Yeah I've been thinking about using AI for shit. I'm on vacation next week so I'm going to spend some time reorganizing everything and getting all my shit back in order
lol I technically make less than 23 right now because I'm on salary and am there all the time, but it's a lot more than a normal wage still. I also have a meeting soon to renegotiate my pay because I want about a 25% increase to account for what I'm actually doing or a re-evaluation of our duties so that that my responsibilities are more in line with my pay. Depending on how that goes I'm prepared to give notice and move on, I don't mind taking less money so I'd have time for the rest of my life, but I'd rather they just fucking pay me enough to justify the commitment on my end. Plus right now I hold pretty much all the cards since I'm the only one actually qualified for my position.
The other chef was there before me and got his position by virtue of being the only adult when the old general manager got married and didn't want to deal with the kitchen all the time, and happened to be in the position when the GM quit. New GM is fine with front of house but doesn't know enough about the kitchen side to really do anything or notice that I'm the one primarily maintaining it. Last time I left they hired like 3 people to replace me and there was still a noticeable drop in quality, so I got offered like 6 dollars an hour more and a pretty significant summer bonus to come back
So honestly even if I leave I think it would last a couple of months until it's obvious that I am not exactly replaceable and then I would be in an even better position.
But as of right now I have two other job offers that are reasonably close to what my hourly equivalency would be, and I would probably have more time for my other projects. The gap would be pretty easy to fill up if I had time to do my side jobs. I use to do some catering and private events, personal lessons, consultations, ect, and I charge like 120 an hour for those. But they aren't consistent enough for a full time job, too small of a town. And I'm not allowed to move for another year until my probation is over
Plus I have a storage room full of broken consoles I need to fix. I need to build a little reflow oven so I can manufacture some mod chips still, but it'll get there.
I would like to get out of cooking in general at some point in the next ten years, but for the time being I can make decent money and pump that into savings. I've been taking some engineering classes online, but those aren't exactly career oriented at the moment, but I think getting into electronic or computer engineering of some sort would be ideal. I'm just going to keep taking some classes here and there until there's one that I am really into.
I was buying them on Ebay, but it's pretty competitive, so more recently I've just been telling the thrift stores to call me and I will come take all their electronics they can't sell. I've volunteered there before and people use them like a dump sometimes, and so they just have a massive amount of broken shit they throw away
The local GoodWill was pretty into it, surprisingly the animal shelter store was not. The lady I talked to there seemed to think I was trying to steal stuff or something, she wasn't very nice about it. Like I'm just trying to stop you having to throw a bunch of electronics away, if you can sell it great. I'd probably pay you for the broken shit too if you wanted
Then I make posts on Facebook yard sale pages sometimes saying I want your old electronics, but Facebook being Facebook people on there are also wary about why I want it, then want a bunch of money like it's going to be very worth it
Sooner than later I'm going to get my archives business going a little more. I need some office space that is kind of hard to get at the moment, but without it, I have to be like "Yeah so go ahead and just leave your family heirlooms and hundred year old photographs here at my shitty apartment and give me a thousand dollars, and next month I'll give you a thumb drive. I promise I'll take care of them!"
I can do some things with them at their home, but when people have thousands of slides and very delicate newspaper clippings and things, not really practical. I
I would be there for days, even with my camera set up slides can take a long time, and if they want perfect captures I really need to use my scanners that are professionally made for that. My camera rig works well for what it is, but for enlargements and things it's not as good.
Console repair can be worthwhile, but it's also not a thing I can do at scale in my house. I just don't have room for the equipment. I need an office that I can segregate out for archival and then electronic restoration.
But in order for that to be real, I need more time, and for more time I need to work less, and to work less I need a different job, and for a different job I need more money to fall back on so that I can make enough to just pay like, rent and utilities and use my savings to find these projects
Maybe you can do console repair just as a side thing, especially if there's so much competition business might be slow. Or do you need a lot of special equipment for that?
I recently bought a used sauna and the preowner told me some component is broken, I took a look and it was just a burnt fuse, really cheap to fix. I was real proud of my self since I usually have two left hands for this kinda stuff
I am still playing Shapez 2. What an awful thing to happen, Varine, and hopefully everything has been sorted out soon. Always use multi-factor authentication whenever you have the opportunity to do so.