Friday 12 Dec OT Thread - Who Are You?

At first, I thought that this post was a bad idea. Anonymity has its advantages, and sometimes its better not to know the others on a personal level. But then again, this is a forum and not a chat, and it has its differences.
Besides that, I was pretty curious about you all, so this turned out to be a nice OT topic. Now a bit about myself.
I was born in Denmark, moved to America (8 years), move to London (4 years) and now live in Israel (my final destination). I am only 25 years old, but am happily married for 3 years with my beautiful wife who I met through an IRC chat.
I spent 2.5 years in the Israeli army, and after went on to study Network Management.
I currently work in IBM in the sales department. I specialize in their laptops, but also sell servers, desktops and SW.
In my spare time I spend as much time with my computer as I can, both on VDR (hope my boss doesn't find out how much I am on at work), gaming and fooling around with my computers. I love learning about computers, and after I finish my M$ exams (MCP, MCSE) I plan on studying PC Tech, and working in that field.

As the starter of the thread -

I'm 34, Single and currently residing in N W London.

I am self employed - I do research for law firms in the field of property / real estate transactions. I also as a sideline do research on behalf of people interested in genealogy.

In my ample free time I enjoy computing, reading mainly history non fiction, and whenever possible travelling. The last foreign vacation I had was in May 97 when I toured Europe with an American lady ... we're not in contact now (she got her glasses back from the Opticians :o :) ) - but we did 3500 miles and managed to at least take in some of the sights in Amsterdam, Munich, Venice, Rome, Monaco, and Paris.

Thanks to every one who has posted - its always interesting to get a little insight into the other people here.

Also - Seasons Greetings to all members.


Richard.

Who am I?
Its hard to follow the so eloquent responses of other forum members around this little world of ours.
So far yet so near...........

Strong silent type,Mid 40s [cough] [balding :rolleyes: ] Male living [not a million miles from TJ] in the Heart of Cheshire near Delamere Forest.
I have had many occupations over the years living in both Scotland and Ireland too [love their Guinness] from Barman to paint sprayer but ended up not that many miles from where I was born and at the moment I work for a well known local Yoghurt manufacturer.
I play with computers in my spare time learning by my own mistakes.

Hmm.....Looks kinda boring looking at the other posts :D :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by 104456
Who am I?
Its hard to follow the so eloquent responses of other forum members around this little world of ours.
So far yet so near...........

Strong silent type,Mid 40s [cough] [balding :rolleyes: ] Male living [not a million miles from TJ] in the Heart of Cheshire near Delamere Forest.
I have had many occupations over the years living in both Scotland and Ireland too [love their Guinness] from Barman to paint sprayer but ended up not that many miles from where I was born and at the moment I work for a well known local Yoghurt manufacturer.
I play with computers in my spare time learning by my own mistakes.

Hmm.....Looks kinda boring looking at the other posts :D :D

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OK

I will admit my background.

I really didn't want to say this because so many people hate the Police.

I am a retired Detective and now I am self employed, privately, so all I do is investigate what the police do now and assist defence solicitors by interviewing people after the fact, because not what is said in a statement to the police is what is really meant. In other words I confirm or deny what has been said or add something else that was never asked in the first place etc.

I also do PI work which I find very amusing and entertaining.

TJolly,

I don't think anyone among those here at VDr are anti the police. Certainly nobody wants a speeding ticket - but the overall benefit of having a civil police force can hardly be overstated. As for the 'Rent - a - mob' that turns out for any protest purely to 'have a go' .... well what is their value to the community ?

I have many relatives who are / were long service military personnel who served honourably to the best of their ability - yet I can recall teachers in the 80's who reviled HM Forces as a 'fascist war machine' and Britain as the 'Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier'.

Strangely none of them felt inspired enough to actually go to a Third World country and back up their words with deeds :rolleyes:

If anyone has a problem with your former profession then, so what ? I bet they'd have been glad of your assistance if they were being pursued down a street by one of the current beneficiaries of 'care in the community'.

Have a Good Christmas.


Richard.

After reading all the data on my friends in here, I feel like my life is so tame..

I am a former Bank worker, former Computer Analyst, former Computer Operations Manager, former Technical Analyst, former student, and Graduate. (Lots of formers in my life these days).
I am a present Father of three young men from 21 to 11, and present husband one one woman for 27 or so years.
I operate Computers now, and tinker with consulting, and running my private network and trying to help people learn more along the way.

I like the forum, and feel like I actually have some friends here just through the communication, and the help that has been given to me. I plan to hang around a long time, and hope you all will have me around too.

I think I have to end now, I feel like I'm rambling a bit.
Going to be fun to find out a bit more about some others too, I'll be watching.

TJolly,,and anyone else concerned. After being involved in many search/rescue operations here on the Pacific Coast as a Park Ranger, and the many times i received help from the local police,sheriff's dept. and the Coast Guard helicopter rescue units. I have nothing but admiration for all they accomplish and their dedication to serving us all! :)

Dun'no about the PI occupation tho',,,would scare the be'jeezus out'ta me if i were caught by a cheatin' wife while doing surveilance...:p :eek:

I am trained as a Psychologist, specialising in Grief Management but sometimes you need a bit of time out from this work. More recently, I have sold Real Estate and I have set up a Computer Consultancy for corporate clients with a moderate level of success. Might revert if I have to. :D

AnnMarie, I'm so impressed. Not only is your avatar very elegant, but you always seem to know exactly what the diagnosis is with people's computer woes and can tell them step by step how to fix them! You seem brilliant to me. You lay out things I can't even imagine what you're saying! But it sounds so concise.

