HELLO BLOGGERS!!

WELL IT HAS BEEN ALMOST 6 MONTHS TO THE DAY THAT I ENTERED SOMETHING INTO THIS ... LET'S SEE WHAT HAS TRANSPIRED....

Anyone hear crickets chirping??

OK so moving on, I am still working in retail at the moment for a whopping $11.50 an hour - at least it's full time and I have benefits, which is nice, but at that rate, I make enough to pay my mortgage and eat.... all other bills every month is an adventure.

I am also working with a case company on the side, this has gone pretty slow, but I remain positive here as well, a good deal can land me some good money, and I'm working on that, at least it's something. I've also done some dog sitting gigs, lawn care, and sold things out of my endless basement of goodies, I'm barely staying afloat.

Sadly after 6 months there is not too much else to report on the job front, except that I have refocused my efforts on landing something that pays more than 11.50 an hour, no matter what that would be, I mean I am miserable enough, but being miserable AND broke sucks.

My other priority is to get well, physically and emotionally, let's start with the physical.

Of course I am sure the fact that my life has been one roller coater of odd jobs and bad food in the past two years has not helped my weight OR cholesterol. My doctor ran some tests and we have some room for improvement, so of course this starts with diet, exercise and eating right ... well DUH! Well so I am going to do it, at least if I am going to be broke and miserable at least I can be in shape.

So, then there is the emotional part. It's been a tough year not having any extra cash, it's no wonder I've been somewhat depressed. I've been seeing a wonderful person for a couple of years now, she once gave me a card saying she loved me and supported me no matter what, that card kept me going more than she will probably ever realize, sadly we are no longer together, I miss her deeply. Broke, miserable and alone - no way to go through life.

So this is it, I'm done with this blog, I started this blog in hopes that I could learn and share with people my trials and tribulations, and frankly by now I did expect to be back in some type of decent paying position - sadly this has not happened. I've tried social networking, I've tried asking friends for leads and so on, not too much has worked, I've probably applied for at least 100 positions in the past year and a half, some were a stretch and some were positions that I were legitimately qualified for, without even getting an interview, yeah it still blows out there.

I'd like to thank everyone who has read this blog and followed along, I know all of you are wishing this economy didn't blow so bad and you could help me out, but it is what it is, I don't blame the government or the president, you learn the first day in Macro Economics class that recession, inflation, depression, stagflation are all cyclical, and when you look at it, the 70's were lean, then the 80's and most of the 90's were fabulous, then Sept 11th happened, it pushed some levers and the government bailed out airlines, and fast forward to more bailouts and the mortgage fiasco and inflated home prices .... well there you go. I don't think you can blame the government (sorry!) you just have to blame people for abusing credit, any sort of credit and the people that give those people who can't afford it even more credit, and then people not paying up and walking away .... someone pays, guess who? I don't know I'm no Ben Bernanke, but that's my take on things.

So once again, thank you to all, good luck God bless.

State of My Union Address 2011

My fellow Americans .....

Well it has been a while, so first of all happy 2011 to all, I hope the new year brings everyone happiness, and a job (if you're looking). So lets start out with a review of what I learned in 2010 and how we can use that experience to move forward.

In 2010 I started the year working a part time retail position, I wasn't making a lot of money so I quit the position to dedicate myself to finding my next full time career. Well what a long strange trip this year has been. I ended up getting 4 or 5 phone interviews that turned into 3 in person interviews and one of them turned into a 2nd and 3rd interview.

Now I'm going to keep the names out of this to protect the innocent (and my butt probably), and as you can review in my earlier postings, I did not get that position, or any of them for that matter, but it's a pretty tough landscape out there, if I have 5 years of experience, then 4 other candidates have 10 years .... and so on . The one that really got me though was a position I applied for at consisted of two phone interviews and a 2 hour in person interview with 4 people, after all that I NEVER HEARD from them, sorry but that's just not cool, I mean just call or email or send a letter and say, sorry man you lose ... nothing ever, jerks.

So what else did we learn this year, well I keep hearing about Networking, Networking and more Networking! Well this year I networked my arse off, I'm on Linked IN, Linked OUT, Plaxo, Smaxo, Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and so on. Trying just to stay in touch with everyone and keeping everything updated is a full time job. I keep hearing that most jobs these days are achieved through Networking, sorry kids, in my opinion that's a crock. All of the positions that I applied for SAVE 1 this year were me just surfing the job sites and looking at companies that I want to work for, when I tried Networking to help me out at a company where I knew some people, they told me they couldn't help me, I'm guessing they probably could, but I don't know.

