dr_kromm | (Canadian) Thanksgiving

Monday is the Canadian Thanksgiving Day holiday. I'm on an American schedule – because I work for a U.S. company – but I definitely took time to relax this weekend. And there's much to be thankful for . . .

First, I got to sleep in until noon today. I mean, seriously – noon. Even for the childless among us, that's an accomplishment.

Then Bonnie and I took advantage of a wonderful gift from our good friends E. & D.: a certificate for a couples massage. I've never had any kind of professional massage, so this was either jumping in with both feet or going in with my hand held. Either way, it was very relaxing. I'm not much for the whole New Age scented candles-and-chakras thing, but I'm definitely down for anything that does more good for my sore arm in one hour than about two months of everything else I've tried. So here's to getting aches and pains ironed out – I see more of this in my future. (For the locals, I would recommend Espace Nomad . . . they were polite, professional, unrushed, and very willing to explain things to a massage newbie.)

Our Thanksgiving dinner was unusual, as far as Thanksgiving dinners go. Instead of the customary stuffed bird, we put together two Welsh items. Katt pie is a kind of sweet-savory pasty filled with sweetened, spiced lamb and currants – it's just amazing stuff, and nothing at all like any kind of meat pie I've had before. Glamorgan sausages are rolled-up, fried-up treats made not with meat but with cheese, leeks, and breadcrumbs. Neither is "fancy" . . . I suspect that they're basic fair food or pub food of some variety. But with a good Chianti Classico and fresh veggies (and some totally excessive biscotti and calvados for dessert), they were just great. If all Welsh food is so tasty, then the slagging people give it is thoroughly undeserved.

Which is to say, I cannot complain. Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends out there! I hope your day is as good as mine.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Here on the other side of the border it's Columbus Day. I don't take the day off work, but my bank is closed, and FedEx may be as well. So I'll be running Monday's errands on Tuesday.

The somewhat frustrating thing about working by the hour as I do is that if I want a day off, I must budget for it myself (with rare exceptions). Of course, I never do – there are always bills to pay and thus I feel obliged to work. Then I get ill or have a medical appointment and have to take a day off . . . leaving me with this skewed perception that days off are bad things that happen when I don't feel well. I need to break this cycle, but I doubt that will happen unless I leave the games business for a salaried position that comes with separate vacation days and sick leave.

I have very much the same experience as a freelance editor. The boss is always watching me and saying, "You know, you could be making money." Even on a day when I have a game to run or attend, I fit in a couple of hours of work in the morning if at all possible. If I'm going out of town, I don't take work with me; but entire years go by when I don't travel anywhere.

Sounds familiar. I'm sensitive to it because despite cutting back salt, losing weight, and taking up a cardio regime, my blood pressure has been inching up. My physician has identifed work as the main cause. Nobody likes to work, but there are some people for whom work is an active health problem . . . and I'm one of them. I have hypertension, stress, and anxiety issues that mostly stem from work – any work, not just my current job – and that don't emerge in casual or social situations. My doctor thinks I should take weeks and weeks off each year, but I can barely afford two weeks, all told. I think I chose the wrong line of work!

"I have hypertension, stress, and anxiety issues that mostly stem from work"

FWIW, I find your work as GURPS line editor superb; it is obvious that there are obscene amounts of work behind it.

Take care of yourself; I've learned during my PhD that there is nothing worth losing your health and peace of mind over. And regarding days off, try to err by excess: I would hate you getting burnt out of the business ;-)

GK (aka Mercator)

"The somewhat frustrating thing about working by the hour as I do is that if I want a day off, I must budget for it myself"

Both salaried and freelancing jobs have their own up and downsides. Having tried both, (I have been freelancing for a few months now as a technical translator/editor), I definitely choose the latter. Sure, you have to budget your time off and there is no guaranteed minimum income and other safety nets, but the complete freedom to work from home, in your own schedule, and without endless improductive meetings where everybody tries to win the discussion instead of contributing something useful more than make up for it, at least for me.

Also, getting paid in proportion to my actual production instead of a flat amount for warming an office chair for X hours has made me value my work, my earnings and my time much more. The fact that I can count on nobody but myself to prosper has made me more aware of everything I do, so to speak, and has forced me to display initiative and negotiating skills I didn't know I had. This has given my self-esteem a huge, much-needed boost. A prospective employer will have to make me a darn good offer to make me give what I have now.

OK, that was longer and more preachy than I intended. So yeah, freelancers FTW!

GK (aka Mercator)

You're quite right. That's why I said, "The somewhat frustrating thing about working by the hour," and not, "I hate working by the hour!"

Both salaried and freelancing jobs have their own up and downsides.

This is true, although my position isn't salaried (payment per unit time employed, regardless of whether I'm actually at work) or strictly freelance (payment per project) – it's closest to a wage arrangement (payment per unit time worked). We call it "freelance," but that's a legal convenience. By law where I live, I'd need at least two employers per year to qualify as a freelancer and claim the best self-employment deductions.

the complete freedom to work from home, in your own schedule

Those privileges are gold, yes!

without endless ... meetings

In the Internet Age, working from home on your own schedule does not necessarily grant that benefit. I've spent entire workdays sitting in a virtual meeting online, banging out text messages. Meetings are an inevitable consequence of money changing hands.

A prospective employer will have to make me a darn good offer to make me give what I have now.

Oh, yes! Working in the games industry isn't a high-end job (although some people who don't do it believe otherwise!), but the freedom to work the hours I want, and from home, and on a hobby goes a long way toward making up for that. Still, at games-industry pay, it's difficult to set aside enough money from when you're working to let you have some time when you aren't. This isn't a savings- or vacation-friendly line of work. And I'm no saint; I'm occasionally envious of associates who are my equals in age and education, but who have two or three times my income and four or more paid weeks off.

"my position [is] closest to a wage arrangement"

Oh, I see. I work on a per-project basis, basically waiting at the computer for work to arrive, either from one of several agencies or from a direct client, with which I have previously signed a collaboration contract. I translate/edit the material and send it back along with billing information, and get paid accordingly. Working well so far.

[Meetings]
Yes, you are right. I should've said "with a minimum of meetings". My main direct client expects me to attend meetings dealing with unification of foreign terminology across different departments, but those are few and quite bearable. The money-changing-hands stuff is carried out via contracts by physical mail with terms discussed by email, or in brief visits to the client's premises for brief discussions and a bit of chatting, which suits me perfectly.

"the freedom to work [...] on a hobby goes a long way toward making up for that."

You see, I am (gladly) surprised that, considering all the work you have to do on it, you still consider RPGs a hobby. What is the trick?

GK (aka Mercator)

The trick is "Don't stop playing games!" :) Most people who burn out on a hobby because it's also their work do so because they drop the hobby for being too much like work. If you power through that first few years of "Arrrrgh, my hobby has become work!" panic, it goes away. It's replaced by confidence that you're better at your hobby because you're a pro, and better at your work because you're taking extracurricular classes in what you do for a living.

Fortunately, having copy edited on the order of 400,000 pages of scholarly and scientific text has not made me stop enjoying reading scholarly and scientific writing. That would just be dismal. And writing GURPS books does not take away my enjoyment of playing and GMing. Now that I think of it, in fact, one of the things that makes both game writing and GMing fun is that it's such a good excuse to do research on unfamiliar topics.

(Canadian) Thanksgiving

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject