Wizzie,
You've got a few years on me, as I'm 38, but I can relate too much of what you've written. As an Illustrator in the Navy, I've been working computers since 1987 and most of what I know is self-taught. I too envy the youth of today in their opportunities and accessibility to technology, thinking "if only I'd been born ten years later, maybe I'd be working with Brad Bird and taking character lead on the Incredibles. But I guess that just wasn't meant to be for me.

I will say that you and I had something many of today's youth don't, and that is regular face-to-face interaction with our fellow human beings. Play cowboys and Indians, riding bikes, and the like, may have been just play at the time, but it was ultimately experience in social interaction which is directly transferable to any communication. Just looking at the length of your posts shows some of that. In today's world of instant messaging, e-mails and phone calls, few people are used to long discourse with written text. Sentences tend to sort, paragraphs few, and even in these cases we feel the need to short things: @, brb, wth, etc.

As far as noobie etiquette and people asking questions vice looking things up on their own, I have reluctantly agree with you. I say reluctantly, because I often feel that I've seen questions too many times, or that a question is very basic. But I am forced to remind myself that although I may have seen a question scores of times, the person asking obviously hasn't. I am also forced to remind myself that the reason a question seems very basic is that I now have some experience with and exposure to the program. There are people floating around this forum infinitely more experience than I am and I hope that they to remind them selves that it wasn't always so.

To the new people (and some of the older folks too), ask the questions, just don't get impatient for a response. This, like most forums, is a place where users help fellow users. It is not Alias' tech support site and no one is obligated to answer any of the questions. To the older/more experience folks if it's beneath you move on, no one will know.

Wizzie, thanks for the post, the reminder to be civil to each other, and for letting me reminisce about playing cowboys and Indians.

Regards,
Michael