Member Biography/Profile thread

[Hunter368]

Not boring at all, Hunter. A lot of it I could have posted.

Thanks, I am not one to talk much about myself normally. Most times I am a very private person, but everyone else was sharing so I thought I would also. Some of those memories are very difficult and painful ones to think about, but it actually felt good to share with all you here who I consider friends.

 

[Njaco]

Seems there is a lot in common with everyone here.

My father beat the 'L' out of me when young, in '80 he got divorced and it hit him hard and he turned to drink. I used to drink just to numb out his drinking. Pickled himself until early '90s when he almost killed himself with it. Came out of hospital with severe diabetes and only then was I able to really to connect with him. We did the airshows and model conventions and really got together. He died in 2004 from the diabetes (fragile diabetic they called him). Some people need a manual when they have children and he was one of them. Wasn't evil of heart but didn't understand about being a father. That is something I work hard at EVERY SINGLE DAY.

oh and all our ex's love to cheat. Love to have a Family Court Judge explain that discrepancy.

 

[lesofprimus]

Nice to open up once in awhile Hunter.... As the saying goes, life is tough all over....

Have u had a physical lately to see if that nasty C-Bug is roamin around there??? The only reason I aint dead is a routine check up showed something, and it was caught at Stage 0....

Luck was with me...

 

[Screaming Eagle]

Screaming Eagle you are my brother I think. I grew up in Brisbane too. Mt Cotton primary school and Villanova in Coorparoo for secondary. Been doing Boilermaking all my working life from construction steel to now owning my own business repairing earthmoving machinery on site in Sydney where I've been for 10 years now.

Cool I never had a brother! Once I do my trade I hope to do another one as a diesel mechanic, and maybe on down the line become a professional welder.

 

[Hunter368]

Nice to open up once in awhile Hunter.... As the saying goes, life is tough all over....

Have u had a physical lately to see if that nasty C-Bug is roamin around there??? The only reason I aint dead is a routine check up showed something, and it was caught at Stage 0....

Luck was with me...

Yes I get checked every year, thank god my doctor has small hands and even smaller fingers.

I had one scare, but it turned out to be nothing after several follow up checks. It did have me scared as hell for about 2 weeks, but I am fine.

 

[Matt308]

Cota. Take my word for it. Bouts of depression are cured by your looking into your girls eyes. You are not alone buddy.

 

[Matt308]

Sorry for my long boring post,

Hunter.

Christ, Hunter. With tears in my eyes I am sympathetic. And must admit that I experience similar feelings. Effing cancer. Intrusion of alcohol affecting my youth relationships, etc.

I did not expect that you guys would post such personal reflections and now feel ashamed that my post was so superficial and contrite. It appears that this thread is either cathartic for most, or a cry for companionship. This is a time that I wish that I did not have a history on this forum, for I feel a connection with all members in a some fascimile. And a real bond with others. I would rather logout and have no conscience.

And posts like yours Hunter truly are painful. I think it was Charles who said "establish a buddy list". Some may think that we Forum members are nothing more than avatars, text and BS. But from my perspective, not so. All of you are a little part of my life.

 

[chook]

Yeh working on big machines does it for me Screamer and good money to be made too. Not many boilermakers around so I was extra happy to find one that shares other passions of mine too.

As for everyone else my story is not as interesting or sad so no need to mention it but I hope you all find what you need to get where you want to be and this site seems to be full of sympathetic souls which is amazing.

 

[wilbur1]

Christ, Hunter. With tears in my eyes I am sympathetic. And must admit that I experience similar feelings. Effing cancer. Intrusion of alcohol affecting my youth relationships, etc.

I did not expect that you guys would post such personal reflections and now feel ashamed that my post was so superficial and contrite. It appears that this thread is either cathartic for most, or a cry for companionship. This is a time that I wish that I did not have a history on this forum, for I feel a connection with all members in a some fascimile. And a real bond with others. I would rather logout and have no conscience.

And posts like yours Hunter truly are painful. I think it was Charles who said "establish a buddy list". Some may think that we Forum members are nothing more than avatars, text and BS. But from my perspective, not so. All of you are a little part of my life.

Matt, I think you just said it for me, ive been wanting to put my 2 cents in since i saw this thread but after hunters i feel that it would be repetitive, i feel very proud to talk to you guys and do consider each and everyone my friend,....even lucky....sometimes, just kidden,this hits alittle close to home so i try to laugh when i can, only way i can deal with it

 

[Graeme]

Have u had a physical lately?

Unfortunately, even then, the 'bastards' (some doctors) can get it wrong.

I blame a small town doctor ultimately for my fathers death. My dad (who lived in another town) was seeing him regularly for bouts of what he diagnosed as "constipation". Eventually it got so bad he had to be hospitalised. Working full-time night shift, it was difficult to get a clear picture of what was happening on the phone from staff at the hospital. He lingered there for a couple of weeks and I made trips to visit him but never got any satisfactory answers to my questions. Even talking on the phone to the 'Doctor' got me nowhere as he even admitted that he was "puzzled" and continued to feed him aperients and administer enemas.

