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So what's everyone up to?

SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
It seems a little quiet around here, due in part to the typical post-new year lull that seems to wander through this part of the internet...

So what is everyone up to? It's been six months since the last general check-in?

I'll start off. It's been five months since moving into the new rental home, and I've just finally managed to settle things. Unfortunately, my office and desktop computer are currently in limbo (but a room and final location has been decided), so I have gone without a desktop PC for nearly two months now. I have not, however, gone 'net-less. I got a real (Android) smartphone! Being my typical late adopter self, I finally got a nice smartphone back in November.

I was gifted the latest model Sony eReader Pocket Edition for christmas, which has renewed my interest in reading. I'm in the process of pouring through the Hitchhiker's Guide series, and will lead into Ringworld shortly after.

Other than that, my life is extremely quiet and boring. I continue to work a dead-end retail job, holding 99% of a degree in my hand with no better/apparent local prospects. It's been frustrating, it's been trying, it's been...meh!

The only real excitement in the last few months has been a flea outbreak at home. While I don't believe I got into it, the current pet population consists of two beagles (Frank, Bailey) and four cats (Kushka, Russian Blue; Blossom, Siamese; Juniper, Siamese; Dizzy, Maine Coon). We're not sure where exactly the problem began, but suspect that the dogs brought some in from our yard. Unfortunately, the 22-24 year old Maine Coon picked up some of these fleas and is too old to treat with most flea medications. We also discovered that she made a comfortable nest underneath some furniture that acted as a perfect flea incubator, a nest that went unnoticed long after treatment began. Terrible, horrible times ensued. I waged full-scale war on these tiny critters for nearly a full month and have been playing a light offense for two since. This war continued even now, with a single live flea having been spotted earlier tonight. Bah!

So that's basically me. It's been an uneventful few months, but in no way relaxed and with little free time to be found anywhere.
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Comments

  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    ah man, Desktop PCs are so nice. I used my laptop for 2½ week now during the holidays. Feels so nice to be back at my desktop. Mostly it's the small screen (12.1") on my laptop that starts to annoy me after a while.

    For my part, I'm still at uni. Wish I had some kind of part time work so I'd have some money to do something and if I didn't have time to do stuff then buy gadgets. :)
    Gaming multiplayer quite a lot. Fall from Heaven 2 mod for civi I play with a friend, and then replaying Guild Wars with other friends for old times sake.
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    Sanfam, [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCbfMkh940Q"]here [/URL]is your solution to the flea infestation.

    I'm working on CoH, almost finished remaking the first season. There's only one scene left to animate for the final episode, then it's on to sound editing and figuring out what to do for the music. The epic space battle took me a month to complete but was worth all the work I put into it :)

    There's some drama going on with my best friend that I'm not going to write about here. It's annoying and seems kinda pointless to me.

    Worf
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    Well i'm playing Warcrack, and starting to get the cafe ready for next season, I've bought a new cash register system and am getting that set up, and we're also looking at purchasing another business, there are two places in town up for lease, one is a full restaurant and one is another cafe... We just rescued a Siberian Husky, so now we have 2 of them, that keeps me busy most of the time.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    Not a lot to report here, I've settled into my new job in Newcastle pretty well. I'm still learning the ropes, but getting used to the setup they have here, which has been a bit different from what I was used to in the places I trained. My first nightshift was on xmas day, so I didnt get to go home for it, but it had the benefit all but the most ill patients were out so it was actually a very quiet shift. Sadly they won't all be like that!

    I'm starting to get to know Newcastle a bit better now, tho I don't know many people here outside of work yet. I'm really enjoying living back in England again after too many years in Scotland, so I can now wear my England cricket shirt out without getting beaten up!

