I am not giving a shit right now, but I am fully aware that I have no steady income coming in (and unemployment does not count). Nevertheless I am, at least not right now, panicking that the temp agency hasn't called me about anything good besides the flu biller job. It may not help that I'm not calling them every day, either, but I am assuming that I won't lose my weekly check because I'm not. So, for the time being, I'm in "not working because YOLO" mode.
Nevertheless I still look for work in my own sweet way -- and that is through research studies. I lucked out in that one of them, through the U.'s Carlson School Of Business, sent me a multi-day online one that will pay me ... $200(?) once I get done with it this week. Also, after going to the East Bank and ripping through every tear sheet of every experiment that I qualify for, I signed up for another multi-day experiment. This is one where I had to appear in person at a nondescript place in downtown Minneapolis (which probably used to be a nightclub) where, as I discovered my first day yesterday (Monday), I perform cognitive tasks while a net of electrodes are stuck on my head. There is some big money being put behind this study, and this time it'll actually trickle down to us plebians: $20 per visit for up to 14 visits on consecutive days during the workweek, plus a $160 completion bonus, for a $400 payday. I don't think I've ever been paid so much for a research study ... until I realize that that is being spread out over three weeks, which means I pocket $133 per week (plus reimbursement for parking). And then you have to factor in exactly how long each visit is. The second visit, for today (Tuesday), is supposed to be up to four hours long, but it's still going to be $20, which means I have an hourly rate of $5, which was the minimum wage for Minnesota back in 1971.
Anyway, that's not the point of this blog! The point of this occurred when I decided I should take coffee before I headed to this office, and to get that coffee downtown in case I ran into traffic or construction, which I did, which turned out to be a good idea because there are detours everywhere in downtown. On the way there, I remembered that in the e-mail detailing how the experiment was going to work that there were to be 14 sessions, even though in the phone call I got confirming all of this on Sunday said there was only to be ten of them ... or, that's what I thought he said. The problem is that I have vacation coming up in three weeks, and it appears as though you're not supposed to skip any days. Oops.
I didn't know quite what to do. I thought I should have stopped and asked before we even started. But I decided to just go through the first day and then, in the afternoon, I would call the scheduler and say that when I turned my phone back on after shutting it off for the experiment, "something came up" and I have to know how "being forced to go out of town" will impact my participation in this event.
It took a few minutes for the scheduler to consult with other people. In the meantime I wanted to see the beginning of whistle of Liverpool-Bournemouth after being late to see the starts of games Saturday and Sunday morning. (It was beginning to piss me off that I arrived at those pubs too late to see the very start of the game. I'm OCD like that.) Finally they reached what can be considered a contingency plan: I can do most of the project to the point I would have "completed" it and thus get the $140 bonus. But because of timing as a result of my vacation and that, I think, I am going to miss some days, I will have to lose two training sessions and thus the money I would have received for working them. Overall, then, I will be paid a total of $360 for this research study only -- assuming, of course, I don't find another job before then.
Well, at least I wasn't told I couldn't do the experiment anymore. But on the other hand, for a guy who has no steady work, $40 is a lot. If need be I would rather not partake in this experiment until after I got back from vacation. I would rather do that if it means I would get the full complement of visits I'm supposed to have. But, by then I could have a full-time job, so I'd be out the full $400. You know, I just wished I knew from the start that there would be 14 visits; then, I would have signed up sooner so I could get all of it done before I had to leave. But now I'm out $40.
Maybe I should cancel my trip? No ... I booked my hotel and car through Priceline, and those are non-refundable. I really am out $40. But hey, it's slave wages, so can I really care all that much?
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