What have you been up to?

[Crystal]

I am outside most of the day so trying to resist the urge to drive my work truck into a brick wall going 100 mph

I couldn't cope with an outdoor job in the heat, you are a superman, Nebby

 

[Nebulous]

I couldn't cope with an outdoor job in the heat, you are a superman, Nebby

Gotta pay them bills.

 

[Crystal]

Gotta pay them bills.

True, true!

 

[Jawneh]

I was one of the people who had no idea what they wanted to do growing up. So I just went with the flow through my teens and early adulthood which slowly carved kind of a path I was okay taking. Essentially the biggest thing that happened was in 2011 when I moved to the US and got married to my wife. Since then, living with her at her folks place (big house, though still feels too small), had a few jobs, of which the current one I just recently got hired full time in April and just last week they announced the company will close in early 2025. At least I'm getting severance and a retention bonus.

But the second job I had here until mid-COVID... Boy do I have stories from that place. Spent almost 8 years in the company where I was hired on officially as an Admin Assistant with small warehouse duties. I ended doing that as well as web development, front and back end dev, network maintenance, installing computers, security systems, crypto miners, maintaining what was said, general maintenance, general contractor shit from doing floors, walls, ceilings, roofs, brickwork, some full on construction, restoration, video editing, photo editing, mass mailing, and probably some more smaller minor things. Ohh, 3d printing as well with some CAD in there as well. The boss there is an interesting character. Intelligent as hell, but boy did he get on your nerves a lot.

Edit: So what am I actually doing now lol? Building busses. Some good old fashioned manual labor with tools. Sadly I can't tell more than that thanks to an NDA so that I don't lose my bonuses. Maybe after all that I can afford a new car, maybe a down payment on a house, and knock some off of my student loan debt.

 

[shortkut]

Short version:

I’m a clinical pharmacist, working specifically in home infusion (we send IV meds to your house so you don’t have to stay in the hospital or if you have a chronic condition like crohns, UC, MS so you do not have to go to an infusion suite). I was married before the forums closed but I now have two daughters, one is 4 1/2 and the other is 2.

I’m pretending to be a responsible adult, you know, fake it til you make it

 

[Crystal]

Short version:

I’m a clinical pharmacist, working specifically in home infusion (we send IV meds to your house so you don’t have to stay in the hospital or if you have a chronic condition like crohns, UC, MS so you do not have to go to an infusion suite). I was married before the forums closed but I now have two daughters, one is 4 1/2 and the other is 2.

I’m pretending to be a responsible adult, you know, fake it til you make it

Mini kuts!!

 

[Nae'blis]

The reason for me leaving GW was love. Met a girl, fell head over heels. We moved in together after dating for a year and a half. We then decided we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. Had my first kid at 21, the second a year arter that. It was pretty tough having two kids that close, but we made it work! Marriage followed soon thereafter, and then we had our third kid, a daughter, the first two being boys.

We were married for almost 5 years, a fantastic marriage, but we realised that our relationship had changed into "just" being a friendship. We agreed that for both our sakes and for the kids it would be the best to go our separate ways. She is still my very best friend and we talk on a daily basis, and have dinner 2-3 times a week. I'm still single but she's married to a great guy who I get along great with! A little too well sometimes if you ask her! we didn't have the typical divorce I guess.

Workwise I did a couple of turns in different restaurant places before deciding I wanted to go into teaching! So that's what I've been doing for close to 10 years now!

On the whole I'm at a good place in life!

 

[Crystal]

The reason for me leaving GW was love. Met a girl, fell head over heels. We moved in together after dating for a year and a half. We then decided we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. Had my first kid at 21, the second a year arter that. It was pretty tough having two kids that close, but we made it work! Marriage followed soon thereafter, and then we had our third kid, a daughter, the first two being boys.

We were married for almost 5 years, a fantastic marriage, but we realised that our relationship had changed into "just" being a friendship. We agreed that for both our sakes and for the kids it would be the best to go our separate ways. She is still my very best friend and we talk on a daily basis, and have dinner 2-3 times a week. I'm still single but she's married to a great guy who I get along great with! A little too well sometimes if you ask her! we didn't have the typical divorce I guess.

