macstack

Hi y'all. I'm going to be honest: it's been such a long time that while a bunch of the screen names I'm seeing here are familiar, the humans behind them aren't always as memorable to me. Or at least I may need a refresher. (That's on me and the entropy of aging.) So, a re-intro + update since the heady, beautiful MacAddict Forum days.

I'm Justin. In the MAF Era, I lived in East Texas — a precocious homeschooled self-identifying Religious Right teen who graduated early, went to college, and became a progressive liberal apostate through world experience and observing the Bush era. I was a mod and I met many of you (mostly fellow mods/admins) in person throughout the years, though not all that I hoped too. (Shout-out to my benighted complement from another continent, Kai.)

I'm still Justin, but now I live in the mountains of Colorado with my family (Rachael and two sons, ages 17 and 12), a beloved golden-collie mix, and the most spastic and unpredictable cat I've ever met. I make web software and grouse about the state of the U.S., and recently ferry my snowboard-obsessed 12YO to the slopes as often as he can talk me into taking a day off.

I still use Macs, although with more and more Vasoline-lensed nostalgia for The Good Old Days of classic Mac OS — which I mean literally but which I also spiritually extend to Snow Leopard. I have one gas-pumped car and one EV, and look forward to the day I can eradicate the former entirely. I'm trying to eat fewer animals, except more seafood because the ocean is our natural enemy and we must conquer it.

I'd love to be reminded who you all are and what you've been up to for the last, uh, 25 years!

Good idea!

Hi everyone. I’m Sean 2.0. I was Sean on the old MacStack forums, and UltimateMacUser back in the MacAddict days.

Currently living my best life in the Upstate of South Carolina (since movin*here from New Jersey in late 2012), with two of the floofyist floofs (see pets thread).

Still mostly a Mac user. Still working in IT.

Alright, I joined a few years after MacAddict became Mac|Life forums. Back then I was a naïve teenager from Puerto Rico who had just gotten his first Mac. I used to go by gd in Mac|Life and later in Macstack until at some point I no longer wanted my username to be my first to initials, so I had Obvs change my username to Link, which is what I decided to go with now.

I think the last time I was active in Macstack and was around my first or second year of dental school. Since then I've graduated from dental school, I did two years of a general dentistry residency, and then went on to specialize. Now I'm in my final semester of a Periodontology residency.

I’m dv-. Same old dv. But now with a hyphen because reasons.

I still work in IT. I’m currently a contractor at the Post Office. I mostly build CI/CD and related automation, custom middleware, and stuff like that.

In 2021 my younger brother died of COVID (he got Delta just before the vaccines hit general availability.) picked it up at church, with the other “yay guns” antimaskers. He died two months after my grandmother died. So I kept having to drive down to the family cemetery in Watseka, IL. Not a lot of fun.

So I had my midlife crisis, said, “well if not now, when?”, bought an old house with a huge backyard, started fostering dogs and got some more cats too. (See: the pet thread.) I also bought my double wide grave plot, next to my brother’s. Currently looking for someone who wants to be buried next to me. ;-)

I also got braces, FWIW. I like my new straight teeth. They’re easier to floss.

Since buying my house I’ve gotten pretty good at electrical work. I also did a “studs and subfloor” remodel of the kitchen in ‘22 which I’m pretty happy with. I learned to solder electronics and I’ve rebuilt a couple 68k macs. (New capacitors, power supplies, etc.) I always wanted a IIsi and now I have two! Overclocked! With Ethernet and FPUs!

I am currently taking ballroom dancing lessons for fun, and still play bassoon in various local community orchestras and stuff. I keep a fairly modern PC for gaming and use a MacBook Pro for the stuff I care about.

Hobbies are good!

I took up watchmaking during the pandemic (currently on a hiatus due to parts prices), also started learn German as a 2nd language.

Jdude, all the way back to the MAF days. I used to do Army stuff. Now I do hobby level 3d printing and am working on a python based machine vision project.