Who am I? Who are you?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Soldato
Joined
27 Mar 2004
Posts
4,755
Location
Swansea
Roberta - Dawn.

I am mostly bored.

Born in Catterick in 1971 and lived in Wales since I was 3.

Have 3 noisy and very intelligent children.
The eldest, Kai, is 12 and reads philosophy books when he's not pounding down the rugby pitch and throwing his team mates at the opposition.
My daughter Rowan is 8 and rather morbidly artistic. Her latest artwork is in the medium of chalk and titled Sadness. It is mostly pink.
Beck is the baby at 7 and tells me when he is older he will be a rockstar, go and play concerts and then come home for his tea. That's when he's not doing stunts and playing with his pet tiger obviously.

I've had many different jobs in different industries including barwork, designing wedding dresses and making clothes for transvestites. I am now qualified as an aerobics and pilates instructor, part of the way to becoming a personal trainer and will be learning to teach Cardio Kickbox next year.

My talents include being bendy and I'm also able to pour 4 perfect pints at the same time without spilling a drop. As the customer I was serving at the time said: "Now that's what I call multi-tasking!"
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
48,796
Location
All over the world...
JonRohan said:
My ambitions for the future.
Ultimately I’d love to live in Canada with my girlfriend. Unfortunately this will take time as I have to finish my degree then get enough experience to get a job. It’s a nice aim to have an I’m sure one day I will fulfil it.



Good luck dude, hope it all works out for you. Canada is a lovely place although jobs are a bit thin there but hopefully you will find something there :)
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
Posts
5,508
Location
Cotham, Bristol
PaulStat- Paul Statham (no surprises there then)

Born in Leeds on the 20th June 1981, lived there until I was 4.5 years old upon which my dad got a new job in Swansea. I lived there with my Mum (Jan), Dad (Barry) and my older Sister (Jo) until the age of 19 when I moved to Bristol to go to university. Schools i went to in Swansea were in the following order: Newton Primary school (4-11), Bishopston Comprehensive (11-16), Olchfa Sixth Form (16-19).

From the age of 19-23 I went to Bristol UWE and studied Computer Science which I acheived a 2:1 from :D. I am now working full time for a company called Sefas, where we do document composition type software, which deals with building documents based on pre-formatted data right down to the management of getting stuff printed eg. if your a commercial user of BT lines you've probably got a bill or two built by our software or if you've ever got a P2 form from the inland revenue thats us also or if you live in Edinburgh and received a some sort of housing letter from the council thats down to us too.

Umm anything else you wanna know just ask, although I doubt anyone really cares that much :p
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2003
Posts
6,204
Location
Gone......
Well, now. You folks have inspired me to do a little writing of my own. Never really done anything like this, so please excuse if it sounds a little disjointed.
I was Born Darrin Shawn (last name deleted to protect the innocent :p) in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. If you want to know the date, you’ll have to find out when Dr Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap was born, because we share the birthday (not the actor Scott Bakula, but the character he played).

When I was 2 years old, my family up and moved to Australia where we lived for three years. None of us could take the high temperatures too well, so we decided to move back to the original continent. With a stop over at my grandmother’s in Glasgow. Well, a year later we finally got on the plane for Vancouver.

Lived in a little known place called Point Roberts in Washington state. It’s unusual in the sense that it’s part of the United States, but is cut off by Canada and water. It’s a little 2.5 mile wide peninsula that sticks south of the border for 2 miles. So I was living in America, but went to school, worked, spent all my time in Canada.

Graduated from South Delta Senior Secondary in Tsawwassaen, B.C. and almost immediately was offered a job with a Canadian car magazine that offered the public their opinions on all new (and some older) cars on the market. They had plenty of staff that were of my parent’s generation, but they had nobody in the 18-25 year range to give the “up and coming” opinion. So that’s where I came in. I got to drive everything from the most mundane, boring scrap of tin you can imagine to the most elaborate luxury and sports cars out there. Pretty cool while it lasted, but the magazine went belly up.

Waffled around at various jobs for a while, but began to realize that if I stayed where I was, I was either going to end up spending the rest of my life in prison or dead. You see, I’m one of those people that if you leave me to my own defenses, I get bored. When I get bored, I WILL find something to entertain myself. And generally it’s either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

So I joined the US Navy.