Workwise I did a couple of turns in different restaurant places before deciding I wanted to go into teaching! So that's what I've been doing for close to 10 years now!

On the whole I'm at a good place in life!

That's wonderful! Glad you're happy, that your ex-wife and you are still close, and that you get along with the new husband, that's awesome for the kids to know their parents are happy in life and there's no friction. Amazing, you're living a great life and you've got a lot to be proud of

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

My life has been pretty uneventful and I'm thankful for that. What some people would call vanilla I'd call secure.

I met my wife when we were 14. We started dating at 17, got married and bought a house at 26, currently have a 10 and 7 year old daughter and a dog. We actually put up a white picket fence a few years ago, so we are the cliche American family in the suburbs.

I was working in graphic design back in the GW days, I still am in some capacity but I'm mostly now the graphics director at a trade show company with 3 locations. This is mostly doing management/budget/business planning type stuff now. Design is left to my team and I get to be a decision maker with the upper management. It's interesting and I've been at this company for 12 years so it's pretty stable.

I run my wife's daycare business out of our house handling state regs and the financials along with keeping the house up to date and maintained. It's a lot come relicensing time but she makes a good living and her being home is a massive benefit with our kids at school age. They come home every day on the bus without need of after school programs.

Because of our good fortune and planning we were able to refinance our house to such a low rate and term during COVID that we will probably have it paid off in 7 years just in time for my kids to start college. This is where the vanilla boring life of mine will hopefully benefit all of us. We have made the commitment to pay the state college equivalent for both kids and have already made a sizeable contributions to those funds. So with the house paid off we will just pay college bills in place of the mortgage and hopefully let my kids either be debt free to start adult life or at least in decent shape with loans if they choose other schools.

Marriage is good. We had a rough few years when the kids were younger but we have gotten closer again in the last couple years. We've both worked on ourselves to be better people in that time so we are in a healthy spot 20 years since we got together. I thank my buddy @Cole for some of those late night relationship chats that I have needed over the years to get through the hard times and reflect on myself to be a better partner.

I stopped playing video games for a while but my kids are into gaming now so it has rekindled my love for it. I bought a PS5 in March and have been playing everything I can get.

So my life has been pretty boring, sticking to a plan. In the last few years we've been able to start traveling a little, Bahamas this year as a family, looking at Western US next year, potentially Europe in 2025. I like to travel to baseball stadiums. I've done two with a former GW member. Trying to add some more fun into my life now that we're stable.

In fact I played in a live casino poker tournament last Monday for the first time in almost a decade and finished 2nd out of 127 people. The first people I thought of when it was over was Cole, @Zell 17 and @shortkut lol.

 

[Crystal]

My life has been pretty uneventful and I'm thankful for that. What some people would call vanilla I'd call secure.

I met my wife when we were 14. We started dating at 17, got married and bought a house at 26, currently have a 10 and 7 year old daughter and a dog. We actually put up a white picket fence a few years ago, so we are the cliche American family in the suburbs.

I was working in graphic design back in the GW days, I still am in some capacity but I'm mostly now the graphics director at a trade show company with 3 locations. This is mostly doing management/budget/business planning type stuff now. Design is left to my team and I get to be a decision maker with the upper management. It's interesting and I've been at this company for 12 years so it's pretty stable.

I run my wife's daycare business out of our house handling state regs and the financials along with keeping the house up to date and maintained. It's a lot come relicensing time but she makes a good living and her being home is a massive benefit with our kids at school age. They come home every day on the bus without need of after school programs.

Because of our good fortune and planning we were able to refinance our house to such a low rate and term during COVID that we will probably have it paid off in 7 years just in time for my kids to start college. This is where the vanilla boring life of mine will hopefully benefit all of us. We have made the commitment to pay the state college equivalent for both kids and have already made a sizeable contributions to those funds. So with the house paid off we will just pay college bills in place of the mortgage and hopefully let my kids either be debt free to start adult life or at least in decent shape with loans if they choose other schools.

Now that's a smart way of doing things, your kids are going to be so much better off because of your sacrifices, and I find that absolutely incredible.

