It's been five years...

[3peanuts]

USMU!!!!!

Hugs very very tight!

Throws confetti [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Branflakes]

*run/tackle/hugs* to usmu

Oh yes, we remember you. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Good luck with schooling. I haven't gotten around to finishing my degree yet.

[AsIs]

The most awesome thing about threads like these is seeing old friends/posters reappear!

*hugs usmu*

Good to see you are still around some.

[Ersby]

Hey, usmu. It's been a while. Good to see you're still around.

In the meantime, I forgot to mention I contribute to a shared blog about videogames.

www.unsavedprogress.com

I'm RSB.

[Chaos Butterfly]

My turn. hmm well it says I've been here since June 2001. This was the first messageboard I ever posted on I remember ending up here after being erm instructed that I couldn't start a random converstion in the SIP section (when the 2 were linked together). I guess I started being online more and trying to be more communicative with people after 2000 when my Dad died and I gave the eulogy about him being a real 'people whisperer' who could talk to just about anyone. And I decided I was going to try be more like him as before I was pretty quiet and shy and a little bit of a loner.

And now well you can't shut me up. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I chose here because SIP people really are quite a special breed being very welcoming, open and accepting and in general more accepting of newbies than alot of places at the time.

So over the last five years I've really started sorting out and managing my depression that I had been going through for really quite a while and for a long time unknowingly. Now I'm pretty good tho' it does catch up on me occasionally.

I'm alot better person than I was more outgoing too.

I had already started singing lessons and continued with that and in 2004? I was in an actual musical that people paid to see at the Playhouse Theatre. It was Anything Goes! -Cole Porter hehe I also had to tapdance for the first time in over a decade. I still sing I just haven't got around to it this year.

I did something I had lost hope of doing anytime soon and went to the otherside of the world with my friend on holiday. It was the first ytime I'd been away from my family and I got quite homesick but loved everymoment of it. So I got to see some of Thailand, England, Belgium, Amsterdam, Germany, Austria, Italy and France and I got to meet 3P and Sarabiga and a whole bunch of new people on my tour. I also managed to travel alone to Vienna to do the one thing I wanted to do before I died which was see a performance by the famous Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School. I even managed to take a train to Graz and got to the Stud in Piber.

And when I came back I learned a friend from work wanted to go to the USA so I suggested a Contiki as it was going to alot of places she wanted to go to, and I invited myself along.

And so a year of hard slog and major overtime at work I was on a plane to New York with a stopover in Hawaii. I met RichC in New York and made Kathryn navigate us on a train and bus to Flushing,Queens so I could go to a big animestore.

We also went up to Canada for a few days Quebec city is awesome. Then it was diagonally across the Northerns States seeing lots of things. We went to Vegas and I got to cross 2 things off my 'New things to do before I die' list we went to Cirque du Soleil 'O' at the Bellagio in LAs Vegas it was totally awesome. And I got to go to the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton and eat lunch with a Klingon.

I went to Disneyland, I went to Medieval Times(which is very cool), I went to bunches of places which I'd never thought of seeing before. I ate cheese in a can. I met Jacesan in San Francisco and Lulu in LA.

I spent far too much money and had the best time ever and have been kinda recovering financially ever since although rediscovering the joy of anime didn't help much.

Also over this time I had a very small share in a racehorse (a pacer). it has just been retired it wasn't very good but I did get to sit in the sulky and drive him once when he was being broken in. I got to name him too, 'Gran Turismo'. It was fun and something I had wanted to do since I was 10 years old and obsessed with horseracing (by 11yrs old my Dad was putting bets on for me at the TAB and I was doing better than him lol)

And towards the end of last year I fell in love for the first time and it's with a very special girl, so special I really had to come out to my Mum as soon as possible because the girl is coming to visit me this year as she lives overseas.

Sorry didn't mean to turn this into my life stroy but I really have done all this in the last 5 years so the next 5 are sure to be interesting.

So what next? My girlfriend comes to visit me in August and then we have to think about what we want to do, before all this stuff happened my plan was to go to Japan next year and now I'm not sure what's happening.

LOL I seem to have taken up a whole page.

[3peanuts]

Cheese in a can?

Ew.

[happybunny2]

I first posted early in 2000 I think. But the bunny has trouble remembering anything these days [img]confused.gif[/img]

[RichC]

Well, at the bottom of your post it says you registered in April of 2000, so I'd say you're remembering correctly.

[Yazimariel]

Well, geez Louise, this place just refuses to die... I love it!

Let's see... I registered early '99, methinks. I had just stopped attending my classes in my second semester at college (without properly dropping out, a stupid, stupid mistake) and was spending a lot of time at home. Just a few months before that I had finally realized I was really into women. I wasn't sure about anything- myself, my beliefs, how to spell. This was one of the many places online where I sorta lost myself; I'll admit I kinda stopped living. Then I officially dropped out of school, moved out of New York, came back to New York and through all of that I kept coming to the SiP boards and talking to the people. In 2000-2001 I met some of you in person (waves to AsIs) tried going back to school and failed and then I spent a year doing absolutely nothing. I'd like to blame it on 9/11 or on youth, but neither one of those works.

