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IIOIOOIOO
double banned
Joined: 08 Dec 2006
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 Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:28 pm |
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| GcDiaz wrote: |
| But it is clear to me that your definition of happiness and contentment is nowhere near mine or some other people's in this thread. To each his own. |
Man, they're not mutually exclusive. As long as you don't give up what you love whilst pursuing wealth, money usually opens doors to do MORE of what's important to you rather than less.
Like going to a party with your friends? Try taking those same friends to a party in some exotic locale.
Love spending time with your beautiful lady? Try taking out on the town in a one-of-a-kind dress you bought her earlier that day just so she could show off her looks.
Think your kids are important? Give them great support at home, but also give them access to the best teachers available. Let them see the entire world before you cast them out into it.
If you doubled the cash in your bank account without changing anything else about your life, would you be twice as happy? Maybe not. Maybe so. One thing's pretty close to certain... you wouldn't be less happy. I don't think that our idea of happiness differs very much at all. I just think that you don't understand how easy it is to acquire and apply wealth towards the enhancement of the things that make you happy. |
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Mr Mustache
Mean Mr. Mustache
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Bushwick
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:34 pm |
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I work for a non-profit.
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The people are like wool to me |
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Mr. Apol
king of zembla
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: a curiously familiar pit
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:07 pm |
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being completely serious: IIOIOOIOO, do you think any of that could apply to people like me, who'd like to write for a living? if so, how? you sound pretty intelligent.
(also i nearly did the same thing as you. i got married at 19, got stuck going from paycheck to paycheck, yatta yatta. except, we didn't have any kids, and divorced two years later. so, right now i'm back at home and back in school.)
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Ebrey
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Los Angeles
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:14 pm |
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| IIOIOOIOO wrote: |
| If you doubled the cash in your bank account without changing anything else about your life, would you be twice as happy? Maybe not. Maybe so. One thing's pretty close to certain... you wouldn't be less happy |
That's not true for a huge portion of the population. Wealth DOES make people less happy when they are bad at motivating themselves. At least the poor and middle class have goals provided for them: the rich have to make up their own goals. And a lot of people are really bad at doing that, which is why rich kids do coke and drive drunk until they die or are disinherited. |
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Mr. Apol
king of zembla
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: a curiously familiar pit
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:15 pm |
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yeah i wouldn't mind being rich and bored
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Dracko
a sapphist fool
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:17 pm |
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There's probably not much worse than being bored.
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Predator Goose
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
Location: Oversensitive Pedantic Ninny
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:20 pm |
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I've heard that dying of starvation sucks.
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Dracko
a sapphist fool
Joined: 06 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:22 pm |
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That's hardly boring now, is it?
Cancer or Alzheimer's, on the other hand...
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Last edited by Dracko on Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Gin
banned
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:23 pm |
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I think I'd have some serious existential worries or general paranoia if my bank account suddenly doubled.
Probably get a visit from the tax man and everythin |
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aderack
Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:39 pm |
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| Pijaibros wrote: |
| How do you live in San Francisco and not have a job? |
Low rent at a good location, and regular-enough writing commissions.
Though, yeah. Exactly. This should take the strain off. |
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Mr. Apol
king of zembla
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: a curiously familiar pit
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| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:45 pm |
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well i mean, if i'm rich i'm pretty sure i can find ways to entertain myself. travel, for example!
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Toto
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:05 am |
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| Ebrey wrote: |
| IIOIOOIOO wrote: |
| If you doubled the cash in your bank account without changing anything else about your life, would you be twice as happy? Maybe not. Maybe so. One thing's pretty close to certain... you wouldn't be less happy |
That's not true for a huge portion of the population. Wealth DOES make people less happy when they are bad at motivating themselves. At least the poor and middle class have goals provided for them: the rich have to make up their own goals. And a lot of people are really bad at doing that, which is why rich kids do coke and drive drunk until they die or are disinherited. |
Poor rich kids :( |
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internisus
shafer sephiroth
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:27 am |
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| man i fucking hate rich people with all the time in the world and good educations and shit who can't find better things to do with themselves than drugs and stuntfucking |
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Pijaibros
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Casino Night Zone
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:54 am |
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| Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh wrote: |
| Pijaibros wrote: |
| How do you live in San Francisco and not have a job? |
Low rent at a good location |
Yeah, that one is usually my biggest stumbling block in relocating. Much luck needed for that one.
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DJ
Shaman Analyst
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:18 am |
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My rent is decent. Comes out to about $550 per person with bills (a little less, but close enough) and that's about how much I make in a week, so, yeah! Three paychecks a week that aren't immediately going to rent ain't bad.
