Regardless of your education, your career will almost certainly start with a low-paying job that's not really what you want to do. You'll do that for a year or two, and move to a job that's a little closer to what you want. Until after 10-15 years, you'll be doing work that actually interests you.

Almost every career starts with a period of what American blues musicians call, "paying your dues."

Work on Monday...

Came to work this morning with a bunch of cards coloured red, marked "urgent"...

And it's Monday... the day after Sunday...

The blues day...

Blue's my favourite colour, but this blue (and reds) I do not like...

Ok snoozy mind of mine... wake up!!

1st. Put my Razor Blackshark Aviator headset on. Noise cancellation the low-tech way with full earcups.

2nd. I go on music genre binges for weeks at a time. Lately I've been listening to Viking inspired Dark Folk music like Wardruna, Fejd, Corvus Corax, and Forndom. That came after I did a month of proto rock n roll blues from the southern United States like Leadbelly, Blind Willie Johnson, and Mississippi John Hurt. I also drop some liquid DnB on a bender here and there.

3rd. I set up Hyper.is terminal to use the power plugin that makes sparks fly off of each keystroke.

4th. I set up Atom to work similarly with a continuous code counter that keeps a score of how long and fast you type continuously when coding. It also throws sparks off of the cursor as you type.

5th. Pop my neck and fingers and geterdun.

When you've been very clear every time about what your app can and can't do. Boss misspeaks once and now you have to add a whole other feature.

That feeling when your boss knows you have a major deadline coming up Friday but has you sit in on several unrelated meetings during work hours anyway. There go my evening plans for the rest of the week.

Its festive season. Half of the team mates are on leave. Servers are down. No work can be done. Office looks life less ( which it always is). Boss asking why didnt you take leave. Yes because your free time off is almost zero. I need money. People being happy and getting in relationship/married. I am a fucking loner here.

Dragging my ass across the hallway like a ass fucked zombie. Typing this rant with a grumpy face. And people say monday blues are worst.

Fuck this emptiness. Fuck servers on maintenance. Fuck these white iridescent bulbs glowing for no reason. Fuck people murmuring around me. Fuck everything which is in my sight. Fuck this depressive fucking festive season.

I was planning going to a bar drink some beer while listening to some live blues tonight, but gave up. Getting really tired after work lately, I'm here typing this in my bed and wondering what is wrong with my body.

Suffering from the cash flow blues.

Remote contracting roles are far and few between, and so far I’ve only found the one client, the problem is that because they’ve been burned in the past by contractors, they only operate on an order by order basis.

So we’re stuck in this perpetual cycle of issues > estimates > order > development > test > tweak > pay and repeat.

The problem is that there is always significant delay between the stages from both sides, either because they’re busy on stuff, or I’ve burnt myself out rushing to meet an estimate and having to take a bit of breathing room.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great working in blocks of a few days to a week and then having some time to myself (and the money is nice too), but the cash flow inconsistency is super scary when you’re having to manage corporation tax, accountancy fees and a salary.

Anyone else have these issues / know good places to find remote contract work?