Tag Archives: job

2010 Self Review

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With the dawn of 2011, many people are making resolutions, as they always do. I believe in looking forward, but not forgetting to check behind occasionally, and having just completed an employment-based self review it seemed fitting to perform one on a more personal level. Am I happy with my life? If not, why not, and either way, how can I make it better – or at least not get worse? What significant things have I achieved in the last 365 days? What do I hope to succeed in doing in the next 52 weeks? Anything? Nothing? I tried (albeit briefly) to find a form to follow, but couldn’t find anything suitable, so I’m making it up. Seems to be something I’m not bad at..

Goals I had for 2010:

  • Find a permanent, full time job.
    • Between February and June I had a full-time temporary position working as a Testing Analyst for Rosetta Stone, in their test lab. Working many hours of overtime had it’s ups and downs, and in August I was offered a permanent, part-time position doing the same thing on the night shift working core hours of 5pm to midnight.
  • Pay off debts.
    • While this was only partially achieved, we are well on track to paying off several debts to zero. The initial goal was to utilize overtime money while working as a temporary employee to pay off debt, however there were several other events that required our attention. The car needed some work done on it, in addition to Crash needing veterinary visits. We were able to pay large amounts on one of Kelly’s student loans, which has brought our monthly outgoing amount down somewhat.
  • Purchase a second vehicle.
    • This was achieved late in the game. In September a second car was procured, which meets it’s requirements and it’s desirements. A ’97 Outback, it is a year older than the car we had, it’s a stick shift (so I’m happy!) and it seems to run well. It does have some work needing to be done, which will hopefully not be major.

Goals for 2011:

  • Find a way to full time, dayshift employment, ideally within Rosetta Stone, and ideally within the IT department.
  • Pay off more loans and other debt.
  • Move out of Kelly’s parents house.
  • Spend more time with friends in various formats. EG continuing/restarting “Thursday Night Office/30 Rock/etc,” game nights (board game and video game), day or (maybe?) weekend trips to nearby places, etc.
  • Find a church that Kelly and I can both agree with and attend regularly. Become involved where possible.

Comments:

This year has been a good year. A vast improvement over 2009 in terms of finance especially, we have been able to take a much-needed trip over 300 miles away (which we have just returned from) and have no fear regarding the ongoing payment of bills. Additionally, we have a basic plan laid out for paying off several loans in the next 3 to 4 months, to be reviewed and updated on a regular basis.

I am also realizing the impact that working in the evenings, combined with living in Broadway, is having on my social life and thus my overall happiness. I had forgotten how much of a social creature I am, and while introversion may be a part of my personality I am finding it difficult surviving without people. An important feature in any house we look at, for me at least, is that it be in or very close to Harrisonburg. The actual rent may be higher (although I doubt it would be by a whole lot), but being closer (or more central) to an increased number of friends would make up for it. That is certainly not to say that friends in Broadway/Timberville are less important, simply that there are less of you and it has to be factored in.

This coming year holds several challenges that are not listed as goals. To name just a few, there is another USCIS related cost coming up, as my green card expires in July and will require some more forms completed and some more money paid 90 days before that happens. Secondly we have a wedding to attend (one of Kelly’s old school friends, Sarah) is getting married in May, around the same time as our anniversary. This will involve a drive to Mississippi, with a side-trip to New Orleans (since we’ll be so close!).

A high priority on my list is a trip to visit New Zealand. This year will mark 3 years since I left, and a third year of wishing I could visit and see the many friends and family members I left behind to miss me. While the inability to return is entirely related to our financial situation and said financial situation is finally improving, I have minimal hope that the situation will be sufficiently rectified any time soon, unless both Kelly and I have significant pay increases. Chances are also good that to receive the pay increases needed will require us both to find new positions – mine may or may not be within RS, Kelly’s most certainly won’t be with the day care.

I have high hopes for 2011. Expectations are lagging slightly behind, but also high. I believe my goals are reasonable and achievable, while still being challenging. I wish everyone else the best with their goals for the coming year, and a happy new year to all.

