Reminiscences.

[Four-eyed Vulpine]

Well, at an average rate of one post a day for 5.3 years of being a member here, I thought it would be fitting to write an entry of reminiscences of Star Fox-Online on the occasion of two thousand posts.

*goes to grab his box of Kleenex, then comes back*  Sorry about that, I tend to get emotional about this stuff.

It all started in March of 2005.  I was a member of Arwing Landing then, when I had stumbled upon this new Star Fox fan site called Star Fox-Online.  I figured, hey, it would be cool to be a part of something brand new.  So I joined.  I believe XG Fox was the first admin, if anyone remembers him.  We still talk to this day, off and on.

I maintained a dual membership with both SF-O and AL for a year or so, but then decided that my allegiance liked with SF-O.  There was something about Arwing Landing that....I don't know....it just seemed like it was dying.  But I digress.

I'm not exactly certain of all of the swaps that have occurred the past few years, as my activity has been off and on.  As most you of you know, I tended to be notorious for my unannounced hiatuses that would last for months at a time, usually because of school and other things.  But eventually, I missed this place and came back to a welcoming and understanding community.

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Concerning the real life that has been the cause of my many absences, I joined SF-O in my spring semester of my freshman year of college at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.  Unfortunately, since high school never really prepared me for the intensity of college work, my grades suffered as a result, and I was put on academic probation with a GPA of 1.67.  Pretty bad for a student who had a 3.81 GPA in high school.  I was a Pre-med biology major then, but I realized that it just wasn't for me.  It was time to transfer universities.

At this point, another issue emerged.  Since Union University was a private university, I was strapped for cash.  So I had to suspend studies for a year to work and raise funds so I could continue my education.  I ended up working where my dad worked--an aluminum fabrication plant.  My work there started that summer, and I remember myself having a terrible time there to begin with, as it was my first job ever.  However, I stuck with it and ended up becoming one of the plant's best temporary workers.  Though it was hard work and very hot and tiring with 12-hour shifts, it was great real-world experience.  That continued until the end of the summer of 2006, when I continued my college career at the University of Tennessee at Martin.  I would continue to work at the plant during the following two summers, but after the economic crisis of 2008, the temporary worker program had ended there.  While I missed the income, I was still glad to have moved on from there.

So fall of 2006 came, and I knew I wasn't going to be a biology major anymore.  So I checked out my options and decided to major in English.  I thought, "I'm pretty good at writing, so why not?"  However, a few days later I was talking to my friend Fox P McCloud (also a member here, but not currently active).  I told him my plans, and he said "What?  You're always talking about the weather.  Why don't you major in that?"  He was right.  So a few days after that, I went to change my major again to the closest thing the university had, which was a geoscience major with a geography concentration.

I am SO glad I took his advice.

My geography adviser is a climatologist, so he knows exactly what I need to take for me to go into meteorology.  Probably a semester into my new studies, he also recommended that I become a physics minor, since it would be the best meteorology supplement.  (Meteorology is basically applied physics, after all.)  With his help, I greatly excelled in the geography department over the next few years, earning several awards and becoming one of their best students (sorry if I sound like I'm bragging).  I managed to bring my GPA back up to around 3.6.  Also, as a result of my excellence in geography, I became qualified in the spring of 2008 to become a Supplemental Instructor for geography classes, and ended up being an assistant to my adviser in several of the classes he taught.  I'll be entering my sixth semester of that program this fall.  Eventually, the fall of 2009 rolled around, and I became a senior.

By this time, there had been a few faculty swaps and a significant university reorganization.  There was also talk of a new meteorology major getting started up, especially since the geography department gained a professor who was also into meteorology.  With the combined efforts of him and my adviser, the meteorology major became a reality and began during the spring of 2010.  I would have graduated that spring with a Bachelor's of Science degree, but I made the decision to stick around for two more years to take the classes necessary for the new major.  Now that I'll be graduating in the spring of 2012, it will have taken me eight years since graduating high school to get a Bachelor's degree.  Ah well.

Through the years, I've learned a LOT of different things.  One thing I got into early on that became the focal point of my research was GIS, or geographic information systems.  Basically, it's a system that applies the spatial dimension to geographic data, such as census statistics or transportation routes.  Mapquest, Bing Maps, Google Earth, and many weather maps and radars use GIS to function.  Another thing I learned later on was basic programming using MATLAB.  Though programming sounded pretty scary at first, it became insanely useful in analyzing large sets of data, and the ability to make my own programs to solve unique problems was very useful.

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Back to Star Fox-Online, my desire to become artsy about the time I joined the forums, but my art was, well, pretty bad to start with.  Regardless, there were several other experienced fan artists out there to help me out, and eventually I improved.  My focus started to shift from traditional drawings to a digital format, and my work naturally began to improve as I practiced.  Early on, I also dabbled in fan fictions, but soon I became stretched thin and decided to drop that in order to focus more on my art.  I'm not sure when the desire to produce animations started, but I must say, it's definitely my favorite kind of art to do.  When you add the dimension of time to what would otherwise be a static image, it becomes something so much more.  So my art continued to improve, and I began to post art more often.  Now I am doing more animations than ever before, and I am having a blast.

I want to thank you guys for all of your comments and suggestions over the years.  You guys are definitely my motivation for producing art.

Of course, recently I've been promoted by DZ Composer to the SF-O Site Staff.  After being here for so long, I was hoping for some way I could get a platform so that I could make a better contribution to the Star Fox fandom, and when that position was opened, I realized that that was my chance.  I don't have much to say about my experiences with it, as I have only had the position for a couple of weeks now, but I am indeed finding greater opportunities than I had before through being on the Site Staff, and it is an honor to serve my Star Fox community.  Thank you for your support.

All in all, through SF-O's ups and downs, this is definitely the best Star Fox site and group that I have ever encountered on the Internet, like DZ has said before.  It makes me extremely happy to be a part of the best SF community on the Web, and I have everyone to thank for that.  You guys are the best.

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Good gosh, I've written an autobiography!

I'll shutup now.  Ending post #2000.

[Steve]

2k posts in 5 years are better than 20k random posts in 6 months. Quality before quantity 

[Scott7]

That's some story.

I'm actually Impressed, So much done in a small 5 years and quite few subjects that can actually get you somewhere in world.

I even feel a little jealous after reading that...

[Redeemer]

Wow, that was an awesome read! Thanks for sharing that with it Vulpine. I'm glad you're having a good time. :)

[Mr. Fox13]

Wow you've gotten so much done in five years! I hope I can say the same 5 years from now. :lol:

[Asper Sarnoff]

Interesting reading Vulpine. Always nice to know a little about the backstory to someone you know on the 'net.