DSFGE Day 22. Have an interview tomorrow. No particularly good jobs on CareerBuilder right now.

Let's see. Did I do anything interesting today? Actually, I feel something like a failure; I planned to put out three items of correspondence today, and I accomplished only two.

Jeff and I are watching Serenity. I was happy to watch that, since he started watching The Core, at first, and I couldn't stand it. Character-driven Sci Fi is an art. They should produce Firefly directly for the Sci Fi Channel now. Most of their fan base is watching that station anyway.

I Heart The Doctor

Jeff and I finished Voyager Season 2 this evening, having received the disk from Netflix in the mail. Much of the time, Voyager is cheesy and repetitive, but I am starting to have a lot of affection for some of the characters. The Doctor and Tuvok always make me smile!
We are total Sci Fi addicts! It's sad, really. However, I'm starting to understand how there has come to be a certain amount of fanaticism among the fan bases of various shows. It's also fun to see how various shows "cross-pollinate". For example, one starts to recognize various actors bringing their special talents and personalities to multiple genre series:
Mitch Pileggi made his mark as the enigmatic Skinner on The X-Files, and is now rough-and-ready as the top-ranking military officer Col. Caldwell on Stargate: Atlantis. Armin Shimerman was recognizeably repugnant as Quark on various Star Trek shows (TNG, DS9, and Voyager), and Principle Snyder on Buffy; he appeared in an episode of Stargate SG-1, as well. Ben Browder and Claudia Black both moved from Farscape to Stargate SG-1. Pretty Jewel Staite was a little girl in an X-Files episode, a wraith nymphet in a Stargate: Atlantis episode, and spunky mechanic Kaylee in Firefly. Even Lucy Lawless of Xena fame did a guest bit on Battlestar Galactica last Friday, as an aggressive cylon. Hee, so fun!

I have an interview scheduled for Wednesday. It is for an operations-type job. I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Now, I'm watching SG-1 save the world, on the Sci Fi channel.

Sorry

Oh, my poor readers. I have neglected you! Really, I have not much to tell.

The aforementioned funny stories are not really all that funny. I will relate them, nevertheless.

Earlier this week (I honestly don't remember which day, anymore), I received a large and important-looking FedEx envelope from the Humongous Anonymous Technical Company (hereafter referred to as HATC), which happens to have been the place of my former employment. Since it looked important, I opened it forthwith and straightway, and as luck would have it, it WAS important. Along with a stack of HR material, I had a letter informing me that there is a decreased need for my particular job description, and so the letter served as my sixty day notice. Hilarious! Some people might ask, "Why is it funny to get a layoff notice? Isn't that kind of serious and frightening?" The reason that it's funny is that I DON'T WORK THERE ANYMORE. I haven't worked there for more than a month. So if they wish to lay me off, I don't much care either way. I would like to state: I think that if budgets (by the way, I've known about the 2006 budget issues for a year now, and other people have already been laid off or reassigned) and/or programmatic issues require a manager to reduce headcount, it is completely reasonable to begin by cutting the personnel WHO DON'T WORK THERE. I am not on payroll; I am simply a name in a computer now. If I'd still been working there, I don't think I'd have been laid off, since I would have been doing actual work, and therefore been of use to the HATC. Well, whatever.

The second funny thing is that someone from JoAnn's called me about working in the store--AS A SCRAPBOOKING TEACHER. I like to scrapbook, and I like to teach, but everything I know about the scrapbooking subculture tells me that I would not be an ideal teacher for scrapbooking. I'm too much of an iconoclast. I would yell at my students for being cutesy. I would remind them that nobody actually cares about their baby's first tooth, and they should wait until they had something more interesting to scrap about, like maybe a trip to Europe. Stuff like that. Also, I'm a beginner. So, no dice.

As a final indignity, someone from one of the temp agencies called and offered me some work. However, it was doing CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES (sounded like a daycare) for barely more than minimum wage. Sorry, you'll have to pay me a lot more than that to get me to spend several hours doing finger painting and cutting out little shapes from construction papers! I told the caller, "I'm not really good with children."

