So I went and applied to work for the 2010 census, since I'm very much in need of a job and they pay well, even if only for a very short while.
They made me take a written test of 28 multiple choice questions involving basic math and organizational skills, like alphabetizing. In order to pass this test, you have to get 10 questions right. Ten.
Unfortunately, the census doesn't even start until the end of March. Thank you for not mentioning that to me until after I wasted half a day coming and taking your dumb test.
I'm actually surprised at how hard it is for me to get a job here. Like, any job at all. Seriously, right now I'm open to pretty much anything, and no one wants to hire me because I'm always either under-qualified or over-qualified. There is like, nothing for which I'm just qualified.
And it's not like I'm some loser-schmoe face, either. I'm very secure in my constant stream of failures. I just blame it on the recession.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Doo bee doooo
I think it's funny how people react to rain here in LA.
This week has been "the biggest rain storm since 1972." And by that, they mean that this whole week has been a combination of light rain and light drizzle.
Run for the hills! Make peace with your God!!
In other news, I'm now back to normal. For those unaware of what's been ailing me, three main things:
My friend hooked me up with a great Honda mechanic who replaced my clutch, flywheel, and left axel, in two hours, total labor time. He works very quickly. He charged me $150 for labor, and the parts were $300.
I was very please about that, since the same job would have cost me triple that much at a shop.
With my car working, I went and got a new sound card, and made copies of my roommate's keys, and my car's spare key, which I have decided NOT to hide inside my car from now on.
So basically I'm back to exactly how I was a couple weeks ago, only with a lot less money, and a much tighter clutch.
On a side note, it is very difficult to get out of bed when it's raining.
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This week has been "the biggest rain storm since 1972." And by that, they mean that this whole week has been a combination of light rain and light drizzle.
Run for the hills! Make peace with your God!!
In other news, I'm now back to normal. For those unaware of what's been ailing me, three main things:
- Car broke down
- Sound card overheated and died
- Lost my keys
My friend hooked me up with a great Honda mechanic who replaced my clutch, flywheel, and left axel, in two hours, total labor time. He works very quickly. He charged me $150 for labor, and the parts were $300.
I was very please about that, since the same job would have cost me triple that much at a shop.
With my car working, I went and got a new sound card, and made copies of my roommate's keys, and my car's spare key, which I have decided NOT to hide inside my car from now on.
So basically I'm back to exactly how I was a couple weeks ago, only with a lot less money, and a much tighter clutch.
On a side note, it is very difficult to get out of bed when it's raining.
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Friday, January 15, 2010
I found my car's spare key inside my car.
Why are we still driving cars? It seems like we should be past that.
By now, I would have expected us to all have our own personal flying ships that run on happiness.
And I've heard tons of rumors throughout my life that certain people have invented vehicles that actually run on just water, but the evil sinister oil companies paid them to destroy their blueprints.
What?
Sure, some people in this world are pretty bad. But do the CEO's of oil companies have some pact with the Devil? Do they sit in their scarcely lit offices, stroking their pet poodles, smoking gigantor cigars, laughing maniacally as they plot to destroy civilization?
I'm pretty sure they could find another use for oil. Come on. It's flammable.
And I love to hear people who know nothing about the industry summarize why gas prices are so high, as though they're the world's leading authority on the matter.
Really? I doubt it. More likely, it costs a lot of money to find some random well of oil, somewhere on Earth, and ship out a million barrels per day.
Anyway, I'm not convinced that the scandal is real, considering that if you invented a working car that runs on water, you'd make a lot more money than whatever they'd pay you to destroy it.
Still though, it seems odd that after more than a hundred years, we're still driving cars that run on gas, and they still get pretty bad mileage.
Also, why does my Honda Civic from 1991 still get better mileage than almost every new car being made today? Are we not advancing?
Actually right now it gets a whopping ZERO miles per gallon, but that will hopefully change tomorrow. And then I can leave my 1-mile-radius prison.
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By now, I would have expected us to all have our own personal flying ships that run on happiness.
And I've heard tons of rumors throughout my life that certain people have invented vehicles that actually run on just water, but the evil sinister oil companies paid them to destroy their blueprints.
What?
Sure, some people in this world are pretty bad. But do the CEO's of oil companies have some pact with the Devil? Do they sit in their scarcely lit offices, stroking their pet poodles, smoking gigantor cigars, laughing maniacally as they plot to destroy civilization?
I'm pretty sure they could find another use for oil. Come on. It's flammable.
And I love to hear people who know nothing about the industry summarize why gas prices are so high, as though they're the world's leading authority on the matter.
"Well, it's because the oil companies are greedy. Thieves."
Really? I doubt it. More likely, it costs a lot of money to find some random well of oil, somewhere on Earth, and ship out a million barrels per day.
Anyway, I'm not convinced that the scandal is real, considering that if you invented a working car that runs on water, you'd make a lot more money than whatever they'd pay you to destroy it.
Still though, it seems odd that after more than a hundred years, we're still driving cars that run on gas, and they still get pretty bad mileage.
Also, why does my Honda Civic from 1991 still get better mileage than almost every new car being made today? Are we not advancing?
Actually right now it gets a whopping ZERO miles per gallon, but that will hopefully change tomorrow. And then I can leave my 1-mile-radius prison.
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Uplifting Entry of Happiness
Not that anybody cares, but lately I have been uninspired to make any blog entries, notwithstanding the fact that I have WAY too much free time on my hands.
You see, I tune pianos for a "living". I can't go tune a piano without a functioning car. My car needs fixing, which will cost most of the money that I have.
I have a friend, however, who wants to fix it for me for much less, though his schedule is very busy so I'm waiting to hear back from him. In the meantime, I can't go anywhere outside of my walking distance.
So I should use this time to write music and finish my upcoming "Hymninalism" album, right?
Wrong. I can't do that either because my mixer decided to die, the very same day my car did, making it impossible for me to write any music unless I want to click it in, note by note, with my mouse, which is also on the verge of death, actually.
So I have reached a bit of a standstill, hence the lack of blog entries. Basically, I'm just trying to find a way to keep myself busy, which has proven to be remarkably difficult.
Cleaning, going to the temple, applying for jobs that are near my apartment, and playing my piano. That's about it. I haven't been this completely useless since before I learned to walk.
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You see, I tune pianos for a "living". I can't go tune a piano without a functioning car. My car needs fixing, which will cost most of the money that I have.
I have a friend, however, who wants to fix it for me for much less, though his schedule is very busy so I'm waiting to hear back from him. In the meantime, I can't go anywhere outside of my walking distance.
So I should use this time to write music and finish my upcoming "Hymninalism" album, right?
Wrong. I can't do that either because my mixer decided to die, the very same day my car did, making it impossible for me to write any music unless I want to click it in, note by note, with my mouse, which is also on the verge of death, actually.
So I have reached a bit of a standstill, hence the lack of blog entries. Basically, I'm just trying to find a way to keep myself busy, which has proven to be remarkably difficult.
Cleaning, going to the temple, applying for jobs that are near my apartment, and playing my piano. That's about it. I haven't been this completely useless since before I learned to walk.
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Saturday, January 9, 2010
Car
Yesterday my car broke down in the middle of a fairly busy 6-lane road, and so I had to push it across a couple of lanes to the shoulder.
Which isn't really that big of a deal. But what kind of surprised me is how rude some people can be here. I was standing half-in, half-out of my car trying to push it and steer it at the same time, and people were actually cutting me off. Seriously!
I had to literally slam on the brakes to keep from hitting people as they pulled right in front of me, notwithstanding that I was very clearly trying to get my car out of the road. Jerk-faces.
Luckily there was a guy in a van that had the good sense to stop for a few seconds and let me get out of the road. I almost got hit like 7 times. I couldn't believe it.
The sadly ironic thing is that I was legitimately going to use yesterday to tune up my car and take car of any maintenance problems. And then it dies.
