Phoenix Network Forums

My name is John, and I hail from the grand city of Summertown TN, the most bass-ackwards, rural area of the United States, aside from Mississippi (kidding, I have friends from Ole' Miss).
I just graduated the University of North Alabama with a Bachelors of Business Administration: Computer Information Systems. And I am a gamer (could I be a more generic nerd). Being a gamer in a rural area, I find gaming resources very, very limited as specialty stores around here generally die out if it doesn't have something to do with hunting or fishing. The last card shop we had here went out of business around 7 years ago. The closest thing to a comic shop we have is a guy named Mark who gets a few shipments of CCG and the more popular comics which he sells off his back porch. He's a great guy, and he sells top notch stuff, but he has no space for gaming.

I do manage to scrounge up the money and pool it with some friends and we go to GenCon Indy every other year or so. I get a good taste of gaming there, but not enough to last the year. While at Gencon last year I managed to meet the manager of a Non-profit Community Center in Boston call the Game Loft http://www.thegameloft.org/index.html
Having the same problem with staying in business with a profit based store for gaming, they switched to a community center. It gives the kids a place to go and something constructive to do that they can relate too a little better than being on the Basketball Team or school SGA. This is exactly the type of thing I want to start work on for my neck of the woods. Unfortunatly, being a recent graduate on the prowl for a new career, has left the much needed funds to start a real center, non-existant. So putting together all I learned from the business side of my college career, I've decided to make the community center virtual. There is a great chat based rpg, developed from the ideas of the basic tabletop games (DnD, 7th Sea, Deadlands etc) called Code of Unaris. All the resources needed for this game is available on the website www.goldleafgames.com On top of that, there are ways to make the more well known games i.e. DnD, playable on IRC chat rooms thanks to eggdrop scripting.

And so that brings me here. If and when I apply for a shell, it will be to use the shells resources to help bring the gaming community around here together and provide something for some of the more "misunderstood" kids around here a place to go, even if it is just on the net.

I will probably be posting more about my idea as well as Code of Unaris in the gaming section.

Till then...
Cheers,
John

nice ^^

FalconX2 wrote:My name is John, and I hail from the grand city of Summertown TN, the most bass-ackwards, rural area of the United States, aside from Mississippi (kidding, I have friends from Ole' Miss).
I just graduated the University of North Alabama with a Bachelors of Business Administration: Computer Information Systems. And I am a gamer (could I be a more generic nerd). Being a gamer in a rural area, I find gaming resources very, very limited as specialty stores around here generally die out if it doesn't have something to do with hunting or fishing. The last card shop we had here went out of business around 7 years ago. The closest thing to a comic shop we have is a guy named Mark who gets a few shipments of CCG and the more popular comics which he sells off his back porch. He's a great guy, and he sells top notch stuff, but he has no space for gaming.

I do manage to scrounge up the money and pool it with some friends and we go to GenCon Indy every other year or so. I get a good taste of gaming there, but not enough to last the year. While at Gencon last year I managed to meet the manager of a Non-profit Community Center in Boston call the Game Loft http://www.thegameloft.org/index.html
Having the same problem with staying in business with a profit based store for gaming, they switched to a community center. It gives the kids a place to go and something constructive to do that they can relate too a little better than being on the Basketball Team or school SGA. This is exactly the type of thing I want to start work on for my neck of the woods. Unfortunatly, being a recent graduate on the prowl for a new career, has left the much needed funds to start a real center, non-existant. So putting together all I learned from the business side of my college career, I've decided to make the community center virtual. There is a great chat based rpg, developed from the ideas of the basic tabletop games (DnD, 7th Sea, Deadlands etc) called Code of Unaris. All the resources needed for this game is available on the website www.goldleafgames.com On top of that, there are ways to make the more well known games i.e. DnD, playable on IRC chat rooms thanks to eggdrop scripting.

And so that brings me here. If and when I apply for a shell, it will be to use the shells resources to help bring the gaming community around here together and provide something for some of the more "misunderstood" kids around here a place to go, even if it is just on the net.

I will probably be posting more about my idea as well as Code of Unaris in the gaming section.

Till then...
Cheers,
John

Wow, very nice to meet you John. Sadly gaming LAN centers have a lot of trouble staying open, at least the smaller operations. I was involved with an AMAZING local store locally in Maryland that did computer repair to help support the Gaming LAN part of the store, and even with that they were not able to stay in business. That was a few years ago, but most recently a great gaming LAN business in Derry, NH closed... but that was due to a larger chain gaming LAN company nearby taking business away (Area 51). I really commend you for your continued efforts and would be happy to grant any service to you that I can (I'm a photographer by profession but have moonlighted as a php programmer and graphic designer).

DeeBG wrote:Wow, very nice to meet you John. Sadly gaming LAN centers have a lot of trouble staying open, at least the smaller operations. I was involved with an AMAZING local store locally in Maryland that did computer repair to help support the Gaming LAN part of the store, and even with that they were not able to stay in business. That was a few years ago, but most recently a great gaming LAN business in Derry, NH closed... but that was due to a larger chain gaming LAN company nearby taking business away (Area 51). I really commend you for your continued efforts and would be happy to grant any service to you that I can (I'm a photographer by profession but have moonlighted as a php programmer and graphic designer).

Thanks, I've been getting help like yours every now and then. I've been PHP scripting myself. I've recently discovered a really nice content managment system called Drupal (drupal.org). It is extremely powerful and very easy to use, if you understand PHP. I've dabbled in PHP in the past but not near to the extent that I have since using Drupal.

I've always wanted to do photography for a hobby. Any suggestions on what kind of equipment I could buy to make quality photos without it hitting me in the wallet too hard. Naturally I would like to stay on the digital side of things, but I'm not adverse to good ole fashion chemical developing, as my mother is a chemist and my fiance is in school to be an X-ray tech So using chemicals to develop negatives is nothing new to me.

FalconX2 wrote:I've always wanted to do photography for a hobby. Any suggestions on what kind of equipment I could buy to make quality photos without it hitting me in the wallet too hard. Naturally I would like to stay on the digital side of things, but I'm not adverse to good ole fashion chemical developing, as my mother is a chemist and my fiance is in school to be an X-ray tech So using chemicals to develop negatives is nothing new to me.

When cash is an issue (as it is for the majority of us =p) and one has the ability/space to be able to work with chemicals I ALWAYS recommend film cameras. The reason being you can get a great SLR film camera for around 300$ (of course there are some that cost less and some that cost a whole lot more). If you want to get a comparable SLR digital camera you are looking at at least 800$. Also if photography ever becomes more than a hobby, or even if you just really get into it, film cameras have much better support for lenses. Now there are some digital cameras that take a somewhat "standardized" lens, but if you ever want to switch digital cameras there is a good chance you will need to buy a whole new set of lenses, which is not cheap. Also, while I love digital photography and keep a digicam with me at all times, I am a HUGE fan of black and white photography, and I think you get the best results with film cameras for that. Also there are lots of different ways you can expose film to get different results. It's not as easy as using Photoshop of course, but I think it's much more rewarding. As of now I use a digital camera when I need to get something done quickly or if I know I will only need a jpg version of the picture, and a film camera for experimental photography.

In terms of recommendations of cameras themselves I think it'd be best to pick up a copy of "Popular Photography" or any other magazine out there that gives reviews of cameras, as they have the most up to date information and normally expose you to more cameras than you would see at any one location.

good lock

Looks like s3rv3r might be another plebeuz... beware l33t speak =p.

DeeBG wrote:Looks like s3rv3r might be another plebeuz... beware l33t speak =p.

Is it that or that he can't spell "look" in a two-word post? =P