So what have you done since August 2003?

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Kantark
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Kantark »

It's great to hear what's happened to people here, and some we haven't seen in ages too!

Blimey, I hate to think what I haven't achieved in ten years...

Moved house (not even across town, let alone across the country), but had to renovate it first.
Met some random people off the Internet (who could that have been?!) and didn't die.
Got a comic published in the NT.
Zapped my UC Grey Yurble.
Played a lot of Werewolf :-)
Had a job that got more interesting from 2004-2006 and has now got steadily less interesting again.
Got through half a dozen cars.
Continued a steady descent into misanthropy.

Thank you guys for putting up with my wittering over the years - this place means a lot to me, you're all cool and long may you remain so.

----

So what was life like in 2003? Here's a few things I ganked from Wikipedia earlier...

In 2003 Friends Reunited was king of what we'd now call social networking (at least in the UK), Myspace (remember that?) launched in August. Facebook wouldn't be created for another six months. Chat programs were the likes of AIM or MSN Messenger, or ICQ. We used to have some good chats here back then!

The iPhone was still four years off, although mobile phones with cameras and colour screens were beginning to become available.

Music wasn't much to write home about, although the Gary Jules/Michael Andrews version of Mad World reached no.1 for two weeks (including the Christmas chart), keeping some rot from X Factor's got the Pop Idol Talent off the top spot. 'Where is the Love?' by the Black Eyed Peas was the top-selling single of the year. Britain got nul points in the Eurovision Song Contest.

TV... Brookside and Crossroads ended, BBC Three was launched, and the final episode of Only Fools and Horses was broadcast on Christmas Day. Pop Idol was won by Michelle McManus (me neither), but the current light-entertainment behemoths X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and Strictly Come Dancing were still years away.
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EofS
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by EofS »

Kantark wrote:but the current light-entertainment behemoths X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and Strictly Come Dancing were still years away.
[pedant]Strictly and X-Factor launched in 2004[/pedant]

The Doctor Who relaunch was still two years away though.

Oh, and ten years ago today this was unleashed on the world...
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Kantark
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Kantark »

EofS wrote:[pedant]Strictly and X-Factor launched in 2004[/pedant]
Umm... just seeing if anyone was paying attention. ahem.
Eeeeee also wrote:and ten years ago today this was unleashed on the world...
Oh great, I wonder what I'm going to have stuck in my head all day now :-P
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Jazzy
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Jazzy »

Pop Idol was won by Michelle McManus (me neither)
The bit I liked best about that series of Pop Idol was when they went busking in dodgy hats and things as a disguise and no-one recognised them, and they basically earnt no money. It was great.
Jessi
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Jessi »

Wow, Since September 2003, huh..? I have...

• Adopted three cats (Wyn, Alys, Cairo!)
• "Graduated" college
• Met Lindsey and moved to Kansas
• Got a job at the store I still work at today and have managed to move my way up the corporate ladder (and back down it too, sigh)
• Had a cyst the size of a large grapefruit removed, along with the ovary it was attached to
• Got married
• Had half of my face paralyzed for 2 months!
• Moved across the country to the Pacific Northwest
• Lost 70 pounds (though that's just in the past 8 months)

And that's just touching on the basics! Wow, 10 years sure flies by.
Larkspurlane
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Larkspurlane »

I think I've only been here 5 yrs or so, but here goes:

2003 - was 17 years old, nerding it up at HS (were ANY of us socially adept?!)
2004-2008 - completed B.A. hons in English, graduated summa cum laude with a violent hatred for Can Lit
2008-2009 - completed Masters in English, alarmed at poor job prospects upon graduation. Somehow land awesome job.
still 2008: rejoin neo + find neocolours and have whiny breakdown about conversion project. The thread still exists here somewhere.
2010 - met DBF, moved in. Adopted first retired racing greyhound.
2011 - buy my first car (white elantra gt 2013 - like Seerow! Except I got the hatchback model 'cuz dogs)
2012 - adopt 2nd retired racer (foster failure) - best decision ever, I love her, she is the best fail ever.
2013 - buy big fancy house w DBF. Big dogs fit in it much more easily than our tiny townhome, and now they have a real backyard!
2013 - somehow land even more awesome job & living it up as Double Income No Kids couple... and hoping to stay that way.

Some parts of my life that I thought were important have lived and died... mostly the creative aspects. Neo was one -- I log in only sporadically, maybe 2-3 times a year now. My digital art is another, I used to be painting all the time... now I don't even know where my tablet is. Rejoining neo in 2009 briefly revitalised my interest in it but only because it gave me goals/inspiration/whatever. Some part of me is sad that my skillz are going to waste but I figure I won't have forgotten too much when I eventually get re-inspired. My writing has also fallen by the wayside. Ideas and inspiration for stories (mostly YA oriented) are still bubbling and (by now) fermenting in the soup that is my brain, but I just don't seem to have the motivation to sit and work them out, I just drabble out a scene here and their and email it to myself as something to work on eventually.

Maybe with the coming of winter, with less outdoor activities with the hounds and more quiet evenings at home, I'll get back into some of it.

Mostly, the past 10 years have been a period of growth and personal development, reevaluating priorities, finding a SO who truly matters to me, and suddenly becoming a Grown Up with a Mortgage. I still feel 12 most days, though, and still giggle at words like "dickbutt".
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Joey
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Joey »

I'm still weirded out that it's been 10 years. That's almost as long as I've been carving pumpkins!

