Nate. London. I used to be motivated, then life happened. Blog's mainly personal posts, military stuff, politics and the 2nd Amendment. If you have pronouns in your description, I'm probably going to laugh at you
This is super cool but it doesn’t include the text instructions! Here’s the original imgur gallery with some comments on each image, and here is a detailed tutorial that the creator made (he also made the code free to use on his github) in case you want to make one yourself!
I was 50/50 on my career track before because of the way things have been going under Trump and the amount of money i’m earning from being a consultant, but this has pretty much sealed the deal on my decision whether or not to go military once I get my green card.
There was a time when I thought it was my patriotic duty to give something back once I got my green card and the eventual citizenship that would come through that. Service seemed like the perfect way. But the fact that USCIS and DoD are willing to hang immigrants out to dry and leave them in questionable legal status pretty much makes it clear that I don’t owe them anything.
Time to start re-evaluating whether I even want to open myself up to a lifetime of tax liability to Uncle Sam (the US is one of 2 countries in the world that still taxes by citizenship instead of residency) by actually accepting my green card when it becomes available or if Germany/Norway are better countries to be based…
Since once in a blue moon I actually discover a decent rule for adulting, and since I know I have followers a few years younger than me who are just entering the workforce, I want to tell you about a very important phrase.
“I won’t be available.”
Imagine you’re at work and your boss asks you to come in on Saturday. Saturday is usually your day off–coming in Saturdays is not an obligation to keep your job. Maybe you were going to watch a movie with a friend, or maybe you were just going to lie in bed and eat ice cream for eight hours, but either way you really, really don’t want to give up your day off.
If you consider yourself a millennial you’ve probably been raised to believe you need to justify not being constantly at work. And if you’re a gen-Z kid you’re likely getting the same toxic messages that we did. So in a situation like that, you might be inclined to do one of three things:
Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Cave when they pressure you to come in anyway, since you’re not doing anything important.
Tell your boss you’d rather not give up your day off. Over-apologize and worry that you looked bad/unprofessional.
Lie and say you’ve got a doctor’s appointment or some other activity that feels like an adequate justification for not working.
The fact is, it doesn’t matter to your boss whether you’re having open heart surgery or watching anime in your underwear on Saturday. The only thing that affects them is the fact that you won’t be at work. So telling them why you won’t be at work only gives them reason to try and pressure you to come in anyway.
If you say “I won’t be available,” giving no further information, you’d be surprised how often that’s enough. Be polite and sympathetic in your tone, maybe even say “sorry, but I won’t be available.” But don’t make an excuse. If your boss is a professional individual, they’ll accept that as a ‘no’ and try to find someone else.
But bosses aren’t always professional. Sometimes they’re whiny little tyrants. So, what if they pressure you further? The answer is–politely and sympathetically give them no further information.
“Are you sure you’re not available?” “Sorry, but yes.”
“Why won’t you be available?” “I have a prior commitment.” (Which you do, even if it’s only to yourself.)
“What’s your prior commitment?” “Sorry, but that’s kind of personal.”
“Can you reschedule it?” “I’m afraid not. Maybe someone else can come in?”
If you don’t give them anything to work with, they can’t pressure you into going beyond your obligations as an employee. And when they realize that, they’ll also realize they have to find someone else to come in and move on.
I am seriously contemplating withdrawing my green card application
For the first time in a long time, I’m looking at the US from a global perspective and it’s not got the same allure that it had prior to 2016. A lot of stuff is happening Stateside that I completely disagree with, and I’m saying that as someone who defended waterboarding and EITs as necessary steps to ensure national security.
I don’t recognize the nation I was once willing to take a bullet for, and not only does that sadden me, it’s forcing me to seriously re-evaluate how I want to spend the next 10 years of my life.
Back to work. The first week was pretty weird. Going from doing whatever I wanted at any speed i wanted to having to slow everything down and just…deal with people was definitely interesting. Riding has kicked my ADHD into overdrive. Constantly scanning the road and looking for things that can kill me (namely idiot drivers, diesel spots on the road and every biker’s arch nemesis…gravel) effectively means most of the time i’m hypervigilant. Going from that to sitting at a desk for 7 hours a day staring at a screen getting project work done was like going from 150mph to 10.
The new contract is sweet though. Casual dress code, motorbike parking, on-site gym, which means I get to work out after work and I have ZERO excuses for missing a workout now, and my team are chill.
Oh I also look like a rockstar because the contractor they hired before me didn’t really get anything done, so in the week and a half that I’ve been with the client, I’ve ticked off enough boxes to bring the project back on schedule.
Being back in the gym is doing a metric fuckton for my self-image/ego as well. It feels fucking amazing just being able to put in headphones, put on my baseball cap and just lift. I finish work before everyone else so I effectively get the entire gym to myself. It’s pretty damn great.
Going dark on the social scene for a few weeks to get things in order, but once the first paycheck clears from this, I’ll have enough to wipe out my credit card debt, stick at least 5k into savings and have enough left over to cover expenses till about April.
Things are good. 2018′s off to a good start. Here’s hoping it continues
It’s been about 4 months since I finished my last contract. In that time I’ve kinda isolated myself from everyone by just riding my motorbike. I used to love being in the company of people, but now it just feels really awkward and…slow.
Riding my motorbike lets me completely control every single element of my experience. Things are as fast or as slow as I want them to be. I’ve noticed that when I’m with people, things are always slower, and i’m usually stuck in situations for longer than I want to be because it’s not really polite to just get up and leave. My tolerance level for everyone has dropped significantly in the last 4 months.
I’m supposed to be starting a new contract today, but I’m delaying till the 3rd of Jan. Yes, I’ve got things that need to be taken care of today, and yes, I’m still feeling pretty wrecked from NYE, but the real reason I’m delaying starting this job isn’t because I need the time urgently. It’s because I’m scared of having to go back to dealing with people for 8 solid hours a day. But because I can’t really talk about this with anyone, I’m giving myself an additional 24 hours to get ready, then sucking it up and going to work.
The majority of my life has been encountering a problem, internalizing it, then sucking it up and moving forward. This is no different.
It’s just a little strange how so much time spent away from the world can really mess with you when you return to it
