I find myself feeling an odd sense of waywardness lately. I have my day job but I hardly love what I’m doing. I’m also in no rush to give it up because it pays well and I don’t find the work particularly hard. Then there’s the bloggy/video maing thing which I do love but pays me approximately the square root of fuck-all. This is hardly a problem of earth shaking proportions and I’m not feeling overly angst ridden about it. Just… wayward.
I have a job that more than pays the bills and a creative pastime that I enjoy. I should be happy. And I am, mostly. I just want more. To be specific, like most online media creators I dream of making a full time living doing this thing that I like to do. Hell, I’m 42. It’s about time I got started on an actual career that I care about.
Thinking about it, I realised I don’t necessarily have to make money from what I do online. I’d happily keep doing this for fun if I had a day job I was truly passionate about rather than simply good at. Oh, and it has to keep paying quite well too. I’m not a fucking charity. But whenever anyone asked me about a “dream” job I’ve always had a bit of trouble articulating an answer.
I came up with the best answer I’ve had for myself today while reading yet another article about how greedy telcos and complicit governments are making more and more moves towards crushing the open internet and replacing it with a gated, controlled system. Like pay TV. Or early AOL. Really fucking horrible in other words. More and more online geeks are getting up in arms about this. If I hadn’t already used “the square root of fuck all” in this post I would use it again to describe how much effect angry blog posts are going to have.
Thousands of angry geeks vs. a handful of greedy (and ultimately self-destructive) companies that have spent millions buying politicians. I wonder how that one’s gonna turn out. But after reading a few other things I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a ray of hope. Our last, best chance is Google.
I’m no Google cheerleader. I think the whole “Don’t be evil” thing is bullshit. Their involvement with China showed that “evil” is a rather mutable concept. But they aren’t a telco. And if the Telcos fuck the internet, they fuck Google. And I don’t think Google is going to stand by and let that happen.
The telcos and entertainment companies that want to strangle the internet have more money than god, which they’ve been using to buy politicians. They’re also greedy, stupid and scared because they have no idea what the future will bring. Google also have more money that god. And they happen to be smart. Very, very smart and their plan is to create the future.
So my dream job is to work for Google, specifically to help with their plans to fuck up the telco cartel. Because I really hate those pricks. And Google pay lots of money.
Or maybe I need to be independently wealthy. Win a lottery or something. Mental note: must purchase lottery ticket to win lottery. This raises your chance of winning from zero to just marginally above zero. I also have a plan to get a wealthy benefactor:
Angry 365 Days a Year 
Pingback: cartel
Have you considered expanding your options? There are lotsa jobs out there that doesn’t necessarily pay peanuts but would give you a strange fulfillment because they’re.. well… strange. I run an online estimate business, but I sure as hell wish I could take on these jobs as well:
Virtual fantasy broker
Ostrich babysitter
Snake milker
Whiskey Ambassador
I recon working at Google would just be awesome, heres a link of some guy whose now pretty well known for trying to get heard by Google – http://www.cangooglehearme.com/chapter1.php
Promise to keep blogging when you make it!
PS. bs your 42 y.o..lies! more like 35
I have no idea how this would translate to a real world job, but helping Google with their plans to fuck up the telco cartel sounds like a dream job to me. At this point I can only fantasize:
“These greedy bastards stepped over the line. Drop their entries from our search engine”
“YES SIR!”
I think their entries are going to be dropped anyway, due to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act…
@Angry
Not Google. Look who is the CEO.
http://www.muckety.com/Eric-E-Schmidt/452.muckety
He was a participant at the 2008 Bilderberg conference.
Anyhow, Google uses un-semantic code. Imagine trying to cope with that.
Would you like to join me in business Angry. I do understand CSS and semantic XHTML. Here is my site if you are interested.
http://css-class.com/
Google doesn’t pay a lot of money. They pay pretty average salaries overall. Where they really reel people in is in the perks*.
* I’m not sure how having all sorts of services and such that keep me in the office as much as possible is a perk.
I went through this exact problem, and this morning had a phone call from Cardiff University confirming that I’ll be joining them in March to do a degree in Adult Nursing – an actual interesting, rewarding job that I can get a bit passionate about instead of the grey, dull days I’ve lived with for the last 8 years 🙂
In all seriousness I think you’d be an asset to Google. Why don’t you start applying, come up with your ideal job description and keep bugging them til they give you a job?
maybe i’m really a tender, sappy person…Because when i read “I just got an e-mail from Google with the heading, “We can hear you :)”” i nearly cried. almost. i pushed it away.
I believe in you, angry.
Luke: all fine options
Squinch: I never get tired of people thinking I’m younger 🙂
DOA: Sounds like a killer job to me
Vlad: Google will win the court case but it’s going to drag on for ages
Alan: I’m not a coder so the finer points there are beyond me
Grant: I don’t know what you’re comparing them to but in my area they pay well above average
Custador; excellent news!
Wendy: seems like a reasonable idea 🙂
Gap: Fairytales do come true!