My thoughts and prayers go out to all those on the East coast dealing with the effects of Hurricane Sandy.
The greater tri-state area was hit hard. Some places harder than hard. Some people lost everything. The NYC MTA was crippled by the flooding. The stock market was closed for two days.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sunday, October 14, 2012
At the Movies
I went to the movies on Friday night with my cheapskate lunch date, who bought me a pretzel and Coke at the Arclight. A change in theater numbers left us in the lobby for a bit before the earlier show had ended. We chatted about food, family and work. The concessions stand, I think, is selling breakfast sausages (chicken and mango and jalapeno or apple) like they sell at Costco by Aidells. Fancy. We had to ask for the mustard because there are no condiments in the lobby anymore.
Argo was almost sold out and he didn't like the remaining seats or the later start time, so we saw Looper. It was the second time for me. I caught more of the details this time around and had to explain the story to my friend who viewed it for the first time.
I'm still looking forward to seeing:
Argo
Cloud Atlas, opening 10/26
Killing them Softly, opening 11/30
Argo was almost sold out and he didn't like the remaining seats or the later start time, so we saw Looper. It was the second time for me. I caught more of the details this time around and had to explain the story to my friend who viewed it for the first time.
I'm still looking forward to seeing:
Argo
Cloud Atlas, opening 10/26
Killing them Softly, opening 11/30
Saturday, October 6, 2012
Interview Day
It's rare that I get to interview these days because of the nature of the work I do and the unique skill set I possess. I was intrigued by an ad posted for a position from a certain mortgage company in Foothill Ranch, but I found it odd that they wanted to interview me for a different position.
So I get the call from HR and them they tell me I have to take two tests online before I fill out my application. Initially, I felt kind of insulted that a person with my experience would have to take a test before I could interview. One was a PI test and another was Wonderlic. I did them anyway then filled out the online application. I'll play the game. I'm a good test taker.
I applied for a different position, but was contacted by HR about the Collateral Team Lead. I checked their careers website the night before my interview to find many, many more job postings plus the head of credit, transaction legal and Sr. treasury were gone, so I didn't have a good feeling about the company going in. Even though I have 20 years experience working with collateral, I still had to take yet a third online personality test before my interview. I guess experience is not enough.
Then I met with an operations manager in a sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers who stated she had jumped around the office doing "project clean-up", what I do wasn't her field of expertise and then she divulged more proprietary company information than I needed to be told during an interview which was shocking so I decided to ask questions. Thirty minutes later, she ended the interview and I decided they don't know what they're doing nor do they care about post closing activities. The processes described made me want to scream in fright and run away.
So I get the call from HR and them they tell me I have to take two tests online before I fill out my application. Initially, I felt kind of insulted that a person with my experience would have to take a test before I could interview. One was a PI test and another was Wonderlic. I did them anyway then filled out the online application. I'll play the game. I'm a good test taker.
I applied for a different position, but was contacted by HR about the Collateral Team Lead. I checked their careers website the night before my interview to find many, many more job postings plus the head of credit, transaction legal and Sr. treasury were gone, so I didn't have a good feeling about the company going in. Even though I have 20 years experience working with collateral, I still had to take yet a third online personality test before my interview. I guess experience is not enough.
Then I met with an operations manager in a sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers who stated she had jumped around the office doing "project clean-up", what I do wasn't her field of expertise and then she divulged more proprietary company information than I needed to be told during an interview which was shocking so I decided to ask questions. Thirty minutes later, she ended the interview and I decided they don't know what they're doing nor do they care about post closing activities. The processes described made me want to scream in fright and run away.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Hidden Powers of Your Mouse | Upgrade Your Life - Yahoo! News
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Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Don't you wish you were a Freddie Mac lawyer this week
From Yahoo News:
Articles involving Freddie Mac-
A cautionary tale about what "as is" can mean in the real estate market:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mystery-illness-solved-family-discovers-home-meth-lab-184815233.html
"Bad loans? Phooey. I want my money back" Freddie settles with B of A:
http://news.yahoo.com/freddie-mac-recover-billions-extra-loan-reviews-regulator-040940539--sector.html
USB can be sued:
http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/ubs-denied-request-suspend-6-4-billion-federal-193955938--sector.html
Shareholder's lawsuit against Freddie dismissed:
http://news.yahoo.com/us-judge-tosses-lawsuit-against-freddie-mac-175918394--finance.html;_ylt=A2KJjb15zmpQmTQAhKbQtDMD
Articles involving Freddie Mac-
A cautionary tale about what "as is" can mean in the real estate market:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mystery-illness-solved-family-discovers-home-meth-lab-184815233.html
"Bad loans? Phooey. I want my money back" Freddie settles with B of A:
http://news.yahoo.com/freddie-mac-recover-billions-extra-loan-reviews-regulator-040940539--sector.html
USB can be sued:
http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/ubs-denied-request-suspend-6-4-billion-federal-193955938--sector.html
Shareholder's lawsuit against Freddie dismissed:
http://news.yahoo.com/us-judge-tosses-lawsuit-against-freddie-mac-175918394--finance.html;_ylt=A2KJjb15zmpQmTQAhKbQtDMD
Saturday, September 15, 2012
In the News
1)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-13/fed-plans-to-buy-40-billion-in-mortgage-securities-each-month.html
2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-14/mortgage-bond-spreads-fall-to-record-low-as-fed-starts-buying.html
3)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/does-quantitative-easing-mainly-help-154211100.html
4)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-banker-helped-crack-swiss-142921849.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-13/fed-plans-to-buy-40-billion-in-mortgage-securities-each-month.html
2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-14/mortgage-bond-spreads-fall-to-record-low-as-fed-starts-buying.html
3)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/does-quantitative-easing-mainly-help-154211100.html
4)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jailed-banker-helped-crack-swiss-142921849.html
Monday, September 10, 2012
I just saw it on CNN.com: Anonymous member claims responsibility for GoDaddy outage
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Sunday, September 9, 2012
It's September already?
