Kevin's Watch

Well, before going to bed, I'm going to conclude the weather talk with another lame macro. My friend was all prepared to slay some zombie snowmen with her epic Ice Sword of Gelid Frostbitten Winterdark Coldness today, but we met only some squirrel tracks.



Unfortunately nothing gets closed here because of snow or even -35C. The kids in Lapland would never learn anything, were that the case.

Spring might be here in...lessee...1,5 months.

oh lorin!
feel better soon.

Damn, Frosty, that looks out of this world! I will never whinge about the so-called 'cold' ever again

I will.

--A

Tired today!! Stayed up too late watching a zombie flick with my husband, we laughed and laughed at the horrible screaming. Fun is where you find it, I guess.

lorin, I agree with ali. Get well very soon!!!

Oh no, Lorin.

aliantha wrote:
I had a horrible Monday. I found out I didn't get the job I applied for, and also got turned down at a popular e-book site when I inquired about placing an ad there. Yes, that's right -- I was going to pay them money and they turned me down. Anyway, I had a whole rant typed out for it and hit "submit", and got a critical error and lost the whole post. Probably just as well. Saved you guys from having to read my whinypants post.

Sorry. Sounds like my week, so I know how you feel. A few weeks ago I applied for a job that I really, really wanted and never got anything but a robot response back. And they filled it. So I'm having a bit of an existential crisis. Again. I was qualified. I would have been great at it. I didn't even rate an interview. What am I doing wrong?

There's a lot of that going around, Sorus. Magickmaker's trying to get a full-time job that doesn't involve retail. She's had a couple of nibbles but no concrete job offers. And she's sent out something like 600 resumes over the past few months.

I, otoh, did actually get an interview. And the guy seemed really nice. And then he asked me a question that I should have seen coming and been prepared for, and wasn't: "When I got here, they assigned me Secretary A, and I like her." (Whereupon I interjected that I thought Secretary A was fabulous, which is the truth.) "So tell me," he went on, "why I should hire you instead of her." And I couldn't think of a reason. I'm not best buds with her, but I know her and like her and respect her, and the partner she worked for previously just recently retired -- so really, she kind of needs the gig worse than I do.

Meh. Anyway. I've just gotta believe that I didn't get that job because something better is around the bend.

Fingers crossed for you.

I'm in the same boat. I've been trying to get a 'real' job again since everything fell apart back in '08. A lot of the stuff I apply for would be more lateral moves. This was the first thing I saw that I really wanted. I check the site every day and I applied the day it was posted. It's just so frustrating not knowing what I'm doing wrong. I have a good resume and cover letter. What did the person they hired do differently? It's weird... I have so much experience as interviewer, but so little as interviewee. I know what I would want from a candidate, and I thought I was offering it.

The whole thing sucks. I'm sorry, Sorus. I wish I had some suggestions for you.

Sometimes it's purely random.

Dunno about your experience as an interviewer, (I hate interviewing people, it's harder than they realise), but my experience is getting hundreds and hundreds of applications.

It may well be that I miss a possibility purely through being sick of going through them.

--A

moving furniture into the house today. got the two biggest/heaviest items in. then on the last piece i tripped on the little step on the front and fell. never let go of the tv stand i was carrying, spent five dollars at the auction for it.

bruised/cut my right knee and elbow. will take a pic when the bruises show through. but the guy helping me said it was the most graceful fall he ever saw.

Thanks everyone for the kind thoughts re: my booboo. Hardest thing is sitting still. blech. Poor Helldog hasn't had a walk in four days.

Ali, what kind of area does Magicmaker want to work in? There is a lot of hiring going on in the disaster field right now, especially in the DC area. Fema is picking up a lot of people, as is the Red Cross. The best job I ever had was working for Fema. It was a blast. And great $. In fact, when I am on my feet again I am considering getting re-certified in disaster management.

Sorus, good luck in the hunt. Not easy these days.

Sarge - sending you bandaids, first aid cream and tequila to mend your wounds.

lorin - thanks. knee very sore, having trouble walking.

Oh no, Sarge. Feel better.

Re: Job hunting, I wonder if my lack of presence on Facebook and other social networking is hurting me. I'd really rather think it wasn't a factor, but I know some hiring managers check those things these days. I don't know how common it is for them to check it. We didn't have such things back when I was in HR. In the good old days.

went to auction - got lots of cool stuff. will post on auction thread.

knee showing signs of infection. keep cleaning it. not much fun.

Sorus wrote: Re: Job hunting, I wonder if my lack of presence on Facebook and other social networking is hurting me. I'd really rather think it wasn't a factor, but I know some hiring managers check those things these days. I don't know how common it is for them to check it. We didn't have such things back when I was in HR. In the good old days.

I would hope it's helps you not to be on FB. I mean, don't they only check to see if you are misbehaving?

How are your references? You can always get someone to double check them. It happened to me that a previous employer was giving me a bad reference.

Well, it probably doesn't help that the last company I worked for no longer exists. But I have been in my current job for almost 5 years, and have had quite a number of managers, and I'm fairly certain they'd give me a good reference. My crazy ex-boss in the in-between job that I don't like to talk about (but do list on my resume) probably would not, but she no longer works there anyway. If they contact that company, they'd probably get a generic response. And lucky for me, the only review I got there was written before she went off her meds, so any files on me actually look good.

I don't know what to think. They say the job market is flooded with overqualified applicants, but I'd like to see some where I work.

Three more weeks, and I have been promised a new minion and a vacation. I didn't even ask for a vacation, and I doubt they will deliver, but at least it shows they are taking me seriously. We'll see what happens.

It's snowing...

Cameraman Jenn wrote:It's snowing...

Ditto. (Edited to add) Ooh! It's actually blizzarding right now.

The cold is now into its third week. C is 3 days behind me. He's just starting the sore throat, mine's nearly gone, but I'm now at the bad cough stage. Found a few other people who have had this - some say three weeks, some say 4. Same symptoms, but not necessarily all in the same order. Still, I feel better bodily so should be able to start living normally again.

It was Mother's Day here yesterday. C (daughter) sent a card, which I opened early Sunday morning. A (son) sent me an email with a scans (4 jpegs) of the card he forgot to send! Still, mustn't complain. This is the first year for a long time that I've actually received two cards. We collected the one from A yesterday afternoon.

Reading through these posts, I think, Misery loves company. Okay, I'm not exactly miserable. It's just Monday and I'm tired in spite of a really restful weekend. I guess it's that Stag is so toast. He is really discouraged and I'm doing my best to support him but there's only so much a wifey can do.

I'm taking on a rather huge project. Due to various circumstances, the Spring Musical was canceled. Because it happened rather late, there was no script, nothing organized yet, there was no way I could take that on; but I did decide to revive a musical group I led for a couple years that had actually fallen apart because the Drama department drew off all the really solid kids when they got permission to take over "my" rehearsal day. Which was a big grrr at the time, but now that that person has fallen from grace.... anyway, I wanted the Seniors who have looked forward to "their" musical for so long to have SOMETHING, so I'm organizing a concert-and-skits evening. Yes, I'm absolutely off my head to delve into a project like this at my stress level, but since Fawn is among the disappointed Seniors, I really want this for her.

Also, sometimes I've found the best way to get over being tired is to do more, not less. Funny how that works. And, with all the question marks hanging over our lives right now, it's good to feel I made a decision and am moving forward and it could be something great!!

Or, complete crash-and-burn, but hey. At least I'm trying.