Maybe later.

Meh.

Jeez, what a mess! Look at this place. Cobwebs, trash, antique observations, and dust everywhere!

Okay, this weekend I'm cleaning up in here!

I promise.

;-)

Then, depression set in.

Got a Job - Sort of...

The telephone interview I had Wednesday resulted in a job! Yea! There are caveats, however. Before I can start there is a background check. Shouldn't be a problem unless they include a credit check as a governing factor. I've had background checks the last three jobs I've held with no problem (they're basically checking for criminal records I'm told), but I suspect my credit score may have been an issue with the job I interviewed for a couple weeks ago at a bank (I think my credit score is in negative numbers by now). The other issue is there is a guy working the position now; he had worked for the client before when this opening came up so he took it with the understanding that he was on the verge of getting a permanent offer with another company. So, our recruiting firm placed him there for a week or two and continued looking for someone 'till they found me. Now, my start date depends on two things: when the b-g check comes back and when this other guy gets his offer and leaves. Supposedly the offer is imminent, but if it doesn’t actually come through guess who gets the short end of the stick? That’s right, me. I haven’t even mentioned this factor to MLM since I won’t know until early next week. Why have her be sick about it for five or six days? When I know I’ll tell her. Meanwhile, we can be happily anticipatory.

Oh, and it’s only a four week contract.

Now, the recruiter says that often their contractors get extended there and a couple have even been hired direct. But of course, recruiters always tell you that.

In other news, I have 50 items listed on eBay right now with only four watchers, no bidders, and I am totally broke. I sold a couple items a few days ago that I got paid for yesterday, which money I used to get a few groceries we needed – eggs, yeast, stuff like that. I have 36¢ and my next unemployment check is five days away! I met with the Bishop Monday night and the church helped us with rent, some prescriptions, health insurance, and our cable bill. Thank you, God!

So, this afternoon I photographed and placed on eBay an anime figure I never intended to sell at a ridiculously low starting price and a one day run just to get some cash in here. It’s from Ichigo Mashimaro and is part of a two-part display set. I’ve been watching the matching figure on eBay for months hoping to get one at a reasonable price; now I’m giving up the one I already have (which I got for ‘way cheap some time ago). To give you an idea of the current value, someone on eBay is offering the pair for $130! This is actually a deal since for the last couple of years I have only seen the pair for $250-300. Ah well; I figure after I get a real job and get some money ahead I can try to build my collection again. Priorities, though. This would be at the bottom of a very long list!

Waiting for the other shoe to drop…

Still Here.

Where does the time go?

Amazing how quickly the days go by. I need to update things to the present (today) and then work on posting regularly. I really need the outlet.

Item 1: Still out of work. It was pretty dead for about three months – had maybe a dozen submittals and three interviews during that time. Things started picking up in mid-March, and a couple weeks ago I had two really good interviews for full-time jobs at companies I really wanted to work for. In both cases I came in second; nothing against me – just another candidate with an extra skill they thought would be nice. One company even said they anticipated another position opening in a few weeks and would check to see if I would be available for that (chances are I will!). This past week I was submitted for two contract jobs that I will hear about next week. So we’ll see.

Item 2: MLM had her right shoulder replacement surgery the first week in December and it went very well. Needless to say it was pretty handy that I was out of work during her recovery as for the first couple of months she needed constant care and assistance to do just about anything. She’s doing much better now. No arthritic pain in her shoulder at all which is a real miracle! She still needs help getting around because, hey, this was just one joint; she still has another six or eight atrocious joints and a back full of degenerative discs so there is still much to be done and she is still in constant pain. At least now we’re moving forward after over two years of waiting. Next she needs another tooth looked at, a visit to her gastroenterologist for her increasing gerd, then arthroscopic surgery on her right elbow. After that, her left shoulder will get the replacement treatment.

Item 3: I’ve been selling my stuff on eBay for the last two months which has really helped us money-wise. I’ve been able to pay for food, prescriptions, and utilities without relying on the church for much beyond our rent. (The church and MLM’s folks are our only source of assistance at this time.) I have sold all my Lionel except for the Polar Express, some pieces of HO trains I had, and most of my Cars collection (from the movie, Cars, y’know? I had plans of including a Radiator Springs on my O scale layout. More on that if I ever finish and post my Still Plays With Trains essay.) I am selling my Negima Pactio Cards now with much regret and they are not moving very well, surprisingly. I acquired these when I was working at UIC and they were pretty popular then. I also tried selling some lovely C & O passenger cars I have but they aren’t moving either – I guess Walthers sold a real pantload of them when they were released. I also have a few anime-related cards and figures I can sell.

