Saturday, October 2, 2010

WE ALL LOVE CATS!

Ok maybe one more post for the weekend.

Here are some pictures of my cats!

This is Annie. I got her as a kitten in 2000 when she was 6 weeks old.


This is Annie the day before I had to put her down in March of 2008. She had liver problems, there was nothing we could do. You can see the weight loss in her, she was just withering away. It killed me, and I still miss her.



 This is Marty. I posted a picture of him in an earlier post as a baby, here he is as a baby. I got him as a kitten in September of 2005. Such a character.



This is Annie and Marty next to their Vancouver 2010 mascot counterparts!




This is Lulu. We got her and her brother in May of 09 from a friend I was staying with while I was at school. They are 2 of a litter of 3, and we had her picked. When I left the people I was staying with, no one had claimed her brother, so I had to take him home too. Couldn't leave that little guy there.


There he is. We named him Basil. Basil was the name I had chosen for Annie when I thought she was male!


Here is Lulu now, she's a strange girl. Likes to make out with people. Kinda acts like a stoner.


This is Basil now. He's huge. He has giant paws and loves his scratching post as you can see.

Saturday Evening Post



What's in the news today? Nothing of note. No job postings really going up on the weekend so I'm taking it upon myself to relax. Cleaned the place today, went a got a few groceries (what I could afford to get, staple stuff really) and am chilling watching the BC Lions game with some Keystone (thank god for this stuff, nice n cheap).

Last nights hockey game was good, had 2 goals, but way too many chances to call the night a success. Had a few pops, chilled with the guys after and bs'd about life, past NHL drafts and players, and hit the road. Love my Fridays...

Hope your weekend is going great, constant readers... See you on Monday.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Shoutouts, And A Fitting Tune


GARTH BROOKS - FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES



The last post of the day is a shoutout, and a fitting song to go with it.

To my good friend kmad, this is totally for you, too fitting a song for us huh? And no, nothing else you will bombard me with will work better.
To all my followers, all 60 or so of you, thank you, this is a hell of a lot of fun.
To my hockey buddies, I'll see you tonight, keep your head up.
To my cats, woozhy woozhy woozhy wuzzle.
To the Canucks, just fucking win the Cup this year ok?
To the people of TP.... hello.
Last but not least, to my woman :D You're keeping me at least partially sane through all of this.

Slowest Day Yet



Today has easily been the slowest this week in terms of job ads. Jobbank has only a couple of new ones up today and they're not even related to my field. Craigslist has a couple that were close, but not exactly my thing unfortunately. I also have still yet to receive a call back on the interview I had last week Thursday, which I understood was supposed to come this week regardless of whether I'd gotten the position or not. Not sure what to think on that one.

Well fuck it, it's Friday, I got my game tonight, and the rest of the weekend to relax. Get myself back into the job hunting mindset on Monday. Here's to the weekend folks, hope yours is a good one.

Piccies Piccies Piccies

For happy times, I thought I'd share with my followers some pictures I've taken over the years. I'm by no means a photographer, but I enjoy doing it. Here are a few that turned out nicely.


 This is a picture I took at a ranch about 30 minutes past 100 Mile House in BC. We were up there for a wedding, and I just liked the way the clouds looked especially.


This was taken just off the main highway outside of 100 Mile House. Some beautiful scenery up there for sure.



These 3 were taken from a whale watching boat off the coast of BC in 2008. We were out watching Killer Whales.



And here are 3 pictures of the orcas themselves.

Survived Another Week

Welcome to Friday everyone. We made it. Barely. Fridays are always a kickass day for me, even while unemployed. It's the one time a week I get to play hockey, with a great group of guys I've been playing pick-up with for around 7 years now. Beers, hockey, and bsing. Can't get much better than that. Look forward to it every week. Especially nice during the summer when (or if) you're working outside, and it's hot as all hell, then later on you get to go hang at the ice rink. And have beer. Nice! Today will be a good day.

 As for the job front, what is there to say? I am still holding out hope that the interview I had last Thursday will come through for me. She said she'd call back next week (whether I'd gotten the position or not), and this is next week. The END of next week in fact. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, having to wait this long. We'll see I suppose.

It was interesting to browse craigslist jobs this morning. It seems a company posted an ad for Commercial Transport Mechanics, and clearly stated at the end of their ad "NO APPRENTICES NEED APPLY." There was a bit of backlash from people, who posted about how silly it is to deny themselves the opportunity to employ one. Nice to see, since that is the exact position I'm in.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Damn They Got Me On Video


Police hunt supermarket bottom sniffer

Police are hunting a man who carried out what they describe as 'bizarre' sexual assaults after he repeatedly knelt behind a shelf stacker to smell his behind.

The man was caught on CCTV creeping up on the unsuspecting worker at least 20 times as he stacked shelves at a Co-op store in Plymouth, Devon. The footage shows him casually pretending to chose items from shelves before suddenly crouching down behind the employee.
The man's odd behaviour to the employee was spotted on at least two occasions. The offences only came to light when the employee became suspicious and informed his manager who checked the in-store security video.
The victim - who cannot be named for legal reasons - said: "I had no idea what was going on. I thought it was all a bit strange. I was shocked and I couldn't believe he was in the aisle for that long."
Police say they are treating it as sexual assault.
DC Steve White of Plymouth police, said: "We are treating this incident very seriously and we would appeal to the public's help in tracking down this man.
"It is a bizarre incident and the shop was full of people. Someone must have seen the man and could well help us identify him."
The man is white, clean shaven and of medium to large build.
During the first incident he was wearing a brown T-shirt with jeans and black shoes and glasses and in the second a blue shirt with jeans.

It Is Dangerous To Go Alone...


That's Marty, one of my cats, when he was a month or 2 old. He's 5 now, and has his license. Anyway. another day passes where absolutely nothing happens. Both craigslist and job bank (as well as other sites) haven't had anything up my alley today, despite my constant hoping to the contrary. I did receive an e-mail from one company wondering if I was only looking for a placement near where I live, since their postings are all in Prince George or Fort St. John. I had to take a pass on that, and urged them to contact me if anything closer came about...

Tomorrow is Friday, and that is always good. Maybe something good will happen. September sure has sucked!

It's A Beautiful Mornin....

What a nice sight to wake up to today.  Sun blazing through the windows, but as I got up to make my tea, the fog rolled in and blanketed almost everything. Pretty awesome sight.

Hunt started early again today, but alas craigslist and jobbank are not yielding anything of use to me yet. It's still maybe a bit early for those HR people to hop on and start posting, which is why I check numerous times a day. At this point, nothing to report. But the day is young...

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

SSDD



Getting back to what I was talking about last post (being an apprentice and thus being looked over), that certain employer who told me they'd be looking for people in a month or 2 had a posting up today. The ad almost covered everything that I have in terms of qualifications; electrical troubleshooting, basic computer skills, good communication skills, ability to work in a team blah blah. They want someone with 5 years experience, I have 4. It mentions nothing in the ad itself about requiring a journeyman or not, just 5 years experience with diesel, hydraulics, etc.

So I fired off yet another resume to them with a cover letter, explaining why I am everything they need and more. Will it come to anything? Probably not, that nasty word "apprentice" is still attached to me which, no matter how well I fit into their requirements, will get me looked over. Maybe I'm being pessimistic since it's only been a few hours since I sent it off, but if I fit what they were looking for, they have my resume already. Twice.

The other employer I mentioned I had the interview with did not contact me today. Here's hoping for tomorrow...

Early Bird Catches The Worm



Another day, another dollar ... day like yesterday. Scouring the Canadian job bank and craigslist. Is it me, or are there a lot of jobs out there for carpenters are truck drivers? Those guys must be rolling in it! Career change...?

This is officially day number 35 of my layoff. In that time I've sent out over 9000 resumes, had 2 job interviews, and one somewhat promising chat with a company that says they're in no position to hire at the moment, but may be in a few months. The first interview I had seemed great, everything went well, I felt like I had it in the bag. That was 3 weeks ago. I think what held me from getting that position was the fact that I'm an apprentice. How can one gain experience without.... getting experience? It's like a damn credit score. Need it to get it. Fuck.

The other interview I had was last Thursday. Great company, amazing wage, nice perks, and super interesting work. It's out of province, but it would be a 12 on 12 off shift, which would allow me to come home roughly every 2 weeks for almost 2 weeks. That'd be nice. Interview was by telephone, and lasted 45 mins. She said she'd let me know once they'd made their decision "next week" (this week). Is this D-Day? Could be, I'll keep you posted...

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Now what?



Being laid off, I consider this time of day to be roughly "the end of the day" so to speak, since most places are now or close to now shutting down for the day. The likelihood that any responses to resumes or ads will come after this time is very slim. So another day passes that I go unemployed.

I did my part to be healthy today. I spent some of the morning perusing job ads, sent a couple resumes and watched a couple episodes of The Wire. Then I went to the gym and worked off some energy. I'm now looking at an evening to myself, so, what do I do with it? More Wire? Play a game? Veg? Read? Maybe all of the above...

A Day Like Any Other Day.



 Welcome everyone to my very exciting, sure to be interesting unemployed blog. Never had one of these before, and 30+ days of being at home every day scouring job sites and sending resumes has finally driven me to this! At least I now have Boardwalk Empire and season 2 of The Wire to amuse me somewhat.