Hapless, Helpless, Hopeless

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WARNING: This blog entry is long and has a high “Boredom Potential.” You begin reading at your own risk.

hap·less

/ˈhæp lɪs/ [hap-lis] –adjective
unlucky; luckless; unfortunate.
Origin:
1560–70; hap1 + -less
—Related forms
hap·less·ly, adverb
hap·less·ness, noun

—Can be confused:  hapless, haply, happily.
—Synonyms
miserable, woebegone, wretched, forlorn; pathetic, pitiable.

help·less

/ˈhɛlp lɪs/ [help-lis] –adjective
1. unable to help oneself; weak or dependent: a helpless invalid.
2. deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated: They were helpless with laughter.
3. affording no help.

Origin:
1125–75; ME; see help, -less
—Related forms
help·less·ly, adverb
help·less·ness, noun

hope·less

/ˈhoʊp lɪs/ [hohp-lis] –adjective
1. providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope; desperate: a hopeless case of cancer.
2. without hope; despairing: hopeless grief.
3. impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve, etc.: Balancing my budget is hopeless.
4. not able to learn or act, perform, or work as desired; inadequate for the purpose: As a bridge player, you’re hopeless.

Origin:
1560–70; hope + -less

—Related forms
hope·less·ly, adverb
hope·less·ness, noun
—Synonyms
1. irremediable, remediless, incurable. 2. forlorn, disconsolate, dejected. Hopeless, despairing, despondent, desperate all describe an absence of hope. Hopeless is used of a feeling of futility and passive abandonment of oneself to fate: Hopeless and grim, he still clung to the cliff. Despairing refers to the loss of hope in regard to a particular situation, whether important or trivial; it suggests an intellectual judgment concerning probabilities: despairing of victory; despairing of finding his gloves. Despondent always suggests melancholy and depression; it refers to an emotional state rather than to an intellectual judgment: Despondent over ill health, he killed himself. She became despondent and suspicious. Desperate conveys a suggestion of recklessness resulting from loss of hope: As the time grew shorter, he became desperate. It may also refer to something arising from extreme need or danger: a desperate remedy; a desperate situation. Despairing and despondent may apply only to feelings.

Three distinct feelings that can be felt despite the conditions being the opposite. Sometimes they are sitting in the background, waving politely to remind you they are there, other times they are in your face yelling and screaming and occasionally kicking you in the shin. At this point, despite my emotional feelings of haplessness, helplessness and hopelessness, let me explain how I am well aware that this is not the case.

The start of this problem goes back a long time, to the beginning, even. It is no one persons fault, and blame cannot easily be placed on any individuals or groups, with few exceptions, and for the most part I suspect they may be ourselves. It probably starts with leaving New Zealand for the US, with high hopes and expectations a little beyond reality, and throughout it is plagued by circumstances far beyond our control. The economic problems play a large part, but it is also compounded by the area we live in and what industry is available, as well as the long and boring game of waiting for someone to do something – like USCIS.

When I left NZ I had a well-paying job, and had high hopes of that experience being useful in my hunt for work, here in the US. More than once after arriving I wondered why I left it. That said, with the economic issues being a global problem there is little guarantee I would have still been employed by the same company, although as with so many decisions in life I have no way of knowing what the outcome of staying (with Kelly moving to NZ) might have been.

Part of our problem was the way we dealt with USCIS. We weren’t 100% on the ball – if we’d gotten it right the first time, I would have had a work permit a lot earlier. If we’d gotten it right the second time, work permits would have been arriving not as early, but not as late. By the time I had an employment authorization card it was February of 2009, and very few places were hiring. We had also had to move out of our apartment (end of Nov, beginning of Dec 08) at this point, because Kelly’s college loans had come due for payments, and we couldn’t afford to pay loans as well as rent. See the next paragraph, but even having had a work permit in October or November (2008) probably wouldn’t have helped unless I had taken a job doing retail or something (I did always say I would work at Walmart if I had to). Kelly quit her job as a barista early in 2009, as the work environment was horrible and causing all kinds of emotional problems, and had begun to cause physical problems as a result. Kelly’s mom had offered to help us with the loans in return for cleaning the house.

