Unemployed Watercooler Fridge Buzz Commiseration, Alienation and Mental Anti-Stagnation Society (DNRIYHM)

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Taking Sides: the Sea or the Woods?

The sea, easily. But even better - losing oneself in the woods only to stumble out atop windswept cliffs overlooking the sea. (NB: this has never happened to me, but would undoubtedly be pretty rad.)

emil.y, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 17:20 (1 year ago) Permalink

This has totally happened to me. In Cornwall of course - place called Kemmel Crease. Wandering through this beautiful wood and then - the sea through a tree break! It was amazing, but granted, not very unexpected.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 17:49 (1 year ago) Permalink

Hello Cooler.

Picking between woods and sea feels too much like picking between grandparents, with my mum's parents often taking me for picnics in the woods and my granny on the other side living on the south coast.

I guess I'll just say that I miss them both. (Although I probably could walk and could definitely bus to some woods from here if I got my act together, which isn't true for the sea, sadly.)

Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 18:35 (1 year ago) Permalink

i used to live one street from the beach

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 18:46 (1 year ago) Permalink

Passing Bass Spuddette! I always get happy when I see you on t'Cooler! It is a bit of a "daddy or chips?" dilemma but that's why I asked it. The boundless possibilities expressed by both (the size of the sea, the age of trees.)

And I am jealous that you used to live one street from the beach, Pfunk, it does not make me less jealous to imagine it a very cold and windswept Scottish beach.

I am just back from dinner with a friend of mine who is the final stages of crazy in completing a PhD, and she makes me feel more like a human being again because we can say things like "problematising the indexicality of the Yorkeian craniofacial follicular register" and then piss ourselves laughing going "LOL Judith Butler speak."

I also started reading the most wonderful book, which I thought would be WCC-bait when I saw it in the library but a chapter and a half in, and I'm just o_0 in love with it. It's called Beechcombing (LOL, see why I was asking about sea vs woods?) and it's a natural history of the Beech Tree as a metaphor for human conceptions of Nature and conversation and also lots of botany and art history and just LOVE LOVE LOVE did you ever just pick up a book and think "this is so tailor made for me?"

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yes. It was called Gender Trouble.

emil.y, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:39 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oh, but I'm sorry, I forgot that my experiences and interests are completely invalid because I like something you don't. You can carry on laughing at me now. Cheers.

emil.y, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

What?

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

Like, where did that come from?

Because my friend and I were laughing about Butler's prose at dinner? She's an academic (a linguist with a heavy interest in gender) so she's familiar enough with Butler to laugh about it.

You can like whatever you want, your experiences and interests are as valid as you experience them to be - I think you'll find I'm the person constantly arguing for the right of people to have their own experiences and interests accepted as valid. What I don't like is people expressing random opinions as scientific facts without the citations or studies to back them up. If you want to continue that whole argument here, which I really don't.

You're allowed to love Butler. I'm allowed to dislike her and find her impenetrable. Both options are allowed to coexist, and it makes me really quite upset when you get so defensive as to paint me as a tyrant for not liking her.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'm just bummed that the thread stopped being about trees and sea.

Not that I should be in here, being employed and all...

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:56 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oh, you're welcome to post in here if you're employed, Z! I only called it the unemployed watercooler because the previous ones were office watercoolers.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 21:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

The conversation was just bizarre because I was explaining how flummoxed I was by the difference in cultures between different internet messageboards. (the sort of thing bored linguists talk about at dinner.) That in the past week, I have had, simultaneously at the same time, open in two different windows on the same computer:

1) a thread on ILX where I am painted as an uncultured rube because I said that I find Judith Butler's prose style obfuscating

2) a thread on atease where I am being where I am mercilessly derided as an intellectual (as if this is an insult?) and accused of being a troll or possibly insane because I used a word like "salient" in conversation

It's just the irony, that both these things are possibly at once, that I am an anti-intellectual in one context for disliking Butler, and an impenetrable and possibly dangerous intellectual - that I am tarred as being *like* Judith Butler in one context while tarred for disliking her in another. It was just funny. But I guess only to me (us.)

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:07 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'm staying out of the obfuscation thread and I have no opinion on Judith Butler; I am uncultured in most contexts I suspect.

