Life Update: Car Accident, Laid Off, Commissions Time. Also Apple's being a dick.

TL;DR

I was in an accident 3 weeks ago that damaged my dominant hand, right knee, and back. I'm much better now and should be all good in like 3 weeks.

I was let go from my job shortly after which has made things rough and I need to find income ASAP so I wanna use this chance to finally try commission work now that I have the time and energy to be able to without a 50+ hour work week beating my ass. Probably can even attempt to make sense of basic physics/liquid sim stuff cause I currently hand-key everything and would love to learn some more technical things to help me out as suggested by some friends. Gonna put together a plan on it and announce commission stuff in like a day or two and I'm going to try and give some kind of bonus benefit to patrons in this area cause I feel like I'm not currently doing enough here and need to change that.

So, 3 weeks ago I was in an accident and yesterday I was let go. Extended Rant Cut.

First off, I'm physically fine now. Been going to PT (physical therapy, not physical training for the military heads out there cause it used to confuse me lol) and while I'm not fully there yet; I should be in the next 3 weeks hopefully. Atm my right hand can't handle much weight at all and I can barely type/work on the computer for more than 2 hours without needing a break. My right knee and back were also injured which makes sitting for long periods even harder but like I said, in 3 weeks or so I should be good or at least basically healed to full.

The kicker is yesterday I was brought into work and was told I was being laid off. This decision was unrelated to me being hit. It was about a 5-10 minute meeting where they tried to assure me this hurts them as much as it hurt me. As ridiculous and untrue and that is, I'm not one to cause problems or make scenes, especially when I know a decision has been made already, so I shook their hands, wished a nice day, and left.

Then I internally freaked the hell out. I've never had this happen and never considered myself on the list it would happen to. I take work in what I do VERY seriously. I like beating peoples expectations however low or high and I always consider how my actions will affect those around me. I'm not perfect by any means and I've made mistakes but I try to learn from them.

I know there were situations where other managers could quickly solve problems by kicking someone out of the store/ lay down hammer on employees to get things done regardless of the situation, and I couldn't. My solutions were slower, I want to talk to people, learn what's going on and go from there. Hell I was the only manager you'd see actively working on the floor with the other employees every shift cause I don't like to delegate unless it's absolutely necessary; I can do shit/help out myself if I see it needs doing. Delegation for small things just gets on my nerves.

We had customers that would be in the store after we closed cause they were waiting for their ride or needed to pay a bill on our wifi, etc and I'd stay with them until it happened or sometimes people would come up after we closed wanting to buy food/baby formula/etc. and I'd get that shit for them (provided I could afford to) and bring it out after paying.

Recently we had a couple of our security guys get tasked with flipping one of our checkout areas and that involved some rewiring work in one of the displays. They weren't electricians and neither am I but I spent the first hour of my shift figuring it out with them cause I work at night and they should've been gone an hour before I even walked in but they were stuck with that crap. We were all pissed and uncomfortable with it but we got it done and got them out and I was STILL able to complete all of my responsibilities in full.

Next I was told that, that wasn't my job and the hour I used helping them could've been used getting ahead on other projects. Not a damn "thanks" or any gratitude in sight. Things like that would happen from time to time but it NEVER stopped from accomplishing what was expected of me. End of the day, I don't know if this had something to do with the decision or not, but either way it's done now.

But as shitty as this is (especially since it's the middle of the month and I've got about $3000 worth of bills to pay at the end of it) there's a silver lining. This let's me dive into 3D MUCH more since I don't have a 50+ hour work week and off the clock project planning draining me. Of course this only works out if I have income so I'm using this as the drive to finally start doing commissions. I'm trying to figure out pricing and putting a sheet together so I'll make an announcement for it once I'm done either today or tomorrow. I do want to give some priority or benefit to patrons I think so I'll be thinking of how that fits in here as well. Maybe a new tier? Change an existing one? I'll figure something out and I'm totally open to feedback. The long-term/ end goal is that I could end up doing this or something 3D related as my primary job so I'm gonna do what I can to make that happen.

Apple

They're trying to charge like a 30% extra fee to new patrons and anyone subscribed on mobile so I'm hearing the solution is to just make any new account on PC and subscribe to people through PC and it apparently goes around that. Also you may want to avoid the Patreon app as I hear it also might have the 30% increase change.