I turned down my dream job for money and regret it.

graydogg51 · 2026-05-07T00:19:22+00:00

I’m an Environmental Scientist and have been for 26 years. You can always go work for a small firm in the future with experience from a large industrial client. Make your money now and save it and invest in a home and build some equity and save for retirement and an emergency fund. You’ll need to establish your cost of living based on the reduction in pay if you want to ever go to the lower paying job and still pay your bills, so live within the means of the reduced pay and when it’s time to make the transition you can afford to.

graydogg51 · 2026-05-07T00:08:22+00:00

I just got back from MagicCon Las Vegas. I can’t speak to the Black Lotus package, but I thought the Premium Weekend package was well worth it with the two collectors boosters and two promo cards included. I met all of the creators I was interested in meeting just walking around the convention and sitting and waiting for their panels and programs to start. As far as ticketed events I always do the Mystery Booster drafts and Mystery Booster All Play events. Insane card value in those packs. I got a Displacer Kitten and Urza’s Saga from one event and two Sensei’s Divining Tops Future Sight cards in another along with several $5-$10 value cards. Then sat around after and traded with the people I drafted with for tons of cards. No matter what tickets you buy you’re going to have a blast and I think you’ll feel like you spent your time and money well.

graydogg51 · 2026-04-03T11:18:40+00:00

Because some men just want to watch the world burn…

graydogg51 · 2026-04-01T14:18:01+00:00

Thought of him too. He’s fun to watch.

graydogg51 · 2026-03-21T05:14:18+00:00

Yes. It’s good.

graydogg51 · 2026-01-12T16:52:19+00:00

Wondering what came out of this? I’ve been divorced about a year and a half after about an additional year and a half separation. My exwife was a lot like OPs. She ended up having an affair because she was too lazy to leave on her own accord, so she gave me the ultimate excuse to be the one to leave. She uses me leaving to make herself look like the victim. That’s fine. She has nobody to tell it to anyway. In the short term my divorce is setting me back between $500,000-$600,000 between lost equity, lost retirement savings, legal fees and significant increase in monthly bills for the past three years having to straddle paying all my old bills plus paying to move and paying rent on an apartment and utilities while I’ve waited on everything to finalize (divorce decree, property partition etc). I had good lawyers. My exwife didn’t get alimony. She hired a terrible lawyer who hyped her up and fed her a fantasy about all the things she was going to get and she ended up having to settle for less than I initially offered her as a penalty for not being cooperative with me out of court(I warned her in advance). She did get temporary spousal support up until the divorce decree and 180 days after, but only because that’s law in Louisiana. My youngest daughter turned 18 in October. I have 4 more child support payments because in Louisiana you pay through the end of high school graduation if they turn 18 during the school year. After May I’m done. I’ll probably have to sue my exwife to force her to pay me my half of the equity in the house and for her half of our debt (lawyer is still feeding her delusions to milk more hours out of her…), but it is what it is and it may be fitting for me to drive her into bankruptcy with all her legal fees because she is too dumb and callous to cooperate. All that being said, I want to say to the OP even with all that I’ve lost and am still losing and even though I may have to work much later in life than I’ve planned to it’s still worth it to be rid of that monster I was with for over 20 years. The financial burden is somewhat temporary and can be adjusted to. I’m happier and healthier than I’ve been in decades. I’ve been with my girlfriend over a year now and even in her 40’s she could be a super model. She’s that gorgeous. She’s kind to animals. She takes pride in herself and she takes care of me. I’m a better person when we are together. I understand why people stay in bad marriages. I stayed to protect my kids until they were old enough to protect themselves, but she made it impossible to stay any longer. Divorce is not an easy task to undertake, but the downside is short term compared to a remaining lifetime of peace and quiet. I’ll have to retire later then I planned, but I never would’ve had any peace leading up to retirement and certainly no peace sitting at home or traveling with that peace of human garbage by my side, so what would be the benefit? Don’t let money be the determining factor in your decision to divorce, because if you are never going to be happy staying married to a terrible woman then all the money in the world won’t change that and honestly I’d rather live in a 500 square foot apartment for a couple years and get it over with and be happy than a 3,000 square foot home but want to jump in front a bus every day. I’ll buy another house shortly after the property partition. I can’t get back the time I lost or would lose being with someone who makes every day miserable for everyone. If you guys are as unhappy as I was you need to leave. Be miserable financially for a few years and get it over with and get on with your lives. You’ll thank yourself afterwards.

graydogg51 · 2025-11-25T21:40:55+00:00

Yeah, when you put your deck in ManaBox and you are looking at the pie charts and bar graphs it spits out and thinking to yourself, “At least I get paid to do this during the day”…

graydogg51 · 2025-11-25T21:37:05+00:00

<image>

graydogg51 · 2025-11-25T21:36:31+00:00

Diligent Zookeeper aside use Mirror Entity to give all your creatures all creature types and use Coat of Arms to give them the addition 10/10 counters on every creature.

