Andrew

[Gordius 6]

Andrew. Born 1962. Plymouth, England 1962 - 2007, Madrid, Spain 2007 - ? Two grown-up kids, both living in Plymouth but one wants to move to Madrid. Married to Spanish born Mirina.

 

Most of my working life I have worked with computers in one way or another. Been a programmer/analyst on relational databases, PC Engineer (make 'em, break 'em, fix 'em), Network Engineer (Novell and Citrix). I now teach English, travelling around Madrid to such places as SONY and Schering-Plough. Much more fun that working with the computers, I get to see lots of interesting people which is maybe the best bit. Luckily I don't need the money 'cos the pay is c**p.

 

Immediately before moving to Spain I taught Air Traffic Control for the North Atlantic (Canadian side), kind of a pre-course thing. Arguably the best job I have ever had. Teaching was over the Internet using simulators. Although most of my Students were from Canada and the UK I also had many from places such as Mexico, China (Hong Kong), Australia, New Zealand, etc. The only downside was that I had to be awake at a time which suited my Students which was a pain in the a** with so many in Canada and some in those other far off places. Everything was done over the internet so at least I could work from home apart from occasional trips to Gander, Canada.

 

First computer was a ZX81. When the Spectrum came out I discovered my first D&D type of game and was hooked. After getting my first 386SX I soon started working as an IRC Server Admin/Server Mod, gaming took a back-seat. I wrote a cool mIRC Script for the job which I still keep up-to-date, tried a WAR Script which was boring to do but helped me to keep my main script with lots of protection (know your enemy). IRC server closed and the ISP I was working for switched to JAVA so I left the job along with several others in protest. About the same time Diablo (first one) was released (still have a copy installed here). I have played many many games on the PC but always preferred Diablo, Diablo 2, Guildwars, etc. Sometimes took a break for a while but most of the time I was on Diablo or Diablo 2.

 

We are both gaming junkies, we met on Secondlife a few years ago. We had been looking for something new to play so I bought Sacred 2 as a Christmas Present for my wife and a second copy for me. So far the game suits us perfectly. My style of play has been to mostly tank 'cos Mirina likes the soft characters and dies a lot. With Sacred 2 we are currently enjoying the Seraphim, my wife has stopped dieing all the damn time which gives me a chance to work with a character which is not a tank (at last). At first we were only on Closednet but we got a bit fed up with server problems a couple of weeks ago so playing on a LAN most of the time at the moment. We play maybe 3 hours every night but lots more at weekends.

 

I only work part-time so I am filling the gaps by working on a Character Planner, well more of a skills calculator really. Mirina is always asking me lots of questions about which does what so I decided I could shut her up with a calculator/planner. I have lots of data so maybe I will put that all together in a PDF file along with any other stuff I think might be of help to her and the community.

 

Oops, forgot Ena. Ena is an English Bulldog. Her main hobbies are sleeping and lying under my desk, the second of which has been known to cause problems while I play.

[plastique_exploda 0]

LOL and welcome to an awesome community have fun both of you everyone is good here and dont be scared to ask questions!

[Katran 0]

Welcome to Dark Matters Andrew! That was some great intro a very nice read thank you for it. Hope you get back to close net soon so we can team up some time.

Did you play the original Sacred? It is very much like Diablo.

Oh I alomost forgot what about Baldurs Gate?

 

Ok thats all with the questions. Hope you have a great time here reading and posting and see you in the bar!

[gogoblender 3,071]

Andrew, that was a wonderful introduction, thank you! And yes, I think you found a good place...both you and the wife... gaming junky all around here...in fact I have to be very careful because I can get drawn in so quickly. It's funny because you were saying in another topic that your reason for building the skillilator is selfish ones... and funnily enough, this community and wiki and sacred 2 probably mean so much to me because the energy for it all comes so easily. I sometimes wonder whether I'm being "selfish" by having so much fun with this hobby, and then wonder if others out there are so lucky to easily slip into things they enjoy so much.

 

A Bull dog? Lucky! That's probably one of the breeds I've been fanatical about ever since I was a kid. Something about their countenance is so appealing. They look like they have massive loveness ^^

 

We have a pic thread somewhere around key largo if you want to stick a few up. It's a great way for everyone here to put a face to the name. Glad you found us, and hope you continue enjoying the boards.

 

 

gogo

[fleet 42]

Howdy!

[Schot 407]

Great intro Andrew. Wow, you've certainly dabbled in a lot of professional fields. Impressive! Well I think you've already "moved into" DarkMatters but none the less warm welcomes.

 

I think I can safely speak for the community when I say that we're looking forward to that calculator!

[Gordius 6]

@Katran - A big yes to Baldur's Gate, I still have the CDs but they are in storage at my parents in the UK. Played 'em all many times plus al addons I could get. I was talking to Mirina recently and saying it is a shame there is not a general skill as in Baldur's Gate for lockpicking or something similar for inside houses and wouldn't it be nice if some outdoor random chests were locked. Just once I would like to be caught opening someones boxes in their home and have to fight my way out. Scrap Perception and give us lockpicking instead with better goodies in those locked chests blah blah blah.

 

Sacred. No I never played it. No real reason I can think of.

 

@gogblender - Yup a great breed. She has such a strong character almost seems human at times. I was talking of taking pictures of all of her different expressions and putting them on the wall 'cos they all look so funny but we decided the wall would not be big enough. The breed can have health problems due to the way they are put together though so we get lots of vets bills.

 

Re Calculator. It's going well but I wil need to ask questions about some of the things I am finding out as I go so I would appreciate any feedback and help anyone can give. I will limit my questions to the thread I have already started for now.