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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burp luck

6 years ago
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bump!

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Bump for a bump?

6 years ago
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Bump!

6 years ago
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bump

6 years ago
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Hello. I said 4 days ago that I would read the wall, and now I have.
I'm sorry about your situation at work, it really feels like they're kinda screwing you over while they're probably having an internal power struggle. I'm also very sad to see that your part-time job ended up being wasted the way that it did. To top it all off you get computer problems as well that you can't afford to fix, yeesh.
But you have a fiancee who loves you, and I hope your relationship will survive the added stress of having little to none money. Speaking from experience, it's a real tough burden to carry every day.
I hope things work out for you, and as an added tip, I found that leaving Steam groups which had monthly giveaway requirements eased up a lot of my stress regarding SG. So if the situation occurs, and is applicable in your case too, then I'd recommend that. Now if I could only find time to create giveaways for the large number of games that I got lying around, that would be awesome.
Hope you'll have a nice weekend.

6 years ago
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Hey. Thanks for reading the post and commenting. Four day turnaround definitely shows commitment to the cause. Thanks. :)
Yeah, I don't think i have Steam groups with GA requirements, the last one closed on its own a few months back, which is a bit of a relief, truth be told. But yea, thanks again. Enjoy your weekend too.

6 years ago
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A man got to stay true to his word and his dreams ;)

6 years ago
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Bump - lots of stops, thank you :)

6 years ago
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bump!

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6 years ago
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Bump!
My GPU stopped working in January and I spent half a year dealing with RMA service. They didn't manage to fix it and finally they sent me a better one after months without PC. The good news are that it all works out in the end.

6 years ago
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I had a similar issues in my final year of Masters.
The Post Office lost my graphics card I shipped back for RMA return. Three months later it was found, and when they returned it, came back broken in half. Good thing I insured it for slightly more in value to cover it, and after another 6 months of battling, I finally got my money, not from RMA, but from Post Office. Ended up buying a new graphics card through a connection for cheap, which was way better than the one that stopped working and went missing. So that worked out really well. Let's hope the same in this case.
Thanks for the comment.

6 years ago
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Late bump for late people.

6 years ago
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Bumping!!!

6 years ago
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bamp bamp ^.^

6 years ago
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6 years ago
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Bump!

6 years ago
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I hope your money will flow in nicely, so you can get married and also game once more.
I wish you and your fiance all the best!

6 years ago
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Thanks for the well wishes.

6 years ago
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Bump

6 years ago
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I am tired of chopping with the conventional knife, but the rest of what you had to say offered no better alternatives -- thanks for getting my hopes up for nothing! Seriously though, best of luck with everything!

6 years ago
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Have you tried just sharpening the knife instead of replacing it? :P

6 years ago
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My issue is with how conventional it is -- I need something radically new!

6 years ago
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Ah ok, I see. I'm no knife expert in that case. Have you tried the shogun knife? It cuts through a shoe...if you ever needed that.

6 years ago
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If I ever needed that? That's mainly what I use knives for -- you had the solution after all!

6 years ago
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Then here it is.
Seriously, they advertised these on local infomercials cutting through shoes, then a tomato. ¯\_ツ_/¯

6 years ago
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This just keeps getting better -- I said I mainly use knives to cut through shoes, but the other thing I use them for is chopping up tomatoes!

6 years ago
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Hahaha.

6 years ago
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Closed 5 years ago by Ph03n1xSA.