Extended Leave.
WinCustomize Forums
I have been/am taking an extended leave from all pc and internet related activities.
The reasons for this are:
#1 The Main reason
On Tuesday June 2nd my fourth child, a daughter, was brought into this (cruel) world.
She was 52 cm long, weighed 3510 grams and her name is Emma. We're both very, very proud of her! 
I am and will be spending most of my time with them. Being on a two week maternity leave, followed by three weeks summer holiday will give me plenty of full time with them. 
[picture1] [picture2] [picture3]
#2 The perfect reason
I have more or less been without a fully working pc since mid March, which have given me time to reflect on a couple of things. (See #3)
My primary pc went totally bust two weeks ago, and the though of spending alot of time and money on restoring it, kinda threw me of track since I'd already spent close to a month on getting it fixed. And I certainly didn't have the finances to buy a new one.
But..... the "rescue" came from a source I never reckoned I'd ever get help from: The Danish government....
As you are aware of, we're all feeling the effect of the global finacial crisis.
Side track:
I partially blame the media/news for the crisis being as bad as it is right now. No matter when you watched the news you got hammered with "the crisis is getting worse", "people loosing their job at an encreasing rate", "savings are lost" and blah blah blah.....
Yes, there is a finacial crisis, no doubt about that, but due to the news basically telling people to save their money as best they can, no one is willing to spend the kind of money they normally would. This ment lower productions, meaning more lay offs, meaning less spending power, meaning lower productions, meaning lower.... well you get the pic.
In essence, if the media hadden't been so damn disaster hungry, blowing the hole matter of proportions our current situation wouldn't have looked so grim.
Back on track:
So.... the (Danish) government came up with a plan (a working one, for once) to kick the consumer spendings back in gear, by releasing a buttload of pension savings, for those wanting to withdraw these savings. And from the looks of it quite a few Danes have decided to do just so, including yours truely!
And.... last week I ordered a brand new pc. An Acer Aspire M7711, sporting the Intel Quad Core Q9300 CPU, 8 GB DDR2, 1 TB HDD, ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card (will be swapped with my existing 4850 X2 card) and various thingy-madjik gadgets.
#3 The sad reason
Though I do have a secondary and working pc, I really haven't borthered taking time to boot it up to do what I normally do, checking mail, follow up on various interweb activities including WinC moderating. I've only been online 3 times in the past 2½ weeks, and am actually not missing it. Will the new pc change this, though? I don't think so.
I've been a part of the skinning community longer than most, close to 12 years. 10 of those were more or less a 24/7 obsession. The first 5-6 years were a blast. All fun and exitement. Since then it's been all downhill. Not just the exitement factor but also for skinning in general.
Three years ago I quit active skinning. The kick/fun I got from releasing a finished skin had gone away, so why continue?
Since then I've kept "in the background" as the silent file-moderator here at WinC.
This, though, may also soon be a closed chapter in my part of the history of skinning.
I've noticed a growing trend amongst artists that goes against my belief of how skinning should be. More and more seem to be skinning for what others want, not what they want themelves.
In the "old guard" of skin artist the 'rule' is: Skin for yourself, and screw what everyone else says/think.
Another thing I've noticed is the growing trend of ass-kissing, also known as the Dangeruss-syndrome among his or her 'followers'
This syndrome is when the followers like a skin for who made it, not for the skin itself. In essence, certain artists could take a dump at a piece of paper and the followers will praise it as a master-piece.
Also, certain artists are getting too "high on their horses" just because they get promoted. A trend gerenally seen here on WinC, when promoted to Master.
To me userlevels are mere 'labels'. All users/artists are equal - with a few exceptions, which shall go un-named.
Off course I have my personal favorites, and have users I wouldn't mind seen kicked out (for various reasons) and am not alone in the mod-ranks on this matter, but it's not really our call....
A few users/artist would surely be happy to see me gone, but that again ain't your call 
Anyway, the past weeks I have been contemplating my future here on WinC, and will continue doing so in the weeks to come.
In end, the decission is mine, and mine alone.
Skinning should be fun -- Jason Brown (Scarebear)
life is good. Skinning makes it better -- Larry Kuperman (Koop)
As your almost the last of the old guard that was here when I signed on, you'll be missed but I understand everything you've said. Enjoy your new girl, thats whats important.
and do what makes You happy! 
All the best again and thank You for those good years, I had the honour to be part of for some time. But I still feel sad about all the elders of the scene that vanish... 
We all know those names and keep them in high esteem. You are for sure one of them.
), John Clarke…..