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Brillow_Head

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Posts posted by Brillow_Head

    So I'm sending the wife and kids on vacation

    in What's Up?

    DUDE...KITCHEN PASS!!

     

    Nightly Menu:

    5-5-5 Deal from Domino's

    Seasame Chicken with Egg Roll with Friend Rice from fav chineese takeout

    2 Fillet Mingon (sp) from Colorado Steaks

    4 Ears of Local Sweet Corn and a hamburger

    TEH NEVER ENDING PASTA BOWL from Z Olive Garden!!!

    Chicken Fried Steak with Mash Tatoes, Milk Gravy and Corn at Chillies

    2 Cans of Ensure

    2 More Cans of Ensure

     

    Beverage of choice:

    Two 24 packs of Diet MtDew (all the taste, none of the calories)

    And

    Tomato Beer (or your favorite beer)

     

    Sell blood on night 7 and plasma on the mourning of the 8th day to gain back the money spent on food!!

     

    In the mean time....play CS till your hands hurt, watch a movie, eat, play more CS, sleep and/or use the restroom...rinse and repeat until day 7....at which point you need to clean the house, do chorse and then play CS until wife and kids walk in the door and say

     

    "Man I was so bored without you, I missed you so much...say, you guys up for Pizza?!"

    Okay, reflecting and reaching out...

    in What's Up?

    Think about a few basic categories and write SMART goals for each:

     

    This is EXACTLY the term used by my supervisors and co-workers when writting our evaluations. I indeed have decided that I should expand my goals outside of work. You hit the nail on the head.

     

    I wrote down the basic goals on a regular ol' notecard and folded it up and put it in my wallet. Everytime I bought something I would think about them. When my wallet was empty of cash I would think about how my goals would help fix it etc.

     

    In the words of the Guiness Guys..."BRILLIANT!" What an awesome way to go about doing it. If the card has a bunch of lines through all the goals you have accomplished and you've used up both sides of the card then THAT is progress. If the card has one line on it, is dirty, worn, and probably washed...then one would have to either:

     

    A) Re-evaluate the goal on the note card. Was this goal too lofty, do I need to baby step from other goals to this one?

    B) Examine the original drive behind the goal. Was this goal what I really wanted? Is this goal what I want now?

     

    Because if the goal trully is important for you, then you wont forget about it. I love it....I should do this.

     

     

     

    Find some more hobbies to fill in that gaming gap so u can slowly chissel away at the time u spend gaming

     

    Ind33d. I've taken up golf in the last two weeks. I'm excited about the game. The last time I was this pumped about outdoor sports I was in high school and discovered my natural apptitude for tennis. 4.5 years later I was playing varsity for my high school. I gave up the game and moved on due to life changes...but golf...golf is a life long sport that one may never master. It gets me outside, moves more than my mouse and keyboard hand, and while it may prompt colorful language just as much as a running AK headshot, is a refined game of patience, practice and determination...

     

    Good stuff guys, thanks for the stories!

    FF07 DATE SET!

    in FragFest Ohio 2006

    · Edited by Brillow_Head

    So its looking like a 15 passanger van with a u-haul trialer...I'll look up the pricing.

     

    Also, I'd like to go to he golf outing so that may affect things.

     

    Upadate: Icky! Looks like a van would be cost prohibitive...ie, $900 just to rent a 12 seat van from the 25th to the 30th. Then you have to pay between 0.26 and 0.30 cents a mile additional and if we left from Minneapolis tha would be another $450. Factor in gas at 20mpg would be $250 on the low side. Add the cost of a uhaul trialer (probably like $9.95 a day).

     

    Basically, if we packed 12 people in the van, threw all the luggage and comps in the trailer, we'd have to come up with $150 a piece. Is that too much?? That doesn't include food or lodging once we get there...

     

    Only other way I can see is if we carpool, with 2 people per car and 3 people per SUV leaving room for luggage and comps in each vehicle. Then we'd split gas between vehicle passengers. At 30mpg (on the high side) and two people per car then youd have to come up with 75 bucks a piece just for gas. Thats a 50% savings right off the bat, but you'd miss out on a van full of fun.

