Wow. TWO years old today! I woulda never thought I would be running a website for this long. I took a peek back through the news archives, kinda reminiscing back to the ‘good ol’ days’ when Hardfought was at it’s peak in the gaming community. Things are pretty much just coasting along at the moment, but we’ve come a long way and have gone though our fair share of changes and transformations. Who knows what’s in store for the next two years? I plan on keeping Hardfought alive and kicking for sure, so stick around.

Now, there’s something I wanna share with everyone, especially the gang that has stuck around through thick and thin. I have made one of those pivitol ‘life-changing and defining’ choices recently and because of that choice, I’m not going to be around very much at all for the next oh… four years or so ;-) There was something I was seriously considering doing with my life and was about to go forward with it… and then I met Diana. Most of you regs know who she is, but for those of ya that don’t, Diana is a woman I met this past summer and we had become somewhat involved romantically. Serious marriage potential here. We cooled things off a bit however over a month ago, so right now we’re just very good friends. Nothing wrong with that at all… we both just realized that there are some key core beliefs that we don’t agree on and would pretty much put a damper on any kind of long-term relationship. So long story short – we’re now just very good friends.

Ok, so what does my relationship with her have to do with anything? Well I’m getting to that, so just keep reading :-P I had made a promise to myself that if for whatever reason things didn’t work out between myself and Diana such as growing into a long-term relationship, I’d go ahead with my original plans that I had this past summer. Sooo… I went ahead and set out to do what I had originally planned, and that was to enlist in the Army.

I’ve passed my physical, scored very high on my ASVAB test (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery… kinda like taking your SAT for college) and have already been sworn in as of last week. The MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) I have chosen is 11X. That’s Infantry w/intent to join Special Forces. I ship out to Fort Benning, Georgia on January 30th… about three months from now. I’ll do basic training there, then AIT (Advanced Infantry Training, focusing on Special Ops), then airborne, then go head first into SFAS (Special Forces Assessment and Selection). If I pass that then I go onto SFQC (Special Forces Qualification Course) – the particular MOS I’m shooting for in that regard is 18B or weapons specialist. THEN if I pass all that, I would officially become a Special Forces soldier, or a Green Beret. It’s gonna be tough to say the least but I am looking forward to the challenge. If for whatever reason I’m unable to pass the SFAS or SFQC, I’m gonna shoot for Ranger. Their requirements are also demanding and their job description is slightly different but it has quite a bit of appeal as well. In fact, my recruiter tells me I can go for both if I want to. HEH ;-)

Crazy I know… who woulda thought I’d be doing anything remotely like this, eh? Well, there are quite a few benefits to enlisting on several different fronts, and I’ll be more than happy to discuss them on the messageboard here if anyone gives a shit. Let’s just say the 8000 dollar sign-up bonus I received is just one of the many perks.

Anyways… that’s what I’m doing and who knows where I’ll wind up. The website and domain name are already paid for two years in advance, and I’ve got things setup to where I can do news posts from anywhere with a ‘net connection and a web browser in a quick amount of time, so I’ll definitely try to chime in while I’m out and about playing soldier, time willing.

Happy Birthday Hardfought!! See ya online gang.

K2