What was it about, if you don't mind sharing?
short version: layoffs a week ago means more work all around, and this morning, a dump truck backed in to my cube and left an extra load. In the end it's not a big huge thing - but for whatever reason - I couldn't handle it. The net effect is that they took away my direct report, so I get to do his job. They laid off a peer and gave me her team and I have to do her job. I get to do three jobs instead of one. And I'm barely capable of doing mine.
So is now a bad time to ask how the hubski introductory video is coming? HA! Sorry man, I couldn't help it. Hang in there, any organization would be lucky to have a guy of your intellect, skills, work ethic and integrity. Three peoples jobs is like two people too many to have to do. For me, its like two and a half people too many.
...but it felt a little good, right? Flipping out at work when I have every right to flip out is a bucket list item for me. Human dignity, man. Taking shitstorms with a placid smile and a "thank you sir may I have another" is an unfortunate part of many, many jobs. But now, however long down the line, you can rest easy knowing that there was that one time (or hell, maybe more!) when you made it clear just how unacceptable certain treatment is. Values! Priorities! More beer! Did they at least up your pay?
And now you could probably buy out his business...
WTF. I can't believe this is a thing. This is like when white people complain that there is no White Entertainment Television. EVERY OTHER GODDAMN DAY IS BOSS DAY BECAUSE YOU ARE THE BOSS. Not that there aren't good bosses who deserve recognition, but having a day dedicated to a group of people who run things seems a little bit weird.
Just got done signing cards for Boss's day... FWIW I do like my boss's and they definitely do deserve some recognition.
I started my new job on Tuesday. So far, it's going well, in that they don't have much work for me yet and I don't know if I'm going to be traveling next week or in the future, but it's a very real possibility. Everyone is very positive about me joining the team which is great, although I rather feel that I may not live up to all these expectations (but damn it, I can try). A new coworker said to me today something very important which I have needed to hear: "Do not strive for perfection. Perfection is an end state and it stagnates. What you need is creativity and a willingness to make and learn from your mistakes." I'm sure she didn't realize how badly I needed to hear it. Honestly, I have been struggling interpersonally for a while. Maybe not interpersonally, I mean "struggling with myself." It's no lie that I have some incorrect, negative self-perceptions that sometimes get in the way of how I feel about myself. Unfortunately, repeated efforts to fix these perceptions over the years have mostly not yielded anything except learning how to deal with these perceptions in a healthy, constructive manner - which, go me, I have been doing lately as the perceptions have begun rearing their heads somewhat more intensely than normal. However, it's frustrating, because it does seem like I'm going to have to deal with these feelings for the foreseeable future, and all I can do is cope. It would be a lot nicer if I could eradicate them. But I don't know how - and years of therapy have helped, as corrective measures, but they haven't cured anything. I went on a date with this exboyfriend last night. (Forget about the bartender; it's established he doesn't like me, and really that's okay.) This relationship ended because we got into a fight and both became stubborn assholes. If you can tell from the post though, I was - and remain - quite fond of him. What was nice about the date, or really just getting together with this person, was that I felt I could tell him that I had been struggling, a little bit, lately. This is a person who I feel I can be honest with and say important/necessary things to. I think that's very important. He was supportive. He knows that my issues are mine and can't really be shared and certainly can't be cured by others' actions but it was good to confide in someone who, it felt like, could understand. It also felt wonderful to be with and around someone who truly cared about me on a non-platonic level. It felt wonderful to hug someone deeply, someone who I have known and fucked and, yes, loved, and feel, in a way, those same emotions on some level mirrored back at me. It felt like respite. I don't want any of my Hubski family to worry about me, so please know that I am doing fine - really, just more untowardly negative about myself and my future and potential accomplishments than normal and is warranted. I am not in danger and I am not putting myself at harm. I am aware, mostly, that these thoughts are fallacious. The boy and I are going to see each other again. I want to take things day by day. I care about him deeply. I am not usually a very romantic person but he is one of the very few people I have ever been with that I am comfortable feeling romantic with. I am working to keep my sights onwards and upwards - per aspera ad astra, my friends.
