Artistic Hobbies/Side Hustles
Anyone here have any hobbies/projects/side hustles on the artistic side of things (YouTube, writing, painting, game development, etc.)? I find its tough to find time for things like this given the demands of the job but curious to see any responses in the monkey community.
I was bored while unemployed and wrote a 40,000 word novella for fun. If anyone wants to check it out then send me a PM and I'll send it to you. Haven't really gotten any feedback on it so would actually be curious to see if anyone wants to check it out but might find try and find an agent or something, not sure if it's good enough for that but I think it's pretty interesting, the middle part is a bit less interesting though. If anyone has written a book on here I will check it out myself.
tagging some people with patrician taste to see if they want to check this novella out: Thomas Pynchon johnny-mnemonic NB574
also I'll post some short excerpts so you can get the vibe of it:
- While I was walking toward the grocery store entrance I saw a woman holding a baby. Most people like holding babies… I don’t. There is no upside only downside when you decide to hold a baby. Nothing is fun about holding a baby if you are an intelligent person. An intelligent person would recognize that anything can be dropped. Anything can accidentally be dropped, even a baby. And if a baby is dropped, this could cause damage to the baby, making the baby and the baby’s owner very upset. This anger will be directed toward you – the dropper of the baby. Knowing this, the only thing that you will be thinking about when holding a baby is not dropping the baby. The only thing that the baby’s owner will be thinking about when you are holding a baby is the possibility that you will drop his or her baby. It isn’t a pleasant situation for any intelligent person involved. But not everyone is an intelligent person. Not everyone will think about the downside, though I don’t even know what these unintelligent people are thinking about, because there is no upside involved. There is no upside involved when deciding whether to hold a baby. I would not go up to this woman outside of the grocery store and attempt to hold her baby.
- I threw a piece of paper crumpled into a ball at the trashcan in the parking lot near my car, intending for the paper to land inside of the trashcan. But I threw it slightly too far causing the paper to miss the trashcan and land, on the other side of it, out of sight. After walking a few steps in order to see the paper, intending to pick the paper up and place it in the trashcan, many pieces of paper were visible. Hundreds of similar pieces of paper crumpled into a ball were on the ground. It wasn’t clear what I had contributed to the pile. What was the point of picking up one of the pieces now? Someone else will come along and take care of this for me. I walked away and got into my car.
- I regularly cry in the Walmart parking lot. The Walmart parking lot is the place I often go to cry, I again went to the Walmart parking lot to cry. My tears rest on my face. No reason to wipe them away. I want them to stay. I don’t want them to leave. Even though they are burning my face. They are burning my face. If someone put a loaded gun to my head I’d pull the trigger. That’s how bad my mental state was. I was too low energy to go out and procure a gun, procure a gun and then load the gun, but if I had a loaded gun that’s what I’d be doing. I’d be blowing my brains out. I’d be blowing my brains out in the Walmart parking lot of all places. They are better equipped at Walmart to deal with someone blowing their brains out in the parking lot than a lot of other places would be. This is a fairly regular occurrence at Walmart. Not extremely often it will happen but every once in a while. And every once in a while is a lot more often than will happen at places like the Target parking lot or the Trader Joe’s parking lot. It happens though sometimes in the Walmart parking lot, sometimes people blow their brains out in the Walmart parking lot. At Target and at Trader Joe’s they’d call the police if someone blew their brains out in the parking lot, they’d call the police because they wouldn’t know what to do since nobody ever blows their brains out in those two parking lots. But at Walmart they don’t even have to call the police. They have standard protocols for this situation. They have a machine specifically for people who blow their brains out in the parking lot. This is a machine that scoops your remains out, scoops your remains out for your remains to be dumped in a trashcan in the Walmart parking lot. You see that’s why minimum pay at Walmart is so much higher than the minimum pay at other types of similar businesses. The employees at other types of similar business don’t have to deal with people blowing their brains out in the Walmart parking lot.
- My third life would be my last life. As they say, the third time is the charm. Russians love the number three. That’s something that I learned in my Russian folklore class when I was a young adult. Three is a magical number in Russia, as all good things happen in threes. Baseball – three strikes and you are out. That’s an example of a bad thing that comes in threes. But it’s not really a bad thing, an out. An out is a good thing for a number of reasons, it’s only a bad thing for the one who goes out and it’s only a bad thing for this one who goes out if this one who goes out chooses to see it as a bad thing. It’s a good thing for a lot of the other people who are involved in the baseball game. It’s a good thing for the pitcher, a strikeout makes the pitcher look better. It’s a good thing for the fans of the team that the pitcher is on. It’s a good thing for the fans in general, both those with and those in opposition of the batter, because the game moves one step further in the right direction. The right direction which is the ending of the game. Things are described by what they lack. The game lacks being over, that’s why a game is a game. For if a game had ended, then it would no longer be a game. The static state is that of having been ended, the game that is. Once the game is over it will not start back up again, no, it’s a dead game. And it will spend much more time as a dead game than as a game that was alive, for the game is only 9 innings long but time spans infinity. Life is the same. Our lives are only 9 innings long, we think that those 9 innings are the most important. But while our lives are only 9 innings long, time is thousands upon thousands of innings long. And we will only live 9 of them. We will try and optimize for those 9 innings, not for what comes later.
