Support NeoGAF

[Kholdstare]

Was friends with one throughout high school and a few years after that. He was in our little group.



Then about a year ago I finally realized that I could erase this person from our lives and did so. It felt good to finally drop that dead weight.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Had one. We sort of drifted apart though.

We went to high school together, shared teenage angst about girls and all the rest of it and even started engineering at university at the same time. Thing is, he didn't study or apply himself (even though he's pretty capable of doing well) and he failed, dropped out and started another degree.

I graduated and started working and he failed the second degree as well. What's worse is he cheated on his girlfriend when she was clearly too good for him (really great girl, little sister of another high school friend, I took her to her semi-formal/junior prom). For whatever reason, she took him back. That's about the point we stopped hanging out.

But yeah. I ran into his brother since then (he's a guitarist who's pretty serious about his music) and he mentioned to me that the guy just sits around at home playing MMOs (apparently, he got kicked out of WoW for cheating), doesn't study, works a dead end job and hates his situation but never does anything to better it either.

The brother also hates the girlfriend. See, she's from a wealthy family and according to the brother has little concept of the value of money, meaning that the guy never has any savings as a result of being with her (I suspect that it's more a case of him feeling insecure about his income and feels the need to spend so she doesn't leave him), but that's another story.

 

[Old Lace]

Me and most of my friends worked at a major supermarket for years and years. This is the story of one of those friends - Philip. We’ve called him Phildo for as long as I can remember. Not really sure why. I think because it rhymes with dildo.

Mike and Phildo were tired of slummin’ with hourly wages and living with their parents. So, both of them planned to go into management. In order to have a chance in hell of being promoted Phil had to transfer to a new store (and continue working the customer service counter). Now these two friends were quite close and were in the middle of planning to move in together.

At one point they talked about buying a house together. Anyway, Phildo had a jar of cash to help fund this venture of theirs which Mike kept on his desk. I don’t know why it was kept there, but nevertheless it had about $3000 in it.

Mike and Phil also went splits on a flat screen HDTV. This is all before they even started looking at apartments or houses or whatever.

So, the PS3 comes out and Phil has to have one! After a couple weeks of stalking game stores, he acquires the console with games and accessories spending over $1000. Every few weeks Phildo would have a new game for this thing. It was odd, but when asked about it, he’d tell us about how much money he won playing the lottery (cheap ass scratch-offs).

He didn’t win the fucking lottery. Or at least not as often as he had claimed.

On Mother’s Day his family is gathered at a fancy eatery when the phone rings! It’s Phildo! He’s in jail! The charge is theft by taking. I’m not entirely sure how this was done. But he had devised a way to scan and void cans of baby formula and then pocket the cash. From what I understand if the customer service manager had even once checked the nightly reports; Phil would have been caught. Instead he was discovered by some loss prevention people at the corporate office. He had been doing this from October until the he was arrested in May of the following year. The total damage over time value was $17,000.

Philip avoided jail time by going to gambling counseling and by paying back the stolen money (with his parents’ money).

For his white collar criminality, Phil earned a new nickname: Enron. While another friend of ours made a YTMND page out of Phil’s mugshot and a repeating sound clip of the word didlo. (located NSFW HERE)

By this time Mike is a customer service manager at another store. The company culture is such that people who work at different stores in the area more than likely know each other and have all worked together at some point in time. The way this whole thing went down really put Mike in an awkward position.

There’s more even more to this story, if anyone cares. I'll post it later.

 

[Jafku]

story

Wow. also :lol @ his picture. Can you please tell more of this story?

 

[industrian]

I want to say my sister, but she's sorted out her life in the last few years.

So yeah, no trainwreck friends here.

 

[DemiMatt]

As I got older, these "friends"disappeared.

+1

 

[reddmyst]

I have a friend who since middle school his mom did his homework for him, he buys trades/resells all of the games/consoles he owned (ie, he's had about 6 xbox 360s, 10 ps2s and none of them suffered any defects, yet still sold them; sometimes a week of buying it) he's had a total of 21 jobs his whole life since he was 18yrs old and he's now 26.