Item 3a: The eBay sales at first were pretty exciting – this was all the train stuff I was listing. I can see how I could create an eBay store with this stuff. I even sent inquiries to some of the train manufacturers to see if they would wholesale to an online store – almost all said they had no problem with that. Only Lionel still insists on a brick-and-mortar establishment for all their dealers. Anyway, I created a new seller account, and once I have a regular bank account I can link to PayPal I can open my store. I even have cornered the name Still Plays With Trains. All I need now is some seed money – like any start-up. I figure if I can get a job with a living wage that lasts more than a few weeks, I can start a small presence there in six or eight months. Meanwhile, I’m running out of stuff to sell so I don’t know what will happen next.

Item 4: Just need to say that it sucks the straights we’re in makes us pariahs to our families. MLM talks to her mother pretty regularly, but that’s because she was up front stating they just can’t help anymore like they did last year, but they still chip in when they can. And since she cares, she talks to MLM every week or two, so that’s good. Everyone else has their own problems I guess, but no one ever calls us or returns our calls – I think they’re afraid we’ll ask for help and then they’ll feel bad when they turn us down. Almost everyone on both sides of the family has helped in some way in the past two years; but since I haven't been able to pay anyone back I think it is greatly resented. Oh, well. I’ve just given up on them and don’t let it bother me, but MLM is really hurt by it. Especially since she just went through this surgery and has many more to go through, she feels very alone and unsupported when facing this. She talks more with friends she’s met online; and gets more emotional support from them too. There’s one in AZ and one in WA that she speaks with on the phone regularly – ten times more regularly than her sisters or daughter. Kinda sad, but nothing we can do about it. Once I’m working again and have regular income and don’t need to bother anyone with our sad, sad story I’m sure all will be well again. Except for the bad taste in my mouth of course. Oh, well, I’m no great shakes as an extended family man myself.

Item 5: Getting an advanced degree is another option – sort of. Problem is paying for such. I no longer qualify for student loans since the private loans I took out are defaulted – also, my first Stafford was in ’97 and you can only take them for ten years. So I am applying for a retraining grant through the state unemployment system – there are several skills and applications I can get certified for that may help me get hired. Trouble is picking which one to go for. I am studying SQL on my own ‘cause lots of employers ask for it. Anyway, much to examine and decide on there.

Item 6: Well, lots more going on, but I’m tired now. It’s almost 11:00 pm and the chicken soup I made is ready. MLM has been sleeping all evening (did not sleep last night at all) so I probably should wake her up to have some. This has been cathartic. I will post more when I can.

Still Plays With Trains

I mentioned a few days ago that I would be changing my focus regarding model railroading. I think I’ll discuss that for the next few posts.

First, take it as a given that me and trains: we be mates. I have had a fascination with trains for as long as I can remember – literally! I have an essay in the works on my history with trains that I am preparing for posting on my planned StillPlaysWithTrains website. So reviewing my experience with toy or model trains, I recall I had a Marx O gauge steam engine freight train when I was very small – not sure if it was mine or someone else in the family, nor do I know what happened to it. Christmas of ’59 when I was eight years old, I got an America Flyer S gauge steam engine freight train that I had for several years and was destroyed in our attic fire when I was in high school. When I was in junior high I saved my money and (with Dad’s help) bought my first HO train set – a Sante Fe diesel streamlined passenger train and an oval of track. I then stayed with HO for years after that. While in junior high, my Dad put together a real nice train board for me – a 4’x 8’ sheet of plywood on a 1x2 frame with a wheel, chain, & pulley arrangement that allowed it to be stored flat against the basement wall, then lowered for playing. It was very cool!

Now, financial reversals and poor choices on my part in the late 1980’s made it necessary for me to generate money so I sold my HO trains. I went to several regional train meets, rented a seller table, and sold off a collection of twenty year’s building that took five good sized boxes to store. Now that is a key point: stored. I had not had a layout since high school. I had always planned to have one but we never had a place that had room for such, so while I slowly added to my collection of engines, cars, and structures, I had to keep them in storage, getting them out every year or so to admire and dream. I should mention that the collection took a big hit in the early 80s when we moved from Tennessee to Arizona. The trailer was too small to hold everything so one group of boxes we left in my wife’s sister’s basement included the trains. A couple years later when we could finally afford to have them shipped to us it was evident that their kids had gotten into the boxes at some point: there was a lot of damage and a lot of items were just missing. I never said anything – they were kind enough to store the stuff for all that time – I just cleaned up what I could and continued growing the collection when I could.

