Comments

sort by
Recent
Reset
  • jasia52
    Joined:
    psych nurse
    I work as a psychiatric nurse with geriatric patients in a Virginia community hospital. I've been in psych nursing since 1986, and the Dead's music has been a stress-reducing antidote to the intense emotional and physical interactions I've had with suffering people over the years. But I like my "day job" ... it's helped some patients and is a way for me to "give back" something to a part of our society that is broken and neglected. Jay
  • mkav
    Joined:
    looking for the next thing...ideas?
    I'm currently out of work...nearly 30 years in retail corp mgt for large regional and national chains...ascending leadership roles in supply chain management, merchandising and analysis. sometimes boring but usually not. always new problems; always challenging. I read someone in this posting refer to their job as a "white collar sweat shop"... I can relate as sometimes I've felt that way but always tried to prevent that or at least refrain from perpetuating that mind-set. One always need to manage people as you'd like to be managed. As I've progressed through my career, there are 4 specific quotes from the Dead that seem to repeatedly resonate... "If you plant ice, you're gonna harvest wind." (life, not just career for this one, for sure) "...want the cup but you're chicken to race" "don't waste your breath to save your face when you have done your best: when even more is asked of you, fate will decide the rest". "Work hard in the daytime, sure get stoned at night". (for the record, "stoned" is more metaphorical than literal... stoned = playing golf, coaching my sons' baseball teams; skiing; enjoying the company of my bride of 29 years all get me stoned these days). Anyway, if anyone has a great idea how to combine my passion for Dead, baseball, golf, skiing, with my 3 successful decades of retail leadership, for a kind, or at least similarly-minded, organization, feel free to comment to this post. Thanks
  • amellowd
    Joined:
    Road Ecology
    Taking a break right now! Wildlife research and monitoring for a project that is going to construct wildlife crossing structures across I-90 in the Washington Cascades. A nice mix of office and field work.
  • AoxoA
    Default Avatar
    Joined:
    ...in the strangest of places if you look at it right
    I am a public school principal. My love, nay, adoration, of what the Dead experience gave to me is a full fledged part of my daily interactions with kids, parents, teachers and fellow administrators. I enjoy the ride, never take myself too seriously, look for the best in the worst, make light out iof dark and try to be a prankster whwnever I can. Kids are usually a bit freaked out by my genuine joy that I try to bring every day and they always get a chuckle when they come to my office and I have my i-tunes playing in the background. I love the opportunty to show kids that open mindedness is important and that every body brings a little something to the party and that, my friends, is what makes the gig so much fun!!! Whenever kids ask me to signe their yearbooks I always write the same thing, a quote from Hunter Thompson: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro!" Have a wonderful day!
  • goddessj
    Default Avatar
    Joined:
    It's great to see you too!
    I had no idea I'd run into you here--but no real surprise I guess, being dead.net and all... I'm still in Idyllwild, not too far from you. I did a just over a year at the newspaper in Palm Springs, then landed this gig which allows me to telecommute--sure beats all that driving and heat! Did you make the Rat Dog show on 6/28? at Fantasy Springs Casino near Palm Springs?
  • izzie
    Joined:
    Cool stuff!
    goddessj - whoa! I had to check your bio to see if you were who I hoped you were. HI!!! lovely to read from you! and chris - how incredibly cool for you. where is your film school?? I'm working from home this week - this living in San Diego and southwestern Colorado at the same time is pretty taxing stuff, but man, I love it. I'm still doing environmental management for the US Navy, which often looks like interpreting environmental policy and regulations.
  • pkpotter
    Joined:
    Great things people are doing!
    Most definetly enough talent and spirit and most importantly soul in the people here on this site to lead the planet. What a great group.I am very lucky as i get to make art pottery every day. I am a potter at an arts and craft studio and have been able to make pots since i was 13, 36 years ago. Proud of you all.pk
  • marye
    Joined:
    hey goddess!
    Welcome! make yourself at home...
  • goddessj
    Default Avatar
    Joined:
    Blissin'
    Izzie and Marve--how totally kewl to find you and so many others here... I've been flying under the radar for the last couple of years, and when the old site went down, I was off doing other things. I'm a writer and photographer, most recently for a very small company called BlissLights.
  • garyblanchard
    Joined:
    Licensed Counselor
    I am a licensed counselor specializing in addiction treatment. I have my own approach that is affirming and positive-focused. My love of the Grateful Dead raises some eyebrows among my peers at times, but it is all about the love and the music for me. Gary Blanchard http://www.GBandFriends.com
user picture