In addition, he lives at home with his parents who also lives with his in-laws. He caught up debt because he believed in those money scams from Canada.

Although, presently he has a steady job and hasn't sold any of his gaming crap. There's more, but it just pisses me off to no end (he lives in another city so when we do communicate its through xbox live).

I also have an acquaintance, who failed his senior year(s) in high school twice and finally dropped out (not due to drugs or anything, but gaming). He also had the chance to get his GED, but didn't want to. He still lives at home w/his dad and locks his room (bare in mind he's now 31 years old and plays WOW all day -- and pretty much pays for it from stealing from his sister who also lives at home). He had (1) job his whole life and quit 8 months later. If you saw that southpark episode making fun of WOW, he's pretty much that dude, except he's not bald.

Its sad.

I have better friends today.

 

[Terrascape]

GAF is my trainwreck friend. *hugs*

 

[Chemo]

Sadly, I'm usually the trainwreck friend due to my tendency to rely on alcohol when things go wrong.

Hopefully I won't end up as the car wreck friend!

 

[GDJustin]

My sister, sadly. It's awkward when you're ~19 just out of HS and your 26 year old sister needs to borrow money from you.

Like I've seen other people post in this topic, she's a great person and nice and not on drugs... just all heart and no brains. Always adopting more and more pets, etc.

 

[JumpJeff84]

Interesting how often World of Warcraft gets mentioned in this thread...

 

[Kodiak]

Was my friend, then he became my friend and my roommate, now he's just my roommate.

 

[Dead Man Typing]

I have a train wreck friend, who makes stupid decisions, but he seems to be turning it around recently. He went back to college to do some night classes and has a fantastic girlfriend who we (my other friends and I) thought was far too good for him, when they first met.

Now they seem like a good match and I only hope it doesn't turn sour as I'm pretty sure he could be sent back to square one. But right now there's hope and that's always a nice message.

There we go. A little inspiration for NeoGaf.

 

[SouthernDragon]

Not sure if I qualify, but I make decisions that have massive upsides/downsides, and don't plan ahead too well.

It's sorta worked so far, but it's not a really good way to go through life.

I do have a friend who fucked up big time.

She went to a good school in-state with a full scholarship and her parents paying whatever the scholarship didn't. Went for a degree intending to be a pediatrician, but failed miserably at all of her science classes. Decided she really liked French instead, so she switched to that.

Nevermind that she had no intention of becoming a teacher or translator...

So she pleads with her parents and they send her abroad to France for a while, all on their own dime.

Meanwhile, she's lost her scholarships because of her abysmal performance her first year, but she seems to be doing better her second year.

Then the third year rolls around and she totally gives up on French without telling her parents at all. She's still enrolled in all the correct classes, but doesn't attend any of them, spending all her time in her new passion, dancing. She's not that good at dancing; she's very awkward and self-conscious about her body, which are no-no's for professional dancers. She's very slim and coordinated (was a gymnast), so all the issues are in her head.

So at this point she's stuck in this self-destructive spiral where she just runs from interest to interest, not telling anyone about the major fuckup she's done academically (we have friends that take the same classes she was supposed to, so we notice she's not going to any class), and is just burning through her parents' money.

She returns home for the summer, throughly convinced that she can just go back to her school area during the fall and go to a community college there without her parents finding out. Her parents pay for another year of dormitory rent, and they send her back up, unknowing.

For some bizarre reason she goes to see an advisor about her situation; she hadn't signed up for classes, still in denial. As soon as her meeting is over, they boot her out of the school and call her parents, who promptly demand a refund for tuition (she lost her scholarship, remember?) and rent. They then have to drive seven hours to pick her up and seven hours back in a two car caravan because she refuses to go home.

So for three years she just burnt money on rent, food, tuition and gas (drove a big SUV all by herself everywhere) and shirked academic responsibilities. She's back now, and studiously avoids most of her old friends (my group) whom are actually doing something with their lives.

Every so often I hear tales of her going back to her old school up north for a sports event or something. Still deluded.

