Life updates

[Spazz]

As long as you leave out the pie youd prolly be safe. I used to keep a bong in my center console when i delivered pizza. THose were the days didnt care bout much back then cept delivering pizzas hanging with my buddies, my favorite songs and gettin stoned. Also if your going to drive stoned dont forget your sunglasses. Got into such a habbit with wearing them that even on cloudy days as long as it isnt raining or night time I wear em.

[Drem]

i'm not sure if i like what you actually said or the fact that your favorite three things to do high involve sex

[Drem]

Also if your going to drive stoned dont forget your sunglasses. Got into such a habbit with wearing them that even on cloudy days as long as it isnt raining or night time I wear em.

i got normal glasses so sunglasses are like a foreign concept to me heheh. if it feels bright outside then i think i've been spending too much time inside

[Lyion]

My life update is I keep getting fucking older.

It's rather annoying, but beats the alternative.

[Gaazy]

Been meaning to stop in here and say hihi but been forgetting like usual. First part of the year and last touch of last year has been pretty fucking good so far. Been seeing a girl for the last couple months that has been great and closing on a new house soon. Business this year has been unbelievable. So far in the first month and a half of this year and last couple weeks of last year we have around a million more quoted out than we did all last year combined. We made the decision to stop doing haulage equipment completely and do all belt conveyor stuff in all 3 shops, so now have all of them going full swing. 2 new guys hired on 1 laid off hired back, plus a top notch salesmen that cost a small fortune to get over but has already laid his way in a little over a month for the next year. Been advertising huge too lately. Thanks to India's having so much flooding and losing almost all of their coal production and of course China's growing shit it will be good, then our country's demand has been on a upstroke too lately coal wise. I think this country will see some improvement this year, or hope so at least. Theres a lot of jobs being opened back up around here which we needed badly, I'm hoping to provide at least 3 more well paying ones by May. If a handful more companies here could do the same it would be a huge help. Its been a stressful but huge few months, with 12-15 hour days trying to keep it going. But, thats the way it goes in small/medium size business

Truly hope everyone is having the same kind of luck I have here lately.

[10sun]

School still; wrapping up pre-reqs for my MBA program.
Working with a couple of good friends on converting a huge warehouse into a "mixed use creative space" (read: art & music studios w/ some light manufacturing); not paying much on that, but the developer is giving us free reign to make decisions.
Girlfriend is in South America (Chile right now) until April; nothing but bickering when we do talk because she wants commitment before she starts grad school.

Past week:
Midterm grades: 2 As + 1 B (fuck Accounting). Brakes went out in my Jeep. Huge social gathering in the Columbus Museum of Art; cocktails and elbow rubbing. Warehouse party w/ a circus theme that kind of blew my mind. Finalized plans for house renovation + submitted plans.

It is like that almost every week... lots of light hearted fun and entertainment.

[Tossica]

The girl and I are coming up on a year now. I still work for the non profit but we're taking a beating this year. Many essential programs are being cut or underfunded so we've gone through some big layoffs and some other bad shit. My job is still secure at this point but I've had to drop down to 36hrs a week. I work 4x9 and take Thursdays off to work on records and DJ stuff. I have a weekly Wed night gig so it works out well. I've been buying record collections and reselling what I don't want. Just purchased a 7000 piece collection in December so I've been busy trying to get through that. Hamilton Wesley Wigglebottom is still awesome.

Guess that's about it.

[10sun]

Wigglebottom!!!

[Zanchief]

Been meaning to stop in here and say hihi but been forgetting like usual. First part of the year and last touch of last year has been pretty fucking good so far. Been seeing a girl for the last couple months that has been great and closing on a new house soon. Business this year has been unbelievable. So far in the first month and a half of this year and last couple weeks of last year we have around a million more quoted out than we did all last year combined. We made the decision to stop doing haulage equipment completely and do all belt conveyor stuff in all 3 shops, so now have all of them going full swing. 2 new guys hired on 1 laid off hired back, plus a top notch salesmen that cost a small fortune to get over but has already laid his way in a little over a month for the next year. Been advertising huge too lately. Thanks to India's having so much flooding and losing almost all of their coal production and of course China's growing shit it will be good, then our country's demand has been on a upstroke too lately coal wise. I think this country will see some improvement this year, or hope so at least. Theres a lot of jobs being opened back up around here which we needed badly, I'm hoping to provide at least 3 more well paying ones by May. If a handful more companies here could do the same it would be a huge help. Its been a stressful but huge few months, with 12-15 hour days trying to keep it going. But, thats the way it goes in small/medium size business

Truly hope everyone is having the same kind of luck I have here lately.

