tinwhistler's day jobs

[Wanderer]

Wow...anyone realize that this thread is 7 years old now?
Things haven't changed much since I posted in it 7 years ago...I'm still a computer programmer (though currently with steady work..at the time the thread started, I was scrambling for any contract work I could find in the midst of the tech bubble bursting), still teach kung fu, and still play with a band (though now we have a cd up on itunes and stuff).

These days I'm earning a little extra money on the side writing video games, but it's not making any big bucks at the moment.

[Whistler Bard]

I practised kung-fu 10 years ago, I was even national champion...now I play the Tin Whistle, who would say hum?

[burnsbyrne]

Another nurse here. I worked in ICU for several years and I now work in a research group designing and testing ICU monitoring equipment (heart, blood pressure, etc.) I really a beginner at the whistle. For the last 12 years I have been a member of a flamenco dance group, a guitarist, not a dancer. A wrist injury has curtailed my guitar playing so I took up the whistle to hold off the symptoms of musician withdrawal syndrome. Besides, it's easier to believe that someone named Mike Burns would play Irish music rather than Spanish.
A word about WhOA. Guitarists have a similar syndrome that they call GAS, guitar acquisition syndrome. It's been great getting to know all of you.
Mike Burns

I thought I could update my entry from 2002. I now work in the Quality Assurance office of a small hospital. I collect and collate statistics regarding patient care and safety and report them to the good folks at Medicare and several other watchdog agencies to prove that we are helping, not abusing, our patients. We make sure the physicians and nurses are following the accepted standards of care. For example, I count how many people come to our emergency department with symptoms of pneumonia who get started on antibiotics within six hours after their arrival. Or how many with chest pain have an ECG done within ten minutes of their arrival.

Playing music is a great relaxer after a day of reading patient records or entering the numbers into the computer!
Mike

[bbill]

[ Revival. - Mod ]

It's been a few years since anyone added to this thread. As I'm a newbie here, I'll take up the slack.

My day job, well I work nights mostly-- My night job is Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). It's an interesting job. An occasional "How did they do that?!" gets thrown in for variety.

b

[Wanderer]

Ah..nearly 6 years since my last post.

Moved 1500 miles to become head of software development for a medium-sized company.
No longer play in a band (haven't met anyone yet to play in a band with)

Gave up the flash-game development since it seems like I got into it right when everyone else was too. Can't compete with Candy Crush..hah.

No longer teach kung fu...the joints are tired, lost all of my students in the move, and the kids have all moved out--they were my steadiest source of advertising

Have written a couple of novels and a homebrew manual, earning a place in the Authors Guild and (soon) the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.

My taxes are complicated these days. Who'd have thought writing would bring you so many dang 1099s at the end of the year

[pancelticpiper]

My "day job" is an artist and artist manager at Disneyland.

There, I see every day a guy whose "day job" is playing whistle! He plays in a band called The Bootstrappers.

If I got the story right, he was hired first, due to his background as a musician (sax I think), singer, and actor, then told that he was wanted to play whistle. He got some whistles and has been playing whistle fulltime for several years now.

[Wanderer]

My "day job" is an artist and artist manager at Disneyland.

There, I see every day a guy whose "day job" is playing whistle! He plays in a band called The Bootstrappers.

If I got the story right, he was hired first, due to his background as a musician (sax I think), singer, and actor, then told that he was wanted to play whistle. He got some whistles and has been playing whistle fulltime for several years now.

Back in 2003, I was offered a 6-month gig playing tinwhistle in a "pirate trio" at Disney in Tokyo. It was a six month on/six month off thing due to tax laws or immigration laws or somesuch.

I was --><-- this close to accepting it, because I'd been mostly out of work due to the tech bubble bursting, when I got a permanent programming job offer at Citibank, so I took that instead. But if I'd been single and without children, I'd have taken the Tokyo job in a heartbeat.

[pancelticpiper]

I had a very similar experience! Way back in 1990 I was offered a very lucrative job playing pipes in Japan. It was 9 months straight, six days a week, the maximum days off in a row during the 9 months being one.

My wife had a good career she couldn't leave, and we had a young child, so I had to turn it down. They called the following year and I had to also turn it down. They never called again.

It was at some non-Disney theme park, I don't know its name. It was said to have had a section which depicted something like a medieval European village. Why they wanted modern Highland pipes for this I don't know.

[Jandante]

I'm retired to a country town from office manager at a financial services co in Sydney, Australia. We keep busy with music, concerts in Aged Care homes, play three times a month in church, practice, run a strum and singalong group, and I'm in a choir too.

[walrii]

Husband, grandfather, retired Air Force pilot, presently a simulator and academic instructor for the NATO pilot training school at Sheppard AFB. I dabble in whistles/recorders/cookie tin banjo, woodworking, aircraft maintenance, home improvement, model railroading, fly fishing, camping, poetry and I serve proudly as master brusher and litter box engineer for four cats.