Working in the Coal Mine

For those of you who have been wondering just where the hell I’ve been, I’ll tell you. I’ve got a new job working for a temp agency and they have me out at RBC Financial Group card services (aka VISA) doing address updates (phone & data entry). Oh the things I’m learning about the banking and VISA world would make your head spin! It’s by no means my ideal job but it sure beats the mind-numbing drudgery of the book warehouse. At least at this job I can sit down for more than an hour a day. And when I haven’t been at work I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn at Marlo’s and working out at the gym and learning Mandarin (so far I’ve learned two words – at this rate I’ll be able to find out where the bathroom is by the time I get to China.

Also, the new trailer for Stewie’s video game Sword of the Stars is finished and available for download. I did two voices on it. Can you tell which ones?

12 Replies to “Working in the Coal Mine”

  1. I’m wondering what 2 words you’ve learned to be able to find your way to the bathroom in Mandarin? (bathroom itself being a 3-character word in Chinese) The next step you may want to take is to learn the written chinese characters for ‘man’ and ‘woman’ as the bathrooms are often only labelled in Chinese. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK! Never mind learning anything useful at the start, just get Marlo to have you practicing tones and pronunciation. Without them, any vocabulary is useless and once you’ve mastered them, it’s infinitely easier to learn anything new. Mandarin is a simple language once you’ve mastered the basics.

  2. To move to China Toren would need to teach English. To teach English he would need a university degree. He certainly doesn’t have the degree.

  3. What? Why would he have to teach English to move to China? He’s not going there to teach English. And you certainly do not need a university degree. I don’t know who told you that. I mean it, helps if you want to get a really good job, but lots of people go there to teach English just out of high school.

    Anyway, we’re only going there for a year, probably.

  4. Other than speaking English, what exactly is he qualified to do? They aren’t going to give him a work visa so that he can draw pictures of monsters, or write wry lyrics, or speak funny voices into a microphone. You just can’t “live” in China without having employment.

    If living in China for an extended period is a dream of yours Marlo, make sure you do it. Don’t let anybody hold you back on that dream.

  5. Because I have a feeling that since I just got back from a six-week trip in China, and I’m Toren’s girlfriend and I’ve known him for six years, I’m probably more of an authority on:

    1. job opportunities in China for expats
    2. Toren’s abilities
    3. my own interests

    My advice is to please stop making an ass out of u and me.

  6. Hey Jeremy! As for needing qualifications…. I taught English in Asia when I was 19. I was making whackloads of money, and was turning down more jobs, as I already taught at three different schools. And who says you need a work visa?

    Torrie – don’t worry, I didn’t even know the words to ask where the bathroom was at first.. I would just hold my crotch and jump up and do the wee wee dance… sure, they’d laugh, but it worked. Charades are a godsend, is all I can say.

    This is the worst comment I have ever written, and for that reason, I am leaving it unedited…

  7. i taught english in jakarta, indonesia for 6 months, fresh out of high school, making expat wages while living like a local. i saved an indecent amount of money and nobody asked for any degree.

    ‘course, that was then, but i hear not much has changed.

  8. I’d like to bring up that Toren has illustrated ESL manuals – being able to cartoodle on a black board goes a long way when teaching people a new language. I think that counts for something.

    Not to mention that coming from a differnt pool of artists can also be a benefit – I think there are illustration opportunities to be found.

    Considering modest savings in Canadian dollars can provide a person with months of looking around buffer-time in China, what’s the problem?

    Boo the Comment Humbugs! Well, humbug, singular. Boooo!

  9. I thinks torens great at teaching english…he taught me all types of great words when we worked togeather…but then he left me all alone in that big book whorehouse…..whoize me 🙁

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