Join the new world

Coming late to the party, Bia wrote an article a bit ago about who we are. Game left aside and being slightly older than the average player I guess I can chime in. Who is aeriala beyond the fact everyone knows I'm a guy.

I grew up in the country, very country and I'm not afraid to call myself a redneck. My dad was a truck driver all his life, my mom even though dropping out of high school at 16 became CAO of a few townships and is still deputy CAO of a small town. I didn't have what the kids of today would call a tradition upbringing, I had my first summer job on a farm by age 11, I started driving on the road by 13, by 15 I drove my first dump truck. Over the next couple summers I worked as a carpenter although it wasn't my real goal it was easy to get.

I set out in the fall of 1988 after working the summer as a carpenter again after graduating to begin my real goal, to become a mechanic. I got to spend 10 months as a gas jockey before I told the first guy to stuff it. I filled some time as a part time janitor but turned down the full time job they offered because I got an offer to be parts manager of a small engine shop. In hindsight I'd have been better off taking the janitor job, the small engine place was a joke run by salesmen. Note it for yourself never trust anything run by a salesman, commisions look great but have no long term staying power. I walked away after paychecks started getting slow, it claimed bankruptcy within 2 months.

Being broke and young at the right time I took a job as a carny. You're right about most of them, there's alot of criminals who can't get other jobs. I wasn't in with a horrible crew but due to my skills I got worked 7 days a week due to the fact I could drive inbetween shows, I finished the season anyway. (I rarely did setup because the only sleep I got was being return trips before picking up the next truck)

Anyway I returned home and did some odd jobs for a bit spent some time being a carpenter again building log houses and got a chance at college. Took it went and graduated with a 3.9 GPA in mechanics. Took a couple bad jobs inbetween that summer and got kinda discouraged, asked Danny if I could temp building log houses again and he said sure. That's when I met Joe since he was also working for him.

Joe had his own band and was one of the top 3 bans in the area, I was quickly introduced to the other 2. I had a natural singing ability and was suddenly allowed on any stage anytime. But I digress at that, this story goes elsewhere.

I answered an ad looking for an appentice mechanic one morning and asked to show at 6 pm. I was still trying to stuff an engine back into my car but managed it by 2pm and it was only a 2 hour drive. 😛 I couldn't even make it home because they ran a test as part of the job application, I was already hired before I walked out the door. This was a pivotal point in my life because not only did I get the job I wanted but it gave me much more. Not only did I get mechanical but I got business training. I can understand some resentment when I say I learnt the best things from a short little japanese guy because of WW2, I say get over it, I did. I leant and spent 10 years there and although it sucked I had to leave due to medical conditions. My back gave out and I just couldn't make 15 hours a week let alone the 50+ we normally did.

I did a short term running machines that send out mass mail, you're welcome, before a friend called me to work at his garage back home. The pay was crap but the cost of living was also lower for me and I decided to try it. Eventually i rebuilt the door rate, restructured pricing on parts all in hopes of increasing my takehome. He was scared to try it for fear of losing customers but I employed what I learnt from my japanese boss, business increased. Let's also backtrack a bit and somewhere I became the DJ and kareoke host at the local hotel.

Somewehere in that jumble I got busted for DUI. Freak out if you want but there's no public transportation here, you drive or you walk, if you think otherwise f@#% off. So rural became very hard, simple fact you can't work that way. So I left and moved into the nearst town where I had the part time DJ job. It was somthing atleast.

Wasn't 4 weeks later, I knew the hotel owner's were looking for a new manager, prime choice was a girl I went to school with, she was asked. The ownrs have a reputation I know better than most becaue of my mom, and regardless we both worked there she asked me to go for a drive out. We sat and talked about it and I told her she was gonna get f@#ked and why, but it was up to her. She said yes I know, did it anyway and I became assistant manager. It was also during this period I was approached by a former drive time DJ and sub manager from the capitals largest rock station and asked to apply and audition for them however I declined as I really don't believe I have the personality to do that 5 days a week.

That lasted about a year before it happened, we sat down and she thanked me, not only for telling her why'd go down, but I forcast the reasoning perfect. This wasn't an OMG moment, getting screwed was fact and she had a successful catering business while I had accepted a job at a local parts store, we were fine.

I worked at the parts store for 2 years but I quit it wasn't right. I knew it and it happened, it closed 3 months later, the owner died within 2 years of that. I moved on to a temporary job I didn't want at a manufacturing plant. That wound up lasting a year and they really didn't want to let me go because I became one of few that could do 90% of the jobs in the plant including being one of only 2 to know how to run the largest and most important machine in the plant. They grudgingly released me anyway due to the fact I had developed a severe allergy to the wood dust and was left with an extreme case of asthma. Fortunately it was only allergy related and cleared with a week and a half of leaving the job.

After that to current I took on a job at a private construction company where I look after a fleet of 4-6 Class A trucks, 1-2 tag along log trailers, 1 dump pup, 2 floats, 3 backhoes, an excavator, bulldozer and a fleet of 8 1/2 tons, including snowplows and sanders. On occasion I've also contracted out tempoarily to larger construction companies when their mechanics were considered too far away to be convenient.

Otherwise I got my first computer in around 1995 and am largely self taught. I applied once for a computer technician program and the school was falling all over me since I got the 3rd highest ever score on their entrance exam they had ever seen. No goof it actually resembled an IQ test, however I couldn't scrap the tuition together. I regardless drifted into a part time business for friends where originally I did repairs invovling hardware repairs however I gradually drifted to a secondary speciality in virus removal which is still the most common request I get. Largely I've decided to turn most of those jobs down more since 3/4 of these friends of a friend never pay me.

Edit: I just realized I forgot the years I spent as a volunteer fire fighter. Public service as a forgetible part of my past go figure. 🙂

Otherwise I'm just me. Cheers.

A couple hours before I went out drinking with TemujinBC in Toronto


Your Goddess,
Aeriala