A little update
Mood:  spacey
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
It is a new month. I have a new job.... that I am not sure when I get to start. That should be answered today. I am supposed to get a call from the boss. She will let me know what the shifts will be. In the meantime I am heading to a few schools to see about going back to school. Today I will be talking to Marylhurst and Portland State University. I have an appointment with Marylhurst but I plan on just showing up at PSU.

I still have a few interviews this week. One of them is a hold over from last week that I set up not sure if I would have a job or not. Now that I do that one is one I want to cancel. I looked up the company and from what I can tell it is not my scene. The other is a well paying gig that would take advantage of my insurance industry knowledge. I do want that one.

Other then that everything is going as good as it can when you are unemployed and have no money. :)

WOO(freakin')HOO
Mood:  vegas lucky
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
I am adding another report to let you know I was offered a job. I did indeed accept it as well. I was offered a position at McMenamin's in West Lynn, OR. I will be part of the pubstaff. My job duties will include: Serving, pouring drinks, waiter, cook, cleaning crew, prep crew. I am looking forward to starting although it is a bit hazy about when that is. The boss lady has the weekend off so she will be calling me Saturday to let me know when and possibly where my training shifts will be. I may need to train at another facility because apparently the pub I will work at will be mad crazy busy. Which is good. Don't ask about money because I didn't. COnsidering the job it probably is hugely good that it is tip aided. The tips are community so everyone shares the tip pot at the end of the shift.

This is also the job that stirred me to write the previous entry (Employers and their words of impending doom!) about the doomsaying ways of employers. She talked about the kitchen being 107 degrees because they can't air condition it and get all made to order food out properly..... which made no sense but I just nodded and smiled. She also talked about upset customers and sometimes the kitchen being slow. She talked about every horrible thing she could think of and I smiled and nodded politely. Apparently that was a good move because later in the day I was awarded the job with the kitchen from Hell.

You win some and you lose some.....

Employers and their words of impending doom!
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
I have noticed a disturbing trend with employers lately. They are extremely negative about the jobs they hire for. They tell you about the worst possible situations and conditions they can think of. They tell you about the non-stop horrible occurences. They ask about how you would handle an extremely hard day when nothing goes well. They make you want to quit before you even get the job.

They say that this is to prepare you for those times. They want you to be informed. They feel "honesty is the best policy". They scare you into nearly crying everytime you walk into their establishment and see the poor workers. It's horrible and yet it is a good thing right? They let you know you can have bad days. That is realistic and good right? There intentions are honorable right?

I tend to see it a different way. They are painting this bleak little picture because they want to be able to say "I told you..." They want to take away complaints before they are complaints. They want to be able to work you to death and blow you off with the words: "You knew what you were getting into when we had our interview!"

It is stupid.

I live again!
Mood:  lucky
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
I would like to say thanks to all my supporters and well wishers during my time of need. The computer less world was filled with sorrow and many tears.... I was not sure if I would make it but I did. I would also like to thank my dad for donating his computer to get me back on the internet at home.... my computer and I are an integral part of the American dream! Hallelujah!

Well the world keeps spinning and I keep spending a lot of money on gas to go to interviews with staffing agencies. These are truly a waste of time. I go in there after they call me and I go through a lengthy interrogation that includes torture techniques and I walk out of there unemployed. What happened to that perfect position for me? Do I talk myself out of them? I know I do fairly well in other interviews but I never do well in staffing agency interviews. Everytime I give an answer they just continue to silently sit and stare until I nervously blurt out something else just to get them to talk... They are evil! I was really upset about the electrical shocks they applied as I hung suspended from the ceiling withy water dripping down me. It was awful! I decided that tomorrow will be the last time I waste gas on an interview with a staffing agency. I already agreed to go so I will follow through but after that the answer is no more! I have a few interviews I have done including a few phone interviews that seemed positive and I have a few more to do this week. I am really anxious to get in to a company and working soon.... I know that I filled the gas tank up for the last time until I do get a new job....

Anyway wish me luck or write me hate mail but either way drop a line: crazedlunatik@gmail.com

My Computer Died
Mood:  blue
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
The unthinkable happened. My computer died Saturday night. One minute I am about to play an online game of Neverwinter Nights and the next minute the screen is saying it is in backup mode and the computer is off. It won't power back on. My best bet is that it is the power supply that went down. Either way it is a problem that has no immediate fix when there is no income.

My mom told me it was probably a good thing because it would make my only way of applying be in person. You can tell she has not applied in a long time. Most places go out of there way to avoid face to face occurances. A lot of jobs make you fill out an application on a computer at there locations and you get the same response you did applying for jobs at home. Which is nothing. You never hear from them.

At the moment I will probably not be spending much time writing in the library to you guys. Sorry but I need to spend the time applying and responding to emails.

