I want to know.

What are you proud of accomplishing in the last few years? Not for the sake of bragging, but just something you're genuinely proud of? Something you poured blood, sweat and tears into, in the face of setbacks, and achieved anyway?

Let's make this thread kick ass.

I'm proud of my cars. Both my Eagle Talon and my Sebring. They both broke with a horrific frequency. But every day I wanted to give up, my father wouldn't let me, and made me fix it. Eventually he passively gave up, but I kept going. I kept trying. Hundreds if not thousands of hours spent under the burning sun and the freezing bitter cold (read: no garage). Dozens of hours each time emptying the basement just to find a single tool that was buried or lost. I'm proud that even though my Sebring sucks, I wouldn't let it die. And my Eagle Talon is a few more work days from running with a rebuilt engine. I should have given up. By all fiscal sense, it was a horrific failure. But the experience I gained in automotive technology and character--facing setback after horrific setback--has forever changed my life. And I'm glad it happened and I'm still happy I endured through it to the end.

(*I'm still buying a new car, though. I'm getting to old for this shit, Riggs.)

I'm proud that I bought a new car nine years ago, took care of it, and that it still works great.

I was going to be depressed, but then I realized I've actually done a few things. Yay me!

I'm proud I got into college. I'm the first person on my dad's side of the family to do so. He was so happy to see that I'm on the path to a better life than he had.

Speaking of college, I'm rather proud that I got through Trigonometry, because I'm terrible at math, so for me it's something of an accomplishment, although for many here trig is probably a lot easier.

I'm proud of the improvement to my attitude. In high school I was short-tempered, anti-social, and uncooperative. I'm still all those things sometimes, but I've gotten better hopefully will continue to do so.

Oh, and NaNoWriMo. I have a general feeling of pride that I managed to get all 50,000 words written, but it is somewhat lessened by the measures I took, such as typing out the lyrics to 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall.

Well I am proud that I am at one of the top school in the country doing graduate research in medical imaging. Ya.. that's pretty much my life right there.. I'm no longer worried about succeeding acamdemically like i was before.. right now it seems far more important to date, travel, concert-go, and live my youth!

I'm proud of the fact that I finished my education, paid my own tuition fees, and ended up with a successful job (teaching). I'm going on a vacation next week, I can't afford it, but I've definitely earned it after 5 years of full time school and part time work!

I'm incredibly pleased with myself that I went from a miserable 5 years of secondary education (during which i was in the bottom rung) to an intensely rewarding two year course in games development. During which I took to programming with such interest that the lecturer put me forward for a junior developer position with a local company.
I applied and got it. I've been working there for 8 months now.

That might be a little hard to believe given my comparatively poor skills compared to some of the hobbiests around these parts, but I enjoy what I do, and there's been no complaints about my work so far anyway .

Nice topic, I enjoyed that little bit of self indulgence .

Hmm... I'm prolly gonna be the most negative person here, but, I haven't really done anything I'm proud of since I wrote Flixr last year.

However, I've been kind of inspired by one of my professors this semester, and when I've got more time (spring break [next week!!] probably), I want to write an interactive story game. For those that don't know, basically it'll be a game where the player can do pretty much anything and the story will adapt to what the player is doing (along the lines of some basic storyline). So, the example my professor gave us was the story of Red Riding Hood, where the player was the woodsman. So, if the player killed the big bad wolf too early, then a fairy would come and revive the wolf, and basically the story would try and adapt itself to be as close to the fable as possible.

I'm proud to be the only person in my family with a degree. In fact, the only one to complete high school. The degree took a bit longer than it should, but I had no financial support from anyone. After a couple of years in the industry, I have just landed a good job at a nice company with a kickass salary, flying in the face of the economic downturn.

I'm also proud of my wife who recently gave birth to our first child, a boy.

I'm most proud of my contribution to Allegro 5. Though it only took a few days, it's something I've been wanting to do for years. It finally happened because a feature I needed wasn't implemented.

I'm proud of being able to play all but one song on Guitar Hero 1 and 2 on expert. (Jordan is crazy)

So, basically, the player's actions don't really mean much? I like the concept, but this specific example sounds frustrating. But I can't think of any way to fix it without ruining the story (not a problem if you use an original story).

Well, the player's actions do matter. It's just that they could end up changing what the story was originally supposed to be (there has to be an original story otherwise it's sort of impossible to have a story in the first place). It's just that the AI that allows the story to change has to have some sort of baseline that it tries to replicate, otherwise there isn't really a way to make an interactive story.

The whole problem I have, and this is just with that specific example, is that the AI basically comes along and presses ctrl-z. It isn't adapting the story to the player's action, it's nullifying the player's action.

Now, I'll admit that killing the main villain is a hard one to fix without just bringing him back. But maybe instead the wolf that attacks little red riding hood is the original wolf's brother, and he's attacking because he wants revenge on humans because a human killed his brother. This doesn't really work for little red riding hood because it changes some major story elements, but if you're using an original story, i.e. one you came up with yourself, it would work good. It even adds some nice motivation being the villain being just plain evil.

I just thought of a gameworld where NPC's have certain goals they will try to accomplish. But the player come in and mess things up so some NPC's can't do what they was supposed to. Then those NPC's switch to some random path, become depressed, start drinking, set out to take revenge on the player...

Your actions could of course have positive results too. If you kill a slave master, the slaves might be happy and help you or something.

I think this thread is derailing...

Good, because I'd be depressed too. All I've done in the last few years is get the life sucked out of me by a crummy job. Still beat the one I had before it though. This year and everything before that job was much better; let's talk about that instead.

In all seriousness though, there's a good 50% chance I'll be in Calgary come summer. A friend of mine is moving out there and there's a bit of a support base from family so we'll probably room up until we get our feet on the ground. Maybe I'll have better luck.

