mindcat wrote:
Turns out they were just taking pictures of the house because we were going to sell it.

HAHAHA! :D

ozoneocean wrote:

mindcat wrote:
Turns out they were just taking pictures of the house because we were going to sell it.

HAHAHA! :D

Sure it wasn't Google maps taking pictures of the intersection?

As a security guard at a secure facility ,I've had that and with train tracks right in front of the entrance?

Car screeches to a halt, guy jumps out taking pictures like mad … sir, this is a secure facility and private property –

Huh? Yeah, but that's a vintage logo Pacific Northern engine and an Erie Lakawana! Train hobbyists. 🙄😁😂😂🤣🤣

What would your dream job be?

Porn star.

Nah, not really. I'd love to be a film producer, but that'll never happen.

I picked up on a thread I posted a few months back in the networking section recently and I've been going through some scripts and shirt story ideas I'd written and forgotten about. One of the ideas really spoke to me and just finished writing it. One of those things that just flowed and although it probably needs refining I'm really pleased with how it came out. I've sent it to an artist, will have to see if they like it enough to illustrate it. If not I'll have to make time to do it myself. Luckily my recent busy schedule has eased of so I can squeeze it in.

Cable news talking head. Just spout nonsense and always be wrong but so long as I meet the right agenda I'll always be appearing on some other show to spout more nonsense. And maybe get to date hot news anchorettes. I'd be very tactful so no one would ever accuse me of sexual harassment.

Producer/writer of the “Robofemoids” franchise. That I could make happen. Just need to edit the first comic into something sensible and short.

One I did make happen. Tank crewman.

My dream from middle school: being the guy who inspects the fire extinguishers! Did that too.

@Bravo-

Have you seen the latest trailer for Welcome to Marwen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dy7xQ8NeE

It came up in an advertisement while I was streaming the other day, and while it is not exactly Robofemoids, the war theme and costumes reminded me of your work. I never knew a story like Mark Hogancamp‘s until now. Have you ever heard of this guy? He lives in New York state, which is just a stone's toss from you.

Oh no, now everyone will be doing photo comics. Well so much for having a medium and making it my own.

If only I had a Hollywood budget like that for the figures.

I probably knew him under a screen name from one of the one six scale boards. I had heard they were doing a new Walter Mitty with Zemeckis and Carell and this has a lot of elements from that World War II era story and the movie version with Danny Kaye. (On of the most talented humans ever.)

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
@Bravo-

Have you seen the latest trailer for Welcome to Marwen?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6dy7xQ8NeE

Wow, that looks amazing!
^_^

This stuff can only be good for Bravo's work I think. The more this style gets popularised and mainstreamed the more people come to accept it and look for other examples of it.

Oh yeah, the offers from galleries are already rolling in. 🙄

🤣🤣🤣

bravo1102 wrote:
Oh yeah, the offers from galleries are already rolling in.

Glad to hear it :P

What I mean is that people who read online comics will be a lot more open to it ^_^

ozoneocean wrote:

bravo1102 wrote:
Oh yeah, the offers from galleries are already rolling in.

Glad to hear it :P.
What I mean is that people who read online comics will be a lot more open to it ^_^

And I will be accused of cribbing the medium from the movie. 😆

Bad enough there are too many similarities between Game of Thrones and Sword of Kings though it was all written before I ever heard of G.R.R. Martin. This has happened before. I go and do something and someone else comes along and does something like it and I am accused of copying them even though I had the idea first. Almost a running gag in my life. 🤣🤣🤣

So I can only laugh and be very cynical. 😑😆😁😂🤣🤣

Everyone who has been on Drunk Duck over the last decade knows the original figurine photocomic creator.

I am sure Hollywood has a keen eye on ideas that already exist on the web. I mean, most movies nowadays are sequels or prequels or remakes of an original movie from three decades ago that require a half-assed explanation of time travel in order to make sense.

I love the idea behind Walter Mitty. It inspires me to get on a plane to Iceland and have a grand adventure instead of imagining it all.

==

Speaking of going on an adventure-

I submitted my two weeks notice at my office job a little over one week ago. This Friday is officially my last day. I was not exactly feeling my happiest while I was at work the last couple of months and I know I will have a much better time working as a full-time substitute teacher for the 2018-19 school year (not to mention my earning potential will go way up as a full-time substitute).

I was faced with so much anxiety over leaving my office assistant job because my boss is an amazing person and she was a genuine hardworker and we had working styles that were really in sync. It was one of the first resignation letters I wrote and gave advanced notice since most of the jobs I have held in past naturally came to an end because it was a student job or term ended.

I have a few lessons learned from the last three years of balancing several jobs. One of them is to make yourself the center of all your priorities. Somehow a lot of my jobs and schedule were structured around a ten-year-old, this idea is unbelieveable because I am a grown woman (with no kids) and I can not believe how many compromises I made in the last year to fit someone else's schedule.

Sleep is important. I was entertaining the idea of continuing the office job next year, but I would lose so much sleep in the process that it would not be worth it in the long run.

It is okay to be selfish sometimes. If all your time is spent trying to please everyone else, you ignore doing things for yourself, which makes one wonder “What's the point?” of everything.

When making major life decisions, ignore what other people have decided for you (they might be making a decision that benefits them the most) and make your own choices.


I am going to spend the next three weeks detoxing from the last three years. I have looked up a domestic train pass that goes all over the contiguous United States, or I will spin a globe and travel to the country my finger lands (like in The Last King of Scotland).

Whatever the case, I snagged tickets to watch Jimmy Kimmel live this week in Hollywood and I am going to Disneyland the following day. This is going to be a fun year.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
I am sure Hollywood has a keen eye on ideas that already exist on the web. I mean, most movies nowadays are sequels or prequels or remakes of an original movie from three decades ago that require a half-assed explanation of time travel in order to make sense.

I love the idea behind Walter Mitty. It inspires me to get on a plane to Iceland and have a grand adventure instead of imagining it all.

There's hope for me yet.

I don't have to go looking for adventure anymore, it inevitably finds me.😆

Good on you Kawaii!

You should definitely put yourself first! -unless you're working on a passion project, but that's rare.

There's a potential for me to have my dream job… I would drop my other work for that.

Many years ago now I was earning really quite good money working two jobs. They fit in with my schedule and way of life perfectly. One was working from home in the mornings and evenings and the other was in the office in the mornings.
But the work from home job tied me to home TOO much, I couldn't stay out late at parties whenever I wanted for example… I'd have to be home at at the computer at certain times, plus it was making more and more demands from me. SO I took the decision to quit. It meant that half my income vanished, but I was fine with that because my office job more closely aligned with my objectives (graphic design), and my feeling was that giving myself more time for creation, managing Drunk Duck, doing artwork and focussing on myself was WORTH even more than the income I was forgoing.

I still think I was right.

Now I could use more money… and there's the possibility I could get it. But it's not a sure thing.

ozoneocean wrote:
What would your dream job be?

Maybe a docent at a small museum.

But another goal seems to be happening: finding a house within walking distance of a small town center. We'll be closing on Tuesday, as long as nothing comes up between now and then to nix it. And then we'll be tearing it down to the studs to build it up the way we want it. We found a husband/wife,general contractor team that I think can do it right.

I am very optimistic (to the point that it's challenging self recognition) And nervous. I typically don't gamble like this.

Please wish us luck!

And Kawaii, it took me so much longer to learn the lessons you listed. Good on you.

Especially in the US, success has so become defined in money terms. Understandable, since it's required to do the fun stuff, like travel and attending events, let alone shelter and food.

But I started questioning the definition of prostitution at my last job when I was so unhappy and realized I was there only for the money. I stayed way too long.

Some of us let ourselves be jailed by a job. It's no way to live a life.

ayesinback wrote:

ozoneocean wrote:
What would your dream job be?

Maybe a docent at a small museum.

But another goal seems to be happening: finding a house within walking distance of a small town center.

Please wish us luck!

Congratulations! Best of luck! Have you managed to get out of Jersey?

Even something as natural to me as museum guide could get tiring. How many times could I retell the same stories? My sister went crazy over NJ Revolutionary War history after watching 1776 so I volunteered to be the personal tour guide of all the sites in NJ.

So ayes, it sounds like you found a great location close to a town center and you're going to build a custom house! That is very exciting and probably worh it if you get to pick out your cabinets.


A dream job for me would be to set up an advice stand like the one Lucy has in the Peanuts comics. For 25 cents, I would give honest advice for anyone who can find my advice stand.

Oz, I agree, having a job that is home based, where you must be at home at certain hours is like being chained to your computer (unless you can complete all your work on a laptop, which means you post thise first person leg shots in front of the beach and pool with a hashtag that says #worklife).

Ayes, I had a job that definitely felt like prostitution/whoring out because I was being screwed over by both ends. Of course, those jobs help me appreciate all my future jobs.

Right now, a perfect day would be watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and drawing at my desk. No texts, no phone calls, and no wake-up alarms before noon.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:

A dream job for me would be to set up an advice stand like the one Lucy has in the Peanuts comics. For 25 cents, I would give honest advice for anyone who can find my advice stand.

My therapist went into psychology because of that and uses Lucy's stand as his logo. It was his dream and he's living it. 😀

Someone once said to me, “Follow your dreams, even it if breaks your heart!”