Oh, that SAVE 1, where a friend did help me out, I lost out to a woman who's husband worked there, and apparently she had no experience where I had years of experience .... story of my life. I still thank that friend, he's a good man and one guy that has reached out in my time of need, that won't be forgotten.

One of the reasons why I have not written too much lately is because I don't want this to sound like a bitter or negative blog, I'm really not a negative person and so it really does depress me to write these blogs. This was really just supposed to me writing about my trials and tribulations on landing my next career move but I think some other things have creeped in here (project managers call it Scope Creep) wow I haven't used that word in a while, ick!

So in 2010 I did everything from trying to sell cars to cleaning toilets on airplanes overnight, I took 4 piss tests and I passed them all (haa!) and I got fingerprinted, background checked and retinal scanned .... ok I didn't get retinal scanned but I was on a roll.

I can't believe it's almost been 2 years since I was laid off, in some ways it feels like only yesterday and in other ways if it feels like a whole lifetime ago.

So here we are, 2011, I'm right back where I started from last year, working part time at a retailer. Well I guess I can't complain at least I am in fact working. I could be worse off, but all of my financial reserves have been depleted, I give it 6 months and then I either have to sell my house or cash in 401K's - let's hope I don't have to make that decision. I have good friends and good family, so I remain optimistic.

Good night and God Bless!

DEC 1 2010

OKAY, IT'S BEEN A WHILE

Since we last talked, I am no longer working both a day and a night job, when I was 20 years old I could do that and I did, but not in my old age, all I did was work and sleep. It was beating me up, so after 5 weeks or so of doing both, I ended it.

I'm sticking with Costco at the moment, they pay slightly better and hey it's during the day when most humans work so there, plus at the moment I am getting right around 40 hours a week so hopefully I am making enough to make ends meet, but it's close, very close.

I have some stocks left that I can sell, that would get me through a couple more months, but after that we may have to start making some tough decisions, like selling off the 401K, most of you probably say to this "DON'T DO IT!!" but hey when it's that or lose your house, guess which one wins....

Yeah so there's a big penalty so what, again when it's that or be homeless .... well there you go.

On the job front, I have started to branch out possibilities in other cities, and when I have had phone interviews on that I get the whole "you realize this position is in (wherever) and we are not offering any relocation" - and then I say yes I know this and we move on, nothing has come from that as of yet, but if it does and I have to move then so be it, I'd probably keep the house here and try to commute, I'd have to get a good amount of money to make that happen.

I don't have too much else to say at this moment, except I feel like I'm losing touch with everything, like I'm done with this life and it's time to try something else - not that I mean I am going to kill myself - but I'd like to try another life now, this one sucks, I had to charge food this week, that's not good, but it is what it is so there.

I'm not a political man by any means, but the other night I believe comedian Lewis Black said it best "we had a bunch of idiots in office, and now we just voted in a bunch of new idiots, and now nothing is going to get done at all", sad but true. Go Economy Go!!!!

MP

Oct 26 2010

THE TALE OF TWO JOBS

Well folks just a quick update, at this point I am working 2 jobs, one is overnight cleaning airplanes and the new one is at the local Costco, currently working in the 'front end' area which means anything from assisting cashiers to grabbing carts from the parking lots.

The sad thing is, my first job out of college was at Toys R Us, some of the best friends of my life came from that job and I still stay in touch with a bunch of them, but I did pretty much the same things there, I have come full circle, the other day I was bringing carts in and almost started to cry, almost 20 years later I am back where I started.

I am not sure how long both jobs can last, there are some days where I will work over night, work most of the day and then go back to work the next night, so I am not sure when I will sleep, or how much sleep I will get, so there.

I am going to try and tough this out for a month, if I can't make it happen, then I'll get money by selling stuff that I own on Craigslist, we will start with the Wii, The Macbook, and go from there. I have a Roth IRA I guess I can cash out, but I am trying to wait until after the first of the year to take that hit, I know some of you might say don't do that, but when it's that or losing my house, well guess what will win out....

Well that's the update, just trying to work and make money at the moment...

elroy

THE PRE EMPLOYMENT DRUG SCREEN

or....ODE TO A PISS TEST!

OK BIG COMPANIES LISTEN UP, I CAN SAVE YOU MILLIONS!!

Within the past year, I have taken 4 pre employment drug screens, and if you haven't taken one of these lately or never, let me fill you in on the wonderful experience....

