Spawn Posted July 26, 2021 Share Posted July 26, 2021 On 5/10/2021 at 5:23 AM, Jibralta said: I am interested to know what you ended up choosing. I went with this, it was delivered last week, working well with Firestick, Netflix, Prime & Bluetooth (phones). https://www.samsung.com/us/televisions-home-theater/home-theater/sound-bars/hw-q60t-soundbar-with-dolby-audio-hw-q60t-za/#benefits 2 1 Link to comment
dias Posted July 27, 2021 Author Share Posted July 27, 2021 On 7/24/2021 at 9:09 PM, Jibralta said: I had a job that was 11AM to 7PM. I loved those hours. Yes they are good hours especially when I am in Greece. In the UK, I prefer to start at 8am and finish earlier but when I am somewhere warm it's ideal because I can go for a swim or exercise for a few hours before I start work. I go for a run on the mountain hill and then for a swim I do have a hard time working though, I want to be outside all day and exercise, I don't care about databases, I don't care about bugs in production, I just want to be outside all day long... 1 Link to comment
dias Posted July 31, 2021 Author Share Posted July 31, 2021 From some comments on FB I think the girl from my previous work got engaged indeed and it seems marriage is also in the near future. It's wrong. It's one of these (many) times HE f*cked up. This girl should have been with me. It's a mistake, I don't get it. When we walked together it felt right. I can't really describe the feeling, it just felt right. It's the only time I felt like this for a girl...... Link to comment
Jibralta Posted July 31, 2021 Share Posted July 31, 2021 Pretty lady. She reminds me of one of the girls I am friends with from my previous job. My sister and I both had very blond hair when we were kids. It got darker as we got older. 1 Link to comment
dias Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 It's a cruel, cruel summer!!!! I am kidding hahahahaha Link to comment
dias Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 A woman around mid 40s honked the horn and waved at me with a smile whilst she was waiting in the traffic light (I go everywhere shirtless of course 😎), what a shame she didn't stop to get to know each other. She wasn't good looking but we are not picky if it's only sex 😎 Women really get rowdy when they are 2+ in a group. A car with firefighters (all women) drove past me when I was running and they started whistling. Next time I will ask to throw me money as well, how can I make money when I am giving everything for free, I am too generous and people take advantage of it 😎 This is how women feel when they get attention? I bet they secretly love it lol I like it for sure, the more the better, and if they pay for dates I would love it even more hahahahahaha Link to comment
Jibralta Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 3 minutes ago, dias said: This is how women feel when they get attention? I bet they secretly love it lol I like it for sure, the more the better, and if they pay for dates I would love it even more hahahahahaha Lol. I absolutely hated the catcalling. Although I took full advantage of the free meals/ free drinks, etc. 😉 Now that I've aged out of the 'prime' category, I no longer get that kind of attention... and I don't miss it, not even the free stuff. 1 Link to comment
dias Posted August 1, 2021 Author Share Posted August 1, 2021 22 minutes ago, Jibralta said: Lol. I absolutely hated the catcalling. Although I took full advantage of the free meals/ free drinks, etc. 😉 Now that I've aged out of the 'prime' category, I no longer get that kind of attention... and I don't miss it, not even the free stuff. I don't doubt it's nice to be a good looking woman. Don't get me wrong, if I had the choice of gender selection before I was born, I would pick to be born a guy every single time. Although dating is much more difficult as a man, in every other part of life it's awesome to be a guy. How is life from your side Jib ? life must be pretty awesome as a good looking woman especially when it comes to relationships, you don't have to do anything, you can just wave in the street and get a hot guy lol You don't have to chase, you don't need to get rejected one million times (if ever), you don't need to pay for anything, you don't need to have a good job, you don't need to be funny or anything, you have the whole world lol it must certainly feel good hahaha Link to comment
Jibralta Posted August 1, 2021 Share Posted August 1, 2021 3 hours ago, dias said: How is life from your side Jib ? life must be pretty awesome as a good looking woman especially when it comes to relationships, you don't have to do anything, you can just wave in the street and get a hot guy lol You don't have to chase, you don't need to get rejected one million times (if ever), you don't need to pay for anything, you don't need to have a good job, you don't need to be funny or anything, you have the whole world lol it must certainly feel good hahaha Lol yeah right 😂 If only life were that simple. 1 Link to comment
