OK, I hate - really hate - this kind of topic. I've rolled my eyes every time it's come up in previous discussions and semi-abused my position as content moderator to squelch it.

So it seems wholly appropriate to be the person to start it here.

List no less than two, no more than five non-gaming related activities or facts that characterize you, subculturally. They can be hobbies, jobs, life-styles, preferences, whatever.

Do not provide commentary on anyone else's post, do not provide commentary on your own.

1. I hitch-hiked all 'round the U.S.A. in the early 1980s.

2. My mom (1931 -) is a feminist social activist specializing in issues of childbirth and medical practices, very countercultural during my childhood.

3. My dad (1926-1994) was a highly conservative and militaristic veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

4. Yes, my Ph.D. dissertation concerned the evolution of mammal genitals, specifically megabat penis and uterus anatomy.

5. I practice and study martial arts and have indeed "really used it," though rarely.

Best,
Ron

Ron, I don't like your restrictions! I want to hear anecdotes . . . tell us about your martial arts experiments!

1. I play Go. Yesteraday I finally got a confirmed rank (21 kyu) on KGS... (YEEESSSSS! This counts as non-gaming, right?)

2. I'm a professional musician - violin. In fact, I'm leaving for work, which happens to be in Springfield IL, in about an hour, and will only be able to participate in the festivities if I can dig up net access somewhere while I'm up there.

3. I did a year of technical school before dropping it cos it interferred with music. I'm still into computers, though. Not just games, either, though games are cool. (Who here likes UT 2003?)

4. Like Ron, I practice a martial art (Tai Chi Chuan). Unlike Ron, I've never "really used it."

5. I like knives. I throw them at things. They stick when I do that. My knives are 13 inches long and weigh almost a pound each.

Here's mine:

1. I grew up in an incredibly remote home in nowhere, South Alabama, under the tutelage of conservative religious folk, and spent all my time either reading, gaming, or toiling in the hot sun.

2. Besides gaming, my loves are my fiancee, cooking, and rock music.

3. My favorite book is Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and my favorite movie is Say Anything.

4. Yes, I spent four years in the Army. Besides the resulting marriage and divorce, they were the best four years of my life. I was a Korean-language signals intelligence analyst, but enjoyed my time in the motor pool with my Hum-Vee much more.

5. Clinton R. Nixon really is my name.

Ron Edwards wrote: OK, I hate - really hate - this kind of topic. I've rolled my eyes every time it's come up in previous discussions and semi-abused my position as content moderator to squelch it.

So it seems wholly appropriate to be the person to start it here.

List no less than two, no more than five non-gaming related activities or facts that characterize you, subculturally. They can be hobbies, jobs, life-styles, preferences, whatever.

Do not provide commentary on anyone else's post, do not provide commentary on your own.

1. I'm fairly fluent in Chinese (Mandarin dialect) after spending 10% of my young life in Beijing and traveling other parts of the country.

2. I've spent time in 3 of the world's 5 remaining Communist countries (viva la revolucion!). PM me if you want to guess which ones. The first one's free.

3. I play the banjo and have a strong interest in progressive bluegrass (yes, you could call it "prog-grass" if you really wanted to).

4. I'm planning to direct an outdoor production of Milton's "Paradise Lost" next year, based on a dramatic adaptation that I'm currently working on.

5. I make comics by shooting digital photos and the combining them into pages in Photoshop, which have been published in campus newspapers and a nationally distributed magazine abuot study abroad in China. You can find them here.

Ok...

1) Both my parents have doctorates in Chemestry, but I dropped out of Biochemestry to persue my own destiny moving in with a Music Buisness major in Boston.

2) In mexico I served as a translator at several cultural events, earning me the autographs (and ocational kisses on the cheek) from great international stars like Ely Guerra (the amores perros soundrack, you can see her on the DVD), Lila Downs (sung at the oscar's with Caetano Veloso) and so on.

3) I recently quit smoking, cut my carb intake, started jogging/playing soccer, stopped drinking and so on. I decided why wait till Im 40 and I've had 3 heart attacks.

4) I had a buss rip one of my knee's out of its socket 4 years ago and never got surgery. Its gotten to the point where it dosent get dislocated on its own much. Right after the accident I studied Nippon Kempo and Capuera (helped me define good combat systems, ups! Gaming!)

Have a great day and "happy figging burthday forge... ratt tatt tatt tatt tatt tatt... and a happy new year"

I'll play.

1) I am a conservative Presbyterian and have been all my life. In fact, my father is a Presbyterian pastor.

2) I was married at age 19 and am the father of three lovely children.

3) I also play go and wish that more people could appreciate the elegant beauty in the game.

4) I studied martial arts for about a year (aikijutsu and kenjutsu), although I have not been able to do so after my move.

5) I am a kooky Japanophile, which means that I love haiku, tea ceremonies, and tiger lilies.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

Lets see.

1) I had perhaps the most completely normal childhood and ideal family situation growing up of most anyone I know (although I of course did not appreciate it as such at the time).

2) Since we were a couple notches shy of being affluent on the social class ladder, I didn't get as much of the cool toys and stuff that my friends got, so I spent alot of time reading instead of playing...and also alot of time writing my own games (or hacking them from memory) because I couldn't afford to go buy them.

3) I'm an investment manager by trade which makes the last few years very interesting ones (in the Chinese curse sense of the word).

4) I have a rabid passion for history which comes and goes in cycles so there's no telling which period I'll be enthralled by at the time, but I once wrote an 80 page thesis with 20 pages of footnotes on Napoleon for a European History class which got a "B" because it was "too long".

5) I'm happily married in all but the strict legal sense of the term to the most understanding and tolerant woman on the planet, whom I'll have been with 10 years come June.

1. I am a big fan of traditional Indian dance - Bharatnatyam and Odissi, particularly. My knees can't handle the stress of actually performing, unfortunately.

2. Despite having grown up almost exclusively in New Jersey, I speak with a distinctive Southern twang. Accidentally.

3. I've practiced martial arts and fencing, and am trying to pick up Kendo. This is difficult, because the local endo club meets right after my taekwondo club does.

4. My Moby Dick is a graphic novel series of the Arabian Nights... every so often you can find me agonizing over character designs.

5. I find that regular meditation has the same effects as regular strenuous exercise on my sleeping patterns.

Go, Ron!

1) I'm your basic turbogeek. (That is, in addition to gaming, I like science fiction (both literary and media), anime, Hong Kong action films, faeries, and comics (including superhero comics, manga, and indie comics)... you name it. I'm very spread out.)

2) I double-majored in English and Computer Science at Grinnell College in Grinnell, IA. (I love John Milton and John Keats, and yet I hate hate HATE Percy Bysshe Shelley.)

3) Religiously, I am a Wiccan... and a Discordian.

4) I love electronic dance music, but I hate to dance.

5) I am an avid member of Livejournal.

1. I'm a stay at home dad to a 4 and 2 year old beautiful daughters. I try and fill some of my daytime spare time,yeah right, with designing and playing with my 3d program.

2. I've been a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism for over ten years and would have to say swordsmanship has become my primary martial art.

3. I grew up just a little ways from the dead center of the United States with an occassionally frantic mom and my dad was one of the first nine navy seals. We didn't have a lot of money but dad made sure we never wanted for anything.

