Whoo, I really hate this fucking country. Let's see, recession that lasts longer than most and with an administration that's not nearly as caring as most (extend unemployment benefits, pshaw right, why do that, let's let people go into debt!). Now that the recession is supposedly over and the economy is making a rebound, let's continue to allow corporations to off-shore high technology jobs overseas to India and elsewhere. What a great plan, this way now that the economy has started to try and reverse course we can have zero jobs to go with it!

I'd leave this country and go elsewhere, but my general impression is that all countries suffer from the same problem-- government. It's always good when a few people who are "elected" are given powers over millions (and paid quite nicely to boot!). Of course these elections are participated in by less than half of the population (especially true in the United States), but hey, why put laws in to halt elections if a majority of the population appears to be displeased enough to not even vote. Let's elect whoever gets the majority anyways, afterall, 50% of 40% is better than nothing right?

I think I wish I'd been born in another 400-500 years. I can't imagine it getting any worse that far ahead.

Well, after over a year of looking for a job, I'm convinced this economy is in the toilet. I've since moved back to my hometown which is significantly cheaper to live in than Seattle was (rent is half of what it was in Seattle, with some utilities even being paid for that Seattle wasn't covering (which basically means everything), and cost of living is generally lower (read: everything at the grocery store is 15-30% cheaper than identical stores in Seattle)). I'll give tech jobs a chance when it looks like things have turned around.. in the mean time, let the resume rotting continue!

(Additional note-- I looked for jobs *everywhere* in this country explicitly stating that I was willing to relocate, so my location was irrelevant. Plus, if going by the job boards was any indicator, Seattle still had a good share of tech job openings, just a lot less like everywhere else.)

...just does not want to pick back up here in Seattle. The number of new jobs listed each weeks seems to grow smaller, while the talking heads on TV tell me it's all going to be improving "soon".

Somehow I don't believe them.

The upside so far is that I was recently informed that I'm eligible for an additional 3 months of unemployment compensation-- so at least I won't be trying to size up an alley to call home, but I'd still rather be back at work doing *something*. I keep fresh working on hobby projects and what not, but I feel as though my skills aren't getting any better just idling away waiting for some job to manifest itself.

Bleh.

I've been fiddling with a copy of Microsoft Visual C# .NET Standard I bought at the local Best Buy for $99, and so far I really enjoy the language structure as well as the new .NET Framework. From my info, you can tell I'm usually a Delphi/Pascal whore, but I can say without a doubt that I wouldn't mind delving into this as a line of work. =)

It also helps that one of the pioneers of Borland Pascal 7 was on the team Microsoft had to design the C# language, so a lot of the constructs appear to be similar in some ways, but more like C and C++ in others (which, I like C/C++, so this is another plus-- it gives you the language format of C/C++ but the ease of use of VB/Delphi). Exciting times, these.

Amazing... this is the longest I've been without work since getting into computer programming/IT/whatever. And now the news says Seattle will likely be one of the last places to come out of this 'recession' we're in. JOY.

I'm suddenly thinking moving somewhere else might be wise...

It is my firm belief that there are NO jobs in the greater Seattle area-- I check the job boards weekly and find around a dozen that I *might* qualify for (usually only 2 that I think I'd fit like a glove, as far as skills go, ignoring any desires of the type of field I might have). It's sickening. This recession can't end fast enough...

Oh, and three cheers for bankrupt dot-bombs that fuck their employees out of their promised bonuses and final months pay, who here thinks that's a load of fun? BAH.

Personally, I have no problem with other religions, or really, other groups of people who look and act differently than myself, but the devestation of 9/11 will probably haunt me (and my peers) for the rest of my life. The complete senselessness of it all, combined with the lack of any accomplishment, it really just irks me.

What did they manage? What benefits did they reap? Nothing has changed. The U.S. is still as involved as ever in Israel/Palestinian peace talks, we're still as enthralled as ever with poor treatment of peoples in certain Middle Eastern countries...

I guess I just find it difficult to believe that a handful of people could be duped into thinking that killing themselves and thousands of others could make some major event happen-- make some major change in the U.S...

