Vacation? Still Pending....

My partner in crime at my job at UPS is taking a vacation for the next 10 days. He hasn't had one in two years but he's only worked at UPS for less than a year, so he's going to lose some of the benefits he's accumulated. Now, rules are rules but UPS is at fault for not hiring at a decent pay rate at full time. How they expect people to stick around in these conditions baffle me. It's hard to find another job that would fit around the schedule they set up. So, they shouldn't expect people to give unending loyalty. Benefits, Schmenefits, just give me the money.

We always hear about Europe and how much vacation they get a year and yes, I think we need to be a little more like that. I haven't had what I call a good job in my life the closest was the last job I had in Seattle. Yes, it was a restaurant but the benefits were good. Now, typical of employment places they require you work there a year before you get time off, most places put that into a certain hours in a certain period of time which means if you went on vacation before a year you risk losing it all together, this is typical of the jobs I've had.

5-spot was better because even if they did that I worked so much overtime I got a lot of hours in. Now, I worked there almost two years, If I lived there for another two months, I would have had two weeks paid vacation, that's almost unheard of these days, unless you are some bigwig. I sacrificed it because I thought it was more important to get back to New Jersey earlier. Now it's unhealthy to think "What if?" but if I still worked there and if I still lived in Seattle I would. I would have three weeks paid vacation even if I didn't get promoted. That's unheard of in the restaurant industry for non management positions.

Anyway, back to vacations. I haven't had a vacation longer than a week in over ten years, that was when I visited New Jersey with my then girlfriend to my brother's wedding, I didn't need too much time for that but serendipity had my cousin's wedding a week later. I thought I would make it a two week affair. I had the time of my life, both weddings were fun and I even had a blast visiting my girlfriend's relatives, sneaking in some memorable naughty time at an amusement park in PA. My job was okay, I worked there more than a year which meant it was tolerable. When I got back with my girlfriend, work wise got worse for both of us, she knew she was getting laid off and did a few months later. I got fired, because I took too much time off, I got only one week paid vacation, the rest was unpaid. Still, they used it as grounds for dismissal.

Another time I worked at a trophy place and I wanted to take 5 days off to visit the folks for Christmas. It actually would only involve two working days off because the time was over the weekend. One woman I worked with wanted to take a week off for Christmas to visit her folks in Spokane WA. In the six months I was there it was her third such trip, each a week+ long and when she left I had to take on her workload. I pleaded my case, but to no avail. My supervisor was Mormon and so was she and she got preferential treatment. She was there for barely a year and was a paranoid individual. I pleaded to the owner how important it was to see my family, it had been a year since I saw them. He agreed and a week before I was to leave I got fired, right before Christmas. They cited some other reasons, trivial ones to be sure but ultimately it involved the fact I didn't fit in their world view and thus my desires were not to be adhered to.

None of the places I have worked since I got back to New Jersey accepts people taking off for frequent vacations before working there for at least a year. From my past experiences, I am careful in respecting that. Oh, I've been working my ass off trying to get one of those good jobs in graphic design that would offer decent benefits, but most jobs like that are in the past.

Back in the day, it was believed that the USA had the best working conditions, people compared it to Japan and European countries and we'd come out on top. Now polititians and conservative pundits have to resort to comparing our "great" working conditions to Central American countries and Asian countries not named Japan. And even then, you can see the United States slipping behind. That's the American work force, I don't like it but I have to accept it, I do respect it reluctantly, but I do wish we would emulate Europe's model.

Without a trace of irony.

Hot Enough For You?

It's days like today with the humidity at 90% and 90+ degrees that I miss Seattle. I always say to people if you are going on vacation in the month of August, go to Seattle. The weather is about as gorgeous as any you'll ever see. Working in the hot tin can AKA as my job for UPS makes me miss it more, but it also reminds me of the shitty job I had back about ten years ago. This one is worse, but for some bizarre reason it looks good on a resume.

We're A Nation of Bugs!

I try to avoid as much unpleasant things in my life as possible. One of the more unpleasant things in life is hearing about celebrities private lives. Who frickin cares?!!!? Especially celebrities that don't do anything. If it's not Paris Hilton, it's Linsey Lohan, and this week it's Nicole Ritchie. It's like a relay race of useless gossip, and their uniform? Those god awful ugly bug eyed sun glasses they wear wherever they go. These are the giant shoulder pads of the 21st century, a fashion faux pas that's embraced by the rich and the wanabees on the beaches.

These ladies have the same fashion sense of Harry Carey, only with tinted lens. And they're smug about it!











His excuse is that he's senile and has been dead for ten years. Why would they pay good money to look like him? Talk about buyers beware.

