EPTI've been checking the blog section more and more lately so I thought it would be a good time to fire up mine. It's my first and it's going to be more or less an introductory blog about where I am in life and whatnot.
WARNING! This is going to be the great wall of text of China lol so if you read all the spoiler tag content kudos to you!
Let's get on with it.
I believe there are 5 basic sections in life:
• Love life
• Family & Friends (Social life)
• Career
• Health
• Money
These aren't ordered here by importance to me or anything. To be honest I would have to put a lot of thought into ordering these points. I want to present myself in the context of all of them and that I will do in this blog.
Before that, however, I need a lightweight introduction.
My name is Žilvinas Šiaulys. That means most of the internet couldn't spell it correctly. Ž is pronounced "ZH", an Š is "SH". Go ahead and try to say it out loud. I bet you I would laugh my hair off if I heard you
Now how is it that my name isn't Steve or whatever? It's because I am from a country in deep eastern Europe called Lithuania. Now as you probably don't know, Lithuania was the last place in Europe to adopt christianity and kept holding on strong to its pagan roots. And pagans love trees and nature and stuff so quite a number of lithuanian names come from the names of plants. My name is no exception. There's a bush called Žilvitis, and that's where my name originally comes from. It's always frustrating when a foreign person asks for my name because I can't just tell them I have to explain and stuff. On the other hand it might be an ice-breaker I am currently a student at Vilnius University (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_University) and live in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. I'm working on my bachelor's degree in Software Engineering. I had some trouble with passing exams, and I have what we call "an academic debt" which is when you fail an exam twice you have to retake that same course a year later (I don't know how people call the equivalent of this in other parts of the world). Because of this, I had a year and a half off from university until I could retake the courses I failed, so I started searching for work. It was pretty easy because there's a serious shortage of IT specialists (at least here in Lithuania). And half a year later I'm writing this.
+ Show Spoiler +
Career & Money (6 out of 10)
I'll mix these two into one since they're somewhat related. I started looking for work when I had my leap year at university started (13th of March, 2011), got an interview a day later and started working on the 15th of the same month. I sent out my CV and a letter to like 5 companies I found through a job searching site. Now it's been half a year since I started and I feel like I'm advancing in giant leaps. It's much more interesting than going to lectures :| And I get paid quite a nice amount of money for someone my age (which is 21 years old at the time of writing). When you think about it: the average lithuanian wage is around of what would be 500 dollars per month. I get 600 now, but every 3 months I get an evaluation and if they see I advanced a lot I get a raise. Even though this would be considered a very low wage for a software developer I am quite satisfied at the moment because it's my first job, I had no experience what so ever when I started and I have only finished year 1 of 4 years of uni. That's quite an OK situation for someone like me. Especially the fact that I don't have to ask my parents for money anymore which is not that common here when you're 21. So money is OK, and even tho I have some debts which would total at around 1300 dollars, I already started repaying them with what I'm left with from my wages. I think I'm going to be OK with money. My parents could help me a little, but I'm a very proud person and the day I started getting paid I said I won't be needing their money at least for now I might have to quit/pause my job when I'll have to go back to uni (maybe I'll manage to sort it out so I could work half-time) and I might need some money then but we'll see
As for career I am now developing software for Prewise Lithuania and I am working on project with .NET. It's quite nice. I always wanted to work in a .NET environment rather than be a PHP or JAVA programmer. My employer is very nice. We have a nice big office and work with very advanced stuff like touch and so on. Our greatest achievement is probably Eylean. Which is a SCRUM/KANBAN tool for managing team work. You can create tasks and stuff, estimate and follow how work is going according to plan You can find out more at http://www.eylean.com. I'm very very happy they invited me to work here because it really seems as this is a very high level company and it would seem madness to take a person who has no experience what so ever. But I guess I proved myself and after the trial period of three months I've been offered a long-term contract. Now, I'll need to return to university later and finish my degree that's inevitable and that is of highest priority to me right now, but I think I'll try to manage working half-time here as well and return here after I finish. On the other hand me and one of my best friends are thinking about maybe starting our own business since he has an uncle in Ireland who could hook us up with projects and we would work from Lithuania but for an Ireland'ish wage Either way, the future seems quite bright for me I just need to get unstuck a little. Need to repay my loans, start piling up money and finish that degree!
