Update XIX: Melancholy and the Infinite Napping

[memphis]

Buzzfeed: The story of what this man did will change your life forever!

[memphis]

Does Bushie even have more than $1000 worth of stuff in his Tulsa apartment. Just call the Salvation Army. They'll come by and pick up just about anything for free.

[memphis]

Bushie, do you realize you have delayed Papa's retirement by years?  The poor guy has to work with a bad back for several extra years because you can't get out of his checkbook. Ugh.

Actually, that's not true.  He didn't start working at this current company until 1999 and needs to get 20 years in to have any kind of retirement.  That would be 2019.  He said he plans to work until he turns 70 which would be in 2022.

What you're missing is, he perceives that he needs "X" amount of retirement benefits and savings to retire in 2022.  Being in their checkbook to what I'd guess is about $25K so far has greatly reduced "X", and he might have to work longer to make up the difference.   

Bushie has easily blown more than $25k of his Dad's retirement fund each year since the Update began. His grand total at this point has to be a few hundred thousand.

[memphis]

How many computers does Bushie have? I remember his parents bought him a touchscreen desktop when he started CADD school, a laptop just last month, a tablet a while back, and an iphone. Now he has another computer? The desktop I bought at WalMart about 5 years ago for $400 still works great for me. I thought it was getting slow on me, but the problem was Internet Explorer. I use Chrome now and it works great.

[memphis]

How many computers does Bushie have? I remember his parents bought him a touchscreen desktop when he started CADD school, a laptop just last month, a tablet a while back, and an iphone. Now he has another computer? The desktop I bought at WalMart about 5 years ago for $400 still works great for me. I thought it was getting slow on me, but the problem was Internet Explorer. I use Chrome now and it works great.

Same computer

I thought the parents gave you a $750 gift card to buy it. Why the need to charge it?

[memphis]

I'm sure he got the 20% of cost service plan add on that is pure profit for the store.

[memphis]

I'm thinking that a Sentra (or its equivalents in other makes) will not offer ODF the level of back support that he now requires. I suspect he (or, rather Papa) will buy something more attuned to the needs of the full figured gentleman. Something opebo would approve of. Perhaps a Buick.

[memphis]

I doubt Bushie could get financing for a car. His income and credit history are so...spotty.

[memphis]

You have a temp job with no paid time off. That's not a steady employment for a 36 month or long car finance.

^^^^^
If you had a good history of cobbling together short term freelance projects, that would be something. However, you don't. Your life is a shambles. No bank in the world is going to lend you enough money to buy a new car. You're completely delusional if you think otherwise. We all know how this will play out. Papa will cosign. Papa will pay.

[memphis]

It says a lot about Bushie's value system that he equates being unable to obtain a car loan with being "totally worthless." The really odd thing is that somebody who holds such high regard for having good credit would so frequently go so far out of his way to ensure that he will never be in a better financial place. People can be so irrational!

[memphis]

His credit score may be decent. Although he had a short sale and his ratio of available credit to used credit is probably awful, he seems to be good about making sure that his bills get paid. Credit score is not the issue though. You can have the best credit score in the world, but if your work/income history is as awful as Bushie's is, nobody is going to make the loan. You still have to demonstrate you have the ability to pay it back.

[memphis]

You finally got an appointment with the Indian dentist? After 2 years!!!

[memphis]

You don't need to quit a job to look for another. You can have a job and still look for something better.

[memphis]

That was ominous. Sounds like Bushie will be let go sooner rather than later.

[memphis]

I think looking for a permanent job is a great idea. Why would you think that you need to quit your contract job in order to do it?

[memphis]

Are CADD jobs mostly temp gigs or can one get an old fashioned 9 to 5 in it? That would have been a good thing to know from the outset, but it's still something worth consideration. I would rather make a little bit less in a different field but have more security and consistency. It takes a special kind of personality to manage freelance work.

[memphis]

Longtime update watchers: What's the longest amount of time Bushie has held a job? It seems like the median is 2-3 months.

The event that really got the Update started was when he abruptly quit his job of a year or two at Oklahoma Natural Gas to accept a role in an international money laundering scheme.

[memphis]

What did Bushie work as in Kenya?

How many jobs has he had?

