New Jobs Programs and Other Fairy Tales

As often happens I agree with Atrios:

"..They* should unveil a major new jobs plan like today, and then spend the next few months talking about it nonstop even if they can't pass it..."
*Democrats & the Obama admin.)














pic here

But we're just DFH's and all the serious, centrist tv talking heads knows that's crazy talk along with, cutting the defense budget, taxing the filthy rich more, off shore corporate tax havens, two eternal wars, etc, etc....Sooo don't hold your breath for anything even close to a decent jobs bill.

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Krugman: Punishing The Jobless

From Paul Krugman:

"A coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused"

That does sound like today's Republican Party doesn't it? Sadly quite a few Democrats to.

Speaking of low desperation jobs I have to clock in at 6:00pm today...off to take a shower...

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Games - MMORPG's, Lord of the Rings Online | Help The Bloggers

I've started playing Lord of the Rings Online(10 free trial of course) another MMORPG similar to WoW. So far I prefer World of Warcraft, buuuut I haven't really played LOTR online enough to get a comfortable feel for it, get the game controls set as I like them, etc. Of course in ten days they'll be set pretty good when it runs out(c:.
Look there's me!

So far it feels pretty awesome in the gameplay department.
More later maybe, after it's over.







Vault.

Hey, As always; If you can donate do so at the upper right.
My unemployment checks are over looks like. I'm still applying to about 10+ jobs a week(Blogging doesn't make a living), online and out in the world.
And yes I've cut out WoW, to expensive. As much as I love it, and gaming. I feel guilty when I'm Blogging 'cause I'm not looking for work instead.
Things are getting "interesting" as an old Chinese curse goes.
Give to Haiti, animals, your favorite charities, and then, theeen if you have some extra bucks, give a few to a needy Blogger. Thank you...!

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Saturday Video - Pearl Jam

Hello Passerbys and visitors. Hope you're having a great weekend. We went to visit my brother's family, and my sister who's staying with them in Richmond. About a 2 hour drive round trip. The KY Wildcats won! With John "highlight film" Wall.
I got to see the last 8 minutes or so of the game.
Poor Haiti. It looks like we'll have to do some Nation building there. What can you do though? Hope we can make it better.
Here's Pearl Jam, with a live version of "Just Breathe"


I'm obviously not posting much. I don't have a day job(or any) sitting at the computer all day with the Internet in front of me like the old days. I haven't lost interest and I certainly keep up with the news and have the Internet here. But, there's always other things needing doing. So much other things to do.
Just looking for work again is a nearly 4 hour a day job and the other minutiae of everyday life when I'm not being paid to sit at the computer.
I play a couple of hours a day of World of Warcraft. Because, well why not? It's the only time I'm not worrying.
Maybe next post I'll do a bit on that with all my "toons" in the game. That might be interesting.
Better than whining for a job. Right? RIGHT??

Well gonna go play WoW.

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Unemployed Day 45 | Article For Our Government "Drug-fueled Madness"

You would think that being unemployed would lead to a storm of posting ala Atrios, etal. I've found out that it's hard work trying to find another job; work around home, pets, job searches, resumes, World of Warcraft(aah, maybe I shouldn't put that one in there, strike that). Anyway I'm on for a bit.

You know maybe Matt "Dick" Lauer can have Michael Phelps on his show again and berate him for smoking a little pot. Here's another article for Barack "inhaling was the point" Obama and the rest of our government "leaders".

--
Salon.com

Drug-fueled madness!
Our nation's narcotics policy, that is. But there's good news as Hillary Clinton and Sen. Jim Webb take baby steps toward sanity.
By David Sirota

"..According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Americans spend about $9 billion a year on Mexican pot.

Add that to the roughly $36 billion worth of domestically produced weed, and cannabis has become one of the continent's biggest cash crops. As any mob movie illustrates, mixing such "insatiable" demand for a product with statutes outlawing said product guarantees the emergence of a violent black market -- in this case, one in which Mexican drug cartels reap 62 percent of their profits from U.S. marijuana sales.

That last stat, provided by the White House drug czar, is the silver lining. Every American concerned about Mexico's security problems should be thankful that the cartels are so dependent on marijuana and not a genuinely hazardous substance like heroin. Why? Because that means through pot legalization, we can bring the marijuana trade out of the shadows and into the safety of the regulated economy, consequently eliminating the black market that the cartels rely on. And here's the best part: We can do so without fearing any more negative consequences than we already tolerate in our keg-party culture.

Though President Barack Obama childishly laughed at a question about legalization during his recent town hall meeting, his government implicitly admits that marijuana is safer than light beer. Indeed, as federal agencies acknowledge alcohol's key role in deadly illnesses and domestic violence, their latest anti-pot fear mongering is an ad campaign insisting -- I kid you not -- that marijuana is dangerous because it makes people zone out on their couches and diminishes video-gaming skills.

(This is your government on drugs: Cirrhosis and angry tank-topped lushes beating their wives are more acceptable risks than stoners sitting in their basements ineptly playing "Halo." ... Any questions?)..."

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Unemployed, Day 24 | Video - Charlie Rose And Krugman

I've been on a bit of a sabbatical from "the Blog" for nearly a week. If I'm not checking job listings, I'm revising resumes and cover letters for job openings. If not that I'm doing those household chore thingies that we all love. I am "Mister Mom" at the moment. And if not that I'm immersed in World of Warcraft. If people tell you that that's not addictive don't believe it.
I signed with an employment agency last week. We'll see how that works out. I won't have my hopes up, but it would be the best revenge to come out of this with a better job. Now if that great puppeteer Soros would put me on his evil "Liberal" payroll I wouldn't have any worries buuut I just don't think that's gonna happen.
Anyhow while I'm here a bit here's a pretty good interview Charlie Rose did yesterday with Paul Krugman, Joe Nocera and Andrew Ross Sorkin on the latest bailout news. Getcher popcorn:



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Job Losses And Priorities

One point three million jobs lost in the first 2 months of 2009

Sadly I'm one of them.

