What have you been doing since?

[Recoil]

I shut the BBS down for a few different reasons. One of them was the Internet. I really thought it was going to be the coolest thing since sliced bread.

It was but I have never been to a web-site that was really able to duplicate the "local" community we had with Paradigm. The closest I could find were car based and most were out-of-towners.

What a ride we had. From a one line BBS on a Commodore [Shadow's Domain] to Paradigm. 30+ lines of interaction with an ISDN internet connection and a solidly lit receive LED. It was truly alot of fun.

The BBS caused some marriages, caused some divorces but incredible friendships were formed, some that still exist to this day.

What's been going on with all of you guys since? Here's my story [and I'm not sticking to it]:

Shut down Paradigm. Buried Shadow Smith in favor of Recoil [Joe said Shadow Smith was so "80s."]
Focused more heavily on working for Cybernetics.
Bought a condo. Bought a townhome, rented the condo. Sold the townhome, went back to the condo [loved that place]. Sold the condo, bought the in-laws house. Sold the in-laws house, bought Jones Manor [~6000 square feet].
Got into cars heavily [I have owned a Porsche 928, three different Dodge Vipers, a SC'd 200X Saleen, 1968 Ford Mustang Eleanor and countless other sports cars/regular cars]. I have since calmed down in favor of housing [never lost money on a house] but am working on a 1950 Chevy hot rod truck.
Dated [of course].
Finally settled down and made an honest woman out of Michelle.
Spent the next two years helping her fight Colon cancer [she's doing great].
I'm now a Dad. Sarah Michelle Jones was born in July [three months too early]. She spent 102 days in Riverside Hospital. She was 1lb, 3oz at birth. She is now over 6lbs and doing quite well at home.


I still bowl regularly. I don't play as much basketball anymore but I am going to try to get back into it. Unfortunately, my desk job has finally caught up to me. I went from 175lbs to 220. Ugh.

I gained all of Al Boy's weight [he's skinny now].

I have attached a pic of Sarah from yesterday. I call it the "In ya face!" pic.

Steve

[fred]

Let's see...since the BBS went away I:

Worked for a computer company in Williamsburg (College & University Computers, best...job...ever)
Moved to College Station, TX
Worked as Service Manager for Computer Access, it went out of business
Worked as Service Manager for Texas Computers, it went out of business
Worked as Network Engineer for Cox Communications
Started taking college courses at the local community college
Quit work and went to Texas A&M University full time
Went to Germany to study abroad (german language), met the girl of my dreams, proceeded to marry her
Earned my bachelor of arts degree in Music (theory/composition)
Now attend Sam Houston State University and am working on my Masters of Music in conducting

That's the shortened list, there's more but it would take forever and all this graduate work makes me tired.

- fred

[roo]

Since I left the BBS world, life has been interesting to say the least.
I joine the Air Force, got valuable computer skills(at least I quantified the one's I already had) Got a clearance, even better. Did a 6 month deployment in a sandy place called Qatar. Spent two years at McGuire AFB in NJ, spent almost 4 years in Tampa Florida, got kicked out for being 2 lbs under my weight, and over my body fat. Anyway since that day I've had two jobs, the first one lasted 6 months, contract ran out of money, and the one I'm in now is probably the niche I'll stay in for a long time. Models and Simulations technician. It truly is my dream job, it always changes, it's like playing video games, and in the end it helps train the military to do a better job. I get to travel about 4 months out of the year, so far I've been to Hawaii, Germany 3 times, and Las Vegas, and have an upcoming trip to Germany. It will be 9 years in January since I got Married, I claim 3 children Joe 14, Patty 8, and Holly 4 I haven't bought 20-30 cars in fact the military was a struggle, it was a stress on the marriage, it was hard, it truly changed me for the better though, and I appreciate everything I have. Currently the cars do include an 06 Beetle convertible, and an '01 escape. Erin is graduating from nursing school this month and will have her RN, she interviewing for her dream job Wednesday with CHKD. I should learn not to write these things at 2am, they tend to ramble on.

