Work from Home?

This is a slightly, actually more than slightly embarrassing thing for me to say, but I had no plan for being around this long! I have had a good education, but my illness kept interrupting its completion. I'm told that I may be "On the Spectrum"....something like ADHD. After the traumas of my several major (months recovery) surgeries and what I now see was pretty serious depression, I just could not concentrate on major projects or long-term plans.

These days I seem to be back to my old self. Since I had my ileostomy reversed, I have been much healthier and feel much better. I am currently waiting to have what's left of my rectum and my de-functioned J-Pouch removed. This should end my ongoing rectal pain problems.

I would love to get hooked up with some online work. I have been doing photo correction and recovery of old and damaged photos and photo restoration. I will post some work.

Any kind of boring data entry would be great also, got lots of time on my hands these days. I will be stuck at home for a year after my upcoming surgery, and it would be nice if I could make a couple of bucks while I'm sitting here.

There are lots of sites on this subject, but most are bullshit...excuse my French. I would love to hear from anyone who has actually delved into this minefield.

Any comments are welcome...Thank you, Eamon.

Hello Eamon. The phenomenon of trying to work from home is, as you say, a minefield, whether you opt to work for someone else or yourself. Nonetheless, it is a growing industry and many people have established successful careers in this way. With work, I always feel that it is best to look for something that is interesting and applicable to oneself. That way it doesn't feel like 'work', in the drudgery sense but more like a 'hobby' which one wants to do for its own sake and the money becomes an additional bonus. I have several friends who buy and sell on the internet and seem to make a reasonable living from it. There are no overheads and the amount they earn depends largely on how much work they put in. (much the same as any other work). Other more creative friends have created all sorts of art and craft work and sold it at exhibitions and craft fairs. My own bent has been towards writing in various formats. This can be done at home, at any time of the day or night, which is just as well because it simultaneously alleviated the boredom of irrigation for me, which might well have pushed me towards mental instability had I not had this functional/positive distraction. I found that it was not that hard to sell some of my short works to newspapers and magazines. However, it seems to be much more profitable to invest time and effort into longer works such as novels and screenplays which can be sold on the open market. On a couple of occasions, I have collaborated with my friends in publishing their artwork coupled with my own rhyming verses. This was time consuming but great fun although it hardly paid for itself in the long-run and, therefore, I would not recommend it for those who want to make money from their efforts.
I like to market my own work, but most writers and artists prefer to use independent, separate publishers and agents to cover this side of the business. Either way, the work (although not easy) can be achieved by working from home.
I do hope you find something that suits your personality and aspirations soon - but I will pass on a remark that someone once made to me many years ago. 'These things don't happen by themselves, or by just thinking about them. They happen when someone gets down to some actual practical work and achieves what they set out to do.' In short - as the tea-shirt says, 'JUST DO IT!'
Best wishes Bill.
NOTE: I have just had a message come up on screen to warn me that someone was hacking into my online communication and for me to close the site immediately- I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. I'll post this on the forum separately

Hey Eamon,
It's good to hear from you. I've done some medical billing from home, but since doctors have gotten more concerned about letting private data out of the office, that has tapered off significantly. However, since I was a Hospital Director for a major veterinarian consort, I was able to convince a former employer to allow me to do some of their billing and money chasing from home. I'm sure my connections and past employment helped, but maybe you or a family member knows a vet or three who would welcome some bookkeeping assistance at home. Not thrilling work, basic data entry, but income. My favorite thing to try to make some money is writing. I think we spoke about that once. I'm working on children's books—one for each of the fifty United States of America and then hopefully to include the territories, Puerto Rico, Guam, US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa. At least those are the inhabited territories; there are 11 more uninhabited islands and atolls that are US territories, too. I use local popular kids' names, indigenous critters, local popular places, indigenous plants, well-known buildings, etc., to try to keep it familiar yet somewhat educational. I write about polar bears in Alaska, and alligators in Florida, etc. Publication is an issue, but you can always self-publish. I've had some interest, having been published in the Library of Congress back in 1995 for an idiot poem about the internet that got published in a composite of other authors. I've only completed three books and unfortunately, I've gotten myself sidetracked by doing some family research for my 85-year-old aunt who has developed an interest in her history all of a sudden, and she does NOT have nor want a computer. My familial ties are to Czechoslovakia and Ireland. Father's side, Shirhall, Schirhall, Sirall, (you get the point) very confusing born in Austria, which became the Czech Republic then lived in Hungary, which became Slovakia. Czechoslovakia was only formed in 1918 so it wasn't long for its existence, breaking up into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Seems I'm mostly from the Slovakian side but names change, and EVERYONE seems to have had the same first name so it's WORK filtering everyone out. Mom's side Ireland, and apparently my great grandfather Peter McConville, was somewhat of a wanted man, a type of mafioso. A little intimidating to delve too deeply, but I'm thinking the research might make decent Christmas gifts for family members. I'm looking into dual citizenship as both countries offer that (not many do) if your immediate grandparents emigrated to the US. Have to look further cause I'm not sure what all that entails, but considering our POTUS, I'm thinking that by 2020 we might actually want to get outta here for a while, before our very own civil war begins. LOL Anyway, sorry to impart a history lesson, but my original thought was, with your great photography, a book on all the different parts and peoples of Ireland interspersed with photographs would be a GREAT coffee table book, and if you're into more research, kids' books for all the different counties. NOW THERE'S A CHORE to eat away some time. LOL I hope you can find something that holds your interest as well as make you some cash. Keep in touch,
Peace
Nancy