seeking creative work, real pay

[Chroma Starlight]

Recently find myself without income as a result of the civic catastrophe playing out here in first life. Looking for a longer-term creative relationship that can guide, train, help me develop my skills, offer me a steady stream of work/income, and help me earn a living wage that is above poverty and pays well enough to save. I'm not really sure what you'd consider my strengths to be. Landscaping, photography, basic coding, audio field recording and production. Some formal arts higher education, no vocational experience. I did a thing where I drew charcoals of Second Life avatars for a while for friends. I want to turn a new page, but the world has been turned into a trap and it's sprung on me in the worst way at a bad moment, and I need to find a path to my future in this darkness.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Chroma Starlight

[Jules Catlyn]

If you mean that you want to earn a living wage to sustain yourself in RL, the chances of finding that in Second Life are very slim. 

 

[Chroma Starlight]

Bump. You know, I've been able to rapidly acquire basic creative skills in most any arena I've explored. I have a sound sense of aesthetic judgement. You can see me drift from interest to interest, seeking a rooted foundation of creativity that always grows. I can be resourceful. I'm a human in spiritual terms. Surely there is a job for me somewhere in this reality or another, but I don't know where to go or what to say. I've sheltered in place since March'20 and I've been unemployed without full benefits since September. I want to move somewhere safe, but regardless I need to get income, ideally income that's via remote work, but at this time in my life I had intended to completely change everything about what I was doing. I don't want to get another job doing what I did all those years because I know it'll draw me right back into those patterns of being from those male-dominated industries, and I need something different, but I don't know how to connect with something aligned with who I'm becoming. Because my bills and my needs are both real, I do need some real form of compensation for any work I might do.

Edited July 4, 2021 by Chroma Starlight

[karenx0]

4 hours ago, Chroma Starlight said:

Bump. You know, I've been able to rapidly acquire basic creative skills in most any arena I've explored. I have a sound sense of aesthetic judgement. You can see me drift from interest to interest, seeking a rooted foundation of creativity that always grows. I can be resourceful. I'm a human in spiritual terms. Surely there is a job for me somewhere in this reality or another, but I don't know where to go or what to say. I've sheltered in place since March'20 and I've been unemployed without full benefits since September. I want to move somewhere safe, but regardless I need to get income, ideally income that's via remote work, but at this time in my life I had intended to completely change everything about what I was doing. I don't want to get another job doing what I did all those years because I know it'll draw me right back into those patterns of being from those male-dominated industries, and I need something different, but I don't know how to connect with something aligned with who I'm becoming. Because my bills and my needs are both real, I do need some real form of compensation for any work I might do.

Work in real life, if you are looking for a real form of compensation. Pretty sure there are lot of freelancing websites on google for you to put those creative skills to use.

[Chroma Starlight]

17 hours ago, karenx0 said:

Work in real life, if you are looking for a real form of compensation. Pretty sure there are lot of freelancing websites on google for you to put those creative skills to use.

That's completely unrealistic. I've suffered multiple serious betrayals and losses, wave after wave of increasing difficulty. I've been stripped of my financial resources, my physical security, my social security. Most of my immediate family has been utterly destroyed against their individual wills, my mother is taking down as many of her children as she can, my father Cardiologist died of pancreatic cancer at age 63 after basically a decade of estrangement from all five of his children thanks to that spider of a second wife. You propose that I do freelance work, but I need vocational training because I can do all sorts of things, but none of them look anything like any job I can apply to. I have a portfolio that says I'm a Mercurial creative who, when actually supported, can do wonderful things, but when stripped of all support and cast out into chaotic apocalyptical failed state pandemic dystopia doesn't do so well. I need more than a tip that I'm just not trying hard enough. That's not the issue here, as you can plainly see. My boat has been so swamped, mostly in a willful dishonest and atrocious manner by members of this community, that I need far more than that to get my life back on track, and I don't have another eighteen years to try to work this out hoping that these waves of betrayal and deluge magically just stop. Divided, we will all fall.

Edited July 5, 2021 by Chroma Starlight

[Quistess Alpha]

We're all just people who know how to move around virtual representations of things. You should have no expectation that anyone here is qualified to help you sort out your real-life . Unless you live in the middle of nowhere there's probably some sort of employment agency / career help center near you.

My advise would be to write up a resume/CV (with all the stupid formatting and stuff) and make a good looking portfolio (using one of those free-ish website hosts if possible) of your creative work. Having a good looking professional portfolio would put you above 90% of the other creatives posting on these forums at least.

[Quistess Alpha]

These are rather specific to game making/animation, but you can easily generalize the advise from these videos:

 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Quistess Alpha

[Polenth Yue]

Print-on-demand art sites can have a good return if you put in the time. You aren't going to be rolling in riches in most cases, but an income that will let you pay a few bills is better than nothing at all.

[Jules Catlyn]

On 7/5/2021 at 4:26 PM, Chroma Starlight said:

That's completely unrealistic. I've suffered multiple serious betrayals and losses, wave after wave of increasing difficulty. I've been stripped of my financial resources, my physical security, my social security. Most of my immediate family has been utterly destroyed against their individual wills, my mother is taking down as many of her children as she can, my father Cardiologist died of pancreatic cancer at age 63 after basically a decade of estrangement from all five of his children thanks to that spider of a second wife. You propose that I do freelance work, but I need vocational training because I can do all sorts of things, but none of them look anything like any job I can apply to. I have a portfolio that says I'm a Mercurial creative who, when actually supported, can do wonderful things, but when stripped of all support and cast out into chaotic apocalyptical failed state pandemic dystopia doesn't do so well. I need more than a tip that I'm just not trying hard enough. That's not the issue here, as you can plainly see. My boat has been so swamped, mostly in a willful dishonest and atrocious manner by members of this community, that I need far more than that to get my life back on track, and I don't have another eighteen years to try to work this out hoping that these waves of betrayal and deluge magically just stop. Divided, we will all fall.

You are using a lot of language to describe your situation. Maybe it would be more practical if you share with us what your supposed skills are. Maybe that way some people can point you in the right direction. I will stick to my first statement though.. The chance of SL providing you with a steady rl income is small and you will be better off getting your rl back on track and look for sources of income there.

[Doris Johnsky]

Unless you are a builder who has a product everyone wants  or a landowner who rents parcels,  i don't know of anyone who actually makes real RL money to live on in SL. Most club owners will tell you clubs do not make money.  They are a money pit. 

[Chroma Starlight]

2 hours ago, Jules Catlyn said:

You are using a lot of language to describe your situation. Maybe it would be more practical if you share with us what your supposed skills are. Maybe that way some people can point you in the right direction. I will stick to my first statement though.. The chance of SL providing you with a steady rl income is small and you will be better off getting your rl back on track and look for sources of income there.

I don't know. A lot of things I used to consider skills or even gifts seem as though they're utterly commonplace these days. It's harder to be noticed than ever and my bigger problem is that I don't have context to exist in and I don't know how to connect with one, they're so challenging to locate on a grid so vast, lost in the sprawl. I always start exploring. Mostly I find empty spaces, it's like near-future post-apocalyptic archaeology or being out-of-phase in some golden-era sci-fi short. The people I do find, I can't relate to in the ways I'm looking for, like we're another species altogether. What are they even talking about in Ahern? Where are the other geeks who built and should own this place? Why doesn't anyone converse much any more? Is Grignano ever going to get lively again? 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Chroma Starlight

[cloveoil]

hello.

you can earn lindens by working inworld which can be converted to real money. i  know a few djs who make a decent living by djing and doing some biz too. but you have to work too many hours to earn something close to what you would make working 8 hours a day in real life. 

 

[Jules Catlyn]

9 hours ago, Chroma Starlight said:

I don't know. A lot of things I used to consider skills or even gifts seem as though they're utterly commonplace these days. It's harder to be noticed than ever and my bigger problem is that I don't have context to exist in and I don't know how to connect with one, they're so challenging to locate on a grid so vast, lost in the sprawl. I always start exploring. Mostly I find empty spaces, it's like near-future post-apocalyptic archaeology or being out-of-phase in some golden-era sci-fi short. The people I do find, I can't relate to in the ways I'm looking for, like we're another species altogether. What are they even talking about in Ahern? Where are the other geeks who built and should own this place? Why doesn't anyone converse much any more? Is Grignano ever going to get lively again? 

