Thursday, February 14, 2008

Jared's Secret Life: Unemployment

Hey guys. If you read the banner this week, you were promised juicy fun facts. If you didn't, I'll still share a bit.
About a year and a half ago, I got a job. Thing is, while the site does bring in some income, it's hard to live in Germany without something more regular. Plus getting into the German healthcare system rocks. 10 euros one-time fee that covers every doctor I want to see in the next 4 months? How cool is that? Anyway, I rarely talk about my "real life." Online life? Sure. My artistic adventures? Sure. My health? Sometimes, when I need an excuse. My dayjob? Never.
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I bring this up now because, well, I was fired. Um. No, not really. My contract wasn't extended which, to be honest, isn't a big deal. And I'm getting about 3.5 month's salary advanced to me as a sort of settlement that actually has me cleaning out my desk with a little spring in my step. The good news? It means I can finally get back to where I was a year or so ago. Have you noticed the occasional update problems? The lack of Art Crashes? The lack of my ability to freely go apeshit insane and paint/write all night? No? Well, it's something that I've noticed and it's been bugging me for a while now. And while I would never have quit my job being set free feels pretty good right now.

The job was running the UK community of a German-owned consumer report website. It was a pretty cool thing and I would have told more of you about it...only if I'd done that and you'd actually used the damn thing it would have created more work for me. So in a weird way, keeping you guys out of my dayjob kept me from having to work too hard. Now that I'm gone....well, check this out. The website is dooyoo.co.uk and, to be frank, it's a pretty sweet thing that I'm surprised more people don't know about. The gimmick is that they want you to write goofy little reviews of ANYTHING and they pay you. The pay is in dooyooMILES and can be cashed out for buying stuff on Amazon but honestly, if you're one of the freaks who writes reviews on IMDB or Amazon, I'd say check it out. And again, since I don't work there anymore, go crazy. It's not a bad site nor a bad former employer....I can honestly say it was surreal to get paid to monitor writers who feel compelled to write 5000 word reviews about a particular brand of shampoo. No, really. 5000 words on a shampoo. When a company is willing to pay you to review ANYTHING, people get....creative. Check it out. And I'm not just saying that because my boss agreed to pay me what I would have earned for the next 4 months. Well, maybe a little.

So back on topic:
Jared. With lots of free time.
You know what that means?
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Everything.

PS: I'll post some Opera photos next week. I've mentioned my Opera work on the website often enough that it's high time I actually shared some of it.
-Jared