Another 'Lets get to know each other' thread! (1 Viewer)

Well, I must admit that I have not studied the entire list of threads from way back; but I have yet to see a post dealing with what people do for a living around here.

I think it would be nice to have a thread where we can write a bit more about ourselves (I know the introduction threads do some of that job, but they dissappear rather fast). This is, after all, an online community of some size.

I'll go first: I work in a company called 'Findexa' in Norway. Findexa publishes the Norwegian version of Yellow Pages. My job consists of being a travelling salesman. If anyone has seen or read the play 'Death of a Salesman'; you'll know what my life is like. I make about $56000 a year, and that money goes largely into liquor, my car and my apartement in the city of Stavanger.

There, that was not so bad, not that anyone actually will care; but fun none the less. Hope you will find this interesting as well, and post a wee bit about what you do.

Thanks =)
 
Well right now I'm working part-time at Zellers (basically the Canadian version of K-mart). Yep retail-hell that's what I do. In about a year I'm going to be studying to become a graphic designer though.
 
Hi,
I sell kitchen cabinets (mostly to builders) by day and publish by night.

I live in Dover, Delaware and am married with two children....

Bill
 
I live in the city of Chicago and work for the area race tracks. (Horse racing).
It's an interesting job, especially when it comes to "people watching". Sometimes I look at the older guys in the crowd and wonder, "Is there a poet around here? A writer? Some un-recognized genius"? I know Buk was an exception, but you never know............

I am 44, a musician, poet, and lover of cats,pizza,beer and movies.
 
Like any self-respecting dork who sits in front of a computer all day, I have about nine jobs. The one that pays the bills this week is Operations Manager at an ASP.NET web hosting company. If you don't know what ASP.NET means, don't feel bad. Until about a month ago, I didn't know what it meant either.

I also founded datapimp.com in 1999, which I continue to run with one or two other people (depends on who is in the mood at the time, apparently), and which continues to threaten to become profitable any time now. It's been threatening that since 1999, of course, so I'm not holding my breath.

In the spare minutes that I am not working those jobs I am writing crap for smog.net, painting crap for inkpoems.com, and generally corralling/changing/fixing about a dozen other sites (including bukowski.net). It's only a dozen because I got rid of all the "unnecessary" ones. Um hmm.

Note to all you kids out there who think the internet would be a great place to work: it is! If you don't mind the hours, which average 90 or 100 a week - when you're lucky enough to sleep. The rest of the time is all yours to enjoy.
 
I signed up for one of those email accounts you got going on datapimp. If you guys wanna email me, the new adress is now [email protected] :D

Glad to see you're a working guy MJP. I don't wanna have more of those bums coming at me begging me for money my daddy worked hard to give me!
 
yeah, so I live in London, Uk. I work as a researching journalist for an IT publishing company and I don't earn any money (past rent and travel expenses) but on the up side I can use the internet all day long avoiding work.

Otherwise I am working on my first novel as well as writing freelance for music magazines and other stupid "lifestyle" publications. I also do lots of English translation stuff for research companies as well as occasional internet message board moderating.

Sounds like an advert at a dating agency doesn't it?

Nice to know you.
 
Father Luke reporting for duty.

Writer, poet, homeless

(last night I spent the night in a rescue mission tent, listening to a shoeless old man snore and fart away the night. Earlier, I had been sleeping in a basball field until I was kicked out by local Police...)

and I am going to truck driving school
(being a poet and a 'writer' is nice, but a job is always nice, too. Bukowski had the post office, no?).

I had been a phone solicitor for 26 years sometimes making a thousand a week take home, some times not making enough for transportation to and from work.

I have been a Priest and left the Church when the politics got to be too ridiculous even for me. Serbian Orthodox, and I left at the height of the Balkan War. I may go back to being a Priest someday, just not today because I am having too much fun.

Recently I have been cyber-stalked and had identity theft.

I have a website at FatherLuke.com
 
i am a mechanic - early childhood on bikes - early adult on trucks in the army - thirty years on production equipment in a glass factory - present day facilities maintenance for a public school system on the east coast to supplement my pension - i love language and word origins...i read and write poetry with a special fondness for haiku...growing up on the delaware river and in the swamps of south jersey instilled a love for nature -

peace
rrat
 
I'm a legal aid lawyer in Richmond, Virginia, read, collect books,play piano and obsess about Red Sox in my spare time (grew up in Boston).
 
If I could never ever ever work again I wouldn't. Working is one of the most profound uneven trades Ive ever heard of. I feel like Im selling my soul every time I go to work. I can think of nothing that I could ever buy that would make me feel like it was worth all the work. Ive had many jobs. paint ball field, bus boy, carpet cleaner, flood restoration, cook, grease monkey. It all sucked. I can think of nothing that I ever want to do for a living. Every possibility I come up with I can already feel myself hating it after a short period of time. At times I wish a harpoon would suddenly pin my body to my bed so that I would never have to do anything I did not want to do ever again. I am currently unemployed. I need a break. I had to quite my last job thanks to a rather crippling depression (which has alot to do with working) that I just can't shake. Yea, work really gets me down. The thing is working as much as we do is unnecessary ( read "In praise of idleness")
 
"illegitimus non carborundum" pseudo-latin meaning (you may already know) "don't let the bastards grind you down". All I can say (in the words of Bill Clinton), "I feel your pain." Doesn?t offer much solace, I know. Thanks for the point to the Russell article. I think you?ve articulated the plight of the workingman in vivid terms; you?ve got a flare for language, no doubt. Have you ever written down your experiences of your jobs? It may be time for the world to get another "Factotum". I?d read it. Hang in there. (My advice is worth less than what you paid for it.)
SD
 
I make alternate format materail braille, large print, audio for the visually impaired.
And for the record, as far as I know there is no Bukowski in braille.
 
I work in the music industry, and manage a small recording studio. I make and play electronic music at small gigs around Dublin, and work part time behind various bars because the music industry doesn't pay very well... have a lot of books and a lot of CDs (I hate when people write is "CD's") and drink too much red wine.

Graham.
 
So you're saying the plural form is spelled without the apostrophe? I'm norwegian, so I never got my head around that. BTW: How do I write in property form? Is it: 'The dog's girlfriend' or 'The dogs girlfriend' ? This has bugged me for some time.

Oh, and the music industry doesn't pay very well?? I always thought you guys had a lot of cash and that it was the artists that struggled =P (I know, I know, only the major labels make it hot, you smaller dudes got it tough...)
 
I think the right way is CDs, not CD's.

And I believe you would say "the dog's girlfriend" or "the dogs' girlfriend".
 
Yep it's CDs ont CD's. There's a big sign on the way into my local supermarket advertising "CD's, DVD's and Books". It's really annoying, there are two very large and unnecessary apostrophes on the wall and I want to rip them off. There's a big car dealership down the road that offers, in thee foot high letters, cash for "Trade in's". This time it's a 12" unnecessary apostrophe!

There's a good and humerous little book on bad punctuation, called Eats Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. There's a little game based on the book at: http://eatsshootsandleaves.com/ESLquiz.html

Hmm.. I guess the music industry pays well if you don't get lazy and sick of engineering, which I am at the moment. There's just way, way too many average bands in Dublin and not a lot to get excited about. There's a handfull of great new artists, but only a handfull. So the majority of your time is spent dealing with the dreary others.
 
yawl
buk would have hated truss - her last book "talk to the hand" damned us for using the word 'fuck' - she never speaks the word but in it's sted "the 'f' word" or similar substitutes -
overall the book is funny - yeah...buk would have hated her -

rrat
 
I haven't read the other book, and I don't know much about Truss appart from Eats Shoots. I think there has to be a difference, however, between creative writing and journalistic or sign writing. Bad grammar in newspapers and on signs (designed by people who design signs as a career) is lazy. There is a professional standard that should be followed. Writing books, poems, writing in message boards etc is a different story. The english in novels is by creatively crafted, but people who write professionally as a career can not excuse bad basic grammar.

I'm slightly dyslexic myself, so I can't claim to write perfectly, but I'm not a journalist.

I'm sure Buk wouldn't have liked her, but there are a lot of things Buk wouldn't have liked that I found brilliant, like a trip to India...
 
grahamcooke
i hear you - but the whole grammar thing rubs me any way except the smooth - it is arbitrary and the same is true for punctuation - i prefer to read and write as bukowski did - plain words in whatever order - we seem to have no problem understanding him...

as for the 'lazy' sign designer...the poor devils may simply be ignorant - working their asses off everyday but just not schooled in the 'arbitrary' -
then...those sign makers might be "apostropher royals" as mentioned in "eats shoots..."
anyhow - as a fellow poet once told me: "i really don't care for what you have written but bravo! for the manner in which you read it!"

rrat
 
Personally I care a great deal about language. When it comes to poetry I call for consistency. Buk either used commas, periods etc correctly, or he did not use it at all. The destruction of the english language is a sad thing, and I think everyone who gives a rat's ass should help out by not writing blatant errors.

And I'm not even English or American...
 
ought oh!
better put me down as one of them d.g.a.r.a. followers...
and for the record - i'm not american or english either...i'm simply a man -

oneiros i'll check out your poetry - thanks for the link...

vinden pacific
rrat
 
Among the worst I ever saw was a sign in a small restaurant advertising a lunchtime special for a "sandwich and french fry's." A double screw-up thanks to the un-necessary apostrophe and the mis-spelling of "french fries".
 
I'll join in this thread, though its gone cold.
I'm Hannah, 41, three time loser in marriage, fourth is the charm, 'cause I'm duh boss.
Parent to a three year old, I stay home and drink wine and write and try to seduce women in my neighborhood, preferably who have English as a second language. I'm a retired dominitrix, telemarketer and set painter.
My husband runs a guitar shop, comes home and takes over while I hide out in my office reading or try to find good Persian food within the city limits.
I'm a terrible pain in the ass, and I dont contribute shit financially.
 
Now Thats What I Call ...

... a great Bio. :D


Why did you retire from the Dom business? Watch out for some of the members here!!! ;)

Anyways, Welcome to the place.

--------

Teacher: "Hello, Jimmy, are your parents at home?"

Jimmy: "They ain't nobody at home right now, teacher."

Teacher: "Jimmy, where's your grammar?"

Jimmy: "I don't know where she is either, teacher. Mum and Dad just said they'd be back after a bit."
 
I'm a recently divorced father of 3. I'm orginally from Chicago, but currently split my time between a basement in Atlanta and my ex-wifes house in a KY suburb of Cincinnati. When I'm not sleeping or on BUK.NET, I work as a transporation engineer for a European airline.
 
I am a full time student, full time (single) mom of a 9-year old (thanks for the "support", Father Luke), and full time hair stylist. I was born and raised in Michigan, but lived all over, eventually settling here in Oregon. I play flute and drums, sing, write, and work on LiteraryMary.com. I've been called a lot of names, some of them even nice. But my name is Lans, and it's not short for anything, it's just Danish. Or so I'm told.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top