13-08-2003 19:25									#1
	Where were you in life, five years ago? Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Last month was Apolyton's fifth anniversary.

I was wondering -- where were you in life, five years ago? Anyone who is an Apolytoner is free to join in this thread -- whether they were a Chieftan five years ago, or if they had not even found out about Apolyton yet, but is a member now.


Five years ago, it was about a month before I would come out to my family and friends as a gay man.

I was 20, I had an Associate's Degree in Computer Information Processing from a community college. But I was not happy, since I realized on the day that I graduated, that I chose the wrong major/field.

I felt like I was going to get stuck into a job/career that was going to be boring for me. This was before I even realized that I would go to a four-year college to pursue my real passion -- American history.

Five years ago, I had a lot less self-confidence and self-esteem than I have now. I feel so much better about myself at the present, than I did five years ago.


So how far have you gone over the past five years?

	13-08-2003 19:48									#2
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I was a drug addict and an alcoholic with a determined self-fufilling prophecy to be dead by the time I was twenty-four. I lived in a ****-hole apartment where my only furniture was the "Captain's Chair" (a glide rocker), a lamp I had to take from room to room because it was the only light I had, a mattress, and a small b/w tv. Around this time I met my wife and she helped me get my **** together. I went back to school, got a "career" job, and moved to a different ****-hole apartment in a better area with better rent. I also got married and started playing soccer again.

	13-08-2003 19:58									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

I was 13. I prefer not to remember.

	13-08-2003 19:59									#4
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Five years ago I was living with my parents, amazed with this thing called internet (yes, I had recently got access to the net for the first time) and I had no perspectives for the future.

Since then I got a job in the government, got married and now I'm on the verge of a divorce (but my wife doesn't know about that yet).

I was happier back then.

	13-08-2003 20:05									#5
	Suffering from ads?

I was 14, in junior high, and slightly odious. (Heck, it's possible that I even wore velcro boots. Brrr.) I was good in school, but was in a precarious phase when my grade-school friends' life was diverging from my own and I, essentially, didn't have any friends. I had a bad case of acne and greasy hair and was your stereotypical nerd. While I had been quite a chatterbox in the grade school, but grew silent.

Of course, after a few years I got on to high school (not a moment too soon - one of my main criteria in my high school choice, even though I didn't mention it to anyone then, was that none of the *******s from junior high years were going there), started to actually talk to people, and now am preparing to move to a different city to go to university, certainly a more balanced and happy person than then. And I have Apolyton to thank for all of it

	13-08-2003 20:11									#6
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Five years ago I worked as office manager and chief engineer in a surveyors office. I was unhappy, because I didn't much like my work and that business had a pretty hard time. In my spare time I improved my programming skills and played computer games, mostly Civ2. I did have access to the internet, but never got a clue that there is an Apolyton (well, or a Greek Civ2 site for that matter).

	13-08-2003 20:15									#7
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

quote: Originally posted by Alex now I'm on the verge of a divorce (but my wife doesn't know about that yet). I was happier back then.

Holy ****, dude. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope happier times are ahead for you.

	13-08-2003 20:19									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: I'm on the verge of a divorce (but my wife doesn't know about that yet).

! I think I've seen pictures of the two of you in the picture thread and you both looked so happy. I'm sorry to hear that; if it's your desire to fix what's wrong I hope it's successful.

	13-08-2003 20:25									#9
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

5 years ago? Aug 1998?

1 month before my last (and 6th) year of college was to begin. Pretty excited for my last year as I only had 1 class a quarter to take (gotta love how they only offer the class you need once a year). We (my future wife and I) were living on a greenbelt with some friends. Pretty much b-b-q-ing, drinking, and having a blast. It was my last summer to do nothing. It was great.

Since, besides getting married, going through two jobs and 3 promotions, getting a dog (got her February of 99 because I was getting bored), and moving to SJ nothing has really changed... Still chillin'

	13-08-2003 20:29									#10
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I was 14. I, like Stefu, disliked my juniour highschool. I was on the verge of moving to Canada from America. Like any normal boy, I seemed to have survived with one pair of shoes that I wore all the time.

I'm now 19, I love my highschool in England and I own 8 pairs of assorted shoes, boots, and sandels at the last count, each one designated for a specific social function.

	13-08-2003 20:33									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

I had just returned to Greece after finishing a master's degree abroad and was waiting to be notified to go to the (obigatory) army... Luckily I had just had the time of my life so my batteries were fully charged, something that made the wait more tolerable...

	13-08-2003 20:45									#12
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

I had recently been hired for my first "real" job, having graduated college a few months prior.

The job sucked, by the way, I only took it because it got me the hell out of my parent's house, where my father was utterly intolerable ("why don't you have a job yet? Why did you sleep until TEN O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING [horror, the horror!]? Why don't you have a job yet? Did you send out resumes today? Did you call today?"). I love him and all, but he nearly drove me nuts.

Happily for me, that job didn't last long (unit shutdown, all of us laid off, with 3 months full pay) and I got a better one in March of '99.

I was still screwed up over the failure of my relationship in college (yeah, that's singular), with a girl I really did love (though, as discussed in the other thread, it wasn't a particularly mature love). As a result, the girl I now love was having all sorts of trouble reeling me in. And I was giving her fits. Doh.

I lived in a crappy little studio apartement with virtually no furniture. I didn't even bother setting up my computer (at the time, an old 386 PC).

-Arrian

	13-08-2003 20:49									#13
	Suffering from ads?

