Your Job...

[NeonKnight]

OK, My life's history:

I just turned 41 (on March 5th), and have been gaming since 1979 with D&D. I created my very first world then and while it was beautiful (if I do say so myself), it was entirely forest. No deserts, no plains, just forest.

Later around 1982 or so, I started work on my current campaign World, the World of Auren. It was extremely large, and I pared it down to it's current size around 1985. 1985 was also the year I graduated High School and I then went on to University for a degree in Archaeology. At this point my carefree mapping took a back seat as I tried to devote my energies to University.

Sadly that was not to be as I goofed off a little too much (first time out on my own etc) and I was forced to go on acedemic probation/withdrawl in my second year. I was supposed to take a year off and get my life in order (according to the university) and then I could apply to come back.

During that year off, I took a 'summer job' with the Monopoly Phone company in British Columbia Canada: BC TEL. It turned into a career.

I worked there as telephone operator for 7 years (You Know, Dial 0 or 411 for Help/Directory). During that period I did a lot of mapping while working as otherwise it was BORE-ING with a capital B! Also got married, had a little girl, and got divorced.

In 1994 I then transfered within the company to the education department (more money, more freedom, less stress). Worked, did more gaming, met my current wife.

Then in 1998 I transfered again (slowly working my way up in the company) to a department called Circuit Releases. This department was responsible for dealing with business customers for taking their phone/data services offline so we (the phone company) could do work/maintenance/upgrades to the network.

Then, in 1999 I got Married to my wife in Seoul South Korea in January and had our first son, Seth, in December of that same year. Around this time BC Tel Merged/was taken over by Alberta's Phone Company: TELUS.

In 2001 I transfered to my current job, a Network Technician responsible for testing and maintaining the T1/Frame Relay network of our Phone company across all of Canada. In 2004 we had our second son: Darnell

I have for the last two and half years now worked exclusively the Graveyard Shift as it is the quietest, and affords me a lot of time to do...mapping!

It also allows me time to partake in my second hobby, Playing D&D Miniatures: A head-to-head competetive version of D&D: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/minis

[pyrandon]

Cool thread.

I'm an English lit & language teacher at a high school in Michigan; been that for going on 10 years now (I'm 38 ). I have two great kids & my wife (who was my high school sweetheart).

I enjoy long walks on the beach.

[GlennZilla]

Well, I'll take my turn.

Started gaming with the D&D red box. Eventually I ran games in AD&D, 2nd Ed D&D, Gamma World, Marvel Superheroes, Palladium's Robotech, TMNT, PFRP, Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, Rifts, Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, Wraith, Aeon/Alternity, D&D 3/3.5, D20 Modern, and countless one off games with just about every game available.

There was an extended hiatus from RPG games to delve into my minatures habit, playing Napleonics, Ancients (8mm), Warhammer and Warhammer 40k.

I owned my own gaming store for a while, buying out a share of the store I frequented. Eventually we had to close due to the loss of regular customers and the lack of new ones. Curse you deep discount online retailers!

In 1996 I worked for AOL and eventually got into their "CAT" team that handled the reports of inappropriate behavior online. My penchant for salty language has never quite gone away after that. I married a co-worker in that department so she would understand my horrible sense of humor. I went to school part time and became a graphic designer for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board in 2004. Then I moved to a healthcare company for a substantial pay raise. They decided they didn’t want the overhead so they sent their work out and laid me off. Just over a year ago, I got the job I have now working as a software tester doing QA work on the state’s child welfare database.

My current gaming is D&D and D20 Modern mostly. We like to bend the rules for the setting rather than learn new rules for it.

[Robbie]

Wow, a lot of military or military related folks in here...me too.

I'm former Air Force...now I work as a systems engineer for Lockheed Martin contracted to the navy to maintain, run, and develop airplanes for Navy flight simulators...Our current biggest project is Dynamic Hypoxia Training, which is where we get pilots hypoxic while they fly their aircraft in the simulator as opposed to sitting in a low pressure chamber. Its much more realistic.

[RobA]

Cool stuff...Robbie-

That reminds me of a positive pressure breathing experiment I participated in back in university. We put on pressure pants, got pumped full of radioactive isotopes, and had to sit in front of an array of scintillation detectors while going through cycles of positive pressure air (effort to breathe out and relax to inhale) and normal pressure air.

Thinking back it is amazing what we were willing to go through for the price of a few cases of beer

-Rob A>

[Anna]

You’re making me feel nostalgic here – having been the victim of tests like that for years, but it was the prize you had to pay for flying fast-movers!

But I left active service 5 years ago to pursue another goal in life – but that is another story

I was a bit brief before so here are some more about me.
I’m 43 tomorrow and my gf and I have just bought a house in the countryside 180km south west of Stockholm and are in the middle of moving in.

When it comes to gaming it’s tough to find players around here, so I haven’t had the chance to sit down at a gaming table for over a year. I have played mostly D&D and some Traveller in the 80s – still have large collection of old Traveller books collecting dust somewhere.

Was also part owner of a small gaming shop for a couple of years but got out of that before the Internet era.

Back in the early 80s I had a shot at becoming one of the founders of a Swedish RPG company – but I thought that their prototype was not as good as basic D&D, so I told them to cancel the project. The company has been thriving for over 2 decades and is still in business so I missed a career opportunity

//Anna

[overwatch]

Well.. I graduated from college a few years back and now I work in a public library. Not glamorous but it pays the bills. On the side I do various commission work, and art/graphic design for the independent RPG publisher, Apophis Consortium.

Me working the Apophis booth at GenCon Indy last year, wearing the gray jacket, center.

I spend most of my free time drawing, writing, or working on the computer. The rest I spend GMing RPGs such as Obsidian: Shadow Nations, Victorian Age Vampire, and most recently Dark Heresy.

In addition these fine hobbies I enjoy playing rock band, drinking rum & coke, and watching bad Japanese horror flicks.

[Patrakis]

I work as a civil engineer for the city where i live.

Pat

[Alistair]

I work as a lead web developer for an agriculture website that provides GIS related solutions (maps, fertilizer application files for tractors, analysis of harvest data, etc) to farmers. As such I deal with alot of mapping on a regular basis at work which has worked out nicely with my love of making maps for D&D.

[Clercon]

OK, I'm an IT-guy. Working for a European company, taking care of the domain, users and some SQL-servers. Fun job if you like a lot of changes and never get tired of reading about new stuff.

Apart from that I used to be an archaeologist but gave up that career about 10 years ago. For some reason computers seemd more attractive than mud in a hole a very rainy day :-)