so what are you guys all doing with your lives nowadays? i think alot of us are at least college age, the others past that by now. i'm curious about what alot of you were doing because i think my mental index of your occupation being marked: none/high school/Gaming Champ is probably outdated or inaccurate in the first place (i'm just joking with my choices i know you are all doing a variety of stuff and I'm just curious.

I'm not really asking what your daily routine is, just kind of what direction you think you are taking your life and why you decided/are deciding to do that. What are the big advantages and what makes you think it is important or fun? What do you think of doing something good with your life versus doing something you enjoy?

I think about that some. Like, I am going to university for the 2nd time in september. The last degree I took was politics and it wasn't for me it turns out. I picked it because I was young and watching the US election, and had been reading feminism and communism and getting a hot head. I've still got a hot head about these things and I don't think I am SO PAST politics but I realised that the academic study of it is honestly boring as hell, and the area is filled with a particular kind of asshole (every subject is filled with assholes, sure) that I really don't want to be around all the time. I don't like the debate, you know? I really don't want to sit in a room and and pick a fight with some guy who said 'well if you earn money why should you need to pay it to the government' every day. Some days, okay, but not every day and I don't even see the point in attacking that kind of crap in THAT way. I kind of have my political position worked out in alot of ways but there is so much boring shit you need to know about to actually have an opinion on something like economics and I just do not want to spend that big a portion of my life thinking about money!

So I dropped out.

Anyway, I am going to do a general 'arts' degree, but what I am gonna be focusing on is film making and writing because that's what I have always wanted to do since I was a kid. The politics was a diversion, really, it's a minor in my life. You don't get to major and minor in the UK though so I had to pick and I picked wrong first time.

I want to make good movies and I love coming up with ideas for stories. It's kind of an unlikely thing to decide to do, but I think it would be the most fun I could ever possibly have, and it would be a really satisfying way for me to get my ideas out, better than being a politician for sure, anyway! It just feels right for me.

The concern I have is that it is kind of a trivial choice in terms of what would help people out the most. This is something I'll work out one way or the other - because you can't go through your life with this kind of adolescent indecision, right? it'll get worked out as i go - but I do think it's the only choice for me. There isn't any use in starting down a road in politics that I am kind of grossed out and bored by, because I'll never really dive into something I don't love, and I won't be any use to anybody that way.

I think I could be some use if I try to make movies or tell stories of any kind in general, and I think I will have a great time doing it and be happy with myself. I am already kind of happy with myself, I'm chasing those feelings.






I don't mind if you didn't read that, I just put it here for anybody who might be interested to read. It's not exactly compelling, I know, I just like to write and talk about these things.

sorry I posted this twice!

I am currently working my way through a course directed towards Film and Animation, which goes through a bunch of aspects and qualifies me for the industry and stuff like that. On the side of that I have a bunch of personal projects that I'm working on. One of which is www.sahchronicles.com, a dystopic universe I've designed. I'm also working on my own personal website for portfolio of work and stuff like that. I'm also doing a bunch of writing and drawing, both for the Safe and Happy Chronicles and just general writing. I still dabble a little in game design, but lately that's been more of the "game design document" style of design than actual game creation.

hey that is cool but i also want to know about your reasons for choosing what you chose to do, you know? i mean we seem to want to do kind of similar things so i would be interested to just know why you picked your thing over other things, what makes it good and stuff.

about your sah chronicles video - i just watched it. that man sure likes to say fuck a whole bunch, huh? i think maybe you could tone that down a little - i mean i know it's supposed to show how rough and gruff things have become, but it kind of comes across as a bit unimaginative.  i think you are really jumping the gun designing merchandise, too. it's kind of a turn off to see somebody more concerned with whatever money they could make off of an idea they have before they actually develop it. when you get the new layout underway, i'd ditch the art deco font and maybe come up with a different kind of idea for the logo. building-worlds is a fun thing, though, i hope you've got the determination to really make a big site with alot of cross media kind of things to take a look at. i'd just say make sure you are developing your ideas before you try to sell anything, you know?

I am working in the offshore oil & gas industry making lots of moolah as a soon-to-be-fully-qualified Instrument Technician (not to do with music!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrumentation). I'm happy with how things are going.

I guess I was kind of lucky that my period of indecision came when I was 16/17ish and had just left school - sixth form wasn't doing it for me. I just wanted to go to my friends and smoke weed all the time. But eventually, after having my butt kicked by my parents constantly, I kinda realised "wait shit I do actually have to do something with my life."

