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Fun Stuff => CHATTER => Topic started by: Sox on 31 Jan 2009, 05:26

Title: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Sox on 31 Jan 2009, 05:26: I don't have time to read every thread in the newbie forum, I'm not gonna PM everybody, and I have forgotten who most of you are anyway. Tell me about yourself so I can put a personality behind your posts. It ain't a community until I know all about your sordid affairs.
I'll do me later, I got things to do on this day.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 05:33: Well, I am Josef, one of the new bugs. I generally write too much, have an overall bad taste in music and all too sunny a demeanour.

Mostly I am nice and try to be as funny as I can be, I usually fail. I am studying history at Leeds university, specifically the crusades (hooray, religion and violence, together at last), I have never been in paid employment and regularly appera in drama productions, usually as the crazy uncle, or the token "weird one".

I hope one day to be as British as steven Fry, I tend to want to see the best in people (witht he noticeable exception of Ayn Rand) and am an avid reader of Terry Prachett.

Welcome back Mr Darryl

<edit for length, mainly because I didn't think people were going to say this much and I come across as a dull bugger.>
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Sox on 31 Jan 2009, 05:34: Call me Darryl.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: jodizzle on 31 Jan 2009, 06:30: To appease you Darryl, I will tell everyone who I am.

I am Jodie, I am 22! I live in Australia and I like British boys, 80s goth and kitties. I have a uni degree in Visual Arts, English Literature and Marketing, and I want to go into publishing or advertising at some point this year. I am going to America and England to meet the internet in 6 months!
I am addicted to the Mountain Goats.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: nobo on 31 Jan 2009, 06:33: Hey Darryl,

I'm a 24 year old mechanical engineer doing design work fixing nuclear reactors in north carolina. I'm a former frat boy, kind of a meathead, and i'm Polish.

As for music I like ska, punk, techno and rap, pretty much anything that has energy and isn't too mellow.

Here is a reference pic for you to gauge level of meatheadedness.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v169/nirvana98r/n12814400_34228099_3338-1.jpg)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Gemmwah on 31 Jan 2009, 06:48: Since I'm being nagged, I'll give it a shot.

My name's Gemm, I'm 21 years old and I work in a supermarket, yay. In my childhood I played chess tournaments with kids almost twice my age, and beat them. I went to secondary school and decided to stop playing chess because even though I was good, they wouldn't take me to tournaments because I repeatedly beat "the best player" in the school. Whatever. I then joined gymnastics, and started cheerleading.
I am a retired professional dancer, I danced for money, competitively, and several times in the West End. Possibly my greatest achievement to date was dancing at Sadler's Wells.
I've already been to University once, and had a complete breakdown and had to drop out.
I am starting University again in September to study Computer Game Technology, and hope to one day work for Blizzard or Ubisoft. I kinda wanna be a Frag Doll.
I love to read, and visit the library at least once a week. Whenever I have spare time, I do Stand-Up comedy, and it's possibly the best kind of performance I've ever done. I also play guitar and write music, play around with eye make up, play with photoshop, build websites and blog skins, and of course, play ridiculous amounts of video games. I can't get enough of piercings and tattoos. My favourite band is Killola, and on my desk I have one US Dollar, to give me the incentive to go back to the States one day and spend it.

OH and I'm gay too. :)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Inlander on 31 Jan 2009, 06:58: Quote
I am - yet what I am, none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self-consumer of my woes -
They rise and vanish in oblivion's host
Like shadows in love-frenzied stifled throes
And yet I am, and live - like vapors tost

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise.
Into the living sea of waking dreams.
Where there is neither sense of life or joys
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
Even the dearest that I love the best
Are strange - nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod
A place where woman never smiled or wept
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
The grass below - above, the vaulted sky.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 07:03: My favorite poem! What the hell are you doing with that, your a moderator, the very fact that you need to exist to prevent anarchy means you have a point to your existence.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: StaedlerMars on 31 Jan 2009, 07:08: Quote
on my desk I have one US Dollar, to give me the incentive to go back to the States one day and spend it.

That is one of the best things I have ever heard (seen written I guess).
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Jace on 31 Jan 2009, 07:36: Hi, I'm Jace and I'll probably be an alcoholic if I decide to keep working at hotels for the rest of my life.
Barring that I do Kung Fu, and paint miniatures. I also like to sleep and whine about how I can't ask girls out but am surrounded by attractive girls.
I drink a lot of mountain dew because how the fuck else can I stay up all night working at a hotel? Oh, and I do overnights, so I'm up when the aussies are up.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ã¶de on 31 Jan 2009, 07:43: I'm Dan. I'm 18.9 years old, 176cm tall, and about 70kg despite my almost constant intake of food. At the moment I don't really do much. I've been looking for jobs for the past 8 months in the media/design/creative field (photography, graphic design, web design, film, writing, radio, prostitution) after dropping out of college. I'm fairly intelligent and I have good taste in things and I try to be nice about this and everything else unless you're being completely shit. I think I get along with people fairly well. I enjoy non-competitive sports like skiing, cycling, cuddling, eating, music, urban exploration, drugs, mountain climbing, sexy hot people, and a ton of other things. I don't think this post has been very informative.

tl;dr: I am a pretty ok dude with opinions on things and a lust for mental and physical adventure.

Edit: I am British too. This is a good thing, apparently.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: ledhendrix on 31 Jan 2009, 07:52: I'm Robbie. 18 year old physics student from Scotland. Most of my time spent as a student is not really physics and is more surfing, trampolining, drinking and gaming. I have a pretty wide taste in music, listening to a lot of Ratatat at the moment. Experimenting with drugs is pretty high on my list of things to do, alongside making a cheesecake and getting better with the ladies. I'm quite the atheist and do enjoy a good cup of tea. Also fly fishing and cycling. I do a lot of fly fishing. And guitar, can't forget playing the guitar.

Hopefully you can get something from that.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 07:59: I'm Anthony. 15 years old. Canadian. Is a member of this forum for about a year and half. Started bby posting thing and thought random = laughs. But realised I was being stupid for doing that so decided to lurk more. That also means that I don't post often, unless I find it necessary or worthwhile. I'm in the Advanced Science program in my school, which means I have Advanced Science, Advanced Math, Advanced English and Advanced French. I play the violin and can play the guitar too. I' rather tall for my age, being 178 cm tall. I'm also a bit taller than my Dad. I like all kind of things and don't know what I want to do when I'll finish school. I like music, science, math, linguistics, politics, history and a lot of other things.

That's it, I guess
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Drill King on 31 Jan 2009, 08:01: I'm Andy, I'm a girly and 5'8 and around 125-130lbs. I am Canadian! I am from small town Nova Scotia.
I'm an artist who is hoping to attend art school in the fall and hopefully major in Illustration(we'll see when I get there as there isn't a whole lot I do already), and work with children's novels. I am a bit hippy dippy sometimes and that is to say I care immensely about all the good things in life(read: love) and tend to rag on the bad things(read: hate). I am all hella into fashion, and I love to read(even though I haven't had time lately).. I like incense, and tea tree oil. I am all hell's of a small town girl, I can't wait to live in a city!

I miss being physically active a whole lot but I feel really bad/pathetic whenever I try, because I am so far gone. I did gymnastics for a while, but was a competitive swimmer for a good chunk of my life. Oh, and I played smear the queer for like three years every day. And hacky sack. I'm going to try and get a lot of hiking/nature walks in when spring hits. I am trying my best but I don't know, I'm going to go for a winter hike right now and feed birds!

Uhhh. I love nature and I spend as much time in trees as the great icey north will permit me to. I love owls and peacocks and chickadees, I really like birds, and animals. I have terrible punctuation because I try to type how I talk/think and that causes a lot of pauses.

I am kind of bad at first impressions.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: valley_parade on 31 Jan 2009, 08:11: Hello Daz.

I am Shane, and I am nearly 22. I go to school for business and I want to open up a guitar shop someday. I like your British brand of football, and baseball. I live in the way northwest corner of Massachusetts, about three hours west of Boston, and four hours north of New York City (though if you drive reaaaally fast it's like three and a half).

I play the guitar, though not very well.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Christophe on 31 Jan 2009, 08:21: My name is Christopher, though many just call me Chris and my usual nickname is Kazoo (as derived from my surname). I'm 21 years old as of the 7th of this month and currently a Junior at the University of California, Merced majoring in Management and minoring in Writing. I've applied for Study Abroad for next semester, so hopefully I'll be taking some business courses at the University of Glasgow this fall. I have a wonderful ladyfriend who I've been dating since late 2006. I tend to be pretty awkward around people I've never but once you've got me properly introduced and past the threshold of "so, what do you like doing?", you cannot shut me up. Does this make me some kind of attention whore? Possibly.

My interests include obscure 90s post-hardcore bands (in addition to a slew of musics of other different genres), audio recording, dystopian and science fiction literature (though I don't read as much as I used to, I need to fix that) good, potentially artery-clogging food, politics (only half the time though), et cetera. I've been playing guitar for about seven and a half years but I don't have a band since I'm too socially weird to ask other people to play a chord progression or something. To this end, I've been playing drums for about seven months and I think I'm good enough to record myself. So I did. I also play some bass and keyboards, though I pretty much suck at the latter. I'd post a link to my music but I think it would be spamming on any board but the music forum.

I hope this is rad enough, because I have to pack up and have breakfast before I drive back to my hometown in about... oh, three or so hours?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: ViolentDove on 31 Jan 2009, 08:29: Hello there Darryl.

I'm Nick, one of the Australian contingent- currently living in Sydney, though I'm not originally from here. I'm a scientist, journalism student, and occasional musician/DJ when I find the time to organise gigs or someone convinces me to play for fun, free booze or money. I also design stuff for a hobby, and briefly flirted with the idea of selling some of the things I've designed until I realised I knew nothing about business, manaufacturing, and so on. I'm generally pretty easy-going personality-wise, though I do tend to over think things. While I guess I'm pretty outgoing in meatlife (though I didn't used to be), I'm somewhat shy on the internet. I have deleted many more posts than I've actually written on these forums. I've stuck around because I find the majority of people here to be genuinely engaging, knowledgeable and humorous, which is actually pretty rare as far as forums go.

Anyway, cheers for starting this thread.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: michaelicious on 31 Jan 2009, 08:37: My name is Michael. I have two middle names: they are "Christopher" and "James". I usually omit the James though because every male on my mother's side of the family has James as either a first or middle name after my grandfather. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against my grandfather. I actually look up to him more than anyone in the world. He doesn't even go by James himself; he goes by Bert.

Lots of people think I am a jerk when they first meet me because I have pretty flat affect (http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=26293) most of the time. I have been told I have a very soothing voice and that I should read books on tape for a living. I think that would be a pretty excellent job.

I write a lot, but mostly just lists of ideas or single sentences. Sometimes I write short stories. I once wrote a story about a man who goes to the grocery store every Wednesday to buy two kiwis because that is what his dead wife Etheline used to do when she was alive. His name was Mr Green. He was very human. The story was called "Kiwi Day!".
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Liz on 31 Jan 2009, 08:37: Hello Darryl!

My name is Elizabeth, but I go by Liz. I am 21 year old female hailing from Minnesota, but I live in Fargo right now to attend school. I'm studying anthropology and history because I like old things and dead people I guess. (Dead people don't complain as much, see). I am excited to graduate so I can get the hell out of this wintry prison. A little store called Bath and Body Works provides my employment by having me lift boxes of shampoos and slather smelly lotions all over the people that come in through the doors. It is a good job.

When I am not working or schooling or sleeping or eating I can normally be found on the internet. It is kind of my thing. Otherwise I spend a fair amount of time sewing, baking, cooking, cleaning, or watching movies. This past Christmas I got a sewing machine and kitchen supplies so I guess I am turning into a little housewife. This is maybe not a bad thing, I cannot decide.

If I have enough money, I am going to be traveling a fair amount this year. For spring break I will probably be taking a road trip to Tennessee with a charter bus full of rad people, and doing some volunteer work. This summer I am am applying for a super awesome internship that I would kill to get (not literally, I am no criminal), and if I get it I will be spending eight weeks in Ohio staring at bones. It would be the Best Thing. Aaaand then there is Chicagocon where I will meet/make out with the internet for a while, so that should be rad.

I think maybe I am a little boring. Oh well.

Quote from: michaelicious on 31 Jan 2009, 08:37
I have been told I have a very soothing voice and that I should read books on tape for a living. I think that would be a pretty excellent job.

Man. Why have we not Skyped?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: jhocking on 31 Jan 2009, 08:40: Quote from: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 05:33
Well, I am Joe

are you starting some shit here???
/
:x
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 08:41: errrr, I think I will go change that, so I don't get my face kicked off by angry forumites.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: ViolentDove on 31 Jan 2009, 08:44: It's alright, I think he was joeking.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: michaelicious on 31 Jan 2009, 08:46: Quote from: Misconception on 31 Jan 2009, 08:37
Man. Why have we not Skyped?

I don't think I know what that is.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 08:46: I still don't want my face kicked off. That was an angry face smiley, thats the equivalent of the 13 states ceseding from the UK in forum terms. Plus all italics, I am probably being hunted right now!
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: negative creep on 31 Jan 2009, 08:49: Hello!

My name is Dominik, I am 22 years old and live in Germany. I study philosophy at the university of Mainz because I have to do something or my parents will kick me out. Other than that I work at a pub and play guitar in a band. Basically I'm bound to end up a very poor alcoholic.

