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From: RobertB on 17 Dec 2009 22:12
(With the December 3 passing of Dave "Lord Ronin" Mohr, a great
enthusiast of the Commodore computer has been taken away from us. The
following is what I feel an appropriate article, taken from the last
issue of his newsletter, The Village Green, December 2009, p. 12-14.)

-------

My Commodore-Amiga Life

by Lord Ronin from Q-Link


As a way to bring in more information about us and our interests in
the sacred and most holy C=, I am starting this series, hoping that I
will have information from the members for each issue on your life
story with our beloved PC. Sort of been thinking about this idea
since DMackey sent in his background on the sacred PC. So don't feel
lonely; tell us about your life with the CBM line.

OK, I'll start off; it is my job, I guess. Let's do a time warp back
to the mid 80's. I was working as that most vile and evil thing, a
telemarketer. Well, in my defense, it was for the state, and it was
licensed, and it was for the Special Olympics. At that time I was
computer-phobic, while my mother had been teaching adults to read for
several years. She had one student that had to have his wife fill in
the job applications and read the newspaper to him. Yet, he was a
Commodore user, and I suspect but can't prove [that he was] a member
of the users group in Grants Pass, Oregon. Don't ask me how he could
use the C=, but he could and got my mum interested in it. So in 1986,
she bought a 64, off-brand name monitor, black MPS-803 printer, 1541
drive, diabetic programmes, other programmes that I have yet to be
able to look at, and a computer desk. Speed ahead for a moment. That
desk is now in the shop and is the 64C set up. Disk drive was smashed
by Mark Reed, and the printhead went out on the printer. Sold the
monitor, as I had six 1702s at the time. My wife at the time and I
had visited [mum], and she came several times to visit me, saying that
I needed a computer as I was a writer. Yeah, like we believed that
last part.

Skipping ahead to 1993, March to be exact. The wife had been gone for
six years. Would have been nice if before she married me, she had
divorced three other husbands. [That day], I get a cop at the door of
the shop where we were still sweeping the floor and moving things into
our new location. I can still remember where everyone was standing at
that time; [the cop informed me that] my mother was in the hospital
with a heart problem. She was 400 miles away, and I had no
transport. But one of my martial arts students and gamers had a car
and time off. I had a few coins to lay on him for gas. He took me
the 400 miles at breakneck speeds in a little Honda, I white-knuckled
the entire trip. Literally, made it there in record time. Went to
the hospital the next day. I had the keys for her place... oh, wait,
I still have the keys... where I found out she had that she had heart
trouble. A quintuple bypass had been performed, and they had jump-
started her on the table around three times. Wish she had sued them,
as she had a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) on her paperwork that they
ignored; I [could have] had a lot more C= stuff now and not be on
disability (VBG). Oh, add here that it was 1987 that I was declared
permanently disabled.

Well, she had more tubes in her than my 1936 Hallicrafters SWR
(shortwave radio). All she wanted to talk to me about was her OBE
(out-of-body experience) with my father and the Commodore system she
had for me in the shed. Like man, I was really interested in the
computer at that time (not in the least). But how do you argue with a
70 year old mother that is pushing a computer on you? OK, when they
tossed me out of the hospital, I went back to her place [which] was in
walking distance for me at that time. In the shed at her retirement
trailer court, there was a breadbox 64, SR-3000 monitor (she didn't
know it also did 80 col.), Okidata 120 printer, funky joystick to my
eyes, a couple of factory boxes of things, Word Writer 4, The Hobbit,
and three boxes of "archive" disks. Loaded that up in the little
car. No idea how it fit. Got good and drunk that night on
Burgermeister, my father's fave beer (also not in the stores in
Astoria). Said good-bye to her the next day and had another white-
knuckle ride back to Astoria, where the system was laid out on a
little coffee table. I was scared to death of it. Well, two of the
commune/kibbutz members had some computer experience -- one with the
Rat Shack "Colour 64", the other with an Apple. Tell you here that
both were impressed with the Commodore. Good thing the users guide
was in the mess. Now I'll add here that at that time, I didn't know
about platform-specific or anything. Didn't know that C= disks didn't
work in anything but Commodore. All I had done in computers in the
past was key punch on cards in college and pop out 4K chips replacing
them with 8K chips in TRaSh-80s at the Shack. Now I had this
cybernetic monster in front of me.

Hey, it had this great factory disk box and copy with manual of Acro
Jet. The three of us destroyed the disk, playing it so much the first
night I returned. Then all those arcade games in the "archive"
disks... spent a few days playing with those and learned that I could
make things in the Word Writer 4 programme. So I did a few little
things for the nightly RPG (role-playing game) group. Looked better
than my scrawl of handwriting. I was starting to like the "friendly"
PC. During the year of 93, I was at the cafe that was next to the
shop, [having] known the people for years. Not sure how the
conversation started but in the end, they were selling off their C=
system. I thought it was a great idea to have one in the shop at that
time. Been one in the shop ever since. Well, it was a breadbox, some
disks... all I remember was "archive" copy of Project Firestart that
had me for months tearing out my hair on how to play it, but the intro
scenes were what sold me on the power of the C=.

Along with that came an amber monitor... not a lot of fun, I admit.
Well, it was in October of that year... kids were out doing trick-or-
treating with the downtown merchants a couple of days before
Halloween, when a guy I had worked with in a small boat building place
over a decade earlier came in and saw what I was playing with at the
time. Told me all about the "Astoria Commodore Users Group", which he
said was a big copy party group... like I understood what that meant
at the time. Laid a phone number on me and hooked me with the fact
that disks cost 25 cents each at the meetings. I didn't know about
the how, where, or why to get the disks. Yeah, I was using the master
copies... a real lamer. To be short, I went to the November meeting,
joined in December, and Mark Reed joined in January of 94.

Over the next approx. 16 years, my idea for a name change was accepted
for the group. Became the editor, 128 librarian, 64 deputy librarian,
64 librarian, and finally the president... a title which was changed
to Chancellor. Newsletter expanded. A BBS was up from 1996 to 2005
and will be up again. Shop added the hardcopy library to the floor
space. Later, the software collection and hardware for sale, with a
reduced rate for group members. I ended up doing more and more
writing on the C= system, moving from the Newsroom to GEOS and later
to GeoPub... then to Wheels and what we have today.

OK, that is the short of it. As for my Amiga stuff... well, this has
gone on too long, and the Amiga and me is better done at a later
time. However, you can tell it was all my mother's fault that she
created this Commodore fanatic. Now it is your turn to relate your C=
history. Feel free to add what you doing today as well.
From: KilrPilr on 18 Dec 2009 00:57
I havent heard how he passed. What happened Robert? Thanks for the post.