dias Posted August 3, 2021 Author Share Posted August 3, 2021 It reached 45 Celsius today, now it's a torture for real.... I am really struggling to work, my brain refuses to function, all I want to do is lift weights, relax on the beach and have sex. Everything else feels like a torment. It's not for long here, these conditions derail my goals. I booked one week off at the end of the month, then no more holidays as I need to focus. It's so easy to get distracted. I love hot weather but it does not help, I can easily spend 5-6 hours per day exercising and the rest having sex. It's really nice, don't get me wrong, but it's not productive in the long term. Link to comment
dias Posted August 5, 2021 Author Share Posted August 5, 2021 I met a childhood friend, at some point he pulled his phone out and started using Tinder, he looked at me and said jokingly "we don't have much competition here" lol (he used to live in the UK). I laughed, it's true, the standards are very low here, in the UK it's a bit better. Not that I personally have competition anywhere but hey let's pretend we are modest hahaha The average woman is not a goddess of course but at least she is representable, the guys are like ugly meatballs with a scruffy beard. I really enjoy it when their girlfriends look at me and they get pissed off at them hahahahaha. A British lady told me once "you are so handsome I thought you were from Rome, I've been to a Greek island and the men were ugly". It was a compliment and an insult at the same time. I thought maybe she saw the 50+ years old fat ugly fisherman with the missing tooth lol. You don't take the bottom 1% to extrapolate; nor of course the top 1%😎. As we know in statistics the sample you take is extremely important, you have to pick a sample from the average population and remove the negative or positive outliers. As for the dad bod is sexy that guys use for excuse, well, it's an excuse. Yesterday a girl told me about 2 guys she really liked in the past but they both let themselves and became disgustingly ugly (her words) lol. Until then she believed if you love someone appearance wouldn't matter but after this experience she changed her mind. It's normal, relationships are not charity....unless both become fat and ugly, then it's ok as there is equality. Sometimes I empathize with women.... I am kidding lol Compromising with low standards would do them good hahaha Link to comment
dias Posted August 8, 2021 Author Share Posted August 8, 2021 Lots of fires the last few days, it was a bit miserable, the air was so dirty I had to stay inside. But today it was much better, the normal bright blue sky. Lots of boats and yachts near the coast. Instead of a house I could buy a boat with 150K and work remotely from the boat whilst sailing in the Mediterranean. Funny thing, I can do it now, it’s not a dream anymore. I can easily picture me working from a boat. Well, not working exactly, more like fishing and swimming with music in the background. Now that I am thinking about it, I could also put a billboard saying: FREE CRUISES FOR WOMEN ONLY Terms and conditions apply: No bras allowed on the boat Yes, I like it. That’s the dream hahahahahahahahaha It’s so annoying this is not my dream and I wouldn’t be satisfied in the long term. Ahh, I wish I could change personality sometimes, I would be much happier in life (I am quite happy now but there is always better lol) I ran 18km today, I feel I am starting to recharge my batteries; the exercise, the sun, the sea and a bit of sex did me good, I am a simple person. The only thing I don’t like is the workload, it’s a lot and it will keep increasing. Things go where I want but much quicker than I wanted, it’s a constant go-go-go. Anyway, I will try to keep a balance till the end of the month because I need to recharge completely, it will be a difficult year with no breaks. Have a nice Sunday evening 😊 1 Link to comment
dias Posted August 11, 2021 Author Share Posted August 11, 2021 On 8/4/2021 at 5:47 PM, Jibralta said: You did try to deescalate the situation. You offered an explanation, you stood up for your friend, and then you even offered a conciliatory fist bump. I would have screamed incoherently into his face and broken his g-ddamned piece of art over his head lol. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 This is my Jib!!! I expected you would react this way, especially the last part hahahahaha This is why you are my favourite ENA friend! 1 Link to comment
