What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[Flake]

When are you finally going to pull the trigger on all this, REPO? You've been talking about this for as long as I can remember. Don't you feel time slipping away and with it any chance of success you could possibly have?

[ElkinFencer10]

Success won't come find you, dude. You've got to stop whining and actually do something for yourself if you want anything to happen. Hell, shoot shorts with your phone and put them on YouTube. You think the first think Stephen King ever wrote was The Dead Zone or the first time Bill Murray ever acted was Meatballs? You start small, dude, and you fail. Then you get up and fail again. Then you fail some more. That's how success is built - by starting small and learning from each subsequent failure until your accumulated experience and learning finally yields success.

Also, dude, give up on NYC. Cost of living there will eat you alive, shit you out, and then waffle stomp you down the drain. If you're broke in NC, you'll be homeless in NYC.

[marurun]

Back onto topics that matter, I need to get my auction item in the mail, and for that, I'm going to need some packing tape and packing materials. I'm eyeballing some thick, clear packing tape and a double-bubbled mailer. I have to say, though, I have some fantastic packing padding right now thanks to an early Christmas present of some fine stoneware (Noritake is the bomb).

[REPO Man]

I'm glad you enjoy making donuts.

I haven't worked at Duck Donuts in over a year.

You need new pants ASAP!

Yeah, no shit. I get paid Wednesday and I'm off Friday, so I'm hoping someone will be going up the beach to as far as Walmart, since that's my best bet at getting jeans. No where else sells them, at least not for a decent price.

When are you finally going to pull the trigger on all this, REPO? You've been talking about this for as long as I can remember. Don't you feel time slipping away and with it any chance of success you could possibly have?

Yes, but it's not like I can just snap my fingers and get all the money I need. Most of my money goes towards my expenses (rent, bills, groceries). And even if I set aside $500/mo starting in January and end up with $4,500 by October, finding a room for rent in NYC where the person will hold the room for a vague amount of time while I try to get someone to take me to the Greyhound station on a certain date and time is impossible. In fact, my mom even said that if I didn't have a potential place lined up she wouldn't take me. There, an ad can be placed by lunch and the place gets rented by dinner. Otherwise the longer it stays unrented the worse it is. Realistically, I'd end up renting a place from an ad I responded to while on the bus. If it leaves Thursday afternoon, I'd more than likely end up in a place I inquired about Friday morning. She, however, expected me to inquire into rooms between 24 hours and 7 days before I get on the bus and hope they don't get rented out. And with her schedule, finding a date typically meant doing it on a night she was going up to take my niece to dance cheer. And even if I did everything right and managed to find a landlord that'd happily turn down potential tenants ready to move in ASAP just for some out-of-state rando who has to set a date based on that rando's mother's schedule, what guarantee is there that the only person capable of taking me to the Greyhound won't end up bailing at the last minute?

Also, dude, give up on NYC. Cost of living there will eat you alive, shit you out, and then waffle stomp you down the drain. If you're broke in NC, you'll be homeless in NYC.

I'm broke in NC because my skill set isn't tailored to life on Hatteras Island. I'm not wired for a small resort town. Many of my more developed skills aren't in demand here. In NYC, my knowledge of obscure cinema, comic books, anime, tabletop and video games, and so on, would be easier to translate into a year-round job. I could get a job in a comic book store, a place that sells rare video games or even the electronics department at Target.

And no, I'm not going to "learn new skills" just to do a job I hate no passion for just because I'll "get paid". I shouldn't learn to like football or fishing just to socialize with people that I have complete fuck-all in common with.

Two washing machines at the Avon Motel and neither worked! By that point I was out $3.50 in quarters and had just enough to use the dryer, which means nothing if I can't wash them.

[marurun]

In NYC, my knowledge of obscure cinema, comic books, anime, tabletop and video games, and so on, would be easier to translate into a year-round job.

No, that's now how jobs work. Those are passive skills, purely interest-based with no element of action or mastery. They will get you nowhere. That's why you have to DO things, to get experience doing. Those are the things that get you jobs.

[Jmustang1968]

The guy wants to move to a new city, become a film maker, but his mom refusing to take him to the bus station has prevented his dream for the last decade. Smartphones and youtube has made movie and content making so much more accessible these days. You just want to have excuses to not follow the fantasy that gets you through your day to day.

[MrPopo]

You could always walk to the bus. It might be an hour walk (or multiple hours), but if you actually wanted to do it you would.

[REPO Man]

You know another way to get to a Greyhound station two hours away by car without a car or driver's license when no one will drive you, a cab is too much and hitchhiking is dangerous? It's not like hopping on an electric scooter and riding to a 7 Eleven forty miles away around midnight like my little brother did in his teens one time with one of his friends, and not just because it was too cold to ride back and he had to get our dad to pick him up.

In case you all forgot, I'm on high-functioning autistic, so things you can do easily aren't as easy for me.

[Blu]

There's a cool app that's been around that can get you places. Better yet, you don't even have to engage in verbal conversation, if being non-verbal is more suited to you.

https://www.uber.com/global/en/cities/outer-banks-nc/

Likely cheaper than a cab, has security functions built into the app, and gives you convenient ways to pay.

You wouldn't have to be reliant on a family member to give you a ride to the greyhound station this way.

[MrPopo]

In case you all forgot, I'm on high-functioning autistic, so things you can do easily aren't as easy for me.

"Not as easy" is not the same as "impossible". If you can't figure out how to get to a bus station how the fuck do you think you'll survive in a completely new city with a massive cost of living?