WldPenguin

@RobMc, the Barbie stuff actually belonged to my younger sister lol. I asked for things like microscopes and books and musical instruments while my siblings wanted dolls and toy guns

Congrats, Sabre!

@loaderXI, is the COD2 server issue with all of the servers, or just a particular one?

Yes, I posted that above when it crashed.

Server disconnected and restarted on its own at 11:55 p.m. EDT on map mp_fr_pv1

Going old school tonight

Ok, so mine story starts when I was 10.........but even before that, I LOVED music, and singing. Every year, my mother was in our church musical - anything from South Pacific to Guys 'n Dolls to Fiddler on the Roof. My sister and I would learn all of the songs since my mom played the album at home to learn her parts, and we'd end up putting on a show each time because our living room entry way looked like a stage opening But what I got for Christmas that year, started my "career" as a piano player, as well as a singer. As pictured below, that electronic organ was the coolest thing to me ever (well, at least at 10 years old it was ). I learned every song in those music books, and my mom was always buying me more and more books, until there weren't any left. So that is when I started to learn to play by ear other songs that weren't in the books. She ended up signing me up for piano lessons, and we went out and bought a beautiful piano. I practiced A LOT! I ended up joining the youth choir when I was 12 or 13, and not only sang in the choir, but became the accompanist as well. Not sure how I did it back then, because when I was older, I ended up being very nervous in front of a crowd......until.......... Fast forward about 20-25 years......now I'd been singing in choirs throughout high school and then church choir, where there weren't enough tenors so my sister and I both sang with the guys, having lower voices than even some of them lol. I also became involved with the church musicals, but was more often behind the scenes being a stagehand or prop manager than out in front of the audience performing. That's the time period when I was shy & nervous to be on stage instead of behind it. But I LOVED music - all kinds, but rock and metal really excited me. Music for me is life - without it I think I would be lost. I love that a song can bring me back to a place where I can vividly recall the memory associated with it, or it can help ease the pain of something bad. I still can get lost for several hours in all kinds of songs that take me back, or that I need to hear the lyrics to, to get past whatever it is that I'm facing at the time that might not be so great. So, how did I get over this nervous thing? Well, when I was married, my brother-in-law was in a rock band, and we'd go listen to the band play all the time. I REALLY wanted to sing with them SO BAD, but I was too scared, of course. I knew the harmony to most of the songs, and I'd sing along quietly from my seat in the crowd. One night, I'd had a few beers, and my brother-in-law was trying to get me to come up and sing. I kept shaking my head "no". Finally, on a song he only needed to sing and not play guitar or keyboards, he motioned for me to meet him toward the back of the bar. He had his mic in his hand, and before I could ask him what he was up to, the next song started playing.......a favorite of mine - Shine, by Collective Soul. I knew that song inside and out, and was pretty excited to hear the opening chords. I don't exactly know what came over me at that moment - maybe it was the beer, maybe it was adrenaline - but I grabbed the mic from my brother-in-law, and began singing harmony against the lead singer's amazing voice. I made it through the entire song, and no one knew that it was me singing from the back of the bar. After the song ended, the lead singer was like, "WOW! Larry! You actually hit every note dead on tonight, what happened?" And that's when he grabbed the mic and said, "Because it wasn't me singing, it was Jen!" And that's how it all started for me.....singing in a rock band with the boys, Saturday night gigs for quite a long time. It was so much fun, and it was a huge high to sing in front of a crowd. Go figure, after all those years of nervousness, that I'd actually almost crave it. But it happened........ That lead singer and I had some really tight harmonies, and we had such a good time trying out new stuff. I even had acquired some groupies at one point, mostly the wives and girlfriends of the other members, and lots of friends and family that would come out to listen. The second pic is of me right before a gig one Saturday night. I couldn't find much else. Probably on a different phone lol. LOVED every minute of it. Until.......the divorce. Once my ex-husband and I got divorced, the band was no longer an option for me, since my brother-in-law was in it. I still am in contact with the lead singer, since he's been a tax client for years and still is, and we often reminisce about all of those awesome weekends playing out. They still play out almost every weekend, but I don't feel I can sneak in there and have a listen, even for just a few minutes. When my ex passed away, it didn't fare too well between his brother and me, so I'm thinking that I would not be a welcome face in the crowd at this point, at least not by him. I hadn't really sung in quite awhile, until recently, also by the encouragement of someone who I'd like to thank profusely, gently nudged me to take it up again, and I've been getting more serious about it now. Who knows where it will take me - I'd love to be back in a band again - but for now, I am enjoying my daily "sessions" at my pc, with my mic and my headset, finding some of the awesome music I love to sing, and just letting it all out lol. Perhaps at some point, we could have a big XI "jam session"........there's actually a teamspeak channel already set up for such a purpose. I bet there are some really talented musicians in this bunch of idiots, just waiting to be heard.

Welcome to our forums, Ge Ge.......take look around and hopefully find a few more reasons you'd like to become an XI member See you in game

Damnit, I need to be singing again!

I'm pretty sure I still know this whole song by heart!

@Streetcleaner, I tagged you in my music video post, saying that I would be responding soon.....busy weekend, probably for many of us.......so be patient. I'm sure the stories will come out.

It did both times when I reported it last night........no error message, just "server disconnected".

One of my absolute favorites to sing........ @Streetcleaner, I will be posting my "story" on your topic soon

Yes, it's been down since sometime last evening.......here is a link that dadda posted to a temporary teamspeak that we can all use for now: dadda2-tshome.ddns.net spare ts if needed password is spare

And penguins? ?

Also crashed at 12:59 a.m. EDT on map mp_broadcast2

server crashed at 12:51 a.m. EDT while loading map mp_fr_hv2

Server crashed on ambush 9:59 p.m. EDT (a.k.a.) mp_convoy