I was always interested in what my dad did so I asked him for advice, and he recommended I apply as a trainee Inst Tech to various oil/gas companies and training organisations. Eventually I got a placement, spent 2 years 500 miles away from home up in Scotland, got drunk all the way through college BUT managed to maintain a work/life balance and passed the course without too much fuss. I've been offshore for 2 years now doing a 2 week on/2 week off rota, doing further training/drinking copious amounts of tea/smoking copious amounts of cigarettes, and imminently I'll be getting a ridiculously big pay rise and I'm going to have no idea what to spend the money on. It's an excellent problem to have.

So all in all things are peachy right now. What keeps me interested? Money for a start, then there's the time off shift; with holiday I can get 6 week blocks off at a time - means I can travel the world when I want! Also, it's the "fault finding" aspect of my job I really enjoy. When things go wrong, a meeting of the minds occurs and we all rack our brains for the answer, looking through logic sequences and troubleshooting components. It's really rewarding and interesting.

I very recently had probably the biggest rethink of my life. I'm just coming to the end of my last year at college before I head off to university, and I have realized that this form of education just isn't working for me. I am inherently lazy and have trouble working on things that don't interest me much. Because of this I have decided to not go to university this year and possibly not at all. I was planning on studying physics, but it is much too academic for me. If i DO decide to go back to university (not likely) it will be to do music or music tech. In the mean time I am going to work hard in my music and try to get into a position to move out of my parent's house. I know I'm only 18 and I still have a few years where its OK TO LIVE YOUR DAD but I really feel suffocated and stuff. No offense to my dad I love him and all but I really want to move out.

I have my eyes set on many musical endeavors, including writing music for indie games, forming a band, writing music for local filmmakers, and even teaching (don't need a degree for this biznitch)

So yeah, my life is a bit all over the place at the moment (or at least it will be once my A-Levels are over)

wow jmickle i didn't realise you were only 18 years old. i thought you were 20 or something. see!!! i stagger around here like i know everybody and all their BS and whaddya know. i didn't go to uni straight away either. i think you are totally right not to rush anything, i talked to alot of people who let themselves get pushed into things (by their parents or just by their own sense of 'that's what you do' or whatever), and it always sounded like such lame crap and you're got to work things out first. not worth getting in debt and digging yourself into things.

I am kind of doing video games as an eventual goal. I don't know about as a job in practicality, but I have this video game company in the back of my head. I want to make a video game that embodies some better theory of game development than is currently practised. I also want to make the creation of video games more widely available. This is where I am going in my head. The big super version of me who punches skyscrapers in the face with his fist of iron is going to destruct the video game fraternity and turn their beer pong into socially aware art pong and make the sceptical mothers of the world understand that computer programming does not equate to accountancy. The real me often considers giving up and making coffee for a living, resigning game development to a hobby. What I currently do for a job (on the weekend for my dad, heh) is word processing for ISO9001 quality management systems along with some data entry and the occasional bit of design or programming. I'd pretty much like to do anything else.

I'm currently studying a computer science degree. In my third year. I like the more theoretical parts more than the practical courses because I could already program before I came to university and tbh I get more interesting programming ideas from doing theory. A lot of my first two years was spent learning to draw instead of paying attention in lectures because I was doing the lecture material for fun in my spare time anyway. Eventually university drained away a lot of the joy I found in programming, but I still don't take proper lecture notes most of the time. I'm concerned that my academic record won't escape unscathed this time. I'm also very distressed by my 'human computer interaction' course because it is so patronising and business-centric. I feel like a bit of a wanker because I get quietly furious at things like the lecturer saying that software engineering and computer science are indistinct or explaining "cultural factors" as "who bosses who" or the assumption that the purpose of software is for users to achieve 'goals' rather than to communicate some message other than what's literally printed on the screen. My classmates don't understand what I'm upset about. I don't like the idea of software as a tool for fundamentally dehumanising people such that they can work faster in the name of progress. This is another thing that biggles-the-skyscraper-puncher has to fight, but I'm really afraid to stand up to. I want to build subversive robots that write antihuman graffiti, but I know I never will.

