As you might have guessed from the title, you have found the home page of one Victor A. Guy, IV, and his lovely wife, Cristy Lee. What you're probably wondering right now is, 'Who are these Guys, anyhow?' Let us help you out with that one.
Cristy and I are both natives of Massachusetts. We were both born and raised in Fitchburg. We went to the same high school (F.H.S.), and still like to root for the team (Go Red Raiders!) even though we live in Leominster (Boo!). It wasn't until our senior class trip to Disney World in May of 1994 that we really started to get to know each other.
After high school we both went to different colleges, but managed to find time to keep our relationship going despite the distance between us.
I have a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I am a member of the class of 1998. I also have a physics minor. I belong to Tau Beta Pi (engineering honors society), ASME (professional society), and Sigma Mu Epsilon (manufacturing honors society).
Cristy has a B.A. in psychology from Fitchburg State College. She is a member of the class of 1998. She was too busy to get involed with professional societies while she was in school, but founded C.E.S. society, was active on many comittees and boards, and volunteered for many opportunities to support disability advocacy.
Since graduation we've grown together and gotten married. In December of 1998 we got engaged. Cristy moved to Southern Connecticut with me where I was working as a manufacturing engineer at Electric Boat, supporting the construction and design of our nation's future submarine fleet.
On September 23, 2000, we got married. Boy was I nervous. It was great, though. Despite some mishaps, everything came out all right. Our reception was hailed by both friends and family as the best our guests had ever been to.
After our honeymoon in Disney World (the very same place we started our relationship), we decided to move back to Massachusetts. During 2000, we had 8 people related to us (to varying degress) pass on. Family health issues and a desire to have family close by for when we had children were the driving force behind our decision.
In May of 2001 I got a new job at a small company in Ayer, MA called Advanced Vacuum Systems, Inc. In my role as a mechanical engineer I am doing more than I have ever done in my life. I am construction support, project engineer, designer, design engineer, materials manager, and so much more all at once. Needless to say, I've been very busy the past seven months.
Cristy and I are both very happy to be home. We're closer to family, friends, and each other. We're living in an apartment in Leominster, and thinking of buying a house soon. I've got "The Plan": get a job, move, get a house, get a dog, get a baby. It's been slow in the coming, but Cris and I are well on our way to making our dreams a reality.
I'm an absent-minded professor type. The kind that's likely to lock the keys in his car while it's running because he was too busy thinking about something else at the moment. I'm fun loving (isn't every Gemini?), almost to a fault. When someone gets me into a good discussion about something that I enjoy, I sometimes forgets that the rest of the world exists. This includes any and all chores that need to be done (though I've gotten a lot better about that lately).
I'm still a notorious procrastinator, though. I think that I always have been. I'm much too easily distracted by something more fun. My procrastination tendencies are counteracted by my sense of loyalty to myself and my work. Somehow, no matter how much I procrastinate, I find a way to get the job done. This procrastinator/work-aholic duality was probably shown most clearly by the posters that I had put up in my room my junior year at school. Resting right next to each other were the posters of The Procrastinator's Creed and Peter's Laws (The creed of the sociopathic obsessive compulsive). Somehow, by going to all kind of extremes, I feel that I'm a middle of the road, somewhat happy-go-lucky fellow.
One of my greatest gifts is my imagination. Sometimes I will phase out of the real world and begin imagining all kinds of things, from space combats, to martial arts, to swords and sorcery. Where my mind is at any given time is unknown.
The combination of these qualities has come together to make me an oblivious, yet highly intelligent individual with sufficient motivation to get the job done, though not always the way it was supposed to be done.
Cristy
I told my wife that she would be at the top of the list after we got married. Like my father, I'm of the opinion that family always comes first. Job comes second. Fun comes third. Cristy is a wonderful, amazing woman. She's overcome so much adversity in life and come through it all smiling; absolutely amazing.
Once she writes up her life story for me, I'll put a link to it here. I just can't do it enough justice; there's just so much. Suffice it to say that she's seen a lot of battles with her disease (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis of the retinas), and she's come through.
I never knew what love is until she loved me. No words can express the depth of my emotions for her, even on the bad days. I would be lost without her.
Now and Forever
Forever and Always
Forever and a Day
I love her with
All of my Heart
All of my Mind
All of my Soul
And all of my Body
Engineering (and Computers)
It's my livelyhood. Ever since I was a boy I loved to take things apart and see how they worked. When I figure it out, I'll let you know. :)
All through my life I have never really been pushed to excel. My boss at AVS is doing that. I'm not sure that I like it, but I'm doing things that I've never done before and seeing a lot of places that need improvement. It's a shame that I'm so darned lazy. I might actually learn something if I took the time to teach myself.
Sometimes I think that I should have gone into computers. I really have a knack for them. At the time I went into college I decided that whatever I wanted to do with a computer, I was good enough to teach myself. It's turned out to be true for the most part.
