What a difference a year makes!

[Narz]

Question
How has your life (and yourself) changed in the past year?

Note : Don't feel you have to read what I wrote in order to post your own "2002 tales". I know I tend to write alot sometimes

As the New Year approaches I am reflecting on the year gone by. In many ways it has been a "slow" year for me but in many ways very much has changed.

Lets see. Back in the days just before '01 became '02...

• I used a four year old Mac laptop.
• I did not have a cable modem.
• I did not have a driver's license.
• I had three beautiful cats.
• I had really cool next-door neighbor.
• I had never heard of CivFanatics and had never posted on a messege board.
• I had never designed a website

•Now•
• I have a nice new iMac (pale white) and have cable modem!
• I have my license and a old (but running) van.
• Now I only have two cats. My oldest "Big Bastard" died of a lung infection He led a good life though and I'm sure is doing well in the afterworld
• My old neighbor lost her job as a pilot as an aftershock of 9/11 and the new guy is an scumbag who yells at his wife and complains about me to the landlord all the time for things like :gasp: having a tag sale in front of the building. The good news : I'm moving out anyway!
• I have now spent countless hours and "met" countless people through CFC, I have gained much knowledge and wisdom about Civ, the Internet and life from my online connections.
• Now I have decided that I would like to build a career in web design & programming and also have decided to move to California to work with a man whom I did not know 365 days ago and work with him and learn from him in his business (designing web pages).

I feel as if 2002 was a year of many realizations for me. I started examining things I had never thought about before, I started excersizing (and quit and started again), I changed my diet (which it turned out was highly toxic to me) after over a year of constant stomache pain, I finally found some direction for my life (I am still looking for much more though) in terms of what I want to do career wise. Although I feel I have learned so much I at the same time feel like very much of a child. Like Einstein said "The more I learn the more I realize I don't know, the more I realize I don't know, the more I want to learn".

I have also stuggled alot this year, both externally and internally. I have started and quit three job. (the latest one just this Monday [dance] ). I started and quit one "business" (as a street vendor). I spent much time in conflict with my girlfriend. I spent much time alone, not feeling like "chilling" (drinking & wasting time) with my friends. Of course I did waste alot of time, I indulged in many self-defeating behaviors, I soaked my mind in the poisonous cauldron of anger and self-pity quite often. But throughout it all I tried to keep a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) and at least learn something (or apply something I'd learned) every day and not waste further time in self-berating and guilt.

I eagerly await the future. I know 2003 will be an exciting year!

- Narz

 

[CurtSibling]

Narz, I must say that among the many different people of CFC,
you are really one fellow I see as a philosopher and a good thinker.

Your threads are always positive and are a far cry from the normal bad vibes I detect from the many areas of OT.

Keep that mindset, my man, you are on the right track!

My year has been an interesting one, as always.

*I increased my creative skills 200%,
*Met many interesting people,
*Attended my first series of board room meetings,
*Learned how to manipulate producers and executives,
*Picked up many new computer skills,
*Increased my rock CD collection,
*Forged even closer ties with my allies,

On most points there has been good progress,
I have had my share of setbacks, but there is no such thing as defeat.
Just a chance to improve your plans next time.

The flame never dies, always keep the fire burning inside!

My goal this year is to grow as a man, and increase my creativity, while learning as much as possible.

 

[TrailblazingScot]

Gosh, where to begin!


I have lost 3 stone, developed a powerful muscular physique, regained by confidence and freedom!


I am a graduate now, I have ambition once again and I know what I want to do with my life and how I'll achieve great things!
Not to mention I know have wheels


And I've been to Canada



As for the up and coming year...I hope to work in the Police Specials, get a permenant job, have laser surgury on my eyes and put into practice my "victim support" training so priming me for a career in the Police Force (a setup for a future in politics eventually).

Not to mention the prospect of some more excellent holidays abroad and the release of some potentially great computer games.

Oh yes, and find true love


2003 I fully expect to be my best year ever!

 

[sysyphus]

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos

And I've been to Canada

You find that a reason to smile?

I'll be making it to the UK this year anyway.

Originally posted by kittenOFchaos


Oh yes, and find true love

Did that this past year.

Also:

- Learned to really hate my job
- Went to Argentina
- Applied for a new job (still pending)

 

[TrailblazingScot]

My holiday was really good in Canada, found the country inspired me greatly...or at least a lifestyle where I'd eat a vast steak every night served my nice looking lassies


Calgary - Banff - Jasper - Clearwater - Whistler - Vancouver Island - Vancouver - Home


A great holiday, many inspiring sights (such as wild bears and porcupine and chipmunks!!!), smells (steaks mainly) and sounds (a bit more tenuous).

The best location was Tyex Lodge which is very remote some 40 kilometers west of loserville (Lilopet) which was like heaven on Earth. Very alpine in appearance (it was run by a German) next to a beutiful forest and lake (from which we took a seaplane flight). Gus (the German who ran the place) took us as a family out quadding into the wild!