Marriage is good. We had a rough few years when the kids were younger but we have gotten closer again in the last couple years. We've both worked on ourselves to be better people in that time so we are in a healthy spot 20 years since we got together. I thank my buddy @Cole for some of those late night relationship chats that I have needed over the years to get through the hard times and reflect on myself to be a better partner.

You and Cole truly are the Turk and JD of GW, lol, it's amazing you're so close and have been such good support structures for one another!

I stopped playing video games for a while but my kids are into gaming now so it has rekindled my love for it. I bought a PS5 in March and have been playing everything I can get.

So my life has been pretty boring, sticking to a plan. In the last few years we've been able to start traveling a little, Bahamas this year as a family, looking at Western US next year, potentially Europe in 2025. I like to travel to baseball stadiums. I've done two with a former GW member. Trying to add some more fun into my life now that we're stable.

Speaking of baseball, you should head down here for the Cactus League, super cheap to get into, plenty of teams and stadiums in relatively close proximity, and you get pretty good access to the grounds and players during their training times (I used to live right beside Camelback Ranch, I'm not even a baseball fan and I've been there a few times and just watched some practices before games). Would be a fun trip to take and an inexpensive way to watch a good amount of baseball!

In fact I played in a live casino poker tournament last Monday for the first time in almost a decade and finished 2nd out of 127 people. The first people I thought of when it was over was Cole, @Zell 17 and @shortkut lol.

That's fantastic!! 2nd place is an amazing finish!

 

[Boots]

So with the house paid off we will just pay college bills in place of the mortgage and hopefully let my kids either be debt free to start adult life or at least in decent shape with loans if they choose other schools.

That's what my parents managed to do. Paid off the mortgage when the youngest of us was 15. Though they divorced and soon sold that house, they put 3 kids through university, each paying half of the bill each semester.

We didn't qualify for FAFSA, and they would only pay for the local community college and university and not for us to live on campus. They wouldn't pay for us to go to a party school 1-2 hours away. My siblings did 2 years community college then transferred. I had better grades and got straight into the university. While my college experience was spent maximizing how many shifts I could work at the restaurant across the street (which I'd started working at sophomore year of highschool), I didn't make a lot of friends. I paid for books, car insurance, gas, etc. and holding a job from 16 onward was a requirement for having tuition paid and living at home. Any classes failed I'd have to pay to retake.

But I did graduate debt-free in 3.5 years. And none of us wound up in trouble. We are all independent taxpaying contributing members of society. No prison, no drugs addiction, no moving back home.

If you can do that for your kids that's amazing. Tuition is way more expensive than it was when I went (04-07 it cost only $24k total).

 

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Yeah my dad paid for mine if I stuck to a state school and didn't live there. I worked the entire time in college to pay for my car, insurance and lifestyle as well. I remember my school was $3k per semester full time. It's now $7k per semester. But I got the benefit so I'm trying to pass it along.

I don't want to force my kids to go somewhere, so I made my deal that I would pay the portion of it that equals state school but they can go where they want. (I'm still going to make sure they pick something within reason and in a field that can make them a living hopefully - doing graphic design is not something I'd wish upon them lol. It was a hard thing to work through for me).

 

[Zell 17]

In fact I played in a live casino poker tournament last Monday for the first time in almost a decade and finished 2nd out of 127 people. The first people I thought of when it was over was Cole, @Zell 17 and @shortkut lol.

Must have been a weak field! Just kidding, that’s sick. I haven’t played any poker since I played on a cruise maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Made enough to pay for that trip but these people were honestly so bad I felt kinda bad taking their money.

 

[Cole]

Marriage is good. We had a rough few years when the kids were younger but we have gotten closer again in the last couple years. We've both worked on ourselves to be better people in that time so we are in a healthy spot 20 years since we got together. I thank my buddy @Cole for some of those late night relationship chats that I have needed over the years to get through the hard times and reflect on myself to be a better partner.

