MTG Salvation

wow, avoiding sex, breasts, nipples, and girls. Hmmm....How about, "Can free will truly exist with divine pre-ordination?" Seriously, though. I have no idea. Someone else pick the topic.

@Alex. Thank you. I will probably end up using that as my avvy. I'll change it after church if I get the chance. I too agree with you that Star Wars Episode One really sucked ass. But the beautiful Ms. Portman was in it, so I can't complain all that much.:glee:

Eh, off to church, then immediately following that, it's work. I have tomorrow and Teusday off, though, so that will give me a chance to rest my weary body.
* Aisling Leprechaun waves at jonski.
* Aisling Leprechaun waves at invisi-boy.

I thought Qui-Gon Jinn was cool

Needed more Obi-Wan, though.

@ Rancored_Elf's foily cards:
It is times like this that I am sad that I don't have a job to afford beauties like those. Oh well, I'll be happy with my one foil vent

Oh, Sad news over here in Ohio, our local card shop closed down because of bill problems. I no longer have a place to go play cards

Seems like a lot of card shops are closing lately.

Anyway, I was thinking of a topic.

What is your goal in life?

If you want to answer, you can do so in a short answer, or long answer. Answer in any way you want. Get as personal or as generic as you like. And I suggest you think about it before you reply (unless you think about this a lot, and already have your answer ready). If people accept this topic, I'll give my own answer soon.

Goal in Life?
Nipples!

I'm not too sure what my goal would be... Goal meaning what I want accomplish? I want to be well off financially, as well as raise a few kids; one or two. I'd like to visit France and India, but also live in New York or something and be big time

I guess I want to be a good person in life. I want people to say "Gee that Alex is a pretty nice guy. Let's bake him cookies".

My goals, eh? In the short term, I just want to make it through my BS and PhD degrees with a minimal amount of hair loss. Finding myself a girlfriend would also be exceptionally great, and I think add to the chances of my completing that firs term.

In the long term, I want to get married and have a family. Beyond that, I want the opportunity to teach. Making a major scientific breakthrough would also be a dream come true, though I would just consider that as icing on the metaphorical cake of life.

My goal in life? Where do I start? Since my life in really in full swing with 3 children, the same job for 8 years, a mortgage, a pet and some debt, I’ll start with where I what to be.

Within the next 5 years I would like to move from a townhouse to a single-family home with at least a half-acre of land and a 2 car garage. For this I am required to have most of my debt paid down to a manageable level and my credit scores back to normal. By the time I’m fifty (16 years from now) I would like to have my three children possess college degrees and be ready to face life with a full head of steam. I would like to have at least $500,000 in savings or a retirement account incase I need to retire sooner than anticipated. As far as my career goes…I would like to have enough money to own a small shop where my wife and I can earn a modest living doing something that we both love to TOGETHER. I would love for my job at that age to be something non-stressful and enjoyable. I would consider it a blessing if we could do this at our favorite place in the world….the place where we have gone to for vacations for the past twelve years. I would just like to be able to go on vacation there one year and never leave!

I would like to see my grandchildren graduate college and make sure that my children are well taken care of in case something happens to myself or my wife. Most of all I wish to remain married to the woman I’m married to right now. She is my best friend and I couldn’t imagine living my life without her.

Sappy I know but the question was a serious one to me. Its funny that you asked this now since we are currently going through a financial restructuring in our household.

Mornin' all! …or afternnon.

Damn jonski, what an answer!
I am not a very good "goal setter". I know there are certain things I want out of life though. Long story short: My #1 would be to find love.

I think card shops should cater more towards adults. How can they expect to survive relying on children’s allowances as sales? I never frequented card shops b/c of the atmosphere; kids running around, looking over your shoulder. A lot of parents leave their children there for 'day care'. You can't drink, smoke or cuss. This is why I found myself playing MTG at bars.

We had a Ferrari Testarossa drop off this morning! I included some pics.

