icemann on 2/10/2017 at 15:38

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Nothing horrible or bad going on with me at present. Got about 5-6 weeks of teaching work (in games development related units mostly) left, and getting married at the tail end of that.

Then it's 4 months minimum of no work with the teaching (since you can't allocate for semester 1 units next year until about February). With the fiance suffering from a combo of depression and anxiety (she had a breakdown about 2 years ago and has had that since then) it's hard for her to find paying work that she's happy to do. She's doing a course currently in early childhood education (my idea) since she loves kids. But she hates the work experience that comes with the course, so that's not looking like it'll work out. Prior to the course she'd been out of work for 4 years. I've been in and out of work since finishing my university course (games development) finished in late 2010.

In my case, it's not that I can't find work. Prior to uni I had worked in call centers for about 8 years and just got to a point and where I was like fuck this. Very soul destroying, working in places like those. University life saved me from that. Only problem there is that by the time I left uni, I struggled to force myself to do jobs that you did only for the $$$ and not for any other reason. I'd had my fill of that with call center work and wanted to do jobs that I'd actually enjoy. So after uni I tried getting work in the games industry for a few years whilst building up my portfolio of completed projects (that you'd have seen me showing off in the "What are you making?" thread in gen gaming) before eventually giving up and unsuccessfully trying to force myself to do the $$$ jobs. I didn't mind tech support work on the call center end, so still went for those, and it was whilst working in one such job that the fiance had the break down. After that, was out of work for about a year and then I took the plunge and tried out teaching. I was 100% sure that I'd fail at it, but I did it to answer the question in my mind as I have a "go to your grave with no regrets" policy. Surprised myself and did great at it. Hence why I'm in that now.

Teaching work at uni's is a bit of gamble, in that you never know from semester to semester if you'll get work or not + the 4 month gap for summer holidays. I'd love to do this for the next 10 or so years, as for me it fits me like a glove. Being a night owl, morning shift jobs never worked well for me. Energy drinks were my best friend in those. With this I get to sleep in (to an extent), work for only short hours at the actual uni and do all the rest of work (assignment marking) at home in the hours that suit me (late hours). Lots of answering student emails from home also. I find it all great fun. For me it's the next best thing to working in the games industry (which I'd wanted to do ever since getting a Commodore VIC 20 back in the 80s), since I get to teach what I'm already extremely fluent in (games dev / games theory in general).

I just hope that when the work dries up this year, and with the fiance not working that we can stay afloat with the mortgage. Time shall tell. I had originally planned to pump some extra cash into the mortgage from all the money I'm making (marking assignments nets you PLENTY of extra cash), but moving into a used flat brings with it numerous essentials that are either broken or in need of an upgrade. Upgrades / fixes already done:

* Purchase of washing and dryer combo machine
* Leaking pipes and toilet
* Broken roof down piping (for rain run off etc).

And with extras to pay for the wedding that the family isn't covering, the money all just vanishes. Upgrades/fixes still needed:

* Upgrade of water system, as the one we have is a gravity fed system that was built back in the 80s and doesn't allow for hot and cold water to be used simultaneously.
* Split System for heating and cooling. This place has no heater, and gets cold as ice in winter.
* New television as the one we have only works with a couple of channels. The rest fail to work. I've tested out smaller TVs which detected all the channels fine.

Also concerned about overall electrics as I've had two blow force portable heaters explode (literally) in just the two months that we've been here. The first I'd used for 3 years at my parents place without ever an issue.

So yeah. All the money planned for mortgage bonus payments (to bring down the overall weekly repayments) has gone elsewhere. Grrr. Anyways, this post was supposed to have gone for a paragraph, and I've typed up a page. So that's my life at present. Random ramblings.

icemann on 3/10/2017 at 13:17

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Yeah she struggles to stick to anything work wise. Prefers to be at home. Which is a big change from prior to her having the break down.

I guess anyone would be quite affected by something like that. The reality though is that we've got a mortgage to pay (and hopefully pay off quicker), and she wants to have kids in a few years. So there's just no way that on my sessional (semester by semester) wages that I can earn enough to pay for everything. Makes things difficult.

icemann on 3/10/2017 at 22:57

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Sounds fair. I've always been very meh about having kids. It's just not anywhere at all on my priorities list, but it's important to her and you have to make sacrifices for those you care about. That's how I look at it.

Vasquez on 5/10/2017 at 10:43

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There seems to be a strong belief that kids always make things better, but in real life if there are major problems to begin with, having children most often makes things worse. Babies are not magical beings that can cure whatever their parents are suffering from, they are tiny people who can't do anything for themselves and thus need big people to tend to their every need, material and emotional. I know I'm seen as a very anti-kids person here, but I truly think about the children – I know people who have grown up with parents who have psychological issues, and it can take a lifetime to heal from that.

icemann on 5/10/2017 at 13:13

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For me, I look on kids more from a logical standpoint as the way of continuing on the family bloodline.

Many of my friends (on the female end and none of my male friends) had the big desire to have kids. For me though, my big desire had always been about getting in to the games industry, and now on getting good at teaching games dev. In other people I've noticed that once they had kids, that their pursuit of life dreams/goals went on the back burner from then on which is a shame. Obviously this isn't always the case, but is on a larger percentage. Note that I'm not relying on any stats for that, just going from observations throughout my lifetime so far.

Up until getting together with my fiance I'd always had more of a solo view on life, with the pursuit of dreams/goals and just living life to the fullest. Though I've always been more of a lone wolf sort. I'm not sure if that's due to being bullied in my high school years (which generally turns people into more inward / solo type people, if they survive the experience), but that's been me for a long time. Once I hit my 20s (I'm now 37) I didn't have too much trouble getting girlfriends, which was good. But beyond that it never really factored in. The fiance changed that side of it. First person I've been with that I've not had the big craving for alone time (as in, having time to myself for a bit) after days of spending time together. For me that was what decided it to me on her + she's fun to be around. That said, our way of alone time (beyond the obvious) is just hanging out in the same room but doing our own thing. Wouldn't work for most people, but it works in our case.