Personal catharsis

My past week has been crazy (to use the term loosely). I've enjoyed in depth conversations with good friends and learned how important slowing down is. I don't try to be too busy all the time, but when something beautiful happens - you can't deny how it makes you feel inside. Warm and fuzzy until you are boiling pot of emotions that explodes.

 Dukes of Stratosphear are the best example - one of Andy and Colin's best side projects. Those 2 are incredibly talented and a foray into a more psychedelic is a nice change from purely pop songs (which are easily farted out). Pleasant farts at least - English Settlement is great but I have a soft spot for Drums & Wires.

So I'm a little high - ecstasy you might say. Either way my brain goes from spinning and dizzy to achy and sore. Meds are a must unfortunately - must try to function normally. Another week off to come down, we'll see if I can.

Smooth sailing

I'm near the end of my second week at my new job and it's going well. There are plenty of rush jobs that are shared among my team of 3 (and sometimes 4) other people in my group. I'm enjoying the people I work with and haven't met a mean or unfriendly person yet. For now, I do enjoy it and I have an easy 30 minute commute by Metrolink.  I feel very fortunate to have gotten this job and to have nice co-workers and managers who are generally very patient. I even have a day off, which allows me to handle other important things that I may have to do. I also get to learn of all the exciting new building projects and studies happening around LA County. I'd always hoped that LA would be more pedestrian friendly and that seems to be happening.

Gratitude

Today I woke up to some exciting news: I got that job I interviewed for last week! Looking back, almost didn't apply to it because I saw another job posting for that same company that I didn't think I was qualified for - and didn't even notice they had another position that I was qualified for. Fortunately, I was contacted by the hiring manager who sent me links to both positions and encouraged me to apply.  

I'm still waiting for a call from the HR department to get more info on filling out forms, pay rates, and when I'd start working, so I don't want to discuss too much about the position until all that's settled. For now, the job offer was extended and I've accepted it - which is really the best thing to happen in awhile.  This may interfere with helping out at the Gas Company, but I haven't heard back from them yet either.

This came just in time because I had to pay for nearly $300 in services on my car and another $100 for registration. Fortunately, this position won't require me to drive, though it may require late hours and weekend hours. That might not be so bad because it's near an area of LA that I enjoy hanging out in: Little Tokyo! I'm excited and grateful for this new opportunity.

Happy March!

That part time position didn't end up working out as I'd hoped it would, not that I didn't try to make it work. I've been back in the job market since around mid January and things have been better lately since I've been getting calls back for interviews. Another nice thing was that one of the hiring managers who asked me to apply to a position thought I was asking for too little.

That's a nice change from the part time job that was thinking I was asking for too much. I generally try to stay within a certain range because I know the job market is pretty crowded at the moment. I'm not sure if moving to an area where jobs are more plentiful would be as helpful, just because they probably have a larger pool of applicants to choose from.

I attended the wedding of my brother's good friend to his long time girlfriend. It was an enjoyable event and the banquet was held at a very cool place near a marsh in Irvine called The Duck Club. Though the wedding was very quickly planned, it was a long time in the making. The bride and groom had known and dated each other long before they'd met my brother and definitely balanced each other out.

After attending the wedding and reception, I went with a friend to a birthday celebration for a mutual friend (who are also BRMC fans) at restaurant in Silver Lake called the Desert Rose. They served very tasty Middle Eastern food and we were out on the patio area. I got an eggplant soup with a falafel in the middle. It was tasty, but not a full meal. I also had a chocolate gelato, which was good too.

So far, this has been an abnormally warm March. Maybe I just forget how warm it is usually, but another thing that may or may not be related is that gas prices are sky high - currently over $4 in OC and over $5 in LA and SF. It almost makes me not want to go anywhere for awhile, though that would change if I got a job - which I hope to do soon. 

Hacked, suspended, annoyed

My other blog is currently offline due to some hacker/phisher in Brazil putting phishing sites and sending spam through my site. My web host accused me of violating their anti spam policy and suspended my account. I explained the situation to them and still haven't heard back about getting it reinstated. At this point, I'd rather not use them anymore. My original host was bought out by them and I just somehow ended up with them. I only found out about the phishing site because of someone at CloudFlare sending me a message about it. It's been on there for at most a couple weeks without me knowing.