Monday sux.. Hit me up on AIM if anyone needs anything.
.
.

ya'll have to try this...it's the game the kid was playing in the video I posted. A while ago.
http://www.winterrowd.com/maze.swf
@Daron. that is a serious question. After I give it some thought, I'll post a response.

That is an awesome car, RUBRDUX! I should hope you'll be taking it out for a bit of a cruise. You know, just to inspect it and whatnot.

Am I the only person in the world that doesn't think Jar Jar was that annoying? The film itself was a little dull as far as Star Wars goes... but its not entirely the Gungan's fault.

My goal in life? Now that's a question...
I would like my financial situation out of the toilet, that's for sure. Its a short term goal though. To solve it, I'm actually looking for work in digital printing. I have an interview tomorrow. Writing alone isn't keeping me out of debt.
My goal in life, however, is all about writing and film making. More precisely, I've been thinking about taking a break from fiction to start writing more indepthly on religious and philosophical issues that matter to me. Maybe write a book about it or something and watch it climb the bestseller lists. I don't care, as long as I can write professionally, I'm happy.
Maybe I'd like to start a family, but its not big on my list. I can barely take care of myself (with all the wanton drinking, money problems, and insanity) so I doubt I could support a wife and kids. Not to mention, I have a hard time being around anyone for too long.
I don't know... all I want is a life worth living. Or perhaps just a life that's tolerable to live.

So, I made myself a little Called tag. Imbibed meaning "Receive into the mind and retain" as well its reference to drinking. Wordslinger is a homage to Stephen King. Feel free to let me know what you think.

BUMP!



I need something to fullfill my boring life! POST!!!!

I'm at Darnell's house. We are lanning. good stuff!

I just had a "Big Gulp Milk Choclate Bar with Crispy Rice" from 7-11. It was really hard and not as enjoyable as I had previously hoped.

The swedish berries however are much yummy!

Sweet car, Dave. I'm not really up on my car stats and names, etc... but I used to be. Although I do know that's one nice ride.

Alex, you shouldn't eat that crap. And when I say "crap", I do mean... you know. Sloppy brown chunky goo. Bad.

This post is going to be a two parter. One will tell you about my reply to my own question. The other will tell you about my day from hell.

1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My goal in life, in one line, is to enjoy it and feel fulfilled when it's over. That's pretty broad, and many people could probably say the same thing. More specifically, I want to treat myself well, have fun, experience much, be content, and stay true to my beliefs. On the flip side, I also want to contribute something to those around me, my community, my country, and mankind.

Even more speficically, the above breaks down into:

- be a good father
- love and be loved
- do what I do well
- be appreciated
- not have to work after 45 if I don't want to
- do something (via my job or not) that helps people
- allow myself to follow my instincts

How does that look, put all together? I think what I want is to move soon into a really nice house (out of the townhouse) and still afford the mortgage payments. Continue to work part time while working on my business. Of course, get the lawsuit out of the way. Get Gavin into preschool this fall. Get more stable (either myself or one of the kids always seems to be sick lately, I don't get enough sleep, I don't work out as much as I want to, I'm always behind on work). And of course, figure out what exactly to do about Everett's health problem and resolve it (thinking optimistically here). Pay down my debts, continue to have great credit. Someday be able to help my friends and family financially and otherwise.

There are a couple little tweaks to that, that I'd say if I was being totally honest, but I'm not. Part of the problem right now is I can't be completely open about one or two things going on for me. Some of the clan probably has a bit of an idea, anyway. Perhaps the right time will come in the next little while to talk about that. I'm not being secretive on purpose or to annoy anyone, but that's just how it is for now.

I'm interested to hear the rest of the clan's reply to my question, also.