I like music and I read a lot of books. I think I'm a pretty boring person on the forums and haven't contributed much, but you might remember my different haircuts and colours from various picture threads.

Welcome back Darryl!
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Liz on 31 Jan 2009, 08:50: Quote from: michaelicious on 31 Jan 2009, 08:46
I don't think I know what that is.

Skype is a lovely little internet program that lets you talk to people from all over! All you need is to download Skype and buy a microphone or headset, and you can chat it up with anyone else that has the same set up. It is rad.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Siibillam-Law on 31 Jan 2009, 09:00: Greetings, Darryl

Name's Baz, which is short for Basil which is short for Basil-William. My parents wee a barrel of laughs
I'm 18, study animation at Sheffield Hallma University in the ol' UK, although my home is in Cornwall and I spent 8 years living in New Zealand before that, some time in England, and was actually born in France. Honest. French is my first language, but I speak English much better.
I write, then draw, then realise I should get out but it's raining, so I draw some more, or read.

I'm not as boring as it is implied, although other people might think otherwise and am a shit hairstyle and and now trying to learn more languages than is good for me
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Lines on 31 Jan 2009, 09:19: Hi Daz!

I am Lindsey (hence the Linds), too tall for my own good, and currently 22. I finished uni back in June (yay art degree) and am currently working in an art supply store. I am a really boring person.

Yep.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: pwhodges on 31 Jan 2009, 09:25: I'm Paul. For most of you, I'm pretty much as old as your grandfather. I hate sports, but cycle to work and to the shops etc; I also do a lot of DIY. By these means I have managed to be active enough to delay entering the zone of overweight until the last couple of years; I should do something about that, but quite likely won't. I like being alive, though - which I have managed by surviving three illnesses which each would have killed me if I had been born a mere thirty years earlier. In spite of this, I am actually by far the healthiest of my family, being the only one with neither a metal joint nor continuing medication. A healthy mind is just as important, of course, and is best ensured by indulging in continual curiosity.

I am a computer whizz, having started programming in the late 1960s during my Engineering Science degree. But before entering a lifetime of servitude to the machine, I spent a while at the BBC as a recording engineer ("studio manager" or SM in their lingo). I am now systems manager for a university department which does research into cancer treatment. My musical background is entirely classical (cathedral choirboy, studied piano with a concert pianist), with a particular interest in both baroque and contemporary music; but I also have a continuing secondary interest in popular music.

For hobbies, apart from the perpetual DIY (which is getting tedious these days, frankly), I play with my dogs, do a bit of photography, sing in a choir, and am making a simple organ console at home (I've got the pedals and manuals, which I am in the process of MIDIfying). But my most serious hobby is sound recording, which I do in surround, using a technology known as Ambisonics; my son is a professional pianist, and several of his released CDs were recorded and mastered by me.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: CardinalFang on 31 Jan 2009, 09:34: Hi Daz,

My name is Eric which is actually my middle name. My first name being Stephen but I was never called that except by teachers who couldn't quite understand that I went by my middle name.
I am 45 years old which makes me the fifth oldest person here. Celtic Geek, Paul, Orbert, and Tragic_Pizza thwarting my idea of changing my forum name to Older Than You.

I live in Norfolk, Virginia in an area known as either Tidewater or Hampton Roads. We took most of our city names from dear ol' Blighty. I have lived in this area all my life and my current abode is about a one mile from where I was born. I work for the city of Virginia Beach as a GIS Technician. That's GIS as in Geographic Information System and not Google Image Search.

My hobbies include reading and playing Role-Playing Games, Board Games (mostly wargames), and the occasional video game. I spent way too much time in front of a computer.
I tend to lurk both here and on Gabbly/Meebo. Although there are times when I am probably too chatty on Gabbly. I am mostly known for my inability to type well prompting Edith to call me Hamhands. The name amused me so much that it is now part of my Gabbly name.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Dazed on 31 Jan 2009, 09:35: Hello internet people,

My name is James. I am from (and live!) in a small town called Hull just south of Boston, MA. I'm 20 years old, 6'2", 165 pounds, AKA wiry. I have much longer hair than most men. I like to read, mostly graphic and fantasy novels. I like movies, and music, mostly rock of many kinds. I am a drummer, been playing for a little over 12 years now. I play a pearl export select kit that I bought 4 or 5 years ago, with a mishmash of cymbals. I play mostly rock and funk, with a bit of jazz. I also sing and play very little guitar very badly. I go to college at UMass Boston, in my first year there after dropping out of my 1st college, and taking a year off. I spend too much time on the internet, and not nearly enough with my dwindling supply of meatlife friends. I like dogs and kittens. I have a nigh-on fanatical devotion to the Red Sox and Patriots. I like to ski, a lot, and I am quite good at it. I would like to become a wildly successful professional musician, and short of that, have no goals or ideas for what to do with my life.

Yay.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: valley_parade on 31 Jan 2009, 09:37: James, why did you not come to Bostoncon?

(also, what are you at UMB for? Once I get my associates, I'm transferring there for Marketing)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Patrick on 31 Jan 2009, 10:37: Darryl you know who I am. You are the first person I ever talked to outside the forums.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Sox on 31 Jan 2009, 10:41: I know most of you. Not everybody else does. Introduce yourself. Now.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: BrittanyMarie on 31 Jan 2009, 10:43: I'm Brittany, I'm almost 23 and I'm old school of this forum and I keep finding people who I thought were just new who were actually oldsters from before who changed their names. My avatar used to be the happiest butterfly in the whole world that I drew in paint. I loved twee so so so much at the time, and my favorite post I've ever made was

Quote from: BrittanyMarie on 14 Mar 2007, 21:19
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Troublemaker ¹,

Please² don't ask me to explain³ pre-marital sex⁴ . They're controlling our minds⁵! Wouldn't it be nice⁶ if you knew⁷ Rory rides me raw⁸? In a funny way⁹, now that I miss her¹⁰, you think you're a man¹¹! To hell with good intentions¹², I was watching your eyes¹³ between the bars¹⁴ like a monkey at the zoo¹⁵.

1. All Girl Summer Fun Band
2. Apples in Stereo
3. Of Montreal
4. Daniel Johnston
5. Misty's Big Adventure
6. Beach Boys
7. Neko Case
8. Vaselines
9. Mercury Rev
10. Elefant
11. Vaselines
12. McLusky
13. Of Montreal
14. Elliot Smith
15. Daniel Johnston
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: StaedlerMars on 31 Jan 2009, 10:56: Hello Darryl and extended forum

Simon, 20, currently in Edinburgh, Scotland but I split my time between there, NYC, and Gent, Belgium. I'm a comp sci student at uni here, and plan on attending some sort of other higher education that would involve preferably graphic design or computer arts.

I love music, snowboarding, playing guitar, and sleeping. Sleeping is the best. Sleeping is rad.

On my bedside table is 1 flask, 1 Nine Stories by Salinger, 1 lime green gameboy color with pokemon yellow (or tetris) in it, 1 recorder, 1 book on cryptography, 50 little vouchers for dominoes pizza deals.

Summer after graduation The Plan is to go WWOOFing across Southern America, traveling between places by biking. This is something that I am really excited about.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Dazed on 31 Jan 2009, 11:03: Quote from: valley_parade on 31 Jan 2009, 09:37
James, why did you not come to Bostoncon?

(also, what are you at UMB for? Once I get my associates, I'm transferring there for Marketing)

Hmm, not sure! I don't think I was actually aware of it at the time. I'm currently undeclared at UMB, probably going to be majoring in music though, possibly minoring/doubling in philosophy or political science.

EDIT: Shane, when do you think you're transferring?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ladybug on 31 Jan 2009, 11:04: Hello, introduce yourself take 2!

I am Mari (pronounced more like Mah-ree than Mary, I think), and I just turned 22. I hail from the great North, aka Northern Norway, but I'm currently attending university a bit further south. I'm hopefully on my way to a master's degree in computer science, but I guess we'll see how that goes. I'm about halfway there now. This basically means I'm a bit of a geek, but not as knowledgable as I should be to be a "real" geek. Working on that, though.

When I'm not trying to get through school, I watch a lot of TV shows (not TV in general, just specific shows mostly) or sports (especially Norwegian football, with my favourite team being Bodø/Glimt, but also a lot of winter sports). I also knit, watch movies, juggle (not any good) and sometimes work out or read. I sadly mostly read things required for school (or, you know, things online), and I don't even do enough of that, but at least it's something. What I do most of, though, is spend a fuckton of time online doing absolutely nothing of significance, which I guess is kinda sad. But I'm improving, at least.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: RedLion on 31 Jan 2009, 11:12: Me llamo Jason.

I'm a 19 year old guy living in the US, right on the border between Wisconsin and Illinois, about an hour from Chicago. Going to a Liberal Arts college, where I'm double-majoring in International Relations and Spanish and minoring in Music. I am horrible at maths.

Music is pretty alright in my book. My musical talent is the one thing I allow myself to be kind of proud and occasionally boastful about. I've been playing piano since first grade, trumpet since 4th, guitar since 5th, singing since 6th and started violin last year.

Travelling is kind of my thing, whether by car, boat, train or plane. I've been to all 50 states except Maine and Hawaii. I've been to all of Western Europe and plan on studying abroad in either Spain or Turkey. I want to go to countries in Eastern Europe (Finland, Estonia, Ukraine, Russia. Croatia, Greece, Turkey), South America (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia), South-east Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand), the Middle East (Syria, Iran) and the Great Lakes region of Africa (Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania)

Politics, news and current events are big interests of mine, mostly on the international level. I'm somewhat afflicted with cartocacoethes , the inclination to see maps everywhere. Countries are artificial entities, but I find them fascinating. I find science fascinating, but I kind of suck at it class-wise.

Also to be completely honest, I'm not sure why I'm a member of these forums.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: yelley on 31 Jan 2009, 11:54: jason, huh? how you doin'?(i will do this once i am at home and not on cell phone internet.)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Oli on 31 Jan 2009, 12:11: Hello,

My name is Oli and I am in my second year of study at the University of Glasgow (Christophe get in touch if you're coming in autumn) in Glasgow, Scotland. I study English literature and Philosophy and am intending to take either a single honours degree in English literature or a joint honours degree combining both English literature and Philosophy in my 3rd and 4th years. The areas I particularly enjoy are Post-Modernism, Modernism and 20th Century American Literature.

Probably my favourite book is The Rules of Attraction by Bret Easton Ellis, but some days I think The Subterraneans by Jack Kerouac is the bee's knees.

I love an awful lot of music - what a surprise! - and if pressed I'd probably call Deerhoof my favourite band, or at least the time I saw them my favourite gig. I have a drum kit in my attic and I used to play all the time, but I couldn't play for my first year of Uni (the drum kit living not with me) and have not really picked it back up. I have played a few gigs in Glasgow with a band I used to be in and I have some fun stories from them; I guess if you ask me nicely I will tell you them.

Another thing I do is cooking. Sometimes I cook big meals for lots of people and that is a lot of fun. I got some excellent non-stick cake tins for last Christmas and that made me pretty happy.

Sometimes I like to write and I am pretty terrified at the prospect of entering the Real World.

I joined the forum in November 2005 after my discovery of Nothing Nice To Say in September of that year caused a foray into the world of web comics. My username was originally Nolaw_Nocrime because of a song by The Damned. I am so punx.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Social Bacon on 31 Jan 2009, 12:14: Hi, I'm Bryce, I hail from 6' up and weigh in at 140lbs. I'm a student in Ottawa studying economics and math while doing volunteer work in Parliament. I tend to be pretty quiet as I like to keep my opinions to myself. I'm an avid skier and biker and am learning how to play hockey in this frozen city. Je suis essaye etudier Francais parce que je veux travailler au Parliament. I'm going to spend my summer camping in Nothern Ontario while working for a reforestation company. For fun I read everything I can get my hands on, play the sax, drink coffee, meditate, drink beer, and smoke weed.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Drill King on 31 Jan 2009, 13:01: Quote from: Jeans on 31 Jan 2009, 08:14
Quote from: Drill King on 31 Jan 2009, 08:01
I am kind of bad at first impressions.

My first impression of you was a lady on an internet forum with a modblog avatar. Clearly you are not as bad as you think you are.

You thought I was a dude on the internet forum with a modblog avatar. :C
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Blue Kitty on 31 Jan 2009, 13:09: Quote from: yelley on 31 Jan 2009, 11:54
jason, huh? how you doin'?

yelley, no, this will only end in heart break

I would say you know me Darryl, but then again we don't really talk. I'm Matt, I'd say sovereign of the Intro threads but I don't like having a big head.

I'm a hefty 20 year old college student working towards being a mortician. I enjoy many video games, any piece of literature I can get my hands on, and any piece of music that I can dance to in my own nerdy way.

I like to look on the bright side of things, and despite all the things that I have dragging me down I think I do pretty well.

Besides being hefty I hear I'm a pretty big guy. I currently stand at 6'2".
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Elizzybeth on 31 Jan 2009, 13:11: Hi!

My name's Elizabeth, but I go by Elizzybeth around here. I joined the forum in June 2007 and lurk a lot more than I post. I'm working toward an M.A. in English literature on the Central Coast of California, living with my computer programmer boyfriend, and working as a tutor at the writing lab on campus. I grew up in Los Angeles, where I started university at the age of not-quite-thirteen through a special program. Sometimes I worry that my relative youth--I'm 18 now--is the only thing I've got going for me, and once I'm the same age as my colleagues, a gong will sound somewhere in the cosmos and everyone will realize that I'm not actually very interesting at all.

