|
|
 |
hm what to do |
 |
1
 |
bigredhoss Cook Islands. May 23 2011 06:11. Posts 8648 | | |
alright so, this entry is about how i can save $$ so i can travel, but i'm going to post a brief recap of the past month or so to give it some context:
in early april i got a full-time job delivering furniture. i had actually decided quite some time before that i was finished playing poker for a living, i was just slow/lazy in transitioning out of it. my plan was to use the job to at least breakeven with monthly expenses, and play a little poker here and there to put in savings. once i got to a certain figure (around $10-20k, depending on some things), i would go travel the world, which is something i've been dying to do forever.
well, as we all know the very next week happened to be "black friday". so, life goes on...in a way i guess i was lucky i decided to get the job when i did. the job is whatever, it's a small store, 10 employees total, i like everyone pretty well. except the one other delivery guy, who i have to spend most of my day with, who happens to be a total shit head. i am a very laid back person irl, and routinely went of my way to cater to this downy who literally spends half the day talking about how much he hates his parents, and freaks the fuck out (in front of customers no less) at me when i don't already know how to do something that he was instructed to train me how to do -.- we are both 23 btw
one day when we were delivering to some guy's trailer home, as he was backing the truck into the guy's driveway he side-swiped the bumper on his car. he's a pretty hot-headed hypersensitive freak so it never occurred to me that he wouldn't notice it since it was pretty obvious (although the damage was minor, just a bit of paint scraped off the car), and i assumed he would do whatever he deemed to be appropriate. usually if i make some kind of suggestion he just gets angry (not that i care, except for having to listen to his bitching). so after we finish carrying the furniture in and headed back out towards the truck, i say quietly to him "ummm, you know you hit this guy's car right?"
then he goes ballistic and goes in and tells the guy that i failed to report the "crash" that he made (lol). the guy takes it surprisingly well, later that day the store's insurance contacted him and everyone lived happily ever after. on the way back to the store his face is beet red but he doesn't say a word to me, then when he walks in he yells in front of everyone "i'm done with you!!" with some drool running down his bottom lip and storms off...the manager (and everyone else) is understandably confused, so i explain things to him, and later he talked to the other guy once he cooled down.
the manager is a good guy and i respect him, we get along fine. he told me that even though it probably seemed unfair given the circumstances, that if both of us couldn't work together and it came down to it, he would probably have to keep the other guy because of his experience, he has a CDL license, etc. he said if it came to that he would have me do some BS work around the store until i could find another job, i told him i understood completely.
that was on a friday. fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, mr. schizo was over it by monday, and it was back to business as usual. a couple weeks went by filled with awkward silence, but relatively trouble-free. then came the doomsday. it was a thursday, which meant we were doing out-of-town deliveries. this day was a particularly long route, we were going to be covering about 500 miles. we'd just finished our second delivery. it was only 9:30am (we started at 7), but i asked him if he wanted me to drive to give him a chance to rest, but he said he would be fine.
about 10-15 minutes later i notice the truck heading over a bit over the line to my side on the right. this happens all the time and is pretty much unavoidable when you're driving 8 hrs/day on boring country roads, and i didn't think anything of it. but instead of correcting like every other time, it kept going and pretty soon it was on the grass which slopes down towards the ditch/slough and i turned my head to him and yelled "DUDE! HOLY SHIT!"
i guess he must have dozed off or something. he swung the truck back over to the left where it careened on its left wheels, then re-corrected back to the right. the momentum was too much, and we rolled over into the slough. as it was rolling over it just felt like the most insane rollercoaster ever, i couldn't really see or comprehend anything, just my own body vibrating rapidly. then for a few seconds water rushed into the cab and everything was black. i felt like i was going to die at the time, but it was weird. i was kind of scared, but mostly my feeling was "out of all the people why does this moron have to end my life", more of an annoyance than anything. maybe i was in shock or something, idk.
