Life updates

[Jay]

Grats Duro

[Mop]

Been in Alaska over a month now quite possibly the most amazing place ever. Go to sleep at midnight wake up at 4 and the sun is still up. Sunsets last hours which is crazy.

[Tossica]

Hey Mop! I have a bunch of family in alaska. I've always wanted to get up there to visit them. The pictures they send look amazing.

[Kramer]

seems like if you alaska is a place you'd never want to leave, how i figure folks who get to line in NYC or San Fran feel

[Arlos]

Just found out today that I was accepted into the Masters program I applied for. So, I'll be going to Santa Clara University, going for a Masters in Information Systems. I am, to put it mildly, stoked as hell. I'll be doubly so if I get one of the slots as a research assistant. It'll be interesting work, look good on the resume, help pay for school, and should fit schedule-wise in with my upcoming classes. All in all, I'm pretty damn happy.

-Arlos

[Jay]

Grats Arlos. Glad you're doing well.

I've been dating this girl for 3 months and its been paradise.

[Kramer]

Gratz to both of you... man Santa Clara... i would give my left arm to live in Cali...

[Drem]

just got hired by http://www.hopvalleybrewing.com/ under exec chef Dave Lucht who's worked with Wolfgang Puck and was the last exec chef at the locally famous http://www.zenoncafe.com/

sup w/ you guys these days?

[Tossica]

Just found out today that I was accepted into the Masters program I applied for. So, I'll be going to Santa Clara University, going for a Masters in Information Systems. I am, to put it mildly, stoked as hell. I'll be doubly so if I get one of the slots as a research assistant. It'll be interesting work, look good on the resume, help pay for school, and should fit schedule-wise in with my upcoming classes. All in all, I'm pretty damn happy.

-Arlos

That's awesome man but... aren't you like, my age? It's never too late to go back to school but haven't you been in school for like 20 years now?

[Arlos]

I am about your age, or maybe even older, dunno. (Turned 40 this year)

I went to college right out of high school, but didn't finish, only did 3 years. Besides, my major there isn't exactly highly sought after in the business world: Astrophysics.

I knocked around for a year or so, moved a couple times, worked small jobs, then came back to Cali.

Got a job through a temp agency doing just basic phone customer service for a software company. Within a month they'd given me a 50% raise and moved me over onto the tech support team. Spent like 1.5 years doing tech support there, til the company got bought and moved to Atlanta. (with only the coders and management getting offers to relocate). Got a different tech support job, and within 4-6 months got promoted over the head of someone who'd been there for years into the major account support slot, where I worked directly with their biggest customers, including doing on-site trips for repairs, training, installs, etc. That lasted about 1.5 years as well.

Then, one of the major customer companies, Oracle, decided they wanted someone in-house to manage the gear, and they offered me a job to work on the same stuff, but also get trained as a Network Engineer from the ground up. Since I was thoroughly sick of Tech Support by then, I jumped at the chance. I spent the next 6+ years doing networking at various places, including Mindspring & WebEx, before getting laid off when the tech bubble burst late in 2001. Once again knocked around, got short term contracts here and there, took some training classes, finally decided that I needed to go back and get my BS, so start of 2005, there I was, back to undergrad, basically starting over again after 15 years since I was last in college. Finished that in 2009, got my Bachelor's in Computer Science, just in time for the Great Recession, and obviously the job market for a new grad with extensive, but obviously rusty tech skills wasn't stellar.

So, since I wanted to move away from pure techie roles anyway, and get to more design, planning, etc. roles, I decided not to go for a masters in computer science. Instead, I'm going for the Masters in Information Systems, which is actually run out of the Business college, and is half MBA-type stuff, and half technical IT related issues. Depending on how the job market looks when I'm done with the MSIS part, I may just stay in for another quarter or 2 and polish off the last few classes I'd need for the MBA as well. Santa Clara is actually a really good school for it, they got rated as one of the top-10 executive MBA programs in the nation recently, and that's largely the program I'm in. No, it's not Harvard or Stanford, but hey, rofl.

Anyway, first quarter is done, and I got straight A-'s, so pretty happy. Not backflip ecstatic like I would be with straight A's, but hey, for my first quarter at a tough school, and my first exposure to graduate-level classes, not too shabby, I think. One of the classes, on Systems Analysis & Design is probably THE favorite college class I've ever had, to be honest. INSANELY fun stuff, figuring out how a process works, breaking it down, then breaking down the logic behind it, then finding ways to improve upon it and re-design it, and building the new system design from that. If I can land a job doing that in the long run, I will be an extraordinarily happy person.

For the tl;dr set: Yeah, still in school but there was a solid block of 10-15 years of work in there between school right out of high school and going back again.

-Arlos

[brinstar]

me:

• working on a wide-scope music project
• planning to go to grad school next summer to get a m.ed + cert = high school english teacher
• ramping up a DIY side-business involving upcycled wine/liquor bottles
• looking to join a band as a bassist for a change

[Jay]

I've been with my girlfriend for almost a year. She just moved in 3 weeks ago. Things are better than ever on that front and I've actually given serious thought to marriage although I'm worried about getting carried away too quickly and making dumb decisions. Maybe ill just make it easy on myself and convert to Christianity, knock her up and marry her to save my soul from an eternity of hell.

Got promoted at work 2 months ago and my small business is doing well although I'm still in debt from our grand reopening.

Was diagnosed with congestive heart failure so I've been on a strict low sodium diet. No danger to my life but its been a huge life adjustment and the meds have made it hard to be as active as usual since it slows my heart rate thus making me sluggish and tired.

That's it so far. I'm still boring :P

[Harrison]

Nothing exciting here...

I work in a meat department at a Sam's club. I actually love my job and enjoy it, which is odd.

I like being at work more than being home.

I just don't get paid shit. But, I'd rather be happy and poor than paid better and miserable.

My sister and brother in law are finding out when they are relocating soon and I haven't decided if I want to up and go with them or not yet.

[Nusk]

after several years trying to clean up and sell the ranch my parents left me (still for sale only 450k) i finally got a job doing quality control for Crucial technology (go go dram) 6 months now and im reasonably happy

[araby]

My dream this morning was about most of you. We were checking into a hotel and we ended up in the same room and we argued all day. When I tried to go back to sleep to see how it ended, I just couldn't get past the part where we kept sitting up out of bed arguing so I didn't bother trying anymore. coffee time instead.

[brinstar]

i just woke up from a dream i'll call "horror mystery" because it had all this weird shit and grotesque imagery (hair, maggots, etc)

i kept seeing flashes of clues here and there but just as soon as i'd write them on my notepad i'd look down and it'd be something completely different - like instead of an address it'd be a recipe for cupcakes. there were worms that could force water into anything and plants that could cause hysteria or depression or rage. carol channing knew, but she kept jumping into paintings to get away every time i caught up to her. there was also porn involved, but... let's just say it wasn't any good kind of porn.


if it sounds crazy, it was. weird thing is my dreams are almost never this ghastly. usually i'm some kind of superhero hehe

[Drem]

my dreams are always about me being on top of a building while a Day After Tomorrow type of flood swallows whatever city i'm in

it's crazy and terrifying and it's about the only thing i ever dream about

the only other dream is where some random friend has a huge mansion on top of a hill in a natural park setting with lots of little rivers and cliffs running all around it and great views. and all we do is just run around partying and hiking and shit it's pretty cool

yes, two recurring dreams are all i ever have. if i ever randomly remember some other dream it's just me with people i know in places i know doing things i do anyway and i wake up and wonder if it was real or not. pretty unimpressive

[brinstar]

i almost always have awesome dreams

last week i had one where i was recognized as a ukrainian national hero

[Jay]

my dreams are always about me being on top of a building while a Day After Tomorrow type of flood swallows whatever city i'm in

it's crazy and terrifying and it's about the only thing i ever dream about

the only other dream is where some random friend has a huge mansion on top of a hill in a natural park setting with lots of little rivers and cliffs running all around it and great views. and all we do is just run around partying and hiking and shit it's pretty cool

yes, two recurring dreams are all i ever have. if i ever randomly remember some other dream it's just me with people i know in places i know doing things i do anyway and i wake up and wonder if it was real or not. pretty unimpressive

My friend has a similar dream to your Day After Tomorrow one and cites the tidal wave portion of it as the terrifying part. Someone told him in relation to RL it's from the anxiety of chasing your goals and not having yet reached them. Any parallel?

[Tikker]

my dreams usually involve naked women




but every once in a while, I'll have a recurring dream where on day 1, so much of the story is revealed, day 2, some more is revealed, etc etc


they never come on consecutive nights, and sometimes in the dream i can remember what happened in previous portions, and "cheat" the outcome

it's kinda cool

[Drem]

my dreams are always about me being on top of a building while a Day After Tomorrow type of flood swallows whatever city i'm in

it's crazy and terrifying and it's about the only thing i ever dream about

the only other dream is where some random friend has a huge mansion on top of a hill in a natural park setting with lots of little rivers and cliffs running all around it and great views. and all we do is just run around partying and hiking and shit it's pretty cool

yes, two recurring dreams are all i ever have. if i ever randomly remember some other dream it's just me with people i know in places i know doing things i do anyway and i wake up and wonder if it was real or not. pretty unimpressive

My friend has a similar dream to your Day After Tomorrow one and cites the tidal wave portion of it as the terrifying part. Someone told him in relation to RL it's from the anxiety of chasing your goals and not having yet reached them. Any parallel?

yes, parallel

but i should've been more specific. the floods in my dreams aren't tidal waves, water just starts flowing thru and filling up the city. and it's scary as fuck and it's moving really fast, like at 3:00 in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0HgEWCH ... re=related

after i end up on the highest building with all the other screwed douchebags, the water level eventually breaches the rooftop and when it hits me i wake up

it's just totally fucked. the amount of water is outrageous. it stretches as far as i can see, it's vast and ominous etc, and the water level eventually is as high as the tallest buildings

[Zanchief]

I only really dream about the apocalypse anymore. The type of apocalypse always changes. Sometimes it's a social breakdown type of thing where gangs rule the wasteland. Sometimes it's a zombie infestation. Sometimes it's even biblical. I'm usually trapped or hiding with a group of people and we're trying to survive.

[Markarado]

I recently moved back to Penang, Malaysia. My mother and the dog moved down two weeks ago from Shanghai and will stay with me for a few months. I hated leaving my dog in quarantine, and spent a lot of time at the center to keep her company. Both my mother and I plan to settle down here for the next several years - probably permanently for her. I still haven't decided if I want to stay in Penang or move to Kuala Lumpure (the capital) . Right now I'm leaning towards staying here but I like to keep my options open. Both my mother and I are happy to be out of China and look forward to moving on this new chapter of our lives..

Work is going well. I work as a sourcing agent for a HK based trade company. I spent four months flying all over Indonesia meeting miners and visiting mines, which other than one project was completley unsuccessful (I learned a lot though). The one deal that as sucessful we ended up getting cut out of (great job on our CEO's part not having us protected). The company is new and we'er all learning the ropes, and in the last two months we've closed a total of 8 contracts. 7 of the contracts are for India Iron Fines sold on the spot market in China. The 8th is a long-term contract for Mill Scale from India for our China client. We're looking to close a long-term contract for Mexican Iron Ore by the end of this year. I've personally begun to source for more buyers as our supplier network is growing steadily. This week I began discussion with one of the worlds largest trading companies, which will be huge for me if all goes well. We have recently expanded to trade Steam/Thermal Coal, and we're hoping to close a long-term contract for 50,000 MT/Month by end of this year. All in all work is going well.

I'm single as usual. Seems like every girl I am interested in lives in another city, country, coninent, or has a boyfriend. I'm not exactly looking for a relationship as I'm very much enjoying my work and like to sink myself into it. So no worries there =)

For entertainment I have been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Blackops, hiking, running, and going for a coffee with friends on a regular basis.

Health wise I am doing ok. I injured my shoulder a few months ago while benchpressing. I kinda finished off my shoulder when I took a fall on my motor bike slipping on wet tiles. Doc said I'll live =)

[vonkaar]

Does anyone know where Markarado lives these days? Just curious.

[Xaiveir]

Does anyone know where Markarado lives these days? Just curious.

Someone has to do it sooooo.....


Malaysia, Malaysia, Malaysia