Thursday, March 23, 2006

4 Weeks and still looking...not quite living on spongecake

After a few hopeful interviews last week, I thought that maybe this would be a short job hunt. Alas, looks like it will be longer than I hoped. Too bad that I am comfortably (ha ha) surviving on what would have been my retirement stock portfolio.

It sucks how slow things go at the unemployment office. Every day, resume's out, email out, phone calls out....I'm hoping I don't have to start doing temp jobs or work at a " BigBoxMart." I'd rather have full time employment with medical/dental benefits without the third world wages, thank you. Meanwhile, I am selling off some of my things on eBay to help pay the household expenses. I guess those garage 'toys' I collected over the years will come in handy. I really needed to clear some things out of the garage anyway. Hopefully I will have some things left before things get too desperate.

I'm just feeling mighty frustrated by the decision of one person, who four weeks ago decided to play 'god' and fire me on the flimsiest of pretexts, without following company procedure. Yes, it was the sole decision of exactly one newly placed VP Production (from Texas,- yes the same state that screwed California out of Billion$ ) who saw fit to have me escorted out the door on a trumped charge of "insubordination". There was no verbal warning folloing the alleged incident cited at my exit interview nor was there any written warning that would have followed the verbal warning (that never happened) prior to my being dismissed! He just didn't want me in his way.

I like a most all of the rank and file workers there, but the holding company who owns them, Maxcor , and the new management they have installed seem only interested in squeezing a profit rather than continuing to pride themselves as a US based machine tool manufacturer. They have kicked out so many of the engineers, managers, and support personel that they will indeed have a difficult time staying afloat as a company. I feel for the guys who are still there.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Since when has Rap been any less than CRAP!

I refuse to even associate the word 'music' with rap. To do so is the ultimate indignity to the true art of music. Rap is merely simple rhyming with atonal rythmn tossed in to give to some unenlightend folk the impression of 'music'. That rap is so vainly glorified in such mutual gratification award shows such as the Grammys and now the Academy awards says volumes about the steep decline of culture in this nation! It is as much "the Emperor's New Clothes" as it is just plain brainwashing that rap be even considered a musical form.

To this we have news agencies reporting about grafitti 'artists'. True grafitti is different than the much more insidious and mundane tagging seen in much of our cities. There is no true art to tagging. It would be like saying that a dog marking his territory requires a sense of art to properly complete the task.

This looks more like the Orwellian, 1984 slant on twisting the true meanings of words. Thanks to such enlightened folks at the ACLU, they have so much freedom to play crap like rap at exceedingly high volumes without retribution because we might offend someone if we ask that they shut the **** up! But i'ts ok for them to invade our privacy with their NOISE . Go figure!

So much for good neighbors! Renters, naturally. No stake in the neighborhood, so just rape the silence with loud CRAP music and the rest of us be damned!

A week of "vacation"....Still unemployed.....

Actually, I thought I would be more panicked than I am given the rapidly dwindling savings account. While I am still sending out the resumes, I have gotten one interview offer so things are looking better than the last time I was laid off 4 years ago. I try to get my resumes out early in the morning so there is less likelyhood of them winding up in the circular file. I have to remind myself that it has only been one week so far.

I was angry with my former employer for firing me. Aunt Chrissy as usual had kind words of wisdom to which I have taken to heart...I am better off out of that place!

Well, back to the job search...

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Unemployed!!!

Well, there comes a time when all things come to an end. Today I was fired, though not in person by the VP Production who had me fired (coward that he truly is). If he went about things correctly, he would have confronted me at the time regarding what he calls insubordination and worked things out. This VP had only been working for the company little more than one month! The incident didn't even register to other's who were in the same room. He fired me more to send a message to the rest of the company-don't mess with me!- he is a texan, after all, with a gigantic chip on his shoulder. He's gotta prove himself to his bosses who care only for cash the flow anyway.

Anyway enough about cowardly manager-VP's. It was about time I moved on from a place that had been stifleing my expertise since they rehired me 4 years ago (last time I was 'merely' "laid off", which hurt enough). I will miss the friendly coworkers who will have to make do with a VP who is as uncaring as Osama.