Other The Satan Claus WINNER is:

[TheGreatSatan]

These entries are so long winded that I have to break them up into more than one post and widdle them down a bit. Please vote for who you think should be the winner.

The entrants are:

PM_DMNKLR
IamJudd
Mechh69
Whindog
TLHarrell

Entry 1

Originally Posted by PM_DMNKLR

Over 3 1/2 years ago I lost my job at Walmart, thanks to a racist manager with a lot of power to do as she wished and get away with it. I was also informed that the down side to it for me was that although I did have rights that I could sue them over, I'd have to fork out a lot of cash i didn't have, for a lawyer to fight with them over it. I was granted the max amount of UI possible because of this. Thus also began my journey attempting to regain employment, which was all but 100% failure. I literally put out thousands upon thousands of applications and resumes, but not once did anyone so much as contact a single one of my resources, not a single former employer check, no calls responded to, I even went in person to each of these places to check on the statuses personally, but to no avail.

I cannot work fast food because my fiance is a manager at a fast food place, so I'm automatically flagged as a conflict of interest. I cannot do anything which requires frequent twisting, turning and heavy lifting due to my back (a spinal condition), and I'm limited more so by what's affecting my hands and knees. The symptoms show a combination of carpal tunnel and rheumatoid arthritis. Needless to say, my daily life physically sucks, so I have to force myself to be as active and do quite a bit of stretching whenever possible. I can work with and on computers and electronics just fine for now, though I do have to resort often to only using 3 fingers at a time per hand when typing (I've become quite good at that, lol, adaptation at it's finest I suppose). Since my loss of that job I have only found one temp job, which was all of 2 days per week for 3 weeks, and was just enough to help get my UI extended by those 3 weeks, which helped a lot. This was 2 years ago, and I was also donating plasma just to pay for fuel and food.

At that same time I had also just been divorced, and forced out of my apartment due to not being able to afford it any longer with just my own UI income (my now-ex-wife, who had worked with me at Walmart, had also lost her job when I did because they told her to take me home and stay home to watch over me, but then put into their computer logging system that she'd left w/out permission and refused to come back in), and the girlfriend I'd then been seeing was kicked out of her parents' home, with her child, and forced onto me. So I was then made to take care of 3 people, and my 2 rabbits with that 6-day job, UI and plasma donation money (which was all of $40 USD a week), and even worse we had to live in my mother's camper out behind her house. My brother was also staying at my mother's house at the same time, and his girlfriend was with him most of the time as well, unfortunately. They were, unbeknownst to the rest of us, cooking and selling meth out of his camper, but we knew something was up due to the frequent fuse-blowing that was occurring, causing our heaters in the camper.

One night, there was too much, and the tool shed where the campers were connected to for power had almost caught fire due to my brother and his meth cooking, and we were out of money to buy new fuses with, so at 3am my (now-ex-gf) had to call her mother and ask if we could stay with them until after X-Mas. Even worse, my mother wasn't able to always keep a close eye on my brother and his gf while we were away, so after we'd left his gf broke into the camper we were staying in and stole everything we were unable to take with us. Hundreds of $ worth of Christmas presents (that I'd saved for months), my camera, clothes, food, you name it. The heaters, even backup personal grooming items, DVD's, again you name it she took it. We didn't find this out until December 11th, as we went back to my mother's house to grab the presents, since we couldn't fit them in the car before and really couldn't afford the gas for the trip until then, which was a good 2 1/2 weeks later.

My brother's gf had left him to take the blame for it all and had fled to her mom's a few days prior, thus causing him to be erratic and freaked out when the police had woken him up, which ended up being a firearm-induced standoff. Cut forward to a few days after Christmas, and my now-ex and I split up, lots of toxicity in the relationship as it was, which turned out to be the best thing for her son, but that's because she finally got off her lazy butt and got a job. A week later, I began talking with my high school sweetheart, who I hadn't seen in 11 years, but never stopped loving, and we began seeing each other again. A week later, she moves me in to get me out of that crap camper (and because where she lived was a good 2 hours away from my mom) and we began our new life together.