My current job is great. Pays 100% of my tuition and living expenses. But I'll be done with my MS in CS in December, and then it goes away. Maybe there will be an opening for a full time instructor.

But I will not take a life sucking job anywhere! I'll move in with family and do nothing at all before I slave away for corporate USA.

Man, that'll be three Allegro'ers in Alberta then \o/

Stay on topic, my gentlemen! Sounds like a great idea, but start a new thread.

That's still covered under "last few years." But sit back and think for a moment. I'm sure you can come up with more!

I'm proud of the fact I went from socially retarded (literally) to someone who is very outgoing and on my accounts is too loud in public. I'm still introverted, oddly enough. But I can be as outgoing as I want and couldn't care less. It doesn't extend to new women and new situations... but I'm getting there. If I can go from being unable to shake peoples hands or use public restrooms, to where I am now? What can't I do? In my experience, brain disorders are one of the hardest things you can go through in life. Because your only ability to fix your thinking is compromised. But I came through it--and without a single dose of medication. I broke down countless times; I failed, over and over again; I'd literally come to tears every time I failed. It physically hurt. And that pain motivated me. So with the help of people (who didn't even know I was going through it), God, and my own determination, I got through it.

At four years, I'm still working through pieces (e.g., dating). But I'm forever changed for the better because of it. Why? Because I know how I got through it. I know why I got through it. I realized that I don't have to stop at "normal." I can keep going as far as I want and nothing can stop me except myself.

I don't believe it. There's something you've done. Some challenge you've overcome.

My last few years sucked ass in a lot of ways (of my $11,000 income, $3000 and hundreds of painful hours was put into cars I don't even like). But I still benefited. I still overcame obstacles.

Did you take on any BS at work and overcome it? Accomplishments don't have to be physical. They can be character development for the future.

Should I link to my World of Warcraft Achievements page?

Lately I got some of my "automagical" cluster administration software more complete

I hope to get the main daemon done soon, allong with some basic classes for the rest of the software to use (CSE::Core::LDAP, CSE::Core::DB, etc). After that (or before, depends on what I feel like doing at any given time) I have the web stuff to work on.

I got wireless to work on my laptop. Well, I didn't really do anything except wait for the madwifi people to update their hal drivers to support my atheros chip but I had to do a lot of debugging to figure out what was wrong in the first place.

I've learned to thrive off a four hour sleep schedule. Mainly out of necessity, but it's still pretty cool. I've also been exercising more regularly and have been eating better. And I've been sticking to a strict budget (food, rent, & guitar strings ). Maybe I can actually afford a phone next semester!:D

So I guess all I've really gained is a sick sense of discipline...

Ooh, I forgot to mention going over to Linux. That was not too long ago and I'm very happy about it. Linux feels so natural to me now, the idea of using Windows even for just a moment is a very repulsive thought for me now. I think it's similar to how a vegan feels about eating meat.

OOh, I forgot about one large thing I did recently. I managed to get MOST of my extraneous services off onto my new server (finally). So instead of having 4-5 machines on all the time, I have one on all the time, and two others on intermittently. I hope it saves me a bundle on electricity.

The work I did for DoW. Since then, life has been nothing but a miserable series of suck.

Fingers crossed for the current studio trying me out.

Absolutely nothing.

Two years ago that would have confused the crap out of me. Which means I have progressed a bit since then

Nothing! :-)

Why should I have to accomplish anything? life is not a competition.

Actually, it is.

Only if you make it one.

No, life really is a competition. "Survival of the fittest" as they say.

Sure. If I happen to be living in the jungle or a post apocalyptic dystopia then "survival of the fittest" applies.
But I'm not. And I can lay into noon and learn to play the sitar if so I wish (on loan from Bill Hicks ).
It's only a competition if you feel you have someone to compete with.

Life's not a competition if you mean that in the sense that I'm so much better at it that no one can compete.

Guh, its called Evolution people.

It's called you're gonna burn in hell you godless blasphemer!

*absolutley kidding.

But you are! Where does the money come from so that you can sit around all day? What if it suddenly dried up? Right now you may be sitting pretty (and in today's society having money makes you fit, if you look at it right), but that may not always be true.

People who think that life isn't tough upset me because life is tough, they've just been sheltered from the toughness. And that could come and bite them in the butt some day.

I take it you live in Kansas?

Ditto

That was just an example. I work for a living just fine and have never even seen a sitar .
My point is I'm happy with were I am right now. I'm not competing with anyone to get ahead, or to be somewhere I'm not now. Sure, that might change in the future, or if an opportunity presents itself I'd go for it. But that doesn't mean mine, or anyone else with my outlook's life could be summed up as a competition. It's just living one day at a time and trying to have as much fun as we can before we die some day. If that's competing then it's one lame-ass competition.

Thomas: Worse! A secluded Irish village!

I was very happy with myself for managing to acquire a high-level management position at a busy fine dining restaurant after only five years in the hospitality industry.

I'm not working at the moment though. I'm being paid to be on a long waiting list to see a neurologist to diagnose suspected nerve damage in my neck that keeps doing all sorts of bad things to my left arm and shoulder. In total I'm looking at about 6-9 months off work, so I'm hoping that previous job experience will still count in what's becoming a much tighter economy.

Congrats. I always end up spazzing out at around 20,000 words over how ugly everything is and that I should do a rewrite, until I just go CTRL-A DEL.

Protip: Don't read over anything you've written until after the month ends.

I have accomplished quite a bit, really, but lately I haven't felt very content with what I have accomplished.

What I'm most proud of at the moment is that I have been able to be self-employed for almost 5 years. On bad months I can only cover 50% of my bills while good months it gets to about 300%. When I'm in the middle of trying to achieve something I tend to forget all that I have done up until now.

I'm proud to finally be posting here again after over a year of absence. Does coming out of the shadows once more to contribute count as an accomplishment?

