The job hunt continues...

You know for all the talk about the economy picking up, and how the job oultook is better and yada yada yada...I am wondering why I still can't find full time work. I have to believe its because the competition is extremely fierce these days. I am a college graduate with a degree in computer arts, I have been building computers and networks for over 10 years...but I know for a fact there are people out there that have been doing the same thing as me for over 20 years, and who have just been laid off or downsized or whatever you want to call it. That's who I am up against. I am also not willing to work for minimum wage anymore. I live in a city where the cost of living is at least 3 times that of minimum wage. The funny thing is 10 years ago minimum wage was $4.25 an hour...and you could rent a one bedroom apartment for about $750 a month...lets do some quick math here and compare the cost of living now to ten years ago.

$4.25 x 40 (hours in a week full time) = $170.00 - tax = $130 net per week.
4 weeks = $520.00

now this was 10 years ago and you still end up being short $200+, so supplement that with your spouse/girlfriend/wife whatever...ok then say you are pulling in $1000 take home a month...that leaves you with just about $100 for leisure spending, movies, dinners etc. The part where you actually have a life.

Fast Forward to today, 10 years later.

minimum wage = $6.25 an hour.
$6.25 x 40 = $250 - taxes = $200 net take home.

Now, unfortunately that one bedroom apartment has ballooned from $750 a month to $1150 a month...that's an increase of $400 over 10 years, or $40 a year more each year. Now, at $200 a month you are making $800 a month take home, supplement that with your significant other's income, and now we have $1600 (still talking minimum wage here). Subtract the cost of rent = $450 left over, with bills etc, the average cost is somewhere around $350 for those expenses...which leaves you with VIOLA $100 left over for saving, spending whatever...

As you can see, in the case of minimum wage, it's designed to just be the bottom most level of poverty. A single person educated with a college degree working minimum wage is only earning $7200 a year...that's seriously fucked up. At best you can hope to just barely survive, and that means living with other people or being married. The truth of the matter is most of the jobs here are either min. wage, or around $9 an hour. It's a vacation town, lots of restaurants, bars, coffee houses, and an amusement park. The tech industry that used to be big here got swallowed up by the 2000 "dot bomb". A lot of companies were absorbed by other companies or simply left town. TI one of the biggest employers here laid off their entire staff of about 2000 people in 2001 and closed up shop. Thus an influx of people that had good jobs are suddenly competing for the very job you figured you would easily get out of college...it's still a dog eat dog world out there, and unfortunately its not only the strong that survive, it's those that are willing to accept a lower pay for a job you know is worth a lot more...just to work.

What all this means to me, is yeah, the competition is tough but I know that I can do quality work, and I can learn to do anything. I am modest about what I need t live on. $40-50k a year is fine, and leaves me with plenty of money to pay all my bills and even pay back my student loans which are a bitch at $254 a month, top that off with $538 each month for my wife's built up debt. What I am saying is I need some help. What if everyone that read this page helped by donating $1 to my cause of repaying all this accrued debt? I would be eternally grateful, and I can guarantee would never go into debt again. Won't you help? Click on the paypal button below in my previous post and help me out.

Peace.

I had a bowling tournament on Sunday the 4th. It went ok, except the lanes had no oil to speak of, which makes it difficult to control your ball. I through a very slight hook on my ball, and without oil there's just no telling if my ball is going to do what it's designed to do. Last year they greased up the lanes so good all the balls came back practically dripping. I guess they made up for it by drying the hell out of the lanes...maybe next year they get it right and we have some nice medium oil.
The difficult thing about the tournament is you basically bowl 3 games in singles, then 3 games in doubles, and just wait to see where you end up.

I guess the point is its supposed to be fun, I don't even know if there are prizes or anything. Last year I placed 9th in doubles and 20th in singles. My average is up 30 pins this year so i was bowling right around that...168. I had 2 games over 200, a 201 and a 202. Not bad given the conditions. I will definitely bowl it again next year. My league is wrapping up in the next two weeks, and I am hoping I'm up for most improved bowler...checking the records, it looks like I might be...but who knows.

I also just started playing Chaser again. It's a cool game, if you haven't seen it check it out. What I really like about it is that you are dropped into the game and you learn what's happened and is happening to your character at the same time he does...so you don't feel like you really know what you are supposed to be doing. It's a typical FPS, but the animation is good, the AI is really good, and the weapons are a lot of fun to shoot.

Today I helped install DSL at my in-laws which was fun because I remember the first time I got DSL...I was checking out everything that was too slow to download on a normal 56k connection. Trailers, games, you name it. They wanted a wireless connection so I hooked up a 128 bit encrypted 802.1-G for them. Putting all that network training to good use.

I am planning on having an Easter online golf tournament with Links Championship Edition. It's a classic I have been playing since Links386 came out ages ago. I'm still upset about the swing meter, as I mentioned before, but I am getting used to it now...though I still think some of the distances are off, but that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Anyway, the tourney should be fun, I might even have some kind of prize purse...

Ok so, today I have been playing Links 2001 by ugh...Microsoft, yes they bought Access a long time ago and proceeded to ruin the fine game that used to be Links 386. There was a time when I could read the swing meter and play online with the best...that time has passed folks.

Two reasons really, one...I am obviously out of practice, but Two, there is no indication how far the current swing meter hits a ball, and it is very inconsistent...to the point of being downright unreliable...I am used to the classic 3 click swing, where you click to start, click to set power and click for snap...

So far it seems that with putting there is just no telling how far the ball is going to go...I wish they left the old swing meter. The new meter is oval shaped and is very fast, making it so you have to have Quake like reactions for GOLF!! it's golf people, not a twitch fest frag em or lag em game like quake arena or america's army...needless to say, the graphics are still good, but damn that meter. I am trying to do better than bogey golf on a course I have never played in a tournament I have never entered with software that is completely foreign to me! Where is the love???

L8r

Ok, so my rollovers haven't been working on this site, so I took them off. I added some new content in the form of Amazon.com books and such. If you are looking for something in particular, you can search for it from Amazon.com on the home page. Your purchases from my site help me out, so I appreciate if you tell everyone you know! Remember to save the amazon link to your favorites after you get there. 3DS Max 6 is out now, and it's an amazing product.

My foray into the world of America's Army is progressing, my honor has reached 13, and some of the missions have been quite exciting. So far my favorites have been with the 82nd Airborne, Mountain Passes and the Ranger Missions. It's a cool game, check it out.

Star Wars Galaxies is also coming along...I have been spending most of my time on Yavin 4 because the klikniks are awesome hunting. I also hate travelling by shuttle and only do so when I need to train a new skill. I am hoping the space expansion is awesome otherwise yet another game is going in the trashcan. I still have all my original everquest cds collecting dust...if anyone wants to buy them, send me an email. I will let them go cheap.

If you haven't played Need For Speed by EA yet...get your hands on it. It's a bling bling thrillride to rival some of the best racers on the market. You get to completely tune your car, and it's a blast. Here are a couple shots of my VW Golf GTi. View 1 from the front, and View 2 from the back.

Today I had the thrill of applying for a menial job with the county. Should I be so lucky and get the glorious job of Parking Attendant, I will at least be able to pay our rent which is a good thing. The job is also only 24 hours a week which leaves me time to work on other projects and eek maybe even another job. Ultimately I would like to have my businesses growing steadily so I can just go live in Hawaii, sit in the sun and frag people from the comfort of a nice beach. Hey, that's my dream, to each his own.

Signing off for now.