Then the ex-gf decides to have some fun by trying to hack into my Facebook account, my ex-wife had also been trying to cause issues out of jealousy, which was working, so needless to say I had to fight to keep our relationship going the first few months, but I wasn't about to give up after having not been with her for so long. over a year and a half later and we're actually getting married on Halloween this year. She has a son as well, who I've become Daddy to and who loves me more than words can say, as well as I him. To make it worse we also got notice from Fannie Mae, that our landlord had not paid his lease on the house we were renting from him in well over a year, and had been in talks with them for the last 6 months about foreclosure.

Needless to say, we were forced to use all of our money to find a new place as soon as possible, were screwed out of money by Fannie Mae, and then screwed also out of our deposit money by the landlord. Making it worse, the only home we were able to get is the piece of crap we're in now, which turned out to be infested with mice, but weeks and weeks of trapping and killing them, and I even ended up having to go to the ER for a serious lung infection. I had to be put on heavy antibiotics and was emitting symptoms of a rare deadly disease carried by deer mice and lots of rest and medication over the next few weeks helped me to recover. We would've moved, as our new landlord was being a *****, but we literally had nowhere else to go even if we had the money to move, everywhere else refused us.

If I were to win this, then some stuff would go to me (like games), however most of it would go to my mother (whose PC from 2004 finally crapped out on her) and my father (not my birth father) who also needs a new PC and whom I've been entering contests over the last year and a half trying to get parts to build one for.

Entry 2

Originally Posted by IamJudd

I didn't really know where to start with this as some people may look at it and think "what's the problem?".

It probably stems back nearly twenty five years ago when I was a witness to a robbery in a shop where I knew the owners. A friend of mine and I used to go into this shop on a weekly basis on a Saturday. One Saturday, a group of guys that went to the same secondary school came into the shop and proceeded to steal around a dozen Casio portable TVs at about £150 each. The following decision cost me a great deal of my youth, reoccurring nightmares and various court appearances, broken nose, court orders and such. I did what I thought was right and told the owners. In other words, I squealed and have regretted it ever since.

Now, as a grown man who has managed to always return back to my home town for one reason or another, I still look over my shoulder. I know of one of the antagonists who has been in jail for a lot worse crimes and another who was killed by an escaped mental patient. Karma I suppose. Sounds awful to say it but I'm not sad about it.

However, that one event and the subsequent repercussions have affected my mentality in regards to making decisions. I struggle on a day to day basis to make up my mind on things that could affect my family and myself to the point where I procrastinate over everything and put off the inevitable to the detriment of my career. Even when I am in "a good place", I continue to not be satisfied and struggle to see good where there's an outcome.

I'm on three different types of medication for blood pressure and hypertension and, with a family history of blood pressure problems and angina, the life insurance I have been paying out for over the last ten years is redundant if I die by anything heart related. I'm currently dieting and I've lost two stone over the last year and have kept it off with another two and a half stone to go. I have to do it though as I have three kids (one of which I was estranged from for nine years because I did not know where she was (my ex was very difficult) although I still paid a stupid amount of child support. When I didn't, I was taken to court and threatened - I'm all up to date now though) and a gorgeous wife.
My family is my everything but I continue to find ways to escape into "The Matrix" due to... well... to be depressed. Not necessarily clinically but I certainly can't cope with life sometimes and I game, watch movies and read just to keep things sane. My wife is awesome and is really understanding about my issues. My kids, although noisy and at that "stage" between 1 and 3 are great. I don't take out my frustrations out on them. I have been given work-appointed anger management sessions which have brought out all of these feelings that I really don't know what to do with.

