End of an era
- monkey587
- Posts: 940
- Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:56 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Tulsa, OK
End of an era
I spent the last 16 years (out of 29 total) working as a software engineer. I stopped enjoying it more probably around 2002. 6 weeks ago, I gave my notice at my job. Friday was my last full day, I just have two meetings to attend this week and then I am done. In early June, my wife and I are hitting the road for a 6+ month trip around the US. I'll probably see some of you at the catskills and probably at sessions along the way.
The intended destination is Bellingham, WA, as long as we don't fall in love with some other place along the way. I plan to make a living, meagre as it may be, as a classical guitarist/teacher. Maybe I can teach tunes or get people started on the flute, too. Or I'll work in a coffee shop if nothing else works. I just can't be a corporate geek anymore. I've come to realize that I can't be who I want to be without focusing on music, and I can't do that while wasting so much of my life in an office.
The road trip is contingent on finding a new home for my cats, which should be complete this week (I know it should have been done ages ago; there was a plan, which fell through...), but it's always possible that it might fall still through. In that case, we'll board them briefly while we find a place in Bham and then come get them. That would be a disappointment, as my recently developed allergic to cats is not much fun, as much as I love them, and we have been really looking forward to the road trip. But if that's how it has to be, we'll just use some of our savings for another trip to Ireland.
The intended destination is Bellingham, WA, as long as we don't fall in love with some other place along the way. I plan to make a living, meagre as it may be, as a classical guitarist/teacher. Maybe I can teach tunes or get people started on the flute, too. Or I'll work in a coffee shop if nothing else works. I just can't be a corporate geek anymore. I've come to realize that I can't be who I want to be without focusing on music, and I can't do that while wasting so much of my life in an office.
The road trip is contingent on finding a new home for my cats, which should be complete this week (I know it should have been done ages ago; there was a plan, which fell through...), but it's always possible that it might fall still through. In that case, we'll board them briefly while we find a place in Bham and then come get them. That would be a disappointment, as my recently developed allergic to cats is not much fun, as much as I love them, and we have been really looking forward to the road trip. But if that's how it has to be, we'll just use some of our savings for another trip to Ireland.
William Bajzek
- s1m0n
- Posts: 10069
- Joined: Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:17 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
- Location: The Inside Passage
Re: End of an era
Bellingham is a lovely town, and the land around it is nicer. It's not flooded with work, however.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis
- Walden
- Chiffmaster General
- Posts: 11030
- Joined: Thu May 09, 2002 6:00 pm
- antispam: No
- Location: Coal mining country in the Eastern Oklahoma hills.
- Contact:
Re: End of an era
Where I live isn't flooded with work, either, but the creeks and hollers are flooded with rainwater!
Reasonable person
Walden
Walden
- CHasR
- Posts: 2464
- Joined: Wed Jul 26, 2006 8:48 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: canned tuna-aisle 6
Re: End of an era
talk about understatements.s1m0n wrote:It's not flooded with work, however.
I cant think of anywhere that is, can you ?
Nigeria, maybe could use some real software help...
Ok! so youre burnt.
I'll try hard not to get on my soapbox, monkey587...I completely understand having to do what you have to do...so go do it...but a lot of us fulltime musicians are having to deal right now with those who've lost their dayjobs, and are undercutting us drastically. Dont expect a break from anyone in the biz. This may be the secret passion and lifelong aspiration of many (their actual abilities aside); but it's our everyday bread & butter. Seems to me with your background it'd be a lot easier (and MUCH more profitable) to hang up a software shingle of your own, free of corporate BS, and service the computers of the multitudes; than to develop the skillsets and connections it takes to actually make it in music. Plenty of extremely talented and capable musicians would kill to have that steady dependable income youre giving up. Consider, for your own sake as much as ours, that the grass on your side may indeed be greener than ours.
Good luck: you'll need it.
Last edited by CHasR on Sun May 03, 2009 6:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.
-
- Posts: 10300
- Joined: Tue Mar 12, 2002 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: SF East Bay Area
Re: End of an era
You know that Marilyn and I are hoping for happiness for Angeline and you. Go for it, man.