I would recommend that you start looking for assistance outside of SL. If you already find it difficult to even formulate clearly what your skills are and dont even see a clear path into your future, it will be impossible to reach any goal you set in SL. You have a love for rather "floral" language to describe your situation but at this point that same language seems to be a means to hide what is really going on. Sometimes you need to face up to reality, get help and restart your life. No sense in hiding from it in SL. In your current state it will be impossible to even start the most marginal of attempts to build something. Just like a house, the foundation is key. And when that foundation is loose mud, any structure on it will tumble down. 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Jules Catlyn

[Chroma Starlight]

21 minutes ago, Jules Catlyn said:

I would recommend that you start looking for assistance outside of SL. If you already find it difficult to even formulate clearly what your skills are and dont even see a clear path into your future, it will be impossible to reach any goal you set in SL. You have a love for rather "floral" language to describe your situation but at this point that same language seems to be a means to hide what is really going on. Sometimes you need to face up to reality, get help and restart your life. No sense in hiding from it in SL. In your current state it will be impossible to even start the most marginal of attempts to build something. Just like a house, the foundation is key. And when that foundation is loose mud, any structure on it will tumble down. 

What part of the phrase "our present apocalpyse" would you say that you most strongly refuse to acknowledge is actually real in spite of all evidence? You're pretending as if this is 1999 or something, and that's utterly preposterous.

[Quistess Alpha]

12 hours ago, Chroma Starlight said:

like near-future post-apocalyptic archaeology or being out-of-phase in some golden-era sci-fi short.

Is not the same as

2 hours ago, Chroma Starlight said:

our present apocalpyse

//

Anyway, from your posts, not limited to this thread, You do seem like you have some unique attributes that could possibly be put to economic use, but again, nobody here is a career-orientation professional. (unless of course they happen to have some RL certifications or something)

[Polenth Yue]

4 hours ago, Chroma Starlight said:

What part of the phrase "our present apocalpyse" would you say that you most strongly refuse to acknowledge is actually real in spite of all evidence? You're pretending as if this is 1999 or something, and that's utterly preposterous.

I considered not replying the first time, because you always do this to people. This stuff is all irrelevant to your current situation. The hard truth is you need money so you don't starve. This is the only reason I'm replying, because nobody deserves to starve. Now you need to do your bit, which involves listening to people and being practical for a moment.

This is about basic skills, not a higher purpose. Write out lists of things you can do, things you can't or won't do, and then look for something based on that. I suggested POD art because you said you could draw (and if you're making textures for Second Life, that would imply you can use computer graphics programs). That's the level of stuff you need to be thinking about right now.

Don't expect the work to give you freedom to reach your full potential or anything like that. I sell a lot of basic vector patterns on things. It's not original work, but it's not like I have an ethical issue with polka dots. I've had much worse jobs. Also don't limit yourself to one thing. You can work on a lot of different sites/projects at once (including selling things for Second Life), then decide which ones are producing the best results.

[Chroma Starlight]

On 7/7/2021 at 11:45 AM, Polenth Yue said:

I considered not replying the first time, because you always do this to people. This stuff is all irrelevant to your current situation. The hard truth is you need money so you don't starve. This is the only reason I'm replying, because nobody deserves to starve. Now you need to do your bit, which involves listening to people and being practical for a moment.

What are you talking about dude. I've been sitting on a pile of cash looking for a place to flee to for essentially the last 18 months. Criteria: people I trust at the destination because I cannot get through life utterly alone anymore. I just cannot. It's not realistic.

Edited July 10, 2021 by Chroma Starlight

[MoiraKathleen]

7 hours ago, Chroma Starlight said:

What are you talking about dude. I've been sitting on a pile of cash looking for a place to flee to for essentially the last 18 months. Criteria: people I trust at the destination because I cannot get through life utterly alone anymore. I just cannot. It's not realistic.

I'm confused.  To be fair, you had made comments earlier in the thread which had made it sound like you were in need of being able to earn money because of bills and other stuff with the current-ish situation of the world. 

