Introduce Yourself
I don't know why we've never had one of these before, but I may as well bend to inevitability.
Hi, I'm Bry, and I'm a JoCoholic. No one who knows me in real life calls me Bry except through indolence or mischance, nor am I interested in altering that happy condition. I am not averse to doling out personal details about myself when circumstances render them relevant, but given the choice between denuding myself and covering my shame, I cheerfully prefer the latter. My pastimes include the music of Jonathan Coulton and the forums of Jonathan Coulton; longtime forum denizens may have some knowledge of my other interests, which I shan't bother to enumerate.
Hi, I'm Bry, and I'm a JoCoholic. No one who knows me in real life calls me Bry except through indolence or mischance, nor am I interested in altering that happy condition. I am not averse to doling out personal details about myself when circumstances render them relevant, but given the choice between denuding myself and covering my shame, I cheerfully prefer the latter. My pastimes include the music of Jonathan Coulton and the forums of Jonathan Coulton; longtime forum denizens may have some knowledge of my other interests, which I shan't bother to enumerate.
Comments
I think the *point* is to enumerate on other interests, yes?
Anyway, I'm Shruti, and as far as I know, that is what everyone calls me, as it is my name. I am particularly opposed to using words in the form _____oholic in order to mean "person who is addicted to ______," as the "ohol" bit is really just part of the word alcohol. However, it is equally absurd to state that I am a JoCoic, so it's really just a lose-lose situation.
That is all for now, I suppose.
Anyway, I hate my job. I recently went through the worst break up ever, but JoCo's music has actually helped me to recover from that a little faster. I want to become an English teacher, but I need to go to college first. I like progressive rock stuff like Pink Floyd and Tool, though lately I've been listening almost EXCLUSIVELY to JC.
Uhm. Yeah.
Thanks!
P.S. I think it's the caffeine.
If anyone really wants to ape me, ape me in this: When I catch myself starting to suggest a thread be started, I start the thread instead. (Well, first I check to make sure it hasn't been started before. Then I start the thread.) But perhaps I should've left it to someone more enthusiastic to lead things off. Hopefully someone more enthusiastic will continue.
I have no defense to your "-cohol-" point, Shruti -- I sent it in with eyes open and malice aforethought. Like you, I have no love for the "-coholic" suffix, appended arbitrarily in the manner I did. But I am worse than unprincipled, I am blithely willing to set my principles ablaze on the altar of humor.
Anyway, you're one to complain about my not enumerating other interests.
Doug: Hi, welcome! I'd mention that one of my favorite musicians abandoned the security of his unfulfilling day job and has found unprecedented success pursuing his dreams, but he wouldn't exactly approve of my holding him up as a role model if he ever saw this thread.
(Although he would be touched, I'm sure, to learn how his music has helped you during tough times.)
I'm 20, live in Southeast England, I'm a law student and work part-time in a pub/bar. I spend far too much time playing World of Warcraft and have spent a lot of time, recently viewing houses, since my flat flooded with sewage over Christmas, in the hope I'll have a proper home again soon! I do the odd bit of songwriting - did some recording in Thailand last summer. I play the bass guitar, I love to sing, travel, sleep, watch any movie with Johnny Depp.....and I adore chocolate!
I don't remember how long I've been listening but, I'd probably have to say it was about 5 months... Hmm... never thought World of Warcraft would bring me such excellent music! ;)
I am new to these forums (started a day ago) and I already kind of have the hang of it.
I guess you could say I'm nocturnal because I stay up all night and sleep half the day... It's a bad habit I need to get out of.
I am still an addict to World of Warcraft, if you are wondering... Hmm, what else? Oh yea... I LIKE PIE!!!
That's all I got for ya right now... be seeing you guys around the forums! :D
- Mr. Nobody
PPS: HA! Take THAT, Shruti!
PPPS: sorry............... :(
I signed up to ask something, I haven't actually done it yet but I'm a lazy, lazy man. I don't actually know when I first heard JoCo as I found an MP3 of Baby Got Back which I must have downloaded at some point but I didn't actually know it was him so I never looked for more of his stuff. Then obviously I played Portal and heard Still Alive and yet again I didn't know it was him. Then a few weeks later I was walking down one of the main roads in Manchester at 3 in the morning with a mate after having just been to Jillys. So she randomly started singing Skullcrusher Mountain at me followed by Ikea and CodeMonkey. And yet again I didn't kno...OH GOD did I know who it was this time because she would not shut up.
So I got the TAW boxset (which was signed!!! why aren't more CDs signed?) and added it to my already eclectic collection of music. I also got my mate the Smoking Monkey CD for Christmas and I thought she was going to explode with happiness.
Christ, I've said all that and I've not actually said anything about me ¬_¬
Yeah, my name's xamm (not really but you know) I'm 23 and I live in Manchester UK. I've got a mad taste in music, I play a hell of a lot of PC games and I'm a proper full blown geek (there's two laptops and five desktops in this house and I'm the only one who uses them :P).
Seriously, I could go on and on... How much time do you all have?
Xamm: Speaking of autographs, when I met JoCo, he autographed my copy of John Hodgman's book. It says "This is not my work." It was all I had on me at the time. :-P
p.s. I'm not really as bitchy and/or pedantic as I came off in my first post. Well, maybe I am. But I don't intend to be...
Also, other interests. And by interests I mean people, in no particular order: Stephen Colbert. Amy Sedaris. Paul Dinello. David Sedaris. Daniel Handler (who is better known as Lemony Snicket, but who has also written other stuff). Sarah Vowell. John Hodgman. John Oliver. Oscar Wilde. F. Scott Fitzgerald. JUNO! Douglas Adams. Edward Gorey. John Steinbeck. Steve Carell. Flannery O'Connor. Edgar Allan Poe. Lynne Truss. Michael Cunningham. Stephen Sondheim. The Veils. Jason Bateman. David Cross. Michael Cera. Joe Biden. Benjamin Franklin. Reza Aslan. etc.
I'm 18, a freshman at Indiana University, and I decided yesterday that I would like to triple major in Religious Studies, Spanish, and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC), and get the Liberal Arts and Management Program (LAMP) Certificate. I would also really really love to study abroad in Argentina this summer (and would love it even more if I got the opportunity to learn to play the bandone
Hi, I'm Spiff. The name is a gamer handle (real name is Mike), but enough people call me that that it's stuck, which is cool. I'm a Web developer/Program Manager at Adobe, living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I make WoW videos for JC's songs, some of which have had multiple millions of views (I know, I can't believe it either). I also dabble in making Web games -- I built a web-based version of Risk and another web-based version of Heroclix that my friends and I use to avoid working throughout the day. I enjoy playing WoW quite a bit, although I wouldn't consider myself a fanatic.
Both my wife and nine-year-old daughter are big JoCo fans as well. My wife disapproves of my "First of May" video. :)
Haha. I just watched that. It was the most graphic WoW video that I've ever seen. I was absolutely astounded and quite disturbed. It was good, though. Such a sweet song, "First of May".
I'm C4bl3Fl4m3, and if you can't read 1337/leet, that's CableFlame. Yes, you may type that here on the forum. I understand, it's easier. I prefer it to being called C4 or whatever.
I go by that name all over the Internet, and offline in the hacker scene, so some people do, indeed, call me CableFlame.
I've loved JoCo for 3 years now, but haven't stopped seeing other music.
I'm a geek. Always have been, always will be. My primary geekdom right now, as well as the subject I want to pursue my career path in, is human sexuality. I was a computer geek for many many years, and I still like tech. I'm a big ol' obsessed fangirl, right now of Doctor Who, but I've been into Doctor Octopus, Syndrome from the Incredibles, Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, and others. I'm also a big public transit geek and typography geek (I prefer the term "font fetishist").
I love the performance arts and have years of singing, acting and dance experience, but I haven't been active in doing those seriously for years. I should remedy that.
I'm 25 as of this writing and I live with my 3 ratties (Emma, Margaret and Annie) and my 3 goldfish (Moby, Squirt, and Particle Man) (and usually a housemate or 2) in Takoma Park, Maryland, USA, which is a small town literally on the border of Washington DC. I work at a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender bookstore in Dupont Circle in DC, affectionately known by some as the Fruit Loop, because it's the gayborhood.
I'm just about every sexual minority you can think of, and probably a few you haven't heard of before.
I love cheese. And SecondLife (C4bl3Fl4m3 Dinzeo), which has pulled me away from playing WoW, much to the dismay of my guildmates.
The answer?: Nobody knows. ;-)
(Actually, he was originally named Triangle Man because when picking out a new fish, I saw one that was gold with a black triangle on its forehead and I said "I want that one". I knew I needed to name it Triangle Man.