Though I read voraciously and indiscriminately, F. Scott Fitzgerald is currently my favorite novelist and E.E. Cummings is my favorite poet. I listen to a lot of Elliott Smith and Wilco, and I just came upon five gigabytes of solo piano music that I'm absolutely loving (the Chopin's great). I took ten years of piano lessons and eight years of violin lessons, but I don't play much anymore except for laying down occasional background tracks for this apocalyptic concept album a friend devised while on acid.

I lived in Italy for three months with a family of architects, playing au pair to their children and attending Italian-for-second-language-learners classes at a local high school.

I was raised Quaker. My favorite food is raw tomatoes, but spaghetti and steamed spinach are close.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: MrBlu on 31 Jan 2009, 13:21: Quote from: pwhodges on 31 Jan 2009, 09:25
I'm Paul. For most of you, I'm pretty much as old as your grandfather.

I'm David.

My Grandfather on my mother's side is a Diabetic bum and an asshole who depends on my mother for every single thing, regardless of the fact that he was a horrible father. My grandfather on my father's side ran away when my father was 17.

Will you be my grandfather?

I'm just like J/Yeans with the really skinny, fat on the inside thing. I bought a 15 piece bucket of chicken for a new years party that very few people came to, and ate it over the next 4 days, along with a 2 liter bottle of Pepsi.
I hail from Jamaica, and...
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 13:28: Quote from: Social Bacon on 31 Jan 2009, 12:14
Hi, I'm Bryce, I hail from 6' up and weigh in at 140lbs. I'm a student in Ottawa studying economics and math while doing volunteer work in Parliament. I tend to be pretty quiet as I like to keep my opinions to myself. I'm an avid skier and biker and am learning how to play hockey in this frozen city. Je suis essaye etudier Francais parce que je veux travailler au Parliament. I'm going to spend my summer camping in Nothern Ontario while working for a reforestation company. For fun I read everything I can get my hands on, play the sax, drink coffee, meditate, drink beer, and smoke weed.

It should be: J'essaie d'étudier le Français parce que je veux travailler au Parlement. J'applaudis ton effort. C'est avec la pratique qu'on devient meilleurs.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: michaelicious on 31 Jan 2009, 13:35: Quote from: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 13:28
Quote from: Social Bacon on 31 Jan 2009, 12:14
Hi, I'm Bryce, I hail from 6' up and weigh in at 140lbs. I'm a student in Ottawa studying economics and math while doing volunteer work in Parliament. I tend to be pretty quiet as I like to keep my opinions to myself. I'm an avid skier and biker and am learning how to play hockey in this frozen city. Je suis essaye etudier Francais parce que je veux travailler au Parliament. I'm going to spend my summer camping in Nothern Ontario while working for a reforestation company. For fun I read everything I can get my hands on, play the sax, drink coffee, meditate, drink beer, and smoke weed.

It should be: J'essaie d'étudier le Français parce que je veux travailler au Parlement. J'applaudis ton effort. C'est avec la pratique qu'on devient meilleurs.

I miss being able to write in French. I can still read it and understand it when it is spoken to me but I have lost my ability to speak/write it.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: jhocking on 31 Jan 2009, 13:37: Quote from: Sox on 31 Jan 2009, 10:41
I know most of you. Not everybody else does. Introduce yourself. Now.

oh, so this is for introducing ourselves to other people too? Come to think of it, I no longer have my name in my sig so I suppose newbies maybe don't realize I'm this Joe person liz keeps making fun of.

So yeah, my name's Joe. I live in Chicago and I make digital art (the link in my sig goes to my website). Despite the jokes some people will make, I am not the oldest person around here, but I am older than most.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 15:13: Quote from: michaelicious on 31 Jan 2009, 13:35
Quote from: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 13:28
Quote from: Social Bacon on 31 Jan 2009, 12:14
Hi, I'm Bryce, I hail from 6' up and weigh in at 140lbs. I'm a student in Ottawa studying economics and math while doing volunteer work in Parliament. I tend to be pretty quiet as I like to keep my opinions to myself. I'm an avid skier and biker and am learning how to play hockey in this frozen city. Je suis essaye etudier Francais parce que je veux travailler au Parliament. I'm going to spend my summer camping in Nothern Ontario while working for a reforestation company. For fun I read everything I can get my hands on, play the sax, drink coffee, meditate, drink beer, and smoke weed.

It should be: J'essaie d'étudier le Français parce que je veux travailler au Parlement. J'applaudis ton effort. C'est avec la pratique qu'on devient meilleurs.

I miss being able to write in French. I can still read it and understand it when it is spoken to me but I have lost my ability to speak/write it.

I have the same problem but with the Arabic language. When I was a kid, I used to be able to talk rather fluently in Arabic, but now, I can only understand it.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: tania on 31 Jan 2009, 15:21: i'm tania. i'm 21 and i live in canada. i study sociology and social psychology at the university of guelph. i joined the forum in 2005 and used to be a more frequent poster but now i sort of come and go. when i do post now it's usually to get needlessly angry about something. i am a bit more interesting on MSN and AIM but lately i don't use those much either. i spend my free time trying to be good at everything and running around flailing my arms when it inevitably doesn't work out. i'm an okay person.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Mr. Skawronska on 31 Jan 2009, 15:30: ...and stranger still.

I'm Scott.

I started college in 86 and still haven't finished. Along the way, I've changed my major more times than a porn star changes male leads. I am categorized as a Renaissance Man/Polymath. I have a diverse skillset that includes but is not limited to: computers, locksmithing, firearms, fiction, forensics, medicine, insurance, and most aspects of security.

I'm a tragic, bitter tale of wasted youth, and I'll confess here and now, and probably never again, that yes, I do mostly say things for the reaction value.

Right now I make my money transporting critically ill patients and giving free estimates to people who are bleeding, daily thwarting natural selection much to my great disgust. I work for someone else having found out that being an expert in something does not also make you a good businessman.

Yes, I'm creepy. Yes, I'm old. But I'm not looking to date anyone or get all huggy-smoochy. I come here to relax and say things I think are funny (whether YOU do or not is your business). I have a sick sense of humor (which is where the creepiness part comes in), and I'll talk all day about myself without saying a damn thing because running my yap is something I like to do.

And I'm always astonished when someone actually LISTENS.

And finally...

*clears throat*

"YOU KIDS! GET OFFA MY LAWWWWN!!!"

S
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Jimmy the Squid on 31 Jan 2009, 15:45: I'm Jimmy. I'm 22 and I live in Sydney. I have a Bachelors of Arts majoring in Psychology and a Graduate Diploma in Psychological Studies from the University of Western Sydney (basically the worst university in NSW). I did not get accepted into any of the courses I applied for this year so at the moment I guess I'm not studying anything. At the same time I can't really get a job that is at all related to my studies as I am not qualified for anything other than data analysis and I've been fired from every data analysis job I've had within three months of being hired. I currently work in an inbound call centre.
I'm about 6'1 and I weigh about 104kg (230ish pounds) as I am kind of stocky and I enjoy food. My hair changes colour periodically because I get bored often and my girlfriend is a hairdresser. I like tattoos and I don't think I have quite enough of them yet.
I mainly stick to the I Like HURRRRR section of the forums, occasionally posting in DISCUSS and the Movies, TV and Books threads. I have opinions on music but they are largely unpopular and so I never enter the Music Forum. My opinions on films are just as unpopular but I like them enough to argue my points. I've learned to stay out of the Fashion Advice thread because no one agrees with my fashion choices (I basically only wear black and it has been said that I dress like a "gay cyborg-vampire") and because I am genuinely dismayed at what everyone seems to think is good.

If you are not an utter cunt I will probably think you are pretty alright.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: yelley on 31 Jan 2009, 16:14: hello, i'm yelley. i am 24 years old and right now i live in modesto, california. i am half filipina half french canadian, originally from southeastern michigan, but in the last 5 years i have also lived in indiana, japan, arizona, and a different city in california. i move around a lot.

i have my BS in biology from the university of notre dame, class of 2005. i spent most of my time in college studying, bowling (i was captain of the bowling team), defending my lack of faith to the mostly catholic student body (i am an atheist), and learning japanese (my minor). my original plan was to go to med school, but after i decided that i didn't want to make a hospital my number one priority in life i changed my mind. i also realized that i don't really care about people, i care about the things that kill them... i think a profession in which i had to deal with patients would have been a terrible choice for me. after college i moved to japan to work as an english teacher for one year. while i was there i saw a lot of japan, and also traveled to korea, thailand, and china. i have also been to the philippines twice, to visit my mom's family. i love to travel and i miss it now that i don't have much of an opportunity for it.

after i got back from japan i had a job making anthrax vaccine, but i got fired because of my racist macrame skills (long stupid story that most of you know already). somewhat shortly after that i found a new job that enabled me to move to california. unfortunately that job didn't work out, so i got another job that didn't work out, and now i am at my current job. basically what i am saying is that i am not very good at living in one place or keeping one job. hopefully that will change now, since i love my current job and i am happy in the city i am in. right now i am a supervisor in a food microbiology testing laboratory. it is a large lab, so we test for a lot of major food companies. if you buy food in the US, odds are my lab has tested some of it.

i first joined these forums my junior year of college, so in 2004. i guess that makes me somewhat old school? maybe. i have kind of developed a reputation as an internet predator, but only for boys named jason. while living in japan i met a qc person named jason stationed in okinawa and we dated for a while. when i moved back from japan i met another qc person named jason and we are still together. really i feel that it takes more than two occurrences to make a trend.... but i guess when you meet two guys from the same forum with the same name and sleep with both of them.... yeah, that does sound kind of bad. (don't worry redlion, i am not actually after you. the jason i have right now is pretty rad and i am very happy with him.)

when i'm not at work and not in meebly (so not very often) i like to knit, play video games, and cook. i think i am getting better that the first and third, maybe worse at the second.... these newfangled video games and their high def graphics are too much for me sometimes.

i feel like i don't get along with people very well, mostly because of The Burden/because i am ~~pretty bitchy~~ brutally honest a lot of the time. (The Burden... kind of a long story... just know that it involves mensa and a guy that is pretty tactless.) i am not good at telling people what they want to hear, instead i tell them what i think, and this gets me into trouble a lot. i come off as condescending, bossy, bitchy, whatever... i just can't stop myself from telling things how i see it. i try to be nice and i can force relationships if necessary, and it usually is, but there are very few people in real life that i am actually close to and open with. i feel like i have much more of a connection with my internet friends than i do with people i meet in real life... that is why i still come to these forums even though i don't really care what happens in jeph's comic anymore.

i think i am pretty interesting on paper, but in real life i disappoint. that was really long. did anyone actually read all of it?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 16:19: so you are essentially a female version of house? Without the MD, and instead focussing on diseases themselves? Cool.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: yelley on 31 Jan 2009, 16:41: i have never watched house.... but i think he is that misanthrope doctor? yeah, that would have been me... a doctor that is supposed to help people but actually hates people, i guess.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Josefbugman on 31 Jan 2009, 16:42: Oh do watch it, just for the joy of watching Hugh Laurie messing about with an American accent.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Siibillam-Law on 31 Jan 2009, 16:59: Which is completely different Hugh Laurie than anyone ever knew...
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Gilead on 31 Jan 2009, 17:04: Fuck you Darryl you're going to have to work to unravel the rich tapestry that is me.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: tragic_pizza on 31 Jan 2009, 17:05: Hi Darryl. I am John.

I am, as has been mentioned, one of the old farts hereabouts. I am 47, average height, and average weight for someone about seven-foot three. I live in Birmingham, Alabama, where I have lived all my life. I have travelled extensively in north and central Alabama, and much less so anywhwere else. My only foray outside the States has been to the border town of Reynosa, Mexico.

I was a graphic designer/writer/development expert for nonprofits until 2007, and was a Youth Director for about ten years or so. Since then I have tried to sell life insurance and failed, and currently work nights at (not in) a coal mine. I also have a part-time job at the place i used to sell insurance for, calling to make appointments, and a third not-quite-job as a Commissioned Lay Pastor for a small Presbyterian church. I am not, in other words, the example one might want to follow to become a success in life.

I internet at the night job, in between filling orders for things I have never heard of or seen and trying to construct sermons that are, if not brilliant, at least not stultifying. I think I sometimes succeed.

I read when I can, and voraciously; lately books on Reformed Theology for obvious reasons, though I am a fan of Thomas Wolfe, James Lee Burke, and pretty much any author who is decent. Oddly enough, though I've read two of his novels, I am not at all fond of Hemingway. I cannot explain this obvious flaw in my character.

Were I to ever again enjoy free time, I might take up the guitar again. I am not good at it, but I enjoy it. I used to paint as well. I used to post in Discuss! a lot, but found it utterly pointless for the most part, and now spend nearly all of my time in Hurr, with occasional forays into the comic threads to point and laugh.

I used to work in television and radio. I was once a circus clown. I resemble an old and fat Jamie Hyneman.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: pen on 31 Jan 2009, 17:09: Hi, I'm Rachel. I'm 25, live outside of Boston, and currently date Jon (aka 0bsessions). I've got my Associate Degree in Medical Office Management, but realized I hated it after my internship, so I currently work as a training coordinator for a fucking huge financial company (that has recently done a shitton of layoffs. ugh) I've got a 3 yr old daughter who is pretty fucking brilliant. I'm a pretty boring person who likes to go dancing and get drunk once in a while. I used to go a lot more, but my baby is getting more entertaining so I don't feel the need to do it as much. I love to sing, and I used to compete a little when I was in high school, but then life happened.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Eris on 31 Jan 2009, 17:22: Hello. my name is Hannah!