    Other than that, still single, still playing STO, tho I find I dont have anywhere near enough time to play anything anymore
  • David of MacDavid of Mac Elite Ranger Ca
    Going to start up my last undergrad semester in a few days. After that, I'll be looking for 3D work locally, as well as checking out a few internships that are farther afield.
  • I just had two teeth pulled yesterday, and two others cut out. Yay! Wisdom teeth be gone...

    now, I want to feel my jaw again.

    Or looking at it, maybe not...
  • Pretty boring most of the time here, too. Got a new office at work, I'm excited about that because now I have room for a workbench so I can repair the computers here instead of driving out to the branch location where the rest of our IT department is housed. Also, now I have a space to display some of my kickass collectibles, which I am growing with Christmas money!

    Got hit by a red-light-runner first of December and finally got the truck back from the shop yesterday. $9200 worth of damage and it still wasn't totaled. I guess I'm glad it's a tough little truck. Going to see if I can get any more out of their insurance for loss of value. I am glad to have it back; I like that truck.

    My wife continues her doctoral work in counseling psychology. Including dissertation and internship, she's about half-way there with another 2.5-3 years to go. She's loving it so I'm glad for that.

    I am excited about the labor of love I have been working on for the past year: my first screenplay. It's well into rewrites now and as of the table read I did with several friends last July it was sounding pretty solid. It's a romantic dramedy with an indie slant to it, and a lot of personal feelings in it. If I manage to sell it and it doesn't get chopped to hell, there will even be some Firefly references and a cameo by one of the actors in it. We'll see.

    I'm pretty serious about the writing thing if I can make something of it; I have several other ideas brewing including a cerebral sci-fi about a man who is awakened once a year to tend to a ship and its hibernating crew who are traveling to another star. I plan for it to examine how he deals with loneliness, boredom, loss and the passage of time.

    Oh yeah, and I still plan to get the space sim industry started up again at some point; I've got some pretty cool ideas that the right people would go nuts for.
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    I wish I had an uneventful few months. Not so...

    After 2 years of mulling over the idea of refinancing our home my bank called with an offer that was very hard to refuse, so we refinanced the house with 4% interest. 72 [B]HOURS[/B] later, my boss told me I was being laid off. Timing = incredible.

    They offered me a really nice severance package and all that jazz, gave me 3 weeks warning before the layoff, so I started looking for another job. I have 9 years of experience in Diagnostic Imaging Service so lucky for me I had multiple positions available to me. All but 1 required me to move though. However the job that didn't require me to move would have me traveling all over the country again, and I really wasn't up for that. Plus there wasn't much future with that company.

    The wife and I mulled it over, one of the offers I got was to stay with the company I work for (GE Healthcare), and move to Wisconsin (where she is from). So I took the position in Milwaukee. I actually accepted the new position before the layoff occurred so I never did get laid off. My new boss is very understanding of the position I am in. He put me on his payroll immediately and told me to stay down in Texas till after the holidays and to come up on the first of Jan.

    So here I am, Ive been in Milwaukee for the last 6 days (already have a cold). A friend of mine put me up in her basement while we get things figured out. My wife is getting our house ready to be sold back in Texas. Basically though, we are going to be apart for the next 5 months. She starts her final semester of college in a week, she will graduate in May with a degree in early childhood educated. This semester is nothing but student teaching for her. So she and the kids are staying in Texas until school is out.

    Im already ridiculously lonely. I don't think I realized how much human contact is important. Just the ability to touch your significant other is comforting. Being apart like this sucks. Im going to take some long weekends and go down, but its pretty much going to be like this till May.

    For the long term, we are going to be saving as much money as we possibly can. I don't think even with the equity we have in our home in Texas that we will be able to buy a house up here right away. Houses just cost more up here.

    Id really prefer a slightly less eventful few months. On the gaming side, Im goofing around in Empire space in Eve online. We tried wormhole living for a bit, but thats a fucking nightmare. Got a group of about 6 or 7 of us that run level 4 agent missions, and some other simple stuff. Nothing that takes forever, or makes life miserable. I sold my original SpiritOne character a few years ago, that was a mistake. So my primary character now is a toon I started as my industrial/science alt back when I played seriously. She has 41 million skill points, but they are spread out a lot. If your wanting to look for me in game look for Sarah Monroe.
  • Lately I've been mostly working to earn more money, which I have no clear goal where to spend it.

