A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:$150 is a LOT of money in Croatia. How much is "a lot," and does that count as a lot in Zagreb, or only in smaller towns? Can you live a fairly baller city lifestyle on $3-4k/month?
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Jun 23, 2015 00:50
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hackbunny posted:I liked your food too, but you got nothin' on Slovenia: I'm half Slovenian. I lived in a place with the highest concentration of Slovenians in the United States. I love to play bocce/balinanje. Almost every funeral, wedding, and major family function I've been to in the last thirty years was packed with Slovenians. I have never seen a single one of them smoke a pig in an outhouse. Truly, we have lost our way. Between Recher Hall and the SNPJ farm, I've gotten plenty of good potica, pierogies, polenta, and chicken dumpling soup, but no whole pigs. Why does Croatia seem to be so crippled? Some of the stuff Fatbeard says makes Croatia sound like a mildly dystopian future-city. Slovenia has less than half Croatia's population, but only a 25% smaller GDP. Croatia has 60% higher unemployment than Slovenia, and 50% more of its population living below the poverty line. Slovenia has more than twice the exports of Croatia dollar-wise. Their histories are pretty intertwined. What has Slovenia been doing differently? I am enjoying this thread. Cursed Lumberjack posted:I'm kind of amazed that goons here and the TCC thread seem to think ASF's English is incredibly good. I guess we have a lot more ESL goons than I realized. People think his English is exceptionally good because his English is exceptionally good. That thing you said, right up there ^^, that was stupid.
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Jul 16, 2015 13:50
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The_Franz posted:They occasionally do whole pig roasts out at Pristava. Out near Geneva? I did not know that. Somehow, I missed all the pig roasts, I guess. hackbunny posted:There are restaurants cooking whole pigs in roadside spit-roast ovens all the way along the E61. They're clearly tourist traps for all the Italians bypassing your toll roads on the way to Croatia, because the prospect of paying a two week pass just for passing through Slovenia twice brings the inner miser out of every Italian. We skipped on the way to Croatia because we already had lunch, but on the way back we let the siren song of roast pork lure us This sounds both funny and delicious. I envision a wood shack every couple of miles, with lookouts posted to raise the alarm when they see a Fiat. Was the pig good? How much did it cost?
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Jul 16, 2015 17:39
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I've been jumping back and forth between your threads. I'm a little confused on timelines and your current situation. What happened to the money from the apartment sale? What is your current situation vis-à-vis drug-usage? Are you still just on tobacco and booze? I seem to remember you using some other poo poo in the course of this thread, but I may be mixing up your stories. You've mentioned a couple of times that you learned English at least partially from watching subtitled television shows. What percentage of your English prowess do you think comes just from watching those shows? Do you want to change your life? Do you even want to be alive? I'd like to see you post more pictures. Even mundane things, like the bottles and the baguette, seem interesting when framed by what we know about your life from these threads.
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Aug 4, 2015 04:21
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I bought studio #3 apartment with that money, the kid lives in that apartment at the moment. Everything was fine up until two months ago. I reckon that most of my american slang comes from watching subtitled BBC shows, it's hard to put a finger on it but yeah, slang comes from television. Just the slang? Did you study the language in school, also? A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I do want to change my life. I stopped buying illegal drugs, the only thing I'm still doing is getting wrecked on perscription meds once every blue moon - and it's usually Biperiden which I'm getting for free anyways (yay universal healthcare!) I guess that's a step in the right direction. Do you think you can keep it to "once in a blue moon," or do you feel yourself wanting to fall back into using a lot? A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:As for the "do you want to be alive" question, I'm kinda torn between "no" and "not in this way." That's why I want to find a job - doesn't matter how crappy it is - I've already stopped drinking and smoking yet Uncle Bruno's poo poo keeps bogging me down. I'm sorry to hear that. I feel much the same about my own life. You get a lot of grief in this thread, but I enjoy your stories, and I hope you get whatever help you need to straighten out your situation. I know what it's like to exist in that state of not wanting to go on, but feeling unable to call it quits, and unable to change your situation. I'm not sure if I'm better off or worse off for not being a recreational drug user, but I figure now is probably not the time to pick up any new and expensive habits. What's the Status on the Bruno situation? Last I read, you'd discovered some savings and some stocks that you were going to liquidate to help cover his debts, and the building he left behind was worthless. Is there any way for you to benefit from Uncle Bruno's estate at this point? You seem to take it very well when people dump on you in your threads, but I doubt it's much fun when that happens. For the record, we're not all watching and hoping for a continuing train wreck. I really want to check in here one day soon and see that you've gotten a new job, and your bills are all paid, and read a post where you seem genuinely happy and hopeful. Good luck.
