What you did today

[LadyCrimson]

... I don't quite understand how the hell people can even begin to survive without working at the very least 2 jobs, even if your making $15+. There must be something I'm missing.

It's called multiple roommates, top ramen/peanut butter/spaghetti till you puke, and that free sofabed & wobbly table you picked up from the sidewalk/relatives.

[Walsingham]

Learn to cook with rice and spices. You can make a little meat go a very long way with rice. Or pasta, really.

 

1. Acquire huge bag of rice

2. Acquire array of spices from Eastern supermarket for a few pence

3. Make friends with your local butcher

4. Acquire from him the cheapest cuts of meat

5. Acquire onions and garlic

6. Your cheap cuts of meat will be fatty. Use the fat to fry onions and garlic. Add spices experimentally to taste.

7. Add meat.

8. Add meaty goodness to rice.

9. Consume, and store excess in fridge.

 

That should take care of dinner and breakfast. Eat raw vegetables for lunch.

[Gorgon]

I'm looking for someone to study Latin with since the friend who was doing that moved after she graduated.

A couple of geeks I know are good enough that they can speak Latin with one another. I mean, I suppose it's grammatically interesting, but learning a dead language instead of a living one, seems like an odd choice.

 

Anyway, I signed up for the last part of my Japanese course today, exams are in three months, I'm going to be busy, not half as good at it as most of the people on that course.

Edited September 17, 2008 by Gorgon

[Gorth]

Playing with the table-saw.

Feeling glad it's fall-cool and cloudy but hoping it won't actually rain for another month or two yet...

omg :angry cat:

 

If only I had a table saw. Then my life would be complete. Well of course I'd need a lathe and a router and a miter saw and a band saw and a couple of sanders and a large enough space to put them in as well. Then life would be good. All the giant wooden lawn cats a man could ever dream of. *sigh*

 

Today I started answering phones for work. It was scary and I ignored the first call on purpose so I didn't have to do it but then two calls came soon after and things went alright. Luckily I don't have to call anyone unless I'm transferring someone but it's fast enough to where I don't have the time to have a mini anxiety attack like I normally do when I need to call someone important. So far work is actually going quite well. I mean I would still rather be at home playing video games and watching an assortment of entertainment on my computer but I do get to do monotonous work that lets you turn your brain off, most of the while listening to old Lovelines and for the most part being left alone. Sadly though it's brought up something that I don't want to think about and that is money. Luckily I am able to live at home with 0 expenses so the 9 dollars an hour I make basically goes to the bank but now that I calculate my weekly and monthly earnings I don't quite understand how the hell people can even begin to survive without working at the very least 2 jobs, even if your making $15+. There must be something I'm missing.

It should be possible to survive though. Lets say you work 10 hours a day, 25 days a month, thats 3750$

 

What are living costs and taxes where you live? What is the McDonald index (personally, I prefer the beer index, but nevermind that)?

[Walsingham]

10 hours a day? ****ing norah, what kind of plan is that? The guys' in school. He should be investing time in that, rather than trying to save at this stage.

[Gorth]

10 hours a day? ****ing norah, what kind of plan is that? The guys' in school. He should be investing time in that, rather than trying to save at this stage.

Ah, I thought he was talking about "survival" in general, since he referred to the need of having 2 jobs

[Gfted1]

Id kill to work four 10 hour days instead of five 8 hour days.

[Gorgon]

I used to work 12 hour shifts 3 times a week. I'd be totally wasted when I got home. Now it's the other opposite, 5 hrs a day all week and saturday or sunday, but I can chose freely between the early and late shift. I much prefer it, there's time and energy left over to do other stuff every day of the week.

[taks]

10 hours a day? ****ing norah, what kind of plan is that? The guys' in school. He should be investing time in that, rather than trying to save at this stage.

i dunno, i worked about 70-80 hours a week for most of my master's degree. granted, i didn't have much of a life, but i think it paid off in the end. fortunately i only had to work part-time during my undergrad years (full-time in the summer, of course).

 

taks

[Walsingham]

Postgrad study hardly counts, though. My first term of my Masters I worked more than 12 hours a day. Granted that's because I'm an imbecile, but I did work hard.

 

I thought Gorth was talking about working mad shifts on top of studying.

[Gorgon]

Postgrad study hardly counts

Snobby McSnobpants.

[Walsingham]

Postgrad study hardly counts

Snobby McSnobpants.

 

That's MacSnobpants to the likes of you, peasant.

[taks]

Postgrad study hardly counts, though. My first term of my Masters I worked more than 12 hours a day. Granted that's because I'm an imbecile, but I did work hard.

not completely, particularly during a thesis and a dissertation. i actually drove back and forth between rolla and st. louis in 1992 and 1993 (110 miles) to work three times a week as a bartender in st. louis (near westport plaza, actually), finally moving back down to rolla during the summer of 1993 to actually find a thesis (i switched specialties mid-stream of my MS and ended up with 42 credits instead of the usual 30). it would have been harder to do as an undergrad, certainly, because you usually have more than 2 classes at a time.

 

i won't comment on your imbecile statement.

 

taks

[taks]

i should add, the way to do it is to get jobs that don't require much work, such as the night attendant at a gas station. that way you can actually do homework in-between customers (which i did for a while before getting my first bar job). of course, back in the day, you could still buy ephedrine (aka, mini-thins) in stores since meth wasn't that big of a deal.

 

taks

[Hurlshort]

I think I make like $50 an hour. I'm not really sure, but that sounds about right. That way I can limit myself to about 7 hours at work and take a bunch of time off.

 

So go get a job that pays twice as much slug. Simple

[Walsingham]

When i was his age I was being offered private security gigs. I never took them though. too much grief, always watching your back. But he sounds big enough to look after himself. What it like in the US? I imagine guns must make it a nightmare.

[Hurlshort]

I worked as a security guard in college. It was a great gig, about $10 and I got a lot of time for reading. Many security companies do not use guns. You just patrol around buildings and call the police if anything suspicious happens.

[Gorgon]

I think he meant the guns the other guys have. But I guess if everyone knows private security firms are a joke that makes it safer on everyone. Criminals and security alike.

 

One job that really is dangerous is doorman at a club. Of all the angry drugged up people that have to be rejected in a night, odds are pretty good a few of them are going to go at the doormen, whether to impress their friends or because they just aren't wired right.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I'm going to swing by Gamestop and pick up a copy of The Witcher - Enhanced Edition later tonight and pick up another game for a friend -not sure what I'll get her though- as a gift.

[taks]

nasty world the bar business is. at the st. louis night club i worked (two, actually, but the first one was only for 6 months) we had a pretty large security staff... lots of 'em and they were physically big as well. we also had mob connections, which came in handy one night when a gang fight broke out and the gang came back after hours to "finish us off." once they heard the source of their <insert black market dealings here> was a bit miffed, they suddenly turned around and left (it was a motorcycle gang, btw).

 

anyway, people got tossed out all the time, and on more than one occasion i had to hop the bar to help out.

 

oddly, when i moved to the bar in rolla, in spite of being a town of only 14,000, the problems were MUCH worse. my bar was constantly being investigated because we had more than one call to the police per night (on average) for the 15 months i ran things. lots of drugs down there in rural missouri, particularly crystal meth. i still have a scar from the guy i banned one night. my staff was dragging him out (6 big guys), and it was a stalemate. i reached over the top and put my arm around his neck and pulled the back of his hair up. he stopped fighting, but bit my arm in the process.

 

taks

[Deadly_Nightshade]

But I guess if everyone knows private security firms are a joke...

 

Some are, some are most definitely not and are better armed than some S.W.A.T. teams - it depends on the level you are talking about.

[LadyCrimson]

In all honesty, I don't really know how people survive on entry-level retailish jobs while trying to do something like school, either...combine increased living costs with increased education costs and it at least feels like it must be harder now than when I was 20ish. But I suppose it also depends greatly on where you live. I can't imagine anyone here being able to live on their own on $9-10/hr w/out at least one roommate to share rent. Perhaps a job with tips - waiters or food delivery etc. - would often mean more average income per hour and make it a bit easier?

 

And this morning I woke up and started planning some trips to home improvement stores for some stuff I'm working on...but when I walked outside I realized hubby had taken my car to work again, so here I am. One day it'd be nice if he had a vehicle I could actually drive, too.

[Shryke]

But I guess if everyone knows private security firms are a joke...

 

Some are, some are most definitely not and are better armed than some S.W.A.T. teams - it depends on the level you are talking about.

 

the vast majority of security guards i ever see around are either fat or old (or both) pacific islanders

 

and half the time they sit in their cars and sleep

[taks]

In all honesty, I don't really know how people survive on entry-level retailish jobs while trying to do something like school, either...combine increased living costs with increased education costs and it at least feels like it must be harder now than when I was 20ish. But I suppose it also depends greatly on where you live.

that last bit is key. many, if not most, major schools are in relatively cheap areas. the apartment i lived in while working on the MS was $225/month, and there were three of us in there. the beer index was low because a) i ran a night club and b) we were in a college town in the middle of the ozarks. getting drunk was free for all intents. my "salary" was $225/week and i got some cash from the school (i was a graduate research assistant) plus some tips, but i wasn't pulling in much more than $10/hour before taxes, maybe $11. cheap rent, roommates, no car loan (had a beater) and probably walked nearly everywhere anyway...

 

but yes, it is difficult on that much money and i was doing it over 13 years ago.

 

taks

[Trenitay]

a low paying job is always a fun job.

Edited September 17, 2008 by awsomeness