I read the Shrine History page that Sine put together a few days ago and it got me feeling nostalgic.
I know that my profile says I joined in 2001 but that's not true. I've been here since the beginning (or shortly thereafter). I asked Sine to fix it once but I guess that never happened.
In my Sophomore year of High School (1996-97) I went through some issues with depression and social anxiety. Not sure why this happened but I withdrew from friends and school. I found solace in the world of video games. There I could escape. I bought a game on a whim at a local video game store in suburban St. Louis called "Secret of Mana". This served as my gateway drug into the world of JRPGs. It was a great escape into a lush green world with upbeat music and hours worth of things to do. I played the hell out of the game, maxing it out 100% several times. Then I found out that people were talking about games on the internet. I was still dealing with social anxiety but found it easy to talk to people online. I bumped around various forums, the Mana Treehouse, Sega forums, until I found The Shrine. It must have been during my Junior year (97-98) that I stumbled upon the Shrine. It was shortly after the site was put up. I remember Crono's redesign and I remember Mental being largely absent. I remember Eric getting banned and drama related to that.
I remember Chrono Trigger was a big deal initially so I bought that and loved it. Same with Wild Arms. Suikoden was regularly crapped on so I avoided that one. FFVII was the main topic for like a year. We all played that one together. Various members came and went. I remember Garfeld(?) from Singapore who absolutely LOVED SaGa Frontier and Enya and would talk about them all the time. I was just a kid then. I sure I said some really stupid shit. I remember becoming friends with a Swedish guy on the forum (can't remember his username) who wanted to hang out and go for drinks with me when he came to the US (assuming I was 21). I was too embarrassed to tell him I was 17 and played it off like I was just too busy. In 1999 I had an internet voice chat session with Derithian over some prehistoric Skype precursor. He laughed when he heard my voice. He'd assumed with a name like ManaMAN I'd have like a deep manly voice or something. In 2000 sometime, the Shrine was so bustling that Sine added a live chat room feature. I would go on there from time to time. One time my mom even got on there and created a username "ManaMama". No one believed it was her. I was sure you guys would chase her off but you were at least polite and kept it clean. I remember Sine's "Supreme Intelligence Software" and the game he was going to make. I remember Seeker telling us he got his entire town in Canada high one summer. Lots of good memories, but lots of pointless arguments & debates in Ruminations too. "Miles and miles of internet arguing" is definitely the truth.
After I graduated with my bachelors degree in 2003 I kept posting. Some time in 2005 I stopped coming by as much. I got married that year and thought that I was spending too much time on the Shrine at work. Mostly I just lurked.
In 2006 we had our first child, a boy named Jeremy. Sadly, he only lived for 4 months. As best as we can tell, he suffered from prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain during birth. We suspect it was the drugs the doctors gave to induce labor but we could never prove anything. After that I had trouble dealing with the loss. I tried to ignore the sadness and bury myself in work. I was depressed and anxious, at one point this started showing up in physical symptoms that I mistook for heart troubles. It wasn't until I really acknowledged my feelings years later that I felt better. We had our second child, a daughter in 2009. Shortly afterwards I started coming by the Shrine again. The site was still pretty busy back then. I remember discussing Obamacare with Seeker and other Canadians on the forum.
In 2011 we moved from St. Louis to Madison Wisconsin. Mainly we just wanted a change. Many of our friends had stopped hanging out with us when we went through our grief and others had moved away. All of my family had moved away. St. Louis was like Ireland during the potato famine or something. After our move to Madison I posted a few times but I was really busy. We had our third kid in 2013.
One day last year I was feeling down, stressed out with work & taking life too seriously. Too much work and no play made me a dull boy. I thought I needed to check back in at the Shrine. Why did I ever stop coming here? It's kind of sad how few posts this place gets nowadays but I suppose that everyone else is busy with their own lives like I was.
Anyway, what's your story with the Shrine?
