snook, the crane is amazing tool. the job would be impossible without it actually. I just posted some images on blog from yesterday and indeed things are going fast and am quite enjoying seeing it go up. it is actually much more interesting because the site is insanely small and at the end of a long narrow private road. The crane driver has super powers to get his machine to the site, i swear it.
sarah, i have no idea. we just shut out the lights and they sit in the dark and eventually go to sleep. i guess a glass of warm milk might help.
hi all. I'm super busy with work and some personal stuff. I'm in here, reading but it seems hard to catch a break long enough to type out the stuff. Glad to see everyone is okay even if things are a little challenging, right Liberty Bell.
All this and preparing for my birthday this weekend. Donna what are you doing for yours? Shall we meet up mid way between Indy & Ja and share a bottle of wine (or three)
Seriously, techno, let's Skype a glass of wine together! I could do late Saturday afternoon.
Sarah, I was tearing my hair out trying to get Angus to GO TO SLEEP until he was at least 5. But I could never leave the room - it made me too crazy to hear him cry. So I stayed with him and fell asleep too - we never had to deal with him getting out of bed. Ugh.
I'm tearing my hair out now. It's absolutly amazing how much something as simple as a child not staying in bed can affect your life. We tried lotion on the doorknob the other night, but he still got out. Last night, husband slept on the floor for an hour until I got him. It sucks.
my parents used a dog gate to trap me in my room... then once i learned to crawl over it they moved it up 6-8 inches and i figured out how to squeeze under it... then i think that there was a combination of closed door and gate... and eventually i think that they would just lock me in and would have to nudge me out of the way with the door in the morning...
SH, you've described literally the only reason I've ever considered having children (which I suppose is kind of sad now I reflect on it) - the endless science experiment of it sounds interesting (re: the comment you made about genetics). Also, having gone through the care-taking of elderly people, you really realize what an amazing asset children are to you once they're grown. Elderly people with no children to take care of them are... well, sad.
It's the baby / early childhood age that completely horrifies me. I hope you figure something out something to get him to stay in bed!
So, you know life is a bit weird when you find yourself actually [/i]tearing up[/i] when you find out you didn't get a $19/hour part-time census job, while sitting in your 3ft wide cubicle at your $17/hour assistant-to-another-admin-assistant temp job, and you are perhaps one month away from being a LICENSED ARCHITECT and you have years of experience managing multi-million dollar construction projects, watching buildings get built before your eyes because of YOUR drawings and YOUR instruction and now you are literally making copies and hole-punching things and being sent on errands to the supply room so that other people with less education and fewer skills than you don't have to leave their desks. And you didn't get the census job that would have filled your nights and weekends with more low-paying grunt work. And the thought of not getting that second crap job makes you cry.
SH, you've described literally the only reason I've ever considered having children (which I suppose is kind of sad now I reflect on it) - the endless science experiment of it sounds interesting (re: the comment you made about genetics). Also, having gone through the care-taking of elderly people, you really realize what an amazing asset children are to you once they're grown. Elderly people with no children to take care of them are... well, sad.
It's the baby / early childhood age that completely horrifies me. I hope you figure something out something to get him to stay in bed!
So, you know life is a bit weird when you find yourself actually tearing up when you find out you didn't get a $19/hour part-time census job, while sitting in your 3ft wide cubicle at your $17/hour assistant-to-another-admin-assistant temp job, and you are perhaps one month away from being a LICENSED ARCHITECT and you have years of experience managing multi-million dollar construction projects, watching buildings get built before your eyes because of YOUR drawings and YOUR instruction and now you are literally making copies and hole-punching things and being sent on errands to the supply room so that other people with less education and fewer skills than you don't have to leave their desks. And you didn't get the census job that would have filled your nights and weekends with more low-paying grunt work. And the thought of not getting that second crap job makes you cry.
I don't have kids, but my best friend does and she has this thing with her daughter where she asks if she wants to be a Sally or a Jane? This is an ongoing dialogue they have about two imaginary girls, one who is naughty and one behaves, I forget which is which, let's say Sally is bad and Jane is good. So when the little girl is being naughty, her mom announces that it looks like Sally behavior and then asks if she wouldn't rather be a Jane? It works pretty good because they built this stigma around Sally that she doesn't want to associate with (Sally's family doesn't watch movies together either, for instance). Also when they see other kids acting up, at the store for instance, my friend's daughter will whisper, "Mom, look! That little girl is being a Sally!" SH, your boy might be too young for that, not sure. But it is also good because it is transferrable, in other words, I'm not her mom, but I can discipline her too if I need to because I know the drill.
kids are fun and beautiful. i miss the baby versions of my kids and would love to have one or two more children. they are frustrating as all get out, but children are nothing but pure bonus all the time. no question about it.
that sounds like an interesting technique strawberry. i will mention it to my wife.
greasing doorknobs! hah. lol. lol. lol. i can't believe you did that. full credit for creativity. we have almost no doorknobs in our place, just sliding screens so no way to stop the kids from getting up if they want to. one or both of them usually make their way to our futon in the morning, so i guess we are used to it. sometimes they cant sleep at night but usually if we tell them to go back to bed they do. i cant say why they listen. random chance is the most likely answer.
