to leaf you will find instructions below. The purpose of Bullamanka-Pinheads is to provide a forum of communication between preservationeers: practitioners, craftspersons, and ANYONE of any persuasion, employment, education, background, or simple curiosity regarding preservation of the built, natural, and imaginary environment -- to do the following: 1) Fully explore and develop relationships. A place where creative, garrulous individuals can feel free to spit, belch, and go ducky muck without denting nobler sensibilities. Not promoting foul language; promoting the freedom to express stupid ideas awkwardly. If you do not like Gab & Eti Orgrease then you do not want to be here -- http://www.geocities.com/~orgrease 2) Provide a support network, to build a sense of community, to populate a virtual community of preservation with heroes, children, tricksters, Gods, demons, wise old men, earth mothers, and a proficiency of smaller animals. 3) To aid preservationeers working in isolated areas, or confining career positions, to feel in-touch, to be in the loop. 4) To provide a forum where preservationeers can feel comfortable to congregate and meet with others who will be sympathetic to their stories. A place to drop your rocks. 5) To ask WHY? Is there a Secretary of the Exterior? 6) A place where the serious minded person can get practical answers: playing with the messy parts of preservation -- emotions, strategy, facing the developers, communicating, managing the project, wallowing in the absurd, laughing. 7) To share strategy on preservation of the built environment, which is an important ecology within the global environment. In respect of a sustainable planet Bullamanka-Pinheads is a space to explore these issues. RULES: Not to be used for commercial purposes. This is not a passive theater, if you do not contribute to the conversation once in a leaftime you will be quietly removed from the list. Please avoid flaming, burning tires stink. All languages are accepted. Blatant obscenity is discouraged, the expectation is that you will make an effort to be creative. Misspellings and typos are encouraged. Do not be shocked if you are corrected for factual errors. If you forget why you are here and cannot figure out how to get away from this place then send a polite message to BP, “Let me out of here!”. Most of all LAUGH! ARCHIVE: Telepathic chickens leave no traces. This list is archived. Which means that your rantings are stored in an obscure location for posterity... that is, you are making history today. To get a list of the archives send a message to [log in to unmask], in the body of the message <NOT the Subject:> enter INDEX BULLAMANKA-PINHEADS. You then should get a BULLAMANKA-PINHEADS FILELIST message, which lists the various archive files. WEBSITE: We suggest you bookmark this page. BP archives can be found on the WWW at -- http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?A0=bullamanka-pinheads LEAVE: To unsubscribe send a message to [log in to unmask], in the body of the message <NOT the Subject:> enter SIGNOFF BULLAMANKA-PINHEADS. You then should get a Farewell Message. OTHER LISTS: If this list is too much for you, but you would like to remain in-touch with a wide net of historic preservationists, then we suggest you check out Preservation-L. To subscribe to Preservation-L send a message to [log in to unmask], in the body of the message <NOT the Subject:> enter SUBSCRIBE PRESERVATION-L.