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Aug 17, 2015 13:06
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:We had mandatory English starting from fifth grade. The funny thing was that I wasn't really good at English until I got me a computer and started writing lovely animu fanfics. This forced me to think in English, and the rest is history. Hah, that's funny. Did you write them in English because there's no audience in your native language? A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:The first few months after kicking pills I had recurrent dreams about using. Fortunately, all of that is behind me, and what's even better, if I need to take a painkiller pill (for a legitimate medical use) I feel this strange nagging guilt. Same goes for booze. Good, I hope that all stays behind you. As amusing as the stories are, wandering around high as balls all the time is probably not a viable long-term strategy. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Nothing is happening ATM. We are waiting for the tourist season to wane before we tear the place apart. Precisely half estate is mine and my intention is to sell it and since the law is on my side, push the remaining co-owners out of the house. I can make a tidy profit on it, maybe I'll get myself enough money to buy yet another studio in Zagreb. Would that be your plan? Extend your holdings and take on another tenant? You don't seem to have the best luck with that, but I don't know what other options you have. Is the kid a keeper because you like him, or is it that a tenant who pays his rent at least some of the time is really hard to find on the Zagreb rental market?
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Aug 21, 2015 08:24
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I have some good news though! I got in contact with Dad the dad tenant and we struck a deal that he'll gradually repay me what he owes me - I'll be getting $100 a month from him, starting in October. This isn't a lot of money, but at least I won't have to dumpster dive again. I can't remember why this guy still owes you money.Why does he still owe you money? Hasn't he been pretty unreliable with paying you in the past? I feel like he's promised to pay you several times. How far does $100 stretch for you? Like, "I can eat for x days on $100."
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Aug 31, 2015 19:41
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Lots of unpaid rent and utilities that accumulated before I evicted him and sold the apartment. For $100 I can eat about two weeks (as I said, it's not a lot of money but every penny counts.) Hell, eating for two weeks sounds pretty good. Two weeks worth of food sounds like it qualifies as a lot of money. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:We're talking about two separate guys. I evicted Dad a year ago, while the new kid is only one month late with rent - and this is in fact the first time he's been late. I kind of wish you were my landlord. I'm homeless by next week because I can't pay rent this month. I've never had a landlord that would give even a single month of leeway. Of course, I'm never late on my rent (until now).
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Aug 31, 2015 21:31
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:fake edit: it seems that the goons grew wary of giving money to random internet people after the doob fiasco. I passingly mentioned a possibility that I might do it in the future, and yeah some people are already treating me like I scammed them out of their hard earn'd money. I've dropped into this thread a couple of times. I find your stories compelling. I want to see your life get better, although I'm not sure if you're really interested in doing anything to cause that. I remember when I asked you if you even wanted to be alive, and you replied, "Not like this." I only know you through the stories in your threads, but you come across as a sympathetic character to me. You seem to be a decent human being with a number of crippling problems. I am not sure if goons giving you money will help you, but let me share a story: Nearly two years ago, I lost a good job. I was given a $15,000 bonus, then fired a month later. Needless to say, being fired after being given such a generous performance bonus was both unexpected, and a bit hurtful. All of a sudden, I couldn't even get an interview from employers in my field. I wasn't too worried, because I had plenty of money. I had savings from working, and I had the $15,000 (well, $9,000+ after taxes), and I had a biggish tax return coming. As time went on, I kept failing to find work. My savings dwindled, and I eventually applied for unemployment compensation. At that point, I was applying not only for jobs in what I consider my field, but for any kind of job. I applied to grocery stores, and to fast food places, and everywhere I could think of that had any kind of work I could do. I have some health issues that stop me from working tough manual labor jobs, but I applied for everything else. I couldn't get so much as a call back, much less an interview. I guess having the last fifteen years of my resume being all software development and systems administration didn't endear me to the managers at Carls Jr., and Del Taco. It was later suggested that I apply to some telemarketing-type positions. Perhaps I would have gotten one of those jobs, but I have done that work in the past, and I would frankly rather