Engineering is my biggest challenge, and my biggest reward. I have more job security than my college buddies with computer-related degrees. Even though I get frustrated that some of them make more money for less effort, (but not Bill -- that man is a working machine) I cherish the stability of my career.
I've got my resume set up in html format, but it really should be updated soon.
My Resume
Electric Boat
Advanced Vacuum Systems
Dungeons and Dragons
My passion. I love role-playing games of all kinds. My friend Matt got me started with Dungeons and Dragons when I was in the third grade. Ever since then I've been hooked. I've played all kinds of variations of the game through the years and I just can't get enough. It's social, it's fun, and it's never, ever the same game twice. No matter how old I get, the game always seems to grow and change with me.
"You don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing." It's a quote that I read somewhere that rang true in my heart. Now that I think about it, I've met some really old young people. :)
More about this subject will be coming soon.
Music
Before August 2001, I used to play guitar infrequently, and make bad MIDI composition from time to time. Recently I've become a lot more serious about my music. I've jammed with quite a few other musicians as a bass player, and I've gotten a lot better. My style of play has been best described as "solid".
The band I was just in has dissolved. It just wasn't working out, and everyone but me and the drummer was either kicked out, or left voluntarily. I decided to take a break and work on a solo project for a while.
Magic: the Gathering
The infernal Collectible Card Game that deserves its own addicts anonymous club. I used to play it with Reckless Abandon, but it's fallen far from the top of my list as my free time shrank.
It's still enjoyable, and I still take in a game now and again with Matt or Arnie, but I think my days of serious competition are over. I just can't keep up financially with all of the new releases, or play enough to stay in top form. I will settle to play a friendly game now and again, and save my money for music and role-playing games.
Church & Spirituality
Cristy and I just joined the First Church of Leominster: Unitarian Universalist. As of 12/16/01, we're members. More on this later.
Spiritual improvement: during college I joined (and helped form) the WPI Healing Arts Society. I was given a Reiki attunement to Reiki II, and learned many other methods of stress and anger management as well as healing, meditation, relaxation, and other cool stuff like that. I miss the old discussions we had about life, the universe, and God. Alas, while all things last forever, they are forever bound to change.
Reading & Writing
Reading for pleasure. Cristy and I like to read books. Since she's visually impaired (20/400 in her remaining eye - with her glasses on), I read out loud to her at night. Our favorites include Anne McCaffrey and Catherine Coulter. We like Star Wars and Harry Potter rules all. We've just finished the first book of the Lord of the Rings (my 2nd time through).
Writing: Science Fiction and Fantasy. If I ever mananage to maintain my motivation to write for more than a week, I might someday write a book or two. I always try to take on much more than I can chew. The novel can wait. I need to work on the short story. I just can't find the time right now.
Games
Chess is a personal favorite, although Axis & Allies is always kind of cool. I like just about any kind of game, but strategy games are always the best.
See you later...
UNDER CONSTRUCTION: Last edition 1/9/02
This is my Play by E-Mail Role playing game. I'm the game master, doing all the administrative stuff. Please have a look. It's pretty big but if you take the time to read it, it's turning out to be a pretty cool story.
PBEM FRPG
This another page devoted to miscellaneous role-playing stuff. Cool links to PBEM Pages and the like.
RPG stuff
Visit my RPG jumpstation:
Vic's RPG Games Jumpstation
Meet my college buddies:
Bill Binder: my roommate for two years here at WPI. He's a really smart, work-hard kind of guy. Likes RPGS, LARPS, programming. He has a cool AD&D character generator. If you're into that sort of thing, he had it on his page, and it can be down-loaded as free-ware.
Bill's Page
Noah Abrahams: a suite mate of mine for two years. He's a physics major, and a really fun guy. If you want to hang out with someone cool, and maybe play net games with someone 24-7, drop him a line. He also likes RPGs, and is a real role player.
Noah's Chunk O' Bandwidth
Steve Kazmierzak: another one of my suite mates. He's a CS major. A real middle of the road kind of guy. NIN and FF7 on his pages: check it out.
Zik's Page
Dave Rothgery: not one of my suite mates, but still a good friend, Dave is also CS. His interests include Magic: TG, and AD&D.
Dave's Page
Samantha Collins Halden: probably my best friend at WPI, Sam has a good ear and is full of good suggestions. She has an aura about her that says, "talk to me, I'll listen." She's a Biology major, and hopes to go to grad school for veterinary medicine some day. She's getting married soon too!
Sam's Page
Jason Nadeau: another suite mate. Jason and I come from the same home town, although we never really met until a year and a half ago. He's a double major (something environmental-chemical). He's a real work-aholic. Don't get him talking about philosophy, though. You'll be in debate for hours.
Jason Nadeau
This is all engineering and WPI related stuff. I use this as a page to put links to useful resources. You can take a peek if you think you might be interested.
Cool links for a WPI ME undergrad