Money issues have sprung up since what were supposed to be promotions ended up being promotions without pay rises. I do more now for less money and my bonuses are weighted against me. The PC in my signature was part of that issue but I don't go out drinking (a throwback to those school days where I COULDN'T go out) and I don't do drugs (anymore). My salary now is the same as 13 years ago.
In short, the PC would be an upgrade to my wife's MacBook. It's an old G4 and she runs Photoshop on it. I say run but that blasted beachball is on the screen more than her work. As she is trying to launch herself into a freelance illustrating career, I want her working on something that she doesn't have to squint at to see what's going on. My wife has a degenerative nerve issue in her left eye. It's called Addies pupil and there is no cure. Basically, the retina does not expand or contract so the right eye has to compensate by being small most of the time where the left is wide open. This will mean that her vision will impair over time.

Entry 3

Originally Posted by Mechh69

Ok since i asked the question earlier ill put my bit in for the prize. We will start around 2004 on my first tour to Iraq. Before leaving for Iraq my wife and I were having serious marriage problems. She was a compulsive hoarder and bi polar who refused to go to the doctor to get meds to help her out. 1 example of her hoarding problem, one day I get home and the house is a disaster (as normal) but I finally get fed up with it and decided to clean up a bit that night I removed 52 black 55 gallon trash bags of stuff from the house. The next day I removed another 32 bags from the house (mind you this is a 1 bedroom studio apartment).

I was in the national guard ( which she constantly tried to talk me out of) and received orders to Iraq for 18 months ( 6 to train up 12 months on ground). I go to the base I was ordered to and my first paycheck was a no pay due. I called my command to see what the problem was and I found out that the only bill she was paying was the rent. The next pay day I got a pay check for about $400 it seemed that there was a debt that I owed to the military that she created that I didn't know about it. It took several pay days to get that all straightened out before i started receiving a regular pay check. So off I go to Iraq.

After several months in Iraq she made no efforts to contact me but was still taking money out of the account, she was generous enough to leave me a $100 a pay day out of the $400+ I was getting for what ever I needed thought. So i contacted a lawyer there in Iraq for the military and had to go through the trouble of changing all my checking accounts and closing the joint account that we had together so she no longer had access to my money. The lawyer had told me what I needed to send her a month per military guidelines so i had to get a joint account with my mother so she could send me her a check once a month according to the rules.

Around November I was working on a Armored vehicle and another soldier and myself were moving an armored door. He was walking backwards and tripped over a pallet in the floor and dropped his end of the door while I was left holding the rest of it. I went to medical the took a look at me for about 5 min and handed me a bag of pain killers and muscle relaxers and said were not going to MediVac you out because you unit is rotating out in 3 months they can take care of you when you get back stateside.

Well after 3 months I get back to the U.S. and find out that my wife had up and left with no explanation and had done god knows what with everything that I owned. On to the next part we were doing the out processing thing that everyone does when you get back from a deployment and I went to get out of a friends car my legs gave out on me and he had to pick me up and put me back in the car to take me to the Emergency room. The MRI shows I have 2 herniated disc in my back. I go back and report to my commander what the situation is and they put me on a medical hold. Well I get shuffled back and forth to about 20 different doctors before they send me to a neurosurgeon. The neurosurgeon confirms that I indeed have 2 herniated disc in my back and suggest epidural steroid injections in to the spine along with physical therapy.

The doctor says that he could do a spinal fusion but would not recommend it at my age (26). Now about this time they are trying to shut down this branch of medical hold so they bring in a doctor to start getting rid of people. He gave me a choice after 9 months of being on medical hold that I can either stay in the army or get out, so i choose to stay and he gives me a paper that says I’m fit for full duty no limitations. After this i finally find a job doing recruiting for the army which was a desk job not much physical activity so not to much of a big deal. I can live with the pain as long as i don't over exert my self. After about a year I decided that since I was "Fit for duty" i wanted to go active army. I go back active army with not to many problems and a job change from being a mechanic to a desk job everything was ok for the moment.

We were out doing physical training in a field which had rocks and I mentioned to one of the instructors that this was not a good place to do exercises but he didn’t listen so we started anyway. While doing sit ups I hit my lower spine on a rock sticking up and quit doing sit ups and informed the instructor that I need to go to see a doc. He sent me to medical and I talked to the doctor he gave me a bottle full of muscle relaxers and pain killers and a limited duty paper.

