Neco the NightwraithWell, I figured it was time I updated my own biography. It surprises me how much has changed over so little time.

I'm Neco (duh!) I'm 19 years old and live in sunny California, eighty miles east of falling into the ocean. I go to the local community college and am majoring in Culinary Arts. I am working toward my Culinary Arts: Baking and Pastry certificate, as some of you may be aware of. Though I am on vacation right now, I will be starting my fourth semester in January, and thus completing two years of college. After that I hope to get a job in a bakery somewhere, working my way up until I finally achieve my greatest ambition: owning and operating my own bakery, specializing in cakes mostly.

I enjoy reading, writing, role playing, drawing, making music and weaving scarves. I love long walks on the beach, sunsets and thunderstorms, growing things, and kids.

I want to travel to places like London, and New Zealand and Australia sometime before I die.

I want to marry and have two or three children.

And that's me in a nutshell.

RKnuckalls
I was knick1966 at Shejidan. My real name, which I prefer, is Rich. I'm 50 (This is still a shock to me) twice divorced, and THE most single guy on the planet.* I teach Computer-Aided design in real olife, and have done so for 20 yeard. The first 30, I spent as a rock and roll guitarist. (Full time. I actually made a decent living, for the most part) I have a 17 year old som, whom I'm vastly proud of .**

I started on Science Fiction with L'Engle's "A Stich in Time." when I was in sixth grade, and it's only gotten worse since. I'm a sucker for mile-long spacecraft, and the occasional submarine techno thriller. The obsession with spacecraft came from a six-month teaching contract at NASA in Huntsville about 10 years ago. I hung with real rocket scientists.


* I suffer from a lack of judgement when choosing partners for relationships. This is an understatement on an order of magnitude indescribable to most.

** Me turning out to be a good dad has surprised everyone I know, including myself.

moira
I'm moira, aka mia.

I first fell in love w/ Cherryh's Chanur series, but overall I love her skills at character- and world-building, which show in many many of her novels including of course the Foreigner series. I think my first bonafide sci-fi read was Dogsbody (still a favorite) and I loved L'engles books--- all of which read at a young age. eta: very soon afterwards I borrowed The Martian Chronicles from my mother and then started in on my parents' collection of Heinlein and E.E. "Doc" Smith. very convenient of them to have kept all those for me!

I read a lot, have always read a lot (I was always in the library, never on the playground), and read various and sundry; but I will still say that Cherryh stands out as my fave sci-fi author very easily.

I'm in San Diego, married since 1996 (we met as engineering majors), with a son born 1998 and a daughter 2001. both the children are autistic, so goodbye previous understanding of the world. oh and we have a dog named Zev too. and now two cats named Zoe and Jelly (Gyllian). they're sweethearts.

some great people here at shejidan.

Posted: 8:00 PM - Jan 03, 2007
selden
Lessee, now... I've been a computer jock since I first encountered them. It was actually fun to punch cards: only use 72 columns, though, because the other 8 have to be used for sequence numbers. Otherwise, you're up the proverbial creek when you drop a deck. The control drums in the card punch machines helped keep things in the right columns. Figuring out how to punch the cards used by the control drums was fun.

I really don't remember what the first SF book was that I read. I remember enjoying Andre Norton's writing at a fairly young age. Hmm. The copyright date on Eleanor Cameron's "Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet" actually looks like it could be one I read when it was new. I seem to have fond memories of reading it way, long ago. I do know that I started devouring, uh, reading, printed material when I was in 3rd grade. Have you ever noticed all the fascinating things they print on cereal boxes?

I've been interested in computer graphics for quite a while, but actually doing any 3D modelling is much more recent. That started somewhat after I discovered Celestia just a few years ago. My first major project was trying to recreate some of the scenes from Chesley Bonestell's paintings. That was both fun and frustrating.

