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  • eltortugatranquilo
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    Whoa horse!
    I have to hop off this merry-go-round .You all make valid points,some more clearly than others.Best wishes landing that job unkle sam....
  • unkle sam
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    Thanks Marye
    I've been off site for a while and wasn't here to help Marye defend my post ie "say no to drug tests"First off, I want to appoligize for offending Stuman, gee Stu, I didn't say YOU were lame, slow etc... and thank the stars there are some drug free workers out there who are not lame, slow, uninformed. What I was referring to is that there are quality drivers, mechanics and even astrophysics who smoke but can't get a job due to drugtests. And even the best drug free mechanic can forget to tighten a bolt. I, personally, don't even consider pot smokers as "drug users", I wouldn't want a "drug user" to fix my car, but pot smokers, that's another story. Pot smokers aren't gonna rob you for a joint. I think lumping these two together is where the entire "misinformation" begins. It's like comparing apples to oranges. Stu, pot smokers do deliver cd's and dvd's, and most rodies I've ever known were smokers. I realize by rereading your many posts on this subject that you got p/oed, but you are very critical of smokers and completely closed minded about it. And, please tell me what is NORMAL? I agree with Marye and thank you for clarifying what my point was, you must know someone in the same boat who could not get a job due to non conformity, what I or anyone does off the job is no one's business and should not have anything to do with job performance PERIOD, if I screw up, then do what you must and I will accept the consequences, but to judge me, even before I have been hired, is insane, closed minded, and "slow, lame and misinformed" Marye said it best, it is these workplaces and limited education that is in question. Who wants to work for (or with) a bunch of mindless conformists? It is these companies that hire the "clean and sober" even if "slow and ill informed" just because they don't partake over the sometimes better, more qualified smoker that I am referring to. This is a personal observation that I have witnessed in the past 23 months. Once again, thank you Marye for being the voice of reason on this site, and Stu, keep on truckin on that straight and narrow road. Peace
  • Musky_Ranger
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    I Fish
    I'm a semi-retired tyedied MBA and I spend most of my time doing stuff related to fresh water fishing.
  • marye
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    no, and I didn't say I felt that way about people who don't
    smoke pot. A group that includes many of my good friends, a lot of musicians whose work I like, etc. etc. I also heartily salute those who decide a particular substance is not their friend and commit to staying away from it. The subject at hand with that description was the qualities of companies that required drug tests as a condition of employment. While those terms may be a bit over the top, I do think a company that makes a point of its drug-free workplace is probably going to be into mindless conformity and unquestioned authority on other fronts. It's the unquestioned intrusive authoritarianism I've got the issue with, and not just with regard to drugs. Also I think what you do off the clock is your own business, but that is a can of worms for another day. A writer at the Chronicle famously got fired for marching in a peace demonstration one time, because journalists aren't supposed to do that stuff. And so it goes.
  • stuman
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    thanks for the blessings marye
    but do you really feel this way about people who don`t smoke pot ? lame, slow, uninformed, no passion for their work On February 24th, 2010 marye said: and also a stunning lack of critical thinking skills and horror of people who display any. thats a pretty vicious attack against people who choose to be clean.
  • marye
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    and as for my clean and sober friends
    God bless 'em and their right to make that choice for themselves!
  • marye
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    stuman
    this was actually a pretty big issue in Silicon Valley about 20 years back. Tech companies tended to not care or even tacitly encourage it until federal funding started being contingent on "drug-free workplaces" and suddenly programmers were having to pee into cups to keep their jobs. The issue of working impaired and the issue of what substances are in one's system vary wildly from person to person and job to job. The issue should be impairment, not chemistry.
  • marye
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    I think the idea is
    not a matter of disrespect for people's own judgment on their personal substance limits, which lord knows deserve respect, but of disrespect for the sort of workplace that requires testing for drugs as a condition of employment, a requirement that, evidence suggests, involves a certain amount of Kool-Aid drinking of another sort. Of course there are situations where people's safety is involved and drug testing is legit. But as an employment screening thing for office jobs and the like, it's a clear, and irrelevant to the actual work, deterrent to Those People. Questioners of authority and so on.
  • stuman
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    just one more thing
    Do pot smokers deliver the truck loads of you favorite bands CD`s and DVD`s to the store for your enjoyment ? Or do pot smokers deliver the bands equipment to the next arena ? NO I don`t think so !! Think about the ways you think , or is it the weed that keeps you closed minded ? unable to think clearly . Think about it , think about the folks who give up the ability to smoke weed so YOU can have a normal life .
  • stuman
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    lame, slow, uninformed, no passion for their work ????
    Wel I for one don`t smoke weed ! Clean and sober except for a beer or two every two to three weeks . Besides for being under employed , I happen to LOVE what I do ! I take great passion for doing my work . weather it be driving a truck or working on someones car .I do my job well and folks love me for it. The smiles on Grandma`s face when she can drive herself to the market , it`s Pricless !! " lame, slow, uninformed," maybe the one who wrote this should take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror . Do pot smokers deliver you groceries to the market you shop at , or any goods that you need to survive . I don`t think so . Do pot heads and drug users make for quality mechanics , I never seen one . And Marye , well hell I thought you where better then that . I am shocked in horror to hear that you really think that way .
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17 years 7 months
What is it that you do, anyway?
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Railway despatcher on the East Coast Mainline in the UK - 30 years service this coming October. Doesnt time fly when you're having fun.
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17 years 6 months
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I work in the travel/timeshare sales industry. Good $, but it sucks being the pushy, salesman type guy.
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17 years 6 months
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I work for a Telecommunications contractor in PA. My job setup the signal levels on the forward and return paths then certify the plant to the systems and FCC specs. This job means alot of traveling and looking forward to the Grateful Dead channel on Sirrus to help pass the miles.
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17 years 4 months
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I'm a registered nurse currently working in pediatric homecare - visit cases and in-home nursing care of kids many of whom in years past would have been institutionalized or hospitalized longer for their needs. During the summer I took time off and worked at a camp mission in northeastern PA which hosts foster and underprivileged children and teens from NYC. Five busloads of kids come in at a time. It was a high just working with these incredible kids for their ten-day stays. I loved every exhausting minute of it. Hope to do it again next summer. The camp is nearby Mountain Laurel where Rat Dog just played last Sat. night, Aug. 18th. Fabulous show. This venue is only a few years old (built where an old resort used to be) but folks, this show topped ticket sales with 9,500 concert goers, more than they've had yet for any other band. Second highest was for Crosby, Stills & Nash a couple of years ago. Hope they'll invite Bob and his band back next year, and sure hope they'll come! They started for The Allman Brothers. The huge parking lot there is extended by acres and acres of grassy fields all around - filled up!
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17 years 4 months
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i basically run a route for 12-14 hrs a day selling food, talking about food but rarely eating food,tough to do when you love to cook, but a really cool job, getting to meet all kinds of people from all walks of life. Boring story, I now live in Minnesota, but lived in Vermont in the late 80's for about 2 years in a small town of about 2,500 people, and just recently learned one of my customers here over 1,500 miles away lived in that same small town at the same time. Small world.
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17 years 3 months
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My workplace is nice. Cool bosses (all like good music), laid back environment, no pushy sales crap. Trading/asset management firm, clients invest in all sorts of commodities, currency exchange, futures markets. I would go crazy if I worked at some nosy, beauracratic, conservative firm. As long as the work gets done, we are encouraged to have a good time and not stress out. If only all white collar jobs were like this...
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I work for the National Park Service as a Facilities Management Specialist. So, I work every day in one of this country's most beautiful places. I'm lucky enough to live where I work too. My work commute is about 2 minutes in a car and about 15 on foot. I work for the Facilities Management Division (Maintenance) and I used to work in the field but now work solely on a new database software that tracks our asset information. I loved working in the field and learning how to fix stuff out there with the guys. And I love my geeky computer database job too. I'm pretty stoked. I think the thing that I love most about my job here in the Park is that mostly, the employees are here because they LOVE the park. They are certainly not in it for the money. I worked in the field everyday for about 4 years and I don't think that a day went by where someone in the crew didn't remark about how beautiful it is. Some of these guys are really hard-core, tough folks too. Not the type that you would think would notice the scenery (if you were stereotyping). We'd be out digging some ditch or repairing an underground high voltage line somewhere and we'd be all hot and sweaty (if it was August) or freezing cold (if it was January) and working away and one of these hard-core tough guys would stop, stand up, look around and say, "have you SEEN that waterfall today? C-mon guys, check it out!" and we'd all stand up and look around and then someone else would say, "thank god we're not doing this in Fresno". I love it here.
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17 years 6 months
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I know that 9/11 is a sad day for all, but being an Iron Worker that day is dreaful, not only the lives lost but the man hours in the construction that were lost also. Peace everyone, and Please don't ever forget what happened that day in 2001.
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I work at a company as a parts room attendant. I pull parts for job orders, cut steel stock for the welders and machine shop. I also get track of tooling and inventory of parts in stock. But, since I work nights 10pm-6am, and we only have 9 people on nights, I tend to do other jobs as well. I have done electrical work, painting, machine shop, welding, maint. work on many nights. So, in all every night I tend to do something different. The company I work for makes/repairs/services crane brakes, hook blocks, magnets,lifting devices,crane parts,brake parts, for the steel industry. Most of our sales go to steel mills, foundries,recycling plants, scrap yards, railroad yards, ship building yards, steel process plants, and construction usage. It's not a bad job. Pays good. Decent people to work with. Laid back environment with great health insurance. Yeah, some days are better than others...but it could be a lot worse!
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17 years 6 months
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I retired in 2001 after 36 years on British Railways in what used to be the Southern Region way Back Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Spanish Jam
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17 years 6 months
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I'm here, not with my mod hat on but with my Rex-Foundation-writer hat on, with a request. I've noticed over the last few months that a whole bunch of folks here are teachers or otherwise workers-with-youth, and we'd really like your input. Specifically, on the Rex Foundation Blog, which I'm in the process of updating. As many of you probably know, Rex is big on supporting youth arts programs, especially those that bring arts education to kids in public schools. (See, for example, Little Kids Rock, which does...) In the course of thinking about such things, we realized that there's sort of an underlying meta question, namely, what is public education supposed to be in the first place? What do we WANT it to be? So we've launched blog topic to talk about it here. Please come on down and speak up! (You need a google account to post, but in this day and age most of us do. If this is a problem for you, lemme know and I'll try to design around the problem.) Thanks! ME
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17 years 6 months
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Working on my own, at home. I fire images onto Bone china, so a lot of clients are car clubs like Bentley and Lotus, and dogs, weddings. I tend to spend hours in front of the computer finding new clients and listening to CDs or Radio 4.After being laid off and business partner doing a runner I'm left with the debts, but determined to make a go of it (good thing the wife works, so the bills get paid). Must not grumble things are going really well at the moment. Good docu on Klimts' The Kiss on radio at the moment.
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I rate / evaluate hotels, restaurants, campgrounds and attractions for AAA. "AAA Approved." That's me in North Georgia and portions of East Tennessee (Chattanooga, Cleveland and Manchester included). We're diamonds not stars ! Hahaha ! It's a great gig. I've been at it since March 1993. I've also traveled across most of the USA doing out of territory work. New York, Austin, New Orleans and Colorado (Estes Park, Glenwood Springs, Denver, Boulder and Winter Park) were places that really stand out in my memory. I've had a grate time and mets lots of grate people. Hope to meet some of you one day. Peace.
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17 years 3 months
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I'm "in between" jobs, and draining savings. That means I spend a bit of time on the computer chatting with people when they are supposed to be working. Being a slacker's assisnt doesn't pay squat, but it's so internally rewarding!
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17 years 6 months
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You should be pretty busy in these parts. Welcome aboard. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.) Walt Whitman-Song of Myself
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17 years 5 months
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I make buy, sell, or hold recommendations on stocks....alot of fun.
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17 years 7 months
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Bamski, that's just something I could never get my brain around. What is your job title? are you one of those 'brokers' or something?
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17 years 6 months
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I get to work infront of 7000 people a night, many games on TV! Working 3 hours a night is not bad work if you can get it!!!
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17 years 7 months
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That's so cool! In Chicago (guessing from the name)?
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17 years 6 months
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You don't go out lookin' for a job dressed like that? On a weekday? Is this a...what day is this?
