Why is everything I post a problem?

[Ghost]

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[S_Parc]

I don't have an urgency to go to Russia because I am patient and I know I need funds

The urgency is not the actual physical act of traveling to Russia. It's the passion of learning a language and getting to a high intermediate level, so that your future bride's family is marveled at the dedication of your learning of their native tongue. This is what distinguishes a passionate gentleman, from your average Joe, who'll learn a new language at his convenience.

If the displacement between your financial goals and the final goal of seeing the ex-USSR is a huge delta, then the least you can do is make that first trip a real splash. In other words, be a great communicator, get hold of friends/relatives of ppl currently living in New England, and so forth.

[Tsar]

You're willing to plan out an intricate, dramatic death, but you won't even plan basic steps to take in LIFE.

I planned out the basic steps in life. I have a few contingency plans to try my best to make it in life.

But let's say I wanted to enact my bad ending. I could do it immediately because I could take out the maximum personal loan, max out credit cards, and then probably have $14,000 or so for an okay bad ending, but $20,000 excluding airfare would be even better. If I were to travel and then die, that would be easy because I would be able to do it immediately. Then all that debt just goes away because the banks and creditors can't go after a dead man, especially a dead man with no assets. $20,000 is enough for a reasonably flashy experience. $5,000 for a hot virgin jailbait would surely entice her, but even if she wasn't it's better than being with a hooker. Then I probably take her along for the trip, as a travel companion. Seeing Europe and talking, paying her a few hundred more each day she stays with me on my sight-seeing of Europe. I go to the Netherlands and get really high on marijuana and drink absinthe. Hopefully get some cocaine and then hopefully my jailbait escort tries some of it too, and then another good experience before death. After all is done, I'll have enough to pay a Dutch doctor to end my life. Closure. Fleeting happiness. Bad ending but at least I got closure.

But I won't enact my bad ending because I am still trying to live and succeed. Notice the tombstone. 2037 is when my bad ending would be enacting if I have none of the things I need most in life.

[Ghost]

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[S_Parc]

Sounds like a bad movie...

"Hey guys, I'm going to kill myself in 22 years! Pity me!"

Might as well put all those resources into doing something now instead of waiting for a death part two decades from now. But what do I know? I've only been around the world.

Believe it or not, but there are others who have a similar agendas. Some of these folks have delusions of grandeur like, if their musical ideas never lead to a multi-platinum album, that they'll jump off one of the cliffs of Maine to their demise. Or if their patent ideas don't become the next *Teflon*, then they'll swallow a bottle of sleeping pills along with a bottle of Vodka. This is the problem with being an ungrounded dreamer.

[Tsar]

Sounds like a bad movie...

"Hey guys, I'm going to kill myself in 22 years! Pity me!"

Might as well put all those resources into doing something now instead of waiting for a death part two decades from now. But what do I know? I've only been around the world.

I never asked for sympathy. That's been the plan if I fail for a long time. Since before I joined HappierAbroad I had a plan of going to the Netherlands to die if I failed in life. Why do you think I never mention it to anyone in reality? It's my secret and I wouldn't want anyone getting in the way if 2027 becomes the year I die. The resources you quoted would have came from maxed out credit cards, and as many personal loans as I could get. That would be bank fraud and a crime because I would have no intention of paying it back considering I would be going to my death. I wouldn't have any reason to care about breaking the law to get money or ruining my credit to get money because I would be dead in two weeks from the day I have all that money.

Your 22 years is wrong. I made a mistake with the tombstone. It's twelve years.

I don't want to die, especially then, but it's just a possible ending. I could beat the odds and live but the cards were never stacked in my favor so I have plans for the best and plans for the worst.

[S_Parc]

Marcos, there was another dreamer, friend of a friend's family, who'd accomplished nothing in life (you know, the lifelong fantasy Rock 'n Roll legend) but then later became an Oxycontin addict, when he hit his late 30s.

Since Oxycontin is not too far from Morphine, pharmacologically, you can guess where that's going. A number of Americans have off'ed themselves combining the prescription pain killer with alcohol a/o sleeping pills.

Last I'd heard, although the fantasy rock star is still alive, someone in his immediate area had killed herself with Oxycontin and whiskey. This opiate pain killer addiction is now a pandemic.