     

    Discuss....

    Okay, reflecting and reaching out...

    in What's Up?

    · Edited by Brillow_Head

    I appologize for the book. Call it a short autobiography that might be worth reading for some and a request for support.

     

    I graduated college on December of 2004. At the time I was engaged to my wonderful wife and I was about to embark on a journey that I had been eagerly waiting for since I left High School, almost to a fault.

     

    The journey was "real life." It was not having to take tests every two or three weeks, it was not having to work part time after shool with the rest of my time devoted to studying. It was not working all summer 40+ hours a week to have your savings drained when that bill for school comes around. Finnally it was not having your life be a 9 month state of dynamics and change.

     

    I wanted roots, I wanted security, I wanted stability.

     

    Well...right now I have a degree and a full time job, a fantastic and supportive woman at my side, a setup in a town that's by no means permanent (because we are renting and will probably not live here for any long period of time), a strong start on financial retirement, and for the first time in my life (childhood included) I'm not forced to live from paycheck to paycheck.

     

    I count my blessings and I thank God for all the opportunities that he has placed at my lap.

     

    ...however, I've made some mistakes that I wish I could reach back into the past and litterally smack myself upside the head and say "PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR REAR AND REALIZE THAT WHAT YOU ARE DOING NOW IS GOING TO HURT YOU LATER!"

     

    It's not that I did something horrendus like cheat on my wife, or did drugs or anything of the like. I was guilty of just simply not carring about the college phase of my life. I thought it was the last stepping stone I had to jump over to get from point A to point B. I was wrong. The saying that "It's not the destination, but the journey that is important," is so true...I cant even begin to explain.

     

    I slacked on my general electives to start with. Where my wife would look at those credits and say "Oh, Easy A for the GPA," I looked at them and said "Who cares, they are not what I need for a job." and as a result I did not apply myself, skipped classes, didn't crack the text etc and as a result....C grades was the norm.

     

    So now my GPA was an uphill battle I had to fight my entire college carrier and the nasty concequence was that in order to bring it up I needed to get A's in my ever difficult Electrical Engineering classes.

     

    I am not a naturally apt individual. You have those that see it and it clicks, they can visualize and know how to expand that knowledge and apply that knowledge. Then you have those that are just as smart and just as able only by the fact that they kept their nose in the book...because they payed to learn, they were there to learn. It that respect, I could have been one of them. If I study, read, examing, and re-examine, I can learn anything and excell at anything......

     

    However, I have a lack of the one thing....the ONE thing that make the second type of individual succeed...determination. Out of determination you have persitance, concentration, patience, and dependability. Without determination, you have frustration, procrastination, distraction, and flat out lazyness.

     

    Now you need to understand that I made some choices before college that saved me from a world of hurt right now. I enlisted in the Air National Guard and it opened the door to alot of benefits. GI bill, which gave me an income so I would not have to work at all durring school for the first 4 years. I had 50% tuition assistance, which cut my tuition (not class cost, books, living, etc) in half. And finally I had Student Loan Repayment which states that when obtain my first Bachelors degree, the millitary will pay for $20,000 of my student loans. So basically, if you dont factor in loans over and above 20k and interest on the loans...I got a college education for free. Thank the Lord for these gifts!

     

    Getting back on track to my tale...I let my wants and "nice"-issties (the opposite of necessities) dictate that most (like 5/8) of my free time outside of class was planting my happy rear end in front of the deamon machine and losing myself in the self gratification and endless creativity of video games.

     

    I should have been studying...I should have gone to class instead of beating the next dungeon on Diablo II. I should have gone to the review sessions.

     

    should have, should have, should have....

     

    I missed a class here, slept through a class there...soon I was lost in some of my classes and my grades suffered. I felt like I was letting my instructors down, I felt like I was letting my Dad down....in the end I was letting myself down. I get to the point where I was so lost in class that I didn't go to class so I wouldn't feel lost. I looked at my classmates and could see in their eyes that while they pressed on and stayed the coarse and did what was asked of them that I was unpredictalbe, unpunctual, and in the end, undependable.

