I'm here to announce my retirement from MTGSalvation. I quit playing magic three years ago, My clan has been retired for a while, and I've not posted outside of the clan moderator lounge for the last few months.
It has been a good run though. I joined this community maybe 14 years ago or so; Back in MTGnews just before DG implemented these fancy new VB bulletin style forums that everyone uses nowadays. I was the 16th person to sign up to the new system...I accidentally signed up wrong and when DG went to fix it he accidentally made me an admin. So I was the communities first admin for about an hour. I remember the rush to get higher post counts for the that coveted custom tag. ...can't remember what the limit was, but I was in the running for a while with 400 posts. Of course my 8PPD could not compete with those with 20+PPD and Davinox ended up getting it first...with BLOD a close second. Oh and the debate section...I used to love debating about any topic. I once even researched the history of the World Wrestling Federation and World Wildlife Foundation just so I could participate in a debate about that recent copyright lawsuit over the WWF logo.
The Called predated all that, though I don't remember how far. At that time it was all about discussing rumors. Those juicy tidbits that Rancored Elf was able to get from the actual source long before WOTC sued him. We had some good contests back then too. Mostly card creating contests since there was still a focus on rumors. Lots of good times, some drama, good friends...then the huge drama bomb that split the community and led to the creation of MTGsalvation. I checked my profile...says that was 9 years ago. Man...has it really been that long? Seems like it was just the other day that we all came here and regrouped.
I could probably ramble on like this forever. Good friends I've lost contact with, friends that are still around, the good times with clans both retired and new. It's been a long run and a great story...but all great things come to an end and it is time for me to go.
Sorry I didn't respond right away JJ. It's a great story and your family is remarkable for going through with that. Is your family thinking of doing that again?
It's about time we have a candid conversation about what we all know is going on: The future of this clan. That last bit of clan drama hurt us more than we wanted to admit, but we've been on a steady decline for several years. That last clan contest we won was partially motivated by wanting to go out with a bang, go out on a high note...and that was three years ago.
Fast forward to today. Few of us still play magic, few of us visit, and few of us post. We can say "forever called" all we want...but sentiment and no posts is not enough.
Basically...Officially...we are not active enough to stay alive as an active clan. Is there any real honest desire to change that? Is it time we go the way of Project Mayhem, The Greek Alliance, and the several other clans that migrated over from MTGNews? They've all fallen and we are the last, but again, sentiment alone wont keep this clan going.
Well...last week my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She was a gestational carrier for a couple. It was an incredible 9 months leading up to a very touching birth sequence where I saw the faces of two fathers fall in love at the site of their beautiful girl! Watching my wife be strong as a rock and these two men soften up as the touch of their little girl was one of the most amazing experiences in my life.
Then she got bronchitis from the hospital oxygen mask she was given during the birth process.
But we're good now!!
That's amazing JJ. I've heard of that sort of thing going on, but never knew anyone who actually went through it. Glad it was a positive experience for everyone. ...well, except for the bronchitis, would expect better from the hospital. Will your family and theirs stay in contact after all this? How much interaction did your families have during the entire 9 months? What got the ball rolling on this in the first place?
I am a programmer for a Bank in Portugal. I'm mostly doing work in dynamically filled in PDF files (Dymanic XML). These are PDFs that are filled in by an application. You have an app where you input data, and it exports it to a PDF file for presentation. I create, edit and correct these PDF Files. It's got as much to do with programming as "1+1" has to do with advanced Calculus, but I like to call myself a programmer (I'm weird in that way). Anyway, that's what I do nowadays.
That does sound complicated though. The most technologically advanced stuff I've done is social media. It sounds simple and cheesy, but I'm the only one at work that knows how to run our facebook/twitter/google+. I've spent way too much time on them actually.
I've also recently upgraded one of our computers, so I guess I'm the computer tech wiz as well. The poor thing was slowing down, so I installed two more sticks of ram into it to up the number to a colossal 2.5 gigs. Now I could ramp it up more, that Pentium 4 processor can handle up to 4 gigs, but who needs that kind of power in this day and age?
yeah man, this place is quiet.
