[ARCHIVE] Get to know your fellow coder

[448191]

[quote author=obsidian link=topic=112560.msg457493#msg457493 date=1161796664]
Well, I grew up on the island of [url=http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=guam&ie=UTF8&z=7&om=1]Guam[/url. For those of you who don't know it, it's sort of smack dab between Australia, Japan and the PI (Philippines). What I liked: beaches, baby! Love them beaches! Also, just the people in general. The culture out there is so much more [i]real[/i] than what I've found here in the mainland US since I moved here. Definitely more pros than cons to living out there. My biggest complaint: it's freakin' [b]hot[/b]! lo
[/quote]

You are a lucky bastard! I would've sold my soul to live there. It's rainy and grim over here..

EDIT: as long as I've got a computer and a fast connection, I couldn't live without that, surely.

You couldn't tell if you met me, but I'll always be a computer geek. Always have been (though secretly) and always will be.

[Ninjakreborn]

My name is Joyel, my website is www.freelancebusinessman.com
I launched my career a long time ago studying, now I try to make a living with it.
I play video game's all the time, any type of game I can get my hand's on, I spent 300 (more) dollar's on game's last week alone, batman begins, (playing tale's of symphonia), mercenaries, and some others.
I buy large volum'es of game's a lot, and play them, and would hurt anyone that stood in my way of game's (it's dangerous)
That's about it, I freelancer, I study, and I play video games.

Also I am married, I have a wife, and a daughter, I have been married for 4 years.

[KevinM1]

My name is Kevin.  I'm 26 years old, and I live in New Hampshire, which is not quite the redneck center of New England (that honor goes to Maine).

I was born with Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita, a non-progressive congenital condition that has severely affected my muscular and skeletal systems.  Bone deformaties and muscle weakness/missing muscles are the basic symptoms.  For example, tendon transfers are pretty common.  In my case, some of my pectorals were transfered to my biceps, so yes, if I want to flex my arms at the elbow, it's basically my chest doing the work.

Because of my condition, I've had 40+ surgical procedures, all pretty painful.  These include back surgery (two 18' rods), hip surgery (a plate in each), a ton of osteotomies, and others.  My mobility is dependent on my electric wheelchair.

I graduated from UNH a couple years ago with a degree in communication.  Given my condition, and my desire to not rely on the state to pay for all my expenses, I figured I had to get a job that would let me earn a respectable amount of money.  I've spent the last couple of years slowly learning what I figure I need to know.  Right now, I feel it's a lack of experience that is hampering my progression.  The various languages (XHTML, CSS, PHP, JavaScript, etc.) aren't hard to learn.  Knowing how to use them properly and efficiently is the trick.

Like Joyel above me, I'm a gamer.  Unlike him, I'm not a threat to society if I don't get a game.  I'm not sure what the last game was that I bought...I think it was Tourist Trophy for the PS2 months ago.  I spend most of my time reading my web development text books and frequenting message boards like this one.  Even though Sony is evil, I've been saving up for a PS3, and I should be able to get one when they come out (depending on avalablity, of course).  I also play WOW occassionally on a carebear RP server.

Quick Hits (because I'm [b]so[/b] interesting :P ):
Favorite Band: Tool

Favorite Color: Black or silver

Favorite Sports Team(s): Boston Bruins (yeah yeah, don't laugh), New England Patriots

Favorite TV Shows: The Shield, Battlestar Galactica (the new one), Mythbusters, Extreme Engineering, Megastructures, Iron Chef (both the original and the American versions), Good Eats (because Alton Brown is great), Neon Genesis Evangelion, Robotech (cheezy 80's, baby!), Scrubs

Least Favorite Band: Any country music

Least Favorite Color: Any bright shade of purple/lavendar

Least Favorite Sports Team(s): New York Yankees, Indianapolis Colts, Fernando Alonso during this last F-1 season

Least Favorite TV Shows: Pretty much anything that I didn't mention above.

[.josh]

Long and boring details about Crayon's quirks:

First off, here is a picture of me. It's somewhere around 5 or 6 years old.  I'm too lazy to upload a more recent picture so I grabbed this off my profile from another website
[img]http://darwinawards.com/ikon/member/plaztekk1.jpg[/img]

Favorite bands of all time: Rage Against the Machine, Simon and Garfunkel, Enya, Cranberries, Poe, Trance (though I'm pretty picky on what I like on that. Mostly slower and just mellow. Tempo of no more than 90-ish, but no less than 80-ish and it has to be fairly complex).  Anything classical. Not too hot on piano though. I like strings mostly.

