solstice

Hey Gonz! As a fellow sysadmin, I'm interested to know what you administer! Also, when Orcs aren't causing problems in the devops community (and they always are), what do you like to do?

Hey Griff! Not the same Solstice I'm afraid, but even so I'll agree it's a very small world. My GW1 characters all had Solstice as part of the name (Solstice Agamemnon, Solstice Maximus, etc.) so I incorporated Solstice into my account name for GW2. PS: Is it weird that every time I hear the phrase "It's a small world" I think not of the Disney song but of the comedian Steven Wright's line about a small world?!

Thank you all so much for the warm welcomes! Rather than a string of replies, let me see if I can tackle a few of these at once: The small group of friends that I mentioned in my intro includes several Brits that I met through GW1, so I'm now familiar with all sorts of Britishisms, and I've done my share of "faffing about", been called a womble, etc. You have that backward I'm afraid -- CD still owes you one for the great training session and for being willing to share it on their forums. I'm happy the recording turned out relatively well, and I learned some tricks that made subsequent recordings of other game sessions better. I remember it well and it was Jesuki. That was a fun session, and like all of them I got a lot out of it. I'm originally from Minnesota but now I live in North Dakota. I doubt I'll be able to make every guild mission, but I'll do my best to attend as many of them as possible. I promise that if I ever take a photo that's not just another typical vacation photo, I'll be certain to share. Thanks again everyone! Solstice

Read, agreed, and signed.

Hello from a friend on Crystal Desert! I had originally just intended to sign up for your forums as a "friend", so I could keep in touch after your move to Dragonbrand. However, after Fera explained the SoH Merc guild rank to me, I've decided to also accept her gracious offer and become an SoH Merc for PvE content. I'll do everything in my power to live up to the tag when I'm displaying it. I'm currently planning on staying on CD and continuing to play with the very small group of friends that I've been gaming with since the GW1 days, but I'm really looking forward to occasionally being able to take part in SoH guild missions or other PvE content with you all. Unlike GW1, I didn't incorporate "Solstice" into all or even any of my character names, so although some of you may know me as Solstice, some of you know me as Piper (for my ranger, the first character I tried WvW with) or Autumn (who attended many of Grieve's mesmer training sessions) or Eikar (ditto for Huntyre's guardian sessions). You're welcome to call me by any of those names. I also look forward to meeting those of you that I've not encountered yet! I've been on voice-comm with many of you many times, primarily for DWvW, but I've generally been muted -- I have a very clicky keyboard. I'll start training myself for push-to-talk, but if I happen to be on mumble with you in the future and I'm quiet, don't be offended. Recommendations for what others use for their PtT keybinding would be greatly appreciated. I've been playing GW2 on CD since launch. Guild Wars (1) was my first and only other MMO, and I played that for years before switching to GW2. Before GW1 starved out playtime for other games, I played a mix of RTS (Star Craft, AoE I & II, Total Annihilation & Supreme Commander), hack & slash (Diablo I & II) and single-player RPG (Elder Scrolls III, Baldur's Gate). I'm a little (or a lot, depending on your perspective) older than many of you, so I have fond memories of text-based and "hi-res" adventure games on the Apple IIe during my teen years -- games like "Wizardry", "The Bard's Tale", "Wasteland", and "Might & Magic". In GW2, I play about 60% PvE and 40% WvW, though with the current CD WvW atmosphere it's been closer to 90/10 for the past few months. I hadn't anticipated playing WvW at all, and didn't for the first four months after GW2 launch. But for a chance encounter with Tyrlis just over a year ago, and the subsequent beginner-friendly trainings that he, Huntyre, and Grieve (& Jacked!) lead, I probably never would have taken to WvW at all. IRL, I'm a Linux & UNIX system administrator at a university in the US upper midwest. I've developed an interest in photography in the past couple years, but so far I can confirm that it's still possible to take mediocre pictures even with fantastic gear. Since I'm in the upper midwest and since our winters last an unpleasantly long time, this time of year I'm in game most evenings (Central time). Because of other committments I won't always be able to take part in guild events, but hopefully you'll be seeing me around once in a while. I look forward to seeing you around! Solstice