"RobertB" <rbernardo(a)iglou.com> wrote in message
news:cf5b8643-81d7-4ec6-b0d5-9c9cc1460619(a)k17g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
> (With the December 3 passing of Dave "Lord Ronin" Mohr, a great
> enthusiast of the Commodore computer has been taken away from us. The
> following is what I feel an appropriate article, taken from the last
> issue of his newsletter, The Village Green, December 2009, p. 12-14.)
>
> -------
>
> My Commodore-Amiga Life
>
> by Lord Ronin from Q-Link
>
>
> As a way to bring in more information about us and our interests in
> the sacred and most holy C=, I am starting this series, hoping that I
> will have information from the members for each issue on your life
> story with our beloved PC. Sort of been thinking about this idea
> since DMackey sent in his background on the sacred PC. So don't feel
> lonely; tell us about your life with the CBM line.
>
> OK, I'll start off; it is my job, I guess. Let's do a time warp back
> to the mid 80's. I was working as that most vile and evil thing, a
> telemarketer. Well, in my defense, it was for the state, and it was
> licensed, and it was for the Special Olympics. At that time I was
> computer-phobic, while my mother had been teaching adults to read for
> several years. She had one student that had to have his wife fill in
> the job applications and read the newspaper to him. Yet, he was a
> Commodore user, and I suspect but can't prove [that he was] a member
> of the users group in Grants Pass, Oregon. Don't ask me how he could
> use the C=, but he could and got my mum interested in it. So in 1986,
> she bought a 64, off-brand name monitor, black MPS-803 printer, 1541
> drive, diabetic programmes, other programmes that I have yet to be
> able to look at, and a computer desk. Speed ahead for a moment. That
> desk is now in the shop and is the 64C set up. Disk drive was smashed
> by Mark Reed, and the printhead went out on the printer. Sold the
> monitor, as I had six 1702s at the time. My wife at the time and I
> had visited [mum], and she came several times to visit me, saying that
> I needed a computer as I was a writer. Yeah, like we believed that
> last part.
>
> Skipping ahead to 1993, March to be exact. The wife had been gone for
> six years. Would have been nice if before she married me, she had
> divorced three other husbands. [That day], I get a cop at the door of
> the shop where we were still sweeping the floor and moving things into
> our new location. I can still remember where everyone was standing at
> that time; [the cop informed me that] my mother was in the hospital
> with a heart problem. She was 400 miles away, and I had no
> transport. But one of my martial arts students and gamers had a car
> and time off. I had a few coins to lay on him for gas. He took me
> the 400 miles at breakneck speeds in a little Honda, I white-knuckled
> the entire trip. Literally, made it there in record time. Went to
> the hospital the next day. I had the keys for her place... oh, wait,
> I still have the keys... where I found out she had that she had heart
> trouble. A quintuple bypass had been performed, and they had jump-
> started her on the table around three times. Wish she had sued them,
> as she had a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) on her paperwork that they
> ignored; I [could have] had a lot more C= stuff now and not be on
> disability (VBG). Oh, add here that it was 1987 that I was declared
> permanently disabled.
>
> Well, she had more tubes in her than my 1936 Hallicrafters SWR
> (shortwave radio). All she wanted to talk to me about was her OBE
> (out-of-body experience) with my father and the Commodore system she
> had for me in the shed. Like man, I was really interested in the
> computer at that time (not in the least). But how do you argue with a
> 70 year old mother that is pushing a computer on you? OK, when they
> tossed me out of the hospital, I went back to her place [which] was in
> walking distance for me at that time. In the shed at her retirement
> trailer court, there was a breadbox 64, SR-3000 monitor (she didn't
> know it also did 80 col.), Okidata 120 printer, funky joystick to my
> eyes, a couple of factory boxes of things, Word Writer 4, The Hobbit,
> and three boxes of "archive" disks. Loaded that up in the little
> car. No idea how it fit. Got good and drunk that night on
> Burgermeister, my father's fave beer (also not in the stores in
> Astoria). Said good-bye to her the next day and had another white-
> knuckle ride back to Astoria, where the system was laid out on a
> little coffee table. I was scared to death of it. Well, two of the
> commune/kibbutz members had some computer experience -- one with the
> Rat Shack "Colour 64", the other with an Apple. Tell you here that
> both were impressed with the Commodore. Good thing the users guide
> was in the mess. Now I'll add here that at that time, I didn't know
> about platform-specific or anything. Didn't know that C= disks didn't
> work in anything but Commodore. All I had done in computers in the
> past was key punch on cards in college and pop out 4K chips replacing
> them with 8K chips in TRaSh-80s at the Shack. Now I had this
> cybernetic monster in front of me.
>
> Hey, it had this great factory disk box and copy with manual of Acro
> Jet. The three of us destroyed the disk, playing it so much the first
> night I returned. Then all those arcade games in the "archive"
> disks... spent a few days playing with those and learned that I could
> make things in the Word Writer 4 programme. So I did a few little
> things for the nightly RPG (role-playing game) group. Looked better
> than my scrawl of handwriting. I was starting to like the "friendly"
> PC. During the year of 93, I was at the cafe that was next to the
> shop, [having] known the people for years. Not sure how the
> conversation started but in the end, they were selling off their C=
> system. I thought it was a great idea to have one in the shop at that
> time. Been one in the shop ever since. Well, it was a breadbox, some
> disks... all I remember was "archive" copy of Project Firestart that
> had me for months tearing out my hair on how to play it, but the intro
> scenes were what sold me on the power of the C=.
>
> Along with that came an amber monitor... not a lot of fun, I admit.
> Well, it was in October of that year... kids were out doing trick-or-
> treating with the downtown merchants a couple of days before
> Halloween, when a guy I had worked with in a small boat building place
> over a decade earlier came in and saw what I was playing with at the
> time. Told me all about the "Astoria Commodore Users Group", which he
> said was a big copy party group... like I understood what that meant
> at the time. Laid a phone number on me and hooked me with the fact
> that disks cost 25 cents each at the meetings. I didn't know about
> the how, where, or why to get the disks. Yeah, I was using the master
> copies... a real lamer. To be short, I went to the November meeting,
> joined in December, and Mark Reed joined in January of 94.
>
> Over the next approx. 16 years, my idea for a name change was accepted
> for the group. Became the editor, 128 librarian, 64 deputy librarian,
> 64 librarian, and finally the president... a title which was changed
> to Chancellor. Newsletter expanded. A BBS was up from 1996 to 2005
> and will be up again. Shop added the hardcopy library to the floor
> space. Later, the software collection and hardware for sale, with a
> reduced rate for group members. I ended up doing more and more
> writing on the C= system, moving from the Newsroom to GEOS and later
> to GeoPub... then to Wheels and what we have today.
>
> OK, that is the short of it. As for my Amiga stuff... well, this has
> gone on too long, and the Amiga and me is better done at a later
> time. However, you can tell it was all my mother's fault that she
> created this Commodore fanatic. Now it is your turn to relate your C=
> history. Feel free to add what you doing today as well.