He went to Kenya for a week or two on two seperate occasions. It was a mission trip/volunteer situation which he has described as a "vacation." I have nothing against charity/volunteer work, but it would not be at all accurate to describe what he did as a job. On that point, I would also point out that many of the things he has done in the US have not been jobs either. Scams too numerous to remember. Sales "jobs" that are really transparent pyramid schemes. Door to door vacuum sales. For a while he sold fake insurance policies for which members of his immediate family were the only clients. He also got removed from his moderation duties here for promoting that particular product.

[memphis]

Have you considered looking for a new job while working your current one?

[memphis]

How do you plan on developing your potential? Besides forcing your coworkers into the role of teacher, that is.

How many hours has Jeff worked on his CAD skills outside of work?

How many light years tall are you? Units of measurement need  to be appropriate for that which you are trying to measure.

[memphis]

Why are we still trying to keep Bushie working, when all evidence shows that it costs Papa Bushie countless thousands of dollars?  Have a heart. Direct Bushie back to the Train Room, so Papa can retire one day. This adventure is unsustainable and it's costing an old man everything.

[memphis]

Why are we still trying to keep Bushie working, when all evidence shows that it costs Papa Bushie countless thousands of dollars?  Have a heart. Direct Bushie back to the Train Room, so Papa can retire one day. This adventure is unsustainable and it's costing an old man everything.

Huh?  I am paying for the vast majority of my bills thank you very much.

Trying to give you the semblence of independence is incredibly expensive. Your father would save enormous quantities of money by keeping you at home and no longer having to pay for your lifestyle.

[memphis]

Why are we still trying to keep Bushie working, when all evidence shows that it costs Papa Bushie countless thousands of dollars?  Have a heart. Direct Bushie back to the Train Room, so Papa can retire one day. This adventure is unsustainable and it's costing an old man everything.

Huh?  I am paying for the vast majority of my bills thank you very much.

Trying to give you the semblence of independence is incredibly expensive. Your father would save enormous quantities of money by keeping you at home and no longer having to pay for your lifestyle.

Memphis, why are you continually insulting me and spouting things that aren't true?

What did memphis do that at least 10 other Updaters don't?  Your singling out of our irreligious friends is becoming disturbing.  Is Church being particularly harsh on non-believers at the moment? 

What I did differently was suggest a plan that put the well being of Papa Bushie over Jeff's self esteem. Papa is not getting any younger. It's time we stop encouraging Jeff to take on jobs that cost Papa thousands. Jeff needs to stop working so Papa can retire one day.

[memphis]

Bushie, you're confusing "adequate paycheck" with "fat paycheck".

^^^^^^^^^^
I remember seeing my mother's paycheck when I was a child and being amazed how much money she was taking in. However, she was a teacher. The amount she was pulling in, while completely adequate to meet our needs, was not actually all that lavish. It is only with a child's complete disconnect with the cost of things like housing, utilities, food, etc. that her pay seemed like so much money. The only difference here is that I was 8 and Bushie is 32. Just some rough estimates on Bushie's monthly bills:
Tulsa Rent:    $550 (and I find this one a little bit hard to believe but whatever)
Utilities:         $150 (on average)
Food               $750 (Bushie only eats restaurant/packaged foods)
Debt Service:  $500 (Also a bit of a shot in the dark, but he has LOTS of debts)
Car Stuff:        $300 (He drives a lot, has insurance, oil changes, etc)
Life Insurance: $50 (He's still carrying some sort of policy that he sold himself)
Clothes            $50 (We all need shoes, pants, whatever)
Cable/Internet $250 (He has the Super Duper Package. We'll count his phone plan in here too)
Porn&Scams     $50
Misc                  $100 (Cleaning products, toiletries, whatever)
Total                  $2750
And all of this is after taxes and the free healthcare that the Indians provide. Bushie isn't even coming close with his temporary job filled with missed days.
Bushie, this point is key. You're already living off your parents. I am suggesting a path for you to be less of a financial burden to them than you currently are. That doesn't mean you "have no place in society." What does that suggest about your feelings toward those who do not work?

[memphis]

I've never done temp work so maybe somebody (other than Bushie) who has can fill me in. What is the point of having a "contract" if the employer can dismiss an employee who hasn't committed a serious offense with no notice? That's not what the word contract means. That's working as a day laborer.