Hi everyone. I haven’t written anything in a while — maybe because of the holidays, but more likely because of laziness. By the way, happy holidays to everyone: the ones that already passed, the ones coming up, and whatever else you’re celebrating 😄
So why am I writing at all? Well, today I was properly pissed off, and I can’t stay silent. The whole situation is funny, stupid, and infuriating at the same time.
We all use different apps, websites, and crypto-related projects… and from time to time we all run into how SOME of them (obviously not all) are raw, idiotic, buggy, or just completely useless. Honestly, it would be nice to create an anti-award, like the “Golden Raspberry,” for projects like this — maybe call it Titanium Wire (might be a smart joke, or might be a dumb one, you decide) — and give it to the most “deserving” ones. But I’m not doing that. I’m lazy 😄
Anyway. Today I ran into a problem — and probably the dumbest and least obvious solution imaginable — and I just can’t shut up about it.
So, for some time I was doing a bit of work in the #BP #Blueprint project, and you earn a small reward there. Before, withdrawing it wasn’t an issue. I had completely forgotten about this project, but today I logged in and saw that I had a couple of bucks sitting there. Since I barely ever go there, I decided to withdraw them — and ran into a problem.
When I clicked the “withdraw” button, it redirected me to the account edit page. “Weird shit,” I thought, and went to read my second least favorite place after X — Discord. There I saw that many people had the same issue. There was a solution, but the admins didn’t post it in the main chat. Instead, they told everyone to open a ticket.
Fine. I opened one. There I was told to fill in my account information — but it was already filled in! I changed my name, and that triggered a 7-day countdown. Seven days for the site to change my profile name. Seven f***ing days, CARL. Okay, whatever — it didn’t affect anything, but it’s still stupid.
Then, in the main chat, I saw one admin suggestion: change your profile photo. Fine. I did. Nothing happened. I replied to that advice sarcastically, and after that I got a private message telling me to change not the photo, but the banner (which, by the way, I never saw mentioned in the main chat).
And — oh miracle — it worked.
How on earth would anyone come up with the idea that changing a profile banner unlocks the ability to withdraw your tokens? HOW? And why not just write this clearly once and pin the message? What exactly are you hiding, BP? Hahahaha… my god, this is so dumb.
So, I switched fully to video production — well, even more to the technical side of it: cables, metal parts, gear and all that… which I personally find interesting, hahaha. And that’s when they invited me to work.
By the time I arrived, my friends were supposed to finish an official contract for some “local guy,” while at the same time already setting up their own production company. That’s why I was needed there. While one of them was busy working off the official contract, the other one and I were supposed to start shooting our own projects and taking orders. This was all agreed upon and didn’t conflict with their main job — which is important for the story.
A few words about these two guys I worked with. We were so different that outside of work we had basically zero common interests. One of them was a good cameraman, editor, and genuinely loved filming — in that sense we were similar. But in life he was all about luxury, designer clothes, fancy vibes, that kind of thing. In that sense we were nothing alike, although I actually liked him as a person.
And the second guy… well, the second guy was just an idiot. No, no, I’m not exaggerating. This man somehow managed to completely ruin several businesses his parents gave him, got himself into debt, and walked around pretending he was some important person, while in reality he wasn’t very bright. He and I almost got into fights more than once, but he doesn’t appear much in this story anyway.
I don’t know exactly how those two ended up working together. Apparently the Second one was the one who first found the job with the “local guy” in Dubai, and later invited the First one because he couldn’t handle anything himself. In the end, he dumped all the work on the First guy and walked around acting like he was the boss or something.
And about how different we were outside of work — we hardly hung out together. I spent all my free time exploring the city, while they were drinking. (Arab country, “no alcohol,” yeah right. Buying it is a bit harder, but honestly, still pretty easy.) I went to the beach, they blew all their money in boutiques and restaurants.
I’m not judging — it’s just not my thing. I don’t care about the difference between some fancy designer jacket and one from Zara that looks the same, and I don’t even want to have a discussion about it. But in that company, spending an evening talking about clothes was considered normal… it was HELL, hahahaha.