For over a year I was trying to start a new business, and ultimately failed. Making games is the one thing I do best, so it's the one thing I will continue to try to make successful. No more getting side-tracked. x_x;

In all seriousness though, I think my most recent accomplishment was to put together over a dozen music CDs containing 14 musical compositions I had made entirely myself, to give to family and friends for Christmas last year since I wasn't able to save up enough to buy everyone gifts. They had jewel case inserts and a fold-over cover containing the track list inside, all in full-colour.

I kept two of them and here's a couple pictures. (Please ignore the crappy webcam quality.)

http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/598042 http://www.allegro.cc/files/attachment/598043

Yeah, they're CD-Rs. Real CD's would've cost quite a bit to make.

And yes, some of this music will be appearing in my later games.

They aren't that bad, but they usually want you to order at least 50 at a time if not a lot more.

Lightscribe cds are reasonably cheap if you've already got a drive. No idea what a lightscribe drive costs though. The quality is decent too but not phenomenal.

I'm proud of my son and wife. Other than that, I've not done jack sh*t to be proud of.

For public stuff, my ChristmasHack entry. And if it's in the range being covered, my SpeedHack entries as well. (I think at least the last one is covered)

At my job, I converted this web app I made from functional (and the ugly inline HTML inside echos type crap) to object oriented (and templates using PHPTAL). Also, we may have a full blown VMWare ESXi server up and running soon (well, we're still trying to figure out how to at least the to working VM part, and reboot we did caused it to not come back up, and with the server access issues we have it... In some ways, that damn flood really hurt us.)

I learned how to program. I suppose that counts.

I taught myself Perl at the age of 16 after only being taught a little HTML in class (and teaching the teacher a thing or two later). I suppose that counts

I didn't actually have my own computer or internet at home at that point.

Yeah, they're much cheaper than they used to be. You can now get a run of 10 screen-print CDs or so for ~$40. The price drops dramatically if you get in bulk, like 20 for $50, 100 for $99.

Judging by my luck getting into graduate schools, it seems I have accomplished absolutely nothing. Best couple of years ever.

Last few years... What a big question.

2006 - I should have graduated highschool this year. Instead I was kicked out for "having too low a GPA." The real reason I was kicked out was public school corruption. Public school today is a load of bullcrap and property tax should be canceled: It was a bad idea in the first place.
2006 - I got my first programming job, working on Mova.
2006 - I quit my job at Mova. I did some rethinking of life goals. How much do I really want to work? Maybe community college is a good idea.
2006 - I accidentally get my next job at an event at my community college during an argument about why C++ is superior to some crap language.
2006 - All my highschool friends go off to college. Left alone with no one my age. Corporate office doesn't satisfy my feelings of aloneness.
2007 - Tell company I'm going to quit. Move to college town and commute to work for short period. Offered raise (if I stay).
2007 - Offered job in new college town for more money than last job but less than last job's raise. I take the new job anyway.
2007 - Going crazy at job. I quit job. Can't take it anymore.
2007 - Postulate about starting my own company. Take train trip from San Francisco to New York (4 day trip!). Think about life, what I want to do with it, and why jobs drive me so crazy. Write incredible amounts of code for previous idea for own company white on train. Stay in New York hotel until I can feel the passion boiling again. Fly back to california. File for incorporation in California. Corporation takes 3 months to get through California's system and beings existence in November.
2008 - Work on company.
2009 - Work on company. Move to SF to work on company more. Bigger city means more business.

Yeah... so those are my accomplishments of the last few years.

Sounds like an interesting way to get a job...

I was sober for one year. Went out for some beers a few weeks ago

I'm pretty happy with the fact that I know how to barter and get the best bang for my buck, the old man taught me how to do that, my job is pretty cool and I'm lookin' hot

Nothing. Thanks for rubbing it in.

/me comforts miran with ice cream and cookies.

Getting a job, getting a girlfriend, getting married, having a child etc are all personal accomplishments. The important question is what have you accomplished for the world?

Oh noes, I was hoping to find you there in that steak house in case I appeared on New Zealand...

Quite same here, but cheer up. Besides that I've finished my high school (like 2 years ago), but that doesn't count.

Why is that the important question? Does that mean that personal accomplishment is unimportant? Are we all supposed to lay down whatever personal hopes or dreams we have in order to do work for others who will never appreciate our help, and who will simply leech off of us because they can?

COMMUNIST!!!!

_{The views expressed in this post are not those of A.cc, but are personal views held by a random crazy person.}

You guys are being so darn cynical. Either you're not trying look at your life positively, or you're not trying to be more than the life you're handed. You're more than the sum of your paycheck. You're more than you're paid to be.

I've learned how to fight recently. Not physically, but for what I want. Last year they tried to take my scholarships away (not for GPA... for being at community college too long!). I had to fight for that.

I had crazy woman at work single me out. I had to fight to make sure management didn't think I was starting shit with her.

I had to fight to keep working on my cars after setback and setback.

I had to fight for a couple other things... but I don't remember them off the top of my head.

You can't save the world if you can't save yourself. You can't give financially if you can't earn money.

That aside, I donated my entire last paycheck to Africa to buy water filtration systems. (I am in NO WAY bragging about this.) It's a pretty crazy story. With me against my spirituality. But more importantly, is my realization on how FUBAR the situation in Africa is. People are literally dying every day because they don't have clean water... and we're wondering what movie to go see / what idol is the news. How fucked up is that? It puts a lot of the life into perspective.

Also, I donated 12 cans of green beans to Second Harvest Food Bank.

I don't know how to fix the world. But I'll be damned if I don't find something I can do to change that. Charity and direct aid isn't the solution--it's a patch for the symptoms. But politics and principles aren't feeding the homeless. They aren't cleaning the water. And they aren't saving peoples lives. So until we find something to cure the problem... we better damn well at least try to treat the symptoms.

I've been living an (unappreciated) blessed life for too damn long.

You're fighting for us, right now.