Member for

17 years 6 months
What is it that you do, anyway?
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years 4 months
Permalink

hey bro is that in massachusettes..there is a realy good small chain here called jimmys...just wondering
user picture

Member for

15 years 8 months
Permalink

I currently make all natural Dog Treats. Its hard to call it work when you "Standing on the moon" nine mile skid on a ten mile ride
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 11 months
Permalink

Naw man, its a family owned little pasta resteraunt. Good food tho, The guys name is jimmy and I think he has a drug problem. He kinda goes off for no apparent reason. But for now its a job, if things don't work out there, expect me on tour from May 1st - ??? Peace- Moye
user picture

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

I started out wanting and trying to be some kind of an artist. I went to college in the late sixties and...then.. I seem to have misplaced about ten years of my life. I've looked everywhere, even behind the fridge, but still can't find them. I did alot of off beat odd jobs to stay afloat while not trying to get a real job, not knowing, of course that they were real jobs. Reality was never my strong suit. In 1987, I went back to school at UCLA and became a paralegal and I now work in a law office in LA where I act like a paralegal. So far, they seem to beleive me.
user picture

Member for

16 years 3 months
Permalink

I am a homeless outreach worker in Boston. I enjoy what I do, and it keeps me busy. I help folks with housing, keeping housing, income ect. As well as reaching out to the homeless on the streets of Boston. It doesnt seem like work most of the time, it seems more like being a head with resources. "peace is ONLY idealistic to those who believe it to be so" Peace, Love and Hugs,
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 11 months
Permalink

school
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 8 months
Permalink

I moved to High Point NC after realizing that not much was going on for me in Staunton VA. Started hanging sprinkler pipe (fire protection) and 6yrs later I started in design. Never thought I would get to spend all day listening to great music.
user picture

Member for

15 years 8 months
Permalink

I write. I teach writing. But mostly I mom. I like momming. I get fired and rehired. The days are long. The pay is great. Dandelions any time I want them.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

I'm a real estate agent in the DC metro area (VA, MD, DC). It's the perfect job for me. I don't have to sit in a stuffy office, the hours are flexible, and every day is something different. Just got back from the Wilkes-Barre show. I forgot how much I missed the scene. It's good to be back :)
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

I work as a project manager for a fairly large telecommunications company. It has been ohhh 14 years- insane- although my passion are those furry ones- I am too darn scared to leave. I am finding it hard to follow my dreams while living in this life of mine. For now i will keep dancing and be grateful for having a job and living the life I do.
user picture

Member for

16 years 11 months
Permalink

if American companies ,oh , like the grateful DEAD for INSTANCE, didn't have store customer service outsourced to some far off land!!!...there are an assload of people HERE out of work....let's try to keep this stuff at HOME fer god's sake!!!
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 11 months
Permalink

#1 - Dad#2 - Ocean research #3 - Traveler!
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

16 years 11 months
Permalink

i wanted to send you a post about unemployement in general,but miss Izzie nuked me,thanks mam........but why the fuck?(as you are the only person to use this word on the net,izzie...i borrowed it again.)
user picture

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

izzie had nothing to do with it.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

I'm a laborer with a contractor who specializes in ponds and pondless "water features", such as waterfalls and streams and things for backyards mostly. It pays the bills and here in california unemployment is quite high and I'm just thankful to have a job. I love being outdoors and I rarely miss a sunrise. It's also fun taking on a different a different task each day even if I am moving several cubic yards of dirt or lifting heavy rocks. I'm living proof that we "hippies" aint lazy! "We will get by, We will SURVIVE!"
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

Well, after searching for years for a job I can actually feel good about, I went to school and became a nurse. I am now working nights as a charge nurse in a long term care center. I never wanted to quit my job touring, but having a child 14 years ago pretty much put a stop to that. In the same year, my daughter was born and Jerry was gone. Luckily she was wble to make it to a few shows in her stroller!
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

