The purpose of this page

[nemo get up! jpeg, 7k] I get a lot of questions about this website, my username, my BBS name, etc. So, here's a page devoted to answering those questions. Call it the Slumberland FAQ, if you will. Personal questions about me might be answered on my biography page instead.

What the heck is Slumberland, anyway?

Slumberland is the name of my BBS, which went online in March 1991 and is still active more than 12 years later! There is a telnettable version of the BBS as well... try it! Slumberland is also, well, me -- my blog, artwork and web projects. Last but not least, Slumberland is the home of many mailing lists, including ones for fans of certain bands, people with sleep disorders, and one for artistic roller skaters.

The main Slumberland web page is my blog page. I first put the page up in 1994, on seanet.com, then later on slumberland.com, and now on slumberland.org/slumberland.seattle.wa.us. In the early days, I occasionally posted links to sites I found interesting, but it didn't become a real "weblog" until early 2000.

The blog itself is there for random things I think are interesting. These tend to be pop-culture, language, and Seattle topics, but sometimes you'll find other things there as well. It's not really a "daily journal" sort of thing, as I have a far too over-developed sense of privacy for that.

And what about that "Little Nemo" name, too?

Little Nemo in Slumberland was a comic strip drawn in the early years of the 20th Century by Winsor McKay. Each full-page, full-color strip told a story from one of Little Nemo's dreams. At the end of each strip, Little Nemo woke up.

Little Nemo was a comic of tremendous beauty and wit; it makes today's Sunday comics look incredibly flat and weak. If you haven't seen Little Nemo in Slumberland, I recommend the color reprint books published by Fantagraphics Books (they are out of print now but worth the search).

More Nemo links and information:

OK, OK. Then why did you choose "Little Nemo" for your pseudonym, and "Slumberland" for your BBS and domain name?

Simple. I liked the comic. Little Nemo wandering around Slumberland didn't seem all that much different from Wendi wandering around cyberspace. So there you go.

When I first got an internet account (at the University of Washington, way back when) I was limited to an eight character username, so instead of Little Nemo I was litlnemo. That is the name you'll find me using on the Internet, though I'm still Little Nemo on the BBS.

Did you know there was a Little Nemo cartoon movie a few years ago? And a video game?

Yes. I haven't seen it. The art looked kind of cheesy. There was also a Little Nemo-themed music video by Tom Petty a few years back ("Running Down A Dream"). The animation was in black and white. I've seen the arcade Nemo video game, not the Nintendo one. The arcade one was all right.

Do you know about the Little Nemo in Slumberland postage stamp?

[Little Nemo postage stamp, gif, 6k]Yup, sure do. See the image to the left. It was part of a series of comic book stamps in 1995. I bought a bunch of them. Unfortunately it was on a sheet full of a bunch of other stamps, so I couldn't just buy hundreds of Nemos. :)

Can I download a nifty Little Nemo gif?

Certainly. Here's Nemo waking up, as his parent says "What's the trouble in there Nemo? Go to sleep!" It's a 36k gif.