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17 years 6 months
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GRTUD, you fucing suck! (LOL) ( -: you just made me spit up green tea all over the fucking keyboard with that quote. I got a job for you, clean up this mess! "pays good money, 5$ a day..." peace. "What's the point of calling shots, this cue ain't straight in line Cue balls made of styrofoam and no-one's got the time"
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Welcome back.
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17 years 5 months
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A lot, actually. I'm a clinical psychologist and I practice in nursing homes. My clientele covers all ages (a surprising number of nursing home residents are under 50, with the youngest having been 18 and the oldest being 104). Driving from nursing home to nursing home creates many chances to listen to music, which helps put the occasional heaviness of my job in some kind of perspective. Joy and beauty keep on truckin' all the time. I got introduced to Dead music in college about 30 years ago and it changed me indelibly. From the Dead I got into jazz and blues, got inspired to learn to play the guitar and have a lot of enjoyment every day of my life as a result. I don't miss the arena days of Dead shows much, but Alpine was a lot of fun, and I think that there is more Grateful Dead music in the world now than there ever was.
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What's up Izzi? I am not a broker, but a financail analyst. I follow industrial companies and give recommendations on the stocks of those companies to the brokers who go to their clients and tell them my opinion (buy,sell, hold) on the stocks I follow. Does that clear it up a bit?
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where are you located?
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17 years 6 months
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i am a retired drunk, who occasionally dabbles into a bottle of red wine gold whiskey and am currently a self-employed freedom fighter which oddly pays very poorly so i in my spare time maintain T1 voice and data circuits in an attempt to take over the world along with my large headed mouse friend....
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...Feelin' good. When I'm not piloting an 18 wheeled, 80,000 lb, 70' long, 13'6" high vehicle down the highways of this great country of ours, I like to dabble in a little freelance gynocology. Great work, if you can get it.
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17 years 2 months
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I go to a very uptight conservative boarding school where merely mentioning The Dead is looked upon with suspicion. I recently bought some two foot high speakers and several new Dead albums. its going to be a fun year Peace
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17 years 6 months
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Hey. I joined quite awhile ago but life got in the way and I forgot to come back here for weeks. I am a property manager, for senior apartments. Desparate to get back on the road, like I did way back in the early 70's. I was born to wander. And I HATE my job. I feel so bound up when I have to be in the same place, every frickin' day!!! www.FreeMall4All.com
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17 years 2 months
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i;ve done Nursing for 15 yrs.ive been in and out of work due to a back injury.and well good old wrk;scomp.sys.leaves you dagling.i dont understand it their are no ethics in this.hopfully i'll be able to go back to work soon!would like to change line of nursing i've done geriatric for so long im burnt.like to work in icu.w/neo. we'll see what the creator has in store.first is getting done w/work comp.grateful to see that all these heads are not what society has us out to be.good vibes to all of you.for all the service you provide to the world.and to i forgot your name the mum,you have full time many jobs if you were to get paid not sure how they would figure out a pay rate for that.it becomes many proffesions.so dont knock it again i beleive its a nother bullshited stero type from our society."keep up the good work and love on them kids" peace,heathaafeathaa
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17 years 6 months
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I just got a new job managing an acupuncture and Chinese herb treatment center for dogs and cats. So far, so good, though I'm working towards the day when my primary calling -- writing -- lets me move from project to project and place to place working via a laptop and mobile blogging capabilities!
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17 years 7 months
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Drop me a PM if you're up for consulting with some folks long distance. i have a good friend in Colorado with a very ailing dog, and she's already using eastern remedies for her. You might have some more current info than what my friend can get in the middle of nowhere Colorado.
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17 years 3 months
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I toil by day heading a software development team for a prominent Canadian telco. And yes, it's as exciting as that description made it sound! ;)
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17 years
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I am the Assistant Forester for a city in Illinois. Mainly I coordinate our tree planting program, Arborday celecration, help with snow operation, and supervise the mosquito abatement program. I love my job beacuse I get to go out in the field when I want and I have enough paperwork to keep me inside when its nasty out.If it were not for having such a great job and my family I would not be in Illinois. I love the west and plan to get out there as soon as possible.
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17 years 5 months
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I work inside the belly of the beast otherwise known as a predatory credit card company that shall remain nameless. I work with the customers who unwittingly have been financially steamrolled. If you get me on the phone I'm the best friend you've ever had. I used to play music semi professionally but now my hearing is shredded and I've lost the desire to be around high volume music.
