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!