So...what have you been up to for the past year?

Well, it's been about a year since any of us have done any serious talking so of course it leads to the question...what the heck have you been doing all this time?? Was the end of 2010, beginning of 2011 pretty good, or did it suck?

Personally I've been pretty busy...not only did I finally graduate from Roosevelt University with a Bachelor's in History, but I also took a trip to New York to see NYC, which has always been a big dream of mine(Empire State Building ftw!). Even more exciting is I moved into a very nice apartment in the beautiful Chicago suburb of Evanston just minutes from downtown...you could say I've started a completely new life since the last time we all met, and seems to be going very well so far! I'll also mention that Nicole and I are still very happy together, and for some reason we've both been on a Resident Evil binge as of late.I've been playing through all the games and she's been watching, as she often likes to do. I happen to love the story, Nicole just thinks Wesker is sexy .

So all in all it's been a pretty good stretch, if you ask me. I hope everyone else's year has treated them well so far.

I'm glad to hear things are going well for you, at least. I had been kind of worried when you vanished.

My story is....an improvement over last year. While 2010 had some very bright moments, I'd say it was hands down the worst year of my life, even in 20/20 hindsight. It was a bad ending that was 2-3 years in the making. Thanks to a difficult condition I've been dealing with, (nobody's fault. Just bad luck of the draw) I got seriously behind in my homework, and my life was generally falling apart slowly.

Since the end of the year though, things have finally gotten easier, and there's actually some hope of making college sometime relatively soon......I've never been behind for any length of time before, and now I'm more than a grade behind......It really sucks......

On a brighter side, mid-September last year, my family took a double cross country vacation -west to Yellowstone Park and then north to Mt. Rushmore, along with several other sites along the way, like Garden of the Gods, the badlands, the Rockies, the Shrine of Mother Cabrini, and the Grand Tetons.

I really got to like Colarado. Between M.Cabrini's shrine, the Garden of the Gods, and just the general landscape, I really enjoyed my time there.......although I was shocked to discover that nobody north of Oklahoma ever seems to have invented the bagel! I think that was also the first state we bumped into a Perkin's restaurant, which more than made up for the lack of bagels .

We didn't see as much of the Rockies as I had hoped. Mom and said the heck with it when we were on a narrow road without railing (but a very impressive drop) and had to manuver around some RVs on their way down. Can't say I blame them. The Tetons and Yellowstone more than made up for the disappoinment. We went through the Badlands (there was a Perkins's on the other side ) and on to home from there. (when it rains in Missouri, it feels like being directly under Niagra Falls.

Anyway, vacation aside, I also started in Taekwondo the very end of last year and have really enjoyed it.

A few months back, I started seriously working on a video game idea I've played around with for a while. It's scary how little I have considering how long I've worked on it, but it's moving along, albeit slowly as heck.

I recently have been trying to learn Java as an introduction to programming in general. I'm currently stuck on something having to do with not having a main method, even though I'm sure I do.

Still play the piano from time to time, but I haven't really been putting as much into it as I should, and it's starting to tell.

I beat both Metroid Prime 1 & 2 on hard (Hypermode for those who have Trilogy) without any energy tanks whatsoever. I also beat every quest and mini-game in Majora's Mask within 3 days (excepting only the old lady's stories and the bomb shop lady's quest as they messed up other quests.) Note that this was after I collected all the masks at leisure.
Wow.....that's actually a whole lot more than I meant to type. Thanks to anyone who read all the way through! lol!

Well, not too much, actually. My life has honestly been pretty boring.

I worked up the courage to ask a girl out, technically back in 2009, but would never have known to do so without someone else's prompting. Yeah, I'm the stereotypical 'dense' guy in this regard. I'm glad that person told me, though. I love her very much.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been much resistance on her family or mine to our relationship (she's black, I'm white). Come August 17th, we'll have been going out for two years together. That might not seem like a big deal to some, but she's actually my first ever girlfriend...

I've been lucky enough to have a job, but I've got no hours right now. I'm talking to my boss tomorrow about what the heck is going on, considering he said he'd try to work me in. It's getting annoying.

School's proceeded fine. Community college isn't very exciting, but it is cheap. I've managed to get on the Dean's List twice in my first year. I think that's a pretty good start for freshman year!

I also managed to wreck my first car last October. Yeah, not too proud of that.

On the gaming front, I've become quite the retro collector. Slowly building up a pretty good one, too, if I do say so myself. Problem is now, though, finding the time to play all those games.

A friend of mine has also had our mutual RP die (the site hosting us went down). Our progress had long since ground to a halt, though. It's been a painful year trying to get back up on our feet and to rebuild. But we're getting close. As early as next Friday, we might finally open our doors again.

Since this time last year i have moved into an apartment of my own in Starkville Mississippi (2 hours away from where i did live) im now enrolled in MSU working on a BS in poultry science to be a supervisor or a USDA inspector at a large Poultry company. i completed 1 full year and i have one year left. Currently im an intern at said poultry company and i work graveyard shift (4-1). so yeah that was my past year in a very short version.

I graduated high school, went to college for a semester, decided it sucked and stopped, and now I work...

Nice to see you again Koopa...you shouldn't give up on college man, as much of a pain as it is, it's worth it...especially as its more of a pain working at crappy jobs for bosses who are probably dumber than you are for years on end...trust me...go back.

It seems I'm not the only one who totaled their car this year. I didn't even mention, I completely trashed the front of my beloved Hyundai Sonata...man, what a shame that was...I really loved that car! Damn Toyota 4Runner stopping in front of me...<_<

After about a year of not being involved in this wonderful online community quite a few things have changed with me. Last summer I started working construction with my friend's Dad's construction company. It was basically like a 'rehab' sort of job. His company would buy foreclosed homes and 'flip' them so to speak. I wasn't really asked to do any serious manual labor considering I'm super tiny and working construction is not a god given skill of mine, so I was left to paint and work light demo. Basically, I was paid $15 an hour to unscrew shelves, light plates, and pull carpet. I would wake up early and leave work around 2. That was basically my summer. How fun.

Beyond that, I met someone from this site, believe it or not. I am not sure if any of you remember gimic3000? But he has since moved out to Chicago, and we've hung out a couple of times. He's really cool and I've had a lot of fun with him haha.

Fall '10 I spent most of my time at school, most notably in a drawing classroom staring at nude oldies all day (figure drawing class). I must say, I found that to be quite enjoyable . I applied to art school and was awarded a 40,000 dollar scholarship for fall '11. Though I don't think I'm going to take it.

In the winter I worked more construction and saved up a bunch of money. I also went to see one of my favorite musicians play live in Chicago. I'm not sure if any of you are familiar with Jonsi Birgisson... he's the vocalist for the awesome Icelandic band Sigur Ros? Anyways, I saw him live in November, and it was basically one of the best nights of my life. The concert was out of this world.

After that I've basically been living how I usually do. Adjusting to my brother moving out has been difficult, but It's just part of living. I enjoy going to visit, but I am afraid that playing video games at home by myself isn't that great... so I haven't been playing much.

Oh, I forgot! 3 months ago I was hired as a professional dog walker! The pay isn't great, but the job is wonderful. I get to take walks all day with super cute and sweet dogs!

I'm super glad all of you are doing well. Congratulations Everlong on asking a girl out! That must be so nerve wrecking! And Jody, I have to give you credit for what you are doing. I would never want to even go near a poultry factory. I'm happy you are still doing what you love. Roy, I'm sorry to hear about your bad luck! At least you have your drivers license now it took me forever to get mine!

Smashed brother!!!! I am so jealous right now!!! I've always wanted to travel to the places you went to. How was yellow stone park?

darn, just wrote a huge response to this and then my computer crashed and it all disappered. Too annoyed to rewrite it so I'll do it later when I'm not smashing up this freaking computer.