Hail, UFies!
I remember first finding UF as a college student with nothing but time and lonely computer labs with lots of bandwidth. An engineering major, I felt a kinship with the CompSci majors and thus the Geek community at large.
I graduated in 2002 (ten years already?!). I went on (somewhere else) for a Master's, and attempted to live my Geek life. But I wasn't Geek. I never really was.
In real life, I moved to a new city where a job awaited, worked for a bit, met a lady online, dated, proposed, bought a house, got married, had a kid, now there's a second on the way.
Geek-wise, I'm done. I don't have nifty gadgets. I'm not a fan of anything. I've never been a gamer or RPG fan. Even the things I feel into fandom hard over have been long-done (like "Cowboy Bebop"). Even the Dilbert DVD collection I have sits there only half-watched for years. And my job is less about geeky technical stuff and more about contracts, requirements/specifications, procurement, meetings and all sorts of business junk only a defense contractor (yes, I said it) can embody -- the worst of corporate and government in one package. (Funny thing is, I actually do enjoy my job for the occasional technical challenges.)
I miss, to a degree, the old wannabe-Geek days. So after years of ignoring UF, then reading the Daily Static again for about a year, I've turned on the Comments again and wish to take a whiff for old time's sake.
I hope I'm still welcome, although sometimes you need to leave in order to know what you've left behind. |
