I'm in! Thanks to Scepticalscribe for inviting me..... I was not sure that this would be the place for me, since I'm not really a political animal and it is not my passion, but after browsing through the site for a little while and seeing a lot of familiar face and kindred spirits, reading comments and thoughts at which I found myself nodding my head in agreement, I thought, "oh, yeah, this looks like a fun site to hang out!" and registered -- so here I am!
Most of you probably know me even though the avatar is not the same one that I use on MR -- that one I use there and only there; other forums at which I hang out I tend to swap around avatars from time to time, and with the exception of the MR one, they are usually from photos I've shot. I'll probably change this one in a day or so but wanted to get something up quickly and this, a recent image, fit the bill primarily because I figured it would fit nicely into the circular format.
For those who don't know me, I go by Clix Pix on the internet and I live in the Northern Virginia suburbs across the Potomac River and just a few miles from the scene of America's political day-to-day activities and presumed governmental functioning.....Our Nation's Capitol. I haven't been able to hit the "I Voted" badge yet because I haven't done it yet; early voting in my area just started today, so I'll be heading to the satellite polling place (local public library) either tomorrow or Friday. I figured today would probably be mobbed. I am a retired librarian and I love to read (naturally!), but my second greatest love is photography, so, yeah, you'll be seeing some of my images as time goes on. I shoot nearly every day and am actually in the process of doing a 52-Weeks project, meaning that each week I review the images I've shot, select the best or most interesting ones and each Sunday share them on another site where I hang out, Nikon Cafe. I'm actually a former Nikon shooter, but in November of 2019 switched completely to Sony. The folks at Nikon Cafe still love me anyway..... MR's POTD thread also sees most of my images a day or so after they've been shot. I expect I'll be bringing them here as well....
I've been around the Internet for a long time, as far back as the early BB days, Listservs, Email "Loops" and the "Wild West" environment known as Usenet. Through the years I have participated in various sites which had discussions of interest to me. I've been a mod on a couple, I've been in on the beginning of a new one like this (and isn't it fun, being part of something brand-new?!) and I've seen some come, shine for a while and then quietly fizzle out. Others have been enduring for years and years. It is very refreshing to see the open environment here and the willingness to have honest debates and discussions dealing with the issues and not the personalities, conversations which don't disintegrate into name-calling and snarkiness. Hopefully there will be very little need for moderation on this site but it looks like we've got a good team here!
I'm somewhat of a techie and love my Apple products -- typing this on a 2018 MBP -- and I've been using Macs since 2005. I enjoy talking about tech stuff: computers, cameras, lenses, you name it! I probably spend way too much time on the computer every day, as it is the first thing I turn on in the morning when I arise and the last thing I shut down at night prior to heading off to bed with whatever book I'm in the midst of reading. It connects me to a much vaster world than is actually physically around me, and I love learning about others' lives and cultures and environments as well as sharing my own.
Enough for now, I want to go read some more threads, see what wasn't visible to me when I was still merely a visitor..... LOL!