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Thread #: 1917

Living well is the best revenge

Jeremy Reimer

Sat May 25 18:18:51 2002

You know that Seinfeld episode where Jerry says "You know, the best revenge is living well" and George replies "Yeah, like there's a chance of that!"

Well, I think I broke the Costanza mould.  Yesterday was a good day.

Our programming team and myself are starting to bond.  It's total nerd-bonding, they are both bright people and thus we share a lot of interests and points of view.  We were running like a well-oiled machine, me finding bugs, our GUI programmer fixing them before I could even write them up in the database, me participating in tagnut conversations, making suggestions on how to deal with certain interface issues (more than four cameras?  Just set the disabled properties on the button widget for 9 and 16!  Good thing I drew bitmaps for disabled modes for all buttons, huh?)

Anyway, I was chatting with the lead programmer, and we were talking about the cool things he has planned for the project after 1.0, and what a good place to work for this company has become.  And I started seeing comparisons with the early days of the Amiga (my research into this history still fresh in my mind)

Well, both Amiga and my company put up money to a small group of developers that had a vision for a product that would be years ahead of the competition (our DVR is shaping up to be like this)

Both the Amiga division and our company were small, informal groups.  

In both cases people brought their dogs to work.

Management largely stays out of the way (in the Amiga case, sadly, this ended shortly before the release of the first Amiga 1000) and lets the designers and the engineers do their stuff.

Anyway, I was always kind of sad that I had missed out on the whole birth of the personal computer (and personal computer games) industry.  But here I am, I'm an integral part of the team, we're developing a kickass product that is finally starting to come together, and I'm having fun.  And I get to fuck around with new operating systems AND GET PAID FOR IT.

Then I get a call from my wife, inviting me out to dinner.  We meet up after work, go to Red Robin, have a great time chatting, discussing all sorts of things from world affairs to how we grew up, it felt like a fun date (Jen mentioned this as well) with an interesting person, not just meeting up with your spouse.  

Then we went down to Canada Place, and sat by the water, watching boat after boat of Senior Prom Teens sailing lazily out to sea.  We snuggled a bit.

Then we went home.  This morning I feel absolutely fucking fantastic (pun intended)

I also got in the mail a prospectus from one of the best investment firms in the country, referred to by my father-in-law.   Because my wife is a customer, I don't have to have the $25,000 minimum investment, I can get in at $10,000, which I have.  Some of their funds have tripled in value over the last seven years.  They are long-term strategists, forgoing "quick riches" for slow riches that wind up being much, much more valuable.  At any rate, it will sure fucking beat the 48 cents (!!) that same amount of money earned last month at the Bank of Montreal.  :eek:

So, to sum it up, I'm having a fucking great time at work, I'm having a fucking great time at home, and I'm planning for a future where I have fucking great shitloads of money.

It's taken a long time for me to get to this position, and there have been many ups and downs along the way.  It's been a bit of a struggle at times.  But it feels like now, at 30, things are finally starting to come together.

Oh, and I've written 21,000 words so far on my first novel, anywhere from 1/5 to 1/4 of the total.  In a couple of months.  And I'm researching the history of the Amiga, and writing that too.  

And I have OSY and the people who make OSY what it is, the regulars, the folks who just get it, who understand why silliness is important and how not to take yourself (or anyone else) too seriously is perhaps one of the best things you can ever learn.

Thanks, guys, for reading this, and a big hearty "fuck you" to the sad, pathetic little people (you know who you are) who lurk at this forum searching for juicy tidbits to throw up all over the Battlefront whenever they feel like being nasty.

You now know who is really having the last laugh.  :D

pauli

Sat May 25 18:41:20 2002

shh! the battlefront will find out you're happy, and have coniptions!
Magus

Sat May 25 18:52:24 2002

That's exactly why they're sad and pathetic.
AllYorBaseRBelong2Us

Sat May 25 20:30:39 2002

Jeremy,

I am very glad that you're life is going good.  Maybe Mine will be just as good someday :)

Jeremy Reimer

Sun May 26 03:42:23 2002

I'm sure it will be, AYB.  And thanks.
Harbinger

Sun May 26 04:10:36 2002

Kudos all around. :D
chrisale

Sun May 26 06:37:20 2002

That was cool almost to the point of heart-warming.

In a time when I'm still a little down over girlfriends and the like, that gave me hope that there will be a time in my life when everything is just... perfect.

congrats man... continued success.

Magus

Sun May 26 07:21:16 2002

Group hug! No wait, what the hell am I saying?