Dave "Roo"

[Shadowcat]

Let's see... I've:

Met Fireball's (Jeff) roommate, Joe, realized he was the man of my dreams, and married him
Sorta learned to be a medical transcriptionist (MT) out at Peninsula Behavioral Center in Hampton
Went to school and REALLY learned how to be a MT
Moved to Woodbridge after Joe got out of the Navy
Became a mom to my now 4-year-old, Joey
Worked for Healthscribe as a MT
Moved to Fredericksburg
Got my certification (CMT)
Moved to Ruther Glen (up by Kings Dominion) and bought a house
Now I'm working as a MT for an Everett, WA clinic (from home) and considering going back to college to get my degree in Health Information Technology

- Leigh

[Recoil]

Leigh,

Is it true that MTs make alot of money? I always see those commercials on TV and wondered if they we on the level.

Steve

[Shadowcat]

Well, it used to be true, but now there's a movement toward using electronic medical records and voice recognition with the MTs working more as editors, plus a TON of work is getting done super cheap in places like Pakistan and India, so those of us that are American MTs aren't making as much.

For instance, I used to make 11 cents a line with spaces counted when I only had a year of experience under my belt, yet now with almost 7 years experience and my certification, I was offered 8 cents a line with no spaces counted recently. The not counting spaces alone essentially cuts your pay at least 33%. Unfortunately, the trend is becoming "who can do it cheap?" versus "who can do it accurately?"

Anyhow, that's one of the reasons I'm thinking of going back to school... with the HIT degree, I could do coding or become a hospital administrator, both of which are growing fields right now.

Of course, a big plus for transcription is being able to work from home... we live in the boonies now and no commute is nice

[Progenitor]

Well, I don't remember the exact time frame that the BBS broke up, but I guess it was around the time I had quit ODU and was working at Circuit City with AudioT. I ended up quitting that and going back to school at CNU. Got a degree in Computer Engineering and Computer Science, got married, moved to San Diego to look for work.

Couldn't find the job I wanted in hardware design, so I got a job writing Command and Control software for the defense department with a small company. Company got bought out, and rebought out, until it was under the auspices of the huge DoD contractor Northrop Grumman. (Read: Office Space).

So after six years I couldn't take it anymore and wanted to do something else. I'd been playing poker on the side the whole time I've been out here, and doing well, and I met some other guys who had quit good IT jobs to play poker. After a lot of research and data mining, I decided to take the leap last December and went half-time at NG. Then in June of this year, they pissed me off for the final time and I quit completely. One of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.

Meanwhile, things with my wife did not work out, so we split up just over 2 years ago. Been a rough couple of years, but earlier this year, I met an amazing woman, and we moved into a small house together this Fall.

That's the short version. Let's see some more posts, I'm curious as to what everyone has been doing.

[roo]

So we have two professional online poker players now?


Weird, but good for you, if you can't go into work everyday and it be something you like doing, it's not worth it.

[Recoil]

That is pretty incredible. Mark and Chris are both professional poker players. Both were NG employees as well. Must be something about NG. Heh.

I heard CA made poker tourneys legal, as they truly are a game of skills.

Chris, remember Daria?

Brian Williams brought her name up the other night. He's coming to VA for the holidays and we're gonna get up at some point. He's out there in CA as well. He's lovin' it out there.

She was pre-Paradigm but a Compusist user under the handle Sweetfeet. Speaking of ladies, where is Bowlqueen?

I will try to track down Chris Allen [Wizard].

Steve

[Progenitor]

Originally Posted by Recoil

I heard CA made poker tourneys legal, as they truly are a game of skills.

Chris, remember Daria?

Steve

It's not just poker tournies, poker in all forms has been legal in California since the 70's. We have card rooms here like any other business. 24 hours a day I can find a cash game or tourney, just down the street.

Of course I remember Daria, remember I went to high school with her before your time with her