Is this really a novella or just your own musings?
Hmmmmm yeah man it's definitely content.
this guy spits out his life's work and you hit him with MS. LMAO
I see what you're going for. I think the tough part is that you're trying to go for something truly artistic which the people with the MS are not really getting.
The tough part I think is that you have to sit down and ask yourself, "what can I write?" When I started writing The Pitchbook, I asked myself "Am I a Thomas Wolfe, William Faulkner, or Kafka?" The answer was no I am not and even with effort, I never will be. Can I write a good entertaining story in easy to read English in the style of John Grisham or Stephen King. Yes, I can do that. So that's what I did.
The problem with artistic stuff is that if you aim for Faulkner but don't quite make it, the result is something pretty terrible. If you aim for Stephen King and don't quite hit it, you've still got something readable. I think you might be at a crossroads where you either sharpen your pencil and try to take this to the level of artistics greats like the ones mentioned or you step it down and make it simpler, less artsy, and more about the story. Just my perspective. Feel free to ignore altogether.
I thought it was cool to read.
PM'd you.
The thing with time is that you're always going to need to decide how you want to use it.
I went down this path because my time was best used learning to draw than browsing WSO. I stopped going down this path when I realized the time to mastery will be long and there are other thing I would rather do with my time than try to draw decently.
I believe Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎 makes or has made some paintings, maybe he could chime in Isaiah_53_5 💎🙌💎🙌💎 why isn't it letting me tag him lol [Isaiah_53_5] I think that the emojis are messing the tagging up
lol yeah I paint sometimes
kind of funny there are a few investment banker YouTube channels that keep popping up in my recommended feed. wonder if any of those investment banking YouTuber bros browses WSO. they probably do. investment banking YouTuber bros where you at?
I also have a YouTube channel. Though I haven't posted on there in a while and don't plan to post there again anytime soon. I'll link it: redacted
Aren't you worried about exposing yourself?
not really.
You really should not advertise this channel
How come? Just making some cool videos on there. Not like any of the videos that are on there are that strange, it's art bro.
I just generally do not think it's a good idea to put a face to an internet name. And for you specifically those videos seem like something to share with friends rather than strangers.
I’d say the one where you say “I’m going to bomb the DMV” is particularly strange... 🤦♀️
I play guitar and piano. It’s very soothing honestly even if I’m playing old school rock
did you ever think about starting a band?
Honestly my username would be a pretty great band name now that I think about it
Honestly my username would be a pretty great band name now that I think about it
I DJ, play guitar, paint, collect art, records and photography books, etc. My life outside of work is 100% creative - provides a nice balance.
a renaissance man
Actually just published a book yesterday. Would love some early reviews from the WSO community. I'll post more about it when the Amazon chapter preview becomes available (usually 7 to 10 days after publication). Also, the ebook should be up in the next week or so.
The Pitchbook: A Banking Analyst's Tale of Markets, Millions, and Mayhem
https://www.amazon.com/Pitchbook-Banking-Analysts-Markets-Millions/dp/B…
Nice. I will read the Amazon chapter preview when it comes out, at the very least.
I used to play a specific instrument a lot when younger and my first good business was driven by that hobby. I still play a bit.
Lately, really into independent watchmaking.
As a fellow watch connoisseur, are you creating your own watches? Are you branding them? Really cool to see that as a legit hobby.
Also was a musician since elementary school and can say my first "business" in high school was music tutoring in that instrument (drums) for like 40 bucks an hour which felt like a million bucks at the time.
Not something that generates an income (not yet at least) but I've been blacksmithing for a while now. Waiting to buy a home to build a small forge for myself.
Can you make me a sword for my birthday? I always wanted a sword.
Cost for 6ft custom Damascus sword:
$6-8K
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdkayULL/
Have made a few railroad spike knives but haven't made an entire sword yet!
I always thought this would be cool but not nearly skilled enough with hands to do it. Any pics of stuff you’ve made?
You should give it a try! Interestingly, the skill comes from the artistry of it all rather than the physicality. If you're clumsy with your hands you might have some difficulty but I've found blacksmithing to be largely a craft of creativity and artistry rather than one of physical tact. I'll try to get some photos of my work, most of it is projects in some incomplete form I'm slowly working on here and there as I get ideas and time in the forge.
