1 step forward, 2 steps back.

     As I mentioned in a previous post, I am still unemployed following my relocation to South Carolina.  At last count, I have applied for about 20 different positions, and received 2 call backs.  2.  So I was on one of the many resume websites, and clicked on a link to request information about getting a degree.  I guess it was a slow day because I received a call from an admissions advisor within 30 minutes of clicking.  Wow.

     I have considered school many times, but I have shied away from taking the steps.  Why?  Fear.  Fear of the cost involved (unemployed).  Fear of the course work (27 years since I was last in school), And, fear of failure. 

     But, my admissions advisor was extremely helpful as well as knowledgeable.  She was able to walk me thru what I needed to submit, and it was surprisingly easy.  File a request for my Veterans Benefit (If you are or were in the military following the tragic events of 9/11 – You should be eligible to receive assistance from the VA.  The length of service post 911 determines the allowable coverage.  The school itself provided a grant since I was a veteran.  The remaining money I applied for  as a Federal Stafford Loan (Low interest – government backed).  3 days to get everything, and now I’m a college student.

 

     The program I chose was to receive an Associates of the Arts in Business Administration.  With concentration in Medical Coding & Billing.  If I pass everything, I graduate in November of 2010.  13 months for a two year degree.

     My courses are ONLINE only.  So I will not physically enter a classroom.  There are 2 live “chat” sessions a week.  Day of the week and times can move.  If I am unable to attend, a recording of the session is available (meaning I can listen, but not ask questions).  Course assignments consist of Individual Projects (Research type paper), Discussion Boards, and potentially group projects. 

     Classes just started this week.  I have read the required chapters in the first book, but the 1st paper and discussion board are causing me some difficulty.  I am still unsure of what is actually the goal with the papers and the discussion boards.  I’m probably just over thinking / making it harder for myself then necessary.  Should clear up following the first class.

     Another interesting thing is, any paper you submit is compared to other submissions, as well as the contents of their virtual library to verify originality.  So you can’t just get a paper from another person anymore (not that I would).

 

I’ll follow up on this post when I receive my first grade. 

Oh.  I neglected to mention.  I’m a Mac.   Only 2 of the courses offered by my chosen university support the Mac.  I was provided with MS Office 2007 Enterprise.  All papers have to be in Word.  (I do have Word for Mac, but since they gave me the program, I’ll use theirs).  Thank Goodness for Bootcamp / VM Ware Fusion.  The e-textbooks look SO much better on the Mac.

Bucca’s

     Last Tuesday, my wife, sister-in-law, and father-in-law went to a local tavern named Bucca’s.  It’s a neighborhood type bar in what I would term a “strip mall”.  They serve a variety of menu items, with one of their most popular being their “wings”.  They have many varieties to choose from, and on Tuesday nights, they have them for .45 each.  Not a bad price.  The Thai-Garlic wings that I ordered were excellent.  Much better than anything I have sampled at “Wing” restaurants (Think Chains).

     The other thing that drew us to Bucca’s was the weekly trivia.  Every Tuesday night, starting at 7pm, Team Trivia takes center stage.  Any number of players can constitute a team.  The team receives a tally sheet, pencils, and small cards to use for submitting your answers.  For each round, there will be 3 questions from 3 separate categories.  For the 1st half, you can assign a point value of 1, 3, or 5 to the answers (assigning the highest point value for answers you are certain of) allowing for some strategy.  The 2nd half, the point values increase (2, 4 & 6). Each round lasts the duration of a song.  You and your table mates can discuss the answer and when you are ready, drop off your answer with the caller.  The final question of the night is more challenging.  It will consist of 4 things (of some type) that must be placed in order (Date, height, etc).  For this question, you can assign a point value of 0 to 15 points.  If you answer correctly, you receive the points.  Incorrectly, the points are deducted from your score.

     The trivia game is free to play (although you do need to purchase items from the bar or kitchen), and they even provide prizes.  The prizes are awarded to the top 3 teams, and are certificates that are redeemable at the establishment.  3rd place receives a $10.00 certificates, 2nd a $25.00 certificate, and 1st receives a $50.00 certificate.  The motto is “use your skill to pay your bill”

     Our first foray into this entertaining event was last Tuesday.  We placed 3rd.  Tonight, we took 1st place.  It was a really fun time.

The Team Trivia website contains the schedules for their contests at multiple locations and other nights.  So, if you didn’t like Bucca’s (but what’s not to like), there are other alternatives.

