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Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

Serendipity,

**

I was quite sincere, corny perhaps, but sincere. This is me being insincere:

“Gosh, I sure am happy with the presidential choices I have this year!”

See, the tone is totally different. Listen to your friend, Scotticher, you are a very attractive young lady.

If you want to see a geek boy, there’s a pic of me on my website at http://www.blackclawgames.com

And now a brief tale of how I ended up in computers. I got my first computer in 6th grade. It was a Vic-20 with I think a whopping 16k of RAM. I wrote a basic program that used it all the next day. I was born to use computers I thought at the time.

But then school got tougher, or perhaps it got more boring, and math became a difficult subject for me. Computer courses all have very frightening math requirements so when I went to college I wussed out and went into Political Science. I really enjoyed the courses and was accepted into the graduate program. I had hoped to work for the State department. But then I learned how difficult it is to get into the State department without political ties. After I graduated, The Department of Commerce expressed an interest in me. I was excited about the idea of using my degree to do research for trade negotiations but then that big government shutdown happened. The Commerce department suddenly had a hiring freeze in place. I tried to get a job with various local governments but they really want Public Administration, not International Relations.

After realizing that even Kroger’s wouldn’t hire me (Which was strange. Don’t you wish the people that handled your food all had Master’s degrees?) I realized I had to go back to school. No wussing out this time, I dove right into the math courses and succeeded because I had to. While building up my math requirements I took tech writing courses. I figured that if I could actually document the programs I wrote I’d have an edge. I was a little too right. I got hired as a tech writer just a year after I started my computer courses, so I never got my degree in computer science. I moved over to Lotus Notes programming about a year after I joined the company. All in all things worked out pretty well, although I’ve now learned that if you want something, by all means have a backup plan, but go for it. No delaying, no wussing out. It could save you a lot of time and trouble.

42

I build websites for a living and yet I still managed to drop a tag and leave bold on. Sorry folks.

43

Sorry to have dropped in and then dropped out. I am back now and I promise to be better!

purplebear–I will drop by Purplebear, the store, next time I am in Birmingham and see what they have for you.

Scotti–You are a librarian?!? No wonder I like you. I always get along with librarians. I worked all through college in the periodicals section of our school library and just got along famously with all the people there. They were really great. Funny thing about librarians–every one I have known tends to be talkative. I like the irony. :slight_smile:

MysterEcks–Looking forward to that book synopsis. Can we at least pry a genre out of you?

Not that anyone asked :), but here is a bit of an introduction. I am over 100 posts, but I never really introduced myself.

Name: uh, Brynda (pronounced like Brenda, BTW)
Location: Detroit. I just moved here in May.
Occupation: Psychologist. I work mainly with patients with spinal cord injuries, severe orthopedic injuries, and amputations.
Favorite beverage: sweet tea (I am originally from Tennessee)
Little known fact: I am taking a beginner’s glassblowing class and I made my first paperweight tonight!!! I feel like an artiste.

Now on to the question part of the post. I would like to know more about Jack Batty, who posted earlier in this thread. C’mon, Jack Batty, give us the Straight Dope.

44

Did you think you were supposed to look good in that picture? That is you as a bridesmaid, right? Your job was to make the bride look good–those dresses are designed with that goal in mind.

Just kidding–you look lovely. And Scotti is right about being self-deprecating. It is a bad habit to have.

45

Scotti, Blackclaw, and Brynda – y’all really know how to make a girl’s day. OK, no more self-deprecation… at least not in Scotti’s range of hearing, so I don’t get yelled at. :wink: Really, though, most of my female friends are drop dead gorgeous, Helen of Troy types, so I guess I’ve never had the whole “I’m the pretty one” experience. Well, whatever. :slight_smile: (By the way, that’s me looking perturbed because my sister was taking yet another picture of me before the prom, not because I had to be a bridesmaid.)

Blackclaw, I thought you looked rather dashing and not at all geeky in the picture at http://www.blackclawgames.com.

Brynda, that’s so cool about the glassblowing! How’d you get into that?

I’m also waiting to hear more about MysterEcks’s novel.

46

There happens to be a studio very close to me. I had always wanted to do it, so when I moved here and met the owner and he said they offered classes, I decided it was fate.

It is very hard, though, which is discouraging. Tonight was week 4 (three hours every Friday) and this was the first thing I made worth keeping. And let’s face it, when you make a paperweight, basically you are turning a hot blob of glass into a cold blob of glass.

On the other hand, glassblowing was on my list of “50 things I want to do before I die,” so I am very happy that I got this chance to try it. I have three more classes, so there will probably be more paperweights!

47

Serendipity: Thanks for your interest. :slight_smile: But I gotta warn you guys–you’re destroying what passes for my humility.

Brynda said:

Ok…and this is going to give you a clue why it takes some doing to explain. It’s a science fiction / fantasy / war / politics / supernatural / love story…and one of the most important characters is a tree.

(It makes more sense than it sounds like…or it does to me, anyway.)

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Don’t strain your brain, honey. After I read it, I’ll give the whole board a report.

And Brynda, I am not a librarian, that is just my dream job. I don’t know why, but for some reason it never occurred to me when I was young that this would be a perfect way to spend my life. I love my current job, though, so maybe it was all meant to be the way it turned out.

Scotti

49

Howdy. I’ve been around for a few hundred posts, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to formally introduce myself (since I doubt anyone’s gonna ask :stuck_out_tongue: ).

I’m 31 years old, and I’m a Gemini. I live in the SF Bay Area in California (Concord, to be specific). I work in the city I was born in (Martinez) as a programmer/analyst.

I have a B.A. degree from UC Berkeley in “Integrative Biology”, with an emphasis in Evolutionary Biology (yes, a mere B.A. UCB, in all its wisdom, does not offer B.S. degrees in its College of Letters and Science - go figure). I took the GRE, scored well, never went on to grad school. I took a lot of physics and chemistry courses in college “just for fun.” (I completed enough courses, minus about two G.E. courses, at the local junior college to get A.S. degrees in Math, Biology, Chemistry, and Physics, and also completed the entire pre-engineering sequence, just to see if I could.) Yes, I’m a nerd. No, I’m not that smart. Actually, I consider myself to be of average intelligence at best.

I play computer games. Some of my favorites include Heretic, Heretic II (I am excellent with a blade, but suck at most everything else), Diablo / Diablo II, Half Life, The Baldur’s Gate series, and various Janes’ flight sims.

I make attempts at pencil drawing. Mostly dinosaurs, but occasionally other animals. I am not all that great at it, though (if you really wish to see an example, you can look here. The sketch of Deinonychus is mine. This will also, incidently, reveal my True Name. Keep in mind that the original drawing looks much better - it didn’t reduce well, unfortunately). And I haven’t done anything in quite some time.

My favorite music group is the now-defunct Dead Can Dance. (Half of the group, Lisa Gerrard, has gone on to do a couple of solo albums, as well as work on the soundtracks for Gladiator and The Insider.) I also like the-also-now-defunct Oingo Boingo (Danny rules!). I prefer somber, brooding music because I am, for the most part, somber and brooding.

I have no family to speak of (my father and both of his parents are dead, my mother and sister I have neither seen nor heard from in over 20 years, and my brother disappeared around 7 years ago or so). As such, I dread the approach of the Holidays, though I prefer winter to the other seasons (probably because of the whole “somber and brooding” thing).

In general, I believe myself to be uninteresting (which is probably why I do not partake more in the various ‘chit-chat’ threads). Assuming you’ve made it this far, you will undoubtedly agree :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, and Scotticher, I find this interesting:

My name starts with both an M and a D!

50

Sure, I’ll be your friend. Anything you want to know, or would you rather I just start rambling? Warning: Once I start rambling, it is very difficult, if not impossible to make me stop!

51

Thanks, Serendipity. I secretly want to be a starship captain.

Wow, Mauve, good dinosaur!

52

knocking shyly on the door and presenting a nice bottle of wine as a gift when invited in

Hi y’all. I’m fairly new. I’ve always thought CrunchyFrog sounded interesting, but even online I overthink everything I say before I say it, so I don’t speak up too often.

Anyway, I’m L’sura- Laura IRL, the L’sura comes from the fact that my penmanship is so atrocious that a friend thought I misspelled my name one time. And, there are times that I can’t read what I’ve written.

I’m 27, 5’6" reddish hair, very blue eyes. Around 180 lbs. Currently living in Atlanta, GA, though in the 5 years since college(Colby College, Waterville, Maine. Go White Mules :p) I’ve lived in Waterville, Chattanooga, Murfreesboro and Nashville, TN, then down to Jackson, Mississippi, and now Atlanta.

I drink diet coke almost exclusively-though coffee in the morning is a must, and I am trying to drink more water. I went through a job search earlier in the year, and really like the company I work for now.

I’m a liberal Christian-meaning I tend to vote Democrat, though I don’t think there are huge differences between the two(main) candidates this year.

I adore clean clothes, and one of my favorite things in the world to wear are new socks… I mean, they feel so good. :stuck_out_tongue:

I have a trip to DC planned for 2 weeks, to hook up with some friends there-I need a short break from Atlanta.

I refuse to commute by car. The new MARTA stations going in will make my life 1,000 easier, as walking to the station will be a joy. :slight_smile:

I love movies-though I don’t get to go to the theater too often. Country music is a must, though I love opera, rock, and classical too.

I read a LOT. I almost always have 2-3 books that I am reading at the same time. There is the subway book, the before bed book, and the random books that I pick up as I walk through the apartment. Science fiction, fantasy, Christian, even the occasional romance novel. :wink:

And before I babble too much, I must return these books to the library. :slight_smile:

53

I have atrocious interviewing skills, so if you’d like to start rambling, that’s be great. Of course, you could also share the whole middle name/dream job/favorite Snapple/random trivia thing, too. :smiley:

54

Hi, Lsura/Laura !(don’t know which you prefer)

I grew up in Smyrna and went to college in Murfreesboro, so it was a kick to read that you had lived there. It does beg the question, though–why on earth have you moved so much? This is a funny question coming from me, though, because I have moved 8 times in 19 years, and that is only counting the state-to-state moves, not the within region moves. My excuse is school and jobs. What’s yours?

55

Actually, most of my moves have been job related. Waterville to Chattanooga(1995) during my failure to find a job after college, so I moved back to mom & dad’s. I made my first move on my own in the spring of 1997-

May 1997 Chattanooga, TN->Murfreesboro, TN
October 1997 Murfreesboro->Nashville, TN(job transfer, and I couldn’t handle driving to Goodlettsville from M’boro every day)
October 1998-Nashville->Jackson, MS
November 1999 Jackson-> Atlanta GA

All these moves were with the same company. Then, we all got laid off last spring. :stuck_out_tongue: So, now I have a new job, and there are no moves forthcoming, that I know of. And I had sort of gotten used to the major clean out every fall. I like being sort of settled, though I’ve spent enough time here that I am antsy about being in the same town.

College in the 'boro, huh. Must have been MTSU. I lived across the street from the campus during my stay there. :slight_smile:

56

Oh, and I answer to Laura or L’sura. Or Hey You! or just about any number of other nicknames that I didn’t use here. :slight_smile:

57

Serendipity: You say there’s more than one person from upstate New York?? I’m so thrilled to discover that I’m not the only non-city folk who’s discovered the Internet – even if you’re over in Mass now (I assume? Boston College, you said, yes?). :slight_smile:

58

racinchikki, whereabouts upstate are you from? I’m from the capital region, specifically between Schenectady and Saratoga Springs. Don’t you hate having to explain to people that there’s more to New York than just the city? :slight_smile: (I thought it was amusing when, after reading Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif,” my writing teacher described it as taking place in “upstate New York” – in Newburgh! If that’s upstate, what exactly is Schenectady?)

59

Serendipity, I’m from the Capital District – the other side of it, between Albany and Massachusetts. I’ve heard people say POUGHKEEPSIE is upstate. That would make Saratoga be Canada…

60

I am so glad that Purplebear started this thread. This has givin me the chance to get to know some of you. PB has spoken of a few of you and said I would like you all. She was right. :slight_smile:

thank you to all of you, who have made me feel welcome and I hope to get to know some more of you.