Originally posted by Knight
I was asked on another thread....
How TOL came into existence
By.... Knight
It was late 1996 and I was doing some computer programming for a client of mine.
The project I was working on was becoming increasingly boring and laborious. So much so I couldn't bear to type another string of code. In a fit of rage I started smashing my keyboard with a hammer. The feeling of smashing the keyboard was intoxicating and hey.... if smashing the keyboard felt this good just imagine how good it must feel to smash the entire computer!! I grabbed the monitor and lifted it over my head like Atlas lifting the earth and I heaved it with all my power.... the monitor sailed across the room and hit the wall and then fell to the ground making a dull thud as it came to rest.
I was in a fevered rage at this point and nothing would stop me.
I began ripping out power cables and printer cords as if I were a sadistic surgeon destroying my patient. Eventually the small pulsating power light of the tower shaped monitor-less computer caught my full attention. I paused to wipe the sweat off my brow and regain my faculties. I began to laugh like a person laughs just before they begin to smash their computer to small tiny pieces. I stood up... pieces of peripherals dropped to the floor all around me. It was just me and the computer staring at one another. I grabbed one corner of the computer with one hand and began swinging the machine in a circle like a discus thrower at the summer olympics. After I reached full velocity I let the computer go.
It sailed through the air as if it were in slow motion. Spinning, turning getting smaller as it headed away from me at high speed. After impact I made my way to the computer, it's pulsating power light was still taunting me (all be it much dimmer). It was of the devil I tell you! I began to jump up and down on the computer case....
Die.... die.... die!!! I yelled as I pounced. I could feel the busting plastic and bending metal under my feet with each landing. It felt so invigorating!! Finally the pulsating light was out. It was over. I shut off the light and went to bed without uttering another sound.
The next morning I gathered the pieces of the computer and monitor and placed them in a large pile in the center of the room. I pieced them together the best I could. I couldn't believe what I had done the night before! I began to cry as I looked at the pile of wreckage that once was my computer.
To my surprise the pulsating power light came on! And then the monitor powered up! I could see the welcome screen rather clearly through the cracked glass of the monitor. Quickly I plugged in the mouse and began to see if there was anything left of the program I was working on prior to my frenzy of destruction.
And to my amazement there was TOL.
By chance with every smash of the keyboard and every pounce of the computer I had accidently coded the entire theologyonline.com website. Since then it has evolved a great deal and turned into one of the more exciting and interesting websites on the internet.