What this all boils down to is that I'll do some kind of computer thing. I want it to be expressive/subversive type of shit but probably the closest I'll get is a coffee mug with a Matisse sketch and rapping diss songs to my manager under my breath.

i was doing part-time game testing at a third party company, but the work i was doing slowed down and they had to lay off or transfer the entire night shift. had a chance to do full-time work there, but i don't have time for that with the other stuff i'm doing. bummer too, it was great work.

so right now i'm spending all my time trying to make money off of making videogames. i've got enough money saved up from my last job that i can just do this for a while and see where i end up. i figure if everybody who has ever signed up for gaming world forums buys three copies of every game we make i can afford to keep doing this.

I am still trying to get my CS degree, but I discovered how much I absolutely hate the university I'm at so I'm transferring and will be at a new university this fall.  After that, I'm not sure what I'll do.  My mom's told me that if I wanted to get my masters she'd pay for it, but I'm just not sure.  I figure I'll either apply to get my masters somewhere abroad or just go ahead and get a job somewhere.  In my more immediate future, I'm getting an apartment in a few months so I'll be experiencing my first LIVING ENTIRELY BY MYSELF experience (dorms really don't count).  I went apartment hunting for the first time yesterday, and learned the harsh realities of how gross apartments can be.  Luckily I also found one that was really nice and in a really nice area, so hopefully that works out.  I guess it's time for me to go be an adult then

I'm currently working one quasi-fulltime and a part-time job saving money to return to school to get a second undergrad and then maybe earn my masters afterward. Other than that it's the old routine of balancing my social/work/domestic/hobby time.

I am currently working extremely over-full time as a compliance officer (ie: the documents side of things rather than the sales side of things) for a medical agency, getting doctors jobs in hospitals and getting hospitals some doctors to fill jobs. We recently expanded to nurses, too.

It's far, far too much work for the little I get paid, but it's hella good experience so I am sticking it out for now. Hopefully within a year I will move to the US to live with my fiancée and get married, and get some office job out there. For the long term I am thinking maybe I will study for a degree in business studies or something, since I definitely want kids with my fiancée and providing well for them would be nice.

That's about it!

I'm still sailing with the same company I started with about a year ago. I work my ass off, really hard and the big ups don't really notice it very much. One of the captains did but he quit and the other one thats left is an asshole that still asks my bosun and chief mate if I know what I'm doing when I've been here about a year and I lead people who are much older than me and have been shipping for longer than I have. Its also pretty hard to go up the totem pole and get your license and stuff when you're put on the backburner behind people who are kin to the officers on the ship or managers with the company. It doesn't matter how much you work or know or want to learn when you've got some dick's son kissing ass to get his stuff and not shedding a drop of sweat over it. That really pisses me off and makes me want to leave this place pretty quick because its less about experience, knowledge, and qualification and more about who your daddy is.

I was thinking about finding another job shipping when I got home because I'm pretty tired. I get tired of running myself ragged for people that don't fucking appreciate or notice it and working for people who are pretty damn stupid and don't want to listen to a kid when it comes to deckwork. I also get drained after my four weeks out here and barely have enough energy and time to commit myself to the things that are very important to me that I do before its too late. (ie... find someone, learn guitar and some music theory, travel on my own, visit friends)

But at the same time I really want to go to school and get my mates license as soon as possible. I talked to the guy serving as captain right now about it and he said that because I've proven I know what I'm doing and work hard that he's going to help me start taking my mate classes. Technically I cannot actually become a mate until I get about 400-500 more days of seatime or something like that but I can start taking my classes so that when the time comes I'm ready.

So I'm going to see how it goes and if he's not bullshitting on helping me get my license then I'll stay. If not, its either back to the union or I'll find a shore based shipping job until I can get my license on my own.

well, to tell you the truth, i really don't know.

last year i failed to finish my first year at university studying computer games design, because a LOT of shit happened and i was not ready for it (i got myself into a shit load of debt). so i am repeating the year and it's got to about 2 weeks left of the degree and i owe a lot of work. i just don't know if i want to do it anymore. there's so much stress involved, the university i'm at isn't very good and just hate everything about it. i'm not learning anything and it's just going to be a waste of a lot of money.

so i'm considering quitting. but i'm not sure yet. i'm going to try to finish the year to leave more options open, but i am still in a mega amount of debt right now, and i think taking a year or two out from university and just paying it all off will help me get MOTIVATED to learning again. but i'm thinking of doing a different course too, but i'm really not sure.