I for one, have little time right now. As my fast drop from Admin to local hints, I have little time for anything not work related right now.
I have a lot on my plate. I'm doing my work, learning some new stuff and having 12 hour work days.
It's time consuming, but at least I love my job and not many people can say that (I couldn't for a few years). Plus, the way things are working out, I'm riding the Promotion wave for 2013, so that's not something to frown upon
All in all, I'm doing fine, but extremely busy.
That's good news. Brain's not working...I forget exactly what you do nowadays.
It's nice to ride the promotion train. I know that I'll never have that with my current job. I love my job, but I will have to leave it if I want advancement.
Wow, 15 days with no posts huh. We're about as dead as dead can be aren't we.
So what's everybody been doing lately anyway? It's a busy season for me at the moment. Monsoon season has been over for a while so that transitions us into monitoring season. I've been out to a variety of ranches across Arizona collecting data.
We also gathered and processed cattle. Which required I go on an all day cattle drive by horse back. That was fun, though my horse didn't care much about listening to me....either that or I kept telling her what to do without knowing it...subtle body language and whatknot. The other days was pregcheching the cows and weaning the calves. Some vaccines for the calves to prepare them for the feedlots, that sort of thing.
So busy busy and that's still going strong. Hope you all are doing good as well.
@Charlie
That sounds like a pretty awesome hand. Wasting their main theme and getting two bobs....mean.
Why would they entomb in response to your consultation?
I'm a little out of the loop here. Will I need to log in to a new site and get a new log in and password and stuff? How different will this be? What exactly is Ria leaving (being left behind?)?
Not much news from me. I'm still spending a few nights a week out camping and collecting data. Spent another few nights in that luxury cabin and hope to go back soon. I'll continue this schedule till at least October 14th...then we'll see how much more camping I get.
When I'm in the office I've been doing a lot more social media stuff than I realized I would. It's mostly dealing with the learning curve of what I can and can't do, plus factchecking what I post so I don't say/do something stupid. I'm representing an organization after all. I still don't get the utility of twitter....it still seems dumb to me and I can't put into words why any of my constituents would want to bother with it. The google+ is up to 4 followers...one of them being "Butte's Mile High Chrysler Jeep Dodge Kia"...which I think is a car dealership in Montana. O_o
I've also been trying to get a Linkedin Account which might actually have some utility. We have access to some of the most important people in rangeland ecology...professionally associating with them in one place might be handy.
But bah...whatever...been spending way too much time on these things with very little gain.
Beyond that...um...I've reached top 8 silver in Starcraft 2.
Hope things get resolved eventually Dux. That whole situation is just weird.
Congrats luck, good to see you on the team.
Ducktales is a fun game. I don't remember if I ever beat it. I do remember many difficult games over the years. I think the constant save points is what changed things, but seriously, that's probably a good thing. I wasn't allowed to sit and play for as long as it would take to beat some of those games.
I've been away mostly on being busy monitoring data and being out camping/researching. That, and my internet has been shut off on me for the past little bit...seems to be taking a while to get it back on. I have learned that my fancy new computer is not as functional without the internet. I miss the days when I can buy a computer game and actually play it whenever I want. Not that I'm always on the internet, but it is handy when I want it.
What else...hmmm. Cousin from Holland and we floated the salt river a few times. I took her hiking but probably told her too many stories of people getting lost and dying. She did end up with mild heat exhaustion, but that wasn't my fault. O_O
I also went out monitoring with an experienced BLM crew...who somehow was rather unprepared with people running out of water hours away from the vehicle. Several "lucky" circumstances and me sharing my last liter and we all came out fine. But that's a bit annoying...
I was camping for work yesterday and had some awesome BBQ. Think burying meat on top of 4ft of coals for a day, plus high quality dutch oven cobbler. That was fun.
I'll be heading off next week to do more monitoring at the xdiamond ranch. That's a working cattle ranch that also doubles as a place to rent out cabins for outdoor adventures. I just thought I would be camping there, but then they told me I would be in a cabin. Man alive are these cabins fancy, and I'll be in one of the fanciest cabins.