Least favorite Music Genre: Country.  Like nails on a chalkboard.  Every time I hear a country song playing, all I hear is some old dog howling.

Favorite color: Blue, lavendar. To me, blue signifies calmness and coolness, things which I strive to be.  I choose lavendar as more accurately my color though, because Even though I strive for the calm and coolness of blue, I have that hint of energy and..not so much rage, but impatience that goes with red. But I lean more towards the blue side of lavendar, because I've gotten tons better over the years.  Red and Blue make more of a purple than a lavendar.  Lavendar has some white thrown into it.  I like to think that the reason why I am leaning more towards the blue end of that, is because of God, thus God signifies the white.  That's also where 'crayon violent' derives from. The color violet is in the same family, but I chose it because I could do a play on words with it: viole[b]n[/b]t.  It just sounded a lot cooler than Crayon Lavendar. 

I hate sports. For instance, football (american): Watching big guys get paid a lot to run around in tights just doesn't appeal to me.  Wrestling: legit sport or not, again, watching two guys in spandex grabbing at each other just doesn't appeal to me.  Overall, watching other people get paid a lot of money to play a game just doesn't appeal to me.  I'm down for [i]playing[/i] some street hockey though - old school style where at the end of the day there's a 100% chance of going home with cuts scrapes and bruises, 75% chance sprained ankle etc.. 50% chance someone broke something ;D It's just not cool any other way ;D

Things I watch on TV: Lost (haven't watched any of season 3 yet. I'm waiting for the dvd because I don't like having to wait a whole week between episodes). It's not normally my type of series, but my wife likes it, and one day during season 1 she was watching it and I was in the room and saw some of it, and it's not so much that I *LIKE* it, but that I just wanna see what happens next/how it ends. 

I do like watching the new series called Heroes.  I mean, it's nothing all that *special* but it's somewhat entertaining enough to watch. 

I like Comedies, old Kung Fu flicks, and Anime.  Even chick-flick comedies, though that's pushing it.  As long as the romance part is in the background as some underlying plot, and comedy is the centerpiece, that's fine.  Acceptable: 50 First Dates.  Unacceptable: Sliding Doors. 

Some random favorite movies of mine: Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, anything by Hayao Miyazaki (except Nausiica; I didn't really care for it) but especially Spirited Away.  His recent release: Howl's Moving Castle was thoroughly enjoyable, and to be honest, I think it might de-throne Spirited Away on my list of favorite Miyazaki films.  The debate is still open on that, though. Anything Kevin Smith.  What did you all think of Clerks II? I liked it, but man, I think they could have done better. I still liked it though. Office Space, Vampire Hunter D, Ninja Scroll, most of Jet Li's stuff, and the list goes on.

I also like watching Avatar.  This gets its own paragraph because I thought I'd share a particularly amusing (IMO) anecdote about Avatar.  About a month ago I was chillin' on the computer and suddenly I hear my 4 year old crying from the bathroom.  So I go in to investigate and he's sitting on the floor with a cup of water between his legs crying.  I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he tried and tried and tried but he just can't water bend.  I about shit my pants laughing at that, which would have been okay, cuz I was already in the bathroom.

I'm compulsively sarcastic.  I can't help it.  Someone says something or does something, and it just comes out.  At best, people call me an asshole for that; at worst, I keep getting into trouble.  Lol, I just can't help it.  It's like Tourette Syndrome where my 'tic' is sarcasm, lol.  Actually, I wouldn't necessarily call it sarcasm (even though people usually take it that way).  I personally like to call it bluntly pointing out the truth and/or irony of the situation at hand.  I will concede that I have no tact whatsoever, but that is not the same as telling lies or being an asshole.  Take for instance the provibial woman asking her man if she's fat.  Instead of dancing around the subject, I just tell her she's fat.  You aren't gonna really feel good about yourself unless you're honest with yourself enough to recognize things you don't like and then fix them.  Closing your eyes and listening to lies does not solve the problem.

