Life

[miffy495]

All the wierd smiley selections on this forum, and there isn't an embarassed one to be found.

 

[Gormongous]

One of my friends and colleagues here was found dead in his apartment today. Between this and everything else that has been going on with me, in terms of computer troubles, money troubles, and professional troubles, I am having an extreme amount of difficulty finding an authentic version of myself to be right now. "Arrange your face" and all that.

[Joewintergreen]

Holy shit. I am so sorry to hear that. 

[syntheticgerbil]

That really sucks. What happened?

[Gormongous]

That really sucks. What happened?

I really don't know. He'd had a sudden break with his fiancée near the end of the semester. He seemed in pain, of course, but dealing with it. Then I got an email from his mother this morning saying that he'd stopped returning her phone calls Sunday night, so I made some calls myself, stopped by, and knocked. No answer, but when I checked back later, the police were there and... yeah.

We were close, but obviously not that close. It just all came out of nowhere. I'd even asked him at a department thing, exactly a month ago, about his mental health in very blunt terms, as I sometimes do. He said there was nothing to talk about. I don't know. It's a thing I'll need to work on living with. In the meantime, I appreciate the kind words.

[Nachimir]

Really sorry to hear that Gormongous.

[Roderick]

Yikes, hang in there.

[Justin Leego]

All the best in a worst of times, Gormongous. That's hard news. It's ok for your face to discombobulate in these circumstances. Please accept a comforting and steady hand on your shoulder from Idle Thumbs community forums.

[Bjorn]

Holy shit Gormongous.  I'm really sorry to hear all that. 

[Ucantalas]

Wow, Gormongous, sorry to hear that, hope you're doing alright.
 

And to a lot of you others on here, congrats! A lot of big happy things happening lately too.

Meanwhile I sit here and nothing changes, good or bad.

[miffy495]

Jesus Christ, Gormongous. Thoughts with you, etc. Don't feel bad about feeling fucked up by all this. You lost a friend, it is acceptable to not be your best right now.

[syntheticgerbil]

Woo, I have an interview in two weeks for a part time job needing a "Flash Technical Animator" at a game studio started by some EA rejects. A programmer friend tipped me off before it was even listed.

However my bank account is very sad and I haven't been able to find a part time job since starting school this month outside of going to door to door with fliers for my old old boss and her new summer camp video game making thing for kids. But that was a week before my wedding that ended and it was only like 12 hours a week for two weeks because I could only manage like four hours of nonstop walking a day before my feet died.

 

So I'm really concerned about this crazy amount of debt I've been racking up on my credit card bill, thanks to a very inconsistant temp agency and my inability to get something stable. Hopefully this one works out if I can make it without being too much of a burden on my wife. It'll definitely pay way more than serving coffee or working retail.

 

Biggest thing is I'm not quite sure what the technical part of the animation position is. I asked about it in my cover letter and they said they'd discuss it when I met with them. If it's coding I have to figure out I can't do it. I don't know how to code anything unless a programmer sets something up for me or tells me step by step what I need to do with Actionscript ahead of time. If it's just rudimentary Flash functions I can search for tutorials on the internet it's fine. I don't know how much actual animation I would do or if it's just setting up. Gah, so many what ifs. I'm all antsy.

[I_smell]

Hey guys I am going to Belgium tomorrow!

 

Here's the thing; I've always had a phobia of being alone. I can't go out by myself too far, and it's just been feeling like this big weakness that I can't face being alone. Especially after meeting so many exciting people over the passed year who go on all these world-travel trips.

So after being bullied into seeing Europe by my new friends so much, I finally started working towards facing it. I went to the cinema by myself recently- it was hard and I wanted to go home, but someone actually texted me right before I walked in asking to see the same movie with me, and a group of friends, the next day. It was very encouraging! I ate in a restaurant by myself and felt fine.

Last weekend, I went to Budapest with a friend. We couch-surfed for the first time and it was a big lesson in solo travel.

So tomorrow I will take a train to Belgium, see some things and try some things, and stay in a hostel over the weekend. I'm very proud of myself so far, and I hope the experience will be freeing.

 

Also yesterday was my birthday, I'm 23
I ate lots and lots of ice-cream and drank a whole liter of chocolate milk!

[Ucantalas]

Happy belated birthday!

Sounds like quite an adventure, hope you have tons of fun!

[namman siggins]

Oh shit! I'm might be going to Belgium too! Specifically K-Town

[Hermie]

How come you moved to Netherlands and then never went to Belgium before? It's right next door, and such a nice place. Also, happy belated birthday!

[I_smell]

Well I never went to anywhere, it's taken a long time to talk myself into it.

 

But yes, if this goes well then I will of course go to France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland and so on.

[Roderick]

Belgium is a cratered warzone, a pit of nuclear fallout, governed by drunken man-children and corrupt despots, a sizzling pool of incest, wild kings and mad slaughterers. And that's just the Belgium in my imagination! Just think how much worse it must be in reality.

 

 

(Congrats on the birthday thing)

[Merus]

Belgium is a cratered warzone, a pit of nuclear fallout, governed by drunken man-children and corrupt despots, a sizzling pool of incest, wild kings and mad slaughterers. And that's just the Belgium in my imagination! Just think how much worse it must be in reality.

 

It would be Hungary.

 

No seriously, the current Hungarian government rewrote the constitution.

[Hermie]

Well I never went to anywhere, it's taken a long time to talk myself into it.

 

But yes, if this goes well then I will of course go to France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Poland and so on.

 

Sounds like you're making positive steps, I hope you continue! I love traveling, especially in central Europe, and you have a lot of cool stuff just a train away.

[Zeusthecat]

As I was watching TV last night, I saw what I thought was a cricket scuttle across the floor in front of me. So I went to grab something to crush the life out of it and when I turned the light on to try to see where it was, I saw a big 3 inch scorpion sitting on the floor a few inches away from where my foot was. Luckily, that bastard is somewhere in the Phoenix sewer system now but the damage has been done and I don't think I want to live in my house any more.

[undermind9]

my wife would leave me and the house if there was ever a bug of that size/danger in our home.  like a cartoon puff of smoke in her shape

 

right now we have a minor ant problem...actually the cats are proving useful in batting them down until someone can remove with a tissue.  what is unsettling is that i cannot pinpoint their concentration - upstairs, down, kitchen, laundry room - seemingly 1-2 a week (seen) in each spot.  

 

Surprisingly though they are not concentrating at the biggest jackpot which is my sugar glider cage - there is an endless supply of discarded food that i clean only 1 - 2x a week

[Zeusthecat]

Surprisingly though they are not concentrating at the biggest jackpot which is my sugar glider cage - there is an endless supply of discarded food that i clean only 1 - 2x a week

 

Oh my god, hearing the words 'sugar glider' brings back terrible memories of many sleepless nights when I was a teenager. I got one from a friend who bred them and made the mistake of keeping it in my room. That damn thing would just start barking loudly at random times throughout the night and made it impossible to sleep. Throwing a shoe at the cage was usually enough to make it stop just long enough for me to fall asleep, at which point it would start up again and the cycle would repeat. No offense to your sugar gliders (who I'm sure are wonderful pets and bring you much joy) but fuck those little devil creatures.

[SecretAsianMan]

I had a friend in college who had a small family of sugar gliders.  One week during the summer he went out of town and asked me to take care of them.  Since I lived alone at the time, it was fun to just watch them jump around inside the cage and hear them bark.  They sound like dogs which I didn't expect.  I particularly liked watching two of them play leapfrog inside the exercise wheel.

[Bjorn]

I had never heard of sugar gliders.  OH MY GOD THEY ARE ADORABLE!