    And the answer is no.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    SpiritOne: what is it that you actually do? You're not one of the ones who images patients are you?
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    Ive been moving around a lot these last two years since I got my bachelors, moving between projects in Sweden and Norway, but I got a long term project three months ago spanning at least 3 years. So last October, I moved to [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby]Visby[/url] for a job at the National Heritage Board.

    Im mostly taking care of archaeological objects from the island, ranging from early to late iron age.

    Other than that, I have tons of projects, and I dont quite know where to start. Ive found a smithy that I can work in once a week, Ive started practicing acrobatics (parkour) twice a week, Im writing (book) most sundays, playing the bagpipe when I can and working on 3d-models of training equipment for the fencing for manufacture in China. Im looking to finance it through Kickstarter. So far so good, I might ask some of you 3d folks for help one of these days. ;)

    Other than that, I got Red Dead Redemption as a christmas gift from my brother, so Im looking forward to playing that after Ive finished Fallout: NV and Enslaved. Also playing Rock Band 3. Also got ten days free for Warcrack, thought Id try the new races and such, and after a year, I was kinda expecting to get hooked, but man is that game repetitive and boring. :/

    So, mostly looking forward to DCUonline and SW: Old Republic right now, though Im fully prepared for them to suck after my Warcrack experience..
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    SpiritOne, Ouch, 4% was a good rate! lol I don't know if i could deal with being away from the wife for that long. Would drive me crazy.
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    Another year, another meh...

    ;)

    SpiritOne, with that experience you can always go to work for the TSA at the airport! :D

    j/k
  • Dang SpiritOne! That sucks, and I feel for ya man.

    Defiantly plan some long weekends, and hang in there! :D

    ...and pain pills make me very dizzy...just like being drunk. People get addicted to this feeling?
  • JackNJackN <font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
    [QUOTE=A2597;191165]...and pain pills make me very dizzy...just like being drunk. People get addicted to this feeling?[/QUOTE]

    They can... I know... :)
  • croxiscroxis I am the walrus
    A moderately uneventful year for me as well. I got illegally married to my unconstitutional husband. Our reception was nothing more than a giant BBQ at our apartment because something traditional was too much for some members of our family. I'm currently finishing my last year of University to get my teaching license. I start student teaching high school math next month and middle school science after spring break. Somehow I was one of the first ones selected and I got into some of the richest schools in the ares. There must be something on my resume people liked. Currently I am running a small minecraft server which has been a lot of fun, but also very time consuming. I am also planning to get back to my two computer game projects, the near-future Elite styled game and the Outpost remake.
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    I would love to play Outpost again Croxis, and grats on the union. My neighbors in Texas did it a few years ago at a gay friendly church. I really just dont see why some people have such a bug up their ass about other people's happiness. So its always good to see people say fuck you, were doing it anyways.
  • DaxDax Redshirt
    Croxis: come to Canada! We marry all here. Speaking of which, I am taking part in my own slightly traditional marriage ceremony in August!

    It's getting more real now that we're in 2011, before it was "we're getting married next year".

    I totally understand SpiritOne's situation. It took me a LONG time to find a job, and then right after we finally set a wedding date and put deposits down and bought other fancy things (like a new Washer and Dryer) the company I was with changed their mind and threw me to the curb.

    It took me another 2 months to find another job but I am glad to say that I've been there for almost 6 months and things are great.

    Not much else to report here, wedding planning, Beagle cuddling and planning a possible honeymoon to Paris in 2012 is what occupies my thoughts these days.