From: KilrPilr on 18 Dec 2009 01:05
Never mind, I read on homestead it was heart failure. So sad.


"KilrPilr" <commodore128(a)removehotmail.com> wrote in message
news:EREWm.100781$Wf2.46805(a)newsfe23.iad...
>I havent heard how he passed. What happened Robert? Thanks for the post.
>
>
>
>
>
> "RobertB" <rbernardo(a)iglou.com> wrote in message
> news:cf5b8643-81d7-4ec6-b0d5-9c9cc1460619(a)k17g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
>> (With the December 3 passing of Dave "Lord Ronin" Mohr, a great
>> enthusiast of the Commodore computer has been taken away from us. The
>> following is what I feel an appropriate article, taken from the last
>> issue of his newsletter, The Village Green, December 2009, p. 12-14.)
>>
>> -------
>>
>> My Commodore-Amiga Life
>>
>> by Lord Ronin from Q-Link
>>
>>
>> As a way to bring in more information about us and our interests in
>> the sacred and most holy C=, I am starting this series, hoping that I
>> will have information from the members for each issue on your life
>> story with our beloved PC. Sort of been thinking about this idea
>> since DMackey sent in his background on the sacred PC. So don't feel
>> lonely; tell us about your life with the CBM line.
>>
>> OK, I'll start off; it is my job, I guess. Let's do a time warp back
>> to the mid 80's. I was working as that most vile and evil thing, a
>> telemarketer. Well, in my defense, it was for the state, and it was
>> licensed, and it was for the Special Olympics. At that time I was
>> computer-phobic, while my mother had been teaching adults to read for
>> several years. She had one student that had to have his wife fill in
>> the job applications and read the newspaper to him. Yet, he was a
>> Commodore user, and I suspect but can't prove [that he was] a member
>> of the users group in Grants Pass, Oregon. Don't ask me how he could
>> use the C=, but he could and got my mum interested in it. So in 1986,
>> she bought a 64, off-brand name monitor, black MPS-803 printer, 1541
>> drive, diabetic programmes, other programmes that I have yet to be
>> able to look at, and a computer desk. Speed ahead for a moment. That
>> desk is now in the shop and is the 64C set up. Disk drive was smashed
>> by Mark Reed, and the printhead went out on the printer. Sold the
>> monitor, as I had six 1702s at the time. My wife at the time and I
>> had visited [mum], and she came several times to visit me, saying that
>> I needed a computer as I was a writer. Yeah, like we believed that
>> last part.
>>
>> Skipping ahead to 1993, March to be exact. The wife had been gone for
>> six years. Would have been nice if before she married me, she had
>> divorced three other husbands. [That day], I get a cop at the door of
>> the shop where we were still sweeping the floor and moving things into
>> our new location. I can still remember where everyone was standing at
>> that time; [the cop informed me that] my mother was in the hospital
>> with a heart problem. She was 400 miles away, and I had no
>> transport. But one of my martial arts students and gamers had a car
>> and time off. I had a few coins to lay on him for gas. He took me
>> the 400 miles at breakneck speeds in a little Honda, I white-knuckled
>> the entire trip. Literally, made it there in record time. Went to
>> the hospital the next day. I had the keys for her place... oh, wait,
>> I still have the keys... where I found out she had that she had heart
>> trouble. A quintuple bypass had been performed, and they had jump-
>> started her on the table around three times. Wish she had sued them,
>> as she had a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) on her paperwork that they
>> ignored; I [could have] had a lot more C= stuff now and not be on
>> disability (VBG). Oh, add here that it was 1987 that I was declared
>> permanently disabled.
>>
>> Well, she had more tubes in her than my 1936 Hallicrafters SWR
>> (shortwave radio). All she wanted to talk to me about was her OBE
>> (out-of-body experience) with my father and the Commodore system she
>> had for me in the shed. Like man, I was really interested in the
>> computer at that time (not in the least). But how do you argue with a
>> 70 year old mother that is pushing a computer on you? OK, when they
>> tossed me out of the hospital, I went back to her place [which] was in
>> walking distance for me at that time. In the shed at her retirement
>> trailer court, there was a breadbox 64, SR-3000 monitor (she didn't
>> know it also did 80 col.), Okidata 120 printer, funky joystick to my
>> eyes, a couple of factory boxes of things, Word Writer 4, The Hobbit,
>> and three boxes of "archive" disks. Loaded that up in the little
>> car. No idea how it fit. Got good and drunk that night on
>> Burgermeister, my father's fave beer (also not in the stores in
>> Astoria). Said good-bye to her the next day and had another white-
>> knuckle ride back to Astoria, where the system was laid out on a
>> little coffee table. I was scared to death of it. Well, two of the
>> commune/kibbutz members had some computer experience -- one with the
>> Rat Shack "Colour 64", the other with an Apple. Tell you here that
>> both were impressed with the Commodore. Good thing the users guide
>> was in the mess. Now I'll add here that at that time, I didn't know
>> about platform-specific or anything. Didn't know that C= disks didn't
>> work in anything but Commodore. All I had done in computers in the
>> past was key punch on cards in college and pop out 4K chips replacing
>> them with 8K chips in TRaSh-80s at the Shack. Now I had this
>> cybernetic monster in front of me.
>>
>> Hey, it had this great factory disk box and copy with manual of Acro
>> Jet. The three of us destroyed the disk, playing it so much the first
>> night I returned. Then all those arcade games in the "archive"
>> disks... spent a few days playing with those and learned that I could
>> make things in the Word Writer 4 programme. So I did a few little
>> things for the nightly RPG (role-playing game) group. Looked better
>> than my scrawl of handwriting. I was starting to like the "friendly"
>> PC. During the year of 93, I was at the cafe that was next to the
>> shop, [having] known the people for years. Not sure how the
>> conversation started but in the end, they were selling off their C=
>> system. I thought it was a great idea to have one in the shop at that
>> time. Been one in the shop ever since. Well, it was a breadbox, some
>> disks... all I remember was "archive" copy of Project Firestart that
>> had me for months tearing out my hair on how to play it, but the intro
>> scenes were what sold me on the power of the C=.
>>
>> Along with that came an amber monitor... not a lot of fun, I admit.
>> Well, it was in October of that year... kids were out doing trick-or-
>> treating with the downtown merchants a couple of days before
>> Halloween, when a guy I had worked with in a small boat building place
>> over a decade earlier came in and saw what I was playing with at the
>> time. Told me all about the "Astoria Commodore Users Group", which he
>> said was a big copy party group... like I understood what that meant
>> at the time. Laid a phone number on me and hooked me with the fact
>> that disks cost 25 cents each at the meetings. I didn't know about
>> the how, where, or why to get the disks. Yeah, I was using the master
>> copies... a real lamer. To be short, I went to the November meeting,
>> joined in December, and Mark Reed joined in January of 94.
>>
>> Over the next approx. 16 years, my idea for a name change was accepted
>> for the group. Became the editor, 128 librarian, 64 deputy librarian,
>> 64 librarian, and finally the president... a title which was changed
>> to Chancellor. Newsletter expanded. A BBS was up from 1996 to 2005
>> and will be up again. Shop added the hardcopy library to the floor
>> space. Later, the software collection and hardware for sale, with a
>> reduced rate for group members. I ended up doing more and more
>> writing on the C= system, moving from the Newsroom to GEOS and later
>> to GeoPub... then to Wheels and what we have today.
>>
>> OK, that is the short of it. As for my Amiga stuff... well, this has
>> gone on too long, and the Amiga and me is better done at a later
>> time. However, you can tell it was all my mother's fault that she
>> created this Commodore fanatic. Now it is your turn to relate your C=
>> history. Feel free to add what you doing today as well.
>
>