 

All in all, it has been a GREAT experience.  Bucca’s staff is extremely friendly, and the wings are great! 

Unemployed and Unhopeful ;; 1

Since moving to South Carolina, I have been searching for a job. I’m not picky. I want to start at around $10.00 an hour. Type of job is not really important. Hell, I worked at a hotel for 4 years. My search quandary is as follows:

The Unemployment Insurance Agency I have to use is in KY. Where my income has previously come from. They require periodic reviews to prove you are actively seeking employment. They expect (based on the forms you have to return to them) you to be personally visiting employers. Most of the job searching I have done is via the internet, using Websites like South Carolina Job Link (SC’s unemployment web site), the newspaper (online version). So I have not physically talked to anyone. Fill out application/submit Resume. Wait.

My real frustration arises when I go to one of these websites, and it won’t let me paste my resume in. Not even line by line. Retype the whole thing. The next website is similar, except this one allows uploading, but it’s robot doesn’t “understand” my plain txt resume. It butchers it. So I have to retype it again. Or wait. this one is funny. I send a resume to a temp agency. I send it in unformatted text. The screener emails me back to send the document in MS Word format. WORD. Word will open .tex files all day long. I don’t use fancy lines / borders. Just text. OK. So I open up Word (for Mac) send the document to her in both .doc and .docx (with x being compatible with office 2007.

I realize that every company has different expectations for prospective employees, so application processes and forms will vary. Actually, they vary greatly. But the online input of a resume should be standardized. At LEAST if you put the ability to upload a resume, the questions that would be answered on the resume should be removed.

I guarantee that if the President had to apply for 5 or 6 jobs, there would be legislation on how to make the system easier. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want government to get any more into my life than it already is. But if they want to fix the unemployment rates in this country, they would standardize things. I applied for 7 jobs today. None of them were “resume” friendly. It’s a wonder that the unemployment rate is so high.

A verification post. With Content. Who knew.

The books that are providing me some escape and attempt at maintaining

sanity in one form or another.

They come in handy when I’ve run out of energy on Face Book.

   

I really, really, really need a job.

Change is upon us. Change is here. Everyone should spare some change.

About 2 years ago, I have a middle aged Dell B110 series desktop, and an AT&T Tilt. I’d been lurking on the major sites (JAMM/GearDiary/Solsie/). Even went to a few developer boards and assisted in Beta testing for a couple. Made my opinion known. I was really enjoying the participating thing. So, I thought: Why not write a review? How hard can it be, I submitted a review I had written on a motorola bluetooth headset (Surprisingly, I still have the head set, and the review). Hard is not the word. Challenging is the word. Constructive Criticism was given, changes were made, and BAM My first review was posted on a familiar web site (to me at least ) JustAnotherMobileMonday. “Go Ahead and Post it”. Huh? Post What? Ah the PTB (Powers that be) responds. Theres and Account for that: Hi WordPress, My name is Steve.. Me and my other new friend, Mr. Live Writer would like to work with you. It was a reluctant friendship. It seemed that neither of my new friends really liked me, and had occasional arguments on their own.. After a few meetings between myself WP & WLW, a shaky truce was established and my article finally made it to the world. As you may have surmised by this point, I’m stupid when it comes to things like this. I’m a total geek. Very Very Dangerous around OTHER peoples computers. I wrote a few reviews for JAMM. Some were good. Some were not so good. Shortly after I wrote my review of Flex-Mail, I upgraded my phone to the iPhone 3G. This limited the amount of material I could produce as there were already 3 or 4 ohters that had the iphond locked up. Fine. My job was taking a major hit – Hotel. High Arrival and Departure numbers. Extra hours. Those two things ate into the time I would have used for review anyway. So I resigned Opened up a slot for someone with more time, and maybe a device that they didn’t already have covered. No Biggie.

After playing around on my iphone, I thought I’d give it a shot reviewing some apps. Handed them off to the two major sites (in MY mind), and was picked up by one. Again, I wrote some reviews. I never understood the blog system, so would post my reviews to a google apps page. I could log into the site, I could SEE more when I was logged in, but I never did figure out how to post a review or topic myself. Add to this that I purchased a MacBook Pro, and had to relearn how to make a computer do things, and you have a useless person. Granted, I can run XP on the BootCamp Drive but I don’t want to do it that way. More on this later.

During this, I am informed that my wife’s mother has Metastatic Breast Cancer, the cancer has spread rapidly, nothing they can do. So I have to Move to Charleston SC.