One day I was doing inventory in the back of a truck and went to get out, well I tripped over a cable that was in the floor and instead landed on my feet. Well when I landed my legs gave out when the pressure hit my spine and it was another trip to the emergency room. I drive my self to the ER and I finally get seen I had pulled all my hip flexor muscles. A few days later I was sent for another MRI, it showed that there had been significant degeneration in between L4/L5 L5/S1, well they thought that a chiropractor would be the answer so I see him for several months with no relief. It is finally my time to change duty stations so I get sent here to Miami.

Now the doctors finally decide to send me to a neurosurgeon, he sends me for another MRI and finds that the disc between L4-L5 is only 1/8th of an inch thick and pressing on both sciatic nerves and the disc between L5-S1 is also herniated in towards my spine. So I go in FEB 2012 for surgery they put 4 screws and 2 titanium rods in my back to fuse L4-L5 and pack bone paste in to L5-S1. After recovery all seemed fine until about 3 months later I start having pain around where they did surgery. They "Think" there is scar tissue growing around a nerve but don't know what to do about it so I am back on pain killers and muscle relaxers. I have been working with a neurologist for the last year on them and they are some what controlled on medications. Well I tell the Neurosurgeon about them and he orders a MRI of my C spine come to find out C2-C6 are all herniated to some degree and a few of them have bone spurs on them. To top it all off the MRI also showed that there is evidence of disc hernia in the T spine also.

Well to sum this all up this means that after dedicating 18 years to the military I may not get a full retirement or any retirement from the military I may only get a settlement from them and it will not be enough to take care of my family. These issues are also degenerative not to mention I have tendonitis in my shoulders (both of them) and bursitis in my left hip along with a muscle tear. Hopefully I will get something from the Veterans administration to help me out to pay the bills when the military gets rid of me as I am no longer useful to them.

[TheGreatSatan]

Entry 4

Originally Posted by Whindog

Mum's epilepsy came back hard after being bullied at work and can no longer work or do everyday things. has a support worker with her everyday to help her and care for her if she has an episode. Prior to this she was a strong independent woman that would do anything she wanted to put her mind to. 2 months ago got diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis (MS), she has extremely weak bones due to an allergy to calcium. This has also caused a lot of broken bones during her epileptic fits throughout the last few years.

My Fiancée has been battling chronic fatigue syndrome since we met 3.5yrs ago, had a terrible case of Bells Palsy earlier this year that had the left side of her face paralyzed and droopy for 4 weeks. To this day she still encounters some numbing feelings in that area.

On a good note we are getting married in 5 weeks. However last week the doctors believe she also has the onset of MS. And in an extraordinary piece of timing, her ex husband and biological father to our 2 children has reduced child support by AU$400 a week despite CSA advising him not to, so now we have to battle that thru legal process. These 2 bits of news don’t exactly have her in the greatest of spirits. Her escape from it all at the moment is finalizing plans for our wedding which cant come soon enough.

On the tech side of things her Desktop crashed early this year but was no dramas as i recovered all the stuff off her HDD, and I got her a laptop last year to get by going thru the Police academy. Which got her thru with flying colors, where she won the award for best in squad physical and training skills (self-defense, shooting & appropriate use of force skills). This laptop is on its way out and the poor thing last night was in tears as it takes 5min to just start Firefox let alone load a page. All she wanted to do was Skype call her Mum in the USA and it took 25min to get the call going (this is immediately after I cleaned up the registry and essentially Decrapified it.) She is begging me for a new desktop. We cant afford one at the moment with wedding expenses and are already cutting our honeymoon back to 3 days.

So we are going thru a pretty big rough patch at the moment, we will get by. WE have a wedding to look forward to, but to see the two most important women in your life struggling is not to much fun.

