Leaderboard

This is my first ever attempt at a blog so I thought I would start with telling a little about me. I think you have truly understand where a person has come from to know a person, so this is my attempt in my first post. I was born in East London to a quite a poor family. From what I remember we lived in squats, although I think that was the done thing in those days. Finally we moved out of London and I remember our very first house, all be it a council house. Anyhow, school was pretty much the normal for me as anyone else. I didn't go to great schools, and even if I did I don't think I would of done any better then I did. I was a trouble maker, I did some bad things. I then found Army cadets (for anyone else, it's like a youth club if you don't understand, but with discipline), this taught me respect, and I left most of my troublesome past behind me. I left school at 16, and joined the army. After 16 years I could boast a career, that started in tanks, then infantry. I went on to become a helicopter pilot and finally a skydiving instructor as my last post before I left. After the army, I found myself getting offered jobs in Iraq as private security, so decided that I would go, I then spent the next 2+ years, mainly in Baghdad working on contracts. After getting blown up and shot at way to many times, I decided it was time for a change, went back to the UK and started my own company, all was great, started a second company (died, but that's another story) then the recession hit and found myself back into private security. After the failed companies, I was then back in private security, but this time in Afghanistan, not as intense as Iraq but still quite dangerous. Spent the next 3 or so years dodging bullets and bombs, then left as it felt right to at the time. Probably, best to go back over the places I have lived to show how I ended up where I am today. Lived in the UK most of my life, except when I was in the army which took me to places such as Germany, Northern Ireland, USA, Canada, Africa, Balkans and some other great places. I spent some time living in France, Germany and now I have found myself living in Bangkok. I find I can get quite bored if I am in one place for to long, normally dependant on relationships etc. Now I am just chugging along with life. Probably the same as most, looking for the next opportunity, or maybe best put, the next chapter. Anyhow, not very interesting, but I felt I needed to say something about myself before I could write anymore. Ha, to be honest I have got so much experience with life in such a short amount of time I could write a book. Hmmm maybe I should. I am going to go back over my life and elaborate of things in time. Probably call it the early years. Like I said this is my first attempt at this blog thing, and I am writing this not just for you the reader, but a little for myself as well. As always be safe and enjoy whatever it is your doing.

I know I think about this alot, and I know some of you all do too, I have conversations with quite a few members as to what their goals, and plans were, as far as their future with FA is concerned. I don't think there is another topic that asks this question, so I thought I would. And so to start us off, I will go first, and hopefully this will catch on, and others will do so too.. Besides, it is good for leaders and higher ups to see where you stand, and I am sure will help us all when it comes to promoting, and putting people in the right places.. I joined FA almost 2 years ago, I was playing ET and found the Silent server, and starting playing there. The first thing I notices was how nice the members were, and how eager they seemed when it came to helping me out, or giving me advice. So I played there for a while, I wasn't very good, but I started to get to know the member better, and I was totally impressed with their willingness to help others with game play, graphics issues, configs, and so on. And that got me wandering what this community was all about. I decided to hit the forum and sign up, and see what all the fuss was about. It didn't take long for me to figure out the rest off the community were just as nice, just as helpful, and really welcomed a stranger to their forum with open arms. So unlike most of you, who were invited to apply for actually membership, I was not, but it didn't stop me from wanting to be a part of this awesome community, and maybe in the future, be able to help people like me, as much as FA had helped me. It took a few months, and then I was finally accepted to trial, which was an awesome feeling. And to shorten the story a bit, not much longer and I was accepted as a full member, which honestly (and some may laugh) was like a dream come true. I was so excited, I was going out and telling people in real life about it. Yeah I was called nerd or geek on several occasions, but I didn't care. Fact was, I am both a nerd and a geek hehe.. It took me a while to find something I could be good at, and/or helpful with in this community. But after a while I found something I liked to do, not that I was good at it, but I sure did enjoy it, and some of the others seemed to like it also, and that was making signatures. Jesus, my first few were terrible, and I knew they were, but people in the community continued to encourage me to keep it up, and keep trying. And so I did, and not to day that my sigs are awesome, but they sure have came a long way since I started hehe. So this was great, I had found a place in the community where I could be helpful, and actually had a few people request me to do their sigs, which I thought was amazing. I continued to do that, and eventually got put on the GFX Team, which was also great! So not only did we do sigs, we did banners, and all sorts of stuff, which was a great feeling, getting to be so involved. That continued for quite some time, and then one day I logged on, and noticed I had been promoted again, which totally blew me away, I did not see it coming. When I checked, I noticed I had been promoted to the Recruiting Team! I couldn't believe that the people of FA had enough faith in me to trust me, along with some others to be a part of this team. In my eyes, it was a pretty big deal, going through apps, discussing potential members, or others for promotions, and new levels and such. It was and is an honor to be a part of this. So that leads me here, where do I see myself in the future with FA. I'm not going to lie, I don't see me as a co-leader. or leader of FA right now, maybe later once I have learned more, and believe me, there are always things to learn in this community, and about being a leader. But once I had become a part of the GFX Team I learned something about myself, I really like to help. I think I am a helper at heart. I love the feeling of being able to fix problems for people, whether it is explaining how to add a sig, or adding a GUID to someones profile, the general help in these forums. Once I had learned that I had set my sights on being a part of the staff. I like what they do, and how they help, and what they do is really important, and don't get me wrong, every job we all have is important, we all help FA to run. And no matter what the title of the level, we are all equal, and we all server a purpose. But to answer the question, that is where I see myself in the future, and what I would like to do.. Feel free to answer this question here in this blog, let us know what your goals and dreams are, and how you would be able to better help this community. Do you see yourself as a leader, co-leader, or even making sigs and banners for GFX Team? Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear from you all soon! Shane A.K.A. Chameleon