I'm sorry that you have had difficulties on your path through life, particularly this past 18 months.  The state of the world has been challenging for many people, in many different ways as we each have our own individual issues and ways of responding or coping with situations that arise.   I'm just not sure whether any of us here are realistically going to be able to provide, or even help get you pointed in the right direction, what you seem to be needing.  I would suggest to keep exploring options and potential sources of help or guidance out in the real world. 

[Chroma Starlight]

8 hours ago, MoiraKathleen said:

I'm confused.  To be fair, you had made comments earlier in the thread which had made it sound like you were in need of being able to earn money because of bills and other stuff with the current-ish situation of the world. 

I'm sorry that you have had difficulties on your path through life, particularly this past 18 months.  The state of the world has been challenging for many people, in many different ways as we each have our own individual issues and ways of responding or coping with situations that arise.   I'm just not sure whether any of us here are realistically going to be able to provide, or even help get you pointed in the right direction, what you seem to be needing.  I would suggest to keep exploring options and potential sources of help or guidance out in the real world. 

That's why I'm not homeless. This money, savings, was not really for riding out a war in a warzone. When I lost that job in September, I was completely shocked. We were, of course, then as now in free fall under a failed government that wasn't taking adequate basic measures to control the pandemic that its abdication of duty had allowed to become established in this country. I was at that point in no state to continue with a job search. I had just undergone some of the most acutely stressful comorbid pile of impossible situations converging at once. A failed government, a psychopath manager, a landlord from hell who won't fix the central AC in a place that made it to 45C last year after leaving open a hole in the hardwood floor between my unit and his. The month prior, the house drain line had failed; the cast iron pipe was cracked and it started to rain septic into his basement, filling the whole house with a distempered odor for months. He kept shopping around for a plumber who would say the water flooded down to damage his unit from mine despite the reality was the cracked pipe. Three plumbers, and days later and there's still no functioning drain. I fled the house for a few days with cat to hotel until they finally cleared the drain, which had been clogged by ingressing roots. I photographed the guy pulling them out from the outside drain clean-out. This too was denied by landlord. To fix the cast iron pipes, they had to cut down through the hardwood floor in my bedroom. An enormous cockroach infestation from the crawl space that had been living on the dripping sewage invaded through the bedroom closet. The cat kept killing them, or flipping them on their back, I'd find more each morning. This was before March, and I was basically 100% searching for another home, but the market here is a real trip, and I needed a place that wasn't a poohole or aesthetic distress unending stress. 

I had to shelter in place, desperately seeking alternate accommodations, rent, purchase, endless treadmill of searching from February to June while things were getting hot, and the pandemic was now on and exceeding worst expectations anew week after week after week after week after week. I tracked the virus numbers in realtime through my smarthome interface.  I kept up my side of the bargain as an essential worker at the datacenter performing all duties satisfactorily and in compliance with changing Pandemic policy cheerfully, but no matter how many times I tried to explain to my manager how my shelter-in-place telecommute situation had degraded to off-the-map levels of absurd by a landlord who was certifiable and after two months of trying I still didn't have solutions and it was starting to get hot by late April. His solution was to escalate this with me throwing his side of the conversation beyond all reason and blaming me for all fault related to pandemic unreadiness, then lie to HR, and then stonewall. Was this because of my e-mail sent the month prior advising that it appeared the commander-in-chief had abdicated on the issue of public and safety and we might as  well just start doing so and so project right now because the risk will only keep going up unchecked. This got me severely disciplined, involving a nasty email my his boss, who said let's let HR sort this out. The whole thing felt like it was political or something. I thought that I was merely being dutiful to the institution's higher interests in a pragmatic manner.

Somewhere in all this my search for a home with climate control and its own separate air supply from the landlord's mother-in-law hovel under the bedroom where he liked to start fires in the microwave, I did finally find a place that was wonderful, a refuge, a relief. The reason my offer was accepted was because on the day it was listed it was choked in wildfire smoke, fires burning all around on the ridges above. They accepted my offer that day. Upon move in, I got there and it was like I died. I was sick the day after-move in, convinced it was COVID (but it wasn't, apparently, just my first abscess). It was like afterlife. Air conditioning after months of ratcheting up heat and stress from March'20-July'20 as everything went wrong together at once and I watched it all knowing perfectly well each Federal and State policy "blunder" was treason and outright warfare waged upon us all. 

