all this talk about getting paid makes me feel like going out and getting a new 14R. It didn't cost that much. I had one on less money that I make right now. Put some money into it through the years, it ends up a one of a kind.

* Last updated by: Rook on 6/17/2023 @ 1:09 PM *

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Get paid what you're worth...

(probably for the most part, I doubt anything here will be news to you, just relaying my experience)

Yeah Rook, one of the significant issues I saw with the amateur cum professional artists was them making anything $/hr worthwhile. A frequent complaint was "after it's all said and done I only made $5/hr". What I didn't understand at the time, to maybe offer advice, was that it's not enough to be able to turn out good work, IE able to do artwork well.

The common failing was yes, these people had some art talent. But they weren't proficient. They could paint well, or whatever, but not quickly. IE, they get hired to do a job for $75. And it takes them 10 hours, plus they have to pay for materials. If they quoted $700 based on estimating it would take them 10 hours, they aren't going to get too many jobs because real, actual pro will come along and quote $75 because they can do it in an hour. And this is a common difference in most professions vs amateurs/hobbyists. Someone is a hobbyists (at best) and thinks "I'll go pro".

Same thing with say being a mechanic. It's one thing to be able to do mechanical work. That's definitely a skill, a knack, whatever you call it, that not everyone has. Mechanics often get paid by the job, if the shop manual says 5 hours and it takes 1 hour, or 10 hours, they get paid 5 hours. So yeah some amateur says "I can be a mechanic" but it takes them 2 days to do a job it should take 4 hours, job after job. Not worth the shops time, not worth the customer's time, and not worth there time.

After 9/11 I couldn't get work and decided to try truck driving myself. I was focused heavily on trying to maximize my hourly pay rate (as a mileage driver). I met people that could spend their 10 hours (at that time) and do 450 miles. I'd meet these types at a truck stop and talking to them they're like "yeah, waiting on a load. I've been here 8 days". My thought was you must be a for shit driver. I usually tried to get around 650 miles in 10 hours. Living my life on the road, I was going to get the most financially out of it I could while being legal.

So I don't think "doing what you love and never work a day in your life" is limited to 1 career. Maybe for some people. But I think most people can love different things. I loved driving truck, as they say "it gets in your blood". After quitting driving, for years, just seeing a rig or driving on the highway would give me that feeling again. Even 20+ years later, I still think about it once every great while. And you know, if I had to do it again, I might.

A frequent complaint was "after it's all said and done I only made $5/hr". What I didn't understand at the time, to maybe offer advice, was that it's not enough to be able to turn out good work, IE able to do artwork well.

True and true for the mechanic scenario and the truck driver scenario. One of the problems here is if you love it so much, you're not happy doing work that's less than amazing. Amazing usually takes a lot more time. Maybe you get to the "amazing" stage, you realize you're making no money and you say fuckit, I'll just go for "good" because I can do that fast. If people want amazing they'll have to find and pay some other poor fucker who hasn't figured it out yet. My god it sucks bt as an artist, (or anything) you can't show your best work or else people will want you to do that. Like an old guy (a mechanic)from my youth told me, "if you know how to do something, don't tell anyone because then they'll want you to do it." I guess if you want to be a superstar, you have to show what you can do but being a superstar is the needle that was drawn from the stack of needles that was drawn from the haystack.

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...and right there lies the problem with teaching. You teach at an amazing level, you tell the fucking truth as you have experienced it. A simple caveat is to suggest students get all other opinions they can. Doesn't matter, you said the truth and people don't like to hear it.

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CDL Truck driver averages 14 hgours a day, 72 hours a week. Not much left in your body to enjoy motorcycle riding.
I drove for 32 years. My last 5 years was for O'Reilly, all night driving. I lived in Colorado. Chaining up for winter in blizzards wore me out.
If I was in 40 years old or less and in good physical condition I would apply for the Railroad. Plenty of jobs and a great retirement plan.

OTR is tough. I did it for a year and quit after a day of Hell (seems like I may have told some of that story here before, don't remember). But getting into it, my goal was to get a couple years under my belt and then try to move to something local/day cab, dump trucks, or something. OTR, man that's a life taker and heart breaker. Met so many OTR drivers on their 5th marriage, and that was basically them driving, their wives getting the paycheck and ... lol doing who... knows what. So many drivers out there sitting at one arm bandit slot machines for hours wasting what allowance their wive's dulled out to them.

When I drove I usually got home 2 days in 2 weeks. But most of that was spent getting ready to head out again. Very little time to do anything socially. Fortunately I was able to park near my home area and didn't have to drive a couple hours to a hub to park for home time. I basically lost contact with most friends and even family, just doing it a year. Truck driving is tough on a person, IIRC it takes years off a person life on average.

