Yeah, most online stores don’t accept gift cards, unfortunately. 🙁 Especially Amazon…tried to order some much needed products with Amazon cards, and they require a bank card.

IME, (on Amazon at least…and a few others I’ve tried) masked cards are usually accepted as bank cards. Gift cards are not.

I’d love to build myself a privacy-respecting online store that accepts everything from Monero to cash to Apple pay (for the general populous that doesn’t care), but I sort of lack the capital. 😅

I mean, yeah, it would be great if Amazon took Monero, but I don’t see them ever even considering that.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

It wasn’t terrible by any means. But I kept being told how-fast paced and gripping it was.

The fastest the pace went was the main character ducking behind a barrier in a very brief firefight.

I’m not one of those action junkies, but I was kind of expecting more.

Social security never made any sense to me anyway. Why not just make the economy healthy so that people can save into old age? Perhaps invest a little into financial literacy so someone doesn’t blow all their savings in Vegas when they’re 45. It’s frustrating the the government’s like, “You can’t spend that money. We don’t think you’re smart enough to plan for the future, but we’re ethical enough we’ll keep it for you and return it to you when you’re old and grouchy.”

Hm…I’ll consider this. I 100% believe in self-hosting, but I’ve had to compromise lately. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yup. Once you’re a $5/mo / $10/mo member, then you can profit share.

I’ve seen that site occasionally. I’ll consider it. The only downside is that I already have a medium audience so I"d have to rebuild my audience. But I’ll consider it. Thanks.

Yeah. It’s been a struggle these past few years. I’ve been getting creative to find any source of income, but it seems like no matter what I try I always hit a wall. But I found out I have a new contract starting soon (🤞) that will definitely cover costs for a while. This season is critical for me, and I often check my priorities often. Thanks for the encouragement.

Yup, try the #UnionizeTech tag on Twitter or Mastodon. I’m trying to raise interest.

So far there’s a call, but nobody’s taking action.

On my part, still trying to find work to afford groceries, so I don’t have much energy to spend on anything else.

Probably gonna anger both sides here, but I see both private insurance and single-payer healthcare as equally-evil scams. Why not focus on driving down costs of healthcare (i.e. EVERYTHING) so that you throw a couple bucks at the receptionist to cover your surgery then check to see if you have enough for a post-surgery soda?

Yup, BandCamp all the way. Once you buy a song you own it, you can play it anywhere you darn well please. Even if BandCamp goes under, no worries, still got my music.

Same with DVDs. Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten movies I regret purchasing, but I think long-term it’s more economical.

Workplace benefits.

Really? What’s the benefit? You’re taking money out of my paycheck to restrict my choices?

And aren’t you a business anyway–you know, an organization whose purpose is to MAKE MONEY, not coddle people.

I’ve been trying to network with successful people. I always get ignored or ostracized. And can’t figure out why. During the time I’m not rejected I’ll glean as much as I can.

If you’re not making those connections, something is wrong. It could be the kinds of jobs you’ve taken, eg: if they’re all solo contracts and you don’t interact with anyone on anything other than deliverables. Or you are taking roles where your output is used only by a small sunset of the company or something?

Yeah, that was typically the case, unfortunately. Those were the first companies to hire me. So then I wouldn’t be able to make a strong, lasting connection with anyone. There are very few previous coworkers I’ve managed to stay in contact with. And the ones that do have a replay rate in months.

I haven’t figured out why my relationships aren’t positive. I’m usually very team-oriented and dive in and solve problems, and try to uncover what my coworkers are really passionate about, so I still can’t figure out why I can’t “fit in.”

Thanks for the encouragement, though. Good to keep in mind.

I feel it out. To some degree EVERY job has SOMETHING that opposes my ideology. So I play it by ear.

Like there was one company I worked for that used invasive telemetry on a product. But still I served as best I could.

Then a couple months ago I was approached by a couple that was dealing with a website issue. After an hour of talking about the issue the owner said, “oh, btw, this is a p*rn site site.”

My conscious bothered me. I had to walk away, despite the fact that I really needed the money.

That’s what I’m scratching my head about. I’m a white guy, as plain as they come, so I should have every advantage. The only thing I figure is the fact I’m neuroatypical so I don’t fit into typical techbro culture (who wants to fit in with that culture anyway?). Is that really a minority and a cause to be rejected so much, though? I don’t think it is.

And, yeah, that’s the implication I get for corporate speak.

I have over 10 years experience. I am senior level because a few years ago I started to get jobs labeled “senior,” so I’m like, “okay, guess I’m senior level now.” And freelancing I usually manage the entire project.

I’m located in a major city that has a lot of major tech companies. Got hardcore ghosted (again, with no explanation) by the majority of them years ago, though I will occasionally check back in with anyone from the company who will give me the time of day to see if they need any help.

Regarding the coding challenges. It’s never about the solution, but all about the way to get there.

That must be the problem. I am VERY nonlinear in my problem solving. If you let me go about my task without question you’ll see me come up with a solution (and at least ten ways to improve it), but if you look at me doing it you’ll wonder what the heck I’m doing.

Not sure how that can be trained out. Or faked. Or explained. Any thoughts?

And, yeah, I’m not sure what compensation would help. In college when I was diagnosed with ADHD (during like my last year) and got additional time on tests, but still struggled to pass them.

I think the compensation would just need to be a crazy messy situation–like a problem the company has been working on for a long time and can’t find the answer to, or an open source bug in the wild. Maybe my ADHD brain just get bored in the sterile interview environment. Anyone else have any take?

That’s a strategy I am employing. I’ve messages hundreds of business owners at least half a dozen times in the past year or 2. I’ll keep being annoying.

I was wondering if that was possible. I get ignored by startups at the same rate as corporate. I’m always told you have to be dragged through the mud for months of interviews before a company hires you, but I take it you didn’t have to do that?