Hey I built a computer!

I was missing but I’m back now

I was sick for a month, had a constant headache for a week, nothing major though. I’ve been working full time and on the weekends I usually spent time with my girlfriend. I do have a bit of time but usually I’ve rested or been guilty of playing a game.

Oh yes of course, because I built a computer, how cool is that? I know everyone does it nowadays, but I didn’t have a great idea of how to, I had no idea what a motherboard was or how to install RAM. I did a lot of research on that too, about two weeks learning about components, safety, tools, reading reviews, picking and repacking the parts for my computer.

It was a thrilling experience; one of the worse parts was installing the CPU in the motherboard, which is like implanting a brain in a body, though the latter would probably be way more complicated. It was easy, it took me one minute to place it in its spot, but when I place down what held the processor, it made this sand dropping sound which was terrifying because the thing was worth 200 dollars, and without it, the computer would never boot. So I was in the dark for a couple of more hours not even knowing if my computer would actually boot.

When done I was proud of what I’ve done, and even though the cable management wasn’t so great because of the lack of space, it was fair. The case has four fans which keep it nice and cool. I did get a beast graphics card though, and games look amazing on it and play at the highest settings. I took a good look at Skyrim and that game looks beautiful, though I really haven’t played it much because I’m burnt out on the RPG games.

My other computer’s hard drive was wiped when I sold it to my uncle, so all the stories I had there were deleted, so that was a downer also.

I’ve been working on translating a show, it has 95 episodes and I’m a moderator of it, so that’s taking a while, when that’s done I’ll link it here for everyone to take a look, I’m excited about this because it’s such a great show that I love and can’t wait to have it translated for a broader audience. Also because it would look great on my translating resume and because I’m leading a team of translators, segmenters, and have followers that are relying on me.

Well I have much work to do, translating to do, writing to do, I’ll try to blog more maybe when I work and have free time. I also have that Final Element story to write, but I’ll have to write the chapter outline again (Damn computer wipeout) I think I’ll be fine though ;)

– Zogyark

The Roof – Journal

I had such a workout yesterday. Instead of my regular sleep-in late Saturday, I woke up and got ready to work again. But instead of dressing in a fancy suit, I dressed in old jeans, ripped working shoes and a regular long sleeve shirt. My father, brother, and I were ready by 8 a.m. and so we went to work with my cousin Diego.

At 9 a.m. we started working. The roof was tall and slanted; I knew I wouldn’t get up there. I’ve never been fond of heights however when the roof is sort of plain I make the effort to help up there, but not this time. I didn’t feel so useless however, as the other four people who could do roof work got up there.

At first my brother and I watched the guys climb up there like spider men, then as the trash went down the roof we watched that, we helped as we could bringing tools, materials, and drinks to the pros. After they got down with one side, the amount of trash was much that it covered the grass. We started picking it up, big pieces first and left everything else on sailcloth to pick it up later. For hours we did this, it was longer than I initially thought. After we were done with one side we went to the other, however we had to take trips to the trash dumpster this time. And with time the trips got tougher, our legs were giving out, I can feel the numbness of my legs now as it’s hard to walk, every time we go roofing though I can expect this.

It’s a terrible feeling when you see someone fall from such a height, while my brother and I were on break, we sat on a bench and watched the guys work. Two of them were stepping on the same 2×4 wood that was holding them while they walked on the roof, and the thing gave up on them and broke. Incapable of holding anything they both fell down as we watched from a distance, impotent and useless, we seemed so slow when trying to run to see if they were okay. A few scratches and back pain it was, and they both were okay, but the scare was enough. It’s nothing like the movies, usually things like that are never like in the movies, more like in books though, when you read it on a book that you’re into you feel it more. First thing you hope is “I hope they are conscious” then you thinking “I hope they didn’t break anything”.

Well apart from that we carried some shingles onto the lifting ladder that takes them to the roofing people, who then carries them on his shoulder through a ladder that is actually lying on the roof (sounds crazy) and places it across the roof for easier retrieval. We finished at 8 p.m. and our whole body ached, we had arm, leg, back, chest workout in every way. I bet if you get someone to do that every day and drink their protein shake at the end of the day they would bulk up in no time.

–          Zogyark

First Job as a Freelancer

A month or so ago I applied to a freelance site called http://www.elance.com I had been out of school for about half a year and out of work for even longer. After applying and failing to get any jobs for the past 6 months I couldn’t take it any longer and decided to look for “something” online. My girlfriend suggested http://www.snagajob.com, which seemed good at the time, until no one ever called me back. I filled out every single position I could: Manager, Assistant Manager, Cashier, Server, Dishwasher, Cook, Bathroom Cleaner and when I never got hired in one of these jobs, I realized that the lack of jobs in this country really is bad.