Because the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.

It's nice to have free software, isn't it?

communist!!!

Nothing is free. We end up paying for it somehow.

int add(int a, int b){
  return a + b;
}

What did that cost you? Possible anal retentive things you might reply with
1) the brain power used to interpret the code itself
2) the bandwidth used to download the page
3) hard drive space if you choose to copy the code into a file

I have to add an item to your list kazzmir:

4) DailyWTF article

To everyone posting negative stuff:

Seriously guys. Nothing? Nothing at all? I still don't believe it.

Bed some sexy ladies? Spend 12 hours studying and rock an exam? Won an argument on the internet?

Been there, done that (well, I didn't study though).

I always ace exams without studying.

I got a 32 on my ACT and do you know what I did the night before? I played video games and watched TV.

Oh yeah, I guess that counts as an accomplishment in the last few years, too. So add that to my list, getting a 32 on my ACT.

I was disappointed with my math score, though. I only got a 25.

I guess there's a few things I've accomplished fairly recently that I'm happy about. I got off my ass and started going to community college when I was sixteen (19 now). Transferred to University last fall, and now I'm just plugging along until I graduate.

I started going out with my girlfriend about two years ago... probably the best thing to happen to me ever.

I've been working on a Beetle that reminds me of Chris' car experience in his first post. I got it in October, it hadn't been on the road in at least 11 years. I reworked the brakes and cleaned up some other things. The engine it came with wasn't really running, so I used the one from the Beetle I crashed (sigh). After a few months of headaches, the thing finally works good enough to use! So I've been enjoying driving it. I think the only thing that really bothers me now is the exhaust leaking through the vents in the car.

Lets see...

• I've been able to maintain a 2.0 GPA over the past 5 1/2 years at university. However, I still haven't gotten my undergraduate degree.

Ok, being serious now...

• I've studied quite a bit to get a firm grasp on the Japanese language. I'm at the point where I can comprehend about 90% of what I see on TV.

  
  

• I've added quite a few projects to my personal work portfolio.

  
  

• I've finally started working on a raytracer in Erlang.

You're proud of getting a 32? I guess you guys don't work in percentages over there.

The ACT goes up to a 36.

With good study technique you're not supposed to study the night before. You go to class and memorize everything the first time you hear it and make sure you never fall behind. This drains a lot less energy than going all the way up to the last hour worrying about the exam. You also have a chance of remembering anything after taking the exam.

I just show up for class a majority of the time.

That doesn't work for German class, BTW. I hate languages.

Well if it's a class you don't care about then you should just barely pass and be satisfied with that. Working on stuff you don't care about it a waste of energy.

I am a socio-democrat, not a communist.

Please feel free to enjoy Enron, unemployment, the massive debt, Maddoff, the huge profits of mega-corporations, a broken health care system, and your illusions of greatness...

For the user of the free software, it's free. It's only the creator that pays the price in terms of time and effort.

Still, giving away your creations is an act of good will, and very 'communist', in the original meaning of the word 'communist', set up by Jesus Christ.

Things I have accomplished lately:

1) I haven't posted on A.cc in almost a month

2) I'm one exam away from finishing my BS in Math

3) I'm really close to releasing a Beta for my first commercial product

4) I have ideas for at least three more products

5) I found a friend in real life who knows more about programming languages than I do

These are accomplisments because: I've usually spent way too much time on meaningless internet forums, I used to have a fear of Math (Mathaphobia?), creating stuff people can use is cool.

Join the club.

ACT is a standardized college entrance exam. The average idiot gets about an 18. Most universities expect around 25. The better ones require 30+. (Or equivalent scores on other tests.)

32 is a great score. Probably top 5%. With a good high school GPA, that should be enough to get you a good academic scholarship at most universities.

I took it when I was 15 without studying for it, and got a 30. My subsection scores were Math 28, Reading 29, Science 30, English 31. I would have done a lot better had I brushed up on my math beforehand, and finished the reading section. (I got bored and distracted...)

You guys are so analytical. That's great.

I had something like 27-29 on English doing it entirely "by feel." I still don't know much about the rules--but I know what looks right. So I guess that makes me intelligent. But my math deficit at the time yielded a whopping 16. So I was down to 21 on my ACT.

[first paragraph removed. I missed a word that made it pointless.]

Nothing. God damn nothing.

Did you just call allegro.cc meaningless?

I just this year took the PLAN, which is sort of a preparatory version of the ACT with an acronym that someone thought was funny. Its score only goes up to 32, which is sort of annoying (why change the scoring system if it's essentially the same test watered down?). I got a 31.

Bullsh_t and you know it. Just one example I remember was your Blue Lotus Blossom template, and it was great.

Congratulations!

You have got to be fucking kidding me. I wish I'd never pissed out that abortion of a template. If that's the best I've ever done, then by science my life is sad.

No one said it was your best, just that we liked it. If thats bad, then sue us. Then maybe you can get rich and laugh harder at people that like your shit

I got a 34 (on the actual ACT).

And still didn't manage to get into MIT...

Test scores must not be everything.

My high school GPA was terrible. I tend to do well on tests and poorly on homework. Mostly because I get bored and don't finish the homework.

MIT also requires the writing portion, and two SAT subject tests. But at universities like that, everybody who applies has high test scores.

Excuse me, Enron was created by the government. If anything, Enron exposes how communism is bad.

Uh no, they just deregulated the industry, and Enron popped up. They did the same thing up here as a test before doing it down there, our power prices are STILL too high.

It was corporate asshats taking advantage.

The four hour ACT test was longer than I could keep my attention. I never did great on it; I'm horrible at those things in general. I do better at more focused subjects, as my mind tends to linger on something I've attempted to solve (causing me to be thinking of an older question while I'm answering a newer one).

Had a 4.2 GPA overall at the end of high school thanks to the AP courses.

The trick is to finish it much faster than that.