Entry 5

Originally Posted by TLHarrell

Well, the last few years have not been kind to me financially. We've been bleeding out, money wise. At $20,000 in the hole, we started looking for help, budgeting everywhere possible, and trying to fill in the gaps. We have an annoying living situation... we co-own a duplex with a family member. It's cheaper than renting, but the original intent was this is a starter home (it's barely 1,000sf, 1 bath, 2 bedrooms, lost the home office to the kid, and a new baby on the way in November). Well, we'd like to borrow against the house so we can write off the interest and condense multiple payments into one. Family member basically doesn't want to go with that as it "might affect her financially". We start to bring the bills and payments into line with our budget. Then the big housing bust settles in. I work for a civil engineer. I make good money. If I were to take a similar job elsewhere I'd take a 40% pay cut to start out. Wife isn't working since my son is high functioning autistic, has massive social issues, and can't really be put in daycare. We have no other family support, except for my wife's grandparents who I don't want to impose upon too often. Economy slides so far that at work, billable hours at one point reached such a low that I was paid $22.00 for two weeks. That is with going in every morning to see if there is any work for me and my staff, and to reply to any clients needs. Everything at that point goes onto credit cards. The downward spiral only increases. Here it is a couple years later and we're brushing up against $50,000 in the hole. Can't borrow against the house to consolidate the debt, and to relieve ourselves of the % rate burden and have a chance to pay it off. The latest letter we've received from one of the credit companies basically raised our % rate on our lowest card because we "have too high of a balance". Thank you very much for helping us by ramming your boot down on us.

I've taken several side jobs in the past which would have helped at the time. I'm still owed about $8,500 in total between two of the jobs. Still working on getting paid. If they had paid on completion of the work, I'd have been in a lot better financial situation. Where I'm at now, if they eventually pay me, it'll just disappear in the wind as it won't even take me back to where I was when I should have been paid. Started a home business with some of the money I was paid before... not making it too far with that, but hoping it'll pick up. It's at least making enough money to buy materials and do a few interesting projects. Getting a pretty grim view of my chances at this point of pulling out of this. Just picked up another side job, which thankfully is paying every time I deliver a piece of the project.

My health has declined significantly during all this, making it progressively harder to keep myself going and trying to get ahead. I ended up with Type 2 Diabetes. I'm only now starting to bring that under control. And last October I ended up with Chron's Disease. By the time I was diagnosed and started on treatment, I was barely able to function. I had lost about 40 pounds and was getting arthritis in all of my leg joints, and popping tons of ibuprofen just to stay vertical. Now that I wouldn't wish on a mortal enemy. I'm in treatment now, which is unpleasant. I'm sure the treatments are causing all kinds of other minor glitches I keep feeling in my body. Some days I just go curl up on the couch after work and watch TV... and I hate sitting around watching TV.

I used to play World of Warcraft pretty heavily. Haven't played in about 18 months now. My super expensive rig is not even capable of handling many of today's games. I could really use a new setup, not only for gaming, but for doing CAD work and designing stuff on.

Not real happy with where I've ended up. I work hard, I'm nice to people. I help wherever I can. I just can't seem to get a leg up at this point in my life. I will press on. I can only hope that something will change and I can pull out of this mess.

[TheGreatSatan]

Remember, the prize is:

AMD FX4100



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103996
.
.
.
.
.
Asus M5A97



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131767
.
.
.
.
.
8GB Crucial Ballistix DDR3



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820148543
.
.
.
.
.
HIS Radeon 6670 1GB



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161386
.
.
.
.
.
64GB Micro Center SSD



http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0351760
.
.
.
.
.
750GB Western Digital



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136144
.
.
.
.
.
650 Watt Kingwin



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817121084
.
.
.
.
.
LG DVD burner



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136247
.
.
.
.
.
CASE???

Whatever the winner chooses (within a set price range)
.
.
.
.
Corsair H60



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...181015&Tpk=h60
.
.
.
.
.
IC Diamond Thermal Paste



http://www.frozencpu.com/products/70..._15_Grams.html
.
.
.
.
.
Steelseries Experience I-2



http://shop.steelseries.com/us/surfa...ience-i-2.html
.
.
.
.
.
Windows 7 Premium 64-bit



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827136247
.
.
.
.
.
McAfee



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16832484018
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
And a copy of every game I have to give away!