Jibralta Posted August 11, 2021 Share Posted August 11, 2021 1 hour ago, dias said: 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 This is my Jib!!! I expected you would react this way, especially the last part hahahahaha This is why you are my favourite ENA friend! I'm glad we understand each other lol 😂😂 1 Link to comment
dias Posted August 14, 2021 Author Share Posted August 14, 2021 Why is it so difficult to find a place in Leeds...? I am also looking for places in Newbury as an alternative if I can't find anything in Leeds. The landlord already gave my room so I have to move by mid September and I haven't found anything yet. I don't want to end up it the South, i don't like it, not for any particular reason but I don't feel it. I like the North despite the rain, I feel I fit there. I miss Liverpool badly, I know I said I never go backwards once I am gone but I would gladly go back to Liverpool. It's one of the few places I could actually live for years or forever. And maybe I could have seen again one particular face................................................................... Link to comment
dias Posted August 14, 2021 Author Share Posted August 14, 2021 It's so disappointing when you cannot be with someone you really really like. Especially when you are difficult like me who likes a person every 5+ years. Link to comment
dias Posted August 21, 2021 Author Share Posted August 21, 2021 FINALLY!!! One week off!! The last time I got annual leave was exactly one year ago. Damn, we had a lot of work this week. Basically, it was only work all day long, 11+ hours everyday. I like the job but man it's difficult to put so many hours everyday. Good thing, I will be the first one on the team to join the migration project to the Cloud. The downside, I have also to complete my normal workload, it's just too much. Anyway, I am happy where things are going in general. This is the first time I want to stay at the same company for 3-4+ years and the reason is I can learn a lot, although I have to work all the time. The team leader asked me what I think about the new technologies. I told him that they don't seem the best fit for what we are doing but I find them interesting and I want to learn. He replied "yeah who cares if they are efficient, let's learn the new tech stack and find a job with double the money". I laughed, we are on the same page hahahaha. But ideally my next step is doing something on the side with this knowledge and hopefully start building a business from there. Only God knows how much I want this, I've been waiting my whole life for this...... Now don't ask me "what is the point if you work all the time and you don't have time to enjoy life or the money you make" like my mother because there is no answer to this eternal question. If there is, it's certainly not money, maybe ambition, I don't know. I have recharged my batteries almost completely, now with this week off, I will be good to go all out again for the next several months. When I think of achievements and I am getting a mental erection, this is how I know I am good lol Bro came for two weeks, he asked me again when I will visit him in Boston. I was planning a nice two weeks trip in October or November, one week in Boston and one in Miami but with this workload I just can't take any more days off. For the next 3 or 4 years I have to be extremely dedicated and focused, otherwise my dream will remain a dream forever. Link to comment
dias Posted September 2, 2021 Author Share Posted September 2, 2021 Back to the UK since Monday. I have mixed feelings, on the one hand I am happy I am back, on the other hand, I think I could have stayed a month more in Greece as the weather is pretty good until October. I had a pretty good time in Athens this time. Lots and lots of exercise, running and swimming to the point of exhaustion, I loved it. Met a girl, we had a few ONS, very decent sessions, she could handle more than an hour of pure sex haha. Bro came for 2 weeks with his wife and we went out with his friends (he has better friends than me lol), parents are good, I had a great time overall. I think I know why this time it felt so good, it’s because it’s the first time I make very good money, nothing else changed so this must be it. Money does not make you happy but it sure makes you enjoy life more even if you don’t spend much. Yeah, I like having money, it makes me feel good hahaha. Anyway, I am here now and I am very productive at work. I am full of energy and with this weather there are no distractions, no sun, no beaches and no girls in bikinis hahahahahaha The proper environment to work. I found a place in Newbury, a small town outside of Reading. I couldn’t find anything decent in Leeds and although everybody