2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gavin was puking all over himself and his bed all night so I got maybe 4 hours of sleep (pretty standard for me, but still hurts to get outta bed). I was late getting up because the power outage killed my alarm clock during the night. I missed eating and showering so I wouldn't be too late........... for a family "intervention". My younger brother (he's the middle of the three boys) is a drinker. I think I told the story after the Halloween party this year... he came late, drank everybody's booze, picked fights, and I had to take him aside and deal with him. He told me I was a bad father, bad brother, didn't understand him, hated him, etc. He was a mess. He ended up DRIVING home even though we were trying to stop him, calling a taxi, etc. Ugh. Anyway, he has got worse in the last few months. He crashed his car. He crashed my grandma's car. He crashed the courtesy car. And no, they didn't stop letting him drive. (He lives with my grandparents about half an hour from me.) And they also didn't tell me much about the bad things going on, and neither did he. Anyway, his boss (he's a waiter at Boston Pizza) called my parents up in Vernon (5 hour drive from here) and told them what he sees going on. They freaked, of course, even though they knew SOMETHING was wrong, and that he has a drinking problem of sorts. So they got ahold of a guy "Brad" from their church who used to be a drinker, and went to a treatment center over on Vancouver Island called "Edgewood". It's one of the best in north america. Now he helps other people get in. Anyway, long story short, he and my parents came down here to Vancouver and we met last night to discuss what we'd be doing today. Today, we all met at my grandparents (mom, dad, me, grandma, grandpa, Brad, and Chris's boss/friend). They sent me down to Chris' room to wake him. He smelled of booze... ugh. He was surprised to see me over there. He agreed to get dressed and come upstairs. He was really shocked to see us all sitting in the living room. We asked him to sit, and listen. He did. First Brad said "your family cares about you, they're worried, and they want you to hear something... okay?" First my dad told Chris how aweful it was to find him crawling around on the floor of some place (I don't actually know the story), and pick him up off the ground all sluggish and confused. Chris just stared... obviously blindsided by the whole thing. That made me feel guilty. Next, his boss/friend told him how he's scared when Chris comes to work or leaves work drunk and he can't stop him. He's afraid he'll crash into someone. (BTW, Chris' licence got taken away on new years!) He also told Chris if he gets help, he'll hold his job until he returns. Then grandma told Chris how scared she was on new years when he got her car impounded, and he lied to her and said it was just at a friend's house until morning. She's 82 now... he's really putting her through the ringer, late in life. It's not fair IMO. Anyway, he cried a bit when she cried. Then it was supposed to be me, so I said that I love him, he's my best friend, he was my best man at my wedding. I don't want to see him suffer anymore. Our relationship has been crap for a few years... worse and worse, the more he drinks and isolates and hurts himself. I said I want him to go with Brad today and get some help. He said he feels really betrayed by this all... and I said "do you think we're doing this because we want to hurt you, or because we love you and we're scared?" He said "yeah... I guess I can see that." I'm glad he understood and didn't get mad. He can get pretty full of rage when people try and force him to do something... whew. Anyway, my mom went, and then grandpa. At the end, Brad told Chris more about Edgewood, told him he had been and it saved his life, etc. He also mentioned that the DUI charges would be dealt with if he was in treatment. Everything all put together I guess was enough, because Chris said "of course I'll go". He added that he didn't know if it'd work, and that "I'm not worth it". That's really sad... someone feeling so useless as a person that they're not worth getting help? All they're worth is drinking themselves to death and suffering every day and night? Poor guy... I love him so much and I really hope this is the thing that changes his life around. He hasn't really been well for about 5 years now. Next, he was told to get a bag together. I went down to his room and sat on the bed while he packed. There were empty beer/liquor bottles rolling out of the pile of smelly clothes he was packing into a bag. He was embarrassed. I said "hey man, don't worry about it at all..." and "it's motivation to not look back.... look how aweful this is right now, you're going to get better." I was relieved he wasn't mad at me for "ambushing" him along with my family. In fact I think part of him was glad we cared enough to do something now that he's pretty much at rock bottom. He was shaky, confused... probably hung over. I had to remind him what to pack. He tossed in the new Madonna CD I had bought him for Christmas. He said every time he listens to it he feels ashamed at himself for not living up to my standards, for not being the good brother he used to be. And the shame and guilt just leads him to drink. He said he cries himself to sleep a lot of the time, often because he's thinking about how close we used to be. Ouch... it hurt to hear that. Maybe I should feel guilty too. Here I am living my own life with my own issues, and he's hurting, even more than I am. Of course, I know guilt doesn't fix anything. I told him I'll visit him after the one week "no outside contact" period. It's a few hours drive, and a one hour ferry ride, and you can only visit on Sundays... but I'll go in a couple Sundays from now. Bring him some snacks and maybe a new CD to listen to, or something. He hugged me really tight like he didn't wanna let go, then we went upstairs and he said goodbye to everybody else, and he got into Brad's car. Brad took him on the ferry and right to Edgewood apparently, and from what I hear, Chris settled in quickly and is already attending his first "class" this evening. Apparently most people stay for about 6-10 weeks. Basically, until you're ready. It's privately run, very expensive. I guess my parents are paying for it. Anyway, after talking with my parents a bit I came on home.

