Member Spotlight: Shinjin

  • By Neb

    Shinjin has left his mark on the blog all throughout the Character Building group and the whole community, and is in my opinion one of the funniest people here, also THE nicest person on the blog. This guy is so pleasant to talk to and this spotlight is very well deserved, so let's take a look at Shinjin and get to know more about him.

    "It turns out my real name is not ShinJin: it is Tim--which is not only boring, but alsoalways requires me to put a number after it as a username. I stubbornly refuse to be referred to as 'Tim-unit number: 5037642' (or whatever), so if you ever stumble onto anybody on the inter-webs that goes by 'timabababaluka', then rest assured you've found me. There are billions of Tim's in the world but I've never run across another timabababaluka ;D

    It also turns out that ShinJin is a composite of Gaiden Shinji (of TES fame) and Jin (from Samurai Champloo) that I came up with when registering as a member... don't quite know how or why that happened, but it's one of the few usernames that I've come up with that I actually like (outside of timabababaluka, that is ;D)"

    Shinjin has worked at a video/record store (when they were actually called that), he's done some work at a furniture store. He has also spent 5 years as an armed guard for an armored car company if you can believe that. However, Shinjin's main desire was always to become a firefighter one day, but he started loving his English classes a lot. He went back and forth, wanting to be a firefighter one day and a teacher the next (either one being incredibly admirable). 

    He started dating a girl that preferred the stability of the teaching option. Shinjin soon married this girl and....

    "I teach High School English in a rural school in California's Central Valley... end of story. Been doing that for 11 years, and I love it.

    I have 7 children, and child number 8 comes sometime in mid-June, but the Missus likes to look at me and insist that she has 8 children--that she married child number 1, and that child number 9 is coming in mid-June (but I tell her, "Your face has 8 children!"... and that she should go get that burn checked out.)"

    "I had to move out of the house in order to get any game other than Pong, but I played my freinds' Atari's, Commodore 64's, NES', and SEGA'S. Then I grew up, went to college, and promptly turned my word processing computer into a gaming machine xD"

    Shinjin tends to only play one game at a time. One of them being Wolfenstein 3D during the early 90's, but then Doom, then Myst... and then everything changed when the fire nation attacked and then everything changed when his friend introduced him to a little game called Diablo, which opened his eyes to RPGs. Ironically Diablo nearly ruined the RPG genre for him entirely. He played a warrior, then rogue, then magician, and then another rogue... He loved it, but it couldn't carry him any further.

    "When I saw my brother-in-law tackle an Ayleid dungeon crawl in Oblivion, and I grabbed the GOTY edition as soon as I could. I played a Dunmer ronin-esque rogue with a heart of gold, a warrior, a mage, then another rogue... then got bored and was done. Again, loved it, but I approached it like I did Diablo: play the 3 cookie-cutter archetypes, do all the plot-lines, move on.

    The kids and I were PSYCHED when the trailer to Skyrim came out (watched it a million times, sang the main theme for weeks straight, and went everywhere yelling "Mus-ku-CHA!!!"... yes, 'Mus-ku-CHA'--to this day it still doesn't sound to me like the trailer says 'fus-ro-dah'). But it looked like the pattern was about to repeat itself for Skyrim (which broke my heart because I loved it even more than Oblivion; that's saying something). In desperation I googled 'Skyrim builds' and came across Ponty's Skystrider and haven't looked at Skyrim the same way since. I'm always getting blown away by the things I see here :D"

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    So I could tell you about Shinjin's blog life, but he worded it all so well that I'll just paste everything he said because I wouldn't be able to do it justice by just briefly recapping it.

    "I got my start at TSB reading build after build, and playing the ones that really intrigued me. I eventually started to incorporate more roleplay aspects into the my own builds, and enjoyed them a lot. Eventually I thought, "What the heck... why not post one of my own?" So I did, and if you don't mind my saying, for a first effort it was actually quite... mediocre. Mason and many, many others were instrumental in helping me turn that build around, but the real hero was a young member of the blog who single-handedly  pulled it out of the Bloodworks and into Recognized (I forget who that was... name had a kind of space-like ring to it--like... Nebula (or some other such nonsense).

    I've since got a few more builds under my belt--most are collaborations with Lozhar who, by the way, is an absolute blast to work with--but I think I'm more talented at geeking out about builds other people come up with than writing my own. I was super-excited, then, when I fooled the powers that be to let me join the Hidden Gem Spotlight team. That is something I enjoy doing immensely, and I work closely with some really great guys.

    Then in December I was invited to serve as a co-host for the CB group which I also love (the CB group is where my heart and imagination have always been). I'll admit that, even after three months, I'm still trying to get adjusted to that. A lot of work goes into the Character Building Group, and the members are passionate about the group, heavily invested, and actively contribute. Thankfully, Noodles, Albino, and Elysium are big-idea people and workhorses to boot; it really is amazing watching them do that voodoo that they do so well, and I'm super glad to be a part of that."

    As you can see, Shinjin is a remarkable person in real life and it's so great to have him as a blog member! Feel free to ask him any questions you want.

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Comments

18 Comments
  • Curse Never Dying
    Curse Never Dying   ·  April 27, 2015
    An all around great guy and excellent character builder. This spotlight was well deserved.
  • Ernilcrabanar Lagorvyrthur
    Ernilcrabanar Lagorvyrthur   ·  April 26, 2015
    Hear hear! Finally Shinjin gets his well deserved spotlight! He is truly one of the greatest of us!
  • Shadow
    Shadow   ·  April 26, 2015
    Insert "why are we not funding him" meme. Congrats Shinjin!
  • Lozhar
    Lozhar   ·  April 26, 2015
    Heh, I'be been waiting for this one, You're awesome 
  • Borommakot
    Borommakot   ·  April 26, 2015
    A very well deserved spotlight! You're a regular inspiration and restorer-of-faith-in-humanity, Shin! Gotta love that English, too XD
  • Chris
    Chris   ·  April 26, 2015
    Congrats ShinJin, yu deserve this
  • Kael'than
    Kael'than   ·  April 26, 2015
    This one has always been inevitable. Congrats, timabababaluka Shinjin! You really deserve this. Henceforth, now and forever, you shall be known as Timabababaluka!
  • Lazy
    Lazy   ·  April 26, 2015
    Nicest guy on the blog? You got that right. Finally glad ShinJin-chan has his turn in the spotlight! 'Tis long overdue, if I do say so myself!

    By the way.......7 children and you're a teacher? +9001 respect
  • Xeelus
    Xeelus   ·  April 26, 2015
    Congrats :D Couldn't think of anyone more deserving.
  • Vazgen
    Vazgen   ·  April 26, 2015
    Praise ShinJin! 
    Some of your collaborations with others ended up in my most favorite builds list (notably the Legend of Lover's Lament and the Healer). And I also love the Dibella's Beautiful Blade! But more than your contributions I value your lev...  more