I am another one of the Australian contingent, being a 21 year old, 5'4" (cyborg) girl. I have been around here for three years, starting out when I lived near Newcastle, then down in Canberra, and recently I have been spending all my time in Sydney with est. Soon I will be back near Newcastle again. I am short (as earlier stated), skinny and boney, but will still try and do things that are too much for someone my size. I have scoloisis, which resulted in me having most of my spine fused when I was nearly 17, so I really should be taking better care of my back, but the constant barrage of people asking me if I was ok has caused me to overcompensate a bit and do more than I should. I have two parents and an older brother, all who through extended exposure know exactly how to efficiently irritate me; luckily for me it works both ways. I have a kitty cat, but she is living with mum now, so I may need to get another one when I move home so I am not left alone with my dad's chihuahua.

I like to write (I have a writing/art blog in my sig). I went to Canberra to get a degree in Creative Writing (based in communication, so it would help me get jobs in editing too), but did not enjoy most of my subjects, or the place in general, so I have transferred up to Newcastle to do an even more pointless degree because I dont really know what I want to do, other than learn. I also like to draw, and would like to get better at it, but still not take it really seriously. Words are what I get interested in a lot, so much so that I bought a dictionary and a thesaurus to read and find new words to use. I am very generally knowledgable, but don't really know much about specific subjects, so when I talk about something there are a lot of "thingies" and "whatshisnames" involved in the conversation.

I have met from this forum: est, Inlander, JimmytheSquid, fatty, aztex, lunchy, jmrz, jodizzle, godinpants, violentdove, gilead, elcapitan, vergo, rizzo, bibliophile, thnikkaman, and talked on the phone with Hat. I see a lot of these people on a fairly regular basis, and keep thinking I should spend more time with them, because they are buckets of fun. I will be hanging out with more people from around here soon.

I have never gotten a serious PM about me offending anyone, so maybe I am a nice person? Sometimes I am too nice for my own good and will put everyone else's needs and wants ahead of mine, because I like people to be happy. I would like to maybe one day own a coffee shop full of bookcases and squishy lounges so that I can make people smile. I would be a really boring celebrity.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: WestEnder67 on 31 Jan 2009, 17:45: Might as well do this too...

I'm Andy. 17 going on 18, 5'8". Resident of Glasgow, Scotland and a Journalism student at the University of Stirling - although I might be getting into Politics at Glasgow soon.

Joined a few weeks back so I'm hardly a regular poster but I might start getting more involved if I can't find anything better to do.

Ardent supporter of Celtic FC, although I also follow the New England Patriots.

Like writing and hope to make a living of it someday - failing that I'll probably become a fucking teacher or something. Also probably joining a band so working hard at the moment writing music as well, although mainly the lyrics because I'm basically shite at writing anything bar lyrics and catchy tunes that get on my tits and my arsehole 'friends' used to wind me up with.

That's basically the essentials about me. Everything else is pretty much superfluous unless you want to get to know me better...
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Tyler on 31 Jan 2009, 17:46: Hello, Darryl.

Its Tyler. We should talk. I am a 24 year old living in Connecticut still meandering through an education taking classes to eventually get towards a Masters in political policy. Politics is one of my grandest enjoyments, particularly the philosophies and compromising that comes out of it. I have worked for various political campaigns over the years, not limited to those of Al Gore, Wesley Clark, Ned Lamont, and of course, Obama. I have a penchant for bizarre decision making and often find myself in jobs that are completely unrelated to each other. I spend a lot of my free time traveling about, especially to New York City. While much of my life is in flux, I tend to live a rather fulfilling day to day, and figure now is the time in life to enjoy the chaos. It also tends to lead to amusing romance stories that are then relayed to Julia.

I have been a member of these forums for a few years, and was actually a member of Gabbly before I even officially joined the boards. I began chatting with you folks when I was attempting to get myself fired from an office job I had while attending the University of Connecticut. I started using the forums a few months later, and tend to come and go every 6 months or so. Aside from my school, jobs, and political activism, I spend a great deal of time invested in reading, music, and the NY Times crossword. I DJ occasionally for extra cash, and even had a stint as a bouncer for a friend's pub. During the summer months, I am an avid gardener, badminton and croquet player. I also have never had relations with another person from this forum. That should be noted. I have, however, had lovely experiences with the people here, ranging from Coachella with Kieffer and Julia to Tronnocon to excellent NYC experinces to slumming in pubs with Daniel.

I do enjoy talking to people from this forum, even new people. Feel free to send me a PM or message on AIM or MSN if you so choose.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: StaedlerMars on 31 Jan 2009, 17:47: Quote from: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 13:28
Quote from: Social Bacon on 31 Jan 2009, 12:14
Hi, I'm Bryce, I hail from 6' up and weigh in at 140lbs. I'm a student in Ottawa studying economics and math while doing volunteer work in Parliament. I tend to be pretty quiet as I like to keep my opinions to myself. I'm an avid skier and biker and am learning how to play hockey in this frozen city. Je suis essaye etudier Francais parce que je veux travailler au Parliament. I'm going to spend my summer camping in Nothern Ontario while working for a reforestation company. For fun I read everything I can get my hands on, play the sax, drink coffee, meditate, drink beer, and smoke weed.

It should be: J'essaie d'étudier le Français parce que je veux travailler au Parlement. J'applaudis ton effort. C'est avec la pratique qu'on devient meilleurs.

This is how I would speak it, I've never been good with written French, but couldn't you say:

Je suis en train d'essaye etudier Francais...
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scarychips on 31 Jan 2009, 18:00: Yes you could, but with minor corrections: Je suis en train d'essayer d'étudier le Français.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: celticgeek on 31 Jan 2009, 19:30: Good evening, Darryl.

Well, if we are actually going to introduce ourselves on this forum...

I am a 68 year old retired nerd, geek, engineer, physicist, and math/physics/computer science instructor. I have a BS degree in Physics, an MS degree in Physics, and a second BS degree in Information Technology.

I currently live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but I have lived in a number of places all over the country.

I joined this forum on 09012006CE.

I tend to like Celtic music, with some of my favorite artists being Aideen O'Brien, Shilelagh Law, Dulahan, Brid Dower, Eachdraidh, Eccentric, and Karan Casey.

I am really mediocre guitar player, but I play anyway, and sing old folk songs to myself, and occasionally to my wife.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: 20 jazz funk greats on 31 Jan 2009, 19:56: hi darryl! i talked to you in gabbly ages ago!

for those of you who don't know me yet, i'm anna and i am 20 and my username has nothing to do with jazz music. it is actually the title of an album by throbbing gristle, a band i listen to sometimes, but not even one of my favorites, strangely enough. internet people tell me i have good taste in music and i kind of snicker at that. i hate writing introductions. if you really want to know anything else about me, just ask.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: sean on 31 Jan 2009, 20:27: Hi daz. We sometimes talk in meebles/gabbly, so you might know me a little bit.

Anyway, I am Sean (might change my qc name to that, current one is a bit lame)! I was born and currently live in Rockville, Maryland. It's within the DC metro system so I sometimes claim to be from DC. I also do that because I go to this really lame rich all boys catholic private school in DC and my friends live in various places around the area so I am always running about and spending lots of time in DC. According to my profile on threadless I am precisely 17.7 years old and I happen to be a boy as well. If there was one thing I care about in the whole wide world it would be music. I know that doesn't sound that special here since there are a bunch of music nerds/musicians but it really is my number one priority. I have been playing bass for about 3 1/2 years now and I have been playing cello (so badly) for around 6 months now. I would like to think I am good at bass but i do not know if I am. For college I hope to go major in music and to stuff with that, so that might be cool. If you have ever seen me post in the music forum, you have probably noticed I am obsessed with post-rock. Oddly though, my favorite band is probably A Silver Mt. Zion (maybe post-rock? if you stretch really far?). I saw them play last may and it was so rad but they lost two members and that makes me kind of sad. I also listen to lots of math-y sounding stuff, shouty hardcore that could be referred to as emo/scremo/skramz(ew), ambient and quiet stuff and just other rad things like silkworm (i apologize if none of care about that but I kind of do so).

I guess there are some other interesting things about me so I will say those too! I am generally a nice guy I think but I am super bad at meeting new people so I think I come off as kind of an ass to people. But maybe I don't I do not know! I am kind of politically minded and I have very left leaning tendencies, I suppose. I guess they even verge on anarchistic. I really do not know where I fall though so I always wind up being very vauge about these kinds of things. When I am not in school I am usually adventuring around DC, having band practice, and adventuring around some more. I also go to basement punk shows sometimes because they are pretty fun. I am a very silly human being and I tend to make very silly jokes and shout various things. Sadly this does not work that well on the internet and I tend to fail when I try to do that. I really like reading books but I have a lot of trouble starting them so I do not read that much. I sometimes play video games when I stumble across one I have never played before. I dont watch a lot of tv but i do watch it before i go to bed usually, since it is a good way to wind down. And this is where I think i will stop, since I have gotten down to rambling off random facts. Also congrats if you read this big ol' fat mumble jumbo of writing of mine. It is so sloppy but that is what happens when I start typing a lot.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: phooey on 31 Jan 2009, 20:33: I am more than just a post on the internet.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: tragic_pizza on 31 Jan 2009, 20:56: I... am not.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Lunchbox on 31 Jan 2009, 21:04: Quote from: Gilead on 31 Jan 2009, 17:04
Fuck you Darryl you're going to have to work to unravel the rich tapestry that is me.

Gilead's real name is Tom. He is 20 and is moving to Sydney this week, where he will be studying at film school. Tom is a writer, actor, artist and fashion plate whose taste in music tends towards the more indie side of emo I guess. He tends to have a way with pretty ladies and once dated the forum's very own Lunchbox.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ballard on 31 Jan 2009, 21:17: Hey Darryl. My name's Eugene; I'm a 17 year old hailing from New York City. I spend my time not attending school, playing in various bands, and taking photographs.

I hope to attend SVA (the School of Visual Arts) to pursue photography in a bit over a year and continue making music.

I have a habit of drooling over guitars and cameras, in the Guitar Topic and elsewhere. My number one wish is limitless disposable income to acquire aforementioned things.

Be my friend.

Quote from: ledhendrix on 31 Jan 2009, 07:52
I'm Robbie. 18 year old physics student from Scotland. Most of my time spent as a student is not really physics

It's more like defying the laws of physics.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Siibillam-Law on 31 Jan 2009, 21:36: We'll all be your friend

*big hug*
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ballard on 31 Jan 2009, 21:39: Don't lie to me; you're only my friend because my avatar depicts psychedelic anal sex.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: MrSteevo on 31 Jan 2009, 21:44: Hello there Darryl. My name is Steven, and I'm from west coast Canada, where the beaches are always sunny, but never warm.

I spend my time with friends, making short films, playing guitar, or if it's a special day, making short films of my friends and I playing as a band. I hope to get into the Vancouver film school, and one day be in the credits of a movie, if only it's "Boom mike handler".

Aside from movie making I find philosophy very interesting, and hope to dabble deeper into the depths of knowledge.

Probably haven't seen me, I tend to lurk around these forums due to my problems with grammar tend to bring me under attack. I have no idea why I struggle with grammar, but such is life.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: SilentJ on 31 Jan 2009, 23:32: Are you there, Darryl? It's me, Jeff.

I'm an 18 year old college student in Columbia, Maryland, just about halfway between Baltimore and DC; maybe a few miles closer to Baltimore.

I'm currently getting my cores out of the way at Howard Community College, before I transfer to James Madison University, hopefully for the spring 2009 semester. I haven't yet decided whether I want to study something I'm interested in that will net me a really good job if I succeed, but will be hard as shit (Arabic), or something I really enjoy that will make me live in a cardboard box but goddamn if I won't be loving life (music instruction/music history).

I play guitar every now and then but school is a bitch so I haven't played nearly enough lately and have fallen out of touch with the wonderful instrument. Instead I play video games. I think I'm ok at them.

The pure amount of angst, self-doubt, and self-pity in my self-conscious could probably become tangible and strangle a man. I've gotten pretty good at pushing it down when I interact with people.

Quote from: MrBlu on 31 Jan 2009, 13:21
I hail from Jamaica, and...

And what? That's it?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Sox on 31 Jan 2009, 23:47: I just got to say that all you jerks that treat people (like steven) different on the fact of their grammar should probably revise some stuff.

It's nice to hear from you all, nice to see some of you remember me, amusing to see people I speak to everyday or have know for years addressing me like we just met and good to see some enthusiastic new blood spilling.
Obviously, this thread isn't just for my benefit, but for yours as well. It's tough to have a strong community when nobody knows who anybody else is. I think this is something that has changed dramatically in the last few years on the forum.

My name is Darryl. I just hit 20 last month. I registered for the forums in 2005 when I was pursuing Art and Design. I got pretty good at and kept it up a good few years before I became really jaded with the community and left in a sulk. I then took nearly two years off from life to try and gain "wisdom and shit".
That didn't work, and so I got back into education as a music tech student, which is what I'm doing right now.

