I haven't updated in quite a while, huh? Without getting into too many details, my life has been a whirlwind, 2014 in particular. In 2013 I moved out of the house I was sharing with others and I now live with my wife's parents. While I've looked at other living options, this is the best way for us to save money for now. Speaking of that, I changed jobs! I worked an absolutely awful retail job that I'll have to go into greater detail about in another blog post. It was one of the most conflicting great and absolutely awful periods of my life where I think I might have finally grown up - it's something I think most people should probably go through, as far as awful jobs go. I now review mortgage loans, at least on a temporary basis, so even that is pretty shaky. It's much better, and hey, I can even post on YouChew more frequently now! Woohoo! Let's hope it pans out.
Oh yes, the wife part. I married my beautiful, wonderful wife in May, a full six years after I started talking to her over the internet. It's not much different, I must say, but it's nice to know you'll spend your life with your best friend, and someone who puts up with you shitting your pants (figuratively, not literally, I promise) and playing video games all the fucking time.
I do my best to work on my personal game project, but it's pretty hard. Dealing with the responsibilities of life can put a damper on creative work, which is why I haven't taken the opportunity to update this blog or tell anyone about my personal life in a long time. It's always been my philosophy to separate the real world from your online ventures, but this website has been so close and important in my life that I think I can start to peel back some ogre layers.
***
I think it's about time I discuss some of my personal memories for YouChew; it's probably going to be boring for most of you! I must warn you that this is going to be a very long post, and a very personal (as you could already see) post. I might make more of these posts later, if there's a demand.
In my older posts...and I mean old, as in seven years as of a few days ago, I insinuate that I'm a lot older than I am - sometimes more than that, I pretty much outright lie and say I am occasionally. I'm not. I'm turning 22 next month, which means I was at the tender age of 14 when I visited YouChew for the first time. Yes, most of my good friends are at least 4 years older than me, but this isn't news. Most of my real life friends are that age or in their 30s. I'm old-spirited, it's something I can't help.
While this shouldn't be a shock at all to most of you, seeing as how shitty my posts were, how immature I was and how I handled things with total awful melodrama, (as we all did at one point), some of you might be hurt that I often lied to you and I apologize. Rakninja is a polarizing member here but his posts about growing up are 100% true. It'll happen to the best of us. Furthermore, you might just now be coming to the conclusion that for a great, long while, YouChew was run by a teenager who didn't have any fucking idea as to what he was doing, and that was either super obvious or I really need to apologize. For that, I'm sorry.
I think the story of how this site is still kicking is extraordinary. The fact that it changed hands so many times, and stayed in the technical possession of a fuckface who barely knew how to code and had never prior ran a "biggish" website like this, lives on and enables me to post on it is pretty amazing. The care and camaraderie of this community is pretty intense. If the donations never came, and the goodwill of so many had not been bestowed, then this website would have sank long ago, and I'm so fortunate that it has not.
So pretend that it's March of 2008; this was a big turning point for YouChew (and me, as I started talking to my future wife on the same day I finished phpBB YouChew and set it live - hehe), as ownership changed hands from conradslater to TINS, two owners/admins that our newer users may not be familiar with. For that, I'll refer you to the very comprehensive Chewiki. Prior to this moment, I was just an annoying kid who posted shit constantly, and I loved every goddamn minute of it. The Christmas and holidays and everything I spent here in 2007 - the friends, the videos, the community, the excitement, I can't even type correctly to emphasize the pure joy I felt. I knew that this website was special, and I found people like me that I could really get attached to - that I still am.
In any case, RabbitSnore was another big name, as he was a co-founder of sorts, TINS' best friend in real life. He was in charge of technical aspects, but was woefully unequipped. Me, being a very excitable, geeky, but somewhat knowledgeable dude, offered my assistance. I just came off doing 'The Pachinko Machine' for a user name Cloggedone whom, if you can believe, is actually younger than me. If you thought I was bad, this dude was telling people he's a sysop...at 11. It just doesn't go anywhere! But, as a first experience, I did learn a lot, and I figured I could help the Chew.
I had, at one point, dreamed of helping this site out. I was a young'un with (in retrospect) small ambitions, as I would daydream in class of running and organizing YouChew. I loved the website so much. I wanted to help it expand to bigger and better things so very badly. Wouldn't you know it, I got my chance! I offered my help in a big site chat meeting...and it was on MSN I believe, back in the day when we'd have 30 or so users at a time chatting, and it was accepted. I worked through the week preparing the 'NewChew'. I tried Vanilla but it was so antiquated and obtuse that I had no hope of understanding it with my inadequate experience. I decided to pitch the idea of switching to phpBB, even though this meant abandoning the Vanilla posts. Whelp, they went for it. So yes, you can blame the lost posts - or well, until very recently lost - on me. Me being far too young to handle a big undertaking like this.
