16 years... working for the man... been set free !

Ypedal said:
They gave me severance, so i'm still getting paid until next june/july , then, worst case scenario i can go on EI, but i'm in no hurry for the moment, i can enjoy a bit of personal time off and relax.. much needed vacation !
frock Yeh! Heck if you want to come across canada we can try to plan a trip to the us in the spring for an event.!
 
He man, I feel for you. And I am still amazed that companies across the ocean can put you on the street like that, even with the additional pay. Here in Europe, that's only possible if the person did something very wrong, or went working for the competition. But not for a redundant job.

Anyway, to me it sure sounds like a new opportunity for you. You may want to consider combining your ebike skills with the experience / skills from your previous job, and see how that can be of use in the ES community apart from the huge work you are already doing here. Or you may want to acquire a completely new skill set and do something you only dreamed of so far.

If ever you become interested in clinical studies for pharmaceutical industry, come talk to me. 8)
 
I was sorry to hear about your awesome goodness job loss news as well. I repeat Kim's offer of food and lodging but on the east coast. I have some herbal remedies in my garage that will ease the pain... Chin up. Things could be worse you mIght have four kids like me...
 
Ypedal said:
I dont feel sorry one bit, this is by far, better than quitting or getting fired, i keep my benefits and get paid but get to stay home for the next 30 weeks.. time for a change of scenery.

Really, i dont want another " job ", i am completely willing to work 80 hours per week, but i am determined to make a living from home, somehow. Exactly how, i dont yet know, i would love to make it in the ebike biz but that's something i'm already quite well aware, a loosing battle if you like to eat more than one meal a day...

I'm still cant believe it, it seems surreal, but as real as the ink on that paper was today... no turning back..... :wink:

Business suggestion - No offense to all of you but I think most Electric Bicycle People don't have much money. Unless you get lucky, not allot of money to be made selling electric bicycle stuff. Look outside, ya see cars, and more cars. Lots of people spending lots of money on transportation. I spent a few hours looking around the internet for a low cost car converted to run on electricity. Older Honda Civic, Geo Metro or something like that. Lots of people building one for them selves but I did not see anything for sale. I would like to see a easy to navigate web site selling all the parts and pieces needed to convert a few small older gas power cars and pick up trucks to run on electricity. Sell me a adapter plate, motor, controller, batteries, and everything to convert a specific year and model car and I might go for it. Think that the only problem with this idea is the high cost of batteries.

Ypedal,
Suggest you DO NOT buy any thing. Search around the internet for web sites selling what ever you dream of. Most all of them be happy to sell to you at a discount, and ship directly to the customer. This is what I did with my Sukkah business http://www.sukkahs.com/ I used to sell allot of Sukkahs. A few years ago I wrote "We are closed". Got no time now. Hope to fire up the Sukkah Business again in the future. Need to rewrite the We are closed message on the main page.

Another suggestion, Sukkahs are like Christmas trees. Seasonal business. Bicycles in cold weather places are also seasonal. If you like to eat for more then 2 months a year? Forget about seasonal stuff. Sell electric cars with heaters.

Wish you the best of luck with whatever you do.
 
My electronics teacher took me to the side one day and told me this.

Learn how to fix the electronics people use in their homes and you will never be broke.

He is right.

I fix tvs.

It has never been more easy.

If you have good search skills a lot of tvs can be repaired just following online directions. Common problems for sure.

A lot of common repairs are on youtube.

Heck, almost half of all tv repairs are swollen caps ! :)

If you can learn to spot swollen caps and replace them you can make money ! :)

Read this http://www.testingelectroniccomponents.com/

Get stuck ? Ask me or these kids :)

http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=31

Service and training manuals

http://elektrotanya.com/

Screw workin for the man :D
 
People still repair TV's? Not in this country unfortunatly - cheaper to buy new than to pay $150 for an 'estimate', with the estimate being more than the price of a new one (when you can get a new 32" LCD HD for $300 or less). Its a throwaway society, people used to get VCR's fixed as well, but when you can get a DVD player for less than the cost of a DVD ($30) - why bother? Printers, ugh, why buy new ink when you can get a whole new one for the same price as the cartridges.

There IS money in broadcast repair, if you know RF repair, or professional audio repair you can do very well.
 
Just recently, the advice I received from a teacher was "Don't develop a hobby, develop a marketable skill." This was a man with a full time job in industry who teaches one night a week. I'm in his class as a hobby, it supports doing things that hopefully will someday be good enough to be seen here. But I have time for that because my socalled television career isn't doing so well.

Basically for me to call things I'm learning now a "Marketable skill" I'll either have to start building movie cars (Yeah, tremendous demand there---for MORE JOBS!) or give up on TV altogether.