On the forums I am terribly inconsistent and my post probably seem to flit around like a vampire bat after feasting on an AA meeting. I apologise for that. I'll aim to improve. For you.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Emaline on 01 Feb 2009, 00:10: My name is Emaline, I'm 20, and usually drunk.

I work at a shity record store that also sells video games and movies, and 90% of our customers are whiny rednecks.

I have problems with alcohol, and life. I am usually failing at something. I have low self esteem, and am very whiney. My life is fail and suck. In the past few months, my family abandoned me, my little sister died, the guy I was madly in love with started dating another girl, and after being threatened at work by a customer, none of my friends wanted to pick me up from work(I walk home) nor come over to my house to comfort me.

When I am not complaining, whining, working, or drinking, I can often be found reading too much, watching gameshows, and making art.

I'm quite on my way to spinsterdom.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ballard on 01 Feb 2009, 01:43: Quote from: Emaline on 01 Feb 2009, 00:10
I have awesome body mods that I am proud of and should tell people about who don't know of them.

I have a huge webcest crush on one David Dovey

There are good things to say about me!
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Emaline on 01 Feb 2009, 01:51: I feel that honest is the best policy.

You forgot to mention my webcest crush on James as well.

My web crushes go:

1. James
2. Dovey
3. Jodie
4. Tania

Yep.

Also, I love drinking tea and am obsessed with cephalopods.

At this point if you don't know who I am, we have obviously never met.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Lunchbox on 01 Feb 2009, 01:54: Hello there Darryl, sir.

My name is Ally. Hello! Since there's already one Ally (and one Ali) in high rotation on these forums, it might be easier if you call me Lunchy. My housemate Jimmy the Squid does so without fail, so really it's okay. I won't feel slighted.
I live a pretty simple life here with my kitty, Tigerlily. I don't study anything, which alarms some people. Instead I work five days a week making coffee at a trendy little shop and dabble in photography, which I am looking to become professional in since I've been actually making money off it lately! I am terribly in lust with a boy none of you would know, and currently most of my thoughts and words are taken up by him. I know it's annoying but humour me hey?
As for the facts (do you need facts?) I'm 23 and skinny and around 5 foot 4 I think? I'm perennially cheerful and enjoy baking and flowers and muscle cars and pretty things. My bad habits are biting my nails, acting aloof and awkward around new people, being terrible with money, and spending too much time on the computer. I think however that I am a nice person to know! Hopefully I will see you around.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: ZJGent on 01 Feb 2009, 02:59: Why hello there. I'm the man who shares your dreams (ooooh spoooooky).
No, but seriously. We met in real life. If your memory is that fraught with cavities I believe you may need to attend the doctor post-haste.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Puki on 01 Feb 2009, 03:16: Well, hello Darryl, and the rest of you!

I'm Andrej, 24, from a little town called Osijek in Croatia. I'm 6.6 ft tall (if google is converting accurately) and too skinny for my good. Currently I'm studying for a BS in Computer science (tried mathematics for a while, but it didn't work out).
In last 5 years or so I've flirted with writing(both poetry and prose). Wrote a story about the girl I liked. The girl sent that story to some contest and it won me some money. I bought the guitar and started the band, so now I'm engaged to that girl and a singer in a band, as I really suck playing a guitar. Of other activities, I've been a journalist for a while, acted a little in a theater(the only play we did, I got stuck acting the part of a dwarf, yay!), am hosting a radio show, trying to finish a novel, and trying to make this little movie I had in mind.
My english skills are not as good as I would like them. In real life I'm even much more shy than on the internet, and I've been on the forum for a few months, mostly just lurking.
I read sf / f a lot, play some video games (cute indie arcades mostly), and like all kinds of music (which was as general statement as possible).

Nothing comes in mind for now. Will edit later.

Cheerio.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: jodizzle on 01 Feb 2009, 03:33: Quote from: Emaline on 01 Feb 2009, 01:51

My web crushes go:
3. Jodie

Oh Emaline <3
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: MadassAlex on 01 Feb 2009, 03:42: Hi.

My name is Alexander. I am 18, turning 19 next month. I live in Australia.

Also, next month, I am starting my first year of University as a Bachelor of Psychological Science. My ideal career is playing guitar in a non-mainstream-but-well-known-to-fans-of-the-genre metal band, but I don't think there are courses for that, so I'm playing that one by ear. I am a pretty competent guitarist, but "competent" doesn't cut it for me. A lot of the music I like has an unfortunately large helping of technicality, so I have to get really really good at some point.

I have am alright enough with the ladies, but frightfully insecure. Single and ready to mingle!

Other things I partake in include:
- Video gaming
- Tabletop gaming
- Pen and paper roleplaying
- Wishing I knew people who shared my taste and passion in music

Essentially, I'd be your stereotypical metal geek if I had long hair and wore a lot of band shirts.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: tania on 01 Feb 2009, 06:55: Quote from: Emaline on 01 Feb 2009, 01:51
4. Tania

i am on my way to illinois right now
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: valley_parade on 01 Feb 2009, 07:04: Quote from: Tyler on 31 Jan 2009, 17:46
During the summer months, I am an avid gardener, badminton and croquet player.

See, I did not know this. We should hang out and play croquet this summer.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: CardinalFang on 01 Feb 2009, 07:10: Quote from: celticgeek on 31 Jan 2009, 19:30
Good evening, Darryl.

Well, if we are actually going to introduce ourselves on this forum...

I am a 68 year old retired nerd, geek, engineer, physicist, and math/physics/computer science instructor. I have a BS degree in Physics, an MS degree in Physics, and a second BS degree in Information Technology.

I currently live in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but I have lived in a number of places all over the country.

I joined this forum on 09012006CE.

I tend to like Celtic music, with some of my favorite artists being Aideen O'Brien, Shilelagh Law, Dulahan, Brid Dower, Eachdraidh, Eccentric, and Karan Casey.

I am really mediocre guitar player, but I play anyway, and sing old folk songs to myself, and occasionally to my wife.

Quote from: CardinalFang on 31 Jan 2009, 09:34
I am 45 years old which makes me the fifth oldest person here. Celtic Geek, Paul, Orbert, and Tragic_Pizza thwarting my idea of changing my forum name to Older Than You.

Fixed my post.
Sorry Celtic Geek.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Barmymoo on 01 Feb 2009, 07:57: Hello there Darrly, we met once.

I am May, 18 on Tuesday and live on the English side of the Welsh borders. I work in Sainsbury and I'm taking A levels in Law, German, Sociology, English and General Studies with a view to reading Law next year. I've met Will (Pack of Wolves), Luke C and Darrly so far and I'm going to Camp Edith and ChicagoCon in the summer. As well as work and college, I edit a student paper, train with a local hockey club and play the piano. Oh and I'm vegetarian. That'll do for now.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Eli on 01 Feb 2009, 08:36: Like a couple of other posters, my name is Elizabeth. I'm 19, 5 feet tall, and I live with my boyfriend and his family in a small town of 500 in Colorado. Before then, I lived in Florida for 8 years and Georgia for 10 years and somehow I got off with just having a slight Southern accent.
I work at Starbucks so I can pay my way through college, which I'm starting this fall. At home, I mostly go on walks, play WoW, post on/read message boards, read, and bake cookies.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: valley_parade on 01 Feb 2009, 08:43: Quote from: Dazed on 31 Jan 2009, 11:03
EDIT: Shane, when do you think you're transferring?

Probably spring '10. If all goes well, I'm moving down in late August and finishing my ABA at Bunker Hill CC.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Iron_Fist on 01 Feb 2009, 08:50: Hello stranger, let us not be strangers, but embrace the clash between our spirits.

My real name is Tristan. I try. I really do. Some say too hard, some say not hard enough. But really I try. Anyway, I finished High school last year, I like all kinds of music. And I try my hardest not to be a whiny or annoying shit. Some days though, a little bit of self pity escapes the razor wire fence. I try to be clever, I don't know how good I am at that. I like good music, clever music, these days I'm a lot less picky as to the genre. But metal is still a dominant force among my library. I have pretty long hair, and I'm 18, I don't know, I guess this should have been at the start, but I'm just writing this and then sort of seeing how accurate it is, rather than trying to structure it properly. I try and talk how I type, I feel it has a more conversational flow to it. Uuuh, what else?... I'm a big fan of philosophy and modern history (yeah I'm that guy, always filling his head with knowledge that has no real practical application, and thinks he is clever). I'm also trying to get some proper lucid dreaming done, but it seems I can never recognise I'm in a dream, which I find to be a real shame. Some days, I'm pretty quiet, and some days I'm very over the top and quite abrasive, but I try and keep myself under control to the best of my ability. I'm into what most people consider to be deep and quite heady subjects. But I consider my actual knowledge of these things to be very limited. I'd like to think I can write, but I don't really know these days. Apparently my friends think I'm pretty clever and funny. But you make up your own mind. I also live in Austfalia if this means anything.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is... Aw shit, fuck it, to hell with the summary sentence.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: De_El on 01 Feb 2009, 09:21: Hello Darryl, hello all.

My name is Alex, and I am 18 years old, about 5'6" tall and I weigh close to 120 lbs. I make the occasional post on the forums, mostly in Music, MoviesTVBooks, HURRR and Discuss. I have been here for a little over a year. I grew up in Chicago, but I currently live in St. Paul, Minnesota because I am at college. I don't know what I want to major in yet so I am just studying a bunch of things that are interesting. Music and movies are really important to me. I feel like a good movie or a good album can really permanently affect the way you think about things, your outlook on life, or just generally make being alive more interesting. The same is true for books, certainly, but I don't really read as much any more as I feel I ought to. I am a fan of comic books. I occasionally have opinions on things. I am occasionally politically active, also not as much as I ought to be. I drink a fair bit and I am a fan of some drugs. I can play the guitar but I'm not very good. I like going to shows! I met Liz and Brittany at a Deerhoof show and it was pretty neat. I am unsure of what else to say.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Metope on 01 Feb 2009, 09:22: Hi there, Darryl.

My name is Kristin, but most people on the forums calls me Kris because Kristin was registered in Gabbly so I had to shorten it. I am a 20 year old girl from Norway, and as you probably know I am the sister of our fellow forumite Jens/Jeans. Funny story, he introduced me to the forums about a year ago, I posted once, and he was the first (and only) to yell at me for doing it wrong. I didn't post again in months.

Anyway, I study art history at the University of Oslo, although currently the art history is on the shelf and is replaced by various media and literature classes. When my BA is done next year I will probably start all over again with a degree in fine arts, because that's what I wanted to do in the first place, but I chickened out. Hopefully I will end up doing this in either Britain or USA.

I work at a bakery/cafe on the side, which I am pretty happy with. On my spare time you'll find me either online, in front of my brand new easel, in my bed with a book or out with good friends. Of outdoors activities I really enjoy skiing, ice skating and swimming, although I don't get to do any of those things nearly as much as I'd like to.

I love traveling and have been in quite a few places and countries over the years, and this summer I will be going on two major trips. The three last weeks of June I'll be in Italy with three friends, and in July/August I will be attending Camp Edith/Chicagocon with lots of forumites. I am really excited about both trips, and I believe that the summer 09 will be the most incredible summer ever.

So, there you have it.
Title: Hey there, reader!
Post by: evernew on 01 Feb 2009, 09:30: Hi Mr. Darryl,

please find enclosed the latest diatribe of yours truly, me.

:-D :-D :-D EVERNEW :-D :-D :-D
or
Nobody Prepared You For Gym Class - The Recent Past of Jonas

(http://i41.tinypic.com/6poro2.jpg)

Warning: The post below is quite long. That's why I made the print slightly smaller so it is not quite as long.
For the tl;dr crowd (and everybody else because these details will not be repeated later, kids):

I am 22, studied business administration in which I got my MEISTERs degree (oh yeah I'm German and toy with the stereotypes),
am now getting ready for (read: slacking off until) my first real job as a strategy consultant and have on more than one occasion been described as both a "cool guy" and an "asshole".
But that's not the story here.

This is.

The year is 1994 and I just skipped a grade in elementary school.
This sentence works as an introduction to anything written about me because everything that happened after it is a direct or indirect consequence.

So hi, I'm Jonas, ~65 kg (on the way up, usually not so much), dark blonde hair (presently very short, usually not so much), from Germany.
Boring facts are boring.

1999. So this one day I go to gym class at my new high school after moving halfway across Germany and the hapless little smart-ass that I am, I already made enemies.
That is, the bully population of my class was hot on my trail.
The end of the story was that my athletics shoes are stuck in the net of a basket. Basketball basket? That.

Luckily, not everybody in my high school class was a bully. I fell in with a group of nerds and we had great times playing card games between class, playing computer games on the weekend, going to shows once we got older and every once in a while we even went to a party that wasn't preceded by the words "LAN".
And life was good. Not great, not too bad, mostly so-so.
Fast forward to 2004. Graduation from high school. Through tedious work, I got out of the nerd corner. (blatant lie)
I am still a nerd.
But on top of being in the school orchestra (the European equivalent of being a band geek),
editing the freshly-started school zine (more classic nerdery here) and
pursuing my other nerdy pastimes I also have
- a band (we play punk and suck but hey, I'm not asking for much at this stage)
- girls (mostly just one but sometimes there is overlap which makes me feel really cool)
- a spot in a good university.

Summer 2004 was my cocoon stage. In as a caterpillar, out as a butterfly. At least that was the goal.
Have you ever tried to rid yourself of the shit which you feel is keeping you down?
Anyway, after graduation I decided not to let anyone ever decide for me who I was going to be.
So come freshman year at university, I'm a happy-go-lucky guy with a bad haircut and not a care in the world.

High school was, academically speaking, a breeze. Not so much socially.
University was the polar opposite. I made friends quickly but barely skated by in exams.
A low point was reached when I failed Introduction to Math ... or math for morons.
On the flipside, after being out of high school for half a year, I finally got the girl. You know, the one girl you always liked but could never have.
So I had a girl, studied more, drank a lot, travelled, did some internships, travelled some more and whoops where did the time go it is 2008.

I hand in my thesis, move out of my flat and prepare our ambulances for a 7,000-km trip through Eastern Europe, Turkey and Iran.
The trip is fucking gorgeous. Three weeks of trucking, hanging out with our awesome group and reminiscing.

Then I go back home, find a job, decide to travel the world and have to go home yet again because of an accident.

If you read this far, chances are you either forgot about the introduction or couldn't care less.
I'll tell you anyway.

The smart-ass-itude, going from the top in high school to the bottom in university, being so hung up about girls and others, ...
it all goes back to me being the youngest kid in most social contexts I can remember. Imagine being the youngest sibling to 100 people.
This fueled my need, drive, urge, obsession etc. to prove people how cool, mature, grown-up, un-childish I was until I was about 21.
If everybody looks down on you, the one thing you want the most is just to be equal for once.
After high school I had sort of and after uni I had definitely reached that point.

So now I'm pretty happy.
But who am I now?

Jonas the musician ... I learned to play the piano and the cello and taught myself guitar, bass, percussion, a little bit of drums and the ukulele. Love listening to Sublime, RATM and selected bits of "adult contemporary pop" and rap which I pull out of the Mediaf!re thread. Also, my last successful music project was an acoustic band in which I played the cello and sang.
Jonas the incapable artist ... I like comics, writing, reading, all of it. But I can't draw. Really like reading old French comic books (Asterix, Lucky Luke, fighter pilots stuff) and am currently writing short stories. Two to be precise. One I came up with on acid, the other one I didn't.
Jonas the career man ... in November, after six tedious interviews, I got a call from a company that put an end to the awkward dating dance stage of relationships. It was a little bit first kiss and a little bit take your top off. I have a good job now. And if you didn't get the comparison, getting a job is like flirting.
Jonas the nerd ... 4 LYFE YO! Computer games, Scrabble, gadgets, yada yada, I'm a nerd. Yeah.
Jonas the smart-ass. That will probably never change.
Jonas the slacker. This one will definitely not change until I have more responsibility than over myself.
Jonas the everything else ... I longboard, I snowboard and I still like basketball, shoe incident nonwithstanding.
Sometimes I like to smoke pot, go to art galleries, put on my headphones, set the tunes to shuffle and just wander between exhibits. Sometimes a song will just "click" with a painting or a photo. Try it, it's a lot of fun.

What am I not?
Jonas the ladies' man? ... the girls are gone, most of my friends have moved away for their jobs or straight up abandoned me.
Jonas the insecure ... I have come to peace with myself. This is something most people will say about themselves when they are about to croak, I know.
But I'm not insecure anymore. I'm happy. 'Cause I got myself to this place and nobody else.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: David_Dovey on 01 Feb 2009, 09:32: Hey if someone wants to make a better post about me than the one I am about to do I will totally give them $10 (Australian)

Darryl, forum,

My name is David Anthony Dovey- most folks refer to me by my last name- and I am 22 year old male from Perth, Western Australia. It totally surprises me that I am older than a fair share of you guys because it seems that you all lead way more interesting, adult lives than me. Even the whiny teenagers.

It says on my diploma that I am a sound engineer but for the most part I do menial and repetitive jobs in offices. The upside of this is that I have a lot of free time on my hands and I put it to good use arguing about bullshit on the Internet, or thinking about the bullshit I want to argue about on the Internet. Compared to most people I know in meat life I am an intellectual type but my knowledge on almost every subject I care about is routinely put to shame every day by someone else, usually on this forum. I know a little about everything but not everything about anything. All of this means I tend to swing between insufferable arrogance and crippling feelings of inadequacy. Similarly I am completely shy and silent around people I do not know and an uncontrollable loudmouth around those I do. I try to talk like I am a cross between Roast Beef (http://www.achewood.com) and T-Rex (http://www.qwantz.com) but I still haven't quite incorporated all of the vernacular into my everyday speech yet. I have to fight the urge to communicate entirely in image macros sometimes.

I more or less quit drinking about 8 months ago after realising that I wasn't enjoying the feeling of alcohol intoxication anymore, nor who I was when I was drunk. I wish I took other drugs more often but I have absolutely no contacts whatsoever.

I wear glasses but I do not really need them. I have a very weak astigmatism in my left eye that gives me headaches from reading or staring at a computer screen but other than that I see fine. I just prefer the way I, and pretty much everyone else, look in glasses. It is kind of my fetish I guess?

My dream job is to basically be Jon Stewart and get exorbitant amounts of money to yell at the T.V. news.

I am interested in nice clothing and if I had the money I would have no problems spending eleven thousand dollars on a pair of shoes or something. I do not have any money so mostly I wear webcomics shirts and jeans. I wish I lived in a colder climate so I could wear a suit more often.

I have six tattoos, all of them arguably stupid, depending on who you ask. They have more than once ignited internet debates (Sersious).

I would cut off all of the hair on my head if it meant I cold grow a decent beard.

I came to this forum as a metalhead type guy what with the long hair and the wearing the black and now I guess I am pretty much one of those hipster people they talk about?

I am travelling to Sydney in a couple of weeks to meet a fairly large percentage of the Australian forum people.

I hope to travel the world next year, hopefully meeting (and sleeping on the floors of) many of the people on this forum.

I know myself far too well to write one of these posts.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Liz on 01 Feb 2009, 09:35: Dovey you better be stopping in Fargo or there will be hell to pay.

Just sayin'.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: David_Dovey on 01 Feb 2009, 09:41: Addendum: QC ladies seem to like me? I still find this inexplicable.

Liz I don't see why not. ( I will be travelling with my girlfriend though so forewarned)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: tania on 01 Feb 2009, 09:44: if you decide to hit up toronto (and you should, lots of qc folks in this area!) and i have my own place by then you are of course more than welcome to stay on my floor. with any luck it'll be a guest bed and not a floor.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Liz on 01 Feb 2009, 09:46: Ah curses. There goes my evil plan to seduce Dovey and steal his heart while he is on a whirlwind trip to America. Also, if you stop here I offer floor space. There is room for one more in my bed, if you catch my drift.

:-D
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ballard on 01 Feb 2009, 10:11: Dovey, I don't live in Fargo and will not try to force you and your girlfriend into a menage a trois. These are things to consider when planning your trip!

Basically what I am saying is NYC is a fun place.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: yelley on 01 Feb 2009, 10:55: Quote from: Misconception on 01 Feb 2009, 09:46
Ah curses. There goes my evil plan to seduce Dovey and steal his heart while he is on a whirlwind trip to America. Also, if you stop here I offer floor space. There is room for one more in my bed, if you catch my drift.

:-D

man. guys can we switch this? shouldn't liz be the internet predator now? really, all i ever do is steal a jason now and then... liz just goes after all of them!

also jonas... that bit about being younger than all your peers and trying to compensate for that... that was me too. i skipped kindergarten when i was 5, so by the time all my friends were driving i was still 14. by the time all my friends were out at the bars i was still 19. totally lame.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Bushbr on 01 Feb 2009, 11:04: i know what its like, i hang out with alot of older people too,

lucky for me i look like.. 5 years older than i actualy am, so its not as huge of an inconvienence
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Liz on 01 Feb 2009, 11:18: Yelley I don't go after all the boys, just a select few. Also I think we are kind of both the internet predators?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: tania on 01 Feb 2009, 11:22: oh come on yelley and jason have been living together for like FOREVER. she hardly counts as a predator anymore.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Verergoca on 01 Feb 2009, 12:52: Hi Darr!

I am Erik, born on the 15th of august in the good year 1985. This makes me 23. Soon i will be very close to a quarter century. This fact frightens me quite a big lot.

Other things that make me worry, is the fact that i am currently working on my graduation project in Aquatic Ecotechnology, (kinda Bsc lvl, exept ill get to call myself Engineer (as in, the title)). Im kinda looking at getting a jorb that combines working for the government (i love a 36hr workweek), with Urban Watermanagment and some environmental engineering. Luckily, here in ye olde dutchlandia, such jobs are relatively sought after. Itll be awesome :)

Anyway, im out of beer, so time to hit this post button, and get me a new one
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: sean on 01 Feb 2009, 13:10: Quote from: Barmymoo on 01 Feb 2009, 07:57
Will (Pack of Wolves)

Man what happened to this guy? He was a really good dude.

And mr david dovey not all of us teenagers are whiny >=(
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: The Voice on 01 Feb 2009, 13:46: Dear Internet,
My name is Jason, I am 22 years old and have posted on and off since about 2006. I origionaly posted as someotherguy until I was preyed upon by yelley. I then stopped posting for a long time for some reason or another. Recently I decided I should start posting again so I opened up this account because I did not like my old account name. I only like this one slightly more but count not think of anything better.

I currently live in California with yelley. I work as a courier for a food testing lab. I am also going to school for I don't know what yet. I have also met quite a few forum members in real life. I am not a very interesting person.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: KvP on 01 Feb 2009, 14:03: Yeah, I'm John. 22 years old, attending a public university in northern Colorado. I was asked to join this forum by a friend from another forum, who was going to join but never did. So I'm in the somewhat unfortunate position of being part of a webcomic forum despite finding webcomics to be dumb.

I am in school for political science. It's pretty okay, don't know if it's what I want to do for a living. I like electronic music almost exclusively these days. I started making music with Reason about 2 months ago and it's pretty fun but it's fairly simple at this juncture, due to my complete lack of prior musical training. At this point my aspiration is to send out a demo to a label, Warp or Planet Mu or something, which is just another way of saying I'd like to have 3 or 4 high quality songs.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Dazed on 01 Feb 2009, 14:10: Quote from: Misconception on 01 Feb 2009, 11:18
Yelley I don't go after all the boys, just a select few. Also I think we are kind of both the internet predators?

There be enough prey on the tubes for all of ye.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ozymandias on 01 Feb 2009, 14:47: Quote from: Misconception on 01 Feb 2009, 11:18
Yelley I don't go after all the boys, just a select few. Also I think we are kind of both the internet predators?

Liz, I think there is someone at the door for you.

(http://images.usatoday.com/Wires2Web/20070401/2770997084_TV_CHRIS_HANSENx.jpg)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: mooface on 01 Feb 2009, 14:53: ugh you guys already know way too much about me.

all you need to know here is that i am a fucking BADASS.

(plus i stopped reading your posts halfway through the second page because they are way too long so i figured i would keep it short and sweet, i am not that interesting anyways)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Inlander on 01 Feb 2009, 15:01: Pfft, I gave up long before that. Let me know when somebody performs and records a self-penned rap lyric in answer to this thread.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: mietteissass on 01 Feb 2009, 16:55: Dia duit Darryl,

It is me, the one that goes by Miette on this forum. Though it is not my first name, it is a nickname that I am rather fond of, meaning "lil crumb". It fits me well since I am only 5'1 and possess some of the traits of both my parents. I am now 27 and living life to the fullest in New Orleans, married to the man of my dreams and raising to incredible girls. I also own a coffee shop which is amazing.

Growing up, I had many great experiences. I have lived on 6 of the 7 continents. I have met people and have seen things that have changed my life for the better. I have danced in the sand in Egypt and have danced in the rain of the amazon. I have kissed a prince, bowed to a shaman and laughed at conjoined twins.

I graduated high school at a younger age then most and attained a masters in classics, which we can all see I am putting to good use ;-)

I have had many jobs in my life. I was an exotic dancer, a receptionist, a dog walker, a babysitter. I have modeled. I have entertained and I have been bored at work.

Life gets better each year and I can't wait to see what it brings to me in the future.

There, now you know a lil more about me. If you have any questions, im always aroung somewhere.

Miette
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: jhocking on 01 Feb 2009, 17:34: Quote from: tania on 01 Feb 2009, 11:22
oh come on yelley and jason have been living together for like FOREVER. she hardly counts as a predator anymore.

Once you earn a reputation, it tends not to change unless you move away to attend college in a different state.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: onewheelwizzard on 01 Feb 2009, 18:56: Hello!

My name's Joe. I'm 21. I'm 5'8'', 140lbs, dark-haired, and usually bearded. I hold a BA in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania but I have not yet gotten a job in which that is a factor.

I am an extremely happy person. I am also in the habit of having conversations with people about things that really matter in their lives, quite a bit more than the average person would expect. I like to think that this combination raises the general level of self-awareness and comfort among the people around me ... it's certainly my intention to do so. On the flip side of this, I am sometimes considered annoying by people who have known me for a long time because I tend not to shut up about feelings and that sort of thing. I'm pretty steadfast in my pursuit of a healthier, more conscious community of people around me, and that can grate on people sometimes if they consider my "let's all improve ourselves/each other!" efforts to be "work" or something like that. I have a lot of fun with it myself, but I sometimes come off like a therapist and I hate that.

I identify as an psychedelic drug enthusiast in the sense that they are extremely important in my life and I take them very seriously. I probably know more about drugs in general than most people you've ever met. I have done a great deal of research in and out of school (I did my psych assignments on drug-related topics whenever I could) and I think there is a great deal of potential in psychedelic medicine. It's something I talk about often and care about a lot.

I really like dancing. I will dance virtually anywhere, anytime, to anything. The more people dancing with me, the better. The fact that I have taken drugs at dance parties has a lot to do with this. I attend the Burning Man festival every time I can (this coming Burn will be my 3rd since I started in 2007) and it is a really important part of my life, and the reason why dancing is so important to me. I consider it sacred in a way that most people probably would not understand.

I'm a huge nerd, in that I work for a summer camp that is based around LARPing, I am an active player of Magic: the Gathering, and I will not shut up about science fiction if you let me start talking about it. I am exceptionally interested in science fiction that has to do with interesting ideas about consciousness manipulation and variation (Philip K Dick being the gold standard example), or chaos.

I'm kinda of a goddamn dirty hippy, if you haven't gathered.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: onewheelwizzard on 01 Feb 2009, 19:02: Aw thanks!
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Drill King on 01 Feb 2009, 19:13: Quote from: onewheelwizzard on 01 Feb 2009, 18:56
Hello!

My name's Joe. I am basically one of Andy's favorite people that she has never even talked to based upon this description
Quote from: mietteissass on 01 Feb 2009, 16:55
Dia duit Darryl,

Me too!

Miette
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Jawshooah on 01 Feb 2009, 19:25: Hey, people I've never talked to before. I'm Josh. I suppose I'm pretty much a newb around here, considering I just joined yesterday. I only found out about QC this past week, and I spent a considerable amount of time sequentially going through each comic until I finally finished them all yesterday afternoon.

I'm 16.77 years old (17 in April :)), currently living in South Carolina, otherwise known as the Shithole of the United States of America. I'm a junior in high school, and currently the top of my class. I don't consider myself particularly intelligent, I just know how to grasp concepts quickly, and I'm a decent writer. I've been a member in various online forums, and most of them tend to be filled with complete idiots and douchebags. Hopefully this one will be a welcome exception.

There are very few activities in my life that I would consider hobbies, but among them would be drumming, reading, Rock Band expert drums, and listening to music. I've wasted so much cash on Rock Band DLC it's not even funny. That's really all I have time for, as my school classload is murderous at best. AP Computer Science, AP Calculus, German 3, AP Chemistry, AP U.S. History, Honors English 4, and weight lifting.

Personality-wise, I can be somewhat introverted. I have a difficult time trusting people, and usually by the time I realize someone is trustworthy I've already alienated them. Among my friends, however, I'm pretty outgoing and lively. There are probably only two or three people I could consider my true confidants. I'm not particularly attractive either, and I'm well aware of that fact. I do have wicked awesome curly hair though! :lol:

Anyways, that's me in a nutshell. Look forward to chilling here.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: est on 01 Feb 2009, 20:11: Hey guys, I'm Ben. I really don't know what to write in this. I mean, I have been around here since the forum started 2003 and posted fairly consistently throughout, so if you don't know much about me by now then dang what is your problem.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Inlander on 01 Feb 2009, 20:15: Quote from: est on 01 Feb 2009, 20:11
Hey guys, I'm Ben.

Stop being silly, est.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Ballard on 01 Feb 2009, 21:02: Tell us where your screen name comes from.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Slick on 01 Feb 2009, 21:18: Hey Darryl,
I've been here mostly consistently since I think the summer of 2006 when I lived in Richmond Hill which is just north of Toronto and totally lame. Then I stuck around for a while with a few periods of not being here in between. Back when I first joined I would have jumped at the idea of painting a picture of myself for everyone else to see but now I am just kind of eh towards it.
I think you remember my name? You have probably seen me naked on facebook.
I am just about done a BMath degree (yes a BMath, not a BSc or BA in math) in Applied Mathematics from the university of Waterloo. I felt some kinship with that James from Australia who was also in math and is going bald (not actually bald, as he might have you believe) as well but he is not here anymore. I think he is off doing exciting things?
I like to bake and am at a loss for what to do with my life. Maybe I will bake. People tell me I should and that this is a good thing to do, but honestly I am kind of scared and it is a little weird to just branch out and do a thing like that even though I kind of want to and that's sort of what I had in mind when I started this math degree four and a bit years ago but still I find myself a little bit irritated every time someone says 'you should be a baker' because I am afraid of change and that'd be a big change and a big thing to do and man is it your life you're suggesting should just go in this weird different direction it is easier to hide from reality than face it ugh whatever.
I keep trying to sort out some music. I may end up making music with a friend from ages ago if he moves out this way and I haven't left.
I am unhappy a lot of the time, and I think this is because I am not doing enough with my life (I feel like I am doing very little and I feel like I don't have enough of a social net) but I am doing not enough because I don't care enough about my life.
Apparently I am Roast Beef. I don't read Achewood.

P.S. I am 22 and it sounds like that is the age to be?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: est on 01 Feb 2009, 21:30: Quote from: Ballard on 01 Feb 2009, 21:02
Tell us where your screen name comes from.

It is a suitably geeky story. When deciding on a name for my Wizard in EverQuest way back in uh, I dunno, 1999? I used Estarriol, as one of my favourite fantasy series' is Wizard of Earthsea. My guildmates would shorten it to "Est" because people are generally lazy. I liked it, so I used it as my online alias from then on.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Katherine on 02 Feb 2009, 12:27: Hello there. My name is Katherine. I am 30 years old and I live in Upstate New York with cats and my ex. I am trying to move to a city three hours away to take over the main decision making responsibilities for my father, who has Alzheimer's Disease and is (finally) in the dementia unit of an Assisted Living facility, but now is a really bad time to be looking for a new job so I have been living in limbo for about a year now. I work as an accounting clerk for a non-profit agency that provides services to the mentally retarded. It is an okay job, but I am really bored out of my skull here. I went to school for Environmental Management upon graduating high school, but quickly realized that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in a laboratory. After drifting about for a while, I went back to school for Accounting. I graduated in May of 08. My ultimate goal is to become a CPA and work in auditing (as in financial statements for companies, not people's taxes).

I spend a lot of my free time listening to music, and try to go to as many concerts as possible. I also like to read a lot and watch horror movies and I would like to get back into drawing but haven't really had the time to sit and really work on it due to all the driving I have had to do to take care of stuff for my Dad. I would like to travel more but can't really afford it currently, so I tend to take road trips to Boston or NYC every so often.

I have been around here for a little over a year but I lurk mostly as is evidenced by my low post count. Some of the posters here can be pretty mean and I'm far too sensitive for my own good, so I usually choose to not enter into conversations at all rather than risk dealing with comments from someone whose opinion really shouldn't matter to me. I am incredibly sarcastic, with a dry sense of humor, but it is hard to convey sarcasm on an internet message board so when I do post, I generally keep it light and pretty boring.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Sox on 02 Feb 2009, 14:27: You're doing good, you guys! I've read every post so far. You're all doing great. Except for those dicks who have actually taken the time to post about how they're not going to take the time to read anybody elses introduction. Those people are the reason there is darkness in the world.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Reed on 02 Feb 2009, 15:51: Hello, my name is Reed. I'm a 24 year old grad student in microbiology at the University of Connecticut. I'm a fairly introverted person when in new company, so I do more lurking on the boards than posting. I joined less than a year ago, started posting, but then became too busy because I had far too much work to do. Just like a lot of people who have already posted I love to read, but don't do it nearly enough (hurr hurr Reed loves to read). I consider these forums a savoir of sorts in terms of my musical taste. Before I came here I was listening to crap crap and more crap, but reading through the music forums has definitely allowed me to improve my selection. I like to cook, but I only have one pot, one pan, and limited other kitchenware, so I usually stick with fairly basic stuff. I also watch far too much TV, and enjoy going to the movies enough that I have been known to see absolute shit just because it's the only thing I haven't seen yet.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Lila on 02 Feb 2009, 16:11: um hi

I'm Rachel (but I hate my name). I'm a teenager living in a wealthy suburb in the north-eastern US. I'm semi-short (around five three), I have shortish blondeishbrownish curly hair, I'm freckled and bespectacled. Despite the fact that I do an assload of stuff (three honors courses, hebrew school, two dance classes, tech for school plays, skiing many weekends and shul every single one I'm not skiing), I'm desparately bored with my life. I really want to grow up, get out of high school, and start taking care of myself. Next year, I'm going to (hopefully) to on an awesome program in Israel, TRY (tichon ramah b'yrushalayim... something along the lines of "ramah school in jerusalem"). I'm pretty bad in social situations, and no matter how hard I try I can't get a boyfriend. I have a perfectly good number of normal friends though, so I'm (semi) content.
I'm a huge fan of music... I couldn't live without the Mountain Goats. I went through a huge musical phase and a huge a capella phase (I still love a capella.... musicals sometimes). I mostly like mellow rock, some indie, and a small amount of metal. I'm looking for more (metal), so if you have any that you like that doesn't involve a lot of roaring (I don't like that... I like singers, not yellers), let me know please.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 02 Feb 2009, 16:16: Hi guys!

My name's Danny, i'm a 22 year old "student" living in the BEAUTIFUL northwest Washington State. i say i'm a student but that's not really true, i haven't taken a class in over a year. i just stay enrolled at a local community college for insurance purposes (shhh).

i spend my days running the office of a gymnastics center (yeah, i'm hella important), and i spend most of my free time playing video games, reading, skateboarding, shooting cans and other such riff-raff, and more recently, throwing axes. i smoke cigarettes and pot, but am planning to give up the former. i really love hallucinating. i really hate insomnia (unless it makes me hallucinate).

i guess it's also worth mentioning that i'm a fairly accomplished acrobat and tumbler since i pretty much grew up in a gymnastics center and have been around it for my entire life.

i love sunsets, rainbows, puppies, unicorns, and (most importantly) kittens. i am madly in love with music in almost any format, but sadly am pretty shitty at actually playing music. i do try to play drums but it's only fun to play drums by yourself for so long before you get kind of over it.

well, i think that's me in a nutshell.

Pleased to meet you.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: yelley on 02 Feb 2009, 22:21: hey reed, what sort of microbiology are you studying?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Sox on 03 Feb 2009, 02:31: Something's come up, I won't be posting for a while. I gotta say though, don't stop on my account, I think you're all really interesting people! Lately people have been expressing concern over the way new people might have trouble inserting themselves into the forum community, or about how there's no niches left for them to fill. Ignore all of that. It's all bollocks. Yes, there are certain individuals that are skeptical of new blood, but they're a minority with an unfortunately loud opinion.
Read this thread and ignore usernames, avatars and post counts. Your introductions will stick, even without them. Nobody needs to worry about fitting in because they already do. I went back and read a few older threads after reading this one, I found they were more fun and interesting the second time around, after I knew who a lot more people were. A community of interesting people is way more fun than a community of strangers, so don't be strangers, y'all.

Nows I gots shit to do, thanks everybody, you've been a tolerant crowd.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Masterbainter on 03 Feb 2009, 02:56: Edit: I decided to be more serious.

I work overnights 4 days a week 10 hour shifts, hence me on here at these hours.

I'm generally nice in person, unless you give me a reason not to be.

I like to diffuse situations with my wit rather than my might.

That last statement is completely true lack of other person touching me.

I love snowboarding and doing things that seem extreme to others.

I am an accident waiting to happened (or as my dad would say, has happened)
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: mooface on 03 Feb 2009, 05:51: Quote from: Scandanavian War Machine on 02 Feb 2009, 16:16
i love sunsets, rainbows, puppies, unicorns, and (most importantly) kittens.

we should be friends.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Reed on 03 Feb 2009, 10:18: Quote from: yelley on 02 Feb 2009, 22:21
hey reed, what sort of microbiology are you studying?

In terms of classes and lots of studying (Just passed my general exam....YAY!) we are required to take a very broad view to microbiology. In terms of what I actually research, however, I study succinate mediated catabolite repression in Sinorhizobium meliloti. I'm working on the biochemistry side of the project right now, because our lab has gone just about as far as it can go with just genetic work. I'm also working on a side project trying to isolate novel cellulose degrading bacteria from beetle feces (don't ask me why, one day my advisor walked in and said "hey I found these beetle feces when I was chopping wood, I think it would be really cool if you could isolate some aerobic cellulose degraders from here"). I think it's all very interesting, but it seems these days that the only "sexy" microbiology is working with human pathogens, so our lab is fairly small.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scandanavian War Machine on 03 Feb 2009, 10:35: i will totally be your friend, Mai.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: ruyi on 03 Feb 2009, 10:52: Hello, I'm Catherine. I'm in my last year at UC Berkeley, and hopefully I will have a BA in Rhetoric by July. I would say I am best described as slow and deliberate in person? I've only met a few of you so far and you can probably attest to my poor first impressions.

Sorry to be quoting something from page one, but this -

Quote from: Elizzybeth on 31 Jan 2009, 13:11
Sometimes I worry that my relative youth--I'm 18 now--is the only thing I've got going for me, and once I'm the same age as my colleagues, a gong will sound somewhere in the cosmos and everyone will realize that I'm not actually very interesting at all.

This is exactly how I feel! By the time I graduate I will be 18. The experience of skipping so many grades has heavily informed my personality. I over-analyze things because for most of my life I felt a pressure to come across as older, and that behavior was necessarily cerebral rather than natural. It can be hard to unlearn but it's an ongoing process. I'm slowly becoming better at making decisions organically in my life.