I've been a smoker for about 12 years.  About 2 months ago I decided to quit (again, for real this time, I swear! ;D ) but I still smoke about 2-3 cigs a week, which any smoker can tell you that that's nothing, and it is certainly a lot better than the pack a day I smoked.  But I should be able to stop even that much pretty soon, so hopefully this time it should be for really real.  I don't drink, as I don't like the taste of alcohol.  I used to smoke a lot of pot and do a lot of acid.  A lot. Not even gonna get into how much or even drug related stories.  But I've been sober of that for 7 years now.

My favorite kind of food is mexican food.  Enchiladas, fajitas, burritos, tortilla soup, mm...  even just plain old beans and rice will do it for me.  I'm pretty good at making enchiladas and fajitas, and people constantly harass me to make tortilla soup.  I also enjoy making breads (by hand, no bread machine), like french bread or ciabatta bread. mm...bread. I love the smell of freshly baked bread.  <drools>

I hate getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom.  It takes me forever to go to sleep in the first place.  I feel I'm being gypped on sleep.  Stupid bladder. 

If I had to choose between pirates, vikings or ninjas, I'd go for the ninjas.  Well, I don't know... ninjas are cool, but come on, pirates! And vikings!  There needs to be an epic battle involving all 3. 

umm, My first born son's name is Exodus. People give me odd looks on that.  If this next Kid is a girl, we're naming her Genesis.  I'm sure we'll get just as many odd looks from that. 

I think i'm borderline obsessive compulsive.  For instance, If I count money, I have to count it 3 times.  First time because it's being counted, 2nd time to make sure it's the same as 1st, 3rd time to make sure I didn't happen to consistently mis-count twice in a row.  If I come up with a different number the 2nd time, I have to count a minimum of 4 times now.  The end goal is that I must come up with the same number 3 times.  If I turn something off, like lights or an oven, I have to go back and check it again to make sure I turned it off.  I don't simply do the off-on-off-on-off thing people do with light switches though.  I have to actually leave the room and come back a minute or 2 later.  The whole point is that I may have forgotten to turn it off.  I can obviously see that I turned it off when I'm standing there turning it off, so flipping the switch on and off is pointless and stupid.  But I don't really have germ issues or anything like that.  Although, my wife and I are both pretty adamant about taking showers before our bedroom adventures...does that count? 

Hmm..okay, I prefer to wear slacks and a t-shirt.  I don't really care for jeans.  They are too hot and constricting and heavy.  That's why I like slacks.  Nothing fancy; walmart brand will do.  I also like wearing "slipper" shoes - shoes without shoelaces that just slip onto your feet.  Less hassle in putting them on, and they generally aren't as hot or constricting.  I don't really care for dress shoes like that though, like loafers.  They are too hard and usually cut into the front of my feet, where the tongues usually are.  Although my 'favorite' colors are blue/lavendar, I generally prefer to dress in dark or pale earthtones.  I don't really like wearing shirts with logos/words on them. This includes band shirts, witty remarks, etc.. I refuse to be a walking advertisement, even for things I like.  Besides, even if the shirt is witty, the tackiness of wearing it overpowers the wittiness.  Maybe if I could get away with wearing something like "OMG Just Shut the F*ck up already you talk too much" (without the *) then I might go for that...kinda ironic considering how long winded this post is, huh? AhahAHaha..shut up. 

Umm..what else, what else.. well there really isn't a whole lot else to tell, I guess.

The End.

[obsidian]

Holy crap, that's a lot of writing :P

hehe

[Ninjakreborn]

That, uh.
No, I can't believe that, this whole time, this whole entire time, I thought you were a girl.
This entire time.
That is something I have never imagined.
So you are a guy:S

[.josh]

you know my profile does say I am a boy and I have mentioned my wife several times before...even in this thread..

[Ninjakreborn]

uhh, that is something I wasn't expecting.

[kenrbnsn]

My turn. :)

I'm 55(!). Born, raised, and still live in New Jersey. Currently single (widowed). My wife died in July, 2005 after a long battle with a rare form of cancer. We had been married for 26 years, no kids. If you want to read her story, go to http://www.helenas-memorial.com/ and click on the "Read the Saga". (warning it's long).

I've been in the computer field for over 30 years. In 1980, I got hooked on the operating system that I'm still working on -- OpenVMS from HP (back in 1980 it was called VAX/VMS from Digital).

