(Canadian) Thanksgiving

[dr_kromm]

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.

Comments

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

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.

[gerhard-kremer.livejournal.com]

"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)

[dr-kromm.livejournal.com]

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.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

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.