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Achievement

Less searchable M0rd4nt

00:38 / 10.04.02

What have you done (recently or not so recently) that fills you with a sense of achievement and satisfaction? Was it a creative project, a career move, a difficult decision, or just one of those small events in life that somehow fill you with satisfaction?

01:16 / 10.04.02

...got out of bed and did something mildly productive in lines with the creative work I was doing professionally. It started at 10am this morning and I just got done with today's "shift". I think I have a direction for the client, albeit, a simple one. Day to day satisfaction seems to be the only one presently available to feed good vibes... long term...um..will have to get back to you...

01:21 / 10.04.02

I was accepted into graduate school, and learned enough about food irradiation to decide what my opinion is on that issue.

02:00 / 10.04.02

I bought a run down house and made it work.
I appear to have a healthy relationship.
I just put a trellis up for the cucumber vines, which are coming along nicely, thank you kindly.
Just made a very nice tomato salad over the weekend, with homegrown basil in it. (Raspberry vinegar and nasty cooking wine - soak them yellow onions & garlic to mellow 'em, add sliced tomato, basil, black pepper, and enjoy.)

Most importantly, I'm hanging soundproofing up in me detached garage/future studio. And I've just put up brackets for shelves that fit nicely under the tiles, so I can use some of the huge glass shelves that have been in the yard since we bought the place. Once it's done, I'll finally have a place to turn the guitar amp up past 5. I've never had that since I left college.

(so, Thiazi/Mormael, what do you think about food irradiation? I tend not to like it, but only because I'm one of those guys who's into getting infected to spruce up the old immune system.)

02:12 / 10.04.02

I am the first, last and only winner of the Last Kung Fu Fighter Scholarship.

02:30 / 10.04.02

I've decided to take math classes until a) my head explodes, b) I realize mathematics isn't for me but [insert related field of study] is, or c) I find myself sitting dazedly on a curb somewhere with a degree.

A small event, but decisions that arrive with such clarity are rare for me.

wembley can change in 28 days

04:03 / 10.04.02

I lost 40 pounds. Not money, lbs. Ego booster supreme.

08:19 / 10.04.02

i've been reading my short stories, deciding which ones to put in the collection i'm publishing soon. and i'm happily surprised at how good they are.

08:36 / 10.04.02

Do you have any examples of your stories online SFD, wouldn't mind reading one?

As for achievments, I'm pretty happy that I'm actually in London, thats good enough for me....you know failing college and not doing very well in school and still ending up in a half decent jobs pretty damn good...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

08:43 / 10.04.02

Last time I was really proud of anything was about seven or eight years ago, when myself and a friend put together several issues of a creative writing zine and got nice letters about our stuff. Boy, that was a long time ago.
But just wait till I get this trick with the moose, the rubber tubing and the midgets perfected. THEN you'll see ego-rebirth!

08:46 / 10.04.02

goldbear - nothing online as yet. but don't worry - will be hassling you to get a copy of the collection when it comes out. good to see you're happier in london these days.

08:54 / 10.04.02

I have a bit of a problem being genuinely proud of myself for anything... I always feel mediocre. I've lost three and a half stone in about 9 months or so. I could be proud of that, and I have flashes of near-pride... but no, it doesn't quite do it. Probably the thing I am closest to being proud of is 'finishing' my dissertation. And not being a complete arsehole all the time, I am proud of that...

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:27 / 10.04.02

At the moment, I'm proud that I decided to bite the bullet and go all out for the writing thang. Funnily enough, I now feel much more motivated about all my other stuff too.

20:41 / 10.04.02

As for achievments, I'm pretty happy that I'm actually in London, thats good enough for me....

You stole the words out of my mouth! I'm also pretty satisfied that I finally found a nice big book of antique maps on the weekend. It cost me dear, but it's exactly what I was looking for.

When I make it to Ireland this summer, it will be an achievment of a lifetime. I've been aching to go there since I read The Ginger Man and The Committments 7 years ago.

21:02 / 10.04.02

1. standing up to a professor (quite rudely i might add), not apologizing, keeping up my "voice of reason" antics and feeling no reprecussions!

2. spending the last year in a mental haze and still maintaining all the important aspects of my life.

3. (indirect action) finding some great new music lately, simply by being receptive to those around me.

05:46 / 11.04.02

1) Transforming a crap garden into a Ground Force wet dream. With decking, bamboo screening, pots, herbs and climbing clematis.

