You can directly tell how self-involved a post is by the number of "I"s in it. This one's a doozy!

I've been totally neglegent in keeping up with my LJ friends. It's probably time to clean house a bit, since I can't keep up with my f'list with the amount of time I spend on LJ. So I'm going to do some cutting and trimming, mostly of people I don't have an emotional connection to (apologies if I drop you, but if I did, I probably wasn't participating in your 'blog anyway, so no harm no foul I hope!).

I'm also creating a new LJ-account for my primary account. I'll keep SpottyLogic around indefinately, mostly because I really like the name, but also because I own or mod several LJ communities that use that as a base for their account. I'll probably use it for RL stuff, jobstuff, and stuff stuff, but I'm going to take my mate's lead and use my primary blog for positive stuff, and the SpottyLogic one for quiet introspection, more of a "journal." If there's anything *important* I'll post it to the new account, canis_tempus.

A lot of this is tied into a furry midlife crisis, not really thinking that I'm a hyena-person anymore--I *love* hyenas, but they've kind of become my shadow totem over the years. Personality-wise, I've been more of a dog person, and I think I would *like* to be more of a dog person.

Baaasically, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this LJ, which'll probably be a little more secondary. I may just keep it on-hand for the communities I regularly participate in--Austin Community, et cetera, more scannable stuff.

What say we begin at 7:00? The Saturday coming up? I'm going to try to repeat last year's fondue party, which was a lot of fun :) So people willing to bring veggies, flavorful bread, interesting sauces, pots of fondue (or fondue pots), will be most welcome :)

http://www.launchpadjobclub.com/meetings-mainmenu-62.html

Launchpad's speaker this week is an IT Recruiting professional, and it should be a good meetup! Meeting's at 9:30 (try for 9:20) for newbies, this coming Friday, at the Monarch Event Center across the street from Highland Mall. Lots of opportunities for job networking and contacts. It's totally worth going! I'm probably going to miss out on this one, since I'm not much into IT opportunities...

Yay! I have two job interviews tomorrow! One at UT!

Boo! There's a man at church who's driving me slowly up the wall, and he's on the committee I'm the head of!

Yay! My childhood friend whom I'd known since I was one year old got in touch with me on facebook! Yay facebook! I'd lost touch with her since High School, with one brief encounter where I totally failed to get her contact info. Yeesh. I did try...

Anyway, even if the guy eats my sanity and I don't get any jobs until mid-September, the month will have been worth it from bullet point three alone :)

Helter-skelter!

So I may not be able to take that sweet multi-media course because I may or may not have ever signed up for selective service. For the love of St. Dymphna, I'm 34, I have no zarking idea if I ever checked a box saying "hey, draft me if strictly necessary." There's a lot of not-very-lucid years there. And isn't there a box on your State ID form that lets you register for selective service? I'd never remotely remember if I checked something like that off.

And this is rich, denying someone federal resources over the course of their *entire life* for decisions made when they were college-age? That seems...draconian. After age 26, you can't register, at least not unless you "establish a preponderance of evidence that not registering was not a willful act." And that's proving a negative. I can't remember last year in any kind of detail, let alone what I was doing before I was 26.

Well, poop.

Was puttering around with a semi-local fur, MitchKenzo, yesterday, and we stopped for breakfast at the "Waffle House" on 290, kind of near the on-ramp of 183. There was some kind of strange bird-noise coming from the power lines nearby, a bunch of large, chummy birds were arguing back and forth, poking each other, it was cute. I couldn't get a good look at them, but the head shape was distinctly parrot, they *might* hav been a flock of six blue-grey parrots. Very cute!

So, there's a government program called WIA that will pay for one of two things: Either a single class (or in some cases, sets of classes) worth $7000, to help you shift toward a new career, OR they'll pay for like $10,000 of yer salary if you can convince your employer to let you learn while on the job. Neat stuff.

Anyway, ideally I'm going to be taking their multimedia course. It's a large (220 hours, 16 weeks) course covering the entire Adobe suite, with dreamweaver, flash, java, and some other stuff. Wheee!

I had a bit of struggle with taking this course over the project management course. Difficult decision! Since I'm so frequently in logistics of some sort, project management's a pretty natural direction to go. But...you only get ONE course (for free at least).

So I applied for that downtown "writing copy for an extensive series of product marketing websites" position last week, and got a callback the next day and a phone interview. I knew they were supposed to be making hiring decisions on Thursday, but hadn't heard from them--didn't hear from them Fri or the weekend as well.

Gritted my teeth and called this morning, reached the person who interviewed me. She said, "We're going to have our HR person call you today."

I don't know what this means...most rejections are just a quick e-mail, or nothing at all...I'd cross my fingers, but frankly I'm starting to get repetitive motion strain from crossing them so much!

Budgies? We don't need no stinking budgies!

Heya--I'm going to a really great networking/unemployment workshop tomorrow morning, and it's free. Talks about great-sounding free courses on technical workshops, being a consultant. Lots of good guest speakers. Lots of networking opportunities, it's a good pick-me-up besides.