However, when comet goldfish get older, they lose their colorations and they turn all gold. So when he/she lost its triangle, I renamed it to Particle Man.
The sucky part is... I got 3 goldfish that looked nothing alike, so I could tell them apart. And then their colorations changed and I can't tell who is who now. Except Squirt, because he's much smaller than the other 2. I saw this incredibly tiny fish in the tank and got it and named it Squirt. It still is smaller than all the rest, 6-8 months later. A midget/little goldfish?)
I'm a computer engineering grad student. These days when I'm avoiding working on my thesis (which is usually), I practice northern shaolin kung fu and taijiquan, sing bass-baritone in the choir for an epic metal opera recording project, and spend way too much time online.
I found JoCo when his baby got back cover got linked from boingboing or some other aggregator, and have been following his exploits since. Also, I used a JoCo mix cd to help win the heart of blackcatbonifide.
The Acrobat Reader that has allowed millions of people all over the world to effortlessly share information and ideas -- for free? That Acrobat Reader? No, I don't work on that project.
I am a writer and a happily-married father of one. (More babies on the way...if she finishes that glass of wine.)
I live on the Connecticut shoreline, but have lived in NYC and LA.
I can say comfortably, having known most of you in this forum (and some of you outside) for quite a while now, that Jonathan would be at home in the company of any of you. You're all his kind of people. Makes sense that you get and love his music.
Now...if I can only convince him to release the high school stuff.
Hey, all! I'm rather obviously NOT an Indigo Monkey in real life; I just liked the appellation because the 'Indigo Monkey' in the song reminds me of my daughter, who, in turn, reminds me of myself at her age insofar as I remember my three-year-old self.
In the real world my name is Jennifer, and I'm 34 years old, married and a mother of four. I possess a degree in Biology and Secondary Education, which enabled me to teach High School Biology and other assorted sciences for three years before my first son was born. Since then I've been on indefinite sabbatical to stay home with the kids. In my spare time I do freelance web design, tutor kids in Algebra and the Sciences, and do church stuff.
I'm a geek; that goes without saying. I'm a fan of webcomics, the Wii, and Macintosh computers. I'm also apparently raising my children in the geek tradition; my eldest son, Zack, is seven years old and is attending Missouri's first 'Virtual School'. No special reason, really, other than the fact that teaching in public schools makes one a little leery of public schools.
(I'm not even sure there is a place.)
Spiff doesn't need me to fight his battles for him, but I wouldn't terribly mind if you tried to be a little bit classier.
Edited to add: And that has nothing to do with my opinion of Adobe Acrobat or Adobe the company.
Anyway, I'm surprised at the amount of women on here. I've spent 8 years on the same gaming forum and in that time out of the thousand or so regular posters that have come and gone there's been about 10 women on there. Although one of them turned out to actually be a guy who'd been posting as a woman for about three years. And we're pretty sure that one of the only two women who are posting at the minute is actually a guy who's been repeatedly thrown off for various things including constantly posting pictures of his cock and posting a disturbingly detailed plan of how he was going to kidnap and rape a radio DJ.
This isn't a gaming forum (although I am a gamer... have been my whole life). Is there something particular about this place that you feel is meant to be male-centric?
Hi, I'm Jesss, really just Jess, or maybe Jessica. I'm also married to a Jess. I'm 37 and have two kids, 7 and 5. Started out in CompSci in college, and switched over to English after a couple of years. I have never owned any computer but a Mac. I currently work for the family business editing posts and writing articles on our website, ThriftyFun.com. (all mac family, including the servers!) Not really this group's cup of tea, unless you want to get a stain out of something. But I can work in my bathrobe while the little guy watches TV and I have time to check this site on a regular basis when I'm bored. It's a good life.
Oh, and I worked for Kinko's for 10 years and have a great appreciation for the power of the PDF format and Adobe in general.
Macintosh Enthusiast, Check
Family Website Business, Check
Incredibly popular J-Name, Check
Computer-geek without a CompSci Degree, Check
JoCo Fan, Check.
Well, Jesss... we have enough in common that either we're probably slated to either be best friends or hate each other. Interesting.
Oh, and I'd like to wave my little 'Adobe Rox' banner, too.
If FoxIt was so faboo, it would run on a Mac. And it doesn't. Enough said.
And I for one, love having all the ladeeez around on the forum. Classes up the joint. I've met one in person (muckalarkuary) and she was very nice.
