Canderous and Cade's Crazy Cantina: a shiny new fanfiction social thread!

Day two of digestive upsets. Looks like this isn't one of those "must be something I ate" things and instead punishment for my display of hubris elsewhere.

Writing: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter.

Be it known that I HATE job hunting - HATE HATE HATE it...

Soon enough I'd even take a flipping burger job, but they don't even want to talk to me (5 years travel industry, an AA degree... yeah... like they'll even seriously consider me as a serious applicant - even college grads need to eat...)

Not writing... have cold. Hate having a cold almost as much as job hunting. And seeing as I spent six months or more job hunting at one point when we weren't recovering from a recession, that's saying something. to Breezy!!!!

No kidding. Getting published can be an achievable goal, but becoming a full time fiction writer is like becoming an unicorn.

I'm not taking any summer courses this year, so I probably should look into a summer job. Blah.

What's the going rate for a coupla good people?

My husband has paid a dollar a page in the past. Don't know if their rates went up.

Hmm. At 300+ pages...

Seconded. It's even worse if you've been out of the job market for years because of a disability...

Third...ed for the second part. I'm hoping, though, that that aspect works in my favor, as if I tell a potential employer that I'm disabled, hiring a person with a disability gives the employer a tax break. At least in Pennsylvania.

I'm going to be at work and out of the company of crazies Monday morning. The sociopaths will be on the other end of the phone call, not sitting next to me and harassing me. Life could be worse.

I just booked my hotel for my NYC trip in June. Life could definitely be worse.

Telling an employer about your disability might not actually work. The possibility of a tax break doesn't appeal to employers nearly as much as employees that are perfect little robots with no flaws in their programming. But you have to do whatever feels better for you with interviewers.

Yeah, I am a bit hesitant on revealing that I'm on Disability. If it comes up during the interview process, then I'll mention it. Otherwise, I usually keep it to myself, as it's really none of their business.

It's a shame, though. My programming isn't that flawed.

I find it really depends on the employer when it comes to hiring a person with a disability. My disability is quite obvious, so I pretty much know all the places that will hire me just by looking at the other employees.

My programming is pretty damn flawed, and I'll be the first person to tell someone that.

It almost seems easier to have the "hidden" kind of disability, except for the fact that it makes it difficult to get services for said disability. I can't get disability payments precisely because I have trouble getting Social Security to understand I have anything wrong. Never mind the doctor's reports...apparently there's nothing wrong with me. Interviewers are the same way.

I've been severely disabled since birth, and my father was disabled as well, which was good because I developed my 'screw being normal' attitude from him. But I've never had any problems 'proving' my disability, which I guess is nice.

My step-grandfather recently had a stroke and my disability is kinda similar to what happens to a person after a massive stroke, so my step-family is kinda realizing what struggles I have every day from seeing the new struggles he is having, so they now understand me better. And my step-grandfather is just blown away by me now.

I can't say there is any advantage either way when it comes to disabilities. The only thing is just pushing forward...oh, and having a "screw being normal" attitude, as you said. (Which is something I'm still working towards...)

I have one of those "hidden" disabilities (autism for the win), but when I was a kid, it was painfully obvious and I've run the gamut of diagnoses from "severely mentally retarded" to "childhood schizophrenia." Nowadays, doctors keep trying to diagnose me as bipolar, which fails each and every time, as I counter them by listing the diagnostic criteria, none of which I fit. It pays to have educated oneself in psychiatry.

I have the "screw normal" attitude. I'm nuttier than Peanut M&Ms and I love it.

They diagnosed my brother with schizophrenia when he was two, and tried ADD, and a whole bunch of other things before hitting on the fact that he has epilepsy. It's a weird kind of epilepsy, in his left temporal lobe, and he has what they call psycho-motor seizures. He blacks out a lot, and he has sensory episodes and hallucinations, but to my knowledge, he's only ever had a grand mal seizure twice in his life. (And both of those involved seeing his own blood, which he can't handle.)

I had a devil of a time proving my own disability, and it's still somewhat conditional. They want to re-evaluate in 2014 and see if I still have my crippling anxiety and depression, neither of which stem from a source that can be treated with therapy. *eyeroll* Bureaucrats.

@DarthIshtar, I told you I'd look at it for you!

My first book is doing fairly well. I've only sold a handful of print copies, mostly to family and friends, but I've sold a few thousand ebooks. I have it available at Smashwords, which I'm considering pulling because I haven't made anything there and I do better on Amazon when it's available as an Amazon exclusive and I can do promos.

I have anxiety and depression as well. I think my biggest problem is trying to get those in charge of making official decisions that Social Anxiety Disorder is a legitimate condition and not just "shyness". (They believe the GAD and MDD are real).

Mine isn't just social anxiety, it's everything anxiety. I have panic attacks out of the blue about driving (even to places I've been dozens of times before), about going to the grocery store by myself (sometimes I'm fine, sometimes I won't leave the house for three days, etc.), about making phone calls. I can't call people I don't know, and even calling those I do know sometimes freaks me out. I will literally have to work myself up for a good hour or more before making a phone call to a stranger. And I've been known to have panic attacks about nothing. I was at dinner with my parents and my aunt and uncle, and I had a panic attack out of nowhere, with no trigger I could discern, and had to put my head on the table until it went away. I had one during the credits of "The Dark Knight Rises" this summer, couldn't figure out why.

Now, put that person ^ in a high-stress work environment. Fun, huh? I've passed out at work before, even thrown up.

It really bugs me when the people in charge refuse to acknowledge the disabilities that aren't easy to see. My disability is conditional, but some idiot gets himself hooked on heroin and he's automatically disabled? Where's the justice in that?

Yes, the phone call scenario you described is very familiar. I also tend to get nervous and get lost in places where I've been in the past (which is just fantastic when I'm on foot and have to walk long distances. I don't drive because I failed my driver's test five times in a row. Too stupid and/or too nervous to get a license, that's me).

The high stress work environment doesn't work for me either. It never makes a good impression with a supervisor if you start crying on the job. The only reason I never passed out in front of anyone was due to the fact I didn't want anyone to get some pleasure out of seeing me on the floor. (Did I mention I also have paranoid tendencies and trust issues? Because, yeah, there they are...).

When it comes to the injustice of The System, it's really a crapshoot. A lot of addicts get treated just as poorly as those who have so-called conditional disabilities. Although there seems to be more vocational rehab services for recovering addicts where I live. That's definitely not fair.

OH, man, the paranoia. Yeah, that's me, too.

Haha, there's no such thing as "normal". Everyone has their little quirks and problems. Everyone. I used to wish I was normal, but it's like wishing you were a unicorn, it doesn't exist (sorry if you believe in unicorns). Everyone's weird. Some people are just better at hiding it than others. Even if you're not weird in any way, you're a model human straight from the textbook - even that's weird. That's an exception. Not like everyone else.

@DarthIshtar, I'm not sure what you need, but if it's just proofreading for grammar and spelling and maybe noticing any major discrepancies within the story, I can help. I've done proofreading for self-published books before and want to get into it semi-professionally, and I read fast. So let me know if you want me to look over it for you.