I've also thought about trying to start a band to become lead singer. I have a decent amount of vocal melodies written and am ready to rock with them. However I do not know if I want to go ahead and actually form a band or whatever.
What type of music? Post on SoundCloud, gain an underground following and this time next week, you'll be known as "lil famejranc" you'll either be a meme, a legit rapper or a legit rapper who's also a meme. No matter what happens, you will have some money to your name. On an unrelated note, I'm about halfway through your novella and I'm enjoying it so far. Will give you my critiques (if you want them) when I'm done.
thanks. yeah I actually already have a soundcloud with one song. I don't want to post it publicly because it's kind of crazy/out there but I'll actually send you a PM with the song here in a second. and nice, good to hear that you've made it halfway through, at least it held your attention long enough for you to make it halfway through. and yeah I want your critiques for sure.
I build homes and renovate places, with renovations usually not for investment maximization but for artistic reasons first and then secondarily for investment reasons. My most recent renovation was turning a hideous 2006-era builder-grade condo in a perfect location into an ultra-modern, Blade Runner unit. Obviously, it's a matter of opinion, but I think it's arguably the nicest unit in the entire neighborhood, which is arguably the nicest multifamily neighborhood in the D.C. area. I'm so proud of it. Lost money on it in the short run but plan to hold the unit forever. My next renovation is going to be a 19th-century townhouse in Maryland. There is almost no chance I will make money on the unit in the short run but I also plan to hold indefinitely.
post some pics of the blade runner home
Let's see if I can figure out how to do this. Never posted pics or video before on WSO. Here are a few shots. Boo, the video doesn't work. The video shows off the colored lighting and fireplace. Whatever.
I will always love theatre and live performances. While I probably won't have time to get on stage again anytime soon, I'm trying to see as many plays as I can before I start working full time. Some favorites include the Scottish Play, Next to Normal, and Waiting for Godot. I also really enjoyed being in A Few Good Men and Night of the Living Dead among other shows. I've seen and acted in so little Shakespeare over the years, so that's a priority. Really want to see Hamlet again and maybe a history. Relating back to banking, it would be awesome to come across a resume with anything performing-arts in the interests section.
I haven't seen any live performances except for Big when I was in high school which I actually remember being pretty good. But I have read Waiting for Godot, I have read that one and I remember it being fairly interesting. Have you ever read the book The Elementary Particles? Not sure why I am throwing that out there but just thought about it for some reason, it's pretty interesting. Michel Houellebecq is the GOAT misanthropic author of the modern age.
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my favorite is Marat / Sade
I might write a second novella. I already started it and it's more conventional of a story than my other novella that I already posted about which sort of goes all over the place with random musings being sprinkled in throughout - not that that was a bad thing for that novella, it is just a bit more experimental and the plot is somewhat loose. The idea for my second novella is a guy finds out that a billionaire has a degenerative heart condition and is dying, so he hatches a plan to inherit the billionaire's fortune by marrying the billionaire's daughter. He goes out and meets the daughter, they fall in love, and the guy marries the billionaire's daughter for inheritance. But the billionaire doesn't die fast enough naturally, so the guy hires a hitman to kill the billionaire. The hitman screws up the job, dies, and the billionaire finds the conversation on the hitman's phone with his son in law. So the billionaire hires a hitman from the same agency to kill his son in law. This second hitman also screws up the job, dies (the hitmen from this agency are incompetent, it's sort of funny how bad these hitmen are). And in the end the billionaire and the billionaire's son in law arrange a meeting to end things cordially, however the billionaire's daughter overhears the conversation. I'm not sure what happens next. Maybe the billionaire's daughter kills both of them. The father because he is old and dying already, he is already in daily pain at this point in the novella, so she is killing him out of mercy. And she kills her husband because he tried to kill her father. The end.
Part of me feels like books are out though. Nobody reads books anymore. So maybe I should write a screenplay or TV show instead of writing a book for this billionaire hitman story. Might go with a screenplay instead. Need to learn how to write one though.
I can't speak to whether books are dying or not (I personally read them) but a lot of this thread is what you do creatively / artistically for yourself. If you like it, I encourage you to stick with the novel. Plus if you have the book form you could always turn it into a screenplay or TV show, as you mentioned.
something interesting to remember that I was thinking about just now is that everyone who ever made everything that you admire is just a person not too different from yourself. it's possible that you could write the next great American novel if you really put your mind to it and put in the work, who knows. you won't find out unless you try. #inspiration #motivation #grind #letsgo #joerogan
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Im Big into Pickleball!
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