I hate my dead computer!

It's Hot!!
Mood:  on fire
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
It's 84 degrees as I right this..... It's 8:45 AM.... It is going to be a hot day. I am trying to figure out what to do. I was thinking I should go someplace I can kill hours at. I can't stay at home yesterday it was over a 100 degrees, 104 to be exact, outside and it was pretty darn close in my apartment. I can't drink enough water! It never really did cool down enough in my apartment last night. My room is still quite a noticeable degree hotter then the living room and the living room is uncomfortable. The fans are working overtime but it is just too hot. This is getting rediculous.... I mean where the heck are the AC units??? What is this crap! I am cranky and exhausted (I don't sleep well when it's hot). My mom found out I was cranky yesterday when she called. All I can think of at the moment are the negatives. I have no job, I am hot, I am broke, I have no AC, I am hot, I am hot, I am hot, I am hot and I want to smack that random guy over there. This sucks.

Anyways yesterday I went to the movies and saw Clerks II at 1:30 pm. I don't feel like reviewing it right now.... ask me again when it isn't so dang hot! Then I went to the local mall and read inside Barnes and Noble until 7:30 pm. Then I wandered around Walmart until 9:30 pm and then I came home to a burning hot home. I drank iced water and had an ice cream bar but it was still too hot.

Today I am trying to figure out where to go that will have more options nearby. I have been thinking about going downtown. I figure they have bookstores, coffee shops, movies and libraries all pretty close together. I just hate to pay for parking.... and I have no desire to ride the bus.... I am cranky and waiting around in the heat probably will make me more so. All I know is I need to decide what to do soon... It is getting hotter.

The Heat and Late Night Commercials
Mood:  mischievious
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
It's 4 AM. It's 4 AM and I have been up since 2:30.

I laid down at about midnight.... and it was hot in the house. It had gotten up to about 94 degrees today and will break a 100 the next few days. I know half of my readers are thinking... "So? It's been over a 100 degrees since January in Phoenix." Yeah well you have air conditioning. Yeah..... air conditioning would be nice. So how will I be able to beat the heat? I plan on hanging out in the frozen food section of the grocery store. I saw a nice lawn chair in the "Seasonal" section. I figure I will grab that and drag it over..... maybe a few beers. They also have a barbeque. I think I will grab that too. I mean heck they have everything I need there. Charcoal, lighter fluid, all kinds of meat, corn, potato salad and chips. Think they will mind? Is it a good idea to bbq indoors?

Anyways so I haven't slept tonight. I laid down about 12:30 and I woke up about 2 AM. I woke up thinking I was going to get sick. This happens everytime it gets this hot here. I can't sleep and when I finally do I end up all most spewing. But hey it doesn't get that hot here. You know I think that is just the apartment complexes way of avoiding putting in ac units. They make you feel like a luxury.....

I find myself watching late night Comedy Central shows... is it really late night? Wouldn't it be uber-early morning shows? So the shows all seem to have one thing in common.... they are majorly censored and every break is a girls gone wild ad.... It was driving me crazy because there are a lot of commercial breaks in a half hour show where you only hear every third word and the rest is a series of beeps. Anyways so about the 30th ad I broke and I called the number. Yeah I did it.... I called the number and a woman answered and was thanking me for calling about the exciting girls gone wild video and I said "If I buy this video will you stop showing the commercials?" She was not amused.... It seemed so dang funny when I grabbed the phone. So I ended up getting the deluxe edition where the girls read classic literature while flashing for beads..... hehe

Ok so I didn't call.

100th Entry!!!
Mood:  vegas lucky
Topic: Site News
I am happy to announce that this is the 100th blog entry! Woohoo! Please picture streamers falling from the sky and champagne cascading down a fountain of glasses!

Are you a CEO with your hand in more then one cookie jar? DO you stay up at nights worrying about being audited? Do you have trouble trusting your employees with the knowledge of your blatant thievery? Did you fund your kids braces with the employee retirement fund? Is that sports car your investors money redirected? If you answered yes to any of these questions then we are the company for you. At NINJA SHREDZ we don't judge, in fact we don't even speak! With our ancient ninja training we just know what has to be done. We guarantee you will never get caught red handed. You won't become the next Martha Stewart! We look down on knitted grey panchos! Ninja Shredz will get the sensitive material destroy it and kill would be informants. We are here for you. A lot of people ask why we would do this.... and when they do we laugh and say because you are rich!

Ninja Shredz clothing is now available!

The other shoe finally dropped
Mood:  not sure
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
There was an old Geto Boyz song that had a chorus that went like this: "Dam* it feels good to be a gangsta". Boy do I wish I was a gangsta! Slanging rock from my coat pocket. Hustling for some "paper".

