It's Personal...

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Thu Sep 26, 2013 11:03 pm

I've been trying to get a better paying engineering job for some time. Just got turned down for this one job I was excited for; they described me as not enough of a gear-head and too analytical. I can't shake the impression that I called a nerd.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sat Sep 28, 2013 5:35 am

Well, got a new position on campus that'll have me working 40 hours a week. Hopefully the fact that my duties involve heavy lifting will help dissuade would-be bumpers: nobody wants to bump a porter for their job other than other porters.

Once December 3 or 5th comes around I'll finally be making a good wage: $14.13 an hour, up from 10.80. The pay scale for our under this union is fucking dumb. Gotta wait 3 years to make any decent cash. Apparently going up $1 a year (max) would be too reasonable to the high seniority workers.

Anyway, this is good news as my family desperately needs the increased income as my father is unable to work. Another 6 months or so until disability pension is decided...

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Mon Sep 30, 2013 2:49 am

Today has been a day of crazy highs and utter lows.

It's kind of the one year anniversary of my father-in-law's death and that's been hard on my wife. Helping her hang in there has been strangely difficult for me this time around. I'm usually decent with death and comforting but it's just been hard this time. I took her hiking as that was something Dad liked a lot. But then we ended up fighting after that and it really brought my spirits down. I've been struggling with depression for many years and I loved the bliss I felt when I was in the middle of the deep deep woods. But the fight has brought on an uncomfortableness and angst that I really don't want or need.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:21 am

Nine days ago, I broke one of the rules of creative work-- never work for free.

I found an ad in the Writing Gigs section of Craigslist with a picture of Deadpool. Intrigued by this out of place, and questionably professional image use, I checked it out.

An "up-and-coming geek culture news outlet" was looking for writers. They said they couldn't pay yet, that none of them were even being paid yet, but that was the goal they were all working towards.

It was a fit, so I broke the rule, and shot over a resume with links to some of my work at the Arc Current.

Today, just a few hours ago, I heard back. They want me on board.

I just sent five pitches. We'll see what my first assignment is.

Stahlseele · Post by **Stahlseele** » Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:28 pm

good luck and gratulations

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 8:35 pm

They used Deadpool. Only good can come from this.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sat Oct 26, 2013 10:12 pm

Congratulations Prak

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Sun Oct 27, 2013 1:23 am

Awesome - congratulations.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 10:43 am

Oogie Boogie for my five-year-old and Elmo for my two-year-old.

PoliteNewb · Post by **PoliteNewb** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 4:26 pm

So, good news/bad news time.

My wife wants to reconcile and not get divorced; I'm willing to give it a shot, because divorce was never an optimal solution, just the best of the bad options. But she's willing to compromise a lot more than she thought, so we're going to try it. I hope it works out.

On the other hand, I just found out last night that my father has stage 4 liver cancer, inoperable. So I need to find a way to get my family down to NY so he can meet my youngest daughter before he dies.

RobbyPants · Post by **RobbyPants** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:19 pm

Damn. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope things work out between you and your wife.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:29 pm

PoliteNewb wrote:So, good news/bad news time.

My wife wants to reconcile and not get divorced; I'm willing to give it a shot, because divorce was never an optimal solution, just the best of the bad options. But she's willing to compromise a lot more than she thought, so we're going to try it. I hope it works out.

Good luck!

On the other hand, I just found out last night that my father has stage 4 liver cancer, inoperable. So I need to find a way to get my family down to NY so he can meet my youngest daughter before he dies.

I'm so sorry. It sucks when something like this happens - good luck getting to New York, and lots of thoughts for your family.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:42 pm

Good luck on the whole marriage thing. Just remember, that kids are better off with two happy parents who arent' still married, than two really unhappy people who are married and making the entire household feel like a combat zone.

virgil · Post by **virgil** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 5:44 pm

Wife finally got on my medical insurance. Within a month, she went to the ER for cysts (apparently one burst, but they told her "walk it off" and sent her out). Stuff finally went through, and the insurance company is claiming pre-existing condition on account of her going to the ER for cyst pain six months ago (before we even married).

So that's another $1200+ in bills that have been added, and the ER from the non-insured section refused to negotiate a payment plan or even to reduce the value; so we're likely to see it all sent to more collection agencies.

sabs · Post by **sabs** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:41 pm

This is why Republicans makes me so mad, and make me want to punch them in the face until they go unconcious.

I get my bill for my bloodwork.
My billed amount? $871
My Negotiated amount? $101

WTF, this is just complete bullshit. It's not like you can go to a different hospital and negotiate. They just fuck you, no lobster bisque, no lube, no reach around.

Not to mention, that You go to 1 hospital and a procedure can cost $10,000 with an 80% success rate. And another hospital it costs $90,000 with a 35% success rate. But it's basically impossible for you to find out what that is.

We need medicare from 0-Death. Allow people to buy supplemental insurance to get better coverage. Get prices and quality of care fixed across the board.

