i'll start.

10 years ago i was turning 17, drunk at inflatablevagina's house party off of hot damn and jager, i attempted to go on a cow hunt in the pasture behind her house with all my drunk boyfriends, we got scared, did a group piss around a tree, didnt find any cows. insulted her frankenstein-like boyfriend. got in a fist fight with a marine.

a few months later we (inflatablevagina and i) got kicked out of our first apartment for hosting a brothel, i ran away to denver with another friend, lived in a car for a while, spent a year drunk and stoned on a mountain top and traveling around the west having an existential crisis. somehow woke up one morning and realized i had somehow become the host house for interstate traveling ravers seeking parties in the rockies, hazy memories of debauchery flooded back into my brain, promptly moved back to texas, met a beautiful crazy man, had his baby, married him. had another one of his babies, he quit taking his meds and went really really really fucking crazy, left him for good, bought a house, took 8 years worth of xrays. had some personal trauma. had some personal triumph. embraced a broken heart, lived in poverty, got disowned at least 5 times, read alot of books. battled alcoholism internally and externally, philosophized with friends, experienced loss. experienced joy, became subject to gravity, reveled in inertia, lost momentum, was ruled entirely by emotion and impulse, embraced metaphor, was misunderstood, reunited, gave back, took, volunteered my time, attempted to mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally available, acted irrationally, behaved selfishly, felt whole sometimes, self-taught, fell in love, stepped in infatuation, gave birth. was a mommy. was a wife. was a tattoo supply delivery girl, was a barista. was a pizza maker. was an xray tech. was a massage therapist. was an insomniac. took in my crazy teenage cousin, dated an old friend, reconciled some family shit. lost my mind, traveled alot, lived simply and briefly caught a hold on inner peace, lost it, went crazy, quit taking xrays, went back to school, embraced the amazingness of unemployment. learned to bake, invented some recipes, had some ideas. ate some cookies. raised some amazing babies. raised some cool ass quirky talented kids, paid alot of bills. abandoned all laws of grammar. flirted with internet addiction, smoked 99999999 packs of cigarettes. and several hundreds bowls, made a sift talk post.

^ditto. Everything except two things, not saying which...but ditto.

Ten years ago I was 19 and a born-again, holy-rolling Christian. Worked in an automotive factory making parts for the Toyota Camry. You may be driving a faulty Camry at this moment. Sorry if you die. I was a bad employee and was let go.

Nine years ago I was living in my birth town near Mt. Rushmore, lazily pretending to work in a lumber yard as I lost my religion under the watchful eyes of George Carlin, Rene Descartes and my own sense of logic. I moved back to my home state and promptly watched my grandmother die of a heart attack.

Eight years ago I was working in an injection molding plant, getting tattooed and listening to Slipknot while the towers fell. I laughed while watching them fall, because it looked like a movie. Don't let Michael Bay film a tragedy.

Seven years ago I was working under the Golden Arches, getting tattooed and arrested. No conviction, though. If the glove don't fit...

Six years ago I was moving to the City of Trees for a girl. Yeah, I know...

Five years ago I watched Bush get re-elected, and thought about Rage Against the Machine lyrics.

Four years ago I watched the girl move out of my apartment a week after I started college. Somehow I failed that semester.

Three years ago I started making sandwiches and pretended to enjoy the company of customers. I may have also gotten laid that year at some point. I think.

Two years ago I still made sandwiches, but I quit school because the American education system is ridiculous.

One year ago I worked for the Evil Empire of Mr. Sam Walton and lived with a bunch of vegan hipsters. WTF was I thinking?

This year I started by walking out of Wally World and into the land of unemployment and living in a friend's house while I got back on my feet. (Which means I'm making sandwiches again.)

In between all of those I read halves of interesting books, wrote halves of my own interesting books, wrote halves of interesting pieces of music, memorized numbers, found number patterns, made friends, lost friends, smoked the occasional joint, smoked the occasional cigarette, drank too much, lost a few thousand dollars in poker and spent too much time on Facebook and Videosift, from which I've been banned two or three times.

Edit: Somewhere in there I watched my mother try to commit suicide twice. Forgot about that.

I grew up.

My grandparents died, my uncle died, I found love, I've found my profession, I woke up and smelled the coffee.