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:09 (1 year ago) Permalink

You are so completely not uncultured. I think it's just the specific thing of being a philosophy scholar which some people have an intuitive feeling for and others just don't - the same way that I can easily wrap my head around maths or code or whatever, but I realise that other people just don't.

I have not set foot in the obfuscating thread, either. I'm glad they started a thread about it, and I'm sure it was an interesting debate, but I'm quite happy to just stay out of that one.

I am resolutely middlebrow and proud of it LOL I'm going to listen to Julianna Barwick and read my book about Beechcombing (complete with Nash paintings.)

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

fwiw I think the sea/woods combination emil.y mentioned is perfect. Trees and lakes are also awesome.

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:16 (1 year ago) Permalink

Oh god I want to go on a painting holiday in the Lake District, I think that is one of those old lady occupations that I was just born for. Mountains! Woods! Lakes! Sea! Is it that bit of Cumbria where the forest covered mountains just go right up to the edge of the wild North sea and just STOP. I was reading about it in another natural history (the under the field guide to British landscape) and it made it sound so spectacular.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

And I am jealous that you used to live one street from the beach, Pfunk, it does not make me less jealous to imagine it a very cold and windswept Scottish beach.

full of sewage and it stunk at times. No locals went in it apart from those from the sailing club. On a hot summers day it got mobbed by glaswegians and the like.
Winters were amazing though, watching the huge waves on a windy day hitting the promenade wall and flying over the grass where my mates and i played football or cricket. My friend lived on a house on the seafront (mentioned him before his big sister is a writer).

The other thing I miss there is the sunset. used to love getting on my bike and cycling all the way along to where the sailing club was and sitting on the wooden benchseat to watch the sunset. Was a great place to think. Sometimes even did my history homework there if i was home from school early.
Good place to be young in and great to settle down in not so great if you're 18-35 imo.
Also Prestwick was quite snobby.
I was glad to move to Hamilton (being a season ticket holder at accies) but I'd gladly move back there in a shot. Our old house had a huge loft and it seems its been converted. Shame we could never afford to move there really.

ours is the one at the end on the left(next to the railway track). It has a fence there now and I can see windows on the roof where it obviously has been renovated.

I have another pic somewhere of the front of the house but cant find it.

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

What a lovely looking house! I like beaches so much more in winter - that really sounds great, that whole thing of waves! smashing! on a windy day against a promenade, that's like everything I love about Cornwall. Aw, your whole post makes it sound lovely, despite the smell and the Glaswegians. Watching the sunset and thinking, these are some of the greatest pleasures of life.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

We went up to Cockermouth for Christmas the year after my ma died. It was incredible - we had really clear weather. Sun on the water, clean air. The greatest surprise was the night skies! You could really see *depth*. I love London (when I'm not trying to negotiate buses, lolz) but I love to get out to where places where you can feel properly small.

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

Feeling small in the country (in the face of SEA! MOUNTAINS! FORESTS!!!) is a much different and much nicer way of feeling small than feeling small in the city, which is the smallness of feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of people flooding into your way like lemmings.

And don't get me pining for the night skies outside of London. I've just got used to the fact that the night sky is purple-orange when in Cornwall it is velvety blue and COVERED in so so many stars, like that Kusama exhibit that Lex and I spent an hour gawping at last week.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

Looks so different now. The loft conversion, the sheds, the carport, windows,fences. so so different.
My bedroom was on the left.
I remember the estate agents calling it a cottage rather than a bungalow.

If anyone here ever wins the lottery will you buy it back for me please?

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:36 (1 year ago) Permalink

Yeah, I will totally buy it back for you. When I win the lottery. Right after I buy an entire Cornish village for myself!

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

The other side of the street had proper posh houses

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

in scottish terms that is. Quite different to where we lived before and after!

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:41 (1 year ago) Permalink

a thread on atease

good lord, what are you thinking? (well, i guess i know the answer to that, but still!) i used to be semi-regular there and still occasionally visit for what i guess is masochism's sake, and what a horrible bunch of children they are.

shart practice (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:42 (1 year ago) Permalink

Are those stained glass designs in the windows? I really like those.

x-post to Merd I know, I know, I'm stupid but I want to talk about Radiohead far more than ILX will really put up with, so stupidly, I thought it might be OK to talk about Radiohead in the Radiohead section of a Radiohead messageboard? But clearly it was unacceptable.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

yeah it's 'hoppers' above the window pane and the design is engrained in them.

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

Walk up my smallish street (we lived at the bottom) and walk up the next street (Ailsa Street) and this is the view

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

Lovely. So bleak. It makes me want to post up all the beach pictures I've taken, ever, but that would be silly.

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

Thread is making me want to move to remote villages with funny names on the Antrim coast, or at least make bleak dubby techno tracks named after them.

Have spent all evening going "I caaaaan't do my German homework" instead of actually doing it, have now done really lousy half-assed job which is way too short, will soon go to bed. Exciting!

Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 22:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

prestwick sailing club

would cycle past that all the way along to that seat to watch the sunset. There was rocks n stuff there too. Will see if i can get a photo of that

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

The bleakness is just so inspiring and lovely. It's like a Boards of Canada record played at the wrong speed.

LOL, spacecadet, that's me with my Cornish homework. Except I actually forgot to go to class last week. As in, genuinely forgot, I didn't realise it was Friday until I was eating dinner and realised I was supposed to be in Holborn (an hour away) in fifteen minutes.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:02 (1 year ago) Permalink

here we go. The seat was just around where the lamp post is iirc.

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:05 (1 year ago) Permalink

I kinda wish I were there. Well, except for the smell and the neds.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:08 (1 year ago) Permalink

I am quite excited that Cornish classes are a thing which exists outside Cornwall!

Last time my parents were in Cornwall they brought me back a book (more of a pamphlet really, probably only 10 or so pages) of Cornish words which I spent a while excitedly crosschecking against the Welsh and Breton dictionaries we stopped mr spacecadet's father putting in a skip when his linguist mother died. The Breton part was a bit tricky as it was Breton-French.

Actually I don't think we got very far on that quest, but I liked that the Breton for rain is "glao", which is like the Welsh but spelt better.

Schleimpilz im Labyrinth (a passing spacecadet), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:10 (1 year ago) Permalink

Cornish is a lot like the Welsh but spelled phonetically! It's great that way. It's funny, all Celtic minority language speakers are kind of obsessed with checking how their words translate in the corresponding cognates.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:11 (1 year ago) Permalink

I want to say raining is ow kul glow (pronounced to rhyme with cow) in Cornish but I'm probably misspelling it.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:12 (1 year ago) Permalink

Nope, it's spelled Glaw.

Snow is "ergh" which I'm convinced is onomatopoeic for what ppl sailors say when they open their doors and think "I have to go out in that?"

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:14 (1 year ago) Permalink

i would like to find a pic of the council flat we lived in EK until i was 2 1/2 as i dont recall it at all. I do remember the council house in greenhills, EK, but cant find it either, it goes to a totally different address. Stupid google.
Doubt the house in Blackwood will be on google maps

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

Did you have a browse along the seafront?

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:37 (1 year ago) Permalink

A picture of the seafront at sunset. That's Arran in the distance

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:53 (1 year ago) Permalink

Tides out as you can see. Used to go out quite far in summer. In winter it came up over the wall when it was stormy just in front of my friends house. Along past the sailing club and up where i posted the pic from, you got it the most. Further you went to the right it didn't go anywhere near the wall.

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Tuesday, 21 February 2012 23:55 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'd promise to buy your house back, but I've never bought a lottery ticket.

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 00:04 (1 year ago) Permalink

Sorry, I fell asleep reading my beeches book.

That photo with the crepuscular rays on the clouds is incredible, Arran looks so pretty. Can't ever get streetview to work on my interweb connection, which is just as well as I'd be spending hours strolling down country lanes in like, Lamorna, if I could.

On a completely unrelated note, I have just realised that I've spent the past ages mistaking "codex" for "concordance" and I only just found out while trying to look up on wikipedia what "indexicality" actually means (approximately what I thought it meant, but it was still nice to know.)

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:27 (1 year ago) Permalink

while looking for info on the cats on iron maiden covers thing i came across this
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evils%20in%20America/Rock-n-Roll/witchcraft.htm
There's no thread on witchcraft in music so i thought hows about discussing it here? It's not really something I know about so not starting a thread on it.

Anyway i just kinda wondered what your mum thought of stuff like this?