The Enron problem was created in the most capitalistic environment on Earth, and it is the fault of communism????

Oh God...there is no hope for your children... :-).

I saw this thread a few days ago and thought that I had not accomplished anything but after thinking for some time, I knew that was wrong.

So, I..

• ..don't worry about not working on private projects any more

• ..do enjoy playing games again instead of just seeing them as the collection of numbers and algorithms that they are and asking myself "why bother?"

• ..started playing a pen and paper RPG with like-minded computer people whome I met at school

• ..started appreciating my job (writing and fixing document management software)

• ..am a lot less emotionally dependent on exterior events/input than I used to be

• ..have stopped worrying about what I think what other people may think about me

• ..have not completely given up on pixelling and drawing yet

• ..will finish my three year software developer apprenticeship this year

• ..don't worry about having to achieve anything anymore to feel good about myself

That's quite a lot to be proud of .
For me, well...
tries to think of something

long pause

Nothing.:'(:'(:'(
Not this year at least

How did you manage that? I've been trying for years

I convinced myself that it's pointless and a waste of time and energy.

Applying some simple logic: others think what they think anyway, regardless whether I worry about it or not, so I should not do it, to save the energy for something else

Besides, I don't think people(me included) think much about others anyway, because they're busy thinking about themselves most of the time.

So have I, hasn't helped I still get the same physical effects...

After a short study of Enron it becomes very clear that the scandal was government induced. I will write a short summary in the hopes this issue can be understood more clearly.

California chose to deregulate the market in parts. Certain businesses were price controlled while others were not. Due to the semi-regulated situation, it was in the best interest of the individual companies to force rolling blackouts. When California freaked out they, as stupid governments do, created a stipend for bringing electricity into California from nearby states. Enron ran the electricity out of the state, then back in to get their hands on the stipend. In the end certain companies were bankrupted while others (Enron) were made extremely rich.

The issues seen appear during deregulation of markets. They are exaggerated when markets are deregulated compartmentally. The best answer is to never regulate them in the first place. In a deregulated situation its in the best interest of all companies involved to keep the grid up and running. In a semi-regulated situation that is not typically the case.

First: for 99% of people you encounter, whether they like or hate you, doesn't matter. They will never affect your life.

Moreover, it's okay if people don't like you. You have to come to terms with that.

Secondly: if you can't know what they're thinking (and #1 in mind), you might as well assume the best.

Moreover, if you can't know, and it doesn't matter, you might as well do whatever the fsck you want.

Once you get to that point of doing what you want when nobody is even resisting you, you can starting "fighting" people when they actually do put up resistance. Because you know what you want to do, and your opinion is all the necessary permission required.

I had to work hard to get to where I am with respect to that. I'm still not where I want to be (mostly in regards to women). But I've made substantial progress. I had to tell myself that "I deserve the piece of ground I occupy when I'm at a club. It's mine. I don't have to get out of the way, they can walk around me." Then I also applied that to walking around. For the most part, I walk confidently (but not angerly) forward and people get out of my way. And I'm 5'3"! Even big guys get out of the way. So it's all a silly mental game that doesn't matter, and the more you realize it, the less power it has over you.

I wish I knew consciously more about what I did to overcome these fears so that I could share them with you, but that's all that's in my head at the moment.

Who do you think paid off the Govt to deregulate?

Ok, here's how I got over it. First don't abandon those thoughts all together. Worf once said "A man without fear is a fool." Just know when it's relevant and don't let it consume you.

I just eventually got to the point where I no longer felt out of place. If everybody's wearing a fancy jacket and I have a t-shirt on then screw em, don't they wish they knew how not to conform.

nifty.

Fixed.

Personally, I find it difficult to feel responsible in any way when they continue to reproduce with nothing to actually sustain themselves. I have no food, no water, no way to actually survive on my own. What should I do about this? Why, create another mouth to feed, of course!

I think if they want my help they should take a little responsibility for themselves. There are enough starving people in Africa. They should stop reproducing and give the world a chance to sustain them. Maybe if that can actually happen, conditions can actually improve to a point where they can actually sustain themselves instead of just remaining in the same miserable place forever.

Of course, the same goes for people right here in our backyards. These ignorant bitches that have 3 kids and can't afford to pay rent, let alone feed them. Fuck them.

That only works for the effects you can control. I get uncontrollable physical responses as well.

I think it's reasonable to assume that any physical responses to social interaction are triggered by the brain and therefore not uncontrollable. I think for me, the key would be learning from an expert on human behavior and social interaction what is and what isn't normal... I need a RL walkthrough. \o/

You're missing the point. Read my post again, it was a good one.

That's a generalization of complex problems. Problems the United States and Soviet Union are partially responsible for. For example: During the Cold War, the US and Soviets had stockpiles of weapons all across Africa. When the cold war ended, it was cheaper to leave guns where they lay then to dispose them or bring them home. So some Africans found those stockpiles and began selling them. Arming clans with the weaponry to oppress and enslave the innocent. We're also the ones buying the blood diamonds that fund clan wars and genocide. The irony is that in Black America, the status symbol of success (diamonds) is furthering the slavery of Africans.

I'm not saying we're responsible for their well-being or even obligated to help. But the only way this is going to change is with education and empowerment of third world countries. And sitting around at home whining about the price of oil, is a slap to the face of human morality when there are humans just like us dying every day. Could you explain to their faces why you didn't care? Could you really make that justification and have them understand? Why it's more important to spend money to fight the Democrat vs Republican war than it is to a stop their children from dying? Their salvation is in their hands... but most have never even been told that. Many don't even understand the idea of "all men are created equal."

Our sin isn't that we're killing them. It's that we're indifferent. Desensitized to real problems. I really think television and the entertainment industry has done a huge deal of damage to our sense of morality and empathy. (And to clarify, I'm against censorship.)

