Announcements

I started at a new document review job this Thursday. I had been waiting for the document review company I worked for previously to contact me. I hadn’t yet heard from them on Tuesday and decided to search a couple of job sites online. I found a couple of document review jobs and submitted my resume for both of the jobs. One of the companies emailed me later that day offering me a job and the other company contacted me on Wednesday offering a job. Since the job for the first company was only scheduled for a week and the job at the second company is predicted to last through the summer I accepted the job with the second company. On Friday the document review company that I’ve worked for in the past contacted me about a new project.  I had to let them know that I’d already started at another company. I found it slightly amusing that I waited two weeks without hearing anything and as soon as I accepted a job I was offered jobs at two more companies.

There are a couple of good things about my new doc review job. One is that they are open 7-7 Monday through Friday, 8-6 on Saturday, and I can work my 40 hours whenever I want to during that time frame. If I wanted to I’m allowed to work up to 60 hours a week. Since there is no overtime and I find 40 hours a week to be enough work for me it is extremely unlikely I’ll ever work 60 hours a week but it is nice to have the option. Another nice thing about this job is they have a casual dress code. As in it is okay to wear shorts and a t-shirt casual. This is the first doc review job I’ve worked that had that casual of a dress code everyday. It is nice to be comfortable while I’m working.

The drawbacks to the job are that it is very boring just like all the other doc review jobs. I can listen to music or podcasts while working which does help alleviate the boredom. The other drawback is that it is thirty miles from my house. That is a longer commute than I’d prefer. The traffic hasn’t been too bad yet so at least the commute isn’t stressful. It is just time-consuming.

Next month I will be attending the Missouri Solo and Small Firm Conference. I’m hoping I will learn enough there to be able to start my own law practice. Or at least learn enough to start the process of opening my own firm. Doc review jobs here pays $22-$23 an hour. Before law school I would have thought that was a great rate of pay. Now that I have six figures of debt that level of pay just doesn’t cut it. If I’m going to be able to pay off my student loan I need to make a lot more money. I’ll let you know how the conference went after it is done.

That is all the news I have for now. I probably won’t be writing much the next few weeks since I generally don’t feel much like writing for the blog when I’m working full-time. If there are any topics you would like me to write about let me know and I’ll eventually write a post on the topic.

Traffic to this blog has been steadily declining the last couple of years and is a little less than half of what it was at its peak. Reader engagement has dropped to almost nothing. My post about getting hit by a car only got a couple of comments. In the past a post like that would have gotten at least a dozen comments. I’d also usually get multiple comments on almost every post. The decline in traffic and comments isn’t entirely unexpected since blogging much less of a priority the past couple of years. I’d like to change that now since it doesn’t make much sense to continue blogging if nobody is going to read my posts.

In 2012 I received a lot of criticism on a post about using the income based repayment plan to repay my student loan. Although I try not to let internet bullies bother me, the insults and disparagements did get to me. That led to fewer posts and to self-censoring my posts to avoid more criticism. I think that might have contributed to the blog’s decline in traffic and comments.

I also recently discovered a widget was redirecting some of my traffic but I don’t think that was having too big of an effect on my traffic and comments. If you have had any trouble accessing this blog please let me know and I will try to fix whatever is causing the trouble.

I do have some ideas for changes to TFM. I’m hoping the changes will actually be improvements. Last year, most of my posts were income, expense, or SWR posts. The income and expense posts will continue since I like them. I’m not sure many readers care about them though. That is why I intend to write more posts on ways to save money or money. There will be at least one post a week with actionable advice on one of those topics. The first post will be up Wednesday. I’m also planning on changing the theme and writing about paying down my student loan. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions on how I can improve this blog.

Yesterday while walking across the street on my way to work I got hit by a car. Since the accident caused some memory loss I don’t actually remember getting hit. From what I can piece together from what the EMTs and bystanders were saying I was walking in the crosswalk and the driver of a car turning left somehow didn’t see me and hit me. I ended up with a concussion and some road rash which isn’t too bad considering I got hit by a car. Apparently, I bounced off the car and landed on my butt and then my head. If I had landed on my head first the result would have been much, much, worse.

I remember a little more about the accident today then I did yesterday. Right after the accident I remember waking up (I say waking up, but apparently I was conscious long before then) in the ambulance and asking the EMT if I could have my phone to text my girlfriend. He replied, “You’re starting to concern me, buddy. This is the fifth time you asked me that and you have already texted her.” Things were clearer after that. Once I arrived at the ER they took me for a cat scan and then wheeled me back to the ER. They had taken me to the same hospital my GF works out which I had requested so I guess I was thinking somewhat clearly when they asked me which hospital I wanted to go to. My GF was there in the ER when I got back from the cat scan which was nice. The cat scan results were good and they discharged me about 2 1/2 hours after I was admitted. I thought that was kind of quick for a concussion.

My GF took me home and stayed with me the rest of the day. She had returned to work that day after being on vacation the previous week. I was nice enough to let her get a bonus day of vacation. I’m staying home from work today and tomorrow and going back to work Thursday.

I called the police today and they said that they do have the information of the person who hit me and they do have insurance. I’m hoping that there is no problem getting all my medical bills paid and getting reimbursed for my time off work. For now I’m still planning on going on hike April 21, but I might have to change that plan. I’ll keep you updated on how everything turns out.