How do you rate your life so far?

[stogie bear]

Well - I have never taken my life for granted. It's been fantastic so far!

School could have been better, 6 years in a poofy boarding school isn't the best way to enter puberty!

A few years in the military where I was paid to be a drunk!

Traveling a lot, moving to the States, getting married a couple of times along the way, moving to Mexico and spending the last 5 years i Thailand...

Each decade has been way better than the last!

I'm not rich by any stroke of an accountants jism pouch, but I'll bet I've felt better and done more than most people! When I look into the face of my beautiful girlfriend I think that I don't deserve to have her loving me. Some rich guy should have snapped her up yonks ago.

No mortgage, no debts, my rent is 85 dollars a month in agreat neighborhood that I have lived in now for over 4 years, I don't smoke or do drugs, but the Scotch I like is available and affordable!

I work from home for a fucking cool boss and my hours are set by how energetic I feel!

Believe it or not (and you can flame me for this - I don't care!) one of the worst things about my life is having to go to ladyboy bars and Nana Plaza every now and then! I'd just as soon stay at home every day watching the telly and cooking dinner!

Overall and taking into account the last 3 decades I'd rate my life an 8.3!

[Guest]

I'll use the great one's format and will provide the following:

I too have never taken my life for granted. It's hasn't been fantastic but it's not been too bad.

I'm an over educated idiot. I have a 3.49 GPA. My degrees are in Police Science (AAS) and Management/Sociology (double major).

I spent 20 years in the military (mainly in 7th SFGA, 3rd SOSC, and 5th SFGA). Result 70% rating from VA and a military retirement which isn't enough to live on stateside.

Traveled a lot while in the military. Have been to 18 countries. Shot at in 6 - got pussy in 17 (Egypt was the exception) - got LB in 1 (Panama) cursed out in all of them.

Have done very little overseas travel since military retirement. Hope to make it to LOS in 2006.

Have been married to a Filipina for 23 years. At times I think I married her family as her nanay and tatay have lived with us 20.

I would say each decade has not been better than the last!

I'm not rich as well, but I'll bet I've felt better and done more than most people! I'm not sleeping under an overpass. I have a wife, a 13 year old, 5 dogs, and a cat that love me. As for the live-in in-laws ARE THEY EVER GOING TO KICK THE BUCKET (they're 75 -- damn they're going to outlive me).

Have mortgage, have debts. I don't smoke or do drugs. Nor do I do alcohol. I don't have a problem with any of the above -- have been designated driver on occassion.

Since military retirement I have worked corrections (officer - probation officer - extradition agent). I currently work as an armed courier.

I wish I had easy access ladyboy bars and a "Nana Plaza" type environment.

Overall and taking into account the last 4 decades I'd rate my life an 7.1!

[rob69in]

I have just taken life as it comes, you can only take one road at a time, & when a fork in the road came, I made my decisions & stuck with it, but will always wonder, what if I had taken the other fork.

My education wasn't the best, but the first half was ok, a sheltered rural UK school, the second half was a secondary modern, buried in coal mining communities, & if you did not want to be a miner there wasn't much else to do.

I always wanted to be a mechanical engineer, but didn't quite get the grades to take the university route, so joined the british army as a boy soldier & went back to school & served a military apprenticeship & stacked up the quals there.

This was going to be a short relationship, me & the army, but it turned into the job I loved to hate & ended up doing 23yrs. Of course there were financial benefits to this & it remains one of the best pensions in the UK. They dragged me around the world visiting some 27 countries at there expense & business, & probably the same again off my own back. I travelled when ever I could to see what I could. I saw many things close up & personal in military, that the vast majority probably will never see & nor would they want to see.

Once my army days were over, I worked in Taiwan for a while, then went to the Philippines for about 4 months just diving, exploring & enjoying P4P.

After that i sort of fell into my present job of the last 6 years in the Alluminium melting / production industry, this has also taken me around the world topping up my country total to just over 80. I am spending at least 5-7months a year "on the road", depending on how the work go's, outside of my holidays. But the best bit is I officially get 8 weeks paid holiday a year, but with all the extra time off here & there, doing 3-4night stop-overs in my favorite destinations, its closer to 10-11.

I have never been married & probably never will, the thought of handing over 50%+ of my estate that only i have built up with my own efforts to someone who has not contributed a penny, with just bit of minor administrive inconvenience on there behalf has put me off forever. I don't have any children, luckily, another financial drain.

