About Me

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Who am I? Simply put, I'm Sabre. I graduated from college in May 2012, receiving a degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. Since August 2012, I've been working full-time as a Software Engineer, a profession which offers several challenges and puzzles to solve on a day-to-day basis. Academically (and outside of my degree focus), I always enjoyed Chemistry, going so far as to take Organic Chemistry as a free elective when the opportunity arose. Within Mathematics, I have particular interest in the fields of Graph Theory and Combinatorics. On Neopets, most of my time is spent lurking/chatting with my guildmates in Oblivion, lurking/chatting on the AC, working on my Altador Cup gallery, or trying (and often failing) to bring in a profit RSing.

I joined Neopets in March of 2003 with the creation of Vartomka, the first pet in my neofamily (my beloved Squeekadoodle came 28 days later). In late 2003 / early 2004 I began my NeoBoards career on the HC. Some memories from that time remain, including some of the early games of NeoSurvivor (which was considerably more difficult before the NeoBoard revamp of 2004) before the introduction of the now-ubiquitous Avatars. Unfortunately, several months after my start as an HCer, TNT decided to remove the cesspool of questionable conversations and spam known as the General Chat board, and the conversations from the GC dispersed across the remaining NeoBoards; the HC being among those hardest hit by the influx of… less than "intelligent" conversation.

This change in culture ultimately led to my departure from the HC in mid-2004, when I fully moved my "home base" to the AC. The AC in '04/'05 was a different place than it is now. These were the now-almost-mythical days where hordes of followers (and, of course, beggars) watching the every move of the "celebrities" like the still-well-known jazz_invincible. Another big difference on the AC was the ubiquity of chatgroups; nowadays there are a few which seem to have enough activity to keep boards going, but in those past years, it wasn't uncommon to see a half dozen different chatgroups (some avatar-oriented, some screenie-oriented, some not-really-related-to-anything) with concurrent boards. It was one such chat group, RSS (Rabid Screenie Squirrels), which motivated me to start my "career" in screeniemaking.

Ultimately, in late 2004 I finally became a member of RSS. After only eight months or so, with the group enduring some tumultuous bouts of internal drama as rifts began to spread between the group's leaders and some members, I was given the opportunity to host the group's petpage and act as both a monitor and administrator of the group, becoming the de facto "leader" of RSS. I continued in this role for about two and a half years. However, by mid-2007, the golden age of the AC chatgroups had come to an end, and virtually all of the other large groups had succumbed to some combination of disinterest and internal drama. While it outlasted its avatar-related brethren, RSS did reach its eventual end in early 2008. During the same timeframe as the "peak" of my RSS career, I recruited four of my fellow screeniemakers to form the council for a new RSS spinoff guild, "Er.. Screenie!". At its peak, Er.. Screenie! was the home of approximately 100 screeniemakers, primarily from the AC.

After the "fall" of RSS and a considerable amount of drama which got personal, my interest in continuing on the site eventually faltered, and in Summer/Fall 2008 (coinciding with the start of my collegiate career) I slipped out of sight and out of mind with no plans to return. In the following four years I logged in to take a peek about once a year, and each time the drama which pushed me away reared its ugly head once again and pushed me back away. In December 2012, however, I finally decided that I was fully ready to try to come back; if any drama wanted to resurface, they could just get over it, I was done putting up with it. This begins my return.

Several times recently I've received either comments on neoboards or in neomails commenting on that I've made a positive impression by being friendly, or something to that extent… and I can never decide whether to be honored or disappointed; I'm honored to be the type of person that makes an effort to be personable, approachable, and pleasant… but at the same time, it's truly saddening to me that it's to the point where some people seem to find this noteworthy.

For me, the amount of time that I spend on the boards means that Neopets is, first and foremost, a social activity. The people that I meet and interact with, some as frequently as on a daily basis, are what shape my experience on the site. If the people who I'm talking to aren't enjoying themselves, it's considerably more difficult for me to enjoy my own experience. To put it in the simplest terms: I don't see any way to play this game other than to be friendly and sincere. I simply can't fathom the reasoning behind anyone who comes onto the NeoBoards and does anything to the contrary, and I have neither the time, patience, nor the desire to try to put up with them.

When possible, I see it as both a goal and a responsibility of mine to try to make someone's day at least a little bit better, even if it's as simple as leaving a "good luck!" message on a board or sending a comforting neomail to someone having a bad day. I consider myself very fortunate to have the wonderful friends that I do on this site; most I've only recently met, but a few who happen to still be around from before my lengthy hiatus. Thank you all for putting up with me. =)

If you have any questions, would like to know more about something, or simply want to chat, please feel free to drop me a neomail, my inbox is always open.

All the best,
-Sabre