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Then versus now
  • Current rank: 4.5 Stars. Next Rank at 20.000 Posts.
    Send a message to Darkish
    RETIRED MOD
    Darkish posted on Mar 16, 2015 9:43:31 PM - Report post
     
    My latest post on this topic Link inspired me to make this topic. Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, first by making a topic of us cool kats to talk about and secondly, building upon conversation in the aforementioned topic.

    So with that being said, how much have you changed over the years? What are you like now versus then?

    I joined the site back in 2006, I was 16 and now I'm 25. Crazy. I've done a lot with my life so far and I've changed beyond measure.

    First, I was in high school (home school to be exact) back in '06 and now I'm in the United States Navy, just passed my first year mark actually a couple weeks back. In between this time I finished high school, went to college to obtain my Bachelors and Masters in Criminal Justice then Enlisted in the Navy and currently attending school for my rate or job and also working towards applying for OCS, Officer Candidate School.

    Secondly, I remember I was a judgmental and close-minded individual. Due to being home schooled I did not have many "real world" experiences. I started learning how to interact properly with society over a very long process. Started to learn when I got my first job at the age of 16, same year I joined this site and over a very long and painful process I became more and more "socially normal". Since I went to community college for my first two years of college, so basically the same life style as being home schooled it really wasn't until the second semester of my third year of college (moved out of State after first two years) that I really became "socially normal". Long story short, I was weird and now I'm not.

    Third, physical fitness and diet. Good Lord comparing then and now is night and day. I remember eating two packages of ramen noodles for lunch or dinner many times through out the week with no regular exercise. Now you won't even catch me looking at stuff like that plus I'm hitting the weights daily. Fitness and clean eating has become a passion of mine and I've successfully not only incorporated this into a lifestyle, but I've been able to disassociated junk food as disgusting, because although they might taste good, that's all they do, after the quick taste is over the long negative effects last for a long time. How you feel when you work out regularly and eat clean is so much better than eating like crap. The energy I have compared to everyone else who is struggling to stay awake in the mornings is no surprise to me these days.

    Fourth, my motivation and ambition for success sky rocketed, mostly when I joined the Navy after college. When I was a teenager I had literally no motivation or ambition for anything. When I went to college, I started to gain motivation to do good, but I did not have any ambition to work towards something. When I joined the Navy last year that all changed. Almost like a light bulb turning on motivation and ambition flooded me, I now have a strong desire to succeed and do good things with my life. I only wish I felt this way towards something when I was in college.

    That's all I got, hope you all share your stories!
    /--\
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    VETERAN
    Vlad_the_Bad posted on Mar 16, 2015 11:22:27 PM - Report post
     


    [Edited by Vlad_the_Bad, 4/16/2015 2:29:23 AM]
    Ignorance can be fixed.
    Stupid is forever.

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    Jaks posted on Mar 16, 2015 11:29:54 PM - Report post
     
    Enjoyed your post, Darkish, thanks for sharing. It made me recall my earlier years and wonder yet again, what might have been. I'm at the other end of the spectrum from you and I'm now retired after a long career in business.

    After high school, I found I couldn't decide which direction I wanted to go. I was torn between what I wanted to do, what I should do and what I had to do. I graduated high school in 1966 and those were the years of the Vietnam War and conscription, better known as the draft. Anyway, I ended up getting a job, enrolling at SPJC and became a third generation Navy man by joining the United States Navy Reserves.

    It was time for my 2 weeks training. I had selected the Submarine Service and the Navy sent me to the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Ct. One of the things we did at Sub school was about 12 of us at a time sat down in a large pressure chamber in just our boxer shorts. They then ran us through substantial pressure changes in order to determine if we could in fact endure the changes on a sub. I passed but three other guys started bleeding from either the nose or ears or both. It was some stark reality for us new recruits.

