First, let me apologize for the long, geeky thread. If you don’t have time, please skip to the end and check out my WIP 
I've been a forum member for about a year, and today I took the next step and became a full member. I've seen some amazing stuff here; it really is the best resource for digital art enthusiasts. It both inspires and humbles me every time I log on.
I’ve lived in Cincinnati, OH (USA) for the past 10 years. I know it’s not the smallest town, but in some ways it feels that way. Nothing against Cincinnati, it is a great town. However, since I am not yet able to relocate, I have to find creative solutions to the limitations of the area. There are two main ones: there isn’t a strong animation program at any of the local schools, nor is there much of a digital art community.
As far as the lack of a community, that is where CG Society comes in. It amazes me when, on the rare occasion that I do hear about a local 3d artist, they haven't heard of the CG Society. I try to engage my friends in conversation about how cool Toy Story is, and they think it was done with puppets! Pulling up CG Society's site or opening an email from them gives me my much needed cg-art fix.
With local schools, the closest option I’ve found in this area is the small, suburban college of Raymond Walters (a part of the University of Cincinnati) where they offer an Animation Certificate. When I heard about this certificate, I drooled. However, my excitement didn’t last long. In the past year, I’ve taken all the classes they offer in animation and haven’t learned a thing. The classes were interesting, but they were more focused on the history and mechanics of general animation, topics I’ve always been interested in and have studied independently for most of my life. There was only one class that dealt with 3d, and it was taught by a new instructor who was pretty much in the same boat I was. He knew nothing about Maya (the subject of the class) but had taught himself another program (MAX). I’m looking for more instruction in character design and believable animation, like what the nice guys over at Animation Mentor.com seem to offer. I hope to get into AM some time soon, but I only have federal aid for school and AM doesn’t qualify (since it isn’t a degree program). Therefore, until I save up the $14k for AM, I continue to be self-taught. That’s ok; I need all the practice I can get, as I figure I am about 10 years late getting started.
I say about 10 years because it was about that long ago that I was a senior in High School, and saw the movie Toy Story. I knew that was what I wanted to do; I wanted to be part of telling stories like that! After High School, I started working and my goal was pushed further and further back. Off and on, I would explore some element of 3d, but was never fully invested in it. I tried Blender several years ago, and it was very intimidating at that time and I gave up.
I remember seeing (my now idol) Vic Navone’s Alien Song and I couldn’t get enough of it. I sent it to everyone I knew. I was obsessed. I checked out his web site and saw he used something call Animation Master, so I played around with that. I never did anything like Alien Song, but I did make a little dancing Winnie the Pooh. If nothing else, it rekindled my interest in 3d and character animation.
So, I've been teaching myself for some time. I am nowhere near where I wish to be, and that is the chief reason I am here. I work some in Maya, but mostly in Blender. I am an avid Blender promoter. I rediscovered it a while back, when 2.3 came out and there was an actual, published manual at my library. It had greatly improved since the last time I had tried it several years earlier. In addition, since then, it has developed even further with the great work that was done with Elephants Dream. Anyone who hasn't given Blender a chance, I urge you to take the plunge. Don't just download and try it once, explore the Blender community. To me, that is the strength of Blender.
If you are interested, here is my latest WIP:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=408079
I hope you have a few minutes to check it out and let me know what you think.
Thanks for having me as part of the CG Society; I’m proud to be here.