What I said I'd be doing in 15 years, 15 years ago....

[WRoss]

So I'm sure we were all asked at one point, "What will you be doing in 15 years?" As a kid, likely answers probably varied from walking on Mars to winning Olympic Gold to discovering a cure for cancer.

So 15 years ago, I thought I'd be doing this in 15 years:

1)Training for the third Olympics
2) Getting my MD in Sports Medicine
3) Married to some super hot model/actress

The reality

1) I coaching swimming (guess that's one good thing)
2) Playing Gemstone, still
3) Worried about how to fix the H key on my keyboard so I can continue have my daily interaction with other human beings through a computer screen
4) The rest of my human interaction comes from AA meetings
5) My most valuable possession (after taking away the value from payments on things I "own") is likely my Gemstone accounts
6) I am happy when a female talks to me and it isn't:
a) trying to get stuff she forgot when she moved out
b) she isn't a parent of one of the kids I coach or a kid I coach
c) it isn't my mom calling me to pay off the money I owe her


All-in-all reality is teh suck. Please post what you said you would be doing in 15 years, 15 years ago, and what you are actually doing now.

[Fallen]

Was I the only person who really tended to lowball questions like that?

[ElvenFury]

Is the H key just hard to press/sticky? I find that when keys start to wear out, popping them out and putting them back in upside down gets me another year or so of life out of them. Although, the tactile sensation will take a little getting used to, as the surface of the key will feel a bit higher than the others.

Of course, you could always splurge 20 bucks on a new keyboard...

[WRoss]

Is the H key just hard to press/sticky? I find that when keys start to wear out, popping them out and putting them back in upside down gets me another year or so of life out of them. Although, the tactile sensation will take a little getting used to, as the surface of the key will feel a bit higher than the others.

Of course, you could always splurge 20 bucks on a new keyboard...

Its a laptop and the little plastic piece that attaches it to the keyboard is broken.

I forgot another thing to mention

7) I made a tough decision today, I got honey mustard instead of BBQ at Burger King

Lastly

STAY ON FUCKING TOPIC!!

[ElvenFury]

STAY ON FUCKING TOPIC!!

LOL. I must have missed where you asked a question in your OP? Oh, and you'll never get the gold on that honey mustard crap!

[WRoss]

Fixed, now answer!

[Celephais]

You can still splurge 20 bucks on a new keyboard ... ebay parted out laptops, or direct from the retailer (bit more expensive), if you're actually looking to fix this issue...

Anyway 15 years ago I probably wanted to be a computer game programmer or an astronaut ...

[Kyra231]

Its a laptop and the little plastic piece that attaches it to the keyboard is broken.

I forgot another thing to mention

7) I made a tough decision today, I got honey mustard instead of BBQ at Burger King

Lastly

STAY ON FUCKING TOPIC!!

Usb keyboard ftw.

[Bobmuhthol]

15 years ago I was 4.

[Celephais]

15 years ago I was 4.
So your goal for now was to have stopped wetting the bed?

[WRoss]

15 years ago I was 4.

So you were gonna be doing the Care Bear stare on Rainbow Brights ass?

[ElvenFury]

I was 12, so I think my dream at the time was to be a Disney animator. Now I draw stupid shit on T-shirts.

I don't think I'd like the west coast anyway. :shrug:

[Drew]

I was 13, when I was a little younger I wanted to be a fighter pilot and I was at the library studying in the reference section but then when I was 13 I had just grown and was too tall for it.

[Killer Kitten]

Ok, I'll bite. Fifteen years ago I was really dissatisfied with my job, I absolutely loathed one of my co-workers, I had way too many cats, I weighed too damned much, I'd heard of the internet but never encountered it, but we did own our home, I'd graduated and passed the boards, I was happily married, and except for periodically breaking my left foot I lived a pain-free life.

Back then I figured (hoped) that in 15 years I'd be:
1. Head tech at a very busy practice, with a lot of responsibility and a loads of challenge.
2. FINALLY thin!
3. Natural attrition would have lowered my cat population (many of my cats were senior cats).
4. Still married.
5. Living in a small town or the country.
6. Not breaking my left foot anymore. (Seriously, I'd broken bones in that foot 4 times in 2 years. I was SO sick of wearing a cast.)
7. Still not using that Internet thing, because those fads never last.