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:38 (1 year ago) Permalink

and i mean properly, not laughable articles like that

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:40 (1 year ago) Permalink

haha it links to this http://cannonfire.blogspot.com/2006/04/george-w-bush-barbara-bush-and.html not heard that one before

pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:51 (1 year ago) Permalink

I'm not sure why my mum would be bothered? I suspect, knowing her personality, she'd think it was rather laughable.

I don't know. It seems like a lot of people in rock n roll muck about with ~the occult~ just to be shocking and a bit weird, and some paranoid people within christianity take it all rather too seriously, but they strike me as the same kind of thinking level as conspiracy theorists. Hedonism and rock n roll are all intimately tied up together, hedonism and satanism are all tied up, ergo they are one and the same. But these are people who think that the Devil is an actual gentleman who walks around with red horns and a tail, rather than a metaphorical personification of evil, which is a much more complex topic.

It's strange, I have to admit I've always had a vague fascination with the occult - but the devil worshipping aspect of it (usually christian projection onto older nature cults) always just seemed silly.

White Chocolate Cheesecake, Wednesday, 22 February 2012 08:57 (1 year ago) Permalink

fuck it, i'm using part of my last $20 to buy another bottle of booze.

tell the kids it's 卵 (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:18 (4 months ago) Permalink

best wishes, clouds, that is a horrible place to be and i hope you find something soon

a panda, Malmö (a passing spacecadet), Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:22 (4 months ago) Permalink

I know how stressful it is when you get made redundant and have to whore yourself out again. It is unendurable shit sometimes. Best of luck Clouds.

Damo Suzuki's Parrot, Thursday, 27 December 2012 01:48 (4 months ago) Permalink

clouds, didn't you intentionally not return to a job that would have taken you back and now you're avoiding applying where you might have to endure the indignity of "a tucked in polo shirt"? a shitty job is still a job, and it's hard to have tons of sympathy re a relationship-ruining financial crisis that could easily be avoided.....

(*・_・)ノ⌒ ☆ (Je55e), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:35 (4 months ago) Permalink

it is hard to have sympathy, isn't it

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:47 (4 months ago) Permalink

anyway

got a call from temp agency, asked me abt availability and stuff. hoping for something but hope it doesn't fall during my family visit.

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:48 (4 months ago) Permalink

good luck clouds

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 21:49 (4 months ago) Permalink

"Most people are inherently good"

strongly agree
mostly agree
not sure
slightly disagree
strongly disagree

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:00 (4 months ago) Permalink

most ppl are chaotic neutral

mookieproof, Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:02 (4 months ago) Permalink

clouds bro every one of your last few posts has resonated with me in the worst ways.

packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:03 (4 months ago) Permalink

but most especially

not a single potential employer has responded. i've been looking for two months.

and

fuck it, i'm using part of my last $20 to buy another bottle of booze.

packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:04 (4 months ago) Permalink

on the plus side, i finally did find something a couple weeks back. so keep hope alive etc etc.

packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:05 (4 months ago) Permalink

:\

i have a feeling even shitty places like target won't hire me because they do these disgusting and invasive credit checks and i have no credit — if i had good credit i wouldn't have to apply to fucking target would i??!!!

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:06 (4 months ago) Permalink

and yeah jesse i have resorted to applying to soul crushing retail, are you happy?

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:10 (4 months ago) Permalink

Best of luck clouds, you'll find something.

capital in ruins, thousands dead (flamboyant goon tie included), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:17 (4 months ago) Permalink

yr good enough, smart enough and goddammit people like u

imo

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:19 (4 months ago) Permalink

Quite happy that you've deigned to consider gainful employment after voluntarily leaving the same without a fall-back plan, not for the first time, yes.

(*・_・)ノ⌒ ☆ (Je55e), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:23 (4 months ago) Permalink

do music/record stores still exist? they can usually use someone who knows classical music, although it's not a good time of year for it

mookieproof, Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:23 (4 months ago) Permalink

ime retail often had a trenches bonhomie that comfortable office jobs lack, and ppl sometimes at least felt sorry for you, nobody feels sorry for the office guy, so tbh the real soukcrusher is the desk effort

banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:23 (4 months ago) Permalink

there are a few record stores around here at which i'd love to work, but ppl tend to hang onto those jobs for dear life afaik

darragh otm — ppl think that b/c office jobs pay higher than min wage then the ppl suffering in them don't deserve sympathy. it's impossible gauge someone else's pain against yr own.

