It is one of those fun things about today's economy is that when dealing with recruiters/potential employers, they have to go through the rigamorale of letting each applicant know that there might be issues/items about the job that might be of concern to the applicant despite the fact that at this point, those of us who have been unemployed for awhile are pretty much willing to do anything if the pay is decent and does not involve having to wear any sort of apron. What I mean is that my recruiters will often preface a possible job with a "well, this job is in Bakersfield, they can only pay you in magic beans and you have to fight all the other applicants in gladiator style combat to get this job so is that okay by you?" And I, of course, have to say "sure, if I get up at 3 in the morning, I could make it to Bakersfield by 8, magic beans can turn into bean stalks, and I love gladiator flicks so let's go for it!"

And speaking of not working, I have not only gone past the sweatpants phase of unemployment but gone into the pajamas phase. For most of the week, I go through life in either a t-shirt, sweatshirt, shorts ensemble or a tshirt/sweatshirt/pajama bottom ensemble. Lately, on those few occasions when I do go out, I have a strange desire to actually dress slightly up because in some ways, I miss having to dress up somewhat nicely. Or shall I say I miss the fact that I have a reason to dress up somewhat nicely. So lately, when I have been going out, I've been wearing non-jeans pants and stylish sneakers. All of which means that I actually dressed somewhat nicely when I saw the doctor today.

There's another odd thing that happens when I go out, especially during the day, in that I see people who actually have jobs and I'm kind of amazed by it. It seems rather odd to me because between my adventures, adventures of other people I know, and all the news stories, I'm often surprised that some people still have jobs and live rather normal, mundane lives where they leave the house during the day and make money. I wrote earlier how this economic cluster fuck feels like the plague and walking downtown in the morning or afternoon has that feeling of walking amongst survivors of some awful catastrophe. Oh, to be an office drone and spend eight hours in a cubicle, bitching about your boss and your bosses boss.

Lately I notice that if turned down for a job, the company will tell me how great it was to have met me and while they won't actually hire me, they will keep my resume on file in case something happens. This is supposed to make me feel better, as I now know that if the person they hire refuses the job or quits early on and the other people they thought about hiring turn them down and if they post the job again and they don't get any good responses, then they'll look over my resume again.

So, in other words, come on people quitting!

Inglorious Basterds

I saw Inglorious Basterds yesterday and it was pretty much what you would expect from a Tarantino flick-- it was a little messy, a little long, a little self-indulgent, a little violent, a little talky, and a little brilliant. It could be the world's only American WWII action/revenge flick that's really about the power of cinema and consists largely of foreign actors speaking foreign languages. The guy is definitely a huge, motherfucker of a genius but it's still hard to know what exactly the point of it all is. Everyone always talks about the violence and the gore and the love of B Movie action/kung fu flicks but what everyone forgets to mention is that he loves dialogue more. Probably, it could be argued, too too much (both "Kill Bill II" and "Deathproof" suffered from too much talking, not enough rocking).

The thing about the movie is that there's two parts of it, the Inglorious Basterd, Nazi-scalping brigade part and then the Jewish French theater owner part. Both of them are almost two separate films, one of them violent and cartoonish, the other one tense and dialogue driven (it's almost like it's the two schizoid parts of Tarantino's brain being split into two movies) and while the violent cartoonish part is the one that's played up in the marketing and the one Tarantino talks about, the heart of the movie, the most interesting part of the movie, is the part involving the Jewish French theater owner. If Tarantino just would have made the movie about the theater owner, he probably would win every possible damn award there is because it really is spot own awesome (it says a lot about the movie that the two scariest parts are a request for another glass of milk and the ordering of cream) but he couldn't let the Basterd part go so what you have then is two movies that don't quite mesh together. That all sounds bad, of course, except it's a Tarantino flick so it somehow all works or at least is done so well and crazily that you just go with it.

Someday there's a great movie in him, not "Pulp Fiction" great but "classic American movie" great but he's not quite there. This movie shows that maybe he's getting closer and closer. Maybe he should do what the Coen Brothers do and throw in a really good, straight drama into the mix every once in awhile (like "Fargo" or "No Country for Old Men") just to get the props. Or maybe he just doesn't want to, something that I think drives a lot of people (especially those film critics who don't really like his movies but still realize he's brilliant) crazy. And if he really doesn't, does it matter? Nobody does movies like him and nobody probably ever will. Either way, I'd still go see it.

I'm pretty sure this is a fake email

Hello,

I need a helping hand in my house..My wife and kids are moving in soon..Please contact if you are interested..

Smith.

Oh, according to Hotmail, the email comes from a Mr. Smith Smith.

Maybe I should start hiring myself out as a spam mail consultant so I can tell spam mailers (fishers?) that, among other things, sending out an email from a Smith Smith could come off as a bit fishy.

I usually go to the gym somewhere between 4 and 5 and there's always this woman there who I've seen around for the past year or so. She's easy to spot because she's neither elderly nor Asian and that puts her way on the minority side of the people who workout there. She's also noticeable because she's one of those people who hit the cardio equipment for half an hour, another apparatus for another half an hour, then lifts weights, and then hits the treadmill. And, yes, she is kinda attractive in a way, especially if you like woman who look like they do triathalons during their lunch breaks and goes rock climbing before they even have brunch on the weekends.

Anyways, we've been pretty much working out together at the gym at the same time day after day after day after day and yesterday, she finally got on an actual piece of exercise equipment that was next to me. As I was working out next to her, I kept on having this strange feeling like I should say "hi" or something. Not because I necessarily want to (frankly, I don't like saying "hi" to anyone) but more like I was obligated to because I knew who she was, I'm sure she knew who I was and we were all part of the 4-5 Workout at the Y Shift and as members of that shift, were all somehow connected to each other, more so than say, somebody who normally works out at 3 but goes in at 4 or the people who do the 5-6 shift.

I, of course, did nothing. Partly because she was on her blackberry the whole time.

Job Stuff

Yesterday I got an email for a contract position doing something for which I have a tiny, tiny bit of experience in but not a whole lot. Normally, I'd get back to the person who sent me the email and lie through my teeth but I just don't feel like lying through my teeth about this job in particular. Maybe it's just because I'm tired or have been going on interviews for stuff I do have experience in. Or maybe it's because the job involves some level of technical expertise and I don't want to actually be in a position where I'm hired and on Day 1 somebody goes "okay, now I need you to upload this" and I'd have to go hide in the corner reading "Uploading for Dummies" in order to figure it out.

Speaking of job interviews, as many times as I've been going on interviews, I still hate when they say "we're going to talk to a few more people and..." just because when you interview with somebody at some place, it's just you and you alone and for an hour or so it's like "tell me about yourself" and if it's a good interview, you think "why wouldn't they hire me? I'm cooking!" but, then, the reality of the situation hits and you realize that it doesn't really matter, that it's not really all about you, and that there's still somebody out there who might just be better or do better in an interview.

In yesterday's interview, I was smoking. One of the best interviews I've ever been one with a not drop, hint, or whiff of nervousness (taking a lot of tranquilizers probably helped). After talking to two people, I was told I was going to meet with one of the Higher Ups but after a few minutes of nobody coming into the conference room to meet with me, the first person with whom I interviewed with came back into the conference room to tell me that she had been running around looking for the Higher Up only to realize that they were in a meeting all afternoon. So, thanks for coming by, we're going to talk to other people, and we'll let you know.

Now, not meeting with the Higher Up because they were in a meeting could, naturally, mean that they were in a meeting. Or, it could mean that despite it all, the two people with whom you met with said "nope" and decided not to bother with dragging the Higher Up into meeting with me. On the one hand, why would they schedule an interview with me if they knew the Higher Up was in an interview? On the other hand, stuff happens and the person who set it all up didn't really come off as being that dialed in. Because I've been through this a hundred million times, I'm going with "ehhh...fuck it...why was the Higher Up's time?"

