Sagas RPG.com

So I’ve been quiet. As some may know, I was laid off of work about two months ago. Ironwood and E-RPG have never been on a scale large enough to provide me with enough income to not work full time. Furthermore, my full time job paid very well. It had to. I am, or was, the primary income for my family. In fact, my wife working part time is only to bring down some debt we accumulated largely through the medical hardships placed on us by my youngest daughter’s spina bifida. So it is safe to say my income provided solely for the entirety of our 4 person household, not to mention a sizable child support payment for my son. Getting laid off hit us hard. However, it did open our eyes. The my success in my industry was largely dependant on the housing market. I didn’t realize until the current market how badly that could shape things. Personally, I didn’t like my work enough to continue on for much longer, and definitely not another 15 years starting at about 2/3 the pay I had worked so hard to get to. Truth is, I want something different. And with no jobs available for any more pay than 2/3 of what I was making, I think it is a good time for a change. However, change isn’t easy, and some sacrifices must be made to do it.

My wife and I always knew that if things got to this point there is always one way out. I believe that I should be able to support my family. Not that my wife couldn’t if the means were available. It just means that if there is an option for me to continue I should take it. The fear was that this last resort would become our only option. Now, as it has come to the point, it seems that this last resort wasn’t something to fear. In truth, it has the potential to propel our lives forward into the direction we both want.

So what is that last resort? Inlistment. Truth is, I believe that just about any physically able and somewhat intelligent man can always do this as a means to provide for his family. The Air Force and other branches inlist up to 27 years old. The army lets you inlest up to 41. My first choice was the air force, but I’m too old. So the army it is. Truth is, I was worried about it, but the more we have looked at the better the option seems.

So I am seriously looking at enlistment. I have met with recruiters, taken the ASVAB (and scored obscenely well at it I might add), and am well on my way to becoming a soldier in the worlds greatest army. Sure the sacrifice for my family is scary. My wife and children are not going with me to live on base. There will be at least 9+ weeks of training where I will almost never get to even speak with them. Then I have 3+ years until I am done. I may get to visit them if I am stationed close enough to Florida. But this is a dim hope. I may get to take a week every 3 months to come home (army gives you 30 days vacation/year). Still, it is at least three years of my life I will be separated from my wife and kids.

So why do it? Well, Training. I get to pursue training in a new field to hopefully get into an industry I will actually enjoy. Secondly, college. I plan to attend college while in the army. Hopefully, if things work out, I will have spent 3-4 years getting my degree and 2 years experience in a new professional field. It is a huge short term sacrifice for a long term gain. It is a choice hard come to, but ultimately my wife and I agree that this is the best path.

So what about E-RPG? That will continue. During training I will not be able to pursue it properly at all. After training I will be working on stuff during my free time. I am hoping to have Desecration done and released by the time I leave so that will likely be the last release.  I am hoping to also structure some stuff for independant contractors to work on new products too. However, that will only come through after basic unless I can get someone to look these over for me while I’m gone.

So Ironwood will carry on. This site will stay up, but the original ironwoodnexus.com site will shut down and redirect here. I will hardly have enough time for E-RPG, I won’t be able to develop and manage the other aspects of Ironwood until I am sure I can handle the load.

Anyways, I will elaborate a bit more on this as progress resumes. Still, be assured that although we looked at this as though it were going to be a reluctant option, my family and I are actually very optimistic about the potential here. For myself, I am excited. I finally get to fulfill a sense of duty that I was too young to appreciate when opportunity was more conducive to this decision. Furthermore, I get to look forward to living an entirely new professional life when I am done.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 8:54 pm and is filed under Descration, Developer Blog, E-RPG General Development, Overall Development, Personal Post. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.