outdoors30

Hey gang!

I just wanted to take a moment to share a bit of gratitude with all of you.
The past couple of years have been filled with negative things from layoffs to
financial woes to the passing of several family members and friends, local friends
moving away, and one super whore of an ex (haha, but seriously). While there
have been good moments here and there, the one consistent good thing has
been this wonderful community, and I want to first say a general thank you for
that. It has been an absolute pleasure thus far getting to know several of you
and every day I look forward to chatting with the regulars and getting to know
new faces as well. I occasionally see rep points given to me for various things
like the lotto in IRC or this thread or that idea, sometimes the comment states
something along the lines of "thanks for all your hard work". This always gives
me pause for thought, because not one thing I've done here did I consider
to be "work". I'm not on a schedule or timeline or forced to do anything. I
thoroughly enjoy everything I've put into this place, and I'm just honored that
the higher-ups here have granted me special permissions to do even more.

So first I'd like to give a hearty thank you to all the staff who donate so much
of their time and energy to making this place such a wonderful environment.

I need to give two personal thank you's:

Greigor - Your kindness and thoughtfulness makes you a better person than
I wager most people are even aware. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar
and I tip my hat to you.

Ender - I am so happy for what you're doing right now and I hope it's all
going wonderfully for you. That said, I will absolutely speak for everyone
and say we all miss you buddy, and hope to see you around more again
in the near future. You put an amazing amount of faith in someone you
didn't know well enough to do what you did, and I can't thank you enough
for it. I hope some day soon I'll get down there and be able to buy you
a beer and shake your hand. My hat's off to you as well, buddy.

I could thank several more people here, but for names left out, I will simply
say one big thank you for being the wonderful guys and gals that you are.

Best wishes to everyone in the coming year and thanks for everything!