4. I love history, art (making and appreciating), and any musical voice that fits my mocks god criteria.

5. I have a beautiful wife that has been putting up with my crap, mood swings, wierd opinions and just about everything other odd thing about me. Gotta love her.

Sylus- my real name is Jason Palenske

Hmmm...

1) I was born and raised in Southern California, most specifically I spent the majority of my youth in North Hollywood which is part of the infamous San Fernando Valley.

2) I did an undergraduate honors thesis at Lafayette College, on Artificial Emotions (the abandoned bastard child of Artificial Intelligence).

3) I work as a video game programmer. Titles I've worked on include The World Is Not Enough for the PSOne, Knockout Kings 2000 for the PS2 and Knockout Kings 2002 for the X-Box

4) My favorite book is Les Liaisons Dangereuse by Choderlos De Laclos and my favorite film is probably the modern-day updating of the same tale Cruel Intentions.

5) In general I prefer stories that focus on exposing villainy rather than explifiying heroism because I believe heroism is often too obvious and easy to carry out on paper but villainy and all its permutations (particularly those arrising from good intentions or as a means to good ends) never ceases to facinate me. This particular interest of mine occastionally freaks my fiancee out to no end who claims that I am entirely too morbid and sometimes mutters something about, "the signs having all been there."

Jesse

1. I'm 34, married to one Marjorie Silverness, and have one child, a 2 yr old boy named Alexander. I'm a statistician and programmer by trade though I hold no degree (but a shload of credits from about any field you care to mention). I have a home in Wauwatosa, WI, a suburb of Milwukee, only a few blocks from where I was born.

2. My father attained the rank of General in the Wisconsin Army National Guard before retiring a couple of years ago. Seems like a weird concept, a part-time General, but believe me, it's less part time than you might think. I myself was a member of that organization for fifteen years, but left because I'm now a father, and I like my weekends for my son and gaming.

No, the unit I was in has not been activated. I was in the Field Artillery. If the regular army FA can't handle the current plan, and they have to activate reserve FA, then the plan will obviously have changed to turning Iraq into the world's largest parking lot. See, the US is relatively nice in war. This whole thing could be over in a week, but we are concerned about the people of Iraq. Really. You can start really worrying about our intentions when the leadership does decide to deploy the 57th FA Brigade.

Click here to see the equipment I used "one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer" for fifteen years.

3. I am an expert downhill skier. Not quite as good as my brother (who laughs at the Mountain Dew commercial guys because he does actual crazier stuff than them every day), but I can hold my own with most. I started skiing at the age of 4, but don't get out as often as I'd like nowadays. The General, OTOH, teaches skiing every day during the winter at a local ski hill. At age 65.

4. I have played guitar, again emulating my father (hmmm, recurring theme?), since the age of 12. And it doesn't show. I'm a total hack who plays just for the love of it.

5. Because eveybody else has mentioned martial arts experience, I'll mention mine (though I think it's kinda funny that it seems so pertinent to gamers). I took Judo for a couple of years, but never competed (and thus never achieved any belt above white). It's a fun martial art, and more effective than people think, especially if you're not really trying to hurt someone. I've been in a lot of fights, and can't say that I've used the art in them per se. But I'm also as sure that knowing Judo has helped me come out on top. That and I'm big, currently about 290 lbs (about 200 in my prime, though with 0% body fat right now, I'd be more like 210-215).

My father also taught me to fence having been on the college team at the University of Wisconsin. I follwed up with some private study, and I didn't totally suck (though I've not fenced in a few years).

The reason I'm big is that I like to eat. Oh, a lot of people say they like to eat, but they're not really serious enthusiasts like I am. I've been known to eat two large (28") pizzas at a sitting. And then snack on chips for the next four hours. I mean I really like food. I'll be gorging on wings tonight with the guys. We ususally start out with 100.


OK, that was really more than five, but I'm one of my favorite subjects. :-)

Mike

1) I am a feminist.

2) My first love was music, and I'm a decent guitarist.

3) Yesterday my wife and I closed on a house. I will have to change the location in my profile from Akron to Cuyahoga Falls after I move.

4) I have a fear of large bodies of water. I will not willingly enter the ocean, and the great lakes give me serious problems as well. Swimming pools are fine.

5) Last night I dreamed that I was in a muppet movie in which we were trapped aboard a dimension-hopping spaceship that we didn't know how to control.

1. I love to hike and backpack. Oh, I game every so often too.

2. About a year ago I dropped out of the "rat race" and am hiding out in the mountains somewhere in California, working on plans to build a low impact earth-based home and generally not being beholden to anybody.

3. My favorite beer is Dogwood Stout, made by a small microbrewery in Atlanta, Georgia that only ships their brew locally to insure freshness.

4. I'm single, no children. I'm hoping to fix that single part eventually.

5. I was in the Navy for 18 months (out of a 6 year enlistment). My left shoulder self-destructed and I was given a medical discharge. Most of my actual combat experience comes from growing up amidst urban violence.

Awright.

1. Former criminal defense attorney and public school teacher, now fiction writer and entrepreneur. On maybe my fourth or fifth career.

2. Dad was in the Foreign Service, so I spent much of my childhood in Sweden and Finland. Fluent in Swedish.

3. Marathon runner and macrobioticish health freak.

4. Father of a beautiful little 3 year old girl - Shaughnessy May Galadriel Hutchins - and parenthood is the BEST thing I've ever done.

5. Dilettante of things historical - specialties so far include the Crusader Kingdoms, the Battle of Britain, the Persian Wars, the Battle of the Atlantic, the Raj, the Opium Wars, urban development in Western Europe, sixteenth century France, and the Thirty Years War.

Best,

Blake

1. I play the bass guitar. Not well, but I play. I currently own two electric basses (a Fender P-bass and a bee-oo-tee-full Fender America Jazz bass).

2. On December 12, 1996 I packed up three bags and got on an airplane bound for San Francisco, CA to work at the Union Square Borders bookstore. I was homeless for 13 months -- but I made friends quickly and had a job so I wasn't bumming for spare change on Haight or Market Street.

3. My favorite animal is Bradypus Tridactylus, the three-toed sloth. I'm a sloth fanatic.

4. I like to ride my mountain bike during the warmer months. I recently re-discovered my fondness for cross-country skiing.

5. I'm a heavy metal fiend. I especially like the more obscure (to Americans, anyway) German power metal bands.

I'm a lover of literature. Like Clinton, my favorite work is Heart of Darkness. I named my dog Marlow. People always spell it wrong, though.

I'm a raving rock fan, with favorites including Hendrix, Zeppelin (new release soon, yay!), Cream, Neil Young, Floyd, Dylan, Jethro Tull, and many others less "classic". Like Jared, I play bass -- a lovely Fender Jazz, ivory colored. I play for fun in a trio garage band with Flash (who hangs out here occasionally) and our "real" musician friend, Jason, who plays drums like a motherfucker. I sometimes sing, badly.

I often don't care much for seafood.

I think minutiae are usually wastes of time.

Rarely do I not enjoy sarcasm and irony.

1. I have a law degree, but I've never taken the bar exam.

2. I moved to Illinois from Washington, D.C. in August 2001, and planned on getting a job in September. Unfortunately, I didn't get one before the 11th. I was unemployed until March.

3. I work for a very small non-profit that focuses on helping children involved with the child welfare system. Most of our funding disappeared last year, and the organization may not exist after June.

