I was looking for a Nintendo 64 controller on craigslist and found a misplaced ad for teaching English in China.

Completely changed the course of my life, I’ve been traveling ever since.

  • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    2 months ago

    I locked my keys in my car and asked the locksmith if he liked the work. He put in a word for me at his shop and I had a job there 3 months later.

    Went from washing dishes to being the hero when people lock their keys in their car while they’re out drinking.

      • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Definitely so, with a complete host of its own problems though.

        Turns out, work is work. I like it when work lets me learn new things and meet new people though, and this is definitely the place to be for that!

        • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineOPM
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 months ago

          work isss work.

          still, I’m glad to hear you’re in a more dynamic situation than before, I vastly prefer some excitement and novelty to break up the work day.

          have you ever met a lock that defeated your efforts?

          • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 months ago

            Oh all the time! Well, less ‘defeated’ and more ‘not willing to waste time’. I wouldn’t consider myself a master lockpick by any means. But picking a lock is only one way to get into a car or house. What really helps is the ability to problem solve and explore alternate routes.

            I still usually start with picking, just so I can practice with the feel of a lock. But if it takes too long I explore other avenues. My training is important, but not moreso than doing the service I’m getting paid for.

            I work with a guy that’s a crazy good lockpicker. He can do jobs with just a tension tool and pick that it would take most of us here an assisted tool to get. Of course, his insistence on doing it the hard way can lose him time - but then save him time in instances where the only way to finish the job is the hard way.

            It’s a constant give and take between efficiency and practice when on the job. Quite frankly, I don’t practice at home nearly as much as I should.

            Though, I haven’t failed to do a job in a long, long while. Perhaps I simply have imposter syndrome :P

            • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineOPM
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              2 months ago

              got it, always gotta keep efficiency in mind. That problem-solving sounds like a lot of fun. I helped a guy get into his truck he left his keys in last year, and we ended up using a wire and bending the truck door just enough to unlock the doors from inside.

              i like the idea of buying simple padlocks just to practice picking myself, a friend and I did that in college as a hobby but i haven’t got back into it yet.

              You sound actual to me, no imposter detected!

              • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                2 months ago

                Your description of getting into the truck is not far off from what we do, albeit we use an airbag to crack the door as to avoid damage alongside a rubber-tipped rigid tool to activate the lock.

                And it’s absolutely fun to practice! I think when you start doing it for a job, it becomes less fun though.

                • bitofarambler@crazypeople.onlineOPM
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  “when you start doing it for a job, it becomes less fun”

                  Yeah, that makes a lot of sense to me.

                  Somewhat related - I love teaching, like every part of it, but I still had to be real careful about getting spoiled and complaining about the parts of the job less fun than others. Many teachers I knew got to the point where they spent more time complaining about their jobs or than they spent teaching per week. I think for a lot of English teachers, our life improvements were so drastic and sudden that anything remotely irritating or troublesome, even commonplace work occurrences, ballooned in our minds to tragedies since the rest of our lives had become so easy. If we had still had our old jobs, where we were struggling or overworked, those “tragedies” would have been minor nuisances at most.

                  All that to say I agree that anything becomes less fun after it becomes a job, and I would have to practice awareness to make sure I didn’t spiral when I got even momentarily tired of dealing with parents or creating a class schedule.

                  You sound like you have a good perspective on your work, though.

                  • VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    2
                    ·
                    2 months ago

                    That complaining issue may be prevalent in all careers like that. I had a coworker that would get so angry over issues at work that it would affect his personal life.

                    Things aren’t perfect at this shop, but I’m learning skills that will make me useful worldwide. And I try to think about that on the days where I’m beating my head against a while trying to program a car key while the customer asks “you think it’s gonna work?” every 10 minutes.