From: Mike Paull on 18 Dec 2009 01:23
On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:52:52 -0500, Dmackey828 <n2dvm(a)NOSPAMarrl.net>
wrote:

This is most sad to hear. While I only chatted to him a few times and sent
but a handful of emails I enjoyed my correspondance with him. He was a
funny guy and had a good way of looking at things and was always willing to
help.

RIP Lord Ronin.

Mike




>It is with a sad heart and sole that I report that David Mohr
>AKA Lordronin of QLINK Passed away this morning.
>
>At this time, thats All I know. I just wanted to be sure to post it.
>
>May you next adventure be as grand as the one you just left.
>You will be missed my friend. You will be missed...

From: AgentFriday on 30 Dec 2009 05:20
On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:52:52 -0500, Dmackey828 <n2dvm(a)NOSPAMarrl.net>
wrote:

>It is with a sad heart and sole that I report that David Mohr
>AKA Lordronin of QLINK Passed away this morning.
>
>At this time, thats All I know. I just wanted to be sure to post it.
>
>May you next adventure be as grand as the one you just left.
>You will be missed my friend. You will be missed...

Damn, that's messed up... First time I got on to check out C= on
usenet. Happen to think of him and searched his name to see if he
posted here.

I just met him 2 months ago (via email). He was helping me diagnose a
DOA 1581. A pity I won't have the chance to get to know him.

He was a generous soul.
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