4. I live with my girlfriend and two cats, and we (my girlfriend and I, not the cats) volunteer at the Humane Society often (when my car works and we can make it there) as adoption counselors.

5. Apparently like everyone else on this forum, I enjoy fencing (I started in college). I haven't really found a place to fence here in town, though, which is mildly frustrating.

Stuart

Dumdidum...

1) I'm pretty young, 23 years old. Schools don't agree with me, no hope getting into university.

2) Two A's, Acting and Acrobatics, my two most important hobbies at the moment. Very much hoping that acting will be my profession one day.

3) Living with my girlfriend, out of job at the moment but my third hobby, as graphic artist should land me something soon enough. Meanwhile I have lots of free time to do some rpg design. :)

4) I read less than I'd like and I like what I read less than I should.

5) I'm living proof that antisocial-shunned-by-others-person even in nerd-standards, can rapidly evolve into something quite different.

There,
I really feel young compared to the lot of you grey beards *runs away*. :)

1. I visited more than twelve countries before the age of 12, including Iceland, Morocco, and Iran.

2. I am a citizen of both Canada and the USA.

3. I've worked as fireman on a steam locomotive.

4. I was a leader in the employee unionization effort at a major dot com.

5. I've stayed for five days at the main L. Ron Hubbard center in Hollywood,
but I have never been a Scientologist.

1. I’m finishing up my undergrad degree as we speak. I’m double majoring in English and Rhetoric (Creative Writing), with a minor in Computer Science. My honors English thesis is on the role of memory and Holocaust representation in contemporary postmodern fiction.

2. I love camping and backpacking—and all of the environmental activism that sometimes accompanies these activities.

3. I’m desperate to experience life in another country/culture, but could never picture myself living anywhere outside of the northern Illinois area.

1. I currently teach Composition and English as a Second Language (ESL) at Central Michigan University…

2. But not for much longer. Departmental cuts are looming, and I’m only temp faculty, so I’m heading to a PhD program in Linguistics at City University, Hong Kong.

3. I grew up poor in rural Michigan, but education has allowed me to make my own life pretty international—I’ve studied in Germany, I’ve taught in Japan, and this fall I’ll add Hong Kong to the list.

4. I’ve been happily married for over four years—my wife Leng is Chinese, born in Vietnam, and I met her in Germany, where we were both taking a Japanese class at Heinrich Heine University. We got married in Las Vegas. We speak German at home.

5. I’m a coffee nut. I buy green coffee beans, roast and grind them at home, and make my coffee in a press to get the best flavor. But I don’t drink more than one cup a day because I don’t want to become so accustomed to the taste that I forget to enjoy every cup.

Rich Forest

1) I served in the U.S. Army for 5 years, including 8 months in Southeast Asia during Desert Shield/Storm with 3rd Armored Division.

2) I have a BFA and absolutely love Art, yet i hate the pretention often associated with it and the 'Gallery-Crowd'.

3) The two biggest loves of my life are my Wife of 10 years and my Dog.

4) I have an IM Rod in my right Tibia...the result of a Compound Fracture due to a hit-and-run in Germany. I survived the Gulf War without a scratch, go back to Germany, walk across the street to an Imbis for a Gyro and *BAM*.

5) If i could have a Mariachi band follow me around at all times, i probably would.


-k

Why not. It's interesting reading these small slices into everyone else's lives.

1. Although I have no problem with religious people, I am generally anti-religion in all its forms due to the hatred, lack of tolerance and constant wars and strife it generates. Interestingly, I often play religious types when I roleplay, and use that to explore the concept of faith (which in principle I have no problem with).

2. I was a championship fencer in college and ranked fairly highly, but a badly shattered ankle means I have to take it easy these days and it's likely I'm not that good anymore. Thanks to the ankle, weight can often be a problem these days as I'm not as active as I used to be/should be.

3. For a couple of years I worked as a youth councilor (trained and all) but stopped after I dealt with a very young girl who had been raped and I couldn't really make myself go back to it. Sadly, I have something of a history of quitting like this, I was a scout leader when I was 18-20 but I stopped after the other leader I worked with (who was a good friend) died, I couldn't seem to "get into it" after that.

4. My wife (fiance then) and I were almost killed by a drunk driver in June 2000, he was doing 180kph on wet roads at night, spun out and wrote off our car so badly they had to use the jaws of life to cut me out. According to the accident investigator, if our car had not spun away as much as it did he would have driven the engine through my stomach and killed me, but if we had spun out any more he would have slammed right into the drivers door and killed me - I managed to hit the 5 degree either way angle of impact where the driver survives this kind of accident in a Barina(!). Thanks to New Zealand's pathetic legal system, he got what amounts to a small slap on the hand and walked free. To date he still has not paid 1c of the reparation we were awarded by the court.

5. Although I'm not in the SCA, I am a medieval buff to the extent that my wife and I had a medieval wedding, complete with a "use your fingers and pull meat off the bone" feast, ale and mead in abundance, a medieval 4-piece band, and vows from the 13th century (which were the earliest vows I could find. Neither of us are religious, but it didn't seem right doing a medieval wedding without a religious service, performed by a celebrant and not a priest, of course). Every single guest except one got into the spirit of things and turned up in full medieval garb. The one who didn't said he "didn't want to look stupid", and as the only person not in costume, he looked stupid.

Brian.

I had the joy and excitement of witnessing my "not a dot com" high-tech employer experience complete upper-executive/investor breakdown, a theoretically-impossible limbo (where there was literally no one legally entitled to run the company, but we kept running it), and an eventual profitable purchase out of bankruptcy - and basicaly kept doing the same sort of job through it all, and to this day.

At the tender age of 10 or so, I was (one of) the guy(s) who snapped the football to Steve Young (yup, when he was around 10 as well). Taught him everything he knows :-)

I've attended at least 6 different institutions of higher learning, but never did manage to get a college degree. If I had it to do over again . . . one of biggest mistakes I ever made, not just focusing and sticking out four years (ANY four years) and getting it done. Not that I'm complaining - but I didn't want this to come across as "no degree and proud of it."

I've spent a fair amount of time on horseback in the "wilderness" of Alaska, Belize, Idaho, and a few other spots. I find it an amazing experience - both in terms of comunicating with another species (the horses, duh), and in getting to some really extraordinary locations, flora and fauna (bears, man - ain't nothing like a bear).

I have been shot at, stabbed, and "marked" by a (kinda light-weight, but still scary) urban gang, and managed somehow to survive despite all but the most minimal MA or other combative training/experience. I mean to imply nothing particular by this, it's just an odd fact that few people would guess by looking at me.

That's my five,

Gordon

I might as well...

1) I'm a sociology grad and I'm evidence for something a professor told me once, "tell me what your hang-ups are, and I'll tell you what you research."

2) I've been studying a martial art (aikido) for about a year and a half now. I'm horrible at it, I have never been in need of it, and yet I have a blast with it. It is helping me with things like awareness, body ownership, and stress relief (getting thrown 5 feet is oddly fun)

3) I'm ridiculously in love with my cute GF. For some reason, I wasn't interested in her at first, but she basically clubbed me over the head and dragged me to a cave. I'm not complaining; she's cute, smart, and sane.