told me it’s a nice city it’s not nearly as nice as Liverpool. I was ambivalent about Leeds and this place in Newbury came up so I took it, I am waiting for the landlord to sign the contract and I will move there on the 19th of September. It does not look like much in the photos, a typical small town. We will see. If I don’t like it, I will move to Bristol, the company has offices one hour from Bristol. I have friends who live in Bristol and say it’s awesome, I have heard the same from everybody and in the photos it seems very pretty + it’s near the sea. I want to live by the sea, unfortunately the opportunity hasn’t come up yet (except for Liverpool, ah, I wish I could go back now that I make money). The problem is the company makes announcements every 15 days about when we will get back to the office, from April to August to September and now to October but even this is not certain. Google delayed the return to the office to mid January, I bet many other tech companies will do the same. Whatever the case, for the next few months Newbury it is. I am not disappointed although I am sure it won’t be Liverpool or Bristol but I have a good feeling about this small town, I have a feeling that something good will happen. I had the same feeling in May and it came true, maybe it will come true this time too. Link to comment
dias Posted September 7, 2021 Author Share Posted September 7, 2021 I've been almost 3 and a half months in this company and not even one task/project went smoothly. I/we finished a few but it was like climbing Everest. The task seems easy, you reckon it will take 3 days and it takes 15 days because it wasn't so easy in the end and every detail was a pain in the butt. Now, after so much work and extra hours that I needed to learn the legacy technologies I will need to learn the new technologies which means sooooooo many freakin weekends studying. I do want to learn the new technologies, I am looking forward to it, there is the money and hopefully the future side job. But it's always work work work.... I am not complaining, well practically I am, but I want to vent hahahaha Link to comment
dias Posted September 7, 2021 Author Share Posted September 7, 2021 The property manager must have re-iterated 200 times what a shame it is I am leaving. She said the house is so clean and quiet with me, it's perfect lol Her female friends and her mother couldn't believe that 2 guys could keep a house in pristine condition lol I love the generalization hahahaha Like we didn't grow up in a house lol Besides, pristine condition is a relative term, for my hypochondriac germaphobic clean freak mother it would be just good. I guess I was raised with high standards. I just do the basics, 2 hours every Saturday morning and I clean right after I use something, I am not a clean freak for sure, I am not dirty, I am normal. Link to comment
Jibralta Posted September 7, 2021 Share Posted September 7, 2021 3 hours ago, dias said: for my hypochondriac germaphobic clean freak mother it would be just good. Lol I get it. Link to comment
dias Posted September 9, 2021 Author Share Posted September 9, 2021 I had a 1-1 with my manager/team leader. I told him about moving to Newbury. He said I made the right decision because the business team of our department is there. At some point he said "I want you to be close to the business team as much as possible, you have a lot of potential in this company" he paused for a couple of seconds and added "if you are planning to stay". I laughed on the inside, I didn't know it was so obvious that I am so unstable lol. I didn't say anything, I am planning to stay at this company at least 3-4 years, there are a lot of things I can learn. I wouldn't mind staying more if they give good pay raises, as long as my goals align with their goals I am staying. When this stops, I will move on. Hmmm in 3-4 years I should have already started doing side jobs which could lead to a business. Damn, 3-4 years are a lot. When I was 18 I promised to myself I would be a millionaire by 30, I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy behind of my goals. Although I didn't take into consideration 2 degrees and one year in the Navy. 6 years behind. Meh what can you do.... Link to comment
hidden_kitten Posted September 11, 2021 Share Posted September 11, 2021 On 9/9/2021 at 10:37 PM, dias said: At some point he said "I want you to be close to the business team as much as possible, you have a lot of potential in this company" he paused for a couple of seconds and added "if you are planning to stay". Is there a high turnover in this company/industry? Do you feel that getting your degrees has been worthwhile, even if it’s set you behind slightly in the ‘master plan’? Link to comment