My employment was already winding down, as the hotel went into forclosure, and a departure date was set for 16 June 2009. Hotel had been open for over 30 years. In a prime location. The purchaser did not want to continue to operate the business. So My wife left to set up house and care for her mother in March. I stayed till the final day, and have now moved to Goose Creek, SC.

As of today:05/09/09- I am mostly settled. I have an office set up with my MBP as a DeskTop. I have my iPhone. I have NO JOB. Neither my wife nor myself is currently employed. Luckily, we are both able to draw unemployment, so we aren’t starving. And I obviously have an internet connection.

I’m spending a great deal of time searching for work. The unemployment people say I have to go in person to apply for a job. The first 5 places I tried said I had to apply on line. So I search around. Fill out some applications, polish my resume, spend some time on waste book (face book) I’m also getting better with the whole Mac thing. I only shift to Windows for 1 game I play. So, I’m hopefully going to be sending out some reviews. They will usually be posted here on my wonderful blog (to see how it looks) before going to a more trafficked site. Then again, Maybe no one else will want it. I’ll leave that bridge there. Cross later if necessary.

So, That’s my life for the last 3 months.

I will probably post from my iPhone some if its short.

This post was written using Ecto.

Post of curiosity:

I am curious if this will post to my blog, and be legible.

It has no real purpose other then that.

And to see HOW it looks..

End of an Era

On Tuesday, May 26th, the hotel I am employed by was sold at auction.

This hotel is the one that providid lodging for me while undergoing MEPS processing as the Stopher’s Louisville Inn. This was May of 1982

It next became a Holiday Inn franchise, which it remained until September 2008 when the franchise was revoked.

The building sold for 10,000,000. And was aquired by Wayside Christian Mission.

Hotel operation will continue until 12 Jume 2009. Then it’s doors will close as a hotel, forever.

– i-Phone post –

Review: Wordabble by Fusion Bay

If you are like me, you probably have several applications on your I-Phone to help you waste kill time.  Everyone occasionally has to wait at a Doctors office.  The Dentist.  Waiting for the jury verdict.

I had been playing Sudoku (many different application flavors), and had become somewhat bored with it.  So, I started to look at the different word games that were available on the App Store.  Here’s one I have REALLY become addicted to.

From the Developer’s website.

Wordabble is a tile-based word search game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Form words 4 letters or longer in length by tapping or dragging your finger across connecting tiles. Learn new vocabulary with our dictionary, challenge your friends for the highest score, play by yourself, or get addicted and become a ‘Hot’ player. You won’t be able to put the game down!

As you may have guessed, Wordabble is based on  Parker Brothers and Hasbro’s trademarked game Boggle®.

You are provided with a randomly seeded grid of 25 different letters.  Your task is to find as many four letter words as possible.  The catch?  They must connect.  Connection of the letters can be forward, backward, or diagonally.  Letters can only be used one time for each word.  As you tap the letters, they become outlined.  Once you have chosen at least 4 letters, you have a minus sign (clears the selected letters), and a plus sign (checks your word in the dictionary).

	My made up word that doesn’t exist.  (BUT SHOULD!!!!)

In the above examples the current time is displayed, followed by words found (the left shows I have correctly found 0 of 203 possible words, the right displays the percentage of words I have found), and then the current score.  Scoring is determined by the small number located on the bottom right of each tile (ala  SCRABBLE®).  Point values are based on the usage of each letter in common words.

During the game, you can access the following hint screens.

Displays how many words per tile	How many words by length

There are 3 different game modes.

• Timed game (you have 5 minutes to find as many words as you can.
• Marathon game (as long as you choose), and
• Puzzle of the Day (1).   More on this to follow.

Following the completion of a game (whether thru expiration of time or finding word block, you can view the list of words found and missed.  When you have the thought of “that’s not a word”, selecting a given word will bring up the definition (2).

	As you can see, I need work.

The Puzzle of the Day is (IMHO) THE feature that sets this game apart.  Available each day at midnight, you have 24 hours to solve as may words as possible.  While YOU are working on it, so are other players from around the net.  By creating a free account on their server, you can compare your abilities to the other wordy people.  If you enjoy word games, you will like this.  If you enjoy competitive word games, you will love it.

(1)  Internet connection required to download the Puzzle of the day, and update your scores.

(2)  Internet connection required to use the dictionary.

Price: $2.99, available on I-Tunes

Developer Website:  Fusion Bay

Product Website: Wordabble

From my iphone

Just experimenting

Iphone wordpress

Testing yet again