The other thing about it was that, as I said, I was kicking ass (I think) during the interview but if so requested, have to go in and do it again. The fact that I was all wired up and ready to go and being told halfway through the process that they'd have to reschedule was a bit of a let-down. I kind of felt the way a starting pitcher would feel if they were throwing a really good game, one of their best, and told they wouldn't go back out there because they needed to use a pinch hitter. "But I could go three more innings...let me finish the game!"

Ugh

I am trying, so far unsuccessfully, to ween myself away from news blogs. I have been totally wrapped up in the health care debate to probably the detriment of my mental health and sanity. As I wrote earlier (I think), how this thing plays out is in some ways, a test case to see if we, as a country, are able to actually achieve some serious, progressive reform and as such, is a test to see whether our political system at this time is actually able to see that change happen. All of this, of course, was brought forth in the '08 election when somehow, We the People actually voted in a smart, earnest, thoughtful man who wanted to fix a lot of things that needed fixing. His election, or so I thought, was a sign that We the People were ready to have somebody smart, earnest, and thoughtful to fix the country.

So how's that going?

Like a lot of people who were really pumped by that election, I am pretty much all riled up and in several stages of despair now. The system in DC is terribly and horribly broken (why the constant use of the anti-majority filibuster is considered a normal things these days and the so called "political press" doesn't seem to think anything about it is beyond me) but even worse it appears that we, as a country, actually don't really deserve any sort of change. This shouldn't have come as any sort of surprise but we are not a very serious country. Somehow a lot of us got suckered by Obama's election to believe that we were about to become one but as one blogger put it, we are still a "pre-enlightment" country. As evidence I provide the Tea Baggers, the Birthers, and all those "Town Hellers" screaming about taking the country back or how government should get out of medicare or that they believe in the constitution. Death Panels should have been seen by any reasonably intelligent person to be a complete and total BS thing but that hasn't stopped anyone from screaming it. Nor has that stopped any number of people who would probably need health care reform from going to those rallies and screaming about government takeovers. Healthcare reform is a huge and important issue that even a huge majority of voters believe in, yet nobody seems to be terribly upset that the issue has become more farce than anything else.

Last night Harlan and I watched a documentary about the evils of WalMart. The documentary didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know but in light of the health care debate I pretty much watched it at full boil, occasionally yelling out "you're a fucking idiot" to the occasional John Q Public shown in the documentary who is or was in the process of getting screwed by WalMart. It was all out of the book "Deer Hunting with Jesus" in which a huge amount of Red State conservative types got bent over in all sorts of ways yet never quite made the leap of faith to realize that maybe those Red State conservative views made the being bent over possible. Like they showed the story of a family that ran a very successful small town hardware store somewhere in Nowheresville that went bankrupt thanks to WalMart. One of the guys kept on saying "well, I believe in freedom and the constitution and I don't want to be no Communist country" but then went on saying how he wished the Government would come in and do something about what WalMart does. One of the owners of the store mentioned several times that he was a conservative Republican (even flashing to a picture that he owned of Ronald Reagan) but, like the other guy, was completely unable to make the conclusion that a political belief that worshipped at the altar of "free markets" and that business should be supported and not regulated could cause one to fall victim to the free market and a political system that supports big business and fails to regulate them.

Then there was the guy trying to organize the union and all the stories about how hard WalMart tries to fight unionization (like very), even going to take the effort to show employees instructional videos on the horrors of unions. All of those people's lives they showed in the documentary who worked there could be in better situations if they were unionized, but.... And then, of course, was all the people complaining about not having health care or not being able to afford health care. I wanted to send them all a letter asking them what they think about health care reform just to see how many of them send something back about how they support the constitution and all that.

But finally, my take away was this-- at one point in the documentary they went to a WalMart that was just recently opened in Germany. The employees there made decent money and had a generous vacation plan. It goes without saying they all had decent health care. Oh, and they were able to be members of a union, something that goes a long way to explaining their generous benefits. At the end of an interview with one of the German WalMart workers, the lady they were talking to said something like "I don't know why they don't have all this stuff in America?"

Well, to whomever you are who said that, here is your answer "because we, as a nation, are a bunch of fucking idiots."

Chili

I love chili but the most recent can of the chili that I bought has been sitting in the cabinet for several weeks now. The reason why I haven't opened that sucker up and gone at it is because chili is one of those foods that can never be taken lately-- you need to pay attention to when and when not to eat it-- and I haven't had that moment yet.

What I mean is that I would never eat a can of chili on a weekday night because I'd have to deal with it at work the next morning not to mention an often long commute (those long rides on the 38 Geary can be HELL). Now, of course, it's easier for me to deal with since I don't have to work but I still have to pick and choose my spots. I had a doctor's appt today so I couldn't have had it yesterday and I have an interview on Tuesday so can't even think about going for it until then. As for all the days in between, well, I just wasn't quite willing to make that commitment. I'm having enough problems figuring out what I'm going to do all day without even throwing chili into that mix.

I'm not saying that I've been paying too much attention to the healthcare debate, but....

When I was walking around the neighborhood yesterday there were old people everywhere and I felt like beating up a bunch of them for being gullible enough to believe that Obama wants to kill them.

Anyways, I live on the middle apartment of a complex that's right over a somewhat major street. This makes things loud. The neighbors above won't let us listen to music or watch tv too loudly and the neighbors below us start talking really loudly late at night while coked up. But whatever, the main thing that gets to me is the street noise. Watching TV is really difficult as it seems like anytime I watch something, just at the moment something important is about to be said, a car always drive by. It'll be like this:

"Hi, how are you?"
"Great, how are you?"
"I'm fine, how's your mother?"
"My mother is doing fine, except for the fact that yesterday an alien came down and...VROOOOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I have to often watch things three times just to make sense of what's going on. It's especially tricky with shows like "Mad Men" or "BSG" that are all moody and try to go out of their way to not have people talk loudly.

Worst of all are the neighbors down the street from us, the neighbors we call our White Trash neighbors, a name given to them due to their hobby of taking old junker cars and fixing them up on their drive way. They will then rev the engine of said car to test it around 11 at night. They also have exceedingly noisy dirt bikes that they like riding around and around and around, usually whenever I'm trying to watch something on TV.

They are not my favorite people.

It says a lot about the current state of my job search...

...that the highlight so far of my job search was an interview for a crappy job in Livermore. I knew it was a crappy job at the time but since Livermore was over an hour away, involved the taking of lots of highways I have rarely if ever been on, and had only been to Livermore once in my entire life, thought it was a bit of an adventure-- a road trip if you will.

Today I have an interview with a company in Larkspur, a place much, much prettier than Livermore with a much prettier drive. Also a much better job. When I got the email saying they'd like to talk to me, I was excited because it would mean a fun little trip over the Golden Gate Bridge. But when I found it was only to be a phone interview, I was a little disappointed. While I don't think the job would be a good enough fit for me to be hired, I at least want to make it to the second round just so I'll have an excuse to go on another road trip, maybe a make a day of it-- like instead of driving there, I'll drive to the Embarcadero and take the ferry over. Or drive but grab some lunch by the water front.

So you're a member of the Washington Press and one side of a political party is saying that the Democrats' proposed health care reform will lead to a "Death Panel" that will euthanize old folks. Do you

1)Say that's complete and total bullshit and attack those spreading the disgraceful lies

or do you

2)Say "some people say Democrats want to single-handily kill your grandmother where she sleeps while others say that isn't true" and then tut-tut Obama for not doing a good job in getting his message out

And if a bunch of people are screaming that they don't want government to interfere with their medicare, do you, as a member of the press

1)Write that this is completely ridiculous as Medicare IS a government program and these people are fucking idiots

or do you

2)Say that it shows that the American people distrust Government interference in anything and that it's proof of how difficult it would be to pass health care reform-- not because the average American voter is an idiot but because, once again, Obama isn't doing a good enough job of getting his message out.