2) Getting nominated for a regional journalism award (find out in three weeks - wank for Sax thread coming imminently!)

3) Getting the novel rejected by three agents. Starting a new one the next day with unrelenting cheeriness.

4) Telling the bloke who told me my car warranty was invalid because of a crap loophole and leaving me with a repair bill of several hundred pounds: "You are a shyster cowboy bastard from hell, and your karma is festering like a sore. Still it's your life. Twat."

5) Completing a six hour rehearsal with my band eighteen months after we last gathered as a group, and sounding absolutely fucking rocking.

6) Having a conversation with my dad as two adults.

Disco is My Class War

06:42 / 11.04.02

Yesterday I went to the doctor and asked him if I could start taking testosterone. F'real. Which has taken me about three months of missing appointments, being convinced the receptionist at the clinic knew who I was and hated my guts, double-booking appointments with meetings I had to go to, and various other faffing aboutnesses.

I have resolve. And I also have a doctor who looks like he's gonna prescribe the drugs and is quite nice into the bargain. (He also has blue hair.)

11:44 / 11.04.02

I am alive and school/university/life didn't break me.

Oh yes have stuck with Ti Chi for 2 and a bit whole months, first new years resolution I have ever kept.

Surreal, second time I've answered that question today.
Will think about it a bit more...

11:51 / 11.04.02

Last week I finally had a week where my store appeared to make money.

I've also finished two comic scripts for the collective comics project that I'm quite proud of.

Zoom.

pointless and uncalled for

11:57 / 11.04.02

Finally completed a college course at the age of 26. Only eight years later than everyone else but I'm still proud of it.

22:07 / 11.04.02

I'm satisfied with the knowledge that I've not been kidding myself all these years and that, now I've finally got around to submitting one of my novels, I've quickly acquired a number of literary agents who want to publish me. Of course, the house of cards will probably crumble when the general public get hold of the work, but I'll be in Bognor living off the advance by then...

ONLY NICE THINGS

08:24 / 12.04.02

Actually, Ria asked me this question in the back of a taxi in Boston last year - I don't think she expected it to be quite such a stumper.

But....I think, in a funny sort of way, it was graduating. Now, to expalin a little. At my polytechnical college, graduating was a process distinct from actually finishing the course. You could graduate any time after finishing your exams, during which interval you were a graduand.

Anyway, graduating was one of those things that I never really got around to, since I tended to see the whole thing as fundamentally a huge pile of shit. But, eventually, my beloved sister and I were herded into doing the furry gown and Latin bit, and half an hour or so later were all graduated up.

All pretty non...except that a month later my mother's long-term partner died, and that became the last time I saw her. And she was enormously, massively proud of me and my sister, and happy, and it was just a big and reasonably happy family event. Which, given my family, is actually quite an achievement, now that I think about it.

11:44 / 12.04.02

I built up all my stuf for making noisy tekno and mellow ambient shit again after it was thieved. I'm living in Ireland so it'll be a bit hard to actually get playing a live set again. I also understood my own slightly fucked up psychology a lot better.
Now maybe if I met a nice girl I wouldn't be so obssessive...
With the state of my brain that would be an achievement

Goodness Gracious Meme

16:09 / 12.04.02

Spoke to my dad about emotional stuff i've kept hidden for years, lost control and cried for the first time in years, shouted at him for the first time EVER, broached loads of tricky subjects and feel damn proud of myself.

have just bought a fantastic (late) birthday present for someone Round Here...

Sent some letters and parcels to people I care about. It's a small thing, but I'm usually far too disorganised and crap to get it together to do this.

Helped participate in a really moving and constructive counselling class, was utterly open about some terrifying stuff, and it was totally fine.

This is a great thread.

20:07 / 12.04.02

Um, saved up money and worked real hard and paid for a trip to London, a trip to Prague and my Language School, even if my money did run out at the bitter end (and all those gentle souls who bought me drinks or cigarettes or whatever will be rewarded - I don't forget generosity!).

Got my TEFL certificate, something I'd been talking about for a year and a half before I actually went off and did it.

Got a job in London at a language school that will sponsor my work visa, which is a mighty, mighty coup.

And found my computer's mysterious hiding place of my audiofiles.

10:21 / 14.04.02

well i have just found some online reviews of a mag with a story of mine in it, from summer 1997. never knew at the time what anyone thought of the story, but....well, let's just say i've been happily bawling my eyes out at what i've just read and i am itching to get writing.