Introductions

[camillofan]

Being a religious American with naturally thin skin, I tend to stay well out of the way of people who are deliberately outrageous in the way Strabo was. That said, I found him interesting from a distance, and probably checked out every link on his homepage!

[RobertGraves]

He is a New Zealander and a cheeky one at that. Last time I spoke with him he said he and his wife were moving to America - watch out!

[Aravis]

There are some new people trickling in, so I think I'll start the introductions properly. Even though everybody already knows me so far!

I'm Aravis. duh. I'm a thirty-something married woman who so far has chosen pets to children. My interests include reading, writing, photography, fixing up my house when I have the chance, blogging and discussing various issues of the day with others. I have other interests as well, but I think you'll just have to learn about them as time goes on.

Your turn!

[camillofan]

Hi. camillofan here-- Karen, IRL, but camillofan on just about every online forum or community I've ever joined. Name comes from my great love of Giovanni Guareschi's Don Camillo stories; searching for fellow fans of them is what first brought me online, 6 or 7 years ago.

I'm 40-something, married with 3 sons (two in middle school and one a "midlife surprise" who has turned all our lives upside down ). I teach philosophy to undergraduates (part-time) and am an avocational musician (church pianist, choral singer). For recreation (as if!), I love to read (99% fiction), listen to classical music, cook, and (occasionally) fiddle with crafts (cross-stitch, scrapbooking, cake decorating). Oh, and somehow I've got myself hooked on the sport of cricket, which as an American I have to follow 100% online.

Since this board's origins are political, I'll add for the record that I'm a middle-class American evangelical Christian with very mixed politics (a pro-life feminist, for starters). I'd have called myself a closet socialist until fairly recently; however, unfortunate personal experience has soured me on the State and turned me rather libertarian. I vote as a matter of principle, but I have never wholeheartedly supported a political candidate.

Unless I am suddenly seized by an attack of politics, you can look for me on the more frivolous and personal boards here. ;D

[Arancaytar]

Hi, I'm Arancaytar (though I'm quite fine with being called Aran). I found this forum through the link at Aravis's blog.

Not that much to say about me. 17 years, guy, just started college and living in Germany (though I was born in Manhattan and lived there for all of two years). I'm studying Technomathematics, combined with an apprenticeship as Mathematical-Technical Assistant - basically programming and maths rolled together.
I'm "online", as in actively posting on boards as Arancaytar, since April 2003 (seems like centuries have passed).
My main interests would be fantasy (play-by-post roleplaying and writing stories), though I appear to have drifted off into the realm of the political bit by bit over the last half year (you can guess who I blame for that, but let's not go into politics just yet).
So currently I'm a member of the Santharian Dream, where we create a fantasy world, a regular poster at the infamous forums of Spiderweb Software (where on any given day you might find a discussion about games, a discussion about religion, spam, roleplaying, spam, ethical and philosophical debates, political debates, spam, nonsense, and spam), spent about a week at the Democratic Underground forums but left again, and more recently I started to maintain a political blog.

Concerning my politics, I consider myself liberal. Whether libertarian or socialist is less important to me, though the Political Compass test placed me deeply in the Commie Pinko quadrant. Religion-wise, I'm Protestant Christian by confession and agnostic by belief, with atheism kicking in every now and then when I see what people do in God's name. And about a week ago, Thomas Paine became my hero, so draw your own conclusions.

[demgoddess]

Hi all. I'm Jen...twenty-something and living in the upper-midwestern US. Recent college grad (BA in political science, which is useful mostly for running campaigns and posting on blogs or forums). Heading to law school in the fall (hopefully, I've just applied)! Before deciding to head back to school, I worked for a health-related non-profit organization and a state senator.

Let's see, what else. Liberal politically, somewhat religious (Protestant Christian). Relatively new to the blog/Internet forum phenomenon....and one of my least favorite things to do is introduce myself, so hopefully I haven't done too poorly.

[Aravis]

Dem, you did a great job. I always feel awkward with the intros too, and would rather just start talking.

Welcome everyone!

[Wyndham]

Hi there. My real name is Brock. I teach history -- 19th/20th Century IR, and First World War -- up here in Ontario. Like Robert, since much of my work is 'busy work' at a desk, I often kill boredom by surfing the net. Guess this will be my internet 'zero' henceforth!

Other things. I'm very middle class. Very married. Conservative in politics and inclination (certain however that most that use the name now, are not actually conservative). I was raised to be religious, and while I continue to believe, I backslide more often than not. Just call me a non-observant Anglican. I've been a member of the Army Reserve for 23 years.

Welcome fellow exiles. Welcome recent arrivals.

The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of Hell, and a hell of Heaven.

[wordswordswords]

I am female and older than the hills. I've had two children, back when I was married (divorced for the last 30 years). My daughter died at 27 in 1995, very suddenly. My remaining child is now in his 30s and is a software developer in Portland (Oregon, USA). I live in the Pacific Northwest, too, but about 30 miles south of Seattle.

I spent most of my life until 1981 in Chicago. I have the misfortune to have a Ph.D. in English, complete with courses in Old English. (How often does anyone speak Old English?)

I taught English in the Chicago community college system for 3 years. Mainly I worked as a freelance translator, rendering documents in mathematics, economics, education, psychology, and sports medicine, as well as occasional pieces of fiction, from Russian into English. Sometimes from French and German too. I've also done a lot of secretarial and editorial work.

I played the piano for many years and sang in several choruses and choirs. I also played the cello in my high school orchestra, and later taught myself to play the recorder. I like music of a number of kinds: classical, rock, reggae, blues, Dixieland, boogie, some folk music.

I enjoy puttering with plants. I live in a small apartment with my cat. I like playing Scrabble, watching movies on videotape, and doing projects involving crocheting or quilting.

Politically I favor socialism, but supported Kerry in the last election. Religion? I'm an Episcopalian but not very active, partly because I also have Quaker leanings.

I think I joined The Readers Place in June 2001 but am not sure.

[pinkozcat]

I'm a refugee from the Readers' Vine and to a lesser extent, The Readers' Place.

It was nice to find this place with some familiar faces from those days.

I've recently been frequenting the BookCrossing site which has discussion groups but the whole focus of that site is different.

Strabo - I had forgotten him. He was fun.

[Aravis]

*hug* Glad to see you again Pink! I'm so glad you found us too. We're hoping that a couple find us when they get the messages left for them, like Tenarke. There's also some new and interesting people here too- Demgoddess and Arancaytar. :0)

Yeah, Strabo was a character. He gave CoCo and I fits because we were the editors of the Social Commentary "city." I don't remember what it was called now. Do any of you? Anyway, secretly I cheered him on, even though publicly I had to seem stern sometimes. It was like trying to frown when really you want to laugh!

[pinkozcat]

Strabo - it was interesting to see how he treated the new vines. He flooded the market with his writing and then disappeared with all the loot because they closed down soon afterwards.

Maybe I should say a bit more about myself while I am here.

I am Australian and old enough to have two small grandbabies.

I took early retirement seven years ago and have worked hard ever since, perfecting the art of doing nothing while appearing to be very busy.

I teach basic computer and internet to senior citizens which is a lot of fun. We give individual lessons geared to what the client wants/needs and get some interesting requests. My oldest client is 94, bless him !

I live with two very talkative Burmese cats who boss me about disgracefully.

I have a web page which I keep adding to - a legacy from the Vines days where we all played around with html.

[Tenarke]

Hail; oh Great and Global one!

Hi, y’all to the rest of you.

I have arrived and so, as Wyndham has noted, has pandemonium. So nice to feel wanted.

[Tenarke]

Oops!

I drafted the last entry before I had actually read page two of this. Now I see that I am to re-introduce myself yet again.

I am as old as the hills (74) and, as a matter of fact live in the hills; specifically about 3000 feet up in the foothills of the Northern California Sierras. This is the old “Mother Lode” country where the 49’rs came to find gold and Twain and Hart came to write stories. This is also the place where the bandit Black Bart used to rob stagecoaches wearing a banker’s suit. Having emptied the box he would leave very bad poetry behind.

I am a retired Mechanical Engineer; heavy commercial vehicles. However, in my youth, I tried to make it in the theater and trained in London at the Royal Academy. After taking a shot at it both in London and later NYC I went back to school for the Engineering degree which gave me to means to feed myself and my family.

The acting however proved to be addictive; an itch which I had to get scratched from time to time so I continue to be active in community theater (i.e. no pay).

Prior to all of the above I read the classics at a small Maryland College which only Camillofan has heard of; hence an interest in Philosophy.

From this you may see that I have staggered through a pretty meandering path for which I have no adequate explanation.

I am, as I see most of us are, politically liberal. Wyn claims to be conservative, but I suppose that a Canadian Conservative would be quite comfortable in the left wing of the US Democratic Party.

And that, I suppose, Takes care of that.

[Aravis]

Glad you could make it Tenarke. ;D