i feel for you manta... my wife (who's a lawyer) was in the same position... she took the census worker's test and got 100%... they called her about 3 positions but she was turned down for each one since she doesn't speak fluent spanish (not sure why she would need to speak spanish as an payroll clerk???)... she also applied for jobs like asst. manager of a wawa, cashier at ikea, and to be one of the people that clean airplanes in between flights, amongst many other things... i know she felt horrible and degraded and dejected, but she kept at it... i guess that i can say that it all worked out in the end as she finally got a job (as a lawyer) a few weeks before her unemployment compensation ran out...
this economy just plain sucks. still...whenever i hear on npr ie marketplace or morning edition stories about the recession ending i just sort of shake my head. i still havent replaced my computer so i spend some time at the library along with all the other computerless people. the only way to file unemployment is online. well let me tell ya there are plenty of people who lack the most basic of computer skills. i basically filed one woman's claim for her. another guy couldnt even get online. sad but true.
here is a horrible but true story about the census.....
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SQUEEMISH....the mother of a guy who i went to college with was working for the census. she was out in bumfuck brown county indiana. she drove up to a house and as she walked toward it she was attacked by several dogs that were on the property. she was killed! wtf??? so maybe its a good thing not to get a job like that...
Recession is not over, but I'm trying at least... my banker just called me, told me they wouldn't even consider a line of credit for our business even though we have years of financial records to substantiate the income. Why? Because we registered the business before we opened the bank account, therefore the business's profitability before we took over could not be used to underwrite a loan, therefore we have no chance in hell at getting a line of credit. I said thank you very fucking much. That's too bad, because we could be hiring this summer. I will just have to get creative, I guess.
manta, Strawbeary, Phillip and vado... yeah. Stories like those break my heart (especially the census one, GAH!). I wish I could spread my connections and any leads I get to everybody in your respective corners of the country, but it doesn't work that way. I will tell you, though, if you come hang out with me in Portland for a month, I will drag you to every networking or industry event that I attend, which is a lot!
Phillip, I'm so glad your wife got a job. Straw, good luck. manta & vado, hang in there.
BTW, I just wanted to let you all know that LILAWAC rides again:
(I also posted in the news, hope Erin doesn't mind...)
I did my taxes... they were actually much easier than I expected and because I was so poor / underemployed last year, I actually got a chunk of them back. So that's helpful.
I wonder how many bankers are laid off or have taken paycuts...?
Anyhoo, I'm glad there are jobs to be had sitting behind an eerily clean desk, informing people of what they can and can't do with their own money, all the while using their deposits as an interest free "line of credit", which in turn is loaned out 9 times, all for a nice return. Those guys got it figured out.
I should have never taught my cat to ring the bell that hangs on the door when he wants to go out. He's been ringing the f***ing thing all nite... then five seconds later he bangs on the door to come in.
Oh hell... who am I kidding, I'm the one who has been trained. ARGH!!!! Stupid cats.
manta, I'm so sorry, honey. Your story made my tears well up too. I am still just hearing so many awful stories from so many people - it's really awful out there. And every week I face a roomful of students about to graduate and looking terrified of what they will find out there - I'm not sugar-coating any of it for them.
Straw, I'm very confused by your story, since when I went to the bank to open a business checking account they told me I had to register the business first before I was ALLOWED to open a business account with them - I had to give them my corporation #. Maybe things are done differently in each state in that regard, or each bank has its own damn rules. I did have an interesting meeting this week with a banker who does strictly personal residential loans, mostly for remodeling, not to builders but to homeowners. He said he's done over $4mil in loans in the last year - so some people out there are building! But he also left a big bank that loaned to big builders because that business dried up - so in a way he laid himself off of a bad business and moved into a new niche category. Which is where I feel the entire world needs to go.
I'm so tired, and I'll be drafting late, late into the night. Not even a glass of wine for me today! later all.
ambitious little fucker. 201 posts in one night. i'll give em credit for doing something that has not been done since the thread started, pushing it to page two.
Wow. Since the whole entry somewhat went with the recession conversation, I was a bit confused. Certainly impressed.
I bought some of the door knob baby proofers. Abe pulled it off in the first five minutes, but I put him back in bed, and put it back on the door. He then made a HUGE mess, and screamed and cried for 45 minutes, butwent to sleep until about 2:30am. It's so hard to be tough when he's crying "Mamma, I love you! Mamma come here please! Mamma, help please!". It's so sad, but I know it's for the best. Yes, it's for the best. Definately for the best.
Sorry about not getting the census job, but at leat your chance of being mauled to death has gone down.
Donna, I DID have to have my business lic. before opening the business account, that IS the standard. What went wrong is that this procedure renders the previous owner's earnings/profitability unuseable in the underwriting of a line of credit, which I think is bs. Not sure if that is always the case or not, but they have to look at us as a brand new baby start-up, even though we aren't quite.