I have had relationships but they have been short lived, mainly due to being away so much & not being prepared to just hand over my salary for them to squander in my absence. This has allowed a great deal for P4P worldwide.

I have no debt, own everything i have, no mortagage even. I don't take, drugs, except viagra, don't smoke, & drink very little. I am not rich but live a comfortable life, with many friends & hobbies in the UK.

I would prefer to be out of UK as the place is steadily being destroyed by incompitant government, allowing the polution of the population & allowing us to be walked alover by europe. This is costing us money & is only leading to higher taxes. I would like to be closer to South / Latin America or South East Asia & live a steadier more relaxed life.

Overall it looks pretty good & if i had it over again & I knew what I know now, I would have worked my military time differently to produce more money at the end & I would opt to travel less. I have seen & done too much, probably a hell of alot more than most. The end result is a cynical, suspicious, impatient, person, with limited sympathy & tolerance. I find my holiday trips to the LOS / Philippines & South / Latin America to be very relaxing & theraputic where I try & have as much sex as possible. Altho' I thoroughly enjoy taking out, wine & dine, & just being with my selected pateners if thats what they would like to do.

I have no desire to slip into my grave quietly, neatly & well packaged & preserved. I want to come flying in, in a huge & worn out mess kicking & screaming, "what a hell of a trip that was".

Overal an 8, I would say.

[thaibound]

ups and downs, i've had a few
but
then again too few to mention.
and
since a stifling adolescence
my life's been sufficiently often (if not mostly) fantastic
that
once i get my villa in thailand,
well
then perhaps i'll say
i couldn't ask for more.
8.99999999999

[mirimark]

I voted No.#5.  Life is for the MOST PART what you put into it.  I'm a Late bloomer, I never took anything serious until about 7yr's ago, and every since then, Nothing but GOOD things have been happening to me.
If I compare the Quality of my Life to the effort I put into it, I'd say I hit the Lottery.
I got great grades in school, so just imagine how well I would be doing
now If as a Young Teen and in to my Twenties I wasn't so ashamed of being gay/bi.  You all know the story.
Ashamed, depressed, drugs, alcohol, pretending to be striaght.  GOD, I wasted years of my time worrying about what others would think of me if they knew I am a Cocksucker.  Now that I am older and wiser and really don't give a shit what anyone thinks of my sexual prefrences, I am happier and having the Time of my Life with Lots  more Life to Live.

So, If I had to do it all over again would I do it differently ?  YES, I would.  I wouldn't change who I am, I would only change the way I dealt with things at an earlier age.

But now I'm feeling much better thanks to the Medication and the daily visits to
Dr. Stogie Bears ATSForum.

P.S.   Thanks Dr. Stogie for the letter of recomendation for the Work release program.

The past few years have been a No.#8. Prior years a No.#5

[relpax]

wow.
anyone else struck by the number of military folks on the board? things that make you go hhmmm. :P

i voted 8. overall my life has been great. i am an only child of a black serviceman and korean woman.

i grew up a military brat with my father in the us military. we traveled the world until my pops retired to the pacific northwest. had an excellent education throughout elementary through high school. graduated from a state school with biochemistry, chemistry and classical studies as majors. i then attended the ivy's for med school. needless to say i was a bookworm in my younger days. i am also what one would consider a professional student without much to show for it. (let's see counting only post secondary school 5 yrs undergrad, 4 years med school, 1 year research, 5 years of residency...and people wonder why doctors are pissed off?)

married once and soon to be divorced. we are good friends but i certainly won't do that again. glad that i got it out of my system before getting too far in life and having to give up half my stuff.

still have the traveling bug. came to thailand to work at chula hospital and kept coming back. lots of hobbies but little free time. sounds like the typical american huh? not that it stops me from coming on this board and chattering away.

Overall, considering all that has happened in my life....i would not change a thing. if i were finished with residency and making real money then it would be a 10...but for now i am happy with an 8.

[BAM]

I check off: #9 - Mostly fantastic. I couldn't ask for more.

My life€™s always been really good and sometimes I can€™t believe where I€™m at in life and that I live in this house, have a fast car, and have been somewhat successful in my life.  I am truly blessed and am very thankful for what I have.

I was somewhat of a rebellious kid and a free spirit. When I was only 15 years old and still in High School I went to Jamaica for the March break with some friends,,,, and I didn€™t come back for 2 years!.  I was good in electronics and made money there fixing stuff and working as a sound man for a few reggae bands. It was so much fun living there but after 2 years I had enough and came back to Canada. My Mother was worried about me too. I bummed around for a year and decided to go to Collage. I entered as a mature student at the age of 19 and by the time I was 21 was an Engineering Tech€¦ got my CET by the time I was 23 and graduated with honors with a 3.6 GPA. So much for missing all that High School!

