Personal Demographics

A Snarkpit demographic was done just over one year ago. It was a poll, and as such didn't quite pan out as expected. [edit] we have enough new member that a thread of this nature can be beneficial. i doubt any would search out they other thread.

This time there is no poll, but the goal is essentially the same, which is to tell a few things about yourself that best describe yourself.

Please feel free to type anything, but also show a bit of self control. We really do not need to know when you were potty broke, or the physical proportions of your male member. I will not discourage these topics, but you do so at your own risk.

Since i started this, I suppose I can go first.

Real Name: Jon Rickenbacker
Birth Date: June 22,1962
Marital Stasis: Married
Current Residence: Jonesboro Arkansas
Number of children: 3 - two boys ages 22 and 17, one girl age 22
Number of grand children: 2 - one boy age 3, one girl age 1

I am a high school grad. I went into the military shortly after graduation. I stayed in till the rank of sergeant, and had my own platoon. Military life didn't agree with my married life so i didn't re-up. My military career did not involve any war time status, but my training was for a combat engineer. Everything involved with that particular title I was trained in.

During my life I have had a whole plethora of jobs ranging from my pre-established military to my current job of delivering new school busses. I have done things like: make corrugated boxes, run a computerized saw that made kitchen cabinets. I painted houses, and I drove dump trucks and also delivered wood chips to a paper mill once.

I have been gaming as long as I have owned a PC. my first computer was a commodore 16, which used cartridges and the games were text based. My first real PC was a Packard Bell legend 233, it was of the 486 variety and ran at a whopping 33 mhz. it had a huge 250 meg hard drive and a stunning 4 megs of ram. its 5.25 floppy was soon switched out for a cd/rom. It ran things like doom most excellently.

I have been mapping for games since Duke3d and have been mapping for half-life since about February of 1999. I have been here at the Snarkpit virtually from the beginning, and have been a thorn in virtually everyones side. Many more than once.

Real Name: Andrei-Octavian Crisan (pronnounced "Crish'ahn")

Birth Date: May 2, 1988

Marital Status: Single

Current Residence: Bucharest, Romania

Occupation: Highschool Student

Not much to say about me since my life has been pretty dull so far. I
have been a monument of averageness all my life and have always
considered that "grades (school grades) do not reflect one's true
value". My career path is uncertain; my parents push me towards a
career in architecture while other relatives, especially my 27 y.o
brother, encourage me to find a career that best suits me and not the
dreams of my parents (both professors in a university of architecture).
Thus, I am orientating myself towards a career in civil aviation (as a
light aircraft pilot) and have already begun individiual studies on the
topic.

I started mapping in at the end of 1999. The first game I ever mapped
from was good ol' Half-Life. I had been mapping using various versions
of QuArK until the release of Half-Life 2, when I found myself forced
to adapt and to learn how to use hammer. I now know how to use both
editors effectively.

Real Name: Ben Hodgson
Date of birth: December 12 1983
Marital Status: Single
Current Residence: Mansfield, Notts, England
Occupation: College Student

My life has been prety uneventfull the only things that are worth telling is that I have nearly died a few times through stupidity.

My frend put a knife on one of the igniters for the hob and he got electricuted and threw the knide out twards my head. I was riding my friends scooter threw some woods and I hid a root which sent me flying over the handle bars and the back wheel landed about 6 inches away from my head.

I think I may have broke some ribs by going down a disabled access ramp in a shopping trolly and I hit the end of it at about 20mph I'd say.

but apart from that I have just moved to Canada and got kicked out of college for running out of funds so I could no longer pay for it and then I spent a year doing nothing. I moved back to England and got on a course in Multimedia Art and Design while I was trying to lose some weight so I could join the army.

Real Name: Maroun Rached
Date of birth: February 3 1978
Marital Status: Single
Current Residence: Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation: Junior Architect

My life has also been kind of uneventfull. Except that, at a certain age, I used to own little spider pets in a transparent box, and I used to feed them little wingless flies ( I tear the wings). Fortunately, I stopped this kind of activities recently, and I started mapping a couple of years ago. I like computers a lot and I've been a net addict since I bought my first modem. I like to participate here first to improve my english, and also coz it's kind of addictive (maybe the snark logo reminds me of my little spiders...).

Lately, I've been participating in the peaceful "intifada" that's supposed to bring back democracy in my country (You might be watching people waving red and white flags everywhere on tv).