4) My father was the principal in the Elementary School I attended. This made me quite aware of things like privilege & intrigue, along with my lifelong distaste for them.

So here's me, okay, a repressed, gawky fourteen-year-old Mormon boy living in suburban Provo. It's a high school halloween costume party. One of my cousins, gorgeous, a senior, blonde like we all are, tall, athletic, a nationally ranked cheerleader no less, right, picture it, she comes dressed as a pig. In a pink bodysuit, a plastic nose, a pipe cleaner tail, and EIGHT RUBBER BABY BOTTLE NIPPLES. Two placed just so and the rest in rows down her ribcage.

How many taboos is that? It's 16+ years later and I'm STILL messed up about it.

-Vincent

1. I own a fair number of musical instruments, and I can make a lot of noise with'em, but nothing I'd dare to call music. I can play bass guitar best, like playing drums most (lots of noise - go figure), don't know how to play saxophone & clarinette anymore and the most recent addition to my collection, 2 months ago, was a Epiphone Les Paul Gothic electric guitar. In the early nineties, I played bass in a band called "Turn Off Your Vibrators."

2. I can't sing, but I can juggle.

3. I was an ambulance driver for 15 months, now I'm a software developer (in the mid eighties, I wrote the unofficial game to the movie American Ninja on my C64).

4. I own about 90 Frank Zappa albums.

5. My martial arts experiences include some weeks of judo training, some months of aikido (ki-aikido, bokken and jo) and years of Tekken!

Cool! An opportunity to cram my life into five bits for all to see. I'm always a big fan of these icebreakers, as I like to hear about others, but for some reason love to talk about myself. :)

1. Japan. Dunno why. Always been interested in it, in college I got a chance to study Japanese and go over there. Spent 4 years there in Tokyo and a prefecture called Gunma, and wouldn't mind returning someday. I'm nearly fluent in spoken Japanese (having a Japanese wife for four years helps), and while I love discussing issues of culture, language and society, Japanese history (feudal era Japan, historic weapons, etc) bores the crap out of me.

2. Nature. Counting all the days that I've been camping equals over a year. Yep, that's right, by the age of 20 I had lived in the woods for well over a year and a few weeks (in the summer in HS I often went on month-long hikes and the like).

3. Education. Love talking about education and development. I double-majored in Philosophy and Sociology (my BA in Phil is the equiv of an MA at normal schools). I love 20th century philosophy, American Pragmatism and dudes like Dewey, Rorty, and Campbell. However, I'd rather slam my hand in a car door than discuss any non-contemporary philosophical issue (like the "Mind/Body 'problem'") that originates from before 1920 or so (save for the Enlightenment, which is always fun). But I always make an exception for Buddhism. I consider anything else "spinning ones wheels" :)

4. I love to dance and move my body. I was like the one guy who always went to raves for the dancing and not the drugs. I was even a DJ for a time. I love Dance Dance Revolution, even though it's not what I call "real dancing". I also do martial arts (almost exactly 10 years), currently Wing Chun Kung Fu- But I think it's just because I like to move that body and exercise, but yet hate lifting weights and running.

5. The Dune novel series has had a profound effect of shaping my psyche. I've learned as much from this modern manmade myth as I have from, say, the Tao Te Ching or Art of War.

Keep 'em coming, folks! I'm really enjoying this "Very Special Episode" of The Forge.

Okay, here's myself in five broken parts...(ouch!)


1. My great-parents'familly being parked and murdered during WWII had a very profund impact on me. So much as to define my view toward religion and racism (not that I consider the two at the same level, you troll !)

2. I've been a student all my life, yep I'm 28+ and still loving it. My bachelor's degree was in biology and I have two university degree: in history and in educational engineering (?) and planning on a master in the latter.

3. I'm living with the woman I love for two years now, and those two years have been as hard as they proved self-improving and maturing.

4. I'm a film buff, mostly osbcure artsy and strange directors... and japanese movies and anime. My all-time favorites are Lynch, Cronenberg and others like that.

5. I enjoy gothic and noir litterature to the point that reading take precedence over my studies... of course, my gaiming experience actually derive from the story I like.

Fabrice.

-I was born and raised a military brat, living in many places for short periods of time, including Okinawa. I think it made me part Gypsy.

-I'm 32 years old and have been married for 11 years, resulting in one Son. We may have another if the Fates are kind.

-I've been a Printer for around 16 years and can't imagine ever leaving it. I'm even getting used to being a Print Sales-Whore. I'm a Print Geek. I just can't get enough of it.

-It took many, many years of stressed band teachers and wasting money on a variety of musical instruments to realize that I have absolutely NO musical talent. I've accepted that.

-I started on Atkins Diet (Carb Control) the day before Thanksgiving last year. I know, what a stupid time to start. I've lost 47 lbs. That puts me within 3 lbs. of where I wanna be.

I practice Aikido (Shin Shin Toitsu - Rocky Mountain Ki Society), have some cross training in Jujitsu (Dan Zan Ryu), and was a high school wrestler. I've never had to use them in a combat sense. Though, breakfalls prevent skateboarding injuries and the right presence avoids many conflicts. I've been in 3 fights in my life, all dismal defeats. In elementary school the kid who stabbed me in the face with a pencil was victorious. In junior high the bigger kid on the bus won. And in high school the five guys with baseball bats won. I was robbed, I shoulda won that last one.

Speaking of high school, I dropped out. If I'd have known at age 14 the GED was only going to take four hours, I would have saved myself some misery. I tried to return and finish after being out in the real world with a couple jobs for a year or so. I may have hated the institution while I was there, but returning with an adult perspective showed me just how much kids are treated like pets instead of people. It was a real eye opener.

When I was about 7 we lived in a tent in the upper peninsula of Michigan while my parents relocated a log cabin piece by piece to their land (I helped too, but it didn't extend much past stepping on a nail). Our adventures in tent-hood ended when a bear ripped through it to steal our 5 gallon bucket of goverment aid peanut butter. Being the end of the tent, we moved into the pick-up truck. We weren't in the tent, and we never found the bucket. Once completed the house had no running water, the outhouse was a hundred feet away, and we kept having to relocate the porcupines who wanted to eat the house (apparently wood houses are delicious). It was the happiest time of my childhood. Treehouse, a backyard that is a forest full of ferns and maple with little creeks, deep scary pits (most likely full of giant snakes) where the foundation was originally going to be, wild animals that get the privilage of being an 8 year boy's pet, fresh maple syrup, wild gooseberrys, crazy old native american up the road who steals your wheelbarrow and can somehow turn a branch into a flute in under a minute, deer you could walk up to, new baby brother, etc.

I wonder how my mother and brother are doing, yet I never call.

This is a fun thread. I see some trends but will honor Ron's request and not comment on them here.

Almost gaming: I too play Go. Don't have an official rating. I'm "tquid" on the various servers.

Subculture: Geek, passionate about capital-F Free software and IP issues, like to dance at S/M clubs just 'cause I dig the music and the sexy people (and I can do my one-man mosh pit!), queer in a variety of ways, religiously went from Discordian to Occultic strands of various types to Buddhism and have more or less settle down to Unitarian-Jodo-Shinsh/Zen-Buddhist. Seriously considering going into the ministry as a Unitarian. I don't think any other even vaguely mainstream church would put up with a polyamorous freak such as myself.