(This is me (on the right) about the time I joined the Shrine)
(My wife & I @ Lake Michigan in the Fall)
I know that my profile says I joined in 2001 but that's not true. I've been here since the beginning (or shortly thereafter). I asked Sine to fix it once but I guess that never happened.
In my Sophomore year of High School (1996-97) I went through some issues with depression and social anxiety. Not sure why this happened but I withdrew from friends and school. I found solace in the world of video games. There I could escape. I bought a game on a whim at a local video game store in suburban St. Louis called "Secret of Mana". This served as my gateway drug into the world of JRPGs. It was a great escape into a lush green world with upbeat music and hours worth of things to do. I played the hell out of the game, maxing it out 100% several times. Then I found out that people were talking about games on the internet. I was still dealing with social anxiety but found it easy to talk to people online. I bumped around various forums, the Mana Treehouse, Sega forums, until I found The Shrine. It must have been during my Junior year (97-98) that I stumbled upon the Shrine. It was shortly after the site was put up. I remember Crono's redesign and I remember Mental being largely absent. I remember Eric getting banned and drama related to that.
I remember Chrono Trigger was a big deal initially so I bought that and loved it. Same with Wild Arms. Suikoden was regularly crapped on so I avoided that one. FFVII was the main topic for like a year. We all played that one together. Various members came and went. I remember Garfeld(?) from Singapore who absolutely LOVED SaGa Frontier and Enya and would talk about them all the time. I was just a kid then. I sure I said some really stupid shit. I remember becoming friends with a Swedish guy on the forum (can't remember his username) who wanted to hang out and go for drinks with me when he came to the US (assuming I was 21). I was too embarrassed to tell him I was 17 and played it off like I was just too busy. In 1999 I had an internet voice chat session with Derithian over some prehistoric Skype precursor. He laughed when he heard my voice. He'd assumed with a name like ManaMAN I'd have like a deep manly voice or something. In 2000 sometime, the Shrine was so bustling that Sine added a live chat room feature. I would go on there from time to time. One time my mom even got on there and created a username "ManaMama". No one believed it was her. I was sure you guys would chase her off but you were at least polite and kept it clean. I remember Sine's "Supreme Intelligence Software" and the game he was going to make. I remember Seeker telling us he got his entire town in Canada high one summer. Lots of good memories, but lots of pointless arguments & debates in Ruminations too. "Miles and miles of internet arguing" is definitely the truth.
After I graduated with my bachelors degree in 2003 I kept posting. Some time in 2005 I stopped coming by as much. I got married that year and thought that I was spending too much time on the Shrine at work. Mostly I just lurked.
In 2006 we had our first child, a boy named Jeremy. Sadly, he only lived for 4 months. As best as we can tell, he suffered from prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain during birth. We suspect it was the drugs the doctors gave to induce labor but we could never prove anything. After that I had trouble dealing with the loss. I tried to ignore the sadness and bury myself in work. I was depressed and anxious, at one point this started showing up in physical symptoms that I mistook for heart troubles. It wasn't until I really acknowledged my feelings years later that I felt better. We had our second child, a daughter in 2009. Shortly afterwards I started coming by the Shrine again. The site was still pretty busy back then. I remember discussing Obamacare with Seeker and other Canadians on the forum.
In 2011 we moved from St. Louis to Madison Wisconsin. Mainly we just wanted a change. Many of our friends had stopped hanging out with us when we went through our grief and others had moved away. All of my family had moved away. St. Louis was like Ireland during the potato famine or something. After our move to Madison I posted a few times but I was really busy. We had our third kid in 2013.
One day last year I was feeling down, stressed out with work & taking life too seriously. Too much work and no play made me a dull boy. I thought I needed to check back in at the Shrine. Why did I ever stop coming here? It's kind of sad how few posts this place gets nowadays but I suppose that everyone else is busy with their own lives like I was.
Anyway, what's your story with the Shrine?
(This is me (on the right) about the time I joined the Shrine)
(My wife & I @ Lake Michigan in the Fall)
Last edited by ManaMan on Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
“I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." 
