A New Era

Well, I'm not doing quite as well as I was at first with this whole blogging thing, but I've yet to go a week without posting something, so I think I'm still doing pretty well. Coming up on a month and 11 posts. That's pretty good, in my opinion.

Anyway, so what am I gonna write about today? What is this new era shite? Tomorrow is April 1st. April Fool's Day. And also moving day. Yes, that's right, I'm moving tomorrow. I've lived at my current residence for 28 months, so I guess that's sort of a big deal. I'm sure it will be for the better. At the very least, I'll be within walking distance of more stuff. And I won't have to shower next to a freezing window. I've probably never mentioned this to any of you, but the window in our shower always bugged me. It doesn't have a latch on it and is very poorly insulated, so there's always a, generally freezing, breeze running through, especially in the winter. Brrrrrrr. Perhaps one of you noticed this while in town? I'll also be in a nicer area of town. Right now, I'm near 82nd Avenue, which is generally the place to go if you want to pick up a hooker in town, or so I hear. I never used to notice that stuff, but you can only see it so many times before you realize what is going on. As a result, the walk to the Max (light rail) station can be interesting sometimes. My street isn't so bad, but it won't be my street anymore and the new 'my street' won't be near 82nd Ave, so that's good.

Not sure what else to say tonight, so I'll continue packing. Hopefully, I'll be back up on the internet in the very near future so I can talk about my new place. They've got internet already , so we just have to figure out how to hook me up. Sweet.

A Place to Live

Well, it looks like my blogging pace has slowed down a bit. I hope you don't mind.

In other news, I guess I found a place to live next week. I did the whole Craigslist thing again. I placed an ad detailing a little bit about myself, where I wanted to live, and how much I could spend and got a bunch of responses from people who thought their room might just be the place for me. It was funny looking at some of them, since they were nothing even remotely resembling what I had detailed in my housing wanted posting. Some were too expensive, others were nowhere near when I had expressed interest in living. In the end, I looked at three places.

The first was just on a lark. It was pretty close to where I'm living now, so I rode my bike over to check it out. Brrrrrr. That was a cold bicycle ride, let me tell you. It was a bit of a shock, since it had been a pretty nice day. The house was nice enough, but they didn't have internet or a washer/dryer. Those are two things that I decided I need. The first, to look for a job, the second because I don't have a car to take my clothes to a laundromat. So that didn't work out.

The second place was pretty nice. Lots of gardens and I knew one of the tenants from juggling.

The third place that I looked at was in an ideal location, though the house itself wasn't that nice. I met with one of the current tenants, Bryce, who described himself as a 33 year old gay social worker in the post. He seemed nice enough. He told me about the other person with whom I would be living, Tom. Right before I left, I asked a few questions about Tom and came to suspect that I knew Tom from juggling. This turned out to be the case. Pretty random, don't you think? I decided that this seemed like a good sign and picked this as my future residence. It's in the Hollywood district in Portland. So named because of the Hollywood Theatre that is still a prominent feature there. (I guessed this even before I read the wikipedia posting.) I saw the film What the Bleep Do We Know at the Hollywood Theatre a few years ago. Actually, What the Bleep Do We Know was filmed in Portland and I've seen several movies at the Bagdad (the theatre that you see at the beginning and end of the movie). Hopefully, I made the right choice. We'll see in a few weeks. At least I don't have to worry about finding a place to live anymore. I'm still working on the job, though.

Well, hope you're doing well. Heh.

What to do...what to do

So in case you were wondering, the general consensus was to pass on the job, which I did, so I didn't end up starting work today.

Now I must move on to finding a new place to live at the end of the month. Upon scanning through my earlier entries, I guess I haven't mentioned this before. My landlord, Wes, decided to move in with his girlfriend and turn this place into a single family dwelling. So on top of the whole job hunt thing, I've been looking for a new place to live. I posted an ad on Craigslist on Saturday and have received several emails back about it. So I've talked to a few people on the phone and emailed back and forth with several people and am starting to believe that I might actually be able to find a place. Even if it is kind of a pain in the butt without a job or car.

And hopefully, after that, I can find a job.

I need to start getting more creative with these posts, don't I? I need to like make a few jokes, and do more than just talk about what's going on in my life. Less science, more creativity...less science, more creativity...

Well, have a good one.

