josie

That's cool to hear! I did the video game design thing for awhile and while I really enjoyed the work I did, the culture was terrible, and like you said, to go that next level I'd have to move to a coastal city.. and that simply wasn't in the cards. The pros and cons would've been magnified and I was already miserable. Designing for the staffing industry now certainly isn't my ideal passion but it's a good learning curve. Who knows what's next. I'd like it to be sports, but again, the culture could be really tough to handle in a similar way. I'd be happiest doing solid design work/advertising but I just don't think I'm good enough for that stuff.

Niice. Yeah that's one of the big reasons I went after this gig. Just being an illustrator does not get you stable employment, and this only happened because a friend worked there and knew I was capable of learning more stuff quickly. But if that can be my special weapon in an otherwise useful arsenal, I'll have a better shot at those real jobs. I've been teaching myself basics, html, java, css, scss, a touch of python here and there on codecademy (I tried ruby and my brain just shut down) but it's pretty much worthless until I actually have to make a project happen. We're all Wordpress and I am virtually an infant in terms of knowing what to do there. Bootstrap, widgets, etc... noooo clue. Don't even know what I don't know. But that'll have to change! The trouble is the people who can really teach me/walk me through the setups in place here are all leaving...

This is very true. It's also good because now I'm going to absolutely 100% need to learn web dev, emails, video editing AND print...which will pretty much round out my designer toolbox and hopefully make me a much more attractive candidate when I feel it's time to spam the Sabres with my resume again...

So in the 9ish months I've been at my new full time job... In the creative room alone, the head developer quit, the only print/collateral person is in the process of quitting- leaving 3 devs and 0 print/design (which is what I was expecting to take over). One of those devs went on maternity leave and there's some question as to if she'll come back. 2 devs. Now one of those devs is moving to California, and we're all kinda expecting him to find a new job out there sooner rather than later... 1 dev. And he just put in his 2 weeks yesterday. 0 devs at a web dev marketing company. There is now one person learning basic web dev, and me, who has never really touched it... and somehow we're going to have to learn/pull a load that was already too much when everyone who were wizards at this stuff were here. They've been searching for replacements for the first person to leave for 6 months to no avail. the next few months may kill me... at least I can basically say "you better pay up" when the sh!t hits the fan and I'm woking insane overtime on a salary...

With all the stuff in my family life, my will/ability to do freelance every night after 1-2 other jobs has completely fallen off a cliff. I'm a walking excuse machine now. I feel like I'm slogging... and the holidays are coming... and everyone needs things... and I'm just letting everyone down.

says the goalie named Carter

There is no harder. Grief is what it is to each person, and it's a disservice to yourself to say your pain is lesser to someone else's. I think we do that too much- hold people to painful standards that insinuates that they are selfish for caring deeply for some problems and not somehow solving all the others. And pets.. they're family. They share some of our hardest moments without judgement. And they give us some of our best. That's a sacred bond. ---- I'm in a holding pattern. My dad will go to Cleveland Clinic... when they call. Could be next week. Could be January. No clue. So now it's a case of waiting and seeing and hoping against hope that he holds steady until that time. He'll go back to work in the meantime; I am powerless in that fight. I continue as if nothing's happening as best I can, but I'm still half-waiting for that dreaded phone call that it is too late and I never got to say goodbye. I am grateful for Thanksgiving and also dreading it. I didn't expect to go through a lot of this before 30. It makes me feel a lot less secure in the world.

Few things are harder than being there when your pet is put down. Few things are harder than burying them. I'm sorry. ❤️

It was a glass one- he set it down just wrong and it just shattered. No fault of his burgeoning winter diet ? It was quite a few years old- those pretty fancy scales just don't last like the old ones

Yeah, I read an article by Vogl on the Athletic where various guys were interviewed about the team culture and how much it has changed. Little things like adding photos of past Sabres greats in the dressing room, asking Drury (I think it was him) to talk on videos, give them a reason to respect and want to wear the logo and jersey. How the guys are starting to trust and respect each other on the ice, and how in the past they were just a group of hockey players rather than a team. We've discussed the malaise that was in the locker room the last few years (especially last year with mental health issues). It seems, by all accounts, to be lifting. It won't mean instant success but it's a positive in my book. I read that last night. DGB does good summaries. I feel that's pretty accurate. It's always nice that most bloggers/comedians have no real ill will towards us finally succeeding.

