Unemployment Increases
More bad news, as Unemployment jumps to 5.5%. In my part of Michigan, it’s creeping toward 8%.
God I wish I could leave this state.
More bad news, as Unemployment jumps to 5.5%. In my part of Michigan, it’s creeping toward 8%.
God I wish I could leave this state.
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24 comments
God doesn’t sell Greyhound Bus or Amtrak tickets. But if you ask him, he will probably lean down from heaven and say to you:
"Mr Esmay, The last time I looked at the small part of my celestial map on which you reside, I saw that the United States of America comprises 50 states. Also, knowing you as I do, I can plainly see there is no piano tied to your ass."
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Arnold,
Piano? No. Two kids whose lives he wants to remain part of? Yes.
I don’t envy Dean that situation: opportunities and his kids are not currently co-located. But I respect his determination to remain a part of their lives. If that requires a little privation on his part, then I respect him more for it.
Of course, my respect doesn’t help him as much as a job would…
Yeah. I found Arnold’s response a tad rude. Piano? No. Two kids he loves? Yes.
I think God sees that.
I’ve wanted to leave for years. Doing so would mean abandoning my children, and would more or less guarantee that I would never have any meaningful relationship with Draco at all. Jacob I might be able to maintain something with by flying back to Detroit once a month, frequent phone calls, internet, etc. but I might as well just declare "I’m not Draco’s father" if I leave this area.
No way. I’d die first.
Oh, look…
The minimum wage increases, and summer jobs go away. I’m shocked.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/80448-is-the-minimum-wage-increase-behind-the-50-jobless-rate-jump
Dean, I haven’t seen your resume, but I do know you are a good writer, you know how to research a topic, and you are familiar with most news and information sources of value. Has it occurred to you to try and do some writing? professionally?
There are zillions of writing contracts out there for the taking. Its easy money if you have the time (whch is why I dont do it myself).
one great resource to help you get started is:
http://www.thegoldenpencil.com/
and they usually post a weekly jobs list of writing contracts that need to be filled.
Writing a book is not a good way to start a writing career. its better to build yourself up by doing freelance jobs like above. My own sister has started from scratch and is earning serious money now in Chicago as a writer, too, in much the same way.
Also, what about jobs in Windsor, or in Toledo?
Hmm, interesting, let me look into that writing thing. I’d like to write for a living–I’ve done it before, mostly in an office context–so maybe I should look at that. Most of what I hear from people is that regular work freelancing is very hard to get, and that was my experience when I tried before, but maybe things have changed?
As for other locations: Windsor would be do-able geographically but what I’ve been told is that to even think about employment anywhere in Canada you have to have a work permit. Canadians can come here and get a job without issue, but Canadians want Canadians hired preferentially, so Windsor businesses don’t even bother advertising much for employees from the Detroit market. Unless something’s changed recently.
Toledo would be on the far edge of what’s do-able. I get two three hour weekly visits with Draco and that would be a long-ass haul back to this area.
Aziz, that is an interesting site. But, geez, when the first post I read has two glaring errors, I have to wonder if that’s one reason for so many openings!
Dean, you dont need to freelance for "office" contracts, freelance writing jobs are all over the place and its insane how many there are. Check out the archives on the site i linked and you will see. its money sitting around for you to take.
Also, check the job boards at problogger.net too, as there are plenty of freelance blog-writing jobs available too.
Toledo looks to be an hour’s drive. I commuted longer than that while living in Houston
Dean,
I will personally take Jake & Drake to visit you anywhere in the US you decide to go. They will not be out of your life. It’s not that I want you to leave the state, I’m just tired of the excuses. The entire US economy sucks, but if you can find a place to work in another state, then go for it.
Jerry
PS. I broke my pledged silence here because your boy popped off on Rose’s site.
Jerry: If you are willing to fly Draco on a plane once a week to see me, and think you can actually get him on a plane, I’m all ears. You have my phone#, give me a call.
Regarding "excuses": fuck off.
Also, Kevin is not "my boy" and what he posts is none of my business, but I’ll ask him not to post on your site if you like. Mostly, that should be up to you. He doesn’t ask my permission before he posts anything, nor does he have or need my blessings before commenting anywhere.
In the meantime, I’m disabling your account, because clearly you don’t know how to keep personal shit out of the blogosphere, and can’t respond to anything I say without attacking me personally. Given your own family’s problems, I find the hypocrisy to be unbearable, too.
i predict a followup post at QOAE soon.
