Pharmacist
A man went into a pharmacy and asked to talk to a male pharmacist. The woman he was talking to said that she was the pharmacist and that she and her sister owned the store, so there were no males employed there. She asked if there was something which she could help the gentleman with.
The man said that it was something that he would be much more comfortable discussing with a male pharmacist.
The female pharmacist assured him that she was completely professional and whatever it was that he needed to discuss, he could be confident that she would treat him with the highest level of professionalism.
The man agreed and began by saying, “This is tough for me to discuss, but I have a permanent erection. It causes me a lot of problems and severe embarrassment. So I was wondering what you could give me for it?”
The pharmacist said, “Just a minute, I’ll go talk to my sister.”
When she returned, she said, “We discussed it at length and the absolute best we can do is, 1/3 ownership in the store, a company car, and $3000 a month living expenses.
John…
The manager of a large office noticed a new man one day and told him to come into his office. “What is your name?” was the first thing the manager asked the new guy.
“John,” the new guy replied.
The manager scowled, “Look, I don’t know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked at before, but I don’t call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority. I refer to my employees by their last name only – Smith, Jones, Baker – that’s all. I am to be referred to only as Mr. Robertson. Now that we got that straight, what is your last name?”
The new guy sighed and said, “Darling. My name is John Darling.”
I’m Officially Employed
Here’s something interesting.
I lost my job on February 11th, I interviewed for the job I have now on March 11th, and I started that job on April 11th.
So, it’ll take me a couple of months to work out my finances and get everything stabilized, but I have a job.
What a relief!
I’m Officially Unemployed
Well, it happened faster than I thought it would, but at the end of the day, it was inevitable. The company I was working at as a contractor is going through a workforce reduction/restructuring, and as a result a lot of people are losing their jobs or getting shuffled around. The good news is I was not let go for cause and can apply for any positions which are posted. I plan to do exactly that along with any other jobs elsewhere I want to go for.
So, first order of business Monday morning will be to call everybody I pay money out to that I’ve not already called and either try to work something out or cancel them. If they are not essential, then I will be canceling them. I’ve already cut Cox cable TV along with Tivo, and reduced my internet speed. I still need to call my mortgage company and try to work out some kind of reduced payment until I get a job. Then it will be the credit cards, same deal. If they won’t work with me, they won’t get paid. Then utilities. I need to write a letter to my term life insurance and terminate the policy. I find it weird that I can only cancel via written notice. I’ll spend this weekend finding the policy number so that I can get the letter written and in the mail by Monday. Then car insurance. I’ve paid for my car, so I think I’ll bump it down to minimum coverage and try to work out a deal for how to pay for it. The car insurance is essential. I can’t drive without it. Next will be cell phones. It will cost me more to just cancel things, so I’ll reduce it down to the absolute minimum and try to work out a reduced payment from there.
After that the only other real expense I’ll have is food. This weekend I’ll need to work out a weekly menu. My goal is to get my entire menu to under $100 a week. I think it’ll be tough, but it’s doable to at least approach that.
After that, I’ll be applying for unemployment and food stamps. That will help. I might try to go for AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Control System).
Once that is all done, I’ll start to apply for jobs. I’ll spend this weekend also polishing my resume in anticipation for the intensified effort to find work.
I haven’t done my taxes yet, so I’ll do that as well over the next week or so. My return should give me a little more buffer.
On the internet hosting front, I’ve got some cleaning up to do to reduce expenses. The cost reduction will be minimal, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while and this a perfect time to do so. I’ll also have enough free time to actually do it for a change.
When life hands you lemons, use them to make a margarita. I don’t drink, but I like the analogy.
Speaking of which, since I’ll have a fair amount of free time, this is a perfect opportunity for me to launch a new show over at quicksurf.com. I’ve been mulling over doing something new over there, and this will be a good time to do that, so keep any eye out for a new show to go live some time Monday afternoon. I think I’ll call it “Geek Tech Today” or something like that. It will be a daily show. I’ll start it as audio only for the simple fact that I just don’t have the computing horsepower to render a daily video show at any resolution. I have enough trouble getting my other two weekly shows rendered that doing a daily video show is out of the question right now. So we’ll start as audio only, do the usual online exposure push and see what happens.
I view this as good. It’s giving me a chance to reset my financial baseline with no questions asked, which is something I’ve been meaning to do for a while now. Expenses have a habit of creeping up on you and it’s not until you’re treading water that you even realize that’s the case. It’s time to clean the money house and I’m going to do so ruthlessly. I have no choice.
I’ll also spend this weekend taking care of me. The reality is that I did just suddenly lose my job, and there’s very little difference between that loss and any other sudden major loss in life. I’ll be needing to do some house cleaning in my noggin so that I can keep moving forward in life, because life does keep going on.
