After waiting almost the entire day for the cable guy to get here, he finally got here at about 5pm. There was a lot of rigmarole about changing modems, only to discover that the box outside has one of its doors missing and a wire was damaged. I can’t wait to move out of this complex.
Now I have to figure out how to use this computer. See ya.
Okay, I bought a new computer at Compusa, which was having a going-out-of-business sale. I forgot they were shutting down. I got a pretty good deal — It’s got Windows Vista Premium (ugh, but I didn’t have any trouble with the initial setup, it’s just fancier XP), and more important it has 2 GB of RAM and a big hard drive. It’s a Gateway, but it seems to work okay. I just went ahead and bought it before I could change my mind — I’ve been dithering about getting a computer for months now, and if I waited any longer I knew I’d end up with a dead computer and no money again.
Of course, I can’t connect to the internet yet — my cable internet is still out, I’m stealing some weak wireless connection just to get this up here. The computer came with all this stuff, which surprised me — keyboard, mouse, speakers, some sort of remote control media setup thing. Unfortunately, it isn’t a laptop — they had some, but they were still going for a tad more than I wanted to spend despite the fire sale discounts — it’s a desktop. Well, I had the monitor mouldering away in the closet anyway, now I can use it. And I half killed myself getting the box up the stairs — my arms still ache. But it just fit under my desk, so it will work out. I’ll be removing lots of crap software once I get everything set up (McAfee Antivirus and all its garbage will go bye-bye, as will a bunch of outdated internet connection stuff (AOL! Netzero! No thanks) and Napster for some reason is installed), but I’m used to that. Not bad for under five hundred bucks. And it’s all thanks to my readers and their generosity. You guys rock.
My laptop took ages to start up. I think I bought the new machine just in time. Well, I’ll get back online tomorrow, I hope. I am diverting myself with “classic” (80s-era, “Fifth Doctor” –the blond one) Doctor Who dvds. One thing I have noticed about the “classic” Doctor Who that I don’t miss at all isn’t the horrid cheap sets (they weren’t all horrid; “The Keeper of Traken” had quite a nice set design) or the rubber monster suits, or the uneven acting — it is the excruciatingly slow pace of the old shows compared to the new one, or frankly any new show that’s been on tv since the 90s. I don’t know what happened, but television shows are filmed at a faster pace, or at least the illusion of one, and with a lot more detail crammed in to the forty-five or so minutes of episodes, and I’ve gotten use to it, which makes watching anything filmed before, oh I don’t know, 1992, difficult.
One more thing: thanks (again) to the contributions from readers, I will still be able to make the upcoming rent, with just a little squeezing. All I have to do is hold out until April 30 (well, as things turned out it’s actually until May 3rd, because I moved in May 4th last year) and then I get my deposit back. Of course they’ll take their time sending it to me, apartment management companies always do, but I plan to have a job by then. Actually, I plan to have a job in the next few weeks, because this situation is ridiculous. I caught a glimpse of an article in today’s paper about how immigrants are leaving the state because of the construction industry (and everything else) downturn. And I’m sure that only about half of those “immigrants” are actually illegal aliens, without which we were told the construction industry would collapse. Well it collapsed frickin’ anyway, didn’t it?
Yay, not only did this falling apart laptop of mine cack out last night so I had to do an extra-hard reboot (this involves yanking out the entire battery to force it to shut down), I woke up this morning to find that my internet connection has gone kablooey. Nothing the tech guy over the phone had me do (unscrew the cable and unplug the modem, rescrew the cable and replug the modem, unscrew the cable and press the reset button with a pen, etc.) worked, so I am here at Panera with a token order of coffee, using their free wireless. It took my machine forever to start up, and it moans and groans and complains, so I am going to have to bite the bullet and look for a new computer. I think I may just be able to squeak out a lower-end desktop from my budget — I hope. If I can’t, then I will have to put up with old Betsey a while longer, but I don’t know how long it will last. (By the way, it’s only because of the contributions from my generous and wonderful readers that I am able to even think about doing this. Otherwise I’d be up the creek all together. Wish me luck at Compusa and Walmart.)