Damn Kain, you don't have a thing for fuzzy woodland creatures too, do ya? :biggrin:

Real Name: James Mayes

Birth Date: March 26, 1988

Marital Status: single

Current Residence: Florida

Occupation: high school student

I was born in San Diego and my family moved to New Mexico when I was young. We then moved to Arkansas, then back to San Diego, and finally settled in Florida. My life has been average up until a year ago. That's when I first started mapping. I joined some editing forums and talked to people. I think what I got out of it most though was discovering more about the world than what I thought I knew. I listened to people talk about everything from computers to philosophy. I began to quickly surpass my own dad's knowledge about computers. I also became a more confident person over the last year and began to realise that what other people think about me doesn't matter to who I know I am. I also began to become more active with my education and began researching things on the internet. I was always interested in philosophy even at the age of ten (and still am). I've done a lot of research on the internet as of lately on different scientific and pychological theories. I have also gotten heavely into art. I have always loved to draw since I was about 6. Although I didn't have much confidence in myself so I would only do about one crappy sketch every few months. I began to see other artists online and how they do their work. So now I draw everyday and I constantly study things like, proportions, perspective, color, shadow, etc. I love to map but worked on any maps in several months. I'm not sure if I'll ever go back to mapping, I have so many ideas for different maps but when I start to work on one I never finish because I go to start another. My grammar is one of my poorest qualities (obviously). I'm a huge fan of the whole fantasy and sci-fi genre. When it comes to grades I agree with Andrei. Which is why I hate most of my teachers for being so bias.

Edit: I thought I might add a little more.

My first FPS I ever played ws Goldeneye on the N64. I got my butt whooped constantly on that game but it was fun to play (especially when bouncing grenades off the walls in Temple. Then came along Starcraft. My friend introduced me to that game on the N64. I was reluctant to play it but when I did I became hooked. Once I played Half Life for the first time in 2000 I realized that designing video games was what I wanted to do. I wanted to do level design but have decided to pursue a career in concept art. My grades have been slipping a lot lately because of a lack of caring for school. My biology teacher is a great guy and he is extremely smart. I almost look up to him sometimes. I hope to someday own my own company and maybe direct a movie. My biggest ambition is to became a great artist and create things which I can be pleased with.

Real Name: drum roll Adam Hawkins
Birth Date: October 26th, 1978 (so i'm 26 for those who don't like math :smile: )
Marital Stasis: Single
Current Residence: Lincoln, UK
Occupation: Service Co-ordinator for Siemens Industrial Turbines

Grew up in Bolsover, Derbyshire and lived there until this time last year when I uprooted to Lincoln. Went to Uni in Cheltenham where I spent more time mapping than doing my work. Started on Duke 3D and then moved onto HL.

After Uni, managed to bag a job at Bits Studios and worked on the game 'Rogue Ops', before being given the boot for apparently 'not having a passion for games'. Go figure! :rolleyes:

After that, I had a bit of a down period, as I was unable to get a decent job and spent about a year and a half doing minimum wage jobs as a receptionist, data entry clerk and admin assistant. Finally ended up where I am now - which is still not ideal but at least the money is OK.

Now I spend most of my time playing games and trying to motivate myself to start a new map for HL2. I'm just your average Joe really!

Real Name: James Dethridge

Birth Date: May 14, 1988.

Marital Stasus: Unmarried, In serious relationship (So far panned out for 6 months)

Current Residence: Sheerness (on the Isle of Sheppey), Kent, England, UK.

Occupation: A-Level Student (Although currently trying to find a job as higher education doesn't seem to be panning out).

[Other info. coming later when I'm less tired, so I can write it and make sense]

Real Name: Thomas Kirkpatrick (yeah, it sucks )

Birth Date: January 17, 1989

Marital Status: Single

Current Residence: Orinda, California

Occupation: High School Student, Badass Motherf**ker

I was born in Bethesda, Maryland. I remained there until I was about nine or so, if I recall correctly, when my dad, a trademark lawyer, was hired by a San Francisco firm. We packed up, and after months of shuffling back and forth between apartments on either side of the country, my parents finally decided on the house my family now lives in.

I finished elementary school at a nearby public school, and, upon my graduation, instead of going to public middle school with the friends I'd made, I was placed in a private school against my wishes. I soon got used to it there as I made new friends (how could I not - there were six people in my grade) and began to explore my artistic side. I began mapping at age twelve, and soon after found the Snarkpit - though, thank God, I made no posts at the time, and for some reason could not compile my maps. My real interest, however, was and continues to be writing. In eighth grade, I made up my mind to become a journalist; I now write fiction and (try to write) poetry.

