I know it's hard to believe, but it's now been 8 years today that SMU has been up and running! ^_^ It has been quite a good time over the years. There's been some ups and downs, in which we've been clearly in a down period for some time now, but it's good to see that even in the down, SMU is still holding along well. Even with little updates in the past year and a half, we still have quite a good amount of content, and we have a nice community going on in the forums. Not too many SM-based sites can say that they've been around for 8 years, and it's nice that we can say that we have been and still have room to grow.
Sadly, I don't have any actual content for our 8th anniversary. For those of you who don't read the forums, my life has been a hell of a roller coaster. You'll see that my last content update was back in September 2006. As much as I hate to admit going so long without adding a comparison or anything, the stats don't lie and that is the case with me. This point in time for me was really the last time I've had much free time. Not long after this, I had taken a second job at my EB GameStop (my name for the company, especially since my store was an EB before the merger) for a little extra cash plus benefits. Not to mention I always work two jobs for Christmas season anyways. In the then-new year I got moved to another store in my main job (Taco Bell) where things just began to fall apart professionally and personally for me. Professionally it wasn't working out for me in my new store and causing just too much stress, personally I was going through rough times with my then-girlfriend. Both of these factors took up so much time and energy, I put an end to both in April, ending my relationship and leaving the bell on good terms, taking my vacation time for the year in my last paycheck.
While I was still working at the game store, I knew that I wasn't making enough and wouldn't get enough hours to live off of, so I took a job at a warehouse. While it kept me afloat well, I just could not physically make minimum numbers there after a few months, and made the choice to leave on my own terms, rather than drag it out and wait for the numbers to actually matter a couple months later. I had just got a promotion at the game store which the pay and hour increase would still allow for me to pay my bills, though obviously not much for extra spending, which was fine for me. Around this time (fall 2007) I had learned of a hit on my credit from a past debt and was starting to prepare to start tackling it a month or so after being working only the one job. But on my last day at the warehouse, I got a call from a lawyer, so my plans quite clearly changed, with me giving him all my spare money at that time and setting up a plan for the rest. I had to sell a good chunk of my stuff (thankfully I have a chance to reclaim some of it working in a game store) and go back to working two jobs, returning to the first bell I worked at, in my mall.
I got my debt cleared up within the time alloted to avoid legal issues while juggling around my other bills. At the start of this past April, I made the switch of working full-time at the bell and part-time at the game store. The EBGS home office was giving my store very little hours to work with, and I just couldn't stay afloat. At this same time, I was asked if I wanted to run the bell as my DM was shifting some people around and my store was going to be without one. At first I accepted and got a nice raise to be an acting-GM to compensate until it would be official. Within weeks I had finally caught up with my financial troubles. In May I was really close to getting the perfect job for me, a sales representative in the Syracuse area for Nintendo. But regardless of all the work I had been doing the past couple of years to fix my mistakes, I couldn't be hired there not because I wasn't good enough, but their insurance would not add me onto their plan with 2 moving violations within a 5 year period, even though none were current. Had I only had one I'd be there right now. Thank you right eye contact for popping out of my eye for the first time I can remember while driving during nighttime, though still allowing me to see the road lines well but tricking me into thinking I was going the speed limit while I was really going 10MPH over. -_- However because of me not getting the job for that reason, knowing if not for that I'd be working for the current worldwide leader of video games, it gave me confidence that I haven't had in quite some time. It made me realize that I can do much better for myself than working two jobs at a local mall. I couple weeks later I began enrollment in ITT Tech as I have a campus nearby, so I can finally get some sort of degree in something I want to do, and be able to market myself even better for future jobs than I already can. If I almost got into Nintendo with no degree, imagine where I can go when I have a degree.
So where I stand now is in about a month, I will be returning to school. While I'm not looking forward to a bunch of schoolwork again, I am looking forward to having that work be mostly stuff I can enjoy. The two most important things I'm looking forward to is having direction and structure again. Barring my three months at the warehouse, my work schedule has been anything but set in place, so knowing exactly when I'll be going to class and when I'll be working during each quarter means I can effectively plan my time better than I've been able to. As for direction it's good to finally me moving in one.
As for how this has to do with the site, well, I would hope that it gives you a better idea of why I haven't really been doing much during that period of time. I'm the kind of person who wants everyone to have an idea of what's going on, rather than just a generic update saying that times have been rough for me for a couple years making it hard for me to do things here. I think y'all deserve to hear why since you've hung around so long, though I do apologize for its length. I can't promise you when I will have more comparisons or other updates added on here, but I can say that I am in a much better position to get things done here and elsewhere which I haven't been able to say for a good while. I was really hoping to have some more comparisons done for today, but they didn't get done. Currently, I'm on a nice 9 day vacation. Not getting paid for it kinda sucks, but at the same time, I haven't taken an actual significant break from anything for nearly two years. My body has been wearing itself down physically and mentally, and anybody who has seen me in person the past two weeks or so that knows me decently well can tell this with a quick look. I'm taking these first couple of days just to get some much needed rest and relaxation, trying to avoid doing anything that requires much use of my body or mind. I will then be going to Otakon for the weekend, to get some much needed time out of my area and do things to enjoy myself. I have a few free days after Otakon, and we'll see how I'm feeling those days in regards to what I want to do for them.
Thank you all for your patience in this long road for completion of the site. I hope y'all enjoy what will be coming as we work towards actually finishing up the comparisons. And if any of you will be at Otakon, I look forward to meeting anyone willing to meet me. My badge name is Narsk, and I'll be around various places there (most of which will likely be the game room, I still can't get over the face that there's that big a room just for games o.o;; ), wearing a messenger bag with Inuyasha on it, having Sailormoon SuperS phone tags hanging off the top section alongside a Phoenix Wright plushie hanging the same way, with various FMA and gaming pins, and whatever other accessories I happen to purchase at the con. Hopefully I'll see some of you there, and afterwards we might finally see some life again here. It's been a good 8 years here on SMU and I will not let it die.
August 6th, 2008
Dan - Happy 8th Anniversary SMU! ^_^
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