then everything stopped and i could open my eyes again, and i realized all my limbs etc seemed to be fine. the water was up to my chest. the front window was broken so i crawled out of that. we were heading west, but somehow the truck managed to end up facing east. the truck was sort of semi-floating at a 45 degree angle in the slough. after i got out i checked to see if the other guy was ok. he was delirious at first with a bunch of incoherent mumbling, but eventually he was able to tell me that his leg was trapped between the steering wheel and the gear shifter (his leg was underwater so i couldn't immediately see it, but the steering wheel was still visible. i started yanking on the wheel as hard as i could until he was able to free his leg. the wheel was actually bent like halfway around his leg lol.
there were a couple vehicles that had already stopped and an ambulance was on the way. the whole time i felt, miraculously, almost completely fine. i had some scrapes and bruises, but they seemed like nothing, i guess because of the adrenaline. the other guy was clearly in worse shape than me and when the paramedics came they were focused on him for the most part. he was a total dick to them, which can probably be excused given the situation, but i was still put off by it.
when the doctor came in to check on me in the ER, he told me i had an abrasion on my head that i hadn't even noticed, but other than that i seemed to be fine. they didn't even do x-rays, just hooked me up for some blood work, gave me a tetanus shot, gave me some pain meds and sent me on my way. despite the other guy having the worst of it, it turned out he wasn't seriously injured either, just that leg that was bruised up a lot.
the accident happened on a thursday. i took friday off and was back to work on the following monday. he took the entire next week off. on wednesday of the week after the accident, i noticed my right side hurting around my ribs. it felt fine most of the time, but if i tried lifting anything, or even bending a certain way, there was a pretty sharp pain. it hadn't bothered me at all on monday and tuesday, and i only noticed some minor pain there on the day of the accident. i told them about it and for the rest of the day i stayed in the shop and just did whatever was needed. i checked back in with the doctor, he told me it was probably something from the accident that was starting to heal and got re-injured from lifting furniture, so told me no heavy lifting for a week. he also had me get x-ray'd, although i wasn't sent the results until this past Friday (the 20th), over a week later (???). x-rays said there was some curvature of the ribs near the spine but didn't sound like anything serious.
so for the rest of that week (Wed-Fri) i stayed in the shop and did whatever, assembling tables and chairs and shit (which i would actually prefer doing instead of delivering but it's not an option). with wed-fri being light work and having all of saturday to rest, i felt fine on sunday and decided to go to the gym for the first time since the accident. maybe not the best idea in retrospect. my side started acting up again. i called them monday morning and told them i wouldn't be coming in to work. same thing tuesday. tuesday night i took some pain meds, which i hadn't taken since the day after the accident, and they completely knocked me out and i didn't wake up wednesday until like 4pm. same thing happened thursday and friday, which were kind of a blur. that was this past week.
i'm sort of surprised they haven't called me yet. i guess this either means that they're very understanding, or that they fired me and i don't know it yet. guess i'll find out in a few hours when i go to work today! i'm pretty torn about it anyway, i'm not really excited about going back to work with that other guy, i'm surprised they didn't fire him but i guess having someone who's worked there a couple years and knows how to do everything is a pain to have to replace. i was considering quitting anyway, i just don't look forward to having to apply and wait for another shitty job and wait for a response while my bank account gets drained in the meantime.
anyway i still just want to make enough money to do a bunch of traveling and don't really give a shit about anything else atm. right now i'm thinking about using couchsurfing.org to save on travel expenses. if i could save up 10k and somehow generate a passive or semi-passive income online while traveling (even 1k/month would be better than nothing) i think that would be enough if i'm frugal. after that, i'll go back and finally finish me degree and go on to something more productive, but i need to get this travel bug out of my system. if i can't get that to work i'd probably want to save more like 15-20k (i have like 4k now -.-)
during the past couple weeks i've been looking into internet marketing/e-commerce and trying to see if there's any viable options for me to make some money there (as a side-income, i would still keep a full-time job for now, whether it be my current one or something else). so far i've written some articles at textbroker.com just to see what it's like. i made like $40 for a bunch of articles, probably avg like $5-6/hour -.- i don't really see how writing freelance articles like this can be used to make a living, but i know there's people who do it. part of the problem with textbroker is just that there's not enough article requests most of the time.