My other big interest, which in many ways tied into my writing, was language. I was required to take French all through middle school, continued through my Freshman year, and have become pretty decent at it. Earlier on, I'd tried out Latin and Italian, but I soon became bored of Romance languages and began learning Sanskrit, which remains very much a work in progress. I will most likely study Linguistics in college (though most likely, too, I will be 0WN3D by the complexity of the subject).

Due to certain experiences in my life which I do not need to go into, I now basically don't give a damn about anything except what I want. Though I put no effort into schoolwork, I get by with B's; my real goal in life is to finish a novel-length work of fiction before I graduate high school. Storytelling is my biggest asset (though I'm clearly still working on it) and that's what I'm going to pursue in life. f**k all else.

Real Name: Rainer Hilland
Birth Date: April 5 1991
Marital Status: Girlfriend
Current Residence: Markham, Ontario, Canada
Occupation: Grade 8 Student

Well I was born in Canada (Apr. 5) shortly after my parents immigrated from Germany. Just recently my parents separated and now we are in the process of getting a new house.

So far nothing really has happened to me. I'm in my rebellious teen phase and have bad relationships with every one of my teachers except one. Still I get 90's in math and 80's in everything else. I'm quite into a f**k all attitude at the moment and spend my spare time mapping. The rest I'm skateboarding (summer) or snowboarding (winter). I've made it into a school (by audition) which focuses mainly on the arts, but they have a lot of money and a whole bunch of macs. MY interests include; Skateboarding Snowboarding and snakes. I have a two year old Corn Snake right now and she is about 2.5 feet long, growing to be 6 feet when she is about 25 years of age. My goal is to one day own a python/boa.

The only interesting thing at this point that is going to be happening to me any time soon is a trip to Germany in 2006 for the Fifa World Cup. I hate soccer but am dying to go to Germany.

That's about all.

Real Name: Obadiah G. Reid

Birth Date: November 15th 1982

Marital Status: Single

Current Residence: Richland WA, USA

Occupation: Research Chemist

Education: B.S. Chemistry

I was born in Lowell, MA in a little catholic hospital. My life has been as near perfection as anyone has a right to hope for. I was home-schooled until the age of 16 when I began attending the local community college. As such, I spent my entire childhood playing outside, with no more than an hour or so of "school" per day until I was around 13. I could not read proficiently until I was 11 years old, but by that time I had built a monstrous 17-foot tall fort in my parts back yard which filled a 30-cubic yard dumpster when we were forced to tear it down by the city.

Currently I am working as a student research scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and loving every minute of it. I have been accepted to several PhD programs in Physical Chemistry and plan to attend the University of Washington in the fall.

The biggest problem I have is trying to decide what to do. I love chemistry, I love writing, I love mapping, and there is not enough time to do everything. Like Cass, I have specific goals for finishing my first novel length piece of fiction. I am currently about 1/4 of the way there, but progress is slow when I am so torn by other interests. I hope Gollum has been making better progress, and that is the reason for his absence.

Real Name: Axel Dahlstedt

Birth Date: June 18 1987

Marital Status: Girlfriend (11 months and counting)

Current Residence: Norrk?ping, Sweden

Family: Two older brothers (31, 24), one older sister (22), mom and dad (50-60, cant remember)

Occupation: Student

I was born in a time of gaming revolution and raised with my brothers
NES controller in my hand. Apart from being beat at games by my
brother, I built LEGO. A hell lot of LEGO aswell. Sometimes Id build
all day without pausing for anything but food and toilet.

As I grew, and LEGO started making special parts for everything you
could do yourself, I discovered my fathers several Macintosh's. A SEGA,
a NES and a Gameboy or two was enough to get my ideas going. I started
painting games in ClarisWorks on the Mac, moving the characters with
the movement keys in RPG type adventures where I controlled everything.
This ended when my oldest brother, who always worked with computers,
managed to convince my parents to buy a PC so that I could lay my hands
on PhotoShop and the like. Then he showed me the wonders of WorldCraft
back in -98 and that was it.

