Well, I guess it might be my turn, even though I'm not active on here anymore
The real name's Michiel, equivalent to Michael in English (for the poor chaps who can't pronounce it
).
When I was 9, I had meningitis and encephalitis combined after a 2 week cold strain. It could've been deadly to me several times. I suffered from epilepsy, paralysis and a host of other naughty effects on me. At the worst points, I weighed 23 kg at age 10. Doctors found and a big abscess between both my brain halves (the most dangerous place it could grow in your brain). They had to remove this surgically, by a doctor who only done it twice (one didn't make it and the other was forever paralysed). I woke up two days after and together with antibiotics, my life was saved.
Doctors thought I would be paralysed for the rest of my life, that I could go blind, suffer from epilepsy ever since. But none of that happened. I remained relatively healthy in a physical way. But it seems that the further actions that dictated my life upto now have certainly been dictated by what I endured during that life-threatening moment in time. In other words, it scarred my psyche in a bad way.
After this, I've lived in Italy for 3 years and life smiled a bit at me. I've been internationally orientated since my adolescence, living there and attending an international school, where I had to speak English at age 12 (which is uncommon for Dutch people... they dabble into English at age 10 but nothing so intense as conversations in the language!). To beat boringness, I usually came up with games (and not in a perverted way) or other ways to entertain myself. I was still collecting Wood Elves back then and sometimes pretended to be a Wood Elf outside... I kept myself quite fit by running, jumping and climbing random things. We had a cat too, which joined me in my epic runs of life. It was quite funny as we scared other astray cats away from our property. Silly boy's games.
I joined Machiara's Battle Glade and dabbled into the online WH world. I went by the name Quercia dei Eternita (tree of eternity). I helped Ithildir Hawk-Eye to make his forum, the Waystone, popular. It melted together with the Raining Glade into Asrai.org as most of you know it. When the new Wood Elves rumours came about, I dabbled into the Vampire Counts. For some reason, I didn't like the new models. I started to make Carpe Noctem. I swore myself to make a nice place where people could meet, despite The Blood Keep being around. I wanted the forum to grow as big as the Blood Keep. In the end, I have succeeded, with the help of some many people (because I couldn't have pulled it off by myself) but at the cost of the Blood Keep. I never had anticipated it to happen, and I don't think it was the best way to go about. I'd rather had seen some kind of merge.
And since some time, DoN has been admin of this forum and I've been slowly lowering my activity. From one side, I have too few time to do the updates. And from the other side, it feels I have succeeded in my dream to make CN big, and somehow feel I have to move on. I think DoN is doing a job that superceeds my own ability as admin. I feel he's a lot more close to the members than I am, and seems to have more ability to do the updates. I find him a good admin, better than myself.
I begin to feel that I've not been into Warhammer for the hobby, but more to create a place for support. To help people out the best I, and others, could. I really like the world of Warhammer and that of the Lord of the Rings, but I've never actually played a game nor painted many miniatures. Nevertheless, I think I've had a lot of fun with Warhammer.
Another big hobby of mine was gaming. I've played a bunch of games throughout the years, mostly Counter-Strike Source. I've grown a lot in experience with that, and feel that could try for tournaments. But yet again, I feel I it's not fulfilling anymore, and should focus on new things. Things more public, among people. But I fear this, in a way.
At this moment, I sometimes feel like I would like to do a lot of new things, yet I don't take action. I'm searching for way to begin this the best possible way. There probably isn't a best way... I feel that I'm in some kind of personal identity crisis. I've had times when I asked myself "Who am I?", and that hurts. But those times have gone by.
But I shouldn't forget that anything's possible with courage and perseverence. I've had the one dream in my adolescence come true, and that was making CN a big forum. I never thought about that, figured it out writing this.
Life's full of wonderful surprises.
Some of the best books I've ever read.