The power had gone out again, and my wife and the boys were in the dark. Today was cold, around the freezing mark all day, so the house was chilly. My parents came over and my dad looked up in the roof because we have some mildew appearing on the bedroom ceilings. Lo and behold, it's leaky up there. Water and mold everywhere. Great! This means the townhouse complex is going to have to be reroofed. I believe the money we pay into strata fees will pay for it, but it's going to be a long and annoying/noisy/messy process. My wife called the strata and got the ball rolling on that. Then the power came back on and the computer fried. It wouldn't turn on. So I spent the evening trying to call someone to fix it. I got ahold of a $50 power source, thinking it blew with a surge or something. I managed to figure out how to remove the old one and install the new one. Nope... it wasn't that. I just blew $50! The guy took cash, no refunds... ugh. I tried other things, no luck. It's like it just has no power. Called Nathan, he didn't know what to do. Both the kids were misbehaving and screaming. We put Everett down to bed early cuz he was inconsoleable. Everett started puking in bed, all over the place. So we cleaned him up, washed everything, scrubbed the crib. Got him back in bed. My wife went out to get gravol suppositories (cuz he wouldn't be able to hold anything down orally). While she was gone, I dealt with Gavin's behavior and got him ready for bed. Then Everett was screaming so I went in and picked him up and he barfed really stinky chunky puke all over my shirt, jeans, one sock, himself, the floor, and the dresser. ACH! I hopped on one foot into the bathroom and started cleaning him up. He puked again on the changing table and floor, and started crying and shaking. It took a long time to clean him up. Then I had to change the bed again, this time there wasn't spare bedding because the first stuff was still in the dryer... so I used one of my own pillow cases, and put a large bath towel down instead of a crib sheet. He had trouble settling down. His room smelled bad. I cleaned the carpet while he tried to calm down. Then I went back to working on the computer. I ended up pulling out my old one (got the new one about a year ago). That's what I'm on now.. the old tower with the new monitor and other parts. So I don't have my files, emails, bookmarks, etc. But I needed to get online to deal with lawsuit issues and business stuff of course. I got Gavin in bed finally. Luckily he's not puking tonight... yet. Everett got a gravol suppository to help prevent vomitting but he's already barfed once since then. I changed his bed while my wife cleaned him up. Man there has been 7 loads of laundry today (really). He's up there right now crying. My wife's asleep and I'm staying up as late as I can to deal with him. When I pass out, I guess she'll have to get up and do it. What do single parents do when they have sick kids? Tomorrow I have to get up early and take the computer in somewhere and pay an arm and a leg to have it fixed. Also, my wife is tired and needs time away from me and the kids so she's leaving around noon to go look at houses with her mom. She wants us to move soon, not next year... to get out of the mildew situation. I'm not sure if we can do that right now, especially financially, but I guess she wants to go look. She'll take the day to do that, and stay at her parents' place overnight, and then come back. I'm going to have my hands full here, no car, two sick kids, no help. And a broken computer.

Thanks for letting me get all that out.

Wow Daron. I'm really impressed with you, and how you are dealing with all of this. Best luck to Chris and his challenges ahead of him.
Poor kids You need a Samite Healer!! Pull that mana together!

