Sunday, March 1, 2009

Today is the day... That STEVE comes back...

So one of my oldest and best friends is moving back to an area within close proximity to me and is therefore capable of being hung out with on a regular basis. Unfortunately, he's coming back because his hours at his job in Portland were slashed down to a microscopic level and he has to move in with his parents. Not exactly how I'd hoped it was gonna go down.

I don't know too much how he feels about it either. He's one of those guys who smiles and chuckles when he's profoundly uncomfortable, (and being once a mormonling that's fairly frequently) so I don't know if he's cool with the whole thing, if he's kinda miffed he has to move back with his parents but he's alright with being back in the area, or if he's just pissed at the whole damn situation. I guess it doesn't matter much because it's happening.

I want to be happy that I'm going to see my friend again on a regular basis, but the circumstances of the move are just so damn depressing that it's hard to be excited for it. I don't want to be all happy that he had to completely uproot his life again and move back with his parents, which I know isn't too big a deal until you start to get closer to 30 years old, but it's still kind of a slap. I have to be more reserved about it, which is something I'm really good at but don't particularly enjoy doing. I'm stoked most for having someone else other than Republicans to play Shadowrun with.

In other news, I've been reading Strunk and White's Elements of Style, and it has clearly helped very little!

Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Fair

So I swallowed my pride, made peace with my principles and opinions, truly measured my weight in the world, my responsibilities, and my true desires, and went to the shipyard job fair. And it was almost insultingly unintimidating. There were I believe 17 shops set up, along with a espresso stand and a burger nook. I managed to talk to every single shop at length and get my resume out to every single one and it took me 4 and a half hours. That's with a break sometime in the middle to eat an excellent burger (more on that later) and the amount I spoke with a friend of mine that I recognized. My best shot is probably at the rigger's shop, I knew the guy who was doing the presentations, and I chatted him up real well.

I went into this thinking it was going to be this unscalable wall that I had to be infinitely prepared for lest I fall into the mudpit of customer service below. I was told to dress as if I was going to a high paying job interview, and to make sure that I had a million or so copies of my resume. I was told I would have to chat up each shop as if their work was that of the lord himself, and I would have to lie out of every concievable hole in my body that all I have ever wanted to do in my life was fire a sandblaster at the side of a boat. Most of the people I talked to were very nice themselves, and understood that the draw of the work is the pay, the benefits, and the job security, rather than the work itself. It was a relatively nice experience.

The one guy who stood out as a total dick was actually the guy in charge of giving information on the helper/apprentice program. He really didn't want to talk to me or give me any information about what I should be looking out for, what I should be doing to maximize my hiring potential, etc. He did, however, really want to talk to the lovely lady standing next in line, and frequently glanced behind me to make sure that she was still there. He was a dick, but I have most of that under control anyway.

I had a absolutely wonderful burger. I almost wish I went both days just to eat. It was a griddle burger, left to soak in an onion marinade, which also held sauted onions. The burger came with cheese and those onions I mentioned. It was so juicy it didn't need any other condiments. Honestly, the highlight of the day was that burger. Oh god I wish I could eat it every day until I die which would be soon because the burger is probably very poor for my health.

One thing I did find out was I really like how I clean up. I got a good haircut, I trimmed my beard the way I like it, and I look pretty good in buisnesswear. I imagine my ass didn't look great, because the asses of overweight dudes don't look good in slacks, but it was made up for by the fact that my tie made me look like a used car salesman. I will have to find more opportunities to dress up like a tool.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Busy beaver

I don't really have anything too thought provoking or particularly interesting to say, but I'm pretty dang impressed that Obama has been getting his shit together really damn quick. This either means that he might make good on all those insane, socially progressive things he said, or it means that he'll burn out within months and we'll have to watch him plummet through time like the portrait of Dorian Grey.

I know it's all common-sense stuff, but I'm still happy. The world sees us as a frightening fatass cop who'll give you a cornhole for speeding, so let's close down that powerfully immoral prison that we slapped in someone else's country. Granted, it won't be actually closed for awhile, but it's still SOMEthing. Plus he stopped all those "enhanced interrogation" techniques. I guess it's a hit. It's a single, but it's a hit. Then he halted this wierd ban on funding for abortion clinics that I didn't even know existed, and just today I read that he was closing a shitton of other super-secret CIA prisons. Also I heard he was going to do something about Don't Ask Don't Tell, but that was in passing on Digg, so who the hell knows.

I'm trying to keep a safe distance from all the horn-blowing and angels flying about, but it's difficult when I see my mom watching the inaguration, completely elated with tears in her eyes going on about how "it's about damn time that we vote for a black guy." Everyone's excited about it, and it is a big fatty deal, but I'm more concerned with the fact that he's a politician. Recent events have proven that he's at least got SOME balls on him, so maybe he'll take it the distance and actually enact some of those economic policies that got stupid people from Kentucky looking up the word "Socialist."

