A Gemini's Mind

I usually have a ton of things I'm thinking about all at once during the day. I try to keep my thoughts organized into lists. Things I like, things I don't like, thinks I want to do, things I need to do, things I'd like to do, things I rather be doing when I'm doing things that I have to do... etc. So today, my mind is really in about 6 different places at once.

1)Due to my recent lack of employment because I was laid-off, needless to say I've been looking for a new job. I sent my resume to an unlikely place for me to be employed at and I did a telephone interview with the owner, but he was too busy to interview me in person during the week last week, so he said maybe Saturday. We'll, when I say 'maybe' that means to be "I'll work you into my schedule or I'll call". Neither did of these actions happened over my wasted Saturday waiting for the interview. I'm not sure if I now want to pursue this job any further because if the owner is not considerate and I have to depend on him for my pay, maybe that's not such a good place to work after all.

2)I need to finish those pillows for my mom. I'm going to visit on Wednesday and that would be nice for her to get those items back in a finished state as well as relieve my closet of the space these projects are taking up.

3) I think I may need to rework my resume because although prospective employers are reviewing it, they are not compelled to respond. I'm a seasoned, honest, hard-working professional and I am good damn it; reply-reply-reply! already. And if the revamping of my resume fails to get anymore attention than it already has, then I am also considering retraining because of my lay-off situation, but that is a scary proposition because I'm not sure if I can survive on less than half of my regular income during the training period. On the other hand, it's exciting to know that the opportunity to acquire new skills exists and maybe I can somehow get back to drafting, drawing or computer aided drafting, which I think would make me a happier person in the long run than just doing office work.

5)Circular saw acquired. What to do: I do not want the recycling to take over my patio area again, so I have to build a containment/collection unit to satisfy this need. I have a bathroom door that I intend on trimming to put up in my bathroom. I could cut wood for shelving in the main bathroom, too, but I think I'm going to use surplus shelving left over from my Ikea Husar collection.

6)I never realized how much Christmas sucks when you're an adult out of work. I want to give gifts, but with no serious money to buy anything, what the hell do you do? Banana bread. I think that's my answer for 2007. If you get a loaf from me, consider yourself 'special' because I don't make this stuff for just anyone.

Riding the orange spiral slide down

O.K., so I was laid off on November 6th and my company is going out of business on March 30th. Generally speaking, greed and fraud killed subprime lending. Wall Street investment banks put the brakes on all of their loan purchases because they wanted value from their investment and the ensuing credit squeeze is making everyone that's still sitting on an adjustable rate mortgage quite nervous. I am also one of those in that group of people, too.

Now, I read today in the OC Register that not only is greed and fraud prevalent in mortgage lending, but also in corporate real estate. O.C. Billionaire Igor Olenicoff, ironically the owner of the building I worked in for over four and a half years pleaded guilty to tax felony, has been convinced of lying on his taxes and paid 52 million in back taxes. He could face up to three years in prison when he's sentenced on April
14th. Link to the news article

I've been in the position before where I made a career decision in an economic stressful time. Actually, it's what lead me to move to Orange County in 1992. My step-sister(at the time) needed help with the rent, so I moved to Fullerton and rented a room from her for a little over a year. At that time, I was a bank teller and I moved right after Bank of America bought out Security Pacific National Bank, so many branches were consolidated and closed. There were banking professionals laid off all over the place. I chose to quit my Merchant Teller job in Rialto because I did not feel safe in that branch. I thought if I could work somewhere, anywhere but there, I'd feel better about being a Teller and working with money on a daily basis.

After being unemployed for almost two months, I was running out of money and getting nervous about Christmas which was about four weeks away when landed a temp to perm job the day after Thanksgiving thanks to BankForce. They called me up and asked if I could file, not realizing that I used to manually pay checks, and I replied, "Alpha or numeric?" Ninety days later, I was employed at my first real job with a salary and not just an hourly wage, decent benefits and... taadaa... chickenpox! My son brought them home from kindergarten while attending school in Fullerton.

That job turned into a ten year career and my last title there was "Custody Account Manager". That job forced me to gain a big picture view of and terminology related to investment banking, something I never even thought about before I got that job. After ten years and a change in ownership, I felt I hit a ceiling and the working environment was more about the numbers than the people, so I looked for my next job. I found it in a clients account and networked to get a position as the "Collateral Control Manager" of the mortgage company that I am laid off from.

I kind of had to laugh that the National Mortgage News reported a decline in mortgage job losses. Welp, if your industry killed off over 400,000 jobs, are there that many left to even take away? Just this week, Option One, Washington Mutual and Lending Tree announced job losses if not right out closures.

