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| Author |
Message |
keesan
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A better life
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May 26 15:51 UTC 2002 |
How has your life changed for the better in the past year and how do you
expect it to improve in the next 12 months? This can include things like new
jobs, housing, friends or improved health or anything else you like.
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| 85 responses total. |
slynne
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response 1 of 85:
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May 26 17:09 UTC 2002 |
I make about $5000 more per year than I did 12 months ago. Otherwise,
my life is remarkably the same.
There is a very good possibility that my life will change significantly
in the next 12 months. But then, isnt that always the case?
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oval
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response 2 of 85:
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May 26 19:31 UTC 2002 |
i have had one of the worst years of my life. but it has changed my life for
the better, in that i've learned a lot of things "the hard way" and found a
lot out about myself. no, really. and that's about as specific as i can get.
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jaklumen
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response 3 of 85:
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May 26 23:42 UTC 2002 |
Since 2000, I've been in a long slow slide into poverty. I did have a
full-time job in 2001, but was fired in August for no real fault of my
own. The holiday season I started a part-time job with 26 hours,
which slid to about 15 hours after January of this year. Everything
has just barely been above minimum wage, and is by *no* means a living
wage at all. I am hoping things will improve, but it has been very,
very bleak financially.
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keesan
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response 4 of 85:
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May 27 02:28 UTC 2002 |
Lumen, are you omitting something nice that happened in your life in the last
week or so?
Jim has progressed from having a house full of junk to having a house where
most of the junk has been either fixed or recycled to make room for a very
nice housemate (lucky on the third try). He now has a 100' long electrical
conduit ready for upgrading his service, after several years of planning,
thanks to the digging skills of the housemate, and a yard full of vegetables
plants instead of weeds, and the closet project is done and you can walk
thorugh the kitchen and living room without tripping. He hopes by this time
next year to still have the housemate and maybe one more, plus wired-in
electric heat at 1/4 the usual rate and more junk fixed or recycled.
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jep
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response 5 of 85:
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May 27 02:49 UTC 2002 |
The last year has unquestionably been the worst 12 month period of my
life, with my wife filing for divorce. The bad year will continue and
probably wind up being a bad 15 months or so, ending around the end of
this calendar year, whenever the divorce is finalized and I learn to
deal with it.
I can't think of anything good that has happened in the last year,
unless it's my brother's marriage (which hasn't affected me enough to
matter) or his son surviving a car accident (which would have made the
last year much worse as I am close to my nephew), or remaining
employed. But it's hard to consider these things as particularly
good. They didn't improve anything for me.
Whenever the bad year ends, anything that follows will be fine with
me. I expect that anything that follows will be wonderful by
comparison. I'm holding on and waiting for that to happen.
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michaela
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response 6 of 85:
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May 27 04:01 UTC 2002 |
The past twelve months have been full of ups and downs, but things are getting
better. Even during the icky spells, I had *something* worth remembering.
It's not worth getting into... I have an online journal with archives if you
want to waste time reading that. :)
Journal - http://www.angelfire.com/mi/sarahmichaela/journal.html
Archives - http://www.angelfire.com/mi/sarahmichaela/archives.html
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jaklumen
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response 7 of 85:
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May 27 04:08 UTC 2002 |
resp:4 Yes, I thought about that. Sarah is a wonderful joy in my
life. It is definitely wonderous, and has given my life meaning.
However, I worry about providing for her.
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scott
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response 8 of 85:
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May 27 04:09 UTC 2002 |
This year (well, last fall) I finally burned out on pure software work, and
quit my job. So this is career search and vacation year, which is quite a
change. I'd been at my last job more than 8 years.
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bdh3
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response 9 of 85:
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May 27 08:12 UTC 2002 |
The past year has been a period of increasing work, increasing stress,
hoarding of wealth, and increasing taxes. We cut back to one car,
and since my current deployment moved downtown from the 'burbs we
take public transportation (the bus) to work. (Actually that
probably is a net loss of stress since the beginning of April as
I no longer have that horrible commute. I can zone out while I
mingle with the real people.) My mandarin vocabulary and comprehension
is increasing as I work with a lot of chinese - I probably have
the voc/comp of an young child by now - have started to seriously
consider studying it. Actually loaded a mandarin course on my
laptop - much hilarity on the part of my co-workers - "The young
boy is on top of the table". I score about 60% for a 1st grader
in comprehension although I am functionally illiterate with the
exception of being able to count and conduct financial transactions.
(plus I can recognize and pronounce the names of emperors for
the last 2000 years...)
Who knows what the next 12 months will bring, that is too far in
the future to plan.
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anderyn
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response 10 of 85:
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May 28 02:59 UTC 2002 |
Well, the last 12 months have been stressful, no doubt about it, what with
Gareth going off to join the Air Force, and Rhiannon announcing her pregnancy,
and then Bruce's job uncertainties, ending in his being laid off, BUT...
I'm very proud of Gareth, and Rhiannon asked me to be with her when her son
was born, which is an experience which I will always treasure, and I do adore
little Griffin... Can't think of anything really good about Bruce's not
working, but on the whole, the plusses balance out the minuses.
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edina
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response 11 of 85:
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May 28 17:26 UTC 2002 |
My life is in flux - I am not sure if I am better or worse from splitting with
Gary - in many ways, I am better - but sometimes, it can feel worse. I tend
to go with the side of better though. I am about 30 pounds lighter. I seem
to be a bit more focused. I am better able to handle my family right now.
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janc
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response 12 of 85:
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May 29 17:22 UTC 2002 |
12 months? Try six months.
In the last six months:
- Gained a daughter.
- Lost my mom.
- Bought and moved to a new house.
- Became, with my brothers, responsible for the care of my father and
sister.
- Lots of savings vanished, partly into new house, partly into living
expenses during several months when I didn't have enough time to
do any work.
Nothing much happened in the six months before that.
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viper2
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response 13 of 85:
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May 30 14:30 UTC 2002 |
My life for the past year has been horrible....
-Erik's brother moved in with us
-New Job (which I hate now)
_Erik lost his job
_Erik's sister moved in with us
_Erik cheated on me cause he was bored at home all day
_Erik and I broke up
_Moved to a new place
_Cat got killed
_Horrible car trouble...
I figure good things must be around the corner...
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mary
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response 14 of 85:
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May 30 17:13 UTC 2002 |
I had a wonderful year.
I had the opportunity to re-establish a relationship with
both my brother and sister, who both moved in with me.
I took some time off to re-think my career options.
An old but comfortable relationship that wasn't really working
ended and I've met someone new. Change is good.
I no longer have to live with that damn cat.
I'm getting more exercise.
I'm thinking positive.
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mary
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response 15 of 85:
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May 30 17:14 UTC 2002 |
(Sorry, couldn't resist.)
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mynxcat
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response 16 of 85:
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May 30 17:39 UTC 2002 |
This response has been erased.
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keesan
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response 17 of 85:
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May 31 01:48 UTC 2002 |
I have three times as many ride-worthy bikes as I did a couple of weeks ago
and much more space in my yard (but way less in Jim's garage). And finally
a pentium computer with all my files working on it (given to us 3 years ago).
Some nice new neighbors. No health problems, no wealth problems, no relative
problems - I should keep reminding myself how many things are not going wrong.
(So what if I only got five hours of sleep partly due to the neighbors' dogs
barking almost continuously from 1:30 to 2:00.)
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jaklumen
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response 18 of 85:
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May 31 04:07 UTC 2002 |
Indeed.
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slynne
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response 19 of 85:
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Jun 3 20:55 UTC 2002 |
Sindi, I have an idea of something you can do about barking dogs in the
middle of the night. Get some ear plugs. I am going to get some myself
to deal with my 6am bulldozer problem.
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oval
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response 20 of 85:
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Jun 3 21:07 UTC 2002 |
i wonder why they bother you but not the owners of the dogs. if it's due to
the fact that they aren't sleeping when you are i'd find some creative loud
as shit activities to do when they are sleeping. a bulldozer's temporary, dogs
aren't .. or are they ..
<evil grin>
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keesan
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response 21 of 85:
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Jun 3 23:28 UTC 2002 |
The two dogs seem to be gone (at least they were a couple of nights ago) which
leaves one pitbull that only barks for a few minutes. Earplugs hurt and keep
me awake, I have tried them. Apparently owners of barking dogs like to hear
the dogs barking at all hours.
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jep
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response 22 of 85:
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Jun 4 03:15 UTC 2002 |
I'm very susceptible to noise at night. I'm a light sleeper and often
have trouble getting to sleep. Any sharp sound will wake me up. I
used to keep a fan going in my bedroom all night as a white noise
generator. I tried a white-noise generator machine that played sounds
like frogs, the sea, etc. but it didn't work for me.
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rcurl
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response 23 of 85:
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Jun 4 03:57 UTC 2002 |
Frogs, the sea, etc, are very far from being white noise. Try leaving on
an FM radio tuned between stations.
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jep
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response 24 of 85:
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Jun 4 04:28 UTC 2002 |
It was called a white noise generator machine, or something similar to
that. I guess the sounds it played were the sort of sounds that help
people to sleep. I know that's not really white noise. My fan was
white noise.
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