User blog:Uskok/The day I turned 16...

 ...was fourteen years and one day ago!

 Avast there, ye almost entered me private quarters. Now, ye might be asking yerself what be the reason for writing this peculiar blog. The reason, as it turns out, be very simple. Yesterday I turned 30. Now I have to warn all ye scallywags, whoever dares to call me old will walk the plank! Is that understood?  Relax, me lads and lasses. That treatment be reserved only for betrayers and mutineers, not for loyal crewmembers like yerself. Let the old man make a joke from time to time. But now let's get to the point.  What I want to say be this - It's been an honor and pleasure to know ye all, steering this pretty ship of ours to the edges of the map and beyond. But why do I mention "16", ye ask. Some of ye might know me story, some of ye don't, so here it be, me hearties! In 2003, I was 16, and one sunny day in July I was talking a walk through the city with me late father. The fate brought us near one of the two only movie theatres in the city, and I saw the poster for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl for the first time in me life. At first, I was simply interested, because I have already watched several pirate-themed films. Most of them were pretty good and even though me father wasn't a fan of such film, we decided we should watch that latest swashbuckling adventure. That night, me life changed forever. Me humble person became a Pirates fan, and after all these years this Captain still is a Pirates fan. Arrr!


 * [Just to be clear, this pirate has every right to call himself a captain, because he is a captain of the good ship Sea Queen on the endless seas of the video game The Legend of Pirates Online. You should check it out ;) ]

 The rest of the story be not terribly long. I watched the other two films (if some landlubber knows not what I be talking about, those be Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End), and then I joined this Wiki on October 24, 2007, under a different username. Me humble self even made a few edits as an anonymous user but then I decided it be better to have an official account. For those who might be wondering, aye, me English was terrible then. I hated the bloody language. But over the years, mainly thanks to watching the Pirates DVDs without the subtitles, I became more and more fluent, and today I would dare say me English is quite good, even though it's still not perfect. At first, I was a humble contributor to the Wiki, me editing being limited by me poor language skills. I needed months just to figure out the purpose of the "undo" button. Aye, I was terrible. But there came a day unlike any other, methinks it was the year 2009, when every original Admin and all other users, one by one, abandoned the Wiki and I was left alone, like a castaway on a raft in the middle of the sea.

 I don't think I need to tell you what a hard time that was. Every vandal could do whatever he wanted, all sorts of pics unrelated to Pirates were uploaded, and I couldn't do a thing to block the vandals or delete those pics. Finally, I have had enough, so I put a request at the Community Central to adopt the Wiki. Me wish was granted, and the situation became a little better.

 Over the next years, several other users joined the Wiki, including Masters J Fan and Midhav, who became Admins too. Honestly, I don't know what would I do without them. They were here when I couldn't be, keeping the Wiki alive and protecting it from all sorts of scurvy sea dogs. I can only thank them for their hard work and love for Pirates. Thank you, gentlemen.

 And now that I have been properly turned into a sniveling pile of emotions, let's open a bottle of the governor's finest grog, shall we? It's not every day a pirate turns 30.

 Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.

 P.S. If any of ye dares to repeat this story to some Navy officer or an EITC official, me and me crew will make sure ye all dance at the end of our yardarm. Remember,  Dead men tell no tales!
 * Yours sincerely, Captain Tom Ironshot, alias Uskok