SH - he sounds unusually uncomfortable. Maybe you should have him checked for allergies, namely food allergies. Sometimes sugars and proteins don't get processed correctly in our bodies and shows itself in bad behavior. Did you know some kids can get "drunk" off sugar? I know I tell people I love them and stay up late when I've got too much sugar and yeast in my system. :) On another note, I thought of you yesterday when I put a bunch of lotion on my hands and then...couldn't...open...the...door!
Straw - That just doesn't seem right. Are there any other types of loans you can apply for to help? Perhaps a loan for "new" businesses, despite the fact you aren't really one? What about trying another bank?
Manta - I'm so sorry to hear you did not get the job with the Census... that really sucks. I really don't understand the logic behind a "jobless" recovery. How is that a recovery? We still have a crap load of people without jobs/income.
melt and others, I AM leaving out part of the story. Sorry, was just venting, which I shouldn't do. Yes, there are other options, I can put up my house as collateral on a loan with a higher than I am willing to accept interest rate. Which is not worth it for me because I have plenty of other options besides taking out the loan. For instance, many of our clients pay upfront, so we should be fine, and are still in position to hire for the summer without it. The line of credit was a just in case that I was exploring. What ticks me off is the rules that are set up for a seemingly good reason, don't always make sense in practice. Basically, I think we should be treated as the risk we are, which is not how they are treating us. I guess I'm still a little sore from the bank putting a 9 day hold on every deposit I give them... that in itself must be managed because it creates the cash flow crunches (which is not unsurrmountable by any means, just super annoying and not my style.) Given the economy, it is interesting that we have a viable business, are gearing up for a busy season where we can hire people, but policies in place can and will do much to stiffle it. Children in 3rd world countries aren't starving because the world doesn't have enough food to feed them, we do! Americans aren't out of work because we don't have things for them to do, we do!... it is all policy (meddling). Not my style.
Anyhoo, this is all very exciting, and I am very happy to have this opportunity, I am certainly counting my blessings and feel very lucky. Meanwhile, heading off to a local restuarant that has rollback to 70's prices. Prime rib, shrimp, cheesecake, beer and more, all for about $7, or so I hear. I'm meeting my friend that is the mom. I'll ask her about how to keep kids in bed!
Children in 3rd world countries aren't starving because the world doesn't have enough food to feed them, we do! Americans aren't out of work because we don't have things for them to do, we do!
So damn true.
I'm also here to vent: I'M LOSING IT!!!!!!! TOO FREAKING CRAZY BUSY LATELY, not just with work but with other commitments that are important to me but that all together make me feel like I'm doing a crappy job at everything. Ugh. back to cad.
Prime rib was good. Plus caesar salad, buffalo wings, couple beers and creme brulee, tax and tip all for $17. Not bad. Creme brulee was the best. Rode my bike around afterward, there is a baseball game today and everyone was out.
straw, that is a good description of the last two and more years out here. the banks are covering themselves and are in any case not so interested in regular loans anymore, especially if they can't securitise them. the system is no longer bout getting businesses going, if it ever was. i don't think it is bureaucracy or govt, just greed. that is just the lay of the land really, sucky as it is.
missus comes in tomorrow - I have to take an early night because I'm picking her up on the opposite side of the island.
I have no children and am confused as to why it's a problem that they wake up - as long as they don't get into anything that they should. I know that my sister and I spent a great deal of time when we were toddlers sleeping with our parents. It was a bit of reverse science I guess because soon thereafter we craved our own independence went to our rooms and slept there.
David, its a problem because at 2am, when they wake up, they tend to just cry or scream, or anything else you would find annoying at 2am. Also, they won't go back to sleep on their own, even though they desperately need it. They don't seem to understand that the cure for tiredness is sleep, they just know they're tired, and need help from a parent.
my kids often wake up in the middle of the night. since i don't sleep much anyway it is no problem.
we don't worry if they want to join us in our futon. separating kids in own rooms is not really part of the culture here either so in case of nightmare they just join us and of course calm down right fast. i can't remember what my own parents did. probably they threatened to give me something to cry about (my mom's favorite) ;-)
just bought a new vaio. it is incredible how inexpensive and powerful laptops have become. if things continue at this pace we may really enter a science fiction world for real.
All this talk about kids! I'm not having one anytime soon, so I've been jokingly (?) pressuring my bro to have kids so I can be one of those uncles that spoil their nieces/nephews. I spoil my "nieces" that are the daughters of a childhood friend, so I can't imagine how much I'd spoil my own brother's kids. Had a conversation with my friend about having kids and she hated the idea of it. The pregnancy, the moment of birth, and losing her freedom. I didn't get it, but thats based on my ignorance and the fact I won't go through most of that.
So I'm in Seattle!
You may think... So what are you doing on the internet, loser, get out there and see the city!
Well, I'm kinda being held hostage. The friend I'm staying with has a crazy ass schedule where she works and goes to school full time and she's taking a little rest. I've seen so much already actually.
Totally unrelated note - or perhaps related, what did y'all say Mdler was doing these days?
And totally cheesy... but my mom is going to like it anyway. Got her those blooming tea things at a tea tasting place (We stayed for like 4 hours). Any of you try it?