No, no. I know. They never looked it up.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Phenominon: Premonitional Hatred

So there's a school levy coming up in February. The last one failed, if I'm not mistaken, and was obviously a great blow to the already MacGuyveresque held-together-with-gum school district. This next one is coming smack dab in the middle of a string of job losses and a sensationalized awareness of how much America eats dick financially, so things aren't looking up.

Not that there's an excuse or anything. Back in November when a mysterious blue aura washed over the nation (except gay people), every single initiative to increase taxes to pay for this or that passed, in Kitsap County at least. Kitsap Transit got some more cash that they goddamn better well use to add more bus routes, Eyman's horrible bill to make traffic worse got shot down, they even decided to set aside tax dollars to pay for better training and wages for orderlies and assisted living nurses. So godDAMN had they better vote to give the school $70 million for a measly quarter increase per $1000 to property taxes.

Community activism and the outcome of the general election in November tell me that the levy is in good shape, and will likely be renewed for the next four years. However, I also happen to talk to a lot of crochety old bastards who seem to have a potent hate for young people and wish for nothing more than the population of whatever town they live in to be as ignorant and depressed as they are. The "fuck you got mine" mentality is strong in a military retirement town, and no matter how many picket signs you wave, and no matter how many people may honk, or wave, or even stand beside you and yell, once they get that ballot in the mail (we do mail ballots because we're also lazy), they're going to look at it, make a gut reaction, and give education a good fisting.

It's still three weeks away. I've already got an outline for my massive furious rant that I plan on sending as letters to the editor.

Ugh, I had a whole thing here about how I get angry about stuff before it happens, but when I pulled up a couple of sites to check numbers, all the comments attached to the articles about the levy were insane sociopaths screaming to keep taxes down and to not vote for the levy. So fuck it. Fuck every single person who votes no for the school levy. ESPECIALLY all the people who don't own property and don't read about their taxes and just vote because they're scared the government is going to come directly to their house and rob them. Fuck you, I hope you all suffer for the rest of your lives. Even if the levy passes, if you vote no on it then you're pure garbage.

Here's a good one to end everything with:

Quoted from the comments on the Kitsap Sun newspaper's website, here.

"2.4 million for 2180 computers? Thats over $1100 a pop. Where the heck are they buying them. I can buy a pretty good laptop most anywhere for 500-600 bucks. They are selling desktops at wal-mart for $400. What special needs do the school computers have that I am not aware of."

BUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I'M SO GODDAMN DUMB I CAN'T TIE MY SHOES I WANT EVERY CHILD TO BE USELESS AND A BURDEN ON SOCIETY JUST LIKE ME BUHHHHHH

Sunday, December 28, 2008

I'll just leave this here

I haven't updated in awhile so I'll just empty my head out here.

Rock Band 2 was purchased by a close associate with a lot of disposable income. I was quickly depressed that I was only proficient at the parts of the game that required little real-life talent. I can do a lot of the guitar songs on hard with little practice, but I can't find pitch or sing for shit, and for some goddamn annoying reason this bugged the hell out of me.

Snow is a motherfucking BITCH when you're not 5-16 years old. I wanted nothing more than to go out and run around and have fun but it was goddamn cold out and every time I tried to make a snowman the dogs destroyed it because they thought I was making a snowball for them to catch. Also, one of our dogs enjoys hiding in snow banks for long periods of time.

Long underwear is absolutely fantastic.

Two friends but not one friend has come up here from Portland for the holy days. I've been enjoying time with one of them but I have yet to contact the other and I should really get on that because I don't see or talk to her nearly enough. We will likely go to Seattle and eat noodles or something.

Baldur's Gate is a good game to play when you do not want to spend money on video games or movies or whatever for a few months. Especially since there's enough modular content floating around out there to fill three more installments. Eldrich Dayfucker the Archer/Cleric is ravaging the countryside of Amn with his indifference and clout.

I got a pair of chattering teeth for Christmas but they are neither poisonous or sharpened so what's the point?

My new watch is a Timex which I understand is fairly low class but it fits my wrist better than any other watch I've owned and it also tells me what time it is which I enjoy very much.

I bought another copy of Final Fantasy X when Season and I realized that we couldn't find our old copy and also we remembered that it was fucked somewhere around Besaid Island. I got it in a bundle deal from some guy on the internet along with Metal Slug Anthology, because she wanted to play it again. She claimed that we were going to take turns, but she has yet to take hers and I've just acquired the airship.

The commercial for that PediPaws thing is a pile of bullshit(duh). The only dog in the house that isn't skiddish about having his nails trimmed is the one that's terrified of out-of-place furnature. I got it to trim MY dog's nails, since they're getting very long and one of them broke. He won't let me do anything to them, so I'm probably going to have to take him to the vet to get sedated while a vet tech clips them. Hopefully this will give me enough time to get him used to it.

Club Nintendo is interesting, but now that I've registered everything I only got halfway to the Game 'N' Watch collection I wanted.

My cat pisses slightly off the side of his catbox, and also I caught him eating his food, moving slightly to the left, throwing up, and then moving back and continuing eating.

I want to write just like John Hodgman, except I want to write about different things than John Hodgman because if I did not adhere to that second condition I would be stealing from John Hodgman and I do not wish to do that.

Old Super Mario cartoons are horrible.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

FFFFFFFFFF

damn man

Okay, so, I may or may not be in trouble at work. I'll start from about a week ago because I just can't seem to update anything with any frequency whatsoever HERE WE GO

Since the population of Port Orchard just loves not paying any taxes at all the school district's levy fails with an alarming frequency. I believe it's been losing for the past five years or so. Anyway, cuts are constantly being made, and recently there were some cuts made to the custodial department. No jobs were taken from anyone who had them, but they fiddled with some of the part-timers' shifts and just didn't fill some slots that retired within the school year. That's fine, it's damage control, although three or four part-time shifts are rovers and they're doing mostly useless shit all year.

Anyway, the only way that I'm going to be able to slide in anywhere is if someone quits from a position that is necessary. Well, that happened last week! The gentleman at an elementary school left for a job at the Coast Guard, and one of the swing shift guys at a middle school took his place. So, theoretically, his shift should be opening soon. However, the sub office has given the shift to a new sub. Now, I don't want to harp on anyone's work or anything, but I've been working at the district for three years, and I'd like to think that if there was a position opening up, and for whatever reason they weren't putting it up on the site like every other goddamn time a job has ever been available, that it would go to someone with some seniority, and not just a random new person.

I really, really don't want to be "that guy" that pitches a bitch fit about union rules whenever something happens that involved him not getting something, but dammit I've been trying to get hired on permanently for two years of the three years that I've been impressing everyone I've come in contact with.

Or so I thought...

While lamenting this situation to another custodian, I was informed that at some previous time in my experience working for the school district, I was denied a job that I had applied for because I was "lazy". More specifically, that I started out strong, but petered out as time went on. I don't really remember a specific time when I felt that this was the case, usually if I feel like I'm crapping out I try to bring myself back up specifically so that this doesn't happen to me. But, apparently somewhere early on I got labelled as a poo-poo worker. Now, hopefully this was a long time ago, and has since been dispelled by the sheer volume of character references I have on my resume, but it really could have happened any time. Now, there is at least a slight chance that this person is just an insane gossipeer, but I don't really think she's the kind of person to do that.

So I don't know what's going to happen. I just want regular work, I'm sick of not knowing how big my paycheck is going to be every month. I really want to be able to plan properly for this and that.

I'd also like to have health insurance.

And a hoverboard.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

My house is a MOOD HOUSE

Because everyone's in a mood haw haw haw

Okay, from what I can piece together, Season got in a tiff with my mom about her working conditions. She was unhappy that her hours were being drastically cut and my mom and sister's hours were staying pretty solid. I wasn't present during the argument, so I am not sure exactly how angry everyone got, but the subsequent conversation I had with the two of them separately leads me to believe that tensions are high.

On one hand, my mom has a very delicate financial situation. She does need the work she has (although some luxuries could probably be cut but that's neither here nor there), and her boss is putting decent effort to keep her working. She at least feels that she needs to do this, and she's being given the opportunity to.

On the other hand, Season is losing her job. She's being gradually phased out of the schedule at a job she's been working at for nearly four years. A job that she believe doesn't treat her very well. She has bills to pay just like (nearly) everyone else, and the loss of even more hours is enough to make someone worried for their financial future.

So there's really no clean way out of this. The part where everything gets particularly messy, is that it seems like mom is taking this personally. I might be wrong on this, but I can't comprehend why someone wouldn't understand a co-worker's frustration at losing their job. It doesn't seem like mom to take it so personally. I do not understand this situation, but I know that it feels pretty tense in this house right now.

I don't know why I'm writing this, I mean, there aren't really a whole lot of people who read this thing, and everyone who does either already knows or already read Season's post. I guess I just wanted to make sure I recorded my thoughts on this, and I suppose I wouldn't be too terribly upset if someone involved found it by accident.

In other news, Fallout 3 is pretty fun, and the Bloody Mess perk caused a destitute wasteland raider's head to fly vertically at a such a speed that it did not reenter this world for the four minutes I waited for it.

Edit: Everything is fine I guess!