Also, the job itself makes me quite happy. It's what I really love doing and I couldn't ask for more. If your work makes you happy, isn't that the best? I go to work every morning knowing that I'll come out happy with myself and how much I've done today The only bad thing is the sleeping schedule of a working man. It's KILLING ME. :/ I always thought that many activities can be completed when you come home from work. WRONG! You come home late and tired. You want to eat and after doing so that leaves you with like three hours of time to enjoy yourself. WHICH IS NOT ENOUGH :/
The average value of these 2 sections would be 6 out of 10. Because I have great ambitions for myself. I want to become like a systems architect one day so there's a lot of room for improvement. And there can't really be enough money.
I'll mix these two into one since they're somewhat related. I started looking for work when I had my leap year at university started (13th of March, 2011), got an interview a day later and started working on the 15th of the same month. I sent out my CV and a letter to like 5 companies I found through a job searching site. Now it's been half a year since I started and I feel like I'm advancing in giant leaps. It's much more interesting than going to lectures :| And I get paid quite a nice amount of money for someone my age (which is 21 years old at the time of writing). When you think about it: the average lithuanian wage is around of what would be 500 dollars per month. I get 600 now, but every 3 months I get an evaluation and if they see I advanced a lot I get a raise. Even though this would be considered a very low wage for a software developer I am quite satisfied at the moment because it's my first job, I had no experience what so ever when I started and I have only finished year 1 of 4 years of uni. That's quite an OK situation for someone like me. Especially the fact that I don't have to ask my parents for money anymore which is not that common here when you're 21. So money is OK, and even tho I have some debts which would total at around 1300 dollars, I already started repaying them with what I'm left with from my wages. I think I'm going to be OK with money. My parents could help me a little, but I'm a very proud person and the day I started getting paid I said I won't be needing their money at least for now
I might have to quit/pause my job when I'll have to go back to uni (maybe I'll manage to sort it out so I could work half-time) and I might need some money then but we'll see As for career I am now developing software for Prewise Lithuania and I am working on project with .NET. It's quite nice. I always wanted to work in a .NET environment rather than be a PHP or JAVA programmer. My employer is very nice. We have a nice big office and work with very advanced stuff like touch and so on. Our greatest achievement is probably Eylean. Which is a SCRUM/KANBAN tool for managing team work. You can create tasks and stuff, estimate and follow how work is going according to plan
You can find out more at http://www.eylean.com. I'm very very happy they invited me to work here because it really seems as this is a very high level company and it would seem madness to take a person who has no experience what so ever. But I guess I proved myself and after the trial period of three months I've been offered a long-term contract. Now, I'll need to return to university later and finish my degree that's inevitable and that is of highest priority to me right now, but I think I'll try to manage working half-time here as well and return here after I finish. On the other hand me and one of my best friends are thinking about maybe starting our own business since he has an uncle in Ireland who could hook us up with projects and we would work from Lithuania but for an Ireland'ish wage Either way, the future seems quite bright for me I just need to get unstuck a little. Need to repay my loans, start piling up money and finish that degree! Also, the job itself makes me quite happy. It's what I really love doing and I couldn't ask for more. If your work makes you happy, isn't that the best? I go to work every morning knowing that I'll come out happy with myself and how much I've done today
The only bad thing is the sleeping schedule of a working man. It's KILLING ME. :/ I always thought that many activities can be completed when you come home from work. WRONG! You come home late and tired. You want to eat and after doing so that leaves you with like three hours of time to enjoy yourself. WHICH IS NOT ENOUGH :/The average value of these 2 sections would be 6 out of 10. Because I have great ambitions for myself. I want to become like a systems architect one day so there's a lot of room for improvement. And there can't really be enough money.