Fifteen years later:
1. I had a great 10-year run at a zoo, and now own and operate an animal shelter with one partner and a few dedicated volunteers. Luckily my partner is very brainy and much younger, so she shoulders a lot of the work.
2. I did lose weight, but thanks to some particular in the combo of meds I have to take now I found it again. I have learned that it's not the most important or defining aspect in my life and I'm a lot happier than I was when I was thin.
3. I'm down to 10 cats of my own, of the cats I had back then there is only 1 left and he's now very geriatric.
4. Still married and it's even better now.
5. Moved to Youngstown and our house looks out over woods to the back and a cornfield to the front. Don't miss Long Island at all.
6. Broke my left little toe last week, damnit. Still that was the first broken foot in awhile. I'd take the breaks back if I could trade in the fibromyalgia. Seriously.
7. I may have been in error about the whole internet thing.

[Stanley Burrell]

I would just say "I dunno." Which is true. And then, if I was grilled on the subject (like, holy shit, it's impossible that this 9-year-old doesn't have a permanently set ambition into every facet of his life in fifteen years from now) I'd switch it up to something successful-sounding. I think I usually went with banker or nuclear physicist.

Man, all I used to do was stay in the present. Now all I do is obsess about the past and the future.

[Gelston]

15 years ago I said I'd be in the military in 15 years. I guess I did that.

[BigWorm]

15 years ago I said I'd be in the military in 15 years. I guess I did that.

Became a pacifist?

[Trouble]

I don't have any goals written down that I'm aware of but 15 years ago I had just graduated college and was headed to grad school in Environmental Chemistry. So I'm guessing if you had asked me then I would have said something like:

1) be a successful Environmental Scientist (published and/or salaried) or other related field like Ecology, Toxicology, Ichthyology, Biological Oceanography, etc.
2) have a PhD or other (additional) advanced degree(s)
3) live on/near the coast somewhere (for work & field sampling)
4) be married with at least one kid
5) have a room full of fish tanks and be a hobbyist breeder.

Reality:

1) I changed fields within a year after getting out of grad school to IT work.
2) I live less than 10 miles from where I grew up and around 3 hours from the nearest beach.
3) got 2 MCSEs and a CISSP instead of more degrees beyond my MS.
4) I do have a successful job in the salaried sense but it's the IT field instead of the science field. I did get one scientific article published based on my grad school work.
5) I'm not even close to being married, with no significant relationships since college.
6) No fish tanks since around 1998-2000.

I didn't start playing GS until around 1995 so GS isn't a factor. I never thought I'd still be playing it in 15 years though (which i'm not but I still have my accounts on hold).

I'd hate to have to set my goals for the next 15 years since I'm even less sure what I want to do when I grow up now than I was 15 years ago.

[Gelston]

Became a pacifist?

Yes, I'm a pacifist US Marine infantryman.

[Jace Solo]

15 years ago I was starting to build momentum in the child acting circuit. With a dozen commercials, runway romps and tv spots I was on my way to being the next Maccully (sp). Sitting in the lead position for a supportive roll after 4 call backs for a movie I was getting excited and the parents were takin about the move to NYC. About 10 days before my 11th birthday a car crash totalled the right side of my face. Surgeries later, and a lot of glass fragments, I'm pretty decent to look at again.

Guessing a real working actor was the goal. I more or less just went with the flow and imagined myself as cyclops battling Magnito or something.

Now, I'm in my second of three semesters of gradschool for special events at FSU. Also, I'm auditioning again for film school stuff and I "plan" on moving to LA to try it again.

I'll do you one better: in 5 years I hope to be supporting myself with Acting...if not, I've got a sold backup with event planning in LA. Even with the economy in the tank, people out there always seem to find a reason to celebrate themselves. And I GS is still about, I plan on still being here too. Unless diablo 3 puts me to rest.

[Paradii]

Well, my goal 10 years ago was to be finishing my phd. Now, I am just about to start my phd. My goals have hit some serious lag time, but they are happening.

[TheEschaton]

15 years ago, I was 13 and a 1/2 and at the beginning of a bad drug habit. I expected to probably be dead or strung out in 15 years.

Instead, I've been clean more than 10 years, although I did start drinking again (socially) at 25. And I became a radical progressive. ;)

If you said 20 years ago, I wanted to be a zookeeper. I still like animals, but I hate the sight of blood (see supra, re: drug use), so now a no-go.

-TheE-

[Tea & Strumpets]

World Conquest.

I'm still working on it.

[4a6c1]

15yrsagoOMG. Ok.

1. Become a famous archaeologist like Indiana Jones.
2. Save all the animals in the world from the badness.
3. Be a horse trainer for jumpers.
4. Meet another human being not paid by my Dad to watch me.
5. Rule the World.
6. Own a Unicorn.