Violence: Did a couple years of Karate, and can fence with foil and rapier passably. Carried a gun in self-defense for a while, never drew it, but missed a home invasion by one week by expediently moving out. I seem to have a knack for talking myself out of bad situations. Not hanging out with people who are one remove from unstable drug dealers has made my life a lot less tense. I still think that personal firearms are a reasonable form of defense for people with proper training, something I keep my mouth shut about in Canada, since I hang out mainly with foaming lefties. (And consider myself to be such in many, but not all ways.)

Nationality: I'm a dual Canadian/American citizen too.

Education & employment: A college washout, I collect weird degrees, and have a ministry from the universal life church whish has seen me perform three weddings, as well as a degree in advanced locksmithing from a correspondence school (I re-key the locks for my housing co-operative). I did tech support for many years, and systems administration (unix mainly) for a few, and now find myself hitting people up on the street to join a monthly donor program for Unicef. I also do some computer contracting and run my own home server. (Debian Linux, but thinking aobut setting up Gentoo on the spare machine.)

Trivia: "J B Bell" is my full, legal name. People call me "JB", though I've also been nicknamed Habeeb, Jaybe, J'b, and other cute variants. Border bureaucrats seem to have a problem with it.

--JB

- Big fan of pulp fantasy, especially Karl Edward Wagner. My first fantasy novel ever was Lawrence Watt-Evan's Lords of Dus books, which introduced me in a back-handed way to Lovecraftian gods, the King in Yellow, and the old Howard stories.

- Avid Star Wars LEGO fan, but mostly the original trilogy sets. I find the combination of films and toys that shaped my youth to be very, very awesome. That and they're LEGOs, so I can do whatever with them.

- I turned 26 last week. I share a birthday with Aretha Franklin, and it's the same day that Liv Tyler got married. I spent the day home from work, and the evening playing games with my wife and friends.

- I'm a database programmer, currently seeking employment in the video game industry. Part of my plan to start enjoying life.

- So far, I'm the first in three or four generations (on one side, at least) to not finish college. I dropped out after disgust with the computer science department's inflexibility and the art department's general attitude that "illustration isn't art."

Hell, Ill play.

I was born in 1971.

After my parents split,I moved around a lot. Not as much as some, I have found, but enough to make me feel rootless.

I've been involved with roleplaying since 1983, but it seems I prefer thinking about it to actually playing.

In fact, I seem to lack any real drive. I talked about this with my brother once and we came to a concensus that I had always gotten acceptance from our father no matter what (lucky junior me) and he did not. So I've been bouncing from job to job with no real marketable skills while he got himself a career a wife a kid, another on the way...I dunno. I may make this the basis of a screenplay that I'll never finish.

Now I'm getting depressing. I'd better stop before it gets worse.

Here's my five

1. I was born in Germany, the Emelia Earhart hospital in Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany. I am a US citizen though, an air force brat, my dad was career airforce, serving 20 years, he did two tours in Vietnam, and was in Nam when I was born '72.

2. I'm single, which may have something to do with the fact that I seem to have a penchant for falling for lesbian women. I did some stalker like research about my childhood sweetheart, found out where she lived, what she was doing, tried calling and got an answering machine that indicated she was living with another girl (who is also from here.). She is like 30, has a good job, and is like totally hot. So, I think it may be some kind of genetic thing, an evolutionary reaction to overpopulation, I'm like a reverse fag-hag or something. sigh.

3. I'm a fat bastard, though not quite gigantic, I'm 5'8", and wear a size 14 shoe, and weigh 325lbs. So like I am pretty burly, broad shouldered, and fairly muscular, so you wouldn't imagine that I am THAT heavy. I mean, I can crush furniture, and exceed the engineering tolerances of ladders and stuff.

4. I am a college drop-out, like most of my friends. First not having in degrees in engineering and liberal arts, and then not having a degree in english, creative writing. Somehwere along the line i learned a variety of useful computer skills, mostly PC hardware tech, and interenet/web design stuff. I think my ultimate calling is writing, but first to finish my damn game.

5. I have a little formal training in martial arts, lots of fighting when I was a kid, wrestling in juniour high, a year or so of judo, and general streetfighting type training with a friend, including informal instruction in Tae Kwan Do, Aikido, and study of ninjitsu stuff through Steven K. Hayes' books. Speaking of ninjitsu, used to have some fair stealth skills, during my juvenille delinquent phase. Have some skill in sword use, mostly kendo type stuff with katana, knife stuff. Have familiarity with a fair variety of fire arms, thanks to my friend, who was a sheriff's deputy, who was also the guy I did the juvenile delinquent stuff with, go figure. He had an AR-15, 12guage combat style shotgun, Sig Sauer .357 shortneck, Mac 11 9mm with silencer (Suprisingly accurate from the hip), .357 revolver, and like a .38 semi-auto. He was also guy I sparred with alot. I have a healty interest in combat, weapons, and other militaria stuff now, and being that I am old and fat these days, would rather just shoot someone than try to fight with them. :)

1. My full name is Christoffer Malcolm Lernö, born (in 1973) and raised in Uppsala, Sweden. I've got two younger brothers and two younger sisters. I'm currently living in Tunghai Village in the outskirts of Taichung, Taiwan.

2. At the university my specialization was into quantum field theory, general relativitity and such things. I stopped just before graduation though (not finishing my thesis), deciding I wanted more perspective on what I wanted to do with my life before I committed myself to a life of doing research and teaching. I quickly ended up as a programmer, which I'm decently good at I think. However, right now I'm not working at all but spending my savings to stay in Taiwan learning Mandarin Chinese.

3. As for the M-A thing, since you're all bringing it up. Judo and Shotokan karate for a semester each when I was little but that wasn't very serious. Kendo, which I took up in '93, on the other hand I've been doing very diligently but I only have a shodan to show for it. I've been exclusively practicing nito (two swords) since some years back.
Anyway, in Taiwan I decided to make a pause with the kendo to concentrate on practicing traditional Long Fist (-kung fu). I've been doing that for a little over a year now and I feel more fit and flexible than ever. Yay!

4. I think everyone needs to encourage their uniqueness. I'm a strong non-conformist and hate to be herded. And did I mention I'm a Goddess worshipping pagan with a strong touch of zen-buddhism and taoism thrown in for good measure?

5. I haven't had a nightmare since I was three. That nightmare was about going around and discovering I was in a dream with everyone in the dream telling me "no, this is not a dream" and I couldn't get myself to wake up.

1. I compose and perform experimental music as "krisTal marimba lounge" and have played the Northern California Experimental Music Festival for the past three years, and I am included on three comp CDs; my previous music experience was with a medieval consort (tabor drum, recorder) and a light jazz improv group (digital horn). I don't read music and don't consider myself a musician.

2. I am experimenting with video and animation and half one semi-pro credit (recording and digitizing an Uberkunst performance) and a couple short animate music videos I've recently made, one of which is machinima, the other is in Bryce. I can't draw or paint.

3. I like lots of classic movies and just bought tons of '50s space sci-fi on DVD as well as a couple Nouvelle Vague films. I go to the theater about 4 times a year.

4. I am in the middle of changing my career from tech support to gods-know-what, probably some form of graphic design. I am 39 years old and don't know what I want to be when I grow up.