Then came Christmas of 2005. The Tom Hanks movie The Polar Express had just come out, and the Lionel company had issued a top quality entry-level set of the Polar Express in O gauge. My sweet wife got me one for Christmas! It’s beautiful. It was my first Lionel – ever! The engine is a Berkshire (2-8-4), is highly detailed and weighs a ton! The three passenger cars are lighted and have silhouettes in the windows depicting characters from the movie. Very cool!! Makes smoke and the whistle blows. Looks fabulous under the tree. The following year Sears came out with a Dept 56 series of buildings from the movie A Christmas Story whose scale matched the train! I built a little village under the tree with the Express chugging through town. It was great. See it here. I was hooked. I got the latest Lionel catalog, bought some issues of Classic Toy Trains magazine, and began to dream about my big O gauge layout. Whee!

Here’s the kicker: for my next birthday – about a year after getting the Polar Express – my Dad made me a present of an HO gauge train set! He knew I hadn’t been doing trains for a while and thought I’d like to get back into it. He was right! [Oh, the irony! See the following posts!] However, I was committed to O gauge now, so I called him and explained to him that I was thrilled with the gift and the thought behind it, but that I wanted to exchange it and why. He was fine with it – always has been an understanding fellow – so I sent the HO set back to the internet seller and exchanged it for the two add-on cars that had just come out for the Polar Express. Very cool! The train now had five passenger cars – a respectable looking outfit. And I am a proud three-railer!! To be continued…

The Freedom of Blogging

140 characters. What can you say that has any meaning in 140 characters? Not much, I find. I kinda like Twitter for the friendly banter it engenders with the people I have discovered online – mostly at MegaTokyo – and that I seem to be connected with them in some small way. The problem I have is the restrictions of the medium. 140 characters seems to be designed for communication through texting on a phone, so it’s limited and very limiting. If someone has more to say, I find we type to the 140, then post, then type to the next 140, then post, and so on. This morning I opened Twitter and found a friend had made six posts in a row just so he could say three sentences! I mean, I was glad to hear what he had to say, it just seemed so cumbersome.

How do people handle this limitation? For the most part, the posts I see on Twitter are just shorthand streams of consciousness; and, I’m sorry, but the state of your gastric tract or what you ate for lunch are just not that interesting. It’s as if people respond to this limitation by limiting what they dare say and rarely attempt anything too involved or thoughtful. It’s become a waste of time.

I am also on Facebook, but not very often. I usually find it more frustrating than Twitter. I don’t have that many friends or relatives on my account, but some of them post all the time, all kinds of crap – by crap I mean cute pictures or videos they want to share, or level-ups and milestones they’ve reached in all the games they play. I like the pics and videos sometimes, but I don’t really care if they offed some mythical godfather in Mafia wars! Please people, don’t post that kind of stuff. Anyway, I’ll post something on Facebook and 10 minutes later it’s off the page because all these other posts just keep the front page flowing downward – it’s like a text & video simulacrum of the Matrix screens! Perhaps I just don’t use it right. I hear of people who spend all their time on Facebook, but I don’t understand what they’re doing that is so compelling. I also find the constant advertising there most irritating. Still, I guess it fills a need.

So I like the freedom blogging gives you. I can write at length on whatever topic is on my mind. I see blogs used for information sources and repositories too. It’s a valuable tool. On the other hand, I do like the conversational quality that Twitter provides – I post a comment, and one of my followers can respond in real-time. It’s nice. Feels like we’re doing something together, and we are!

Looking at these three community streams, I think we need a compromise. I think the next big app for the web will be a Twitter on steroids. We need a Twitter-type utility that allows you to post full sentences and paragraphs, say 500 or 1000 characters. No pictures or videos displayed – that would just recreate Facebook – the method of loading URLs in Twitter with the shorthand code is a good thing. Then we could have real conversations. I guess the best solution would be to leave the Twitter layout just as it is, but with more characters available for use. Also, maybe they could set it up like AOL used to be where if you were in a conversation with someone and wanted to continue but not in the public forum, you could split off into a separate chat room. That would be a nice enhancement to Twitter.

Meanwhile, I’ll keep blogging.