How's the cure for Aids coming?

[araby]

[Lyion]

Been meaning to stop in here and say hihi but been forgetting like usual. First part of the year and last touch of last year has been pretty fucking good so far. Been seeing a girl for the last couple months that has been great and closing on a new house soon. Business this year has been unbelievable. So far in the first month and a half of this year and last couple weeks of last year we have around a million more quoted out than we did all last year combined. We made the decision to stop doing haulage equipment completely and do all belt conveyor stuff in all 3 shops, so now have all of them going full swing. 2 new guys hired on 1 laid off hired back, plus a top notch salesmen that cost a small fortune to get over but has already laid his way in a little over a month for the next year. Been advertising huge too lately. Thanks to India's having so much flooding and losing almost all of their coal production and of course China's growing shit it will be good, then our country's demand has been on a upstroke too lately coal wise. I think this country will see some improvement this year, or hope so at least. Theres a lot of jobs being opened back up around here which we needed badly, I'm hoping to provide at least 3 more well paying ones by May. If a handful more companies here could do the same it would be a huge help. Its been a stressful but huge few months, with 12-15 hour days trying to keep it going. But, thats the way it goes in small/medium size business

Truly hope everyone is having the same kind of luck I have here lately.

Hey Gaazy, glad to here you're doing decent, brother. ping me on IM sometime and keep in touch.

[Gaazy]

i just downloaded wow again, wanna play it a few evenings a week starting from scratch, anyone still play it so i have someone to talk to as I lvl up/? Doubt ill do any guilding or anything ever. Lyion?

[Harrison]

Send me a friend request

hunter463785@gmail.com

Play on Zul'Jin

Got a RL friend group going. (We're all 85, but whatever...)

[brinstar]

i just downloaded wow again, wanna play it a few evenings a week starting from scratch, anyone still play it so i have someone to talk to as I lvl up/? Doubt ill do any guilding or anything ever. Lyion?

dude, go get Rift - it'll be like old times!

[leah]

Gaazy i have an alliance druid on sargeras--her name is Peenelope. you can also add me on RealID if you want--leahruthie at gmail.com

[Gaazy]

ill go figure out the real id thing

then ill look up rift too. No clue what that is


edit: Rift looks cool, but I dont see it releasing for another few days. Should I just wait on the release

[Maeya]

Graduated from nursing school, passed my boards, and am officially a Registered Nurse. Now I just need someone to hire a new grad I have a 2nd round interview with a hospital on Wednesday, though, that I'm hopeful for. It's my only lead at the moment despite applying a bazillion places =/ Ugzug is kicking butt at his job, and is very successful. He's mellowed out in his old age and rarely picks fights on the internet anymore His daughter has grown up enough to declare us both lame for playing MMOs and refuses to bring friends over until we promise not to talk about them so her friends don't find out her dad and step-mom are internet nerds. She'll regret that when we bring out the embarrassing baby pictures instead >:)

[Dimuza]

you're a full RN? what state are you guys in? my sister, ex mother-in-law, & ex wife are all RN's - they appear to be able to pretty much write their own ticket. I think they could go into the office, shoot everyone there, & go home - if they answer an add the next day, they could have a nice new job somewhere - probably in management.....& more often than not they get some kind of signing bonus.

It's been like that for my sister & my ex wife since they first graduated (late 90's). [The mother in law has worked for the same place for 600 years, so her experience may be different than the normal person]. I had pretty much thought that things were the same all over...

[Drem]

yeah my friend just got her RN and she's already working

[Maeya]

I'm in Georgia. And there's a million jobs here for nurses... but a vast majority of them require a year or two of experience. So yeah, once I have that under my belt, I have my golden ticket to the chocolate factory. It's just a matter of getting that first job. People in my graduating class *are* getting jobs, don't get me wrong. I had a 2nd round interview today that I feel went very well and will likely lead to a job for me, but it's not starting till mid May, a full 6 months after my graduation. It's just been a slow process for me. We had a nurse recruiter come speak to us before we graduated and she said "I'll be honest. This is one of the few times in history that we have more graduating nurses than we have new graduate positions".

Could just be me, too. Maybe I do my cover letter or resume wrong. I've applied at a bunch of places but only got an interview at one location. Honestly, there's no reason I shouldn't have at least gotten interviews at other places as well. I graduated with a 4.0, won an award from the faculty for one of my clinical papers, had strong recommendations from both professors and clinical instructors, and have experience working with patients. It must be just something in my presentation. Dunno. Anyway, if the job I interviewed for this morning works out, it won't be something I'll need to worry about for a while.

[Arlos]

I had a little too close an encounter with Mr. Reaper about 6 weeks ago.

Lets just put this bluntly. I almost died on January 15th. I am not speaking figuratively here. I am being entirely literal. I was quite seriously within hours of most of my internal organs shutting down and failing.

I realize that that is something of a shocking statement, so I shall explain.

I had been fighting off a low-grade chest cold for quite a while, finally ended up missing a night of classes on the 10th, but felt generally OK after. Normally, I have a pretty impressive immune system. Low grade colds is about the worst I get, 95% of the time. Unknown to me, though, at some point in all this, my left leg re-acquired a lovely case of cellulitis again, but not such that it really gave me symptoms yet. Unfortunately, this turned into the perfect storm of illness, and the combined effect of the two ongoing issues suppressed my immune system sufficiently that it allowed the leg infection to jump the barrier and take hold in my bloodstream.

Hello Septicemia...

I woke up on that Saturday with uncontrollable chills and shivering, dazed-feeling and generally feeling reasonably awful and with no energy at all. I managed to shower, dress and make it downstairs, but spent the day collapsed in a chair hoping to feel better. No such luck. So, it's like 9pm and I am debating going into the emergency room. I almost decide against it, since I didn't want to sit around in the waiting room for hours, and was still figuring what I had was the flu of some kind, so not much the emergency room could do anyway. Still, I decided to take my temp: about 39.4C or 103F. Uh oh. Especially considering I tend to run about 1 degree F lower than normal when I am completely healthy. OK, so with a temp like that, I figure that even if it IS the flu, I better see someone. So, I arrange a ride in to the hospital, which is about a half hour away, as I am in no condition whatsoever to drive myself.

I get in, and yay, it's a slow night. I describe my symptoms, and they figure it's a bad flu too at first. Then they take my vitals. My heart rate is over 130, and my blood pressure is down at 90/50, and I am having trouble breathing. Something is a bit more serious than the flu here. They get me into the ER from the waiting area, take blood samples, and get me hooked up to an IV. Within half an hour, they get preliminary results: my white count is off the charts high. Literally up at nearly 29000, when normal is around 8-11000.

To put it bluntly, I was within hours of going into full septic shock, which has a mortality rate of something like 60%. At the time I went in, my kidneys were fully shutting down (ie, beginning stages of acute renal failure), and other kinda important organs like heart and lungs wouldn't have been far behind. Even getting as far gone as I was has a fatality rate of about 20%, from what I've read on the web. To their credit, I was immediately a center of attention, was directly admitted to the hospital, and was pumped full of vancomycin and other antibiotics. To me at the time, it was all kinda hazy, as my brain was not exactly fully functional. I don't think I came back to real coherency until, oh, Tuesday sometime. At least, it wasn't until a conversation I had that evening with my parents that they said I finally actually sounded like myself again.

So, yeah. Looking back over the whole thing, it's really kinda terrifying. At no point leading up to this did I have any idea I was about to be as sick as I got, and by the time it hit, the internal dominoes started falling incredibly fast. It was barely over 12 hours after I woke up on Saturday before I was in the hospital that night. Another 12 hours beyond that would have had me in full septic shock. If I hadn't thought to take my temperature that night as a deciding factor on whether or not to go in......

So, important safety tip, folks: If you ever find yourself with a case of uncontrollable shivering, where you literally can't get warm, no matter how many blankets you're under, etc. GET TO THE FUCKING HOSPITAL. There's many possible causes, sure, but none of them are good. Don't debate it, don't think about it, just GO!

In any case, I am out of the woods, though still not really "better". Ended up having to go back and spend ANOTHER week or so in the hospital, as it turned out they hadn't really gotten it all the first time, and it came back again, though a lot milder. (And I picked up a lovely secondary infection, called c.diff, which is a common infection you get if you've been on antibiotics for a long time, which, well, I had. heh.) Needless to say, this has played merry hell with my classes, though my profs have been understanding.

Anyway, as I said, the moral of this story is: High fever, uncontrollable shivering = get thy ass to the emergency room ASAP.

-Arlos

[Tikker]

natural selection, foiled again

[Maeya]

(And I picked up a lovely secondary infection, called c.diff

Scary stuff, all of it, but that c.diff is nasty. That sucks. I was so afraid I was going to get c. diff when I had my spleen out last year.

[Tossica]

My friend's girlfriend died last year from a septic infection. She suffered for nearly 8 months before she finally passed. I'm happy you are ok.

[leah]

glad you're OK arlos! <3

i think we all need to give a loved one our password/username info to NT so that if we do die, someone will let everyone know so we won't all just be thinking "whatever happened to so-and-so" or chasing obits and rumors like with ralf (RIP, maybe).