Assume you're an unemployed 32-year-old man living in this horribly depressed economy. For the 3 and half years prior to your unemployment, you worked under the title Graphic Designer, but the vast majority of employers looking for graphic designers are looking for people with more skills and experience than yourself. And unfortunately, this is the only professional experience you have. So thus far, your job search has gotten you only 3 interviews for shitty jobs that weren't even worth your application and a slew of rejection letters. Do you continue your exhaustive search, hoping you'll be lucky enough to find work identical to what you were doing before that requires only your very limited skills and experience, or do you accept futility and consider other options? I mean, you're kind of over graphic design anyway, right? Oh but wait, do you *have* other options? Do you have any transferable skills? Do you have any fucking options at all? This is my situation.
I could go on about all of the opportunities that I've blown over the past 10 or so years, but I'll just concentrate on now. What now? My money will probably run out within 3 months, and I have a medical condition that requires regular maintenance, so the need to find a financially viable job with good health coverage is rather pressing. Lately, I've been looking at state jobs, because the benefits are great, and the skills and experience you need for some of those jobs, particularly trainee positions, are little to none, especially if you have a bachelor's degree. Unfortunately, those opportunities are not near as plentiful as those for well established professionals, and applying for those sorts of jobs usually means being put on an eligibility list and waiting indefinitely for someone to call you when something comes up. I've looked at federal jobs as well, but the federal government's requirements are quite a bit more stringent. The only other thing I'm considering is entering a training program to teach in Baltimore public schools, but I need to give that a lot of thought before committing. What else should I consider? Health coverage is my greatest concern. I suppose I can accept marginal pay, as long as there's room for growth and I'm not working for the same shitty wage 6 months from hire. God, I sound desperate. I only hope I'm not left with the only option of moving back into my parents' house, far away from any of my friends or cultural enlightenment, in a town where the height of excitement is eating a bowl of gumbo, until I uh, you know, figure things out. A 32-year-old man should not have to do that. Most 32-year-old men figured things out a long time ago.
I'd love to hear your suggestions, success stories, etc. Help me. I'm a smart, capable man. Tell me it's gonna be okay! I've been unemployed since the the beginning of April. Before I snap and attempt some sort of heist, please help.
I just got through watching all of the episodes of this show. It was canceled after just one season, unfortunately. If you appreciate irony and the absurd, and you've enjoyed other comedy by these guys, you should enjoy this too. It pokes fun at lots of television and movie cliches. If you do Netflix, put it in your queue!
I'm in another Ottobar dinner theater production, and Mike Bowen, out of the goodness of his heart, has decided to make this a fundraiser for my recent medical expenses, since I don't have health insurance and the bill will be astronomically huge. So please come out July 22nd, enjoy some wackiness, and help make my hospital bill a little more bearable for a measley $5. Grunge-themed dinner theater - hearty laughter will ensue! Be sure to tell all of your friends! And a thousand thanks to you, if you show up.
Is this guy the most obnoxious turd on CNN? Does he ever say anything insightful? Every time I see him, he just flaps his arms and shouts a lot of the usual Republican crap, mainly just complaining a lot and explaining very little. What did this jackass do to get air time?
You'd be living with me, my friend Boson, and his dog, Potato. The room is $500, and there's a fair amount of space. We're in a great location next to the freeway with plenty of amenities within walking distance. If interested, contact me, bradleydeason at gmail.com, or Boson, instructions at gmail.com. Or you can call me at 2403054783, but Boson could probably answer more of your questions.
Kristy, what happened? You were kinda funny as Buffy, plenty sexy in The Chase, and I think we all loved seeing your lovely, bare apple bottom in -- what what was that movie?
Now that I have a decent digital camera, I'm taking more photos and using Flickr more. I just uploaded a bunch of new stuff, and there are some pretty cool ones from my trip to New York last month. The above photo is of some guys playing soccer at a park in Brooklyn. I think Ben probably got some better ones of this. Check it out.
I bought a scanner recently, and now that I have all this free time, being unemployed and all, I decided to scan a bunch of random stuff from my sketchbooks over the years. I've posted two more sketches in the responses. I'll try to post another one here each day from today until they're eventually all up, plus one new sketch if I get around to drawing in my sketchbook that day. Not all of them are really good drawings, some are just interesting. In the not-so-distant future, I plan to have a website up featuring my art and design. Enjoy.
I fucked up in a pretty big way Monday night that severely delayed the classified section getting to the press on Tuesday. It was a stupid mistake that could have been easily prevented, had I just checked what I was about to do with someone else. Everything was going very smoothly Tuesday morning until someone inquired about a missing full page of ads. FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! That's what I fucking deleted! It wasn't an overbooking in the research section -- it was something altogether different! And I knew something was funny about it, so why didn't I just check with Leslie? IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT! Needless to say, I was pretty embarrassed. And though I was able to go back and fix my mistake in a relatively short amount of time, we were still much later going to press than usual. We have Wednesdays off, but I dreaded hearing the talk I would most likely have with my boss on Thursday. But by 5pm Thursday, my boss hadn't said a word to me, so I left work relieved.
I felt good walking to work yesterday morning, and I had plenty of spring in my step. But as soon as I set my coffee on my desk, I heard it. "Can I have a word with you?"
I think that fuck-up was just the icing on the cake, though. I think the bigger reason I was probably fired is that the other classified guy was picking up my slack way too often, and if he was ever taking time off on a very busy day, I would be very overwhelmed. I just can't stay focused on what I'm doing, and it's not just at work. It scares me. A few people have recommended accupuncture to treat this problem -- I guess I'll try it. All the coffee in the world couldn't save me. Any time I see the words "really crank it out" in a job listing, I'm immediately skipping over it. I'm trying to be positive about it. Graphic designers for alt weeklies are notoriously underpaid, and I know that if I get just standard pay for what I do, I'll be making about $15,000 on top of what I was making before, so that's something I can look forward to. But job opportunities in Baltimore, for most professionals, are perpetually scarce, and I don't look forward to commuting to DC five days a week, if it comes to that. And then there's the competence issue. How will I convince employers that I'm a great person for the job if I can't even convince myself? If I'm lucky enough to find a job that allows me to do really thoughtful design and go at my own speed, then I'll probably enjoy the work. All I can do is look and hope.
And then I'll be driving a U-haul to Baltimore. Since getting the news about being laid off at the paper, my plans for the future have come together so well for me. Conveniently, Reggie wants to move back to DC, so we're just swapping rooms. No hassle of searching for a place, and I get to live with people I know and like. And I got a new job almost as easily, working for Baltimore's equivalent of the paper I work for in DC. The only thing that sucks is that I need to stay at the DC City Paper until the 17th in order to get my severance and bonus, and I'll be dividing my time between the two papers, commuting back and forth until then. Anyway, I'm in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, just a few blocks from work, and Josh is only another block away. Plus I've met some cool people that I didn't know before or wasn't well acquainted with. And the more I learn about Baltimore, the more I feel like I'll really enjoy my time there. The new job has been good so far, and everyone has made me feel very welcome -- smooth transition. We work our asses off, but we're rewarded by having Wednesday off in addition to the weekend, and we're guaranteed 40 hours of pay, even if we work less than that. And if we work over-time, we get that too. So it's actually better than salary. I'm still comtemplating exactly how I want to spend this next chapter of my life, but I feel like I'll now be much more enabled to do what I want in a place that feels more like home than DC. I've always thought of fall as a great time to move too. The cool crispness of the air is stimulating, and there's always a string of social events happening between early fall and the new year. I feel very lucky.
It turns out I'm not quite as adept at the job waiting tables as I need to be. I was caught fucking up one time too many and fired last night. I actually feel more relieved than bummed. Now I have more time to look for a job with a decent salary. I'll probably have at least 2 more months at the paper -- still waiting on a definite answer -- and I'm guessing I'll have close to a month of severance pay, plus if I cash in my 401K, that should cover another month of rent and bills.So I should be able to have my act together before my money runs out.
I've decided on Baltimore. It just seems to be the most practical decision. My closest friends live there, and I'm sure there are plenty of opportunities to be had if I just stay off my ass. Plus, it's cheap and I can figure out my life without the issue of survival perpetually looming over me. I'm optimistic.
As some of you know, the alternative weekly paper that I work for has been sold to these guys. As part of the new order, the production department of which I'm a part is being shut down, and production will be done in Atlanta from now on. When I asked the new CEO how much longer production will remain in DC, he wouldn't give me a definite answer, but it doesn't sound like we have longer than 3 months. So I might very well be leaving DC in much less than 6 months. I still have the job at the restaurant which is going okay, and I might have an opportunity to teach ESL a few days a week, so I'm not too worried about running out of money too soon. But the sooner I can leave, the better. And instead of my original plan of saving lots of money for living expenses and looking for a job after I've moved, I think I'd like to have a job lined up first, unless I move to Baltimore where living is cheap, moving expenses will be minimal, and my money will last longer. But it's still very hard for me to commit to a new city, because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I need out of a city. Mainly, I want to live in a city where creative people thrive and I have at least a few friends on who I can rely. These are the options I'm weighing:
Baltimore
Pro:
• It would be an easy move
• It's cheap
• Two of my best friends live there
• It welcomes quirkiness and creativity
• People are generally down-to-earth
• I'd still be near a few other major cities where I have friends
Con:
• I just can't get very excited about it. I feel like its quirky charm is overshadowed by a depressed economy and desperation, and I don't envision my two best friends staying there much longer, or anyone with high ambition for that matter, unless that person has plenty of close friends and family in the area and has already been lucky enough to find great success. I'd like my next city to be a place that really feels like home, not just another stepping stone.
San Francisco
Pro:
• It's an awesome, beautiful city with plenty to offer to people like myself.
• I've overcome the differences I had with a couple of my friends there, and I have a few other friends there too. One of them has been a close, fiercely loyal friend since high school, and it would be great to be reunited with him.
• I miss the highs I had when I lived there. I had some of the worst lows of my life living there as well, but many of the good times were very good. And most of the lows were more self-inflicted than anything else.
Con:
• It's just as expensive as DC, if not more so. It would be nice to finally live in a city where my money goes further.
• As much as I value the friendships I have here, I have considerable differences with a few of those friends - I'm just not as in tune with them as with the friends I know in this area. I've matured since living there, and I realize those differences are relatively trivial and not grounds for burning bridges, but they can be frustrating nonetheless, and I don't want to relive many of the same problems I had 5 years ago, based on these differences.
Austin
Pro:
• Several of my friends from high school live here
• It seems to have all of the positives of the south and very few of the negatives.
• I would be in reasonable driving distance from my parents and the rest of my family
• Car friendly
• It's a progressive city.
• It's very affordable.
Con:
• I haven't stayed in close touch with my friends here. I don't know where they are in their lives, I was never very close with most of them, and I don't know how supportive any of them would be.
• Austin is in the middle of nowhere.
• I haven't spent much time at all in Austin and really only know it by reputation. I would need to make a visit before deciding to move here
After working several shifts as a server in a restaurant, I think that job will work out fine. It was a little awkward at first, but during my last shift, going through all the motions felt much more natural, and I seem more alert to everything that's happening. I was worried that my short-term memory, poor attention to details and lousy multi-tasking skills would be a big problem, but I think just being in a situation that demands I'm sharp in those areas has forced my mind to adapt.
I also might have an opportunity to make even more money teaching ESL in September. It would be Monday through Wednesday, from 10am to 1pm, and I think it pays $20/hour. I'm still waiting for my friend to give me more details. If I have that job, plus the job waiting tables, plus my full-time job at the paper, I'll have very little time to myself, and that's what I want. I don't want lots of idle time to think about my miserable time here, all of the horrible decisions I've made since college and my issues with myself. I don't regret moving to DC. I have made some progress, but I'm in a rut again, and it's time to move on.
Guess what I have? A hemmorrhoid! Who the fuck gets hemmorrhoids in their early 30s?
I'll be home visiting family, July 31 through August 7. It'll be the first time I've seen my dad since he retired, so we should have lots of time together. I look forward to it.
Goddammit. DC is really putting some wear on me. My job at The Paper isn't making me enough money anymore, and I've been living off my credit card for the past two weeks. Gratefully, I just started a second job waiting tables, something I've never done before, and hopefully I won't fuck it up, and I'll be able to double my income, or at least increase it by 50%. I just finished my training, and I've only had one night solo. It went okay, but it was a slow night, and I had a small section of only two tables. I think I'll do fine, but I'm certainly not a natural. Multi-tasking and strong attention to details are not innate to me, plus I have a horrible short-term memory. But I suppose I can be conditioned to be sharper with those things. And I get all the free espresso I want.
My top priority right now is to leave DC. I don't see why anyone would want to call DC home unless it's been the person's home for many years, and much of the person's family and close friends are still living here. The cost/benefit is just way out of proportion. I'm isolated with very limited means, and I've been drinking a lot lately to ease my worry and sleep easier. But it's not feasible for me to leave just yet, so my plan is to save enough money to cover 3 months of rent for wherever I decide to move, plus bills and food, which I'm estimating will take me as little as 4 or as long as 8 months, depending on where I relocate. I might want to stick with the job waiting tables for at least 6 months, just because it's a valuable skill to have when times are hard and someone may be more likely to hire someone with 6 months of experience than 4. I wish I had a greater vision for myself, but right now, saving lots of money and leaving this town is all that matters.
I'd also like to buy a Mac and begin freelance graphic designing, which would add a few more months to my term, but I might wait on that. Really, I could already do this using my computer at The Paper, but probably as strictly a print designer, because I don't think we have Dreamweaver on any of our computers, and I'm not much of a coder. Web design is pretty foreign to me right now. Until then, please think of me for any of your print design needs. I'm just trying to build a strong portfolio right now, so I'm cheap. And I can show you samples if you request them.
Now I just need to figure out how to make my limited time here more bearable.
Randomly, I've been getting a sensation in my right shin like I'm standing next to something hot, like a radiator. It lasts for a few seconds then goes away. Has anyone else experienced something like this? It's not something I'm worried about, just curious.
I have too much time on my hands, and I need more money. I'm available in the evening Thursday and Friday and all of the weekend. Though ideally, I'd only like to work 2 of those 4 days. So if you know anyone who needs someone to perform any sort of work that requires no great skill, holla.
That's what you pay for this carnival favorite at the new hot dog place that opened in Adams Morgan, near where I work. $6.75 for a fucking corn dog. I find new reasons to hate DC every week.
I'm thinking of making a trip back to the Bay Area soon. I found a good deal on a flight, and right now I'm looking at March 21-28. Will anyone be around to hang out? I'm pretty sure I can find a friend to accomodate me, but just in case, would anyone be able to do that as well? Get back to me soon so I can book it!
Clean out basement room and start painting again
This will commence Saturday, and hopefully I can clear out everything the same day. I mentioned this before, but we have a basement room that has become sort of a dumping ground for various things over the years, and most if not all of those things belonged to previous tenants. It'll be nice to have a proper work space again.
Start acting again
I'm already signed up for a class that starts a week from now. I might never do it professionally, but I took a class once before, and it was lots of fun. I'm pretty good too (I think). That's reason enough for me.
Get a new job
Instead of just talking about it. I'll miss the nice laidback atmosphere of the paper, but it's time to move forward. I was pretty good about looking several months ago, but I got a raise shortly after my first couple of job interviews and got a little too comfortable working there again. But I have a few new expenses now, and I'm back to living more or less paycheck to paycheck again. If I was living fully, I wouldn't care, but I have to stay on a pretty strict budget to save anything.
Be cautious and certain about the women I choose to involve myself with
If I had to choose one word to describe my history of romantic involvement, that word would be fiasco. Never again will I let loneliness impair my good judgment. The next girl will be not only exciting but of sound mind as well.
Get back into photography
Depending on how far I'm willing to go with this, it could get pretty expensive, but with a decent job...
Go back to San Francisco to visit people, and maybe SoCal too
It's high time. I miss California.
Cook more
I already have most of my meals at home, but it's a lot of quick and easy stuff. I'd like to start cooking big meals on the weekend occasionally and having friends over.Yes, maybe if I feed my friends, they'll start visiting me...
Take a Spanish class (or two)
I know, I know. I was supposed to have done this months ago, I just didn't have the money to spend on it. This year, though, new job...
Get back in touch with music and go to shows more often
'Cause it's good for my soul.
Learn to be more comfortable being alone
I'm not saying, "Oh, poor me," here, I've just come to accept that I'm kind of a loner, that there are only a handful of people who really get me or have the patience to get to know me. While I really value my private time for quiet activities or just being introspective, it's often too much. I'm not quite sure how to get over this one, but I'm sure just staying busy will help a lot. And alcohol.
Continue going to the gym
I never look forward to going, but I feel so much better if I do it regularly, and the quality of my sleep is better too.
Read an hour before bed each night
I guess this is pretty dorky, but it's so much easier for me to read if I just set aside a particular time for it. I like to read, it's just hard for me to find the time for it lately for one reason or another.
Take some time to learn more about Illustrator, Flash and Dreamweaver
This goes along with looking for a new job. Most of the frustration in searching comes from just not seeing much that I'm qualified for.
Learn a musical instrument?
I'm kind of flip-flopping on this one. I just know that whatever I would decide to take up, it would take me years to be good, and I don't know if I have the patience for that this late in my life. Ben keeps pushing me toward learning the bass.
All of that should keep me pretty busy. Simply prioritizing this list will be a chore in itself. If I'm able to accomplish all of this in 2007, I'll look back and say it was the most excellent year of my life.