i've looked into SEO and starting a website but it seems like once you get past the basic principles, there's just all kinds of books on the subject, lots of different opinions, it's hard to know what's legit and what's not, but maybe that's just my perspective since i'm new to it. i've considered trying to find some kind of niche to target, but i just don't know if there's enough of a chance to succeed to make it worth the effort since i'm starting from ground zero. idk, if anyone has experience making monies on the internet outside of poker feel free to share your experiences.
well that's about it, thoughts on what i should do wrt the job situation, or how to make monies online, or fml are welcome.
|
| |
|
| 1
|
bigredhoss Cook Islands. May 23 2011 06:12. Posts 8648 | | |
| | On May 23 2011 05:11 bigredhoss wrote:
i'm going to post a brief recap of the past month or so to give it some context: |
[ ] brief recap |
| |
|
| 1
|
bigredhoss Cook Islands. May 23 2011 06:16. Posts 8648 | | | |
| |
|
| 1
|
Silver_nz New Zealand. May 23 2011 06:45. Posts 5647 | | |
pretty cool story, I think you missed out on alot of readers by not putting "Truck-Crash Life" as the title!
But yeah, there's no simple way to make money other than working. Could try selling some old stuff from your parent house on Ebay? That's almost like a second job that pays ok. |
|
| 1
 |
LemOn[5thF] Czech Republic. May 23 2011 06:49. Posts 15163 | | |
Hi there, I read it all, took me 10 minutes what's the big deal, and I am looking for fresh perspectives anyway.
This reminded me of my time in a family owned bakery where I worked for 2 years, you always get some nutters and the ties with management are quite close once you work there so people get seldom fired (a lot of people worked there for 20+ years).
You should be well equipped to deal with them as a poker player I guess, but I know you always get involved in the atmosphere or culture or whatever it is that most workplaces that don't have huge turnovers like MacDonalds have unique, especially when it's a small team and the work is not exhausting the brain. It was sometimes like watching a soap opera in the bakery, except in real life 
The travelling thing...did you consider getting a job abroad? I know people come here for strawberry picking and quite a few of my friends went to Australia, and if you go to some countries where the low end salaries are too low like China you should be alright with just a couple hundred $ per month anyway as the living expenses will be low too. Or you can join the so many poker players that go to Thailand
The tickets will still be expensive and you need to do a lot more research than if you go as a proper tourist, and you can't intensively go to places all the time, but if you got a lot of time on your hands it seems like a good option? |
|
| 93% Sure! | Last edit: 23/05/2011 07:01 |
|
| 1
|
edzwoo United States. May 23 2011 07:15. Posts 5911 | | |
Hey I completely forgot you sent me a pm a while ago. Just added you and check your inbox. |
|
| 1
|
bigredhoss Cook Islands. May 23 2011 07:21. Posts 8648 | | |
silver:
lol truck crash life hahahaha
ebay parents stuff not gonna happen, haven't talked to them in years
lemon:
yeah it's definitely a family-type atmosphere at the store. like i said, i like everyone there except the one guy, but he's the guy i'm forced to spend most of my day with.
getting a job abroad is an interesting idea. the only thing i'd considered before is teaching english. i've read that you have to have a four-year degree from an accredited university to teach english overseas, but i've read you can get under-the-table jobs without one. i don't think it'd be worth potentially being banned from the country if i was caught though. i hadn't considered the possibility of other jobs though, i'll look into that.
the only thing is, i want to visit like, lots of countries. so having a job where i have to physically be in a certain location might make thought difficult. i actually did the Thailand thing a few years ago, it's the only time i've been outside of US/Canada, had a great time although i thought it was a tad over-hyped. while i was there i spent 10 days in Laos and actually liked that more than about 80% of my time in Thailand (don't want to make it seem like i didn't enjoy Thailand though because i did).
edzwoo: lol thanks  inbox empty tho |
|
| Truck-Crash Life | Last edit: 23/05/2011 07:22 |
|
| 1 | |
sick tilt at that guy.. wow.
