Rating 2014

Since 2010, I have been rating the years, mostly for my own amusement, but also hopefully to learn something from the pointless reflection.

Early on in 2014, things seemed to be going well. In February, I had worked with Randstad once again to get a job doing Data Entry for Iron Mountain, a medical records company. Yet they pretty much cancelled the job after about a week of work. The work wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. It was mostly menial work, putting papers in folders and scanning them, rather than any analysis or actual entering of data into the computer.

The worst part was the delay. I originally planned to put in my two weeks at my job at AMC Theatres, but my general manager convinced me to work weekends. I was very lucky for that, as I would end up working about four days every week by taking other people's shifts as my new job's status was in limbo. After about three weeks of this frustration, I went back to open availability at AMC.

But in April, things got kind of frustrating once again. I found myself getting involved in "YouThink Drama" once again, getting myself banned by calling out the moderator Birdsong4j because she had not given Secret Santa gifts two years. To make matters worse, I had gotten her a gift in 2010, and done an excellent job at that!

My bans would end up (by today) totaling 21 months, meaning I will not be returning to YT until 1/18/16. 2015 will be  the first year where I did not have any access to my Electric account on YT.

And in May, my foundations were shook when one of my best friends Addie/NinjaKitten died. I had not been expecting this. I was able to alleviate my emotions and hopefully help her family by purchasing a collection of books for her oldest daughter, but her death really sent me over the edge.

I became convinced that people on my Facebook were there to watch over me and feign concern when I was "unwell", and were not my true friends. My behavior on Facebook would end up giving me multiple bans from posting on FB and a loss of about 25% of my friends list, including celebrity legend Maddox and some I had been close friends with back in high school.

But the worst part would have been losing my job at AMC, caused by a poor reaction to a customer's rude comments. I had never been known for my temper or my reacting to customers in the past, but this guy was truly terrible.

But the  last three months were pretty good. While I usually have been getting 20-25 hours a week, Erik's Deli has been nice enough to offer some overtime when they needed an extra hand.

+Won employee of the month in March 2014 at AMC, my first such award since June 2005!
+Had fun at my stepbrother's bachelor party, going to a Sharks game.
+Took advantage of good discounts, seeing a lot of free movies and eating sandwiches.
+Slept very well for most of the year
+Had a date... more than zero dates, so that's something.

-Due to my "misbehavior" (and the mods not liking me) got a long-ass ban of 21 months from YouThink.com.
-Lost 20-25% of my Facebook friends due to an internet meltdown.
-Lost one of my best friends Addie/NinjaKitten when she died in early May 2014.
-Two trips to the special hospital for bullshit reasons

Social/Romantic: 5 (While I did have one date, it didn't really lead anywhere. And I hardly got to see my friends. Cetin has been in "Turkish prison" [his mom won't let him leave Turkey for no valid reason] for more than a year now. While I did get to visit my stepbrother and my friend Brian when I visited Portland two times in 2014, it wasn't the same as things were back in college when I always had someone to hang out with.)

Educational: 6 (No huge ground broken here, but I did take two online courses through the city of Santa Clara and I'd say the knowledge has stuck with me pretty well. I suppose an "educational" score for years when I've long since graduated college don't make much sense, but it is what it is.)

Self-Improvement: 5 (I'd like to say I learned something from my strange trips this summer, but I really didn't learn much. It was frustrating to have my every move watched to the point where people were reporting me as suicidal to Facebook just to piss me off. Fuck that. People need to get over me.)

Vocational: 5 (Nothing too good here. I was employed for only 8 of the 12 months in 2014, and it was all minimum wage. I loved my job at AMC early on but I felt with how I was behaving online, that being at AMC so often wasn't safe. It was probably for the best that I was let go, to be honest. I just wish it had gone better than it had.)

Overall: 5.25 (Not a great year, again. I hope 2015 is better. Depending on how things go, it should be...)