Shielded
204½ lb., 24.0% body fat
Where were you five years ago today?
I remember where I was.
Five years ago today, it was not Wednesday. It was Saturday.
It was Saturday and I had a whistle.
I was a basketball referee for the Upward basketball league at the church I attended, First Baptist Church of Moss Bluff. I wasn't that good, and I'm still not that good at it. (I'm prone to getting caught up watching the game instead of, y'know, actually refereeing it.)
Anyway, the games lasted from 8:30 AM through to 3:30 PM. A full day of up & down a half-court, but on the bright side, I was compensated with as many chili dogs and/or nachos as I could stomach. (Seeing as I've let myself go over 200 lb., 49 of said pounds being fat, that's still a decent number.)
After the end of the 5th-grade girls game, I helped break down the goals and put them away. Finally getting home, I changed T-shirts and got online, and brought up my trade topic, "My Krana for your Kanohi."
Once there, I noticed the strangest thing: the "Edit this post" link wasn't where it was supposed to be, because a "Delete" link was in the way.
I literally said aloud "What the frell." (Okay, it was to myself, but anyway...)
I opened up my Buddy List (My parents still subscribed to AOL at that point.), and started an IM conversation with Bionicle [now Bionicle Rex]. There was a time a few months prior that the board lost my account, and then found it again, and he'd helped expedite my re-registration and account fixing when the board found the old one again.
The conversation began as follows:
Ze Admiral: What's with this "Delete" link?<BR's not public IM name goes here>*grin*
It was at this point that I noticed my member group had changed, from Premier Members to Premier Moderators.
(See, the color-shifty icons weren't up at the time: you knew who was who by the names on the forums, or by the gold gears since everyone had member icons at the time: the board was MUCH smaller.)
For the past 5 years, I've been on staff at BZP.
I was here for Kataraina (even if it was before I was on staff).
I was here for bioncleblaster.
I was here for the first dupe-account busting I remember, even though they were on a dialup IP.
I was here when I moved to Akron for grad school, and got into two car wrecks.
I was here for the first and second Ultimate Bionicle Quizzes (and I swear I'll finish the third sometime this month).
I was here for the Mäori DNS attack, that Bink successfully thwarted, but it still left the colo guys spooked.
I was here when LEGO landed on Mars.
I was here for VahkiPower.
5 years has been a long time, and I realize I'm "the FL no one seems to remember exists." I'm a relic like Rama~Swarm (and I remember when he was RAMA SWARM), Tok, and Pekel.
But I'm still here.
It's been a fun 5 years.
*raises a metaphorical glass of sparkling white grape juice*
Here's to the next 15.
-KIE
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