I've always seen a great conflict between "Do what you love and you'll never have to work" and any opportunity to do these things you love. It's particularly odd in the TV world, not just in Hollywood, where you have something new with a TREMENDOUS NEED for some new skill and they start offering "Internships" for skills that people will be responding to bidding wars over. Dang, weren't they a bunch of idiots over refusing to pay big buck internet experts.

Near as I can tell, this place has done fairly well shifting away from gas and offering mostly electric. Doesn't look like a struggling outfit.

http://www.mxmracing.com/servlet/StoreFront
 
Generally I find it is very hard to find people willing to pay to fix things, however it's relatively easy to get broken things for free via Freecycle.org and similar mailing lists, and then repair them for resale.

However: you kinda have to pretend your time isn't worth anything with many of these items, as few people will pay enough for the item to cover both the repair parts cost and the time you spend on it. An exception is when you can salvage parts from another dead item to fix the first one, so it only costs you your time. Because of that I don't do very much of this kind of thing, but if I had lots of free time and no money coming in otherwise, it would be worth doing.
 
amberwolf said:
However: you kinda have to pretend your time isn't worth anything with many of these items...

[youtube]qIOIHywqwTY[/youtube]

:lol:
 
Leaving my last job-- my former dream job and the best paying job I ever had-- was one of the best things that ever happened to me. I've not regretted it for even a moment.

How much is is worth to have your own sovereignty?
 
amberwolf said:
Generally I find it is very hard to find people willing to pay to fix things, however it's relatively easy to get broken things for free via Freecycle.org and similar mailing lists, and then repair them for resale.

However: you kinda have to pretend your time isn't worth anything with many of these items, as few people will pay enough for the item to cover both the repair parts cost and the time you spend on it. An exception is when you can salvage parts from another dead item to fix the first one, so it only costs you your time. Because of that I don't do very much of this kind of thing, but if I had lots of free time and no money coming in otherwise, it would be worth doing.

I guess it is where you live. Where I live there is a lot of power surge damage and power supply repair for electronics is big.

Insurance pays for some and Teco for others.
 
Man i am really sorry about that :( I hate it when companies do things like that.And usually they behave like that when they have all the wrongs on there side.When i was fired i was working night shifts and they fired me at 6am after the night shift i was like wtf is happening now.Unfortunately here in Greece things are way worst that i can describe with words but mainly the thing is that if you loose your job you will not find another job as much as you try.I hope for the best.
 
I was working at Sperry computers in the 80s when they fired everyone that worked on the second floor.

That was where all the people that answered the phones worked.

They called them pencil pushers. They are the first to go.

They hired me because I knew how to program in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_language.
Z80, 8085, 6809 and such.

Did not lay off people that could do that.
 
Man what are we talking about these employers don't even value there time and money invested in people that working for them so long.And because they are afraid of people protesting they are sawing to people the back door ?

I want to say things that are not apropriete so i will stop now.

P.S.
Motherf@cking companies.....Be strong people s@it is coming from all over around the world
 
This is all great !.. 8)

I've had a few interesting emails from this thread, some good leads and some great ideas....

Got friends who spend their nights and weekends playing World of War and various FB time sucking activities. If i sit my ass at a computer screen it's to learn something at least ( ok..i admit to a few youtube " epic " or other similar funny video watching sessions once in a while ) ... but not wasted earning " player points " and reality gold lol... ( no offence to those here who do, it's your time to waste as you see fit )

Been enjoying the much needed vacation, it's different than work " vacation" , because i dont have that lingering thought of having to ever go back and counting the days like a bomb countdown.. day 2... day 1.. Booooom. back to work.

I can now see the floor in the " parts bedroom " , getting the house in order is way overdue, slow going but happening at my leisure. it's all good,.

Last week, talking with a friend, he's complaining about the corp bulllshit he's dealing with and red tape.. i used to feel like " Buddy, you dont know jack about corp bs, try a week in a call centre.. then we can talk " ... but now i feel more like " you poor bastard.. " lol.. I might have a different viewpoint come next june.. like " shut up, at least you got food to eat "
 
Ypedal said:
This is all great !.. 8)

I've had a few interesting emails from this thread, some good leads and some great ideas....

Got friends who spend their nights and weekends playing World of War and various FB time sucking activities. If i sit my ass at a computer screen it's to learn something at least ( ok..i admit to a few youtube " epic " or other similar funny video watching sessions once in a while ) ... but not wasted earning " player points " and reality gold lol... ( no offence to those here who do, it's your time to waste as you see fit )

Been enjoying the much needed vacation, it's different than work " vacation" , because i dont have that lingering thought of having to ever go back and counting the days like a bomb countdown.. day 2... day 1.. Booooom. back to work.