After I quit I fought hard to get back into IT, starting out with shite jobs and working less and less shitty jobs to where I am today, which is working for a decent company and well until Bidinflation, which I'm still doing good earnings wise but obviously a loss in buying power because lower skilled workers are earning more and I'm earning the same.

doubleD, I drive for O'reilly right now but it's a lot smaller rig. I deliver parts from the store. It's fun. The day goes by quick. Doesn't pay enough to live on.

I'm pretty sure OTR isn't something I'd get into at this time of my life.

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Dude…………. One good looking guy. You could almost turn a straight guy. But not quite! Have you been told you could pass for a Baldwin?

I have been blessed to have never labored a day in my life. I always thought it was wonderful to get paid to do what I would have done for free. Did I get rich? HA! Nope. But I own everything and owe nothing! I have a decent retirement. Enough money to last me until I die.
Do what you love. As long as you can pay the bills and know you’re ok when you are too old and decrepit to earn, then all is good. I am turning 70 SOON and turned in the keys for working. 1/1/23. Now back to riding 2 Wheels.

You are correct! Finding a lady that will put up with bike loving idiots is hard. But I did. Coming up on 30 years now. I don’t regret one day. Living alone is great, but living with the perfect fit for you woman is blissful.
With those shots and looks, you should have no problem. Don’t settle for good enough. She is out there.

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Thanks ZXAdventure. Yup, I have been told I look like Alec Baldwin a couple times. I even thought that myself after I started taking these self portraits. I'm sure 50% of that is the hair. Yeah that paying of the bills part is an important aspect to a career. I was an illustrator for 9 years and lucky enough to find work that actually paid all my bills for a while. I've done a lot of other things since then and nothing was as hard as doing the thing I'm best at. Maybe it's selfish of me but if I'm great at something, really top notch, I have no desire to do it for free. I paid to go to college to learn to do my work and after that, I did for very little money. I haven't regretted doing things for a living that are easier and pay more. At this point in life, I would go back to doing some kind of art for a living but it would have to pay the bills right now instead of being a goal I'm working toward.

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Rook I don't have a great understanding of the professional driver job market. My cursory understanding is it's fairly high demand and not a lot of people want to do (unfortunately). I wonder if it may not be possible to as an inexperienced driver hire directly into jobs that 20 years ago when I drove you had to have experience for. Like dump trucks or something.

I had an uncle that ended his driving career driving dump trucks (retired) and he worked a lot but he made really good money. He worked union jobs and drove for many years daily routes for a grocery distributor, before getting the dump truck job. The nice thing for him he was off several months a year.

Probably similar to bus driving but probably slightly better pay and lots of OT opportunities.

The first place I checked for work was an over the road trucking outfit. I just walked in and they would have hired me almost on the spot if I had the CDL. I applied for a job at an asphalt and gravel company earlier this week. Ironically, it's the company my grandfather started about 80 years ago. My family owned it and now I'm applying for a general laborer job there! The pay is decent though, I mean it's close to what I made as a teacher so I might actually be able to make a living at it! I'm applying at our county road commission too. No one is going to throw me in a truck without a CDL but it's a path to get the CDL.

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I wasn't talking about OTR, yeah, you can get a job pretty easy for OTR if you have a CDL. Like you said, I wouldn't do OTR unless you had no other decent opportunities. That's why I did it 20 years ago, because the economy crapped out. It was even difficult to get a retail job, let alone an IT job (which 100s of thousand IT types were just laid off after Y2K).

Well maybe you found something in between with your asphalt related job. One things for certain, no matter what happens (unless a meteor strikes earf) that experience and field will always have a high demand.

We'll see, Vic. There are so many opportunities for work right now. Going to a new job from an old one creates a much better impression than looking to be hired while you're out of work. Still, I almost wish I were unemployed so I had more time to immediately pursue all the jobs I see. I just came across an alternative education teaching job in my town that I'd be very happy with. With the steady stream of employment opportunities, I can just keep changing jobs for higher pay if that's what it takes. ...I mean the employer can't blame a guy for leaving for higher pay, x2 if the job isn't paying enough to support a person's basic financial needs. I wouldn't be the least bit shy about showing a history of short term employment as long as the jobs were back to back and indicated steady increase in pay.