Dilemma

So OSPIRG said I could start as a canvasser on Monday. My mom and sister think that I should wait for something else. It seems like sort of a sink or swim thing, and if I sink, I will be worse off than right now for various reasons. Do you think I should take this job? You guys know me. Why/why not?

Hey ma, I wanna be an ecoterrorist when I grow up

Well, I dug up a couple of more job interviews today. One for tomorrow (Wednesday) and one for Thursday. The first is with OSPIRG, the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group. I've been seeing their job postings on Portland's Craigslist for some time and finally decided to apply today. At first, I would be working on their Clean Energy for Oregon campaign, which seeks legislation to have Oregon produce 25% of its energy from clean sources (wind power, solar power, etc.) by 2025. I'm definitely in favor of this and would feel honored to be able to take part in such an endeavor. Woohoo!

The other interview is for Greenpeace. I know, I know they do some crazy things sometimes, but they also do a lot of good for the environment. I would be working to save ancient pristine forests and helping to combat global warming, two admirable goals, imo. And most importantly, I wouldn't be chasing whaling ships.

These are two jobs where I could go home at the end of the day and feel good about myself because I know that I am working to make a difference in how the world is treated, to preserve some of the splendor of the environment for future generations (and our generation, quite frankly, considering how fast things are changing). And, of course, I'd be getting a paycheck to do it and hopefully getting some ins with the alternative energy crowd for possible future job opportunities. The paychecks helping me to find a new place to live in 18 days, and the ins helping me to find other places to live after that.

I was sort of freaking out about the whole finding a new place to live thing yesterday. It's going to be pretty difficult without a car or job (but hopefully the job problem will be a thing of the past quite soon). Continuing on the car theme, I almost sold my car today. Unfortunately, the guy got cold feet once he saw the stuff about having to get a notary to sign the title over and all that stuff. It's been sitting outside for the last couple of months and needs to go before I leave. Most of you probably have fond memories of this car, as do I. I wish I could keep it, but I just can't fix it right now. *sigh*

Anyway, advice, fond memories, tips for interviewing, happy thoughts, offers on the car, etc should be directed to the comments section, or to one of my varied personal email addresses.

Cheers

What do you think?

I guess this article explains why I'm having such a hard time figuring this life thing out.

I'm lame.

Well, I guess I didn't get the job. I was supposed to have heard by now because they wanted us to start on monday. I'm so lame. Can't get a job at a food processing plant checking pH and stuff.

*sigh*

I'm gonna watch the Fellowship of the Ring or something. Yippie...

A Job? Could it be?

Well, I had that interview yesterday, and maybe some of you are wondering how it went. I'll give you a little bit of information that I didn't put in the last post. I went into this 'interview' knowing that it was with a staffing company. Actually, I interviewed with these guys a couple of years ago when I first got to Portland, and they never came up with anything for me, so I wasn't to excited about it (as Nate pointed out in his comment). So I went in and filled out their paperwork and provided my references. Then I got to talk to the branch manager for a little bit. She was nice and kept complaining about the construction going on upstairs. The interview went well, and she promised to call me tomorrow (well, today, now) if my references checked out and the company wanted to interview me. I was feeling pretty down this morning because things went pretty much how they did last time, and I didn't really have any confidence that this company would find anything for me. I sent out a couple of resumes and called my mom to talk about things. Then I just closed my eyes and thought for a while. My phone rang, and I snapped back to reality. It turned out to be Alison (the interviewer from Wednesday). She said that she hadn't heard anything from the metal-plating company for which I initially interviewed, but they had a new position come in for a food packaging company. So I have another interview, actually at the company this time, tomorrow. Assuming I get the position, I would start on Monday at 11:30 AM. The upside of this is I would have a job (temporary, but still a job). The downside is that my working hours are 11:30AM-7:30PM. So I wouldn't be able to go to juggling on Wednesdays. This is quite a bummer, but I guess I'll have to make some sacrifices in order to make things work. And maybe I'll get some free jam or something. Woohoo!

Cross your fingers and all that.