Slart mdler is in Seattle. I'm almost convinced of it. On a completely different note, let's call it a segway in my head I think of Seattle as "bean town" since it was the birth place of that wretchedly good monopoly called Starbucks which brews beans into coffee. In my head it seems like a perfectly good mistake.
mdler is definitely in Seattle and Surfaces is down the road in Tacoma. And I am but 2.5 hours south in Portland! Slart do you have time for a little PDX?!?
Sorry I missed all the spam fun. Sounds like it got interesting around here...
seeing aaron betsky speak this am, since he's in ky again - 2nd time this month! we'll see what's on his mind today.
wonderful dinner out with my wife last night for her birthday. after a marathon workday that started at 3:30am. THAT bourbon with dinner was very .... effective.
Dub - Interesting you bring it up. In the ride from the airport to the city, I saw a sign for Portland (5 South?) and I thought, Hmm maybe I can go there. But the 2.5 hours drive seems like a bit much. Might stop by Tacoma though.
The reason I brought up Mdler was because I saw something and my mind went something like: Seattle, food, truck/trailer, archinect, mdler, elephant trunk.
OK, so I haven't seen so much. But especially with my friend, its less of an architectural trip, and more of getting a good feel of what its like here. I guess thats one issue with staying at a friends place. She feels like she has to be a good host and show me around, which kind of slows me down. But then again, I've been travelling alone for the past 6 years or so, and its nice to have company.
I just found out today that my BFF is "with child." I'll admit (to you all, anyway) to having mixed emotions about this. I am VERY happy for her and excited that I get to be a pseudo-aunt and spoil a child (that I am not ultimately responsible for) rotten. On the other hand, it does feel a bit like the day the music died. I am encouraged by seeing you all with kids and knowing that you guys are cool as hell, and I know my BFF will be the same way, but still - will we ever be all "woo-hoo" together ever again? Does this mean I HAVE to stop acting like a kid? I'm perfectly adept at being an adult but I can still be an idiot with the rest of them...
On a positive note I'm having some encouraging interactions with men lately. I won't bother you with the details until something truly interesting happens though.
its part of the aging of your cohort, DJ. We used to have wild parties at our house when we were younger (we rented a house in a pear orchard in rural japan way back when - no neighbours and we were all in our early 20's - brilliant times), usually ending around 4 or 5 in the morning. Then one of our group had a kid and they were going home at midnight unless the party was at their place.
Then another pair had kids and the parties began to end earlier and earlier. Finally we had kids and now we have parties that seldom extend past 11PM. The kids eat at 1800 and are in bed by 20:00, and our childless friends who come over are wondering why we invite them so early all the time. They still think eating dinner at 21:00 is normal.
DINKs are nice as anyone of course but they can't really understand that they live in a different world and so it takes effort to keep from drifting apart sometimes. Hate to say it but all our new friends have kids. It is how we meet usually...
which is to say, you are not imagining anything. Big changes on the horizon. I like to think it is a richer life myself.
So, I have been neglecting my blog for about two months even though I got two e-mails telling me it was great.
And I loaded up my dashboard... checked it out. I had a lot of action (action for me is 6 views in a single day). It seems that the majority of the action was from a single visitor.
They got to my blog by searching something like "entry level architect i sketchup job." So, out of curiosity... I googled the phrase.
Someone had waded through 18 pages of Google and then clicked on my blog.
Ouch... not only is your only skill sketchup... but you stopped at my blog in hopes of scouring the internet for a single job!
I hear you DJ - a couple of my BFFs have had babies and though it does change things slightly (they aren't as available as they used to be) they are still the person you have always loved.
In other news, this weekend is the annual scooter rally here in the Queen City and today was the big ride. It was a fabulous ride, despite the fact I totally wiped out in a big way. The guy in front of me fell and in order to prevent myself from literally running him over I braked hard and ended up sliding a good 10' on my right side. Scary as hell. No broken bones, but severe road rash and bruising on my knee, a twisted ankle (from falling backwards afterward because I was unaware my boot heel had broken), a slightly bruised hip and a small scrape on my elbow. All I have to say is thank God I was dressed for the event (though my jacket was not motorcycle rated), otherwise it could have been so much worse. Unfortunately I am now going to have to buy new jeans, new gloves and a new jacket because they all are now significantly ripped.
PSA folks - wear proper attire when riding kids... it literally can save your life, or at least save you from an ER visit.
Anyway, that's all for now. Time to ice down the knee again. Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend.
Thread Central
Snook, I'm back Monday. If you can drop by the U of MN on the way to the airport, I expect to be in my office around 10am. Enjoy the north woods.
that trip sounds fantastic barry.
snook, the crane is amazing tool. the job would be impossible without it actually. I just posted some images on blog from yesterday and indeed things are going fast and am quite enjoying seeing it go up. it is actually much more interesting because the site is insanely small and at the end of a long narrow private road. The crane driver has super powers to get his machine to the site, i swear it.
sarah, i have no idea. we just shut out the lights and they sit in the dark and eventually go to sleep. i guess a glass of warm milk might help.
hi all. I'm super busy with work and some personal stuff. I'm in here, reading but it seems hard to catch a break long enough to type out the stuff. Glad to see everyone is okay even if things are a little challenging, right Liberty Bell.
All this and preparing for my birthday this weekend. Donna what are you doing for yours? Shall we meet up mid way between Indy & Ja and share a bottle of wine (or three)
Seriously, techno, let's Skype a glass of wine together! I could do late Saturday afternoon.
Sarah, I was tearing my hair out trying to get Angus to GO TO SLEEP until he was at least 5. But I could never leave the room - it made me too crazy to hear him cry. So I stayed with him and fell asleep too - we never had to deal with him getting out of bed. Ugh.
Awwwww....I wanna Skype a glass of wine with you guys.
Why the hell am I still awake? Nite all
I'm tearing my hair out now. It's absolutly amazing how much something as simple as a child not staying in bed can affect your life. We tried lotion on the doorknob the other night, but he still got out. Last night, husband slept on the floor for an hour until I got him. It sucks.
Happy birthdya future birthday people.
my parents used a dog gate to trap me in my room... then once i learned to crawl over it they moved it up 6-8 inches and i figured out how to squeeze under it... then i think that there was a combination of closed door and gate... and eventually i think that they would just lock me in and would have to nudge me out of the way with the door in the morning...
SH, you've described literally the only reason I've ever considered having children (which I suppose is kind of sad now I reflect on it) - the endless science experiment of it sounds interesting (re: the comment you made about genetics). Also, having gone through the care-taking of elderly people, you really realize what an amazing asset children are to you once they're grown. Elderly people with no children to take care of them are... well, sad.
It's the baby / early childhood age that completely horrifies me. I hope you figure something out something to get him to stay in bed!
So, you know life is a bit weird when you find yourself actually [/i]tearing up[/i] when you find out you didn't get a $19/hour part-time census job, while sitting in your 3ft wide cubicle at your $17/hour assistant-to-another-admin-assistant temp job, and you are perhaps one month away from being a LICENSED ARCHITECT and you have years of experience managing multi-million dollar construction projects, watching buildings get built before your eyes because of YOUR drawings and YOUR instruction and now you are literally making copies and hole-punching things and being sent on errands to the supply room so that other people with less education and fewer skills than you don't have to leave their desks. And you didn't get the census job that would have filled your nights and weekends with more low-paying grunt work. And the thought of not getting that second crap job makes you cry.
SH, you've described literally the only reason I've ever considered having children (which I suppose is kind of sad now I reflect on it) - the endless science experiment of it sounds interesting (re: the comment you made about genetics). Also, having gone through the care-taking of elderly people, you really realize what an amazing asset children are to you once they're grown. Elderly people with no children to take care of them are... well, sad.
It's the baby / early childhood age that completely horrifies me. I hope you figure something out something to get him to stay in bed!
So, you know life is a bit weird when you find yourself actually tearing up when you find out you didn't get a $19/hour part-time census job, while sitting in your 3ft wide cubicle at your $17/hour assistant-to-another-admin-assistant temp job, and you are perhaps one month away from being a LICENSED ARCHITECT and you have years of experience managing multi-million dollar construction projects, watching buildings get built before your eyes because of YOUR drawings and YOUR instruction and now you are literally making copies and hole-punching things and being sent on errands to the supply room so that other people with less education and fewer skills than you don't have to leave their desks. And you didn't get the census job that would have filled your nights and weekends with more low-paying grunt work. And the thought of not getting that second crap job makes you cry.
ah! So depressing I posted it twice. Nice going, admin assistant.
manta, hopefully it gets better. You going to put out a shingle once you complete licensing?
I don't have kids, but my best friend does and she has this thing with her daughter where she asks if she wants to be a Sally or a Jane? This is an ongoing dialogue they have about two imaginary girls, one who is naughty and one behaves, I forget which is which, let's say Sally is bad and Jane is good. So when the little girl is being naughty, her mom announces that it looks like Sally behavior and then asks if she wouldn't rather be a Jane? It works pretty good because they built this stigma around Sally that she doesn't want to associate with (Sally's family doesn't watch movies together either, for instance). Also when they see other kids acting up, at the store for instance, my friend's daughter will whisper, "Mom, look! That little girl is being a Sally!" SH, your boy might be too young for that, not sure. But it is also good because it is transferrable, in other words, I'm not her mom, but I can discipline her too if I need to because I know the drill.
kids are fun and beautiful. i miss the baby versions of my kids and would love to have one or two more children. they are frustrating as all get out, but children are nothing but pure bonus all the time. no question about it.
that sounds like an interesting technique strawberry. i will mention it to my wife.
greasing doorknobs! hah. lol. lol. lol. i can't believe you did that. full credit for creativity. we have almost no doorknobs in our place, just sliding screens so no way to stop the kids from getting up if they want to. one or both of them usually make their way to our futon in the morning, so i guess we are used to it. sometimes they cant sleep at night but usually if we tell them to go back to bed they do. i cant say why they listen. random chance is the most likely answer.
Straw - the is ingenius. Props to your friend.
