the one hand, the standard and generally consumeristic slogan, on the
other, a riff on the outdated term "battle fatigue".)
Well, well, well... boredom indeed!
(But, as bored as I am, I do sometimes find ways to thrill myself -- I
finally gave my number to the checkout clerk at Office Max, for
example. That was a bit of a thrill, even if she doesn't call.)
What I think I *want*, however, is a job that is in some sense the
opposite of my current job -- the profile I have in mind is:
* work from anywhere
* make at least 40 dollars a day
* spend less than 4 hours working per day
* work is always available (no hustling)
As a Media Professional, I wonder if you might have any ideas.
As a point of comparison: my friend (one Mr. Miller) has a Writing Gig
that he can use to earn about $25/story, for stories that are about
2000 words; he's sent in about 3 stories over the course of the last
month. I don't know how that compares to industry standards, but if
his job description could jostled into a form matching my list of
desiderata above -- then I'd say it wouldn't be a terrible thing for
me to take up.
And another: one of the people in the Minneapolis Writer's Workshop
suggested that I submit my work to "Cafe Irreal"
(http://home.sprynet.com/~awhit/guidelin.htm) -- they indeed would pay
up to $40.0 per story, however, they do not publish the same author in
consecutive issues, and indeed, they only publish quarterly. So at
the most optimistic (getting something in every other issue), a "deal"
like this would only take care of half a percent of my stated income
needs over the course of a year.
Only one more: I can make 50 dollars in two hours doing math tutoring
at what I consider to be a fair Midwestern hourly rate, but the work
is not always there.
So, what gives?
And what does this have to do with BOREDOM!?
I'll answer the second question and leave the first as an exercise.
I recently had the thought or realization that I might be the only
"consumer" of my computer work, at least for a long time. Indeed, if
I do follow my stated plan to give the work away for free, regardless
of how many other consumers there are, I shan't make a cent off of it
directly.
Now, I don't see that "being the only consumer of my work" is in any
way a bad thing. This is reminiscent of what writers always say to
me: "You have to figure out who your intended audience is -- but it
sounds like you're just writing for yourself, and that's OK."
I used to disagree -- I didn't want to just have what I was doing be
"OK", I wanted it to be great!
But the thing I'm facing up to lately is that a lot of the things I've
devoted a lot of my time to is of absolutely no interest to anyone in
the world except me. In a way this is liberating. It can still be
"great" even if no one else gives a rip about it.
Apparently the stuff I'm interested in doesn't impress the ladies and
doesn't even earn me any cash.
That's part of the boredom I'm talking about: I'm "bored" of being
eternally "unsuccessful" (in social terms) even when I'm at my most
successful (in my own terms).
The other part is that I become "bored" with what other people are
doing, because it is not rewarding to me EITHER in traditional social
terms OR in terms of my own precious interests.
Really, the "job" thing is only tangentially related to what I'm
talking about here. I think a less "boring" situation to be in would
be one in which I was actually just getting paid to do what I like
doing. I realize that might sound like "a lot to ask" given that most
people I know don't care about what I do -- but as Ella pointed out
yesterday, I have not personally interviewed every human to know for
sure that no one cares about it.
I'm also bored with trying to track down places where I might "fit in"
and being rejected or shunted away by them. I'm thinking, for
example, of the various job postings listed at
http://eliterature.org/news/job-listings/ --
none of which do I "qualify for", but some of which seem like the
sort of thing I could do if given the opportunity.
My latest thought is to get in touch with all of these people and tell
them I'm not applying for the job, but I'd like to get some kind of
paying position, and see what they have to say. It might work.
On the other hand, this doesn't have much to do with the "dream job"
described above.
Well, this leaves the "exercise".
0 comments:
Post a Comment