The thing is I am not. I am one busted, broke, down on his luck writer that has recently become jobless. Yeah I said it, I am unemployed. My position with the employment agency ended and I am back on the street scrambling to figure out where the next check will come. I have some resumes out there and even have a good lead on a job from a friend. I am not too worried but I am still worried. The thing is I was worried with the job. I was not making enough money to make ends meet anyway. Maybe that is why I am not that worried. I may have lost 300 dollars this month by not working the next 2 weeks and that is probably estimating on the high side. Young kids in Cambodia make more money then that in a day! Of course they don't get it paid to them in dollars... and it is a much longer work day... and they are only 6 days old.... but you get the point. The loss of the job although very annoying isn't as catastrophic as it would be if I wasn't already looking.

The thing is I wanted to leave them.... I wanted to walk in and say "Here is my badge and headset now kiss my lily white buttocks!" Unfortunately they were able to say "Kiss my unintellgible English speaking pinkie finger you dumb swine your job is now awarded to someone who has no teeth. Be gone from our presence" Well I am sure it was something like that I could barely understand her.... maybe she was the lady with no teeth.

I really have nothing more to say or add. I have no plans for revolutionizing the world... So this is it. This is my entry. Deal.

The further adventures of my mom, auntie and me!
Mood:  special
Topic: One Ramblin' Ranter!
Hey all! I just put together a small album of my mom and auntie's trip to Portland. I took the best of what my mom and I took. Auntie's took pictures but I never got them in my posession. I do not have any pictures of us running about Powell's or downtown Portland but I have quite a few of Multnomah falls, nature and roses...

I left you guys dangling after a quick update last Monday. Here is the next 2 days.

I got up and went to work on Tuesday before Dawn and was sent home 2 hours early.... not good for the pocket book but great for the tour guide side. MY mom was rearing to go to a local vegetable stand and I knew of none but I had a little paper that told that there was one nearby. Auntie was waiting for a replacement phone for her phone that saw the bad side of a public restroom toilet.... Not sure she would want that in the blog entry but I always promise to be true for my readers.... ANyway my mom went out to get some things for lunch and I of course took us galavanting throught the place where I went hiking and had the fun with the mud and the hobos.... We saw an awesome snake and I got a great picture of a black winged bug with a red head. We found the fruit stand finally and it was some guys house.... drove past it twice. We also got free bread from a place called Bob's Red Mill which produces a lot of the fancy milled wheats, grains and granola you see in stores..... They gave us free bread for having seen a movie at the movie theater near me... we didn't even have to buy anything even though my mom did. Then we headed back to my apartment where auntie was already munching since we were an hour late from our promised time. Her phone had arrived and we were ready to go. We decided to go to the zoo and headed out the door. The zoo was a bust because the lot was full a sign that promised more parking ended up taking us back on the freeway and before I knew it we were back down town. I decided to revamp the plan and take them to a museum. We parked near Powells and ended up using it as a potty break where auntie decided she really would prefer to be. She loved the store and had only gotten a mere taste the day before... she was aching for round 2. We left her there and heade to the free tram stop. It was 20 minutes away so my mom and I walked. We got to walk through a nice area of downton to find out we only had 45 minutes left before the museum closed. With a 10 dollar entrance fee we decided it would be better to explore another time. So we headed back, stopping at a trimet station where we inquired about a monthly bus pass... which was a lot for something that was a 1/3 of the month left and decided my bus pass could wait until half price day.... In the middle of the month it becomes half priced. From there we stopped at a coffee shop so I could rejuvenate. Then we headed back to Powells and stayed for a while before grabbing auntie and heading to Widmer to eat. The food was excellent at Widmer's as was the beer.... in case you were wondering my auntie had a diet coke.

Wednesday.... I went to work again and this time was sent home an hour early. We had some food and then headed to the zoo.... it was raining.... When we got to the zoo it picked up the pace and the zoo was forgotten for the second day in a row. I decided to take them through Washington Park and to stop at the International Rose Test Garden. Thanks to the wonderful signs I found myself back on the freeway instead of going where I meant to so I had to double back. When we finally got to the park my passengers were enjoying the view. The Rose Garden was just icing on the cake. I decided to go a different way out and ended up showing them a scenic view of Portland. I missed it because I was trying to figure out where to go to get out and navigate the turns at the same time. After that fun jaunt we ended up back at Pizza Schmezza having a slice before heading to my ill fated choice of a movie.... The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Once again I liked it and they did not... We ended up viewing "Oh Brother Where Art Though" to rid their memories of the movie a bit. Then I watched auntie's copy of Eight Below as they fell asleep around me. I liked Eight Below.

The next day we had breakfast before they hit the road.

To see the pictures click here!!