+ Show Spoiler +
Health (7 out of 10)
My health is ok. At least I think so. I wear glasses since I was in like the third grade which was 10 years ago. But that's not a big issue. I somehow seriously dislike contacts I don't know why I just don't see them worth the hassle. I'm pretty healthy all in all. I've never had big issues. Once, some THING like a non-cancerous tumor grew on my toe. Doctors said it was from some sort of like a bump. It grew under the nail and was like an inch high. So they had to cut it off. I was maybe 14. I remember being drugged up for the surgery it was quite cool Even tho the surgery went ok, somehow the tumor renewed itself and they had to cut my toe again a year later. After that second time it's gone. My toe is kinda crippled. It looks weird and the nail grows like 5 times slower than on the other foot, but it's ok. I can take of my shoes at the beach without freaking everyone out. That's pretty much the only experience I have had with hospitals. The part about my health which REALLY concerns me is my weight. I am 196cm tall (converter says it's 6' 5.2") which is a pretty high number. And I weight 103kg (227 lbs). Which in my opinion is a bit too much. I'm not really very fat but I'm trying to lose weight right now. I would be OK with about 90-93 kg (200 lbs). I'm working on it tho. I started recently but I think I'm doing ok. I lost 3kg in 2 weeks. My mom said that's a very good result. What do you think TL?
Also, I'm a little bit of a smoker. Been meaning to quit for some time now but never really got on with it. I don't smoke that much. 1 pack lasts 2 to 3 days so I think I could quit if I really needed or wanted to.
The mark here is 7 out of 10 cause I'm well except for a little overweight which is not that much and that's quite nice
My health is ok. At least I think so. I wear glasses since I was in like the third grade which was 10 years ago. But that's not a big issue. I somehow seriously dislike contacts I don't know why I just don't see them worth the hassle. I'm pretty healthy all in all. I've never had big issues. Once, some THING like a non-cancerous tumor grew on my toe. Doctors said it was from some sort of like a bump. It grew under the nail and was like an inch high. So they had to cut it off. I was maybe 14. I remember being drugged up for the surgery it was quite cool
Even tho the surgery went ok, somehow the tumor renewed itself and they had to cut my toe again a year later. After that second time it's gone. My toe is kinda crippled. It looks weird and the nail grows like 5 times slower than on the other foot, but it's ok. I can take of my shoes at the beach without freaking everyone out. That's pretty much the only experience I have had with hospitals. The part about my health which REALLY concerns me is my weight. I am 196cm tall (converter says it's 6' 5.2") which is a pretty high number. And I weight 103kg (227 lbs). Which in my opinion is a bit too much. I'm not really very fat but I'm trying to lose weight right now. I would be OK with about 90-93 kg (200 lbs). I'm working on it tho. I started recently but I think I'm doing ok. I lost 3kg in 2 weeks. My mom said that's a very good result. What do you think TL?Also, I'm a little bit of a smoker. Been meaning to quit for some time now but never really got on with it. I don't smoke that much. 1 pack lasts 2 to 3 days so I think I could quit if I really needed or wanted to.
The mark here is 7 out of 10 cause I'm well except for a little overweight which is not that much and that's quite nice
+ Show Spoiler +
Family & Friends (8 out of 10)
Not much to say here. I don’t have a lot of friends. I have like up to 10 people I can call my best friends. But I like it this way. The people who are close to me I cherish with all my heart. Even on facebook I have like 100 contacts only and most of them are ex-classmates, job buddies and so on. I'm pretty happy with this situation. I'd rather have 10 really close people than 300 whom I rarely even speak with. Also there's like a second level circle of friends who I like a lot but we're not that close. You know - people you see at a party like once every couple of months.
The only reason this is an 8 is because I'd like to go out more. My friends and I are a bit passive. We like chilling together in places that are private. Like home, or just a park with not a lot of people so we can feel private. I'd like to go clubbing or just a random stroll through the city more We do it sometimes but not at all that often. I'm kind of OK with it, but some more active leisure time would be nice I think
Not much to say here. I don’t have a lot of friends. I have like up to 10 people I can call my best friends. But I like it this way. The people who are close to me I cherish with all my heart. Even on facebook I have like 100 contacts only and most of them are ex-classmates, job buddies and so on. I'm pretty happy with this situation. I'd rather have 10 really close people than 300 whom I rarely even speak with. Also there's like a second level circle of friends who I like a lot but we're not that close. You know - people you see at a party like once every couple of months.