How low can we go?

I hate winter.

I was born and raised in Southern California. I have lived here all my life, so anytime the temperature drops below 70 degrees, I'm cold. Don't laugh. A lot of other native Californians I know feel the same way.

Today was a day to dress like a psycho. As I left the house this moring to take my son to work, I was wearing Levi's, a shirt, a sweater, and my wool coat and gloves with sneakers. If the cold wind stopped blowing for a minute, you would have thought it was a warm spring day. I could feel the sun on my face warming my cheeks. The moment the wind started up again, I was chilled. I threw my hood up over my head and hustled over to the carport.

I decided I needed a drive down the coast to help clear my head after I dropped off my son. Down meaning south of where I live. I drove west to Jamboree and then south on PCH until Crown Valley Parkway. Along the way I saw that there were people in shorts, there were people in sweats. There were people bundled up like me in wool pea coats and sneakers and then some just walking around in a t-shirt and running shorts like it was any other day for them regardless of the drop in temperature. I saw shorts and sweat tops, I saw typical beach attire at newpoert for those playing volley ball at 10AM in the morning. As I made the left turn onto Crown Valley and climbed up the hill, I could clearly see the remnants of last nights storm deposited in white all over the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. Just looking at it made me cold. I would say at this time, the snow is at about the 6000 ft level after the first good rain we've had maybe since August.

The sad thing is that it's only December 9th and it isn't truly winter until December 21st.

Mere Mortals 12/04/07

I went to the Silver Lake Lounge last night in support of my friend Mimi who plays bass for the Los Angeles-based indie band Mere Mortals. I got to catch-up with my friend about work, Thanksgiving, met the new guitarist and comment on the christmas lights they like to use for set decoration. Mimi said the new guys were probably nervous because this was their first show after joining. There were rehearshing almost everyday for six weeks to get up to speed.

I must say the new band members were sounding impressive. We treated to the old staples such as Reverberation (they always open theie shows with this one), 13th Floor, and Dr. South and new songs, too. I even saw Axel pick up an acoustic guitar once for this set - nice.

I sold one CD. You see, Mimi usually does this when she's not on stage, but since I'm there and want to sit down during the performance, working the merch table allows me to do that and allows her to perform and then help load out including her amp which is almost bigger than she is.

A Good Breakfast... and more cooking

I saw this in my head while reading the newspaper's food section this morning, so I thought I'd make it for breakfast. What's this "it" you ask? It was a fried egg, two thin slices of tomato on a one piece of buttered honeywheat bread. I cooked it in one pad or Nucoa and seasoned the egg with Morton's Nature's seasoning. It gives food more flavor than just salt or pepper would. I could of added a piece of Danola ham, but I was out. I was out of tomato, too, for that matter, so after I dropped my son off at school, I took a drive over to Sprouts in Irvine and gathered some fresh ingredients for breakfast and dinner. I wish I lived in a more temperate climate so that the fruit and vegetable prices would not fluctuate so much because of the cold winter months. I bought lemons for .50 cents each. Why am I not growing a lemon tree on my patio?

So the recipe I'm going to try out is one for some sort of lemon bars I clipped out of the newspaper this morning. I have to make it with Nucoa because I can't have milk so it's questionable whether it will turn out O.K. or not. Sometimes it does, and sometimes I have to tweak it a little for my non-dairy life. It seems you're destined to live a bakery-deprived life when you cannot tolerate milk and that just somehow seems wrong to me.

On Thanksgiving Day

So today is Thanksgiving Day; a time to celibrate what we have been blessed with and thankful for as another year goes by in our lives. The menu is supposed to be representative of the first harvest festival in October1621 held by settlers at Plymouth, Massachusetts (1). These same folks were the survivors of the Mayflower crossing in 1620. Turkey, corn and greens, I imagine.

This is my menu for Thanksgiving 2007:
turkey
stuffing
cranberry gel
turkey gravy
mashed potatoes
baby peas and pearl onions
herbed sourdough bread

...and for desert...
apple pie
pumpkin pie

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Citations:

(1)Pilgrim Hall - The First Thanksgiving http://www.pilgrimhall.org/f_thanks.htm

My .99 Cents Only Store is the shit...

Today's .99 Cents only shopping spree:

16 month calendar - "Lighthouses" MSRP $9.95
(2) cooling racks - (says Walmart on the label)
Hunt's brand Meat Spaghetti Sauce
Sugar in the Raw - 25 packs
Heavy duty foil - 30 ft
coffee scoop - Everyday Values
collapsible plastic organizer
clear blue recycling bags w/ draw string, 10 ct, 30 gallons

When was the last time you bought a new TV?

This blog was spurred by the fact that on October 1st, 2007, Best Buy pulled all analog TV's from it's store shelves and stopped selling them. See: Best Buy pulls plug on analog TVs.

When was the last time you bought a new TV? Do you have a high definition receiver? If you do, then well good for you. But if you do not, then I might suggest that you get one sometime in 2008. Why the rush? Well, it's because your big, boxy television set will be of no use to you after February 18th, 2009. This is the date mandated to be the cut-off point for your analog television signal. Without a converter set-top box or a television that can handle a digital signal, you're going to miss the boat.

Do you remember when they used to call TVs television sets? A set of what? I thought maybe it was a set because it had a received and an antenna, but I could be wrong. Now in today's world, the only people with antenna are those with the satellite subscriber service. When was the last time your friends talked about installing a big, bulky black wire mesh bowl of a satellite dish in the back yard? Personally, I've only seen one in my lifetime up close and that's because my father loved that kind of cutting edge stuff as much as I now do.

Probably in 2001, I think, I purchase a rear projection TV from Howard's as a Christmas gift to me. It was delivered on NYE, and for my first full day of use, I sat on the couch mesmerized by the sight of the Pasadena Rose Parade on my 47 inch screen.

This past summer, I got itchy for HD radio, but my son talked me out of it. So instead, I looked for a HD digital receiver set-top box to accompany my huge ass TV. I found one at Circuit City in Brea for less than $200. Took it home and hooked it up and again, it was that same gaze in my eyes of wondering how the make the picture so amazing.

What is going to top this, I wonder. The highest picture quality now available to the consumer is achieved at 1080i.

Los Angeles Water Patrol

On November 12th, KABC Channel 7, Los Angeles, had LA Mayor Villaragosa talking about water conservation and how the DWP, which is the major supplier for water and power in Los Angeles county, will be conducting patrols to advise residents about water conservation.

LA does have water usage rules. Did you forget? They are not as severe as other areas like New Mexico or Georgia, but it's important to know that:

1. You cannot water hard surfaces such as side walks, walkways, driveways or parking areas.

2. You cannot water your lawn during these times:
April 1st to September 30th - 10Am to 5PM
October 1st to March 31st - 11Am to 3PM

3. Allow excess water from your sprinklers to flood the gutters.

4. Use water to clean, fill, or maintain fountains unless it has a recirculating system.

5. Serve water in eating establishments until the customer asks for it.

6. Allow water leaks to go unattended.

In addition, LA residents are also encouraged to:

1. Fax leaky faucets and install an airator.

2. Use a broom instead of a hose to clean paved surfaces.

3. Shorten your showers and install a water restrictor.

4. Adjust your sprinklers to water the greenery only, not the sidewalks, street or drive way.

5. Run only full loans in your dishwasher and laundry machines.

The goal is to reduce the city's water usage by atleast 10 percent. If this can't be achieved, you better bet they will whip out the ticket system and fine you... you-you-you water waster.

The job search is on

This is my first weekend knowing that on Monday morning, I have no job to go to. I was laid off on Tuesday from one of those subprime mortgage companies you've heard all the bad news about. Well, now that bad news has spread itself on my piece of bread and I'm not happy about it. Who would be happy about loosing their job anyway unless you absolutely freakin hated it.

The OC Register has few prospects for me. I don't like the fact that when I read an ad that is even mildly appealing to me, and my skill set semi matches the set they are looking for, the wage is grossly lower than mine was. ACK. You could say I was a sort of a person that wore a lot of diffferent hats - MERS Administrator/Specialist/Data Analyst and working with the Servicing's correspondence as well as in the end began to learn the customer complaints deskas part of Compliance, too, and performed the per diem interest refunds for new loans. I was somewhere between an operations unit secretary and a paralegal. So when I read an posting for paralegal, I'm under qualified but if I read a posting for a administrative assistant, I'm over qualified. It's frustrating to say the least. If there was a chance that a job in the financial servicing industry was available again, I'm quite squeamish about taking it note the experience with this company. I know I shouldn't be, but the industry won't bounce back from the credit woes for about two years - my prediction. All of the adjustable rate loans need to reset or cycle out and resolve, either by refi/payoff or FCL/REO.

So online, I've been hitting the EDD quite hard to glean information about employment opportunities through that website. I'd like to know if because of the industry I was laid off from, if there is any opportunity to get retained for one that at least I can get a comparable pay in. The site listed training classes from June? But I don't remember seeing one, again, with the same pay rate I was getting, so why would I even want to consider retraining if the prospects are low wage jobs?

So I'm continuing my search...