I've had the pleasure of becoming friends with Toms wife, and his kids (less so in recent years with the kids as times have been tough all around)

but Toms wife is an awesome woman and straight up adores Tom. it really does border on the perfect suburban Family.

it's kinda gross ngl

 

[Zell 17]

Alright, I'll go. My story will sound pretty similar to Tom's. Like many here I had a somewhat strange upbringing that led me to dedicate 90% of my adolescence to trying to be a janitor on an online forum. I "won" the power struggles and with Mark was among the first group admined. Then I guess I got bored since the game was over and became inactive. The day I graduated high school I more or less ran away from home and never looked back. Went to school and a few years later came back to GW with absolutely no intention of reliving the "climb the ladder" experience. I mostly hung out in the Poker room with Cole and Tom and shortkut (and others) and watched as Cole went for his own staff climb. Eventually as interest in poker waned I was smart enough to resign before I got de-modded, which I'm told really pissed Ben off because he thought Coleman had tipped me off that it was coming soon and he wanted to permanently de-mod me. That made me happy.

Outside of GW, I work for a bank. It's boring but pays the bills. I met my wife at a Christmas party (which is ironic because she's Jewish) and we have three kids, one of whom we named Zelda. Like Tom hopefully the house will be paid in the next 6-7 years, unlike Tom I don't have any money set aside for the kid's college yet, but my oldest is just finished Kindergarten so hopefully have some time. Besides the collection of video game roms, I have one major hobby that dominates my time.

I guess the desire to be a power tripping tyrant didn't completely go away, I just do it as a football referee. I currently work in the NCAA. I've worked NFL OTAs/minicamps/practices. I know probably a little more half of the dudes working the in NFL now and a LOT more of the guys working the big college games on TV. It takes up basically all of my time that isn't spent at work (and I slack at work to make time for football) or my kids.

 

[shortkut]

I've had the pleasure of becoming friends with Toms wife, and his kids (less so in recent years with the kids as times have been tough all around)

but Toms wife is an awesome woman and straight up adores Tom. it really does border on the perfect suburban Family.

it's kinda gross ngl

I’ve always pictured Tom as a sitcom father but instead of a sitcom he is stuck with the stereotypical suburban family who roll their eyes at him a lot. How close was I?

 

[Cole]

Must have been a weak field! Just kidding, that’s sick. I haven’t played any poker since I played on a cruise maybe 4 or 5 years ago. Made enough to pay for that trip but these people were honestly so bad I felt kinda bad taking their money.

I still have never played true love poker* but I've worried if I'd feel the same way about taking their money

*I meant at a casino or similar, but I've had home games. the friend I reconnected with, her family is all Jewish, and on Christmas would often get together to play penny poker. well this year she invited me, she knew how much and how seriously I played, the rest of the family did not.

it was limit 7 card stud, and I think I left with 8 dollars. (again, literal penny poker, .01/.02 blinds.

it was amusing.

 

[Cole]

I’ve always pictured Tom as a sitcom father but instead of a sitcom he is stuck with the stereotypical suburban family who roll their eyes at him a lot. How close was I?

I'll just answer by saying it's still a sitcom.

 

[Nae'blis]

Holy shit, I just realised my middle child is now as old as I was when I started hanging on GW... wow.

 

[Crystal]

I guess the desire to be a power tripping tyrant didn't completely go away, I just do it as a football referee. I currently work in the NCAA. I've worked NFL OTAs/minicamps/practices. I know probably a little more half of the dudes working the in NFL now and a LOT more of the guys working the big college games on TV. It takes up basically all of my time that isn't spent at work (and I slack at work to make time for football) or my kids.

That sounds incredibly fun!

Holy shit, I just realised my middle child is now as old as I was when I started hanging on GW... wow.

Oh don't say that, lol

 

[Boots]

If I had to do it again I'd go to trade school. Learn welding or something.

 

[Fool's Requiem]

If I had to do it again I'd go to trade school. Learn welding or something.

Psst, you can still do that.

 

[Boots]

I'm happy where I am. Never had any desire to return to school.

 

[Jawneh]

Classes for trades are usually only like 1-2 months tops, sometimes only weekends, and you're done. I've been considering some electrical stuff if my work schedule allowed it.

 

[Boots]

Apprenticeships can take years. My coworker's son has been an elevator technician apprentice for years.

My uncle had a job as a building foreman at a big hotel and they put him through electrician and plumbing school. Opportunity of a lifetime that was.

 

[Jawneh]

Ah yeah. If you want to become at least a journeyman, apprenticeships can take a good while. But if you just want a certificate from a trade school, there are quite a few options. Well, at least in my local one I know of.