Sunday Adventures

[palmedfire]

Operation Acquire Heart Gold - Success!

Operation Acquire Heart Gold/Soul Silver strategy guide - Success!

Operation Name all my Pokemon after Takarisiennes - In Progress

No, seriously. I am a big enough dork that I'm nicknaming all of my pokemon in my game after Takarisiennes. My starter (Cyndaquil if you care), is nicknamed Tom, I've got a Sentret named Yuu, a Pidgey named Ayane-chan and a Caterpie named Ran. I'm trying to stick to otokoyaku for male pokemon & musumeyaku for female pokemon. The TakaWiki is my friend!

Yes, I am a huge, HUGE dork.

Comments

[ilyat]

Completely unrelated!

One of my friends is interested in getting into massage or massage therapy. She was wondering how expensive/involved it is to attain certification. Would you mind giving me a (very!) brief overview so that I can relay it to her?

She has recently returned to the US from Germany and is in the process of divorcing her (military) husband. She doesn't have any job background from the past several years due to that and is looking to make a fresh start at things. Massaging friends is one thing that she's always enjoyed and so she's looking into that as an option.

[palmedfire]

Please forgive this late reply... I kept meaning to type something up, but my brain has been all over the place lately.

For a Virginia state license in massage therapy, the state requires 600 hours of education + passing the National Certification Exam (which, despite the title is not exactly National, more on that in a bit). How long this takes to complete depends entirly on the program you enroll in. For comparison, I graduated from a 1600 hour program in little over a year, but that was with 4 hour classes, five nights a week (less a two week break in the summer). Cost-wise, it differs, I'd suggest she look around for schools in her area and call/write for information regarding tuition. Finatial aid is usually available if the school is accredited.

Where is she located, roughtly? I've heard good things about the school in C'ville, if she's anywhere near there.

I would give her the following cautionary advice:

1> The economy is bad right now, and one of the first things most people cut back on are luxuries like massage. There aren't a lot of jobs available currently, especially if you're not in Richmond or the DC area.

2> Most massage jobs involve working as an independent contractor, which means no employer provided anything. You have to do all your own tax deductions, get your own health insurance, etc, etc. Granted, your earnings/profit margin is potentially higher, but it's something to think about.

3> Massage schools are havens of young, just out of high school idiots who's parents have told them they either have to move out or continue school. They don't want to learn, they just want to continue mooching off their parents. And the schools usually want the tuition to keep coming in, so very rarely kick people out as long as they're not making trouble. Some schools *coughHeritagecough* let folks get away with a lot before even thinking about disinvinting a student. Not saying you can't get a good education, but again, it's there, and something to be aware of.

If you/she have any more questions or such, feel free to drop me a note or PM here.

[ilyat]

Thank you so much! I will relay all of this to her and your contact info.

She actually lives in NH (near Manchester I think), so..not quite RVA area. I know that the licensing will be a bit different up there, but at least it'll give her a general idea.

[palmedfire]

Ah, in that case, pass on this link too: http://www.massageregister.com/StateRequirements.asp

It lists the requirement by state along with the addresses of the government office (if any) that handles massage licensing. Also tell her if she can find a program that does more than the minimum required number of hours to at least look into it. Then if she ends up moving out of state, she at least has the hours covered. That's why Heritage does a 1600 hour program - thats the most number of hours any state requires (Damn NY & your restricting massage laws!). Also tell her to check with her local Chamber of Commerce. Sometimes you have to get a local license as well as the state one, though the local license is just a matter of fileing some paperwork.