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Mike O

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Members
Join date
20-Jun-2006
Last activity
30-Aug-2025
Posts
2,351

Post History

Post
#1604401
Topic
The Place to Go for Emotional Support
Time

Channel72 said:

Mike O said:

The absolute worst news though is that I got a couple of e-mails about possibilities for my dream film critic job from prospective employers. Ecstatic, I replied and neither has contacted me again. I should’ve known it was too good to be true. But it really felt like a crushing blow. I want this so much, I know I’d be good at it, but it’s so hard to get into and I don’t think I ever will. I continue to work my dead-end job which makes ends meet, but makes me miserable. I’ve even taken to selling some of my old toys for extra money. I just feel so miserable.

Any dream job like this will require a lot of trial and error, failure and rejection. You will likely have to get rejected like 10 or more times before you find that one opportunity leading to success. But if it’s really your dream, it is probably worth it to keep trying (within reason). Obviously, it’s easy to get discouraged and give up after experiencing failure and rejection. But the reality is that most people who successfully realize their dreams are ridiculously persistent. They fail and experience rejection over and over and over. But eventually, through persistence and sheer probability, they find some opportunity that finally leads to success. The key is not to get overly discouraged by rejection and failure, because repeated rejection and failure is pretty much inevitable, especially when it comes to pursuing any kind of job in media or a creative field. But stubborn persistence maximizes the probability that eventually someone will give you a chance. When you apply somewhere, just pretend to yourself that you were already rejected, so that each rejection becomes no big deal and you don’t care so much about any individual employer’s response. Then just keep pursuing other positions while waiting for responses and improving your craft/portfolio.

Also, an employer not getting back to you is not necessarily a guaranteed sign of rejection. I realize you’re trying to “take the hint” and not feel stupid, but sometimes it’s better to be a bit of a persistent pest than it is to just shrug and give up because a prospective employer didn’t get back to you yet. Remember, the people sifting through resumes and making hiring decisions are just employees too. They don’t care about you personally, they just have a job to do. It’s possible they won’t get back to you promptly simply because they got busy with their own problems and they aren’t thinking about you. It’s completely fine to send follow-up emails if you haven’t received a definitive answer yet.

Thank you. You’re right, of course. And the field I want to get into-film and TV writing-is ridiculously competitive. If I’d started this when I got out of college like I should have done, I might be somewhere by now. I’m 37 and I’m still stuck in the same place I was. Part of it is because of the misery and depression of my dead-end job, but most of it is fear on my part. I can’t blame anyone else for that, I have to take responsibility. I’ve destroyed the prime of my life, and what’s left is damaged so badly it may not be worth salvaging anyway. But I’m running out of sites to which I can even apply, even with an English degree. My job is becoming increasingly difficult to bear, and I feel like I’ve pretty much hit bottom. My depression and anxiety make what little time I have left feel less worthwhile. I’m in therapy and on meds. I am trying. But it’s much too little, and much too late, I fear. I just feel less and less like my life is worthwhile.

Post
#1603619
Topic
The Place to Go for Emotional Support
Time

I really, really maxes gigantic ass of myself online the other day. I was just writing about mastering video to a DVD, it NEVER should’ve gotten to where it did. I don’t blame the other person. I behaved like an immature asshole and used misinformation because I was uneducated on the subject. I took my lumps. I apologized after the fact to the person and they accepted my apology. But the posts are there and keep thinking about them. I seriously doubt that anyone will ever see them, and it’s not like they’ll affect my ability to get a job or something. But I thought I was past this. I thought I was mature enough not to get into incredibly stupid fights abut trivial things on the Internet and act like an ass. I just should have been more mature. But the worst thing is that it has basically re-triggered my OCD and now it’s cyclical in my mind and I keep fixating on it. It’s going to be a few weeks before I can see therapist because of her new schedule, but I see my psychiatrist on Monday and I may have got to talk to her about boosting my OCD med, and this feels like an incredibly stupid reason to have to.

