Maximum PC

Man, you just went for the gut! I tried not to bite, but will now. I'll say right off hand that I'm not lucky or I'd win the lottery. Fate was involved and some hand moving these chess piece into play were more a factor...but anyway, do you feel lucky...punk?:

1) My father was a hoodlum, but talented at it. Long stories there! But why I'm "lucky" is that he was a Helo pilot very early on in Vietnam, and those guys didn't have great survival rates to begin with. Pops got shot down twice and made it out both times. He said both where retrievals and why that worked out; there was a squad on the ground to respond. I'm here because he made it out of that.

I've got much older stories of why that guy is even lucky to be here...but that could take pages. His brothers are named Bill, Jesse, and James though.

2) I was willing to fight the machine. I've had many friends tell me during my practices that it's a fault, but after the fact...it's been very clear that my intent was spot on. It's been destructive to me, but has helped the cause. The best thing I've heard was from a group of these different groups saying "you were right man...". There's always other jobs anyways. Still do it, but it's disguised in questions.

3) I have been tempted to become a politician, am backed by all those back home that matter...and that's still on the waiting list (including 20 years of past and current mayors). Oh wait, not politician exactly: I won't lie for a vote...just a leader.

4) Been one of sorts for a while now and am basically a paralegal. A man of law is a lawyer or a Sheriff's Deputy, Bar passed or not, and still relevant for advice and practice. I'm about to have my own 32'd custody battle go in my favor in about one hour from this posting, even though I'm not there to represent as "a Lawyer". Being a lawyer isn't a bad thing, as you're basically protecting people from the law itself. If you're a bad person and are a lawyer that that acts bad, then you remain a bad person still. But saying Law Men "are not good", then that goes to civility. There's only one judge.

5) I'm not listing my own "lucky list" am I? I guess I'm just debating...too late now! You're living in the USA, and you obviously haven't seen Diamond miners or other actual infractions other than $2 an hour apple pickers.We're always under attack of being taken advantage of. When's the last time you read a resume from an apple picker?

6) The dogs love me, but for no reason...because they're dogs. If "God" said I needed a soul friend and he gave me one dog, I'd be pissed (I'm already pissed about the rib and the apple thing). Trust/faithful is one thing...but it's based on "something". That dog won't lay in the street for me, but I'd do it for my friends. It's a dog dude. An actual friend will do the same, and more.

Some say luck finds you. Others say you make your own luck. I find you make decisions that improve (or hurt) the chances luck will smile on you.

Who you are born to, no choice there. Whether your parents were considered good or bad by society, either way they can provide a life example for you to learn from. My father drank way too much. At points in his life, he was abusive to my mother and siblings. I decided early on I didn't want to be like that. I was a late addition to the family, 10 years after the older siblings. Those extra years must have given him time to reflect on the successes and failures of raising the other kids. I think he did better with me. It could be they just wore him out. He had far more attributes that I did aspire to, so I guess I was lucky there.

Chumly's views on politicians and lawyers make sense to me. There are well-meaning individuals in all socially-acceptable professions. Probably some in not-so-acceptable ones that were led down the wrong path, too. But anytime there is power, love or money to be gained, there will be those who have only selfish motives. Being from a small locality, running for office has briefly crossed my mind after seeing some of the choices on the ballot. I would like a "None of the above" option added to all ballots. If that got the most votes, throw out all of those candidates and start with new ones. It's as if someone has said, "I can either slap you, or you can give me $5." I would prefer neither. By the way, I have enough worries in my life without running for office. So, no I'm not stepping up to the plate. If I did, most would probably vote for "None of the above" anyway.

I'm lucky to have had experiences that challenged me physically, emotionally, and socially. Boy Scouts of America and the US Marine Corps were two organizations that were instrumental in shaping the person I've become. I would be remiss if I didn't also recognize certain teachers who truly cared about their students and preparing them for life after school. I have tremendous respect for the effort put forth by the best of them.

I had a couple of dogs growing up, but I guess I'm not a dog person. Cats are more my style. I had a cat that we inherited when my mother-in-law passed away. The cat had been allowed to climb anywhere it wanted, including kitchen counters. I started off hating that cat and the feeling was probably mutual as I tried to break it of it's counter-hopping ways. He ran off once and was gone for over a month. I thought it was the last we had seen of him. When he showed back up, he had an infection in one paw from another cat biting him. He had lost a lot of weight. After that, he was the most loving cat you could ask for. At the time, I did a job where my shirt and sometimes pants would be completely soaked with sweat. When I came home I would shed my clothes to take a bath and he would curl up on top of them. I don't know if my body odor was somehow appealing to him, but it became a regular occurrence. After my bath, I would have to shoo him off the clothes so they could go to the laundry. Like Chumly pointed out, that cat wouldn't have taken a bullet for me, but that wasn't my expectation. I wouldn't expect that from any of my grandkids either. My Marine buddies, yeah, I would have expected that and would have returned it. Different relationships, different circumstances, different expectations. Sometimes, affection is all we ask for, nothing more. I'm lucky to have known that cat. R.I.P.