Anyway, back to my employment (or lack thereof). It took until May of ’09 to get my first interview, and they turned me down. My first job in the USA was working as a camp counselor at a summer camp. Great job, great times, didn’t pay very well. Kelly had been cleaning her parents house (where we had been living), but was offered a summer job as a babysitter for two awesome kids. All this time we were trying to keep a lid on our debt – not necessarily bringing it down, but paying the minimums so that it wouldn’t hurt us too badly. Summer of 2009 was lived very much on a week by week basis.

The end of summer came, and Kelly had found a more permanent job working for the Harrisonburg Rockingham Child Day Care Center, where she still is! I worked for a couple of months for the Boys and Girls Club in Timberville, but they had issues with me, I had issues with them, and we decided the best course of action was for me to resign. Winter of 2009/2010 was bleak, to say the least. Kelly’s job paid the bills, but it was right around December that benefits began, and the impact on the paycheck was greater than we anticipated. Many nights were spent wondering if it would ever get better. Several weeks were spent with one or two dollars in the bank at the end.

The turnaround came in February, and financially it couldn’t have been a better time. Rosetta Stone offered me a temporary position (with a small hope of continuing permanently) in the test lab, as a Software Testing Analyst. From the middle of February 2010 to early June, I worked 40-50+ hours a week to make as much money as I possibly could, and thus began the debt-blitz of early 2010. We had a number of things that had piled up that we needed to get dealt with – Crash had been with us nearly a year and he needed some things attended to, I think the car needed something done, and beyond that the goal was to pay off as much debt as we could. This was primarily successful – we brought our monthly budget down a little, and survived to tell the tale. But sure enough, June came (having had the contract extended twice), and Rosetta Stone said “We don’t need you, but we might soon.” Insert large amounts of hopelessness, and begin looking for work again.

I went back to camp for a couple of weeks over summer, and at the end of August I had a call from Rosetta Stone asking for an interview. If there is one thing I can say for RS it is that their communication skills have some things to be desired, but long story short on August 31, 2010 I started as a permanent, part time employee on the test lab’s second shift (5pm-12am, Monday to Friday, limited to 35 hours a week).

And so here we are – it is the middle of December 2010. We have lived with Kelly’s parents for two years (and about two weeks), and the hope of regaining our independence is slowly, slowly rising again. It isn’t that we haven’t enjoyed living with the rest of the family, I know I have. It isn’t that we don’t appreciate the support provided, I know I do. For the most part we all get along, and we seem happy and comfortable. But we don’t want to abuse the privilege. Already we’ve stayed a lot longer than we had initially hoped or expected – and the way we are set up to a large degree reflects that. Our various boxes of ‘stuff’ were haphazardly packed with little regard for what was going where, and this has resulted in several hours of looking for things that were possibly in a box with something else that we have no idea on the location of.

At this stage, the goal I think is for around May next year, if not before. Realistically, we have several thousand dollars allocated (between now and then) to pay off some of the loans that are really hurting our monthly bank balances and preventing us from moving, and then we can find somewhere to move to. Additionally, May seems like an ideal month to move – aside from a trip to the deep south for a wedding it will be warm, and friends will be more available to help.

We certainly aren’t ‘unlucky’ or entirely ‘unfortunate.’ We are finally at a point where we fail to meet the criteria for ‘unable to help oneself’ or ‘powerless.’ And while it will take time, the task ahead is certainly not ‘impossible to accomplish’

The hard part now is waiting. Every day that goes by I wish I could have done something to help us dig ourselves out faster, but I think I’ve done everything I can. From planning when we pay bills to constantly calculating our budget over a month, over a fortnight and for other special events (like Christmas). Our financial life is about as organized as it could possibly be, and the struggle is remembering why we shouldn’t be mindlessly spending money (a temptation that I constantly fight, and sometimes lose). Keeping our mind on the prize, we must keep our eye on the road, for it is rocky and there are monsters.