Anyhoo. Jeff and I went to church at Gateway this morning. Jeff really wanted to check it out, and I resisted, but eventually gave in. We went to the earlier "traditional" service, so the music was adequate, but I disliked the sermon (I'm no fan of the topical approach; I prefer a rigorous exegetical approach, at which Pastor Lou at Grace LB excelled), and the "special music" solo at the end was laughable--someone sang "Because You Loved Me"! Yes, the mid-90s pop song. In church. And she suffered by obvious comparison to Celine Dion. Yes, I'm cruel, ill-mannered, and bad-tempered, for mocking the poor lady. But I can muster neither remorse for my behaviour nor sympathy for the singer. WHO thought this was a good idea? WHY?
On the plus side, we saw Olaf and Rosalee (Jeff's grandparents) there, so we sat with them, and then were able to go with them to brunch.

Jeff did homework in the afternoon, while I puttered about the kitchen, making cinnamon rolls. I haven't baked cinnamon rolls from scratch for a long time, and it was fun. The end product was tasty, if not as gooey as I would like. Now Jeff is in bed, and so I shall be, soon enough. I am finally starting to get sleepy...

Not much new

Still nothing interesting in DSFGE Day 18.

I'll get back to y'all tomorrow. I have a funny story or two to tell.

I watched the ladies' short program in figure skating last night, as watching the ice dancing over the weekend reminded me that figure skating is the one Winter Olympics sport that I enjoy. I hate snow and ice and cold conditions in general, so I don't care much about winter sports at all. So sue me. And in figure skating, I prefer ice dancing and pairs skating to singles' events, but those are already over, so I was stuck watching the ladies. Anyway, I know it's all about the medals and the glory, and the athletes far away in Italy don't care anything about my opinion, but I decided to dole out my own specials awards, based on what I've seen so far.

Sunnydale Special Breakout Star: Tugba Karademir, Turkey's first Olympic figure skater. Go, Tugba! I predict that this poised and lovely lady will become an an idol and superstar in her home country, and possibly inspire other Turkish girls to reach for their dreams. Ice skating aficianados Buffy Summers (aka Dorothy Hamill's #1 fan) and Casey Carlyle (aka Dawn Summers) give her two very enthusiastic Sunnydale cheers.

Class Act, Part I: Fumie Suguri, for her beautifully clean short program and her beautifully classy costume. I couldn't find any pictures of her from last night (Google image search and all), but she wore a red dress with a black lace shrug over her arms and shoulders--very elegant, very Spanish. She skated to flamenco-type music.

Class Act, Part II: Michelle Kwan, for withdrawing from competition when she realized she was not in the physical condition to perform for the US at the best of her abilities.

Sonja Henie Perfect Pixie Award: Irina Slutskaya. Adorable and energetic, she is dynamite on the ice. Her talent and athleticism, as well as her charming personality and rapport with an audience (even, via TV cameras, an audience thousands of miles away) make her a worthy successor to the world's all-time most successful figure skater.

Flo Ziegfeld Perfect Showgirl Award: Sasha Cohen. She skated last in Tuesday's short program, and proved that she had skill, beauty, and charisma to spare.

The Long Weekend

We opted to take advantage of [yet another of] Jeff's three-day weekend[s], and on a whim, drove down south to see friends and family this weekend. We arose on Saturday morning and drove away. There was some light snow, followed by rain, over the Grapevine, and then there was heavy rain and then an accident on the 210. We finally arrived to have lunch and then spend the afternoon with our fun friends Sam and Melissa. We had pizza, talked and laughed, went to Starbucks, read Bill Handle-isms, and watched Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (as many laughs as in a standard Family Guy episode, but spread thinner over 4 times as many minutes). We ate supper at Wild Noodles (food was no good; don't ever go there), and then Jeff and I had to head up to LA to see the fam: Mom and Dad, of course, and Mia and Reverend Dan. Mike wasn't there, though. I spent more than an hour talking with my kakak, and it was very good. Jeff and I spent the night in the guest room, and I slept like a log, I was so tired.

The next morning, we ate breakfast at the Starbucks on San Antonio, went to church at Grace, and then hung out at the Starbucks at Long Beach Town Center, because we couldn't think of another place that would let us just sit around and talk for a while. Jeff and I had to head over to La Habra after that, as we were having lunch with Elizabeth, Sara, and Jeremy. Yay! I had a great time with them. After eating at Rubio's, we went over to (believe it or not) Starbucks, so that Jeff could sit and do homework. However, he just ended up chatting the whole time. Ah, well.

