Are you tired of chopping with the conventional knife?
Do you need a holiday?
Have you been blacklisted?
Have you had enough of those crazy diets?
Well, you're in luck...
I have no idea where I was going with that, so let's just get straight to it. :)
If you're just here for the train, then by all means, step right up.

For those who are willing to read my Monday morning drivel:
I decided to make this train because of the build up of guilt over the past while. I've won quite a number of games, most of which are bundled rejects, but still, they all count. I haven't made any in just over two months now, so it's been a long time coming.
While there's no excuse for my bad behaviour, there has been quite a lot going on this year.
For starters, I haven't had much time to take the time to create GAs, as I started new work at the end of last year, which has gone from busy to insane as the months went by. I started the year with 5 projects going reasonably well, when they were all taken away from me by the end of March and given new projects. After coming back from my leave in July, those projects too were taken away and I was given one new product to launch within the space of two months, which is crazy in my line of work and IT delivery schedule. What's more frustrating is that the projects I started the year off with were added to my list of deliverables, which affect my bonus at the end of the financial year. As it stands, I haven't delivered any products as yet, and I have had no indication from management how they'll resolve the issue of them having removed all my work and replaced with new products twice during the same period. They've made changes to the performance outputs, which means, as it stands, I'll not be entitled to any increase or bonus come year end. I'm grateful to have this job and doing reasonably well by normal standards, but it's just worrying in the current climate of the lack of job security when I'm trying everything I can to get as much work done as possible only for it to be removed on a whim due to some or other internal political struggles between executives and the likes.
This brings me onto my second point. Money has been tight all year. I have a feeling it might be that way for a while. I've recently started some work in my spare time, which is already at a minimum, and hopefully make some extra on the side with it. I've already done work for one client, but after showing them the work I did, they were very happy, but then dropped off the face of the earth when it was time to pay. It's worse given that I've had some history with the client, so I thought I could trust them to make the payment, even after they had accepted my quote before I started work, which in effect, wasted 3 weeks of my time in the end.
Thirdly, my gaming has gone from bare minimum to almost zero now. This as a result of my PC having shorted out at the beginning of the year, and slowly deteriorated as the months went on. My motherboard now only has two of the four working RAM ports, so I'm down to 4GB RAM, with a few HDDs having also to be plugged out. The worst of this happened just last week when my graphics card finally crashed, which now means I will have no real gaming for the foreseeable future. Given my circumstances above, I have no spare cash to pay for replacement of motherboard and my graphics card. Sigh.
Lastly, it's this. I proposed to my fiance about two years ago now. It's been a long time coming and a long road still ahead. As you'll no doubt have guessed, we're not in the best of positions to plan a wedding, and not actually sure we're going to do one at all. Our plan, for the moment, is to try and save a reasonable amount for us to go directly on a week-long honeymoon sometime next year, and get married wherever it is that we choose. This will save significantly on costs overall. In addition to that, she's still studying at this point, and has another two years to go still before we're more secure financially when she starts working. So there's light at the end of the tunnel. I'm happy we are in a position where she is able to study, and we're really fortunate that we are able to live off one salary for the time being. She recently found some work in filming concerts at a kindergarten and has promised to give me all the money she makes from the 5 shoots at the school she's assisting. She stated that she wanted to contribute some cashflow towards a replacement PC, and while the money she'll make will only cover a motherboard and RAM for now, that's a brilliant gesture on her behalf, and really am moved by it. :)

I was thinking of cancelling my HB Monthly to save on some costs, but I worked out that even if I did, it will take me more than five years to save enough for a decent replacement PC. I don't feel that it's worth it in the end, so have decided to keep that subscription, both so I can have a steady flow of a few games trickling in, and also have the opportunity now and again to give back to the SG community, which has been great to me over the years. I've thought on and off about removing myself from the forums, (stopping my entries to GAs and stop creating them too), but I feel like I'll be losing some part of me that has been enjoyable for quite some time, and with some really good people as well. I'm not really close with anyone here, although I do feel I enjoy a few chats and discussions with certain people, some of which have been the best interactions for some potentially heated debates, but has not ended that way. For this, I'm grateful, I truly am. Thanks SG.

Ooph, that was quite a bit to cover.
TL;DR - having some troubles, will continue to be part of SG, and big thanks.

Edit: Thanks all for your kind words and encouragement. Much appreciated. Apologies if I wasn't able to get to each and every one.

6 years ago*

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bump

6 years ago
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Good luck buddy.you need it.bump

6 years ago
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Your contribution to steamgifts is highly appreciated ;)

6 years ago
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Have a hug and a bump <3

6 years ago
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Free hugs here. :)
Thanks.

6 years ago
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The buildup of quilt threw me off at the start. But I guess quilting is one way to make some money.

What was your PC spec before it all went to hell?

