
The Guy I Almost Was (1998) - juliankrause
http://electricsheepcomix.com/almostguy/
======
jongraehl
I'm simultaneously amazed by how good this is, and by my uncertainty as to
whether I've read it before.

I guess I'd better get used to that feeling as I age - but on the other hand,
I can look forward to watching all those great movies again for the first
time.*

* some comedian must have already made this observation, but I can't remember.

~~~
Herring
What do you guys like about it? I'm ~20 pages in & I don't get it.

~~~
allenbrunson
It's a very honest account of living a bleak life and not having any idea how
to get out.

Further, it postulates that the kind of puff pieces that used to fill Wired,
Mondo 2000, et al are all pretty much fake. While not literally true, it does
seem like those guys were putting an awful lot of spin on what they were
writing about.

------
iamwil
I'm not sure why this sort of fluff is on the front page. Self-affirming and
relatable? probably. Interesting? Not at all. I learned nothing going 30 pages
in.

~~~
delackner
Think about it in more distant terms. He has explained for us why some people
make a point of pride about wearing cheap plastic glasses, trucker hats, and
the ugliest second-hand shirt they can find. A kind of luddite rejection of
one kind of perception of the rules of the game, for a whole different set of
constraining rules.

------
allenbrunson
The first time I read this, I was still on dial-up. Every page would take an
agonizingly long time to appear onscreen.

------
ivanstojic
This is bloody amazing.

~~~
thunk
Right there with you, man - I'm mesmerized.

------
matthewking
I just wish the "Next" arrow would stay in the same place..

~~~
calcnerd256
try clicking the picture

~~~
matthewking
That does the job, thanks.

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juliankrause
This is a comic written during the previous bubble. There is lots of
discussion of how the future is viewed from that perspective.

------
100k
One of my favorites when I was in college. I had the good fortune to graduate
right after the bubble popped.

------
alaskamiller
I remember reading this when I was 14 and I didn't understand a single thing
but just knew that it was important. It was the reason why I read Neuromancer.
I miss 1998.

------
whyleyc
I love the fact that even though he's hung up on the traditions of the past he
just can't bring himself to let go of the future. It's just too enticing :-)

This seems to be reflected in the title of his blog
(<http://pfarley.livejournal.com/>) too:

"Elements of Past & Future Combined Into Something Not Quite as Good as
Either"

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vinodkd
patrick farley is a genius - both in terms of story telling and animation
technique. i'm one of those who's been waiting for electric sheep to return.
good to see it back!

Please go to the home page and check out his other stories - especially
Shapeshifter (which is not back online yet, but you can find some fan-uploaded
versions online -
[http://e-sheep.sansara.net.ua/www.e-sheep.com/shapeshifter/i...](http://e-sheep.sansara.net.ua/www.e-sheep.com/shapeshifter/index.htm)).

See <http://webcomicsreview.com/examiner/issue041213/farley.html> for a good
critique of farley's work.

That said, I dont see why this is HN-worthy.

------
tricky
The epiphany about the typewriter cracks me up. I had a similar one a few
weeks ago when i found K&R's The C Programming Language for sale at the
library.

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akamaka
Thank you for posting this, I loved it! I wish I had read this 11 years ago.

~~~
smokinn
If you had read it 11 years ago would you have understood it? I relate to it a
lot because I've had a similar "dropping out" urge for the last while. If I
had read this over a decade ago when it was written it probably would have had
little effect.

~~~
akamaka
Very true. For example, I grew up hearing about the lessons of the early 1990s
recession, but they never really sunk in until this last year.

That being said, I was reading quite a bit of Gibson in 1998, so I would have
loved that first part.

------
CamperBob
So where's he now?

~~~
smokinn
According to wikipedia he's working in the film industry now:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Farley>

