While I've been gone

As you all probably know I haven't been able to find a programming job. It's been almost 6 months. That's not a good thing. In fact, it's gone beyond the "it sucks" point into the "this is really going to adversely affect me" point.

So a couple weeks ago I started thinking about it and realized that I had nothing to lose by chasing my dream and doing what I'd rather be doing than anything else. So I picked up the phone and called a guy in Arizona who builds museum scale models for real money. I've done custom model building, but basically it's been chump change. I've done it for the love of it but it was anything but economical.

If I take this guy at his word, then I have to complete a model every 60-90 days to make a living at it. If my stuff isn't good enough or fast then obviously that will end real quickly. But I'll still be in Arizona which is where I want to be. Unfortunately, it's Phoenix which I haven't heard many good things about.

Anyway, it's going to take every dime I've got to get there and once I'm there, I'm flat broke with nothing and no one to fall back on. If I wait another month I can't even afford to go. My rent is paid for this month and my lease expires on the 25th. I plan to leave here the weekend prior and hopefully find any job within a day or two. Wish me luck. :)

This is what I've got to be able to build in a couple months:

http://www.paulkjohnson.com/images/albatros1.jpg
http://www.paulkjohnson.com/images/albatros2.jpg

Best of luck, I hope things turn around for you.

:)

Very best of Good Luck to you Cafeenman... I hope that by following your heart you will find true happiness :)

Good luck caffman :cool:

Will we still be able to enjoy your witty repertoire on these 'ere forums or are you upping it to the middle of nowhere?

Phoenix is a place of evil. Plus they have the Diamondbacks. :rolleyes:

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Originally posted by DragonFly
Very best of Good Luck to you Cafeenman... I hope that by following your heart you will find true happiness :)

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Thanks. :) Happiness is over-rated. I'll settle for anything better than perpetual anger. Contentment would be nice also. :)

Chris - I won't be in the middle of nowhere, just the middle of the desert. I'll stick my head in every once in a while if for nothing else than to get into a fight that I can't win. :)

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Originally posted by mendhak
Phoenix is a place of evil. Plus they have the Diamondbacks. :rolleyes:

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It's not really Phoenix. It's just close to Phoenix. Desert air is a wonderful thing. Great paint jobs, no runny noses. I don't have an opinion about the diamondbacks. I gave up on pro football when the commercials became longer than the game and the game became more commercial than the commercials. Now I pretty much stick to college football.

Good good, we missed you ;)

Perhaps if you weren't eating at McDonalds all the time you'd have some more cash :)

Hey Cafeenman... are you going to submit a photo so you can be immortalised in the vbf members collage...???

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Originally posted by chrisjk
Good good, we missed you ;)

Perhaps if you weren't eating at McDonalds all the time you'd have some more cash :)

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Well, I do have no one to blame but myself. When I decided to get out of the service, everyone I talked to who I thought knew anything told me with my tech skills I'd have a job in 2 days. That was last summer. Since then, the economy has crashed and I had the opportunity to stay in if I wanted to. In fact, I could still go back in and not lose any rank. They just consider it a hiatus. After 6 months you lose rank. But I'm not doing that.

In the mean time, I wasn't really putting anything back because I never expected to be unemployed this long. On top of everything else, my bank screwed me and the result was about $600 down the tubes for nothing.

I do eat out because I don't have a kitchen (I have 2 kitchens in storage) but I spend less than $5/day on food. One meal basically. But the fact is, no matter how little I spend, the job situation isn't looking any better as a programmer. If I had money to last a year, I still probably wouldn't have a job. I don't know what else I can do. I've tweaked my resume to death, I've been learning technologies as quickly as I can, and none of it is really helping. So screw it. I'll just take my chances doing what I want to do. If I can make it work, then I can't think of anything that I'd be happier doing - other than doing it for myself instead of sub-contracted by someone else. But that's not really a big deal. He gets the business headaches and I get to build. On top of that, I do it in my shop so I can build when I do my best building - 2 am. Plus there's a smoking rule in my shop. You have to be a smoker to enter. No non-smokers allowed. :)

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Originally posted by DragonFly
Hey Cafeenman... are you going to submit a photo so you can be immortalised in the vbf members collage...???

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Who do I submit it to?

Just post it in here....


http://www.vbforums.com/showthread.p...1&pagenumber=4


and Jamie will add you to his photo's site.. and I will include you in the next version of the collage :)

Done

Good luck C-man, I know it'll work out for you! *hugs*

You won't your picture on the site until Tuesday because of the bank holiday.

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Originally posted by rinoaheartilly
Good luck C-man, I know it'll work out for you! *hugs*

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Thanks Vicky. :) I'm sure it will work out. Probably not anything like the way I'm picturing it (never does) but I always land on my feet. I'll just be glad to be settled in one place for a change. The longest I've lived anywhere since I was 14 was 3 years. Traveling is cool and all, but I'm ready to just grow some roots somewhere.

I don't offer luck as it tends to imply/insinuate people need it.

I'm sure it will all work out just fine. Hell, if all else fails you could always end up in Africa as a mercenary....

Hope it works out for you.

It takes guts to take a chance and follow your dreams, for that reason alone your over half way there.

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Originally posted by Pickler
Hope it works out for you.

It takes guts to take a chance and follow your dreams, for that reason alone your over half way there.

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I've got to admit, I never would have guessed I'd get a motivational speech from a dancing pickle. :)

/*wonders what they put in his big mac*/

I'd look more closely at whats in your cigarette if I were you....

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Originally posted by Arbiter
I'd look more closely at whats in your cigarette if I were you....

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I'm sure it's nothing to be concerned about. The tobacco company says they're perfectly safe... and who would know more about it than the people who made 'em?

Of course.

And Mr. Molotov rates his cocktails as totally harmless.......

Good luck sir!

Sounds like your memiors will be much more intetresting this way!

Oh, and careful smoking around all those paints.

Hope everything works out for you!!

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Originally posted by cafeenman

It's not really Phoenix. It's just close to Phoenix. Desert air is a wonderful thing. Great paint jobs, no runny noses. I don't have an opinion about the diamondbacks. I gave up on pro football when the commercials became longer than the game and the game became more commercial than the commercials. Now I pretty much stick to college football.

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BTW, the Diamondbacks play baseball not football...

Hi Cafeen man I was wondering about you.

Okay, cool, how much will you be making (Im not to sure if thats rude)

See you later, mate!

I hope that one day, you realise the true creative genius of Jim Morrison... ;)

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Originally posted by simonm
See you later, mate!

I hope that one day, you realise the true creative genius of Jim Morrison... ;)

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For the record, Simon, it's not Jim Morrison that I don't like. It's the groupies. They kind of ruined it for me. Sort of like when you hear a song you like on the radio. Then you hear it 10 more times the same day to the point you're sick of it. Well I got sick of hearing what a genius he was. Maybe if I hadn't had that slammed in my face so much I wouldn't be so oppositional to the idea.

But...



forget it. I'll stop there. We had this discussion already. :)

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Originally posted by nickjordan
Hi Cafeen man I was wondering about you.

Okay, cool, how much will you be making (Im not to sure if thats rude)

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Hopefully enough. I really don't know. I specifically asked the guy if any of the builders he contracts make a living at it or if they do it in addition to another job. He said it goes both ways. One guy just finished a full sized replica of the Wright Flyer and got paid 70K for about 9 months work.

It all depends on whether I actually have the talent and if I can complete models fast enough. The images I posted are flying models (about a 6' wingspan) so they are intensive woodwork. Some of them are static so require much more detail - for example, a cockpit that creates the illusion won't be good enough. It has to be pretty much an exact replica of the real thing.

In other words, a great position at Taco Bell may still be in my future. I'm going to work my ass off at this though. I really want it to work. Honestly, I'm scared ****less. I have nothing to fall back on at all.