be dead. Eventually, I ran out of money. I lost my apartment, and I was living in my car. I'd had to rehome my cats, which doesn't sound like much, but it was very hurtful to me. I started spending my days at local libraries, where I began to notice other people who were obviously in situations similar to mine, and who were also essentially living at the library. I saw young people, and old people, and people who were clearly mentally ill. I was angry to see our society, which prides itself on its wealth, failing to help its neediest members. I decided to write about it. I started a thread in GBS to tell stories about what I was seeing and experiencing as a homeless person. Although I did not start the thread with the intention of personally benefiting from it, goons started to offer help. At first I was resistant, for a variety of reasons, but I eventually started to accept assistance. Now, my cats are living in a beautiful home with a wonderful family, waiting for me to claim them. I have met, both online and in person, numerous fantastic people who have gone far out of their ways to help me. My car has been repaired, I'm off the streets, and I have traveled across the country to take a high-paying software development job which I start on Monday. What I'm saying is, goons are still willing to help, and that help can be life-changing. If you really want to make a change, there are people here who would like to help you. I would like to help you. Ultimately, I would like to see you get your life on a path toward stability, but if all you want is money for booze, I guess some of us would be willing to help with that, too. Incidentally, the man who helped me land my new job, and who I am staying with, is from Croatia. He moved here only a few years ago, and he confirms pretty much everything A Sweaty Fatbeard says about Croatia.
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Jan 9, 2016 20:35
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Here's the subbed video! I guess I speak more Croatian than I thought. "Thermostat," "couch," "internet." I tried to learn a few real Croatian words from gbut, but mostly he and his wife just laughed at me. I guess my Slovenian blood didn't come with the Eastern European Dialect gene. That place is both much nicer, and a little more cramped, than I was imagining. That stove looks dope. The toilet is in an inconvenient place, though*. Where did the money come from to "rebuild" the bathroom, and how could you afford to buy that television so recently? A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I love cooking, so an electric stove was a no-go since electricity is prohibitively expensive. How expensive is "prohibitively" expensive? * I don't mean "the bathroom"; that part is OK.
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Feb 11, 2016 03:41
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Back in 2007 I worked in a stove factory, building those exact stoves on the assembly line Is it a quality product? It looks like a quality product. Is the Croatian work week Monday-Friday? Did the stoves made on Fridays suffer from crappier quality because everyone was in a rush to go home for the weekend? I'm only half serious, but I am legitimately curious whether the stove was built to high standards. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:And yeah I agree about the toilet, in order to take a dump you need to close the doors behind you or you can't sit straight on the throne. Mine isn't much better. I have to sit side-saddle to poop.  With added fist for perspective:  That bit where the wall juts out in front of the toilet is terrible. I can't imagine any non-dwarf human male being able to sit straight on my toilet. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I like to cook stews, beans and generally the kind of stuff that has to simmer for a long time. I don't even have a microwave over here in Property B, because I just don't need it. Now imagine how much electricity you'd consume by simmering six pounds of beans on a 2000W coil, and you'd have to keep running that poo poo for over two hours. I understand that more cooking uses more electricity, but I thought you meant "prohibitively expensive" on a per-unit basis. What is the price per kilowatt hour (or however you measure it in Croatia?) Also, get a slow cooker/Crock Pot. They are literally made for cooking stews and beans and things that are meant to simmer. That is their entire purpose in life. A small one will only run at 100 watts or thereabouts. Even a big one will only use maybe 250 watts. You throw random ingredients into the slow cooker for ten hours, and you have food for a week. They're pretty much counter-top miracles. Don't heat your house with your gas stove. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I was temporarily disconnected from the internet yesterday. Forgot to pay the bill and oops down the drain it goes. I bummed twenty bucks off my grandma so now I'm back on the internet... for now. How much of your situation is self-imposed? You keep inheriting property, and you have aunts and grandmas and such that don't seem to be living on the edge of starvation. Do you have access to resources that you choose not to use? Heating your home with a computer processor seems inefficient. Processors are designed to make as much use of the electricity as possible, and produce as little waste heat as possible. I would think you'd want the exact opposite in a home heating appliance.
