Mission Critical (Zero Hour)

Like all movie clichés where the end is near or all hope is lost so goes life in general. I'm being melodramatic but the reality of the situation is that I've been out of work since September of 2008 with no prospects of finding employment anytime soon, and it sucks. But this isn't anyone's fault but my own. Like many of the unemployed, I believed in the hype of the 90's where nothing could go wrong with the economy, with the job market, with the gas prices, with the world and it was all a pipe dream.

So here is a list of big mistakes I have made over the years which now result in me being unemployed now and in the foreseeable future.

1) Education

I've had numerous chances over the years to obtain a quality education in a blossoming field and instead chose poorly. That's not to say I'm not educated. I have an associates degree and I'm learned in many skills. Sadly, most of those skills cant be quantified on a resume. Other skills are self taught and don't carry a certificate or degree to back them up. So, I'm educated, but you wouldn't notice it by looking at my resume, which, by the way, my wife tells me looked horrible until she recently overhauled it. Well that explains much of the past year.

2) Poor Choices

By poor choices, I mean things that you did or could of done that hold power over you long after they were done. Here's some that come to mind. One, committing a felony at age 17. No brainer there. Whenever you get yourself in legal trouble you have to look forward to checking that box on all future job applications. Two, I turned down an opportunity to work for General Motors. Years ago I had a chance at getting in and set it aside out of pride and laziness. Now that's not to say that my life would be any different, GM is having a tough time right now, but turning down any job that pays what GM pays is just dumb, even if I felt it was beneath me. As it is now, Cleaning toilets isn't beneath me and if it paid better than unemployment, I'd be scrubbing gas station toilets right now. Three, not dealing with my Mother's death. Mom died when I was 14 years old and it wasn't until a few years ago did I realize the depressive state it put me in for years. I was numb and dumb for a great deal of years. My wife pointed out that I might want to see a counselor about it a few years ago. Now I don't think that it is necessary now, but it probably was at the time. I imagine if I had my head on straight after her death, I may have not of made some of these poor choice.

3) Lack of Follow Through.

Now, I could do a poll right now and chances are that all my friends and family would say unequivocally that I would do anything for them. I would go the extra mile to help out. I'd loan my last dollar if you needed it more than I, then I'd drive you to wherever you needed to spend it. But when it comes to myself, I usually stop mid stream. I'm notorious at starting a project and stopping half way though. This isn't a problem if it's just an idle pleasure like painting or reading a book, but it's a lot more serious when it comes to pestering employers for work or calling back on a resume. Sadly, it's gotten worse. The few times I have called back or talked to someone or received a response, it's all for an unpleasant outcome. Doesn't give you much hope to try harder the next time.

I'd like to think that it's just me, but it isn't. There isn't a week that goes by that I don't talk to someone who has it worse, or just as bad. Everyone is hurting right now, but what scares me is when the job market turns around and everyone is back to work, I'm still gonna be sitting at home washing dishes or doing laundry while looking through the classified ads wondering when it's gonna be my turn.

"Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives" -- My life as a soap.

Mike

Sick Sick Sick

What kind of Glorious God would teach others to kill over disagreement or differences? What kind of All Loving God would allow a 17 year old girl to be stoned to death in public for falling in love? I don't have the words.

Allah is better than this

Apathy For The Dead

33 Dead in Virginia. 32 Murders, 1 Suicide, and I feel nothing but apathy. It's horrible, but maybe I'm a little numb.

20 Iraq security forces executed

9 dead as Taliban steps up attacks

Dozens dead, wounded in bombings across Iraq

8 Dead 23 Wounded

Suicide attack kills 8 in eastern Afghanistan

Market, bridge bombings kill dozens in Iraq


Etc. Etc.

I think I'm going to go shoot myself now

I just spent 15 minutes explaining to a co-worker how to save an excel file in a particular folder on our server.The tricky part is creating a folder if it isn't already there. She is now filling up an entire sheet of paper with step by step instructions on how to accomplish this task. The sad part is when she needs to do this again, she will spend 20 minutes reviewing her notes before attempting the saving procedure, followed by 10 minutes of slowly going through the procedure, only to screw it up and ask for help which will cause me to have to then spend 15 minutes explaining the process anew.