Edit:....What the Sam Hill? I can use my work's smart phone as a hot spot to provide internet to my computer? I wonder what that means for my data usage....
Oh...did I tell ya'll that I have access to a smart phone now? I'm not sure how I feel about it actually. The first day I had it I used it to download a soil app, used the GPS and that app to identify the soil I was standing on, then took a picture of the landscape and put it on the v bar v facebook page exclaiming the neatness of being able to do all this. ...then the smartphone overheated and wouldn't work for a while. Which seems like a design flaw and can be dangerous in an emergency situation.
Anyway, I'm hitting that learning curve that everyone probably hit back in 2001 or so. I've already accidentally synced the phone to my personal Gmail account (almost manually deleted all my gmail contacts)...an act that used up 3 gigs of data transfer and burned up the battery in 6 hours.
I suppose its about time I get used to all this...after all, they are phasing out those regular flip phones. Plus I should upgrade my personal phone soon. The touch screen has stopped working and I've been navigating most the options with the arrow pad that it has.
kids discovered the original Thunderbirds, have declared it Best Show Evah; aside from Lego-scale everything, O is building a Thunderbird 2 out of boxes. There is no greater joy than 6 Cutting Sick With Glue & Paint
Nice....though glue and paint sound a bit excessive when the world has colored duct tape.
I seem to always get stuck with female computers, they won't cooperate with me - I always forget to check underneath the box before I buy.
.
.
.
Bah! It's technology these days. My laptop doesn't work, the new computer crashes, my backup harddrive is fried, and that fancy new invention...the touch screen...no longer works on my cell phone. Just cause I am the common denominator in all this doesn't mean that technology isn't still stupid!
Edit: Oh, and I brought the computer to the shop and they couldn't find nuthin wrong with it. Diagnostic "claimed" everything was fine with the hardware...and the softwere...still kinda unknown. But the computer guy transfered 500megabites over to test the conection I was complaining about.....went at 100 megs per second without a hitch for him! Bah I say!
Arizona....in the summer? You do realize that my work days have reached 120 degrees right? Now with the monsoon we have 100% humidity and over 100 degrees daily...so much for "dry heat". I'm not sure what the comfort zone is in PA, but I bet it isn't above 80 degrees. Plus every evening there's a chance you'll get stranded or stuck due to flash floods. Well except on the ranch where we need it most...seems that someone isn't living right.
I'd say go for it. Always good to travel and experience new places. Plus Arizona is the most ecologically diverse state in the nation. Hard to beat that.
What part of Arizona anyway? Oh...and why are you coming here?
....right....been busy. Computer broke and new one is still kind of broke. The new computer fried my backup harddrive so there's a lot of data lost. In the mean time I have several workshops to do. Grand canyon trip last week, cattleman's association this week, drought workshop next week...and so on and so fourth till at least September. Haven't done anything on match yet so nothing to report there. Still no roommate yet, haven't cleaned the place enough to do that.
I went to the first memorial of the firefighters and watched the second memorial live. I wanted to go to the benefit concert, but the tickets were sold out six hours after they released them...which is when I checked. I'm still not sure how they died. Seems that everything was textbook except the intensity of the fire. It'll take some time to figure why the shelters failed.
I've not been around because my computer broke down. So I went to frys to buy a new one. I did research on something average that wouldn't cost me a ton, something that could max out the graphics on starcraft and that's about it. It shouldn't have cost me more than around $800 for the tower plus maybe $200 for the monitor and keyboard, but either I totally missjudged everything or frys marked this up considerably. The components were good, but not top of the line. i5 processor, 4th generation 36gig max motherboard, 600 series nividia graphics card. ...but by the time everything was purchased it hit $1700. Ignoring the warranties, rebates, and norton anti-virus it was probably $1500, but still much more than I thought. I'm did do some upgrades that I hadn't planned for but were recommended. I'm checking newegg.com now to see if things actually add up. If not, well frys does honor price checking up to 30 days past purchasses....in store credit, but fair enough.
I'm already having problems with the computer. I went to restart the computer and it just stuck on the restart screen until I got fed up and hit the power. The internet is also coming in slow and I don't know if that's something from this computer. I feel that my broken laptop did better than this. I might have to take it back to fries if I can't get things working the way I want.
Edit: Looks like I don't have much to complain about besides the weird restart problem. The internet is slow because its satellite and there's an overcast. The price...well it seems all the components are on par with newegg and add up to about $1200 which is still a little on the high end, but not outrageously so. There's $150 in rebates, $120 in taxes, $100 installation fees, and $100 windows 8...all of which I didn't calculate when I first estimated the expected price.
Can't tell you if it plays starcraft at max settings...which was the only real requirement. With this overcast I'm downloading at 5kb/s.
So I'm frustrated and in mourning and am not sure what's going on. Today, 19 wildland fire fighters died in the Yarnel Hill fire. 19 out of 20 of an elite hotshot crew from the city of Prescott, Arizona. A sister city to mine, just over the mountain not 30 minutes away. I trained there last march to be a type 1 fire fighter. I tried to get on a fire crew, but was not able. Now the fire rages, 19 are dead, and I'm not there. 200 plus fire fighters are deployed, the city of Yarnel is destroyed, and I'm not there.
I don't know. 19 are dead. We train for that. Fighting the flanks, avoiding flame lengths above 3 feet, deploying shelters when the **** hits the fan. But 19 dead...that shouldn't be possible....Not in this day and age...that shouldn't be possible...
I'm here to announce my retirement from MTGSalvation. I quit playing magic three years ago, My clan has been retired for a while, and I've not posted outside of the clan moderator lounge for the last few months.
It has been a good run though. I joined this community maybe 14 years ago or so; Back in MTGnews just before DG implemented these fancy new VB bulletin style forums that everyone uses nowadays. I was the 16th person to sign up to the new system...I accidentally signed up wrong and when DG went to fix it he accidentally made me an admin. So I was the communities first admin for about an hour.
The Called predated all that, though I don't remember how far. At that time it was all about discussing rumors. Those juicy tidbits that Rancored Elf was able to get from the actual source long before WOTC sued him. We had some good contests back then too. Mostly card creating contests since there was still a focus on rumors. Lots of good times, some drama, good friends...then the huge drama bomb that split the community and led to the creation of MTGsalvation. I checked my profile...says that was 9 years ago. Man...has it really been that long? Seems like it was just the other day that we all came here and regrouped.
I could probably ramble on like this forever. Good friends I've lost contact with, friends that are still around, the good times with clans both retired and new. It's been a long run and a great story...but all great things come to an end and it is time for me to go.
Cheers,
Daggertooth
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It's about time we have a candid conversation about what we all know is going on: The future of this clan. That last bit of clan drama hurt us more than we wanted to admit, but we've been on a steady decline for several years. That last clan contest we won was partially motivated by wanting to go out with a bang, go out on a high note...and that was three years ago.
Fast forward to today. Few of us still play magic, few of us visit, and few of us post. We can say "forever called" all we want...but sentiment and no posts is not enough.
Basically...Officially...we are not active enough to stay alive as an active clan. Is there any real honest desire to change that? Is it time we go the way of Project Mayhem, The Greek Alliance, and the several other clans that migrated over from MTGNews? They've all fallen and we are the last, but again, sentiment alone wont keep this clan going.
That's amazing JJ. I've heard of that sort of thing going on, but never knew anyone who actually went through it. Glad it was a positive experience for everyone. ...well, except for the bronchitis, would expect better from the hospital. Will your family and theirs stay in contact after all this? How much interaction did your families have during the entire 9 months? What got the ball rolling on this in the first place?
That does sound complicated though. The most technologically advanced stuff I've done is social media. It sounds simple and cheesy, but I'm the only one at work that knows how to run our facebook/twitter/google+. I've spent way too much time on them actually.
I've also recently upgraded one of our computers, so I guess I'm the computer tech wiz as well. The poor thing was slowing down, so I installed two more sticks of ram into it to up the number to a colossal 2.5 gigs. Now I could ramp it up more, that Pentium 4 processor can handle up to 4 gigs, but who needs that kind of power in this day and age?
