|
Shmuel's Soapbox: Now available in bite-sized Weblog McNuggets! Archives Index Idol Annex Booklog Blog feed (LJ) Comment feed |
Thursday, June 26, 2008 8:21 PM: Political Insight of the Day
For this election season, Jones has launched a series of "Campaign Colas." They come in three varieties: Yes We Can Cola, Pure McCain Cola and Capitol Hillary Cola. I've tried all three, and they taste exactly the same! The only difference is the labeling.(From Pop Candy.) Wednesday, June 25, 2008 So I've now been unemployed for a month. Whee. I've been staying at my brother's place in Cedarhurst, NY, since the 15th. On the bright side, this means I'm not paying any rent, and I've been getting to spend more time with my siblings and my mother. And it's certainly nice being back in New York. That said... I really want a job, and a place of my own. I've been focusing on the employment end of things, on the grounds that until I have that settled, I won't be able to get an apartment anyway. I've been sending out resumes... so far, I seem to have an excellent track record with regard to attracting recruiters, but not in doing the same with prospective employers. Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12:12 AM: R.I.P., George Carlin Here's an essay I wrote about offensive humor for a workshop in 2005. I just spent a little while preparing it for the Web; Carlin's quoted in it, and it seems the most appropriate tribute I can muster. Thursday, June 12, 2008 April: Was in the middle of a temp assignment editing a driver's education textbook. Said assignment might have gone on indefinitely, moving to other texts, but it was paying less than my usual temp rate, which in turn was less than what I'd been making back at my last non-temp job, which in turn was slightly less than what I needed to pay all my bills. In addition, my landlady sold the house, leading to my having to move; in the absence of a job I could afford to keep around here, I was inclined to move back to New York. Informed my boss that I couldn't afford to stay on past the initial assignment, which was stretching on longer than originally agreed to in the first place. She began investigating the possibility of hiring me more permanently, at a rate that might keep me in Boston. I spent the next few weeks getting encouraging updates about how a deal was in the works, but they never quite went anywhere. May: Roughly a month after I first raised the subject, I decided I'd waited long enough for a deal to happen. Gave 2.5 weeks' notice (just past the deadline for the teachers' edition), decided to move to New York. Immediately thereafter, boss's colleague pitched a possible job. I told her that if I had an actual offer by the end of the week, I'd consider it; otherwise, I really couldn't afford to wait around any longer. Boss's colleague did get me what was purportedly a job offer by the end of the week, and while it was for less money than I technically needed, it was still more than I'd been making before, and a bird in the hand etc., so I accepted it the following business day, Monday. (And told an agency I'd been talking to in New York that I was no longer on the market, and took down my resume from Monster.Com, and spent much of the week looking at apartments in Boston.) I was told I'd have the paperwork later in the day, or more likely Tuesday. Tuesday came and went, as did Wednesday... end-of-day Thursday I was informed that there had been a hitch, in the form of a hiring freeze, but that they were really and truly working on a way around that. This was nice and all, but it also meant that I'd never actually gotten a real offer, just the promise of one, and that I was now well into my second month of being assured that a deal was just around the corner. The following day was the day I'd originally given notice for, and it did turn out to be my last day. Which also meant that I'd wasted two more weeks chasing a wild goose, and now had one week flat to find a place to live in New York, find a job in New York, pack everything up, and move. Naturally, this turned out to be totally impossible. June: Moving Day was a complete disaster; ended up getting some, but by no means all, of my stuff in storage on June 1st, but ended up having to commit to paying another half-month's rent in Boston, at the new, increased, rent rate... which meant I wouldn't be able to put that money toward a new place in the NY area. Meanwhile, the apartment I applied for in New Jersey turned me down, 'cause my credit sucks and I don't have a job yet. Oh, and I got a summons from one of the institutions I owe a ton of money to; they want their ton of money, plus legal fees. Spent a day or two researching suicide methods online, but I'm too much of a wimp. I'm also too much of a pack rat to throw anything away, no matter how useless, my life included. [sigh] Have also started looking into bankruptcy laws, but apparently those vary from state to state, and I don't yet know which one I'll be living in. As of this writing, almost all of my stuff is now in storage in either Massachusetts or New York, and I'm on track to getting out on the 15th and staying with my brother for a few days (I devoutly hope it's only a few days) till I get a place of my own. Still need a job. And that's the quick update. Whee. 3:56 PM: I do so love Scalia. From Justice Scalia's dissent in Boumediene v. Bush: A mere two Terms ago in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 548 U. S. 557 (2006), when the Court held (quite amazingly) that the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 had not stripped habeas jurisdiction over Guantanamo petitioners’ claims, four Members of today’s five-Justice majority joined an opinion saying the following:Honestly, the Supreme Court appointments are my #1 incentive to vote for McCain... though I keep coming back to the fact that appointments don't always work out the way they're intended, so it's a crapshoot either way."Nothing prevents the President from returning to Congress to seek the authority [for trial by military commission] he believes necessary.Turns out they were just kidding. Sunday, June 01, 2008 2:52 AM: Look before you leap. He who hesitates is lost.
