So, I recently made the decision to make some positive changes in my life. I'm tired of being tired, and stressed out, frustrated, angry, and being generally unhealthy....
To that end, I've started a Doctor supervised weight loss program. It's very strict/agressive/regimented, but if all goes as planned, in about 3 months I should be at my goal weight and off of the diabetes meds. I don't 'officially' start the program until the 23rd, but I've already started on some aspects of it on my own.
I also applied for, got an offer for, and accepted a new job (same company). For the first time in my adult life, I won't be in a 24x7 operations on-call role, and will be working M-F, 8-5, with no on-call, weekends, or holiday work (and the pay is the same). There are going to be challenges. I'll have to find new motivations to keep things interesting (I have learned to thrive on the the chaos of working on outages, etc... and won't be doing that any more). I've done my time... time to pass the baton on to the younger crowd...
I'll be working on personal goals (beyond just the weight/diabetes stuff), attempting to improve my quality of life, have more fun, and get out of the rut that I've been in for who-knows-how-long.... Get more exercise, spend more time doing things I enjoy (luthiery, etc...), and less time staring at the computer, wasting endless time digging myself deeper into the rut, and less time watching TV (although I'm already doing a lot less of that than I had in the past).
And lastly, I'll be spending a lot less time (likely none) on the Glade. The last few months have been ugly here, and I'm tired of seeing a few individuals using the place as their personal litter box. I've been a member here since early on in the original iteration, and yea, there has been a lot of asshatery along the way, but this is not the same glade as it was 10, or even 5 years ago. It's a much smaller community, and some of us have been acquaintances here for going on 10 years. It's not like were just a bunch of random Internet strangers (at least I don't feel that way). The inability (or unwillingness) of a few people here to treat each other with decency and respect has ruined what little enjoyment was left to be had.
I have strong opinions about this place and the way it's being managed and moderated. I don't see any reason to go into any detail about those opinions (I've tried in the past, and it didn't go well), but I just say to the current Managers/Admins/Moderators, step back and take a look at whats happened here over the last few months, and ask yourselves "what are we doing wrong ?". Obviously whatever it is your doing now isn't working, and in my opinion, has only made things worse. The only suggestion I will offer is, please take some time to think about what it is that makes (made?) this place special, and moderate/manage/administer in such a way as to protect that (whatever that is to you).
My last request is that this thread not be locked or moved. If someone has something controversial to say that will result in violation of the rules of the General forum, please go make a thread in Hellfire to do it, and leave this thread here in General unscathed as much as possible.
For those of you I know outside of the glade, I'll still be online with google chat, email, etc... don't hesitate to chat me up. I get email notifications of PM's if anyone wants to contact me through the board.
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