Anyone innerested?

http://launchpadjobclub.org/

event details

It's tomorrow morning at 10:00, 9:30 if you're a newbie who needs an orientation thang. It's totally worth going to. I have to run off and help mom with some projects afters, but I'd be happy to see any friends there befores!

I got a phone interview yesterday for a position I applied for, web administrator/copy writer for a group that puts together template-driven websites for product manufacturers. Not glam, but it's a lot of marketing copy, which is good.

The ad was posted to Craig's List, so predictably, they got a thousand applicants. I took a little extra time to put together a hardcopy in a presentation folder, took it downtown and handed it to someone at the office--who, happily, was the person recruiting, AND the position's direct supervisor.

She called me next day--not only had she read my stuff, but actually went to the FrontPorchProject website and had some questions about it. Go me :)

I'm going to run downtown today and have the post office mail her a little postcard. Here's hoping...It's not a bad position, the pay's not super, but it's better than most of what I've been applying for, and my expenses are low here. Plus, the job's downtown, which means I can use Whines and the public transportation system, eliminating a LOT of gas expense and my reliance on my (dying) car. Whines drives a fuel-efficient little hybrid, which is great most of the time...we still need a five-seater for more social stuff, but it'd be good to go to a predominantly one-car household thing, particularly if we get a new housemate at some point in the future.

In my spam-file on G-mail, "Hot, mature cougars looking for love!"

Eh?

So, apparently a cougar is an older, somewhat predatory woman? I did NOT know that, but it certainly wasn't the first thing that sprang to mind.

[edit: No, I actually haven't followed a TV series or otherwise plugged into mainstream culture since like '95 or so...I feel so dated!]

The house smells all wonderfully of cake and caramel, I've got a Tres Leches cake chilling in the refrigerator and it smells so very heavenly!

Unfortunately, I just gave up carbs :(

On the plus side, I've lost like five pounds over the last week, and I think it's a noticable difference, considering I'm not *really* that much heavier than my ideal weight--I've only got about 30 spare pounds on me, but my frame's kind of light. But...I cheated a lot yesterday (not all my fault, I got a squash soup that was thickened by flour, and I did steal a bite or two of the lasagna I made for Whiney and the ARt Night crowd, because I really didn't want to just have salad when there was a lasagna lying around...but it was literally a bite or two, not like a Great Dane bite or two.)

I'm a little confused by suddenly having TWO job interviews on my plate. Not upset, but a little surprised after nothing but echoes, if that, from the Carlesbad Caverns I've been throwing my resumes into.

The first I'm modestly interested in, it's marketing co-ord for an insurance company, with a generous helping of copywriting. Meh, good practice if not my ideal situation, but LOTS and LOTS of people to talk to. Yay.

The second...I'm not sure, it's budget-juggling work for a construction firm. It might be useful down the road when Whines and I want to add an extra tunnel to our den or something, but it's kind of far away from following my bliss. Still...it's not like I'm actually WORKING or anything, and something that can stay confined to a 40-hour job has its perks.

Using my gubmint unemployment monies to buy comic books and Tres Leches cake! Go me! :)

The real pisser is that I took six months to get brave/focused enough to apply for unemployment (the hardest thing in the world is to ask for help...) and I'm feeling pretty sure I'm going to have a job by the end of next week.

That's not much of a pisser, but it's the sort of mild irony that lets me know I'm not in someone *else's* life.

Started the day by getting up at 9:00 to mow the front lawn, go me. I used to love mowing the lawn, but Whines has an electric lawn mower...MUCH more ecologically sound, but hard to use and not as much fun. *Shrug*

Moved a lot of the flower pots around that had very high grass growing around them. As I shuffled some and started mowing, a huge rat snake, maybe two feet long and almost two inches wide, slithered out and climbed into the crepe myrtle,


which was kind of a surprise, I didn't know they could climb trees. Live and learn. Anyway, the cute little thing barely put up with me taking photographs, so I dragged Whines outside -- mostly an excuse to see him in his boxers -- and when he was safely inside again, got the neighbor's kids over to see the critter. Once he was sufficiently viewed, I went back to lawn work.

Another toad in the water bucket we keep near the front door. Big toads. Better there than burrowing in my miracle berry...

Finished mowing the lawn--a little later on, got a bottle of fish emulsion fertilizer and poured it liberally around on my herbs and stuff. Oh, the stink. The dogs like stink. Everything smells of horrible fish muck now, including myself, that smell does NOT come out.

Chapter 1, Verse 1: Oh ye of little faith!

Unemployment, mood-eating, and a run of home-made desserts has left me with a waistline of a slowly increasing nature. So, back on South Beach, which is a nice, heart-friendly diet anyway.

I'd ooched my way up to 191, which is higher than I'd ever gotten. The first week on the south beach (and most low-carb diets, pretty steady loss of about a pound a day. It's not "real," but it's still nice.

The spam's title was, "ATTENTION: WINNER."
Right away, I knew it wasn't for me.