I sort of gave a silent cheer when I realized I'm out-earning all my roommates now.
My job is fairly intense, though. We're a very small company basically trying to get insurance companies to cough up the money they owe, which it is obviously not in their best interests to do (See: Sicko). We do third party billing for several chiropractic firms, and while I kinda had no idea why this would be necessary, now I do. Chiropractics tend to get lumped into the same category as "energy healers" by insurance companies and they do everything possible to avoid having to pay claims on it, and accomplish this by building a giant web of red tape, then losing claims in it and expecting you to dig them out if you want your money.
It's a bit maddening, as you can imagine.
On the other hand, it's a steady job that pays decently and I reliably get weekends off. Plus I can chat on the internet and take my lunches and stuff when I feel like it. So yeah, no complaints here.
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GcDiaz
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Clinton, MA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:46 am |
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| DeusJester wrote: |
Three paychecks a week that aren't immediately going to rent ain't bad.
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Years ago, at my first real job, a good friend told me: "If you can make in a week what you pay for rent in a month, you're doing alright." This being my current situation, he was totally right.
Does this mean I won't have to buy the alcohol if/when I go visit?
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Mr. Apol
king of zembla
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: a curiously familiar pit
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:48 am |
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| DeusJester wrote: |
My rent is decent. Comes out to about $550 per person with bills (a little less, but close enough) and that's about how much I make in a week, so, yeah! Three paychecks a week that aren't immediately going to rent ain't bad.
I sort of gave a silent cheer when I realized I'm out-earning all my roommates now.
My job is fairly intense, though. We're a very small company basically trying to get insurance companies to cough up the money they owe, which it is obviously not in their best interests to do (See: Sicko). We do third party billing for several chiropractic firms, and while I kinda had no idea why this would be necessary, now I do. Chiropractics tend to get lumped into the same category as "energy healers" by insurance companies and they do everything possible to avoid having to pay claims on it, and accomplish this by building a giant web of red tape, then losing claims in it and expecting you to dig them out if you want your money.
It's a bit maddening, as you can imagine.
On the other hand, it's a steady job that pays decently and I reliably get weekends off. Plus I can chat on the internet and take my lunches and stuff when I feel like it. So yeah, no complaints here. |
sort of a random thought but yeah chiropractors are great. too bad they don't get taken seriously. i had a terrible muscle sprain in my back and was out of work for three days, didn't stop hurting until i went to a chiropractor. he cracked the shit out of my back, and used this crazy electric paddle thing to massage my back (kind of JOLTS and seizes up the muscles and feels fantastic). felt 100% better after some rest, and didn't even need painkillers or anything. cheap too.
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DJ
Shaman Analyst
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:37 am |
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| GcDiaz wrote: |
| Does this mean I won't have to buy the alcohol if/when I go visit? |
Bring me Brugal, bitchpussy!
Also dude come out to Cali to visit for a bit. You know you want to blow $400 on plane tickets. DOO EET.
You can actually, uh, meet Kerry this time! ...
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DJ
Shaman Analyst
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:43 am |
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| Mr. Apol wrote: |
| sort of a random thought but yeah chiropractors are great. too bad they don't get taken seriously. |
It's sort of like a masseuse. They don't get taken seriously either, but hell if I've ever heard of anyone who walked out of a serious massage and didn't feel better. There's legit, proven health benefits to having someone re-adjust your spine. Admittedly they're not in there extracting your pancreas or whatever, but if your spine gets sent out of whack (like, say, in a car accident), having someone re-align it can get some rather important nerves back into shape. It helps immensely with recovery and alleviates a lot of the pain. A lot of people don't realize how much of this is just caused by fucked up nerves and nothing else. If your spine is pinching a nerve (which isn't even all that uncommon), getting that sorted it is going to solve it without surgery or anything invasive.
Nevermind that it feels fucking amazing.
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108
fairy godmilf
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
Location: oakland, california
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:49 am |
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| IIOIOOIOO wrote: |
Like going to a party with your friends? Try taking those same friends to a party in some exotic locale.
Love spending time with your beautiful lady? Try taking out on the town in a one-of-a-kind dress you bought her earlier that day just so she could show off her looks.
Think your kids are important? Give them great support at home, but also give them access to the best teachers available. Let them see the entire world before you cast them out into it. |
According to my MySpace profile, I earn over $100,000 a year.
This is not a lie!
I guess that I don't drink, would never buy a girl a dress, and am incapable of fathering children really helps my savings account.
Hmm
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Hot Stott Bot
banned
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:22 am |
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| IIOIOOIOO wrote: |
OK, so some back story rq:
Graduated HS, Perfect score SAT, full-ride granted at a prestigious (well, beloved by the wealthy) SoCal university. Entered as a sophomore. Partied well beyond advisable levels. Withdrew at the end of my first year after getting my scholarship yanked for an "event" on campus. Tapped some contacts, accepted a slightly less than full scholarship at a small school in the midwest. Got out there, hated the hell out of winter (bronchitis and pneumonia simultaneously!) and went back home... taking a girl I'd met there home with me. I guess I figured... maybe someone else will give me school money? Knocked her up, got married in vegas, got kicked out of mom's house... and rightly so.
I only share this to establish that I was starting out at ground zero. Without involving destructive drug use or criminality/prison, it's hard to remove yourself from the playfield further than I did. All by the age of 19. So, I'm sitting there. Baby on the way, beautiful wife, couple grand in the account. I clearly need to do SOMETHING. I formulated a strategy.
Phase 1 - Finding the Vein
Step 1) Assess my marketable skills... including soft skills.
I'm pretty strong technically, a good software developer, reasonably personable and pretty competent. The technical skills weren't really mated up with any practical job experience and I wasn't energized about sales, which leads me to...
Step 2) Find the right job market.
Southern California at the time (end of the 90s) was one of the most competitive job markets in the country. Especially on the bottom rung. Combined with the elevated cost of living, the odds are stacked against somebody just starting out. So we tapped our network of friends and family, looking for somewhere a bit more open. It so happened that a relation of my wife's noticed that even the fast food joints were completely SOL trying to fill their openings. Hell, BK was offering a SIGNING BONUS for assistant managers. We moved promptly.
The next three steps kind of go together...
Step 3) Don't let today's job prevent me from finding tomorrow's
A lot of the permanent failure guys I knew had taken jobs where they made the tiniest bit more than nothing in exchange for complete lock-in. 50 or 60+ hour work weeks, right in the part of a day when the rest of the planet was making daily steps forward. If you're working 6 to 6 just to pay the bills... you're not working on taking the next step.
Step 4) Shine every day.
Seriously, all it take to diferentiate yourself from 80%+ of the world's population is to treat your job seriously. When you're at work, work. If you're working make a sincere effort to do really do things like they matter. If an opportunity to make someone else's life better through some extra effort arises, pursue it vigorously. But at the same time make sure people know that this is just a step in your life. Like... this is kind of bullshit and I think I can do way more than this, but I told you I'd come do it so I'm going to do the hell out of it. Suddenly you'll find that the people around you are breaking their own backs trying to make things happen for you. Speaking of this just being one step...
Step 5) Find ways to make sure the people around you understand that you have aspirations.
Talk to people about what's important to you (family, music, etc) and how that motivates you to do more and work harder every day. It's important that people understand where you're trying to go, or nobody can help you get there. Note: Don't ever demean someone's job or the job of their co-workers. What you're working towards is qualitatively better for YOU... not just better in general.
This strategy worked pretty well. In a 2.5 year span, I went...
Pizza Delivery -> Electric Utility Tree Trimming -> Culligan Delivery Man -> Working at the regional Culligan offices -> Working in ops in their data center -> Working as a "patchgrammer" in their development group -> Entry Level Developer at the tiny subsidiary of a fast-growing conglomerate. By the year I would've graduated college (21), I had just about caught up with my schoolfaring friends.
Never once did I have to cold-call for a job. Every time it was basically dropped in my lap. Every step forward gave me more pay (at this point still painfully low... 45k was where I ended that chain), more control over my schedule and more access to people who were already winning the game. Some friends who I shared this gameplan with had similar success.
And that was only just the start. That was just how to get INTO the real game. This was a bit long, but if anyone's interested I'll write about phase 2... How to make mega-corporations work for YOU instead of vice-versa.
So yeah, I ended up with this (probably unsightly) reflexive disdain when I see people shufflin laterally from one shit job to another. It usually just means that nobody ever set their expectations about what was REALLY achievable. |
This is some pretty solid advice, if you ask me. |
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kael
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Mountain View, CA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:24 am |
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| Hot Stott Bot wrote: |
| IIOIOOIOO wrote: |
OK, so some back story rq:
... |
This is some pretty solid advice, if you ask me. |
Yeah, same here. Pretty much the principles that made it possible for me to land two unreasonably excellent jobs even though my qualifications are shit. It's not a guarantee but it really does help. |
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Hot Stott Bot
banned
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 3:28 am |
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And also, yes, to agree with binary boy again... in a way, I feel like working the game is a lot trickier than getting in the game. Getting in the game was just a little bit of luck and getting yourself taken seriously. Being in the game is well... trickier... I'm still not entirely sure where the hell I'm trying to go from here though. I feel like in my personal career I've quite recently started getting "in the game", and I've realized I'm just not sure what it is that I care about.