Oh, Insomnia. Where Did You Come From?

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And why won’t you go away and let me sleep?

Well, at least it has been a while since I had trouble sleeping. I just hope it isn’t related to the new firmness of the bed.

Good news and potentially bad news! The good news is, I replaced the severely damaged boxspring that was under our bed and built a new one. The still good news is that it cost around $80 and took 3 days (not working 8 or 9 hours a day either, probably could have finished it in 2 had I worked my butt off). The bad news is that now our mattress has a much more solid support and in turn has become more solid. I’m not sure if that is related to my inability to sleep or if I’m just not nearly tired enough, but it’s entirely plausible.

The design of the new frame thing is simple: I bought 6 pieces of 2″x6″(x8′) and 12 pieces of 1″x4″(x8′) and cut to suit. It’s a queen-sized bed, so the dimensions were supposed to be 60″(W)x80″(L). Turns out the mattress is something like 78″ long, but I’m not going to complain endlessly about it.

With some help from Randy and the use of his circular saw, electric drill and sander, I constructed a basic design. It has a 2×6 frame with two paired 2×6’s down the middle for extra support. There are then 12 slats screwed down on top. To compare this to the old boxspring design, it looked like there were 10 1×2 pieces for slats, something smaller than a 2×6 but bigger than a 1×4 (no, it wasn’t a 2×4 or a 1×6) down the middle, and a not-very-rigid frame around the edges. I’d patched several of the slats on one occasion, and two of these had broken again.

Anyway, here are photos:

This was the break at the foot of the bed. I’d repaired it before, but it’s one of the common landing points when Crash jumps up.

This one is looking from the foot towards the head. You can see a couple of the patches I’d made, as well as the big break in the piece down the middle. Again, all the pieces broken resemble the points where Crash typically lands on the bed.

I kept thinking through the process that I should be taking step-by-step photos, but a) they aren’t really necessary for such a simple thing, and b) by the time I actually got around to doing anything about it it was too late to bother, so I waited until it was done (and then nearly forgot).

This is the frame as it was, completed, sitting in the garage waiting to be brought inside and placed on the metal frame that holds it above the floor (came with the bed, I’m not responsible for that part). You can see the 2×6 around the edges and the double 2×6 down the middle.

Carefully note that at this point the ends of both the mattress and the base are pushed against the wall of our room. This is the difference between the 80″ long base and the “80″“ long mattress (ha ha..).

I’d take a wider angle view of the complete bed, but the rest of the room is….camera shy, at this point in time ;-).

In other news, I have some more train photos going up on my Flickr account, and I’ll try to get some new scenery photos up too. I’m hoping to write some kind of ‘newsletter’ or just slightly generalized (with a touch of personal) letters home to New Zealand to family and friends. I’d really like to go home to visit some time, but that (as always) depends on money and our ability to save enough of it. It’s hard to prioritize so often, when there are things we desperately need that cost money, along with things we really want, in conjunction with little things that are really nice (but mount up quickly..). IT WILL HAPPEN. I SHALL HAVE MY SUMMER CHRISTMAS ONCE MORE!

Life is Good, with Few Minor Interruptions to Goodness

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As life goes, I have little, some might argue nothing, to complain about. As Christmas rolls around, Kelly and I have marked off most of our Christmas gift recipients, and the gifts themselves are arriving ready to be wrapped and placed under the tree which was chosen on Sunday and will probably come inside this weekend to be decorated.

Our money management skills aren’t doing too badly – almost all of our bill payments are scheduled and there should be little problem with our trip to Charlotte at the end of the month. So really, there is little for me to complain about that doesn’t just sound like whiny drivel.

