Open Thread Three: Where people talk about their lives
 

Hopefully the conversation won't at all go to casually talking about getting boners.

So, my school year is wrapping up. This Thursday is the last day, and it's not even a real day; I normally have 5 periods of school, and Thursday is just the first two (for whatever reason), meaning a two hour school day. After that, It's just work, hanging out with friends, and going on the internet for three months. Oh, but I do have one week with my dad this coming 14th; we'll be hiking and camping and eating fresh fish! and after that, perhaps some paintballing.

I still hate cars, but I'm starting to realize how useful it is not to have to carry everything on you at a time. Stupid Xbox...

A friend of mine had this belief where everything is true, 100% truthful. While I do admire him for his open mind and peacefulness, I can't really see the logic in it. I mean, everything doesn't all flow one way; but he remedies that by saying "I can't really explain it, but it makes sense to me." That kinda annoys me, but I just ignore it.

My scab from burning my hand awhile ago is almost gone too. Oh, did I not mention that? I was making a salad, with spinach and bacon and homemade candied pecans. It came out delicious, but on with the story. The interesting story is that a fire-breathing Mountain Lion burst in through the window and I was like "what you doin' in my kitchen?" And the Mountain Lion's like "Rawwwr!" and it's shooting flames out and all so I bitchslapped him, but in the process touching a lick of a flame (it was so hot it was purple!). The real story was that, while measuring the bacon grease, the flimsy measuring spoon I had slipped from my hand.

My 17 year old brother almost died this past weekend.

Maybe it wasn't that serious, but based on my understanding, had action not been taken when it was he easily could have been dead today. And that scares me.

Saturday, he started complaining of stomach pain. He then got nauseous, and at one point had a fever. The stomach pain and the nausea continued all day and into Sunday. After he'd been sick 24 hours, my parents took him to the hospital, afraid it was appendicitis. They were right.

But what was scary, was that it had already ruptured. He didn't feel any pain until after his appendix had ruptured and spread infected fluid all throughout his insides. Turns out his appendix isn't near the surface like most people's, it was hidden tucked back behind his colon - where there are significantly fewer nerves. So it may have been infected for weeks, and he didn't have any idea until it ruptured. If we'd waited any longer to go to the hospital, the infection could have killed him.

The close call scares me, but the fact that the crisis was averted, and he is going to be ok makes me incredibly grateful and happy. So this week is a very good week for me, because my brother did not die.

I think at the end of every open thread I'm going to pick one subject to ban from future open threads until the entire thread becomes all about figuring out what people are still allowed to use the thread for.

Re: Ryander - that's some serious shit to go through man. Glad your brother came out okay. Close calls like that with a family member are always a freakout, it's scary to have to face that something you count on as basically a permanent fixture of existence is in fact emphatically non-permanent.

Damn... you know whatt's more scary about close calls like that? It's not an accident or an incident, or anything like that... it's the classic "we're here, and then, not." THAT freaks me out. Glad he did came out ok.. altough, if i were him i would be Hypocondriac for the next few weeks =P

Ok, so i've found myself a little obsessed with led... though about learning to solder. It seens to be relativily easy, AND you can do a whole bunch of stuff with a few leds (there's the word again...) a Switch and a 9v battery. It seems pretty cheap... AND i dont have a job, so maybe Nerd-Crafting can be my thing... who knows?

I find that I tend to post here at Nuklearpower disporportionately often when I'm miserable, or when shit's hit the fan in my life. I'm not really sure why that is because I'm the kind of nerd who tends to be online often regardless of what my schedule's like.

I recently (within the last six months) committed about $12,000 of my own money (half in loans, half up front) to a plan that completely and absolutely failed. And I'm not rich -- that money represented the vast majority of my savings and the income with which I planned to afford to move. Strangely, I've known about this situation for several months now and, through some form of escapism, I never really confronted the reality of my situation until now. (Hell, many of you may remember a certain topic here at NPF I made a matter of weeks ago regarding a spending binge in which I completely, in total escapism mode, disregarded my financial situation.)

It's really hit me hard tonight.

