Lemuel's Life (Part I)

I was talking to Jade the other day about using Quicken software to compete financially, pretending our finances were a game in which there could be a winner and a loser. I mean, technically it can...and is...but I'd like to think scales can be measured by more than just finances.

I might just be saying that because she'd totally stomp me. She has two incomes (hers and her husband's) AND she doesn't have student loans. Both facets place me as a serious underdog. In fact you could say I'm completely outclassed. I pointed out to her that after they buy their first house and have kids I'll have the opportunity to pull ahead for the big WIN. But then I realized...that's not really winning. In fact that's kind of losing.

What if life were just a game, with measurements, scores, tiles and tallies?

Oh right, there is such a game. It's called 'The Game of Life'. Duh.

Then I had my first stroke of artistic brilliancy since the chilren's story I wrote on my MySpace blog in 2006 (I'll link it later).

I present to you dear readers, 'The Game of Lemuel's Life'. Fully illustrated and customized. Journey with a plastic, stick-figured version of Lemuel. as he competes against his toughest competitor: himself. Travel with him over a series of the next dozen blogs as he reconstructs life after high school within a series of tiles, using a standard of crudely drawn yellow sticky notes and a ridiculous camera that refuses to focus when it's too close to the board.

(Words in color represent actual captioning and/or details as would be described by a Life game designer)

CONGRATULATIONS! You graduated from high school! What's more, you graduated early! You're 17 and on your way to Abilene Christian University for the next four years. But oh, you don't have a car, you're gonna have to walk buddy!

You've been driving your mom's suburban all through high school and you catch rides with your church buddies. Plus you've got your skateboard to travel to nearby hotel lobbies to watch Gilmore Girls! Collect $15,000 in car payments/insurance savings over the next four years!*

*It sucked to be without a car all throughout college. Fortunately, I ALWAYS had roommates that not only owned cars, but were gracious enough to let me borrow them. Shane and his Camaro especially. God that thing was fast, slick, and awesome. I also frequently used Jon Strong's Monte Carlo, Billy Smith's old pick-up truck, Josh Quigley's new pick-up truck, and my sister's Suzuki Swift. I bummed just about everyone's vehicles, but I don't think too many people minded terribly because I always put more gas into it than I used. Still, sometimes all I had was a skateboard. I remember walking all the way to the county fair freshman year. It was like four miles away, just far enough to be a slightly ridiculous walk. Luckily someone gave me a ride back.

Strep throat right before Freshman finals week, OH NO! You bomb most of your finals and lose your academic scholarship! Lose $4500 over the next four years.**

**Against my defense, I was only put on academic probation. Should I have aced some of my classes that next semester I could've won my scholorship back. But I wasn't interested in putting in that extra work. It sucked though. What I'd initially thought was just a sore throat kept getting worse and worse until I finally saw the doctor and he told me I had Strep Throat. By then it was too late and it had already practically disabled me. All I could manage to do was sleep 18 hours/day, drink fruit smoothies, and crawl into class to take my finals. There was absolutely no way to study while you have a bad case of strep. What's more, my parents had traveled to pick me up right after finals so it wasn't like I could talk to my professors about letting me take it the week after. I was doomed, and it played a small factor in me graduating from ACU with a 2.42 GPA. (The other factor being that I just didn't care about GPAs) I know, horrible right? It's why I have to maintain this 4.0 GPA at AMU, couple that with an amazing LSAT score and I might just stand a chance of getting into a good law school. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

Like I said, brilliant right? I have my moments; it's why you love me. Stay tuned.