Somehow, the bed broke again. It’s hard to justify any suggestions of abuse through the commonly considered manner, because Kelly works from 9:30 to 6, and goes to bed around 12, I start work at 5 and usually finish around 12 or 12:30, and Kelly is usually asleep when I get home around 1-ish. A while back several of the slats (is that the right word?) in the box-spring snapped. I repaired them with a glue-and-screw type brace using some spare 1x3s I had laying around from the model train layout. For a while it worked fine. A couple of weeks ago one of them broke again. Then another one. Last night I came home and sat on the bed and thought “This doesn’t feel right.” I couldn’t pin it. I looked around the outside of the bed, and there was no reason I could see for it to have been leaning the way it was. I took a look under it this morning and realized, in broken horror, why that would be the case. Down the middle, presumably a primary source of support, is what looks like either a 2×6 or a 2×8. And it’s broken in a couple of places (looks kinda like a Z) in the middle, causing the bed to lean somewhat inwards.

And I get paid tomorrow. I think today will involve a planning session, tomorrow will involve buying materials and the weekend will be putting it together. Here’s hoping the broken one lasts that long.

(It’s most likely Crash that is responsible, he enjoys jumping on the bed, and 100lbs of sudden force will do that to a structure after a while..)

Schedules

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I’ve learned a few things over the last week or more (mostly more). I find organization to be easy in some areas, and difficult in others. My ability to stay on task can sometimes be hampered by my willingness to do things I probably shouldn’t be doing. For example, I’ve recently spent a lot of time (and gas) driving around the area looking for trains to either watch or take photos of. Not something that hurts anyone, but it’s not something I should be doing every day – it’s unproductive and it costs money that is better spent on other things. I’ve also been spending a lot of money on fast food, because a lack of planning means I don’t have time or motivation to stop at a grocery store and get something better for me, and definitely better for my budget.

So this week I’m trying something new. I’ve alotted time for the things I like doing, like trainspotting, and a little eating out, but also making sure that I’m spending my time at home productively, not needlessly wandering around the countryside because it’s what I felt like doing.

So here is roughly how my schedule works:

Monday is very much a domestic day. It’s the day I’ll be doing all my laundry, and after lunch I’ll be making a run to the store to get lunch and dinner supplies for the week (4.5 days)

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are comprised similarly – I spend three hours in the morning working on “something” (this week it’s supposed to be the bookshelf that I stopped working on a few weeks ago for no real reason). Then I make lunch, Tuesday’s and Thursday’s I’ll walk Crash (Wednesday’s will be a cleanup day for either the green room or the bedroom), then I make/organize dinner and go to work.

Friday, assuming I’ve achieved all I set out to achieve during the week, is the day I get to go wandering. I doubt that I’ll go very far every week, but based on the assumption that I’m not going to Staunton or Elkton every day of the week, I can justify making a trip to Charlottesville or Roanoke on a Friday. I also have a few other places I’d like to try out, but it may be that I just take the day to work on things too.

Speaking of schedules, my work schedule is slightly different the next two weeks – to take the day off on Thursday (Thanksgiving) and still be able to make 70 hours for the fortnight, I’m electing to work 8 hours a day over 9 days, rather than 7 hours each over 10 days. Doing that will also mean I get to leave early next Friday, as usually ends up happening.

I’m still working out how I might get close to the 70 hours after Christmas/New Year in order to make up the entire week off for going to North Carolina, but that’s not quite so important.

I just got a message from my Google Calendar that it’s time to leave for work, but I just wanted to add in completely unrelated news, my wishlist has been revised for the 2010 Christmas year (I’ve already had a few questions about whether I was updating it for this year).

Coworkers Discovered Via Mutual Friends

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So I was walking my dog yesterday afternoon, when I ran into a family friend. She asked how the job was going, and she asked if I knew a particular person (as I get from time to time – almost everyone in the county either works for Rosetta Stone or knows someone who does. At best it seems there is something like 3 degrees of separation for any person living in Rockingham County or Harrisonburg and employees of Rosetta Stone). It was a rare case where I remembered enough of the name to look them up on the internal directory, and ran across their blog.

