The Shrine

How is everyone doing? A lot of people here used to be quite interested in topics such as History/arts, mythology/theology, philosophy/science, fictional writing/reading, etc...

Does anyone here maintain those interests? Or has society succeded in tearing your unique interesting portion of personality to shreds?

Or perhaps some here have developed further along in those fields?

Anyways, the question is, out of curiosity based on the above questions, how is everyone doing? =)

Hell, when I started posting here I was still a junior in HS *laughs* I'm in a tech college learning computer programing, engaged, and finally getting my life back on track after all the screwups I have made. I would have to say, life is good.

Yeah, I was just starting my junior year when I first found this place. I had no idea what I wanted to do, had never ever gone on a date with a girl, barely had any good friends.

Now, I've graduated with my Bachelor's, got a great job, am getting married in 2 months, working on my Master's, have tons of friends, am involved in my church and do a lot of good things there.

I agree, Mac, life is good.

I'm doing all right. My fledgling company survived our first project, which I wouldn't have put any bets on for awhile. This isn't our game that I was working on - this was a project we took on in order to self-fund it. Which means we get to go back to trying to sell the game, which I'm very excited about.

Personally, though, I've taken a few too many serious risks (one of which at least has backfired very seriously), so I'm looking to quiet down at be a bit more sedate...I've decided to be a "good boy" for awhile vis-a-vis everything except the pot-smoking, and perhaps even that, since my father found out about it and is putting on his best "rageful disapproval" face.

But, generally, all of my arms and legs are still on, so I have to consider things very good on the whole.

And, regarding your comment on American society, no, teh demonz of teh big bad television set have not managed to obliquely and completely destroy my regard for science and art. Maybe next year - though I'd actually have to hook up a TV set with reception in my apartment for that...

I started posting here when I was like 14 years old.... holy shit that's a while ago.

Anyways, I'll be graduating from university this April with a BSc majoring in Computer Science. I suppose that's a fairly long way from being back in grade 10 in high school. I have a job lined up, I'll be working on special software projects that appraisers work with at an insurance company, as well as whatever other special projects pop up that the normal systems division doesn't have a niche for handling (which looks like a lot potentially).

As far as emotionally goes, I'm also in a pretty good place. Been with my girlfriend for around nine months, bunch of old friends have moved back to the city, which makes for good times to be had.

I plan to be living in Regina for a while now since I have this job, and that's fine by me. Young people here are always talking about how they can't wait to get the hell out of this province, but more often than not (at least with the people I know) if they've left they're back again eventually.

So yea, that sums up my current situation. The past 9 years have been quite interresting, hope this place stays around 9 more.

Wow, it looks like a lot of people have come a long way. Mental, don't worry, I wasn't taking a shot at American culture so much as world contemporary culture. I think the same sort of situations exist throughout the world where people are broken down to fit a role in society; it would almost seem as a requirement to exist within a civilization for anyone who isn't overly wealthy or is fine with not wanting to achieve any great degree of wealth.

A lot of people getting married. It seems to be a source of joy, so I congratulate you =)

I have to say that I am not against myself getting married, but it isn't a goal in my life. I was engaged a few years ago, and back in that time it was the most important thing in the world to be prosperous and have a family. I questioned my goals, why I had them, and I found that it was because of belief systems that I picked up from the others around me, particularly those in my family. I have been dating for a while now, and I have been finding that none of my relationships have been working, that is, until January of this year. I found that I had a strong tendency to have a strong interest in girls who I just met, and so I would date them and we would have a relationship with zero foundation. A relationship with zero foundation, for me, will allow me to fall totally for the girl, and her for me, but there is always air bubbles, questions, judgements, etc.. They creep up and ruin things. I couldn't figure out the reason until recently.

Years ago I met a girl named Kendra while I was still together with another girl (the one who I was engaged to), and I became extremely good friends with her. We would do a lot of things together, but I honestly thought that Vanessa and I was going to work out (this was just after she had moved to Asia to work temporarilly as an English teacher). So Kendra and I allowed things to go as far as they would without penetrating a certain barrier; neither of us would push past it. I would walk her to class, have conversations with her for hours on subjects of the arts (primarilly literature and history). So we remained fairly good friends even until after I broke up with Vanessa, but neither of us had the guts to ask the other out because I guess the friendship we had seemed to important to risk loss. I eventually began dating again, and somehow lost touch with Kendra. We fell out.