The local news was going into hysterics last night because a Big, Bad Storm-laden Cold Front was to be heading this way. Well, apparently it did, but all my neighborhood got was some rain, a bit of breeze (earlier), and occasional distant thunder. Usually the area along I-4 (which we call “the I-4 Corridor”) is a thunder-‘n’-lightning magnet, but for months now the weather above my apartment complex has been almost continually placid. I suppose I should consider myself lucky, as I’ve already had more than a few electrical appliances destroyed by lightning (such as, oh, a usb port and network card short out in a computer I had). But I was hoping at least for a real downpour.
I was out in the traffic today, and I don’t know how much of it was affected by the state-wide power outage, but it sucked extra-specially. I ended up around the downtown area, and this is not New York, but Orlando still hasn’t adjusted to becoming a Sudden Metropolis, and everything is under construction. And there was an accident blocking the streets. So I got lots of extra practice shifting gears (and swearing, and complaining under my breath).
I have decided to get a small storage space in one of those store-your-junk places, because I have too much stuff (my closet is crammed, I can hardly get into it), and I just don’t have the patience to sort through all the boxes, set up the Ebay store, decide what needs to just get taken to Goodwill, etc., right now. Also I think some of my furniture will have to be stored when I do move because I am planning on moving to a smaller and cheaper place. And obviously if I end up renting a room instead of an actual apartment I won’t be able to fit everything I own into it. I hope I’ll be able to find a reasonably-priced storage place (some of them charge so much it’s not worth it).
Well that’s it for now. Working on some stuff, be back later.
Argh. I got a call from one of the temp agencies I signed up with — they had a job available. I called back, left a message… and when the woman at the agency called me back she said they were waiting on a call from the employer, who told them they “might have filled the position on their own.” She will let me know. Argh.
Thanks to everyone who has donated to my fundraiser. Just a note: both Paypal and Amazon do not reveal your financial information to me. I just get, at most, a name and email address. (And I don’t usually get anything from the Amazon link — so all of you who have donated via that way, this is a generic thank you to you all.)
Anyway, I’m off to get ready to go over to H&R Block. It looks like I’m getting a tax refund this year, and despite the cost I’m going to have to go with their tax refund loan thingie. I hate the big chunk of money I’m going to lose, but I need the cash now. It’s not a very big refund, because I chose not to have taxes taken out of my unemployment every week, but every little bit helps.
I will try to post something non-boring that is not about my pathetic life later. Pinky swear.
Dig this awesome lizard. If it could breathe fire it would be perfect. Oh okay, and had some wings. (Via, further via.)
Psst: I’m having a fundraiser. No, it’s not to buy cool lizard pets. Though this one would sure give my cats some exciting moments…
Well folks, I am in a hole. Still no job — if the crowds at any place I apply to are any indication, half the city is out of work — and my spare funds have finally been depleted. Here’s the plan: I need to stay in this apartment at least until my lease ends. That will be at the end of April. Hopefully by then I’ll have some kind of employment, because otherwise I won’t be able to move. I plan to move to much cheaper digs — I moved here only because it was convenient to the last job I had — but I’ll need at least part of my security back. If I get tossed I won’t get any of it back and I’ll be in the hole for lease breakage and legal fees.
So anyway, if everyone who reads my site donated a dollar, I could… I don’t know, buy lunch. But every little bit helps.
On the up side, I am getting job offers, of a sort — mostly come-ons for sales positions. In other words, they aren’t job offers. In any case, I refuse to do sales, because I can’t sell; the thought of selling anything to anyone makes me physically nauseous. I can’t seem to even sell myself (when I went to write up my resume and came to the part where I have to write down all the things I can do my mind went blank, as usual). Besides, it’s easy to promise someone a sales position, because you can base their pay on their sales and dump them if they don’t make any, and commission is taxed up the yin yang (I have worked with salespeople so I know the score), and I’d rather dig ditches. It’s steadier work.