Fair enough, but in that case you need to kick out of there the Christian chuch and missionaires. They're the root of problem with their "no-anticoncepcy" policy. Let's see, people are going to have sex anyway, by not giving them condoms they'll produce more offspring or spread AIDS and other diaseases.

Catholics and Christians are not synonyms!

Diamonds are a status symbol for all Americans (and Canadians, and probably most of the developed world), not just for black Americans.

Give them a presumably loaded gun, show them USD$5M in a napsack, and sincerely tell them all they have to do to have the money is blow [insert_other_guy_in_room]'s head off (there may be some that wouldn't pull it, but I bet there would be a lot that would, especially if their lives are really hard -- I expect the same from most of humanity). When they hear the clicking sound of an empty action, tell them that's why I don't care enough to dedicate my life to bettering theirs. Like them, I'm human. It's a bitch, isn't it? All the more reason to make fewer of us so fewer people have to suffer.

The world has limited resources. It isn't currently possible for everybody on Earth to be wealthy. I think the only way that could possibly happen is for the entire human population to be automated with computers (and we'll probably have to expand out into space). Even then, some retarded humanitarian will probably decide that robots have a right to have feelings, would implement AI capable of feeling, the robots would decide they don't enjoy being our slaves, and would make us their slaves instead. And we'd be back at square one.

I have personal experience with Christians being problematic... No argument here.

That said, the world isn't responsible for supplying Africa with condoms any more than it is for feeding their starving children. If you can't afford to sustain a child and can't afford contraception then you shouldn't be having sex. I realize that you can't very well expect an entire nation to stop fucking, but that same damn nation should realize that the rest of the world isn't going to pay for it.

You know what's cheaper than a lifetime of food, water, clothing, education, and condoms? A bullet. If we all donate one bullet to Africa we can solve this problem quickly and cost effectively...

[Absolutely kidding about the bullet!]

Some catholics disagree.

If we're talking about Africa, it isn't a nation.
Secondly, the tragic thing about Africa isn't that there isn't enough food (IIRC), it's that food doesn't arrive where it's needed.
Third, if there's an overpopulation problem anywhere, it's in Asia, not Africa.

Oh, for sure, some Catholics think they are the only Christians of the world, but that doesn't make them right.

I said nation because I'm extremely tired today...

You're right, I have to think to keep my heart beating.

I disagree.

Care to elaborate?

If we're talking about Africa, it isn't a nation.
</quote>
I said nation because I'm extremely tired today...
</quote>
Sarah Palin agrees with you, bamccaig

Anyway, there are 54 countries in Africa, I think, if you count Western Sahara, which is, technically, party of Morocco. Some are worse off than others. Zimbabwe's probably the worst, with an annual inflation of 89 sextillion percent (89,700,000,000,000,000,000,000%) You blink, and the prices have already doubled. The paper they print money on is worth more than the money it represents.

Your heart is controlled by your brain/autonomic nervous system. According to the logic given earlier, I MUST be able to control it.

Actually, IIRC, the brain isn't responsible for the heartbeat. According to Wikipedia...

- Source

Oh fine, there are plenty of other autonomic systems that your conscious brain does NOT control. Some physical reactions to stimuli can become "Autonomic Reactions", as in they happen without your control. Might be able to lessen them a little after years of work, but thats about it. You'd be lucky to be able to train away entire enshrined reactions like that.

For instance, I go to a public place, my heart races. That is not something I control willingly. I can try to calm down by breathing slowly and ignoring my environment for a bit, but thats it, I can't make it magically go away. I've been working for years to get my social phobia to a "manageable" level. It will never likely go completely away. Certain things just get programmed into your brain, and those connections will never "re learn" ever again, you're stuck with them (or you can make yourself brain damaged), all you can do is "manage" the symptoms.

I think it's pretty clear that your heart racing in social environments is a mental reaction, not a physical one. I'm sure we could prove it by drugging you and wheeling you into a public place. If it was purely physical then it should happen regardless of whether you are fully conscious/sober or not.

I can sympathize with you because I'm often very uncomfortable in social situations as well and quite often my heart does race like that. When I'm anywhere social I feel like everybody's looking at me and I feel awkward already so then it's like everybody's watching me be awkward. I don't consider it my fault and I also don't consider it uncontrollable. It's something that I could learn not to do with the right guidance (<cough>walkthrough</cough>) and/or friends (i.e., not Christians).

I'm sure theres some "internet argument lingo" for that type of argument that I don't know...

I'm pretty sure my heart racing is a physical reaction. Now imagining my heart was racing, THAT would be a mental reaction.

I doubt it. At least if we're talking about the same thing. If we are, its not something you can STOP from happening. But it is something you can manage and deal with as it happens (reduce the effects it may have on you)*. Thats not the same thing as STOPPING it from happening all together.

edit:

*indeed, I used to get hives in high school if I came late. Many days I couldn't walk inside the building without a breakout These days I don't have such a large urge to run away as I used to. usually any how.

Africa has a LOT of problems, and the direct causes are hard to locate, just like nobody seems to know a proper cure. However, I think it's fairly certain that things weren't as bad before colonization started.
The fact that large parts of Africa are starving isn't so much a problem of over-population (Western Europe has a far higher population density, yet it contains some of the richest countries in the world). One problem is that European colonists replaced traditional farming techniques and products (which fit perfectly well into the existing environment) with European techniques, which produce agricultural goods that are interesting on a world scale, but are devastating for local ecosystems. Similar things go for lifestyle; in many African areas, a nomadic lifestyle is far better suited to the environment than the so-called civilized agricultural settlements. Another interesting fact is that Africa had a fairly established political map before the Europeans arrived, where ethnic and social groups all had their territories (not without conflicts obviously, but things were kind of sorted out). When Africa was divided up between the colonial powers, little respect was paid for existing structures; basically, the conquerors drew some lines on the map and decided what belonged to whom. In many cases, those lines cut straight through ancient territories, artificially splitting up ethnic and social groups, and putting others into one country that weren't such a good match. The fact that to the Europeans, all Africans were more or less the same 'inferior' breed didn't help much either.
Not to speak of the massive drain of natural and human resources that took place over quite some time, and the often systematic destruction of local culture.
When the various African countries finally, one by one, gained independence from their former colonists, they were left with a power vacuum and little established structure; they were left to invent a political system by themselves, based on thin air, with little resources left and virtually no help from their former rulers. Some were more successful than others.

