The Full Duplex Interview in glorious Technicolor !
It is an honour to do this interview. It is long over due. To progress with AFN, it is important to know where it came from. What gave birth to the site we love n cherish !
One of our founding fathers is the guy known as Full Duplex. This is his interview.
1. FD, this is an obvious question, but how did it all start for you ?
SO...my history with afn, this is a long one. Back before the sites birth I was on RIU, it is where I went to locate how to perfect what I was doing. I used to mess with photos only, and like most, I didn't know or never heard of cannabis autflowering. It was new to me and it really, really peaked my interest. I was in a situation where I didnt have the room to run the photos that I wanted, and wanted to try something new. Something I have never done before. So I started looking into autos and found Joint Dr's version of the PurpleJem. I was taken in by the size and low odor and like most of us, lusted after color and that fit all three bills for me. So I ordered them through attitude seed bank. Once I got them I started them right away, and they took off for me. I'll never forget that. It was something special. So I documented the grow on RIU and then something magical happened. Someone pointed me to ICMag due to the fact of the strain I was growing. They thought that the breeder would like to see the job that I had done on my first auto. Little did I know this is where I would meet Mossy. I kept a journal there as well and she followed along. Then drama hit, ICMag came after us for "promoting" a breeder outside of their guidelines and if I remember correctly, banned Mossy from the site. When they did that I moved back to RIU and Mossy and I fed off each other there and I wrote the thread "The Art of the Auto." Before I knew it, I had a cult following there and the thread became its own thing.
2. You must have had to bat away some harsh nay sayers back in the day. There was a lot of negativity toward Auto's....
You can say that again !!! After a while we begged and begged the admins to give us our own section and they would not. We would repeatedly get bashed and mocked there about our autos yet we still wanted to provide the best information that we could for something that there was no information about. We kept that up for some time and watched other young auto growers (age isnt relevant) begin to get into the mix and grow great plants. Things blossomed from there, and then one day I got a mail from Mossy and Norther grower. We had an idea, NG went to mossy because she had the genetics, he came to me because I could grow my ass off and had a tech background, and he was the brains behind the web shit, and as you can see, still is. This was how AFN was born basically. We started small and pulled in all that would come over from RIU and ICmag. I started my threads here and getting everyone into the auto game. So my history here is long and I've been around since its beginning but have had a time or two out while life took me to other places.
3. As a former IT guy myself, I guess your name tag is IT related. Back in the day of steam driven modems, we would speak of Full Duplex mode.
My name, FullDuplex, is exactly where you got it from. I work in IT and it just made sense to correlate the name with something I do. After a while I debated on changing it and then I realized how much I would have to go through to change it as well as explaining to some who I was. So I left it alone and it seems that was a good idea. Most call me FD for short as you can see but it will never change. It has become part of who I am, almost a second identity.
4. I know from your adventures in breeding, that you lean heavily toward Indica, care to explain ?
Okay, so a little Medical history from me and it is the main reason that I grow. I am an adult that suffers from ADHD, all my life actually. I used to be on ritalin, adderall, and strattera. Not all at the same time but over the course of many years. The first two were in my teens and early 20's. I didnt discover pot until I was almost 22. I was raised in a sheltered home and wasnt allowed to do much with friends. I was just out of college when I had my first joint and I realized real quick that it made me feel more relaxed than any of the other meds I had been taking. So I started to look more into the effects of different kinds and started learning what would help me. I got into indicas real quick as it actually relaxed my body and mind and let me sleep.
I can smoke a sati, but they make me freak out, like my brain will race and so does the heart and imagination. I get super paranoid on them, so its counter active for me big time.
Most of my breeding is geared towards this, I chase indicas that will keep my racing brain at bay and let me sleep. I used to also chase them for pain killing for the oral issues I had, but now that I've had surgery I'm past that part.
5. Correct me if I am wrong, but did I hear you waxing lyrical about craft beers ? In the UK we have CAMRA, the CaMpaign for Real Ale. I bet you would be a fan ?
You bet ! I love a good craft beer. Most call me a freak, but the micro/macro breweries are a favorite. I'm a stout and ale drinker, oatmeal, coffee, chocolate, citrus, wheat, and so on and so forth. I like a beer to have good body, flavor, and stay power. Sure i like a cold budlight but if I am in it for the taste, lets face it. A coffee stout with a steak dinner is tits. (tits ?? eP)
6. Like many of the non city dwelers in the US, I would guess you are a country boy ?
You can say that again eP ! I love the outdoors
Avid in the wild, I hunt, fish, camp, and all that good shit. I have several place that I go throughout the spring to do each of those. Most of the time, all included. Helps clear the head, relaxes me more than anything else I think. I have a personal place in the mountains that I can get away to and that is my heaven.
(Amen to that, eP)
7. Have you traveled much around the US ?
Travel for me is a release, I get to let my self unwind. Most of the time I find my self going to the same spot and that is where I trout fish, but there are so many ways to get there. As far as the country goes I love to see new places, meet new people and eat the local food. Each time I travel for business or travel I eat the local restaurants. Everyone has chains but the real gems are the local food places that have been there for years. I love looking for those places. I've seen almost all the states here except washington, oregon, cali, idaho, alaska, and montana. The last is my next on the list as I want to fish up there bad.
8. Now then. This is the part of the interview where I have to give a WARNING. Some of you may want to be sick ! Some of you may want to cry and blub. Whatever......I asked FD about him and her.........Oh it so loverly.......