The only reason this is an 8 is because I'd like to go out more. My friends and I are a bit passive. We like chilling together in places that are private. Like home, or just a park with not a lot of people so we can feel private. I'd like to go clubbing or just a random stroll through the city more
We do it sometimes but not at all that often. I'm kind of OK with it, but some more active leisure time would be nice I think + Show Spoiler +
Love life (4 out of 10)
Well yeah. 4 out of 10. Why? Because I feel like I'm a total loser in this section. I'm 21 and I never had a girlfriend. I hadn't even been really intimate with someone . I'm not familiar with the whole "bases" thing. I only got as far as like a half an hour snuggling section with a little bit of boob action once
I've had a crush on my classmate for like 5 or 6 years and she was never really interested in me. We're good friends now and she knew all along but just couldn't help herself. Now there's this other girl. I've known her from school and we've been chatting on skype for like 4 years now. We've never really met. I mean we've seen each other in school or just in public. Once I passed her on a street and managed to squeak out a hello wince I was rushing somewhere. But we never actually met like for a talk or a date. This is a very strange situation because we talk about everything. I talk to her about things I'm not even considering about talking to my best friend and we really feel confortable around each other (talking on the Internet I mean). I've been trying to ask her out and she promised she will but she's in the last year of school back in my hometown and I live 300km away, but I go there like every second weekend, but there's just always something going wrong I know I shouldn't hung up on girls like that but she's really nice. I'll add a picture for you stalker type people. So, next year she's going to come here to Vilnius where I currently live and I guess then is going to be my time to shine. I believe since we've already built quite a foundation for our relationship the only thing I need is to get the sexual/romantic tension up. That's why I've been trying to lose weight and might try to quit smoking until she gets here. My best friend always told me I go for girls who are out of my league but I don't want to lower the standards. I know I'll meet someone one day. I'm not like really depressed about my situation but sometimes I just want to do all those couple-type things and I feel alone on drunk nights :/ So that's that. Here's the promised picture:
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/264714_1682614644623_1815315345_1116857_2597405_n.jpg)
Well yeah. 4 out of 10. Why? Because I feel like I'm a total loser in this section. I'm 21 and I never had a girlfriend. I hadn't even been really intimate with someone . I'm not familiar with the whole "bases" thing. I only got as far as like a half an hour snuggling section with a little bit of boob action once
I've had a crush on my classmate for like 5 or 6 years and she was never really interested in me. We're good friends now and she knew all along but just couldn't help herself. Now there's this other girl. I've known her from school and we've been chatting on skype for like 4 years now. We've never really met. I mean we've seen each other in school or just in public. Once I passed her on a street and managed to squeak out a hello wince I was rushing somewhere. But we never actually met like for a talk or a date. This is a very strange situation because we talk about everything. I talk to her about things I'm not even considering about talking to my best friend and we really feel confortable around each other (talking on the Internet I mean). I've been trying to ask her out and she promised she will but she's in the last year of school back in my hometown and I live 300km away, but I go there like every second weekend, but there's just always something going wrong I know I shouldn't hung up on girls like that but she's really nice. I'll add a picture for you stalker type people. So, next year she's going to come here to Vilnius where I currently live and I guess then is going to be my time to shine. I believe since we've already built quite a foundation for our relationship the only thing I need is to get the sexual/romantic tension up. That's why I've been trying to lose weight and might try to quit smoking until she gets here. My best friend always told me I go for girls who are out of my league but I don't want to lower the standards. I know I'll meet someone one day. I'm not like really depressed about my situation but sometimes I just want to do all those couple-type things and I feel alone on drunk nights :/ So that's that. Here's the promised picture:+ Show Spoiler +
You can see my picture if you go over to view my profile.
So here is my first blog ever! I hope you'll like me. I've been on TL for almost three years now and I've been a lurker before that. Even tho, I don't have a million posts I read the website every day. You guys are the best no matter what! Nobody could ask for a better family than you!
I hope to see you in my future blogs and let me wish you luck in all your endeavours.
First-time TL blogger, Žilvinas "Order" Šiaulys
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