I went through high school and on to the university. I've dropped out of uni (computer science) once in 2005 and started on a new path in 2006 (information studies, game development). I almost have that finished now. I've been a slacker in school since forever, but now I'm better at it, so I keep up while slacking too.

I've had all the jobs I've ever had in the last decade, as a delivery guy for a lumber yard, selling fish to tourists, working with web development 2 separate times, have just gotten 2x internships as a game developer.

I've been depressed and overjoyed, luckily the last is lately. I've made a few enemies and a whole lot of friends. I've been disappointed by people and pleasantly surprised by others.

get up at 9AM. be late for work. pretend to be working until boss leaves. go home & online. smoke a joint, pop some pills, drink. whatever. if sperm count is high, masturbate. fall down at around 3AM. repeat until year 2010. oh my, how time flies

Ten and nine years ago I was finishing high-school, slacking considerably, but still getting decent grades.

Eight years ago I was studying to become an electrical engineer. I was slacking considerably, but my grading trend from high-school did not carry over to university studies. I was in an army program which locked me in for 6 years after graduation (3 years in addition to the mandatory 3, total of 10 years including the degree), and decided I didn't know where I was going to be 10 years later. Quit and joined the army the normal way.

Seven, six and five years ago I was in the Israeli Army as an IT guy. 1.5 hours commute to a job with pay that would seem low in third-world countries. Time passed, even though it seemed to stand still.

Four years ago I attempted to resume my studies, only to realize it wasn't just the duration of the military service that bothered me, I also didn't like what I was studying very much. I dropped out for good and spent my time cultivating my online gaming addiction.

Three years ago I managed to quit playing long enough to travel to the US to attend my cousin's wedding and get a pilot's license. I spent two months there, mostly in Maryland.

Two and one years ago I decided that if I have no idea what I want to do with myself, I should keep doing what I know. I got a general IT certificate and got a random entry-level job.

In between there were depression, wars, family deaths and many many hours lost to the virtual worlds I liked exploring better than the real one. Seems sort of dull written down, doesn't it?

A decade ago I was wondering if Y2K was really going to bring down the world's computer infrastructure. I was several months into a serious relationship wondering how it would turn out. I was in community college as an uninterested business administration major wondering if I'd actually see it through. I was working in a great little company with a decent little job.

As of the end of this decade, Y2K is a joke, I'm married to that wonderful girl who turned out to be my soul mate, I changed majors to earn a BS in computer science, and I'm still at that little company enjoying every day I have the privilege to come to work.

Among the best things to happen for me this decade was being asked to come aboard this great little site I discovered called VideoSift.

I raise my glass to you @dag, James Roe (wherever you are), @siftbot, and the entire Sifter community. Auld lang syne and all that... Cheers!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I spent Y2K in a nuclear hardened bunker.

2000 was a big year for me. Had a baby boy, began my life in Australia in earnest - lost a lot of money (stock options) in the dotcom crash.

The years until 2005 were a bit of a blur, I remember the peaks and troughs, but that's it. Bought a house, changed jobs a couple of times, climbed the corporate ladder.

At the end of 2005 something clicked- I wanted out. We sold our house and most of the stuff we own. I quit my job and we bought round the world ticket for the family. We spent the next 5 months backpacking - went like this: L.A, Las Cruces, NM, Alaska, Vancouver (Lasik), Ireland, Girona, Spain, Osaka, Japan Bangkok, Thailand and then back to Australia- pretty much broke.

In 2006 I rented a little office with a friend who was working on a motorized skateboard thing. I didn't know what I was going to do, but we were paying rent, and we had a bar fridge stocked with Coronas. I started plonking away on my laptop - and VideoSift was launched on February 16th 2006.

Aside from the birth of my son- the highlight of my decade was VideoSift - still feels great to be part of something like this. I've also changed jobs a couple times, taken a few overseas trips, moved house way too many times and watched the kids grow.

The Last Ten Years

Cape Cod, rough time, always enough money for beer and Chinese food, but little more. Worked for a medical supply company, forty hours of weekly hell. I used to play with the prosthetic boobs when nobody was around. Shake the box and watch them jiggle. Got a dream job as a front desk clerk. No job lets you read and write like a front desk gig at a dinky motel. I had a favorite strip club where my favorite girl used to shoot me in the face with her panties. I pretended I didn't like it. She and I would talk about movies sometimes.