Ahhhh the wifey, yes. What a treat she is, and I mean that for real. I love her. It's that simple really. She been through some shit with me and has been right there with me through it, she's ride or die man. Down for about anything and enjoys the same things that I do. We are two peas in a pod. Now she does not smoke but will eat my edibles from time to time. We have a working understand of the whole thing and as a nurse she sees the way that the flower helps me rather than the pharms.
9. What is the best piece of advice you ever received, or would pass on.
"Lifes not about what you are or who you are, its about what you see in yourself when your in your final years and are pleased with who you are."
10. If you could change a part of your life, what would it be ?
Wow this question always gets me, I sit and think should we really change anything? Isn't it what got u where we are today? I guess if you can answer that second question with a yes then you wouldnt change anything. So with that said, I like who I am today and what I have become. If I were to change anything in my past it means that it would alter where I am today. I have been through some painful shit, and some hard times. But it is what you learn from them that make it valuable to life.
11. If you saw a penguin busking or begging for change, would you be kind ?
Hell yeah I'd help him, take him in get him some food and a cold brew that wasnt a 40 from the local grocery that is bottom of the tank stuff. Offer to get hin on his way and if he needed shelter put him up for a few nights to get him on his feet.
(If I were a skunk, would that be the same answer ???) lol
12. You have a Cannabis related Magic Wand. Wave it and say.........
End of prohibition, I am so sick of seeing the useless waste of tax payer money going after guys that grow a weed. Sure there are serious related problems like the cartel, but I don't think that would get worse. I think that it would make it better.
13. What does FD see the Canna future in twenty years time. Not your wish, but reality....
Reality, honestly, some sort of legalization. As well as an open market. I am sure that it will be a battle because of the big firms that would want in the industry. I think that will be a problem, people like Phillip Morris, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, hell, even Anheuser Busch given the close relation to hops and canna plant. If they get in it will be like Walmart to the local grocery. All the guys that have been doing this for years as well as fighting for it will be up against giants for production. But we all know the better they are attended to the better the harvest. I think massive production like that would seriously hurt quality.
14. Some of you may know, I like a bet on the horses. Are you a betting man FD? What would you wager on ?
I am not, never really have been the betting type. Every now and then I will pay for one of the mega lottery drawings when they get a certain amount but other than that, nothing. I know, I'm boring but hey I got other things I do with my monies. Like a wife !!! Now when I DO go to Vegas, I'll hit the craps tables, thats my thing there.
15. A. What scares you ? Any phobias that get under big bad FD's skin ?
Spiders, fucking spiders, I can do most things and it takes a lot to gross me out. I mean a lot, I grew up field dressing deer, butchering hogs, and so on and so forth. But nothing bothers me like spiders. I know its weird but we all got our things right?
(You big girls blouse !) eP.
16. Are you into music, films or books at all ?
Music is life, period. I like all kinds of music everything from Big Band music, to metal. I grew up playing it so it is hard not to appreciate it. Movies, most I wait to see at home, dont like dealing with the crowds most of the time. But you bet your ass iI was there on opening week of star wars.
17. Tell us a secret ! I dare you.......
Sometimes, I wonder where I would be if I would have never married the first time. What I would have done and where I would have gone........
18. When did you last have a good scrap or fight. (ones with the wife don't count!)
Three years ago, and I remember it like yesterday. Buddy calls to come pick him up at a bar, he is drunk and it is a titty bar. I go in, find him and we start to head out. Some guy looks at him wrong and he explodes for no reason. Before I know it, there is a brawl and I'm smack in the middle. Next thing I know, some dude sucker punches me ! I laugh and swing back. Heck, all I was doing was a good deed for a buddy, and he starts a fight in the bar. I never hit the floor, took a good few, gave a good few, and got escorted out by bouncers. Needless to say I've never gone back there AND stopped hanging out with him. I'm to old for that shit.
19. You can invite five guests to a dinner party. Not family. But alive or dead. Who is coming ?
Bill Murray, Robin Williams, Willie Nelson, Morgan Freeman, and Dan Aykroyd
20. Do you have a burning ambition before you kick the final bucket ?
Yeah, I do. There are two. Skydive and Visit Australia. I have always wanted to do both before I kick the bucket.
21. What question are you glad I didn't ask ? Then answer it !!!
How old I am .......and I'm still not gonna answer that one HA!!!! I'll leave that one up the the mystery.
22. And finally, what did you have for breakfast this morning ?
HAHA, which breakfast?? The one before I leave or the one after I get to work....
4am
Peanut butter sandwich on whole wheat bread, and a ensure high vitamin shake.
7am
5 egg whites and a yolk, cup of blue berries, Protein shake, and a slice of whole grain toast.
I'm a gym rat so i have to get my energy and recovery.
I know that I say each Interview is better than the last. I try to make it happen. But it has been such a pleasure to interview FD that I could have asked twetny more questions and he would have been more than happy to answer every one of them. Makes my job easy.
I asked if there was any final statement FD wanted to make...........This is his reply..........
I'll say this,
This place has been my home as far as canna goes. I have been a member at other sites, canna, and none canna related and still love the vibe here. Watching it grow to what it has become has been a pleasure in my eye. I have left time after time because of life and every time I come back its just the same as if I didnt leave. That says a lot about the people here and what we are all about. This place has become THE site for autos, I can remember a time when we were fighting for rank on google. Now when you search autoflower info, you come here. Thats all I ever wanted to see.
Can't say fairer than that. Thank you FD. In due course , we will need you to nominate the next victim, I mean, Interviewee.........eP.
I love the aspect of learning a bit more of the staff and makes it feel even more like home! Well done to the both of you!
