Updated life writing

So someone had recently told me I should write a blog and maybe throw some information out there that some people might like to know, if they didn't already. I had already been thinking about writing for sometime now, but... well... I've been busy you see. Let me explain why I've been so busy.

So for the past month and half, almost 2 months, I've been getting up at 8/ 8:30am and riding my bike to the same place about 9 minutes away from my house. Staying there till about 6pm and then riding my bike back home. When I'm at this place I do something that I've heard people call work. Then, to my absolute delight, I receive payment on the 1st and the 15th for all the time I've spent at this place that is 9 minutes (on bike) from my house. The last government issued letter I received said something to the effects that I no longer qualify to receive money from them... because.. I have a JOB.

Yes, ladies and jelly beans I've got myself a job. The weather in Hell today is 30 bellow 0 with a strong possibility of snow.

Here's the scoop: I'm the Motion Capture Engineer for inXile Entertainment. I do something that I enjoy doing (playing connect the dots all day) and have the great opportunity to not only learn new things that can help me in the future, but work with a fantastic group of people.; most of whom I've worked with a long time ago.

Outside of work is the girlfriend, family, and video games. Swing dancing has taken a ring side sitting as I've personally felt that my dancing has reached its limit, and I haven't really felt like going out much. But then, this has been happening long before I got a job. It was really just a confidence thing, as finding a job can really wear you down. Now that I have one, I might start going someday, but anytime soon. The reason for this is because my sister is getting married!

So ya, things are well. Girlfriend is awesome as usual, job is good. I could use a replace neck, but other than, I'm a happy camper. I'd like to thank my girlfriend, my family, and my great supportive friends who have all had faith in me and have been praying for me in this long battle of unemployment. Specific shots to God, for helping me get my act together early on so that I could be better prepared at this point, for bringing me a super awesome woman in my life that has inspired me to work harder, and just a great group of people in general.

And with that I end with a couple of movie quotes:

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow's a mystery, and Today is a gift, that is why it is called the present"

"GUMMY BEARS"

"SO FLUFFY"

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dream"

All different movies of course.

M.I.A. for quite a few months...

As many of you know I have been unemployed for quite some time. More specifically I've been unemployed for almost a grand total of 99 weeks. Which is roughly, or close to, 1 1/2 years. I say 99 weeks cause that's exactly how much time is allotted to someone on unemployment. There are exactly 99 weeks to collect. I've collected 95. Which means time has been running short. Due to this, I've been looking regularly for a job in just about anything and everything for a good 6 months. And as each month ended and I got closer to no money, I looked more often and harder. I slowly lessened my grip on my little fantasy world and started to grasp reality. At about that time I started to feel less confident and feel an overall change going on. Never having motivation or a real goal, AND being paid regularly for it was, to say the least, hindering in my capacity to grow as a human bean (yes bean, cause being sounds the same as bean and I can only be serious for so long).
At that time I stopped going swing dancing. Sure I danced a little bit, went once or twice on Thursdays. It becomes very difficult looking for a job and not getting ANY responses at all on resumes and applications. So needless to say, my confidence has been very low, hence the lack of dancing. Stress has been an all time high, and for those of you who know me, I've never really completely dealt with stress. It's all been a new experience.
Luckily I've got an amazing woman in my corner rooting me on and helping through it all. It's been a bit of a struggle here and there. But with the support of my girlfriend, family and a small group of close friends, I've gotten the advice and confidence to keep moving forward.
So now I'm pleased to announce that I have 2 jobs, one for sure that I start on Tuesday. Both in the game industry. With the two jobs my time becomes even more limited. But I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of you fiends (fiends, not friends) soon as I would like to have some kind of a party, PLUS my annual bon fire is coming up soon as well.
On a side note, my sister's wedding invitations came out fantastic, and my neck isn't hurting so much as it was before. I'm almost through the woods on this one people. Almost there.

Walking behind.. not running. I don't like to run.

