Hello Fellow TMKers!
"Look!" said Toad, "A Chain Chomp!" ... Just kidding!
Tomorrow is my 10th anniversary of activity here at the Fungi Forums. I know that I have not always been the most active of posters on these parts of the internet, but I do feel that this message board and web community has made a profound mark on my teenage and young adult life so far. I'd like to dedicate this topic to the great folks whom I've met during my time here -- and to ten more years!
The weekend trips to my grandmother's house in the early 90s lasted seemingly forever. A boy of four or five, I with my sister would be dropped off for a weekend of food, crafts, and NES with my grandmother. In her retirement she took the time to explore the worlds of many NES titles: Adventure Island II, Wacky Racers, Bubble Bobble 2: Rainbow Island, Tetris, and all the rest. Still, two games stuck out as the highlights of those weekends. Super Mario Brothers and SMB3 became the feature presentations of those trips. I would play and die, and grandma would play and die, and my sister would simply die, and the girl who lived next door would play and play until she inevitably beat the game. We were all in awe of her ability. On one occasion, my grandpa, pipe in his mouth, was watching her play, when she demonstrated the infinite life glitch off of the koopa in 3-1. "How the hell are you so good at that thing?" he asked. She just smiled. I wanted to be that good. Grandpa never said such things when I was playing. I made it to 8-1 once when I was six or so. But my father dragged my out of the house, my hands still clutching the controller which he ripped out of the system as Mario was in mid jump. He met his demise at the bottom of a pit.
As a young teenager, I was very much enthralled -- and still am, but to a different degree -- by Super Mario 64. While surfing the internet , I came across a website with a particularly delightful splash page (if you are in the know, you can still see it). The simple black background and seemingly endless information about my favorite video game character kept me coming back for more.
To this day, I'm not quite sure why I joined the Fungi Forums or why I became a presence in #tmk for several years, but I am always grateful that I did. When the !stats came out on #tmk, I was often excited to see how well I had performed in the chat that month. While my friends were checking MySpace or the Facebook, I would find myself returning home from high school to check the Fungi Forums. Better conversation (and grammar [and language, {right Sapphira?}]) here anyhow.
While my love for video games waned in favor of books and music, I never lowered the flag on this community. I think that's a testament to each of you in building a community that is about so much more than video games. While I've never been the most informed gamer, nor the most impressive tech expert, nor the funniest, nor the smartest, nor the most articulate, I've always been made to feel a homely welcome on this little slice of the internet. For that I am grateful. You all are the reason for that.
If I might borrow a line from Bilbo Baggins, “I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” To Deezer and MEGAB¥TE, Chupperson Weird, Sapphira, Luigison, David, Suffix, Lizard Dude, Watoad, TEM, Rao, BP, Markio, NintendoExpert89, WarpRattler (and even to jon and Vidgmchtr): thank you. Thanks for ten years of great laughs, great conversations, and great memories.
To Deezer and his staff: thanks for making such a great website that has attracted such a great community over the years. All the work you've put into this site over the years has made it something special. The Forum update was a great undertaking, and your constant willingness to help and listen to annoying teenage punks (like I was) amazes me. You've done fine work with this site, and for that you should be proud.
To Sapphira: Thanks for the help with the ADVANCED Poster Awards for those two years. Long live Sapphira Fan Club!
To LD, Luigison, Markio and my other interlocutors: thanks for always forcing me to examine my arguments from all sides and for helping me to sharpen my rhetorical skills and hone my argumentative abilities.
To TEM and Chupperson: Thanks for the great memories in #tmk and for the awesome conversations we shared.
To anybody whom I might have missed or forgotten: Thanks for the memories. Everyone here holds a special place in my heart.
To The Fungi Forums, to #tmk, to all of you: long live The Mushroom Kingdom!
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