Well, that certainly got me out of town. I ended up doing my basic training in Great Lakes, Illinois (just north of Chicago). Went into Fire Controlman school there (firecontrol = electronics tech on the weapons control systems). On one of my many sojourns to Milwaukee, I met a woman named Suzanne Roix. We hit it off pretty well, and when I finished school and was due to transfer to my next command, we got engaged. I went on to my next command (NATO Sea Sparrow Missile System school in Vallejo, California just north of San Francisco). A couple months later my fiancé moved out to join me and we got married. All seemed honky-dory for a while until the fights started. They got pretty bad, going on for days at a time. It was affecting my course work and my job duties pretty badly, too. Apparently she finally got sick of it as I came home for lunch one day and knocked her suitcase over with the door. And so ended my first marriage.

After completing my courses at NSSMS school, I was transferred to the USS Roanoke (AOR-7) located in Long Beach, California. After a year or so, the Navy discovered my propensity for firearms and my proficiency with them. They also discovered my strange ability to think like a terrorist, but not be one. So I was recruited into a little bunch of guys that occasionally went places the US Armed Forces aren’t supposed to go and do things they aren’t regularly supposed to do. I won’t go into detail, if you’ve read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that SPECOPS isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Especially for someone with a conscience. Anyways, it was purely voluntary. And after a while I began to get sick of doing stuff that eventually ended in a whole bunch of mental therapy, so I left.

After getting back to my ship, I met the girlfriend of one of the officers, Tina Michel Wyckoff. Little did I know at the time that the spark we both felt would eventually lead to this lady becoming the missus!! We were married 6 September, 1992. Our son, Shawn Patrick was born 15 April 1994.

So, after two 6 month overseas tours, I was finally sick of the Navy, and they were finally sick of me. I was discharged “under other than honorable conditions”. What this basically means is that I was laid off.

I waffled around a few jobs before finally realizing I needed something where I was working on my own. I started driving taxi cab in Bremerton, Washington (just west of Seattle). For four years I did great at it, making a pretty good living. The missus joined me for the last 3 years out on the road, the two of us driving opposite 12 hour shifts so one of us was always home with our son.

But then the wonderful government transferred the two aircraft carriers out of the navy base. They also decommissioned all the cruisers. So, in a city of 25,000 registered voters, the government had just transferred out almost 16,000 outside money generators (all the sailors and their families). Needless to say, it was almost overnight that our wonderful cab driving business fell flat on its face.

A friend of mine from the navy was getting out at roughly the same time and had gotten on at a little know company called Intel. He said they needed electronics technicians in the production area that he was working and I should apply.

Right around this time we were told by my son's school that he was most likely Asperger’s, possibly autistic.

So we moved to Portland, Oregon.

Well, I worked for Intel for a year, then the wonderful market slump that happened in 1999-2001 kicked in and I was let go, just shortly after getting my son’s diagnosis for autism and my diagnosis for ADHD!! (so THAT’s what’s been wrong all these years!!!)

Cue 9/11 happening.

The US government initiates the actions that bring about the Department of Homeland Security, and specifically the Transportation Security Administration (yes, those annoying ***** that hassle you at the airport with the metal detectors and the x-ray machines). Turns out after a year there that the powers that be hired too many people for Portland airport. They said they weren’t going to lay anyone off, but start putting people to part-time work instead. I realized very quickly that part-time wasn’t going to cut it as I was barely surviving on full-time!!

So I did a search to find out what airports in the country were having a hard time getting people, and found out the Thief River Falls, Minnesota was one such airport. I volunteered for a transfer 1,800 miles away.

Packed the family up once more in the U-haul truck and drove half way across this country.

A year later, we bought our first house, and five days later the TSA informs me that my position was being made redundant and I was being let go.

Cue my heart sinking through the floor as this part of the country is one of the most economically depressed areas for people looking for jobs.

8 months later (after the entire life savings have been depleted, credit cards maxed, everyone I could tap for a loan tapped, etc, etc, etc), I finally landed a job at New Flyer of America (www.newflyer.com) assembling transit coaches. It pays about 1/3 what I’m used to making, but the wife has gone back to work as well, which is helping financially.