Dirt Showdown



Borderlands 2



Two Worlds 2



Deus Ex



Nexuiz



Sonic Generations



Sleeping Dogs


.
Assassins Creed 3


.
.
.
.

[b]And like always you'll get the prize shipped to you anywhere in the world for FREE.

[play_boy_2000]

Post a poll?

[TheGreatSatan]

I can't! Am I the only one who can't?

[Mechh69]

I think so as i can go back to any of my old post and make a poll. I can do a screen grab but I looked at your other thread and it does not show the ability to make a poll. You did get a reply from Mankz in your other thread though.

[TheGreatSatan]

And I already PM'd him

[AmEv]

Man, they all deserve it....

Tough to choose....

[Mankz]

Poll added

[BentAnat]

Originally Posted by Mankz

Poll added

Let the votes come in... mine has been cast.

[Draksis]

Voted. Was very tough though.

[TheGreatSatan]

Thanks Mankz

[PM_DMNKLR]

To all voters, whomever you vote for, thank you and especially to TGS for this opportunity. Obviously I hope you vote for me, lol, but I won't try to coerce anyone just so I can get a win. If you really do think I deserve it, then I'll gladly accept your vote, if not me but someone else, then at least you're being honest with yourself, and I commend you for that. Idk how long this poll's going for, but the next few days are horrendously busy for me as I'm getting married on Wednesday, so I'll check back from time to time. Thanks again all and good luck to all of us entrants!

[TheGreatSatan]

^And those with pleas on Facebook for voters in their favor

[TheGreatSatan]

^And those with pleas on Facebook for voters in their favor

http://www.facebook.com/#!/DMNKLR.Modz?fref=ts

[AmEv]

Man. If I had the money, I'd build a computer and send it to the second-place guy.


Well, the vote was VERY tough, very tough indeed.




Semi-related, I found a local custom electronics design company who's hiring.

[PM_DMNKLR]

I didn't plead for votes in my favor specifically, I simply asked the same as I did in here. If they want to vote for me, then so be it, if for someone else, I just hope they do so out of pure honesty. I specified that because I know there is a good handful of people who've done some malicious things to me on forums and on Facebook, and when people vote against someone else just to be jerks, then that's just being a jerk and has no honor in it. I always ask people to vote for me only if they honestly feel I deserve to win, nothing else. If they feel someone else deserves to win, honestly, based on the criteria, then so be it, as long as they're being honest and not malicious, then that's a commendable action and I respect it very much.

I believe in fairness and sportsman-like conduct regardless of the competition, and always ask folks to be honest and honorable with their voting. Anything else I consider cheating and want nothing to do with it, so I ask you to please take my post for exactly what it is and nothing more, just an honest and humble request for people to read over the entries and vote honestly based upon the criteria. Also, I do not want people to join up just to vote for me, that would be ridiculous and dishonorable, and thus cheating. I do not cheat, never have and never will. If they join the forum then I want for them to do so for the actual contents here, such as modding, OCing, PC building, folding, etc. This is a great community from what I've seen, lots going on here. I wouldn't want someone to join up on here just for an easy vote for me. If someone HAS already done that, I apologize, as I clearly did not ask people to do that and do not want it to happen. Thank you.

[theshadow2001]

Originally Posted by TheGreatSatan

...break them up into more than one post and widdle them down a bit.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/widdle

teeheehee

[TheGreatSatan]

Nov 10th is the deadline. These votes will be added to the ones at TheBestCaseScenario

[PM_DMNKLR]

I see this was apparently going on over at TBCS as well. Shame that link wasn't shared with the one for here in my Facebook group, as a good number of the members and folks I could've shared it with are members over at TBCS and not here Would've been nice to share with a lot more people. Oh well I guess, maybe next time or something. Oh and thanks for adding the voting deadline too. I don't stand a chance, lol, but oh well