True… but we need to move on a bit from that; we really sunderered almost everything to our history, and had done almost nothing the last 100 years XD
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Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you, I meant it as a compliment.
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Oh, I don’t know. You have a national and cultural continuity that’s absolutely enviable. I mean, for instance, that until the Euro you had the longest continuously minted currency in the world.
You have an enviable military, a finger in most of the mediterranean trade routes, an amazing tourist industry, a lot of big tech R&D centers, and a huge marine and shipping industry. I mean, there’s lots of stuff.
OK, so there has been some bad economic governance, but given the shape the world’s economies are in, I’d say you’re in sterling company.
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Oh don’t worry, not offended. Just disappointed by my greek peers <3
@MC-Canadastan I agree, I agree. Euro has destroyed some aspects of the country, because our national currency was way more cheaper than the euro, so we could do some more industrial stuff and still have a “kinda” good economy.
I only disagree about the contemporary cultural idea of my country that is pretty much always translated to “we have great history! we don’t need to prove anything to anyone!”, when we actually do have to prove ourselves worthy of our heritage. To the eyes of the foreigner, the only “problem” is the economy, while in my eyes, as a native, the problem is a deeply cultural and societal inertia, with no real intention to progress and evolve.
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Born and raised in Texas.
Lived in Alabama (Fort Rucker) for a few years as a child while my Dad was a U.S. Army helicopter pilot/flight instructor, but moved back to Texas when he got out of the Army, so I grew up in the suburbs of north-Houston.
Relocated to the Kansas City, Missouri area (from 2014 to 2017) and then Western New York (just south of Rochester from 2017 to 2020) for work, but moved back to the Houston area in December of 2020 to be close to aging parents, our adult children and grandkids.
I’ve been fortunate to be able to travel for work so I have been to many of your countries (not all) and love seeing the diversity in the answers here and the other forum chats. #BassBuzzrocks!
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I spent many years living a block or two off Riverside Drive, mostly on Warner Blvd. It’s one of my favorite places to have lived for so many reasons.
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I just realized I never responded to this topic.
I was born in West “By GOD” Virginia! The “By GOD” part seems to date back to when West Virginia split from Virginia to join the Northern states during the US civil war. I think. This could be completely wrong.
Next was Alabama, Louisiana, Alabama (again), then Jacksonville, Florida (where I spent my teen years into adulthood), and finally Kennesaw, Georgia (a suburban area 15 miles North of Atlanta, GA).
For work, I traveled all around the country but have never been outside of the US.
For work I was an on-site Engineer for Ascend Communication based in Alameda, California where I worked with routers, switches, and large scale VoIP equipment. This was when VoIP was in its infancy. Ascend was soon purchased by Lucent Technologies (of Bell Labs fame) which later crumbled when the Internet bubble imploded.
Since I had been transferred to Georgia by that time, I ended up getting a job at Norfolk Southern Railway as the primary for any new development in the Internet facing environment (more routers and switches but I finally got to put my firewall and VPN experience into real use) in addition to being the information security resource for our department. Firewalls and Virtual Private Networking was always my favorite technologies to work with.
As to the tangents this thread has taken…
The old keyboards were nice but I had to travel light on the road and ended up with carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. When the Microsoft Natural Keyboard came out, it was a huge relief.
I went sailing once when I was 16. I loved it but it didn’t end well. I ended up being left alone on the boat anchored off Jax Beach, Florida when a storm blew in. No food, no drinkable water, lost power, boat filling with water, all with the biggest waves I’ve ever seen in Florida. That boat beat the hell out of me all night long.
I had no idea what I was doing and my 16 year old, exhausted, dehydrated, mind decided I would be better off trying to swim to shore instead of going down with this boat. I got a life preserver, over the side I went, and the boat came down on my leg, slashing it open with barnacles. Over and over I almost drowned. Eventually the waves spit me out close enough to shore for me to walk in.
10 out of 10. Would do again. It made for some awesome memories.
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Wow, thats a crazy story. Its a good reason to always keep a surfboard, or stand up paddle board (regular paddle board back then) on deck. Good thing you grabbed a life preserver, and that the blood didn’t attract all the many sharks in the area.
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Or just stay on the boat. Let me guess: it didn’t sink, right? 
Always stay with the boat as long as possible. Worst case it’s where the coast guard will look first.
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No. The boat didn’t sink. I would rather it had sunk. The people that put me in that position deserved it. Buncha D!cks. 
It’s really too bad it all ended up the way it did because I loved sailing the boat. Tacking back and forth down the St. Johns River, through the jetties, and out into the Atlantic was pretty amazing and so unlike anything else I’ve ever had the chance to do.
I would love to go sailing again but I would have a lot of questions first.
- Have you checked the weather?
- Did anyone bring any drinkable water?
- Do I need to bring food?
- Do you plan to leave me alone on the boat while you all swim in and go party all night with no specific plan as to when you will return the next day?
I learned a lot that day and the next. So many questions I never even thought I would need to ask. Thankfully nothing permanently terrible happened and I can laugh about it now.
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Yeah leaving an inexperienced newbie alone on a boat in any weather is a terrible plan. No matter how good the party is
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- Yes, 'cause I need wind to sail, but not to be blown overboard.
- Hell yeah, even hot coffee and a snack. My sailing days are always the kind of day’s you’re not returning early.
- At least some snack, but up front you would know exactly what to bring. Specially when we’re in for a night sailing.
- Never party outside the boat without the hole crew. Never party inside the boat when drinking and standing tends to get you overboard. So we’ll party with that bottle of whisky after returning at the bbq on shore. Before we sleep around the campfire or, when we’re in for some rain that night, on board below the sails to stay dry. (From rain, not sober, just to be clear)
Now then, Eric, would you join me?
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That sounds… Awesome!
If I ever get to the Netherlands, I’ll take you up on that. 
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You’re more then welcome. 
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Syracuse NY
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Hey neighbor (relatively speaking)!
Lived in Rochester for 17 years now in Westchester.
Have a little bit of Syracuse down here in Harlem at Dinosaur BBQ!
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I was born and raised in Dresden, (East) Germany but have been living in Berlin for 17 years now. Spent quite some time travelling back and forth to London, UK, for a long-distance relationship. I still consider it a place I feel strongly connected to (almost like home), even though I hardly go there any more.
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I wouldn’t fly through Heathrow regularly for anyone! haha
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Luton or Stansted it was, depending on which fabulous budget airline I’d take. 
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Heathrow was so bad. Haven’t been there in a while though.
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