No lie. Most won’t be directly about me, but it’ll all be about how addiction is a character flaw and not a disease, how because I don’t have a full-time job yet I’m a worthless bum not supporting his children, etc. And, assuming I do get a job that pays no more than unemployment insurance does (which a lot of them that I’m down to applying to now do), then I’ll be a loser and a bum for that reason. His mom, who was never a stay-at-home mom due to any permanent agreement–we were supposed to share job and childrearing responsibilities, and often did–will still be the saint and the victim of the evil neanderthal drunkard bum.
That’s just how divorced dads are typically treated in this country.
God forbid Jerry should ever get divorced, and discover that Tifany can leave him for any reason, take his daughter with her, reject any efforts at any kind of reconciliation, have absolute control over when and where he can or can’t see her, and oh, by the way, take away half his income in child support and alimony. If that ever happens, I’ll try to give him a fuck of a lot more sympathy than he’s given me. But I’ll be damned if I openly wish it happens to him, because I don’t. It’s too painful for words, and no one should have to go through it.
He’s a good man, but the "let’s hate on Dean because he got a lawyer and wants to be part of his kid’s lives" club is more than a little hard to take, which is why I actively avoid that blog anymore.
I went to an AA meeting yesterday because, while I don’t normally go on Sundays I was missing my kids so badly, and the pain was so intense, I needed to talk to someone who understood. While there, mentioning my frustration, and my efforts not to nurse or hold onto anger or resentment at others who are being mean to me, I heard a great line.:
"Why are you letting these mean people take up space rent-free in your head?"
Heh. Good one. I’ll try to remember it.
(AA meetings are always good for pithy lines like that.)
>>can leave him for any reason, take his daughter with her, reject any efforts at any kind of reconciliation, have absolute control over when and where he can or can’t see her, and oh, by the way, take away half his income in child support and alimony.
Yeeaah. I’m all like "F**K MARRIAGE!!1!" these days. Not out of any phobic non-committal crap, either. Just ain’t worth the hassle.
Sorry all this happened online, Dean. Way I see it, you’re either gonna have to move or get a business rolling. Maybe talk with Arnold about the latter…. He’s ornery, sure, but he’s full of advice about that stuff.
Yeah, well, the kids need insurance, so I need a day job to get that. Unless we finally get sensible medical insurance reform, anyway.
I’ve run my own business before and it failed, so I’m not that great a businessman, although I’m working on making this blog a money-making enterprise like it used to be so I can at least get that.
Dean, respectfully, that means you have to ruthlessly purge all this personal crap from the site. I’m convinced it’s driving away readers, and that’s no way to make a money-making site.
Open threads used to be a regular carnival around here. Now it’s me and Jan and McK and Sandi and maybe a couple others talking past each other. That looks to me like you’ve lost readers.
Well, there’s surprisingly little of the "personal crap" if you look at it, and, honestly, when I started blogging I always said I’d write about whatever I wanted to write about without worrying about it. My one concession on that has been to avoid swearing on the front page, and, I’ve studiously avoided posting much of anything about the divorce, which, I think you’ll have to agree, has mostly been the case.
Commenting dropped off very sharply when we switched systems. My gut says it’s just because people didn’t want to re-register. That’s building back up.
I’m not gonna change who I am to blog. I’ve said that many times over the years when someone suggested I change. I resist, because while this is a business, if it becomes too much of a business (it already takes away my time) I won’t want to do it anymore.
Have faith, padawan, I’m sure things’ll be fine.
martin, to be honest apart from the single front page post six months ago, itself only 8 words long, there hant been much personal drama from dean here at all. most of it came from jerry, and hes banned now.
dean i amm curious though whether site traffic after the move is still constant or not.
Traffic’s about what it was before the move. Comments are down. But as I’ve always maintained, there’s no real link between comment traffic and reader traffic. Although I’m pretty sure that without the excellent commenters we generally have, we’d have fewer readers long-term.
I don’t know how anyone can even stand reading your average online forum with countless branching threads and/or hundreds of comments in response to a random posting. I know I can’t stand it. I’d rather have 20 thoughtful, informed commenters than any random 500 from, say, LGF or DKos. (And yes, there are good people and good commenters on those sites, I just don’t know how anyone can find the patience to find them from the front page alone.)
Dean,
Yes. Yes. Yes.
And me, I like reading the personal stuff.
Painful or ugly as it may be, it makes everything seem, well, kind of personal.
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[…] much… so very, very much… that is so stupid, so nuts, so God - help - Michigan about this. Where to begin? How to say […]
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