I mean, there's money.
But I feel like money is just a natural result of success at something and I'm not sure what that something is anymore. |
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GcDiaz
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: Clinton, MA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 4:46 am |
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| DeusJester wrote: |
| GcDiaz wrote: |
| Does this mean I won't have to buy the alcohol if/when I go visit? |
Bring me Brugal, bitchpussy!
Also dude come out to Cali to visit for a bit. You know you want to blow $400 on plane tickets. DOO EET.
You can actually, uh, meet Kerry this time! ... |
I'm drunk right now. Do NOT tempt me, motherfucker. Plus, I don't wanna be that guy who shows up for a weekend and fucks his friend's girl. It's so below me, you know?
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Panoptic
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:27 am |
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| Tim give me a PSP so I can play that Ratchet and Clank game before the PS3 one comes out. |
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alice
not nana komatsu
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 12:58 pm |
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| DeusJester wrote: |
| alice wrote: |
why don't you be a self-employed cynical suspense adventure realist novelist deus?
By the way, fancy seeing you in san jose. Which part are you at? |
Right near Japantown. Corner of 9th and Taylor. |
fuck, there's a japan town in SJ. |
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DaleNixon
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: dirty dirty south
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:12 pm |
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Fucking hell Tim buy me some shit!
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boojiboy7
narcissistic irony-laden twat
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: take me on a blatant doom trip.
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| Posted: Thu Sep 06, 2007 1:18 pm |
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| GcDiaz wrote: |
| DeusJester wrote: |
| GcDiaz wrote: |
| Does this mean I won't have to buy the alcohol if/when I go visit? |
Bring me Brugal, bitchpussy!
Also dude come out to Cali to visit for a bit. You know you want to blow $400 on plane tickets. DOO EET.
You can actually, uh, meet Kerry this time! ... |
I'm drunk right now. Do NOT tempt me, motherfucker. Plus, I don't wanna be that guy who shows up for a weekend and fucks his friend's girl. It's so below me, you know? |
Diaz, do this anyway. We need more forum fightz. |
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IIOIOOIOO
double banned
Joined: 08 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:26 pm |
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| Oh hey. Forgot about this. Any interest in me writing up Pt. 2? The "then you have to play the game" part. |
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DaleNixon
Joined: 04 Dec 2006
Location: dirty dirty south
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 1:50 pm |
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Yea sure why the hell not!
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oligophagy
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 3:15 pm |
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| IIOIOOIOO wrote: |
| Oh hey. Forgot about this. Any interest in me writing up Pt. 2? The "then you have to play the game" part. |
I'd like to see it, though from Part 1, I'm wondering if you're forgetting to adjust for your being young and probably attractive (you have a "beautiful wife," after all) and other people living vicariously. It happens! Some people just have pleasant faces and everything works out okay. |
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IIOIOOIOO
double banned
Joined: 08 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2007 10:59 pm |
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ok. I will do it!
To answer your question: Not everyone can be beautiful... but everyone has the ability to not look like a schlub. Not looking like a poop is usually all that's necessary where that sort of stuff is concerned. |
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Danag
Joined: 04 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:04 pm |
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Congrats, man. That's totally awesome news.
I can totally relate to what you were saying... I worked in food service, and no matter how hard I tried or looked, nothing else seemed to be there. I went into a Business Depot, and they interviewed me THREE TIMES.. the third one being very hostile and harrassing.. and made me leave feeling more depressed than I was originally.
But man, that's totally sweet that you finally found something. I'll keep you in my thoughts. |
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charlie
Joined: 05 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 8:39 am |
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| Holy shit Deus, me and you kinda did the same thing, but in opposite directions. I ran out of money, had to drop out of college, and was working a $7/hr job in Berkeley (YES, I WAS LIVING OFF OF $7/HR IN THE FUCKING BAY AREA. FUCKING BALLS). I finally moved out to the south (Alabama/Georgia) where a bunch of family let me couch-surf for a month till I got my feet set. Finally found a job, salaried, pays middle class-ish wages. And now my head is filled with grand dreams of buying a car, buying some games, and saving up enough money to come home to Cali A MOTHERFUCKING PIMP. And finish school. On a completely un-related note, I started smoking again, and the people here in the south are hella nice. Also, most women 18-30 years of age down here have at least been married once and have 2.5 children. What the fuck is up with that? I've never seen so many hot pregnant women and/or women dragging along a couple of kids in my entire life. |
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