First of all, you head to some random office building on some random floor, and for the most part these offices are poorly noticeable and I can only wonder why that is, then the fun begins, when you walk in no one is at the window (if there is a window) and usually there are several people sitting around who look at you like you're from another planet, now seeing I have done this 4 times, I know you SIGN IN and then wait for your name to be called, it's fairly easy and pretty intuitive to figure this kind of thing out, yet 95 percent of people that walk in don't get it, and God forbid anyone sitting around help you out on this fact, it's like they want to laugh at you for the same thing they just went through, apparently it's an unwritten rule, so on my last trip to piss test control, there was a line just to get in the door, basically because I guy was standing at the sign in counter waiting for someone to acknowledge him .... too funny.

It took exactly one hour to sign in and have my named called, of course from here the woman has the lines down pat on what to say, empty the contents of your pockets into this lock box, lock the box, take the key, no you keep the key, take this cup and pee in it, do NOT flush the toilet if you flush the toilet we start over (like I can pee on command that quickly) - it's at this point I should note that someone came out from the back and started pounding a ton of water and staring out the window, I was thinking he might have had stage fright, but now I wonder if the village idiot flushed - you can't blame the guy it's embedded in our brains to flush, heck I almost did it too ... I did say almost ....

OK, so of course I was pounding water all morning so I had no issue filling the cup, to which the woman said I only had to go to the line and ended up dumping most of it out ... hey I was proud of that come on !!! I should have peed everywhere in that damn bathroom, ladies I have no clue how you do it, you have to get it all over your hands, really how do you hold that cup in the right place and aim??? hold that thought.

At this point you get to wash your hands, initial the vials that in fact you just peed in, and get out.

This is when I asked the woman "I bet at night you say these lines in your sleep" which to she replied "GOD YES" and that really broke the ice, she was a machine until then, at that point we started to BS for about 5 minutes until I finally said "well I better get going" - damn I might still be there talking to her if I didn't cut it off .... poor woman. I wonder if these folks even have medical backgrounds ...

So here is where my "idea" on saving companies millions comes into place.

Do you ever wonder how there is probably a couple of people where you work that you swear has to be either stoned while they work or a stoner when they are not, it's not hard to spot, hey Joe what did you do this weekend? "oh man I don't even remember, woo hoo!!!" yeah OK have another joint, but hey we had to take a pee test to work here, well it's pretty much a breeze to pass a piss test these days, just go to "potspace" .com - yes like myspace but for stoners, there are several articles out there on how to pass a piss test amongst other things, so basically that test is worthless.

So there are two types of folks out there, those who will beat the test and those of us who are nice and clean, SO WHY DO COMPANIES SPEND MILLIONS ON THESE TESTS? I mean think about it, these med tox type labs must charge at least $100-200 bucks a pop to initiate these tests, times all of the folks tested, this can add up, HERE"S WHAT COMPANIES SHOULD DO....

Instead of having a pre employment test, what you should do is just talk of a random test at work, and let's say you REALLY screw something up, you know miss a comma and cost your company a few hundred grand, or you take a company car for a swim, whatever it might be, HEY THEN you might be required to go get tested within 24 hours or you're fired, period, make them sign that release before they start ... you put the fear of GOD in them, and you save millions in pre employment crap that is ineffective in what you are trying to do anyway. Is the whole random testing or testing if we think you're stoned policy legal? You're damn right it is, think about a job you've had where you SWEAR some of your co workers are tweaking ... you only wish you could test them. My current job that involves going in to airplanes and cockpits and not driving vehicles into the sides of airplanes ... if they think you are stoned or drunk or whatever, they can call security over and you go right to the pisser .... and yes we have fired folks on the spot for coming to work wacked out, I haven't seen it but I wish I had .....

So there you go big companies, stop the madness, it costs all of us wasted time and money, I can never get that hour back and I can't charge you for it either.

OK kids, stay clean, have a good night! :0)

HOW CLEAN IS YOUR AIRPLANE?

October 4 2010

And now for something completely different.

Ever wonder how clean is the airplane that you are traveling on is? Well, let me tell you what one company does every night to clean their planes.

At Sun Country Airlines, every evening of the week a group of cleaners that ranges from 10-20 people clean, vacuum, disinfect and deodorize every airplane they own. From the front to the back, they clean the following;

Cockpits

Bathrooms

Galleys

Overhead Bins

Seats

Seat Pockets

Floors

They change out the blankets, clean the gum off the floors, change the head rest cloths and pillow blankets, every night.

And every night one or two planes get something called an "extensive" which is just what it sounds like, they break out the heavy duty carpet steamers, or steam cleaners and they get down and dirty. Maybe you are asking yourself why they take such pride in what they do? Well first of all they are actual employees of Sun Country, a lot of these other airlines contract cleaning out, does that make a difference? Well it's pride if you ask me, some of these folks have been through a lot with the airline being in bankruptcy and as of this posting I think they are finally in the clear, everyone I have met at Sun Country has been friendly and courteous.