    When I came home, I was playing in our regular weekend tackle football game, no pads and hard hitting, and I smashed up a leg and ankle requiring surgery. Long story short, it was subsequently determined that my leg surgery, including steel rods and pins, just wouldn't stand up to the rigors of changing pressures in submarines and I was given an Honorable Medical Discharge.

    At the time I was kinda 50-50 with that. But over the years, I really regretted not doing my tour of duty with the Navy. Anyway, your story got me thinking back to those years once again. And you with your wonderful schooling and looking forward to Officer Candidate School, I can't help but be just a little jealous.

    You sound like a fantastic young man, Darkish, and the Navy is as lucky to have you as you are to have the Navy. Have a great career, bro, and stop in once in awhile to let us know how you're making out. Anchors Away, SIR.











    [Edited by element5, 3/19/2015 10:30:31 AM]
    Keep your Fighting clean and your Sex dirty.
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    ServiusTheBear posted on Mar 17, 2015 2:49:01 AM - Report post
     
    All I will say is I wish I could redo my non gaming life... To many bad moves.
    CH Moderator From 16.12.2018 to 24.12.2021
    Active Community Helper from 25.12.2021
    My Site - www.serviusthebear.webs.com
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    ELITE
    linesma posted on Mar 21, 2015 11:12:35 PM - Report post
     
    quote:
    originally posted by Toki

    All I will say is I wish I could redo my non gaming life... To many bad moves.

    I think we all wish that Toki!

    1980 My prehistoric days of gaming. This started with Oregon Trail on the Apple II, and I was hooked. Back then, gaming magazines would have the code for a complete game in them. I would spend hours typing in the code. Only to then run into a syntax error when I tried to run the game. The first game that I remember typing in and being able to run was a vector graphics Star Wars type space sim.

    1983 Got my first "real" computer a modified TRS-80 Series 2. It had dual 5 1/4 floppies, 128k RAM, a 2MB HDD, and a 64 color monitor. I would play games like Paratrooper and MUD's. I spent many hours typing "turn north" and other text commands.

    1995 By this time, I had joined the Marine Corps and had money to buy my first true gaming PC, a Pentium 200, and I disovered the joys of Command and Conquer and X-Wing. This started me down the long path of modern computer gaming and building custom rigs.

    1993-2013 In the US Marine Corps and going all over the world. I would game every chance I got. There were many times that I would get home from work and start to play. Next thing I would know, it was 0500, and I would have to be to work in an hour! I would spend the extra money on gaming laptops so I could play while on the road. It was during this time that I first discovered CH. I had been playing Bioshock and was getting frustrated. Since I could not find any cheat codes, I downloaded their free trainer. While I was impressed, I was still stuck in the world of console commands. So I quickly forgot about them. (Sorry guys).

    late 2012 I finally see the light in regards to trainers. I was playing Borderlands 2 (offline) and could not find any cheat codes so I tried a CH trainer again, and I was hooked. Been a member ever since.

    2013 to now Retired from the Marine Corps and now live with my wife in Thailand. In between working out and tutoring kids in English, I play my games. Living the dream!

    Out of all that, I only wish I had gotten involved with CH earlier. This site has been an invaluable resource for me.

    And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. - Friedrich Nietzsche
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    Darkish posted on Mar 23, 2015 9:46:21 PM - Report post
     
    quote:
    originally posted by element5

    Enjoyed your post, Darkish, thanks for sharing. It made me recall my earlier years and wonder yet again, what might have been. I'm at the other end of the spectrum from you and I'm now retired after a long career in business.

    After high school, I found I couldn't decide which direction I wanted to go. I was torn between what I wanted to do, what I should do and what I had to do. I graduated high school in 1966 and those were the years of the Vietnam War and conscription, better known as the draft. Anyway, I ended up getting a job, enrolling at SPJC and became a third generation Navy man by joining the United States Navy Reserves.