But aside from that, the work itself was interesting.
Oh yeah, I should probably explain why I moved to Dubai in the first place.
So, while I was moving around and trying out different professions, I started helping a friend who worked in video production. By then, I was tired of interacting with people as a photographer and wanted something more interesting and relaxing.
So, I became a gaffer (well... "gaffer" is a big word; I mostly just set up lights). Later, I started working with other equipment: stabilizers, focusing, assembling practically everything needed on a film set... except for sound. I've never been particularly interested in sound. I mean, I can assemble and connect everything without any problem, but constant supervision and control aren't my thing. And frankly, if you need serious sound recording, you always hire a separate specialist because it's not as simple as it seems.
Overall, I have a pretty good understanding of how all the equipment works, so I've handled the technical side of things quite well. And with my obsessive attention to detail and love of order... well, things were going pretty well, hahaha.
I started working with different people, then with others, and eventually I had to quit the restaurant because I had too many video-related assignments. Eventually, I found people I worked with often and a lot. And one of them got a job in the advertising department in Dubai and invited me. And I'm always happy to go somewhere I've never been before.
Although there was a slight catch with this invitation: initially, they wanted to hire two other guys (I also worked with them sometimes), but they messed something up—or something like that—and ended up inviting me. The other two were very offended and started spreading dirty rumors, hahaha. I only found out about it six months later, and, frankly... I didn't care at all.
I continue to communicate with myself and a couple of other people who, for some reason, find all this interesting (thanks for reading—insert the heart-and-hand emoji). I need to somehow get from the place I've written so much about to another—somewhere where there's actually something worth telling. But some time passed between these periods, and, frankly, nothing special happened.
Well, yes, I was photographing weddings… pure boredom (with rare exceptions). I was constantly living here and there, because I never liked any one place for long. And then a friend of mine—a guy I met in the Dominican Republic (the videos I posted were made together; well, mostly him, my work there is about 20%, hahaha)—simply invited me to live in one of his apartments, just so it wouldn't be empty.
And that's when I finally gave up photography and took up something completely different—which eventually led me to Dubai about a year later. Along the way, I met people who introduced me to others, one of whom turned out to be a chef at a pretty cool place. And since I once wanted to be a chef... well, I pretty much became one, haha. It's actually really hard work, and it's seriously underappreciated (financially), but it turns out I'm pretty good at it.
But that was more of a side effect. My other job was much more interesting to me—and it's what brought me to Dubai.
So that's how it was. A bumpy transition, but at least there was no filler or "storytelling hacks." I don't think anyone wants to read about me constantly looking for a place to live or hanging around, so let's skip that part.
A week has passed, and I still have zero motivation to write any longreads, hahaha. So here comes another post — just to keep the page alive. And who knows, maybe someone actually enjoys reading this stuff and looking at the photos (though there are plenty of those online even without mine).
By the way, while typing, I noticed some signs of dyslexia (or maybe it’s just a hypochondria episode 😂). I often mix up vowels and consonants in words. At first, I thought it was because of my new laptop — but it’s not new anymore, and the problem’s still there... Oh well, GPT usually fixes those mistakes during translation anyway 😄
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Actually, I still have more stories to tell — though not so much about the Dominican Republic, since I’ve already shared almost everything that happened to me there. I haven’t traveled much around Europe, and nothing particularly interesting happened during that time.
I do have a lot of stories about filming weddings back home, but honestly, those are mostly about alcohol, fights, and boring parties (most of them are so similar, one more identical than the other).
But there was also a period when I lived and worked in Dubai — and that’s where I have a few stories, I’d even say extremely scary and criminal ones. Of course, I was mostly just “standing nearby” and observing, but all of it happened to my friends and acquaintances. There was deceit, theft, slavery (I’m not exaggerating), and generally a lot of unpleasant and stupid stuff...
The only problem is sitting down to write it all — I’m too lazy, hahaha. I’ve never hidden that I’m lazy; it even says so on my page! 😄