I worked through nights - and this would be a common occurrence for the next two-three years, right up until we switched to IP Board - to get everything working. phpBB is not beginner (or anyone) friendly. All add-ons, skins, you name it, have to be manually coded (auto-installers would never get the job done, ever), and then you had a bunch of errors after the fact, no matter what, that crippled the web pages. I stayed up all night, only to go to school the next day, repeatedly. YouChew took a big chunk out of me, but fuck, I loved it. You could probably imagine how it was to see so many people bitch and complain about how shit wasn't perfect or how much I and this shitty website sucked. But hey, that's just how it is. I kept working though. Perhaps something was wrong with me, but when I added or fixed something that people wanted, it turned out right, and the people loved it...the trouble was worth every second. I loved to satisfy this community, even if it felt impossible sometimes.
Speaking of learning, I learned so fucking much about coding and web design that it helped immensely with my school courses and college courses later on. YouChew was, as it turned out, a valuable learning experience in that realm (it also improved my grammar somewhat, and my typing skills have quadrupled). I have lost most of my knowledge, but at once point, I was fairly proficient with php and SQL. You really do have to stay in practice to retain the stuff, but as soon as I found tabull (who is the site's greatest treasure, a techno-genius who is also an extremely polite, kind, and awesome dude [who also happens to be the first user who ever registered here, imagine that]), well, that shit went by the wayside. I can't be more grateful for him, though. He's doing what I only dreamed of, and this site is ever the better for it.
Time went on, ownerships changed, and I eventually found myself in complete control of the site for a time. I, with no solid income, had to depend on site donations. There was no way, of course, that I could handle it. So it changed hands again. My handling of donations is something I'll never forgive myself for. There's no way I'll ever know how many people I owe and what I promised them, but I'm deeply sorry. It's one thing I'm not letting myself do again, something that I can't forgive myself for. The only donation drive I ever handled correctly was when we 'bought' the site and gave ownership to tabull. It bothers me every day, and the only thing I can do is apologize. I'm so sorry.
There's so much that happened, it's hard for me to remember it all. I know this thing reads like a goodbye post, but it's things I've wanted to type for a long time but haven't had the time or willpower to do. I have so many fond memories - E3 festivities, which was amazing again this year, the holidays, the little in-jokes we have every year, and how I met some extraordinary people who've changed my life. Matt, RabbitSnore, Paul, AT, Daisy, everybody that I'm forgetting - the list goes on. So many generous people, like Christopher, randc...I forget everybody's real name, so many names...it's been such a huge blast, and I hope it continues for years to come. Let me know if I should make some more retrospectives, or hit me up with questions sometime. I want to become involved in this community again. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far without falling into subconsciousness.
Oh yes, the wife part. I married my beautiful, wonderful wife in May, a full six years after I started talking to her over the internet. It's not much different, I must say, but it's nice to know you'll spend your life with your best friend, and someone who puts up with you shitting your pants (figuratively, not literally, I promise) and playing video games all the fucking time.
I do my best to work on my personal game project, but it's pretty hard. Dealing with the responsibilities of life can put a damper on creative work, which is why I haven't taken the opportunity to update this blog or tell anyone about my personal life in a long time. It's always been my philosophy to separate the real world from your online ventures, but this website has been so close and important in my life that I think I can start to peel back some ogre layers.
***
I think it's about time I discuss some of my personal memories for YouChew; it's probably going to be boring for most of you! I must warn you that this is going to be a very long post, and a very personal (as you could already see) post. I might make more of these posts later, if there's a demand.
In my older posts...and I mean old, as in seven years as of a few days ago, I insinuate that I'm a lot older than I am - sometimes more than that, I pretty much outright lie and say I am occasionally. I'm not. I'm turning 22 next month, which means I was at the tender age of 14 when I visited YouChew for the first time. Yes, most of my good friends are at least 4 years older than me, but this isn't news. Most of my real life friends are that age or in their 30s. I'm old-spirited, it's something I can't help.
While this shouldn't be a shock at all to most of you, seeing as how shitty my posts were, how immature I was and how I handled things with total awful melodrama, (as we all did at one point), some of you might be hurt that I often lied to you and I apologize. Rakninja is a polarizing member here but his posts about growing up are 100% true. It'll happen to the best of us. Furthermore, you might just now be coming to the conclusion that for a great, long while, YouChew was run by a teenager who didn't have any fucking idea as to what he was doing, and that was either super obvious or I really need to apologize. For that, I'm sorry.
I think the story of how this site is still kicking is extraordinary. The fact that it changed hands so many times, and stayed in the technical possession of a fuckface who barely knew how to code and had never prior ran a "biggish" website like this, lives on and enables me to post on it is pretty amazing. The care and camaraderie of this community is pretty intense. If the donations never came, and the goodwill of so many had not been bestowed, then this website would have sank long ago, and I'm so fortunate that it has not.