Eventually my wife and I drove to the hospital, 'took him' away and presented him to an emergency department at a hospital in another town.

The diagnosis was bowel cancer, that had infiltrated through the bowel wall and was so large it totally occluded the rectum, hence the "constipation".

An anterior resection of the bowel was performed, but the surgeon (who was also a bastard) confided in me that he could feel nodules in the liver and suspected metastases and wouldn't recommend follow-up radiation therapy based on my dads age (which was only 70). I won't bore you with the details but the ultimate outcome is obvious.

In 1999 I was working for a Gastroenterologist who owned and operated an Endoscopy day surgery. Mid-year I was coughing constantly and could taste blood. I eventually got to see an ENT surgeon (a bastard) who could find "nothing wrong" with my throat and was convinced that I didn't know what blood tasted like! I remember arguing with him over what blood tasted like! Eventually he decided to refer me to a Respiratory physician.

Before I could see him I had an episode of 'expectorating' blood. So I thought 'Phuck'em' I'll sort this out myself!

One evening after work, I sprayed some lignocaine into my mouth and passed a gastric endoscope through the epiglottis into the trachea and surprise, surprise, found a bleeding vocal cord polyp and snapped some photos.



I presented these to the ENT surgeon, who I must admit was very apologetic (for a bastard) and surgery (diathermy) was performed days later.

My wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and is presently in remission after surgery, chemo and radiation therapy. I'll never forget my wife asking the Radiotherapy Oncologist (a real BASTARD!) if she would still be able to fall pregnant after the radiation therapy, as we were considering a fourth child.

He SNIGGERED and said "Good God no! after this, your ovaries will be fried".

I have to stop. I'm just making myself angry. And I'm drinking.

I guess I'm just trying to say, take care, beware of bastards, and get yourself a fibre-optic endoscope!

 

[lesofprimus]

Its real interesting to see what others from around the globe, others that I consider my Friends, have trialled themselves with....

I omitted several parts of my story, including my Mom getting cancer and dying, and my own bout with that prick colon cancer, so I am defiantly relating to what some of u guys are talkin about... I also have 2 younger brothers and 3 nephews and neices...

I will edit my post above to include these omissions...

OK, I edited my original post and included some more personal/indepth stuff....

Big difference in these 2 pics, huh guys???

What happened???

 

[lesofprimus]

I went and added ur mugshot photos for each Bio.... If u didnt submit a pic, I added one for u, in humiliation....

 

[parsifal]

Hi Guys

My name is Michael, I was born in 1959, in a place called Orange NSW Australia. i was the son of a farmer, and granndson to one of the original ANZACs, fought at Gallipoli, Palestine, including Beersheba. My grandad left me his war medals when he died, which I still have and cherish.

I was not real close to my Dad, but he brought me up, and taught me how to think, and question the world around me, and i am thankful for that. My dad was a difficult man, a needy man i guess. All of my brothers and sisters are bright....I have two sisters and a brother. My brother is an electronics engineer, has worked on everthing from the Harrier engine management systems to how to make Pokies suck more money out of the punters. My sisters are each a singer, and my other sister is a psychologist.

I had an intersting upbringing. Mum left my Dad when I was 7, and my brother and I spent most weekends on the farm, helping out. I learnt to ride, to gentle horses, i was driving trucks and tractors, and owned half a dozen guns by the time i was twelve. I learnt to shoot pretty well, but later, in my late twenties, I turned right away from hunting, and guns and all that stuff. I also learned how to fish with explosives, which was kinda cool i thought. At the other end of the scale, I was reading three books per week by the time I was ten. I grew to love knowledge, any knowledge, mostly to take on my Dad in the endless debates that we used to get into . Very young learning and knowledge became my escape for me

I graduated in in 1977, senior high, having achieved tertiary entrance scores in the top 2% of the country. I cannot tell you if my dad would have helped me through Uni, but I was getting tired of the the control he wanted to excercise over me, i was always a restless soul, and loved two things, boats and planes. I decided to join the navy

All this sounds like a dirge, but it wasnt. I had a blast as a young fella. I used to live about 45 miles from school, and was the only kid in the valley with a car. I used to keep the petrol up to it by running a school taxi service. It cost two bucks, flat fee, to flag me down and get in the car. if you were a cute girl, you got in for free, so long as you sat next to me, and i was allowed to put my arm around you. On weekends I used to sink wells for the local farmers, and use explosives to cut through any rocks I would find

I joined the navy in 1978, having spent some time in the Naval reserves before that. By the time I left for the navy my sport was boxing. I was young and fit, and strong, and dangerous.

I graduated from the naval College in 1981, and spent a couple more yearswith the fleet having qualified for my second stripe (Lt). Whilst i was in college, I was introduced to what beacame my lifelong passion, wargaming. I have been doing that ever since, not as a full time living, but as serious hobby neverthe less.