I'd never get in a vehicle with him again... if you survive the next crash you'll feel like a real idiot for continuing to ride shotgun to a retard. just a heads up!
gl all around brah brah |
|
| 1
 |
Arirang Canada. May 23 2011 13:48. Posts 1673 | | |
Can't you just sue the motherfucker for crashing the truck like that and threatening your life, and saying that you now have a trauma about driving and etc? Just call celino and barnes! |
|
| 1
 |
lukeperry Sweden. May 23 2011 14:50. Posts 145 | | |
at least you're not working with a guy who's "taught himself mind control" and isn't even kidding a little bit when he tells you that he just put a thought in your head.  bring on the crashing truck pls |
|
| 1
|
Exhilarate United States. May 23 2011 18:00. Posts 5453 | | |
did you yell at that idiot for driving like that?
how are your ribs now?
|
|
| 1
|
barbieman Sweden. May 23 2011 20:32. Posts 2132 | | |
| | On May 23 2011 13:50 lukeperry wrote:
at least you're not working with a guy who's "taught himself mind control" and isn't even kidding a little bit when he tells you that he just put a thought in your head. bring on the crashing truck pls |
ahaha, should be worth it for the stories. Act as if you're really impressed by his abilities,
ask him to teach you and record everything. You can not do nothing with this, perfect opportunity for trolling. |
|
| 1
 |
mnj United States. May 23 2011 20:35. Posts 3848 | | |
u can make a lot of money with seo, but u have to understand business sense. don't limit urself as a tech guy.
try and negotiate a stake in the company.
i'm also currently doing this myself, and am happier and busier than ever. |
|
| 1
|
bigredhoss Cook Islands. May 23 2011 21:40. Posts 8648 | | |
well i didn't go into work again today because i lost one of the lenses for my old glasses (my regular ones got lost in the accident)
| | On May 23 2011 10:57 Night2o1 wrote:
sick tilt at that guy.. wow.
I'd never get in a vehicle with him again... if you survive the next crash you'll feel like a real idiot for continuing to ride shotgun to a retard. just a heads up!
|
yeah these were my thoughts also, i would actually describe him as a good driver most of the time but he is mentally unstable or something. thinking about going in and telling them "i don't want to quit but i'm not going to risk my life by getting into a vehicle with that guy" or something, i dunno we'll see.
| | On May 23 2011 12:48 Arirang wrote:
Can't you just sue the motherfucker for crashing the truck like that and threatening your life, and saying that you now have a trauma about driving and etc? Just call celino and barnes! |
lol i wish
| | On May 23 2011 13:50 lukeperry wrote:
at least you're not working with a guy who's "taught himself mind control" and isn't even kidding a little bit when he tells you that he just put a thought in your head. bring on the crashing truck pls |
actually that sounds fucking AWESOME - i would LOVE to work with a guy like that
| | On May 23 2011 17:00 Exhilarate wrote:
did you yell at that idiot for driving like that?
how are your ribs now?
|
nah, i can't even remember the last time i yelled at someone, raising my voice just feels so weird/awkward to me, idk. my ribs are mostly fine, if i'm sitting/standing still and doing nothing i wouldn't be able to tell anything was wrong with them. but when i stretch a certain way, like if i bend over to pick something off the floor, i usually have to squat way down instead of just slightly bending my knees and stretching my arm down. also can't lift a ton of weight atm.
| | On May 23 2011 19:35 mnj wrote:
u can make a lot of money with seo, but u have to understand business sense. don't limit urself as a tech guy.
try and negotiate a stake in the company.
i'm also currently doing this myself, and am happier and busier than ever. |
yeah i have no clue what i'm doing...it sounds like you're referring to freelancing SEO services to other businesses? i was thinking just for the purposes my own website (which i don't have yet) but i'm probably on the wrong track. sending PM. |
| |
|
| |
|
|
 Poker Streams | |
|
Contact Users: 418 Active, 0 Logged in - Time: 18:23
