I know a few people that would argue with me, but the hardest part of any RPG is grinding. You go off into a dungeon and you repetitively stomp out low level creeps until you are strong steamroll through the boss. I don’t like grinding but I understand it to be an integral part of the game. You have to pay your dues to acquire the skills to move the game forward. As much as I dislike grinding, I understand that If RPGs didn’t have this mechanic, then the game would just be a long sequence of cut scenes and then the ending and what the hell is the fun in that?
In my alternating travel/work lifestyle, I call the times when I am not out in the world, grinding. In real world terms, grinding is doing the necessary things to achieve the dream of taking years off at a time. I’m grinding right now. I’ve been in Austin for three months and I’ve kick started my career again. I work from 8 to 5, sometimes longer, and after work I do school work. If I have enough energy when my school work is done, I’ll ride my bike to UT and practice. This is the basic holding pattern that I’ve created for myself. It’s going to be long and arduous and I have to put concerted effort into making this experience interesting, varied, and rewarding.
In three years I’ll have the freedom to travel again.
To do this, my daily activities will be aligned to accomplish three things.
- Put an extra 250 thousand dollars into my investing account
- Graduate with my second MS
- File a patent
If I do these three achievable but challenging things, I’ll have enough of what I call, “fuck you” currency, to detach again and come back at my time of choosing should I want to.
Pado Pado 