Day 51

Went to the Job Search Focus Group today. Its a professional networking group that meets Monday mornings at the Hyde Park Methodist Church. This was my second time going, the first time you go through an orientation, then stand in front of the group give a thirty second introduction into who you are, what you did last, and what you want to do. On my second trip I was able to observe a bit more, and to reach out and meet a few people. The second meeting was far more productive than the first.

Ive noticed that there are four types of people who attend these meetings;

1) Newly jobless: These can be classified by a certain forlorn look that is something like a dog with it's tail between it's legs. This group seems to be holding it together on the surface, but cannot manage to go ten minutes without thinking to themselves "I did something wrong and am now being punished."

2) In concentrated search mode: This group seems to have the mentality "I have a job, and that job is finding a job." They are well adjusted, and not at all at risk for nervous breakdown. At least not in public. Some of these people are veterans of being unemployed. The veterans have seen all this before and know exactly what to do, what to say, and when to say it.

3) Prolonged jobless: These folks have been out of work for a long time, sometimes a very long time. They seem ok with it. Or at least they arn't bothered by the day to day anymore. There are two sorts of prolonged jobless, those who want something very specific, and those who have something that makes them hard to hire in this economy (too much expirence for their job level, not enough expirence to not be beaten out, or are just not that personable).

4) The vulture: There is one of these in every meeting. They are preditors. They are there to prey on unsuspecting jobless, convinceing people with a slick speach to come and work in their debt reduction business, or their time share selling business, or their "firm/agency" (either Ad, financial, or marketing). There are hundrends more types of businesses that these preditors use as a front for their pyrmid scams. The nice part is that this type of scum is easy to identify. They tend to be have their speach too well rehearsed, like they had done it thousands of times before. They seem to sprint through the crowd looking for a sucker, and they will not take no for an answer.

Sincerely a Machine

I have been in a job transition for the past 46 days, I have had a few interviews, but nothing seems to come of it. I have gotten alot of this:

Dear Mr. Morgan
We regret to inform you
you arn't a fit
the position has been filled
an internal candidate
we will keep your resume on file
we encourage you
other positions
that match
your skills
and interests

we thank you for you interest
and wish you the best
in your career

Sincerely
A Machine

This email address is not monitored
so please do not reply to this message

Why is it that no one seems to want to tell you that you didn't get the job like a real person. A phone call, an email written by a person who has talked to you at some point. Anything.

there is only one thing to do, keep looking.

St. Paddy's day

Every St Patrick's day for the past 5 years my grandmother and I have gone to Molly Malone's, a bar in Cincinnati, named for the "Tart with the Cart" Dublin's most famous "social worker" (prostitute). Every year we go and get lunch, have a few (dozen) pints and generally be a stereotype for American St Patrick's day. A grand time is had by all.

As i sit here tonight thinking about the true meaning of St Paddy's day, I feel sort of like Charlie Brown on xmas. Is it about the beer, is it about the parties, is it about the Corned Beef and Cabbage. YES it is about all of those things, and NO it should not be. If you are American and have Irish blood, or even if you don't St Paddy's day is a grand day to reflect on who brought you to America. A day to reflect on the men and women of your blood line who made the great sacrifice, leaving their life and home behind to start a new life here in America.

Raise a pint to your ancestors today. If not for them you would still be european.

Thanks

Cramer Vs. Stewart

Thursday's Daily Show with Jon Stewart promised to be a knock down drag out fight between comedian Jon Stewart and Wall Street guru Jim Cramer. We expected it to be ugly, and what we got was ugly, it just wasn't the ugly I expected. I expected Cramer to go toe to toe with the comedian, and well I didn't expect Cramer to mop the floor with Stewart (especialy on Stewart's own show) but I atleast expected Cramer to put up a fight, to throw a punch, or atleast block a punch. He did not. Cramer just sort of took it.

This was profoundly discourageing. As a Capitalist I couldn't believe that one of my own just lay down and let a nationalist socialist stomp on him. If we capitalists don't stand up and point out the obvious flaws in the nationalist socialism that the media force feeds us, we will watch our economic freedom dwindel until the government steals the entire product of our labor, disincentiveizeing any and all effort.

A sad day for capitalism