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pecuniumAs I said in passing, I am probably not going to re-enlist. The odds of being sent back to Iraq, and the strain that would place on Maia, and the rest of my, non-military life, would be too great to make the rest of it worth it.
This is no small change. I've been in for 12 years. That's 1/3 of my life. I'm good at what I do. I like what I do, and the people I do it with. I didn't even mind the deployment, qua deployment. I have been a soldier so long that it makes up a large part of how I see myself. Retiring has seemed strange, in concept, for years.
But, as I tell people when they ask me how long I'm going to stay in, "as long as I'm having fun." Going to Iraq again (irrespective of my concerns for my health) would not be fun. Maia managed to keep the strain of it from once, but I got to talk to people when I got back, and I don't want to make her put up with that again.
Which means I need a job on the outside (I've been making ends meet for the past 6 years by being a Guard Bum; I was doing lots of little jobs, and that paid the bills. Sometimes better than others, but always at least enough).
So, I am going to try going back to the camera. To which end, for reasons of economy, not preference, I took delivery today of my new Nikon 2DH. More bells and whistles than I know what to do with. To make it more exciting, lots of the equipment needed to take full advantage of them, is incompatable with my present equipment (in which I have no small amount of capital invested).
Part of it is easy (I like to take pictures, and have a tolerably dab hand at it). Part of it is hard (I need to find at least one stock angency, with which I get along, galleries to hang my work, ways to promote my stuff and figure out to take advantage of the things digital makes easy [like spotting, and showing], decide if I want to take out a store on e-bay, keep records of all the expenses [and part of the reason for the purchase now, instead of a month from now is tax-driven], get the business license, look into a DBA, &c.).
It means I probably need a day job, for at least a while.
Which is going to be amusing, because my skill set, while interesting, isn't the most marketable, and less so in SLO, than it might be in LA (the clue-crew ad thatmctavish pointed out looks intriguing, but the travel defeats some of the purpose of getting out... i.e. time at home without sudden trips to god knows where).
I'd like to be able to stay at home, read some, type some, cook some, and spend 15-20 hours a week out finding pictures. But that isn't going to happen right away.
Second choice would be a part-time job, with no weekends.
Third choice, a forty-hour week, M-F.
After that... we take what we can get.
On the differently amusing.
This is no small change. I've been in for 12 years. That's 1/3 of my life. I'm good at what I do. I like what I do, and the people I do it with. I didn't even mind the deployment, qua deployment. I have been a soldier so long that it makes up a large part of how I see myself. Retiring has seemed strange, in concept, for years.
But, as I tell people when they ask me how long I'm going to stay in, "as long as I'm having fun." Going to Iraq again (irrespective of my concerns for my health) would not be fun. Maia managed to keep the strain of it from once, but I got to talk to people when I got back, and I don't want to make her put up with that again.
Which means I need a job on the outside (I've been making ends meet for the past 6 years by being a Guard Bum; I was doing lots of little jobs, and that paid the bills. Sometimes better than others, but always at least enough).
So, I am going to try going back to the camera. To which end, for reasons of economy, not preference, I took delivery today of my new Nikon 2DH. More bells and whistles than I know what to do with. To make it more exciting, lots of the equipment needed to take full advantage of them, is incompatable with my present equipment (in which I have no small amount of capital invested).
Part of it is easy (I like to take pictures, and have a tolerably dab hand at it). Part of it is hard (I need to find at least one stock angency, with which I get along, galleries to hang my work, ways to promote my stuff and figure out to take advantage of the things digital makes easy [like spotting, and showing], decide if I want to take out a store on e-bay, keep records of all the expenses [and part of the reason for the purchase now, instead of a month from now is tax-driven], get the business license, look into a DBA, &c.).
It means I probably need a day job, for at least a while.
Which is going to be amusing, because my skill set, while interesting, isn't the most marketable, and less so in SLO, than it might be in LA (the clue-crew ad that
mctavish pointed out looks intriguing, but the travel defeats some of the purpose of getting out... i.e. time at home without sudden trips to god knows where).I'd like to be able to stay at home, read some, type some, cook some, and spend 15-20 hours a week out finding pictures. But that isn't going to happen right away.
Second choice would be a part-time job, with no weekends.
Third choice, a forty-hour week, M-F.
After that... we take what we can get.
On the differently amusing.
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