Let me tell ya'll a lil story here.

Back in 2002, I got back into GI Joe. I had a job. A place to live. And by pure chance, I stopped by a Target and looked at toys (for some odd reason, which I hadn't done for years). There was GI Joe as it was rebooted/re-imagined/re-whateveryouwanttocallit; GI Joe Vs Cobra (aka JvC). I don't remember if there was much of a selection, but I saw this 2 pack. Snow Job vs NeoViper. Both looked freakin awesome (ie; I was pretty much out of GI Joe when DiC showed up. So compared to the stuff that came out the later years, this 2 pack looked better than any day glo ninja def big weapon crap that had shown up, imo).

From there, I found the Devils Due version of GI Joe and thus, the Devils Due community boards. Particularly GI Joe where I met a bunch of GI Joe fans. In short time, one of the members broke off and created what is now known as JoeBattlelines. It would be there that I would meet Justin Bell, Fred Meyer, Luke Ellison, and several others. I mention those 3 because they were the ones that pointed me to JoeDios.com

A very short time later, the JD gained mad popularity. Fred and Justin would be posting pics that were also being used in their reviews on the JBL. Luke (SalvoInACan was one of his many names) was throwing down photography-wise. Yet, those guys weren't around much because they had other places to be. Now, I was new to this whole photography thing. I was NOT one of those that actually took film photos of their toys before digital cameras were created/affordable to the average consumer.

So, being new to all this (and with an influx of members here), some of us started seeking out assistance in our photography skills. Thru random comments, connections were made. One little babble about Battlestar Galactica (which was on the air at the time) could create a common interest with another member who was also watching it (like, oh, Shane Welin. aka Lord Raven/Raven Returns). Deciding the pm system here and comments were too slow to easily chat and ask questions, we found we both had MSN MSGR. And from there, it quickly branched out to whoever had it, we could chat. This would add in Frank Nash, Luis, Carlos, Phil West (BeastFromTheEast), Dave (GI*Jock), even Matt Morelock (not so much in group chats), Andre Bynoe (DioWarriors), and probably a few others I'm unfortunately forgetting. (Rich from England, Alan from Florida, spoke to numerous others). The friendships grew from talking about GI Joe and how to improve our skills.

Shane was there for my divorce in 2007. We were there for Frank when he was in Iraq cutting power lines with a Ditch Witch so the soldiers couldn't play HALO. We listened to Luis talk about trying to adopt a child. We were there when Shane found every new job for the last x-amount of years as well as moving from place to place. I even got the (late) Craig Anderson to send me a signed (fave) photo for me to remember him by (when things were starting to go south). But when he was healthy, I talked him into doing some photoshop work for my 1st diostory cuz I didn't have the skills (and I also talked him into photos of various vehicles I didn't have so I could photoshop for myself). Shoot, look hard enough, you might find a joint diostory that Phil and I did (it was his story and photos, I just put it together).

It wouldn't be until Facebook that I would find out (ok, maybe MySpace, but we'll skip that era) who some of the JD members were and became friends with them. Arnold, Otto (not sure when he even came into the picture, sorry!), Sean, Ed (speir), Ciarda (spoke more to him than when on the JD originally), MC Austin, and even Marauder Rueben from Marauder Gun-Runners!

Since returning, got to meet people holding down the fort here. Selvaland and Barka. Also got to see that Neopolitan Joe is still holding strong. And DaveCW2 who is one of my absolute faves can still throw down and make me feel like a noob. (Speir does that too, but at least here, ya'll don't do Kamen rider. lol) Sorry if I left a few people out. Going off my crappy memory.

As Barka said, friends are made here. Crazy how true that is.