Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Its been over two years since last I slaved involuntarily, and I am getting pretty sick of being my own boss. I mean, I have to complain to myself about working conditions and pay. My dad always used to say, "If I worked for myself, I'd fire me!", and he had his own business. So what hope does a no-account sluggard like myself have?
Well, two things are pending. One, I will become eligible for a trickle-down from the automotive sludge pit in June. I worked long enough, and was close enough when they tossed me, that there will be a monthly mite for my stale bread and porridge. When I called them today, Becky told me that yes, there would be a bit left over for me each month, and that, no, I was not eligible for "ancillary benefits". "Hair removal treatments?" I thought to myself. But no, that means health care benefits, or life insurance, or brain adjustment and the like. "But I got a letter that said I was going to 'grow into' the retirement plan. Doesn't that include hair rem... I mean health care benefits?" I asked. "Just a minute," she said, and handed me to Barry Manilow for an interlude. She came back and apologized and told me that I WAS able to elect health care and brain transplant options under early retirement. Well, that is a step up from my current state (zero coverage at zero cost). The monthly stipend seems enough to cover the cost of the group packages available as well. So I seem to have carved off a joint from the tail bone of "your life's blood vs corporate wealth" contract with the devil. Now I can take those rock climbing classes with assurance of traction and casts as needed. Or maybe I will have an octopus brain transplanted. They have amazing dexterity and are reputed to be close to sentience. So there are two advantages over humanity, and it will give me a chance at an alternative evolution as well.
The second pending is that I will be going for a job interview on Friday. There is a company that makes machinery that mixes soil and pots plants for growers. They are looking for an electrical engineer to help with the controls and motors and such. I don't have experience with motor controls, but can work it up. Now where did I put my slide rule...
Posted 10:35 AM by Andy (15) comments
Comments:
- I just did some calculation. If I live for another 30 years, the total take from retirement will be about what I would have earned in the previous two years, had I continued to work. Bastards.
- I applied for two part time tech jobs last week and have yet to hear from either. My strategy is to write a really boss cover letter, customized to the position being offered, and include a brief synopsis of my present circumstances (dialysis). I'm sure to mention that these circumstances give them (the employer) a chance to get a very high level and experienced tech that they would otherwise not have access to with this type of job. I even call it a "win/win" for both of us. I think this is a particularly clever tack but so far nada.
I've been reading a lot lately about projected $10/gal gas by the end of the year, which means milk, bread and everything else will have to go up proportionally. If this happens, and I don't have an income beyond SSD, I'm well and truly fucked.
- Hang in there boys. This oil price thing is a bubble caused by all the speculators getting out of housing and into oil. It will pop in six months or less because there is, in fact, no real shortage or lack of refining capacity.
I'm looking forward to modern "Hoover-villes" on the Mall in Washington when all the Iraq vets get home and find they've lost their jobs and can't afford to drive far enough to get a new one.
- And also when they find out that the "free medical care" is ephemeral. My dad (a WWII Navy vet) reports that the people at the VA all state that there is not even the smallest hope that they can accommodate all of the wounded vets who will return from Afghanistan and the Middle East. Not even close to enough capacity, personnel or resources. Won't that be fodder for political change as the vets take ever more prominent positions in government.
- Hey! One of the part time tech jobs called back! I interviewed with them today and it looks like I got it. They're a small home improvement company in North Ridgeville currently running out of a home office but are soon to build a separate company space. Cool!
- Second interview with the greenhouse machinery company on Monday to meet with the owner. Also - possibility for temporary work in Michigan helping to build some electrical prototype measuring thingamabobs (the approved technical term). To quote Phineas Phreak: "Money will get you through times of no employment better than employment will get you through times of no money"?
