Kung Fu...I Think.

SO, in the days when I was young, back in Boy Scouts there was no video games, internet, Hell, cable TV was just starting. Anyway, you would watch television at home and then talk about it when you saw your friends.
So, I'm pretty sure this was an episode of Kung Fu that this guy takes these bronze coins and imbeds them in a huge wooden idol. It was pretty cool if you were tweleve.
That weekend we went camping and we had all completed something that got us each a huge, bronze coin as a medal. What for? I have no recollection, but you know what happened all weekend?
That's right, we chucked those things at trees figuring we could do what we saw on the TV.
While I'm pretty sure that no one actually managed to do, I do know that about half of us came home with no bronze coin. Those things flew into the woods and were never heard from again.

Have I mentioned...

...that I am still unemployed? I got off to the bus stop this morning to what I thought was an interview for a management position in retail. When I got there it was a cattle call with like ten people there. To add insult to injury it was for part time. Wasted three bucks worth of bus tokens for the round trip and the bus took forever.
I had brought my laptop so I could stop by the cable access station to see if we could figure out why my DVDs won't play.
Yeah, nobody there. Just the bigwigs and they were busy. Also, now you have to ask for the key to the bathroom. I assume it's some sort of hobo problem. I did make a copy of the recent episode of The BAsement of BAron Morbid and left a blank disc to see if their equipment would fare any better. I will have to try a later time to see the tech guys.
I recently had a dream where I am working is some restaurant. Of course, that never goes well because I have no idea what I'm doing and the dream state is mocking me the entire time. This last one, though, it didn't mock me all that much, but there was a clear moment where I was standing in this kitchen and all I wanted to do was go home.
I have been either home or school full time since October of 2009. I'm  starting to wonder if I am unemployable at this point.
Kind of a waiting game at this point.

Randomness

So, was at church this morning and I like to take my old 16th century reprint of the original King James Bible. I like the way it looks and the old English used in it. Well, today, Jeremy told us to turn to Psalms 146. Yeah, everything is done in Roman numerals so I was lost...for a minute.
Thank God I remember my Roman numerals from the decades of movie watching.
It was CXLVI for those who want to know.
Also, woke up to something called Tattooed Teen Age Alien Fighters From Beverly Hills this morning. Yeah, I know it sounds cheesy and it is cheesy, but I kinda liked it. It seemed very sarcastic and kind of a jab at the Power Rangers.

BOOK 'EM DANNO!

So, I had class last night. PC Hardware/Software repair. My computer was giving me fits and I was there until the bitter end. While I was in school, the rain had turned to a slushpile. No big deal. My bike has those cruiser tires so the ride from the station to home wouldn't be that big of a deal.
So, I leave the station, turn right towards Martin Luther King, Jr. park and take a side street that runs behind Park Street Market.
That was when the cop car headed right towards me and blocked my path. Now, it is my personal opinion that most cops are crazy. Who else would take a job where being shot at is in the job description? Anyway, this little guy gets out to inform me that riding at night without a light is against city ordinance. So is not shoveling your sidewalks yet we stood near at least three businesses that were flaunting that particular ordinance and he wasn't hassling them.
So, here we are, standing in the slush while he decided to run my ID to see if I'm a wanted felon or some such nonsense. I know he thought he was looking out for my welfare. He even told me that people had been hit by cars recently on their bikes. I assumed those would be the bike riders I see on a daily basis that are oblivious to their surroundings. I am so paranoid by cars that I have developed a spidey-sense about them.
So, in the end, I got to be half an hour late to getting home in the dark and the slush and have learned a valuable lesson;
Always bring a flashlight on my bike rides.
Oh, and a final note, this is downtown Kalamazoo where the streetlights are bright enough to simulate daylight and the only people on the roads were me and cops.

Deep Breath, aaaand, go!

Alright. I went into today in panic mode. I was sure that my financial aid was going to be cut off. I wouldn't get to finish my degree and there were things that wouldn't happen if the money didn't come in like Cinema Wasteland and Waltzmaas.
Then I got to school early and had the best possible morning.
I didn't get coffee this morning.
They had coffee and red velvet donuts I might add.
I had the nicest counselor named Cody. She was great. She also gave me a couple of really nice news tidbits;
One, if I retake a class I can have the other grade wiped out. This will do a great job with my GPA.
The other thing;
Besides my business internship, I only have two more classes to get my degree!
I thought that was awesome!
So, in the end, I came into this expecting the worst. even the weather is cloudy and gray and the snow is melting and looks all dirty. I figured I was doomed.
Seems I was wrong on many counts. So, now I must go write HTML for a class I thought I wasn't even going to get to finish.
Thanks, Jesus. Thanks for turning this day around for me and especially thanks for the coffee and red velvet donuts. That was a nice touch.

Just realized...

...I haven't been here in a couple of weeks. What's been up? What's going on? Inquiring minds want to know! Anyway, tomorrow, I have to go to the college and beg for my financial aid money. Apparently I am taking too long in getting my degree and they want to yank the fundage. Of course they couldn't tell me that before I started the semester.
All my teachers are cool and I would like to finish the semester. I have some big ceramics projects in the works and would like them to be done.  I'll know more on Monday and report back here. I will also be starting back up at Gunaxin, a men's magazine online. Mostly humorous stuff, but it does actually pay money which is good. I'll post links to my stuff as it appears.
I am also looking for employment. Anyone know anything be sure to contact me at this blog.

More tomorrow.

Smell that?

That's the smell of a burning bridge. Get it? You will in a minute.

I applied for the position of Customer Service Representative - Print Production for a company that shall remain nameless (SCHAWK! INC.), the exclamation mark is their idea. For over five years my position was...wait for it...Customer Service Representative - Print Production. 

They sent me a letter that I quote: 

'Thank you for your interest in employment with Schawk, Inc.!  We appreciate you taking the time to apply online for the Customer Service Representative-Print Production position.

Although you have an impressive background, we have decided to move forward with candidates who are more closely aligned to what we need in this role.'

You see the line that says 'closed aligned to what we need in this role' ?

I have actually done this job! This exact same job for two different companies! I don;t know how I could be anymore 'aligned' to this job.

Oooo! Maybe they meant alignment like in Dungeons and Dragons? Maybe they needed someone Lawful Good and I came across as more of a Chaotic Good kind of guy. Maybe that's it. Beats me. I actually was so dumbfounded that I wrote the corporate people of Schawk! (Once again, the exclamation mark is their idea, not mine)

So, I expect to wait a week before I send off another missive to learn what I could have done instead of doing the exact same job they were hiring for.

I'll keep you posted.