In January of this year, at the beginning of the year I was on Campus paying for my courses and I bumped into her just outside of the office, we began talking again; I'll admit, and she seemed nervous, I felt nervous, as well, I didn't know what to expect. The conversation felt kind of forced, so I figured, this was a good "hi" and that would be that, I was dating randomly at the time and none being very successful (I always judge a date by how the goodbye goes, if the kiss tells me that she likes me, then it is a success, if there is no kiss or the kiss seems somewhat undesireable, it's a failure). Anyways, things with both of the girls went well, and I had a choice to make. Kendra made it for me, she called me up, we had a conversation for a few hours, and then went out for dinner and a movie. By the end of the date, I got a taste of feelings that I forgot I could feel. There were know barriers, her and I had already long ago broken the real barriers. We've been going out for a couple of months now, and I have already met her family and such. Instead of getting bored of her, I find that I am falling more and more for her all the time. I also love the fact that she feels comfortable enough about me that she isn't questioning everything I do (I go out a lot without her, I'm the type that likes to go out in smaller groups). Jealousy is a problem that I think a lot of girls have, a lot of people, always wanting to know what I'm doing, and trying to find faults in people who I think highly of. Anyways, this ended up being a lot longer than I meant it to be (not the two-three lines I planned), so I'm moving along =)

Academically, I am graduated, and have since moved on, I freaked out after getting into Dal and Memorial medical schools. I was certainly not ready for it; I had more to accomplish here first. I had the opportunity to go on into graduate studies, but instead I decided to work a few jobs here and there and have continued on in school working on English, Philosophy, the classics, and History. With my work and such, I am managing living expenses as well as tuition fees and not sinking down in funds. I also rent out rooms in my place, which brings in some funds; and I am really close with the people who move in, we're like family some of us (though I am having money issues with one of the guys, he owes me over $450).

Anyways, I think it's great to see how far a lot of people here have come along. When I first began posting here, I was still in High School. I remember being 16 and Don being 18, and I was thinking (Man, that guy is so grown up!) . I still remember tha arguments I used to have with one poster, Viper, they seem funny and silly now. I remember one argument we had about the games Extreme G and Wipeout, which was the better series and by what degree; it seems so trivial now, particularly because I don't really give a crap about either series, it was just something to argue and be right about =P

Then there was G-man, he, Sine, and I had the biggest three way feud in the history of the Internet. I might be wrong, but I think for the most part the coolest side of that triangle was between me and Sine, but even that was intense enough to drive half this place insane =P Needless to say, that is why G-man, Sine, and I always had by far the most words and posts on this forum (I think between the three of us we made up more than half of the posts and words written here for several years). Yes, we co-existed for several years. Once G-man fell off the map, things between Sine and I seemed to cool off completely as well. To be honest, I never really took things seriously, it was like a videogame the goal of which was to be RIGHT. Even when we agreed on things, we still had to make it a point that the other one was wrong =P

I don't know how things really went with others. I know that there were a few people who exploded and got angry at me. I think G-man, and a couple of others even went so far as to utter death threats in my direction =P

Though there was no real seriousness in the whole issue between the three of us. Even though G-man and I would argue like that on Sports, Ruminations, and Daily Stuph like we were bitter enemies (I always used to go on about paying change to sleep with his mother) there was nothing at all serious about any of our arguments; they were all a game, like role playing. I can prove this by saying that the two of us were like two totally different people on Gamethought and Music and Movies; we got along perfectly. Same deal goes with ICQ and stuff, we would actually talk about our arguments and compare who kicked whose ass harder from time to time. It still doesn't beat the arguments that I had with Eric, the fun arguments where we inserted actual violent acts into them; those days were fun, they're done now. G-man has dissappeared off of the face of the planet; probably with Crono somewhere up in Shrine heaven.... Or trapped in a basement =P

The 90's are gone, and we're already more than halfway through the next decade. There are PLENTY of other stories that I could tell about this place, I just chose to pick the ones that I did because somehow they entered into my head. I still remember the old Starcraft days, now those were fun. If anything could ever be labelled as the Shrine national videogame, it would be Starcraft. Eric, Don, BL, and others, I remember playing tons of games with you guys. That was years and years ago now. The prospect that this place, the community, might be around for decades longer intrigues me. It'll be interesting to see how things in our lives go from here on out.

PS. Does anyone know where Crono or G-man might REALLY be?

The Seeker wrote: PS. Does anyone know where Crono or G-man might REALLY be?

I wish I did, it would be great to hear from them again.

Bump...will read this later...

Whoah! Welcome back Mon Capiton!

Welcome back Sine