     

    I was in college for 5 1/2 years (can you say Van Wilder?!) and I graduated with a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering. But what South Dakota State let walk out the door was an underprepared, undershapped, undereducated graduate. I was not marketable as a worth while employee.

     

    Again, I thank the Lord for two things...a woman whom I meet and married partly because I was still there when I met her, and a boss who can see my potential as a engineer.

     

    So here I am. Two years out of college. I have the life I wanted for so long, and all I want to do is fix the errors I made. Not by going back...but by moving forward.

     

    My boss said that I need goals... obtainable, tangible and measurable goals. My wife has helped me to set goals for myself in the past 9 months indirectly. Personal finances, eating habbits, punctuality, dependability, and physical fitness.

     

    Like I had mentioned earlier I'm not living paycheck to paycheck anymore, we have a diversified retirement fund rolling and I have enough money to live off of for proabably a year if we needed to. CHECK.

     

    Punctuality and dependability...the look on my wifes face is enough to tell me that I need to be where I need to be on time, and when I say I am. If not for her, then for myself. It feels great to be called on again to do things for others. Its a lesson on selflessness that I have forgoten. I dont want to be the individual that cant be counted on except for things that are self serving. I wont be that person. I'm at work on time, I work dilligently and I meet deadlines with exceeded quality. Room for improvement...always.

     

     

    Eating habbits and physical fitness...the numbers speak for themselves. I weighed in at 207 lbs when I attended FF05. I was on the verge of man boobs and my self confidence lvl was very low. As of yesterday, I weighed in at 183.6 lbs. I can run for 2 miles without getting winded, I can bench over my weight...and that is something I've never been able to do...ever. I feel great. My goal is my pre college weight of 175 lbs....but I'm gaining more muscle so I think I'll hit 180 and hover which is fine by me. This is a life change, I'm going to be the 60 year old guy that aside from his hair is going to look like he could take on a 20 year old.

     

    Now...here is wher I need the communities help and support. I almost made a debacle (sp) of my education. Its time I did something about it.

     

    My next two goals are as follows.

    Starting immediately: Study material and refresh on topics up until and leading to what they call the F.E. or Field Exam. Engineers know what this test is and the know how important it is in one's career. If they want to be a Proffesional Engineer, they need to pass this test (along with schooling and other tests). Needless to say I had to take the test to graduate, not pass...and I didn't. I have almost all my coarse work from college, books, notes, tests, quizes and homework and they sell books pertaining to the FE.

     

    I'll retest next fall and I'll pass. I have to. I owe it to myself to to this.

     

    Goal number 2:

    When I pass this test that fall, I will start down the path to my Master's Degree starting January 2008. I dont know if I want to Master in Electrical Engineering, or Computer Science, but I'll make that choice later. I know I cant erase my mistakes I made in college, but I can learn from them and demonstrate to myself that I can reach a performance level that would probably shock even myself. And in the end it will open more doors and help to further establish security for my new family down the road.

     

    This is going to take alot of time. On top of a wife I want to spend time with and a full time career this will be demanding. It's going to be exciting at first, and down right frustrating and tiresome later. I have a addiction to gamming and I cant let it domminate my time again....not again. I dont want to give it up as I love it as a hobby, its a great time, its been more than just a game ever since I found this community and I feel like I might be able to take a step back and realize that gamming is what I can do...not what I must do in order to stay happy and block out the world.

     

     

    I need help. I'm not going to be throwing my computer away, and I'm not going to quit gamming cold turkey...I have too much fun and have grown comfortable with this family (GC :luxhello: ) to turn my back and walk away. I just need encouragement...

     

    Thx for reading.

    :hug: Brill

    Just picked this up

    in MMOs

    I liked the game a great deal in PvE. Kinda got borring after I got into a grind routine. I tried PvP...it was different, but when I want to play, I want to play, not wait a few hours for a gank party to evac my lvling area <shrug>

     

    I gave it up when I realized that I cant do the guild thing, I dont have the patience nor the free time to devote to a guild...therefore its next to impossible to get the high end equipment without joining random instance parties...icky.

     

    Just not for me.

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