And, of course, I've always enjoyed Madeline L'Engle's books. Do you know how many books there actually are in her "Wrinkle in Time" series? Some of them I discovered only recently. They sort of blend in with her other series of books about the Austin family.

Oh, other personal details: I grew up mostly in south-eastern Pennsylvania and actually was in the same class with Jamie Wyeth. Now, there's an artistic family.

Posted: 1:15 PM - Jan 10, 2007
barleysmama
My name is Barley- wi'itkittii, not to be confused with my human pet named Barleysmama. I am a male umbrella cockatoo. I was hatched sometime during the early morning hours on Feb. 3, 1996 so I shall soon be a very unfelicitious 10 years! My ancestors and distant cousins immigrated from the middle part of the far continent of Australia. (They determined that an umbrella cockatoo would be more highly regarded and have more career opportunities if they came to Merca.) All my ancestors and cousins and siblings have since joined the Messengers Guild stationed near Malguri. They find it exhilarating to fly over the mountain thermals! :o
I, too, shall join the guild when I am deemed old enough and am not so-er- shall one say, emotionally "flighty". In the meantime, I live and train with my beloved human, Barleysmama. She needs lots of care and training. The sight of her skull feathers first thing in the morning is enough to knock any decent cockatoo off his perch!!!

I have many hobbies which include hanging around on my various perches in the comfort of my huge cage watching tv (football is a particular passion of mine), listening to all kinds of music, and exercising my beak on the many wooden training objects my human places in my cage. And I have placed myself on a strict exercise program to strenghthen my wings and regulate my breathing to be ready for the wonderful day I can apply to the Guild as an apprentice.

I can usually be found hanging around on the shoulder of my favorite person preening her feathers into some sort of order. I enjoy being with her while she reads to me and during the few times she relaxes and takes in a football game with me. She gives me a big bowl of walnuts (my faves) while she nibbles on a bag of crunchy "chips". Though those are the strangest looking wood chips I have ever seen! <_<

My birthday is Feb. 3 and I am all white on the outer side of my feathers but when I open my beautiful wings you can see the bright yellow coloring on the underside of the wing and tail feathers. I stand some 14 inches tall with my crest feathers raised.  I will eat- or at least inspect- any kind of nut you wish to present me with. For my upcoming netalday  I hope to spend the ENTIRE day with my human downstairs in her room. Hopefully a wheat cake and a big bowl of nuts will be included!!! :lol:

Posted: 3:44 PM - Jan 10, 2007
the mule
Probably time I updated my Bio... B)

I live just outside London, a stones throw from Windsor Castle. I work as a computer manager in Local Government, having given up the consultants life about five years ago. I'm in my middle 50's, married with one sprog (female , at University) 3 guitars, a senior cat and two goldfish.

I've been into sci-fi since I was about eight and first read the Tavona stories by W E Johns (the man who also wrote the Biggles Books) and have branched out over the years into a huge range of fantasy and space opera. As well as nand' Cherryh I also greatly like Isac Asimov,(from whom I take my online name - nothing to do with being a donkey!) Larry Niven, Ian M Banks, Douglas Adams, and Jack McDevitt. I also like Naval stories particularly Patrick O'Brien and submarine stories. I'm a fairly dedicated computer gamer (natch :D ) and my other main hobby is recurve archery.I've been a member of Shejidan since 1998 and am probably one of the oldest survivors and founding zimmer club members which is why I'm now the Administrator here having taken over from CKTC about 3 years ago. I am pleased and humbled to have made so many friends here and look forward to another few years in your esteemed company

Mule

Posted: 4:26 PM - Jan 14, 2007
shoka
And I'm about as good at logging in now as I was then, sigh .


Dragged this up from the depths of the archives of the old Shejidan site. Vintage sometime in 03. Update by four years, swap Gnome for KDE and its all still true. Oh and fix the original spelling errors. Love Firefox's built in spell check.Male, British, resident in North Manchester UK.

High side of fifty, electronic engineer by training, network engineer by gradual erosion over many years.

