Who are you?

[Fritz]

I can feel I'm getting older by the minute.

 

[Scotfree]

I'm a Scotsman who moved to Australia 21 years ago. My first "computer" was an Acorn Electron way back in the 80's.
I found it terrible hard to move so far from family and friends. I was only a young lad when I moved here. I suffered from terrible depression for years and It was only in 2011 that I found out that I have Bipolar. Since then, I've not been able to work, so that's been hard. And only this year I was diagnosed with ADHD. I was also bullied at school because I was classed as stupid and to find out that it was the ADHD that made things hard for me to understand was a great relief in my life. I have found that playing around with computers has been a great help to me and to find this website has opened a whole new source of knowledge for me.

 

[Fritz]

Thanks for sharing @Scotfree! Mental issues can be so stifling, people who never had to deal with these issues will never be able to understand. Got ADD myself and it took me decades to find out what the heck is going on. Had to take so much initiative until I finally found a doc who would actually treat me. Everybody else: "Oh, but grown-ups don't get that". End of story.

With me, it's either hyperfocus or being all over the place with my thoughts without meds. Of course, I get to pay for everything myself, since only kids suffer from it, remember?

The only thing I can tell folks who don't understand mental issues: Don't even try to. You can't. Just try to be sympathetic. Always irks me to no end whenever I hear that folks "just need to pull themselves together". Might as well try that next time you have a heart attack.

 

[AtlBo]

Studied Basic/Lotus/Dbase in high school in the late 70s on an Apple 2 donated to the high school by Steve Jobs. Went on to study Basic more thoroughly in college along with circuits in engineering school. I took everything in college from 14 college level math classes to philosophy to accounting to dynamics to thermodynamics to circuits to psychology to economics to physics and modern physics and on and on. I was in college for quite some time, but that was on a challenge from my parents to learn while the opportunity was available to learn full time. I am grateful for their advice and consistent support. Looking back I agree, college is very difficult. Also, it's worth the effort and expense in time, although it takes many years to place a context on its importance.

Bought my first PC in 1995 after meeting a young guy who used his 486 computer to build a massively successful company here where I live in the southern U.S. I was very angry with myself when he showed me what he was doing, and I felt like I had let the technology get past me. So I went out and bought my first PC. That began a 21 year (so far) odyssey of learning and piecing together the intricacies of PC performance. I've always been most interested in kernel technology, mainly the Windows kernel, and I have focused my energy on learning its strengths and deficiencies. It's difficult to do without any code to see, but I have learned to "decode" Windows over the years by paying strict attention to performance responses to user choices.

Became interested in a deeper way in security just a few years ago, so I am relatively new to depths of the subject. I do feel that I am beginning to identify the challenges now, thanks in large part to you guys here at MT . I hope to continue with this interest and pursue others while learning C#. I really want to master Windows Forms...that's my goal. Hope to put together some apps that fit into my concept of "ideal" productivity from the personal computer platform.

 

[FrFc1908]

What can I say about myself? A child trapped in a grown man's body? that might be partly true before I met my wife I did not have the Life that I have now...trusted the wrong people ( amongst them where my own family ) , helping them in each way , shape and form I could but still it was not enough. Still had to fight and prove myself to get respect , trashtalking behind my back and trying to destroy a person untill you are nothing more than dust. I made the choice to leave them far behind after my Mother died 3 years back , but not untill my sister and father left out my name off the obituary card ( ofcourse the dogs names where on it ) this is something that is very hard to swallow and it is the action of someone who is rotten to the core. But this did not stop me at all ; I am so glad with the choices I made back than and now. My Life is so much more forfilling!! I keep on building without ever looking back! I do not have professional refferences in ICT , but I like each and every bit in computers aswell as security! Some of the older mt members might know me under a different username or the AVG - Guy...i used to be an AVG hall of famer / guru from 2011 - 2015. In my spare time I love to give colleague's / family ( by this I mean my wifes family ) / friends computers / laptops checkups and help them with malware related problems! Mt is a big part of my Life also , did meet Some wonderful / awesome people here and I am very grateful to be a part of this Community!!! Thanks for Reading

 

[Scotfree]

T

Thanks for sharing @Scotfree! Mental issues can be so stifling, people who never had to deal with these issues will never be able to understand. Got ADD myself and it took me decades to find out what the heck is going on. Had to take so much initiative until I finally found a doc who would actually treat me. Everybody else: "Oh, but grown-ups don't get that". End of story.

With me, it's either hyperfocus or being all over the place with my thoughts without meds. Of course, I get to pay for everything myself, since only kids suffer from it, remember?

The only thing I can tell folks who don't understand mental issues: Don't even try to. You can't. Just try to be sympathetic. Always irks me to no end whenever I hear that folks "just need to pull themselves together". Might as well try that next time you have a heart attack.

Thanks, Fritz. Aye, the amount of times I've heard " Just pull yourself together and get on with it " would amaze you. This is from family members as well..... I'm in the same boat with my meds for the ADHD as yourself. I have to pay the full amount, which is hard as I don't work. Thankfully, most of my bipolar meds are covered by my pension. I hope I'm okay in saying this, but if anyone has friends or family that see down or not themselves, just ask them if they are Okay, and listen to them. Sometimes, that is all It takes to make a huge difference to their life.

 

[JHomes]

Graduated high school before most of you were born. Got a job working for Dell doing IT (this was back in the 90's/early 00's where people didn't care if you went to school or not! Ha!). Loved the job and it loved me. Then I had a family emergency so I had to move back to Dallas. Met my future wife, opened up my own IT/Network Security consulting firm. Worked on getting my cert's and other formal papers. I now have a large number of corporate/government contracts in the local Dallas area. In some ways I miss Dell, but I'm also really happy where I am now and get a larger cut of the proverbial pie.