For several years now I’ve been doing odd writing jobs here and there online, just trying to make a little extra cash. It’s difficult to find jobs that I’m suitable for and hours of trawling the Internet, craigslist in particular, usually turn up nothing. But every once in a while I find something that catches my eye and I send an email with writing samples and my experience. Often I don’t hear anything back. But sometimes I’m lucky and I land some work, typically for $5-10 per article. Nothing huge but enough to cover my iTunes purchases and whatnot.

Several months ago I began writing for a website called Modern Man Jack. It’s a men’s website and the pay rate they gave me was respectable if you wrote frequently enough. When I joined up the guy in charge, Tony, sent me a professional info page detailing how they paid and what they expected out of the writers. It all seemed pretty legit.

A month and four submitted articles later I hadn’t been paid for my work. When I sent queries asking about the status of my reimbursement I got late responses or one sentence replies. The days ticked by and my paypal was empty. Tony became increasingly terse in his replies and I grew more and more worried. Eventually we blew up into an argument where he claimed he didn’t have to pay me for 90 days after my work was submitted. A website called Modern Man Jack treats modern men like shit.

I starting googling MMJ to see if it was a scam and after a bit of sleuthing I found the email addresses of several other contributors and asked if they had been paid. None of them had and they claimed that Tony had also treated them poorly when they asked about their payment.

Tony claimed he was making money “hand over fist” as he put it. If that’s true then why wasn’t he paying his writers? If he was waiting for Adsense to pay him or something then wouldn’t it have been wiser to place a hold on incoming articles until he had money on hand to pay? When I brought up some of my concerns to him he gave me a good belly laugh when he claimed that I had a lot to learn about business. If I was in business I’d certainly have the good goddamn common decency to pay people for their work in a timely manner.

Anyway, it’s been about 4 months now and still no payment. I doubt it’s coming. I sent Tony an email asking about it last week but seeing as how he’s likely still butthurt that I had the gall to confront him over his shady behavior, it’s probable that he won’t ever pay me the money he owes me, $40 in total. But I’ve moved on and I’m wiser for it now. I’ll be much more careful about who I take work from in the future.

If any freelance writers happen to read this, share it around. Writers shouldn’t let other writers work for crooks.

Got another lovely letter from a guy named Mike.

Man you are really retarded. Not only you don’t know anything about the whole China, Japan, Korea problem but you watch the world with the american eyes.

I am from europe and i am married to a korean but you sir made so much fucking nonsense that it disgusts me and what’s worse your dishonor your wife.

You are the definition of cultural ignorance and a word of “dumb american”

Seriosuly fuck off.

Not sure what crawled up his bum but my historical understanding of the East Asian region is beyond reproach. Also, at no point did I use profanity in dealing with him but here he goes cussing up a storm. A real man can get his point across eloquently. Resorting to foul language just makes you look like an ass. 🙂

If you have any questions for Mike he can be reached at the email address he left thegreat@fuckoff.com. Charming guy, him.

One of the reasons I haven’t been updating very often is because I’ve been busy devoting my time to taking care of my pregnant wife and personal writing projects like my book (keep a lookout for a pic of the cover and a brief description, as well as a link to where you can read it).

We first found out that we were parents-to-be shortly after we returned from our trip to Bali and I couldn’t believe it. I’m pretty sure I made my wife take a dozen pregnancy tests to be sure. Our excitement was tempered by aggravation at having to navigate the bureaucratic mess that is the Chinese healthcare system. Visits that should have taken an hour took all day and in our quest for quality healthcare we were forced to spend large sums of money to go to an international clinic.

After a scandal earlier in the year in which many newborns died after being vaccinated in local hospitals I decided there was no way in hell a responsible parent would willingly choose to have a child in a Chinese hospital and booked tickets to come home for the holidays in November to have the baby in the US. My wife also got her visa around the same time which helped to solidify our plans.

As the departure date approached, we had to get a checkup and paper filled out and signed by the doctor at the international clinic within 72 hours to be cleared to fly. We took the form to the China Southern Airlines office where they told us the paper was no good because there wasn’t a red stamp on the bottom. Remember what I said about bureaucracy? CSA representatives said nothing about this requirement when I called and asked about pregnant travelers and the website also had no info about it. Rules are shifting , arbitrary, and often times made up on the spot. My wife, who I was so proud of, argued up a storm for over an hour while I cussed until I was red in the face and threatened to chop the manager’s desk in half.

Eventually we had no choice but to leave and think of a new plan. We visited 2 other hospitals where the doctors flat out refused to do the checkup, fearing that we would sue the hospital if something happened. On the last day, I remembered that one of my students was an obstetrician so I gave her a call. She invited us to her hospital where she saw us without waiting, registering, or paying! In Chinese this is called “guanxi” which means relationships you use to advance your own goals. She gave us a paper and a stamp and sent us on our way. Luckily, the airline accepted our paperwork and the next day we were off to America.

A week ago my wife gave birth to a 7lb baby whom we named Maric (Mare-ik not Ma-reek >:[ ). He’s a handsome little guy.

I’ve got the diaper changing thing locked down and the sight of a poop covered weenis doesn’t freak me out as much as I thought it would though in all honesty I do get pretty alarmed when he pees in his own face while I’m changing him.

Anyway, I suppose this is the start of a new adventure for my growing family.

Got a message through the About Me page from an adoring fan. I’m flattered! Kudos to Cote Minotaure for this thoughtful message.

Get the fuck off from China you fucking brain-washed arrogant American, enjoying yourself being “I’m white and I’m proud among those asian monkeys” aren’t ya? You cunt can’t make a shit living in US teaching English but work as part-time in KFC I suppose. Now ya wanker earning way better than average chingas cause ya some special white guy? the fuck? those whom useless go teach, specially in China, I’ve been there, I knew them all and I fucking hate people like you, being white doesn’t make ya special among other races, China’s government is good enough to permit ya a Visa and an opportunity to achievement some cash with your “first language” talent (fucking impressive!) so stfu and respect the fact and stop posting shit about the ignorance civilians of China.

LoL he sounds Chinese.