Significant things that have happened:
2003: Got my first car
2005: Got my first job at the costume shop and started making cosplay
2006: Finished high school, feels so long ago, and quit the first job due to the commute from hell
2008: Got my butt into college, started studying Japanese, and traveled on my own for the first time to go to Jessi and Lindsey's wedding!
2010: Transferred into the University of California Davis and moved up to NorCal.
2012: Spent 3 months in Kyoto, Japan!
2013: Crashed my car in a really small non-injury causing accident that nonetheless totaled my beloved car, graduated with a BA in Japanese and a minor in music, moved to Sacramento because I fell in love with NorCal, and am currently job hunting again.

I've carved 120 pumpkins and 29 watermelons in that time span. On a more serious note, going to college was probably the best thing that happened to me. I met so many awesome friends and made big improvements against being socially awkward. I found out a lot about who I am and what I can do when pushed the right way (I had a professor tell me to quit Japanese) and the chance to study abroad in Kyoto was one of the most amazing experiences ever. I still don't know what I'm going to do with my life, but I'm in a lot better place right now than I was before college.

And of course I have been lurking here the whole time :D
Miguel
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Miguel »

10 years, oh my. Being schoolfriends with EofS makes it fairly easy to work out where I was 10 years ago - I think she had just moved to university, and I was just about to move (my term starting in October).

So...

2003: Went to university as a reasonably geeky and fairly naïve 18 year old.
2004-2008: In a committed long distance relationship. Ended as amicably as such things can a while after I graduated, the distance became more of an issue post-university.
Spring 2006, I think?: First started talking to Neocoloursy people. Despite not playing Neopets since 2001 or so, immediately felt welcomed by you guys (Any rumours that I just follow E around the internet are ... seemingly entirely correct. Cough.)
September 2006: Met Neocoloursy people for the first time - Daisy and Jazzy, with E, at the Science Museum in London.
Early 2007: A slight staff/security issue on a popular Neopets fan art community site brought me a lot more into the behind the scenes technical running of the forum for Jazzy. On reflection, that was the first online cyber security incident I'd helped to deal with... didn't realise at the time it would become a fair part of my job!
2007: Graduated with a Masters in computer stuff and possibly a bit less naïveté. Got my first proper job a couple of counties from home - and I'm still at the same organisation today, two sizable promotions later. First car too (still running well, touch wood!)
January 2008: moved Neocolours to UK hosting, nominally against my name (given by now I had a regular job, credit history, bank account etc.).
2008: Moved with work further from home. Can't get much further south in this country without getting wet feet! At one point Emma and I were at almost the entirely opposite ends of the country! ( :( )
February 2011: Officially a couple with Jazzy! (the reactions of people around me were much the same as Jazzy's - it had been a long time coming) Happiness ensued.
Summer 2012: Jazzy took a job near me and moved in with me (we'd had enough summer-long practices to know this would work!). I get my second post-grad qualification (Post Grad certificate in Forensic Computing).
2013 onwards? Well, thanks to this site I've got an amazing girlfriend who's just as geeky as I am in her ways, some fantastic friends who I don't see half as often as I'd like, and often meet new people who without exception have been fun and interesting. Not bad for a forum around a site I stopped frequenting 12 years ago! I might not post much here these days, but I'm usually lurking every few days. And if anything explodes, I'll be fixing that ASAP!
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Many thanks to EofS for the avatar and signature images.
Silverevilchao
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Re: So what have you done since August 2003?

Post by Silverevilchao »

That's....a long distance, ahahaha. Let's see...

August 2003: Started 7th grade
March 2004: Moved from North Las Vegas, NV to Pahrump NV
March 2005: Moved from Pahrump, NV back to Las Vegas, NV (in a different location)
August 2005: Started high school
Spring 2007: Got our adorable dogs, Harley and Tucker, as puppies
November 2008: Accepted to the University of North Dakota
June 2009: Graduated high school with a 4.2 GPA, attended freshman orientation at UND, last time I saw Dad in person
August 2009: Started college career, majoring as Computer Science and minoring in Space Studies
December 2009: Moved my mom from Vegas to Sanger, TX
Summer 2010: Vocaloid obsession ensues
Winter Break 2010: Spends entire time learning PHP, SQL, etc to make personal project Vocaloid List
March 2011: Starts noting depression
Summer 2011: Summer school and therapy...still fail Calc II
Winter Break 2011: Make personal site after realization that Facebook would probably be pricks and use any photos I'd upload on their site
March 2012: Depression worsens to the point that I get medicated
Summer 2012: Mom has moved in with another family, home situation too unstable for me; first actual programming job with UND's Wildlife@Home as a web developer; buy car that we've had since I was in middle school off of Mom, move my sisters into UND by driving across the country; start massive obsession into electronic music
November 2012: See Dada Life in concert in Winnipeg, become convinced that I'd like to become an electronic producer at this point; depression gets to be too much, special circumstances withdrawal ensues, medication fun ensues
Winter Break 2013: Become even more unstable
Spring 2013: Medications and therapy don't help, I fail all of my classes
Summer 2013: UND leads me on about web job with medical school, leaving me thousands of dollars in debt with no loans that can cover them and no damn job; autism testing gives me a diagnosis for Asperger's.
Fall 2013: Hiatus from school while I work full-time to pay off the summer charges so I can re-enroll this upcoming spring semester; depression transitions into anxiety, therapy works; still can't buy Pokemon X/Y lol; can't keep tenses straight

Wow...that's actually really depressing. But that's all I can pull off of the top of my head...
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