We’re slowly getting back on our feet again, after surviving a bitterly cold first winter in our home. For those not familiar, we bought a REALLY old house that needed a LOT of fixing up. We got it JUST livable when winter set in. The insulation of this house is totally inadequate, if not non-existent. For over 4 months, it was quite usual to see the temperature INSIDE the house sitting at or below 10oC. During this time my son was wandering through the house with a frozen treat of some sort and didn’t realize he had dropped a little of it on the floor. The reason we knew it was part of his frozen treat was that IT HADN’T MELTED!!! Yes, the floor was below freezing temperature!!

Oh, well. This summer we’re stripping the entire outside layer of the house off so we can put in some SERIOUS insulation. I’ve already started on the crawlspace. I’m also going to be purchasing an actual furnace for this place and installing it, instead of using electric baseboard heaters……….

Anyways, speaking of that kind of stuff, I really need to get back to finishing some of the “honey-do” list before I have to go back to work tomorrow. There's lots that I haven't put in there, but I'm running out of daylight here.

Laterz folks.
 
Last edited:
Woman of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
6 Dec 2003
Posts
1,794
Very interesting read there Mickey_D, often wondered your history for some reason :)

Mickey_D said:
Waffled around at various jobs for a while, but began to realize that if I stayed where I was, I was either going to end up spending the rest of my life in prison or dead. You see, I’m one of those people that if you leave me to my own defenses, I get bored. When I get bored, I WILL find something to entertain myself. And generally it’s either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

That in particular reminds me of a friend of mine who's in that exact position right now and wavering between the three things, funnily enough he's hoping to join the British Navy at the end of the year to sort himself out because he thinks it'll give him a decent chance in life :)
 
Permabanned
Joined
10 Jul 2004
Posts
1,334
Location
Birmingham, UK
Sam0r - I am Sam (Not the movie)

I was born on 15th of december 1986, in the Queen Elizabeth hospital.

Started life off in Woodhouse primary school, just down the road from me. I got bullied quite a bit there, but it wasn't too bad. Nothing i couldn't cope with.

Did my time there, and moved to Handsworth Grammar school, for boys, where i started learning more and more about computers etc.

I got bullied there too, but that all stopped in year 10, which was nice.

I took Drama, IT, History and Electronics at GCSE. For my work experience I worked on the 'OpenHGS' project which the IT guys were working on. Basically it was to get the whole school moved over to opensource software (Linux etc) which I knew wouldnt work. But anyway, I set up 4 application servers and got the whole IT department running on thin-client technology.

After that, I went to Solihull College, where I left in february as the college was completely ****.

I got a job doing web design for a company. Did quite a few jobs for them, but never got paid, so i left.

Now I'm at Stourbridge college, which is a lot better than Solihull. Thats where I met Tinkerbell, and we've been together for over 7 months (Aint that sweet:))

The End.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Dec 2003
Posts
6,348
Name: Phillip Edwards
Age: 20
D.O.B: 6th September 1984

Born and lived in Liverpool, England all my life.

Well, where do I start? I went to Thomas Gray Nursery, Rawson Road Pimrary and Manor High schools but dropped out of high school at the beginning of year 11. I never attened school as much as I should (usually about 60% attendance) and I don't know why. I totally regret it, but what's even more annoying is that their was no real reason not to go. I guess I was just lazy and not motivated by anything.

Anyway, I left school and didn't do much except sit on a computer and that's about it. One and a half years passed and so I decided I had to do something with myself so I started exploring and that is the best decision I've ever made, I now have lots of hobbies and finally, 4 months ago, I found something I'd really like to do. You see, I think it's best to wait and see rather then rush and be stuck with something you hate.

I studied I.T. and Music at college, although at home, I was highly motivated and learnt pretty much everything I was taught, by myself which further streghened my belief that I'm a motivational type of person. I won't do something good unless I really want to.

So last year, I applied to University to enter a University Foundation Course in order for it to lead onto a degree, but I got rejected. Now, I was saddened at the time but now I realise I had made a big mistake. I didn't really want to do what I applied for (Pharmacology), I was just really interested in it, but not enough to stick at it. So I took a gap year from college to discover other areas of interest.

Then it dawned upon me. I was reading a page on the internet about how the Japanese language is constructed/used and found that it really interested me. So, not being one to just jump at it, I looked into more languages and found I had a real joy for it. Anyway, to get to the point. I am now on track to learn English, French, Spanish, Japanese and Korean with plans to get a TESOL (Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages) Degree and I plan to teach in the UK and various other countries around the world and also freelance translating, general translation and other language conversion jobs.

I'm going really strong with my language studies by myself at the moment and although its tough learning 4 at once, it definitely keeps me motivated. Things should get much easier when college starts in September.

So that's me! I may have left things quite late, but 20 isn't exactly old. I'm glad I waited for it to come to me rather than force myself to do something I knew I didn't want.

Phil.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Aug 2003
Posts
2,687
Location
London
Wijcc - My name is Jami
I was born in 29 May 1978 in Totenham. Lived most my life since about the age of 5 in Hackney, still living there. I went to Univ of Westminster studying Computing. Since graduating I have been working for a small company in West London doing everything related to IT and helping out in office admin stuff. I am still living with my parents, currently saving up to get a place of my own. I am single, always have been. Not been lucky/very good with the ladies unfortunately, I am quite shy/lacking in confidence many people have told me. Hoping to change that and meet a nice young lady.
I am a great F1 and other motorsports fan. I really enjoy driving, currently own a Mit. Carisma 1.6 GLXi before that I had a Peugeot 106. I was hoping to get a BMW or such but sadly I crashed my 106 and lost my NCB so had to get a car that was cheap to insure.
I also enjoy watching football and other sports and wildlife/natural world programmes.
I enjoy dancing despite being a hopeless dancer. I dont really have a favourite type of genre of music like allsorts ranging from soft ballads & classical to hardcore dance/trance records. I enjoy going out to clubs & bars and playing pool, at which I suck.
Dot't know what else to say. so will leave it at that..
 
Last edited:
Associate
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
1,772
A bit late seeing this one, but this "therepy" sounds like fun. Interesting to see a few people hailing from Tenby and Saundersfoot.

Right.
Sharknose - Gavin. Born in Carmarthen Hospital, West Wales. Will be 29 this November.

Lived in a village called Llanmiloe, about 1.5 miles from a costal village called Pendine. Pendine is a typical South West Wales tourist spot. However, my dad worked for MoD (still does) in the near by Test & Evaluation Centre (his job is to blow stuff up ;) )
Mum was/is a housewife.
I was born with a conditon called Club Foot. Basically, means my archilles tendon didn't grow properly. Meant, I had a series of opertations when I was a couple of months old, when I was 2 years old and finally when I was 8. Due to all of this, I became rather useless at sporting activity (football and rugby), so sometimes found it hard to fit in with other kids.

First fell in love when I was 14... unrequited :( ;)

Left school after some rather good exams, and studied Computer Science at Swansea Uni. Did enjoy my time there a lot, and am still in contact with some of my friends from uni. In fact, I find it hard to believe that this year will be the 10th anniversary since I started uni.

First job (Aug 1998) was based in Bristol (software engineering). Lived in Keynsham for 6 months, before moving into a shared house in Chippenham. During that time, I moved to the Chippenham office for my first company. Later on, I moved in with a couple of old uni friends in a shared house in Chippenham.
In Dec 2000, I changed job to a software company in Bath.
In April 2002 I moved to my own place in Bath.
Really liked living there.
Around about this time, got interested in Japanese language and culture (and I found myself having a real thing about Japanese ladies ;) ... still do ).
Enrolled in a evening class at my local college, which is where I met my wife, Yuko. She was studying in the UK and was wanting to do some language exchange. We got on quite well when we first met, even though see had wanted a female language exchange partner. A couple of days later, we found out we had the same birthday.... exactly (well, OK, she's a couple of hours older than me). There just seemed to be a connection between us, and we became a couple.

My work was becoming less interesting to me, and Yuko needed to go back to Japan (her visa was going to run out). Since we weren't married, she couldn't stay. I got lucky, because my customer facing Software Consulting division in my company needed people in Japan. So, out we went!!! I arrived here in July 2004.

In the mean time, we've got married (on our birthday, so no chance I will ever forget anniversaries ;) ) in the legal sense of the word. Our wedding ceremony though, is not until Dec this year.

These days, I finding myself bored with work again. Just not interested in computing anymore. What does the future hold? Who knows. At the moment, New Zealand is looking interesting.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom