Short-Term Income for an Immediate Goal

[Alfonso Crawford]

I've been unemployed for a few months, now, and the ride's been fun. I've even cultivated a mostly non-monetary lifestyle, so I wouldn't hurt for the basic necessitites of life. Everything was going fine; but then something amazing happened, and now I can talk to animals! It's pretty cool, and totally secret; and you know what? My life will never be the same.

…

Actually, my laptop just died. I need a new one.

I couldn't find a job, even if I wanted to: unemployment's ridiculously high 'round my parts. I just need a burst of totally unsustainable cash-flow, then I can go back to building web-forums and whatever else I was coding.

ProjectPayday.com just makes me feel dirty, so I'm not too keen on getting back into that groove. Temp-work is simply a joke: even if I could reliably bike cross-county to the nearest office, there's hardly anything there. (I checked.) I know that there's got to be something I can do, but I don't have the particulars. What do y'all do when you require just a touch more than what you've got coming in?

***

I just thought of something! I like making games, and I like making simple web-pages: how does a mate combine these two disparate propensities? Visual novels! They go big, in Japan… or, they go big enough that us Yankee anime-fans don't have to work hard to mock the things. If nothing else, it'll be the only project I can develop well from the sporadically accessed hub that is my local library.

Well, there's one idea. This place is good for brainstorming!

[James81]

Originally Posted by Alfonso Crawford

I couldn't find a job, even if I wanted to:

Here's why you CAN'T find a job. But it's not because you tell yourself this, it's because you don't WANT to get a job, and this is what you tell yourself to excuse the fact that you don't go after one.

It's not impossible to find a job in this economy. People are doing it everyday. It just takes TIME and persistence. Whereas before it may take someone a month to find a job, in this economy it might take someone 6 months. The more you dilly dally and whine about not being able to find a job, though, the more of that time you waste and the more you prolong this self-fulfilling prophecy you've created for yourself.

But the truth behind the truth is, you really don't want a job. Which is fine, that's your choice of lifestyle and I don't judge you for it. What I DO take issue with, however, is the fact that instead of just admitting you don't want a job and have no interest in getting a job, you try and blame the economy for it. Be true to yourself, man, because at the end of the day you're really only fooling yourself on this issue.

That being said, I imagine you could make enough to buy a laptop flipping burgers at a McDonald's for a couple months. Or you could paint houses. Or shovel snow. Or a zillion other odds and ends that you can offer to do for people. The key is finding something you can do, and then marketing that skill to as many people as you possibly can. And if that's you in the av, you might want to shave the beard before doing this because it'll be offputting to the people you are trying to market to.

That's my blunt and honest advice. Do with it what you will.

[Alfonso Crawford]

I thought the "even if I wanted to"-part implied that I have no interest in traditional employment, sparkster. I suppose it is on me that I can't find a job, but the economy has put the average search-time at six months—going off YOUR figure, here—and I'll admit that I don't give enough of a **** to wait that long.

On a lighter note; if I could make money shoveling snow in central Florida, I would be a bloody ****ing god.

Yeah, McDonald's would be an option… if I wasn't black-listed from every franchise in the county. I don't know what that one sober customer was thinking, coming through the 3rd-shift drive-through on a Friday-night: both the customers and staff are liable to do anything. I regret nothing!

I've been doing some trolling for odd-jobs. If I keep rolling with musicians and artists, I'll even get some websites! It's all good. Meeting all day with my primary project has rejuvenated my drive. I feel silly for even getting as worked up as I did.