I can now see the floor in the " parts bedroom " , getting the house in order is way overdue, slow going but happening at my leisure. it's all good,.

Last week, talking with a friend, he's complaining about the corp bulllshit he's dealing with and red tape.. i used to feel like " Buddy, you dont know jack about corp bs, try a week in a call centre.. then we can talk " ... but now i feel more like " you poor bastard.. " lol.. I might have a different viewpoint come next june.. like " shut up, at least you got food to eat "

I read and never in my life have I had enough time to read all the books I want to.

Every book I have ever read changed me.

Don't like to stay the same. :)
 
Alastor said:
Man what are we talking about these employers don't even value there time and money invested in people that working for them so long.And because they are afraid of people protesting they are sawing to people the back door ?

I want to say things that are not apropriete so i will stop now.

P.S.
Motherf@cking companies.....Be strong people s@it is coming from all over around the world

I was also at Sperry when they sold the company.

My boss had worked there for many years and was about to retire.

He had lots of stock in the company.

He showed me a letter from Sperry begging him not to sell his stock because they were not going to sell the company.

That letter was dated the very same day they sold the company.

I quit soon after. That was the last time I worked for the man.

Screw the man. I bet I can make more profit on a 32" Samsung than Samsung can ! :)
 
I just got back home tonight from about 2 and a half weeks weeks of a caravan trip with my wife and four kids in our small poptop caravan. The kids had a blast, and all grew and developed more in that two and half weeks than they have in the past six months. No TV (by my error not choice - but then total pleasure), no toy other than pushibke and surf and floatation device, and intense and inescapable time with each other. Both me and my wife agreed that coming home was so depressing, because we had been so happy on the trip. Before we had kids we travelled around Australia for a year, and we agreed it brought back all that happiness - at the simplicity of what makes you happy.

Before the trip I had finished the manuscript for a text book I had been working on for a year which is about to be published, and hence am now out of a job. I had hoped that on the trip I might work out what the hell comes next, but inspiration didn't really strike, and I still don't know what the hell I am doing after Christmas to feed the hungry mouths.

But I know this, my life has moved in techtonic shifts, usually based on naive and ill informed decisions (most of the main ones in my twenties were fuelled by mdma, and they all turned out to be highly wise and awesome choices) - and that is not surprising in my opinion, because if one truth has proven itself to me time and time again, it is the aphorism stated by the standup comedian Bill Hicks: "there is just fear and love, and it is a choice". People think the polar opposite of love is hate, but it isn't, it is fear. Every time I ran from fear, and embraced love, shit went real good. Looking around at all this useless material shit I don't even like, and the four precious kids and dear wife I just put to bed (before meandering into the garage for some late night shaman herbal teaching) is proof to me.

Do you what you love, and love what you do.

I am going back to the garage....

[youtube]iMUiwTubYu0[/youtube]
 
Phil, I have found the same phenomena. When the wifey and I get away from all the electronics, and get back in the woods with Mr. Daniels, the memories come back, the blood pressure drops, and life seems more vibrant and fun again. The smell of wood smoke in my flannel shirts makes me smile in the morning!
 
Phil, I have found the same phenomena. When the wifey and I get away from all the electronics, and get back in the woods with Mr. Daniels, the memories come back, the blood pressure drops, and life seems more vibrant and fun again. The smell of wood smoke in my flannel shirts makes me smile in the morning!

It is amazing how fast you realise how little you need to be happy right? The thing I was surprised at was the things I enjoyed getting back and those I didn't miss. I thought I would be most happy to get back the creature comforts, but to be honest, I didn't miss them at all. I have very small toddlers (twins), and I appreciated a fence and gate and not worrying about them drowning all the time. But I also had a late night reflection where I wondered what if I hadn't got back all my material shit. I have a mentor who is 78 from South Africa, and I have other unrelated friends who are exiles/expats from both there and Zimbabwe, those friends are the most inspiring and magical of people. Losing all the things you thought were fundamental is liberating and also horrific.
 
bigmoose said:
When the wifey and I get away from all the electronics, and get back in the woods with Mr. Daniels, the memories come back, the blood pressure drops, and life seems more vibrant and fun again.

Mr. Daniels? Are you talking about my friend Jack? I feel the same way about that guy!
 
Yes, that would be his first name, Jack. Introduced to me by my Father, highly respected by my Uncle Irv, Uncle Andy, Steve and Brian. Always found time to be with us on our poker nights and our trips to the woods. :D
 
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