Where you from?

[admin]

Typically on forums, most people are from America. One thing I think is quite unique to ocgfx is that isn't the case! Yeah. We do have a lot of Americans still, but I think there are quite a few other countries represented here!

I keep seeing a lot of you from the UK here! hehe I love it!! And was wondering if England is the country most represented here. Very curious indeed.

For me, I'm from Canada. I love Canada and think it is a wonderful country. And especially where I live, which I think is probably the pretties place in all of North America, at least hehe

So, yep. Where are ya from and what do you like about your country?

[(((Thump))) *bounces*]

Hehe...

I live in the U.S., Maine to be exact, born in Jacksonville, Florida. Maine is the prettiest state in the Northeast (New England)! I won't comment about the country as a whole, but as for my state, I love it! So many wonderful things about Maine. ;D

• Infamous Horror Novelist, Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine and resides in Bangor, Maine.
  
  
• A number of well known Actors/Actresses were born in Maine.
  
  
• Everyone from other states seem to want to spend their summer vacations in Maine, which is why we're called "Vacationland"
  
  
• Former President George Bush Sr. has a summer home in Kennebunkport, Maine. (Very beautiful I must add)
  
  
• Our famous Maine lobsters! (I'm allergic, lol)
  

But hey, Shan, I'm half French Canadian, so I guess I have the best of both countries in North America. Well, in my opinion anyways, hehe.


Edit: Added a few things that I love about my state. And corrected where I'm originally from.

[Nya]

Cool Idea... ;D

Me im from Georgia USA.


Its a nice state many are friendly but everyone can say the same about their own state or country.

[mikefromsstv]

Hi Everybody (new Guy)

I could say Michiana Michigan (SW Corner of Michigan right on the lake) That is where I am from, and to where I would like to return. I have been in the US Navy for 24 years (next month) They keep my family and I on the move. Most recently 5 moves in 5 years. From North Carolina, to Illinois, to Japan, to California, back to Illinois. I have blessedly been all over God's BLUE earth, about 25 countries on 5 Continents. My favorite? Hands down Australia! Thanks for asking!


Your NEW Brother
Mike
IL / USA

[Gwen]

yep! i'm English born & raised. Lived most my life in the Midlands...Stratford-Upon-Avon to be exact(Shakespeare Country) & gosh! i'm still here I love this country cause....

*we're the only Empire that didn't go down in flames (we politely gave it back )
* on that note...Celebration of Independence (We once owned so many countries that nearly every day some country celebrates independence from us)
* we've got Oxford, York, Cardiff, Newcastle, but also amusingly named places like
Bread (a town/village somewhere up north) &
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch (the longest named place ever, northern wales) hehe
* we invented rugby & golf
* we invented the english breakfast *yum yum*
* the S.A.S...i feel safer in my bed at night knowing we have those guys !
* we spawned J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Charles thingyens, Shakespeare...ugh the list is endless
* also, we spawned the Beatles, Monty Python, Ian McKellen, & the Rolling Stones
* most importantly of all, we invented the ENGLISH LANGUAGE !! (where would y'all be without it?)



:edit:
why on earth can't i write thingyens (as in Charles) ohh, i get it. well i think you know who i mean by thingy-ens (the guy who wrote a christmas carol)

[bethany54]

I am from Zoobacore. It's a little planet in another solar system very far away from Colorado where I crash landed about 20 years ago. I miss Zoobacore very much where the animals talk and people are always kind. And on Zoobacore, I have a pet dragon. I wonder if she misses me.

Colorado is nice too, with moutains and plains and a lot of exciting history. I love the changing seasons and the fresh white crisoness of newly fallen snow. I love the way that one morning you awake to see trees wearing many colored leaves . . . reds, golds, oranges, yellows. I love spring where you see brave little flowers poking their heads out of the snow. Summer I don't love so much because I hate being too hot but even summer thrills me with thunder storms and grand displays of lightening which seem to shake the earth apart but always promise a glorious rainbow at the end.

Zoobacore has climate control. I miss Zoobacore.

[lhw]

Let's see if I can remember them all...

• Born: Chicago, IL.
  
• Age 1: Moved to Arlington Heights, IL.
  
• Age 3: Moved to Buffalo Grove, IL.
  
• Age 8: Moved to Waukesha, WI.
  
• Age 11: Moved to Trevor, WI.
  
• Age 12: Moved to Lindenhurst, IL.
  
• Age 17: Moved to Round Lake Heights, IL.
  
• Age 18: Moved to Salem, WI.
  
• Age 19: Moved to Trevor, WI.
  
• Age 24: Moved to Trevor, WI (other side of town).
  
• Age 33: Moved to La Crosse, WI.
  
• Age 35: Moved to La Crescent, MN.
  
• Age 35: Moved to Grayslake, IL.
  
• Age 37: Moved to Antioch, IL.

Well...in a nutshell, that's where I'm from.

[squidie]

England

[bethany54]

admin said:

Typically on forums, most people are from America. One thing I think is quite unique to ocgfx is that isn't the case! Yeah. We do have a lot of Americans still, but I think there are quite a few other countries represented here!

Shan I have been thinking about that statement you made. I cruised around looking at the boards that I post on and most of the places where I really do add something of real content are more International with a pretty even mix of USA and Canada, Australia, and England. Of course there are also other English speaking people from other countries as well. But many of them have people from non English speaking countries that make up a good per cent age of the active posters. It is only natural that people who speak the same language would be predominate in membership but I was a one time a member of a board that had so many non English speaking people that they would find pictures to post of common household things so that everyone could know that they were talking about the bathtub when they didn't know the word.

Thinking about your comment makes me wonder all the more what happened to some of those people after the board went defunct. There was a girl from Japan who was oppressed AND an embarrassment to her family because she was Christian. She kept trying to get everyone to let her come live with them as she was trapped in a cultural quagmire that didn't allow her to live her own life without being in submission to some man . . . either father or husband.

There was Wolf, a Dutch guy, who was trying to learn enough English that he could play at some of the role-playing game boards. He wanted so badly to be accepted by English speaking people. He was good with graphics but didn't have the ability to explain how he did something.

Mouse was a guy from Mexico who just wanted friends where ever in the world that they might be. He works nights as a computer tech and didn't have many friends that he saw often because of that schedule. His English wasn't that great so he would write these very long pm's to me which I would then rewrite and pm back to him so that he could copy and paste them into a post.

And there were many others as well. At that time we all had no clue where to begin to build a message board. I keep hoping to see then pop up someplace so maybe that is why I tend to post mostly at International boards. I am not impressed with American or Canadian things because we are practically one country except for the politics.
But even England is foreign enough that I sometimes don't understand what someone is saying. A good example is that this one gal kept calling me "chicken" I am NOT the bravest person in the world but I don't think that I am chicken either. When friends would ask me why Kimmie thought I was a chicken I had to say that I didn't know. Finally someone said that since she knew me personally and saw me several times a week that she could assure Kim that I am no chicken. Then Kim was confused because to her it was a term of endearment rather than a mocking scorn.

Niniane said that England invented the English language but the Englishman's English is often a million miles away from American English. Other cultures and places are more interesting than my own neighborhood. I am glad that that so many are here that don't live down the road from me.

I joined this board because of Mahud. But I thought that he was a teen aged boy at the time. Now there isn't anything wrong with teenage boys but we don't have that many things in common as I am a 51 year old woman. Mahud is into coding and Jesus so that gave us some common ground. I read some of the threads in the Christianity forums which is why I am here typing out this long post that probably no one in their right mind will read. But that's my story and I am sticking to it. So PTL and send me a Crunchie bar.

[admin]

bethany54 said:

I am not impressed with American or Canadian things because we are practically one country except for the politics.

I guess I disagree with this statement. There really is a lot of difference between Canada and the States. (Matt knows my beef when people call Canadian's Americans. lol) Yeah. We have a lot of similarities, but really, I think Canada is a cross between English culture and American culture and then their own wacky Canadian culture mixed in there, too! We have our own vocabulary and our own customs. Like, do you know what a Took is? Anyways. I guess I am very proud to be a Canadian and am proud that we are not part of the States. So, I get a little passionate about the subject. And also for me, my grandma is English and my mum was born in England, so I do still practice and speak like a Brit sometimes. I don't have an accent, but I do understand the English customs probably more than most North Americans. That is probably another reason Matt and I have so much in common.

I guess also what I meant, too, by my previous comment is that the boards I have gone to have been predominantly Americans except this board. I am an admin at The Road Less Taken and it is a nice size board and I would say that 90% of the people are from the States. I am one of only 2 Canadians on the entire board and I think there are probably maybe 2 or 3 people from the UK there. One one person from Australia. And maybe another one from another European countryOther than that the rest are from the States.

But yeah. I definately can see English speaking people migrating to English speaking forums. At the Road we do have one member and English is her second language. She is from Czech. I think it would be really cool to be part of a forum where a lot of members didn't speak that great of English. We would learn a lot from them and I love looking at different cultures. And it would give us a chance to learn from each other.

