corpus mentium

Just to add to my previous line: I am still interested in clarification on your response to me, especially if I missed your point, but if I take the response at face value, I would have to disagree. Do we not see postings of Facebook conversations and the like about topics such as spanking, public school, politics, etc? Do we not watch other disturbing videos or read disturbing quotations/memes and then comment on them, whether they include, for example, actors such as the video above or the actual victims such as Hillary Adams being whipped by her father? I would think that the people on a forum like this one would be very interested in exploring the message. Maybe someone would be interested in offering a counterargument or alternate viewpoint to those who might have otherwise simply taken in the message as fine and acceptable. Maybe the counterarguments would be useful to others here who might not have otherwise thought them up. I know, at least in my case, that there have been points/counterarguments brought by others here against disturbing topics and messages, and they have been enormously helpful to me. These people would have needed to have explored the disturbing content first. Isn't the foundation of this forum basically the search for truth and the discussion of the bomb on the beach (or rather the gun in the room)? How can we do that by not discussing certain things?

I'm afraid that I don't understand. Could you elaborate on what you mean by this? I am curious as to why you posted it if not to have people watch it, think about it and perhaps publish their responses to it.

After watching it again I guess I missed some pretty major clues to it being Australian. In the few blood curdling screams that they made you could hear there was an Australian accent. I wasn't really focusing on that with all the body parts and blood flying around. I have no idea what Australian film ratings are like, if they have any.

No kidding? Can we say projection boys and girls? Magnus, you were certainly right about the interview being awesomely awkward. It was so awkward for me that my abs are sore from seven minutes of cringing. Maybe we could market this as a new Abs of Steel installment.

Is the message supposed to be "Stay in school so you can learn how to blow people up"? Not to mention that R rated films are off limits unless with parent or at least 17 years of age, but this "PSA" would have to have a lower rating to reach the target audience, right?

Kind of a tangent, but I wonder if your girlfriend would have wanted you supporting her if she were ever to fall on hard economic times... Back on topic, I am assuming you are in the US or Canada, and I know it largely depends on your location, but I have seen some private music teachers who teach out of their home year round and potentially make over $100,000 per 48 weeks. They take two weeks off at Christmas and two weeks off at the end of the local school year. Their students agree to either pay for missed summer lessons or simply continue attending if they want their position guaranteed for the next school year. I think it took them a few years to build their studios up so much, but they had high expectations of their students, were quite selective and had long waiting lists, not to mention a large number of accomplished students. This was in a major metropolitan area. In a lesser populated area perhaps it could be done with a bit of travelling to neighboring towns. I think your private students becoming successful musicians already says a lot for your credibility. Developing your abilities both as a musician and as a teacher can only help you help your students even more. There was similar website to lynda.com that I saw posted which may be a good to look at for comparison's sake. I think LovePrevails was who posted it. www.coursera.org Going back to a job you hate probably wasn't the best way to put it. I like your description of not falling on the spikes much better. Early on I went back and forth on my decisions too. I was hoping that I hadn't made a huge mistake by moving overseas and committing most of our resources to this project. I still go back and forth sometimes on whether I want to return home or move elsewhere and try something new. In the end I come to the conclusion that things are working out and I am largely happy with where I am currently at. In my opinion, casting your net wide (to talk about a different type of net) in the first few years (i.e. travelling to other towns, being less selective in who you initially take on, maybe taking lower pay, etc.) isn't a bad idea if it helps you not have to utilize your back-up plan. I would agree that now is the time for action. You mentioned you have some private students now. Could you take on a few more before the end of the school year to give yourself even more of a running start for the summer/next school year? Could you encourage them to stay on to take summer lessons? I think a lot of what you have said makes sense. For me there really is a sense of freedom with organizing my own work. It is far less stressful to me in some ways because I have tens of bosses instead of just one that I have to worry about. If things don't work out with one person, I can recommend them to someone who might be a better match for them and it's not a catastrophic loss of work to me.

Because society is who we go to to tell others how they should live their lives. Because society knows best and should make a ruling even with no basis when it comes to a very unique situation with this pair of conjoined twins... As if it would be so important a topic to society/the state that it would need to come in and dictate how their relationships should be organized. It seems these twins have developed an amazing system of working together and negotiating to each other's mutual satisfaction. Would it be so unreasonable to assume that they would be able to figure out how to select a suitable partner (or two) together for themselves? Perhaps a person (or two) that made them happy? Hearing this statement made me nauseous and made my blood boil. dsayers, I didn't see your post before I made mine, but I think we are talking about the same statement by the doctor. I was responding to no one in particular.