I eat a lot of bad stuff.... Dad and I are going food shopping tommorow. I'm gunna pick up some better stuff than sugar. I just hope my motabilism holds out for a few more years :S I think it's starting to fade a bit since my tummy looked bigger the other day.....

You sure are due some good times, Daron. Someday hopefully you will be able to look back at this period + laugh. If I can be half the dad you are, I think I will be doing ok, even though I may have puke on both socks.

I was hesitant to answer your Goals question - it's something I've dodged all my life. When they asked me, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?' I didn't really get it, I don't think. . . I'd say "A BRAIN SURGEON!" or "A FIREMAN!" to get them off my back

Right now I think I'd like to get published. I'm pretty darn happy with the last peice I wrote, + I'm getting to the point with my Big Big Story that it has really taken on a life of its own. I think I would feel pretty good if I could hold it in my hands, hardback style.

In the very near future it's children on the dinner menu. Adelaide is looking more + more like a good place to establish home base - even if we can't buy into half of the Beachouse, I think we would be happy finding a small home somewhere around here. Aurelia has almost cracked UniSA's Arts Department to employ her on a contract, + Haigh's already has me in charge of making their chocolate (+ the chief like to joke about retiring very soon). So, it looks like now is as good a time as it ever has for starting our family.

It's a lot to have on the plate, I think. Can't much see past it right now, although I know traveling is still an order. I've spent my whole life moving, I can't imagine stopping for good This next year feels pivotal, the sky's the limit, yada yada bing.

You did a good thing for your brother, D. I hope he comes back with a bit more love for himself than he left with.

*wanders off to scrounge up some good times to post to r_e*

Dang Daron, I really hope things start looking up for you. Thats some hardships and I think your handling things swell. That intervention is a plus, something he needed. I think a friend of mine needs one of those. If my Professor is even partly correct the kids about to through away 5 years of graduate school for beer and other drugs. He would feel so betrayed if I did something like that. Sadly I am a bit too far to do anything anyway.


Goals.....I want to see the Top of Mt Fuji.

I would like to establish Japan as a sort of base of operation for traveling. Pay off my debts while exploring the local area. I have prime access to China, Korea, Russia, and Taiwan from Osaka. Eventualy saving enough to set off again. Probably heading west towards mongolia, India, laos, cambodia, myanmar, and eventualy heading south to maybe Australia where I would love to go to graduate school.

I would love to find a girl to travel with me. Someone who loves adventure and is not adverse to holding up in some random country temporary to earn some extra cash before we head out again. Liking the game of Magic would be a plus.

Eventualy I would like to settle down and get working on graduate school. Someday even start up a family. All my friends seem so much more advanced than me. Being married, having kids, having a job and money to spend. I love my life, but can't help but feel a bit envious. I would love to have the company, traveling alone is...well lonely and I live vicariously through the social aspect of this online community.


Sorry to Rubrdux and Zigathon for totaly misspelling your names. I misspell stuff....as embarasing as it is I can't seem to avoid it. Sorry.

I got internet connection! The package came with a CD, USB card, Flash Card, and several manuels....not sure what any of those is for, but once I put the stuff together the way the little picture told me to things seemed to work out....happy me.

Daggertooth

Daron, you did the right thing. The problem is that the right thing is never the easiest! I wish it would have worked out that way with my uncle. He was caught cheating on his wife of 15 years by her and then denied the whole thing. If he would have fessed up to it he wouldn't have lost her....dumbass! He always had a problem with alcohol and probably drugs and my mom and aunt tried to intervene. He would go along with them for a while...just enough to get a little more money out of them and then he would disappear and come back in bigger trouble. My mom would do anything for him but she couldn't give him more money and so with people looking for him to pay his debts he did the stupidest, most selfish thing anyone can do. He went behind his apartment, drank a 12 pack of beer, smoked a pack of cigarettes and blew his head off with a 10-guage shotgun.