And Booman get's right to the point:

"..but Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats are all agitated about increasing taxes on rich people. Go figure."

I caught a bit of The Today Show this morning where they had, what I assume was a fairly wealthy advisor on, telling the wealthy hosts what to do in these "tough times".
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Astronomy Moment | New Horizons, Cosmic Times And Distances

..And he comes crawling back to the Blog.
You know I might could actually start enjoying this "unemployed" situation if not for money worries and fear of ending up living in a cave. Went out today and put in 3 job applications. My first job applications since, let's see, about 1986? Sounds about right.
Anyway, astronomy. Here's my astronomy pic of the day. Excellent proof that I'm still alive to Blog. I think the BIG reason I love astronomy is it's ability to put me, my problems, even all humanity in a different perspective.
Here's Omega Centauri the largest of nearby globular clusters. What are globular clusters? Follow the link and learn my friends:

"..Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed, and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited a young Milky Way Galaxy. Of the 200 or so globular clusters that survive today, Omega Centauri is the largest, containing over ten million stars.."

And one of humankind's creations that will probably out live humanity, our earth, even our sun; NASA's space ship New Horizons will travel to Pluto and it's moon, Charon and then follow the Voyager ships out of our solar system toward the stars.
Thanks to Darksyde, here's the father of New Horizons(you might say), Dr. Alan Stern with a nearly poetic description of the fate of his baby:

"..It won’t be moving quite as fast as the Voyagers after Pluto; New Horizons only had the one gravity assist, from Jupiter, but the Voyagers each had two or more gas giant flyby's, so they are moving faster now and we will never catch up with them. But yeah, our spacecraft is moving plenty fast enough to leave the solar system -- it’s headed to the stars!

You know, that's one of the most amazing things I thought about, when I would look at it in final assembly in the clean room, I thought about how long this bird will be flying through the galaxy. It’s not just that it will outlive corporations or nations, or even human civilization as we know it. New Horizons will outlive mountain ranges, it will outlive the earth and the sun. It may very well go on, until the stars burn out; until the protons making it up decay or until the end of time, if there is one. Amazing, isn’t it. What human beings can build?.."

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More On Being Laid Off - 5 Steps

More on unemployment news. Parade Magazine(I know, I know) had a pretty good article in the Sunday addition on what to do if you lose your job.

5 Steps To Take If You Lose Your Job

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More About Joining The Unemployed

I haven't been posting to the Blog the way I thought I might since finding out that I'd joined the legions of the nation's unemployed. So much more on my mind, fear for the future can have a crystalizing affect on priorities.
Unless I fall to caveman-like depths of no internet I'll not stop Blogging. The last few days have been hectic, frightening and strange mix. I'll find myself at times in a nearly zen state staring off into space in a varying combination of depression, disbelief and visions of what the future may hold for myself and my whole family.
I worked for this company for nearly 23 years. That's a LONG time for an employee "cushion" to build. Yes, I saw it coming but the reality still seems to have hit me like a ton of bricks. Just like it has thousands before me. The last time I actually "typed" up a resume was on an actual typewriter. That's a LONG time ago and a helluva cushion.
There's bright sides to this(maybe), in some ways. I may find a job closer to home, and not 30 miles round trip away. I may find a job that is interesting, fulfilling and challenging to me personally.
The ONLY enjoyment I had out of my old job in the last years was the coffee, Internet and email. I felt(and was) completely wasted doing what I was doing. I knew it and it made me feel bad every day.
One of the good things, if you want to call it that was, when watching the end results of Bushonomics on my tv news, I could at least think, "well my job may bore me to tears, but at least it pays decent(not good) and I have, barely decent(just barely) health insurance through it". Now is that reason enough to slog through the tedium of dozing off in front of my work computer each day? Well, yes it was, but I don't have that choice anymore.
A new future has been forced on me. It's frightening and terrifying in ways but I may come out of it happier. I can only hope.
Some late evening thoughts aboard the unemployed train.
Note: I've also found that sleep is not very good on that train. Henry David Thoreau said "most men lead lives of quiet desperation". If he were alive today, at my age with no job. He might change the "desperation" to horror.
P.S. I'm not sure what Edward Hopper's painting "Nighthawks" has to do with this but I like it. It has a similar feeling of late night alienation, foreboding and strangeness that I'm feeling at the moment.
Obama send me some stimulus, Now!

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I've Joined The Ranks Of The Unemployed

"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job, it's a depression when you lose yours."

Add another name to the ranks of the Bush economic legacy. I received my unemployment notice this morning....














Photo: here

Still a bit stunned but other that that okay. I worked for this company for, well let's see, TWENTY TWO years this past November. A loooong time. I've went through a LOT of phases, history and memories during that time.
I'm not sure what to say right now but I am sure this won't be my final post on the subject and on my sudden search for employment. Anyone out there, especially in the Central Ky. area needing a right-hand man or trusted aide, I'm your man. Where does someone my age find a job in this economy that pays what I made at this one. It would probably take two of the jobs in a dubya economy.
I don't think it would do me a lot of good or I'd put up a Paypal link and cravenly solicite funding. I don't think my readership is anywhere near large enough and even loyal enough for that. I actually may go to some "adsense" ads, and I hope people are understanding if I do. I used to find that a bit demeaning, but then I used to have a steady job and regular income.
Hopefully this will be short lived and something decent will come out of this. I tend to be an optimist, can you tell?
I just wanted to make note of my joining the Bush economic destruction. Probably more on it later.

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