I learned to make bread.

On a train, going through shitty Croydon going back to work from a meeting in shitty Redhill. 

I also bred.

Tempy wrote:

get my first BIG JOB at a fucking Tech Support Call centre,

Ah shit, I have become Tempy.

Good idea for a thread. Will contribute later when I have time.

I bred.
Grew a beard thats turned mostly grey.
Had 6 different jobs that i hated, and a voluntary one i still enjoy. (as well as the vmc beta things)
Played lots of games and mostly talked shit about them.

I'm old.
I moved south (!)
I moved again, a little bit further south.
I went freelance.
I don't really play many games (that aren't car-based) anymore.
I had to stop weight-lifting.

I've been a student for the majority of my time here (nine years)- I'm 37

I've gone from working in S.E.N childcare, to working as a software developer for some huge firms.

When I first posted on the Maroon Rum (04), I was in a pretty bad place. Drugs, near enough homeless, penny-less. But no small amount of good luck has put me in a better place than I would have imagined the day before I became a beneficiary of it (if that reads correctly...).

With that said, I'm still somewhat socially awkward, and often wish I was better equipped to help others. I wouldn't say I'm perfectly stable right now either, especially with the way the first half of this year went for me (cancer scare). But I've come through it, and have learnt a lot about myself.

Right now I'm just praying for my mam (hospital... long story), keeping my head down in a new role, and moving to a new place pretty soon (eastsyde massiv, hit me up).

I'm also waiting for Tempy to give my book back. : P

2006 I was just out of uni and into a role as lab tech in school with aim for teacher training the following year. Did all that jazz up to getting a full time teacher gig until I fucked up too many times and had the courage to admit I had to quit (put it this way it was a plan that had wormed around for a good 3 or four years at that point). I bummed around afterwards at home and did some tutoring enough to pay for an ipod classic. I think that roughly when I joined maroon.

All that time I was looking for a job and two showed up which had a physics degree as one of the requirements (seriously a phys degree is a great degree for those who are a bit of a low attention span but also rubbish for finding a job - all that jazz they tell you at careers fair just didn't apply to a somewhat coaster like me. There were times I wished I did opticians or dentist degree).

One of the jobs was cool, it was analysing products for the police in posh place near Luton . The other was a role in Newport. The former had a better start wage (28v25k) but only had dead man shoes promotion so the prospects were less attractive.

Anyway I decided to pick the latter one and it was a great choice (which is to say it is a choice that has happened to have had good results). I've been here eight years - moving to Cardiff in the mean time. No means least I met my partner for the last five years and we bought a house together this year. The job also had this sort of feast and famine recruitment policy which meant that on day 1 there were 25 newbs starting all a bit looking for new friends and I've made some really nice friends as a result.

It's not been all plain sailing. I've got super fat which is fucking annoying because while I was relatively fit I got laid up with the most crippling sciatica for about twelve months. Anyway I bought an excersise bike last week so hopefully some of the flab will melt away. Or at least I can get back to footy on a non incompetent better than Rooney level.

When did I start posting?

Right.

2005 I was still at university and not even into my final dissertation year. Had an inkling I wanted to get into teaching, but not fully committed. I was playing on my Xbox 360, hooked up to a 14 inch crt and existing off 48 hour codes for live, mostly from Unlikely. I had a good girlfriend, one of the few who has stayed a pal with me since, and we are good friends now. I was utterly skint - I had never taken student loans but was at one point near £1600 in overdraft and I was not exercising at all.
Then I finished uni, lost that girlfriend and made a bunch of bad choices with women for a bit. I lived on great western road, right next to Viper / Clatty Pats with a pal of mine and started to get into WoW kind of hard. I ditched my Wii and moved into PC gaming again. I was teaching and I hated my probation school so hard I thought I would quit.

2008 was a watershed. Got a permanent position in Edinburgh, so a change of city. Miserable and lonely for a while I came up with the idea of inviting forum people over for a night. This was regstock. Kept me going while I struggled to make new friends in Edinburgh. Again, bunch of no god with women for a while, a few flings etc, but in 2009 I met my wife during a night out in Glasgow.

From there things got more so better. Still regstock, quit WoW, exercised, got my first hdtv (yes, that late) and discovered I'd been on BR rate on my tax for 2 years because me Uni job at a pub never signed me off. Ended up paying off my debt and taking me and mrs reg on holiday. For 2009 birthday I asked my parents for an N64 and started collecting games again.

2011 was the last official regstock. Mrs reg moved in afterwards and we got a nice posh flat (albeit awful land lords.)
Then we got engaged.
About that time I started thinking about career progression; I didn't want to get promoted to a leader of English, I wanted to be a pupil support leader - beginning a 4 year journey to my current post.

Marriage in 2014 and a wedding with some forumites, including a videogames theme to the events, and Stephen malkmus as the first dance.
Went to Venezuela with pupils in 2014. Hell of an experience.

2015 I was doing acting experience in my current job and new there was a permanent promoted post coming up. Took a break from forum to focus on job.
Went to Japan, first of 2 trips. Fell in love with a country.
This year, I finally got my dream promotion in February, and we went to Japan again. Currently sitting enjoying life with my amazing wife.

The future? Very likely a reg jr soon. One more trip to Japan next summer, and then... well, one step at a time.

@dynamite: shit, son. We need to meet up and chat. Haven't seen you in ages.

I have no particular ambitions so all has gone to plan.

beano wrote:

I've been a student for the majority of my time here (nine years)- I'm 37

Me too. I'm 41 now.

When I joined Edge forum in 2005 I was in this little house in North Cyprus, working full time as a TEFL teacher at a uni.

I returned to England in 2006 after getting accepted at UCL to do a part-time MA. I didn't realise at the time that I wouldn't have another permanent job for over 10 years (and counting).

Now I'm back in the same little house in North Cyprus, just finished a part-time PhD at UCL, and looking for the next step into academia. Done a lot of temporary, part-time and private TEFL teaching along the way to stay afloat (barely).

Honestly not sure I would've embarked on this journey if I'd known how long it would take, but fuck it I'm here now and just hope I can make something of it.

The marriage has been a great constant through it all though. And family support in general.

We thought about kids for a while, but neither of us really wanted one. It's quite a relief.

I'm bearing up.