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Just in case you don't go back to the other page now that you know where these are, I'll repost this here as well:

Have set up the forum, though it's not ready to go live yet (not linked in from the site yet, it needs some content first).

http://melitasite.com/smf/index.php

Since adding anyone to that forum takes positive action on my part, nobody else that registered on the forum would be able to get to that private section, or even know it existed at all (though that last bit took some doing - I had to do some extensive modification to the forum software, to keep it from showing in the public sections how many users were logged in, and/or how many total posts had been made - pretty obvious there's a hidden forum when the total # of posts is more than the total number that are visible to everyone). I also disabled viewing/searching the memberlist to all but select users (I think the testuser account can see the list, but a regular user cannot).

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I had completely forgotten that we also had this in common, though not by the time we met. I think I'd only sold it a short while before going to work at National. This was on the Texas coast, somewhere around Gilchrist - used to like to go down there and go camping, knew exactly where it was when it made the news after Hurricane Ike.

Also thought you might find what I looked like with short hair amusing - the only time it's ever been short, other than when I was a toddler. My mother still has the ponytail that got cut off that day, too...

And below was the result (taken just hours before I got on the plane to report for boot camp in Orlando). Yeah, I wasn't real crazy about having my hair that short, but I also wasn't about to let a Navy barber cut it for me when I got to boot camp, either. I started growing it out again as soon as I was allowed to, even though that meant having to put it up every day.

And then a couple of Navy graduation pics, the first from my first Avionics school, and the second from the advanced Avionics school (honor grad both times). Yes, that guy really was hitting me in the arm, as had the others I'd just passed (and the ones in line behind me were getting hit as well). It's an old Navy tradition that when you first put on the Petty Officer eagle and stripe(s) [in Navy slang, called a 'crow'], other Petty Officers help you out by 'tacking it on', hitting your arm where you're wearing it. The idea is that they're helping to make sure it doesn't fall off (that you don't get demoted or somehow lose it). Very un-PC of course, and nowadays I expect they do it only behind closed doors if it's done at all. Some people would give you a token tap, and some would sock you with everything they had - I got a little of both, and by the end of the day my upper arm was a solid mass of black and blue.

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Something else new to see - these are a product of my latest toy (go, go gadget-geek-girl!), a photo scanner that will also scan negatives (color or black and white) and slides. I've been having a blast with it because I had a lot of negatives around that I no longer had the prints for. Some of the negatives were in pretty bad shape, but thanks to also having Photoshop, I was able to fix many of them.

I didn't think I still had the negatives for this particular series of photos, but I found them in with the rest and was amazed how well they'd held up. They were taken in late '89, I'm thinking just after we split up. I took a friend along to the Ft. Worth Botanical gardens, and set up most of the shots myself (just having someone along to actually click the shutter). I also processed the film myself, back when I still had access to a darkroom. Thought you might like to see them...

http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii249/melita2_photos/black_and_white/?albumview=slideshow

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Just thought I'd give you something new to look at...or at least something new to read, at your leisure.

So many things that I want to say, but don't really know where to start. It's so strange - on the one hand, we know each other at a very deep level, but on the other we don't really know one another at all. So I guess I could start with some of those surface-level things...

Some of my hobbies you do know (though most of the ones I have listed on my site I haven't done in a long time). Probably the biggest hobby I have these days is playing an online game called "Kingdom of Loathing" (www.kingdomofloathing.com). It's a parody of RPG's like Everquest and World of Warcraft, done in stick-figure graphics and text (it kind of brings to mind the original Zork, and in fact there is a whole section that is purely text-based and gives a referential nod or two to Zork within it). Hilarious game that doesn't take itself too seriously, initially written by two guys in their spare time (one is a programmer, and one was an English major - so there's a little intelligence to the parody as well). It turned into a full-time job for them, and then grew big enough for them to hire on several more full-time staff. The game itself is free, it runs on donations only (they do have a good incentive in-game for donations, though). I've been playing it for three years now, and for the last two I've also been hosting a podcast of the weekly internet radio shows that the game's creators do. I was also tapped to be a moderator on the game forums, but I've since given that up because I just don't have the time. I've met the game creators and staff in person several times now as well, have gone out to Phoenix for the game's convention the last two years (and most likely will this year as well, it's in September).

Another thing I've gotten into in the past year is rock tumbling. It all started when someone (actually a couple of someones) asked me to pick them up some rocks when I went to Masirah (Oman) last January. Nothing in particular, 'just a piece of earth', they said. So, I picked up a few rocks. And then a few more. And then, well...I didn't have room in my suitcase for all the ones I'd picked up, so I had to mail some of them back. I gave out the ones I'd picked up specially, and then wondered what to do with the ones I'd kept. I have a small tabletop fountain at work, and so initially they all went in there - and then one day, I thought it might be neat to tumble some of them. So I bought a tumbler. And then bought some more rocks to put in it. And then bought another tumbler. And then a few more rocks. And now...well, I have 7 tumblers, and a tile saw to cut the bigger rocks on, and probably enough rocks to last me through the next year. Hey, I don't ever do anything by halves, <grin>. I have bought mine-run (read: not gem quality) precious stones and tumbled them as well - rubies, sapphire, emerald, topaz, tourmaline, and aquamarine along with regular stuff like agates and quartz. Unfortunately I don't have much in the way of pictures of finished stones (and I gave a whole bunch away at Thanksgiving when I went home), but I do have some of in-process ones. Will give you a link to that in a bit.

Don't do a whole lot of anything else these days, those two things and work take up most of my time. Oh, and the carousels. I'm guessing you saw the link to that (or did I take it off my page? Can't remember...), but I don't spend much time or effort on it any more. They've absolutely taken over the house, and they dominate the living room entirely. Not difficult when your house is as small as mine (it's only 750 sq ft), but still. It's even a bit much for my own taste, I'd rather that they be in a separate room but right now that isn't possible. I have since found out that I'm definitely not the worst, though - I got an email from a couple who had a 16x16 building put up to house their collection of carousel figures (both miniature and a couple full-size repros). Don't think I'll ever need that much space myself, fortunately.

Let's see, what else...

I do have a negative to report on myself, picked up a bad habit while in the Navy - started smoking. And I was certainly old enough to know better by then, I was nearly 24. I'm not a heavy smoker, and in fact many people who have been around me for less than a day at a time have been quite surprised to find out that I smoke (because I normally won't smoke around non-smokers). I was really, really close to having quit when the hurricane hit - I had followed the advice of someone who had quit successfully by using a rather unconventional approach. They said, "kick the habit first, then the addiction". What they meant by that is to cut out the habitual times/places first, lose the triggers and associations before tackling the chemical dependence. I was down to a couple per day and had been for about a month, and was just ready to see if I could kick it all the way when Ivan came. Having nothing to do for almost a week afterwards (and all the stress that went with it) wasn't particularly conducive to quitting, and since then I haven't found the motivation again. You do have to be mentally ready or it just doesn't work, and I am just not 'there' yet. It's something that likely would not have come up even if we do end up in person at some point, but I figured I should own up anyway.

So now for some deeper stuff...but I think I'll put that on its own page.