The updated forums confuse and frighten me.

[Variable]

Well they did, until I tinkered with some things and made them a little more pleasing to the eye. :)

So, I went and disappeared for a good long time. Can't tell you where I've been but it was an experience, lemme tell you.

How is everyone?! I'm glad so many people are still here. Just reading the forums was some nice nostalgia. What's everyone up to?

I finished my tour in the Marines about 5 days ago, so I'm officially a civilian again, busy working out the rest of my life. I'm not sure what the count was when I was last here but I've now got 2 kids, and a third on the way. That's pretty much all the update I have, unless anyone has any questions.

It's good to be back. I missed you all. Between DTM and THZ, this has been a second (or third) home to me for nearly a decade now, after all.

[Gambit]

Variable!!! So glad you're back, and in one piece!

(thinks)

You are in one piece, right?

[Ghryphen]

Hey Var! Good to see ya! Glad you are made it back! How was the tour? What are you going to do now?

THZ has been pretty quiet lately. Everyone is playing different things. A few of us are playing WoW and recently I have been playing a lot of BF2.

DTM on the other had, it is sad to say it has no pulse :( Tribes: Vengeance tried to revive it, but just as sad, it had no pulse as well.

[Variable]

I'm good, and yes, in one piece. The tour was good, during this most recent stint I got to grow a beard for an assignment. This prolly doesn't seem that interesting to you all, but before that I'd never had any facial hair at all. Joined before it was growing in and had to shave it every day after it did, so it was fun ;)

I played WoW for a while, just recently let my account expire. Had a 48 warrior, a 60 mage, and a 36 rogue as my three primaries. Got up fairly high in the pvp system too on my server, but it was low pop, and hard as hell to get any of the end game content going. I didn't have the will to stand around for 30 minutes to an hour to try and get a 15 man raid (much less a 40) going.

Other than that, not much gaming going on over here anymore. I'm playing short titles, recently beat Freedom Force versus the Third Reich and Republic Commando. I can't afford to keep up with my gaming habit anymore :(

[insaneferret]

Welcome back Variable, glad to hear you've come back safely, warcraft seems to be where its at right now, we were previously scattered over many servers but a lot of us have come back to mal'ganis, but yea, its suffering from the low pop issue, i know a few folks from both mal'ganis and scarlet crusade who will be jumping on the new RP-PVP server when it comes out, that should be fun stuff.

A good few people have been playing the red orchestra mod which i hear is quite good, but frankly i'm sick to death of WW2 games so i havent checked it out.

THZ should get together for something, perhaps BF2 or finally unite on the pvprp server in warcraft, even a tribes3 night would be fun stuff, any ideas?

[Cerberus]

Welcome back Var

[Variable]

Hiya Ferret. Joker, last post I read with you in it when I was browsing seemed like you were still deployed, now I see HOME!!! there, is it true? Army must have extended your tour something fierce, they did it to a lot of guys I knew out there. Mind some shop talk? I'd like to get a feeling for where you were, you might have run across a few of my buddies.

I'd like to do the whole pvp-rp thing, but I don't have the will to level another character up. I think I'm done with MMOs, unless something really impressive comes out. Right now I'm not playing much of anything, I'm trying to work out civvy jobs and a possible move to Maryland.

[Stang]

Variable!!! Glad your back and in one peace :D.

How is the family and the dogs? :) I remember getting alot of pics of your dogs and talking about them hehe.

Yup we finally got Jester back safe too :D. Again glad to see you back and great to see another face on the boards.

[Variable]

Heya Stang

Family is good. Angie is a very precocious 3 year old, Thomas is 1 and babbling in whatever language that is. As for the dogs, Hugo is still a great leviathan, but we had to get rid of Zoe. They botched her spaying and she became completely incontinent and would wet herself upwards of 5 times a day. Most of the time she could control it unless she was asleep, but towards the end she couldn't help it at all and would just go whenever the urge was upon her. Kris didn't have the heart to put her down so we sent her to a shelter with instructions that she needed a place where she could live outside- our house has no trees in the backyard and ungodly heat most of the time, so that wasn't an option for us.