Just speaking about my own personal experiences, long before expatriating I had always wanted to at least try the route of self-employment. For me the problem was that I always had some safety net. I could always go back and work for my dad. After I left my home state I could always find some kind of menial job for the time being to make ends meet. Every time I tried something entrepreneurial I would accomplish something but then lose motivation shortly after and fall back on my day job before my efforts ever really gained any traction. I can totally understand why someone would want a safety net, though. I think that it can probably help alleviate the stress of risk for certain types of people. For me the safety net was more like a crutch. When I moved out of country it was sink or swim. I had to make it happen. My residence permit depended on it. I was running ads, responding to wanted ads for private tutors and taking inconveniently located teaching gigs for lower than average pay. The first year had a definite learning curve with negotiating in a foreign language, paperwork, etc. Before the beginning of the second school year, I was better prepared and had things in place to catch the wave of people returning from their holidays. I could be more selective with those I took on as clients. Word of mouth started taking off and I haven't needed to advertise in the last 4 years. I can only imagine what would happen if I started advertising again. I am a little nervous at taking that step because it's a big change of gears to hire more teachers and organize a larger teaching location. I am nearly at that point now even without running ads. With your current situation it sounds like if you can take a leave of absence then you basically get 15 months to have a go at what you want to do. Your backup plan could simply be a return to the job you hate. Would keeping that in mind be a motivator for you? For me the only safety net I really had was my return plane ticket and I really, really didn't want to use it. Getting hired with a band is a great first step. Congrats on that! You should hopefully have a bit more time for practice so you can also feel better about your teaching if you want to keep up with that privately. I don't know where you are located, but I have seen some full time private music teachers do quite well financially. I do want to ask about the band, however. They hired you because they must have thought you were the best candidate for the job. What is your impression of them? How serious are they about what they do? Are they established to the point where getting gigs isn't a problem for them? How helpful do you think they will be for you in achieving your goals? How would you describe their interactions with each other? Are there any tensions that you've noticed? What are your plans if working with the band doesn't work out? Are you going to use the summer to practice like a mofo so that you can start advertising and signing up students before next school year gets going? I also want to clarify something else in my previous post. This is regarding finding a professor who both teaches and is actively applying what he teaches out in the field. I am thinking about four different combinations of this. The prof can be good at theory but bad at practice (probably good number of tenured profs out there), bad at theory but good at practice (think uber pro performer that got a teaching gig simply because of the prestige he brings the school), bad at both, good at both. Obviously, anyone would want the last one, but I just wanted to point this out because it occurred to me later on and I don't think many people think about this.

Hey creakins, My wife and I worked in a charter school (I was a teacher's assistant) and we both quit after one year to take our small savings and expatriate. We moved to another country with our student debt, no immediate job prospects, managed to navigate the bureaucracy, got visas and business paperwork with absolutely minimal outside help and now have been here for several years, managing our own individual small teaching businesses. I feel that I am now at the threshold of hiring more teachers to help me out because I have enjoyed some reasonable demand even in lackluster economic times. We had little previous entrepreneurial experience to speak of, certainly nothing self-sustaining. As I write this I think back on it and say to myself "WTF?! I can't believe I did that!" I am actually thinking about doing it again because I feel like I chose the wrong country in some respects. Still, all things considered, I would say that I am self-made and I feel a quite a nice degree of satisfaction from that. I want to thank you for posing the question because I hadn't really thought about it before! How do the following questions strike you? Do you really need to go back to university to learn the things you want to transition into? How many courses do you think you need? Another whole degree? Can you find what you need online for much cheaper or even for free? How are you going to secure yourself quality education if you go back to uni? Have you looked at the potential professors? What have other students said about them? Do you really need to go to uni to learn from these people or might there be a better source of training? How much practical real-world experience and success do the professors actually have? Perhaps more importantly, what is their current ratio of university teaching to working for an actual company with actual everyday problems? Could you contact some of the really good ones and work out some kind of individual system with them so that they can better cater to your specific goals? Just for disclosure: I went to university and racked up some student debt without finally taking a degree. It got to the point where I didn't feel a music degree was going to be worth the huge amount of debt it was eventually going to bring me. I wasn't that good of a performer. I had taken most of the classes of interest to me and another two years of uninteresting general education courses and more than double the debt due to rising tuition just didn't make sense to me. In some ways I regret this, in others I still feel it was the best decision. The question I posted above are the same questions I ask myself from time to time when I consider learning new useful abilities. I hope this helps! Edit: I corrected a mistake in vocabulary. I wanted to disclose not disclaim. I am also adding here some clarification on my regrets for not finishing my degree. I regret it because I feel like I didn't follow through on a major project. This is something I struggle with in other projects but not so much in my business because if I fail at that, eviction, hunger, and other general unpleasantness would be the consequences. On the other hand, not finishing my degree feels right because I didn't take on more unnecessary debt and waste more precious time.

Hey LooseBrick, I am new here too, but I just wanted to respond and say that I hear you on some of your points and I can relate first hand. I didn't go through everything that you did, but I did have a rough childhood in some ways too. I wanted to report my dad to the police but was threatened with the consequence of losing one of my providers. That's a hard thing for a kid to face. I can't speak with much experience yet at all, so I hope some of the board regulars will chime in, but I think if you are afraid of talking in person, then it might be helpful to chat a bit here until you can get the strength up to find some like minded friends in your area. I would think with your story that finding a therapist would be a top priority to start working through things. I think if you find a good one that you would be happy you did in the long run. From what I've read, this forum has a lot of caring, compassionate people. I am sure you've come to the right place. Hang in there!