TJolly, how could we have a problem with the police here? My sense is that many of us who have responded to this post are, er, pushing over the other side of the hill. We are certainly not in a generation to welcome anarchy. . . . At any rate, it's nice to hear you do some investigating for defense attorneys because that is, of course, what my husband does. Lots of good guys who do the same in his office.

Besides, my husband fought in Vietnam. First lieutenant and platoon leader. I'm proud to say so (even though I marched against the war, and actually, he would have . . . later).

As for you folks who think you have 'boring' lives, please remember that you have traveled around Europe, Israel, the wide-open spaces out west -- most of which I have not seen. I went to Europe precisely once in my life: in 1974, when my parents were on sabbatical in Germany and Austria (my dad's a retired music professor, now age 90). I met them in Luxembourg, we took the train to Paris and I stayed just one week (and of course, it rained the entire time, worse luck).

My husband's family is from Greece (they actually still have houses on the island of Nysseros), but he's such a Philadelphia homeboy (grew up in a place called Brewerytown, and you can imagine their chief industry!), we practically never go anywhere. One day we hope to go to Greece, Egypt and Israel. But I don't know when.

My sister is a United Methodist minister and district superintendent (overseer of maybe 30 or 40 churches in Northeast Philadelphia and Lower Bucks County), and she used to work for the bishop of the conference here. As such she has been all over the world on church business -- she has a bad habit of calling me and after a chat about our families or whatever, she'll say, "Next week when I go to Nigeria [or Nepal or Brazil or Chile or Cameroon] -- did I tell you I was going to Nigeria???" No, Michele, you didn't!! :rolleyes: I envy her. She once got to meet the U.N. secretary general.

Cheers,
Wendy
;) :cool: :D

PS The attached is me 8 years ago. I'm not willing to show myself as I am today! A little chubbier, a little grayer. But you get the idea . . .

Hi TJolly, my father was a policeman, I grew up in country police stations on the North Coast of NSW , pop will be 100 in june 2004, making him the oldest retired cop in the land. My brother was also a policeman and he sadly died shortly after retirement. My sister married a policeman, he was a senior office in the QLD force. He has also retired. So my friend I am proud of my family and the service they gave. My Mother was the one who sufferred most as Pop would be out and Mum had to run the station, got a bit too much for her at times.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Ridgerunr
TJolly,,and anyone else concerned. After being involved in many search/rescue operations here on the Pacific Coast as a Park Ranger, and the many times i received help from the local police,sheriff's dept. and the Coast Guard helicopter rescue units. I have nothing but admiration for all they accomplish and their dedication to serving us all! :)

Dun'no about the PI occupation tho',,,would scare the be'jeezus out'ta me if i were caught by a cheatin' wife while doing surveilance...:p :eek:

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Ridge I don't do surveillance. PI stands for Personal Injury.

Thanks to all who have shown support for the Police, I do appreciate it.

I served for 31yrs. I don't miss the job only the perople I worked with.

My wife is still a serving Police Officer and she is due to retire in the next 3yrs or so.

Sorry if this is long

OK here goes...

Im a 20 year old male living in 'sunny' Nottingham, UK.

I was born in a place called Chesterfield, which is not to far from where i am now.

Born to Cypriot refugee parents who moved away from Cyprus after the 1974 invasion of the Turkish.

I could have very nearly have been an Aussie, as my parent where gonna move to Sydney which is where my mums brother and his wife moved too, but something went wrong with the Immigration papers:(

After school i went to college to do computers, and then left there.

I found myself wanting to be independent at a early age, so started work at 15, have been sort of independent-ish since then.

ive been into computers for along time, and want a career in IT, iam learning through self study and hopefully ill acheive what i want.

I also wanna go travelling and have a long list of places and counties i would like to visit, which is one my reasons for my OT i started some weeks ago.

The furthest i have been so far is Australia, which was top of my 'list' i went there to stay with my Uncle for 3 months around a year and a half ago, in Sydney.

Oh and on the way back i stopped of in Tokyo, Japan for 4 days, which was so cool, it would have been better if i could talk/understand the language:)

I loved it so much that i was so upset to leave and felt kinda depressed ever since comming back:(

So my plans are too save enough money and travel the world, and then hopefully go back to Sydney and live and work there for a bit.

Sorry TJolly,,mind had a 'Yank' take on it when I saw 'PI' . Watched too many telly shows i 'spose...:D

English born.

Migrated to Australia when i was 11 have been here 26 years in April 2004.

Married 9 years 3 months.

Son 4 years 4 months old

Second Son or first daughter due January 7 2004.

Been using computers since about 1980 at school - Apple IIe.

Got Commodore 64 when I started my first job in 1985 as trainee computer programmer - my job was using COBOL, the C64 was just for home usage.

First PC was a loan from brother in law - 486 SX33 with 4 Mb ram and 200Mb Hd.

Upgraded that to 486 DX66 with 20Mb ram extra 1Gb hd, 8x CD-ROM and sound card and it rocked for a while.

Nix, let us know about the baby when he/she comes -- and please, do post a picture!! (And one of your 4-year-old)

Good luck to you, and here's hoping your wife has an easy delivery!!

Cheers
Wendy
:D ;) :cool: