NuAngel.netWelcome to NuAngel.net. I, Garrett “NuAngel” Culver registered this domain somewhere in the neighborhood of ten years ago. I let it expire when I became a college student who couldn’t find $20 to renew it in 2005. Seriously. $20. I was broke.
After repeated offers to buy it back from multiple domain squatters, failed attempts at back orders, and even offering more money than I actually had to get it back – the morons who said I never offered them enough put it up for auction for $60. And there it stayed. And I was the only bidder. All that means to you is that I’m back, and I’m not going away.
If you don’t know who I am, then I don’t know how you got here, but let me welcome you, and regale you with a brief history.
1984 – Born.
1987 – Geek. I type what is on note cards to start Commodore 64 games. You remember, right?
LOAD”*”,8,1
1990 – Full Blown Geek. I disassemble & reassemble the family’s C128. I tinker inside the READY Prompt.
1994 – PC Gaming. RAM, Hard Drive, and Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 Upgrades on the family PC.
1999 – Though I had used it unofficially on ICQ or in games or chat servers a few times, February 8th I registered the name NuAngel somewhere permanently. Hotmail. This also marked the year I purchased a 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI – so begins my first “loyal fanboy” experience, fighting against “nVidiots.”
2000-2001 – I begin a Geocities website which I call “NuAngel’s Helping Hand.” The “address” had been registered under the name “e_mail_angel” and was originally a site designed to help people find places to get free email instead of paying for it – yes, in the late 1990′s, some people paid for email until services like Hotmail and Juno came around. Around this era, NuAngel.net is registered, and points to the Geocities site (…area51/nebula/9006 – or using the same username path: geocities.com/e_mail_angel), where I expanded the site offer gaming headlines, the Half-Life Fox Hole (news and even some exclusive community mods and 3rd party patches for Valve’s Half-Life), and technical support to those who seek it.
2000 – December 15th, “Black Friday.” The day 3dfx suddenly announced they were going out of business.
2001 – I finally built a computer that had an AGP slot and could finally install my already defunct 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500.
2001 – Not satisfied with the thought of not being able to use my new video card, I embark on the journey of urging community development, developing my own driver hacks, and was even credited with leaking the 3dfx driver source code to spur future development (although there were a lot of people involved in getting that information public without everyone going to jail!).
2002 – Ah, young love. My desire to impress my girlfriend forces me to sell all video game consoles so that I can afford prom. I stupidly cave. SNES, N64, Game Boy and Virtual Boy go on eBay.
2002-2007 – The Dark Ages. College years, spent gaming on random consoles, playing PC games on underpowered computers, hacking cell phones, partaking in general geekery all while joining a Fraternity, Delta Chi (I didn’t think I had it in me, either).
Sept 5th, 2005 – The day I let NuAngel.net expire.
2006 – I pick up a job doing web design with no formal training, only what I had taught myself from working on the original NuAngel.net. While doing that job, I miss the good old days, but the domain had been expired for over a year and squatters had it now. I launch WinBreak.com.
2007 – Shortly before graduation, high school friend and former college room mate gives me hands on time with an Xbox 360. I buy one, and fall head over heels into the community. I graduate from Penn State University – Erie campus, the Behrend College, with a degree in English, concentrating in poetry.
2008 – I become an Xbox Ambassador: I browse forums all over the web, offering advice and trying to help people troubleshoot problems with their Xbox 360′s, as well as offer my time to play games familiarize new users with their console and Xbox Lve.
2009 – I become an Microsoft “Most Valued Professional” in the field of Xbox (I clearly recall a time, circa 1997, coveting the title of Windows MVP), after offering much assistance to the community at large. Unfortunately, Microsoft suspended me from the program because of a small slip on my part, releasing a few images that I thought were already available for public consumption; even though I was an Xbox MVP and not a Zune MVP with any knowledge of what the Zune team was up to, it would seem as though I had stumbled on to a bit of gold and gave quite a few higher ups at Microsoft migraines. But I have taken my wrap on the knuckles, accepted my punishment, and since been re-nominated for MVP Stats.
2010 – I reacquire this domain name.
2011 – I start a new job, move to a new state, don’t have the time to be as active as I would like with the site, but make efforts to keep the life support pumping. I attempted a few failed side projects like EpicPoet/EpicPoets.com & GamersTable.com. The first being a website devoted to becoming like a youtube of geek poetry, where anyone could submit their writings and have feedback and ratings given. Nerd Core and ChipTune music exists, right? So why not Nintendoetry (an obvious portmanteau of Nintendo and Poetry)? The code was in place, but I never did anything to promote it or even post my own writings to it. GamersTable.com began back in 2009, but was burried in 2011. Chat rooms are more of a thing of the past, I decided to try out 4 chats on one page (General Gaming, Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo). Any of chat windows could be maximized to have your main attention, while the other three stayed active on the right side of the page. Very little use, never took off. Abandoned both to stick to simple blogging!
2012 – Nearly daily posts since jumpstarting the site again, and a 13th birthday celebration for the name NuAngel. Month after month, the visit count continues to grow and the site has settled, for now, to a steady and predictable schedule.
The rest has yet to be written… you’re now a part of it. Exciting, right? Leave comments on articles, generate discussions, point out flaws, ask for changes or enhancements to the site – help make this place as much yours as it is mine… because if I have it my way, it’s not going anywhere for a long time.
