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 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.

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!

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 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)

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.

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...

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.

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.

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'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 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.

Absolutely nothing.