Where did the summer go? I'm sitting here writing this blog entry one weekend after Labor Day listening to "Breakfast with The Beatles" after having made lemonade and iced tea.
Mine started with a trip to Chicago and ended with a movie laden three day holiday weekend. I never really liked to do much of anything on Labor Day weekend. Let the others drive to where they planned to go. I'll stay home and BBQ and catch up on TV. It went by so fast, I forgot to paint my toenails this year.
What I've noticed as I'm growing older and more people call me "Ma'am" is that the days are longer and the nights are shorter which is not really a good thing for someone who only sleeps 6-7 hours anyway.
I started to walk more this summer... by design or by... accident, you could say due to the July 4th weekend fender bender I had on a freeway near my home. After the collision center threw away the damaged bumper with the condo's parking sticker on it and not wanting to deal with the idiots on the board, I started to park outside of my complex about a 10 minute walk away. It's helping me in two ways: 1) more exercise and 2) to de-stress after a long drive. When I was on b/c for years, they, the doctors, always tell you you can expect to gain weight because of the monthly hormones fluctuation. Because I don't eat any dairy, I think that helped not gain huge amounts of weight over the years, but I know if I eat tons of sugar and chips, it tends to creep up. And I love chips. If I keep it below 120, that would be good. If it was closer to 110, that would be better. I was 108 when I graduated from high school 28 years ago.
The tomatoes I planted in the spring grew finally. I grew a Japanese heirloom cherry tomato plant from last years seed called Chika and killed the strawberry, the thyme and the rosemary bush due to not watering them. All four tomato plants are on drip irrigation and a timer in which the run off falls into other potted plants below them.
I didn't get to any of the fairs or festivals that go on throughout the summer months in Southern California either.
Mine started with a trip to Chicago and ended with a movie laden three day holiday weekend. I never really liked to do much of anything on Labor Day weekend. Let the others drive to where they planned to go. I'll stay home and BBQ and catch up on TV. It went by so fast, I forgot to paint my toenails this year.
What I've noticed as I'm growing older and more people call me "Ma'am" is that the days are longer and the nights are shorter which is not really a good thing for someone who only sleeps 6-7 hours anyway.
I started to walk more this summer... by design or by... accident, you could say due to the July 4th weekend fender bender I had on a freeway near my home. After the collision center threw away the damaged bumper with the condo's parking sticker on it and not wanting to deal with the idiots on the board, I started to park outside of my complex about a 10 minute walk away. It's helping me in two ways: 1) more exercise and 2) to de-stress after a long drive. When I was on b/c for years, they, the doctors, always tell you you can expect to gain weight because of the monthly hormones fluctuation. Because I don't eat any dairy, I think that helped not gain huge amounts of weight over the years, but I know if I eat tons of sugar and chips, it tends to creep up. And I love chips. If I keep it below 120, that would be good. If it was closer to 110, that would be better. I was 108 when I graduated from high school 28 years ago.
The tomatoes I planted in the spring grew finally. I grew a Japanese heirloom cherry tomato plant from last years seed called Chika and killed the strawberry, the thyme and the rosemary bush due to not watering them. All four tomato plants are on drip irrigation and a timer in which the run off falls into other potted plants below them.
I didn't get to any of the fairs or festivals that go on throughout the summer months in Southern California either.
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