How many FOFCers Have You Met in Real Life?

[Coffee Warlord]

Yep, up in Denver.

I have a lovely 5am wakeup call to drive up there this morning, but it was worth it.

And no. I did not crash. Landings were a mixed bag, and I took out some runway lights on takeoff, but we lived.

[sterlingice]

Nice!

SI

[NobodyHere]

I wonder if I ever met an FOFCer w/o realizing it.

[Poli]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

With people talking in one of the other threads about meeting up, I got to thinking: "How many FOFCers have I met in real life?"

I know there's a global pandemic now, but this place is 20 years old so you've had time to go meet people outside of this wild simulation of reality.

Poll forthcoming and feel free to expound in the comments.

I've been traveling more and have more opportunities to do so, but I haven't really connected with more FOFCers since I drifted away. I've been fortunate enough to meet up with a bunch of family I haven't met before, though.

DataKing, RavenHawk, Mizzourah, Hoopsguy, Barkeep, WSUCougar, primelord, BUY14, the Coffee Warlord and his world's most comfortable futon gave me a place to sleep one night. Solecismic was a pretty darn special one to snag. Passacaglia and his wife I think round it out.

I was "this close" to Chief Rum a few years ago on a work trip to City of Industry...and I could have high fived terpkristin last year if it were not for the COVID concerns.

[larrymcg421]

Before FOFC existed, digamma and I went to the same school (and had classes together) for 7th grade.

[sovereignstar v2]

I've never slept on the floor of an FOFCer's bedroom.

*takes drink*

[Poli]

Shoot, that reminds me. I was in first grade with Hawglaw...and Hulsey was a friend of mine who registered but I don't think ever posted. I spent more than a few nights over at Hulsey's for a time. Hawglaw told me about family I didn't know I had...I believe he was friends with what turned out to be my cousin's husband.

[Poli]

One other now that it's on my mind: Tarcone and I had dinner one night before I went out for a HS football game at Pacific, MO.

[Solecismic]

Originally Posted by Poli

Solecismic was a pretty darn special one to snag.

Interesting choice of words. But thanks. It was great meeting you and a few other FOFCers. What a crazy month that was for me - driving cross-country to meet quite a few people here and there who I had only known online during a very difficult time.

I'm trying to think of who else on FOFC I've met other than that St. Louis luncheon. Several sim developers at various times. We comprise this fraternity of sorts that defies all reason. That would include Gary, Arlie, Marc, Markus, Andreas and Clay, though I'm not sure Clay has ever posted here.

The EA people who produced FOF2 and 3 (unfortunately, Dan Wasson's sudden outburst - one he almost immediately understood was unwarranted and felt terrible about - and greatly out-of-character for someone I had worked with a lot and was one of the nicer people I've met in this business - that pretty much ended their participation on FOFC). A couple of the reviewers for the old magazines. Tony at an E3 convention - we went to an Angels game. Ben stopped by when he had business near my old home in Michigan - we went and played bar trivia.

I think everyone I've met from FOFC is included in this post. I hope that number increases some day, though I'm afraid an event like Comic-Con is unlikely for the sports sim market.

[sovereignstar v2]

Clay has posted a fair amount here, but not for 7 years.

Front Office Football Central

[cubboyroy1826]

Met Fozzie and one other person at Gencon a few years back. For the life of me I can't remember who the other person was.

[Kodos]

jbmagic

[stevew]

I once accosted Pumpy in front of a gas station.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by Kodos

jbmagic

I need details one this one. Was he rich from his infallible gambling strategy?

[Poli]

Originally Posted by Solecismic

Interesting choice of words. But thanks. It was great meeting you and a few other FOFCers. What a crazy month that was for me - driving cross-country to meet quite a few people here and there who I had only known online during a very difficult time.

It was a great time! Any mention of the Sons of Sam Horn raises the bar for me! lol

[Kodos]

I was suggesting that cubboyroy met him.

[Izulde]

Don't recall if I've tipped over to the 6-10 category yet. Vegas was great for meeting up with FOFCers. Now that I'm in north-central Wisky, it's a lot more difficult.

[Subby]

Ran the Boston Marathon with digamma, gambled with Quik and Primelord and Malificent in Vega$, ate a meal with cuervo, critch, and sjshaw in DC. Had Simms, Morg, and Quik over to the Shue Estate and Spa for a meal. Met Vegas Vic at the Spice Market Buffet in Vegas. Whiffed on a few. I'm old. My memory is bad.

[cuervo72]

I was at meatfest too. Left a pair of watermelon croc sandals, size itty-bitty.

[cuervo72]

Oh, and we met Buddy after eating at the pizza place, too IIRC.

[cuervo72]

Still the last time anyone's flirted with me, btw.

[cuervo72]

(Our probably gay waiter, not Buddy.)

In addition to what Subby listed, scaring Quik at the airport, and fawning over fuzzy creatures with Critch, I've also taken in an O's game with (I believe) DukeRulesMAB, Malificent, and pbot (where I made an ass of myself limping along because I can't boogie board, while Mali had an actual reason); visited Morg along with Simms and tauter (introduction to SodaStream); took in a MD/W&M football game (Morg says goodbye to an umbrella, Wade decides he has better friends).

[Poli]

Shot fired at Wade.

[PilotMan]

I'm up in Green Bay for our long time friend Sackattack's wedding tomorrow!

[Ksyrup]

I'm flying a bunch in the next 3 months (at least for me). Maybe we'll cross paths? Of course, you only live about 90ish minutes away...

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

There is someone else I've met but I can't for the life of me remember the screen name. We work in related industries and met at a couple of conferences. Now I'm going to be racking my brain. I can picture him, oddly enough, but can't remember either the real name or user name.

I'm going to bump my own post from 2 years ago because I remember who it is - Heybrad. He and I work in the same industry, and in fact, we might be doing some business together soon (although I doubt he knows it yet - at least that I'm with a company he's talking to). He hasn't posted here in about 5 years, and I haven't spoken to him in a long, long time. He's moved up to a pretty high position in his company, so it looks like he's doing well.

[Ksyrup]

This topic had me thinking of other internet meet-ups. I've met way more people from music-related groups/message boards than from here.

Anyone have stories of meet-ups that went horribly (or mildly, I guess) wrong?

This was probably 20-22 years ago (just based on when we owned our house in Tallahassee). My wife and daughter were away, probably visiting family while I stayed home to work (during my law firm days). King's X was playing Tally and a bunch of people were coming to the show. One dude had no place to stay, so I let him stay at my house. I did not tell my wife because I know what she would have said. But I knew this dude for years and completely trusted him. Anyway, he brought this special bottle of wine from his wife to give to one of the guys in the band, and... he dropped it in my kitchen. Not only did it bust and shoot wine and glass everywhere, but the bottle left a gouge in the tile. We had to buy some grout-cleaning stuff and worked for a couple of hours to clean it all up. Couldn't do much about the dent. When my wife came back, she eventually noticed the gouge a couple weeks later and I said one of us must have dropped something and didn't realize it left a mark.

That was almost a disaster for me. Show was great though. And we still got to hang out with the band and this guy re-supplied the band with weed after they got pulled over on I-10 for being ID'd as a tour bus and basically threatened with jail if they didn't give up anything they had on the bus. They were appreciative, ha!

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Anyone have storiesof meet-ups that went horribly (or mildly, I guess) wrong?

I've probably told this story before, but I was in the beginning of a long-distance reelationship & I flew this woman up for the weekend and got her a room at a fairly nice hotel nearby....but I did not know the hotel was hosting a furry convention that weekend.

[Toddzilla]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

He hasn't posted here in about 5 years, and I haven't spoken to him in a long, long time. He's moved up to a pretty high position in his company, so it looks like he's doing well.

So FOFC is bad for your career, you say?

[MJ4H]

Izulde is the only one I've met. We got together to go watch a Razorback scrimmage back before Petrino's first year here. I think Izulde was going to school at the U of A at the time? It's been awhile, so I don't remember all the details.

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I wonder if I ever met an FOFCer w/o realizing it.

I'm your Trump walker!!!!

[Qwikshot]

I've not met anyone. I did get an offer of support when I was breaking up with my ex-gf, but that was like 20 years ago.

I figure this community is going to die off since there won't be new FOF games.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Let's see. Most of you have gotten mine already, but:

Izulde-- We've had dinner a couple times when he was in Vegas.
cartman--As he said met on a layover Austin.
Butter--He used to work 15 minutes from me and we've met for business lunches a few times.
daddytorgo--Met on Boston layover a couple different times for meals over the years.
molson--as he said, on a Boise layover. That was a good time.
MacroGuru and Render-- Got together on a Buffalo layover a couple times.
sterlingice--as he said, went to an Astros game in 2013 while I was in Houston for training and they stopped by the house and met the Mrs when they were in town for a wedding.
BillJasper--Met in a restaurant by total chance, only said hi.
bjceac--met him in Hattrick and got him here and eventually pulled him into the CJBL with me. We've gone to an NDSU/Ball St football game, visited his house in STL on a few layover and generally been amigos for years.

The worst is that I haven't gotten together with any of the Cincinnati crew. From crimsonfox, to Lathum (when he was here) cougarfreak, damnMikeBrown, korme, Warhammer and I'm sure that there's some others in the close area. It just hasn't happened. I actually feel pretty bad about that. Like we've had this chance and missed it. We were supposed to go to an indoor football game and see Jared Lorenzen, but he had just broken his leg, and then bad weather blew the whole thing up.

I've had informal plans to catch up with BYU 14 and H_B, but layovers haven't worked out for those yet. I know that Lorena has brought it up too. CW is really pushing for a simulator ride, speaking of that, CW if you see this PM me, because September and October I'm spending copious amounts of time in Denver. I should try and catch TK sometime in DC when I get another layover there. I'm FB friends with a bunch of others, and always willing to try and get together. It's a nice diversion from the work grind. I'm sure there's an LA get together that's possible. I mostly just need to find where people are and connect from there. FB is a pretty good point of contact in general. Lately with the international schedule there's not much of that going on. Once I get back to a different plane with more domestic flying there will be different opportunities.

Get to add DanGarion to my list now too. We both happened to be in Nashville and got went to Third Man Records and got some dinner when I had a short layover.

Met up with cougarfreak last year when he came to a Strat-O-Matic baseball game day I was hosting. He actually lives like 5 minutes from me now.

Plus CoffeeWarlord from a previous post when I was able to host him during a sim session while I was in Denver.


That brings me up to 13 total now. If anyone else is interested hit me up and I'll see if things can get matched up one day.


[Edit: Totally need to add Chiefrum too. We got together for dinner on a layover too. So, 14 total. ]