She has since moved on to the second page of notes on this procedure. With much pleasure, she showed me that she could go through it all by herself. Then I had to go and delete all the extra folders she put on the server that were unneeded while she was practicing.

*BANG*

Why was she hired you ask? 2 Things.

1) She was hired to do menial tasks which no human being would want to do which she does very well. The problem is that when she was hired in 18 years ago, these tasks were a big part of our business which they no longer are. She needs to be useful or she will have to be let go from a financial stand point so the boss tries to teach her news things to make her useful again.

2) She's the boss's wife's sister.

*BANG*

A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 4

I went out to my car to leave for work this morning and noticed that my dashboard was ripped apart and my stereo was missing. When it rains, it pours. The worse part about this is the CD they got in the CD player. Now I have to get it again.

Greek Town Casino & Customer Service

I'm the best man in my wife's Sister's wedding. So I decided to take out my soon to be brother-in-law to the Greek Town Casino, downtown Detroit, last Saturday. I figured a night of gambling, good eats, and entertainment would be a welcome change for a guy who has four young children at home. The entire party consisted of the Soon to be Groom, his brother, a childhood friend, a neighbor, and myself. We decide to park in the attached parking garage and because it's a Saturday, the garage was packed. They have a connected walkway on the 3rd floor of the garage to take you through a restaurant\shopping area, then a small walk across the street into the casino.

Now from here on, I had several run-ins with the staff at the Casino and my experience with them fell into two categories. Either I was incredibly pleased or completely alienated by them. The first encounter was with the security guard at the entrance. He was checking ID's and looking for suspicious characters. This fellow was a joy to deal with. You can tell he loved his job and loved conversing with the patrons. Good start. I was pretty overwhelmed by the casino at first. Being my first time there, I really didn't know where anything was. This was the Grooms second time in the casino and wanted to head straight for the roulette tables. While I was interested in finding the poker room, I went with him to keep him company. The rest of our party split up temporarily.

My second run-in with the staff at Greek Town was with Wesley. He was working the roulette table we started at. Actually, he was in the process of opening the table we started at and while waiting for the pit boss to clear him to start, we had plenty of opportunity to chit chat about the casino. Wesley was another one of those guys who really loved his job. He explained the game and how the casino worked, gave us advise, gave us directions and made it a pleasure to lose money. I lost $99 in about 20 minutes at the table. I kept a $1 chip for a souvenir.

I was determined not to waste anymore money at the roulette tables so we ventured off to find the p0ker room. We connected up with the Groom's brother and friend. In the half hour or so that we were separated, his brother Justin swooned several ladies, got a VIP card, jumped a line or two, got some drinks and a phone number. He also was fond of the staff. This soon changed.

The poker room was a cluster of people and we avoided it at first pass, but before the night was over, I hung out there to see how it worked and maybe get a table. I watched a table for about 10 minutes and watched a guy lose about $300 on a bad beat. Seeing an opening at a table, I asked one of the workers if I could just sit down. I was then berated and informed that "NO, you may not sit down. All tables are on a list. See the check-in." She then turned her back to me and pretended I wasn't there. This was pretty common in the poker room. They should have a sign posted or something. If the casino wants my money, they should at least be kind enough to tell me how I can give it to them.

I couldn't wait around to get a table. The rest of our party was soundly broke at this time. The Groom was up $300 at the roulette table for a short while but, like me, was down $100 before long. The rest of our party was so broke that part 2 and 3 of our evening was canceled (The good eats and entertainment parts). So we stopped at Burger King to feed the animals and took them home. I took the Groom out to Applebees afterwards to chit-chat and talk about what could of been, and went home happy, but down about $150.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 3

Oh, and the guy emailed me about the car I was interested in originally. I guess it's for sale now.

A Series of Unfortunate Events Part 2

After a few car ads, I finally found a car that I'd settle on. It's a 1994 Pontiac Grand Am 4-door, White, and a little worse for wear. It's gonna need some cleanup and a little work, namely on the breaks and an oil change, but it will get me to work and back relatively worry free.

So I went to the corner store last night to get a bag of ice for my wife. I took my new ride. It's loud. Every dummy light in the dash is lit up saying, "Please Kill Me", but I thought, hey, at least the windshield isn't all cracked up and laughed to myself (This is known as foreshadowing).