A Good Haircut Is Hard To Find

I got my haircut today. No big deal except I find it hard to get the haircut I want. It's summer, it's hot, humid, so I want my hair cropped short, very short but every time I ask for it, the haircutters think it's not what I really want. The reason they say is that because I am starting to thin on top in front so therefore I don't really want my hair buzzed. I understand why, they want me to look good when I walk out the door. However, I'm of the mindset that a good haircut is one that looks good two weeks later, and these days I need a haircut by then and I like getting a haircut only once every three months.

Part of the trouble is I haven't found a good haircutter. I spent years growing my hair so it wasn't until about 2002 when I found my hair cutter in a Astor Place type of place in lower Queen Anne in Seattle. I always got the same hair cutter, she always happened to be there. I never had to reserve my place. I haven't found that person in Jersey yet. I came close with a barber shop in Spring Lake. One barber was good but the other one was.....

scary

He wasn't old, maybe 50, but he wheezed and coughed and rubbed his face like he was 90. Not a pleasant experience for hair cutting. He cut my hair once, I wanted to wait for the other guy like that Seinfeld episode but I didn't want to offend him.

So, still looking.

Cleaning Up Computer

I was trying to clean up my files on my computer, one of the things you need to do and one of the things I forget is to clean up my e-mail files. Actually I clean up my inbox and my other received boxes but the sent box was full, very full. I got rid of all the ones that involved job searching that's more than a week old, it took some time, because I had made 856 submissions since I go this e-mail account almost a year ago, it took up a lot of space. That's a lot of job submissions! I've only had 10 interviews from it, not including the two I had set up I couldn't go to because I had no car at the time.

Anyway, I had a new job interview yesterday in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It went well I liked to work therer and the challenge to get more money by increasing volume was appealing to me, because I need a challenge, I do better on jobs that involve a challenge. The idea of working in Brooklyn is a drawback because of the commute. I applied because the hours were from 11 to 8, and traffic would be less of an issue. It still takes an hour to get there. I live near a ferry that would be shorter but the time of the rides would not be convienent, plus 200 dollars a week is way too much to spend on commuting.

Anyway, I had no issues with the commute but I will probably not get the job because Dave, the interviewer had concerns because he had been burned before. I tried to assure him otherwise. I want the job, it's a perfect one in many ways, except location and the idea of being refused for that reason is depressing.

That's the story of my life as a loser, someone up there wants me to struggle, if it ain't location, it's no responses, or a flat tire, or the lack of car. I wonder when the stars are going to align themselves in my favor.

I just want a simple job involving graphics with a reasonable commute and reasonable salary, so I can finally get going in my pursuit of a better life I deserve, and shove it in the faces of those who don't have faith in me.

Or at least just to relieve the stress of money.

A Part Of My Life...

Tommy Maken died. Who is he? Well, he was a famous Irish musician who had success in the 60's and 70's. He performed at shows my dad set up during his active days in the Irish American Club. He also owned a bar on 57th street called the Pavillion. It was my aunt's favorite hangout and I was there many times including the time U2 announced the release of Joshua Tree. The day I graduated SVA, we went there to see him perform. It's too bad he's gone.

On a side note... I've noticed I have increased my rate of blog entries in the last few months, by almost double, I guess I have more time on my hands...

Things I found When moving

I was digging through much of my things when I came across the newspaper I worked on years ago. It was supposed to rival the New York Press and maybe the Village Voice. The newspaper was published for a year, I came into it on th tenth month. I worked on the covers along with laying it out with an ancient computer which involved something like html like code.

Anyway the cover here has bad caricatures of prominent women who might be considered witches and at the time were very notorious, since the woman in the middle was Tammy Faye, who recently passed away, I thought it was interesting to see how my take on her changed over the years. I grew to like the woman, mostly because of the Surreal Life and her suppport of gay rights and the fact that she didn't judge people. I have read more about her about how the Jessica Hahn scandal was really about Tammy Faye being a victim. When Jerry Falwell died I felt karma was working her magic, when Tammy Faye died I felt sad especially seeing how cancer ate her alive.

On a related topic, the newspaper folded shortly after the cover and when I was put to work in the graphic design department (pre-Photoshop) I found myself doing very rudimentry tasks. It didn't bother me but I felt as if I wasn't needed. The last straw was when they asked me to deliver something from 27th st to 17th street. I delivered it no problem. I decided to take a few minutes and browse at Barnes and Noble. I spent more than 45 minutes there and when I got back, my boss said "Back so soon?"

He wasn't sarcastic.

I quit the next day,

I wish the newspaper lasted longer.