dias Posted September 12, 2021 Author Share Posted September 12, 2021 On 9/11/2021 at 4:17 PM, hidden_kitten said: Is there a high turnover in this company/industry? Do you feel that getting your degrees has been worthwhile, even if it’s set you behind slightly in the ‘master plan’? In this company no because it pays well. In the IT world yes, it has the most job hoppers than any other industry. It has to be this way though if you want good jobs and money. There are no "standards" in terms of salary. There are huge discrepancies in salaries from company to company (like 2-3 times more for the same job). It depends on the company a lot. The majority of the jobs pay sh*t as you can guess, few companies pay serious money, it is however very difficult to get to these companies and in the right position. To give you an example, some companies pay 45-50K for a Senior Developer and some pay 100K, of course everyone wants the latter job, therefore, the competition is tremendous. Job hopping is necessary, you don't want to get stuck in a company forever which pays sh*t and give sh*tty pay raises when you could find something better. This is a good question, I had this discussion with my brother before I left Athens, it is not a question that has a short answer I believe but I will try: Short answer: For what I want to achieve and how I want to live my life, NO, the degrees were not worthwhile. As you can see, I accentuated the "I" because education and money are two separate things. You can make a lot of money without degrees. Personally I want money. Long(er) answer: It depends. There are too many parameters to take into consideration, I will need to write until tomorrow in order to give a complete answer. I will try to summarize the basics: 1)You might want to study because you want to become more educated and improve yourself, that's totally fine but you need to make an informed and conscious decision which usually does not happen because when you are 17-18 you have no idea how things in life work. Plus, you don't know what you like and what you are good at. At least, I didn't*. 2)There is a big proportion of software engineers who don't have a STEM degree or any degree at all. They went to a coding boot camp 6 months, they learned the latest technologies (of course they put the work) and they got a job as developers. Everybody can do it regardless of age, I know a guy who became a developer 2 years ago at the age of 36 and he studied history. I didn't know this parameter when I studied computer science, I don't like how things are because I feel stupid for studying so many years math and algorithms (which are not a walk in the park) but I don't make the rules. You can become a software engineer by the way if you want a new career and more money. 3)Is there any advantage of having an advanced degree? In theory yes. For instance, if you are a developer who does not have a degree the "ceiling" is a senior developer position. There are exceptions of course but usually this is the ceiling. It's very rare someone without a degree to become manager in the upper echelons of big companies or head of department or CTO or CEO or whatever. This is the only advantage, nothing else. Now, make no mistake, many times senior developers get paid a lot more than middle managers. What would you prefer: a middle management position that requires a degree and pays 50K or a senior engineering position that does not require degree which pays 80K? I would prefer the latter. Generally speaking, without a degree you can make a lot of money in technical roles but it would be difficult to get a position which involves decision making. Again, it's what you want and how you want to live your life. For me, I don't like technical work but I like the freedom it provides, you can find a job without knowing anyone and you can work remotely. If you like to have the "power" to make decisions and get all the attention, technical work is not for you. 4) Another point which is not important for me but many people consider it: get a degree so you don't feel inferior or you don't like to be considered uneducated. That depends of course on how much value you give to people's opinions. It has to do more with the individual's self-esteem than anything else. To be continued.... Link to comment
dias Posted September 16, 2021 Author Share Posted September 16, 2021 On the train to Newbury. What's the phrase? Go west young man or something like this. I am not that young anymore and i have been on the west side of the country (Liverpool)but still, I am heading west once again. Well, technically Newbury is in the middle but it's West compared to Norwich. A new chapter begins. 2 Link to comment
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