Reborn: My discovery of LAN.

I'm going to start this blog off properly with the first entry being how I started to get into LAN.

Basically I'd started off in life with a Super Nintendo and stayed with consoles until I was about eleven, when we got our first computer and I started with browser based games, then onto an MMO called Legend of Mir II and that's where PC gaming took over and still holds the majority of my gaming.

In 2009 I went into what became a three year relationship via a dating site called Match.com. His name was Pete and he had mentioned LAN events, but it didn't appeal to me until I suggested we actually went to one instead of reliving the stories of the ones he had attended.

We attended i42 back in spring 2011 and it was definitely an experience. The next one we attended was i44 and that's where I met most of the friends I have now, it's fascinating to look back at pictures from it and spot the people who I didn't meet or know and even to this day, I still discover new friends that are in pictures from i44.

I'd always felt different as a kid and a social out cast from the rest, gaming wasn't really in the scene, I'd make the odd friend who would come and go, but never as keen as I was until I met my best friend Alex back in year 5, (I think we were about nine or ten years old) who I am still friends with to this day and I value more than words can express. (Which is good, since I'm crap with words)

LAN events provided the key I had always needed to unlock a social life and experience so many things along with it, as well as discoveries about myself, life and people. I can't lie, they're not all good memories, but I've learned from the negative ones and the mistakes made and people do judge you based on what you've previously done, something I've learned myself to not do because people really do change and I've seen this first hand.

A few examples of the things I had never experienced because I was to shy or afraid to do so, until LAN happened:

• Sleep in a tent. I was told far to many silly stories and believed them.
• Sleep on a floor with other people.
• Discover I can get drunk. (Sorry guys)
• Play games in a hall with other people.
• Discover a passion for board and card games + Warhmmer. I used to look down on it!
• Play different genres of games.
• Use community showers.
• Talk to people without a reason. THEY'RE GONNA EAT ME
• Learn that it's okay to have a dirty mind, everyone else does anyway. 
• Become a professional hugger. Severely underrated career path.

There's more than that, but generally those are things that really hindered me in life because I was to afraid to do any of it and I never had a reason to experience things when I didn't have the friends required to do outside activities or get a hobby either.

When I decided to make this blog, I also considered doing entries of the friends who have been with and supported me pretty much since forming a strong friendship or even relationship with them, with the intention to know just how much they mean to me and I'm not afraid to hide that from the public, nor should they.

I personally love birthday and Christmas cards, words are valuable from the right people, and as much as a present without a card is also nice, words from the heart is something you can't buy, sure you can hire a professional to write something out for you at the extreme, but then you're just a jerk, simply put.

So this blog will have posts dedicated to people and my story with them so far, even if things don't pan out in the years to come, it's the fact they're here currently and it's the good things to remember, not the bad things, otherwise you end up depressive and stuck in a world of nasty things.