AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Is this what high school reunions feel like because I can only guess if that's the vibe I'm getting.

If you're looking for me then:
Unbalanced#7389
https://twitter.com/StoicZerda

Hey, glad to hear folks have been around that long and you've been enjoying it that long!
I think I mostly left because and when my life kinda uprooted and moved back to the US. Lots changed, and I guess I never found my way back here. But! Not gonna dwell on that. I've since become queerer and furrier then ever, and more comfortable with myself, and am glad AZ is still around even if it's quieter. I met most of my closest and longest held friends here, too, so it holds a special place in my heart.

I don't know, but I guess it must be? Did people enjoy high school? Is that why they like going to reunions?
Also, added you on Discord.


Three cheers for queerer and furrier and growing to love yourself. <3 I've made some amazing (hopefully) lifelong friends here and I only regret most of my posts.

I guess I should also be mildly serious and give some life updates. I've got my last year of university for CS coming up, I've been living in and around Toronto for the last few years, Mina (Lyrasen) and I are still together after 8 years. I just said year a lot but whatever, it's been years.

Like Pale I'm also queerer and furrier than ever (but, ironically and thankfully, less about making me being a upstanding member of society a thing that has to come up even when it isn't relevant). I'm NB (he or they are both fine for pronouns) and I'm making little steps lately to be a bit more visibly queer when I can.

Oh! I should note, same as Unba when it comes to identifying and pronouns- Nonbinary, and I prefer They/Them pronouns but don't really get picky. It's made me a lot more comfortable with my identity and myself.

Yeah I always used to come on this forum coz everyone was so fun to talk to

I still have a lot of people from here on my 3DS friends list. That's like ¾ of my list haha

I think we were all sharing friend codes coz of friend safari or somethin'

I'm a network engineer working towards the InfoSec field. Ive been with forumer Wrybread for over 3 years now (just got back from a visit with her recently). Doing a lot better than I was a few years ago, and I miss AZ. I reguarly play tabletop (just finished Edge of the Empire, now playing Savage Worlds Rifts). I still putter around on Discord with some people, its like half old AZ and half not.

Well now I need to reminisce instead of just calling attention to CN's stink

Y'know I honestly don't remember what got me to join the forum to begin with. I'd been a fan of the comic for a long time and I guess I just never... noticed there was a forum? When I joined I was starting my first year of uni, so my first year living alone away from my family, and it only took me a few days to realise "holy shit I can go to bed WHENEVER THE FUCK I WANT" and thus my bad habit of staying up til the wee hours of the morning to talk to u nerds was born. (I have a normal person sleep schedule now, I naturally and willingly woke up at quarter past six in the morning yesterday aaaaa)

I remember being too shy initially to post anywhere but the Pokemon thread, which I read the entirety of because... because. I don't remember quite how we became friends, but that was where CN and I became friends, and over time I started venturing into the other parts of the forums and made MORE friends and gradually made everybody sick of Snakeman and Lt. Surge. Reading back on my old posting history is painful, I was painful

I always considered Stinklord I mean CN to be my closest AZ friend though, and I'm gonna go ahead and admit I did have a bit of a crush on him at one point. I don't think it would've worked out tho cause turns out we're both SUPER GAY. I mean I'm technically bi but honestly my attraction to dudes basically extends to like... hot fictional army men and hot robots

Man I was never good at being concise and to the point. I had a ton of good times in these here forums, and though I only really kept in touch with a handful of people like CN, Val and... (god I can't even remember what his actual forum name was, he's just forever THE NOSE in my head) Sean. Though I only really kept in touch with them, it's been really nice seeing so many old faces (well, names) again. I went through a pretty rough time in my first year of uni, between the anxiety of living away from home and breaking up with my then-boyfriend and struggling with my likely-adhd-induced procrastination problems that led to me putting off all my coursework and then having to rush to cram in as much as possible over the course of three days, but posting here made me feel better, and it was nice to have support.

There wasn't really anything in particular that made me stop posting really, I just sort of drifted over to a Megaman community I found on Tumblr and started spending more time with them - that was where I came to terms with my sexuality and also where I met my current galpal. I can't remember what the state of the forums was around the time I "left" - I think a bunch of regulars had left at that point which might have been one of my reasons for disappearing, but I can barely remember what I did last week, let alone however many years ago. So.