Apparently I've only written one blog this year and that bothers me. It's been bothering me for a few weeks. I've been kinda dwelling on the fact that I've only written one blog and I couldn't honestly think of anything to write. But now I do.
I have a bad habit. Well, I think I have a bad habit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but on certain events in my life I've chose (chosen, choose?) to not make a big deal about it. I think at some point in my life I did, but for some reason, I just stopped. Let me explain what I mean by certain events. I think for most people big events that should be celebrated with friends and family would be a graduation, or a birthday. Maybe not every birthday, but major ones, certain numbers that have a significance. I remember very vividly that when I was about to FINALLY graduate from college with just my AA, that I wasn't gonna do the ceremony. In fact, I didn't even bring it up with my family that I had finished everything until my mom asked me about it. She asked me one week before the ceremony was supposed to happen. She wasn't too happy that I hadn't told anyone and made a bigger stink about it than I had expected. Hind-sight being 20/20 of course, years later I watched as my sister graduated from college with her bachelors and the huge party she had and the gifts and money she got too. Announcements were sent and everything. Don't get me wrong, I was (and still am) a very proud brother that day. I couldn't help but be so full of absolute joy at my little sister's accomplishments. A small piece of me though was a little regretful at my own nonchallantness towards such a major achievement in my own life. I had kinda promised myself I wouldn't do that again.
But, once again, I did.
I won't go into specifics about it, but I kinda wish I had made a bigger deal about something. Not sure what feeling actually got in the way of hiding the event, I still celebrated it, but a huge party or celebration would have been pretty cool.

I think everyone needs to have at least one major celebration in their life. No wait, I take that back. I think every decade in a person's life should have a major celebration, if for nothing else than to just celebrate being alive and making it that far in life without dying.

I'm thinking of just picking a random day of the year to have such an event. Maybe make it a day for everyone, like a happy unbirthday day, but with white elephant gifts. The White Elephant day. Nah, that kinda takes away from the point of celebration of making an individual feel special, then it's just a party.

Well, I got nothin'. That was the only thought provoking idea I had.

Here's to hoping I don't not make a big deal about big deal events again. Wait... let me reword that:
Here's to hoping I make deal deal about events again in my life. I'm sure there's some people would still like to know about them.


P.S. My girlfriend is super gorgeous and sexy and talented. She's dangerous and mine. That's right, you're jealous now huh? GOOD! You should be.

Catastrophic is an awesome word

The title really has nothing to do with this blog, I just like saying "catastrophic" out loud. It sounds cool. Catastrophic. It's like there was total mayhem going on... oooooo... another good word "mayhem".
So... first blog of the year, here... we... go.
One decade is a pretty long time. One full decade, 10 years, 120 months, 520 weeks, 3650 days (give or take a few). In about 23 hours I will have traveled around the sun 30 times. 10 years ago... let's see...
10 years ago I was 20. I was most likely at my friend Jetsun's house. Jetsun's house was an amazing house/mansion that had this unique energy about it. Such an amazing place. SO many parties there. That's where I had my first drink. Yes, at 20, I had my first drink. Vodka. Along side Jetsun was Greg. Is it no surprise to anyone who knows Mr. Shupe that he would be there for my first drink? Nope. Good times indeed.
The last 10 years contain some of the more memorable moments of my life as well as some the greatest lessons anyone could have learned in the Adult life (not to say by any means that I am an adult of course). I'm not ashamed of anything that has happened to me over the course of that decade, nor do I regret anything that has happened or didn't happen. It's all been learning experience. Some of the learning has been quite hard, but I got through it and I'm most definitely stronger. I've gotten closer to old friends, further apart from old friends, written people out of my life, and added new people. I've had romances that have taught me a great deal about myself, as well as to watch out for in the future as to not be so hurt as I've been in the past. I've experienced almost every emotion one could probably deal with, 1 decade will typically contain all that. I've grown so much since I was 20, and yet, I still have that childish/boyish behavior about me that still finds it funny to try and pick someone's nose, or open and close a squeaky door cause the sound annoys other people. I would have to say though that the last 5 years have been the most crucial to me as I've learned about finance and romance, and what is required of me to make either one work correctly. This next decade will be an amazing one for sure, as all the learning experiences that have increased my own strength and confidence has grown considerably. I'm very happy with the person I see in the mirror, and I'm only more eager to see and do whatever life has to offer as I can continue on my quest to become a better person. I've discovered new talents and skills and I'm also very anxious to see these come into play as I dive into uncharted areas in my life. Slowly but surely I can feel the puzzle pieces fall into play, whether that might be a certain someone (wink wink nudge nudge say no more) and/or a career.
My point is that I'm happy. For once... not once... let me rephrase that... With full confidence I can say that I'm very happy. Notice I didn't say satisfied. I will never be satisfied. I will always strive for more. But at the same time I've learned and accepted the small things in life and can be just as content and happy with that. It's a fine balance between the two that I think everyone needs to learn. The drive to be better and have more, but the ability of being happy with very little. I think that's the key to being young.
So here's to another decade. I'm sure I'll start looking 30 in 10 years, cause right now I think, feel, and act like I'm still 22, sometimes 16.