5. I used to be a druid, now I'm a lazy pantheist.

I have an M.F.A. in Painting/Drawing with heavy concentrations of Printmaking (etching mostly) and Photography. I was hoping to teach but so far that hasn't panned out (in this market?) I make art on the computer as well and am recently teaching myself how to use various 3D programs.

Needing money while my wife finishes her Masters in Counseling Psych, I, in a strange twist of fate, became a tech support rep for a major PC manufacturer. At home I use a Macintosh.

My lovely wife and I have been married for 10 years. Our only child so far is a small Bichon Frise.

I moved out on my own when I was 17 to avoid the emotional fallout of my parents divorce. In another strange twist they recently began living together again after being divorced for almost 13 years.

I'm an avid reader of...well...just about anything: History, comparitive religion, philosophy, poetry. I have a special interest in divination systems, particularly the Tarot and the I Ching.

I spent the summer of 1978 hiking the Appalachian Trail. Didn't get the whole thing done, though.

I'm a card-carrying Socialist.

Married with two kids. The whole family games.

I almost finished my Ph.D. in American history but decided to work for a dot-com instead.

That dot-com is still in business!

Home Life: My dad served in Vietnam as a mechanic. Was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis a few years later and is currently bed-bound. My mom takes care of him. They live 1.5 miles from my house. My in-laws are a single mom, two sisters-in-law, aged 17 & 18 (one of whom we’re corrupting into being a gamer—she’ll be at GenCon), and, at the moment, 2 foster kids. They live 1 mile from my house. My house is my wife Kat. She’s a gamer, too, and is writing a fantasy novel that’s gonna knock the socks off of everyone this side of Tolkien. We’re adopting a 12-year-old girl who, ironically, hates to read. We also have a foster daughter at the moment. Did I mentioned I have a lot of family that I have to juggle every day?

Education/Work: BA in history, minor in English Literature, International Studies certificate. Did a year of grad school in history but dropped out due to academia’s obsession with minutiae, the politicking, and the bleak career prospects. Have never left the U.S. I now work for a book compositor and can use Quark Xpress like a fiend. No marketable technical skills beyond that.

Interests: I nigh-worship the Star Wars films, and Buffy, but loathe all the spinoffs. I’m biased against anything that’s too popular. I think 90% of any variety of Pop Culture is crap. Even badly-done Shakespeare is better than a night of TV. And I like Broadway musicals, especially Sondheim, but have never listened to Phantom of the Opera or Cats. If you think that’s bad, just wait for “Musical Comedy: the Role-Playing Game”! My game library has over a hundred titles at last count, and I’ve actually played over 20 of them.

Martial Arts/Music: Has become its own category by this point. Thankfully no personal experience with physical conflict of any kind, so far, and I’d like to keep it that way, thank you very much. On a good day, I can play exactly two songs on the harmonica, and I taught myself to whistle two months ago, at the age of 29. Won’t be quitting my day job.

What is is it with "Mike"s and their long posts?

I also suck at editing myself.

Er,

Hmmmm,

1) I'm 27 years old and live in Southampton, England with my Fiance, Naomi. What she sees in me and why she puts up with me, I'll never know. We have no pets due to our lease, but we have a Dyson which is practically part of the family.

2) I am one of the most cynical, miserable motherfuckers you'll ever meet. You name it, I can hate it. My particular pet hates are largely music and food related because those are two things which are very important to me. In particular I hate mushrooms, cheese that hasn't been cooked, R&B, Brit Pop, outdoors, the 1980's and any food that lives or has lived in the sea. I like Belgian Beer (and, yes, I'm sad enough to go on holiday just for beer), Star Wars, icecream and beef.

3) I'm a Secular Humanist. We open our damn christmas presents whenever we want :)

4) I have two websites, and I work in the IT industry as a consultant of sorts. I've been laid off 3 times in the last 18 months. It's all a bit rock 'n' roll really. Every time we plan an actual wedding and try to set a date, my employer goes bankrupt. Speaking of Rock 'n' Roll, I used to dj at industrial/rock/metal/tecno events, but I got too old for that kind of thing.

5) I play videogames all the time. I have pretty much every console since the NES, which makes my corner of our lounge look like a looney tunes server room.

I also drink more coffee that any other non-lawyer I know. Martial arts is too much like physical effort. I use a DVORAK keyboard, which is why my typos are so weird. I'm in a band called "Worst Case Scenario" because it was always considered that dispite the fact that I can sing fairly well, it would be a truly terrible thing if I as ever to actually form a band. My father was a cop for 19 years and a fireman for 9 before that. I'm pretty much a career opposite, having studied Engineering and working in IT. My middle name is Kenneth.

Clinton R. Nixon wrote: Here's mine:
4. Yes, I spent four years in the Army. Besides the resulting marriage and divorce, they were the best four years of my life. I was a Korean-language signals intelligence analyst, but enjoyed my time in the motor pool with my Hum-Vee much more.

Painfully single.

25, 5'10" and overweight at 11 stone.

Can't sing, can't play, can't strum, can't drum. Can engineer. Do.

ObSeriousGothCred: Allergic to sunlight.

PhD soon (quantum physics).

I am currently running an after-school program in a rural town in upstate NY. This job seems surreal most days, even after being a Youth Advocate, an English teacher in Tokyo and a cab driver in upstate NY.


My passion is writing and I wrote a book-length journal of my stay in Japan. I hope to finish my first novel this summer when I have a long break from work and I've finished the background reading I want to do (on Arthurian legends and the life and iconic status of Elvis Presley).


Grew up on the Jersey shore with loving parents in a Jewish home.


Practice Arnis with an amazing teacher and have been doing so, with breaks for leaving town here and there, for a few years now. Tried Aikido when I was in Japan but the rolling and circular motions of the take-downs made my inner ear go nuts and lest I vomit on the dojo floor, I had to quit after 3 months.

1) My family, both maternal & paternal, have been socially active & politically left for a long time. My great-grandparents on my father's side left Russia after the revolution because they were to the left of the Bolsheviks. My grandmother organized unions in the '20s. (Ever seen John Sayles' movie Matewan? That's what she was doing.) Her sister, my great-aunt Sonya, was big in leftist theater in Chicago. (Ever seen Tim Robbins' movie Cradle Will Rock? Sonya was in the audience of the production at the climax of the movie. And when it played in Chicago, she was on stage as Sister Mister.) My other great aunt, May, moved to Poland & stayed there for 14 years to avoid going up before HUAC. She was only able to come back into the US because my family bribed a customs official to sneak her in. My mother & father were civil rights activists & anti-war activists in the '60s. They were on the Selma-Montgomery march. I'm very proud of my family, & my politics are very heavily shaped by them.

2) I'm very much a dilettante--I know a little about a lot of things. I like this, because it allows me to talk to a wide variety of people about topics they're interested in. But I feel like I'm missing out by not knowing a lot about at least one thing. My personal interests include: the history of comics, the Knights Templar, voudon, quantum physics (the laypeople's wacky sort-of-mystical side of it, anyway), Elizabethan England, British post-punk music, the Dada & Surrealist movements, the Beats, goofy conspiracy theories, & pop culture.