Speaking of being immature, I was equally so during fighting with my mother. She wouldn’t let me put my AC unit in my bedroom window because of her new windows. I was furious since I had a perfectly fictional and very expensive unit in the garage. We agreed that I could buy one that didn’t go in the window and go 50-50 on it, but when it arrived, she didn’t like the condensation and had me pay half the price to return, so I only got about 2/3 of my money back. I was apoplectic at her for going back on her word, and my therapist sided with her because it’s her house, so I basically sleep in an oven all summer. It has cooled off now, but given that I’m pushing 40, this is probably God’s way of telling me to get the fuck out of the house. And I keep trying, but it’s so hard financially.

The absolute worst news though is that I got a couple of e-mails about possibilities for my dream film critic job from prospective employers. Ecstatic, I replied and neither has contacted me again. I should’ve known it was too good to be true. But it really felt like a crushing blow. I want this so much, I know I’d be good at it, but it’s so hard to get into and I don’t think I ever will. I continue to work my dead-end job which makes ends meet, but makes me miserable. I’ve even taken to selling some of my old toys for extra money. I just feel so miserable.

Post
#1564025
Topic
Therapy
Time

It’s very helpful and healthy, but it’s a lot of hard work. A therapist can help you see problems, but they can’t solve them for you. Also, it took me about a half a dozen tries to find a therapist who really clicked with me. Is it worth it? Absolutely. But it’s hard. Just know that.

Post
#1562640
Topic
The Place to Go for Emotional Support
Time

I’m reaching a major tipping point in my life, and I don’t think I have the necessary strength and courage to make changes. I see a therapist I really like and I’m on medications which really help, but it’s not enough. My grandfather passed away, my father has Parkinson’s, and I’m continuing to work the same dead-end job. My dream job is to do some writing, especially as a film critic or something, but I can’t find any place to get a foot in the door, and I could really use the supplementary income. I can’t keep living on $400 a week. I’m still a virgin, I still live with my parents, I still work a dead-end job, I have severe depression, and every day the noose seems to tighten. I’m just comfortable enough not to make changes, but unless I do, soon I’ll be stuck forever. I see so little point my life and no way out.

Post
#1507042
Topic
VPNs
Time

Hey gang, I figured that this was a place with enough tech-savvy fan editors to ask, I recently got a VPN on my iPhone and just have a quick query. Pretty much the only reason I have it is because the Wi-Fi at work essentially blocks everything except the store website; I’m not using it to look at anything inappropriate. It is possible to set to exclude anything that it locks though? Like most of my streaming apps won’t work when it’s on, and I can’t really surf the web when it’s off while I’m at work. Kind of puts me in annoying position where I have to turn it on and off. Is there any way to manage its settings?

I may use it on my PC to find fan-edits if ever figure out how goddamn BitTorrent works 😉.

Post
#1484496
Topic
The Place to Go for Emotional Support
Time

I was making genuine progress with my new therapist (Easily the one with whom I’ve most clicked, and then a stupid stimulus caused me to backslide in my OCD. I barely survived this the first time, I can’t do it again. The medicine was helping, and I think I got complacent. If I’m lucky, it will be something I can work through. But I’m rarely lucky.

Post
#1474595
Topic
Audio commentaries
Time

Hey, gang, not sure if this is the right section of the forum to post this in, but I’ll roll the dice and let the mods move it. I’m starting to dig on putting movie audio commentaries on my iPod. In the past, I’ve done this with Total Recorder in real time. Though a pain, this has proven pretty effective. But this only works with DVDs because I use VLC media player; it’s harder to do with Blu-rays, and as far as I can tell, I can’t do it at all with my out-of-region Blus (I have a region-free Blu-ray player, but I’m not sure how to play them on a computer.). For the record, I have no intention whatsoever of putting these up online or anything of that nature; I simply like them for my own edification. Is there a quicker way to do this and to circumvent my problems with Blus, and especially alternate region discs? Figured this was a good place to ask 😉. I’ve been able to hunt down a few on YouTube too, but transferring those to MP3 and then to ACC within iTunes proves time-consuming as well.