So I looked online, and call it greedy but this blog is also one of the works in progress. Don’t get me wrong I love writing, but I also want to make a living out of it. My dad has always told me throughout my life “Whatever you do chino (I’ll tell you the story of my nickname another time), do what you like. There’s nothing worse than a man going to work and do something he doesn’t love. If you do what you love, you’ll be successful”. It was until lately that I had really started to do what I like, because I wasn’t quite sure of what it was.

But because it’s little hard to get recognized by writing, there’s just so many people that do it because its right there, in your room, you just need to get the will to do it, a will I lacked the last couple of days.

It’s not unexcused though, I frankly had no time to write. Last Wednesday I started my work at the bank, and Monday I went back to work. When I first started this blog I was out of a job. I started strong, with so many words. The everyday practice of journals and stories were keeping me together in writing, and then I also got my first freelancer job.

For those of you who don’t know how some of these freelancing websites work I’ll tell you. A client posts a job they need done. A contractor “bids” on the job and submits his proposal, completion time, and price. But wait, it’s not just one contractor… IT’S MANY. Any freelancer will tell you the mean competition there’s for online jobs nowadays just like regular jobs. So I offer my services as a translator, I speak Spanish perfectly and can write it well. I thought it was the best chance. However it’s not a guaranteed job, English-Spanish-English translations are one of the most bids jobs on freelancing websites. There’s literally people, refreshing the page waiting for a translating job to be posted, after a while you know who are going to be your main competition.

Signing on this site wasn’t easy though. Its not like I signed up and applied right away, no sir. There was a procedure to go through, I had to edit my profile, create sample work, confirm my telephone number, add where my funds would go, take a test understanding the terms of agreements in the jobs, i had to take a translating test! And on top of that I didn’t have the job guaranteed, it really was a long process.

So after a month of bidding for jobs I finally got one, my first online job as a freelance translator. $80.00 for a simple job that would take a day or so. It’s not so bad, to do it from the comfort of your home, taking breaks when you want, working on Microsoft Word. It’s as close to writing to get paid as it gets. The problem was, The job was due on Thursday, and I only had Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday to do it. Any other day this would’ve been fine, but I had just got my job. So I had to work from 7-4p.m. get home at 5p.m. then work for about 4 hours on my translating job.

I ended sleeping at 12 a.m. and getting up at 6a.m. to get ready for the bank again. This was really affecting my health. Lack of sleep, headaches, the turnaround was a little too brisk for me. I went from not working for months to working nonstop for days… No good. AND on top of that I got a cold on Tuesday morning. I felt like lightheaded, cold, with a runny nose which wouldn’t stop running. And I still had to get home and work, there was no break. During this time many things happened, ideas for stories came, from real life too. Things like a drunk man on drugs yelling outside in the neighborhood at 12.a.m. saying how he was going to kill himself and reciting the Declaration of independence word for word. The cold also gave me awesome new ideas for my Zombie story, which I’m editing, which is a mess at the moment but I’ll get around to it. I also got to hear how surgeons talk, what a hospital cafeteria is like, I imagined the hospital empty and I sitting by myself and I got another idea…

Oh another reason why I haven’t been writing much on here is that I have a little project going on writing the quest line for a videogame someone is in the process of making, however since it’s top secret I can’t let loose of them on public, not like many would read it anyway. But it’s cool, I like that part, I want to write this text and look back someday at this game, if it ever makes it on the market, and say: “Hey, I wrote the quest line for that game” That would be awesome.

However back to the freelancing job. Thursday morning came, when my client sent their review and loved my job and I got my $80.00, oh man did that feel good. I felt like doing it all over again. I guess the lesson is after trying hard enough things will come to you. And sometimes they will come out altogether at you, and this tests you if you can take the pressure or if you’re going to break out and fail. But you don’t want to fail, you want to succeed and you do everything in your hands, give away your sanity, your sleep, your time in order to do so… Sometimes it’s the only way.

Anyways I wrote this because I feel to let out of somethings, to let my writing flow because I need my practice back, to be able to move on with my stories and quests and jobs. I shall get back to this blog good this weekend, of course unless I get another job, which I hope I will, because I’m really into the whole freelancing too. So many things it’s very exciting, the only thing that’s not so much is this cold, I can’t wait for that one to go away.

– Zogyark