I took a brief look at some of the posts and I’m already intrigued. I may spend some of my spare time (I get a lot of that at work, with reimaging and other things I have to wait for) going back through the archives. If you like computer stuff, take a look, but on the surface at least there seems to be something for just about everyone..

http://blog.aharbick.com/2010/11/build_assuming_a_paying_custom.html

Diary of a Model Railroad, part… 6?

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I think I’m up to part 6, at least. Anyway, there was a long period of no-development on the layout mostly due to finance. I now have a job (cheers, applause, etc, etc) which means in addition to being able to pay all our bills, we have enough spare money that I can devote a little more to the trains.

A while back I picked up a cheap terminal block on eBay, and will likely need another one soon for the other half. Also, I bought a sampler-sized pot of brown paint yesterday and I utilized both the terminal block and the paint this morning.

So today there were three things achieved, albeit small. Firstly I replaced a section of track that had been bothering me for a while, ever since I laid it and it didn’t really work out. So today it was removed and replaced with a better job. I’m yet to test it, but it looked fine to the eyes.

The second job was rewiring the underside of one module using the terminal block. It now looks a lot tidier, and I just need to run the master feeds back to the end and work out how I’m going to connect the two modules electrically.

The third and final task completed today was painting around the track with the brown paint. The idea behind this is that when I put down grass or whatever other scenery, if it becomes chipped or I miss a spot, it looks more like dirt than just a piece of real-sized hardboard. It probably needs a second coat, but that will have to wait.

That leaves my to-do list rather short: I need to figure out the electrical connections (20/24 pin ATX connectors?), I need to figure out how I’m going to cover or otherwise hide the turnout motors (long ones, sitting along the straight-leg of each one) and I need to actually wire the turnouts, even if they don’t go anywhere. I’m also planning on ballasting track soon, so my t0-buy list is slowly growing again: another pack of lighter colored ballast, another terminal block, some DPDT switches and some momentary switches for the atlas turnout motors.

Why Are We So Quick?

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Matthew 7

Judging Others

1“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.3“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Why are we so quick to tell people how to fix their problems without being fully aware of, or even considering, their circumstances?

A number of times recently I’ve noticed either myself or others commenting about lack of money, and someone else will be very quick to respond (because it is online) along the lines of “Well, you have an internet connection, surely that is one way you could save money!”

Three situations spring to mind where while money may be tight, cutting the internet would not be of any benefit. The first is of a work-at-home person who uses their home phone and internet connection for work. This is a great idea in my opinion, it saves gas, and if you can motivate yourself to get up in the morning (or whenever you need to work) to do your job at home with no-one watching over your shoulder or cubicle wall ensuring you’re on task, go for it.

The other is my current situation. The internet bill is not addressed to me, nor do I pay it. I use the internet connection in this house with permission (IE: I’m not stealing the neighbors), but this house is also not mine.

The third also applies to me, but more directly to others. A large number of employers are only accessible online. That is, you need an internet connection and an email address to communicate with them in order to have much of a chance at getting a job to fix your impending financial woes.

So, dear people of earth, just because someone has a problem, doesn’t mean you should fix it without asking them some further questions. Maybe your hastily and rudely given practical solution isn’t so practical after all.

Dear Mr. President

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Dear President Obama,

I am writing to you in this public form to appeal not only to yourself, but to others in power who may stumble across this.

Allow me to introduce myself quickly. I am 23 years of age and I live in a small town in Virginia with my wife of 20 months, our 1 year old Golden Retriever “Crash,” our 7 month old kitten “Olive,” and my wife’s family – her Mom, Dad, Brother, and their 3 cats.

Since moving to the United States in April 2008 I have held 2 jobs, one as a Camp Counselor at a Christian Camp and one as a Program Leader for a local Boys and Girls Club Unit. I have also done casual work for another camp in the area, hardly enough to call a job in most senses of the term and I am presently unemployed. My wife works at a Day Care Center as a teacher for 3 year old children, and enjoys it a lot.