Roswell, tossed a resume in the mail and landed a whale of a job, programming. Great money, shitty people. Suddenly more than enough money for my bar tab, and I needed every cent. Met some friends. A few died, others moved away, the rest I hardly see because they got married, or got DUIs, or decided to quit drinking.

Throughout, I was writing poems. Some winners, some stinkers. Started a few novels that I never finished. I fall in love with my characters, the good ones. They're always very different. Old men, old women, lonely pervs, strippers, loser teens, the underachieving hero, the skeptical professional who finally sees the light.

Got laid off in January, 2007. Totally unexpected. Haven't seen a paycheck since. IRS wants me to give them money I don't have. And the only woman in this town who strikes my fancy is married to one of the coolest guys I know.

I dream of leaving Roswell every day.

Blizzard announces they're gonna make an MMO.


Still playing it.

10 years ago I was fourteen and was living on a ranch with my mother’s parents. It was the year I learned to snowboard, got my license, and quit smoking (tobacco). As a painfully shy tom boy, I didn’t have friends (besides my older brother and his crew), or a date (brother beat up the nerds I liked ) The next three years of high school were spent in the TINY town of Circle Montana. At 16 I got a best friend who I would spontaneously takes road trips across the state with. It was though her I got my first boyfriend the summer I turned 17. That summer we ran away to West Yellowstone and felt free…

At 17 with family problems on the ranch I moved to Billings (largest city in Montana). I finished my senior year there while staying in an apartment right across the parking lot from school. I worked washing, fueling, and parking UPS trucks to pay the rent. I almost got married at 19, broke up and moved in with my father’s parents. I started school at MSU as an Environmental Science major. After a year I decided I needed change.

Summer of 2005 I moved to Cookeville Tennessee to go to school at the Appalachian Center for Craft. To afford school, I took a year off and worked in the factories. I was an auto airbag inspector, assembler and typesetter…*yawn*. I finally started school again in the fall of 2006 in the glassblowing program. After a semester of glass I changed to metal. I started in Blacksmithing then shifted towards Metalsmithing. I just started working in clay a year ago and picked that up really quickly. Now I just got to finish my senior thesis this spring and get the fuck out of this place.

I have been down and lonely...but things have really changed for the better.

I guess the three paragraphs thing is out the window?

It's been a rough decade for Budzos. Externally, it might not look like I've progressed much. Ironically, that's because I've progressed so much on the inside. This was the decade where I realized all my youthful dreams of wealth and power had been based on indoctrination by vapid marketing victims with little self-knowledge (yes I'm talking about my parents). All I want from life at this point is the freedom to think as much as possible. That means I don't even want a wife, or children, or a big house, or any of that bullshit. I just want free time.

I spent most of the decade in front of a computer. I work mostly as a digital designer, and most of my hobbies are based around the PC as well. I'm happiest when my phone is turned off and I'm absorbed in a computer game or in doing some animation.

My love life this decade has been a complete joke. One "real" girlfriend, and a whole bunch of [EDIT: decidedly unchaste and ill-considered women] ... not that I think all women are [decidedly unchaste and ill-considered], but again thanks to the way I was raised I tend to only get involved with the craziest of the crazy. I'm pretty sure the last girl I "loved" killed my baby without informing me, and this realization hit me like a sock in the gut (or nuts, more appropriately).

My resolutions for the new decade are to work on attracting a better class of woman (those who demand respect, for a start). (EDIT: I realize this might seem to contradict not wanting a wife or children. Hey if I fall in love I'm not gonna fight it. In the meantime I'm not literally looking to exist as a monk. So this goal represents a whole spectrum of more specific goals all centering around self-improvement and working towards real financial independence. ) Also to move away from "web design" and create a few products which I can sell directly to the customer. Some fun stuff for the world to enjoy. Because marketing is just about the most vile thing I can think of. Honestly I fucking hate marketing with every fiber of my soul... "Gee Mr. Pitchman, you mean to tell me YOUR product is the BEST! Well I'll be!" Fuck me. And web design in 2010 is a completely different beast than it was in 2000. Oh, to go back to the days when people would pay $3000 for a few static HTML pages with some Flash.