I spent May-August simply trying to have a conversation about my manager's mischaracterization of that conversation. He had negated to mention to them his escalatory approach and unrealistic ideological attitude were impossible to reconcile with, as in, literally, there was no avenue with which to do it. I had believed that the topic was compliance with company policy, which had directed managers to accommodate the needs of workers adapting to pandemic work conditions, since we all have different lives and situations, some of which might not be tenable suddenly. Since at no point had anyone so much as even asked me what was going on before deciding to accuse me of being the problem, I thought it was reasonable to conclude the process had failed somehow, because how could they adjudicate with only one side of the story? 

Finally, I told them point blank, "look, I'm actually a now-no-longer closeted transgender individual. As you can see, there's something very funny going on here, and I actually do need a solution, how about we start with a conversation?" And I had one with someone higher up. We talked about ASD, PTSD, and transgender (all individually Federally-protected worker statuses around which there shall be no discrimination and reasonable accommodations made), and I thought things were settled, but they then dragged me with a different HR person who repeated the wrongful astroturfing litany of nonsense and I was so incised I demanded that they bring in the other HR officer again on that HR call, which they did, and I asked them what the meaning of this was, we had just conversed about it days before and settled everything.  I wasn't going to out myself in front of that poo-eating Trump-servicing lying fiend they put into a position of power in the Community Science Data Center, but I knew she knew exactly what I was talking about. She ignored the merits I raised, and he was like "I'm ready to say let's get rid of them" and I'm just like, "you're all in bad faith." I've got recordings of this call, I still don't know if I should file a Federal lawsuit because my first inclination is still to flee the country. They claimed they terminated me with cause, meaning I couldn't collect unemployment and or my medical leave. If they wanted me gone that badly, why didn't they simply ask me to resign?

It had crushed me and I knew it was going to take some time to heal and recover. If Trump was re-elected, I knew I'd have to immediately find some options abroad. We didn't get the Sanders we needed. I didn't trust Biden, gave away my vote to a young person who couldn't yet vote so that they could have some say and participate. I was too heartsick to tell them I didn't believe in this system anymore. Anyway, concurrent with all this under comical loads of stress I couldn't do anything about that I just kept tossing aside or burying, I finally gained an intuitive understanding of what plurality was and why I was plural, and having just arrived at this conclusion weeks before losing my employment, with Trumpism and the pandemic raging, there was nowhere good to be and I had higher priorities of dealing with this inner situation using newfound insight, and grow into my new soul a bit, which is what I've done while waiting for justice and order to return to our world. Sadly, while I've never been more ascendant than I feel today, the world's never been worse on a larger scale than it is right now. That's like weapon-of-mass-irony grade. 

My older brother appeared at my door step in February with little warning. From the moment they arrived to the moment they were driven away, alarm bells of weird were ringing. This person had been broken apart and reconstructed since I saw him last in 2013 when he was a university employee. Now, he was shattered into at least three different people, each seemingly unaware of the next. I'll spare you the details, but they couldn't stay here, so they're homeless again and I couldn't even say where, but the kind of healing they needed requires someone who can make them realize they're dead and someone who can make them respect the most utterly basic boundaries. I couldn't really help any of my family because I was too embattled by the gaslighting perjurers of Second Life's Oldest Furry Community, which had devastated me spiritually, emotionally, socially, psychologically, legally (bad faith mediation, perjury circus, wrongfully-abridged due process, unused exculpatory evidence detailing my Second Life and all the reasons their claims about it were false, etc), and financially in 2015-2016. I couldn't go visit or intervene, I didn't have the internal resources to travel all the way from Colorado to Oregon and help because facing them was always like facing the direct hellmouth that she made all our lives, mine ages 10-12 with a thirty-year hangover. 