...she reflected that if there was one thing life had taught her, it was that there are some times when you do not go back for your bag and other times when you do. It had yet to teach her to distinguish between the two types of occasions. —Mostly Harmless, by Douglas Adams. Saturday, May 10, 2008 I've spent most of my birthday waiting for the cable guy. As noted over on the American Idol blog, the new landlord's remodelling the house. In the process of putting up new siding this past Tuesday, they accidentally yanked out the cable, from which I get my TV, my Internet access, and my phone service, which comes via Vonage. (Currently I'm using my secondary computer over a neighbor's wifi. Not the best connection, but it suffices for e-mail and such.) I called Comcast, using the prepaid cell phone I got a couple of years ago specifically for the purpose of calling Comcast when something goes wrong with the cable, and explained the situation. The Comcast guy replied that there was currently an outage affecting much of Boston, that they apologized for the inconvenience, but that they'd have it fixed shortly. I explained again that there was construction on the house, that I'd seen the cable in question, and that this was unrelated to whatever outage that might be going on elsewhere. The Comcast guy said that while that might perhaps be the case, because there was an outage in the area, the computer wouldn't let him take my word for it. I'd have to call back in the morning, after they fixed everybody else's problem. So I called back in the morning. They established that I would have to be home when they came, so I could check that the TV and Internet were actually working once they got done. We set up an appointment for 11 AM to 1 PM, Saturday morning. Coincidentally, my birthday. I explained that my phone connection came by way of Vonage, and thus required the cable to work, and provided my cell phone number. There is another universe, a nicer universe, in which that explanation would have ensured that the cable guy would call my cell phone, not my usual phone number. There is another universe in which I wouldn't have called them with increasing amounts of agitation in the course of the day, after they left yet another message on the voicemail of the phone number that doesn't work to the effect that since I'm not picking up the phone, they're not going to bother coming by. On their third attempt -- after I gave my cell phone number again and entreated them to be sure that the technician knew to use the cell phone number, for the other number would not work -- they called the non-working number and left a message to the effect that the reason why the cable connection was down was that the house was getting new siding, and that they'd have to reschedule for a day when the landlord was on the premises. I called back on the cell phone, explained once again that they had called the wrong number, that I had told them not to call the wrong number, that I had been there all day, that my landlord had been there all day, and that I would be absolutely delighted to introduce their technician to my landlord if they would only give me half a chance. They apologized, put me on hold for awhile to confer, and said that they could come back between 3:00 and 5:00 if my landlord would still be there. I confirmed with my landlord that he would still be there, and reported back to them that he would still be there, and they confirmed that they would try again. This was at 3:30 PM. At 5:30 PM, not having heard anything, I went to the pay phone down the block (lest they actually call my cell phone while I was calling to check and decide I wasn't around) and called Comcast and explained the whole situation yet another time. The Comcast lady explained that since they'd already called me twice in the course of the day, the computer wouldn't let them try a third time, nonwithstanding the fact that they'd actually been calling the wrong number. But she could reschedule for tomorrow, between 3:00 and 5:00, and credit my account so that I wouldn't have to pay for today's SNAFU. *sigh* On the whole, I've had better birthdays. (But I got some lovely e-mail and a card. Thanks, guys!) Tuesday, May 06, 2008 2:23 AM: Well, that was anticlimactic. Except in the most technical sense, anyway. Saturday, April 26, 2008 2:15 PM: Library Thing Tag Mirror For no terribly good reason, here's a tag cloud covering that portion of my library that I've entered into LibraryThing, which is most but not all of it. (Most of what's not included is Judaica.) Tuesday, March 18, 2008 Obama on race. If you read only one unabridged speech this political season, this is the one to read! (Alternately, you can watch the video.) Comments by HaloScan. |
Contact Archives Index |