Got a job right away working for a company that built advanced communications systems for the military.  I learned a lot here from some of the top engineers in the business. After 3 years I moved on and worked for a large manufacture of packet switch equipment used by telephone companies worldwide. What I didn€™t realize at the time was we were helping build the backbone of what would later become the Internet.

After 5 years I started my own security company that I later sold to ADT for a good buck.  Then in 1996 I met up with an old friend from my collage days. He was telling me he just set up an NT server in his home and wanted to host websites on his server.  This was all a very new thing to me.  He was looking for help and money and wanted to buy a more powerful server. Together we setup a company and pooled our money together $13,000 and bought a Dell server. We first set it up in his home on an ISDN line. Our first night we started we made $200. It might have not been a lot but we were in business! We had a hard time keeping up with the business€¦ and had to move the server to a POP building on a T1€¦ at a local University! No one knew what we were doing or what we were hosting€¦ but we were successful because we would host anything. It was a risky business at that time but you have to take risks if you want to be successful.  Our little hosting business started to take off and before long we had 7 servers on the rack.  Most of what we hosted was porn€¦ but we did have a few church sites.  In 2001 we moved everything to a co-location and leased all hardware€¦ new more powerful servers.  This was a great decision because it meant I didn€™t have to work as much anymore. Since that time I€™ve been enjoying my more relaxed life and traveling to Australia and Thailand.  In 15 days I€™ll be back in LOS again!

[Mai-Kee]

Life could be FANTASTIC if this fucking work wouldn't keep me away from doing what I love to do (which is unfortunately never related with EARNING money!).
It's always the old/odd dilemma of having either money OR time available. I wish I'd have the guts to stop looking for both which is (for me) really hard to achieve and go the Stogie way!
Mate, I really have a deep respect for your courage and surprisingly (for me again) it works out pretty well!!!
Maybe I'm too critical with myself, but I gave me a 6......

Kudos

MK

[stogie bear]

Some fantastic replies to this thread. Better than I had hoped for! Keep them coming, folks...

When I first made the decision to go to Thailand permanently I started teaching English for about 200 Baht an hour illegally and lived in a small grotty apartment with Kui. I remember for the first year or so I couldn't afford cheese and a bottle of steak sauce was simply out of the question. Ketchup would have to suffice! Kui and I made a conscious decision to buy one 'big ticket' item each time I got paid so each month we added a fridge or a bed or a table and chairs... etc. Back then I was eating Thai food walking past the fast food shops wondering when I would ever have a Big Mac again!

Despite the frustration of not having what I had been used to, it was still a grand and exciting time.

I bought a used computer from a net cafe for about 6,000 Baht. It was an AMD 450 with 64 megs of ram. No CD rom player! I bought one fo those for 200 Baht. 15 inch screen that flickered too much!

We certainly struggled for the first couple of years! Worth it though. I think I can really enjoy and appreciate what I have now (which isn't a whole lot more if I'm honest!) having been in that situation.

[daveduke007]

I just wish I had discovered LOS 20 years earlier    

Things would have certainly been different for me but im not complaing, got there in the end, better to have experienced than not at all

Dave...

[Guest]

Wow. Somehow this is an awesome thread.

Ex military here as well. =)

I checked 6. My life hasn't beeen great, but it's not over, and it sure hasn't been the worst.

I went through a pretty typical American public education (I think that's actually what they call "private" in the UK. i.e. I went to eh basic government funded school open to everyone)

I went to a redneck school and was probably the only person who didn't drive a truck with mud-flaps on the tires. I didn't exactly fit in, but oddly I had a lot of one-on-one friends with people in almost every social group. Just didn't hang out WITH the groups. It's funny to think about it. Its like as individuals people thought I was interesting and wanted to know me, but no one wanted to admit socially that they'd hang out with me. =)

I was going to do college, but joined the Navy instead. It sort of surprised even me. Got to see some interesting things, and travel to other countries. My time was a great balance of domestic service in a state away from home, and sea travel. Got married and divorced at the same times as my service.

I regret the marriage a little, but I also regret giving up on it. I'm glad to see my ex is doing very well and I'm happy for her.