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Feb 15, 2016 03:32
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I'm not sure, but it's expensive enough that any money you'd save by cooking for yourself at home would spill over into an increased electricity bill. Gas, on the other hand, is almost free. I spent around 200 cubic meters of gas in the past year, and my gas bills are generally issued twice a year - and they run up to roughly $15 for six months of cooking. I don't think there is a crock pot that can beat that. I don't know what you pay per kilowatt-hour, but a quick calculation shows that a 150-watt slow cooker used for ten hours per week will cost about $9 per year at typical USA electricity rates. Even if you triple the numbers, it's competitive with what you stated. If you don't want one, you obviously shouldn't get one. I only brought it up because they cost almost nothing to operate, and they make exactly what you said you like to cook. They're fool-proof, too. They require essentially no effort. You put stuff in, turn the dial, and forget about it for a day. I love my Crock Pot.
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Feb 17, 2016 01:20
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:To prove my point, take a few minutes of your time and go bumming around the Dugave estate in Google street view. The construction of Dugave estate was started in 1976, the whole thing was completed by 1982 and was subsequently voted as the most exemplary planned new neighborhood in all of Yugoslavia: https://www.google.hr/maps/@45.7646456,15.9929883,3a,75y,5.94h,91.82t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s8MAPeLAKSxRAaaYRccm5Og!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en-HR Huh. That doesn't look particularly odd, to me. The buildings are definitely heavy on age-worn concrete, but there's nothing that really strikes me. Possibly, the photographs don't convey the full experience. If you covered up all the not-English signs and some of the cars, I probably wouldn't have questioned it if you told me that neighborhood was somewhere in a fading Great Lakes steel town, or maybe near a large southern city. Hell, Harvey Norman totally sounds like a Louisiana politician. I like your stories. I'm always rooting for good things to happen to you, and I look forward to your posts in this thread. I feel like it would be interesting to just come collect bottles and tour concrete-block neighborhoods with you for a week or two.
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Feb 23, 2016 05:57
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Yeah I feel the same. If some goon gets lost around Zagreb, they can feel free to come over and crash at my place (PROTIP: bribe me with a 2L bomb of beer and I'll show you lots of weird, non-touristy places in the town.) Renting a bicycle seems to be a pretty good way to see the town. I'm American fat. I don't know if your little Eurobikes can handle me. If you build your bikes the way you build your residential blocks, it'll probably be OK.
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Feb 24, 2016 04:14
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Update: Waldo gave me two rents' worth of money a few days ago! Susan paid me some arrears yesterday! And Mario is going to pay me like a week from now! "Every time?" Do people regularly drop dead in your apartment complex?
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Mar 15, 2016 00:35
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:My apartment block is a giant retirement colony. So basically, yes. Oh. I understand. I am a native of South Florida. I don't know how far your cultural knowledge of the United States goes, but Florida is essentially 66,000 square miles of dying retirees.
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Mar 15, 2016 01:10
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Brick Dust Otis posted:please god, do not put any of these in your mouth. holy loving poo poo. This is a guy who drinks dumpster booze and eats couch pills. I am pretty sure his system can handle some out-of-date toothpaste*. * I'm mostly kidding. Throw it all away so you don't accidentally eat it during one of your door-kicking spells.
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May 17, 2016 15:00
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Seriouspost: it's my once-impacted wisdom tooth, had it yanked out of my head back in 2003 or 2004, which wais like.... uhh 12 years ago? The tooth is completely healthy so I decided to keep it since there's a story behind that tooth as well and tossing it out like trash would've been a shame, really. I'm having a wisdom tooth pulled, tomorrow morning. I was planning to take it home with me. I propose an international tooth exchange.
