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Video Game Reviews and Industry News

Land of the Free and Home of the Unemployed

Posted by Tim On May - 14 - 2009

So the hammer finally fell today, making my life even more interesting. Walking into work, I am called into the boss-lady’s office and given the axe due to a reduction in force. I’m offered a severance and told to hit the road – thanks for these past five years of hard work but we just can’t keep paying you and still make ends meet. A story I’m sure a lot of you have heard in recent months. Interestingly enough, if you’re on the internet and have somehow found your way to my blog then you share my passion for gaming and all things video games.

Just to answer the obvious question, no I did not know about my layoff before making my last post. Even moreso now, though, I could use the donations so I shamelessly ask for help with school again. Look to your right and donate something, ANYTHING, to the cause. I promise you’ll be included on the credits on my first game (developed independantly).

Oddly enough, I’m generally disgruntled but the fury that I had at my last layoff hasn’t set in yet. This is not to say that it won’t at some future point. I mean, I plan on taking full advantage of my severance pay to take some much needed recoup time and really start off in the right direction… however I don’t harbor an abundance of ire and rancor for my former employer. The company is poorly run on almost every level and its a hundred other people’s fault that we lost the major customer that we did, yet I can’t seem to find it in me to get worked up over it. After so many years I suppose I just accepted that that was the way they are and that is what they will continue to be. If I’m ever in direct competition with them on some level, I will feel sorry for them as I will definitely use their weaknesses against them.

But that’s just good business.

Anyways, the severance offering isn’t bad. It will definitely allow me to put my affairs in order and begin the job-hunt anew. I am still going forward with my school plans. I will have until August to worry about next semester and I hope to have something going by then. I fully expect to have 3-4 weeks off at the minimum. Part of my package was to work with an outplacement company and I intend to take all classes they have to offer to help me along my way but I’m not in a hurry. I mean, I have a freakin’ baby on the way!

Yes I’m bummed and thank everyone for their condolences. Please don’t tell me you’re sorry about my job – you didn’t do anything. Also, I hate pity. If you’d like to give encouragement that would be awesome. Even a, “Dude, that sucks ass.” would be welcome.

One thing that this does mean is that I can totally start working on my game backlog, crank out some reviews undisturbed, and get some shiz done around the house. Our pool looks like a bog and our grass harbors giant gnomes that go undetected in the safari-style grass. Plus, it’ll be a good time to plan out the home networking and finish getting the library set up PLUS I can get a start brushing my math skillz off and working on my C++.

That’s it for the layoff day update. I look forward to seeing more of you, internets. We have been apart too, too long.

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4 Responses to “Land of the Free and Home of the Unemployed”

  1. Tim says:

    LOL – it did. That is a pretty bangin’ program!

  2. Micheal Watts says:

    Who cares

  3. Tim says:

    Apparently you do, since you took the time to post this comment. I hope you know that I log IP’s. Interesting that you’re on the SBT domain commenting on this. Care to tell me who you really are?

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About Me

Yo I\'m Tim - I love playing games, writing, and giving opinions about games. Bet you probably could have guessed that, eh? I\'m currently studying towards a Game and Simulation Programming degree, hoping to finish by 2012. Its my dream to be in the game industry, doing AI or anything else, really. Meanwhile, I\'ll be here posting about the games I purchase and the games I\'m fortunate enough to be asked to review. If there\'s a game you want to see, drop me a line. Lastly, I’d like to drop a shout to those who\'ve inspired me somewhere along the way: GiantBomb.com, eat-sleep-game.com, cheapassgamer.com. These guys are some of the funniest and most interesting game podcast crews out there and I just want to say thanks for keeping us laughing.

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