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Quick update on what's going on: I have been working as a delivery driver for a franchise auto parts supplier for one year. As you might expect, it pays squat. I applied for a better paying job at one of the most sought after employers in my town. I was interviewed, visited the plant, passed the drug test. I wasn't allowed to take the very easy occupational stress test because my blood pressure was too high. It's been very high since I was a kid. I frequently do much more strenuous exercise than what's required to complete the stress test but I can't be hired until I pass it. I have a doctor appointment later this month and I expect he will put me on medication for some time before I can take the stress test. My hopefully new job is willing to wait. In the meantime, I've lowered the top and bottom numbers of my BP by 20 points without medication by keeping a very strict, clean diet and exercise routine. I eat mostly potatoes and protein drinks with some fat free cottage cheese and plain raw veggies. No meat and no salt. I run about every other day but I can do that a little more frequently. I really think intense aerobic exercise helps more than the diet. I believe the thing that lowers blood pressure most is avoiding recreational substances. Every one of those I can think of increases BP. Don't drink, don't smoke, don't eat anything that tastes good or you'll die!!! It's true though, I had a few beers in the evening, went to breakfast with a friend, ate my homelet with hash browns and half of hers, had one energy drink in the afternoon... my BP skyrocketed right back up where it had been. So there you have it, I don't know if all of those things caused my BP to go back up or if it was just one. I'm back to my Spartan existence and this morning the BP is dropping back down to where I had it earlier in the week. Even 20 points lower, it's still very high. I think I might get it to 150/90 in another week. That would be low enough to take the stress test but it's high enough that I might need to take meds for every day health. I'm also not sure it's realistic to live this strict lifestyle longterm although I would like to try. I've been obsessed about my interests my whole life ! I've been an avid exercise enthusiast most of my life too. If not for that, I might have had a stroke by now. We're talking stage three hypertension if I quit exercising and party and eat good tasting food. Just can't do it.

I think I will easily pass the stress test with flying colors and get this new job. It could be the end of December though. I'll let everyone know.

* Last updated by: Rook on 11/5/2023 @ 7:34 AM *

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Just took my bp and 109/66 per the little battery operated unit that goes around the wrist. This is after doing my Sunday chores - clean 6 cat boxes, clean bird cage, do dishes, fold towels, quick clean kitchen and bathroom, sweep all the floors, get a pepsi and make a cheese sandwich with potato chips then finally take a break and get on the computer.
Mr Rook last year my bp and cholesterol were so high that the doc told me to hope for a heart attack because I probably would not survive a stroke. I was 265 lbs and 5'9" so I passed up just being round. I have since had my bp get so low that I hit the floor and with no idea where I was at. Now I bounce between 220 - 225 and the doc says I need to be 170. Told him not gonna happen as I consider anything under 200 to be a contestant for a bitch tossing party.
My 3 worse issues now are motorcycles, pepsi and 5 hr energy and I am not giving them up. I am getting ready to turn 68 and not willing to give up everything that I like.

Hoping your bp gets down to where you can apply for the job again.

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Good luck Rook.
Get that Doc to sort your BP for your stress test and worry about the rest later.
You are smart enough to do what has to be done.
I am looking forward to your good news!!!

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Now I bounce between 220 - 225 and the doc says I need to be 170. Told him not gonna happen as I consider anything under 200 to be a contestant for a bitch tossing party.

LOL I don't want to get too light either but 200 would be fine. I was 190 when I was 19 years old but I had high blood pressure then too. It's the way I was made.

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and thank you yan, of course I'll let everyone know how it all turns out.

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They found that there was an 11 per cent higher risk of high blood pressure (hypertension) if participants had four or more servings a week of baked, boiled or mashed potatoes, and 17 per cent higher risk for French fries (chips), compared to people who had less than one serving a month.

JUST GET ON SOME MEDS so you can pass your test ASAP

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Anyone getting the 2024 40th anniversary edition? I ordered mine a couple weeks ago expected delivery is in December. It's been a while since I've posted on here.

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They found that there was an 11 per cent higher risk of high blood pressure (hypertension) if participants had four or more servings a week of baked, boiled or mashed potatoes, and 17 per cent higher risk for French fries (chips), compared to people who had less than one serving a month.

The potato chips/french fries is a no brainer because of the salt and cholesterol. Given what I eat right now, I'd have no problem not eating potatoes. They're cheap and easy to cook but so's other things like oatmeal. Forget about eating meat, that's not for people with high BP any more than potato chips is. So far, I haven't lowered my BP any more by what I'm eating. I got it down 20 points top and bottom and that's where it's stayed but it's still way too high. I will need medication and I've already put a lot more effort into it without than 90% of people with high BP do. I can't do much more tha I am already. Thanks for the tip 1bad. My feeling is what I have been eating my whole life is not the problem nor is lack of exercise. I was just born with this and I'll have to depend on medical technology to get me through it so hopefully I'll croak a little later of something else. That's the game, croak as late in life as you can.

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