I think if people knew what they did every night to every plane you would should feel way more comfortable about how clean the plane you're flying in is. They should really advertise this, except I don't think they really do a lot of advertising.

So hats off to Sun Country! By the way you might be asking yourself how I know all of this? Well I know all of this because I clean planes at Sun Country :0)

THE RECESSION IS OVER???? WHO ARE WE KIDDING!!

SEPTEMBER 28TH 2010

Well I've been doing this blog for 6 months now, or at least close enough to 6 months so happy anniversary to me.

Let's review what I have done in 6 months .....

Job Interviews - 5

Jobs - 2 (see Car Salesman Entry)

Currently - working part time with no benefits for $10 an hour overnights, barely making my mortgage, car payment and insurance, selling stuff to help pay for the aforementioned, does anyone need a Wii? Why I didn't land those other jobs? Well I wish I knew, just got the whole, we are moving forward with other candidates with more experience, and that could be entirely true, it's still a buyers market out there, if I have 6 years of experience in something there is probably 3 guys with 10-15 years experience in that same area.

Still looking for that next career move, still hitting the job sites, the social networking avenue and all that good stuff.

So now that we got all that stuff out of the way, let's talk about the recession.

According to National Bureau of Economic Research or Idiots for short, the recession is over and it's been over for about a year, I am not sure what they are smoking but OK let's run with this.

Their factors are GDP, UNEMPLOYMENT and personal income figures and probably the fact that the government hasn't had to bail a company or a whole industry out for a few months now. And they are correct, unemployment has lowered in the last few months albeit at a snails pace, and we are talking tenths of a percent, and GDP has gone up, again slightly. Domestic output is up, rail and trucking is up, and it's all good.

Now let's get into the nuts and bolts here, yes many factors are up, but big companies are just doing more with less workers and bleeding their people for all of they are worth, how many of us know someone who is actually happy with what they are doing? I know of one, maybe two tops out of the hundreds of people I know. Companies have stopped paying bonuses and giving raises and if you don't like it you can leave because they have a hundred people lined up to do your job. Sure some companies are hiring, but they are hiring on a "temp to hire" basis or "part time" even if you work 40 hours that's how they get away without paying you benefits, trust me it's out there.

At one of my job interviews, the HR rep told me they had over a 100 applications for this position, I was honored just to get an interview. That's 100 people either not happy with what they are doing now or unemployed .... so there.

I read in the local paper this weekend that all of these companies are hoarding their cash, Best Buy my lovely past employer apparently has 845 million bucks in the bank, yet they've laid off thousands of people in the past few years, I am not sure what they plan on doing with that money, I can probably find out :0)

An interesting excerpt from Sunday's Star Tribune "Holding on to their money" article ....

• Minnesota's Roughly 100 significant public companies are sitting on $139 Billion in cash.....that's enough to pay more than 772,000 Minnesotans $60,000 a year for 3 years.

Currently the unemployment rate in MN is 7% according to Bureau of Labor, and that equates to about 370,000 people unemployed, makes the above number look even more interesting doesn't it?

PS - the new employment numbers come out tomorrow, so we shall see if the stock market reacts favorable or negatively to those numbers, and if the idiots still think the recession is over.

On the housing front, foreclosures are ugly, homelessness and child homelessness in MN is alarming, folks who have jobs but can't afford their mortgages as at an alarming rate.

The new census data that came out today*

• Of households that earn 75,000 a year or less, 48% of them are what are considered "cost burdened" meaning they can't really afford their house, and paying more than 30% of their wage monthly to live where they are (mortgage, insurance, utilities, rent, etc).

*America Community Service Data

Wow, almost HALF of Minnesotans, yikes! And I'd kill to make 75K right now ... no don't send me hit man contracts ... that's was a figure of speech.

Last quarter there were 6,300 foreclosures in Minnesota, according the Sheriff's offices, that's one quarter and that's just in Minnesota.

Should we even go into education? I think "Waiting for Superman" is taking care of that for me thank you.

I know someone who is a teacher, a single mother, getting barely any child support, who just had to quit her job because she didn't even make enough money to pay for day care, wow, maybe I'm glad I don't have kids.

I hate to post the doom and gloom here, but when I hear idiots who obviously have jobs on TV saying the recession is over, I'd like to personally invite them into my life for a week or two.

OK, enough venting for one day, but can you really say the recession is over, or depression if you ask me.

Recession over? HARDLY.