Divorced, resident SO. Daughter, 19 years, redhead.

Fan of open software, reading this board with KDE on a Linux system, works mostly OK. Great work CKTC...

Long time SiFi fan, read every Kemlo book in the library by about 8, and most anything I could get my hands on since.

Age and gravitas seem to have taken their toll, playing with computers and networks seems to get in the way of reading far to often these days.

In addition to CJ, like LeGuin, Zelazney, Simak, Vinge(es)
Mcaffrey.

This board comes up in most searches for CherryH, lurked it occasionally for 18 months or so, signed up properly a week or so ago, now I have ADSL connectivity and can waste time here with a clear conscience.

Posted: 6:06 PM - Jan 15, 2007
Creaturefeature
Oh hey, I'll join in. I'm Joanna, 27, from Canterbury, England. I live with my cat, whom I named Buffy, which people seem to find funnier than I think they should. Having spent seven years at university because I loved it so much and didn't want to get a real job, I'm now working at a university as a research scientist (because I didn't want to get a real job). I'm a molecular biologist by trade, specialising in animal development and evolution. Biology is the most gloriously wonderful and frustrating subject in the world. I've only had this semi-real job for a little over a year now, and it is in Sheffield (England); a lovely and very hilly place to be, being near the Peak District. I'm getting great thighs.

I discovered SF when I was barely old enough to remember - 8 maybe? It was The Kraken Wakes by John Wyndham, and I picked it up purely because it had an exciting picture of a giant squid grasping bubble helmet-wearing divers on it. After rapidly going through Wyndham, Wells, Clarke and Asimov, there was no turning back.

The first Cherryh book I picked up was Foreigner, in 2000, in a wonderful secondhand bookshop I found whilst on a summer project in Tennessee. It sat on my shelf for two years, and then I picked it up having re-found it whilst lying in bed in my college room, a month into my PhD, with a terrible dose of the flu and bronchitis. I read the whole of the series thus far published, and most of Faded Sun and Chanur, in a state of feverish and phlegmy half-delirium, awash in tea and antibiotics, an experience I thoroughly recommend to anyone. The waking dreams are something else.

Once I had recovered enough to be able to sit at my desk, I discovered this community at its former home and, after reading with delight, happily chipped in with my doubtless less than coherent threads. So things have not changed that much for me.

I love reading, writing, playing indifferently upon the flute and piano, making dreadful innuendos, drinking too much tea, watching us lose cricket, drinking even more beer, misunderstanding great poetry, kickboxing astonishingly badly, and animals of all descriptions, even really slimy ones. Most of all I love a walk in the country in the cold, with congenial company, followed by a hearty pub lunch and enough ale to mellow me and warm me up again.

When I Grow Up I would like to marry a Culture drone, or William Blake, although I accept that I may have to compromise a little

Last edited by Kardaen (4/24/2020 8:44 pm)

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Posted: 9:02 PM - Jan 22, 2007  
Neco the Nightwraith 
 AWWWWWWWW!

Congratulations on your new grand-baby!

Posted: 6:07 PM - Jan 23, 2007  
Hawklady
Thank you both :D

I'm pleased to say that little Ellie is thriving well, and has put on 2 lbs since her birth five weeks ago. She has already learned how to make her mummy and daddy do exactly what she wants!! :lol:

Posted: 6:16 PM - Jan 23, 2007  
Kokipy  
you're giving me baby envy. unfortunately since my children are 7 and 5 I have to wait a few decades before I have some grandchildren. I am far too old to generate my own additional babies at this point.

Posted: 12:53 PM - Jan 26, 2007  
Felicitous Sk8er  
awwwww! A Hawkbaby! 

Congrats, Hawklady-ji! She's adorable!

Posted: 5:33 PM - Jan 26, 2007  
Hawklady  
:lol: :lol:Thanks again both of you!

Posted: 3:06 PM - Jan 27, 2007  
Sherbs  
Hi, all this talk of babies and stuff has persuaded me to post here.