I can also get kind of anxious about making friends in part because I've changed peer groups so many times. (The other part is because I am dumb and worry about things I shouldn't.) I guess that might be a funny way to put it but it's the same experience as anyone who's ever moved while growing up, I'm sure.

The other big thing shaping me is my family. I grew up with mostly just my mom taking care of me and my older brother, who has high-functioning autism. I feel very strongly about having to take care of both of them, but especially my mom. Actually, since I've only stopped living with them for just over a year, I think I still expect other people to be heavily defined by their families and I find myself needing to ask about their parents when I'm trying to get to know them. Obviously most people I meet are pretty much (becoming) adults in that regard, so I should probably stop.

These days my week is spent between school, work, volunteering (http://berkeleyneed.org/), and going to the gym. The last thing is a recent development. I have been getting pretty chubby (uh I mean thick) for a long time now but I am finally starting to lift weights. It's pretty enjoyable!
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: the_pied_piper on 03 Feb 2009, 11:02: Hi all, i'm Rob and i'm a student at university in the UK. I study Maths and Spanish but i'm not a great student and in my spare time i volunteer as a maths teacher in a local school. I mostly post on the music board due to the fact that i listen to enough music daily to make me seem like an addict and i have terrible sleep problems so i'm here at stupid o'clock in the morning UK time quite often.
I am told i'm quite cynical and blunt but i try to be inoffensive, if possible.

I also love photography but am lacking a sufficiently functional camera to take good enough pics.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Barmymoo on 03 Feb 2009, 11:14: I'm interested in what you are all saying about skipping grades, I missed a year out during primary school and went back down again at the start of secondary school, meaning that I spent four years a year ahead and then repeated a year. I've often thought that might have had an impact on the way I make friends, and a lot of my friends are older. Quite often they're significantly older and I sometimes have trouble convincing myself that they aren't just tolerating me because I make a good mascot. That might have been the case when I was younger but now they would tell me if I was being annoying.

Ruyi, can you tell me more about the volunteering you do? I had a look at the website and it seems really interesting but also incredibly controversial. How did you get into it?
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Elizzybeth on 03 Feb 2009, 11:28: Quote from: ruyi on 03 Feb 2009, 10:52
my older brother, who has high-functioning autism.

Ruyi, this is eerie. My older brother also has high-functioning autism.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: SirJuggles on 03 Feb 2009, 11:44: Umm, hello cool forum people.

I'm Justin. I actually registered almost a year ago now, but sadly spent my first few months in the Weekly Comic Talk. I have since strayed into the deeper end of the forum pool, and borne witness to the massively superior amount of fun had over here. I tend to not be so original in my thinking, and thus usually feel that the things I have to say don't have much value. I do however lurk here almost 24/7 sadly, partly due to my physical situation.

I'm 18, a first-year student at University of California Santa Barbara. One of the prettiest, partyiest schools on the West Coast, if not the entire country. Except that I don't drink, or smoke, or really party in any way. To keep my long self-involved story short, I tend to hide out in my room whenever I'm not in class and lurk these forums until 4 in the morning. So while you probably don't know me, I tend to know most of you.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Scrambled Egg Machine on 03 Feb 2009, 13:40: Hello, Darryl. I'm SEM for short, but my family calls me AJ. I used to post regularly, but now I mostly lurk. I'm about to turn 18, and have been accepted to Texas Tech University. I will major in Biochemistry, and I think Neal Stephenson is one of the better writers out there. I listen to crappy industrial music, techno and Dragonforce. I am a classic type c nerd, and have been around lots longer than my postcount would suggest. I used to cause drama, but since I am rarely online, that is no longer the case. I work at Wal*Mart, and am happy to be here. I like science. Adios.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Mr. Skawronska on 03 Feb 2009, 20:07: Quote
a doctor that is supposed to help people but actually hates people, i guess.

There are more of us out there than you might think. Comes from working the streets and dealing with self-important, self-entitled system abusers who take up emergency resources for their bullshit reasons while people in real need, suffer and die.

See if that doesn't make you a little bit fucking bitter.

Quote
I think it would be really cool if you could isolate some aerobic cellulose degraders from here

How about Clostridium acetobutylicum?

S
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Reed on 03 Feb 2009, 21:04: The point was to isolate novel cellulose degraders. Anyways, Clostridia are typically anaerobic.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: ruyi on 03 Feb 2009, 22:06: Elizzybeth I am sorry I am copying you!!!! With like, my life. But yeah, wow, that is an odd coincidence.

Quote from: Barmymoo on 03 Feb 2009, 11:14
Ruyi, can you tell me more about the volunteering you do? I had a look at the website and it seems really interesting but also incredibly controversial. How did you get into it?

It's a program based on the philosophy of harm reduction. Drug addiction is a complex problem, and while it may not be possible to get people to stop without changing a lot of things in society, offering clean needles and supplies can and does reduce the rate of HIV and Hepatitus C transmission. The program I volunteer with also offer wound care, HIV testing, and resources/referrals to stuff like free clinics.

To be honest I didn't really consciously seek out this kind of opportunity or think that much about it when I started. I was just looking for hands-on experience related to health care, and this program didn't have an extensive period of training, so I can commit to it for now even though my plans after graduation are still up in the air. After I started doing it I stuck around because I like the other volunteers and the stuff we did for our clients seemed actually very helpful to them. I meet a lot of interesting people through it :-)

Last semester I did it twice a week, and now I'm doing it only once, though hopefully that will change soon. Our program operates out of a van. We have three different sites weekly in various parts of Berkeley, so I just show up a little early and help unload stuff. When clients come they usually know what kind of needles they want so we'll give them a couple hundred, and we take their dirty needles to dispose of safely. We also offer supplies like tourniquets, cookers, ascorbic acid as breakdown (to make crack cocaine injectable), and Narcan (for opiate OD).

I sometimes help train new volunteers a little bit (e.g. what are the different kinds of needles, client confidentiality, etc) and hopefully I will be taking on more responsibilities in time.

If any of you guys are interested, there is a bill that would lift the current ban on federal funds being made available for these kinds of programs! Currently we just operate on state funding, private grants and donations. For more info on the bill go here (http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1627/t/100/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25278) and if you want more info on why these programs are worth supporting wikipedia actually has a pretty good article on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Needle-exchange_programme) and there are many other google-able resources I'm sure.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Boro_Bandito on 03 Feb 2009, 22:09: Quote from: Scrambled Egg Machine on 03 Feb 2009, 13:40
I'm about to turn 18, and have been accepted to Texas Tech University. I will major in Biochemistry, and I think Neal Stephenson is one of the better writers out there.

Dude, Lubbock's my home town! o/

Also, My name is Phil Boelsche, I'm a junior at Towson University in Maryland, and I'm a Film major/Creative Writing minor. I joined up with the forums my freshman year of college in fall of 06, was a really weak poster for the most part but hopefully I've grown on people enough by this point.

I'm 20 years old, turning 21 at the end of this semester, and I'm really starting to worry about just what the heck will I be able to do with my degree. When I signed up for it at first, it was really just an Arbitrary thing, I didn't have any idea of what to do with my life at that point (still don't) and so just picked something off of the towson websites list of majors that didn't sound like it would bore me to death, took a couple classes, stuck around. I think I actually want to write, and more or less I want to write a little bit of everything. When I was a kid I would read every book that I saw and as a result I've always had the sort of vocabulary and in-brain archive of trivial information about a lot of subjects that tends to make other people label me as a know-it-all, which is true to some extent. I was a bit of a drifter back in high school, and even now I tend to only stick with relationships with other people out of convenience(aka proximity) so since I commute I really only have a couple friends that I hand out with at all. Basically the reason I turned to the internet. I've managed to meet a lot of really cool people on these forums and its really been a community that I could feel a part of, and while I don't post all that often this is pretty much the first place I check everyday to see what everyone's been saying/up to.

Originally I wanted to go to school for Game Design, but most of the places that offer it just don't really seem all that trustworthy, especially since its such a new field that my parents just downright wouldn't pay for it, so I agreed to go to a four year college. I'm still really interested in games, and on top of other projects that I hope to be able to do at some point in the future such as writing novels, graphic novels, possibly movie scripts since I went ahead and took classes on scriptwriting, I also really would still like to go into game development, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't have some idea for what might make an interesting game (at least to me).

I also really like to cook a lot in my spare time, play way too many video games, and I really really like the idea of tabletop gaming but have so far not really been able to get into it. Most of my real life friends have no interest in that type of stuff and I'm really hesitant to reach out to other hobbyists at shops or like school meet-ups or something, mainly because I'm a little leery of strangers and I'm (probably a bit hypocritically) afraid that they'll just be a bunch of weirdos.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: yelley on 04 Feb 2009, 02:24: Quote from: Dire bacterium on 03 Feb 2009, 10:18
I'm also working on a side project trying to isolate novel cellulose degrading bacteria from beetle feces (don't ask me why, one day my advisor walked in and said "hey I found these beetle feces when I was chopping wood, I think it would be really cool if you could isolate some aerobic cellulose degraders from here"). I think it's all very interesting, but it seems these days that the only "sexy" microbiology is working with human pathogens, so our lab is fairly small.

this sounds brilliant.

i am sort of a microbiologist. sort of. i do not do any exciting research though, because i am not a competitive candidate for graduate school. did you know that if you want to go to school to learn to do research, you have to have already spent years doing research? i did not know this! or i guess you have to be indian or chinese. this is what the admissions lady at the university of san francisco or whatever told me. srsly.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Reed on 04 Feb 2009, 09:07: Yeah, it can be really hard to get into a lot of micro grad programs. I was really lucky as an undergrad and I was hired as a research assistant in a plant molecular biology lab, where they gave me way more responsibility than I deserved. Also, the PI was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and he wrote me a glowing recommendation. If I hadn't worked there I really wouldn't have been able to get into grad school. Have you tried looking for research assitant jobs at a university? It might be a little bit of a pay decrease, but I think that grad schools would really like that kind of research experience.

What is involved in food testing anyways? Is it mostly classical microbiology, or do you use any molecular techniques (PCR screening, etc).
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Radical AC on 05 Feb 2009, 13:32: I'm Andrew Livingstone Crawford (I always add the Livingstone to sound like a pretentious prick... It's also Livingstone as in David Livingstone, as in Doctor Livingstone I may presume, as in I'm related to him) I'm 22 and am double majoring in Biochemistry and Molecular/Cellular Biology at Boise State University. I'm hoping to get into a Ph.D/MD program at either Johns Hopkins or University of Minnesota. I want to get a surgery specialty and either an Epidemiology or Genetics Ph.D. I'm pretty much just a tall white kid from the north. (Northern MN) I can has type 1 diabetes since I was fourteen so that doesn't help with getting any less skinny. I play guitar and have my own solo project right now. (Because that says soo much about me) I also play the synth/piano, bagpipes, trumpet, trombone, and can program a mean drum beat in Logic Pro. I do a lot of relief effort/volunteer work. I wrote pretty much the entire health plan (w/ a lot of doctor consults) and epidemiological analysis for norther Sierra Leone where I'll likely be headed to help out next year. I'm trying to learn Arabic right now, and if I'm able to do all the crap I want I'll probably join Doctors Without Borders and work in Darfur when I'm out of school and in debt up to my eyeballs. (The stories are lies, I've never met a rich doctor.) Several times a month I go out shooting in the hills with my room mate, who was a Marine Recon sniper, and have gotten to the point where on a very (very) good day I can get sub MOA groupings at ~1500-2000yds. I'm also a nerd, above and beyond spelunking on internet forums. (I'm new but I think I'll stick it out here a while, my kind of place) I've seen my share of anime and like a bit of it, but don't identify with the culture. I also play DnD with my punk friends occasionally. (Less often the further out of high school I've gotten) I've grown discontent with Idaho and toy with the idea of packing up my stuff and leaving, but probably will wait until I get my undergrad degrees.

Seems like more until I read over it...
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: celticgeek on 05 Feb 2009, 14:54: All people who play the bagpipes are cool.
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Mr. Skawronska on 05 Feb 2009, 19:27: Quote
The point was to isolate novel cellulose degraders. Anyways, Clostridia are typically anaerobic.

I didn't know that. Are Clostridia obligate anaerobes? You know what...scratch that.

What did you find as far as aerobic cellulose degraders?

I'm going to get off the Clostridia kick and listen.

S
Title: Re: Hey there, stranger.
Post by: Darkbluerabbit on 05 Feb 2009, 21:16: Hi. I post here. My name is Jill and I have technically been on the forums since 2005, when I made some inane posts and disappeared for a while. In late 2007 I resurfaced, and continued to make rather inane posts and poke fun at people in WCT. I think I have learned to be less useless in my boarding.

I am an art student at a smaller college in Wisconsin. My emphasis is printmaking. My main interests involve making things. I like DIY projects, knitting, making pictures, etc. I also love cooking. I am a strict vegetarian (vegan except for occasional honey), so cooking for myself started as a necessity and became a hobby. Cooking is so so fun. It is basically my therapy. I cannot adequately describe how much I love it. It is almost sad.

My friends and I do a no-budget webseries. It is sometimes funny, I think, but mostly it is all kinds of fun to make. I spend too much time on the internet and know more useless trivia than worthwhile facts. I rarely post without at least a few drinks in my bloodstream.