However, we are stuck in a position where a lack of job openings in the local area as well as high fuel costs are preventing me from finding or accepting job offers. Just a week ago I had to turn down a well-paying offer to work in Northern Virginia because we couldn’t afford the gas to allow me to work the first day, let alone until the first pay check. I also stopped by the local Food Lion (supermarket) last night to inquire as to whether there were any open positions and how I could apply, only to be told that they are cutting their employees hours – they simply aren’t making it themselves.

I feel that “free” health-care, paid for by the taxpayer, is an important issue – especially having moved from a public health care system in New Zealand. I know that if our health insurance bill was lowered or indeed gone then my wife and I would be a lot closer to making our personal financial ends meet. I am also very much aware that the mainstream media have done a very good job of scaring us all with what might unfold if that were allowed to happen here. I feel that stimulating the economy is important too, especially because it seems a lot of people have little money to spend. I know if American products could better compete in price-wars against imported products then I would be more inclined to purchase the “home-grown” version. I am also very much aware that what most people are spending their money on are imported goods from overseas – simply because they are so much more affordable to them.

I wouldn’t mind if my job was providing technical support to a foreign organization that purchased a product from a US source, while I went to a store during my break and bought meat imported from outside the country for a meal, but from what I can tell there are very few things of worth being exported from the United States compared to the vast amount of things being imported. What the people need is employment to provide them with an income and the US economy with a profitable product, and what the economy needs is an increase in exports and a decrease in imports in order to create a balance.

Perhaps this means increasing taxes on imported goods intended for sale, or imposing limits on how much an individual or an organization can import every year. Perhaps this means increasing and reducing taxes on individuals and organizations who refuse to produce in the United States or who take the initiative to create jobs and products in America for Americans (and others). Whatever the solution, it needs to come quickly.

I am not an American, I am certainly not someone to tell you how to do your job or what this country needs. In all honesty, I don’t know. Maybe a start would be some form of inspiration to lower gas prices. To increase the desire of Americans to buy American. To foster the ideas of individuals or organizations who have something of exportable value and help them to bring dream to reality.

Kind Regards,

A Concerned Legal Alien.

The Chicken and The Egg

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To quote Chicken Run:

Nick: Here’s a thought. Why don’t we get an egg and start our own chicken farm? That way we’d have all the eggs we could eat.
Fetcher: Right. We’ll need a chicken, then.
Nick: No… no, we’ll need an egg. You have the egg first, that’s where you get the chicken from.
Fetcher: No, that’s cobblers. If you don’t have a chicken, where are you going to get the egg?
Nick: From the chicken that comes from the egg.
Fetcher: Yeah, but you have to have an egg to have a chicken.
Nick: Yeah, but you’ve got to get the chicken first to get the egg, and then you get the egg… to get the chicken out of…
Fetcher: Hang on, let’s go over this again.

Once again, I have a predicament. I came to a small realization today, and that is I have no formal qualifications or certifications in IT, and while I am getting interviews with my current skill-set and experience, I still come out underneath in terms of finding a position to utilize them in.

So I was looking around at A+ and wondering what it would take to become certified. I found a couple of “free” online tests that would allow me to see if I could (in theory) pass the exams. Turns out that with a little training it wouldn’t be all that hard. The reason I say “free” is because it asked me for contact information, and I knew as soon as I clicked “submit” that I’d get a marketing call asking if I’m interested. Turns out I am! But once again we have a chicken-egg scenario.

The organization in question have a (limited time) offer whereby if I am unemployed they can take off 40% of the cost of the program, taking it from $1000 down to $601 (so.. 39.9%?). They also offer the possibility of an interest-free and non-credit-checked payment plan, and have testimonials of specific people who got jobs within a few days of signing up to take the class (simply based on the prospect that they would have the certification within X days).

Once again my problem is having a job with which to fund such a proposition, and requiring the certification that it would provide in order to land said job.

Clearly I need to sit down and reanalyze our options, and maybe drive up to food lion or something for an application there. I just feel bad (and worried in terms of resume) about holding short-term jobs while trying to get “the big one.” At the same time, I can’t just sit around doing nothing while waiting for it either.