I'm Sherbs, at least that's the name I've gone by online for the last . . . 15 years I think, it was originally a nick-name that came from the name of one of my characters from a Traveller RPG campaign and just kind of stuck.

I'm now 40, as of this week, and married with one 18 month old daughter. I live in South Wales, in one of the less well known of the notorious Valleys. I trained and worked as a social worker for a while but now I'm a performance management officer for one of the strategic bodies that plans services for children.

I still role-play online and in RL when I get the chance which isn't very often these days. I have a longstanding interest in linguistics and languages, and also in costume and clothing. I have also been a voracious reader though I have less time to read now.

I came across C J Cherryh's books in a second hand book shop. I think the first one I read was Merchanters Luck, shortly followed by the Morgaine books, and then the Mri books, and I've been reading them ever since.

Posted: 2:59 PM - Jan 28, 2007  
shlinas  
Awwww, babies! I love babies! She's adorable Hawklady-ji!


I have to announce, that since I am being induced at 38 weeks with this pregnancy, today (19 weeks) I am halfway through my pregnancy! Woohoo! Hopefully I'll stop throwing up sometime before June!

 
 

Last edited by Kardaen (4/24/2020 8:48 pm)

Hawklady
Shlinas - Thanks for the comments :D

Lovely happy picture of you too!  :D :D

A big Welcome to Gent and Roseblade too! 

Posted: 6:42 PM - Jan 29, 2007
hrhspence
   

Posted: 11:43 PM - Jan 29, 2007
Neco the Nightwraith




Posted: 2:06 AM - Jan 30, 2007
Gent
LOL great gifs. 

Posted: 5:19 PM - Jan 31, 2007
Gent
I have found that the fan-type boards are usually peaceful gatherings of like-minded people; however, the news and political discussions are frightening places to let any personal info slip. I had some interesting encounters before I learned some discretion.

Caution is always wise.

Cheers,

Gent

Posted: 10:52 PM - Feb 02, 2007
CKTC
(Takes a deep breath.....) Okay, my bio....ooh, I'm nervous....

Greetings, all, I'm CKTC (Curiosity Killed This Cat), a former regular (from years ago) of the old Shejidan forum. Since I've been away for years, and I would love to come back and post again, I thought it fitting to write up my bio for those who don't know me, and also to add a bit of a confession for those who do.

In a nutshell, I was born and raised in northern Ohio. Uneventful childhood. I have been a student for the vast majority of my life (one of those people who can't seem to stop going to school!) Went to undergrad at Cornell, and during college read my first CJC book (Foreigner) and fell in absolute love with it. I've been a fan of her works ever since.

After undergrad, I went to a medical school back home in Ohio. That was when I started the Shejidan site and forums. I hated medical school and never had any interest in it. It's a great profession, but I'm afraid I just wasn't suited for it. I went to please my family, and that was a bit of a mistake (although I can't honestly say I regret the entire experience either... I did learn a lot and I met some very nice people). I created the Shejidan forum partly due to the fact that I was going nuts, starving for non-medical conversation since everyone I knew in real life talked about medicine, medicine, and medicine, and nothing else.

So... after completing residency, I left medicine behind, gave up a stable future (much to the shock of many of my fellow residents) and moved out West to go to grad school for film (after being inspired to do so by a close friend, Kenobi on EZBoards if any of you remember him). I'm forever indebted to the mule for having written one of my recommendation letters. (Thank you mule!) Anyway, I recently graduated and am currently working freelance in, uh, just about everything. Artwork, web design, and some small film projects too. And that's pretty much it, except for one detail that I've uh.... Hmm... well...

That brings me to the confession bit. Anyone who is new and doesn't know me can stop right here if you want. This is really more for people who have known me previously....

All righty.... I'm a woman.

And there you have it.

I really must apologize for pretending to be a guy for years. It started out innocently enough. When I first started posting at EZBoards, I really didn't know much about the internet at all, and the thought of letting complete strangers know all about me was a little daunting. And since, initially, people kept mistaking me as a guy on forums (I have no idea why, but it kept happening) I thought I'd run along with the idea. It seemed fun at the time, not to mention I was really intrigued by how people treated me differently as a man than as a woman in real life.

I didn't really think anything of it, since I was perfectly honest in every other aspect of posting. My likes and dislikes, who I was, where I was from. All that was really me. And the more I posted, the more I "forgot" about what I was doing. It's weird, but it really did start to feel perfectly normal to refer to myself as a guy when on this board. I didn't really think much of it.

That is, until people at this board started getting together for meets. I remember several members met up in England, the first of the real life "reunions". And then folks in the U.S. started talking about meeting too, and they invited me, and I didn't know what to do. I so very badly wanted to meet people and join them in their travels to conventions, but I felt like I couldn't.

I was afraid if I told people I'd been lying about my gender for years, they'd be mad and no longer want to talk to me. Or they'd wonder why the heck I did such a thing for so long. Maybe that fear was just ridiculously out of proportion in my own head, but that's what I felt.

So to the older members of the board who know me, I must apologize for lying to you for so many years. It was never meant as a malicious thing, and I never intended to let it get out of hand. Everything else about me is unchanged. The rest was all true.

I would really love to be able to post at this board again, and since I've been gone so long, I felt that now was as good a time as any to get this off my chest. I'd tried a few times in the past to tell people, but I'm afraid I chickened out each time. I hope you aren't too upset, but if you are, I'd understand.

Okay, now I just have to make myself hit the "Add Reply" button.... (argh! must...do...it....)

Edit: Oh, if anyone wants to respond to this, maybe PM's would be better, so as not to clog up the thread?

Posted: 11:20 PM - Feb 02, 2007
starexplorer
What a relief that must be CK! Or at least will be once you let your breath out. You may know that Alice Sheldon AKA James Tiptree Jr. went through something very similar when he (the famous SF writer) finally admitted he was a she. She was afraid all her associates (avidly having communicated by letter only) would feel deceived.

Here is the Shejidan thread on the new bio of Sheldon:

http://z11.invisionfree.com/Shejidan/in ... owtopic=39

Ursela LeGuin maintained a correspondence with her quoted in the book and in a recent edition of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Sheldon expressed her fears, and LeGuin surprised her by telling her how wonderful she thought it was that she was a woman, that she had maintained this fiction, and how wonderful to know the truth.

You give reasons for your choice; who is anyone to second-guess you? I welcome you back, as you are. I suspect all here will greet the real you with open arms! :wub:

Posted: 12:39 AM - Feb 03, 2007
hrhspence
Now why would we reject you CK? Carolyn Janice Cherry had to disguise her gender to write. And we still like her. So?

Posted: 2:47 AM - Feb 03, 2007
Sabina
 Aw, don't worry about it, I actually thought you were a woman before I read the board and everybody called you "he", the program you used to created Shejidan kinda told on you (and, well, I confess I'm very curios, I checked out Shejidan.com).

And as for everybody thinking you are male: "There are no women on the interwebz." :lol:

But now, that that is out of the way, you can go visit those meetings without worrying of not being recognized.

I hope we see more of you in the future. 

"Clogging up the thread", how often did one of our threads stay on topic all the time?

Posted: 6:45 AM - Feb 03, 2007
the mule
CK_aiji,

That has to be one of the bravest things you've ever done, and I know from your decision over quitting medicine that you are a brave person.

Ours is a long association and I know I have carried your secret (with the odd lapse  ) for a few years now. Even had you admitted to being a small green hairy thing from Alpha Centauri it would have made no difference to the debt I feel towards you for creating this wonderful place and being my friend. Welcome home!

All I can add is that I've been waiting to do this for years

Last edited by Kardaen (4/24/2020 8:52 pm)