Actually, that's how I make money. What I really do for a living is ride my motorcycle and listen to the Dead.
user picture

Member for

15 years 9 months
Permalink

im a substitute teacher . im actully posting this in class, today i'm teaching esl (english as a econd language) interesting work because i speak very little spanish.
user picture

Member for

15 years 8 months
Permalink

I answer phones for the PBS station here... and between this and the last job I had, I haven't worked for a for-profit company in over a decade. No wonder I'm poor. But happy, so it is a fair trade.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

i work for a nonprofit social service agency. i help poor folks get services they need for themselves and their families. i will never be rich but it's a nice way to make a living. "Well strange is the story your eyes tell me And quiet all the few words that you say So come and hold my hand for you see I'd understand And remember that the only time is now.."
user picture

Member for

15 years 7 months
Permalink

I work for a small company that makes HUGE batches of salad dressing for supermarket salad bars. In addition, I work in the dairy department for a local supermarket. In ADDITION, I slang. Keeps the bills paid and the children fed. Love to all
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 6 months
Permalink

...and I finally got to write a story on the Dead! It's about our trip from Florida to see the Dead in Denver earlier in the month and lessons learned along the way. The editor of a local paper here in southwest Florida agreed to publish it on their site. Talk about mixing business with pleasure! Anyway, it's titled "Lessons from the Golden Road." Here's a link: http://pelicanpress.org/content/1042_1.php I'm hoping to get some more gigs with them, so good, bad or indifferent, if you check it out please leave a comment at the end. Thanks: Grateful for the gig in Florida...
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

Casey09Keep on writing! I live in Miami and write also-- mostly screenplays (I am a dreamer) I am an insurance agent working with mostly small family owned construction companies-it's been tough many of my customers/friends are really hurting. I love what I do My checking account is my boss I work as much or as little as I need to and the people I work with are fantastic. They find me being a Deadhead amusing. I will run into some construction execs who admit to seeing them. There is one old guy (I'm guesing late 60's) who is semiretired that claims he saw them all of the time in the Avalon Ballroom along with the Jeffferson Airplane before Grace Slick. And the road goes on forever.... BobbaLee
user picture

Member for

15 years 2 months
Permalink

I travel - as my name has fated lol. While the place is empty I come in and tidy up. If you see me I’m late or your early… or both. Look around cause you're there
user picture
Default Avatar
Permalink

...and feeling like a flashback to college 30 years ago. Except there was real Grateful Dead then. Now, it is like some version of deadhead hell where I still have to study but the world is in freefall and so is the band, though it looks like everybody will land on their feet, who the hell knows? The faster we go, the rounder we get, The faster we go, the rounder we get The faster we go the rounder we get, In the forth dimension! (They're coming to take me away Hoo-hoo Hah-hah! To the funny farm Where life is beautiful!)
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 2 months
Permalink

I'm a quality inspector at a company in Fremont CA
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years 4 months
Permalink

.What do you inspect?
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

I'm a freelance writer, translator and editor, native New Yorker, living in a village in the French Alps. I've been in France for 25 years; which means I didn't see the Dead in the last decade or so. (My last show was probably 81, in fact.) Turning 50 this month; got on the bus in 1976.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 4 months
Permalink

I work in Technology .... by passion a software developer which, when done right, in a creative art form --- just put the headphones on with some good music and get lost in the magic world of creating some inventive and well crafted code. On a good day writing code, you can get lost in the creation and the time flies by -- like performing the perfect jam! Somewhere along my career, I took a detour and moved through the management ranks. Currently in senior IT management for a global company and spend a ton of mindless hour sititng in meetings talking about pointless topics, putting together ridiculous operating models, and swearing that I'm done dealing witht the politics. Have gotten to see some terrific places (London, Amsterdam, Paris, Edinburgh, NY, Boston, Toronto), but ready to move on and get back to the real passion -- software dev!
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