And then in '03 I went back to school and this time, I stuck with it. I graduated summer of '05, found a job within a month, started volunteering at a great place, I actually dated a boy (a boy!) for an entire year and some months. I realized there's still more of me to uncover. I'm working on a lit magazine with a group of friends and I truly believe we are doing something worth doing.

At the time, I'm single. Raelee (remember her?) and I still email each other practically every day. I stick with SiP more cuz... well, I just want to see how it ends rather than thinking that is still the best comic book out there. I'm applying to grad schools but as of now all of them but one have answered, and with a no.

I've changed. Lord, I am not the same LairBaby I once was- don't know if I'm yet the LairBaby that I want to be- but I'm happy. I think that counts for something. [img]wink.gif[/img]

and, Hi Y'all.

[Shadowcat]

Wow, I'm glad that I randomly popped in here. It's nice to see that this place is still around. To be honest, I really don't remember when I joined STP. The past five years are a bit of a blur in my head. My memory isn't what it used to be. I'll try to dig way back, though.

Five years ago, it was 2001. Cripes, what was I doing in 2001? That was before my tech support jobs, but after I worked at DQ. I'll take a wild guess and say that I was either unemployed, or working some crappy job that wasn't worth remembering. Most likely, I was rather depressed about my situation. Living at home, having been kicked out of school some years previously, and not being able to find gainful employment will do that. I do know that I loved my comic books, and still do. SiP was a breath of fresh air to me, in a land of spandex clad superheroes. Comics helped me escape from what really was a dismal situation.

Today, I am doing quite well. After a couple of years of on-again-off-again employment, I decided to go back to school for a computer science degree. Lucky me, I found that I actually enjoy programming a great deal. About one week after I re-entered school, a series of hurricanes hit Florida. I was left with the choice of staying in school, or dropping everything to go to work. I currently work for FEMA (I can hear the boo's and hisses, you know), so it was a tough decision to make. I decided to stay in school, and am glad that I did. After two semesters, I decided that it was time to make some money. I had been completely unable to find a part time job that would work around my classes, and not involve food service. So, after a year of mooching off of my elderly parents, I jumped at the chance to work for a bit in Albany.

Albany is only two hours away from my house, so I got to go back and forth on weekends, to hang out with friends, do laundry, and transport more stuff to the suite I was living out of. In Albany I learned a new job that was made possible from a class I had taken the previous semester. I learned quite a bit about mapping systems (GIS), and had a ball doing it. By the end of my time there, I was in charge of my whole unit of two people. Katrina hit while I was in Albany. There aren't many GIS people in FEMA, so even I was a valuable asset that needed to be mobilized to the south. I finished up in NY, then went to Mississippi for four months. I learned some new software, worked on my first database project, and honed my GIS skills. In October I took a brief break and went to Yuricon, in NJ. I got to hang out with AsIs a bit, as well as some cool new people. After another break for Christmas, I went to Louisiana to help out my old boss. I've been working there since mid-January. My current job is as a GIS Specialist (that's Geographic Information Systems) in the GIU (Geospatial Intelligence Unit) in Baton Rouge. The people that I work with are rather brilliant, and a bit crazy. We get along fantastically. I've never had so much fun with my coworkers before. I'm currently on a much needed vacation, back in NY. I've only got about a week to go before I have to go back south.

There is much good news as far as my future. They will be hiring people locally to work at the operation in Baton Rouge. Those jobs are going to have real good pay, plus benefits (two things that I don't get right now). My unit wants me to apply for the DBA position, and they are trying to fund me to go to several Oracle and ESRI classes. So, in essance, they want to hire me for a position that pays awesomely, and pay for all of my training for it. If everything goes through, then I will be moving down to Louisiana some time this summer. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Oh, yeah. About four years ago I finally figured out that I'm trans. Everything just kind of fell into place. I'm much more comfortable with myself, but because I haven't transitioned at all, I'm a bit more uncomfortable around other people. My coworkers are at least starting to catch on that I'm not a "girl," even though I am in a female form. I geek out regularly with my favorite coworker about games, comic books, and cartoons. We're such a diverse group that everyone just fits, so that's cool. I like going out to the pub after work with the guys, which we do at least a few times a week. Our boss calls it "stress management." [img]wink.gif[/img]


Over the past five years, I've been to areas of NY that I'd never seen, NJ, Texas, and most of the south.

Over the past year I've been to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. I love traveling, but am getting tired of living out of a suitcase. I'll be happy when I can finally move and cart some of my stuff down south with me. Today, I sold my car to my best friend (who was coincidentally in bad need of another car). Once I go back to BR, I'll officially be vehicleless! Well, I get a rental while I'm down there, but I won't own a car anymore. I've been drooling over the 2005 VW Jetta with diesel engine for about six months. It WILL be mine. *_*