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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bumpybump

6 years ago
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BUMP!

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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have a bad day/month/year either.
i build a new pc, but its turn out the PSU got problem, have it replace cause still in warranty but the seller unsure how long its gonna take. i do a little bit googling and its turn out other ppl also struggling with that PSU type, eventho they have already claim for replacement, the problem is still there :(.
Planning to bought a new PSU, but my client (i work as programmer) tell me they gonna (and can only) pay me at the end of the year..
and you know what, you should at least happy ur gf support u like that, i mean about that computer XD. mine is not. gaming is like cheat on her since im enjoying my own world while abandoned her. LOL (well, that just my fault cause i dont manage time very well between her and my hobby XD).

Well i guess that life, sometimes you up sometimes you down :)
BTW, have a BUMP!

6 years ago
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Damn, sorry to hear you're also having a rough time of it.
The cool thing with my fiance is that when I'm busy, she keeps herself busy and also has activities to do 3 times a week.
Then weekends we sometimes watch sport together and our movies and series. So spending time with her is not too bad, and she understands.
Looking back at my story, I really have something good that I can work towards on all aspects.
Thanks for the share and good luck also.

6 years ago
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Yeah you too, GLHF! XD

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Bump from me as well.

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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Hope your situation get better soon :/, don't desesperate, you'll only get out of this stronger.
Thanks for the train, was really enjoyable :)
Bump!

6 years ago
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Thanks for the words, appreciated.

6 years ago
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Bumpety Boo

6 years ago
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Bump!

6 years ago
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Bumpo.

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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Nice train, thank you!

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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sounds like a tricky situation, what kind of it work do you do? Is there perhaps an opportunity to find another job with more job-security?

If you ever get the time to play games again:
and can not afford a gaming pc, but you do have a decent internet connection, you can use liquid-sky (basically a virtualmachine with gpu, in the cloud), it is free if you watch ads. I have tried it, and it is alright I suppose (1080p60fps with a lot of compression, but ok).
https://liquidsky.com/

6 years ago
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Job security is rare in South Africa currently, so for now I'll sit tight and do what needs to be done until my other ventures start doing well enough to think about changing work and at least having a fallback as well.
I signed up for an account, but it was blocked in my region unless I paid. I'm waiting for the free version to make its way here to test it. Not sure when Nvidia's version will launch and if it'll require an Nvidia graphics card either. But yeah, I'll keep this in mind, thanks.

6 years ago
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That's a shame, I know very little about south Afrika but I know elsewhere intelligent English speaking IT folks like yourself are highly sought after. What code-languages do you write?
Liquidsky is a prestige project AMD was advertising Vega with, so I am not sure if they will ever run nvidia graphics. The graphics card of the user doesn't matter of course, since it is just a video stream. How are internet speeds in South Afrika?

6 years ago
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I know a few coding languages, but that's not currently my line of work. I'm in product management, so no coding for me in the last 6 years, unless I'm doing it on a personal or side job level. Languages are: java (including some Android development), C#, ASP. Net, HTML, SQL, Python, some javascript.
Think I wasn't specific with my comment/question on NVidia...I know LiquidSky is completely separate, and earlier this year I tried it and wasn't available for me in SA.
As for Nvidia, I know they were in the works with their own game streaming service, similar to LiquidSky, but beta testing was only available to Nvidia cards, which made no sense to me. Since it's streaming, it shouldn't matter.
In terms of Internet, I use LTE at home, and get speeds between 80-100Mbps. The ping is around 20ms. We're behind on fixed options, only in last two years started offering affordable fibre options, and still not available in my neighbourhood.

6 years ago
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I get you with the job thing, not exactly same scenario for me, but internal conflicts in companies often have a negative effect on workers, and with job security being what it is, many, if not most, employees can do nothing about it.
That's a great fiance you got there, and I agree with your plan, weddings are an expensive thing so often a workaround needs to be made.

...now give me my penny :P

6 years ago
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How about a free hug instead? :P
I'm reminded now of the Star Wars Bad Lip Reading with Yoda. :D
Do they even still make pennies in the US? I've heard debates on whether it's viable to keep it in circulation.
Thanks for the comment.

6 years ago
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Damnit, now that damn "song" is stuck in my head again >_<
And no, free hug is not good enough, I've been hugged so many times today I'm getting sick of it, I want a penny :P
...and if USA pennies are not made, then a British penny will do fine :D

6 years ago
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Sorry, I should've known better. Went through the whole December holidays with it stuck in mine. :)
Penny is not available right now...can I offer you Tiffany instead? :P

6 years ago
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Is Tiffany British though? I might take you up on that if she is...

6 years ago
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Ah, I haven't asked her myself. Most likely South African too. :P

6 years ago
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:/
Guess I'll wait till Penny will be available.

6 years ago
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(╭☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)╭☞

6 years ago
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Hope things get better for you.
Bump

6 years ago
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Thanks, appreciated.

6 years ago
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B.UMP!

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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BBBB

6 years ago
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nice choo-choo
bumpity bump

6 years ago
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Awesome train, thanks and ^BUMMMMP^

6 years ago
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Glad it was good.

6 years ago
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thank you for your generosity and I hope the future will be bright !

6 years ago
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Thanks for the comment, appreciated.

6 years ago
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Closed 5 years ago by Ph03n1xSA.