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May 20, 2016 01:11
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Just wanted to elaborate on this, I'm fully aware that this sends me comfortably into the seizure zone. My fall could well be attributed to a momentary loss of consciousness - as it has happened quite a few times already. Ask me about cigarette burn holes on my tracksuits. Please don't go back to that. This thread is only enjoyable when you're on the "lovable degenerate" side of the addiction line. My father was a major addict. Alcohol, opiates, pills, shots, tobacco, cocaine, and so on. His brother wasn't much better. I guess I'm lucky it skipped a generation. I don't think I could be addicted to pills even if I wanted to. I'd never taken a benzo in my entire life until a few months ago when a buddy gave me a 2mg Xanax. I felt absolutely nothing. I recently had major tooth pain that drove me to the dentist (tooth trade offer still on the table; wisdom tooth comes out next Friday.) A friend gave me a Tramadol. I felt nothing, and my jaw kept hurting. The dentist gave me a prescription for Norco. I think they gave me a very, very mild headache, but otherwise: nothing. They didn't do a great job on the pain, either, although I think it was better than it was without them. I took two from the bottle of thirty or sixty, or whatever it is. Weed actually makes me feel nauseated, instead of the other way around. I don't like the taste of almost any alcohol. When I drink, I drink so I can get drunk, but I almost never feel the urge. I've gone years without drinking, and never missed it. What I'm saying is, watching other people struggle with drug and alcohol addictions makes me feel both glad that I don't have that problem, and bad for people who do. A long time ago, I asked if you wanted to be alive, and you said, "Not like this." Do you still feel that way? Do you feel better now than you did a year ago, or two years ago? Do you have any hope of moving forward, or are you resigned to spending the rest of your life locked into this cycle of behavior? I don't mean to bum out the thread, but, while I enjoy the landlord drama, and the dumpster diving stories, I mostly want to see you beat the things that are always dragging you down.
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May 23, 2016 06:10
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Do you draw, A Sweaty Fatbeard? I feel like this came up previously, maybe in a discussion about comics. I'm guessing the answer is "no," or we would have seem some of your work, by now.
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Jul 26, 2016 04:43
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:Not really. I've given up the 'artsy' kind of drawings fifteen years ago because I realized that my drawings were embarrassingly bad and that I was not making any progress. Besides, I can't even hold a pencil straight since my hands have grown pretty shaky and wobbly from all the psych meds I'm taking. Oh, yeah. That's too bad, man. I'm also dealing with shaking hands, but I'm not sure what it's from. Possibly nerve damage, since my neurologist thinks I'm heading for carpal tunnel surgery. Even if you don't think much of your drawings, you might consider posting some. I recently bought three sketches from a dude on the street who approached me outside of a market. I made a thread about it in GBS. You might find them interesting. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I'll be seeing my psychiatrist the following week. I'm asking you goons, should I tell her that I recently smoked a poo poo-ton of weed that made me realize these facts about my psyche? She already knows that I used to be an opiate fiend, but I'm still not sure I can trust her. The answer is obviously "yes," if you're going to see her willingly with hopes of actually receiving help. stringball posted:If she prescribes you anything that's controlled over there it's possible she'll be hesitant to stop giving it to you Yes, but that's like saying, "Memorize the eye chart before you go the DMV. if they realize you're blind, they might not give you a license." If your psychiatrist is reluctant to give you medication after getting all the facts, she probably has good reason.
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Jul 31, 2016 02:09
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:I mailed myself trash. Welp. Your updates rarely disappoint. I think you might be living in a black comedy. Two questions: 1) Is there a reason you seem so resentful of your aunt not giving you money? I understand that you were in need, and she has the money, but you seem to feel entitled to it. Were you ever really close, family-wise? It would never in a million years occur to me to go to my aunts for money, and if I did, I can't see being mad if they refuse. It's not like they are responsible for me. 2) Are you sure you get 50% of the proceeds if the house is foreclosed on because you aren't paying your share of the property tax? Could your aunts argue that you forfeited your share of the house? Are you legally entitled to both not pay the taxes, and collect proceeds from a sale?
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Aug 1, 2016 05:25
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A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:To add an insult to an injury, the aunt gave me a lecture about how life is "hard" in Germany. OK, yeah. That would piss me off, too. If you don't want to help me, because you just don't care, or because you're selfish and it's more important to get the leather seat upgrade in your new car or whatever, fine. It's your money. Own your decision, though. Don't try to make yourself into a victim when we both know better. A SWEATY FATBEARD posted:A small amount of proceeds from the sale will be set apart for the back taxes, no more than two or maybe three per cent. I can make a very nice profit from this. It sounds like the third option is the best option for you. Do you have any idea what your half might be worth? I remember Bruno's place being a total teardown. I assume it's value is pretty much all in the land.
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Aug 1, 2016 06:42
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