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:31 (4 months ago) Permalink

honestly i've never minded retail. there's just no way to make anything like a decent living at it.

packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:32 (4 months ago) Permalink

i also got no calls from any of the retail jobs i applied to during my unemployment desperation.

packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:33 (4 months ago) Permalink

it was the hours that got me, or i'd have done the mgmt courses and be earning half again what i do now

banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:34 (4 months ago) Permalink

hey are we allowed mansplain in this thread now btw

banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:35 (4 months ago) Permalink

(stifled lol)

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:36 (4 months ago) Permalink

my last retail gig was selling high-end men's clothing which for anyone who knows me is an endless lol.

packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:39 (4 months ago) Permalink

i've only got a low-end, i had to get that shit tailored

banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:40 (4 months ago) Permalink

anyway hope s/thing comes up clouds, getting cash in has to take precedence over the fulfilling lifedream stuff most of the time ime, but i hope yr e works out at a balance you can live with in the longer term

banlieue jagger (darraghmac), Thursday, 27 December 2012 23:42 (4 months ago) Permalink

"by your affirmative keystroke you authorize an investigative report concerning past employment, mode-of-living and general reputation"

fucking hell

nevaeh for evaeh (clouds), Friday, 28 December 2012 20:09 (4 months ago) Permalink

you have a lovely reputation, screw them: PUSH THE BUTTON AND LOOK THEM DEAD IN THE EYE

'them'

'eye'

set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 28 December 2012 21:50 (4 months ago) Permalink

my last retail gig was selling high-end men's clothing which for anyone who knows me is an endless lol.

― packt like phoebe cates's dad in a chimney (strongo hulkington's ghost dad), Thursday, December 27, 2012 6:39 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

my job of 8 years is with a company that makes cooking tools, which for anyone who knows me is too lol to even be funny.

crossing my fingers for u clouds. want u to be able to buy albums and talk to me about them.

~farben~ (Jon Lewis), Friday, 28 December 2012 22:04 (4 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

i don't know if there's a 2013 unemployed thread so i'm just gonna bump this one to propose the following:

so say you have a guy who's pushing 60 and has many years of experience as a computer programmer under his belt. and say his current company is letting him go because they're moving the office to another state and the guy doesn't want to move (and even if he did want to, he'd have to quit and then re-apply for the job he currently has). and say this guy doesn't really have enough to live off of for retirement to support both himself and his wife (who doesn't work), and that he has a whole host of health issues and a mortgage and other debts and bills to pay off on top of that.

in the year of our lord 2013, is this guy pretty much screwed?

steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 18 March 2013 17:18 (2 months ago) Permalink

sounds like

j., Monday, 18 March 2013 22:25 (2 months ago) Permalink

computer programming isn't the most age-friendly career, it's true, but it may also depend on what technologies he's familiar with. does sound like a bad situation though, good luck to him

(suspect someone more US-based would be better placed to provide specific advice, sorry)

susuwatari teenage riot (a passing spacecadet), Monday, 18 March 2013 22:30 (2 months ago) Permalink

my dad was recently in this situation and he wound up getting a contract job with a cemetery. there are jobs out there, it's just a question of looking in perhaps unconventional places.

maura, Monday, 18 March 2013 22:53 (2 months ago) Permalink

yeah, the guy is my dad, also

steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 18 March 2013 23:11 (2 months ago) Permalink

there's at least some time before all this happens (his current job ends next year and he'll have a pretty decent severance package). and today he underwent some significant surgery that i'm optimistic will do wonders for him, so he'll be in better shape by the time he has to seriously start dealing with this

still, hell of a spot to be in :/

steaklife (donna rouge), Monday, 18 March 2013 23:16 (2 months ago) Permalink

It's rough, but having computer skills is one of the few ways "make money from home, ask me how" can work out for people.

Philip Nunez, Monday, 18 March 2013 23:17 (2 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

ugh, i just had one of my worst interviews ever.

pro (novice) tip: if you are doing a phone interview with a group in a conference room on the other end, they will not talk on the other end.

they will just sit there and let you yak until someone says 'we have to go on to the next question' and 'we're almost out of time'.

j., Wednesday, 22 May 2013 16:51 (4 days ago) Permalink


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