Best Of

Let me set the wayback machine for way back when. Icrontic was my first web forum online community; I had done BBS and MUDs before that and really enjoyed the kinds of close-knit communities they fostered even though they usually petered out after a few years. I think it was right around 2000 that I joined Icrontic at the recommendation of my buddies @khan and @TheBaron. Quite literally, I found out about IC from whispered stories told in the middle of high school math class. I have no idea how they found this place; I was still rocking a beige Power Macintosh with OS 8.6, Yahoo was still classifying every website on the Internet, and AltaVista was the king of search engines. Growing up, telling your real name to people you only know through the Internet was just not something you did; traveling halfway across the country to meet said people was definitely right out. So, you can imagine how surprised I was when I asked for plane tickets to travel alone to SM LAN 2006 for my birthday and actually got them.

EPIC has meant different things to me at the different times I've come throughout my life but this year stands out to me as my best experience ever. It's difficult for me to put into words what it's like to have my job; it's very fulfilling and rewarding but also stressful and hard on interpersonal relationships. I'm already pretty bad at social things so it's not surprising at all that with as little as I've gotten out over the past two years that I have had an incredible case of tunnel vision. Coming to EPIC and spending all my time thinking about something other than work was incredibly refreshing and today at work was one of the best days I've had in awhile. EPIC is about meeting old friends and making new ones too, not remembering faces and names and needing to ask again (sorry if I did this to you), and just having a blast. The excitement of winning games or at least having a good show of it, the frustration of getting rolled, the sweetness of @primesuspect's salty tears, the feeling in my ass after 22 miles in a bicycle saddle; all part of the experience.

There is no doubt in my mind that I would not be where I am today if I had not had the privilege of knowing the people I met on Icrontic. Thank you for being you.