3) I'm better than pretty much anyone I know at Six Degrees of Separation with film actors. Seriously. Give me two actors & I'll link them up, movie by movie, in less than six moves. Mike Gentry challenged me on this & I connected Jennifer Lopez to Jessica Tandy & then back to Jennifer Lopez without hitting the same movie twice. Without consulting any online or print resources. (Jennifer Lopez was in The Cell with Vincent D'Onofrio, who was in Ed Wood with Bill Murray, who was in Ghostbusters with Dan Ackroyd, who was in Driving Miss Daisy with Jessica Tandy, who was in Cocoon with Steve Gutenberg, who was in Can't Stop the Music with Valerie Perrine, who was in Superman with Gene Hackman, who was in Enemy of the State with Jon Voight, who was in Anaconda with Jennifer Lopez.) I don't know why so much of my brain is devoted to remembering these actors & these films, but...I find it both troubling & amusing, & a weird source of pride.

4) I moved a lot when I was a kid, & continue to do so as an adult. I've lived in the Bay Area, Detroit, New York (Queens & Long Island), Iowa City, Kansas City, North Carolina, Ecuador (Cuence), Japan (the Kansai area), England (Cambridge), & now Milwaukee.

5) I moved to Milwaukee to go to grad school (for Library/Information Science), but I haven't started yet. I did, however, meet the love of my life here. Her name's Julie, & she's posted her a few times. And she has a daughter, Morgan, who is, in my opinion, the coolest kid ever. I'm quickly become "Dad", which I'm loving. I couldn't have wished for a better family than the one I've suddenly got. In fact, this is the most significant thing to happen to me in recent years, by far.

I am a librarian.

Junior year in college, I switched from a physics to a religion major; eventually received a masters in religion, emphasis on history of religions.

I practice Chen family taijiquan.

I enjoy opera and low budget horror movies.

I recently watched a documentary on Tommy Jarrell, not because I'm familiar with his music, but because I miss the Blue Ridge mountains.

Julie

Heck, I'd better get in on the act here...

I'm 32 and have been playing RPGs since a 4th grade invite, "Hey, you wanna play a new game?" resulted in a randomly rolled cleric (the worst possible character class for me...). Said cleric died in the first combat and was replaced by a thief who died in the next combat, who was replaced by a fighter who survived long enough for me to realize that I'd be happier playing the thief.

I'm married to the girl I fell in love with my freshman year in high school. We've been together for 18 years and married for coming up on 10. We have a six year old son who's possibly the smartest person I ever met and who begs me to play my own favorite video and computer games with him. As my wife asked, "How does it feel to have raised your own playmate?"

He and I take Chinese Kenpo Karate together and are studying for our purple belts (Crane). We took a year of Choy Li Fut Kung Fu together before we escaped from California back to New Mexico. I enjoyed the CLF, but the highly applicable Kenpo is somehow more satisfying.

I enjoy astronomy and motorcycling am the proud owner of a Meade LX-90 and a Honda Magna. Unfortunately, I cannot take the one with me when I travel on the other. I need either a much smaller telescope or a much larger motorcycle. My wife disputes this point, on the basis of my use of the word "need."

My wife and I created and write our alternate-Victorian indie comic book The Wonderverse and it's illustrated by two of the best friends we ever made.

Ron, don't you want to get to know your constituents?

1. I'm the one to whom Josh refers. I'm 5 years younger than he is - scandalous! We're like this (crosses fingers). He and Mo (the daughter, ask him about the RetCon DNA) are like this (crosses fingers) too, but in an entirely paternal way.

2. The major cities I've lived in have all been in the south: Nashville, Birmingham, New Orleans. When I've lived elsewhere, it's been rural (like now - Mukwonago/Waukesha, WI; Socorro, NM).

3. I want to be a pathologist when I grow up, but for now I'll keep my job as a transcriptionist. (no, I did not get my degree through the mail, thank you very much, it's a real A.A. in medical language from WCTC, all those college credits and APs wasted).

4. Overriding ambition in life: Through-hiking the Appalachian Trail. Failing that: Through-hiking the Ice Age Trail. It's right in my backyard.

5. I am an amateur chef of Olympic standard.

I have lived my entire life (save vacations) in California, but have lived 25 of my 29 years in the central backwater that rabidly hates both Northern and Southern California.

Did the school thing; in and out with a civil engineering degree. You know, bridges and buildings and stuff.

I've been called (by various friends, away from games) referee, conciliator, diplomat, and peacemaker. I treasure it, even when it's supposed to be insulting.

I read constantly, unless I'm prepping to game. Then breaking out a reference is an excuse to get sucked in to whatever I'm looking up, so I have to be zealous in limiting my reading. It doesn't always work.

Ursula LeGuin's a favorite author, Sarah McLachlan is a favorite musician, landscapes are my favored posters, Ampersand's a favored blogger... and whatever randomly comes out of the closet is what I wear (no favorites there).

Scott Martin

Early B/G: Parents split up when I was 4, raised with younger sister by mostly single mom (step-dad drove tractor trailers, worked on oil rigs, and joined the Navy) in rural upstate NY. Started gaming in 1978 w/D&D box set. Homeschooled off and on.

Middle B/G: Spent the 1980's in San Diego due to aforementioned Navy. Hated most of it, but loved the desert and the ocean. I did do lots of LARP/RPG, and found the SCA. Did ok in high school.

Almost recent B/G: When it came to college, got as far from SoCal as possible and landed in Amherst, MA, at Hampshire College. My second year there I was a Peer Advisor (an RA equivalent) and Vincent was one of my advisees. Yes, it was a fairy tale-type thing. Vincent ran a legendary Cyberpunk-ish game that was mostly his own design. I ran my first Ars Magica campain, with various rule tweeking. I was an EMT while at Hampsire - good for gaming resource. Got my Award of Arms in SCA. Graduated with a BA in American Women's History with a focus on Textiles as a mode of transmitting Hx. Joined Hampshire Shakespear Theater Company as a costume and hair design guru.

Recent B/G: Started bellydancing in Jan 1996. Had Sebastian in Oct 1996. Made about a dozen commissioned quilts, plus gifts etc. Taught at the Fiber Arts Center in Amherst. Had Elliot at home 4/11/2000. Moved to Greenfield MA, joined UU Church (I'm a life-long UU w/strong pagan shades).

Other stuff, in no real order: My mom was reading Tolkein to me when I was about three hours old - really. The nurses thought she was weird. I love words and word origions and derivations and deffinitions; people don't use a wide enough vocabulary, in my mind. I like looking at rocks and knowing how they got that way. I'm fascinated by mummies and long dead stuff; I helped my mom dissect a mink when I was about 3.5. I'm really interested in Germany during the rise of the Hanseatic Leauge, but it's hard to find info on it. Both my grandmothers are first-generation American, from Sweden and Germany. I'm currently doing lots of genealogy work, trying to find my German family. I'm starting to do Bellydance performances, which is fun and scarey. If it falls in the heading 'fiber arts', I've probably at least tried it - lace, knitting, weaving, sewing, spinning, carding, crochet, quilting, caneing, etc., etc. - and I probably have the stuff around here somewhere. We have two great cats.

~Meguey

1) I am the oldest of 6 children and grew up in Torrington CT until I was transplanted to Michigan my senior year of High School (1988).

2) I was in the Army Reserves about 10 years and 100 lbs ago. I fixed the occassional telephone or switchboard and mopped and waxed far too many floors. As far as I know, my unit has not shipped out.

