The History of Audio-Tips

Greetings! I would like you to know what the purpose of this web site is, and a little about the people involved. Since I started this contraption, I guess I'll go first. I am a businessman from Mesa, Arizona. For the last 15 years I have been working with the homeless, and own rental properties. Before this I was involved in several adventures including, working at a center for the blind, land development, teaching people how to own their own business, and bought and sold real-estate. I also owned a successful machine shop in Michigan, and even worked on the carnival. Sounds pretty good, huh? Well I am grateful to live in a place that offers so many opportunities for a character like me to take advantage of. I was the first one of my family to be diagnosed with an eye disease called R.P. when I was 6 years old. This is an eye decease that slowly destroys the retina until you can't see anymore. I was able to hide the fact I was going blind for quite a few years.

In 1979, I sold my machine shop, and drank my fortune away in just 11 short months. God must have had something for me to do, because in spite of all my efforts to destroy myself, I managed to start over again with the help of a lot of good people. Even though I have had a lot of success, I felt very insecure. The fact that I had to depend on others to do things that my loss of sight prevented me from doing for myself, made me feel like a parasite that the rest of the world had to put up with. About 5 years ago I got a computer. It helped me to be able to do some things for myself that I couldn't do before, but it still fell way short of true equality. I was about to give up again. About this time I got on the Internet. A friend of mine steered me to Cathy's news-stand. What a thrill it was to read a newspaper, and link to the wonderful world of information that I thought I had lost forever. This was just a beginning. After surfing greedily for a purpose that would warrant my existence, I still fell short. That's when I linked to the E-church, an email list for blind Christians. When I watched other blind folks praying for each other, a spirit of belonging started to replace my isolation. I started to pray and the scales of self-pity were lifted from my eyes and I began to see the real reason for living.

The time and effort that everyone of you puts into helping each other has inspired me to quit sniveling and do my part. This isn't my site, its yours. I know you will make it the best learning tool on the web and together we'll make this a better world to live in.

Sincerely,
George Buys

PS: Audio Tips is far more than me. It is the people who have given their time and effort to make things happen that I could have never dreamed of.
Check out the talk rooms, and browse the rest of audio-tips to meet and experience the warm hearted folks that really make audio-tips the best voice chat community on the net.
God Bless you, Every One!