What really burns me up about the people I met on Second Life was that like artisans they sussed out where my soul was fractured and then, rather than help heal, they used this to control and eventually they tried to use it to destroy, making the injuries express in far worse and new ways they had never before after months of Zerzetzung. They wrote a cover story narrative scenario with some loosely collaborating evidence they curated whose meaning has been utterly reinterpreted out-of-its context to defamatory status in its meaninglessness. And somewhere along the way, you realize, "Oooooh. I know what's going on. They just shared with me their company secret, now I know the recipe for Coca-Cola or something." And that's informing me of events in our world to this day, I suppose I and we all should thank them.

So, yeah, about that work here in Kapitolist Utopia and soon-to-be Neo-Assyrian empire they call the United States? Good luck with that. I'm ready to move on. But I need a situation that's sustainable, I'm trying at the same time as all this to also navigate the life change associated with my transgender transition. It's a lot to manage, you should know! I've had my dreams denied for so long, it's like, I can't really find the will anymore for anything less than the pure stuff. I don't really feel like the same creature anymore, and I'm not going to really be able to relate to the Trump/Biden Amerika or corporate life therein. This is a slave colony, now, isn't it? That was the SECOND serious career job I lost within the week of disclosing to them them that I am transgender. This is getting old. I'll bet this happens less in Canada or New Zealand or Sweden, or Japan, or, I don't know, North Korea even. Hopefully my conscientious objector status to the brave new utterly unwanted mRNA unethical experimental genocide business model won't interfere with my ability to travel Internationally because I do not feel inclined to wait around any longer to see just how it might go from this point. I'll watch from afar and write memoirs or something.

 

Edited July 11, 2021 by Chroma Starlight

[Quistess Alpha]

Maybe you should try blogging.

[Chroma Starlight]

12 minutes ago, Quistess Alpha said:

Maybe you should try blogging.

Know anyone who pays?

[Quistess Alpha]

3 minutes ago, Chroma Starlight said:

Know anyone who pays?

(blogging) Doesn't seem like the kind of thing where you get regular payment you write things, hopefully a good number of people read those things, and then you go out looking for people who will pay you to weave product-placements into the things you write, or at least that's how it looks to me (someone who knows basically nothing about blogging)

[Chroma Starlight]

5 minutes ago, Quistess Alpha said:

(blogging) Doesn't seem like the kind of thing where you get regular payment you write things, hopefully a good number of people read those things, and then you go out looking for people who will pay you to weave product-placements into the things you write, or at least that's how it looks to me (someone who knows basically nothing about blogging)

How would I ever convince a single spirit to help me ... place ... product? That's why I fled to Astronomy. I wanted a position where I was no longer servicing Capitalism, but rather something- anything- higher. I thought that I'd be safe from discrimination generally with Astronomers or an institution of Astronomy, but regrettably I was quite wrong in this instance.

[Rowan Amore]

 

31 minutes ago, Chroma Starlight said:

I wanted a position where I was no longer servicing Capitalism, but rather something- anything- higher.

Unfortunately, capitalism is what will pay your rent, feed you and provide other things you may need.  I suppose your only option would be to go completely off grid and learn to be self sustaining.  

[Chic Aeon]

While I didn't read the whole long tome post above, I did read the rest of the posts :D.  I don't see folks discriminatingly against you, they are trying to explain that what you want is unrealistic.  The big bucks heyday of SL has passed by and the number of creators making a real life wage is in the very low percentile.  So what you want is almost certainly not going to happen. 

 

AT THE SAME TIME --- in the US (my little piece and all the pieces where I have friends I chat with) getting someone to do actual WORK is getting harder and harder -- even the McDonalds in my town has a big sign out front offering much higher than minimum wage for workers.  Of my close RL friends, MOST are looking for gardeners, handymen (or gals) and all sorts of skilled "blue collar" workers.  So far, none of us have found them (and we are talking a year here).  It isn't so much a wage thing as some folks are willing to pay well to get jobs done.  So -- judging from "anecdotal evidence" there ARE JOBS -- most likely in many places on the globe.  

 

But only on rare occasions will a virtual world job pay as well per hours spent as a real life job --- not these days anyway.  

Edited July 11, 2021 by Chic Aeon
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