So pretend that it's March of 2008; this was a big turning point for YouChew (and me, as I started talking to my future wife on the same day I finished phpBB YouChew and set it live - hehe), as ownership changed hands from conradslater to TINS, two owners/admins that our newer users may not be familiar with. For that, I'll refer you to the very comprehensive Chewiki. Prior to this moment, I was just an annoying kid who posted shit constantly, and I loved every goddamn minute of it. The Christmas and holidays and everything I spent here in 2007 - the friends, the videos, the community, the excitement, I can't even type correctly to emphasize the pure joy I felt. I knew that this website was special, and I found people like me that I could really get attached to - that I still am.
In any case, RabbitSnore was another big name, as he was a co-founder of sorts, TINS' best friend in real life. He was in charge of technical aspects, but was woefully unequipped. Me, being a very excitable, geeky, but somewhat knowledgeable dude, offered my assistance. I just came off doing 'The Pachinko Machine' for a user name Cloggedone whom, if you can believe, is actually younger than me. If you thought I was bad, this dude was telling people he's a sysop...at 11. It just doesn't go anywhere! But, as a first experience, I did learn a lot, and I figured I could help the Chew.
I had, at one point, dreamed of helping this site out. I was a young'un with (in retrospect) small ambitions, as I would daydream in class of running and organizing YouChew. I loved the website so much. I wanted to help it expand to bigger and better things so very badly. Wouldn't you know it, I got my chance! I offered my help in a big site chat meeting...and it was on MSN I believe, back in the day when we'd have 30 or so users at a time chatting, and it was accepted. I worked through the week preparing the 'NewChew'. I tried Vanilla but it was so antiquated and obtuse that I had no hope of understanding it with my inadequate experience. I decided to pitch the idea of switching to phpBB, even though this meant abandoning the Vanilla posts. Whelp, they went for it. So yes, you can blame the lost posts - or well, until very recently lost - on me. Me being far too young to handle a big undertaking like this.
I worked through nights - and this would be a common occurrence for the next two-three years, right up until we switched to IP Board - to get everything working. phpBB is not beginner (or anyone) friendly. All add-ons, skins, you name it, have to be manually coded (auto-installers would never get the job done, ever), and then you had a bunch of errors after the fact, no matter what, that crippled the web pages. I stayed up all night, only to go to school the next day, repeatedly. YouChew took a big chunk out of me, but fuck, I loved it. You could probably imagine how it was to see so many people bitch and complain about how shit wasn't perfect or how much I and this shitty website sucked. But hey, that's just how it is. I kept working though. Perhaps something was wrong with me, but when I added or fixed something that people wanted, it turned out right, and the people loved it...the trouble was worth every second. I loved to satisfy this community, even if it felt impossible sometimes.
Speaking of learning, I learned so fucking much about coding and web design that it helped immensely with my school courses and college courses later on. YouChew was, as it turned out, a valuable learning experience in that realm (it also improved my grammar somewhat, and my typing skills have quadrupled). I have lost most of my knowledge, but at once point, I was fairly proficient with php and SQL. You really do have to stay in practice to retain the stuff, but as soon as I found tabull (who is the site's greatest treasure, a techno-genius who is also an extremely polite, kind, and awesome dude [who also happens to be the first user who ever registered here, imagine that]), well, that shit went by the wayside. I can't be more grateful for him, though. He's doing what I only dreamed of, and this site is ever the better for it.
Time went on, ownerships changed, and I eventually found myself in complete control of the site for a time. I, with no solid income, had to depend on site donations. There was no way, of course, that I could handle it. So it changed hands again. My handling of donations is something I'll never forgive myself for. There's no way I'll ever know how many people I owe and what I promised them, but I'm deeply sorry. It's one thing I'm not letting myself do again, something that I can't forgive myself for. The only donation drive I ever handled correctly was when we 'bought' the site and gave ownership to tabull. It bothers me every day, and the only thing I can do is apologize. I'm so sorry.
There's so much that happened, it's hard for me to remember it all. I know this thing reads like a goodbye post, but it's things I've wanted to type for a long time but haven't had the time or willpower to do. I have so many fond memories - E3 festivities, which was amazing again this year, the holidays, the little in-jokes we have every year, and how I met some extraordinary people who've changed my life. Matt, RabbitSnore, Paul, AT, Daisy, everybody that I'm forgetting - the list goes on. So many generous people, like Christopher, randc...I forget everybody's real name, so many names...it's been such a huge blast, and I hope it continues for years to come. Let me know if I should make some more retrospectives, or hit me up with questions sometime. I want to become involved in this community again. Thanks for reading, if you made it this far without falling into subconsciousness.