We zoomed to have dinner with the Winters in Buena Park, then went to their house to spend the night. Amanda made cake, and we watched Legally Blonde (because I was in a silly brain-dead moode) and some of the Olympics (How about all those painful-looking falls in the ice dancing, huh?). Then we crashed, and I slept like a log again. We got up and zoomed back up north.

Deb's Search for Gainful Employment begins again tomorrow, in earnest. More on that to come.

I'm engaged in watching Sci Fi Friday, of course, and reflecting on my day. By the way, we liked this week's episodes of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis better than last week's.

I slept in, and when I awoke, I dreaded getting out of bed. Eventually, however, I did get up, so good on me, because one can't stay in bed forever. I'd written someone about an accounting analyst job Thursday evening, and he replied to me, stating that he thought that the position would not hold my interest for very long, and I should look into finding engineering jobs. I replied that I was actually looking to transition away from the engineering world. He called me some time later, and asked me to have an informal interview sort of thing, so I went to lunch with him and a supervisor person. We chatted about my history and what I am looking for in a job, and they are going to think about if I'd be a good fit with the company. I might hear back from them next week. I would probably enjoy doing accounting analysis, since I enjoy numbers and calculations, but I don't know if they were completely convinced that I would be able to scale back my brilliance to work in a financial institution. Heh. Anyway, yet another example of how much it sucks to be overqualified.

As I was leaving the restaurant to go home, something happened to my car (our new Acura Legend). I unlocked the door, and the alarm started honking. I'd like to mention that I was never made aware that the car even has an alarm system. I had no idea how to turn the alarm off, and I was standing in a strip mall parking lot. I was so embarrassed, and as I called Jeff, I carefully avoided looking around to see who was staring, pointing and laughing at me. I kept trying to lock and unlock the door, put the key in the ignition, and on occasion the alarm would go off, and then as I tried to turn on the car or shut the door or something, it would start the alarm again. SO frustrating, and I'm sure Jeff was frustrated, too, as he kept saying things like, "Unlock the door, get out of the car, shut the door, use the key to lock and unlock it...." and I would be almost in tears, saying, "But the door is already unlocked, and should I lock it again and then unlock it, or just open it?" Finally, the alarm stopped (still not quite sure exactly what actions caused it to start in the first place, nor exactly what processes caused it to cease), and I was able to just get in the car (without locking the door), start the ignition, and drive home. I didn't lock the door at all. Gyah.

Anyway, the rest of the afternoon was spent browsing through more job sites. Pretty much nothing good out there. I'm always either overqualified or underqualified. *sigh*

Blah

Another day of discouragement. I did some chores, applied to some more jobs, and otherwise just sat around.

On the happy side, it seems that Jeff and I will be heading south to see friends and family this weekend, because Jeff has [another] three-day weekend. These school district folks probably don't work any more than 100 days/year!

Oh, yes, and we finished Angel season 1. Interesting cliffhanger. I always think Darla (Julie Benz) is so pretty!

Life goes on

Today was not fantastic, but it didn't suck, either.

I awoke as Jeff was getting up and leaving, so I was able to get up early and get a few chores done. Josh spent the night in our guest room last night, as he was up in this area for business. So I got to chat with Josh this morning. We didn't fight, so that is always a plus. We went to Foster's Freeze for lunch.

I am currently waiting for several people to get back to me about various job-type things.

Discouragement

I've definitely reached the point at which I am disenchanted with the whole nonsense of searching for a job. The office of education and school district have been giving me the run around, since I think nobody really knows what is going on. No wonder they're short-staffed. Especially with regard to math teachers, who obviously are not going to put up with such shenanigans. I can speak only for the state of California, but I must say that my experience with school districts indicates that most of them are so patently stupid that they deserve the problems they have.

In the arena of the survival of the fittest, public schools would die. Despite the lack of a level playing field and incentive for the survival of the fittest, yea, even with extreme subsidation, I think public schools are going to die anyway. You heard it from me first. And I diagnosed the error of the Social Security program and predicted the baby boomer-related Social Security funding disaster 13 years ago. Being a pessimist guarantees that one is correct in one's predictions nearly all of the time.

Now, we're watching some Voyager episodes that we just got in the mail today.

This was a holiday for Jeff, so he was home for three days this weekend! It was nice and relaxing.

