WELP

[kleenexwoman]

Car's dead.

God, I want to whine about being broke, but I should really stop doing that; last time, a few people were nice enough to send me some money for groceries, but it's not something I should expect.

Talked to Daniel about the possibility of doing Tarot online for serious. His wife does it for parties for $200, but her religious principles prevent her from profiting--she gives most of it to charity after deducting transportation costs. (Why do it at all then, I ask?)
He said if you set up a website and get your own chat server, it only costs a few hundred bucks. A few hundred bucks. I figure I could just use YIM for free or something, or set up a PayPal button on my LJ profile or something, charge five or ten bucks a reading and make grocery money until the loan money comes in or I get a meager fast-food paycheck. I don't know, would anyone be up for that for serious?

Comments

[cobaltnine.livejournal.com]

I knew a totally spastic girl who did it once (oh, god, the astral babies shit and all that). One of her tricks was not only to build up a reputation as a 'witchy person' (good magic only and all that jazz) but there are also some people who list on e-bay. Remember your disclaimers, and you can also do e-mail readings.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Astral babies? Good lord. How does that even work?

Shall have to check into the eBay thing. E-mail readings seem like they'd be a piece of cake.

[cobaltnine.livejournal.com]

Wow, I'm sorry; I just reread that and it was relatively incoherent. I had a bunch of phrases and strung them along poorly.

Anyhow, yeah, remind me to tell you the story of Taliana Wolfspirit one of these days. She was absolutely insane. Had a website where she (mind you, she was 15 or 16 at the time, not that you could tell on the website) 'taught people' Wicca. She had an astral lover. She had astral babies with her astral lover. Then she, for whatever reason, decided to hang out with my peeps. Didn't last very long...except that for whatever reason (the lulz, I suppose, although this was before lulz existed) two of us decided to watch and wait and watch what she did as she crashed and burned. She ended up getting knocked up before graduating high school or the Australian equivalent, moving to England, and having a creepy stillbirth - that she posted pictures of. Then she started hanging out with otaku.

Anyway, yeah, she made money with tarot readings. If she can, you can.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

Probably has something to do with the Modern Lovers' Astral Plane. Except that song is more about masturbation and obsession, which rarely lead to pregnancy. At least I hope they don't. Otherwise I may wind up owing a ton of child support.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

I would totally be up for that for serious if I had any extra cash to spend, but I don't, alas. I actually considered doing something like what you're talking about, but determined that I find tarot reading infuriating in the same way that I find writing infuriating, and I have to save my energy for the writing; plus it takes me forever. I think it's some sort of right brain/left brain conversion of abstract ideas into words bullshit. If I could only figure out some sort of method or something.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

I sometimes make up connections between cards as I go along. The spread I use, some cards are influenced by the ones next to them in certain ways depending on what they are, but there aren't any hard-and-fast relationships besides "these three cards mean your future!" I'm getting better at it, though.

[lily-lemony.livejournal.com]

I used to work for a production company here and I was researching psychics. EBAY of all places is a great place to do tarot/psychic work. Also, there's keen.com you might want to sign up with to be considered "legit." But ebay and craigslist are good enough. :)

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Didn't even think of Craigslist. Awesome.

Aw, man. Keen.com looks like a great site, but they're asking for a credit card. Craiglist it is. Thanks for the suggestion.

[sir-dave.livejournal.com]

I don't think it will get you anywhere, but then I would say that, wouldn't I? ;)

I want an agent, one that makes me money for doing what I do. I've sure done a lot of it! :D

[elendraug.livejournal.com]

I would totally take you up on a $5 reading just for fun :D

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Oh YUCK!!! Do you seriously want to join the ranks of creepy scumbags who exploit people's stupidity, gullibility and vulnerability? I mean, you are actually ripping people off if you pretend to believe in this crap in order to persuade them to give you money to help them cope with their lives. It would be different if you had a big banner up on your website saying "I don't believe any of this, it's just a bit of fun, don't make any life decisions based on what I tell you," but in that case I don't think you'd make much money.

[drworm.livejournal.com]

She's catering more to the college hipster crowd, not the shut-in cat lady crowd.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I don't see how you can tell that from a website, though.

[drworm.livejournal.com]

You don't think advertising on the web targets certain groups the same as it does in other media?

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Sure. And just as TV shows end up with fans that weren't in the targeted demographic, websites get customers that don't fit the profile the makers expected.