The 'one more mouth to feed' argument makes a lot more sense if you look at it from a different angle. Imagine a world where there is no social security whatsoever: when you are too old to work, the only thing you can fall back on is your children. The health care system is bad, and many children don't make adulthood. More children will also yield social status, which in turn makes it easier to gain all sorts of advantages. If that isn't enough for you, read up on the Tragedy of the Commons, a though experiment that shows nicely how the best strategy for an individual in a situation where limited resources are shared and freely accessible is one that will lead to a collapse of the commonwealth. (As a side note, and feel free to call me a communist, a dirty one if you like, the Tragedy of the Commons can also be applied to show that a free market economy, where basically all natural resources are unregulated, will eventually collapse.)
It's not that Africans don't know that having unprotected sex makes you pregnant. It's not that they don't know how to use condoms, and the Catholic church (however despicable their teachings) is only an additional factor in many cases. Most Africans that have many children do so because they choose to.

Another thought: It appears that 20% of the world's population consume 80% of the available resources, while the other 80% are left with 20%. In other words, if the average poor person holds 2.5 "shares" (20/8)in the world's resources, then the rich average at 40 (80/2).
This implies a number of things:

• if we could get rid of the richest 20% of the world's population, virtually all environmental problems we are facing would probably go away, because mankind's overall ecological footprint would be reduced by 80%

• if we could get the richest 20% to reduce their living standards to those of the rest, we would reduce the footprint by 75% - without getting rid of anybody

• if we could get the richest 20% to lower their living standards by 75% (to 10 shares), we could double the living standard of the poorer 80% (to 5 shares) and still achieve a footprint reduction of 40% (the 80% usage reduces to 20%, the 20% usage increases to 40%, adding up to 60%), probably still enough to keep mankind around for a while

So communism is responsible for the failure of a most capitalistic government in the world? how come? can anyone explain this? it is not rational, even a little bit...

If you think the "Christian church" (as if to say it's some sort of conglomerate super entity with a distinct leader) is the problem. There's really no way we can discuss this. You've already decided in your head what the truth is without even seeing it.

Wealthy? I said dying of starvation and disease--not wealth as if to imply luxury. You're really projecting yourself into this discussion.

Personal experience is a great way to make decisions about 2 billion independently thinking people.

The point is that no, we aren't "responsible" in any legal sense. (I never said it was.) But moral? That's a much harder argument to brush off. The truth is, we're all very blessed and fortunate. And if you want to spend all your time and money on yourself--that's fine. But don't even try and tell me that isn't selfish. Those who have the power and means, are more responsible than those who don't. People want "the rich" to save the world, but when I say we (the middle class) could be doing it right now, people always get angry because it means they might be wrong. That the big evil "rich people" aren't the problem... but us. It's the same reason democracy in America has become an oligarchy. The middle class don't think it's their responsibility--but they'll whine all day about it. As if we, as a nation, don't have the power to remove every congress person from office tomorrow.

Fine, I'll correct my mistake. One of the problems is the Roman Catholic church that brings their doctrine. Just today the pope said that AIDS can't be stopped by condoms and assured that they are against them, plus he advised for a sexual abstinence.

What a bullshit. First of all, people are going to have sex anyway. Second - condoms can prevent you from all those nasty things you can get. And can help in reducing the hungry necks numbers (of course only if the will want to do that, as Tobias pointed out).

And as Tobias pointed out, we are to blame. Not only because we've created artificial borders in Africa and introduced ineffective farming methods. But also by introducing Christianity to them and generally trying to convert them into our way of thinking. Kind of a same situation that's been happening for past few years in the Middle East.

They CAN, but its no guarantee.

Sure, they can, but they are 99% reliable. Of course it can't be used as a solitary meassure - in this I agree (not willingly) with the pope, they can't solely stop AIDS spreading. But for god's sake don't ban them or at least preach against them.

Alright, I'll bite this clear troll bait.

So we're clear, I'm not talking about communism itself. I'm talking about some socialist and possibly communistic properties of America (there are a lot!)

Lets take 4 scenarios.

1. Deregulated Industry

2. Process of Regulating an Industry

3. Regulated Industry

4. Process of Deregulating an Industry

The benefit of #1 are clear. Most of the things around us that we enjoy are a result of this (ie. Materials, Metals, Wood, Plastics, Buildings, Cars, Soda, Food, Coffee, Clothes, Cell Phones, Glass Windows, Computers, Refrigerators, Dishes, Toys, The production of electricity, etc...)

#2 Generally has no benefits to the economy as a whole. It generally achieves two things: Distribution of wealth from entrepreneurs to the masses and distribution of the same wealth to politicians. It hurts the economy because entrepreneurs begin to fear this will happen to them (the same rules apply to theft in general).

#3 Over time a regulated industry tends to deteriorate. Without the motivation of individuals with a track record of success to improve how the industry runs, stagnation results. The industry cannot adapt to changing situations. No one knows how to or cares to fix it because it benefits everyone generally and not themselves. Why be a slave to society? People shy away from such tasks and instead everyone in the industry looks at how to improve their own situation in the system.

When it comes to #4 generally things go really bad. The Enron scandal is an example of this. In Russia you have those who helped Stalin enter power show up on the list of richest people.

Capitalism works best when left to it's own devices.

BS. Soviet Union had all of those, often invented before it was invented in the west. The difference is in amount, not in kind.