You always think after that...."What could I have done to stop this?" "I should have given him more money when he asked for it." The best thing to do....is get that person out of those surroundings like you did. Get them somewhere where help is available all the time. Actually take them there and don't rely on them doing it themselves. That was our biggest mistake I think. We believed him because he believed his lies. You did the right thing man...really.

Sorry for the somber response....one and a half years ago and it still seems so recent.

ACHhh....sick kids... I know all about them....when you have 3 the first one gets sick and you get lucky because it isn't all night but the next 2 get sick and it is through the nights and you try to stay up and be reasonable but it is so hard. You know they can't help it and maintaining your cool is tough at 3 a.m. Just doing that for your wife to get sleep is a great husband thing to do!

This was longer than I was expecting it to be.

* jonnyjonski waves to Daggs..........sup?!

wow..just wow...that truly is the day from hell. I wish I could help you out, but alas...you truly did do the right thing. I know of a couple of people that would still be with us if only we had been perceptive, and willing to help like you and your family did. And jonski, I feel for you. A couple of years ago, my best friend at the time did the same thing. It still feels like it happened just yesterday.

Anyway, my goals in life are the same they were when I was 10 years old. All I want in life is to be a good father and husband. My Ideal career would be Elementary Education. I've wanted to be a teacher for so long, and when I want to Arkansas and Nicaragua.....just my experiences there, I have to do something with children for my life to be complete. So that's my answer. Be a good father and husband, and if my career is something I love, then alls the better.

So it has come to my attention that our dear friend Mike doesn't care if he's the plower or the plowee....he just wants to get plowed!!

I guess its because they don't ever get snow in Arizona.....:o

So for the entirety of last week I stayed home. In a small room of a small appartment with no reason to even get up in the morning. Hell, at least George Costanza had the mail.

So last weekend I said ****it. I am an American and have at least $4,000 left on this credit card, why am I stuck at home? I mean Mt. Fuji is only a few hundred miles north of me, Korea is a $400 boat ride from where I am. I hear Okinawa makes for an exciting visit. Absolutely no reason to be stuck at home doing nothing. Besides, where I wanted to go was only quadruple the price of a ticket to Korea, with ten times the danger....sounds fun huh.

And you know what....going alone is fun...but, like I said..a bit lonely. So I figured I would do what the government would do. Why spend money on one ticket when I can get three for thrice the cost. Yes, this time I would pay for my cousins to come along in what I hoped would be an adventure of a lifetime...After all, I was heading to possibly the worlds most famous island....so without farther adue my trip tooo......


Daggertooth

Damn Daron, that chocked me up a bit also. I'm praying for you and your family. When it rains, it pours eh? I think your brother will be okay. It sounds like the intervention went almost "text book". He needs to hear how his drinking has hurt/effected his loved ones in a non-judgmental way. I think you all did very well and I'm glad he didn't get too defensive to see the light.
.
.

Nice pics Daggertooth! LOL

Yeah, Mike said he'll take what he can get!

*DUX grabs a red-hot poker from the fireplace*

.
.

lol...take it easy DUX. You don't want to hurt him or anything.

On a less (physically) painful topic. Don't expect anything too deep from me in the coming days/(possibly)weeks. Things are not going as badly for me as some other people, but it's starting to go downhill fast. I'm still gonna be here, just lurking more often, and when I do post, it's not going to be anything special.

Well that sux AL. You better at least be on AIM.
..We can always cheer you up! *Waves red-hot poker at Chris*

I had to post these pics of this ..um, thing... the motor museum brought by today. It looks like something straight out of the Jetsons or a really corny circus.
.
.

RUBRDUX: That Optate card is utterly ridiculous...getting to draw 3 cards for 2 mana with the drawback that your opponents get a land is the best card draw spell since Ancestral Recall.

That car is..interesting. What's the deal with it?

It sucks that everyone is doing poorly. Nothing new to report here at all.

Odd car....is that one of them european minnies or something? Last time I was over there, holland specificaly, I saw a lot of rent a car places sporting what looked like toy cars. About that size, but not that...um..design.

Daggertooth