Dark broke our scale. And I don't really care to buy a new one. I used to base my entire self worth on that number and subject myself to over exercise and starving to make it smaller. I've found I'm much healthier if I ignore it. So I guess this is a good step for me. Besides, I weigh the same/slightly more as I did 10 years ago, and I'm about 6 dress sizes smaller. The number is sometimes totally worthless. I'll never consistently weigh under 140 and be a dainty beauty, I may be "overweight" according to the BMI charts, but my muscly shoulders and back can fight the critics. Have added 50-100 lunges or squats to my daily routine though... legs are starting to look like I'm actually a 30 year old woman rather than 20s... damn you changing fat deposits we talked about this ?

I grew up hearing about the roadtrip from Hell to Paradise in one day:

We ain't settin' the world on fire but boy I'm sure gonna take my kicks where I can get 'em. If this is how it feels to finally be borderline average, I can't wait to be good again.

I dunno, you are kind of a blonde viggo mortensen.... ?

No offense to Woody, but I'm all set in the man department. Beard included. And neither here nor there but I can out thumb wrastle dark any day. I've get them flexible piano playin' hands.

Yeah. I've almost filled in the hole I had to dig last year. About 8 months of full time work, with a couple side gigs. Feels ok until I think about how it really doesn't help much in terms of actual life milestones (house, wedding, kids, all that stuff-yeah, never gonna happen). I do tend to hoard my money like a grumpy old dragon hoarding a gold pile though.

Same. We have a certain amount of vacation days and then personal/sick days- use however you want as PTO. But it doesn't roll over. So I guess everyone just takes the last week of December off, mostly. My sister's company lets you keep it- girl had accrued a month or two of PTO which came in handy when she had to go through a nasty surgery last year. I get why they don't, but I wish my place let you do that too. Then there's folks like my friend from high school- she's a PhD in biochemical engineering or something and works down in New Orleans. 2 weeks on an oil rig, 2 weeks off, one of which is usually PTO. Very handsome pay. But being the only woman on an oil rig in the middle of the gulf in a high hazard/high stakes environment and facing the occasional bout of awful weather... you'd better pay a lot. She also travels quite a bit, but usually takes that week to just recuperate/take care of home stuff.

Single, doctor, traveling light... pretty good combo.

Think you're on your own there, bud. Feels like some 90s movie. Look Who's Talking... but with pikachu. Grimdark pokemon grit... I dunno.

Aw man that's so rough- murphy's law was in full effect. I'm sorry you had to go through that. So good news- my dad did just get referred to Cleveland Clinic this morning. So now we just gotta get all the files sorted out and they find an opening and get this ball rolling.

My dad's out of the hospital again and I think I managed to talk him out of flying out to work this week (feel like just being diagnosed with multiple pulmonary embolisms and having mystery ailments are not the sort of things you should be subjecting your body to high altitude with). Now I just need divine providence to convince him to go to Cleveland Clinic for some better doctors/tests. I'll even go visit him. I just need him to do it. Fingers crossed.

Still open? Just found out my dad is in the hospital- pulmonary embolism. Is it bad part of me is glad they finally found something? So yep... another long day of being scared sh!tless with no control.

Oh no, that's awful. ? Best of luck, my thoughts are with you. Take care of yourself.

I mean, there's a fair bit of evidence that he at least used to be quite the party animal. And this tweet concerns him before now. Don't know what he's like now. Jack hasn't done anything to further that reputation in awhile. Which is great! He's young, fielding plenty of responsibility and temptations, he's handling the pressures pretty well, so kudos to him. I chock up this whole thread to criticizing those previous actions as a younger dude who apparently acted like an idiot from time to time. Because most people acted like an idiot at some point. Athletes as a whole definitely are known to party, partying often leading to questionable stuff. Maybe not quite like they used to (thinking of stories in Derek Sanderson's autobiography, holy crap 1970s), but it's naive to say they don't! That logical thread, flawed though it may be when applied to specific cases, is the same thread used by folk to defend the athletes when bad sh!t does come up. It's holding Eichel's feet a bit close to the coals to eviscerate him on this specific thing- and I think most people see that because he has been so well behaved. The whole thing's mostly a non issue, but check it out, we're all arguing because that's what we do here. Also, I feel like there's a pretty wide gap between using slurs about someone's romantic and sexual leanings (something they can't really help) and calling a group of people who use said slurs and generally comport themselves in a raucous manner which they can absolutely control idiots. Or i missed the point and you're mad at dark. Also possible. I have a slow day at work, can you tell?

Yeah, I wasn't gonna keep going and say "they were usually gamer idiots or meathead jocks" but... well, I just did. He's def. got that "i'm a bada$$" party boy swagger thing. Seems to behave himself mostly, but I'm wary of him. I guess as I am of any super talented young rich dude learning their limits with fun, money, and booze. Let's hope he's learned and is becoming a fine young man haha