(I apologise that in my mind it all boiled down to this question at the end, so decided to add this. I hope that things get better for you, and I'm happy that you have a great girlfriend / future wife, and I would have liked to help, but I'm already building a basic PC for my sister from spare parts, and I'm not sure I'll have any worthwhile parts left, not that they were great to begin with, which is what led me to ask about the original spec.)

View attached image.
6 years ago*
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Hahahaha. I've picked up so many mistakes in my original post, had to change it, and still people picking up errors. Well spotted, thanks.
Nah, it's cool, you having read through all that and commenting is good enough.
My graphics card was an old MSI Nvidia 465 GTX, but was still able to play latest games, which was good enough, even at low level.
Also, I appreciate the gesture of sending parts, but I live in South Africa, no ways it's getting here on the cheap, hence the high cost of parts here to begin with. But thanks for that man. :)

6 years ago
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The 465 is faster than anything I could spare anyway. :) The most powerful card I currently own is the Radeon RX 460 (which, come to think of it, is very close to 465).

I wonder if ordering from Amazon.com will end up cheaper for you than buying locally.

6 years ago
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Yeah, it would be cheaper, but then I don't have the luxury of warrantees, etc. May cost a bunch to send it back if anything happens, but have often considered it.
Also, I'm curious as to how the RX 460 is not way superior than my 5-year old Nvidia 465? Found a quick comparison

6 years ago
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Well, it is, it's just that it's the best I have, so I hoped it would be a good excuse to explain why I don't have anything else worthwhile.

Although I did have a Radeon 5850 which I gave to a colleague in exchange for an Xbox 360 wireless controller, and that 5850 has died since anyway. :)

6 years ago
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Oh, I see what you mean now...just misread your meaning. :)
I like your style, I've been exchanging goods for years, and getting free stuff I often trade. I have two Xbox controllers for my PC with wireless adapter - traded with some free stuff. Even have the wireless Xbox steering wheel I traded a colleague for my other steering wheel I bought my brother one Xmas and found out his wife bought him the same one. Because I bought it on sale, I couldn't return it. I found that back at varsity it was easier getting my hands on used goods I could either upsell or trade for stuff I wanted. Bit more of a mission now, and some very dodgy people, so haven't done it in the last two years.
Also, whitelisted. Forgot to do it earlier :)

6 years ago
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Hope that your situation improves and that you are able to get over this bump.
Good wishes!

And save your penny, I just woke up so no thoughts in my head for a few hours :P

6 years ago
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Hehe...waky waky. Thanks for the well wishes.

6 years ago
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you have each other, what's more :)
good luck for the future

6 years ago
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Very true. Thanks for the reply.

6 years ago
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Bumpf :3

6 years ago
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Bump!

6 years ago
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thanks a lot for chooooo chooooo!

6 years ago
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/bump

6 years ago
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...but then dropped off the face of the earth when it was time to pay...

Do you normally get a partial payment upfront? It's pretty standard to ask for 50% upfront, 25% before final delivery and 25% after.

...we're not in the best of positions to plan a wedding...

Do you both actual want a wedding or are you trying to please family? Get married wherever and whenever, use the money for your honeymoon and start/continue building a life together

6 years ago
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It was my first job on the side, and someone who wasn't shady before all of this. So I've learned. Now getting people to sign and pay a small upfront fee. Have some cash, and legally binding agreement if it happens again.
Yep, we don't want to do a wedding. Hence why we're planning just a honeymoon type thing just for us.

6 years ago
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bump thx for train

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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Thank you very much for the nice ride)

6 years ago
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Sorry to hear things aren't going exactly as planned right now, Ph03n1xSA. Hopefully things at work will all get worked out soon. From what I read you have a great girlfriend, treasure her. :)

Thanks for the train.

View attached image.
6 years ago
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Thanks for reading, and thanks for the feedback.

6 years ago
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Thank you for the train. Hang in there.

6 years ago
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Cool, will do. Thanks.

6 years ago
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Bump

6 years ago
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Bump for the nice ride. Have a nice monday and I hope your situation improves soon!

6 years ago
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Awesome, thanks.

6 years ago
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Thanks for the train bump. Will read the wall later.

6 years ago
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Wonk;)

6 years ago
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Ph03n1xSA:

Don't worry about contributing here when you need to get your life in order. Every little bit helps. You can always make it up to the community later, though in truth your ratio is far better than most around here. I personally would rather you devoted that small amount of money to savings.

But, still. We appreciate that you want to give back, and this train in particular. Thank you.

6 years ago
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Thanks for the comment and for reading. It's not that much in the end in terms of my overall budget, although I have much bigger stuff I'm trying to sort out financially. Just that I weighed up stopping the HB Monthly vs actual saving over time and it doesn't make a dent. But I'm making huge strides last two months, so I think maybe I'll just pause it for a few months and start again in the new year.

6 years ago
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BUMP !

6 years ago
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bump :)

6 years ago
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Bump!

6 years ago
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Closed 5 years ago by Ph03n1xSA.