Haha. Ha. Ooooh boy. That is pretty much all I am right now. I have my job, yeah, but more or less the entirety of my future-- and I mean entire future-- rests more or less on the will of one person two months from now. I either get the job promotion that leads to me getting paid a liveable wage for the first time in years, and allows me to get my degree, and then go into my field; or I don't, and continue hoping that eventually something else will come up that allows that in a vague, undefined concept of 'soon'. It's to the point where I don't even have enough money or time to have hobbies, let alone enjoy anything. I've spent two years feeling like I've done close to nothing, and haven't produced anything artistically and don't feel I've learned much of anything at all in that time. I feel as if I'm getting duller and dumber as time goes on. The majority of that is just from stagnation that will pass if I finally get what I need, and I know it's not necessarily true, because I've done things in that time, and I'm in the greatest relationship I could possibly be in or ever dream of being in, which is undoubtedly one of the most important accomplishments of my entire life. It keeps me sane and continues to grow every day and gives me hope, so I understand that wonderful feeling of having somewhere there to just know you on that level, but the idea of this stagnation of my career and life continuing past December is fucking terrifying.just more untowardly negative about myself and my future and potential accomplishments than normal and is warranted.
Your insightful introspection and ability to share it is enviable; you're in a healthier place than many, I suspect.I don't want any of my Hubski family to worry about me, so please know that I am doing fine - really, just more untowardly negative about myself and my future and potential accomplishments than normal and is warranted. I am not in danger and I am not putting myself at harm. I am aware, mostly, that these thoughts are fallacious.
Being able to be honest about oneself and where one stands is something I value. I expect it's really a way to hold myself accountable on a level. I try to honor that, especially here on Hubski. It also helps that I can share these thoughts and NOT get the "OMG are you okay???" feedback that I guess I fear I would reap "in real life." I'm managing.
I hope you achieve a level of understanding that you're happy with - not just understanding yourself, but also understanding from others. It seems like you're well on your way to such a goal. :) 'Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived.' From Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott.
I spent a lot of time talking about this exact thing with my therapist today. He hasn't convinced me yet but we're getting there. One thing he brought up is why are you comparing yourself to perfection at such a young age, when you don't have the perspective or experience to know if your version of perfection is right.A new coworker said to me today something very important which I have needed to hear: "Do not strive for perfection. Perfection is an end state and it stagnates. What you need is creativity and a willingness to make and learn from your mistakes." I'm sure she didn't realize how badly I needed to hear it.
I got whatever the opposite of a date is, every sunday.
I have had word that the largest account I've ever called on will be accepting my offer come February of 2015. This is enormous news for me. I'm hesitant to celebrate until they put ink to paper, but it looks pretty promising and it will certainly set up 2015 to be a banner year. It's high enough visibility to give me some major internal brand equity too. I am still doing the T-25. I haven't missed a day yet. I feel much better of late and on whole I have been eating much more healthily. I actually look forward to exercising and I can tell when I eat crap. For example, I felt amazing this morning but then had sushi for lunch and now I feel all slow and tired. Tonight I head to Wilmington NC to hopefully see cW. Pretty excited about that.
How's T-25 going for you? How many days in a row has it been?
It's fantastic! I'm not sure how many days but it's been about six weeks+. I worked out about an hour ago and feel a very nice high right now. The sun is setting, the sky looks gorgeous and the leaves on the trees are changing color. Life is good.
I do PT with my team three times a week, and it's generally a P90X video (one that doesn't require equipment) followed by some outdoor games. Does T25 require a lot in terms of equipment? I find a 25 minute video appealing, the P90X video lengths to be so variable that I gravitate to the shorter videos but they're getting old now.
I got physically sick the other day from eating fast food twice in a day and I'm pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning or anything, just my body reacting to a sharp decline in quality of diet. I'm worried about this, because some days I just have to eat fast food, plain and simple. Sure it might only be every six months, but... Aw hell. Maybe I did just get food poisoning. I hope so? Weird thing to say. But anyway, I know exactly what you mean. Being in shape makes every moment of every single day automatically a little better. It's such a great way to be happy.I actually look forward to exercising and I can tell when I eat crap.
I stopped eating fast food and drinking soda after i was eighteen. There was no reason behind it, it just happened and every time i go to a Burger King or something like it, it just doesn't taste as good as it was when i was a kid. It is pretty rare that I go to a place like McDonalds but it is even rarer when I drink soda. I can go years without drinking soda.
What diet are you perpetrating on yourself in which sushi is considered crap? This makes me sad.
Ha, no it has more to do with serving size, soy sauce, eel sauce etc. It was rolls too, so plenty of rice. Don't get me wrong, sushi is my favorite. All time. The Best. hell, I'll likely have it for dinner too :)
Once again, late to the pub. I forgot it was Wednesday. I wish I had a story for pubski about some way I manage to misunderstand the world. Instead, I'll just sit here at the pub with y'all, cradling my Stella and doing a lot of nodding when one of you speaks up. "Uh huh." "You can say that again." "Yeah, for sure." "I'll buy the next round."
I had a collective rageout with my friend together in a group-study room today, so I feel a lot better about things, but This has been a shit week. I broke the tip of my bow, so I'm using a crappy spare fiberglass bow (with ancient, degrading bowhair on it) while I wait to find out from the bass shop in Cincinnati if they have time to see me on friday or saturday. They STILL have not gotten back to me, and it's starting to get annoying. I'M TRYING TO GIVE YOU MONEY FOR FUCKS SAKE. I also broke my low B string while tuning it, so I need to get a new one of those because my spare sucks. That's another $200 bucks down the drain because bass strings are expensive. I have a midterm in my 20th century compositional styles class tomorrow. the review sheet was sparse to the point of concerning, and I'm freaking out about it because of all the shit I'm trying to learn which I don't even know if I'm going to need, and it's all so fucking pretentious it makes my head want to explode. I also have a Bibliography project in my Medieval History course which is bullshit and requires 50 citations. The amount of citations is not a big deal, it's that I have to Organize the citations by what database i got them from, which is the stupidest fucking organizational strategy ever. I found out I'm going to have to take an unexpected extra class next semester because I had to take a theory review course (which ended up covering none of the things I lost marks on on the entry test) last year. I'm trying to take an independent study to cover the credits necessary, but it's not guaranteed and I have to convince someone to oversee it. Why am I worried about next semester at a time like this? Because unless I'm signed up for classes for next semester, I can't get a confirmation of enrolment for that semester. Because I don't currently have that confirmation, when I got them to send confirmation of enrolment to OSAP (ontario student loans) using Full year numbers, I was denied for my student loan because my stipend amount was too great. OF COURSE IT IS BECAUSE I GAVE YOU THE FULL YEAR NUMBER AND THEY ONLY CONFIRMED ME FOR A SEMESTER. FUCKERS. Of course, it took me going to the financial aid office here for them to "find" the "lost" email that included the pdf I sent them IN AUGUST of the confirmation of enrolment, so they had just sent it out a week ago instead of a month and a half ago, when I would have had significantly more time to sort out this bullshit. So now I have to fix that so I can have my expected amount of student loan (instead of having to deal with half, since i have a bank loan too), while getting all this course bullshit out of the way, and practicing all of my parts for orchestra, and chamber music, as well as learning all my repertoire for my recital in April (which I had to reschedule three fucking times because of OTHER PEOPLE'S bullshit). I'm stressed out, losing sleep, having breakouts on my arms and legs. I'm so sick of all the hoops I have to jump through for other people. I'll be fine once this week is over. I'm just really over this shit right now.
ew (unless we're talking jazz)I have a midterm in my 20th century compositional styles class tomorrow.
though out of fairness at least Berg tries to make serialism sound friendly.
no, we're talking Serialism. Webern, Schoenberg, Berg. FML. Combinatoriality is the dumbest fucking word for "takes one hexachord from one row then adds a hexachord from another".
I do like schoenberg. I played his Sechs kleine Klavierstücke
last year and thoroughly enjoyed the confused state of my audiences. I was gonna add a disclaimer that I'm not dismissing Ravel and Gershwin and Bartók and Stravinsky too, but I reserve a tremendous "fuck you" to John Cage and the like. I made the assumption that you were studying them types. sigh, you've brought out the most conservative part of ol' pabs here.
I can admire the music on occasion - Berg's Wozzek is one of the best operas of the 20th century. I simply have absolutely no interest in deeply analyzing the styles of almost any composer, let alone serialist ones. Musical Theorists like to misremember composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Gershwin, Holst, Vaughan Williams, hoping to include them in an earlier century so that they can show the marching progression towards serialism and atonality. They feel the need to justify their style of composition, show it to be superior, the sum of what came before. It's total bullshit and drives me nuts. I think people would be way more willing to approach serial and atonal works if people were more willing to make them less serious and starch-collared. Instead they just use the line "You just don't understand it", because you're not allowed to hate or dislike what you don't understand. Then they patently refuse to explain it. makes me real mad, man.
Glad I'm not the only one having trouble with school loans. I'm so done after this year. I can't wait. I've been paying out of pocket, but I just can't do it anymore.
There was a beer dinner tonight at my friends restaurant that I had planned on attending. I missed it, but as consolation I'm sitting at his restaurants bar and having the VERY capable bartender make me his take on a negroni. Here it is with all of their homemade bitters in the background: On the way, dinner. I'm having ze duck.
My Company has been getting DDOS'd for 3 days straight due to a jerk who I probably can't call out publicly for legal reasons (I have no idea, but I like my employer, and as such wouldn't want to jeopardize that). Yesterday I was on the phone with our datacenter in Iceland multiple times trying to Shibboleet their l1 tech into getting someone to remove a null route. I haven't slept more than 12 hours in those three days. What is this? Do I even exist any more? UDP = Under Diress Puke. That is all. mknod out!
The year of service I've been doing with AmeriCorps is coming to an end, just 5 more weeks. I'm ready to go home. Itching, really.
Let me just start off by saying that for several reasons, joining AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps) was the best decision I've made in my very short life time. It's madness. It's tough. But not for a second do I regret it. The NCCC is a 10 month long term of service, based out of one of five regional campuses. My campus is based in middle of nowhere, Iowa, and we serve a ten state region that comprises most of the upper Midwest. The four other campuses serve the rest of the country along 10-state regional lines: the west, southwest, southeast, and northeast. I'm also the team leader, so my experience was a little different than your average Corps Member, in that I was responsible for creating and maintaining my team's culture, handling our budget, directly coordinating work that's assigned to us by our project sponsors, and myriad other things a team leader does. After a month of training at your campus (two months if you're a TL, or team leader), your ~12 person team gets in their 15 passenger van with their supplies and personal protective equipment and whatever else can fit, and drives to the community they're serving in for these roughly 6-8 week long mini terms of service called "SPIKES". I've had 5 spikes, and personally have served in Cedar Rapids, IA, doing construction with a habitat for humanity affiliate, I've served in Detroit, MI, working with elementary school aged youth providing tutoring and after school daycare programming, spent 6 weeks in south central Illinois building and refurbishing the 11-mile Chief Illini trail, a month in northern Michigan working at a summer camp in their dining hall, and now am in Omaha, NE, working at a hundred-acre botanical garden. This is a crazy job. You work with, sleep with, eat with, and live with your team (aged 18-24). And this program is the epitome of diversity. No two people on my team are from the same state -- we have two high school grads, a two year convicted felon on parole, a college graduate from Boston University, a handful of community college educated kids, and me, a college drop out. I'm not sure what else to say. The service we do is incredible. I've built a house for a family. I think I've made an impact in the city of Detroit, and know for a fact the three black males on my team made a lasting impression on the kids we worked with. I fell in love with a part of the country I'd've never visited and found a job next summer, in northern Michigan working for only the best boss I've ever had. I've swung pulaskis and pickaxes and shovels for eight hours a day and finished 11 miles of dirt trail. We do PT three times a week and have weekly meetings where we discuss what we've done. It's here that I quit smoking (7 months, woohoo) and quit going out 5 nights a week. I don't want to say that it will change your life. I'm a firm believer in the idea that meaning is created, it's not found. But the NCCC is a wonderful opportunity to live on the government's dime (room and board is provided) make a tiny bit of money (small stipend and a 5,600 education award at the end, in addition to forbearance granted on federal student loans) and meet hundreds of new people in the program. I honestly think this should be compulsory to all when they turn 18, like in Israel or Russia, except not military conscription, but community service. Thanks for asking me, I've been meaning to share with hubski what I've been doing for the last 9 months, but haven't really taken the time to share. (Edit: wonder if I should turn this into a full post?)
You should, and tag me so I can badge it. I appreciate you putting the effort into responding. I'm selfish and the main reason I want to do AC is to be in a neat part of the country for free. I love the outdoors and I certainly don't mind working hard and living in weird conditions, but primarily I just want to continue experiencing new things without monetary concerns. Two questions: How likely are you to be assigned where you want to be? And, is it remotely financially worth it? I'm about to graduate college. I'm not in debt. I have (I suppose) job options. I don't need the education waiver. All of those things add up to me thinking, most of the fiscal benefits of the program don't even apply to me. So I don't know what to think about that.
I'm busy for the next hour and some, but can give you a proper response after. Lookout for a post ;)
Something many people probably don't (shouldn't) know: tomorrow is National Boss's Day. I (shouldn't) know this because I got an invitation in my Outlook box from my boss to celebrate National Boss's Day at the office tomorrow, a place I almost never go because I don't have to and so why would I. Here I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I do genuinely like my boss. She's good at what she does, yeah, but she's also just a fun person to shoot the shit with. And she puts up with a lot from me. But the idea of a day dedicated to thanking any boss for the courtesy of, what, hiring you so that you can make their company profitable? Grates against my soul-stuff. Shouldn't be a thing. The avenues of power flow certain ways, and those ways sort of preclude us from taking seriously or participating in any nationally-recognized days of boot-lick doublespeak. While on the subject of ill-recognized holidays. Columbus Day, eh? Okay, so where I live, we've changed it to "Indigenous Peoples' Day," and everybody has given themselves a hearty pat on the back (if there's anything Seattlites excel at, it's auto-back-patting; not so good at interpersonal back-patting, because that would require interpersonal contact, and a much-developed sense of empathy for people on the micro rather than the macro level). But here's the thing. I submit to you. And hear me out. But "Indigenous Peoples' Day" is waaaaaaaaay worse than "Columbus Day." Besides poor branding- doesn't quite roll off of the tongue- it's so audaciously hypocritical that it boggles the mind straight out of the eye-holes. Because out of all the people I heard joining the chant for the name change, I can't think of a single one that did anything of value for "Indigenous Peoples' Day." Except in the commercial sense. I noticed via Facebook that a few of those people got some sweet deals at the local Best Buy- thanks, Indigenous People! So, what, are we supposed to change the name, dust our hands off on our pants, "whelp, thank god that's settled. Columbus defeated, Indigenous Peoples recognized!" I mean, isn't it like asserting that we're living in a post-racial US because we voted for a black president? It's gotta smart, uh, certain populations. "Hey guys, we're not giving you back any land or using this holiday as an opportunity to involve ourselves with any real measures to improve upon your centuries of subjugation. But we can NOW OFFICIALLY AGREE that Columbus was one bad dude. And we're petitioning the government that you may or may not recognize as legitimate to change the name nationally so that we can celebrate the national holiday (our nation, not yours) in style." But what do I expect. This isn't Seattle's first rodeo.
Is there such thing as a national employee day? If so, I would send her an invitation on her calendar for that day.
Don't think Eric Cantor understands Labor Day... hard to get bent out of shape about it though ever since Eric Cantor stopped being a thing NOTE I really wanted there to be a "National Loser's Day," but I got redirected to "National Lobster Day" instead. Which is satisfying enough to link to given any opportunity. There truly is a day for everything. Except losers, apparently.
Not joking. There'll be cake. That's the thing- my beef isn't with this or that boss, it's with the idea itself. Just doesn't sit. You should require all of your employees to sing "happy boss's day to you." Hands on hearts.
I try really, really hard not to work. Barring that, I try and only do work that feels like play. Gotten pretty good at it. I do feel like a ghost, off and on. That's not necessarily a bad thing!
-- work that feels like play? Reference noted. and appreciated. I have some ghost-like qualities as well. My favourite button, in fact, says, "You're just lucky I'm visible today."
To get some practice with Python (and because the teacher takes too long to get to the interesting stuff), I started a side-project to analyse and convert open data. I'm gonna attempt to visualise NYC's Citibike data. I already figured out how to calculate the average trip time for females and males as a test (men bike longer than women). Next week we'll learn how to handle the ArcGIS Python package, so I can actually make some cool stuff, I think. I'm aiming to make something cool like this. Also I'm in a dilemma - there is a Startup Weekend here this weekend, and I'd love to go, but I'm also one of the two / three volunteers invited to help promote the radio station this Saturday on a fair. Both are really cool to do!
I've been working on some EmberJS stuff and doing some other experimentation with "hip" web stuff. I officially restarted my freelance web design/development, something I did two years ago but stopped when I moved to Chicago. Made a random post to Craigslist and got a (real) reply pretty quickly. I'm sending the contract out tomorrow, once that's done it's a done deal. So I'll be self-employed for the duration of the project, which is nice.
I'm wearing two of these now. I'm in the coffee shop, about to continue studying for my next calc exam. I'm making CompSci my minor and am going to take a bunch of Web Design classes next semester. I'm gonna major in Information Management, and my cousin has already got an internship laid out for me and I'm happy about it but also feel bad. I feel bad because I don't like that everything is not what you know, it's who you know. I dunno. I think I'm in the same position as Meriadoc in that I feel stagnant in a lot of areas. I feel you there, man. I compare myself to my roommates too often. "They have girlfriends and I don't." "They like their Engineering degrees and I don't." "They have free time and I don't," haha. It does feel good to know that I won't feel as stagnant next semester, but I don't really wanna wait around either. I'm going to do National Novel Writing Month. I scraped my last novel because I felt like it wasn't going anywhere. I have my ideas for the next one all outlined. I feel like the previous novel wasn't going anywhere because I started it my junior year of highschool. I looked back at my earlier chapters and I felt like I had grown so much since then that it just wasn't going to work. My perspective on life has changed since then - something that editing can't change. No, that novel isn't Hubskina. I'll try and get a chapter of that done soon. Till me about your day. I sound like lil, haha.
Except that I would have spelled "Tell" correctly. (Snicker) 8bit, do the National Novel Writing Month -- but send _refugee_ and me little pieces of it for spelling. I can do little bits at a time for distraction. Oh speaking of distraction. I have 60 or 70 short essays to mark. That's why I'm so busy on hubski today.
They all always come out as garbage. It's only in the edit that words gain anything. Let them be garbage. Let the garbage flow through you. When I write a story I usually have to write 1-2 pages of NONSENSE, drivel, meandering, just plain and simple nothing more than words before I realize what I want to say. I just have to shit or vomit it all out on paper. It's much later that everything becomes good, and cohesive, and maybe says what I want it to say. Just getting it all down in the first place - that's the work.
I keep getting into arguments. Today, it's been religious ones. I posted to the truechristian subreddit asking how the devout differentiate between the voice of God and just their own thoughts. I've done similar stuff before too. I hate the discussion, I hate the arguments these people use, and I hate the fact that I can't leave my former faith alone. I worry at it like a scab just so I can start it bleeding again. There's something disturbingly rewarding about the almost self-flagellatory nature of getting into it with these people. Maybe I'm just trying to sharpen my agnosticism against the concrete of the faithful.
I felt ill today (headache and the night before I was pretty sweaty) so amusingly enough, I couldn't go to the pub. I was going to go on a pub crawl with one of the societies at my university. I suppose there'll be other opportunities to get drunk this year but it's still pretty annoying. I'm trying to "take it easy" but given that as a student that's like 50% of what I do anyway, I'm not quite sure where to start.
hmm. Tomorrow is my last day of a small internship. I was in a mid-sized pharmacompany, they produce mostly oncologic therapeutics, niche products that maybe one of 1mio. will need, but that's there main way they earn money. I learned a whole lot and it was extremely interesting, it's nice to see some downsides of some, normally good, laws (look up BCG, only two producers for the western world and they can't expand, because the profit is too small), thanks and the complexity behind creating a new medicine
Alright to get rid of the worst stuff first. My school financial aid is still mess and unresolved which make me nervous. Mental health wise I think its taking its toll but I'm still not sure how to process this problem as it has been a reality check for me. It puts a lot of uncertainty in what I want to do in the future but can't think about that right now. Positive stuff now. There's a chance that I will be reactivating the school paper and I'm really excited for reasons other than it being a resume builder. First I get to be head of a paper and something that people actually see and read rather than just some obscure club. Second I get to practice my writing skills which are are really important to me right now and lastly I get to be involved with journalism in general which has always been an interest. A related Ted Talk: Another positive is that I got a small scholarship (not enough to fully pay off the tuition) so I get to go to a small personal dinner with professors and other recipients so I'm excited for that. I think that's it for now.