-----
1. I donate to the museums. Correction. I donate someone elses money to the museums.
2. I volunteer at SPCA.
3. Have nothing to do with horses these days.
4. Have met. Have fucked. Have child! :-X
5. Disdain nepotism! I earn my own moneyz. Retail by day, Security by night. Ok, so I accept some things when they are for my girl but those dont count. :D
6. Farn gave me a unicorn and then he took it away. Farn ruined my life.

[Androidpk]

I don't remember that far back.

[phantasm]

15 years ago I was 13 years old, watching star trek TNG every monday night and going out on shopping spree's for the action figures every other day.
I also had just got my first computer the year before and was learning how to create batch files and all the other fun DOS stuff.
This was shortly before Gemstone so the games I was playing were whatever was on a BBS I could find, mostly food fight, also jill of the jungle, commander keen, wolfenstein.

What I saw myself doing in 15 years:
1: making my own Lt Commander Data
2: have a computer that talked to me
3: married to a deanna troi look alike
4: creating my own video games
------------------------------------
1: figured out that its pretty much impossible, unless he's just a really good impersonator of a human, thanks to kurt godel and roger penrose for ruining this one.
2: yes, but not nearly as exciting as it should be
3: yup
4: figured out making video games isn't nearly as fun as playing them, and its much more satisfying to create software that is useful.

[Skeeter]

I was 19 and in college. Completely unsure what I wanted to do with the rest of my life other than "bang hot bitches." I was pretty sure I wanted to move somewhere warm all the time and be rich. Computers seemed like a good option.

1. Now I work in a field that I never imagined I would have any interest in.
2. Turns out I suck at computers.
3. Married with 1 kid and another on the way.
4. I live in the same city I grew up in, and have never lived anywhere else.
5. I'm not rich, but at the low end of upper middle class
6. I am still friends with a lot of the same people 15 years ago.
7. I did just start my masters program this fall.

Reality is boring.

[Revalos]

I think I overshot my goals from 15 years ago.

I wanted to be a geographer of some kind
Travel the world, especially Europe
Be independently wealthy
Do whatever I want to do with no one to tell me otherwise

Now I've definitely not got exactly what I wanted, but pretty close. I could have done without the 10 years of my life attached to my ex-wife and now trolling a dating service, but honestly I don't think I'd be in such a good position as I am today if I hadn't been married throughout my 20s and constantly thinking of saving money for my family in the future. No credit card debt, no student loans, car paid off, steady gov't job, own a house in DC, good medical benefits, travel, vacation...

If I could go back in time and had the chance to tell myself something to do differently 15 years ago, I'd probably just grin and walk right on by instead.

[Skeeter]

I think I overshot my goals from 15 years ago.

I wanted to be a geographer of some kind
Travel the world, especially Europe
Be independently wealthy
Do whatever I want to do with no one to tell me otherwise

Now I've definitely not got exactly what I wanted, but pretty close. I could have done without the 10 years of my life attached to my ex-wife and now trolling a dating service, but honestly I don't think I'd be in such a good position as I am today if I hadn't been married throughout my 20s and constantly thinking of saving money for my family in the future. No credit card debt, no student loans, car paid off, steady gov't job, own a house in DC, good medical benefits, travel, vacation...

If I could go back in time and had the chance to tell myself something to do differently 15 years ago, I'd probably just grin and walk right on by instead.

I think I speak for everyone here....

GO FUCK YOURSELF

[Revalos]

I think I speak for everyone here....

GO FUCK YOURSELF

Bwahahahah!

Come on. None of that shit really matters when the best I can do these days is fuck some crazy christian bitch because I'm too socially inept to date anyone else. No one wants to be me, trust me. I just have to put shit like that up there to make me feel better about how much my life fucking sucks.

[The Ponzzz]

Fifteen years ago I wanted to be working for IBM like my uncle as a programmer or an astronomer.

About ten years ago I decided my strong areas were in sales and wanted to open up my own sales company.

Present day I'm still in the second stage of opening my own business and just waiting out the market a little longer (i.e. I don't want to make a leap of faith in this economy). I work marketing and advertising currently.

I've made a lot of bad choices along the way, but I'm doing well. I have a house and car. I still program and do astronomy as a hobby. I been playing the same game for all that time.

[The Korean]

15 years ago...

I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the US Navy shooting down the bad guys and saving the world while badass music was playing in the background...

15 years later..

Did 5 and 1/2 years in the Navy as a Corpsman after learning during screening that I was colorblind, and promptly got out when my contract ran out.

Now I'm a soon to be 25yr old freshman at Ohio University. I feel so old here.

[Skeeter]

At least you can pick up chicks by offiering to buy them natty light.