Greasing the door knob is too, although I would think it would be a huge pain to clean it up. Ya... that's just how OCD I am.
i feel for you manta... my wife (who's a lawyer) was in the same position... she took the census worker's test and got 100%... they called her about 3 positions but she was turned down for each one since she doesn't speak fluent spanish (not sure why she would need to speak spanish as an payroll clerk???)... she also applied for jobs like asst. manager of a wawa, cashier at ikea, and to be one of the people that clean airplanes in between flights, amongst many other things... i know she felt horrible and degraded and dejected, but she kept at it... i guess that i can say that it all worked out in the end as she finally got a job (as a lawyer) a few weeks before her unemployment compensation ran out...
this economy just plain sucks. still...whenever i hear on npr ie marketplace or morning edition stories about the recession ending i just sort of shake my head. i still havent replaced my computer so i spend some time at the library along with all the other computerless people. the only way to file unemployment is online. well let me tell ya there are plenty of people who lack the most basic of computer skills. i basically filed one woman's claim for her. another guy couldnt even get online. sad but true.
here is a horrible but true story about the census.....
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SQUEEMISH....the mother of a guy who i went to college with was working for the census. she was out in bumfuck brown county indiana. she drove up to a house and as she walked toward it she was attacked by several dogs that were on the property. she was killed! wtf??? so maybe its a good thing not to get a job like that...
Recession is not over, but I'm trying at least... my banker just called me, told me they wouldn't even consider a line of credit for our business even though we have years of financial records to substantiate the income. Why? Because we registered the business before we opened the bank account, therefore the business's profitability before we took over could not be used to underwrite a loan, therefore we have no chance in hell at getting a line of credit. I said thank you very fucking much. That's too bad, because we could be hiring this summer. I will just have to get creative, I guess.
manta, Strawbeary, Phillip and vado... yeah. Stories like those break my heart (especially the census one, GAH!). I wish I could spread my connections and any leads I get to everybody in your respective corners of the country, but it doesn't work that way. I will tell you, though, if you come hang out with me in Portland for a month, I will drag you to every networking or industry event that I attend, which is a lot!
Phillip, I'm so glad your wife got a job. Straw, good luck. manta & vado, hang in there.
BTW, I just wanted to let you all know that LILAWAC rides again:
http://www.greendesigncollective.com/blog/2010/04/lilawac-rides-again/
(I also posted in the news, hope Erin doesn't mind...)
I did my taxes... they were actually much easier than I expected and because I was so poor / underemployed last year, I actually got a chunk of them back. So that's helpful.
I wonder how many bankers are laid off or have taken paycuts...?
Anyhoo, I'm glad there are jobs to be had sitting behind an eerily clean desk, informing people of what they can and can't do with their own money, all the while using their deposits as an interest free "line of credit", which in turn is loaned out 9 times, all for a nice return. Those guys got it figured out.
I should have never taught my cat to ring the bell that hangs on the door when he wants to go out. He's been ringing the f***ing thing all nite... then five seconds later he bangs on the door to come in.
Oh hell... who am I kidding, I'm the one who has been trained. ARGH!!!! Stupid cats.
manta, I'm so sorry, honey. Your story made my tears well up too. I am still just hearing so many awful stories from so many people - it's really awful out there. And every week I face a roomful of students about to graduate and looking terrified of what they will find out there - I'm not sugar-coating any of it for them.
Straw, I'm very confused by your story, since when I went to the bank to open a business checking account they told me I had to register the business first before I was ALLOWED to open a business account with them - I had to give them my corporation #. Maybe things are done differently in each state in that regard, or each bank has its own damn rules. I did have an interesting meeting this week with a banker who does strictly personal residential loans, mostly for remodeling, not to builders but to homeowners. He said he's done over $4mil in loans in the last year - so some people out there are building! But he also left a big bank that loaned to big builders because that business dried up - so in a way he laid himself off of a bad business and moved into a new niche category. Which is where I feel the entire world needs to go.
I'm so tired, and I'll be drafting late, late into the night. Not even a glass of wine for me today! later all.
I am 35 dollars away from starting my headhunting company.
Business licenses... ugh!
Well... technically closer to two hundred for a website, e-mail and some printing.
ambitious little fucker. 201 posts in one night. i'll give em credit for doing something that has not been done since the thread started, pushing it to page two.
ATTACK OF THE XUE!!!!!!!
Mega xue bomb
Ironic that s/he posted on the spam thread. Poetic, indeed.
Wow. Since the whole entry somewhat went with the recession conversation, I was a bit confused. Certainly impressed.
I bought some of the door knob baby proofers. Abe pulled it off in the first five minutes, but I put him back in bed, and put it back on the door. He then made a HUGE mess, and screamed and cried for 45 minutes, butwent to sleep until about 2:30am. It's so hard to be tough when he's crying "Mamma, I love you! Mamma come here please! Mamma, help please!". It's so sad, but I know it's for the best. Yes, it's for the best. Definately for the best.
Sorry about not getting the census job, but at leat your chance of being mauled to death has gone down.
Morning!
wow, somehow the big green head of archinect get rid of all of the xue attack and restored the threads to their previous locations... MAGIC!!!
Donna, I DID have to have my business lic. before opening the business account, that IS the standard. What went wrong is that this procedure renders the previous owner's earnings/profitability unuseable in the underwriting of a line of credit, which I think is bs. Not sure if that is always the case or not, but they have to look at us as a brand new baby start-up, even though we aren't quite.
SH - he sounds unusually uncomfortable. Maybe you should have him checked for allergies, namely food allergies. Sometimes sugars and proteins don't get processed correctly in our bodies and shows itself in bad behavior. Did you know some kids can get "drunk" off sugar? I know I tell people I love them and stay up late when I've got too much sugar and yeast in my system. :) On another note, I thought of you yesterday when I put a bunch of lotion on my hands and then...couldn't...open...the...door!
i can confirm that i have been drunk of sugar before...
Morning all.
Straw - That just doesn't seem right. Are there any other types of loans you can apply for to help? Perhaps a loan for "new" businesses, despite the fact you aren't really one? What about trying another bank?
Manta - I'm so sorry to hear you did not get the job with the Census... that really sucks. I really don't understand the logic behind a "jobless" recovery. How is that a recovery? We still have a crap load of people without jobs/income.
melt and others, I AM leaving out part of the story. Sorry, was just venting, which I shouldn't do. Yes, there are other options, I can put up my house as collateral on a loan with a higher than I am willing to accept interest rate. Which is not worth it for me because I have plenty of other options besides taking out the loan. For instance, many of our clients pay upfront, so we should be fine, and are still in position to hire for the summer without it. The line of credit was a just in case that I was exploring. What ticks me off is the rules that are set up for a seemingly good reason, don't always make sense in practice. Basically, I think we should be treated as the risk we are, which is not how they are treating us. I guess I'm still a little sore from the bank putting a 9 day hold on every deposit I give them... that in itself must be managed because it creates the cash flow crunches (which is not unsurrmountable by any means, just super annoying and not my style.) Given the economy, it is interesting that we have a viable business, are gearing up for a busy season where we can hire people, but policies in place can and will do much to stiffle it. Children in 3rd world countries aren't starving because the world doesn't have enough food to feed them, we do! Americans aren't out of work because we don't have things for them to do, we do!... it is all policy (meddling). Not my style.
Anyhoo, this is all very exciting, and I am very happy to have this opportunity, I am certainly counting my blessings and feel very lucky. Meanwhile, heading off to a local restuarant that has rollback to 70's prices. Prime rib, shrimp, cheesecake, beer and more, all for about $7, or so I hear. I'm meeting my friend that is the mom. I'll ask her about how to keep kids in bed!
So damn true.
I'm also here to vent: I'M LOSING IT!!!!!!! TOO FREAKING CRAZY BUSY LATELY, not just with work but with other commitments that are important to me but that all together make me feel like I'm doing a crappy job at everything. Ugh. back to cad.
oh... I'm totally there... what's helped me keep my sanity is that I have a mentor I check in with (outside of the office) every once and a while.
Prime rib was good. Plus caesar salad, buffalo wings, couple beers and creme brulee, tax and tip all for $17. Not bad. Creme brulee was the best. Rode my bike around afterward, there is a baseball game today and everyone was out.
straw, that is a good description of the last two and more years out here. the banks are covering themselves and are in any case not so interested in regular loans anymore, especially if they can't securitise them. the system is no longer bout getting businesses going, if it ever was. i don't think it is bureaucracy or govt, just greed. that is just the lay of the land really, sucky as it is.
I'm alive! Where's puddles.
missus comes in tomorrow - I have to take an early night because I'm picking her up on the opposite side of the island.
I have no children and am confused as to why it's a problem that they wake up - as long as they don't get into anything that they should. I know that my sister and I spent a great deal of time when we were toddlers sleeping with our parents. It was a bit of reverse science I guess because soon thereafter we craved our own independence went to our rooms and slept there.
By the way happy autism month
David, its a problem because at 2am, when they wake up, they tend to just cry or scream, or anything else you would find annoying at 2am. Also, they won't go back to sleep on their own, even though they desperately need it. They don't seem to understand that the cure for tiredness is sleep, they just know they're tired, and need help from a parent.
Have fun with the misses!
my kids often wake up in the middle of the night. since i don't sleep much anyway it is no problem.
we don't worry if they want to join us in our futon. separating kids in own rooms is not really part of the culture here either so in case of nightmare they just join us and of course calm down right fast. i can't remember what my own parents did. probably they threatened to give me something to cry about (my mom's favorite) ;-)
just bought a new vaio. it is incredible how inexpensive and powerful laptops have become. if things continue at this pace we may really enter a science fiction world for real.
All this talk about kids! I'm not having one anytime soon, so I've been jokingly (?) pressuring my bro to have kids so I can be one of those uncles that spoil their nieces/nephews. I spoil my "nieces" that are the daughters of a childhood friend, so I can't imagine how much I'd spoil my own brother's kids. Had a conversation with my friend about having kids and she hated the idea of it. The pregnancy, the moment of birth, and losing her freedom. I didn't get it, but thats based on my ignorance and the fact I won't go through most of that.
So I'm in Seattle!
You may think... So what are you doing on the internet, loser, get out there and see the city!