I served on a number of ships, including the carrier melbourne. Whilst on the melbourne I realized that I really wanted to fly. But that was never to be. The nearest I got to a shooting war was in 1981, following the Russian invasion of afghanistan. We all thought there was going to be shooting back then. I was training to be a PWO by then (Principal Warfare officer) and got to see a lot of action in the ops room as a result. Later i went to staff college for about six month (or thereabouts) It was a bit scary (and exciting, to watch the live ammunition being loaded onto the carrier Before we sailed. It was a small but effective TG that sailed into the Arabian sea that year. Shooting would have started if Pakistan was attacked

The last trip i did with the navy was 1984. I volunteered to crew on the Antarctic supply ship, the Nella Dan. I wanted to see the Polar ice. already I had deployed to a lot of interesting places. New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, just to name a few

I remember one of the best times was meeting in Singas with some New Zealanders, one or two Americans, and I think two Russinas. We had the best times teaching each other how to swear in various languages, and other stuff. It was about that time that i realized that politics keeps us apart, andthe stuff that I was being indoctrinated with in the navy was a bit off the mark in some respects. We all bleed and have the same worries and cares in many resapects.

I never made it to Antarctica, I was wondering why I was losing so much weight. I ate like a horse and was constantly thirsty. halfway down to antardtica, I collapsed, in a coma. My old ship the melbourne apparently winched me to safety. All i know is i woke up in a hospital. A few days later i received the bad news, I would be discharged from the navy as medically unfit. It was pretty bad. My girlfriend, who became my first wife was pregnant, and I had no job. It got worse. A couple of months later I had a bad motocycle accident, and my wife decided it was all too much after the baby came along. So here I am, no job, a baby (by that stage about 8 months), and with injuries that might well make me permanently disabled (I had nearly torn my shoulder off, and had split my liver). I remember the medical staff saying on the night of my accident "we might lose this one" Kinda makes you really stop and think when that happens.

But I did survive. My second love was design, urban design, geography and things like that. I worked by day, my mom helped with the baby (for about two years), and I studied by night. I completed my second degree in two years (I could use a lot of the subjects from the first degree I had received in 1980). In 1987 I got my first job as a town planner. It had been a long dark time. I now also have a further degree in Environmental land management, which sort of explains why i no longer own a gun, and wont even touch one

I am still a town planner today. In 2002 my son graduated, and all of a sudden I was single and unnattached again. I met a lady plying chess on the Internet, shes Russian, and beautiful, and she actually likes me. We got married in 04, have built a house. i am thinking of having another child. Tanya, my wife, is thirteen years my junior, so she really wants to have a child. I wouldnt mind one either, to be honest

Because i read so much, i have a lot of books. I mentioned my hobby, wargaming. Actually I am a wargame designer, working with a small group of friends, Our Group have helped to design a number of games, the most famous of which is World In Flames. These are the table based counter games, some of you may be familair with. they are not computer games. They require a lot of research, because they must be reasonably accurate if they are to have my name on it. they are better described as simulations rahter than games actually. My current project is a simulation of the entire war, covering the air, land, sea, political and industrial aspect of the war. The air system is based around "air points", ten plane units, which are not on the map as such. The points are grouped into air Gropups, which for kland based units is about 20 air point (200 a/c) Everyone who has seen it says it is easily the most accurate air combat system they have ever seen. But it still needs some work. It takes about 300 hours to play the whole thing from strart to finish, which is just too long


Anyway, here is my ugly scone, and my wife on the day we ewere married.

BTW I call myself Parsifal, because that was to be my callsign if i had ever received my wings. i was always liked to see myself as the one of pure heart...yeah right.

 

[Matt308]

Les, I loved my pic. A too close to home.

Oh and I liked Adler's too.

 

[Heinz]

Im fascinated by other people and these are some very moving and humbling biographies.

 

[Hunter368]

I have to say I did not fully intend this thread to totally turn into what is has turned into, but I am more then happy that it has.

I think we all see another side of each other and know more about each other then ever before. Thats a great thing.

Matt,

I totally agree with you. When I joined this site about 3 years ago it was just to take WW2 knowledge away from it. I was not here to give this site anything, just use it for my gain.

While I still take a great deal of knowledge from it almost everyday, I have gained much much more from it then I ever expected.

I now have a group of friends all across the world also, which is much more valuable to me then anything. Much of what I have said in my bio post I have never even told my closest friends in person, b/c I did not feel I could share that with them. Only my wife, and all of you now, know the whole truth about my life, childhood, trials tribulations.

I thank all of you for your posts and opening up.

Special thanks to Dan, for posting pics of members and your bio post.

 

[Njaco]

the difference is the hat, Les.





Hunter, this was a Great idea!

 

[Hunter368]

Thanks but the idea was just that, just an idea.

What makes it good is the content of the thread and everyone deserves credit for that, not just me.

 

[lesofprimus]

Matt, I merged ur two posts together, but it put it up at the top....

****Please re-read Matt's Bio****

 

[Matt308]

Thanks, Les.