Grumbly Things Go Here

[Joe]

What phone and error?

Palm Pre and no error. It just searches and searches and searches and searches but never connects to the server. Those are the only two affected (at least of the sites I visit).

[Joe]

Wiped some system files and the restore fixed the issue. Weird.

[rmckee78]

Looks like I am going to get hosed by the Federal Pay Freeze. No job for me.

[david]

That sucks dude.

[rmckee78]

That sucks dude.

Yeah, they wrote me a really nice letter about how much they liked me though. I guess that counts for something. I checked the school's career office job board right after I got the email, there were zero patent attorney listings. I almost threw up on the keyboard.

[Joe]

Looks like I am going to get hosed by the Federal Pay Freeze. No job for me.

Oh no!!!

[Joe]

When I was unemployed, I spent most of my time (when I wasn't job searching), playing WAR. I figured the $15 I spent a month saved me from all the other costs I'd incur if I was going out more often trying to fill up my copious free time. At a certain point, though, I decided that even that $15/month was too much given my lack of revenue generation.

An aspiring writer I follow on Twitter was tweeting about the difficulty he was having getting his food stamps processed. Something happened and the stamps were going to be late. I felt bad--more so since it's the holidays--and tried to see what I could do to help. Nothing was needed, I was assured. Changing the conversation to small talk, I asked what he was going to do that evening. He was going home to play WoW.

Maybe I'm not being understanding or something, but if you have to collect food stamps for yourself and your family, what the hell are you doing paying $15/month to play the newest WoW release? (And what the hell are you doing buying the newest WoW release?)

[david]

Condo FHA approval fell through so we would have to go conventional.  Conventional loan would require $30k down.

I don't have $30k just sitting around.

And my cat is "sick".  :-/

[CausingHavick]

So I have expressed a lot of glumy stuff with my fellow podgecasters before and today will not be any different.  For the past five months, since I was hit by that IED, I have been on edge.  Not only on edge but restless and not able to sleep at night.  I have also, on three occassions, litterally felt like I wanted to jump out of my skin, freaked out to the point of tears.  So I went to the dr.  Luckily this is normal and not like normal as in everyone has my condition but a lot of people have reacted the same way when something traumatic has happened to them.  And I don't know if you heard this study but the Army is the leading experts in concussion therapy and have made strides in rehabilitating people who have had concussions.

Well it seems that I have been diagnosed with PTSD LOL!  I feel like a loser!  I used to laugh at those guys...  I guess pay back is a motha!  Fear not though, the doc told me of an ongoing study and with a series of meds have actually cured this condition completely..  According to him, there is a part of the brain that actually decreases in size when something traumatic like I have been through happens to certain people.  Also, people who are clinically depressed suffer the same condition.  This part of the brain is responsible for taking in everything we do, feel, see, hear etc. and sends it to the other parts of the brain for processing.  Well in cases like mine where something really bad has happened it decreases in size and causes the petuetary gland to go hay wire.  It can lead to influxed leavels of adrenlaline.  This causes you to freak out, not sleep, be edgy what have you.  Well through these drugs and CAT scans they have figured out how to actually regrow that part of your brain curing your "disease"...

So my bad news isn't all that bad but rather has a positive ending.  I am suffering right now but I am confident that these meds will help me lead a normal life.  And eventually I will not have to take them at all.  So there you have it, Mike, the guy with PTSD...

[david]

My buddy Jake had the same thing happen to him, actually.

An IED hit his convoy and ripped through the lower legs of the people sitting directly in front of and behind him.  He was unscathed (well, as unscathed as you can be when your vehicle is ripped apart in two places) and walked away with minor injuries.

He came home a few months later and we went out and he told me some horror stories.  He ended the stories with a weird anecdote that he almost looked embarrassed to tell me.  He said that as awful as war was and as terrible as some of the shit that had happened over there was, that he couldn't wait to go back.  That he felt the pressing, driving need to go back and that life over here in the States didn't feel real to him any more.

War is hell.  Everything about it, the training beforehand, the departure and war itself is designed to break apart the human psyche and morph it into something else.  There's no shame in being chewed up by that machine, dude.  None at all.  It's an institution that's practiced its craft long before you were born and will continue it long after you're gone.

So, let us know if you need to talk.  None of us are licensed therapists, but we can sure as hell jump on Live and watch a movie or play a game or something if you need it.

And thanks.  I don't usually buy into the hype of making a grandstanded thanks of soldiers.  It almost always feels disingenuous.  But really, thanks.  I don't agree with the war, but that doesn't keep me from recognizing selflessness and acknowledging it.

[CausingHavick]

My buddy Jake had the same thing happen to him, actually.

An IED hit his convoy and ripped through the lower legs of the people sitting directly in front of and behind him.  He was unscathed (well, as unscathed as you can be when your vehicle is ripped apart in two places) and walked away with minor injuries.

He came home a few months later and we went out and he told me some horror stories.  He ended the stories with a weird anecdote that he almost looked embarrassed to tell me.  He said that as awful as war was and as terrible as some of the shit that had happened over there was, that he couldn't wait to go back.  That he felt the pressing, driving need to go back and that life over here in the States didn't feel real to him any more.

War is hell.  Everything about it, the training beforehand, the departure and war itself is designed to break apart the human psyche and morph it into something else.  There's no shame in being chewed up by that machine, dude.  None at all.  It's an institution that's practiced its craft long before you were born and will continue it long after you're gone.

So, let us know if you need to talk.  None of us are licensed therapists, but we can sure as hell jump on Live and watch a movie or play a game or something if you need it.

And thanks.  I don't usually buy into the hype of making a grandstanded thanks of soldiers.  It almost always feels disingenuous.  But really, thanks.  I don't agree with the war, but that doesn't keep me from recognizing selflessness and acknowledging it.

Dude, that was an awesome post.  I might take you up on that offer some day.  I do have skype if you all want to chat.  Sometimes I get lonely sitting in my room at night.  Maybe some of Lucas' clevage might cheer me up a little?...  LMAO!  I still have my sense of humor.  I'm not a total basket case yet LOL!  Take care bro and thanks again for that post.

[Becca]

My skype name is Talulla42 if you want to add me for chatting.

And for my grumbly. I'm in a really bad mood. Everything is pissing me off today. Every thing.

[dmarlett]

Every time I seem to be catching up financially I get hit by something else.  My wife's transmission died in her Volkswagon so we have to carpool until we can scrounge up $3000.  I don't think she'd be sympathetic if I bought Iron Tyrants instead (though at 1/100th the cost of the car part it would be a steal).  Should I wait for the 1.5 edition of the game in the next couple months?  

[david]

You should just wait until we have a contest.  HAR HAR HAR.

Seriously though, I'm glad your problems have shifted to financial instead of health.  The sentence contained "my wife" and "died" with acceptable intermediary words.

[dmarlett]

You should just wait until we have a contest.  HAR HAR HAR.

Yeah, I've noticed you don't do those anymore.  You could just have a segment called "Give Dan free stuff" to save me the work of actually submitting.  I mean, nobody likes to do that.

The sentence contained "my wife" and "died" with acceptable intermediary words.

I've learned my lesson about making dead wife jokes when somebody at work actually believed me.  She came to my cubicle in tears and collapsed to the floor sobbing.  I know where I'm going when I die...