When I joined the SDMB...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

It was a big decision, and one I was helped in by a number of Dopers, actually. But once made, I went for it. It was a lot of work (and again, my thanks go to a few Dopers who were very patient with questions), but quite satisfying.

I will say that I found that a technical writer’s skills are well-suited to the study of law. For example, skills such as the ability to understand the relationships between thoughts and ideas from a variety of sources; the ability to write clearly about abstract concepts; and the ability to collect, analyze, organize, and construct logically-following arguments would be among those that I found to be most valuable. To put the latter point in tech writing terms, for example, you might liken it to collecting, analyzing, organizing, and constructing general-to-specific, logically-following tasks in a user manual. See how the skill translates?

Overall, I found that because of my tech writing experience and the skills gained through it, the schooling was a lot of work, but wasn’t as bad as it could have been.

42

Then: Thought I was smart.
Now: Know better.

43

Joined February 2000
THEN: 18 years old
NOW: 29 years old (how did that happen?)

THEN: Drove a 1996 Toyota Tercel with about 45000km on it
NOW: Drive a 1996 Toyota Tercel with about 311000km on it (some things don’t change much!)

THEN: Lived at my parents place
NOW: rent an apartment with my husband

THEN: Two cats and a dog in the family home
NOW: Two other cats in this apartment

THEN: Was about to meet my husband
NOW: He’s my husband!

THEN: Was going off to university in a few months
NOW: Finishing university (round two, another Bachelor’s) in the next year!

44

Then: Two kids in grade school.
Now: Two kids in college.

Then: No pets.
Now: No pets.

Then: Married for 18 years.
Now: Married for 28 years.

Then: Middle-aged.
Now: Middle-aged, damnit.

Then: Consulting for a firm.
Now: Three acquisitions, two spin-offs, and one canceled contract later, I am employed by the same firm.

Then: Moderate conservative - compared to the rest of the SDMB, hardline conservative.
Now: Moderate conservative - compared to the rest of the SDMB, Nazi.

Then AND now:

Regards,
Shodan

45

Wow, I’ve been a member for five years!

Then: 51
Now: 56

Then: happily married
Now: even more happily married

Then: still pursuing my bachelor’s degree
Now: got it

Then: two kids on their own, three still in college
Now: everyone is done with college and on their own

Then: five kids
Now: a grand-daughter. I guess the five kids still exist, but I have a grand-daughter!

Then: 1999 Accord with 250K miles on it
Now: 2009 Honda Civic

Then: Takamine 334 and Fender Strat Plus
Now: Taylor 710CE and home-built Tele

Then: still actively playing rock and roll in bars
Now: I play in church and in prison (maybe the prison part will be a thread some day)

Then: employed by moderately large tech firm
Now: employed by the much larger tech firm that bought my employer

Then: commuting 120 miles per day, 5 days per week
Now: same commute, 3 days a week

Then: I will never be able to afford to retire
Now: I will retire comfortably at 65

Then: one dog, one cat
Now: same dog, same cat

Then: registered republican
Now: registered democrat

Then: The Pit, GQ
Now: CS, MPSIMS, GQ

46

Joined September 1999

Then: 43
Now: 54

Then: Electronics Technician, manufacturer of diagnostic instrumentation
Now: Electronics Technician, US Postal Service

Then: Driving 1992 Nissan Sentra
Now: Driving 2002 Ford Windstar

Then: Living in 2Br, 2Ba garden apartment in Anaheim, CA
Now: Living in 2Br, 2Ba garden apartment in Anaheim, CA with new carpeting

Then: Red hair, beard came in red when I didn’t shave
Now: Red hair, beard comes in grey when I don’t shave

Then: Dial-up internet with Earthlink
Now: DSL with DSLExtreme

Then: wife’s guide dog was female Golden Retriever
Now: wife’s guide dog is male black Labrador Retriever

47

Recent but not current trolls. MattBernst had just been TOS’d (banned by AOL terms of service) by the time I joined, although it was speculated that another troll, AmplSample, or something of that ilk with a candy-colored username like that, was a Matt sockpuppet.

CarolStream is also recent but not current. I can’t exactly go around identifying anyone I think is a current troll, that would be politically incorrect at least in this forum.

48

Then: 27
Now: 38

Then: Newly married
Now: Getting ready to celebrate our 11th anniversary

Then: Working in telecomm
Now: finishing up my stay-at-home-with-the-kids phase - kids are 4 & 7 and when the youngest goes to kindergarten, I’ll go back to work

Then: getting ready to buy our 1st house
Now: after selling that house, living in Australia, coming back to the U.S., renting again…we’re getting ready to buy our 2nd house

Then: logged on when I had a break at work - we didn’t have a home computer
Now: log on whenever I feel like it, from my laptop - now we all have our own home computers

Then: getting ready to adopt a puppy from the local shelter
Now: our first dog died of cancer and this year, we adopted another puppy from a shelter

49

Joined in Jan 2010, but hey, a lot’s changed since then, so I’ll use this as an introductory post… :slight_smile:

Then: Living in Cumbria, England
Now: Staying in Glasgow, Scotland

Then: Married, living with husband
Now: Separated (cough kicked out), staying with sister

Then: Proud owner of a collie dog and two cats (one Maine Coon, one rescue kitten!)
Now: Occasional access to my parent’s geriatric cat.

Then: Lovely three bedroom townhouse
Now: Sleeping on mattress in sisters spare attic room

Then: Homemaker supported by spouse
Now: Benefit-claimer

Then: Childless
Now: 7 months pregnant

Still, it’s not all bad…

Then: Social recluse who barely left the house/answered the phone/interacted online
Now: Out of the house socialising multiple times a week, posting here and various other places, interacting with people online daily!

50

Joined in October 2001

Then: 41, divorced mum with four teenaged kids (and many of their itinerant friends) living in inner-urban Melbourne
Now: Just turned 50, kids have all grown up and (sort of) left home, and I did a ‘treechange’ to a small country town in NSW, living with a new partner. And I’m the proudest Nanna in the world!

Then: Studying part-time for a BA and working as a telefundraiser, commuted 4 hours per day via public transport.
Now: Working as a telefundraiser from home, commute time <3 seconds

Then: One cat as pet
Now: No cat, one dog and five chooks.

Then: Had a monstera deliciosa in a pot on the front verandah.
Now: From a cutting, still have the SAME plant going great guns on the BACK verandah (and a couple of staghorn babies from that era too).

Then: Dial-up with Telstra
Now: ADSL, still with fucken Telstra unfortunately.

Then: Wondered if I’d ever make it to 50
Now: Hope I don’t get old enough to get Alzheimers like my mum.

51

Joined 31 August 2001.

Then: 27
Now: 36

Then: Engaged to a beautiful outgoing woman.
Now: Married to a bitter and twisted shrew ;). Kidding, married to the same beautiful woman.

Then: Thought children was something of a disease that inflicted unfortunate people.
Now: Happy father of two awesome girls.

Then: No dogs named after a sound in the South Island of New Zealand.
Now: One dog named after a sound in the South Island of New Zealand which is coincidently also the name of a street around the corner from my house.

Then: Renting a two bedroom apartment in the tropics.
Now: Living in my own house in a more moderate climate.

Then: Sitting in the back of an aeroplane telling pilots where to go.
Now: Sitting in the front of an aeroplane being told where to go.

Then: Pre-midlife crisis. Happy to watch the world go past at a great rate of knots.
Now: Going through something of an early midlife crisis. Fortunately for the family I’m directing my energies into exercise and playing music rather than motorbikes and loose women.