Oh yeah — and then there are the emails that lead you to a website that is nothing but a come-on for various “universities” of the sort that used to be advertised on the back of matchbooks (you know, the ones where you could get “degrees at home in your spare time” in things like locksmithing). Yeah, that really made me feel great.
Anyway, I went to yet another placement agency yesterday, where there was a huge crowd of people. I felt slightly reassured by the fact that I was the only one there wearing business casual instead of one-grade-up-from-hobo-wear. I mean, you’re applying for a job and you can’t even bother to comb your hair and put on a pair of slacks? It was baggy jeans city. And there was a woman in jeans shorts. On the other hand, this was a placement agency, not the actual place where you would get interviewed by the actual employer. Yeah, this is how they do things now: you turn in your paperwork, fill out some forms, and they’ll “go through the paperwork” and “call you in a few days.” I’ve been waiting for calls for five months.
But this brings me to the sad fact that Western Civilization is dead. How do I know that? It’s not that men are pigs — that would indicate a level of self-awareness not to mention knowledge of a recognized rule of civilized behavior that was being broken. No, men aren’t pigs anymore, they are simply unaware of the fact that when a woman walks into the room and there are no chairs, then the first young, strong, able male that sees her should stand up and offer her his chair. But there they sat, like piles of washing (which is what those baggy clothes make everyone look like), while I just stood there feeling like an idiot. And then it happened. Another young, baggy-clothes-wearing man came in. (If I’d been sitting down I’d have offered him my chair. I am polite.) Then suddenly the strains of a song burst into the room: “I like big butts and I cannot lie…”
That sound you hear isn’t just a cell phone ringtone, it’s the theme song of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Well, well. So Castro is “retiring.” Call me cynical, but I suppose we’ll soon get news that he’s “peacefully died in his sleep.” Then they’ll put him in a glass display box, like Lenin, the better for his celebrity admirers to be photographed weeping over his corpse. I know how these things go.
(If I still lived in Miami I would have been apprised of this the moment I woke up — though it looks like even the Cuban-American community is sick of Castro — but living in Orlando means I had to find out about this from an Australian blog.)
Update: more from Babalu Blog.
Second update: I suppose I should clarify that I meant the Cuban-American community in Miami seems to be sick of “Castro will be gone real soon now!” news, not to imply that they’d ever been fans of the man. See Steve H. for more.
Okay, one good thing about not having a job is apparently I’m avoiding getting this year’s really bad flu.
Hey, I’ve got to look on the bright side. (Via.)
Well, kids, I don’t know what’s up with me but all weekend I’ve been under attack by something — I have the achy sinuses and the weirded-out innards, but not the fever. It could be I’m allergic to something. Possibly to being jobless and broke. It doesn’t help much that I had to take the older cat to the vet this past week — there went almost a hundred bucks. (She’s fine — just old and afflicted with thyroid disease.) As for the job situation, I found out from some friends that I’m not alone — even supermarket cashier jobs are hard to find. This doesn’t make my backup plan to apply at Publix much of a backup plan. As it stands I am not planning to re-sign the lease on this place. I am hoping to make it to the end of my lease, which is April 30. I’m not sure I’ll make it that far, but I don’t have much choice — I don’t have a job, so getting a new place won’t be easy. (Does unemployment count as “real” income? Urgh.) Anyway, I am going to be lowering my sights for my next place of residence: I’m going to be looking for a one-room studio or even converted garage-type room. All I require is my own entrance, bathroom (I’ll even accept a shower-only bathroom; I used to hold out for a full bath, but I don’t take many baths these days), and some sort of kitchenette with its own sink. I can deal with a small fridge — I find the huge honking things all apartments have to be too large anyway, mine is never even half full. And I don’t need a dishwasher — I have hands. Oh yeah — and whatever the place is must accept two cats. I’ll have to sell or store most of my furniture, but such is life.
Anyway, those are my life plans so far. I hope I’ll have a job by move-out time; otherwise I’m not sure what I’ll do. (PS: any donations to the links to the right will be much appreciated, etc.)