After 22 years of marriage, I can say I am lucky to have chosen my wife as someone to share my life with. I wish I had put more thought into that decision from an intellectual standpoint, but the result would have been the same. That can be filed under dumb luck.

I've been a lucky too and most of it has come from this forum.

I happened to stumble upon this forum in 2005. I had trouble getting folding installed, but _r2w_ben was there to help (for those that remember). I did finally get folding running and the competitiveness of the team got me to build my first computer. After I successfully built the first computer, I started spending more time here. Eventually I became a [PC] member and a little while later a moderator.

Then the big stuff started happening. Will Smith (former MPC EIC for those that remember), posted a potential job posting in a private area. I applied, interviewed and was accepted. I worked that position for three months and then started blogging/writing for maximumpc.com. I quit mid-July of that year and this eventually led in to another job.

So where does this all lead? I ended up working throughout college, mostly remotely. I had enough experience to say I did something while at college rather than simply being a "professional student". And I had enough money to move to another city to take a full-time job.



Hard to believe a lot of this started because of MPC!

I've been lucky.... lately....

Broke the Honda Shadow out of storage after 9 months... forgot to renew tag Have ridden every day for the past 3 weeks & only rained on 3 times even though it has been raining dialy. Just the commute to & from work I've already figured out has saved about $30 in gas or $10 per week if only ridden to & from work!

Having some problems with it, but working them out one by one. Unfortunately, I'll have to ride every day till the end of the year to save the money I'm putting back into it. But I'm doing all the work myself, already have all the tools I need to do the work, & by the end of summer should have her bumped up near the 40HP range with little to no impact on MPG, a gain of about 6.5HP. That's pretty decent for a small, light weight motorcycle!

Yes, I'm a lucky man... & will enjoy it while it lasts

Wow G-Man, what a wonderful topic.

Since the VA kicked in, we've been enjoying our fair share of blessings! That's for sure. Not having to worry, too much, about money all the time really makes a man feel free. We still have a budget and all, but it's much more flexible now. I didn't realize how bad I was making my health by cutting people's grass for money there towards the end....just before our back pay came in. Things had become very, very rough financially. Luckily though, VA kicked in and now, all is OK with the world. I find I'm much more capable of processing bullshit from other people and also, I tend to hold my temper better. Most days. LOL!

We've finally moved down to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida!! Been here about a month or so now.

During that process, I've uncovered a few computer parts I'm not using. So I have something to contribute to the next Folding event. Also have gotten a couple of fishing rods and have plans to start surf fishing once the weather cools down a little bit. Heat still kicks my ass, but I'm trying to build up my tolerance. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to health issues though.

Even though I still have all those health problems I had before, there have been some vast improvements in my headaches and such. I plan to do a re-introduction thread since I've been gone so long. I also need to do a lot of catching up on computer hardware. I've not bought anything computer related for well over a year. Unheard of previously! But the tech has changed a lot and I need to get back into the swing of things.

My daughter is now a 2LT in the Alabama Army National Guard. She is also a Senior at The University of Alabama. She is studying Criminal Psychology, which will work out well for her career in the Army as an MP!

My son is going to turn 18 this December. He is a Senior in high school and doing quite well. A soccer player, he is in great shape! He plans on joining the Army right out of high school, but he also wants to be a helicopter pilot. So the wife and I are working him over about taking advantage of the multiple opportunities he has available to him to go to College for free. I think it's working too!

My wife is extremely happy in her job with her brother building and restoring houses. It keeps her going all day long and she, like I used to be in the Army, cannot sleep past 5am and has to be doing something at all times. She is just now getting to the point where she will relax a little on the weekends. Which is good for BOTH of us! LOL!

Some days are still pretty tough. The recent downing of that Chinook in Afghanistan saw me lose a few friends. Over all though, it has made me realize just how lucky I was over all those years to never die on one of those things. I'd still crew a Blackhawk today if I could, though.

My Mustang GT project is coming along nicely. I'll also post more on that later. Until then, this is how she looks today.