From here, it’s a simple matter of hoping I get a job before I lose my house.
A 2011 Goal
I have a new goal for 2011.
Many of you who know me in person know that I’m not a big guy. I’m 5’11″, and weigh 125 pounds on average.
Well, my goal for 2011 is to put on some weight. I want to put 25 pounds on by the end of the year and weigh about 150 pounds. Obviously, I don’t want this to be fat, so it will have to be muscle.
I’m starting by supplementing my diet with high protein drinks like what is pictured above. From there, I’ll need to come up with an exercise/workout plan. I’ll need to average putting on 2 pounds a month, which should be doable.
I’ve always struggled with putting weight on, so we’ll see how this experiment goes.
Life Status Update
Just a quick update on life since I’ve not done a lot of blogging lately…
I’m now 35. I meant to do a version 3.5 post, but life has just gotten in the way.
My older sister’s tumor is roaring back with a vengeance. She’s been doing Chemo therapy. It’s too early to tell what’s going on with it.
My work status is uncertain at this point. I’ve basically spent the last nearly 4 months not being sure if I’m going to have a job or not. Of course I’ve been actively looking for work to cover my risks, but it’s still been really sparse out there in job land.
I’ve moved this blog to a wordpress.com hosted blog. Squarespace is nice, but costs money every month. Wordpress.com doesn’t. Given my job situation, I think that’s fair.
That’s really about it. I’m really stressed, but trying to keep it under control. I’ll continue to back-fill some of my archive posts from quicksurf.com as I have the time. It should be a lot easier than doing it with squarespace.com
My Older Sister Is Very Ill
Update: The surgery went as well as could be expected. She is recovering and back home in Oregon. Thank you for all the emails and such.
I have bad news. My older sister has a tumor growing in her spinal cord. I can’t really go into details for her privacy’s sake, but she will be going to Barrows Neurological Institute here in Phoenix Arizona. Strangely enough, Barrows happens to be the only place her health insurance pays for when it comes to this type of thing, even though she doesn’t actually live here in Arizona.
So, this is actually going to happen pretty fast, like in the next few weeks, which is good for her, because she is experiencing an inhuman amount of pain and is maxed out and can’t take any more pain medication without seriously risking her life.
Unfortunately, this is also a very high risk surgery. So much so that it has been put off as long as possible due to the potential consequences of the surgery. There is an excellent chance that she will not be walking, or have much lower body function/control after the surgery. Barrows is the best in the United States for this, but the nature of what’s going on with her is going to make it extremely difficult to remove the tumor without doing major damage to her spinal cord.
The effect on the family has been fairly devastating. She’s the oldest sibling of the children in our family, and one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and doesn’t deserve any of this, and yet has taken it all in stride. Almost as if it where happening to someone else and not to her. For the rest of us, it’s been very nerve wracking. Literally. Seeing her with her struggles to do the simplest of things, and knowing it’s being caused by a cancer in her back that you can’t do anything about makes me feel sick to my stomach.
All I want to do is crawl into a little hole and hide, but, I can’t. I’m her younger brother. The guy who has a house in Phoenix Arizona located less than 10 minutes from Barrows. The guy who’s making a room available to her in his house while she’s not in the hospital. The guy who’s going to pretty much see this whole thing go down in a very up close an personal fashion. The guy whose going to be right there helping her with whatever she needs because she probably won’t be able to do it herself. I’m scared to death, and I’m not the sick one, she is. Fortunately, I’m not alone. Phoenix is home to most of our extended family, including our parents, so I will have a fair amount of help. But still. I’m scared. I’m scared for her.
My Water Heater is About To Fail
Update: It’s been replaced… I bought a 40 Gallon GE Energy Star unit to replace it with.
My Boring Life
So, what have I done in life since my last blog entry. Quite honestly, nothing.
Oh, I’ve done things, and lived life, but much of it is routine stuff, like going to work, going grocery shopping, etc. etc. The stuff I’ve covered on Twitter.
I’ve also done things worth blogging about if I were inclined to completely throw the notion of privacy out the window, however, I like my privacy, and much of what I do is off limits anyway simply because it involves other people that aren’t keen about being blogged. Since I’m not keen to damage and/or burn bridges, that is off limits.
Did I just say that?!? You mean I have a life outside of the online persona that the rest of the world sees?!?
Yes, I do. And in fact, this may come as a shock, but I’m a pretty busy guy offline. I do my best to provide appropriate exposure to what may be interesting, but there’s a lot that will remain in real life simply because it will.
So, for all intents and purposes, the viewpoint my audience sees is I didn’t do anything interesting or worth blogging about.
Why am I blogging again? Till next time.