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Which isn't really that big of a deal. But what kind of surprised me is how rude some people can be here. I was standing half-in, half-out of my car trying to push it and steer it at the same time, and people were actually cutting me off. Seriously!
I had to literally slam on the brakes to keep from hitting people as they pulled right in front of me, notwithstanding that I was very clearly trying to get my car out of the road. Jerk-faces.
Luckily there was a guy in a van that had the good sense to stop for a few seconds and let me get out of the road. I almost got hit like 7 times. I couldn't believe it.
The sadly ironic thing is that I was legitimately going to use yesterday to tune up my car and take car of any maintenance problems. And then it dies.
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Monday, January 4, 2010
Speaking
I like to hang out with medical students and ask them all sorts of random questions about the body. It makes me feel like I'm getting a doctorate degree without all the studying.
Speaking of which, it turns out that you can in fact have your bellybutton removed.
Which reminds me of this video that Bryan was very excited to show everyone when we were home over Christmas.
Which reminds me that there are only 355 days left until next Christmas! Wooo hoooo.
Speaking of days, it was 80 degrees outside yesterday. Craaazy.
Speaking of crazy, one of my friends had a little dinner party last night that involved "hot pots", which is some sort of Asian dinner where you have lots of raw items that you put in a pot of boiling water in front of you, with your chopsticks and then pull it out and eat it with rice and other substances. It was supremely delicious. And there was shrimp! I love shrimp.
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Speaking of which, it turns out that you can in fact have your bellybutton removed.
Which reminds me of this video that Bryan was very excited to show everyone when we were home over Christmas.
Which reminds me that there are only 355 days left until next Christmas! Wooo hoooo.
Speaking of days, it was 80 degrees outside yesterday. Craaazy.
Speaking of crazy, one of my friends had a little dinner party last night that involved "hot pots", which is some sort of Asian dinner where you have lots of raw items that you put in a pot of boiling water in front of you, with your chopsticks and then pull it out and eat it with rice and other substances. It was supremely delicious. And there was shrimp! I love shrimp.
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Friday, January 1, 2010
Neeewwwww Year.
I imagine that blog sites such as this one get a surge of activity at the start of the new year. Especially with this wretched recession going on there must be a lot of very determined writers out there thinking that they'll be blogging full-time by next December.
I don't really make New Year's resolutions. Occasionally I'll make a resolution and it just happens to be on the first day of the year, but since the start of a new year is, really, completely irrelevant, when you think about it, I make resolutions whenever I feel like it.
And today I don't feel like it.
In fact most of my life-altering paradigm-shifting decisions happen towards the beginning of the summer. But that was when I was in Utah and the seasons would actually change. The snow would dry up and I would resolve to start running again. Woo hoo.
Here, it's summertime all @#%&$# year. So you'll never know when I might ambush you with a list of all the amazing poop I'm gonna change. Sleep in fear.
In the meantime, I thought that all you millions of readers would like to see some thoroughly exciting pictures of my Christmas vacation up in Washington with my entire immediate family. Which is actually almost the same size as my entire extended family.
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I don't really make New Year's resolutions. Occasionally I'll make a resolution and it just happens to be on the first day of the year, but since the start of a new year is, really, completely irrelevant, when you think about it, I make resolutions whenever I feel like it.
And today I don't feel like it.
In fact most of my life-altering paradigm-shifting decisions happen towards the beginning of the summer. But that was when I was in Utah and the seasons would actually change. The snow would dry up and I would resolve to start running again. Woo hoo.
Here, it's summertime all @#%&$# year. So you'll never know when I might ambush you with a list of all the amazing poop I'm gonna change. Sleep in fear.
In the meantime, I thought that all you millions of readers would like to see some thoroughly exciting pictures of my Christmas vacation up in Washington with my entire immediate family. Which is actually almost the same size as my entire extended family.
Cookie Decorating
The Woodland Park Zoo
The Seattle Waterfront
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