i don't have a job at the minute (i live in a student city, so all jobs are promptly snapped up) but i am looking and i have been out of work for a good year and a half so it's getting increasingly difficult to find anything. living at home isn't really an option as there are absolutely no jobs there, and my family is incredibly poor and that will make life a lot harder i think. so yeah, i don't really know what's going on right now.

i have a lot of interests that would be really cool to sort of partake as a career, but i am not especially GOOD at any of them. like jamie i would love to make movies and shit and have always been interested in television (part of my college degree is actually media) and i do enjoy writing but i do love vidgams too. i guess THE WORLD IS MY OYSTER and stuff it's just a matter of getting motivated enough to actually do something!

I'm currently studying architecture but for the most part of the day I'm an internet shut in (my classes take place during the night). I think I could architect things mechanically which is why I decided to study it but I don't like it how everyone else is idealistic and reads a lot of books on the subject and I don't really care about it. I don't care about le corbusier. I think people who spot the golden ratio in things are obsessive compulsive. I'll probably end up like my dad in a job I don't really like just for the money. I'm constantly apathetic and I never go to the parties people invite me to (I wish I could have fun doing that but it's too much of a chore).

I wish I could make movies, I envy you (jamie) and psyburn for that (but psyburn only cares about buying camera accessories so I don't envy him that much). I wish I could make decent music. I wish I could make proper games and get rich doing that. I wish I could make a proper comic book. I wish I had someone who liked me romantically.

I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to just keep staying home all day long doing nothing but browsing the internet. I think I'll just end up dying before doing anything I actually want to do. But there is still hope.....

I'm currently studying architecture but for the most part of the day I'm an internet shut in (my classes take place during the night). I think I could architect things mechanically which is why I decided to study it but I don't like it how everyone else is idealistic and reads a lot of books on the subject and I don't really care about it. I don't care about le corbusier. I think people who spot the golden ratio in things are obsessive compulsive. I'll probably end up like my dad in a job I don't really like just for the money. I'm constantly apathetic and I never go to the parties people invite me to (I wish I could have fun doing that but it's too much of a chore).

I wish I could make movies, I envy you (jamie) and psyburn for that (but psyburn only cares about buying camera accessories so I don't envy him that much). I wish I could make decent music. I wish I could make proper games and get rich doing that. I wish I could make a proper comic book. I wish I had someone who liked me romantically.

I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to just keep staying home all day long doing nothing but browsing the internet. I think I'll just end up dying before doing anything I actually want to do. But there is still hope.....

"architects only design what engineers let them" - inri cheetos 2009

Rayban BCE would be one of the best games if you'd bring it to its potential and finish it

I took a bunch of prerequisite physics courses over the fall and started sending out portfolios and I just got accepted into a university in Toronto for architecture, so that's where i'll be heading in the fall.  The reason is that I still enjoy science a lot and still love art, so I felt it was a good integration of the two. I'm also taking a lot of chinese courses on the side and hopefully by the time I graduate I'd be decently fluent enough. Ideally i would try and get a job placement somewhere in china to design buildings because there are way too many architects in canada and not enough jobs. After that I would probably move back to N.A. or Europe. But that's thinking really far ahead.

I thougth this too but it's not really the case. I mean it can be as scientific and mathematical as you personally make it I guess, but in class it's like 99% design and jumping through hoops

I thought the same about architectural engineering but nope, that's just engineering with 0 creativity in uni. possibly more creative when practicing on your own

I'm a pretty big slacker. In fact, for the past 12 months, I haven't done anything: no classes, no job, just hanging out with friends, watching TV shows, gaming, basketball and working out, just enjoying life. I would feel disgusted with myself for this utter lack of productivity... but I'm starting medical school this August and that somehow justifies a year of goofing off (I mean, when am I ever gonna' get a chance to just CHILL ever again? Right, thus my year off!). Towards the end of my senior year at undergrad, between classes, research, volunteering, the MCAT and med school applications, I was pretty burned out and told myself if I get in, I will not do a thing the following year. I amazingly have accomplished that promise.

i'm not learning anything and it's just going to be a waste of a lot of money.

You don't pay for the knowledge, you pay for the checkmark and letter grade on your transcript. I know it sounds bad, but really, my entire pre-med undergrad, I didn't learn how to be a doctor, I learned if I was qualified to be able to learn to be a doctor.