    It was time for my 2 weeks training. I had selected the Submarine Service and the Navy sent me to the New London Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Ct. One of the things we did at Sub school was about 12 of us at a time sat down in a large pressure chamber in just our boxer shorts. They then ran us through substantial pressure changes in order to determine if we could in fact endure the changes on a sub. I passed but three other guys started bleeding from either the nose or ears or both. It was some stark reality for us new recruits.

    When I came home, I was playing in our regular weekend tackle football game, no pads and hard hitting, and I smashed up a leg and ankle requiring surgery. Long story short, it was subsequently determined that my leg surgery, including steel rods and pins, just wouldn't stand up to the rigors of changing pressures in submarines and I was given an Honorable Medical Discharge.

    At the time I was kinda 50-50 with that. But over the years, I really regretted not doing my tour of duty with the Navy. Anyway, your story got me thinking back to those years once again. And you with your wonderful schooling and looking forward to Officer Candidate School, I can't help but be just a little jealous.

    You sound like a fantastic young man, Darkish, and the Navy is as lucky to have you as you are to have the Navy. Have a great career, bro, and stop in once in awhile to let us know how you're making out. Anchors Away, SIR.











    [Edited by element5, 3/19/2015 10:30:31 AM]

    Rotten Groton! Yuck!

    My Dad was stationed there before he retired.

    /--\
  • Current rank: 3 Stars. Next Rank at 4000 Posts.
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    linesma posted on Mar 23, 2015 11:45:53 PM - Report post
     
    quote:
    originally posted by Darkish

    My latest post on this topic Link inspired me to make this topic. Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak, first by making a topic of us cool kats to talk about and secondly, building upon conversation in the aforementioned topic.

    So with that being said, how much have you changed over the years? What are you like now versus then?

    I joined the site back in 2006, I was 16 and now I'm 25. Crazy. I've done a lot with my life so far and I've changed beyond measure.

    First, I was in high school (home school to be exact) back in '06 and now I'm in the United States Navy, just passed my first year mark actually a couple weeks back. In between this time I finished high school, went to college to obtain my Bachelors and Masters in Criminal Justice then Enlisted in the Navy and currently attending school for my rate or job and also working towards applying for OCS, Officer Candidate School.

    Secondly, I remember I was a judgmental and close-minded individual. Due to being home schooled I did not have many "real world" experiences. I started learning how to interact properly with society over a very long process. Started to learn when I got my first job at the age of 16, same year I joined this site and over a very long and painful process I became more and more "socially normal". Since I went to community college for my first two years of college, so basically the same life style as being home schooled it really wasn't until the second semester of my third year of college (moved out of State after first two years) that I really became "socially normal". Long story short, I was weird and now I'm not.

    Third, physical fitness and diet. Good Lord comparing then and now is night and day. I remember eating two packages of ramen noodles for lunch or dinner many times through out the week with no regular exercise. Now you won't even catch me looking at stuff like that plus I'm hitting the weights daily. Fitness and clean eating has become a passion of mine and I've successfully not only incorporated this into a lifestyle, but I've been able to disassociated junk food as disgusting, because although they might taste good, that's all they do, after the quick taste is over the long negative effects last for a long time. How you feel when you work out regularly and eat clean is so much better than eating like crap. The energy I have compared to everyone else who is struggling to stay awake in the mornings is no surprise to me these days.

    Fourth, my motivation and ambition for success sky rocketed, mostly when I joined the Navy after college. When I was a teenager I had literally no motivation or ambition for anything. When I went to college, I started to gain motivation to do good, but I did not have any ambition to work towards something. When I joined the Navy last year that all changed. Almost like a light bulb turning on motivation and ambition flooded me, I now have a strong desire to succeed and do good things with my life. I only wish I felt this way towards something when I was in college.

    That's all I got, hope you all share your stories!

    Darkish, good luck in your A-School. I had an absolute blast for my 20 years in the Marine Corps.

    And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. - Friedrich Nietzsche
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