Yesterday, we did some cleaning, and invited our neighbors (Greg and Heather) for dinner. They are very... interesting... people. Nice, though. They really like cats, too, so they enjoyed playing with Hobbes and Touchy.

Today, we slept in, then ran errands and stuff. Did some housework and yard work. Very low-key.

I looked at some jobs. I'll call the school districts tomorrow, when they'll be back from holiday.

The CBEST was predictably easy to take. I was surprised at how many people were there. Many of them were wearing Fresno State sweatshirts.

It's Friday night, and it doesn't take a genius to know what we're doing. Yes, we're watching Sci Fi Friday, although we're flipping back and forth between that and the opening events for the Olympics in Torino.

John Doe: Have we found a hint of Doe's true identity? What will happen next week?!
Stargate SG-1: The previews made this episode look stupid, but it was actually a good old-school Stargate romp. It brought Baal back in the game. =)
Stargate Atlantis: *smirk* They just totally slammed on people who watch TV. However, this was a super-lame episode. No plot, no reason for it to have been made at all. *sigh*
Battlestar Galactica: More arch political drama. Much better than last week. Poor Billy, though. I've always been fond of Billy. He's so cute. The sweetest and least annoying character bit it, which is the way things always work out in dramas. When they showed him in the 'Previously on Battlestar Galactica' bit, I said to Jeff, "Oh, no, Billy's going to die in this episode! Just wait and see. Oh, I don't want Billy to die!" Sometimes, I'm too smart for my own good.

Today, in DSFGE Day 10, I filled out online application forms for Fresno USD, and talked to some human resources people there. Tomorrow, I shall take the CBEST. I hope I do well enough.

MCI

Stands for Mercilessly Completely Irritating.

The phone rang today. I answered. There was a relentlessly cheerful telemarketer on the other end. Conversation was as follows, with parenthetical commentary by yours truly.

RCT: Hello, ma'am, I'm calling from MCI.
Me: Oh?
RCT: I'm calling about your phone number. (Now, I know that MCI is a phone service, so I already know what he's calling about, right? Hello, I am not STUPID. Whatever.) Is it XXX-XXXX?
Me: You called this number yourself. You obviously must know what it is. (Duh.)
RCT: (probably had never gotten that response before; gamely rallies and carries on) Your phone carrier is Pacific Bell, is that correct? (What, he knows everything about me? Does he have my baby pictures and high school grade reports, too? Scary.)
Me: (Like I know what phone service we have. Jeff pays the bill whenever it comes. I only ever use my cel phone to call people. We only have a land line because of DSL.) Could be.
RCT: (doggedly determined to carry on) MCI would like to offer you a better long-distance plan.
Me: Oh, we don't have long distance. (It's true. We don't. We can call anywhere we want with our cel phones.)
RCT: (relentless cheer gradually being replaced by doubt) You don't have long distance?
Me: Nope. We don't. You have nothing to sell me. Goodbye! (*click*)

It should be duly noted that I usually try to at least be pleasant to telemarketers. After all, they're just trying to make their living in the world, and it can't be a happy job. Maybe I was just super-crabby Deb or something.

Great fun

Today, I went to work with Jeff. Sadly, no one mistook us for participants in Take Your Child to Work Day, but still...

I drove up to Fresno with Jeff, and then went over to the Fresno City Public Library for a few hours. As far as city libraries go, it was LAME. Quite small for a city as large as Fresno. Metered parking in Fresno is nice, though: 1 cent per minute. Yes, one can park for one hour and forty minutes, for a measly dollar.

Jeff and I went to lunch with one of Jeff's bosses, because they are interested in me for a possible job at the district that fits my abilities quite nicely, and so we had a sort of informal "check me out" interview at lunch. It seemed to go well, and I wore my pink suit again (although I had to forego the lucky Hello Kitty undies). We'll see how it goes, since things like this can take rather a long time, and I don't have a lot of time. I need a job ASAP!

After lunch, I sat around in Jeff's office, reading Plato and listening to my iPod.