I found the ARPAnet (now the Internet) in 1974 when I was able to access from the college I attended (Rutgers in New Jersey). I became hooked on reading NetNews (USEnet) in the mid to late 1980's. Using WAIS and Gopher soon followed. And that led me to discovering the Web in about 1992. I discovered PHP in about 1998 and got my first paying web site in 1999.  I tried to start my own web design company, but two things caused it to fail -- I'm not a sales person, I can write the code, but can't sell anything; and the dot-com collapse happened just as I was starting up.

Other interests include Modern Western Square Dancing, cooking & baking, wine, meteorology. Most of the web sites I've created have to do with at least one of these interests...

Ken

[KevinM1]

[quote]Crayon's long post[/quote]

Hell yes, I forgot about Avatar.  Great show.

[akitchin]

Nightslyr - don't want this to sound condescending because god only know what it's like to go through what you have, but i find it extremely admirable that you wish to make your own way despite the physical setbacks.  that's not at all to say you're incapable, but i can imagine that after so much effort and pain just to get to this point it could be all too easy to rely on disability.  kudos man, it's inspiring.

as for you older fellers (andy, ken, barry: i'm looking mainly at you here):  i can only guess how much nostalgia about technology you guys can summon up.  even i have the occasional "when i was in elementary" comment, and i'm only just nearing the end of my post-sec education.  "cell phones?  broadband?  polygon games?  BLASPHEMY, WE HAD NOT THESE THINGS!" "SNES used to be all the rage, you know" (still is, in my opinion), etc.

[cmgmyr]

[quote author=akitchin link=topic=112560.msg458386#msg458386 date=1161915225]
Nightslyr - ... kudos man, it's inspiring.[/quote]

Double Kudos buddy. It seems like you are keeping your head up through everything and that is great. Mind over Matter. Your mind will always wins. If you wanna feel great then put a smile on, if you wanna feel sorry for yourself then join the rest of the world. I think it's awesome that there are people out there that can still lead happy and productive lives even if it isn't like others'.

I'm glad to have you on the site, please let me know if you need any help with anything :)

-Chris

[cmgmyr]

In case any of you are interested I took some updated pics of my Mapex set with the new cymbols (which i need to clean) :)

[img]http://syracusebands.net/band_albums/1/j92ax8ml7n38fq0l.jpg[/img] [img]http://syracusebands.net/band_albums/1/0tpsb6wzyvqgl9sw.jpg[/img]

Later,
-Chris

[ober]

Interesting read, all of you.  I wasn't expecting for so many details from so many of you, but it's all good nonetheless.

I was still hoping to hear from a few others... Barand for example, and wildteen ;)

[alpine]

Here is a few words about me...

I'm 33 years old and living at Inderøy in Norway (skandinavia, northern europe).
I have 4 kids (3 boys and 1 girl) and the 5'th is due in february (i think...)
My oldest son is 12 and the latest 3 kids is between 1.8 and 4.8 years (lol).
I'm not married, still holding back on that seremony.

I work full time as an electrician (house installations, maintainance and repair on industrial machines, fully computerized feeding and heating systems in big farms etc etc - you name it. It's a wide area full of challenges.)

I have a hobby with cars and mainly car electronics and diagnostic systems <- thats the interesting part - and i am more or less constantly occupied with fixing one of them in one way or the other.
I'm also renovating our house completely on my own (on the 3'rd year now), and it never seems to come to an end. Mostly cash is the limit.

Inbetween i try to work with the fantastic world on the web, but i constantly struggle to have the time for everything. I do however get to work with programming from time to time at work, making applications useful for my company.

I can add that i got my very first computer 5-6 years ago, an old server from my employer, with Win 98 on it (i think) and roughly 900 Mb of hard-disk. That sucker crashed a couple of times every night since i didn't know what the h*ll i was doing on it at all. A friend showed me how to turn it on and how to use Outlook Express + Internet Explorer -and he was on ICQ himself and turned that noisy (cnock-cnock) feature on for me. Other than that it was just a box from hell. Things have changed....

[Procode]

Hey my name is vlad, i am new at this forum. Been coding PHP for a year but haven't really in last 4 months or so, now decided to get back to it and go further and become good :) Hope you guys can help me on this forum :D

[cmgmyr]

Hey Procode! Welcome to the forum!

There are a lot of good people on here and I'm sure we can help you :)

-Chris

[steelmanronald06]

Okay! My turn  :o

Full name is Ronald Leon Steelman, Jr. and I am 19 years old. I am 6'2", 140 lbs, dark hair, and color-changing eyes (a defect due to my being color blind, a male only disease!).