5 years ago I got a job offer from Microsoft asking if I wanted to be trained up in web-design for them in Seattle after they seem to like my website so much.

I then pointed out I was a 14 schoolkid in rural England.

	13-08-2003 20:49									#14
	Increase Your PM Length

I was 13 years old and I really dont remember what I was doing. Playing Civ2 I guess.

	13-08-2003 21:54									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

quote: Originally posted by Harry Seldon I was a drug addict and an alcoholic with a determined self-fufilling prophecy to be dead by the time I was twenty-four. I lived in a ****-hole apartment where my only furniture was the "Captain's Chair" (a glide rocker), a lamp I had to take from room to room because it was the only light I had, a mattress, and a small b/w tv. Around this time I met my wife and she helped me get my **** together. I went back to school, got a "career" job, and moved to a different ****-hole apartment in a better area with better rent. I also got married and started playing soccer again.

Well, this definitely counts as a rough time.
But it seems like things are better for you now??

	13-08-2003 21:55									#16
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by Japher 5 years ago? Aug 1998? 1 month before my last (and 6th) year of college was to begin. Pretty excited for my last year as I only had 1 class a quarter to take (gotta love how they only offer the class you need once a year). We (my future wife and I) were living on a greenbelt with some friends. Pretty much b-b-q-ing, drinking, and having a blast. It was my last summer to do nothing. It was great. Since, besides getting married, going through two jobs and 3 promotions, getting a dog (got her February of 99 because I was getting bored), and moving to SJ nothing has really changed... Still chillin'

Do you two have any kid, or expecting one soon?

	13-08-2003 21:56									#17
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

No. Why?

	13-08-2003 21:59									#18
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Japher No. Why?

Just wondering . . . . .

part of the gay agenda that Boddington's is so worried about, is that we seek kids and convert them to become gay.

	13-08-2003 22:03									#19
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

When I decide to have kids they will be straight... if I had to beat it into them!!!!

	13-08-2003 22:13									#20
	Inflate your Upload Space

Hmmm 5 years ago I had just turned 22 and was still at college. I lived with seven other guys in a four bedroom house right on the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, CA (and when I say right on the ocean I mean any closer and you'd be dog paddling). I worked as a waiter and delivery man for a local Italian restaurant where I made good tips and the owner was an elderly Sicilian lady who always gave me a free meal before every shift. As a starving college student I looked forward to getting that free meal.

	13-08-2003 22:16									#21
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin Hmmm 5 years ago I had just turned 22 and was still at college. I lived with seven other guys in a four bedroom house right on the Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, CA (and when I say right on the ocean I mean any closer and you'd be dog paddling). I worked as a waiter and delivery man for a local Italian restaurant where I made good tips and the owner was an elderly Sicilian lady who always gave me a free meal before every shift. As a starving college student I looked forward to getting that free meal.

Sounds like a cool, fun time.

	13-08-2003 22:23									#22
	Remove this text

quote: Originally posted by Japher When I decide to have kids they will be straight... if I had to beat it into them!!!!

I was between high school and college, and just taken a holiday to the States. What the hell I did for the other few weeks of summer I don't know.

	13-08-2003 22:33									#23
	Got spare money?

quote: Originally posted by MrFun Sounds like a cool, fun time.

Yeah, it was. I often wish I could go back to college where my biggest responsibility was to finish my term paper on time. Still, I was flat broke and on days where I didn't work at the restaurant most of my calores came from cup of noodles or burger king cheese burgers so I could save as much money as possible for beer.

	13-08-2003 22:37									#24
	Full PM-box? Change here!

quote: Originally posted by Oerdin Yeah, it was. I often wish I could go back to college where my biggest responsibility was to finish my term paper on time. Still, I was flat broke and on days where I didn't work at the restaurant most of my calores came from cup of noodles or burger king cheese burgers so I could save as much money as possible for beer.

Well yeah -- beer is important, because it helps you with your future goals.

	13-08-2003 22:39									#25
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Hmm...five years ago I was 10. Most likely worrying if I liked what my mom packed me for lunch that day.

	13-08-2003 22:45									#26
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Trickey: I worried about the same thing when I was 10. Of course I didn't like most sugarly things so if she packed something which was to sweet for my taste I knew I could always trade it to one of the other students for something I did like.

	13-08-2003 22:45									#27
	Increase Your PM Length

It was 5 months before my Grandma died of Cancer,
and 1-2 months after we knew, that she had it
(I went on a voyage through Catalunya (a part of spain) with some fellow students to study the animals and plants there and upon return I was told by my grandparents and parents about the diagnosis).

In the end she died on January 2nd 1999 after some time of suffering in Hospital.

	13-08-2003 22:48									#28
	Inflate your Upload Space

The summer of 1998 I moved from the sheltered Diplomat's-child existance I'd been leading in Tanzania back home to Sweden and the last two years of High School. I realise now how inexperienced I was for a 17-year-old kid... When I started posting in forums later that year I was a self-important humourless *****, mainly because I didn't have the right experience with social interaction outside my small circle down there, and because I had had a political awakening a couple of months before I wanted to test out.

	13-08-2003 22:52									#29
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

quote: Well, this definitely counts as a rough time. But it seems like things are better for you now??

I'm almost twenty-seven and I'm not dead.

	13-08-2003 22:53									#30
	Tired of ads?

quote: Originally posted by Harry Seldon I'm almost twenty-seven and I'm not dead.