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17 years
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I toil on the line for Chevy. It's a job and hopefully my kids will never do. Right now as I can figure I'm the only Deadhead in the building---scary.
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17 years 6 months
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I am the Assistant Golf Professional at a private golf club in Victoria BC Canada. I also manage the bag room where the members golf bags are stored. In winter we are short staffed and I work only in the bag room. It is pretty chill I have computer speakers with my Ipod plugged in and I listen to the grateful dead whenever I am in the storage room probably 4 hours a day. In the summer I am very busy working in the proshop assisting members and selling merchandise. This summer coming up is the first time that I will be a qualified professional instructor so I am excited about being outside teaching golf and running junior camp for kids. Thare are not any deadheads who I work with however I am surprised at how many members of the golf club come into the bag room hear my GD playing and recognize it and like that is always a fun time of my day.
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17 years 5 months
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One of the dudes I was working with in Tech Support is a dead head. I wasn't really into the dead, and I placated him a whole lot. Then after he got canned I went to Archive.org to listen to what the whole fuss was about. After listening to my First Dark Star I was hooked. Now it has been a year since I have started listening, and my mother in law (a true dead head) is in shock at my live collection up to now. Man, where have I been all my life. I still work at the Tech Support place and I havent talked to my old coworker since he got canned, but i carry on the dead's spirit here. I guess I'm a Tech Dead Head....
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anything from blazing a snowshoe trail (only in winter, as it's more work than fun in the summer), to passing medication to someone ("it's medication time"), to crisis intervention, to being a therapist or a wanna be (as im in graduate school), to taking a picture in the woods to reading to my beautiful boy at night....I am poor ass broke because i can't just go get a real job and the government wants all this money I have not even made yet.......
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17 years 6 months
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Blue 22 - I really like your winter photos, thanks for sharing. If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. William Blake
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17 years 6 months
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Yes after being a real hippie and selling burritos at shows and owning my own custom made moccasin store(and Birkenstocks)I crossed over to the other side. Now part of the 'Hippies with Haircuts' clan. I have been working as a 'dolly grip' for nearly 25 years now.A IATSE union member as well. I do camera movement-yes the actors move and we follow them-or lead them or if they don't move -we do- and create the drama! But I have decided that the old body is aging and it is getting harder to carry my 475 # dolly upstairs any more so I have moved up to camera operator. I am the guy that looks through the eyepiece and composes the shots you see (if you watch tv or see movies). I have been a photographer since a child so this really is where my heart is! I do get to wear my tie dyes at work as well as my old show shirts so work is a gas. I currently am working on the Lifetime channel show 'Army Wives', the production designer is a head as well and we try to sneak in little Dead tidbits wherever we can. It is kind of a subliminal game we play. This has been done on many a show I have been on before. We are everywhere!! Never had such a good time...........
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17 years 2 months
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I have ben self-employed for a long time, the last twenty years or so as a landscape contractor. I never intended to start a business. It kind of creeped up on me, little by little. I was going to college and needed money and knew how to fix sprinklers, so I started doing that. I wanted to practice my spanish so I hired a guy from El Salvador, who turned out to be better at the trade than I was. I like meeting people and don't mind selling things, so I kept selling jobs. My worker had an uncle and a cousin who had a nephew who had a brother-in-law. We all started working together. I got married and had kids to support. Now I really needed money. Suddenly, it seemed, I had an honest-to-God business with dozens of employees, all kinds of deadlines and responsibilities, stress and o yes, money. Now I work for really rich people in Silicon Valley and wonder how I ended up doing this instead of one of the many other things I was more interested in. I still have my original employees and now they have families and houses and responsibilities too. More puzzled than complaining. Things are never so bad that they can't get worse and, so far as work goes, this is actually pretty good.
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16 years 11 months
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I fly all over the country for a few different airlines on contract. My I feel like a sell out sometimes but I get to see a whole lot from above and Im always remembering when I fly over familiar places
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17 years 5 months
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My hubby owns his own construction/remodeling company. Today I will be sanding and staining trim and doors for a job.Love the work, but the fumes are gonna get me again! Gonna break out the ipod loaded with my fav GD tunes and go...Peace,Gigi