i’m having a bit of a case of the mondays—work wise, but err for the last month or so. oh it’s nothing bad–just a little bit of “hmm, if i could, i’d….xxxxxxx (yes read that as i’d be in the double triple x industry), instead of working”.
so what would YOU do if you didn’ have to work. not a stupid “you just won the lottery” quiz, but imagine if you had your current salary, plus, oh i dunno, 25% (just to make things interesting)–and you were not obligated to do anything–for anyone, unless you wanted to.
what would you do?
14 responses so far ↓
1 jefke // Jun 19, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I’ll start:
natty will tool on me, but dammit, i’d gatsby it up and just have different groups of people over for dinners–social engineering i suppose, i’d try to create the perfect social moments, like in mrs. ramsey in to the light house.
and i’d prolly try to start a landscaping bidness. something small, high end. but not so high end that i couldn’t drink on the job.
and play guitar in a band. something small, high end, but not so high end i couldn’t drink on the gigs.
god i’m gay.
2 don // Jun 19, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Let’s see. I would probably build kit cars. I’m not talking about one of those cheesy Fiero conversion kits either, I’d build something way cooler than that.
I know that I’d also end up spending 1/2 the day on the computer fucking around. It would start that I would be looking up something related to the kit car and eventually I’d be WAY sidetracked and end up reading your website or the other 503498903 RSS feeds that I’d be subscribed to b/c of my new free time.
Lastly, I’d probably cut the grass about 2 or 3 times a week. I’d totally perfect the “baseball field look” and maybe even start cutting cool designs and logos into the yard. I’d then hire a helicopter to fly over to see my cool designs and take pictures of them. Maybe I could end up on TV or even work for your HIGH END landscaping company.
Clients could hire me to come in and do a “happy b-day CAPT” or something that could be photographed from the sky and kept for him as a sort of keep sake.
That would be cool!
3 rud // Jun 20, 2006 at 5:21 am
I’m desperately depressed by the fact that it’s taking me some time to get to the essence of your question, i.e. to get past all the bullshit boring ‘New Years Resolution’ stuff (excercise, vegetable garden, sculpture classes, travel) that comes to mind in response to your question. Thanks, dick.
More to the point then:
1. Staring up my own radio station.
2. the Belgian House Blog (turning blighting idiots into pros)
3. Preaching the gospel of Proper salsa to these god-damned euro supermarket chains.
4. Vainly trying to get every human being on this earth to read, if not Gaddis, if not Pynchon, then at the very least Frederick Pohl’s “The Starbow at the End of the Universe.”
As you can see, I want to make a difference!
All of this presupposes, however, that I am currently displeased with my job, as rcg so eloquently put it (he always does, that rat bastard), of picking the lint off of the Emperor’s corduroy suit, cord by painstaking cord, which of course I am not.
nice post(s), jefke.
4 jefke // Jun 20, 2006 at 6:53 am
don: man fiero kits, i though i was the only one that remembered those.
i’d need you for the landscaping b/c you already have the zero degree mower and the trailer.
basil: the exercise is not unlike the “what you do if you had a million dollars” question in office space–i feel as if you went very lawrence with it (albeit a bit more high brow) but i digress.
i realized the other day that i have like 35 years of work ahead of me. assuming i don’t croak sooner. i don’t even know if there is that much work to do–maybe i’d be come a subsitance farmer. at least then all of your energy goes to making food to give you energy to make food to give yourself energy to make food. seems like it takes care of a lot of the details on its own
5 rud // Jun 20, 2006 at 10:28 am
hmmm - mp3’s, snack foods, power tools, and sci fi - if that don’t make me high brow (but Not high end!), then sho’ nuff nuttin’ will!
6 jefke // Jun 20, 2006 at 10:41 am
ah fair enough, i put too much emphasis on those crazy authors you and the quebe like so much.
7 acw // Jun 20, 2006 at 1:37 pm
I’d buy a digital video camera and film everything. Maybe I’d make some of it into a documentary or something.
I’d also build a treehouse in my backyard.
Maybe I’d make a documentary about building the treehouse.
8 dasceder // Jun 20, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I would pay AC/DC to follow me around and play “Thunderstruck” anytime I walked into a room.
9 jefke // Jun 20, 2006 at 2:32 pm
well this is exciting, 8 comments–err well 6 non jefke comments.
all this is good shit, though i suppose, what i was thinking of was more like, what would you, you know, _do_ with your life. I mean yeah sure, i’d sleep later, or whatever, but, for instance, if you were not in the job you had now, would you go be a writer? would you train to be an american gladiator, and then after that, get american gladiators back on the air?
go prospecting for gold in the yukon? take a job on a crab boat? be a teacher?
that sort of thing.
10 rud // Jun 20, 2006 at 3:54 pm
Ah i get it. for me that’s easy - i’d be a lawyer and write briefs so dense they’d have to come equiped with their own anti-grav units.
11 cormac // Jun 21, 2006 at 6:30 am
I suppose it would involve moving to a Slavic country and doing something that sounded impressive to 21 year-olds. And I’d pretend to be from Canada so the Europeans wouldn’t thin I was a total fucking idiot.
12 Natty // Jun 21, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Ok, so I finally have a chance to post what I would do. First of all, I don’t think your idea is a bad one Jefke. Social dinners would be fun. Just don’t forget the sunblock for your landscaping. I would probably keep doign what I am doing, more or less. I would finish nursing school and then work in Labor and Delivery, but maybe just part time, to be at home with my baby. I’d have more babies and I would go back to horseback riding- train at a nice dressage barn, but still remain true to my hunter/jumper roots. Oh, and I would try to finally run that marathon.
13 don // Jun 21, 2006 at 1:49 pm
After thinking about it more I think that maybe I would train to be a UFC fighter.
14 rcg // Jun 22, 2006 at 11:42 am
I’d build a kiln in the back yard and be a potter. I’d read books. Maybe write poems. Wouldn’t write a book — quite convinced now that I haven’t any story to tell. Not even short stories. But poems. Dumb, but crafty poems.
I’d like to think I’d volunteer for some sort of charitable work… but probably something local… no global missions.
I also have this idea to shoot a short film using one of those 360-degree VR lenses and editing different perspective versions that play side-by-each. Again, problem is the lack of story… but it would be dialog heavy and very boring to most people.