"The times they are a-becoming very different" (let's hope)
Wow...where to start? It's been pretty busy since the last post. I say this as if I have any readers, which would be people who cared what I had to say. The realization I had previously mentioned is still there. It fights to get through every time I start feeling down. I quit my torturous job not long after the last post. It was bullshit. I couldn't deal with the constant stress of having 3 (sometimes more) different morons convinced they were my boss, pulling me in 3 different directions, and then I was the one who got blamed when the 3 sets of orders clashed and none of the work got done. If they want to do it themselves, then they can have fun. The sad part is that I don't have a new “real” job and it's been over a month. I've had some leads, but they've all fallen apart. I got kind of down again during that and it got compounded by the fact that my attempt at a new computer build ended badly. Now I have 8GB of ram, a 1TB hard drive, 64 Bit Windows 7, a Sound Blaster Audigy card, and a Scythe Rasetsu CPU cooler. The barebones kit I purchased which had the CPU, mobo and GPU was bad and had to be returned. They stopped carrying it so I merely got a refund. I put a lot of myself into that build and when it didn't pan out it hit me pretty hard.
Anyway, my shrink wants me to call FAFSA (student aid) to try and get some money so I can go back to college. She thinks I'm incredibly intelligent (not just intelligent, but incredibly intelligent). She wants me to take some gen ed courses to “boost my self-esteem”. I just don't see that working out. Unless FAFSA offers up some kind of stipend with their aid, I'm fucked. Plus, the only place that would have me is the community college. They merged with the Vocational school during my last year there so a degree from them (or even course credits) mean less than nothing in “the real world”. I would want a degree in art (apply it back to tattooing), but I just don't want to again associate myself with that institution. There's UK, but no one associates the University of Kentucky with academics. They associate it with their athletics department. Since it is a real University, degrees from the place are actually taken seriously, though. But I don't want to get into classes with 50+ students attending in the classroom and the professor having to handle countless more via online courses. I don't want to be a faceless mass in a larger faceless mass. I would prefer some level of individualized attention. I almost want to go to Transylvania, but I doubt they'd have me. If I call FAFSA, it will be next week while my wife is out of town.
My wife has to go back to see her mother in New York next Friday. She's having a hysterectomy and wants her family present “just in case” and to help care for her when she gets out of the hospital. She'll be gone for 7 or eight days. The last time she did this was when I had to get my spinal tap to confirm the suspected diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis and then consult my neurologist and get started on treatment for my optic neuritis. That was just Hell on earth. I was scared shitless, I had no idea what was going to happen. I had to confront this new aspect of my life completely on my own. It wasn't easy, I would only wish what I had gone through on the worst of my worst enemies. Even then, I'd probably take it back if I could. Hopefully, with no new health issues cropping up, this time won't be so bad. My only gripe will be that I won't have back-up for the puppy. I love that dog to death but sometimes she's a handful partnered with a chore. Plus, when she leaves like this it reminds me of how much of a hermit I am. It's easy to be “social” when you live with someone else. She's someone to talk to. With her gone the house is empty and I'm here, alone. The house almost reverberates with her absence. Again, to kill some time I might actually call FAFSA or something and see what I can do, what I can get, and/or where I can go. If not, I have Just Cause 2, Heavy Rain, and a several other video games (new and old, I've been itching to play more Crazy Taxi 1 and 2) I might be able to play if the puppy falls asleep or behaves herself.
Anyway, a new career path has opened to me. It's not a career yet, just a path that might end in one. There was a guy who used to lead a union on gamespot.com that started his own video game website. He kept sending out messages to gamespot users who were in that union (and others with whom he'd made connections on the site) asking for editors. I figured, since he wasn't exactly asking for some kind of fiduciary investment, what did I have to lose? I started writing stuff for the site and have now had 3 pieces published. I will have more as time progresses because the ones I've written have gone over well and I am now a member of the staff on WiredController.com. I'll conclude this blog with some shameless self-promotion. I'll link the three pieces I've had published, thus far. The first is a nice little editorial I wrote about the two Xbox 360s I've had, both of which failed out of warranty and left me with no way to get them replaced. I was incredibly displeased with this and terribly angry so I took them both to my friend's house and shot the hell out of them. It includes pictures. I didn't shoot them at the same time, there was a gap of roughly 2 years and some change between shootings. The other two are my review of Mafia II and my review of the Hori Real Arcade Pro 3 stick for the PS3. Read, enjoy, and sign up for the site! Support this fledgling enterprise so that one day, maybe, this can be a paying occupation. The guy who set up the site is an incredibly nice guy who is truly devoted to gaming and you can tell he's poured his heart and soul into this venture. Support him! Support US! He deserves it!
http://wiredcontroller.com/exclusive/red-ring-of-death-for-real-this-time
http://wiredcontroller.com/reviews/mafia-ii-review
http://wiredcontroller.com/reviews/hori-real-arcade-pro-3-review-3
Self-promotion FTW!