Culture specific generalization. Selfish entrepreneurship is a western phenomenon, and not the only way to drive an economy.

Huh? How do you explain the existence of volunteer organizations? Not everyone is a selfish human.

Looks like someone read too much Ayn Rand.

Your heart is racing because your mind is subconsciously going into "fight or flight" reflex.

It's true that you can't control your own heartbeat consciously (well, 99.99% of people can't), but you can stop it from happening through correct use of cognitive behavioural therapy.

The theory is that the original trigger is a thought, this thought then generates an emotional response (in this case, anxiety), which then causes physical sensations. If you can isolate the trigger thought, you can train yourself to recognise when you are thinking it and immediately concentrate on your learnt counter-thought, to stop yourself from going into the emotional state that causes the physical sensations.

I can vouch for its effectiveness. I now get hardly any physical signs of anxiety, whereas I used to vomit, or black out in some situations. It took several years however, as well as some group and personal therapy as well. Totally worth it though.

Ok, am I the only one here who doesn't watch Star Track?

It seems that distressingly often, the default mode of anti-libertarians is insults--aimed at libertarians' morals, their maturity, whatever--even in ordinarily more-sophisticated essays. ^[1] Is there no other way to argue against a libertarian than to insult them? (Wow, references. Fancy!)

Come to the table with something other than vast generalizations, historical inaccuracies and ignorance of the current conditions, and you will be treated differently.

EDIT:

Plus, Ayn Rand is an Objectivist, and they are, to my knowledge, disdainful of Libertarians anyway.

Care to give some examples? Anyone can say that the other side is wrong.

I finally started making games this year. Viva el GameMaker!

I got a 100% on my Pattern Recognition midterm, but only a 94% on my Systems Analysis midterm.

I had a mini-WTF moment when I saw I only got a 68 on my models of computation mid-term. Then I went to the course website and it said grades were out of 70, and felt better.

I finished Etrian Odyssey at 100%, discovering every monster and every item in the game. That allowed me to get a password that, once introduced to Etrian Odyssey 2, gave me a special item which boosted the stats of a party member. The fucking fire scale took me like 12 or 13 resets and a couple of days, but finally got the wyrm to give the correct loot.

Oh, I am also getting my house built.

I finished all three stages of White Butterfly on normal (with the hand of xom)
Now on to hard :S

I'm getting good at sequencing and writing music--to the point that laymen actually enjoy it. I'm especially proud of it because my style of music is very different from anything I've heard--which is the point, I don't want to do anything I've ever heard before. It's Rise Against meets angry Techno. Nine Inch Nails and Ferry Corsten. Lyrics are pretty brutal. I'm also getting much better at sequencing realistic drum lines.

Once I get some of this stuff finished I'm gonna see about playing some shows. Here's one of the newest I've starting working on (it's NOT done!).

Chris: Can't you make that playable in your post using the new mockup?

I like it, almost the kind of music that makes you go too fast when driving...

If I play the song on allegro.cc, I hear noise and buzzing. Playing the .mp3 file is fine...

Anyway, very nice, please do post the full track when done, its really cool.

How cool! Congratulations on your new place of dwelling. Are you gonna build a server room?

Citing the existence of an alternative does not prove its worthiness. If that were so I could use this argument: How do you explain the existence of for-profit organizations? Not everyone is a selfless human. Looks like someones been reading too much bible.

Your point is moot.

Can you name a successful economy that does not rely on entrepreneurs?

I got out of bed.

I don't care about worthiness, I care about existence. You said that several things simply did not exist in non-entrepreneurial economies. They exist. Maybe they are inferior in quality, or few in number, but they still exist.

I never claimed those did not exist. You, on the other hand, did:

No all of them don't shy away. No all of them don't seek to do that.

Define successful. There are plenty of 'functioning' economies not based on entrepreneurs, say the Soviet Union. Anything that functions is a success in my book. Putting the question of GDP aside, socialistic economies have higher moral value in my opinion. Even if they were less efficient (a questionable statement), they still would be viable due to their moral benefits. Perhaps you assign morality a 0 cost (the executives of US tend to do that also), but I, for one, don't. Not saying that you do do that for certain, but your analysis completely ignored this aspect.

I invented Linux.

The Soviet Union fell apart.

In fact it could be said the Soviet Union is one of the best examples of how awful Communism really is.

Looking back on my question it was slightly short sighted. I can think of two systems that worked well in this manner: Hitler and the pre-historic Egyptians. A better question would be a system that works well, treats its citizens well and is generally moral.

It didn't fall apart because of Communism. It fell apart because of the old rule "Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.".

Communism as an idea isn't bad, what you call communism isn't even real communism.

What I don't get is you've been told this before in the past, and seem to refuse to learn these simple facts

refrains from pulling out his communism stick

I'm happy to have accomplished my few little essays and retaining my desire to learn and write more.

It worked here.

He must have used a newer or more obscure compression format, because I had the same problem on my workstation until I updated my Flash Player.

Anyway, the song sounds pretty good to me. Much better than I was expecting.

Nice song.

No, but we ended building an extra room. I am planning on having a Japanese-like room, without chairs

Two weeks ago, from where the front door will be:
{"name":"598089","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/3\/0\/30802de1db51f1d788a30d9b614d1273.png","w":800,"h":600,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/3\/0\/30802de1db51f1d788a30d9b614d1273"}

This is from last week, walls all around almost finished:
{"name":"598090","src":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/f\/4f14979a463eca0b076253b12024521e.png","w":800,"h":600,"tn":"\/\/djungxnpq2nug.cloudfront.net\/image\/cache\/4\/f\/4f14979a463eca0b076253b12024521e"}

They are working on the floor now, all walls surrounding the house are done. They are going to finish soon, but so my money is

Thats about how it goes when building a house. No matter how much you start with, you'll usually find a way to spend it all in the end.