[Ghost]

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[Jester]

But let's say I wanted to enact my bad ending. I could do it immediately because I could take out the maximum personal loan, max out credit cards, and then probably have $14,000 or so for an okay bad ending, but $20,000 excluding airfare would be even better. If I were to travel and then die, that would be easy because I would be able to do it immediately. Then all that debt just goes away because the banks and creditors can't go after a dead man, especially a dead man with no assets. $20,000 is enough for a reasonably flashy experience. $5,000 for a hot virgin jailbait would surely entice her, but even if she wasn't it's better than being with a hooker. Then I probably take her along for the trip, as a travel companion. Seeing Europe and talking, paying her a few hundred more each day she stays with me on my sight-seeing of Europe. I go to the Netherlands and get really high on marijuana and drink absinthe. Hopefully get some cocaine and then hopefully my jailbait escort tries some of it too, and then another good experience before death. After all is done, I'll have enough to pay a Dutch doctor to end my life. Closure. Fleeting happiness. Bad ending but at least I got closure.

Damn actually thats not such a bad idea for a movie. Somewhere in the marijuana cloud, enter an angry unpaid Turkish pimp..... and then the Russian mafia.........

Calling Nicholas Cage...

[S_Parc]

Damn actually thats not such a bad idea for a movie. Somewhere in the marijuana cloud, enter an angry unpaid Turkish pimp..... and then the Russian mafia.........

Calling Nicholas Cage...

I believe that many moons ago, Tsar was fantasizing about doing business with the Russian Mafia in eastern Europe, thinking that they were these congenial fun guys like Marlon Brando of the Godfather movie.

What he'd failed to realize is that unlike our congenial American mafioso types, the Russian mob are ruthless and execute entire families w/o pity.

Seriously, I'm beginning to think that the closest thing he'll get to Russia is ordering a Pirozhok from some deli in New England.

[S_Parc]

or how your language study/practice is going, or connections you are making because of it. That one thing has a lot of potential, but you don't do anything with it. It's difficult, sure, but you pretty much have pigeon-holed yourself to having only a Russian-speaking girl, so I'd think you'd have at least some passion about it.

Actually Ghost, Pimsleur is not hard at all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition

Instead of being bombarded by incomprehensible Cyrillic letters and words, the listener simply repeats basic question and answer type of conversations, with a right amount of spacing and timed repetition so that after each day, some 70% of the material is retained. And what's important here is that w/o letters around, the mind can't generate English phonetic spellings to throw ppl off.

The following day, the next lesson opens with a review and then, even as new material is incorporated, elements of all earlier lessons are reviewed and integrated. And thus, anyone who's dedicated to putting in those 30 mins (or 45-50 if you want to take it slow) per day, will have in one's subconscious mind, a vocal feeling of how the language flows. And thus, getting from being a pure beginner to someone with an element of confidence in starting in an intermediate level using the present tense form.

[S_Parc]

I know this is sounding like a dead horse but I have a personal experience, regarding the Pimsleur thing. This is all deja vu for me.

When I was learning the Thai I 30 lessons, another guy I knew, was interested in the 60 Greek I & II lessons. This was a good number of years ago.

He was always talking about the fact that his grandparents had come from Greece and this idea of perhaps meeting a Greek gal over there, not too distinct from Tsar but perhaps a bit more realistic, as he had some family contacts in the old country.

My Thai I program was finished within a month and a half. Last I'd heard, he was still somewhere between lessons 8 and 10, years after he'd copied the materials from the library. And yes, he's no closer to getting a Greek GF than he was, all those years ago. The last I'd spoken to him, back in 2014, he was talking about finishing the Pimsleur series but he seems to continually manufacture reasons like re-reviewing lesson 2 for some reason, even though it's fully memorized.

During that endless cycle of going nowhere, another Greek-American I'd known, went to Greece, got married, and is raising a girl with his wife, right here in Massachusetts. So one Greek fella went through the K-1 visa process, marriage (wedding ceremony in Greece, license in MA), and having a toddler, while the other, can't buckle down and do some simple daily lessons.

Which fellow reminds you more of Tsar?

[Ghost]

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[Seeker]

To be honest Tsar I don't really mind you. You're probably just an easy target for all the frustrated guys on here to take their frustrations out on you. Most of them aren't really any better off than you. In your case it's hard and scary to get started when you haven't really been out in the world before, you just need to take that first step. I get the feeling you're not too uncomfortable where you are right now, doing what you're doing (not much). You just need an extra push.

[Ghost]

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