I don't know what will happen when my boys are finally at the point of trying to make a life (post-college and such), but this is not the place that it once was, in terms of opportunity and sociability. I am certainly not going to drag at their ankles to stay here if it's even an issue.
As to the software stuff, I dunno, I feel that the job field is changing before our eyes. I wouldn't rule out white-collar employment in the future. I walked away from teaching guitar so many years ago, and some days I regret it. Other days, I talk to working music teachers, and know that I might have been more insecure even if I was keeping my fingers warm.
Good luck to you both.
I don't know what will happen when my boys are finally at the point of trying to make a life (post-college and such), but this is not the place that it once was, in terms of opportunity and sociability. I am certainly not going to drag at their ankles to stay here if it's even an issue.
As to the software stuff, I dunno, I feel that the job field is changing before our eyes. I wouldn't rule out white-collar employment in the future. I walked away from teaching guitar so many years ago, and some days I regret it. Other days, I talk to working music teachers, and know that I might have been more insecure even if I was keeping my fingers warm.
Good luck to you both.
How do you prepare for the end of the world?
- mutepointe
- Posts: 8151
- Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 10:16 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: kanawha county, west virginia
- Contact:
Re: End of an era
Wishing you the best. Many years ago, on the day I told my wife I'm just going to quit my job, my racquetball partner who had moved away, called me up and said, "How would you like a new job?" I hope it all turns out as fun for you. (He then moved away again in a few months.)
Rose tint my world. Keep me safe from my trouble and pain.
白飞梦
白飞梦
- cowtime
- Posts: 5280
- Joined: Thu Nov 01, 2001 6:00 pm
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Appalachian Mts.
Re: End of an era
Good Luck. That should be an adventure- the trip and the new lifestyle.
"Let low-country intruder approach a cove
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent."
John Foster West
And eyes as gray as icicle fangs measure stranger
For size, honesty, and intent."
John Foster West
Re: End of an era
Nicely said, CHasR.CHasR wrote:...I'll try hard not to get on my soapbox, monkey587...I completely understand having to do what you have to do...so go do it...but a lot of us fulltime musicians are having to deal right now with those who've lost their dayjobs, and are undercutting us drastically. Dont expect a break from anyone in the biz. This may be the secret passion and lifelong aspiration of many (their actual abilities aside); but it's our everyday bread & butter. Seems to me with your background it'd be a lot easier (and MUCH more profitable) to hang up a software shingle of your own, free of corporate BS, and service the computers of the multitudes; than to develop the skillsets and connections it takes to actually make it in music. Plenty of extremely talented and capable musicians would kill to have that steady dependable income youre giving up. Consider, for your own sake as much as ours, that the grass on your side may indeed be greener than ours.
Good luck: you'll need it.
There indeed are many, brilliant musicians out there, who in essence starve just to keep their musical love alive.
- BillChin
- Posts: 1700
- Joined: Tue Aug 05, 2003 11:24 am
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: Light on the ocean
- Contact:
Re: End of an era
Good luck on the big adventure. Sounds like you had some good luck--most software folks don't last nearly as long. I read somewhere the average for software types is 7 years and then they are as obsolete as the old computers that they know how to code for and are as washed up as a pro athlete that is past his prime.
I would hope that working in Cupertino, and knowing since 2002 that you wanted out, that you socked away huge scoops of that Silicon Valley salary. Even a few years of that salary can be enough money to retire or be semi-retired, in some low cost areas of the country. As a person gets older, medical benefits loom larger and larger. Perhaps you and your partner are in exceptional health, or started working really young, so with 29 years work experience you aren't that old. If that is 21 + 29 = 50 or 50+, it is a bit scary to be living at low wage with no benefits. At 29, it isn't so scary. At 59, it can be very scary.
Anyway, whatever the details, report in from the road and keep the Chiffers informed. Big adventures are to be commended. Happy trails.