3) I grew up on welfare surrounded by drugs and alcohol, and even joined a fraternity in college, yet I have never smoked a cigarette, drank an ounce of alcohol or taken a single nonprescription drug. And I'm still messed up :-) imagine that.

4) I borrowed more money than a small country to get an English degree I never use. Everything I learned to do my current job (graphic design) I learned because it made it easier to make my own character sheets and lay out my own games.

5) the rest of my life is so unimpressive I can't think of a fifth thing to add to this list.

,Matt G.

Hey all,

Hmm, I grew up in the no-man's land between PA and upper NY in a small town called A Bit South of Ithaca, where I designed board games and computer games until about '89 when I decided to check out this weird kind of wargame called D&D where one person just refereed and decided whether or not anything the other players wanted to do was possible, so I went to the local bookstore (like 30 minutes away, at the mall) and bought GURPS (third edition) and Forgotten Realms (first edition boxed set). Even after reading both many times, it was still a shock when I first saw my friends play actual D&D at lunch, and I decided then and there I had to master this new kind of game. I think my first design was in '92 or so, but I've long since lost my notes from that time period.

Unlike most of my friends, I chose college over the service and moved to Amherst, MA. I never completed an engineering degree, but I worked in the field over breaks for about 4-5 years. Instead, the University of Massachusetts Theater Dept gave me a BA in '00, just before the economy bombed. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, so I worked tech support until the business collapsed, and I have been working pointlessly stupid jobs since, including my current job as a retail supervisor at the university store.

I never formally studied martial arts, but my father coached just about any sport I can think of, and I grew up playing football against much larger kids, so I can put the tricks my friends taught me to good use. Mostly, I watch Hong Kong movies and play Street Fighter. And go out in the woods and beat my friends with padded sticks.

There. Is that five?

Later,
Grant

1. I grew up in central Iowa, and moved to California to become a tree-hugging environmental activist, of the type that wave placards and chain themselves to things.

2. I have since stopped chaining myself to things, and am getting into social work; I currently work at a youth outreach program, where I get paid to hand out condoms.

3. JL is not my real name, nor are either letters initals of mine; however, they ARE the initials of the first character I ever played, Johnny Lightning, in an online freeform game about 8 years ago; I still use the monicker online.

4. I can both sing and play the trombone, though not at the professional level. I have sang at Carnegie Hall with my high school choir.

5. I am currently attending a local community college, College of the Redwoods.

DaGreatJL wrote: 3. JL is not my real name, nor are either letters initals of mine; however, they ARE the initials of the first character I ever played, Johnny Lightning, in an online freeform game about 8 years ago; I still use the monicker online.

Nick; though I PREFER JL. Immature and dorky? Perhaps. Doesn't stop me. :)

1. I'm a Computer Science major at Michigan State, but I want to change my major to English. Oh and dual major in Japanese.

2. I am really good at troubleshooting computers. Its almost like an emphatic link. "Tell me what's wrong poor thing." Oh and I name my computers. My main PC is Enoch. My laptop is Sumomo (6" anime character).

3. I'm into martial arts, but at the moment really out of shape. I've practiced Karate for a year. Tae Kwon Do for 1/2 a year. And Tang Soo Do for 1 1/2 years. I want to get into aikido and kendo.

4. I make anime music videos. Though I haven't made a really good one yet. Download my first one here: http://www.msu.edu/user/smith465/amv.html

5. I have a wonderful family. My parents are still together (None of my older friends have a normal family) and are really cool (they took me to OzzFest!). I have two brothers, one who role-plays, one who is a crazy little dude.

-Joshua

1. I studied Shuri Goju Ryu karate in grade school and Tae Kwan Do in middle school. Though I've never used either in a fight it's surprisingly all stored in muscle memory.

2. I have never taken any illegal drugs in my life and yet no one believes me. (I am just naturally like this.) One high school teacher almost had me kicked out of school because he was convinced that I was coming to his class stoned.

3. My wife and I were married 8 years ago on the Winter Solstice. I'm ten years younger than her and we have no intention of ever having children.

4. I can carry on conversations using nothing but quotes from rock and punk songs and there is almost always music playing in my head. (In writing this post it's gone from "Atomic" by Blondie to "Clash City Rockers" by the Clash.)

5. I learned to read from comic books and have been reading them ever since. Sadly, I understand the crappiness of the comics market too well to ever try and publish one for profit.

Hnn.

1) I grew up in front of a computer and online; BBSes at 4 and 5, early web a few years later. Earliest memory is playing Frogger on a RadioShack kit-built Tandy hooked up to our teevee.

2) I read Neuromancer when I was maybe 5 years old; it had only been out a few years at this point. Has influenced me to such a point I can't single out any specific things it steered me towards. Permeated everything.

3) I never lie. Ever. It's not worth the effort.

4) My favourite past-time is dreaming.

5) In about a year I'm going to pack a bag and start walking; whatever it is I want out my existance, it's not a career and it's not a home life.

1. I am adopted.
2. I am learning Reiki.
3. When I was a child I traveled all over the world with my mother, narrowly avoiding military coups, race riots, and natural disasters.
4. Sometimes I read the dictionary just for the hell of it.
5. I am married and remain childless by choice.

~Kris

At university I dropped out of law and ended up getting my degree in archaelogy.

Also at university I practiced kung fu, tai chi and was a member of a medieval re-enactment society (War of the Roses).

I dance pretty well, both freestyle club stuff and also a little salsa.

I was recently made redundant from my teaching job (IT for adults) and am about to either start work as a phone monkey for an internet bank or in an admin-type job with the local council depending on how an interview goes on wednesday. Inferences of a certain amount of random drift in my career choices are entirely your own.

Two years ago I made the world's worst short film. I'm currently noodling around with a concert film I made for a friend's band and some animations.

1) I was born in Scotland in 1978; I moved to the US when I was four. I went back to Britain in 1996 to go to university, then back to the US in 1999 and, most recently, back to the UK in 2002.

2) I'm a graduate student in archaeology at the University of Durham. It's kind of a party, although my dissertation is looming. I'm a huge archaeology geek.

3) I'm married (since July). My wife Allison was brave enough to come to England with me. It can be a bit isolating, moving to somewhere completely new, but we have so far avoided going mad.

4) My father is a professor at Stanford University; in his time, he's been dean of humanities (and I am living proof that just cos your dad's the dean doesn't mean you'll get in) and head of the Institute for International Studies, and as a result I know a fair number of well-known people. Condi Rice, for example, is an old family friend.

5) I'm an outdoors-hating couch potato, but I'm getting better! I went on the Atkins diet, and have lost 21 kg since mid-January (say about 45 lbs.). I'm trying to make sure I get more exercise (since I moved to a country where I don't have a car, I'm at least getting a certain amount of walking in).

Hmm, let's see... (first post, wow! *blush*)

1) Just before I turned 20, I dropped out of university, where I studied Electical Engineering. Just before I turned 30, I majored from said university in English and CS, with my grades in English 20 points higher on the average than those in CS. Now I work as a programmer.

2) I think what Disney did to Notre Dame de Paris is truly unforgivable.

3) My cat is the most adorable feline creature to ever grace the face of this earth. Even my wife, who is a "dog person" through and through, grudgingly admits that.

4) I subscribe to The Skeptical Inquirer.

5) Once I decided not to eat meat for about a year, both to see if I could, and to know what it's like.

MarK.