When a supposed leader of the Republican Party goes on a Sunday show and repeats the claim that the Democrats want to pull the plug on everyone person over the age of 70, as host of the show, do you

1)Say straight out that it's ridiculous, a big fat lie, the worst kind of demagoguery imaginable, and that you'll never have them on their show again because they're a big fat fucking lying weasel whose poisoning the political discourse in the country

Or do you

2)Say that's not correct, give them the fact, have them respond to it with another big fat lie and then move onto the next topic and then revel in the fact all the reporters replay it over and over again in recaps of the Sunday shows because it's a good sound bite and the person is a supposed and valued leader of the Republican Party. You will, of course, have them back as much as possible because they give you good ratings and are considered a valued and important voice in politics.

All of this kind of reminds me of the start to the Iraq War when like an overwhelming percentage of people still believed that Saddam had something to do with 9/11. Did the press think that it was just an issue that the opponents of the war (most of whom were never given much in the way of an audience) not getting their message through, that as there was no note or email from Sadaam saying "Dear Bin Laden, please don't blow up those towers" that you never know and if Dick Cheney says it's true then we shouldn't really say one way or the other, or that it was a HUGE failure on their part and they should look deep into their conscious and ask themselves whether or not they're a failure at their job?

Got an email last night entitled "This is Not Spam Mail: Reply" and as the email said that it wasn't spam, I decided to open it, even if it was sent by a Mr. Ginibunwa Esaaba.

Now, you'll never believe this, but it turns out it WAS spam mail. I know! He was trying to raise money for some sort of great financial scheme he was cooking up in Africa. Sadly, I realized this a few hours after I sent him 100 dollars via Paypal but you live, you learn. Hopefully nothing bad will come of it.

Sent out a resume yesterday and quickly got an email back from the company saying that they'd like to bring me in for an interview and asked me what day next week would work. I got back to them as fast as I could and let them know that any day next week would work.

Haven't heard back yet.

I was at a bus stop on Geary waiting for the 38, drinking a bottle of Minutemaid Lemonade and listening to my iPhone when it appeared that somebody in the middle lane of the road-- a twenty-something somewhat crunchy girl-- had just rolled down their window to talk to someone in my general direct direction. Naturally, I thought it couldn't be me because I didn't know the person who was saying something but when I realized that there really was nobody else she could be talking to as I was the only at the bus stop, I turned down my music to see just what the hell she could be talking to me about.

The answer? Minutemaid Lemonande. Apparently she's a big fan, especially if you add lots of sugar to it, something I told her was kind of silly considering the drink pretty much consists of sugar. I responded to a few things she said and then got a little freaked out about the whole thing and made the universal facial sign of "kay, thanks, bye" and put my headphones back on. The light finally changed to green and with that, she drove on off, probably thinking about drinking some lemonade as soon as she was to get to wherever she was to get to.

And so my question is-- what the fuck was that all about?

Illegal Sucking

As you get older, the list of songs that have entered and exited your life increases exponentially. Some of them you still remember, some of them have disappeared in time-- sometimes by choice. On Saturday, I heard maybe one of the most random songs that I had lost through the sands of time

-- Genesis' "Illegal Alien."

Wiped that from your memory too, didn't you? I think music wants to wipe it from it's memory

Now, first of all, that song sucks. S-U-C-K-S. Just awful, especially when you consider that at one point Genesis was known for being an art-rock band that often played eight minute song "suites" while dressed as forest animals. The song is basically a cutesy song about illegally crossing the border into the US complete with veiled references of the offering a sister up for sexual favors. Who the hell thought that would be a good idea for a song? I mean, the song sucks enough as it is-- it could have lyrics written by Shakespeare himself and it would still suck-- but making it about illegal immigrants. The video even has Phil Collins dressed like a Mexican with a bad moustache and sombrero. Seriously, who the hell thought ANY OF IT would be a good idea.

Can you imagine somebody writing that song now, or at least releasing a song like it-- a cutesey song about illegal immigrants. Can you imagine the ruckus? Lou Dobbs' head would explode.

Just amazingly awful.