[drworm.livejournal.com]

But that's because there are only so many ways one can control consumers, and that's true of all media, so why expend undue energy worrying about it?

In fact, I'm less concerned about how gullible people might hypothetically choose to spend their money than I am about kleenexwoman's safety, seeing as she has a history of attracting wackos.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Whereas I, since I know nothing about her history, am more concerned with the state of her soul (or whatever it is that distinguishes a good person from a reprehensible one).

GOIN 2 HELL BRB

[drworm.livejournal.com]

Re: GOIN 2 HELL BRB

[azdak.livejournal.com]

ROTFL! Who is that?

Re: GOIN 2 HELL BRB

[drworm.livejournal.com]

That would be Stephen Colbert. :D From the show Strangers with Candy, which I really need to get at some point.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Good lord, no, I don't really believe in it, and I wouldn't pretend I do. I do think it has some use as a psychological tool just because the meanings of the cards are so vague; it's kind of like horoscopes in that respect, where there's no real occult force behind it, just the occasional piece of good advice.
There are a lot of tarot places down by my house that have "For Entertainment Purposes Only" signs up; they do that because there are ordinances against scamming people with occult excuses. I'd probably put up something like that. If I start doing it in Mt. Pleasant, I'm mostly going to get college-age hipsters who want a temporary diversion anyway.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

For Entertainment Purposes Only" signs up [...]I'd probably put up something like that.

That definitely makes a difference :-)

[anivad.livejournal.com]

...For a moment there I thought you said 'Cat's dead', and it made me sadface. :(

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Cat dead would be a much longer, sadder entry. :(

The cat is dead, the cat is dead
I went to pat him on the head
He didn't purr, he didn't meow,
He didn't blink or sniff
He seemed to have a funny smile
That made me laugh, but all the while
The tail that used to flip and flop
Was awful cold and stiff...

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

You know, cat meat is probably rather nutritious . . .

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

Ach. Same car that just broke down a few weeks ago? Do you know what it is?

May I recommend going all-out-broke and living on raw ramen noodles? That's what I did for several months last year when I was too broke to afford to pay the gas bill. Raw ramen, water, and little packs of sugar swiped from Burger King.

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Timer belt blew the engine.

I hate ramen noodles and I don't want to get some sort of vitamin deficiency. If I had to, I'd dumpster-dive.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

HATE RAMEN?!?!?!?!? *p-tooie* And you call yourself a college student . . .

Actually, I didn't really eat that much when I was an undergrad. Mostly pizza, Chex Mix, frozen Chinese food, and Ben & Jerry's.

Maybe you could go out on a hunting trip with some local rednecks. I realize it's not legal yet, but c'mon, food's food. You're close to Ted Nugent country up there. Yee-haw!

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Dude, I ate ramen for three years. Now that I can buy alcohol, I've earned the right to despise the nasty fried noodles.

The rednecks around here are scary. Apparently there's a huge redneck culture in Mt. Pleasant when you get out of the college area, and they are all boneheads with meth labs. I'm sticking to dumpster-diving; at least you can get dented cans and slightly bruised fruit.

[josephwaldman.livejournal.com]

Delaware was really white-trashy, too. I think most college towns are to some degree. There's the section of town where the profs live, and then the section where the cafeteria workers and janitors live. Campus and the railroad tracks (on which the Lincoln funeral train traveled) were the dividing line. My old boss/mentor used to refer to "bourgeois Kroger" (pronounced "kro-ZHAY") and "ghetto kroger". Us students hadda shop at ghetto Kroger (there was almost zero off-campus living, only about 30 people a year allowed out of 1900 or so).

Ah, I just had a flashback to good ol' hungover weekend-morning breakfasts with my gang. Nothing cures a whiskey drunk or satiates what's left of the munchies like two enormous omelettes, three bowls of cereal, a bunch of toast, and countless cups of watery coffee. Then it was back up to the room to use the john, conk out for another few hours, study for a few more, and gear up for the next night's tokin' and drunkenin'.

[elendraug.livejournal.com]

If you're still interested in doing them, I would LOVE another tarot reading! :> I had a lot of fun with the last one. ♥

[kleenexwoman.livejournal.com]

Definitely still interested! I've been tied up with homework and house-chore type of things, but I will do a reading for you as soon as I get a free hour or so, hopefully within the next couple of days.

[elendraug.livejournal.com]

I sent you the money through Paypal -- whenever you get a chance is great! :333 I'm looking forward to it~~