Blasted · Post by **Blasted** » Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:18 pm

PoliteNewb wrote:So, good news/bad news time.

My wife wants to reconcile and not get divorced; I'm willing to give it a shot, because divorce was never an optimal solution, just the best of the bad options. But she's willing to compromise a lot more than she thought, so we're going to try it. I hope it works out.

That's great. All the best. I like to hear that people are trying to reconcile, divorce isn't fun for anyone.

On the other hand, I just found out last night that my father has stage 4 liver cancer, inoperable. So I need to find a way to get my family down to NY so he can meet my youngest daughter before he dies.

That's terrible. Good luck.

erik · Post by **erik** » Sat Nov 02, 2013 1:08 pm

I resolved to give comic books out this Halloween inspired by AH, giving out candy+1 comic. We don't get too many visitors each year, but still I was worried that I might not have had enough comics since there are no ultra-cheap bargain bins at either local comic store so I only got a dozen $1 comics. I threw in age-appropriate comics I had from free-comic days or other comics from my childhood.

It appears my concerns of running out were unwarranted, nobody wanted comics. =-(

I was out trick or treating with the boys and my wife was managing the candy patrols who came to visit. The assessment from my wife was that younger kids didn't understand and took only candy, and that older kids were disdainful or otherwise uninterested. She thought the older kid who sneered might have been because it was an AD&D comic on top so she rotated them some, but still no luck.

Everyone still had fun, but I guess maybe we need to work on our presentation or something next year if we wanna try comics again. It's tough since our driveway comes up to our back door and that's what we use to go in and out and after a big rain like the previous night's you have to mush through a swamp to get to the front door... but on Halloween it's about 50/50 of people going to the front door vs. the back door since we live on a corner.

Maj · Post by **Maj** » Tue Nov 05, 2013 12:39 am

Happy Diwali!

Cynic · Post by **Cynic** » Tue Nov 05, 2013 1:32 am

Belated Diwali wishes from me, as well.

Are there any other Indians/hindus/ex-hindus on the Den aside from me?

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Tue Nov 05, 2013 3:38 pm

Thanks for the well wishes guys. I just submitted my first article, a review of Thor the Dark World, but it can't run until Friday, and needs to go through edits anyway. I'll link it when it goes up.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:26 am

Good luck with the edits, Prak.

I've finally got a reply from a german embassy, saying that they'll give me the visa for my master degree studies. ^_^

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:46 am

Grats, Longes

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Wed Nov 06, 2013 4:51 am

Prak_Anima wrote:Grats, Longes

Now I just need to find an english speaking RPG group in Munchen

Artless · Post by **Artless** » Wed Nov 06, 2013 5:35 am

Coulda posted about this a while ago but, weeellllp, one of the shows I was a part of with the Light Grey Art Lab is currently on display. It's a card game, and after being told what suit of character class they were in the artists had to do some portraiture of themselves as a fantasy character. I am really proud to have been a part of it, even if I think my piece is actual literal dogshit compared to some of the others. But whatever, it was fun and this last weekend I actually got to meet the people at Light Grey and they were really cool.

The game itself is pretty basic. It's poker with a random pot and mid-hand card refresh, but I wasn't taking part in it for the mechanics of the game itself. It's shameless advertisement but if you guys are interested here's the gallery page and Light Grey's store page:

http://lightgreyartlab.com/rolemodels-b ... ktornaahl/

http://lightgreyartlabshop.bigcartel.com/

My piece, which I titled and described precisely to abuse the character limit they gave us, as well as some brief thoughts on the show before I went there, can be seen here on my tumblr.

This past weekend was a big deal for me; I went to Minneapolis to attend a workshop Light Grey was hosting with Claire Hummel and Colin Foran as the guests. They are basically like the SWAT team Microsoft sends to lagging or idle projects in development to help get the teams working again, and they were really the best people to be around. They both had very nice things to say, and coming back from speaking with and getting to know them I don't feel like absolute crap when I think about my prospects as an entertainment artist.

So yeah, I had a good weekend. Just wanted to share. Also Minneapolis' food is way, way better than Milwaukee's.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Thu Nov 07, 2013 12:27 am

So, I finally got my Big Raise at work. People in our union are largely old and set in their ways, so they made it so that new hires had to wait 3+ years to actually make good money like them ($14 and change). Instead of making the increase in pay a yearly thing or something, instead new hires would go from $10.35 (.10 above min wage) up to a cap of $10.80 before The Big Raise to $14 whatever.

So, I've managed to now make $14.51 an hour now. Took me fucking ages, but now I actually am making enough money to get somewhere in my life again (and push me above the poverty line, maybe) now that I'm also now getting regular hour.

Additionally, hoping to move out into the country next year. My brother acquired over a dozen acres, and there's a section I can put a trailer or something on, and rent from him. A few nearby towns have places I can transfer to, so I (probably) won't need to worry about finding a new job.

Also looking to get my company registered in the near future.

Things are finally getting better.