After the suicide jumper on I-5 yesterday, I get another dose of Seattle / Bellevue assholeism today. Some lady, pulled over on the side of the road to do something (eat something from the Safeway Deli? Look at a map? Whatever), and some jerk pulls up behind her and honks-- she thinks he wants around, so she pulls ahead a few feet to give the guy room. The asshole just keeps PULLING UP behind her, honking again. Eventually she figures out she's not wanted there and leaves-- the problem is, the place she was parking in was a parking spot; people park there all the time (it's near the entrance to a Safeway Grocery store, 2 lane street, only orange seperator lines in the middle, no white lines denoting 4 lane traffic even though the street is wide enough to handle that. Only at the stop-light, 300-400 feet away, do white lines show up indicating left/right turn positions) and eat lunch, or do whatever people do in parked cars on the side of a street.

What gets me though is the rage this guy had.. he missed two green lights to torment this lady who was innocently parking along the side of the street TRYING to do something. Had I known what was going on (I originally though they were together and the honk was trying to get her attention), I probably would have yelled at the guy to pull around and fuck off, but unfortunately I didn't realize the reasoning of it all until it was over.

I'm sure this happens elsewhere, but you always hear about how nice people are over here (Seattle area), and when people have a chance to be nice or ignore something that they think is wrong, they don't.

Thus ends todays rant...

Definately see this movie.. I've seen it now three times, and it gets funnier every time, ESPECIALLY if you're a fan of Kevin Smith's and have seen his previous movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy or Dogma). The movie does have some humor that works if you haven't seen the previous movies, but if you've seen even one of the prior flics, this one is sure to please with all of the returning characters involved.

As a side note, if you do plan on seeing it, be sure to stick around past the end of the credits (the black-screen credits) for a short little snippet of a character from Dogma.

My first journal entry, and strangely, my first rant about my current job.

I started with this company over a year ago, and about 6 months ago, everything went downhill in a fast sort of way (stock went from $52+ to nickles and dimes in 6 months). We were told that things were fine and that the company was seeking new money to give us a shot in the arm, and then that fell through and 90% of our staff was let go, and the remainder (including myself) were told we'd receive "employee incentives" (very specific incentives) for staying on, and a payout of our vacation balance. This was an incentive to keep us around since they were going to file for bankruptcy protection in an effort to re-organize and sell off constituent parts of the company as 'working entities'.

All good so far.. now it's been 6 months or so since all this happened, the milestones for when we'd receive our bonuses have come and gone, no checks and no vacation payouts. We're still getting bi-weekly paychecks, which is "a good thing", but whenever news of our status is given it's in short controlled bursts with nary a whim of when things will really settle down or when we'll see the money we've been promised. Job security aside, the money would be nice simply because it'd buy me time to find a job that I'd really enjoy-- not grab the first thing a recruiter throws at me and hope I'll adapt. (FYI: I imagine I could make do for 3-4 months on the promised bonus-- that's being thrifty and whatnot.) Taking the job security into account, I have sleepless nights wondering when and if this whole thing will fall out from under me, and worse, the stress of it all is finally affecting my work to a point that my co-workers and management are noticing; so now I get the joy of wondering when/if we'll either a) be sold and re-hired at the new company or b) let go altogether because the portion of the company I'm involved with can't be sold. To boot, my faith in ever seeing that employee incentive cash is dwindling by the day, and the combined fears of being let go (be it for poor productivity, bankruptcy or being sold but not being re-hired) and NOT seeing said bonus (because it didn't work out, whatever) is giving me a damned migraine.

Bleh, anyways, I've decided for now to just go one day at a time-- the stress is still affecting my output (if you can call it that, I get work orders and nothing gets output, so it's hardly output then huh?), but I've put my resume back out there to get a feel for the job market and how it's changed since the last time I went hunting. I guess in the coming weeks I'll decide if I want to abandon ship or if I want to stick it out and try to make it work.. nothing particularly interesting is holding me here, just my general fear or not being able to find anything else and that if I DO quit (or get fired) I'll lose out on those promised incentives.. We'll see.