As for where-I-am-in-life stuff, I'm more involved in the TF2 community these days, and am most active on my twitter (which is linked in my signature iirc). I never did get a job in animation, but I do a fair bit of commission work! I've been making some shirt designs/video thumbnails/twitch sub emotes for a friend of mine whose channel is currently EXPLODING, so that's fun. I used to get really down and beat myself up over how I never used my degree, but I've learned that that isn't necessarily true, and I'm a lot happier now than I was. Youtube and Twitch are big things now - bigger than they were several years back. Making things for a channel that hit 5,000 viewers for a Sims stream should look good on a CV.

Hi. Nice thread you have here.


I've noticed the majority of the people who were part of the SJW circlejerk I took issue with aren't here, I'd name names, but that wouldn't be helpful. I'd search back through the AZ postlog to find examples, but that wouldn't be healthy. I don't want to dwell on it; I'd like to move on. I've made it clear I wasn't pop flyin' here; I feel better for having done that at least - and now I'm making allowances for other people having changed or grown up. That's all I can do.

In a nutshell I feel like I was somehow a target for the SJW circlejerk that existed here back in the day. It's funny how SJWs talk about being 'progressive' and being 'accepting', etc. but when somebody doesn't fit their narrative they get shouted down or become 'unpersoned'. SJWs to me are really just left-wing bullies masquerading as heroes. I can more easily identify now what was happening to me here back in the day - and the kind of people that were treating me so badly. This forum actually shaped my view of the whole 'social justice warrior' thing a lot - and on reflection gave me a good grasp of the kind of people they really are.

That's not to say I have a problem with anybody's race, sexuality, gender identity or anything like that. Of course not. That has nothing to do with my problem with SJWs. I'm not right-wing, alt-right or 'nertzi' - even though nowadays anybody who's a hair right of being left-wing gets accused of being so. To SJWs there is no such thing as the 'middle ground' or being at the near-centre of the political spectrum, apparently. You're either with the SJWs or against them.

Generally speaking nowadays I'm better able to identify when people are talking crap and I'm better able/more confident in defending myself. Also I'm not here to talk politics. I just have Internet PTSD when it comes to SJWs. Most of it comes from being a member of this forum. This is the kind of unpleasant emotional attachment I have to this place, unfortunately.


Actually - and you may not remember this - you were the only one who stood up for me or told people to back off when I was on the receiving end of the SJW's 'bullying' (which I guess is the right word). Most of the other moderators were too busy grooming and/or fawning over each other - or they just weren't around/paying attention.

But yeah, that's the past. Moving on.


I liked being a part of the artworking community here, I always liked seeing Chloemew's contributions to the art thread - as well as other people's. It was probably the only reason I stuck around for as long as I did. Though honestly I feel like some of the other artists treated me like crap - undeservedly so. I don't know what I did to warrant being treated like some kind of leper or outcast here - at least that was how it felt a lot of the time.

Considering how much I developed/grew as an artist while I was here at AZ I really don't understand why I was treated me so badly. Of course just being an artist doesn't mean you deserve everybody's respect and admiration - of course not, but... I... didn't come here to make enemies, so I don't know how I ended up making so many. I'm not a bad guy.

Jeezus, let me break out a violin and shed a single tear for myself.


I'm not the same person I was when I turned my back on this forum, but I also associate a lot of hurt and unwarranted abuse with this place. So I'm still on guard.

I don't think you putting tiddies on your characters is something bad and I didn't like people making fun of you for it, yes, but that's not "SJW bullshit". you're projecting.

I dont understand the whole SJW thing you keep posting about. AZ was just a buncha dumb rowdy teenagers, me included. What does any of it have to do with left wing extremist politics.

Most of what I remember is the running joke that everyone was secretly hiding in my room

everyone is merlins multi

relateable

Also I remember DNDs whipped cream Garchomp art piece.

God, Chloe
You reminded me of xatchat and I don't know if those are fond memories or not, hahaha.

dnd this forum was never an sjw hive because sjws didnt actually exist back then and they still don't

we were a bunch of troubled teenagers with varying mental or emotional problems talking online. that's what a lot of people mistake for sjws, still.

the thing is that, we've grown and matured.

everyone is using this thread to reminisce and talk about how much they've grown and changed and all you can fixate on is how much of an Outcast you were and how Bad everyone else was to you For No Raisin! and how "you can only hope we've all changed" as if you never did wrong when i bodaciously have an inbox full of messages from you insulting and threatening me. if that's the only takeaway you have, then take it the fuck away from here and let us get on with our cheerful reunion without you lurching around the room accusing us of all hating you and conspiring against you to try and force us to apologise for shit we don't even remember.

its noones fault but your own if you cant find a way to heal after like six years.