- RE: temporary work in Michigan at my brother's company. After two days of telephone tag, the contact person there told me I have to go through an employment agency they use. So today I registered on line with the employment agency. Their online form for a resume has short fields and is full of error messages if you use the wrong characters in a field. At the end of this process, after three hours of trimming and editing, the last screen shows "or you can email your resume to us at ....". I did both, and left a voicemail message at their main contact number beside. Two hours of telephone tag with the employment agency person. Then I got a call from an HR manager at my brother's company who said neither she nor the agency had any knowledge of the job I was seeking. Call to my brother. More telephone tag. Finally, my brother said "Maybe THAT is why we didn't get any resume submissions." Evidently, the posting was approved at the top levels of the company, but nobody in HR ever issued a posting requesting applicants. Duh. Just another big company doing what they do best. What would they require for a permanent position, electro convulsive therapy?
- When I go back and read what I posted, I swear that I am making this stuff up. Now I know how Dave Barry and Scott Adams make their livings.
- A week has gone by since I interviewed with that mom and pop home improvement company and was told I got the job. They were to call/email with an initial list of assignments and so far nothing from them. I called yesterday and left a nice voice mail asking what was up. Who knows.
During the interview they kept making "church" references. Our church this, our church that, etc. As I didn't respond with church references in kind, or shout "Praise Jesus", my suspicion is that I failed some sort of bible based litmus test but they didn't have the balls to tell me to my face.
- You need to go talk to them wearing the garb of a priest of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. That'll get 'em.
- Second interview went well. Met the company owner, a younger man than I. Also talked to the VP/General Manager. Everyone there has a slightly harried look, since they are growing and do not have enough people to carry the load. They also brought up a new central software package in November to track customer orders, inventory, manufacturing and the like, and are struggling with the changeover. That may be where they place me, as a combination of engineering data management and IT implementation. As the HR manager said, "We need to meet and regroup - we were going in one direction with you (EE position) and now are changing our thinking." But, it is still a small company with 22 people, so the title will not mean that I won't need to sweep the floors and unload trucks with everyone else. Just that there will be nobody else to blame when I make mistakes.
Post a Comment- RE: Temporary work in Michigan, update -
Well. The first-tier recruiting company that provides the workers that my brother's company needs to fill job openings cannot hire people to fill those openings. They have to select from names submitted to them by second-tier temporary labor contract firms who maintain lists of names of potential workers that they have unearthed and saved against whatever job openings may occur. Confused yet? I called my brother to report progress and he, quite properly, wondered, "Then what do the first guys do?" I don't know either. Make money? As I noted to the first guys, this is exquisitely painful. I begin to see how the bureaucracy of the Byzantine Empire survived. It is no surprise that big companies say they are desperate for skilled workers. Nobody can penetrate the defensive layers and arrive within the walls.
Monday, April 14, 2008
From todays Chronicle: "Lola E. Clark, (nee Everett-Cambell), 52, of Elyria, died Saturday, April 12, 2008 at EMH Regional Medical Center, following a brief illness."
FYI: If Lola's name doesn't ring a bell she was married to Gary Clark (who was previously married to Christa Hupp).
Posted 11:51 AM by whatley (2) comments
Comments:
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
A slightly less than two hour operation and I now have a fistula in my upper left arm (see March 6th post). An early 5 hour dialysis session then a trip to the Cleveland Clinic (thanks Andy!) made yesterday a long day, one that I'm glad is over.
What I have learned:
1) pain is bad
2) percocets are good
Posted 9:14 AM by whatley (4) comments
Comments:
- You are very welcome. We also serve who only sit and drive.
Size and endless activity aside, the Cleveland Clinic, in its Surgery Center building, has a level of customer service that is unparalleled in my experience of hospitals. Russ checked in while I found the solitary open spot in the multi-storied parking garage. The garage had a second-floor entrance directly to the check-in desk, where they immediately told me where Russ had gone. They already had him pagered, gowned and IV'd when I got there. I took the text pager and retreated to a waiting area arranged in multiple family carrels each with chairs, couches and a tv. Even though the place was busy like an airport terminal, one could find a sense of privacy within the arrangement of walls, woodwork, fabric and muted earth tones. The pager buzzed me to let me know when surgery started, and the pager and PA both called me to the desk to talk to the doctor on the phone afterward. They validated the parking and walked us to the door. Everyone was pleasant, courteous and bared his or her teeth in a non-threatening manner. Other than the medical stuff, and a lack of fiberglass heads, it could have been a resort Disney hotel at the height of the tourist season.
- One other thing that impressed me. In the parking garage, at the elevator, there are pocket cards to take that have your parking location printed on one side, and a "you are here" map of the entire Clinic layout on the other. Better than Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs.
Post a Comment- The "level of customer service" is indeed unparalleled until, as I'm finding out today when trying to schedule my follow up appointment, you're shuttled off to the billing department. Prior to the operation, in fact on my first consultation visit, I told them that I had Medicare and Medicare only and if there were to be any charges beyond what Medicare would cover I would leave right then. No harm no foul. They said "no problem, you're good to go". Now, after the operation, I'm getting a different story. They're even refusing to schedule the follow up without my seeing a "financial coordinator" to make payment arrangements. WTF?
Saturday, April 05, 2008
I just finished reading Caught in the Middle, by Richard Longworth. It's subtitled "America's heartland in the age of globalism" and takes a very thoughtful economic overview of the "Midwest". What's happening here, why it's happening, why we've for the most part been so ineffective in dealing with it and, most importantly, offers a cutting edge set of solutions to adapt the area for the 21st century. Needless to say I'm impressed as all get out with this book. Longworth has a great writing style that allows his observations and conclusions to make sense to everyone, not just economic majors. Perhaps this book particularly resonates with me because for a long time now I've argued (and even predicted) that the best thing that could happen with the U.S. (and especially the Great Lakes States) is dissolution into smaller countries. While Longworth doesn't go that far some of my basic arguments are supported by him (well, sorta). Anyway, here's a review of it. Get thee to a library.
Posted 10:05 AM by whatley (0) comments
Comments:
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Fourth Amendment says: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Pesky amendment.
Posted 5:52 AM by whatley (2) comments
Comments:
- Problem is this argument is absolute horseshit. Let's all look up posse commitatus. They can't do military operations on citizens inside the U.S. unless they declare martial law. I can't even believe this crap gets consideration by the press when any half educated 8th grader should know better.
Not that I have an opinion or anything.
Post a Comment- This raises a bunch of base-level definitions to consciousness. First, what is "reasonable", and to whom? Second, is the domestic US in a state of war within its boundaries, and who says so?
The military thinks that unquestioning obedience to rules is reasonable. Since it is easier to obey than to reason and resist, many people will concur. Many religious sects use this precept, as do fringe movements and cults. Whenever one sees a crowd/mob marching and shouting in lockstep, higher mental processes have been discarded. Is this reasonable? The constitution is used to support the rights of individuals. Are the political and military policy makers using the same arguments to support the supposed rights of their own individual groups?
The FBI under J Edgar Hoover considered that a state of war existed between their institutionalized way of thought and anyone who did not agree with it. In the 1950s and through Viet Nam, it was easiest to label "outsiders" as either "Communist" or "insane". Currently, if you are opposed, you must be an "Islamic fundamentalist", or "insane". There is something dark about discriminating by religious affiliation rather than by political philosophy. But when you consider that the USA has made a religion of its philosophy, it makes a kind of sense. Do human groups require religion as a compost bin in which to discard excesses of moral doubts and stabs of conscience? War, after all, states "I will take what you have by force because you are less human and deserving of extermination." It has to, since we would be unable to kill people who are not only like us, but are, in fact, completely us.
I know you agree with me because you are not insane.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
There's a site called Tech Support Alert written by Ian "Gizmo" Richards that lists his pick of info and support sites (see the links along the left sidebar of the window). There are also reviews and how-to guides in the center. I focused on his list of the 46 best free utilities as I was looking for imaging backup software (like Norton/Symantec Ghost). I don't know anything about Richards or about his credentials, but the list has a bunch of suggestions for free software gathered in one place so you can investigate and decide on your own if anything is applicable and safe to use.
Posted 10:44 AM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- "Gizmo" also offers 2 monthly "best of" type emails; a free one, and a more expanded pay one (we're talking $10/year here, chump change). I've been getting the free one for well over two years. It's worth every penny! No, really, I've picked up a lot of tips from this guy. He's good. I'm seriously considering subscribing to the $10 version and for me $10 is, well, $10.00!.
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