So I meant to get this posted last Fri/Sat and it just didn't happen.
I got a day job! Starting at some point in the next couple of weeks I'll be Dell PC repair. Simply put, if you ever call Dell and a part has to be replaced, I'm the guy who replaces it. The entire process went very fast, and even though I've "Got the job," I won't have it in full capacity until I've passed 8 certifications (5 Dell, and 3 through the company that hired me). These don't look like they'll be all that difficult so no worries there, I just hate saying "I've got it!" when I don't have it 100%. I plan on doing a lot of work to get the certs in the next few days, because if I can get them within 5 days there's a nice $300 bonus :D It doesn't stop there, after the first 8 I'll have some IBM certs to get (these aren't as important right now because I can have the job before I get them), and at some point within 90 days I have to get my A+ Certification (which I was planning on getting anyways).
The job will pay more, but its variable depending on the # of calls I make in a week. Even at the minimum # of calls I'll be making nearly what I make in 2 weeks currently. The best part? I've put in my 2 weeks already, and this Sunday will be my last night on the night shift. Monday I plan on not sleeping till late at night, and I plan to combo hit myself with night sleeping and melatonin. I want this to turn out right because Gen Con is coming up soon and I want to be as adjusted as I can for it.
I worked it out with my current boss that I'll be switched over to a "seasonal" position so I can maintain my job at Drury and do odd shifts here and there as well as help with luggage. To explain why doing luggage is a good thing, let me start with saying that we get the occaisional/frequent tour bus at the hotel. These buses sometimes pay for a baggage service, where in some sucker (usually me) at the hotel takes the bags from the bus to the rooms of the people on the bus, and takes em back to the bus the following day. The cost of this service is two bucks per bag. To give you an idea of the math, there's usually 2 bags per person (roughly), and a tour bus can be as large as 30 people. That's the rough numbers for what I did a week or so ago, and I got $120 added to my paycheck for about 2 hours of heavy lifting. That's a nice chunk of change. I can earn bigger or smaller amounts for a half hour of work up to a couple of hours. I'd only be available on the weekends for this, and it might interupt my fun, but the payoff should be worth it.
That's it for now, hopefully I'll be posting more as more and more things occur.