Well, I'm kinda being held hostage. The friend I'm staying with has a crazy ass schedule where she works and goes to school full time and she's taking a little rest. I've seen so much already actually.
Totally unrelated note - or perhaps related, what did y'all say Mdler was doing these days?
And totally cheesy... but my mom is going to like it anyway. Got her those blooming tea things at a tea tasting place (We stayed for like 4 hours). Any of you try it?
Slart mdler is in Seattle. I'm almost convinced of it. On a completely different note, let's call it a segway in my head I think of Seattle as "bean town" since it was the birth place of that wretchedly good monopoly called Starbucks which brews beans into coffee. In my head it seems like a perfectly good mistake.
mdler is definitely in Seattle and Surfaces is down the road in Tacoma. And I am but 2.5 hours south in Portland! Slart do you have time for a little PDX?!?
Sorry I missed all the spam fun. Sounds like it got interesting around here...
yeah, someone recently mentioned mdler was working for skillet...
have you really seen so much?
if so, you are more than welcome to help us weed our garden this weekend - gonna be awesome! at least it won't be raining.
seeing aaron betsky speak this am, since he's in ky again - 2nd time this month! we'll see what's on his mind today.
wonderful dinner out with my wife last night for her birthday. after a marathon workday that started at 3:30am. THAT bourbon with dinner was very .... effective.
morning, all.
Dub - Interesting you bring it up. In the ride from the airport to the city, I saw a sign for Portland (5 South?) and I thought, Hmm maybe I can go there. But the 2.5 hours drive seems like a bit much. Might stop by Tacoma though.
The reason I brought up Mdler was because I saw something and my mind went something like: Seattle, food, truck/trailer, archinect, mdler, elephant trunk.
OK, so I haven't seen so much. But especially with my friend, its less of an architectural trip, and more of getting a good feel of what its like here. I guess thats one issue with staying at a friends place. She feels like she has to be a good host and show me around, which kind of slows me down. But then again, I've been travelling alone for the past 6 years or so, and its nice to have company.
That's cool Slart. Enjoy your time up there...
I just found out today that my BFF is "with child." I'll admit (to you all, anyway) to having mixed emotions about this. I am VERY happy for her and excited that I get to be a pseudo-aunt and spoil a child (that I am not ultimately responsible for) rotten. On the other hand, it does feel a bit like the day the music died. I am encouraged by seeing you all with kids and knowing that you guys are cool as hell, and I know my BFF will be the same way, but still - will we ever be all "woo-hoo" together ever again? Does this mean I HAVE to stop acting like a kid? I'm perfectly adept at being an adult but I can still be an idiot with the rest of them...
On a positive note I'm having some encouraging interactions with men lately. I won't bother you with the details until something truly interesting happens though.
its part of the aging of your cohort, DJ. We used to have wild parties at our house when we were younger (we rented a house in a pear orchard in rural japan way back when - no neighbours and we were all in our early 20's - brilliant times), usually ending around 4 or 5 in the morning. Then one of our group had a kid and they were going home at midnight unless the party was at their place.
Then another pair had kids and the parties began to end earlier and earlier. Finally we had kids and now we have parties that seldom extend past 11PM. The kids eat at 1800 and are in bed by 20:00, and our childless friends who come over are wondering why we invite them so early all the time. They still think eating dinner at 21:00 is normal.
DINKs are nice as anyone of course but they can't really understand that they live in a different world and so it takes effort to keep from drifting apart sometimes. Hate to say it but all our new friends have kids. It is how we meet usually...
which is to say, you are not imagining anything. Big changes on the horizon. I like to think it is a richer life myself.
I feel bad.
So, I have been neglecting my blog for about two months even though I got two e-mails telling me it was great.
And I loaded up my dashboard... checked it out. I had a lot of action (action for me is 6 views in a single day). It seems that the majority of the action was from a single visitor.
They got to my blog by searching something like "entry level architect i sketchup job." So, out of curiosity... I googled the phrase.
Someone had waded through 18 pages of Google and then clicked on my blog.
Ouch... not only is your only skill sketchup... but you stopped at my blog in hopes of scouring the internet for a single job!
I hear you DJ - a couple of my BFFs have had babies and though it does change things slightly (they aren't as available as they used to be) they are still the person you have always loved.
In other news, this weekend is the annual scooter rally here in the Queen City and today was the big ride. It was a fabulous ride, despite the fact I totally wiped out in a big way. The guy in front of me fell and in order to prevent myself from literally running him over I braked hard and ended up sliding a good 10' on my right side. Scary as hell. No broken bones, but severe road rash and bruising on my knee, a twisted ankle (from falling backwards afterward because I was unaware my boot heel had broken), a slightly bruised hip and a small scrape on my elbow. All I have to say is thank God I was dressed for the event (though my jacket was not motorcycle rated), otherwise it could have been so much worse. Unfortunately I am now going to have to buy new jeans, new gloves and a new jacket because they all are now significantly ripped.
PSA folks - wear proper attire when riding kids... it literally can save your life, or at least save you from an ER visit.
Anyway, that's all for now. Time to ice down the knee again. Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend.
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