Current Balance: $1,041.77

Posted on October 6, 2009 by kellyzdude

Money isn’t really my friend. I have a bad habit of getting money and immediately spending money. I guess it’s a reflex left over from the idea of “Well, there’s money, let’s spend it before someone else does, or we find something else that it has to go towards.”

In fact, that $1000 isn’t hanging around very long anyway, there are a couple of credit card bills to be paid, and we’re going shopping tonight, so who knows how much we’ll have in the morning. But we’ve also filled up both vehicles with gas, and set aside our outgoing payments, we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and our standing balance should slowly rise!

I’m still looking for a job, so if anyone in Virginia (or DC) is looking for a Level 1 Helpdesk Analyst or DC Ops Tech (will work any shift if required), hit me up and I’ll send a resume. I don’t mind driving to work, I was quite happy to drive 2 hours each way to Rackspace, and I’ll be happy to do the same for you.

Buying a New Car

Posted on August 18, 2009 by kellyzdude

Just when I was getting to thinking that buying a new car would be easy, I was hit with a sharp burst of reality.

I went around 4 used car dealers on Monday, and got good prices on several vehicles that would meet our needs. Today, I went to the bank and got information on our loan options. Next, I need to talk to Kelly and confirm the vehicle selection and have her speak to the bank officer handling our loan with regards to income confirmation. This is where it goes pear-shaped, because the next steps are all specific in what needs to be done when. I need to see the dealer and actually make the purchase, I need the bank to write a money order for the loan, I need to see the DMV with regards to title and registration, and I need to see the insurance company about taking out a policy for the vehicle.

The good news is that we will easily be able to afford the vehicle we want/need. The bad news is that we may need to stretch a little for the up front costs, as well as questions looming over the new tires that the vehicle needs. We also need to deal with proof of income as today was Kelly’s first day of full-time work at her new job.

Hopefully this all works out and we’ll have a new car this week..

Disappointment

Posted on May 13, 2009 by kellyzdude

This is partly to test WordPress’s new Blog-by-email. We’ll see how it works.

Yesterday I received a phone call from Rackspace, with a variation of that dreaded message. “We’ve decided to move forward with other candidates.”

I felt kinda like some of the people on Millionaire must feel when they’ve been going for the million dollars, and got the answer wrong and going home with $25,000.

Let me explain. What I had were two options, I could work at Rackspace for ~$45k/yr doing something I would really enjoy or I could work at a camp doing something I would also enjoy for the summer making ~$150/wk. I had 2 really great interviews at Rackspace, even they said the second one went really well, but apparently not good enough.

I’m trying to keep positive, I’m still applying for 2-3 jobs including one at JMU, and working at camp will still pay all our bills (and let us catch up on the ones we’re having to skip this month) along with Kelly’s summer job. I’ll just have to start applying again as summer comes to a close.

I’m particularly looking for IT work within VA, and I don’t mind commuting up to 2 hours each way in order to take a job worth anywhere from $30k up (So from the DC Metro area down to Blacksburgish, and out to Richmond. I’m in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County area right now). I intend to relocate if the job is at the outer reaches of that range along with my wife and puppy. I have reliable transport, and while I have no formal computing qualifications I have professional and personal experience with PHP/MySQL, computer hardware testing, computer software installation and general computer troubleshooting and problem solving. I’ve worked on a service desk (Level 1 and 2) for a 5000 user organization supporting Novell Netware and Active Directory (on the same network) as well as Alcatel based PBX systems. I’ve also been administrating Linux servers for several years. I’m happy to take an entry-level position (Helpdesk, Desktop support, etc), though I’d like a company with good promotion paths that will allow me to progress beyond, as I’d like to move into server administration, and possibly network administration also.

So while I continue to look for work, if you or someone/an organization you know is looking for an IT worker, let me know about them, or let them know about me!

Hopeful

Posted on May 8, 2009 by kellyzdude

Yesterday afternoon I had a phone interview with 3 members of Rackspace staff based in Herndon, VA. It went very well, I was pleased with how I answered the questions and they seemed to like me as well. I was invited to an onsite interview, and it has been scheduled for Monday morning at 10am.

Basically the job involves building servers from specified parts, testing and installing operating systems using automated processes, and some diagnostic work on running systems.

We’re planning on going to the DMV tomorrow so I can sit for a full drivers license, and I need to read up and make sure I know what to expect. We’ve been working on a small list of things that we can pay for or start saving for already, including paying off the smaller loans and the well over-limit credit card, as well as cell phones and looking for a second vehicle. As summer begins to come to a close we’ll begin looking at houses, and it would be really nice to look into some additional furniture in the not-too-distant future.

We’ll also be able to save a huge amount (expecting in the vicinity of $5-10,000) to start a savings account to use for moving costs and such. So I’m fairly hopeful that I will get the position, though I haven’t made any purchases or done anything silly as yet..

