Well, go into work today for my 2 year review. Quickly turned into my boss venting at me, and giving me my walking papers. We ended on fairly amicable terms considering it was me that was totally - in his words - fried. So gonna have a bit more time to game on my hands. Gotta look at the bright side of things. (I don't even know, haven't had time to process and I'm writing this on sacrificed-for-work sleep, so.. yeah.)
Sorry to hear. While it's fresh on your mind document as much as you can. That way you can go back and review, in case of foul play. Also file for unemployment ASAP.
I am sorry to hear that man, take care and also.... This this and this.... you never know what it could be about, it saved my ass a few years back doing this... But seriously take care of yourself
I noticed you said you were out of work do to your back injury. was it work related and at any time did you receive workers compensation? And if it wasn't work related injury did your management know of the injury? you may have a legal claim here if so.
Welcome to my world past couple of years. Seriously though, that's a bummer. Best of luck getting job soonish.
Feel for you. Life is very, very difficult. In fact, there's nothing as hard as life. Just, take care. Sometimes a bad event may open up a path to a good thing later. I lost a really nice, easy and well paying economics job years ago and felt awful about it but now years later I realize that I would've never taken the chance to pursue my dreams since it was risky and difficult, caused a range of problems on it's own and resulted in loss of money. However, it looks like it will all have paid off, just a little bit more. I hope that you'll find yourself in a better place in the following years. Besides, if you were at a place that kicks people out like that, well, there are other kinds of places too to be in.
Yeah, I put in for unemployment before I even posted here after my needed calls (let family/friends know, set up a possible two future opportunities/etc). Thanks for the advice, this is really the first time I've encountered this sort of thing (I don't count the Subway or Walmart times (and for this case, the Marine Corps Honorable discharge) in the same category). The back injury is a filed claim which is still in process, however it could be argued to be related - it is not the cause of the termination and nor will I pursue it that way. They (previous employer) could have just been 'you're fired' but set it at 'laid off' which is better for resumé-side and unemployment - I won't (it's an honor thing! Bah, that stuff's seriously gonna get me killed one of these days (if only... that opinion's a different matter all together). It's not even a 'bad event' in my eyes, I was about to sacrifice some very precious (to me, but it's my time so... not many better judges of that) volunteer actions that I perform. I already got through the separation anxiety/detangling identity elements when my back went out, so I'm at a pretty good spot personally. That said, one of those opportunities I mentioned earlier is partnering with a friend of mine to open a game store in the area. There aren't many, and by his numbers (and my own looking into it) there's definitely a niche for it. Probably a ways a way but it's something I've been passionate about for awhile, now. All that said, thank you very much for the kind words. We'll see what comes next, and I look forward to shooting/stabbing/etc things with y'all in the various game worlds we do such things in. My one concern is that this may become like that Twilight Zone episode - all the time in the world, all the books in the world, but no glasses to read them with. "...there was finally time..."
Oh, and one more thing, the chance to chat with you GMTers that are still floating around. Looking at you, Sheep.
My mic and headphones are currently being delivered to me! Interested in that game shop idea. One of my favorite concepts for such a place was a 'Half Moon Games' in Lahti when I lived there. I know there's a ton of these types of places around but still just to recommend the idea: not just having games for sale but also having a game room in there so you can have the community of local gamers gather there and have all sorts of table top games. You can even offer a GM on behalf of the house if they should like that. On top of that you can do 'everything', fix computers, sell them, sell games, sell figures, etc etc. Everything about games, be 'The Game Place'. I thought it was such a cool place, just got to get the numbers right and it can work out. There's always a risk but that's why it's called entrepreneurship. It's about voyage, an undertaking. If you guys wanna go that route, it has some really cool perks, get to do what you love, the way that makes sense to you and all that good stuff. In fact the only downside is money - coming up with it. Personally went for the first 3 years without any loans, just run a tight ship and always find just enough to get by until the people will come. And now got a loan when all the initial pitfalls have been conquered. What I'm trying to say is, you don't want to take a loan to make the initial mistakes. You want to take a loan when you're about to make a killing and you can already touch the money with which to pay it back. If you can't, then the loan is what's gonna take you down. It's all fun and games until you run out and are left with the monthly payments which can be just the difference between life and death.
Theres a game shop near where I live where at least once a month they have a game night where people can bring whatever kind of game they want and play. I've seen up to 30 people in there. card games, board games, tabletop (warhammer and such. by board I mean monopoly kind not really figures/statues). so not only does it sell games they have a game night and also sell snacks and drinks. don't think they charged to play. they did have a raffle.
Yeah, that's exactly what we're thinking of. We're both gamers, and there's a lot of knowledge of these things. And, yeah, the not charging for game table time is by far the best option. It's about foot traffic - if they're there they can buy, and it creates word-of-mouth which (in my currently uninformed position) is the lifeblood of any small business. What I want to see there is creating a proper environment for a good store culture, that's what's more important - the money will follow and is a 'fringe benefit.' Problem, of course, is initial capital. And that's a different issue all together.
Yea, exactly. People coming to the store is never a bad thing and if you guys yourselves hang there and answer questions and talk about games, give hints about what to try etc. people will keep coming back. Also, when they get free stuff like those game nights and such, there's more of a thing about buying stuff from there to support all of it. And if the game nights cost money, it creates a threshold that's difficult to cross. Initial capital, ugh. I hated when everyone was like "oh, if you can't come up with 20k from your own pocket then business is not for you" or "surely you have someone in your family that can give you that 'little' ?" What these entitled assholes don't get is that for 90% of people 20k is a fucking motherlode and they can't even save up that much because if they're like me they can't get a job that pays well enough to allow saving. Or it would take like 20 years without a single incident that empties the savings account. And then the boiler explodes or something. And banks "yea, just go get yourself a nice starting loan", well, I personally have never been granted a loan in my life. Banks will just tell me to bugger off, so I actually have to loan from outside banks and that's not easy either. But all said, I hope you can work out whatever you decide to do next. If you go the business way, try to start very very lean (obvious I know) and try to secure the downside as in, make sure that you don't get screwed in the worst case.