[bethany54]

No I don't exactly know what a took is but it wouldn't take me long to find out if I were so inclined. It's funny that to me that you are so passionate about Canada as I have many Canadian friends who long to be able to live here and I am just as passionate about the US. You are different from most of the Canadians I know IRL. Most know more of current USA cultural things than I do because I don't like tv and they all watch it religiously. THEY are the ones who told me that we are practically the same. There are things Canadian that I wish were adopted here such as more reasonable guidelines by the FDA for medications and medical treatments (Many of my friends here have gone to Canada to get some that are slow to be approved here) And I wish that Canadians had more choices regarding their own health care providers. My info on that comes from a girl in Nova Scotis who says that she is only allowed to see a very few doctors because of the health care system there. So yes there are major differences but most of them boil down to politics.

When I moved to Colorado from the deep south, I was in for a huge culture shock. Everything was the same but different if you know what I mean. We still were all basically the same because of the common experiences and exposures but attitudes and vocabulary differed a bit and even the climate was a major shock to me.

I had a friend who was quite a bit older than me who was born and bred in this country but she was Jewish. As she neared the end of her Earthly life, she begged me to see that she buried properly. I didn't know what she was asking for sure so I had to study up on the Jewish death rituals. . . a completely foreign concept to me. But she said that her son couldn't be trusted to do it right so she named me as executor of her will. The last other practicing Jew in town had died so there was no one else. It always struck me as strange that Becca who loved a good ham sandwichand went to a Christian fellowship, would be so addament about adhereing to Jewish ways in her burial.

I said all this to say that perhaps I didn't use a good choice of words but you and I Shan are probably much more alike than we are different even though we do live in different countries.

Both our countries are not, nor have been exposed to much of the stuff that has gone on in the last 60-70 years or so in much of the rest of the world. We haven't seen our countries torn apart by full scale wars as WW1 and WW2. We haven't seen total deprivation and destruction. We have lived a fairly peaceful life in comparision of most of the world. We live in democracies and kinda have the same expectations of our governments. I think of England and the people who had to ship their children away during the wars. I remember how Paris suffered such damage. Germany, Poland and the Chek Republic will never be the same places they once were. I have friends who are refugees from Asian countries who still duck when they hear a car backfire or the sounds of a fireworks display.

Canada may be a cross between English and American but don't forget that you also have the French thrown into the mix as well. Whereas the US is basically one big hodgepodge of interwoven cultures. Mary tried to explain about the French one time but she kept distracting herself and I never did learn why the French play such a big part in Canada. Maybe I ought to research that a bit.

[light4mypath]

Missouri..........

[mikefromsstv]

Hi - New guy here

Light my path is very much to the point? Bethany (hi Bethany!) took 7400 words to say Colorado. BUT i understand where Bethany is coming from. M@t have you ever played with Babel Fish?

babelfish.altavista.com/

I think it does a fair job at translating and have seen it work pretty smooth on some pages. I couldn't get it to work for beans on my site. I guess because my page is poorly structured. Just thought I would throw my 2 kronur's worth in there. Oh... Hi light my path!

Your new brother MIKE

From IL / USA next to LHW

PS - OOOps Bethany sorry I missed your first post, it took you 17 words to say Colorado

I still can't figure out my avatar and how to shave a few years off my age?

[matthew]

I live in Peterb ;Drough the uk.This is where i was born.

[(((Thump))) *bounces*]

niniane said:

* most importantly of all, we invented the ENGLISH LANGUAGE !! (where would y'all be without it?)

Indeed, Niniane! But for where I live, it's much more than just us getting our language from you. The town in Maine that I live in now was named after Topsham, England because the founders were from there. Even more so, where my state is located, it's called New England.

Lol, sorry about the History lesson, way off track there. I just love where I live. ;D

[bethany54]

*shuts mouth, applies super glue, then duct tape* muttering that it only took me 4 words to say that I am from Zoobacore.

[mikefromsstv]

Bethany

Where's Zoobacore?

Your Brother
Mike

[Michael]

Yos yos people! I live in a very little comfortable cozy redneck hick town. For those who don't know what rednecks are. . . here they were Dixie Outfiters, flanels, SUPER tight wrangers and drive around in hugomongous trucks with mud splatters all over them. Thankfully, I am not one of them. lol... Oh yeah, anyways, I'm from Callahan, Fl. Oh and guess what Thump. . . I WAS BORN IN J-ville TOO! Wolfson's to be exact. . . lol...

[bethany54]

[mikefromsstv]

Thank you for clearing that up