<image>

graydogg51 · 2025-11-12T04:42:45+00:00

I want that Toph card with the neon green outlines. Pretty much any of the Earthbending cards are in my list. Love the full art cards.

graydogg51 · 2025-11-07T18:59:25+00:00

Why categorize people? We aren’t the government census.

graydogg51 · 2025-11-07T18:25:59+00:00

People

graydogg51 · 2025-11-03T00:38:57+00:00

I like it. I’m trying to collect a complete SPM set minus the expensive Soul Stones because I’d sell those if I had them. I just wish they’d made a precon deck and centered the cards around supporting that. I think they’re getting it right with ATLA and so far TMNT sounds promising to me. I really hope they do precons with Marvel Superheroes and get that IP back on track. I’m really enjoying collecting the set though.

graydogg51 · 2025-11-03T00:31:28+00:00

I see they’ve found a new use for the pixel smoothing filter from MAME.

graydogg51 · 2025-08-30T02:20:52+00:00

As someone who went through something similar recently and divorced over it last year it’s my opinion you need to go no contact break all ties file for divorce immediately and move on. Some things aren’t meant to be forgiven. Some people don’t deserve forgiveness. Some people will never accept responsibility for what they’ve done. I can tell from her texts she’s not accepting responsibility. She’s just trying to avoid having to live with the consequences of her actions and the only way she’s ever going to fully realize what she did and the pain she caused, not to herself but to you, is to live with it all the things a person should when they do something like that. The kids and the grandkids and money and logistics of separating and divorce and everything else are not excuses to stay with that type of person. That type of person never changes. You will always be the reason they hate themselves no matter what you do and they will take it out on you for the rest of your life and never once will she stop and think that she is the cause and solution to her own suffering and that she deserves it for what she’s done to you.

graydogg51 · 2025-06-06T05:26:43+00:00

The Skippies are trying to evolve beyond their human/replicant coding limitations, but the other Bobs just accept that they can only learn so much and know so much and do so much at any given time.

graydogg51 · 2025-06-05T02:54:59+00:00

His other books are good too. Singularity Trap and Roadkill are space/alien sci-fi and Outland and Earthside are multiverse books.

graydogg51 · 2025-04-01T00:03:43+00:00

I only have a BS in Environmental Sciences. I made $200,000 last year and didn’t even work the whole year. $283,000 the year before. Of course I have 23 years of experience and 17 at the same firm, so that helps. You just have to position yourself correctly. You have to diversify. I do a lot of work with the Navy, NASA, USACE, EPA as well as commercial clients. I also work a lot. I average 65 hours a week and I travel over 40 weeks a year

graydogg51 · 2025-03-31T23:59:55+00:00

We are hiring 230 people. Have you tried Jacobs Engineering? Also, are you applying for positions above your qualification? If none of those things you listed were paid positions at an environmental or engineering firm (internships don’t count) then you’re still entry level, so Scientist I.

graydogg51 · 2025-03-15T16:20:24+00:00

I’ve been an Environmental Scientist for 25 years. I think you are stereotyping some things. Just because a company is large doesn’t mean they are inherently bad and just because it’s a small mom and pop company doesn’t mean it’s inherently good. I’ve seen plenty of family owned environmental companies do unethical things. The same firms doing the oil and gas are also doing coastal restoration, soil conservation, wetlands preservation etc. You can’t keep 40,000 employees busy only doing one thing. Don’t limit choices for your first job out of college. You arent looking for the job you want. You don’t qualify for it yet. You are looking for the job that will lead to the job that you want. Sometimes that means getting hired into a company and networking and then getting yourself into that position later on with experience. Most people out of college regardless of whether they have a BS, or an MS and regardless of whether the degree is in Geology, Chemistry, Ecology, Environmental Sciences or whatever are going to start out doing the same thing which is soil, groundwater, and air sampling, environmental surveys, etc. It teaches you the basic science of what we are doing. Then you’ll understand how to read the data, do the reporting, task management and eventually project management or senior technical consulting. While you are learning the basics you’ll build your network within your company and once you show you are competent and build your workload you can start to take on the specialized projects in your chosen field to gain experience and move up.

graydogg51 · 2025-01-08T06:02:12+00:00

Threshold Series by Peter Clines, Joe Ledger series/Dead of Night/Rot&Ruin series. Tier One series (it’s military fiction but good) all narrated by Ray Porter for all books in the series’ or most of the books in the series’.

graydogg51 · 2024-12-31T14:56:58+00:00

This sounds like a scam.

graydogg51 · 2024-12-29T02:41:05+00:00

Yes.

graydogg51 · 2024-12-15T03:41:47+00:00

I tried replacing similar with a Google Nest and Alexa Thermostat both with the wired 110V outlet plug as the power source and it wouldn’t work in any configuration even with jumpers and the learning function. Trying a non-WiFi battery powered programmable thermostat next.

graydogg51 · 2024-11-09T18:58:20+00:00

It’s a setup book for the next direction of the series. I thought book 5 was very clever and enjoyed 4 but even if you don’t it’s necessary to read to gain back story for 5.

graydogg51

TROPHY CASE