However, being that Hugo was absolutely miserable without his constant companion my wife was out puppy shopping within two weeks. We have a little black somethingerother named Sully (Angie named him after the Monsters Inc fellow) and he's pretty darn cute. It's also fun to watch the 9 lb pup try to take on the 180 lb mastiff.

Kristin is also pregnant again, and thus using this chance to get out of the Air Force. We didn't consider it with the first two but now that it looks like I'll be employed in Maryland she didn't want us to be seperated for a year and a half while she finished her tour out. That, and she can easily get a job in the area doing the same thing we've been doing but for four to five times what the military pays. If it weren't for the abysmal cost of living in Maryland, we'd live like kings I tell you, KINGS!

[Gambit]

Heh. My sis lives in MD with her hubby and has her first in the oven, as it were. They work for homeland security; might see if they know someone if needed.

A beard, huh? That reveals a lot, I'd think... ;)


(BTW, Gryph, those google ads are slowing down the forums pretty bad on this end when posting. I'm tempted to add a line to my hosts file.)

[Ghryphen]

Hmm, appears to only be a problem in Firefox. I'll look into it.

[Raiyven]

hey, i don't know you, but welcome back :)

[Stang]

Aww thats too bad about Zoe I remember we use to talk about the new addition of her. Show pictures of the new one :). We came close to having a puppy in our family but then decided since we are thinking of moving we would wait.

When is she or you guys due for the newest addtition. I became and Aunt 2 times now and kids are just awesome :D.

[Gambit]

...kids are just awesome.

Note that while Stang thinks kids are awesome, they aren't her kids! Kids are indeed great when you can send 'em home... ;)

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

SWEET! Very glad to hear that you're back, Var.

If you don't mind still working for the DoD, they are looking for civilians all the time. Plus, your military background would give you a leg up on other civilians that apply for the same jobs. (I'm thinking NSA type stuff.)

But I'd understand if you want to get away from that thing. :D


I'm still living out here in the Mojave desert in California. My job is keeping me busy, and I'm learning quite a bit about some of the coolest things that I can't talk about. ;)

It's really good to see your posts around here. Let's hope your new job works out very well.

[Variable]

Stang: due date is January 2nd. The irony here is my best friend got pregnant and had said something akin to "Hey, you should knock Kristin up so we can go through this together..." and we had a good laugh and I said it'll never happen.....and surprise surprise, their due dates are now 2 days apart :P

Asha: I'm sure the stuff you can't talk about is awesome. If I had my druthers I'd be where you are, workin on nifty new toys and whatnot, but unfortunately I kinda missed the boat on College the first time around. I'm probably going to (slowly) pursue a Physics major in the next few years.

And yeah, I'm still in the DoD sector. Not the NSA though, they were my last choice-I haven't even applied, they're the "if everything else falls apart" choice, and even then theres stiff competition with Best Buy :) I worked with them for the past three years, and while the individuals are good people they're tied up in the gubmint beaurocracy even more than the military was. I can't deal with that yet.

So I'm going corporate. I've got two contractors I'm talking to, the preferred being SM Consulting which would take me up to Maryland for at least 4 years (hopefully permanent). The other is Titan Corporation which would keep me here in Augusta and even in the same building I was in before. The downside being that everyone I know who has worked for Titan hates their jobs/lives, and even a Marine that got out a mere 2 months before me and started working there is now miserable. He wasn't a chipper guy before, but still, bad juju.

These posts keep getting longer and longer. I guess there was more to catch up on than I realized.:D

[Stang]

Well of course Gambit thats why I said that :D.

[XMEN Ashaman DTM]

If you do go the physics route, try to get your employer to pay for it. I'll be paying off my student loans for the next decade or two. It's like a freakin mortgage, minus the house part. heh.

Good luck in the job hunt. And don't ever get discouraged. EVERYONE I know gets discouraged when they get out of the military / college and look for their first job. And it's a tough job market out there. But things DO perk up for you, you just gotta stick with things. Oh and if it comes down to it, go with the option that can pay the bills until the next door is opened for you. That's kind of what I did, and there are times that I hate my job and think of my old one fondly. But there are times where I love my job. I'm finding I just have to stick with things until the right opportunities come along. :D