I've done mostly computer work, but found myself in a marketing job by accident. Found out that I really loved marketing and the amount of hands-on business decisions that a small company allows. Learned that I really have a passion for business, management, marketing, innovation. Those things aren't dry or boring to me at all. I think its a shame that so many companies have made it that.

Now I'm back in school, 10 to 12 years older than most of my peers. Couldn't shift into a job I was willing to accept without the marketing/advertising degree. So I've bitten the bullet and decided to see t through. The military is paying for school for at least one more year, so I figured I should go for it.

My biggest problem is not always knowing what to do. I'm a natural analyst and analytical thinker. Which is awesome and fun, but also debilitating. Often in fear of doing the wrong thing, I do nothing. But lifes joys are in overcoming. So this is something I focus on and try to reflect on. I try to think, "How did I mess this up in the past, and how can I avoid it now? How can apply my mistakes then to advantages today?"

My biggest regrets are... regrets. I am sort of a nostalgic person. I look back on all the turmoil and enjoyment of my past with bittersweet, tender, joy. I so wish I could go in a time machine and relive certain days in grade school, high school, my military life, my marriage. Partly just for the bittersweet experience of seeing it again. Partly because I want so bad to do things differently. To make one small change here or there.

I envy Stogie, he's become sort of a mini-role model for me. I think what he's done is awesome. It's funny, I make it sound like I'm this timid mouse, but most people that have ever known me or talk to me think I'm really crazy and out-there. I believe in, and do things that are way outside of the societal norm. Some people are in awe of that. I'm wild to some people. But those things to me just seem like being intellectually honest to myself. When the measure of society is this wild crooked line, and you walk a straight line from internal guidance, it looks to others as if YOU are walking a wild crazy jagged path. But to me, I'm just living and thinking and talking from what seems true.

In essence, Democrats think I'm crazy, Republicans think I'm crazy. Any two sided debate, I never fit in on either side because I can mentally break down each argument and see the central path of what is true. Sides never want to give up their little safety zone, but I have no fear and need for a safety zone.

So, I hope to come back a year or two years later and be able to say I score an 8 or 10. I've enjoyed this forum. I think it has added to my life. I consider JaiDee, Stogie, Ziggy, Ozzie, Mirimark and others to be new friends.

I try to be mindful every day to live and do more, and worry about traveling the wrong path less. I try to think about the courage to chuck it all and move halfway around the world not knowing what tomorrow will bring. I try to analyze the mistakes of yesterday- why wasn't I "cool" then? What can I do that will make me "cool" today?

I think its working. Now in class, with all these young kids, I'm interesting. I'm wise. I'm funny. I'm different, but I'm different and in demand. =)
I'm less worried about saying or appearing to do what's expected because I know not just intellectually, but by experience, that its OK and nothing bad is going to happen.

Now that I say my peace, people are even more amazed at the way I think, but now its pretty cool and they are attracted to me, or want to learn more, or think I'm a cool guy. =)

Something that has had a surprisingly profound impact on me has been working out. Now I am so keenly aware that my body tomorrow will be made up of two things- what I consume today, and what will be built from stressing my body with the exercise I do today. This is so philosophical. If I consume junk, tomorrow I will be made of junk. If I consume nothing, tomorrow I will be less. If I test my body hard, I will be better and stronger for it tomorrow. If I test my body int he wrong way, I will only be good at responding in the wrong way. If I only test myself in one way, I will not develop proportionately. If I get lazy and do not test myself today, I will only be weaker tomorrow.

Sorry if this got long and off topic. I find it interesting to have read about the other guys. Maybe somebody will get something out of this.

Thanks for being part of my new community guys.
Lets all just keep bettering ourselves and enjoying how awesome the world really is in our daily life despite what the news wants to tell you. Practice today living to the utmost, so that tomorrow you won't need your time machine to go back and fix it.

Carpe Diem is so cliche, and its too easy for anyone to latch on to. But once you've come to it through your own intellectual and philosophical search, it's pretty awesome.

To tie this in if only briefly to our favorite subject; these LB's are amazing creatures. They really are examples that you can literally be anyone or anything you want to be. Who do you want to be tomorrow and are you doing the things today that will make you that tomorrow?

Seize the LB!

[jellybean]

I went for an 8 - the only caveat to that my marriage was a mistake, probably the only thing I really regret in my life, oh and not having been able to get to LOS earlier in life.

[stogie bear]

Awesome post grunyen...

[relpax]

i second that. great post grunyen.

[allstar88]

ROLL ON DEATH!