I got interested in Web when I was 12.  First thing I taught myself was HTML.  From there I got into JavaScript, (X)HTML, CSS, PHP/MySQL, Java, Visual Basic, and XML.

I am not married, currently I am single, and I am far from having kids, though I wouldn't mind having a boy at some point.  When I am not programming or doing web design, and sometimes when I am, I am listening to my music.  I love my music! I listen to punk rock only!  Good Charlotte is the best band of all time, none beats them in my book, but some others include, but is not limited to:  Simple Plan, The Vincent Black Shadow, Evanescence, Alkaline Trio, Hinder, and many many more!  As you may have guessed from my music, that is pretty much my style. Black is my favorite color, AND NO I AM NO DAMN EMO KID!

When I am not on the computer, my iPOD and I are tearing up the cement on my Element board (one of my pride and joys).  If I don't feel like keeping balance then I throw on the blades. I am pretty fair at both of them, and I enjoy them o-so much!

If I am not doing any of that, I am deeply involved in my Playstation 2 or some computer game!  Final Fantasy is my biggest game, followed closely by Counter Strike (I hated Final Fantasy 10, 10-2, and 9 BTW. WTF was SquareSoft thinking?!?!).

I am a Democrate with strong moderate views.  Some things I am liberal, and others I am conservative.  Don't start debating politics with me, because it is a passion and nothing can move me from my views (WOOO WHOO! Democrates took control of the House and the Senate today! And for the first time, a woman stands third in line from being President!).

Lets see, I don't think I covered television/movies yet. See, I own a video store and so I am a big critic on movies. Television includes: Grey's Anatomy (mainly for her anatomy!), E.R., Angel, Law and Order, Charmed, Fooly Cooly, AquaTeenHungerForce, Family Guy, and a few others.  Movies include: Matrix (all), Hackers, American Pie 1-3, She's The Man, Mission Impossible 1 - 3, Minority Report, FERRIS BULLERS DAY OFF (Buller...Buller....Buller...Buller), The Breakfast Club (don't mess with the bull or you will get the horns), and a lot more.

Favorite foods?  Almost anything. I like chocolate, but I am allergic to it  :'( . Watermellon, strawberries, Steak, Roast, Stew, Shrimp, Crab, Snake, Gator, Caviar, Pork Chop, BACON, and lots of others.

Well, that seems to be all you need to know about me :)  If you want to know more, Google me. I actually show up as a Google result!  ;D

[.josh]

here ron i made this just for you!

[img]http://www.chroniclesofwar.com/images/justforron.jpg[/img]

[neylitalo]

Zing! ;D

[448191]

???

[.josh]

okay for those of you who happen to be on the [i]other[/i] side of this sarchasm:

the red dots spell out "CV is stupid 2.0"

and yes, ron was in fact able to read them.

although I will admit that in a recent poll, it turns out that 92 out of 100 people could not read it either. 67 of the 92 claimed they did not recognize the fact that they were letters in the first place.  20 of them claimed they recognized some letters but could not make out what it said, perhaps because they just can't read, or can't spell properly, or some other reason altogether; overall it is somewhat ironic that these people are in fact also stupid 2.0.  The remaining 5 of the 92 were in fact color blind, or at least they claimed to be.  Further studies may need to be conducted in order to find out whether they were telling the truth or lying because color-blind is the new "in" thing to be. 

Of the 8 people who were in fact able to make out what it said: At least 5 of them cannot be trusted as validly being able to read it, as they failed to reveal their knowledge on the subject until [i]after[/i] i went and spoiled it in the irc chatroom.  Of the other 3, 2 can be 100% confirmed, one of them being myself, of course, as I wrote the damn thing.  As far as the 3rd person goes, there is reason to believe that I may in fact have multiple personality disorder, and so I may have answered twice.  Further investigation is in order on that count, as well.

[Zane]

Color me stupid 2.0 Crayon, but I fail to see a hint of any letter forming with those dots.

[redbullmarky]

took me a while. can see the colours but wasnt aware it was a custom message and even when pointed out took a while to see it lol

[obsidian]

Once the fact that there was a message there was pointed out, I was quickly able to discern the individual letters. Now that I know what I'm looking for, do you have another one? I'd be interested to see if I could decipher one when I know what I'm after.