It was back in 07 when Yahoo! Games posted an article about indie games. One game that was featured there was DF. (There was another that I wanted to try, it was about clouds. Sadly, I never found it again Maybe you know, guys?) I was intrigued, so I downloaded it. I didn't have my own PC where I was staying then, but the proprietor of the internet cafe I went to was kind enough to let me save it in one of the computer terminals. Thing was, for some reason or another I couldn't ave my progress. So every day for a couple of months I played DF FROM SCRATCH. But I loved the game.
And I made progress too. I farmed from sand plots. I made extensive dirt roads. I was even able to trade from the first caravan that appeared. But then after an hour or two I had to get back home, so I would log off, and the next day I'd start all over. Finally that terminal i played from got infected by a virus and had to be reformatted, and I set DF aside.
So then in 2010 I went back to my hometown, where I have my own PC. I thought, "Maybe I should play DF again." So I did. I downloaded 31.12, started a new game, and promised myself to keep playing that fortress until it got overwhelmed by elves, goblins, or whatever monsters that came along. Been maintaining it ever since.