As the kid I was, I created big rooms with elevators going all around
and lot of scientist to kill. I did not start to map seriously until I
found PrefabLand via a link on Wavelength in -01. I was
Gokerrigan
("Go Kerrigan!" after the StarCraft Character). Through there I found
SnarkPit and my real mapping career began. I learnt what r_speeds was
and why carving was bad. My first released map was Anywhere, a piece of
crap which was in the SnarkPit map competition where it didnt reach
higher then I expected. My real success in mapping came when I found
the modification "The Specialists". I started mapping like a fool and
my maps were pretty honored in the TS community. Today people would
rather know me as a modeler than a mapper I think, that is what I
concentrate on and I personally think is one of the finest arts there
ever were. Mapping is amazing but I was never good enough, this fits me
better.

Thinking back about everything like this makes me sad and sentimental.
I now realise how much Ive learned from mapping and from this
community. A new way to think. When I first joined here I was a twat
but I evolved. Now I rarely post anything at SnarkPit but you still
mean a lot to me guys. Thanks.

Real Name: Drew Hornbein

Birth Date: March 6, 1987

Marital Stasis: Girlfriend

Current Residence: Atlanta, GA USA

I was born in State College PA, home of Pen State. I lived there
till I was five, when my father had to move us down to Atlanta.

I attended private school untill I was forced out becuase the school
wanted my parents to pay for special test to evaluate my spelling (and
other...) problems. So I was placed in public school in 5th
grade. Looking back I had a horrible 5th-7th grade schooling
experiance. I was a 'loser' but too dumb to know it. I
stayed in school untill 12th grade when I dropped out and started my
current 'home schooling' program. I always found public school to
be corrupt and dumb. I have always been on a constant up and down
with grades. I was put in honor classes in 7th grade, but the
work load was far more than I wanted to do so I would do very poorly,
then I would be placed in very easy classes next year. I would
hate them but do very well becuase school has always been very easy for
me. So the next year I would be placed in honor classes... That
was my cycle.

At a young age I started working with legos. My first game system
with an N64, but I did play lots of nintendo and super nintendo at
friends homes. My parents were very anti-videogames for the early
part of my life. In 1995 I got my first computer.

Late 1998 I got Counter-Strike, and soon found WorldCraft. I
joined the Valve-ERC (before it was even called valve-erc...) under the
alias MadTax.

My life changed last summer when I took a summer program in Brooklyn
New York at Pratt Institute. I changed very much and began to
really focus on my Art.

I've done alot and seen much more, and still have so much more to see and do.

I joined the snarkpit just a few months ago.

Real Name: Henley Bailey

Birth Date: May 7, 1980 (24)

Marital Stasis: Engaged

Current Residence: London, UK

Family: Mum, Dad, Sister

Born in the UK.

I grew up in a normal family, at the age of 5 I got my first computer,
I think it was an Acorn or similar. Since then i've had a range of
computers. At the age of 12 I got cancer but luckily was cured. Had
fairly hectic teen years which were fun and pretty mental. Worked in a
range of jobs from burger selling, cash man (dude in armour filling
cash machines :razz: ) to programming and designing building managment
systems (my software can be found controlling Harrods lighting
systems). Now i'm in the games industry and hope to stay here becoming
a designer (see another thread :smile: ). Living with my girlfriend in our
own flat in Hampton, London. Always hungry to learn more skills I now
have a wide range of pointless knowledge from juggling to flying RC
Helicopters and stripping/upgrading car engines. :S

Brian Myers

18 April 1977

Married

Harrisvliie, WV

I was born and raised in WV and have lived
here all of my life. I joined the Army right out of high school and
stayed for 6 years. Currently I work as a Supervisor over a production
line for a large vinyl window manufacturer. I got hooked on gaming
after my dad showed me Wolfenstien 3d and been playing ever since. I am
also into cars mostly 70-81 Trans Am's and classic mopars. I currently
own 1 1980 Trans Am and a 1973 Dodge Charger. I have 2 kids 1 is a 7
year old boy and a 2 month old girl.

name: Joe M
Birth date: 12/6/88
status: single
Residence: New jersey
sophmore in High shcool.

I am in 10th grade, and my grades are good. Im in all honors clases, with a few AP clases. I run track anf fence for my shcool, and spend more time on my computer than anything else. Oh, and i have a job at McDonalds. I plan on being some form of engineer when i grow up. And thats about all i can think about.

