do you girls care if a guy has a job or not

group *hug*! You too IronGoth

 

RE: well, i'm working at becoming a musician. that's the job i want. i just have to get off my feet movin so i jam out everyday.

So, jam out. But also get a job at a music store. Staff discount, plus you pay yer bills.
That way, also, you end up networking and marketing yer skill (you like this guitar? Here's how it sounds).

You'll get health insurance, and, if the band thing doesn't work out you don't have to die.

And, more importantly, you pay yer own bills. It's very easy if you settle into "well, I don't have to work I'm on disability" to sleeping the day away and getting nothing done. Having a job/obligation keeps you moving which is essential.

And lastly, we don't have to deny someone whose bag includes a broken neck, or anything else, because the system is carrying people who could technically work.

It's a safety NET not a safety HAMMOCK. Get out of there and get on with life, you will feel better about it.

 

i got my band goin and i jam everyday. i feel happy the way i am now. thanx for the advice though.

 

yes its a big turn off

 

Joker, you mentioned that you were Bi-Polar. Has your Doctor ever tried giving you Lithium? A former g/f of mine has severe Bi-Polar Disorder but she takes Lithuim and Prozac and she was able to earn her Masters Degree and is quite sucessful in her field. A former friend of mine has severe Bi-Polar disorder but is usually able to hold down a job in the construction field.This person is a very talented carpenter but unfortunately he is an alcoholic due to his self-medicating with booze. Lithuim is the usual script for Bi-Polar aka Manic-Depression. Perhaps you and your Doctor could look into a different meds that have less severe side effects.

Best of luck to ya man.

 

Joker: You're welcome, and take my comments for what they are - advice and an answer to a question.

You sound like you're going somewhere with what you're doing. This is good. But do be advised, being a working musician is an absolute and complete and total lifestyle. Unless you sell out you'll be sleeping in the van living day to day, getting burned by club owners trying to put out the CD etc. and it is TONS OF WORK.

So if you can't hack a 9 to 5, for whatever reason, you might want to rethink that plan. Seriously. Being in a band, being a pro musician, etc. is way more work than a 9 to 5 will ever be. Not to piss on your dreams, but some reality is required here. Do whatever it takes - change meds, quit meds, get more meds, get less meds. Get some training, get some gigs, get the word out there. Surround yerself with people who will work as hard if not more. Look at some examples of people who made it. The Lashes were the shittiest band in Seattle and the town joke, but Ben Lashes decided come hell or high water he was gonna be just like the Makers but successful. He hired people, he fired people, he worked as a roadie for the Makers before the band started. And when people said no to him and ridiculed his band, he simply retooled the band and fixed what was wrong with it. Marilyn Manson, whose music I can't stand, is more than ready to toss someone for not pulling his weight. Ask his former guitarist, who found himself on his ass on the road.

Getcherself right, first. Jamming is one thing - learning to make, manage money and be self reliant is another. And you all need to be tight, no drama. Living in a van will cause the best of friends to want to kill each other, so you can't be bipolar at em. No social worker can keep you going on the road. My advice is to concentrate 1000% on not needing to be in the mental group home - to be that 10% that walks away with his head held high - never accepting any excuses or limitations.

Then you are in a position to follow yer dream.

 

VERY true! So when you say you need all that sleep in order to "function" the next day........well, then this line of work may not cut it for you!!!

 

My psychiatrist wouldn't even think about prescribing me to meds. She didn't want me to become dependant on them. She wanted me to do meditation and stuff...I wasn't really into that. Do you really need your meds? I really think you should get a job, become more responsible. It definently isn't ok to live off the government, because you aren't hurting them at all, just take money out of my pocket, and everyone else's who has a job. What are you trying to do with your music career right now? Are you just playing everyday? You should be trying to put a band together and practice everyday. Once you get a few songs get some gigs, and if you seem to have some decent songs try and get a record label.


I wouldn't care if it wasn't my money supporting you, thats what pisses me off.

 

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

this is where our money is going. to lazy to go out and get a job

 

i don't mind it

 

phoenix: You're paying taxes at 16? You must mow a LOT of lawns

 

Shirl - there are WAY more deserving people for the money to go to. Only way I'd accept SSI is if I was quadriplegic.

 

joker: I have bipolar disorder and severe clinical depression. I've been off my meds for over two years because I have no medical insurance. I work 14 hour days 6 days a week and still maintain a household for 6 people (I am one of two 4 adults who has a job, only two contribute to the household). Cry a fucking river. You have not a single clue what it takes to get by in this world. I do what I do because I have to. I wish I could sit at home at my keyboard and whine about how difficult life is but you know what? I don't haev the time. Don't like it? Then get up, grow up, get a job, stop blaming everyone for your issues and stop holding out your hand. I'm sure your parents have already said this and they are CORRECT!!! And if you bought food, gas, and paid bills and only have 20 cents left then you don't really need the 20 cents because you have everything you need to get by without it.

Headymoe and Iron: You rock.

 

i don't see how i was blaming anyone for my issues. i was asking the girls a simple question. and there's no need to put me down cause i don't wanna work. and you've just told me a real positive thing. and you sound real judgemental, you don't know a damn thing my parents have said.

 

RE: and there's no need to put me down cause i don't wanna work.

Yeah, there's a real big reason why I can put you down if you don't. Because if you don't work, don't wanna work, just wanna scam the system with some vague mood disorder you can make up - then you're no different than a cockroach that forages in the bottom of a garbage can. Well, actually - scratch that. You're leeching money out of a system that was designed to help people with REAL NEEDS. And it's getting stretched.

And it'll one day not be there, because of abuse.

I do have the right to call you a parasite if that's your attitude, and call bullshit on all your excuses.

And you know what? I don't need to be a girl to tell you that if someone doesn't want to work and wants to just take take take then you know what, that's NOT the kind of person you wanna spend yer life with MALE OR FEMALE.

Now you said you want to be a musician. Well, matey, that life is harder and more difficult and takes way more work than you can believe. It's not just oh I'll do some shows get signed and be swimming in hookers and cocaine. It's years if not a decade of eating at salad bar specials and sleeping in the van --- staying hungry, hoping you don't miss the boat (pity someone trying to start a hair metal band in 1990 for example).

So you either want to work, work at something - so as I said before baby steps. If you think some manager at McDonald's is gonna give you shit you wait til you deal with a record company and club owners. So learn to deal with crap. Get out there, get a job, get working, get it together for eight hour stretches and be your own man. THEN you will have something to offer a band.

Or as you say, you don't wanna work, and you'll find out DAMN FAST that you typically have to work a job and a full time job promoting practicing and playing, sacrificing family, girlfriends, everything other than making enough to clothe yourself with the excess time and money going to touring money, equipment, promotion, studio time, etc. to be a musician, and drop out cause all you thought it was about was playing guitar and getting groupies.

Make up your mind. If you don't want to work, you'll never make it at anything. Might as well crawl back into your rented room and rot.

 

So frankly - if you really want to be a musician, then it's not that you don't want to work, it's that you want to work a certain way.

And that's fine.

But you STILL have to support yourself.

 

at least get a job at mcdonalds or somethin

 

The sad thing is, screw, in many places it makes more sense to sit around with your hand out than work a job.

 

If your disability prevents you from getting a job, I would suggest that you go something to give back. You are "getting from" disability, I think that you should also "give to". Perhaps it is volunteering at a soup kitchen, perhaps teaching a neighbor kid how to play the guitar. You would know best how you can contribute to society in addition to taking from it.