I suppose my pirate's lust for jewels came upon finding a womans gold wedding band w/LARGE diamond solitare in a parking lot while waiting for mother to get the dry cleaning. Mom made me "do the 'right' thing", by placing an ad in the newspaper lost and found. A woman spoke with my mother over the phone and arranged to come pick it up. She arrives and I extend my 7 yr. old hand out offering the ring to her. The woman snatched it out of my hand, practically slapping my hand, glances at it, turns while shoving the ring into her pocket, and beelines straight to an open car door and sped off.
Mom says, "I don't think that ring was really hers." I broke down in tears screaming, "You're so dumb! I HATE YOU!"
Next birthday I got the radioshack metal detector I wanted. I wanted to find more jewels, but no adult would take the time to teach me what all the knobs did. I only ran one set of batteries through it before giving up in frustration.
Fast forward to some time durring DFX production and I wanted one bad, but my financial stars never quite lined up for such a large purchase, so I waited.....and waited. Eventually I decided to put it off until I could spend the time playin, and finances were stable.
That time eventually came, but the DFX was out of production by then, so I bought it's successor instead. What an eye opening learning curve I had! By now I had grown accustomed in life to learning most things on my own through reading/observing/and doing. I still needed help when I had a complicated question, so I ended here frequently finding the answers. Never signed up, just lurking for answers. Eventually, after thousands of hours, having fun, experimenting, running tests, I realized I don't really have any questions anymore, but I still enjoyed lurking on occasion.
When I purchased a third detector this past January, I needed a few settings defined as to what they did. While learning this new machine I felt maybe I should at least try to give something back to the community I learned the most from when I had detector related questions. For me it's the first time on any forum in over 14 years...since quitting a long held post as a mod on the largest photoshop contest site anywhere. (I still have not been back, I was so disgusted). I know this site has had some issues with members in the past and recent past, but I don't care. This isn't a competetion for me, and I like the people here. And nobody else can understand the hobby like other enthusiasts, so it's great fun to joke, and great place to vent with people who can relate.
I hope to give something back, even if it's simply encouragement, or inspiration. That's how I got here in a roundabout way. I don't have time, or desire to be posting on every forum related to the hobby, only one, so I chose the one that helped me the most - Tnet.
Honestly, I could go back to being alone, lurking like before, but I'm enjoying the members banter and have grown to make Tnet pretty much a daily routine. I'd probably miss it.
Thanks for allowing me to blight these forums with my presence.
Edit: and I know I don't post my finds much, but that's because I know there are people with the skills to photoshop images nearly impossible to identify as being fake, or doctored. I competed against them.
