Monday, September 15, 2008

The Fiend of Finance

As it so happens I find myself in a relatively uncomfortable financial situation. I have made it almost the entire length of my undergraduate career without resorting to a job. I have worked of sorts since I have done some research for small grants but I have not entered into an employee employer relationship while in school. I did however have a job before I started and retained that job for some time while I was in school during the first year. I now find that I must come up with some new way of acquiring monies. The prospect of getting some sort of gainful employment however is not something I relish. I suppose I should give myself some sort of period during which I can pursue different paths which are less likely to allow me to have stable financial self support but which are all together cooler than the usual resort of a 9 to 5.

List of ways to get monies

1. Sell things on e-bay: obviously in order for this to work for an extended period so that it can provide some sort of illusion of financial stability I would have to find a way to supply the items which are to be thereby sold... thus making this option not terribly useful without a supporting money making concept, see following items.

2. Sell handmade wooden puzzles: actually I rather like this option as it does not require a great deal of technical prowess, I already have (or more precisely already have access to) a great number of woodworking tools, last but not least I can put as much (or as little) originality and ingenuity into the creation of said puzzles as I like.

3. Create and maintain an original software package: This idea is so varied as to require an entire sublist of the possible sorts of software enterprise that could be undertaken. I could try my hand at engineering a game, a map maker, a fake language generator... etc.

4. Make grandfather clocks: Unlike the wooden puzzles thought these objects would sell for quite significant sums of money and would still be a great deal of fun to make. Apparently I can purchase the actual clockwork parts of these devices online for rather less than I could sell the finished product... however of course the thing that makes the toys attractive is that they can be made and sold easily and shipped as easily. Selling these things would be I imagine rather more difficult. $500 clock anyone? (and that is dirt cheap for a grandfather clock...)

5. Sell my body: Specifically I mean "donate" blood plasma which is relatively easy to do... but it would weaken my immune system probably leave me with scars after a while and is not that pleasant in general. On the bright side it would force me to eat regularly (which is something that I do not currently do). However the monetary gain has severely limited potential since I can only give so much blood plasma a month (shame on them for stopping you before you hurt yourself). I have already done this a little and I must say in most ways I prefer being scared of going hungry to selling blood plasma.

6. Shamelessly beg for money on the internets: this is related to #3 since I would probably have to put my software out for free and then ask for donations, alternatively of course I could put a portion of the software out for free and then have other portions which would have to be purchased but there is something deeply satisfying about knowing that all of the money you get is given not because it was required but because in some way the person giving it felt it was deserved.