Lazy Sundays are good

Having one now - it's 4:00 PM and Noelle and I JUST got dressed.

I highly reccommend this.......

....think I'll take another nap.

"Over-qualified"

Being on the verge of turning 39, (in July), and having as much experience as I have accumulated over the years, I have reached the status of being "Over-qualified". This is not to say that I've not had this status for the past 7 months, it's just that every time some manager who is hiring for a receptionist/admin position sees my resume, they invariably say the same thing. I'm "Over-qualified".

Kind of a catch 22 and while I'd love to pull my hair out over it, I just have to keep telling myself one thing.....

"Don't sweat the petty stuff and don't pet the sweaty stuff."

Eww....

Suck Rocks

I used to think that telling someone to suck rocks was a blow-off or insult until I read this....

http://www.wired.com/news/space/0,2697,67583,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_2

You know, in my lifetime, I've seen a lot of words invented. Words like Silicon, and acronyms such as VCR, CD, DVD and MTV. I don't doubt that science will be sucking rocks before long.

.....god knows our administration already is.....

GRRR.....

The cat peed on my new flip flops

Back to being a Domestic Engineer...

So, this morning, while I am not gainfully employed....once again....I had to get up and drive out to my "job" and have a conversation involving my kidney transplant and the medications I take which hamper my immune system. While I am physically able to perform the tasks, we both agreed that the aforementioned hazardous conditions are not the best environment for me to be in and we amicably parted ways.

NEEEXT!!!

Two Weeks

After waking up on Friday with a horrible chest pain, phlegm from hell, and the unnatural desire to toss my cookies in the shower, I determined that working with chemicals for a living is more detrimental than I am willing to cope with.

I went to work that morning where the co-founder of the company taught me and three other guys more than we'll ever need to know about fire safety, extinguishers, state code, and licencing. At day's end, I chatted with my boss about the risk of my working with dangerous chemicals every day and he apologized for not being more specific with me earlier on. As it turns out, the ABC chemical found in 98% of the extinguishers I'd be working with is only known to be an irritant - factor in the five different medications I take which suppress my immune system and it's more than an irritant. He then mentioned that the locations I'd be going would be far more dangerous than the ABC chemical. Places like paint shops, refinerys, and electro-plating shops head the list of horrible places that my kidney would just hate.

So, I go in on Monday, return my tee-shirts, hat, jacket and hopefully, collect my last check from them.

On to better things....like Google.

Oh, and another thing....

Seems I forgot to mention that I'm back in the job search again - it just sort of poped up in my last post with no explaination. So...here's the scoop;

While I am actually working again, I do more often than not, get home in enough time to run errands, check email, etc... Well, on one of these afternoons, (as I mentioned before), I got a lead at National Semiconductor through a friend of mine who is a technical recruiter. He forwarded my resume off to a few of his tech recruiter friends and before I knew it, I got a call from one who wanted to send my resume off to Google!

Here are the notes I scrambled to type into an email to myself so I wouldn't forget them....

....Google max one-year – black box – Windows QA – 30-38/hour – 3-hour
....interview process (Friday) – May 27th, 2005 – MAX one year w/ possibility of
....perm based on performance.
...Experience with automation – HTML – HTTP

Naturally, I'm excited about this prospect. Cross your fingers folks!

Ouch.

Working in the blue collar industry once again has reminded me of the frailty of man...Make that the frailty of this man. I have come to realize that lifting something as small as a "5 pound" fire extinguisher, (weighing in at 8Lbs 6oz plus or minus 8 oz), on several occasions throughout the day causes out-of-shape tech-heads like myself to be in more pain than they had bargained for.

On the bright side, I'm getting a paycheck, getting out of the house, (at the cost of inhaling toxic powder on occasion), and getting "in shape" again.

Let's just hope that my job search yields something more stable, safe and affords me to be plesantly "sedintary" at a keyboard and mouse once again.

In the mean time - OUCH.

FIRE

So, after two days of leaning how to charge and condition fire extinguishers, I'm getting the hang of talking out of my @$$ again. By this I mean cursing. I've forgotten how blue collar work attracts young "strapping" guys in their early to mid twenties with over-active hormonal tendancies. Good for me that I spent the day being trained by a 60 year old veteran of the business.....I think.....

...the guy swore like a sailor all day...

So, I get home and discover through a recruiter friend of mine that National Semi Conductor has positions in information technology available. My resume got sent over faster than a wax figure melting on the sun.

More as things unfold....

TAGS

You know those little tags that hang off the fire extinguishers you see all over the building you are working in? Or the "Exit" signs above every door of every building you frequent during your lifetime? How about when you go to a resteraunt and when you pass by and get a glimpse of the kitchen where they prep your grilled steaks...the Hood above that grill...?

They are al serviced by licensed technicians.

As of Monday, I start my job as one of those technicians.

Life is good.