Tag: inconsiderate jerks

Office supplies, a racist casserole dish, and Teri

Last week Teri and I found ourselves in the position of needing some things for the office.  I made a shopping list and on Monday she did the ordering.  Buying office supplies is one of the things I’ve never minded about the various administrative jobs I’ve had, it’s shopping with someone else’s money.

Anyway, who was more surprised than the two of us when we discovered that one of our usual vendors, the one that happened to have the best prices this time, was having a rather odd Gift With Purchase.  A casserole dish.

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This is why I left IT

I tried for over three years to find a decent job in IT after I was laid off.  Looking for work, and generally trying to improve my IT knowledge and skills, became my new job.  I went back to school to improve my IT skills.  I gained several new certifications, picked up many more books and attempted to improve my skills as best I could.  Over three years of job fairs, workshops, endless resume rewrites, countless applications, all sorts of professional and personal networking, honing of cover letters, (you name it, and I did it) but nothing worked.  In three years I got less than five interviews.  I tried everything.  Of course, plenty of people had advice for me on how to find a job. Some was good, a lot was bad, and much of it was contradictory.

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It ends today… hopefully

The phone calls, the emails, the voice mails, the robo-calls, the text messages.  The door knocking, inevitably when I’m in the bathroom or sleeping. The door hangers or giant post it notes left when I’m not home or literature illegally stuffed through the mail slot. At 8:00pm tonight, for good or ill, it is done.

Election day is over.
Continue reading “It ends today… hopefully”

Just popping in to share this

From a friend elseweb:

“Michelle Bachmann is not going to run again! She announced very very early
this morning that this would be her last campaign. She’s facing ethical
concerns, plus the commute back and forth to her planet is a real killer.

That flat, nasal, uninflected serial killer voice will be gone! W00t!“

This absolutely made my day.

Geoff and I are dealing with a LOT of paperwork and details and bureaucracy right now.  We found yet another crack in the system, when we fell into it, naturally, so we’re trying to climb out of it.  More on that later.  Till then, just rejoice with MN.

~Kelly

What NOT to say when you’re at a craft show

I’ve done 4 shows in the last two weeks.  It’s been tiring but fun.  I met some really fun and really talented crafters, especially at Cambridge Open Studios.  (COS is, by the way, also showing this weekend.  Yes, you should go if you can.  It’s amazing.)

What was striking was not only how great the community of crafters were to each other, but also how great most of the people visiting the show were to us.  However, like any barrel of apples, there were a few rotten ones.

Everything listed below was actually said to me or one of the people I met over the last two weekends.  When you’re at a craft show, don’t be this person.

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Come on. We’re better than this.

Honestly, I wish I knew why some people have such a problem with anyone different than them.  American culture is one of the most heterogenous imaginable.  And yet there are still so many people afraid of “them”, whether it be gays, foreigners, or in this case, Muslims.

A U.S. Army veteran, who served in Iraq and is still in the Army Reserve, was apparently attacked by his fare last week.  And the guy was screaming about terrorists and the Boston bombing and whatnot.

You know, from a certain point of view, the group that has created the overwhelming majority of the problems I have had in my life is angry, bigoted white meathead rednecks.  Does that mean we should start profiling white rednecks?  Or start reporting “suspicious” white rednecks to the police? Does that mean all white rednecks are the same?  No, they aren’t.  It’s absurd.  And so is blaming all 1 billion plus Muslims for the acts of a small minority.  It’s not like Christians have been free of committing horrific violence in the name of their religious views.  So get over yourselves, people.  Try learning a little, opening your mind, maybe cracking open a book or two.  And for God’s sake, turn off the TV and the talk radio.  It’s only making things worse.

-Geoff

Upper Crust and the political divide

The source of overpriced pizza for a vast swath of yuppies across Massachusetts has filed for Chapter  11 bankruptcy.   I suppose it was just a matter of time.  Now, for those of you with memory as good as mine*, that means that the company Kelly and I don’t like much anyway because of the way they treat their employees** is having yet more problems.

*That is code for my memory is actually pretty bad.  Awful, in fact.

**And their prices.  And their terrible tomato sauce.

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