    Oh yeah. And Fable 3. yessss
  • Falcon1Falcon1 Elite Ranger
    Things have been a bit crazy for me the past 6 months. To start with work has been a nightmare. Basically my directorate had an internal audit which has resulted in a few people being made redundant and my dept being dragged through the meat grinder. They've treated people really badly, told bare faced lies and treated everybody like children. But hey keep smiling as we have customers to keep happy! Things have started to settle now but I've lost one of my best friends who is in the middle of a grievance procedure and will not be coming back. Has left a very bad taste in the mouth.

    To top the work stress my girlfriend and myself have decided to split after 6 years together. Things hadn't been working for a while and we'd just been on auto pilot. We were just friends at the end of the day and realised that we'd be making a huge mistake if we got married, had kids and then ended up hating each other. Its been very hard and as we own a house together it was a bit complicated. Lucky for me she doesn't want me to sell the house so the break up is not going to bleed me dry. Its still going to cost a lot of money with solicitor fees, bank fees and her share. But I'll be able to keep the house. What has been lucky is our mortgage term coming to and end in December so the interest has dropped to the UK base rate of 2.5% (from 6.14%) so that is going to help me massively as my costs are going up since I'm taking on the whole house.

    And while all this was going on I got put in for a promotion at work which was agreed by the PTB and my manager has put me in for the top grade for the year review as well. I was stunned when my manager broke the news. The resulting payrise from the promotion has saved me as if I didn't get it, no mortgage, no house. So given everything thats been happening I count myself very very lucky!

    So 2010 was a bit of a strange year. The gf is getting the keys to her flat tomorrow and will be moving out at the weekend. Going to be very strange. But its a new year, new job role... a new beginning. At least I can get away with watching more sci fi on the tv :p
  • Last year was meh. This year, probably meh too. Had an interview today for a job I don't want, that probably doesn't pay enough (volunteer coordinator at a nonprofit). Taking the LSATs in Feb, had gotten myself pretty pumped up for it, but yesterday's 7 page long article about law school and job prospects, I wonder if it would be a mistake. Pretty much any career I research ends with that same feeling of disappointment once I read about it and the prospects. After deciding I hated comp sci, and being burned out entirely on gov't/nonprofits/elections, I just don't know what to do with myself. Also, no one seems to hire anyone with an undergrad degree anymore, all they want are masters. Too much debt as it is :(

    sigh.
  • pretty boring routine here. Work, blizzard, work, blizzard. I am finding it difficult to meet sales quotas with blizzards and economic poo everywhere. I hope things get better. I got a cracked radiaator last blizzzrd but got if fixed for tonights blizzard. Also Started a Sensa diet, 250 pounds is unhealthy; trying to aim for my weight when I was 21, 170 pounds to make me a lean mean loving machine again.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    [QUOTE=PSI-KILLER;191241]to make me a lean mean loving machine again.[/QUOTE]

    Sounds like its also making you delusional... :p
  • Last year was bit weird, I mean I went back to school! It was about six years since I graduated from the last school, so it felt bit weird. And also during the past five years I haven't been in any normal dayjob either... I spent my time on the road driving tour busses and vans, mostly on the weekends with ridiculous hours. So getting used to the NineToFive (or from eight to four as we have it) day schedule took some time.

    But I'm happy about the choice.
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    Well, Just had a meeting with the people who own the business we want to buy.. they are going to make a decision by the end of the weekend if they want to rent to us... Then it'll be time to go gravel at the bank for some money... I think i might be insane...
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    I know that you're insane!
  • Entil'ZhaEntil'Zha I see famous people
    I think i know that you may be right.
  • ShadowDancerShadowDancer When I say, "Why aye, gadgie," in my heart I say, "Och aye, laddie." London, UK
    I think I'm glad we might have cleared that up for you!
  • "...Then it'll be time to go gravel at the bank for some money... "

    Business plan with a mind blowing mission statement
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    At least he didn't leave out the "at."
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    All business plans have to start somewhere. ;)
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