It was nice to spend a lot of time with Jeff. If I do get a job with the school district up in Fresno, it will be nice to commute with him. We'll have an extra hour and a half to hang out together, each weekday! We were both exhausted when we got home, though, and there was no one there with dinner waiting (hmmm, can we train the cats to cook, maybe?). When we're both employed, we'll have to figure out how the whole fixing meals thing works again. Tonight, Jeff had hot dogs, and I had a frozen pizza; when I was cooking my pizza in the toaster oven, Jeff decided he wanted one of those, too... Anyway, we watched some Law and Order (the first time I have seen any of those shows) and part of MXC (terribly funny).

Blogger's being weird

Again.

Congratulations to Dan, who is now an ordained minister! My beloved brother has worked long and hard to reach this end, and we are so proud of him. Jeff and I are his "caring couple", so we'll try to figure out a way to celebrate with him, despite being 200 miles apart from him.

I had a fairly low-key DSFGE Day 8. Jeff let me know that the Fresno USD wants to interview me, and I have an appointment for tomorrow. I did laundry, and cleaned the kitchen a bit. Then I spent a few hours with Debbie; we visited some thrift stores (both vastly inferior to Savers) and Target, then chatted over coffee at Starbucks. I made spaghetti with marinara for dinner, and how we're watching Star Trek: Voyager (we got two disks from Netflix yesterday, and between last night and tonight, have almost finished them). I also watched The Young In Heart (see review below) earlier today, while tending to laundry. I love my old movies!

The Young In Heart: Humorous look at the adventures of a family of con artists. The Carletons (although we never do find out whether this is their real name) have been flitting around Europe trying to fleece wealthy folks, but are often exposed as dishonest and must move on to the next place. They are crooked as a corkscrew, but completely enchanting in their selfishness and strong drive to avoid anything even remotely resembling real work. There is the father (played by Roland Young, and known as the Sahib due to a fictional stint in the Bengal lancers) who is a card sharp, the mother (played by Billie Burke, and known as Marmy) who flutters and charms, and the son Rick (Douglas Fairbanks Jr) and daughter George-Anne (Janet Gaynor), who are fortune-hunting for spouses among the wealthy and naïve. Naturally, they fall in with various individuals who touch their hearts and rehabilitate them. Minnie Dupree is wonderful as a little old lady who is sharper than she looks; Paulette Goddard is pert and makes a good impression as an upright American girl working in London. This is not really a romantic comedy, nor a screwball comedy, nor a comedy of manners. It is just an excellent film featuring a fabulous cast in an amusing and touching story of humanity and redemption.
****/*****

Werk werk werk! It's awl I'm gud four.

DSFGE Day 7. It's been just over a week, and I'm ready to be done with it.

Today, I went to the Social Security office to get a new card to replace the one I can't find. Interesting experience. While I was there, a man got locked in the bathroom. I have no idea how. He was just pounding on the door and shouting, stuck inside the men's restroom... He eventually figured out how to get out, though.

After filing the paperwork for my card, I took the receipt down to the employment agency, since they needed two forms of ID, and I couldn't find my SS card yesterday. I simply showed them my receipt, and that plus my driver's license was good enough. Strangely, the driver's license alone was good enough for the SS office. Oh, well.

Jeff had an appointment with his supervisor, or a superintendent, or something, and he happened to show her my resume. She was interested in me, and wants to talk to me about some positions that might be a good fit for me. We'll see if anything comes of that.

Other than the above-mentioned incidents, the day was quite dull.

On to Monday

What can I say about today, Day 6 (I'm not counting weekends) in DSFGE?

Well, I signed up with Valley Staffing, an employment agency that does both temporary and permanent placement. I'm thinking that I will be able to work some now and then, for income, while I figure out the job situation. I also got a call back from another employment agency, so that seems okay, too. I haven't heard from Jo-Ann Stores yet, but have not lost hope.

Jeff and I had chili verde tonight (well, I just had a bean and cheese burrito with the salsa verde, no chili), and watched some Simpsons and Stargate. Now, Jeff is playing Halo.

In other news, the remote jungles of Papua have been found to contain all kinds of previously unknown species. Welcome to Duhsville, folks; I could have told you that 15 years ago.

Another end of an era

Western Union delivered their very last telegram on Friday. I don't know if most of my generation has even heard of telegrams. They were obsolete long before I was born, of course. Still, this marks something of a significant moment, a coming of age, irrevocably moving from the Industrial to the Information Age, so to speak.

I was once in a play (Sorry, Wrong Number) in which my receipt of a telegram was a crucial plot device.