Personal Update – 9 Sept 2020

Greetings and Salutations!

I know it’s been a while since I last posted. I’ve been blessed with yet another life change, and this one is turning out to be better than I’d thought it would be.

I grew up believing I had to have a steady job with benefits and such outside the home to have a “real” job. That it wasn’t a proper job if I didn’t have to leave home to work. With my health issues, I’ve struggled to find work that wouldn’t cause my condition to worsen, even a little bit. Time was doing a great job of that all by itself, it didn’t need my help. Anyway, because of this, I never felt right trying to get a stay at home job, not even when I had kids.

Covid-19 has thrown everything for a loop, and it has caused me a lot of sleepless nights worrying about work and my financial stability. I lost my job at the plant early in the year and was in a panic until I got a job at a gas station about a month later. While out of work, I started paying more attention to my freelance writing efforts as I may have mentioned in another post. Then, a month ago, or so, I lost my job at the gas station – I can’t abide fools and the general manager there is one of the biggest fools that I did my best to deal with before I had to give it up or go to jail. Seriously.

I’ve been forced to really focus on my freelancing efforts, and I have joined several sites. Upwork and I are not on speaking terms right now, and I’m not feeling too friendly towards Freelancer.com right now either. I don’t have the time or patience to deal with searching for work and bidding. I have tried on Freelancer but most of the people whom I’ve dealt with so far have had language issues with me. They also wanted me to work for far less than I get paid on other sites, and I can’t do that. My two biggest sources of revenue are Textbroker and Guru. I was surprised by Guru, but it has panned out for me. In fact, I’m working as a Virtual Assistant now because of an employer on Guru. The income I will make from these three sources will take care of my debts, and I’ll eventually be able to move closer to my gentleman friend.

Other than scrambling to pay bills, I have spent some time with my gentleman friend, he is still tied to a traditional job though I am gently encouraging him to spend more time on the business he has started and only uses as a side hustle. He could do so much more on his own and have a lot less stress. Still, it’s his choice.

That’s it for now folks, I hope this finds you well and doing what you love. See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Guru.com – Freelancing

I’d written a post about my experience with Textbroker, a freelance writing site I’ve had a lot of good work from. They post article writing jobs mostly, but the subjects vary a great deal. I’m still writing for them on almost a daily basis.

Guru is a freelancing site offering a wide variety of jobs like web design, photography, writing and a great deal more. The set up is a bit of a trial, but it’s well worth the effort. Getting jobs isn’t as easy as Textbroker either – you don’t just pick a job, do it and hope it gets accepted.

On Guru, you find a job you want and submit a quote for it. Free members only get so many a month and then, you have to pay for more. Quotes – not jobs. The job list is always available to look at. There are a lot of users on Guru so some jobs have more quotes submitted than others. It can take a while to get an employer to notice you if you’re not a premium member.

It’s taken me a couple of months of putting in quotes to get noticed. I wasn’t doing it all the time to be honest, but I put more effort into it in the last week or so. I was talking to two potential employers over the last few days, and one of them hired me today. 🙂

I highly recommend checking out the site just to see what it’s like. Who knows, you might see a job you want to try for.

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!

Personal Update – March 20

The world is under attack by a virus – something that acts like the flu but is much worse. It hits people over 60 and those with chronic conditions that weaken their immune systems harder than anyone else. New cases pop up all the time it seems, and the death toll is rising. Countries are closing their borders, banning travel out of, into and through out their lands. The media is having a field day reporting only bad news and not really sharing the good news. The good news, more people have recovered from this virus than have died from it. You don’t hear about that though.

I am one of those who are “at risk” as I take a medication that suppresses my immune system. I tested positive for the virus, the COVID-19, and I’m on self isolation until I either recover or get worse which will mean quarantine at an air force base in Houston Texas, or possibly Beaumont. I haven’t asked about that because I don’t think I’m going to be that bad. I hope not at any rate.

Keeping Busy:

This is what the futon in my livinroom looks like with my last two projects on it. The plush is the Valentine’s gift my gentleman friend got for me because he knows how much I like cats. He’s so sweet! I have decided to go through my bookmarks and make the projects on those pages. I have quite a few bookmarks so it’s going to take me a while. Currently, I have two afghans and a body pillow in the works. When I run out of yarn, I have crochet thread I can work with. 🙂

Work: I had to quit my job. Not just because I have an infectios virus but because I could get sick again working there. The company doesn’t provide paid sick days. It penalizes you for missing even a single day, and it doesn’t excuse more than one or two days even with doctor excuses. People come to work with the common cold, flu, bronchitis, even pneumonia with several I only heard about!! The place is kept cold, sure, but I am susceptible to even the smallest, most benign of these conditions. My doctor advised me I needed to find a different job or I risk getting sick again. The second time might not be so gentle on me.

Cooking:

I found a recipe for pierogis online, and I love pierogis so I decided to make some. The recipe said I could use anything for the filling if I didn’t want to go traditional. I didn’t have any potatoes or sausage so, I used what I had. I diced up two different kinds of squash, some yellow onion and some mushrooms. I used ricotta cheese as well. The sauce is Tahini sauce, just a little thicker than what you find in restaurants. I love the smoky taste of the roasted sesame seed this sauce has, and it was perfect for the pierogis!! I’m going to make more when I can get more flour and some potatoes for a more traditional dish. Next experiment: Korean pancakes!!

Writing: I’m doing some freelance writing while I slowly put the second draft of Golden Knave on the computer. I don’t really like typing on a computer, but I’m getting better at it from all the stuff I’m doing. I’m learning a lot about freelancing, and I might write some posts about my experiences, if anyone is interested. Let me know, please.

Randomness: I tried watching Harrow, but I’m having a hard time relating to the man, Harrow, himself. I can’t stand his girlfriend, one of the others in the ensemble cast. I don’t like how she behaves. The rest of the cast is okay. I watched three episodes of Manifest and lost interest. I watched half of the first season of 9-1-1, and I like it.

I’ve also read the book before the newest one by J.D. Robb, and I’ll write a review for it soon.

I watched a couple of movies, The Osiris Child and the 10th Kingdom. I’ll write reviews for them too.

Not much else is going on right now since I’m stuck inside, but I’ll try to keep writing articles for you to read. 🙂

See you on the flipside and don’t forget your towel and sonic screwdriver!!