Hmm ten years ago I was 20. I worked at Krogers, and attended some community college. I had already racked up about 20 hours of music classes. I was depressed all the time and still in love with a married woman who I met in college and had a relationship with the year before. I had to work at Krogers that new years of the y2k bug and when we closed for the night I ran down the aisles "yelling its the end of the world!" That June I turned 21 and fell in love with a co-worker who was 17.... obviously that relationship was doomed from the beginning. I got another job at the mall selling sunglasses I was the manager. One of my employees committed suicide out in the parking lot one night. This was right after me and the 17 year old had broken up for the second time and I was now twice as depressed. I made it through that and ended up sleeping with one of my friends at the time who is now my wife. Not long after we started dating 911 happened. We were together for a while and I stopped "being careful" and we eventually came to the conclusion that I couldn't have kids... in 2003 we were proved wrong. In 2004 my son was born on a very rainy day in the afternoon but we had picked the name Noah months before. Having no job prospects we went to live with her mom and I floated through two jobs. The second job the company closed down and I landed another in the IT dept thanks to my brother in law where he works. And that leaves me to right now I just bought a house in July and Im attending community college again to get my associates.

Ten years ago, I was, well, ten. My grandmother had recently died. I graduated from primary school. Graduated from Secondary school. Had my first girlfrend. Lost my first girlfriend. Started playing FFXI during the summer. Started high school. Figured out who I actually was, and what I stand for. Lost my friends for a while because they were assholes (But, it's high school, that shit happens). Got New friends, the two groups of friends merged, accidently broke a kids arm.

Got my first job, gained friends on a level I hadn't really achieved before (the kind that actually forgive you for things, and move on) Worked two jobs for a while, Produce clerk at a grocery store, and media specialist at Bestbuy. My sister also worked at the grocery store and started dating one of the full timer's named Aiden. Found out about this site. Stopped playing FFXI, started playing WoW. A combination of two jobs, new, good friends, and a new shiny MMo to play led to my school life lacking. Started not showing up.

Contract at bestbuy didn't get renewed, that summer I Worked at a place that recycles parts from a toyota plant. hated it with all my soul. Left after 2 weeks, and kept my produce clerk job. Finally in grade 12, 5 weeks before the end of the year, I got kicked out of school for not showing up anymore. My V.P. made me sign a contract that said I wouldn't show up on school property. We both had a good laugh at the irony.

Started up a full time job at a call center for Microsoft customer support, brought two friends from the grocery store, and one from high school with me. We worked 5pm-1am. Finally quit that after 4 or so months, when the job became unbearable because xbox live was down over christmas, and my job became 8 hours of people waiting in queue to bitch me out for something I had no control over. Got my GED.

Worked at toys R us for a while, the lady who hired me on later got shot and killed when she got off the bus at her stop. Crime to this day remains unsolved. Quit the job. Started working as a spotlight operator for a show put on by the Waterloo Regional Police Service, the show raised $90,000 for charity. Then, this week, my friends grandmother died, and my sister told my mom and I she and Aiden were through, but she hadn't told Aiden yet, and didn't plan to until later on in January. Made spending xmas day together horrible and awkward. Today, she called me and told me they had a fight, and she didn't bother waiting, after 6 years, 5 of which the two of them spent living together here with my mom and I, they were done. I feel like I've lost the only brother I've ever had.

Happy new year.

...Upon re-reading my post, I appologise. It's a little emotionless. I'd normally make it a lot more jazzed up but with the news that my sister and her boyfriend are breaking up, I feel like I've truly lost a member of my family.

However, Just to add a bit to it to not make it look like I've had a horrible decade, I did a lot of good things too. I got my motorcycle license and a Kawasaki Vulcan 500, my drivers license and my first car, upgraded my computer a bunch of times. Finally, this year, completed a life long ambition of mine and built a computer from the ground up. And, just recently, proved my epic nerd muscle by winning a trivia contest (Winner #7, rumfro) to play the Star Trek Online closed beta starting on monday.

*quality

Awarding peggedbea with one star point for this contribution to VideoSift - declared quality by thinker247.