Jeez, I can't leave you kids alone for a minute.
I am assuming you are in your late 30s
That puts you in the majority. I seem to act about 5 years younger than my true age (I'm 41). Not sure if that has to do with some retardation in the maturing process since I've been playing AC and posting here or not, but that's the way to bet.
I *do* live in CA, and have since finishing college. Only son of a career Naval officer (Captain, Civil Engineer Corps and a SeaBee). I lived in 6 states before graduating from H.S., so I've been back and forth across the country more than a few times. I married my college girlfriend (moved out here after her), gained a daughter in '91 and found out a couple years later that her mom didn't want to stay married.
As fitting with my stick-in-the-mud nature, I've worked since the fall of '85 for one of the largest consulting engineering firms in the country (now the world). A great group that have kept things interesting enough for me to not really think about working elsewhere.
I've always been a game player (mostly strategy/adventure rather than FPS) since playing ADVENT (precursor to Zork) on the ancient IBM mainframe in school. Found a green-screen text MUD to play in the mid 90's and have had my face in the screen ever since.
Stumbled into love with one of the gals I was MUDing with (albeit slowly) and after she moved out here managed to convince me that we needed to spend the rest of our lives together. "The rest of our lives" seems to have had a different meaning to her than I had been thinking since she wandered off the plantation here about a year later (that is the divorce that was just recently finalized).
A friend dropped a copy of AC on my desk in the fall of 2000 and that's when all my yardwork stopped. Played on FF for 3.5 solid years and lost the urge to play just last spring (though WoW has rekindled a bit of the addiction). Found the ACF folks as a non-trading alternative to the purely-a-market nature of the server boards.
Riko identified me as one of the political posters. I don't, however, tend to *bring* political issues here as much as jump into existing arguments. It is also probably clear that I don't like to spend a whole lot of time composing big paragraphs of flowery prose as a means of proving my point, either. I am undeniably conservative, but identify much more with the Libertarians than I do with the Republicans, at this point. Given the range of folks posting to ACF, and even considering how often we descend into cutting and pasting (or simply regurgitating) talking points and hurling insults, I have been pretty impressed with the thoughtfullness of folks' discussions here. All it takes is a trip over to democraticunderground or freerepublic to see what the mouth-foamers are posting.
As with the couple other online communities that I've become involved with, I tend to consider most of the folks here as at least aquaintences and some actual friends. It is an odd world, this one built soley of words and posts and emotes and such. Oddly enough, I've slowly become very much like the icon I chose the first day I registered at the vault, and the Cheers analogy was purposeful and remains accurate. I think of this place (as well as AC or WoW, etc.) as a virtual version of the local pub. Or, for a younger version, the corner playground. You wander in, see who's around, talk to some of them or not, play on the monkey bars or swingsets (or dartboard or pinball, you get the idea). Now if I could only lose Norm's body-type
.
Great job on these threads, Riko. I've enjoyed the ones in the past and gladly join the growing list this morning.
Rho
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Rho is correct. - Varece
Venit hiems quidquid Latine dictum sit altum viditur
Referring to illegal aliens as 'immigrants' is the same as referring to shoplifters as 'shoppers' - Dorvinion