In other slightly worse news, I had to tell a client this morning that her computer was irreparable. I feel particularly bad for her because it is her primary source of income (she uses it to scan and print her artwork for selling in multiples) and has small income also. I agreed to waive all my fees (I’d quoted $30) and that if she could afford $45 for a new computer I’d install all the software as well as restoring the backup I’d taken of her PC. I found a P4 1.8 for $50 on eBay and have bought it, it’s much faster than her P3 800, and has an XP Pro license (vs. the Millennium license she had, with XP Home installed). Hopefully I can have it to her by the end of next week. I’ll also get to scalp her old PC for useful parts (not much. Hard disk goes to the new PC, as will at least the CD-RW. I’ll get memory, video card, 10/100 ethernet and a sound card, and a PSU..?)

Here’s hoping things get better for her in that respect, and that everything else works out for me!

NZ Roads are Better than VA’s

Posted on January 7, 2009 by kellyzdude

New Zealand roads. They’re often considered not great by New Zealands inhabitants. The tar and gravelled roads are poor on tires, the purely tar-sealed roads are slippery in wet. Most peple can think of something bad to say about them until they drive overseas.

Having lived in New Zealand since birth, and driving regularly since I was 19 or 20, including two trips from Wellington to Hamilton and back, I consider myself fairly experienced. I’ve lived in Virginia in the USA since April, and if there is one thing that scares me more than anything, it is driving at night in the rain.

See, in New Zealand we have cheap little things all over the place called reflectors. Red ones either side, and white or yellow ones in the middle (signifying whether you can or can’t pass, respectively). Here? There are just lines painted on the road. That is perfect on fine days. It’s even pretty good at night. Sometimes during the day when it’s raining. Couple together darkness and road surfaces, and the paint is almost invisible. There are NO reflective markings whatsoever, unless you happen to be driving on a major road like the interstate. We regularly drive on a Virginia highway (VA-42) but there are no reflective markings on this road. I’m also not aware of any reflective markers in Harrisonburg, either on US-33 or US-11. I really don’t know how people here manage to not have serious accidents more often.

The other reason I say NZ’s roads are better, and this one may not be so fair as the reflective markers, but the Interstate roads in parts of Richmond, and in parts of Washington DC the road surface changes from tar-seal to concrete. I understand concrete may be cheaper and quicker to set on such busy roads etc, but is it REALLY that hard to CLOSE A LANE to reseal it properly? I would hazard a guess that they don’t need to be resealed any more than once a year, I’d suggest they take a summer night to reseal a lane at a time in 100 yard stretches. Close a SINGLE LANE between say, MIDNIGHT and 6AM. You could probably even have it closed another hour or two if it was facing away from rush hour.

So, New Zealanders, be very happy with your roading system, and be patient when Tranzit or the local council decides to close a lane of road during the off-peak so that you can have a more pleasant driving experience. Cliche as it is, there are people in other countries who have it worse off than you, and I don’t mean in the 3rd world.

Danger! Danger! Lights and Sirens!

Posted on October 12, 2008 by kellyzdude

EDIT: This was found this morning: http://www.rocktownweekly.com/news_details.php?AID=32235&CHID=1 – We’d suspected he’d gone to 259 to try and go for the West Virginia border, but he didn’t make it that far.

So tonight, after watching American Carol (funny movie with an interesting message, btw..), and visiting CiCi’s pizza (and not eating much), and socialising with my in-laws, Kel and I dropped by the apartment to grab some things before coming up to Broadway for the night.

That was all well and good, got the laptop and some clothes, etc. Anyway, we were leaving our street, and turning right onto Mount Clinton Pike, and a black SUV with blue lights flashing comes past towards VA-42 at speed. We’re just thinking “Wow…thats weird…”, and turn to follow a little, and hear lots of sirens coming at us from the opposite direction. There was a white Bronco came up Mt Clinton with a large amount of smoke coming out.. followed by approximately 8 police cars of various descriptions. We were nearly hit by the first SUV as it U-turned on Mt Clinton to join the chase.

We carried on toward 42, where a further 4 police vehicles were encountered – a black SUV which took the right-turn at speed (crossed the center line in front of us), a cop with lights off sitting in a parking lot, a state cop and a city cop with crossed the tracks and turned onto 42-North (later U-turned to go south and up Mt Clinton Pike as well).

We continued driving, expected it had moved away from us. Anyhow, arriving in Broadway, about 15 mins later, 2 cop cars were sitting at the South entrance to Broadway on VA-42 conversing, and about 4-5 minutes after passing them (and parking up, discussing what had happened with Kelly’s parents and brother who were a couple of minutes ahead of us) we heard the chase come back through Broadway heading North – this time vehicles sounding in much worse condition.

I’ll be watching Google News a lot, as well as keeping an eye on the news sites (CNN as well as more local places), but if anyone has any idea what was going on, it would be interesting to know! There is speculation it was drug related, and there are reports within the last 24 hours of drug busts made this week, but whether this is related or another matter entirely remains to be seen.

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