A Bad Hair Day, or My Poor Old Car

Well, today I got my first job interview in a long time. It is for a job at an industrial metal-plating facility in Southeast Portland. It's not necessarily a great job, or a cool job, but it pays a lot better than no job at all. And it comes with benefits. I've never been one to go to the doctor very much, but it would be nice to know that if I did get sick, I could go to my doctor and have stuff taken care of and not have to find some way to pay for it all. I got the call today and my interview is scheduled for Wednesday. Not much time to prepare. I've got to come up with some references and try to get ready for a crazy job interview...scary stuff. I also have been planning on cutting my hair and shaving off my beard once I got an interview. I didn't really expect to have so little time to do it. But it's done. I actually let a friend cut my hair and he did a pretty decent job. It's not every day that you cut off that much hair. Like 10 inches from the top of my head and well over an inch from my chin. I had really let things go. The last time I cut my hair was in July of 2005. Wow. I have some before and after pics if you want to see them. I'd post them, but I still haven't really decided whether I want to post a whole bunch of pictures of myself online. And I haven't bothered to sign up for the hosting service. Maybe one of these days. So if you've got any words of encouragement or interview tips or what have you, feel free to bring them on.

In other news, I attempted to jump start my car, which has been sitting for about 4 months and it didn't work. *sigh* If I could get it to start, I could probably get some extra money out of it. Alas, I'll have to give it another try some other time. It's probably just mad at me because I have to sell it.

Well, have a good one.

Post # 2 (aka good vibes bad vibes)

This evening, I went to the Portland Alternative Energy and Global Warming Meetup Group. There were six of us, all together, and we talked about why we were there and what we could do, etc. It went well.

On the way home, I was standing at a bus stop waiting for the bus to come. I was passing time by reading Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. You should read it, especially if you're having some trouble figuring this life thing out. Anyway, this guy comes walking down the hill and, as he passes me, he says "What's the word?" I say "It's a beautiful evening." He asks me again and I say the same thing. He shakes his head and asks me again. This time, I say "Love." This earns a smile and a handshake. I tell him a little about the book I'm reading and he pulls out a book and says that I should read it. I look at it and see that it is The World's Wisdom by Philip Novak. He tells me to keep it and we talk for a little bit. It turns out that his name is Erick and he is originally from New Mexico, though he has spent most of his life in Portland, or P-Town, as he calls it. I could smell alcohol on his breath and I guess he had been up in the West Hills looking at Portland. We shake hands a couple times and knock knuckles and all that. I try to find something to give him in return, but he tells me not to worry about it. We settle upon a hug. Then he continues down the street saying he's going to "spread the love." This made me feel good about the world and all that. I've been reading a lot of books to try and get myself to think more positively and just as I'm nearing the end of my last book, another falls into my possession. Pretty cool.

A little after he moves on, the bus comes. At the next stop, there are a lot of people waiting to get on, Erick being one of them. A couple get on, then there is some sort of holdup. I'm not sure what happened, but a man tried to get on with a guide dog and there was some sort of problem. The bus driver calls the police and shuts down the bus. he starts ranting about having Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome and swears at his friends until they get back off the bus. Erick watches this and eventually continues on down the street, apparently opting to forgo the bus. The rant continues and he focuses his attention on me. He points at me and says something about me 'making him sick.' A guy in front of me asks if he's referring to him and the man clarifies that it is the 'puke' behind him. Apparently, he is 'old enough to be my uncle.' At this point I stopped paying attention and he continued saying stuff until he decided to get off the bus so we could continue on our way.

It's weird how two different people can latch onto you randomly and have two completely different vibes. Both of them were drunk, I'm pretty sure. One was a happy drunk, the other was an angry drunk. Both directed their feelings towards me. Weird.

But hey, I'm home now, and I've got a new book to read after this one, and hopefully it too will inspire me in some way and push me along the path towards straightening my life out in this crazy town they call Portland.

My Very First Post (aka nothing much to report)

Well, I've been tossing about the idea of creating a blog for a while, so tonight I figured I might as well go ahead and do it. With any luck, I'll think of lots of things to say, and I'll say them well, and we shall all be happy. With a little less luck, I'll still have lots to say but won't say it well. Booo. With even less luck, this will be the only post. I don't think that will happen. Do you?

Anyway, if you're reading this first post, you probably know that I'm unemployed. I need a job. Badly. If you know of any jobs that I'd like, feel free to send them my way. But you already know all of this.

Hmmm...something you don't know. Did you know there's a lunar eclipse tomorrow? Alas, over here on the west coast, it will pretty much be over by moonrise. On the east coast, the moon will already be eclipsed when it rises and will start to reappear shortly thereafter.

Perhaps I should have picked a day when I had more to say to create this blog.

Until post # 2, I bid you good day!