Yeah, you're right of course...but there are a few reasons why I put up with it. I can work from anywhere, including a relatively remote place with a low cost of living (as I more or less do now), while my wages are constant and similar to a decent Paris level wage. Which is, needless to say, good by most European standards. So I can save a considerable amount of money every month, something I consider pretty important at this point in my life. At my age, it would be nice to buy a place without a 30-yr mortgage or anything like that. As a single person life can be really expensive - living together with someone (or even things like holidays) is considerably cheaper when you can share costs.

The other reason is related to it, but more specifically that I don't even need to leave my home to do my job. No morning commute, no getting super early to get to work on time, no money spent on gas/transport or eating at work if you don't pack a lunch. And no dealing with work social events, for the most part. They have to fly me out for those, which happens, but obviously not every month.

I also know they always pay eventually. The problem is incompetence, not malice. They (the company) sometimes casually blow insane amounts of money on dinners and drinks, so I doubt they're strapped for cash. So if the delays are within reason I put up with it. Ideally I would be permanently contracted by them of course (which would come with timely payment of wages, from what I have heard), but they've been holding out on that for now. We'll see where it goes.

That's fair. It's a trade off that is obviously worth it for you. And hey, you've got a degree (degrees?) in language and actually have a well paying job. That alone is worth something.

Indeed.

If I can somehow manage to cut out a half decent career for myself with my qualifications, I will have overcome the great obstacles I have created for myself many years ago.

lol, there you go. Experience trumps education. Hell, I only have a 2 year degree from a crappy college, and it's not even in programming. Go figure.

Yeah, I think if I'd know all of this 15 years ago I might have taken a different path. Start working earlier, maybe do some pratical (minor) degrees instead. Now I basically wasted 6 years in total on a degree that is virtually useless. At least I had a few years of easy living and drunkeness, I suppose. In my experience that's what most of the people who did start working early on miss, the time to just do whatever. Before mortgages, jobs and kids. Oh well. No way to turn back time.

Ah, but if there was.... muhahahaha.

I'm afraid to ask what that laugh was for. Maybe Satis secretely is John Titor?

No... but it's nice to consider the possibilities if time travel were possible. Or even transporting your adult mind into your child self. Or whatever.

BTW, I hate my job. Tired of working my ass off 50-60 hours every single week.

You can always move to Europe. Although you'd have to leave your guns behind and take a serious pay cut.

I wouldn't count the latter as outside the realm of what is going to be possible in a few decades btw, if we are still alive and humanity still persists.

Transferring my mind into a child clone of myself? Sure, I'm good with that. Eternal life sounds glorious.

Minirant:

In August literally all my direct colleagues are off for 2-3 weeks, which leaves me to hold down the fort. I'm covering for all of them (usually vastly improving on their normal, substandard work) so i'm crazy busy, which I don't mind much. But what I do mind is that just because I'm not a normie who doesn't take his entire year's worth of holidays in the summer season, the same people whose work I covered for weeks then get surprised when I'm off for a week here and there during the rest of the year. "Oh, you're off...again?" Yeah you scumbag, the reason why you don't see all the other people being off in the rest of the year is because they were off at the same time you were gone. Motherfucker.

Who is off in the summer anyway when the weather is nice already? I can have my beer after I'm done working or in the weekend. I'll save the holidays for when the weather is shit and I don't want to actually work haha, or I can go visit a place with nicer weather for a week. Not to mention it's cheaper and I won't have to deal with droves of retarded tourists.

Of course I understand that people who work in the educational system or have young kids don't have much of a choice, but all the others....

Haha poor J...would you actually go on holiday with the kids in other times of the year than the school holidays, if you could? Just wondering.

Probably, since as you pointed out, the price difference is quite significant. Not to mention traffic problems etc.

lol, hilarious. You poor Europeans and your 6 months of vacations per year.

Shiny and I are actually taking off for my birthday (Late August) for a vacation here. We're heading to a beach house we rented on the cost of Alabama. I'm super excited. Since I actually get 25 days of vacation per year, I still have a ton more vacation coming before the end of the year. It'll be nice getting the fuck out.