I am very very very old -- feels like I'm older than all of you combined, which would make me... what? ... 437? I've had careers in personnel research, management consulting, and association management, but at the moment I'm taking a year off to try my hand at fiction writing. New unknown careers loom ahead, though. Savings only go so far and then you're a monkey again. I'm in the DC area and have met three or four of you guys at concerts. And share a lot of the geek interests described above.
And I think perhaps I am a Bryoholic. At least I like his posts a bunch.
i'm a fan of fps's (who saw that coming?) and rpg's. i suck in nineteen different ways at strategy games, but i'll still play them sometimes. i wish i was a competent prose writer, but this is not the case. i also wish i was a rockstar, but who doesn't?
saw joco at joe's pub in manhattan a few months ago, came within literally like a foot of him (*glee*), forgot to bring my sharpie or my copy of smoking monkey, realized on the way out that i had the same haircut and a recently-grown chinstrap beard, and hoped he didn't figure me for a creepy stalker fanboy.
22/m/brooklyn
I do wish some of you creative folk would mention what you've done (and yes, brag about it -- hey, you deserve it!). Everyone had better know what Spiff's responsible for (and what he's not, but that's another story). But I'd completely forgotten that sporksmith was largely responsible for this awesome video. (In fact, I wouldn't have made the connection if Andrea, who won the PopSci "I Feel Fantastic" video contest, hadn't commented on JoCo's blog post today.)
Back in college, I started as a triple major in drama/music/biochemical engineering. Five years later, somehow, college spat me out into an unforgiving world as a double in French/German. Like all people with unmarketable majors, I went to law school. I attribute my ending up as a lawyer to having committed some unspeakable sin in a previous life. Lawyers suck. I'd still much rather be writing music, singing a cappella, and hanging with bohemians. But I can't. (Cue pity.)
Full disclosure: I'm one of those Johnnie come-latelies that discovered JoCo through Valve; believe me, I feel plenty guilty, and am kicking myself for not knowing about him sooner. (If I had, I could have made the show in Atlanta.) It is my new mission in life to some day work the merch table, perchance to shake JoCo's hand. (Note to Mr. Coulton: please do a show in the South again soon.) In my spare time, I enjoy self-deprecation and using parentheses.
Thanks for listening. Pleased to meet all of you.
Also, wow -- lots of 37- or 38-year-olds. (Not that I think 37- and 38-year-olds can't appreciate the sonic goodness
jinx: I was a closeted Bry fangirl as well; you have inspired me to acknowledge this. Perhaps my admiration has spurred me to react with derision on previous occasions, but...um, yeah.
Bry: You're fantastically clever.
Chris: Holy crap, theatre/music/engineering? Would that ever be possible under any circumstances? Just imagining it makes my brain hurt.
And with regard to forum demographics, the only other one I'm really a member of consists mainly of pseudointellectual teens, though we do have a handful of adults, including a thirty-some resident drunkard and a thirty-some resident goblin...but yeah, a fairly equal spread of both genders.
Muckalarkuary: I think I would die of happiness if I were ever to meet Reza Aslan. Actually, it'd suck, because I just know I'd be tongue tied or blather unintelligibly, and so I wouldn't be able to ask him an insightful and potentially clever question about his book or anything else. I suck at meeting famous people.
SN = Screen Name
NOLF2 = No One Lives Forever 2, computer game
FPS = First Person Shooter, genre of computer game
RPG = Role Playing Game, again a genre of computer game in this context although it can be played with friends as a card game, think Dungeons and Dragons
JoCo = Not a clue ; )
Is that any help?
ps, I need to get out more.
pps, I reckon he used them all because he's TLTTTWTO.
My current job is full time father/ househusband, my wife is paid very well. I use my free time writing and have decided to pursue publishing.
I was inspired by JoCos thing a week to set weekly goals like that for myself. Complete a chapter a week, accomplish a project a week. I'm surprised at what I have accomplished since then.
Shruti: Hey, thanks! Between Jinx's comment and yours, I'm quite literally blushing at the moment. I shall have to print out this thread and frame it and look at it whenever my raging egotism threatens to subside to a socially appropriate level.
I know engineers who do musical theatre, but triple-majoring in drama / music / engineering is a new one on me. Although part of that's because I've never been at any school where triple-majoring in drama / music / engineering was allowed, I believe.