So, its really windy today and the guy who lives next to our work parking lot has a canopy car cover setup. The wind takes it and throws it half way over the fence and the big metal support bar smashes into my windshield leaving a big ol crack. Now my car looks like it sounds and the windshield is now also saying, "Please Kill Me."

A Series of Unfortunate Events

The Wife and I made a decision some time ago to always own one reliable car. That way, in a worse case scenario, we have a means to continue getting to and from work, doctor appointments, and what not. We own one brand new Saturn Ion for this reason. The other vehicle is a 10 year old mini-van. Let me describe the worse case scenario that has unfolded. A couple of weeks ago, I pulled out of my driveway in my van, put the van into drive and pop, no transmission. I roll down the hill a ways and veer the van over to the curb, hit the emergency brake and let it stay parked. We had decided to wait until our taxes got back to get the transmission fixed so It stayed parked for about a week.

We get our tax refund and schedule to have the van towed to a transmission shop the following morning. The night before, about 10:30 p.m., some clown comes barreling down our road, smashes into the side of our van, crushing the drivers side sliding door and takes off down the road. The wife is so angry she hops into the car and gives chase. She never finds the guy, however. I Call the police and about 2 hours later they finally come to make a report. The officer was nice enough and offered her condolences, but said that chances are, they wouldn't catch the guy who did it.

To add insult to injury, we just dropped the insurance coverage on the van to the minimum required by law. We figured, I only drive the van 5 miles to work. I am a safe driver. Chances are that I wont get into an accident and if some clown hits me negligently, my insurance company can sue them. We didn't foresee this option. I call the insurance company anyways the following day. That lady was also nice and offered her condolences, but anytime you talk to an insurance agent and they quote Murphy's Law, you're in trouble. She did say that should the police find the guy who did it, they will represent me in any claims. I can paraphrase the entire conversation as, "Too Bad, So Sad."

We have a single income family of four. While I don't complain about my pay too much, it doesn't give me any room to go out and buy another new car. For that matter, I really don't have the cash to go out and buy a nice used car, nor the credit rating to do so. While we're on the subject, a middle priced used car with some issues might be a little too much for me right now. I'm basically stuck looking for a junker that might last a year or two. Our search begins. Feel free to donate to our cause. Donation link on the right.

I have been starting every day since the hit and run by looking through Craigslist, an online classified ad service catered to local merchandise and job searches, personals, etc. I actually found a few cars that sounded like winners. Who wouldn't think these cars were great though with the way they word these ads. They always start with, "Runs great, new battery, fresh oil change, non-smoker, perfect interior, etc. "And after seeing them, always end with, "Needs engine or leaky gas tank."

This leads me to a side topic, The used car mentality. When you go into a dealership selling used cars, or when talking to anyone selling a used car, you get the same thing. Their car is gold, your trade in is crap. They will tell you everything that is good in the car like its the only important thing and act matter of factly about any detriments in the car while doing the opposite with any trade in you may have. This is because somewhere down the line, cars have become an item to haggle over. I don't really know why this is so. It's not like I can go into a grocery store and tell the cashier at the register that I only want to pay a quarter for the loaf of bread, and start debating the pros and cons of wonder bread over a hearty rye. What do you think they'll give me on a trade in for the bread I ate last week?

Anyways, the first car I see is an older model Dodge Van. It's one of those full size models. You know the kind you can put in surveillance equipment and go on a stake out in? So I have to drive 30 minutes to go check it out, when I get there, it doesn't even start. Of course the ad doesn't say anything about not starting or the fact that the entire van is going bald (i.e. paint peeling everywhere). Next car I go to look at is an older model Pontiac. Big car. Looks O.K. from the outside. The guy gives me the keys and I go for a test drive. The sign on the window says runs and drives beautifully. The problems are as follows; entire steering column moves about 30 degrees in every direction, the blinker switch won't function because of this, radio was ripped out by force, all four power windows don't work, it wont start without pumping the gas a lot, it rattled, knocked and generally was about to die. It did have new hubcaps though. The one I went to look at last night was nice enough. It wasn't pretty but it started and drove and the radio worked and everything. I test drove it, negotiated the price and was ready to buy. The guy then says he can't sell it till next week when he gets his new car. This is an inconvenience, but doable. I tell him to give me a call when he's ready to sell. He then re-posts it on Craigslist that night. I'm confused.

So we're still looking.