Another thing is I ended up quitting the part time job I just got because it wasn't giving me any actual web design or development experience. Though I also didn't want to work with the person who hired me anymore. My last week was pretty bad and the following week was much better because I decided quitting would be better than staying. The whole thing with my other blog being down is bad because I'm back in the job market and a professional looking blog is actually pretty useful. Oh well, maybe I should take a break. There are some classes I'd like to start soon that may help me in finding better work.

Finally, a new job!

After more interviews than I care to remember, I finally got a part time web position working on Styles For Less's ecommerce site. Given my slight online shopping addiction, this is a bit of irony. Though they do have good prices and some cute clothes, I'm more interested in selling stuff right now than buying.

Anyways, it's going to be interesting working on a website for a company that I normally associate with retail fashion. I'm no expert in either online or retail fashion stores, so I guess it'll be a good place to learn about those types of businesses. So far, I really only know about the website and haven't even met most people in the company.

I'm currently enrolled in 4 online courses in web programming (ASP, Oracle, Javascript/AJAX, and Web 2.0). I think I should drop the AJAX class because the book looks like it's not so good and perhaps it wouldn't be as good as learning on the job. Anyways, even 3 online classes seems a bit much. Perhaps I should keep them all, but I think it probably would be better to only take 3 max.

Holidays were a bit stressful because of the job search, but spending time with family was nice since my sister was visiting and her kids can be fun to talk to. I didn't see many friends despite being invited to a few parties. Partly because of the job situation and partly because there were conflicts with other events.

At least having part time work will get me both experience and decent pay while leaving me time to do other things like take classes and continue with my own online selling. Having more time is good, but I'm also hoping the whole disability review won't cause me to lose my Social Security. If it does, then I hope I can do well enough at my current job to get full time.

AllSaints Not For Sale featuring Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

It's crazy how so much is packed in the Hollywood area: there's the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood and Highland, the Pantages Theater, Amoeba Music, the Chinese Theater, The El Capitan, the Egyptian Theater, and the Music Box theater all in close range of each other. Film and music lovers could spend hours watching movies, staring at stars (on the ground), and seeing great bands from all over the world. The AllSaints Not For Sale event was an invite only gig, which managed to have plenty of famous and fashion industry people while still having some real BRMC fans and friends in attendance thanks to the prize winners who'd purchased shirts in advance before the show. Dana was one of these lucky winners and I was her even luckier date.

These special events are always kind of strange because celebrities are milling about and models are serving snacks. Bar tenders are busily attending to the many people who take advantage of the open bar. And who could say no to free drinks and snacks? Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino featherweight boxing champion of the world, was the special guest of the evening. There is plenty of human trafficking in the Philippines, which much of the world knows nothing about. Celebrity endorsements aside, there really is a problem when people are still being bought and sold as slaves - wage slaves, sex slaves, even worse is when it's a child who's adult life ends up troubled due to horrible experiences. It's a heartbreaking thing to know that Slavery still exists all around us according to SlaveryMap.org.

So I forgot to write anything about the show. BRMC were a breath of fresh air in the star studded environment, which I heard included Sarah Ferguson (Duchess of York) and most likely many other important people. We saw Dan Russell, his sister Nancy (who works at LACMA), and her friend who was charge of volunteers at TwentyWonder. Robert made a funny remark in between songs as how important we all know that fashion is. This was met by many approving chuckles from the fans. I took quite a few photos, which you'll find on Flickr. I'd say they played for about an hour and a half. The set included 10 +1 songs (thanks to Mel on the Forum for the setlist): Beat the Devil's Tattoo Bad Blood US Govt Weapon of Choice Ain't No Easy Way Red Eyes and Tears Six Barrel Shotgun Punk Song Spread Your Love Shadow's Keeper Open Invitation Check out my videos of "US Govt" and "Open Invitation":