After several years of touring I found myself bumming around the country and decided it was time to get a real job. i ended up cooking in restaurants for many moons and finally realized that tho i loved cooking I did not like the long hours for little pay. After working in the kitchen at a country club and seeing all the stock brokers driving fancy cars and playing golf all day i figured that would be a better gig. I got my crap together, got some govt loans and went back to school. I ended up with a finance degree and a job with a wall st firm. I basically book the trades that the brokers are making and make sure everything flows smoothly...not the high paying job everyone thinks of when they think "wall st". Not that it's a bad job, it's just not going to afford me the early retirement i was hoping for ;)
user picture

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

needs fairly serious librarian chops, which is a good thing really...
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

15 years 2 months
Permalink

I inspect parts that are used to manufacture lighting equipment, optoelectronics
user picture

Member for

15 years
Permalink

No, really I am a Bookseller and Bookstore Manager for one of those Big Box stores. I love it most days because it's like a dream job, but working for a big company like that has its drawbacks. I also do some blogging and sell used books on the side. We hope to relaunch our site in January - www.chinacatbooks.com Share your Grateful Dead Tattoo or just poke around http://gratefuldeadtattoos.blogspot.com/
user picture

Member for

15 years
Permalink

Hey Everyone, I wanted to invite all of you to visit our website www.papasboxes.com We handmake cigar box instruments. Right now we have soprano, concert, tenor and baritone ukuleles, and a 5 string banjo...the 4 string banjo and a 6 string guitar are in the prototype stage and we hope to have them released in January. Papa's has both completed units, and kits so that you can experience building your own instrument. These also make excellent unique XMas gifts... We are also running a banjo video contest too...with the chance to win one of our 5 string banjos, which is valued at $400....see below for details.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IrI1EPIRb4 If you order, make a note that you saw us on the Dead.net...Thanks for checking us out and we hope to hear from you soon... Amy & Bill
user picture

Member for

14 years 11 months
Permalink

I like the night life, the bands and all. I get up when the sun goes down and go to bed when it comes up. You might say I'm a vampire "Draw the curtains, curse the glare", you know how it goes. I never thought I'd make this a profession but, hey, it pays the mortgage and I'm not really working. I just moveed my way up the food-chain and now I just do the rounds. Got a steady job. Lot of people I know aren't making it. At least I stayed in the same fucking line long enough to get lawyers and bondmen on retainers.
user picture

Member for

14 years 10 months
Permalink

I work on wind turbines and it is an awesome field to be in was a carpenter in the truest sense of the word and due to the economy it went away and this came along. So right up my alley since I like to turn wrenches and work on something that is something so much bigger than all of us and will benefit future generations instead of satisfy someones ego( sorry worked on too many Mc Mansions )
user picture

Member for

15 years 1 month
Permalink

I'm another old hippie who forgot to chase the cash.Instead, I look to understand the prehistory of us all. I teach the night course version of human evolution, and I do some pretty cool research. I look at food residues inside of old pottery. Buried in the charred stuff is evidence of what was being cooked. I use a microscope and an image analysis system and look at the microscopic bits and determine what was going into the pots. I love archaeology and microscopes, and I have even learned to love multi-variate statistics. Got a lot of research published in national and international journals. I was too young for the inspiration to come from Sandoz, but I sure loved the inspirational material produced by Bear Owsley. In fact, most of my research was just so inspired! So, long live all of us who never really gave up on the sixties! bobt
user picture

Member for

16 years 2 months
Permalink

since I had a job, finally, looks like I might have a pt job. It's not the marketing director for rhino, but, it's a job. Just have to pass a bg check, and since I'm not a criminal....wait, we are all outlaws in the eyes of amerika, thank the gods they aren't checking for that. :)Just say "no" to drug tests. All they do is identify pot smokers, and if ya want happy workers, let them smoke pot, or, at least, don't test them for it. Just an observation, but has anybody else noticed that people who have "drug free" positions seem, to me anyway, lame. slow and uninformed? No passion for their work? Just an observation.
user picture

Member for

17 years 5 months
Permalink

That's quite a vague generality you tossed up here. I am not required to take any test in my line of work, which involves active supervision, new employee training, old employee updating, and performance review. Passion may be slipping away as I am real close to retirement.
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years
Permalink

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 .
user picture
Default Avatar

Member for

17 years
Permalink

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 .
user picture

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

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.
user picture

Member for

17 years 6 months
Permalink

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.