Hello VCA,
I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. I've been a VCA member for about a week now, but I haven't had the opportunity to compose my "hello, I'm new" thread. I do lead a relatively busy life.
I've been an avid Viper fanatic since I was a very young boy and closely followed their production through the years. While my sense of practicality never allowed my wildest dreams to include ownership, the fascination with these incredible machines has followed me throughout my short life. You might be able to understand why I am more than ecstatic to report that I am a proud new owner of a 1997 Red GTS. (I still check the garage at night to make sure it's *really* there)
A little background:
While working on my Computer Science undergrad degree, I worked for a small upstart in the DC metro area. Although my college was paid for and I didn't really need the money, I decided to take an entry level IT position while in school for the experience. What started as a technical support representative eventually turned into much, much more. Because of their outrageous growth rate, (it remained at about 300% for the time I was employed there) I was able to work my way up within a year to being the director of everything IT related for this company. As is the custom of small companies, I had every title in the book. I did their databases, all the networking, telephony systems (which is pretty important for a tech support company) and general inter-office technical support. I also wrote a lot of small applications used for automation and integration of critical business processes. Because my 15-16 credit hour load at school, I stayed as a part time employee in case I needed extra time off to finish projects or homework. I still managed to average about 35 - 40 hours a week during school and somewhere north of 60 during the summer. Because I was part time, I also received time and a half for anything over 40. After graduation, the years of hard work and study paid off when I landed my dream job as a software engineer for a large corporation here in the nation's capital. Not having the time to spend my money on anything other than food, I managed to save a lot of money during my four years of undergraduate study. That plus my new salary put me in a much better monetary position than I had ever previously envisioned.
After graduation I decided to reward my years of hard work by fulfilling two life-long dreams. A few weeks after starting my new career, I realized I was very bored in the evenings after 5. To cure this, I took up flight school. Although this was something else I never dreamed I would be financially able to accomplish, a semester later I walked away with my private pilot license and, afraid of the impending boredom, started grad school. The second reward, as you might guess, is the aforementioned Gen II Viper.
I said all that to solidify the following statement. I can agree that many young people in their early 20's are not responsible enough to own or operate a car like the Viper. There are, however, a few exceptions to the rule. I graciously thank my parents for instilling a healthy dose of discipline and responsibility into my life.
Maybe I'm just shy, but I've always been big on the "read more, post less" ideology. I don't expect I'll be posting a ton of messages, but I do log on daily and read all the new threads. I have read thousands and thousands of posts in the last four months since I started lurking around here and I wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to all the VCA members for the informative and humorous posts they've left behind.
That's enough on me though. Now: a few quick messages followed by some photographs.
Juli: I enjoy reading your posts. Your humor is great and you do a wonderful job of keeping all these boys whipped into shape. Keep up the good work!
Chad: ... well I was going to say something to him, but he's way too busy eating at ******* to read a post like this anyway...
Robert (Mopar Boy): I love your humor (even if it does only come around once every 2,500 posts) Your BB Viper is sweet, but when you actually get a V-10, then you'll find out what REAL viper ownership is like!
(Yes, I do believe red really is faster!)
That's all for now! I am looking forward to meeting all of you at many VCA events to come!
Edit/Addition: I attended my very first VCA event this past weekend. Check out THIS thread for some pictures!
I would like to take a moment to introduce myself. I've been a VCA member for about a week now, but I haven't had the opportunity to compose my "hello, I'm new" thread. I do lead a relatively busy life.
I've been an avid Viper fanatic since I was a very young boy and closely followed their production through the years. While my sense of practicality never allowed my wildest dreams to include ownership, the fascination with these incredible machines has followed me throughout my short life. You might be able to understand why I am more than ecstatic to report that I am a proud new owner of a 1997 Red GTS. (I still check the garage at night to make sure it's *really* there)
A little background:
While working on my Computer Science undergrad degree, I worked for a small upstart in the DC metro area. Although my college was paid for and I didn't really need the money, I decided to take an entry level IT position while in school for the experience. What started as a technical support representative eventually turned into much, much more. Because of their outrageous growth rate, (it remained at about 300% for the time I was employed there) I was able to work my way up within a year to being the director of everything IT related for this company. As is the custom of small companies, I had every title in the book. I did their databases, all the networking, telephony systems (which is pretty important for a tech support company) and general inter-office technical support. I also wrote a lot of small applications used for automation and integration of critical business processes. Because my 15-16 credit hour load at school, I stayed as a part time employee in case I needed extra time off to finish projects or homework. I still managed to average about 35 - 40 hours a week during school and somewhere north of 60 during the summer. Because I was part time, I also received time and a half for anything over 40. After graduation, the years of hard work and study paid off when I landed my dream job as a software engineer for a large corporation here in the nation's capital. Not having the time to spend my money on anything other than food, I managed to save a lot of money during my four years of undergraduate study. That plus my new salary put me in a much better monetary position than I had ever previously envisioned.
After graduation I decided to reward my years of hard work by fulfilling two life-long dreams. A few weeks after starting my new career, I realized I was very bored in the evenings after 5. To cure this, I took up flight school. Although this was something else I never dreamed I would be financially able to accomplish, a semester later I walked away with my private pilot license and, afraid of the impending boredom, started grad school. The second reward, as you might guess, is the aforementioned Gen II Viper.
I said all that to solidify the following statement. I can agree that many young people in their early 20's are not responsible enough to own or operate a car like the Viper. There are, however, a few exceptions to the rule. I graciously thank my parents for instilling a healthy dose of discipline and responsibility into my life.
Maybe I'm just shy, but I've always been big on the "read more, post less" ideology. I don't expect I'll be posting a ton of messages, but I do log on daily and read all the new threads. I have read thousands and thousands of posts in the last four months since I started lurking around here and I wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to all the VCA members for the informative and humorous posts they've left behind.
That's enough on me though. Now: a few quick messages followed by some photographs.
Juli: I enjoy reading your posts. Your humor is great and you do a wonderful job of keeping all these boys whipped into shape. Keep up the good work!
Chad: ... well I was going to say something to him, but he's way too busy eating at ******* to read a post like this anyway...
Robert (Mopar Boy): I love your humor (even if it does only come around once every 2,500 posts) Your BB Viper is sweet, but when you actually get a V-10, then you'll find out what REAL viper ownership is like!
(Yes, I do believe red really is faster!)That's all for now! I am looking forward to meeting all of you at many VCA events to come!
Edit/Addition: I attended my very first VCA event this past weekend. Check out THIS thread for some pictures!
Cheers to rockin out your dreams at a young age.
