[DesuMaiden]

Just watch this video lol...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fleiuV ... e=youtu.be

[MD]

you need to slow down your new thread rate a bit, please.

Give yourself some time to absorb.

[KaiserJeep]

A few things come to mind:

1) I'm about to retire, and I just realized that I never really figured out what I want to be when I grow up. Although a lot of people obsess over this topic, it turns out to be unimportant.

2) Spend any interim periods of time that you have in productive pursuits that better humanity, yourself, your family, or preferably all of the above. Example: when I was young, there was a lottery system in place and if your number was drawn, you could and would be first drafted into military service, then trained to fire a weapon, and lastly end up fighting a war in a moist jungle on the other side of the world. So when my number was drawn, I enlisted voluntarily in the USCG military which gave me a greater control over my military job specialty and meant that I spent my time in an organization whose mission was to save lives and property, versus killing people and breaking things. It happened to be the same branch of the military my Father had been in since WW2, which built a bond between us that lasted the rest of our lives. I was an Electronics Technician working on high-powered (2 megawatts) transmitters used in a navigation system called LORAN-C, later obsoleted by GPS navigation satellites.

3) Be prepared for changes and surprises. I met my wife when I was in the military, at my final duty station as the war in Vietnam was tapering off, and she and I have been married for 39 years, soon to be 40 years in August 2015. We met on an island called Nantucket, 30 miles at sea, a wondrous place that I had never heard of and was delighted to explore. We moved to my home state (Illinois) where I could afford to pay for my own education. We had a child which opened my eyes and taught me life lessons I never expected.

4) Change will be a constant in your life. I was part of design teams that produced high performance fault-tolerant computing systems that counted money. This turned out to be different enough from the mainstream of computing that it was always interesting. Our machines run bank tellers, stock exchanges, airline reservations, nuclear power plants, automated factories, and provided the underlying bean counting aspect that actually enables the Internet's online purchasing and the entire spectrum of mobile devices. My work products transformed the world, and I spent the last few years mentoring younger Engineers whose backgrounds were so very different from the world I grew up in, that we had to spend hours simply understanding one another.

5) I spent the second half of my life living in California, which is where my Father's family had ended up during the closing years of the Great Depression, and the beginning of WW2. They were migrant farm workers living in a Ford sedan at the time, after their farm in Oklahoma dried up and blew away in the Dust Bowl, an early form of Climate Change - a drought caused by Mother Nature, but for which mankind simply had to assume credit, in an incredible act of hubris. California turned out to be a reasonable place to live, with the really very good job opportunities balanced out by some really very crazy people. But now the wife and I are looking to return to my MidWestern roots, there to build a home appropriate for the way the world is transforming itself in the NOW, and will also have a Summer place on Nantucket, which she inherited. Life takes you in unexpected directions sometimes.

6) Now the world is running short of cheap oil, and about to transform itself yet again into something none of us can anticipate and are ill-prepared to understand. The only thing that is a constant is that change happens continuously, sometimes so very slowly, and sometimes breathlessly fast, and the currents of life take you places that you will never anticipate, and can only understand in hindsight.

7) Keep your eyes open, and your monkey brain engaged. Keep climbing the tree of life. Watch out for leopards and rotten branches, and pick and either consume or share all the sweet fruits you find on the tree.

[Herr Meier]

Now come on Kaiser, you know you cannot say that here.

The only right way to live your life is deep underground in a nuclear bunker, with 100k rounds of ammo stocked besides a heap of gold to look at.

[Pops]

you need to slow down your new thread rate a bit, please.

Yeah we hate people coming on here and starting conversations.

--
To me success means satisfaction and I get my strokes from learning to do stuff. I love it when someone says "Where did you learn how to do that?"

You don't have to be Lazarus Long to believe "specialization is for insects..." Life is just more interesting, to me at least, to try to get a taste of many experiences.

[MD]

you need to slow down your new thread rate a bit, please.

Yeah we hate people coming on here and starting conversations.

Pops' sarcasm aside, my admonition wasn't to stop posting, but to slow down, read, and think, as it appears you have a bit of "Peak Oil shock".

[Shaved Monkey]

I try to fix more things than I break and have at least one great meal a day and a bottle of red and smile a lot more than I frown.

[sparky]

.
Success is when the sun rise and you are still breathing .
sound simple but the hard bit is consistency

[Deputy Barnes]

Step 1: Vote Republican.

[Tanada]

Step 1: Vote Republican.

I just love it when a Democrat Operative shows up, trolls a bunch of racist/sexist/fringe crud all over to get attention stereotyping Republicans and then yells Vote Republican in an attempt to pump up the Democrat voter base.

Sorry but the Americans on this site are already about 75-85% Democrat voters so all your trolling has been wasted effort.

[careinke]

Step 1: Vote Republican.

I just love it when a Democrat Operative shows up, trolls a bunch of racist/sexist/fringe crud all over to get attention stereotyping Republicans and then yells Vote Republican in an attempt to pump up the Democrat voter base.

Sorry but the Americans on this site are already about 75-85% Democrat voters so all your trolling has been wasted effort.

I guess I fall into that 15%, but I am not a republican. I tried, but stupidity seems to be rampant in both parties. I used to be angry, now I'm just amused.

[Deputy Barnes]

Democrat Operative? I couldn't make the cut. That's Special Forces Trolling.

Step 1: Vote Republican.

I just love it when a Democrat Operative shows up, trolls a bunch of racist/sexist/fringe crud all over to get attention stereotyping Republicans and then yells Vote Republican in an attempt to pump up the Democrat voter base.

Sorry but the Americans on this site are already about 75-85% Democrat voters so all your trolling has been wasted effort.