I did… and it did! :D

ozoneocean wrote:
What would your dream job be?

What I do now but year round with some kind of security and benefits (like retirement and basic health insurance; that would be amazing).

@Usedbooks, that's fantastic: ‘What I do now, but more.’ Lovely!

So, we didn't nail down the “renovation” insurance today as planned. Any little hiccup makes me get a bit twitchy. And did you know it costs significantly more to insure a gut job than a house with belongings? Now you do. :)

Good luck Ayes!!!!

@usedbooks, I feel that warmer climates have jobs that can be year round. Yosemite has great summer programs, but they have bears. A teacher once told me about the coolworks.com website, a place to find jobs in the coolest places. A lot of the locations are at National Parks.

@kawaii: It's the budget, not the climate. Urban recreation areas with year round visitation hire seasonally too. Permanent and term positions are very scarce. I know because I apply to every single one of them. (They are all posted at USAJobs.gov ) Also, NPS gives preference to veterans, so the more desired posts/positions sometimes aren't even open to non-veterans (or are open, but none of the non-veteran applicants are considered).

However, my latest position brought me to a city where I've always wanted to live, and it contains several museums and a zoo, so I'm watching for similar work there. I haven't had much luck with the private sector, but I can hope.

(People ask me how I got such a cool job. Literally, it's the only place that will hire me. – My job-hunting efforts cast wide and varied nets.)

usedbooks wrote:
Also, NPS gives preference to veterans, so the more desired posts/positions sometimes aren't even open to non-veterans

Gotta sign up for active duty…
A LOT of DDers have done that. Jillyfoo for one, she joined the navy because she couldn't find other work :(


Such a strange situation for an Aussie to consider. The proportion of people who've served in the armed forces here is much, much lower. So much that you'd never know who was a veteran and who wasn't/

I'm too old to join the military. Although it really never interested me. They tried to recruit me into research divisions out of college.

Many of my coworkers are veterans.

I briefly considered the Peace Corps. My dad joined because he couldn't get into the military (his migraines were so severe they disqualified him). But alas, I am a coward. Just noped right out of that idea.

Wow, it really is like the Roman Empire… A nation of soldiers that exalts the military. No judgement on that, it's just a curious observation from a person from a very different culture.
I hope you get a permanent job UB!

—–

I can't wait to get away to Greece… I hope the fires aren't an issue then.

Help me out here someone… Please.
Am I an arsehole?

I'll put this into perspective:
So many girls I know, their lives are FULL of bloody unremitting tragedy. They're in a constant process of “healing” etc.
And then you discover the mundane, boring stuff at the root of these issues… They got rained on, had an unsatisfying sexual experience with their BF when they were 16, a family friend got ill etc.

If I were to take all the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that life throws at me to heart and really dwell on them I'd be a ****ing mess, as would all people. Bad stuff happens to US ALL constantly but we don't make that the central narrative of the story of our lives because we're adults rather than 6 year old kids who are heartbroken when they realise that Santa isn't real, Elvis, John Wayne, and John Lennon are dead and there's no tooth fairy.

Life is not a constant string of rainbows and yellow brick roads, stop aiming your expectations that high. People who act like it is are only acting. Deal with life's disappointments one step at a time and realise that both you and they are normal. You aren't cursed, you are not the unlucky one while everyone else is living charmed, perfect privileged lives.

For most people no matter how much you plan, most things only work out ok 50% of the time, or maybe only 20% or even less, and things only work out AMAZING and FANTASTIC about 0.0000001% of the time…
and yet these sad sacks plan all their lives around the expectation that the 0.0000001% perfect result should be the norm, so they're constantly disappointed and failing…

————–

OK, rant over.
Does that make me an arsehole?

No. People who hold on to past trauma and use that to define their lives are probably suffering from clinical depression. As one therapist said “ life is not all warm fuzzy happy sunshine bunnies.” It's unrealistic to expect that. This can be the sign of an chronic illness that can range from something akin to diabetes or congenital heart failure to bit of flu that just won't let you go.

Sometimes things happen that just won't let you go. Other times there's biology. It's been with humans forever. It used to be called melancholy. It runs in my family going back generations.

It's like drowning. Sometimes you can manage to remain above water and even start swimming again. Other times the hopelessness gets to you and you need a helping hand and sometimes you need a lifeguard. And there are flotation aids available. Support systems, coping strategies. Good ones and bad ones. Therapy is a good one, alcohol is a bad one. (Or any other compulsive or addictive behavior) It's an illness not a weakness.

Hi, I'm Steve and I have biologically based major depression and anxiety. And I like to take a step back to appreciate the incompetence of humans and the utter ridiculous nature of existence. Laughter is really the best medicine. A great coping strategy is comedy and developing a keen sense of irony.