I would hope that working in Cupertino, and knowing since 2002 that you wanted out, that you socked away huge scoops of that Silicon Valley salary. Even a few years of that salary can be enough money to retire or be semi-retired, in some low cost areas of the country. As a person gets older, medical benefits loom larger and larger. Perhaps you and your partner are in exceptional health, or started working really young, so with 29 years work experience you aren't that old. If that is 21 + 29 = 50 or 50+, it is a bit scary to be living at low wage with no benefits. At 29, it isn't so scary. At 59, it can be very scary.
Anyway, whatever the details, report in from the road and keep the Chiffers informed. Big adventures are to be commended. Happy trails.
Re: End of an era
wow... that's awesome. life's too short to be unhappy. best of luck. holler at me if you pass thru NC.
-ian
-ian
-- j. ian wilson
furrycelt at yahoo dot com
www dot myspace dot com slash furrycelt
"not all who wander are lost"
furrycelt at yahoo dot com
www dot myspace dot com slash furrycelt
"not all who wander are lost"
- monkey587
- Posts: 940
- Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 11:56 am
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 8
- Location: Tulsa, OK
Re: End of an era
I'm not wealthy. I worked hard to save up a year's salary, which, anywhere else in the country, would last me much, much more than a year. I know it's going to be a rocky road getting started but I also know that I will be OK if I do what I love. The fact is, the money I have is a poor substitute for the time that I don't have and the money I haven't isn't all that much when you factor in the cost of living and the fact that this area, for many reasons, sucks.
My wife has been a professional musician for her whole career, and so are many of my close friends, so I have some idea of what the life is like. None of them would trade it in for the kind of job I just gave up. I have never experienced the bitterness you express towards me, ChasR, from anyone who has chosen to make their career doing what they love.
My wife has been a professional musician for her whole career, and so are many of my close friends, so I have some idea of what the life is like. None of them would trade it in for the kind of job I just gave up. I have never experienced the bitterness you express towards me, ChasR, from anyone who has chosen to make their career doing what they love.
William Bajzek
Re: End of an era
No, monkey587, that wasn't CHasR expressing any bitterness toward you, not at all.monkey587 wrote:...I have never experienced the bitterness you express towards me, ChasR, from anyone who has chosen to make their career doing what they love.
That was CHasR expressing his sincere insight in regard to the world of music you could now face.
Call it tough love, but that's what CHasR was saying, to you.
He called it, just like it is.
:-)
- devondancer
- Posts: 1000
- Joined: Sat Dec 29, 2007 12:42 pm
- antispam: No
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 10
Re: End of an era
Good luck! We both hope it all works out for you!
- weedie
- Posts: 578
- Joined: Sat May 06, 2006 2:23 am
- Please enter the next number in sequence: 1
- Location: New South Wales Australia
- Contact:
Re: End of an era
For what it's worth,I detected some 'bitterness' in CHasR's post too ...
Almost as if he was saying " Don't become a Muso mate,there's enough of us here already, and there's not enough jobs " ...or, " I'm a full-time musician,but you can't be "
Perhaps,as often happens,the real meaning has gotten lost in the transfer from the mind to the printed page...
Anyways Monkey....have a great trip .........I'm envious ...
Almost as if he was saying " Don't become a Muso mate,there's enough of us here already, and there's not enough jobs " ...or, " I'm a full-time musician,but you can't be "
Perhaps,as often happens,the real meaning has gotten lost in the transfer from the mind to the printed page...
Anyways Monkey....have a great trip .........I'm envious ...
" Quiet is quite nice " ..... weedie .....
Re: End of an era
Honestly, I don't see where CHasR was malicious in any way.weedie wrote:For what it's worth,I detected some 'bitterness' in CHasR's post too ...
Almost as if he was saying " Don't become a Muso mate,there's enough of us here already, and there's not enough jobs " ...or, " I'm a full-time musician,but you can't be "
Perhaps,as often happens,the real meaning has gotten lost in the transfer from the mind to the printed page...
Anyways Monkey....have a great trip .........I'm envious ...
The way I see it, he spoke the truth, in that the life of a "working" musician could these days be a tough row to hoe.
Sure, anybody could be a musician, but let them be prepared to pay the price.