That's good news. Brain's not working...I forget exactly what you do nowadays.
It's nice to ride the promotion train. I know that I'll never have that with my current job. I love my job, but I will have to leave it if I want advancement.
So what's everybody been doing lately anyway? It's a busy season for me at the moment. Monsoon season has been over for a while so that transitions us into monitoring season. I've been out to a variety of ranches across Arizona collecting data.
We also gathered and processed cattle. Which required I go on an all day cattle drive by horse back. That was fun, though my horse didn't care much about listening to me....either that or I kept telling her what to do without knowing it...subtle body language and whatknot. The other days was pregcheching the cows and weaning the calves. Some vaccines for the calves to prepare them for the feedlots, that sort of thing.
So busy busy and that's still going strong. Hope you all are doing good as well.
@Charlie
That sounds like a pretty awesome hand. Wasting their main theme and getting two bobs....mean.
Why would they entomb in response to your consultation?
Well that's unfortunate, but real life is complicated and if it is calling then I understand.
Take care of yourself out there and keep in touch on facebook.
Not much news from me. I'm still spending a few nights a week out camping and collecting data. Spent another few nights in that luxury cabin and hope to go back soon. I'll continue this schedule till at least October 14th...then we'll see how much more camping I get.
When I'm in the office I've been doing a lot more social media stuff than I realized I would. It's mostly dealing with the learning curve of what I can and can't do, plus factchecking what I post so I don't say/do something stupid. I'm representing an organization after all. I still don't get the utility of twitter....it still seems dumb to me and I can't put into words why any of my constituents would want to bother with it. The google+ is up to 4 followers...one of them being "Butte's Mile High Chrysler Jeep Dodge Kia"...which I think is a car dealership in Montana. O_o
I've also been trying to get a Linkedin Account which might actually have some utility. We have access to some of the most important people in rangeland ecology...professionally associating with them in one place might be handy.
But bah...whatever...been spending way too much time on these things with very little gain.
Beyond that...um...I've reached top 8 silver in Starcraft 2.
Congrats luck, good to see you on the team.
Ducktales is a fun game. I don't remember if I ever beat it. I do remember many difficult games over the years. I think the constant save points is what changed things, but seriously, that's probably a good thing. I wasn't allowed to sit and play for as long as it would take to beat some of those games.
I've been away mostly on being busy monitoring data and being out camping/researching. That, and my internet has been shut off on me for the past little bit...seems to be taking a while to get it back on. I have learned that my fancy new computer is not as functional without the internet. I miss the days when I can buy a computer game and actually play it whenever I want. Not that I'm always on the internet, but it is handy when I want it.
What else...hmmm. Cousin from Holland and we floated the salt river a few times. I took her hiking but probably told her too many stories of people getting lost and dying. She did end up with mild heat exhaustion, but that wasn't my fault. O_O
I also went out monitoring with an experienced BLM crew...who somehow was rather unprepared with people running out of water hours away from the vehicle. Several "lucky" circumstances and me sharing my last liter and we all came out fine. But that's a bit annoying...
I was camping for work yesterday and had some awesome BBQ. Think burying meat on top of 4ft of coals for a day, plus high quality dutch oven cobbler. That was fun.
I'll be heading off next week to do more monitoring at the xdiamond ranch. That's a working cattle ranch that also doubles as a place to rent out cabins for outdoor adventures. I just thought I would be camping there, but then they told me I would be in a cabin. Man alive are these cabins fancy, and I'll be in one of the fanciest cabins.
Edit:....What the Sam Hill? I can use my work's smart phone as a hot spot to provide internet to my computer? I wonder what that means for my data usage....
Oh...did I tell ya'll that I have access to a smart phone now? I'm not sure how I feel about it actually. The first day I had it I used it to download a soil app, used the GPS and that app to identify the soil I was standing on, then took a picture of the landscape and put it on the v bar v facebook page exclaiming the neatness of being able to do all this. ...then the smartphone overheated and wouldn't work for a while. Which seems like a design flaw and can be dangerous in an emergency situation.
Anyway, I'm hitting that learning curve that everyone probably hit back in 2001 or so. I've already accidentally synced the phone to my personal Gmail account (almost manually deleted all my gmail contacts)...an act that used up 3 gigs of data transfer and burned up the battery in 6 hours.
I suppose its about time I get used to all this...after all, they are phasing out those regular flip phones. Plus I should upgrade my personal phone soon. The touch screen has stopped working and I've been navigating most the options with the arrow pad that it has.
Nice....though glue and paint sound a bit excessive when the world has colored duct tape.
Bah! It's technology these days. My laptop doesn't work, the new computer crashes, my backup harddrive is fried, and that fancy new invention...the touch screen...no longer works on my cell phone. Just cause I am the common denominator in all this doesn't mean that technology isn't still stupid!
Edit: Oh, and I brought the computer to the shop and they couldn't find nuthin wrong with it. Diagnostic "claimed" everything was fine with the hardware...and the softwere...still kinda unknown. But the computer guy transfered 500megabites over to test the conection I was complaining about.....went at 100 megs per second without a hitch for him! Bah I say!
Arizona....in the summer? You do realize that my work days have reached 120 degrees right? Now with the monsoon we have 100% humidity and over 100 degrees daily...so much for "dry heat". I'm not sure what the comfort zone is in PA, but I bet it isn't above 80 degrees. Plus every evening there's a chance you'll get stranded or stuck due to flash floods. Well except on the ranch where we need it most...seems that someone isn't living right.
I'd say go for it. Always good to travel and experience new places. Plus Arizona is the most ecologically diverse state in the nation. Hard to beat that.
What part of Arizona anyway? Oh...and why are you coming here?
....right....been busy. Computer broke and new one is still kind of broke. The new computer fried my backup harddrive so there's a lot of data lost. In the mean time I have several workshops to do. Grand canyon trip last week, cattleman's association this week, drought workshop next week...and so on and so fourth till at least September. Haven't done anything on match yet so nothing to report there. Still no roommate yet, haven't cleaned the place enough to do that.
That's everything in a nuttshell.
I went to the first memorial of the firefighters and watched the second memorial live. I wanted to go to the benefit concert, but the tickets were sold out six hours after they released them...which is when I checked. I'm still not sure how they died. Seems that everything was textbook except the intensity of the fire. It'll take some time to figure why the shelters failed.
I've not been around because my computer broke down. So I went to frys to buy a new one. I did research on something average that wouldn't cost me a ton, something that could max out the graphics on starcraft and that's about it. It shouldn't have cost me more than around $800 for the tower plus maybe $200 for the monitor and keyboard, but either I totally missjudged everything or frys marked this up considerably. The components were good, but not top of the line. i5 processor, 4th generation 36gig max motherboard, 600 series nividia graphics card. ...but by the time everything was purchased it hit $1700. Ignoring the warranties, rebates, and norton anti-virus it was probably $1500, but still much more than I thought. I'm did do some upgrades that I hadn't planned for but were recommended. I'm checking newegg.com now to see if things actually add up. If not, well frys does honor price checking up to 30 days past purchasses....in store credit, but fair enough.
I'm already having problems with the computer. I went to restart the computer and it just stuck on the restart screen until I got fed up and hit the power. The internet is also coming in slow and I don't know if that's something from this computer. I feel that my broken laptop did better than this. I might have to take it back to fries if I can't get things working the way I want.
Edit: Looks like I don't have much to complain about besides the weird restart problem. The internet is slow because its satellite and there's an overcast. The price...well it seems all the components are on par with newegg and add up to about $1200 which is still a little on the high end, but not outrageously so. There's $150 in rebates, $120 in taxes, $100 installation fees, and $100 windows 8...all of which I didn't calculate when I first estimated the expected price.
Can't tell you if it plays starcraft at max settings...which was the only real requirement. With this overcast I'm downloading at 5kb/s.
I don't know. 19 are dead. We train for that. Fighting the flanks, avoiding flame lengths above 3 feet, deploying shelters when the **** hits the fan. But 19 dead...that shouldn't be possible....Not in this day and age...that shouldn't be possible...