CoreBB

First of all let me say that I am really happy most people like these "Focus On" threads. I think it helps to make ACF more of a friendly community.

Unlike a lot of our posters, I don't have any type of agenda when I am posting here, unless you count trying to have a little fun as an agenda.

Lets see.. where to start. If I had to use just one word to describe myself, it would be.. Eclectic.

My real name is Rick. When I lived in Arizona, my friends all called me Riko(Reek Oh),but that nickname got left behind when we moved to New York.

Now I am known as "The Wookie", Grizz, or "The Lorax".

I was born and lived the first 12 years of my life under the watchful eye of Touchdown Jesus in South Bend Indiana. Thats where I became a Chicago Cubs and a Chicago Bears fan. I have been a Chicago fan since 1972 when I was 4 years old and I will be one till the day I die. If you cut me, I do indeed bleed blue and orange

We moved to Arizona when I was 12 and at first I thought it was hell. In Indiana, you could roll down the window on a hot summer day and get cooled off... in Arizona it felt like my eyeballs were going to evaporate when I rolled down that window. I came to love the heat though..

I went through a lot of phases in High School including my punk phase complete with mohawk and my stoner phase with the moccasin boots and leather fringed vest. One summer I saw Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains the Same" 17 times and I still dig the movie today.. the whole time I was going through these different phases, I still played football. I was a starting wide receiver for the High School team even as a Jr.

I was a pretty bad kid and did a lot of stupid things culminating in my two years of rehab for crystal meth abuse and a divorce. This picture of myself and my ex-wife was taken in 1987. I had lost 75 lbs thanks to the meth and was in bad need of a hairstyle...

I finally got cleaned up started taking care of myself again.. that was sort of surprising because I lived with a band called Damn Straight who were making the rounds of all the dives in Tempe and the rest of the east side of the Vally of the Sun in Arizona. The bass player and drummer are in a rather popular AZ based band now.

Those 5 years were a blast. I worked construction most of those years and got another little addiction.. I became totally addicted to the sun. I could think of nothing better than slinging a hammer all day in the sun, getting off work at 2:30 and going home to lay in the sun and have a few beers.. It was what I lived for... again my love of beer is sort of surprising considering I did rehab, but alcohol has never had a hold on me like other things did.

Now we skip ahead to where I started dating Maraa.

She was actually one of my best friend's girlfriend. He cheated on her though, so they broke up.. a few months later we hooked up. We went out as friends first, but quickly became a lot more. We have been married for 11 years now and she has given me three wonderful kids...

Reading back on all this.. I bet you think I would make a pretty horrible parent, but being a father is by far the best thing to ever happen to me. I am no longer the focus of my life.. my kids are. Now-a-days there is nothing I like better than to rush home and have all three kids come running up to give me a hug and talk about their day.

Our house is almost always full of other people's kids too( as some of the webcam people can attest to)... My son said all the other kids love to come to our house because it is always a lot of fun... that doesn't mean I don't lay down the law.. I am a pretty strict father and my kids show it. You will be hard pressed to find more well behaved and well grounded(no pun intended) kids, but I temper that strictness with some understanding and I try my hardest to actually listen to them..

I'll wrap this up, it is getting to long and most people have probably already stopped reading..

I am 36 years old, I have 3 awesome kids, Ariel(7)

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Anthony old pic, he is almost 12 and 5'6" tall.

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and Aidan(3)

and a great wife Michelle(maraa who does not want me to post a pic of her).

I am a web developer for a chemical company in Rochester NY, but I live 50 miles east in a tiny little village. I never went to college.. I only have an associates degree from a tech school, but I have done plenty in the IT field and I made enough money that my wife did not have to work for the last 4 years. I don't really consider myself educated, but I do have a lot of common sense, street smarts and a very strong sense of empathy for my fellow man.

I love to read, I love to play computer games of all sorts and I love to garden. I also love to fish and camp and to the embarrassment of my wife, I love to sing... loud. I am also a big time gadget geek. I have at least 7 laptops and around 8 Pdas as well as an entire room filled to the roof with PCs.

My favorite beer is the one that you are buying me. I love all type of ales and brews, but I am not a Beersnob. I realize what massbrew is and I can enjoy it for what it is... I also know what makes a good beer and I have studied the food of the gods for a good 15 years now.

What brought me to the board? Well I used to post on the General board with Mathowny, ragnarock, tal, and Sunny( and a whole bunch more people) the place was getting way to far off topic, and a few select people starting complaining because it had nothing at all to do with AC, so they created the ACF board for us. I came over day one and I have been here since except for two separate occasions.. once when I stepped down as mod and once when I moved my family across country from AZ to NY.

What keeps me coming back? Hmm not sure on that one.. see when Rosethorn was here, she totally ruined this board. 99% of my friends left for another board, and after I made sure the had a good mod(Mathowny), I left too. I was gone for a good 6 months, but then I decided to stop by and see what was going on..

I was hooked again.

Now I come here to get some laughs. I see all the people with an ax to grind.. the people who do not know how to take care of business in the real world. They come here and rail against all the evil in the world as if posting here will somehow fix things.. I prefer to take care of business in the real world.. This place is strictly for fun for me..

Oh yeah and screw all of you for making the thread run to 300 posts! How am I going to link it now?

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Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be Happy- Ben Franklin
http://rikostan.com
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
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facebook = Riko Stan