2023-09-30: ghost-tober

the list kept broad — not just horror films: 6. ghost dog

one of the first mentors i had as a programmer was a guy from the local bbs scene, who i met in the dying days of that era. i think he was a year or two older than me. no way of knowing anymore. went by sylvester (not his real name). and syl, along with helping me with pascal and encouraging me to keep up with coding after high school, recommended a movie to me the last time we spoke: ghost dog: the way of the samurai.

i rented it from the video store, watched it late at night in my pitch-black basement. it was good; i remember liking it; but i'd struggle to tell you much about it now, other than i remember liking the feel of the movie better than the movie itself, if that makes sense.

seeing that post in the timeline made me wonder what sylvester's up to. maybe, in the spirit of learning uncomfortable things about people from my past, i should ask whether he's even still alive. i've got no way of knowing, of ever knowing. i know his alias. i know we called the same bbs for a while in 98, 99. i know his extremely common first name. and that's it.

and i wonder if anyone else out there has wondered about me, similarly. remembering an alias, or my first name, and have nothing else to go on. syl, i'm still here. still coding, too. did you keep it up, yourself? i hope you're alive. i hope you're doing well.

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