We learn alot of interesting things and saw very clearly how the Germans became good soliders, without Gus my mum would not have got half as far on her quad, his commanding vocie could not be obeyed!

We talked and learned alot: (Gus sounds like Arnold Schwartznenegger)

"I'd have thought with arms like a wrestler you'd have more control" (to my brother after he feel off his quad when it nearly went down a steep slop sideways).

"Your NHS sounds like communism" Gus when we were talking about health systems.

"It was a dream, now it is a nightmare" (on us complimenting his hotel.)

"You look ALMOST civilized" (to us when we were having dinner later).


I suppose Toronto would have less to about were we to visit?

 

[Unregister]

Last year i :
-went to school
-did my job
-played Max Payne
-played Quake 3
-went to North Carolina

This year i:
-went to school
-did my job
-played Civ 3 and Civ3 PTW.
-played GTA3
-played MOHAA and MOHAAS
-went to North Carolina

Wow look at all the differences

 

[stormerne]

I've changed my job.
I've learnt a huge amount about managing people.
I won a homebrew contest.
My wife and I have bought our first house together.
I've lost 3 stone in weight (42 pounds or 19 kg).
Got a new computer.
I'm joining a band again.
We're getting a Norwegian Forest cat.

 

[newfangle]

This was a year of many transitions for me:

-Went from die hard capitalist to pure communist, now settled as a social democrat!
-Started the year working at a horrible place- now I am a Lab Tech at a University Biomedical Research lab
-Writing skills significantly worse than now (as a result of some 2500 posts at various sites)
-turned from a hotheaded annoying child to a calmer, more polite, more opened minded young adult
-whipped myself into shape through many hours of weight training

Good year for me!

 

[napoleon526]

Quit my job
Started college

Not much else. Hopefully next year will be better.

 

[ApocalypseKurtz]

in the past year:

-continued to visit civfanatics.com (now pretty much relegated to forums.civfanatics.com - offtopic board)

-discovered the legendary Bob Dylan, and proceeded to obtain most of his albums (soon to be all of his albums)

-began work at a law firm

-got the best grades of my college career; hope to continue

-political beliefs changed from green (briefly) to liberal to libertarian (don't worry; i won't go any farther right than this )

-seem to have broken up with on-and-off girlfriend for good

-developed a strong desire to visit other countries, possibly somewhere in Europe. Maybe I will study abroad in a year or 2

 

[sabo]

Yeah last year I had a $500,000 dollar house on a lake, wife, kids, great job, beautiful car........

Then I bought Civ III

Now I live on the streets, hungry, no job, no family, nothing but the clothes on my back, my PC and my copy of Civ III

 

[RoddyVR]

for me this year was EXACTLY like the one before:
work.
think *i realy should get my butt to school*

though i do gotta admit that CivFanatics has made this year MUCH less productive as far as work goes.

on an off note. Sabo1, great sig.

 

[Ryan_Liam]

Left school, now straight to college, now have more freedom, no more 5 day week only four! Well, I have more time on my hands during college hours, but I would have this boredom than go back to school always.
My class students are mostly idiots but I know if I work hard I will achieve what I want.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

It is rather hard to say.

I have become rather more bitter, twisted, resigned, wise, realistic and self aware. It has been a different year, where one has done some things, and not done some others. It has been, as all years, one with its changes, and with it's 'sameness'. Would I change certain things about it? At first, the answer is "Sure". But things have to be considered in their entirety, the good with the bad, and life has to be seen and drank deeply in all its bleak colours and all its brilliant greyness.
Thus, just as the 1e REP sang as they marched off to disbandment and imprisonment in Algeria in 1961, "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien".


And, in the words of Aeschylus:
In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

 

[Smaasnekje]

Many New Friends
A lesson (or two) in love
I learned to separate good from really good beer
More musical insight
Went to Turky
Understood that I had to change my ways
Began working out.
Joined CFC

I see this year only as the first vawe, and the forthcoming year will in more have more sugnificant affect on my life for, it has just begun!

 

[nixon]

Indeed, RFK said that, too.

Had my fair share of defeats and successes this year, hoping this will continue.

Wish for 2003: that my girlfriend stays with me. All I could ever ask for.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

Originally posted by nixon
Indeed, RFK said that, too.


Wish for 2003: that my girlfriend stays with me. All I could ever ask for.

About the only thing I'd have in common with the Kennedys, Greek poetry. Won't find me shagging film stars.

*turns to crony* Is it too late to recall the bombers? Oh dear...

 

[nixon]

Aeschylus was a great poet, his poetry remains one of the best, and one of the most complicated. Robert seemed to appreciate Greek poetry and so should every prudent Fascist!

 

[Switch625]

Those Greeks were a depressing lot. Tragedy here, doom over there, death everywhere... It's not very uplifiting reading material.

 

[nixon]

That's what is so ironic about the Kennedys; death all over the place. It's really spooky.