I was talking to one of my three best friends on the phone earlier this evening, expressing my discontent and feeling the bitterness gradually build up in me, and he said something that really riled me. He told me it was really all my fault. I have the kind of personality that relies extensively on excuses. I'm the rational thinker who justifies everything through convoluted logic and finds ways to blame others (rightly or wrongly) when crap hits the fan. Despite a self-deprecating personality, I can be surprisingly averse to actually taking responsibility when it's all my fault. And it hit me like I had been smacked into a ton of bricks: my friend was completely, absolutely, and totally right. I mismanaged my money, bought into the wrong vision for my future, and made the wrong choices, and I'm the only one to blame. Other people may have taken advantage or deserted me along the way, but I was the one who pulled the trigger and I was the one who dug myself into this mess.

That's tough. Sometimes the toughest thing is forgiving myself. The aforementioned friend of mine, despite the fact that this issue had really strained our friendship a few months ago, was quick to at least tell me (whether he really meant it or not may be debatable) that he forgave me. But I can't forgive myself.

Strangely, I'm not depressed. I'm angry and bitter and jaded and upset and exhausted and more than just a little irrational at the moment, to the extent that I probably should not be up at 3:30am posting here, but not depressed. I've seen everything unravel for months now -- deep down I knew what was happening, even if I didn't actively confront it -- so I can't pretend this is earth-shattering. It still sucks, though. I just hope I find a way to escape the self-destructive patterns and actually rebuild my life from all this.

Whether or not this is true being hard on yourself is one of the first steps to improvement, and though I'm sure the situation sucked at least you're trying.

Open Thread stuff: Fourth edition DND just came out, and as I read it more and more I'm more in love with it. Problem is the only DM I know is my friend Kevin, #1 flake when it comes to sitting down and planning to do something consecutively every day the same day for weeks, barring circumstances. The fortunate aspect is that I can assemble a new DND team of three, myself included, and add more players later.

What sucks is that I am going to have to DM, but hopefully the 4e changes will be substantial enough to cause DMing to be loads easier, something I've already noticed in the DMG. What with "Experience this trap/monster/event gives the players - (Numbers)," I get the feeling I'm very right.

I have the best cover artist for my book in the world. In a few months, you all will know her name, and you'll fucking buy my fantasy novel or I'll come to your houses and beat you to death.

I am immensely glad I don't smoke weed. My friend just got fired from his job and is (effectively) getting kicked out of his house by his girlfriend to move back home with his barely-can-afford-property-taxes dad. He has five hundred bucks to last him until he gets a job, and just about everyone around here drug tests, meaning he needs to stay clean for three months off of five hundred dollars to get a job, where as where I'm working now is hiring but I know he would fail. If I ever lose my job, I can find another one as SOON as I'm off. Being clean never felt so awesome.

After a brief scare a few days ago I am going to take MUCH better care of my back, sitting upright (As I type this hunched over on the desktop), lifting from legs, the like. Getting a splitting, I-don't-think-I-can-work torso pain that turns out later to just be a pulled muscle kind of does that to you.

Today is my day off, and I get to mow the lawn, do laundry, do dishes, and take out the garbage.

Yay. There better be cake and ice cream later. (And there will cause I am gonna buy some.)

On a plus note I have some movies to watch tonight. Chaos Theory, Mad Money, and Untraceable here I come!

I'm glad to hear that your brother made it out ok Ryanderman. That's some scary stuff. I don't keep in touch with my siblings and cousins as much as I should, and I always sort of worry about something like that happening. It's good that things worked out.

I'm sitting on about 10k worth of debt myself, part of which I racked up pretending to be some globe trotting rock star, the other part I managed to pile up putting my bills on credit for three months. It's a pain, but once you learn to crub your spending habits and start on a definite financial plan, it starts to work itself out. Don't be too hard on yourself, blowing money is awesome, good times are often worth the wasted resources in the long run.

*whistles*

That sucks. I hate being blind-sided by the truth myself. But you're better off than one of my... well, lets just say I know them? who has yet to come to the realization that he does almost exactly the same thing, in principle at least. Worse, because he uses uses uses and dose not every pay back.

Kudos on the introspection. You should totally listen to 'Man in the Mirror' by Micheal Jackson. It'll be like an anthem.

Tell him that his theory is wrong. Create a paradox. That should show him.