People who are way too worried ended up having me talk to public safety twice, and I had the worst breakdown ever over the weekend. But I went to therapy today and was doing great until I found out iI'm failing one of my classes because of a test I took last week when I wasn't even close to a good mental state to be taking a test. Meh.
It'd be better if people would buy our stuff.
It's still just local punk, right? Not sure how to put this, do the bands you work with really expect a bunch of sales? It's pretty much random luck for a small band to get noticed and hit it. Do you ever advertise on r/listentothis? I would be posting every single I helped release if I were you. If that's within subreddit rules.
It's the same problem there's always been with local music. People love it as long as they don't have to spend any money or put forth any effort into it. The amount of people who like what we do vs. the amount of people who actually support what we do is staggeringly different. I guess I was naive enough to think that maybe this wouldn't be the case.
I don't know. Maybe you're talking to the enemy, because I have a tiny budget but still like music so I steal a lot of it. I make an effort every once in a while when I notice a specifically local impoverished band to pay. I try to make up for this by spending money on going to shows, which unfortunately results in less direct cash for bands than does buying their cd online (I bet). It's all I can do. Anyway, you guys put shows on, it sounds like? People are tons more likely to pay for those than they are for album sales, right?
PROTIP: When the manual tells you to tighten the idle bleed screws in order to balance the throttle bodies, loosen them back up before you put it back together. Even if the manual doesn't tell you to. Especially if they're under the seat, the tank, the side fairings, and the air cleaner, which is held on by 15 allen head screws. Also, who wants to play "spot the spendy bits?"
Well, it seems like the biggest spendy thing is under the black cover (if I see it correctly), is it that mixing table you told about? Dolby doesn't sound cheap to me, so I'd say that one too, just as those stacks of boxes. Is the leftmost your RAID? And, depending on your taste, I'd say the carpet too.
The things under the black covers are 88-key MIDI controllers. Well, the one you see most of is a K2500XS. And while it still has a $9,999.95 sticker on it from Guitar Center, I bought it in 2003 for about $1100. A few of the Dolby pieces are worth something; the DP564 and DP569, for starters. However, there's very little aftermarket for them so they're worth substantially less than their MSRP. There are, however, two 480Ls and a TC 6000 in there. The RAID is not pictured, and was under $2k retail. The furthest left stack is a bunch of Lexicon PCM80s and 81s under some SSL X-Link MADI boxes. The furthest left thing is my super-bitchin' subwoofer with vestigial stuff from my father in law. For all I know it's worth more than the sub; it's a Mettler scale that will measure up to 50kg in 0.1g increments. But then, it's old enough to have a GPIB port.
Are these all from your recent acquisition? You turning them all around? If so, what's your estimated ROI? Nice score by the way.
$5k is a nice pay day. Well done sir. Back when ebay was just emerging I had a buddy make a bunch of money selling audio equipment, records, old instruments etc. The guy had a knack for finding old stuff, fixing it a bit and turning it around. He made enough money doing it that he was able to make it his full-time pursuit.
Believe it or don't, the odyssey started in 1992, when i traded an old oboe for a Roland RS505. I then traded that up for a VZ-1. Etc etc etc until paperclip style, i now have a surround studio. I'm not entirely cash neutral but the majority of my gear is purchased with profits from gear sales. This stuff is earmarked for the "get the fuck out of LA" fund.
This stuff is earmarked for the "get the fuck out of LA" fund.
It's good to have goals. Will the wife be moving her practice? Is there a market for her practice near the waterfall you plan to live beside? Or is she retiring?
I don't know what any of those things are. Not one. But I'm going to guess the spendy bits are anything black, with lights.