I have another friend who was a trainwreak in a similar situation (went to my school, played card games/pool all day) and was booted out, but he's actually made something of himself; he works, gets good grades, and plans to go a grad school after getting his undergrad.

 

[Max@GC]

Was the trainwreck friend originally, but not any more.

I have a serious problem, I keep making friends that I know are trainwrecks beforehand. They are so much more interesting with real problems then normal people who want to talk about football and how the weather is. I try to help my train wreck friends with advice. But there is always that fine line with friends that are women and you know they are dating someone worse than an asshole and everyone agrees and some have said it directly to her face.

WHAT WOULD U DO GAF? I have kept the peace since its a 2 way street and she has clearly made her choice.


*sidenote, I fail talking to non-trainwrecks, apart from idle conversation, I do not find them engaging. Hope to change this some way some how.

Same here. 'Normal' people are just boring to me and I´am boring to them. Well I maybe am a 'trainwreck friend' too because I didn´t make the choices everyone else made in life. But I really don´t care. I am what I am and it´s good that it is how it is right now.

edit: may I ask you what zodiac sign you are? I´am Scorpio who tend to be like that.

 

[Old Lace]

Wow. also :lol @ his picture. Can you please tell more of this story?

This is kinda long... TL;DR at the bottom

Alright. Despite all that went down, Enron\Phil still made himself available to hang out in Mike’s parents’ basement. Whenever we’d ask Phil why the hell he decided to become a thief; he’d give us a bullshit response. It was something like “The loss prevention guy said that it started to look like I wanted to get caught and I think part me did.”
We didn’t understand where his head was at. He became our inside joke. The friend that we talk about to make ourselves feel better and laugh at.

Philip was good at one thing though, finding jobs. I didn’t understand how, especially because he was on probation for his prior offense. Dude got one at Target, at a classy theatre box office, and at some door-to-door market place. There were probably more that I can’t remember now, but the point is he always seemed to have something going for him. Despite the fact that this man knows nothing about cars and is a terrible driver*; he gets a job at a car dealership.

Because I was a dumbass\doormat\fool, I believed that Phildo could still be saved. I mean at least he wasn’t working at a supermarket like I was. Mike was a manager at the store I worked at. He tried to get me to work on my birthday, but Phil saved me. He was going to a concert by a local band and didn’t want to go alone. There was also the promise of free drinks for the birthday boy.

They were a horror punk band with a female lead singer. Every few weeks, there was another concert. The band that we saw the first time was always playing. And they were now his favorite band. I didn’t always want to go, but because I was a dumbass\doormat\fool, I’d still end up going more often than not.

Even though there were no more free drinks. His MySpace blogs and bulletins turned pathetic, encouraging readers to check out this band. Also, to be down with the horror-punk crowd, he became an extra in Halloween 2. They also ran spook shows. I’m not sure what those are because I managed to duck those events. He became friends with them or her or something. She was pretty cool.

Everyone knew he was in love with the singer. I eventually started talking about having an intervention to stop him from going to every concert the band had. I told John, dude who made the YTMND page, about my idea. Around this time, Phil was planning on going out of state to see the band play. So, John says we should go with him, have the intervention, and “pick up some inbred Alabama bitches” along the way. I tell Phildo that I’m game. A couple days later, I’m talking to John and from the way conversation goes; he never had any intention of going. Luckily, there was still time for me to back out of it.

At some point Phil quits whatever odd job he’s got. Or maybe he was fired after the background check? But he ends up selling his mustang and he needs me to give him a ride. To the courthouse. Apparently some girl is accusing him of calling her. But he claims he doesn’t have her number. He said, “Someone must be working against me and whispering in her ear.” Yeah… right. As I’m looking out the window at my dad’s truck, I tell him I can’t give him a ride because my dad has the truck.

A few weeks later, in October of last year, Phil was arrested for aggravated stalking. Through the gossip mill, I heard he had threatened to kill himself if he couldn’t have her. This was done over Facebook.

The letters that he sent Mike from jail are damn funny. One of them was had a sort of anti government rant, talking about how the state gets money for keeping him locked up. He also ended the letter, “Go Dawgs!” As in his favorite football team. Philip also seemed to believe that he was getting out sometime soon. That didn’t happen.

In January, his grandparents put up their house for his bail. But this only got him transferred to another county that wanted him for his probation violation. I have no idea what the hell is going on with him now. I just hope I’m not around when he gets out.

Philip & Cars:
*One time he hit my car when it was parked on Mike’s driveway. Another time he hit a boulder that was ON MY LAWN. There was also an incident where his car became airborne when he was driving out of his subdivision. And let’s not forget the time he scraped the side of someone else’s van while attempting to park his car at Gamestop. And he left without leaving a note…

TL;DR version: While on probation for stealing $17,000, my friend ends up stalking a singer in a local band. He got arrested for aggravated stalking.

 

[G-Fex]

no

 

[Insane Metal]

not anymore.

This.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

Hrmmm my friend killed a guy, before that his life was good though. Still waiting to see how it all pans out for him :/

 

[HiResDes]

My friend Chandler Wilson

Forest Park, OH (The Weekly Vice) -- Chandler Wilson, a 20 year old Forest Park, Ohio man has been arrested on multiple felony drug charges after authorities make what police are calling one of Tri-State's largest mushroom busts on record.

Following an investigation by Oxford police, the Butler County Sheriff's Office and the Hamilton County Drug Abuse Reduction Task Force, authorities found nearly $100,000 in illegal drugs stashed inside Wilson's Centerbrook Ct. home.

Investigators say they seized approximately 33 pounds of psilocybin (psychedelic) mushrooms, 1000 hits of LSD, a pound of marijuana, ecstasy and $3,000 in cash during the raid.

"I've been in this business for over 40 years. This is the largest mushroom bust I've ever seen," said Leo Robinson of the Hamilton County Drug Abuse Reduction Task Force.

The reported magic mushroom haul tipped the scales at eight times the statutory limit making the possession a felony offence, according to detectives.

The Weekly Vice Opinion:

It's no wonder he looks like he hasn't had sleep in about 2 years. That's one heck of a lot of shrooms though. There were other pictures of the bust showing grociery sacks full in addition to the box you see above.




The sad thing is that Chandler was a sick ass skateboarder, like he was sponsored by Thunder trucks, flow for a skateboard company, and was receiving shit from a skateshop until he found that he could make easy money selling drugs.

 

[BlueScrote]

this sounds like every single one of my girlfriend's friends.

As I got older I learned to pick out these kind of people and just stay away from them.

Spoiler

Wait, does that make me the trainwreck?

 

[Buckethead]

Another example I have a friend and she always picks out assholes for her boyfriends, ignoring the nice guys that are vying for her attention. Again lots of self inflicted drama on this.

C'mon OP, tell us what you're really here for.

 

[Jafku]

Story

Wow again. Thank you for the story. Also how the hell do you hit a parked car?

 

[AlternativeUlster]

I am also the train wreck out of my group of friends. I think it is a more interesting life than not being a train wreck.

 

[wenis]

I'm working on getting rid of these types of friends.

 

[ItAintEasyBeinCheesy]

I am also the train wreck out of my group of friends. I think it is a more interesting life than not being a train wreck.

Eh, train wreck friends are cool, they are good to talk about with other friends and reminisce....... instead of talking about your own boring dull lives.

 

[NotWii]

Yes

 

[Mr. Sam]

I got one or two, but they could still turn it all around. I believe.

 

[hooded pitohui]

Two friends (kinda), both with unintended children, both forced to marry because of it, both fucking around several days a week, both spending every night at the bar drinking and angrily shouting "Dammit, I don't get it, why does my wife hate me! She doesn't give me any RESPECT"

I stopped going to that bar though, so fortunately I don't have to see them anymore.

 

[djtiesto]

Not cool man. Train wrecks kill people.



I was expecting a "posts on GAF" bullet point.

Nope, as a consolation, he posts on 4chan though