I grew up with my own computer, i can't even remeber how old i was when i got my first computer, but it was a 286, i was always a year or three outdated with my computer hard ware because i got my dad's old computers. I progressed to a 386, 486, then to a 486 DX-2, as my dad gave then too me. Then i got my intel celeron 566 mhz, that was about 4 yrs old when i got that, and i still had it up until last summer. Now i said screw outdated hard ware, and got an AMD64, geforce 6800 and a gig of RAM :smile:

I started gaming right from the start. the first game i remeber playing was a snake type DOS game on my 286. then whith the 386 i got a whole bunch more games. Doom was one of the best i had. I remeber my dad installing Doom on my computer when i was like 5, and my mom goign crazy, from what she saw me playing. Once i got the celeron, i started playig more complex games, including lots of real-time-strageties, some sports games, and the one game i own to getting me addicting to online gaming Counter-strike. I started mapping about a year after i discover counter-stirke, around january 2004. My first map was a comlete failure, I got discouraged and it was the only map i made for the HL engine. I then got HL2 on my current computer, and started mapping again.

AS for my console gaming, i got an N64 in 3rd grade, and kept it until 8th grade when i got an Xbox. I don't play my Xbox nearly as much as my computer.

Real Name: Gwilym John


Birth Date: 01/12/84



Marital Status: Single


Current Residence: When you read this, all around Australia :razz: Normally Derbyshire, not far from Adam Hawkins




Family: 3 older sisters and 1 older brother, and my 2 "wonderful" parents :biggrin:



Currently unemployed and out of education, I left college with average
results (laziness) and got pretty damn good secondary school
qualifications. I have done casual, non serious work to fund
socialising between being aged 16 and 20 - these include working on a
deli counter, being a warehouse boy, duty bar manager/supervisor and a
plethora of odd jobs. Nothing exciting, but it pays for beer.


I got my first computer in 1998, and not long after the acclaimed
title "Half Life" - ?20 off a friend who hated it because he never
found the HEV chuckles. I also enjoyed games such as Total
Annihilation (religiously) and the various mod off shoots to HL.
Despite having mapped since I got WC2.1 off the HL cd, I am yet to
release - once again, mainly due to laziness/motivation problems. One
day, I promise :smile: .


Due to horrible circumstances back in 2003, I am now off travelling
around Australia and New Zealand until April 2006 (estimate).


Oh, and if people didn't know I have also been the moderator of
these forums since the sites "renaissance" and explosion in popularity,
and will miss it sorely. Even the flames :smile:

Real Name: Leslie (sorry, I have to remain relatively anonymous for professional reasons)

Birth Date: October 28, 1972

Marital Status: Will be married in July

Current Residence: California, U.S.

Occupation: Pediatrician

I was born in Taiwan, a small island near the eastern coast of
China. I spoke Mandarin Chinese growing up, and I finished
primary school in Taiwan before immigrating to the United States.

I've been living in Southern California ever since coming to the
States. I had to learn English fast when I first arrived--I
didn't even know all the alphabets when I first set my foot in
California. I am a hard worker with slightly above-average
intelligence, so I was able to master English by the time I entered
high school.

Starting out in a remedial English class, I gradually worked my way
up. I taught myself Algebra because I couldn't read the
textbook's explanation or understand what the teacher was saying (I
still didn't understand English that well). But ultimately, I
excelled in high school, graduating the top of my class. I got
accepted to UCLA and continued to attain high marks academically.
I didn't party as much as I could have, but I sacrificed some fun to
get into a good medical school.

I worked my butt off in medical school, as I routinely studied twelve
hours a day (including weekends and holidays). I usually get up
at 4 am to study, and retire at around 9 pm. I finished medical
school at the top of my class again.

I trained for three years as a pediatric resident at UCLA Medical
Center. And it was during this time when I finally started
gaming, starting with Jedi Knights. I worked long hours
(frequently more than eighty hours a week) but I didn't have to study
all the times anymore, and I also started having some semblance of
social life. I started dating for the first time.

I have one younger brother (two years younger), and he's an attorney
for the city of Los Angeles. Both of my parents are also in
California, and I still drop by for dinner every Wednesday.

I didn't start mapping until September of 2004, when I downloaded the
Half-Life demo: Uplink. I downloaded the Worldcraft editer and
learned how to map from TWHL.

I have never played the original Half-Life (shocking fact), but I made numerous maps for HL1.

That's all I'm gonna to divulge now. Enough self-invasion of privacy for one day. :smile:

/me scan's list and...

Yup, I am still the oldest, if not least educated.

sighs

Anyone want to adopt an older gent, so he can go back to school? :biggrin: