Holy Crap, it's Snowing.

That was my reaction when I went downstairs to pack my lunch this morning and looked out the kitchen window. First snow of the season. We now return to our regularly scheduled lives.

Updateroo

Around the time of my last post, I was looking into starting up my own business as an insurance agent with Aflac. Also at that time, I got notification that my claim for unemployment insurance had been denied. Since I thought I was going to be doing the Aflac thing, I let the UI slide.

But, the Aflac thing fell through, and by the time that happened, it was too late to file an appeal to UI. So, I went to Labor Ready and applied there to do temporary manual labor stuff.

The first job I had was only two hours long, and I was paid for four hours' work (since the minimum Labor Ready day is four hours long, but the company--Metrico--needed a driver kind of ASAP). The second job, which I got the next day, was for Capricorn Pharma, Inc. and I was basically just sticking security stickers on boxes of medicine.

That job got me repeat tickets for more than a week, and while I was there, they kept asking if I wanted to apply for a job there. The person who was in charge of all the Labor Ready people said that the position I'd be in would pay $8.50/hour, and since that was better than the minimum wage ($7.25/hour) I was getting from Labor Ready--with no possibility of over-time pay--and I still had bills I needed to catch up on and would need to pay regularly come December, I decided to go for it.

So now I work for Capricorn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and I'll get my first paycheck from them on Tuesday. I still have to pay my over-due cell phone bill (about $185), and apparently I have an outstanding tab at the Haven for $6.50, which I'll pay along with my December membership. I've also got the fee for the last couple of allergy shots I got before I no longer had health insurance to pay, and then I'll be all caught up.

I figured out a budget, based on whether or not I get overtime at Capricorn, and also based on how much overtime I get. The way I figure it (approximating 17% taken out for taxes), if I don't get any overtime at all, I won't be able to pay my portion of the rent so I'll just take over the Dish, internet (Comcast), and power bills entirely.

But the people at Capricorn won't let me not get overtime. I told them when I interviewed that I could work up to ten hours a day, thinking that they'd schedule me for eight hours a day and five days a week, and then if they needed me to stay a couple hours longer once or twice a week, I could do it, but then after I was hired, I learned that they expected me to actually work ten hours every day, for six days a week!

My first week, I was still at Labor Ready on Monday, but then Tuesday through Saturday I worked my tail off. By the time I left Saturday night (which was really very early Sunday morning) my back, feet and hips were killing me, and I was so stiff I could barely move. Darn concrete floors.

I'm still looking for a job which will pay better and have less hours, but it's going to be tricky going to interviews when I'm at Capricorn from either 12-10pm or 2pm-12am every day except Sunday, and if I'm not at Capricorn (or at the Haven on Thursdays for Brian's game), it's either too late/early to go anywhere, or I'm sleeping off the previous day's work.

I'm looking into a mystery shopping opportunity, which I think I could do if I get up a couple hours early. Right now, I have a 7-day free trial of the mystery shopping job listing site, so I'll try it out for six days, hoping that it'll pay for itself (it's $49.95/month after the free trial). If it does, I'll do both for a while, then if the mystery shopping starts to pay off more than Capricorn would, then I'll drop Capricorn. If it doesn't pay for itself, then I'll drop the mystery shopping and keep looking for a better job than Capricorn.

A couple of months ago, I submitted an application for a job at Dulles International Airport, and passed the assessment they had me take. They'd asked me to fax a couple of forms in for them to get more information, and I did, but apparently the number they had me fax it to before doesn't work right, so they didn't really get the forms. I got confirmation e-mails saying they'd received the forms, but they didn't really.

So I tried to re-send the forms to another fax number they gave me this weekend, but Dad's fax machine apparently can't send faxes to numbers which just forward the faxes on to different machines.

So yesterday, I scanned the forms and sent them through faxzero.com, and I hope they went through, because the cover pages that the Transportation Security Administration gave me to put with the forms say that they have to be the first page in the transmission or else it may not work properly, but FaxZero adds a cover page onto the faxes you send through them if you want a free fax. I can't afford to send a fax that costs actual money.

On a different note, Jason and I went to the Haven on Black Friday. Jason played video games while I drew a picture of the character I play in Brian's Serenity game, Maekona Vaine. It turned out okay, I guess. I think I tend to do better when I don't have a picture to work from, but in my mind, Maekona's of Chinese-American descent, so I wanted to make sure her facial features reflected that and used a picture I'd found through Google Images as a reference point.

The shape of the drawing's face makes her look like an alien, the coloring isn't quite right for what I had in mind, and I had to scan it in two parts, so there's a really noticeable line right in the middle that I couldn't get rid of, but it's at least the basic idea of Maekona anyway:

Thought this was fun . . . yoinked it from Heather's LJ

I read through this, and found only one that I definitely know I use improperly (criteria vs. criterion), but I might inadvertently use a few others from time to time without realizing I have.

The Inigo Montoya Guide to 27 Commonly Misused Words
by Brian Clark

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. ~Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

It may be inconceivable for you to misuse a word, but a quick look around the web reveals plenty of people doing it. And it’s all too easy when we hear or see others use words incorrectly and parrot them without knowing it’s wrong.

We know by now that great copy and content often purposefully break the rules of grammar. It’s only when you break the rules by mistake that you look dumb.

So let’s take a look at 27 commonly misused words. Some are common mistakes that can cost you when trying to keep a reader’s attention. Others are more obscure and just interesting to know.

Adverse / Averse
Adverse means unfavorable. Averse means reluctant.

Afterwards
Afterwards is wrong in American English. It’s afterward.

Complement / Compliment
I see this one all the time. Complement is something that adds to or supplements something else. Compliment is something nice someone says about you.

Criteria
Criteria is plural, and the singular form is criterion. If someone tells you they have only one criteria, you can quickly interject and offer that it be they get a clue.

Farther / Further
Farther is talking about a physical distance.

“How much farther is Disney World, Daddy?”

Further is talking about an extension of time or degree.

“Take your business further by reading Copyblogger.”

Fewer / Less
If you can count it, use fewer. If you can’t, use less.

“James has less incentive to do what I say.”

“Tony has fewer subscribers since he stopped blogging.”

Historic / Historical
Historic means an important event. Historical means something that happened in the past.

Hopefully
This word is used incorrectly so much (including by me) it may be too late. But let’s make you smarter anyway. The old school rule is you use hopefully only if you’re describing the way someone spoke, appeared, or acted.

Smart: I hope she says yes.
Wrong: Hopefully, she says yes.
Wrong: Hopefully, the weather will be good.
Smart: It is hoped that the weather cooperates.
Smart: She eyed the engagement ring hopefully.

Imply / Infer
Imply means to suggest indirectly (you’re sending a subtle message). To infer is to come to a conclusion based on information (you’re interpreting a message).

Insure / Ensure
Insure is correct only when you call up Geico or State Farm for coverage. Ensure means to guarantee, and that’s most often what you’re trying to say, right?

Irregardless
Irregardless is not a word. Use regardless or irrespective.

Literally
“I’m literally starving to death.”

No, odds are, you’re not.

Literally means exactly what you say is accurate, no metaphors or analogies. Everything else is figurative (relative, a figure of speech).

Premier / Premiere
Premier is the first and best in status or importance, or a prime minister. Premiere is the opening night of Star Wars 8: George Wants More Money.

Principal / Principle
Principal when used as a noun means the top dog; as an adjective, it means the most important of any set. Principle is a noun meaning a fundamental truth, a law, a rule that always applies, or a code of conduct.

Towards
Towards is wrong in American English. It’s toward. I went 41 years not being sure about this one.

Unique
Unique means (literally) one of a kind. Saying something is very or truly unique is wacked. It’s either a purple cow or it isn’t.

Who / Whom
This one is a lost cause, but let’s go down swinging. The way to deal with the who versus whom quandary is a simple substitution method.

First, a refresher on subjects and objects.

Subjects do the action:

“He/she/we like(s) to rock the house.”

Objects receive the action:

“The rock star sneered at him/her/us.”

Use who for subjects and whom for objects.

Subjects:

Who wrote this blog post?
Who is speaking at the conference?
Who is going to clean up this mess?

Objects:

Whom are you going to write about?
Whom did he blame for the Google Slap?
Whom did he bait for the links?

The Scoop

All right, some of you have heard, and some of you haven't, so I'm going to explain now.

The last few months were kind of crazy at work, and due to the stress (and somewhat due to not having certain skills when it came to MSAccess and/or a new eCommerce software we were using), I kept making mistakes. The last mistake I made was on Friday, September 11, and when I went to work on Monday the 14th, my boss told me about it and said that my other (higher) bosses said it was the last straw and she had to fire me.

So I went home a little shaken that day, and used the time I had at home to relax, as I found out this past Tuesday is usually recommended to people who just lost their jobs. The next day, I started my job search and looked into unemployment benefits, but I didn't sign up for those until the day after that.

That first week, I looked at the prospects for seven different jobs. On Friday the 18th, I had an interview at Colonial Jewelers. Sarah Horwitz said that it was kind of interesting that I'd chosen to walk in and apply the day before, since they were only just thinking about adding an office position to their staff. They hadn't even decided whether or not to create the position (or what the duties would be), but they liked to interview everyone who applied for a job there anyway. I also applied for a job at Dulles Airport that week, because I think it would be fun to work at an airport. I had to take a computerized assessment. It was scheduled to be 2½ hours long, but I got it done in less than an hour, and passed.

Getting jobs with the Transportation Security Administration can take up to a year or more though, so I'm not holding my breath on that one just yet. I'll just get a different job for now, and if the TSA people offer me a job then I might even take it, even if the just over $30K they're offering for the position is less than what I make in that other job, just because it would be fun.

The next week, I applied for two more jobs (as is required by the unemployment people), and had an interview at FSK Automotive. They told me that they would make a decision on Tuesday of this week--I didn't get a phone call, so I didn't get that job.

I applied at Jo-Ann Fabrics and CitiBank yesterday. Jo-Ann's said I didn't meet the requirements of the position for Merchandise Team Leader, and CitiBank said they'd forwarded my application to the hiring person, who would contact me later.

I got half a paycheck from my old job, and I'm about to use the few hundred dollars that gave me to pay the bills that matter most right now, and then I don't know what I'm going to do. I haven't gotten any money from the UI people yet, but I've got a phone interview with them to talk about eligibility. If they somehow decide I'm not eligible, then I will have no income whatsoever, and I'll have no way to pay my bills.

I've thought of getting a part-time job somewhere to at least help, but that won't pay all of the bills. The pros of getting a part-time job are that I'll at least be getting some money, I'll get out of the house for at least a little while during the week, and I won't be bored all the time.

The cons are that the schedule I'd have could prevent me from accepting a full-time position right away if one is offered (which is what I have to do per the UI people), it would possibly make me get less UI money than they'd give me if I actually am eligible, and most of the places I can think of to apply for part-time jobs also have full-time positions but I wouldn't take the full-time position since the pay is little more than half of what I was making before.

So getting a part-time job seems like a waste of time, but not a waste of time also. Anyone else have any thoughts on that? I could use a second opinion.

Goal Achieved!

I made it! I've read more than 50 books so far this year! Here's the updated list:

1. Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
2. The Colour of Magic
3. The Light Fantastic
4. Equal Rites
5. Mort
6. Sourcery
7. Wyrd Sisters
8. Pyramids
9. Guards! Guards!
10. Eric
11. Moving Pictures
12. Reaper Man
13. Witches Abroad
14. Small Gods
15. Lords and Ladies
16. Men at Arms
17. Soul Music
18. Interesting Times
19. Maskerade
20. Feet of Clay
21. Hogfather
22. Jingo
23. The Last Continent
24. Carpe Jugulum
25. The Fifth Elephant
26. The Truth
27. Thief of Time
28. The Last Hero
29. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
30. Night Watch
31. The Wee Free Men
32. Monstrous Regiment
33. A Hat Full of Sky
34. Going Postal
35. Thud!
36. Wintersmith
37. Strata
38. Making Money
39. Mind Meld (Star Trek: The Original Series #82) by John Vornholt
40. GURPS Discworld (RPG manual) by Phil Masters
41. The Ashes of Eden (another Star Trek novel) by William Shatner
42. Pawn of Prophecy
43. Queen of Sorcery
44. Magician's Gambit
45. Castle of Wizardry
46. Enchanter's Endgame
47. Dead Until Dark
48. Living Dead in Dallas
49. Club Dead
50. Dead to the World
51. Dead as a Doornail
52. Definitely Dead
53. All Together Dead
54. From Dead to Worse
55. Dead and Gone

• Numbers 2-38 are Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
• 42-46 are David Eddings's The Belgariad.
• 47-55 are Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries series. This is the series that the HBO T.V. show True Blood is based off of. After I finished reading the books, I got caught up on the show.

This morning, I started re-reading Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffrey, so that will be #56, followed by the other books in that series.

The New House

I moved in with Anna and Tim last month, and finally got around to taking some pictures!

Birthday Wish List

For once, I don't have any books or CDs or games on my birthday wish list. In fact, I think this list is the shortest it's been in years.

• Summer-y clothes:
• a sundress or two--light blue is a nice color (I'm not sure what size, but the dress I wore to Anna's wedding--although a lot more formal than what I'm asking for--was size 14)
  
• some nice button-up shirts (no frills, please) in light colors and short sleeves
• some shorts (my jean size is 10, if that helps)
  
• new t-shirts, etc.
  
  
• Supplies for my projects:
• 60 feet of 2” X 10” pine, cut into 5-foot planks
  
• Three 8” X 8” sheets of ¼” thick plastic
• Six 4” X 4” sheets of ¼” thick plastic
• 2 ½ feet of ¼” diameter plastic rod
• 20” of clear, hard plastic tubing with an inside diameter of ¼”
• 3 ft X 2 ft. of plywood
• Three 1-inch long black drywall screws
• High-strength plastic adhesive
• Red spray paint

All Monetarily Contributed Projects Currently on Hold

Thursday evening at the Haven was the first session of Brian's Serenity RPG game (played using the system from the Buffy and Angel RPGs, instead of the Cortex system, because Cortex system sucks). It's looking like it'll be a really fun game, and I can't wait until next week's session.

So, Tim got a new job. He now works for Chase in their collections department. That said, we've all decided not to try an buy a house, but instead to look for places to rent. We've been looking at ads the last two days, but Anna was only able to get in touch with the people who own two of the houses (she left messages with the rest). We've looked at two duplexes so far, and they both were nice, but the first one we looked at was nicer.

Because of the immediacy of the housing situation--Anna wants to be moved out of Mom & Dad's by the end of July--we've all got to save up as much as we can for the first month's rent and security deposit on any house we end up renting. Which means I won't be able to even start finishing that set of viking chairs until August or September at the earliest.

I also won't be able to get that correspondence course about piano tuning, or to make a Tri-D Chess board, like from Star Trek yet either. *Le sigh.*

I got the Star Trek DVD set last week from Amazon. It was actually the second set I'd gotten of it--the first set was missing season 1, disc 2, so I had to send it back. I'm on the fourth or fifth episode of season 2, and as soon as I finish this entry, I'm going to watch it.

Mom's birthday is coming up on Tuesday. I got her Highlander season 1 on DVD. I was looking for Kung Fu season 3, but they didn't have it at Record and Tape Traders, which is the only store I've been to since I got paid yesterday.

Next week, if I remember, I'll post a list of things I might like for my own birthday.

A Series Almost 40 Novels Long

Not a lot has happened since April 25th, except that I made a viking chair for Anna's birthday. Steve at the Haven taught me how. I'm going to make 7 more--one for each of the people in my family, including me (Dad, Mom, Me, Kimba, Tim, Kayla, Jason).

I finished the 36th of the 37 Discworld novels written by Terry Pratchett this afternoon. I didn't know that Making Money was also a Discworld novel, because it wasn't included in my audio files. I'm downloading that one now.

I was a bit disappointed by book number 36 (Strata), because it turned out to be sci-fi, when the entire rest of the series was mostly fantasy/satire. It had an okay plot, even though none of the characters I'd come to love were in it, but if I ever re-read (er . . . re-listen to) the series, I won't be going through Strata again.

So far this year, I have read 37 books--soon to be 38. Here's the list (in the order that I read them):

1. Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
2. The Colour of Magic
3. The Light Fantastic
4. Equal Rites
5. Mort
6. Sourcery
7. Wyrd Sisters
8. Pyramids
9. Guards! Guards!
10. Eric
11. Moving Pictures
12. Reaper Man
13. Witches Abroad
14. Small Gods
15. Lords and Ladies
16. Men at Arms
17. Soul Music
18. Interesting Times
19. Maskerade
20. Feet of Clay
21. Hogfather
22. Jingo
23. The Last Continent
24. Carpe Jugulum
25. The Fifth Elephant
26. The Truth
27. Thief of Time
28. The Last Hero
29. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
30. Night Watch
31. The Wee Free Men
32. Monstrous Regiment
33. A Hat Full of Sky
34. Going Postal
35. Thud!
36. Wintersmith
37. Strata
38. Making Money (I'm including it because I will be reading it.)

It's looking like I'll actually make (and probably surpass) the 50-book goal this year--yay!

A night NOT spent at the Haven

Ryan's been back in town for the last week or so, and asked if I wanted to hang out and catch up. I took him up on that offer, of course. He met me after work, and we walked over to Five Guys to eat.

After that, we stopped off at the Haven for a few minutes, 'cause I'd told him about it and how cool it was--and we were nearby anyway.

He had a bit of an errand to run--picking up his other car from the shop, which wasn't the one he parked in the Church Street parking deck--so we drove there in my car, and I followed him to his house to drop it off. From there, we decided to see a movie.

We managed to get to the 6:45 showing of Knowing, the new Nicholas Cage movie, while the previews were still rolling. I liked it a lot; they packed a lot of stuff into two hours and fifteen minutes, and it felt longer than it actually was. Ryan said he liked it up until the end, because it "couldn't decide what genre it was supposed to be" (if I elaborated, it might spoil the ending), but I think it worked--the mix of genres kind of helped with the character development, actually.

The movie was over at 9:00, so we went back downtown and walked up and down Market Street for an hour before heading back to the parking garage so he could get his car. He gave me a ride back to my car, and then we went to our respective houses.

It'll be nice, having Ryan back in the same time zone again, since that means communication will be quicker.

When I got there, Mom and Jason were in bed, but everyone else was downstairs talking. Anna and Tim were talking to Dad about cutting costs on phone lines--Dad's going to look into VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which sounds like a good thing to have when everyone has their own personal cell phones. It also sounds a lot cheaper than a land-line, and is something the four of us kids would get when we have our own house. There could be issues with power outtages, but as long as everyone has cell phones, there isn't much of a problem there.

Turns out, Anna had forgotten to tell me and Tim that we'd been approved for the mortgage loan up to $130,000 with certain specifications, but we're not going to go for a house which will cost us more than $110,000, except in certain circumstances.

We're not going to pursue the house on Vienna Court either, even though it was really nice. The lack of a basement, or any other "growing out" space is a major minus. So, it's back to the house-hunting.

I bought a one-year subscription to Xbox Live Gold so that I could connect my NetFlix account to it. Then after the phone conversation was over (and shortly before Camille left--she'd been talking to Kayla in the dining room), activated the NetFlix on it. I didn't have anything in my instant queue yet, so I didn't watch anything though.

After that, I downloaded the trial version of Castle Crashers, and played as long as it would let me. I almost beat the first big boss before it stopped me, and I think my little character guy was up to level 5 or 6 by that time. Maybe I'll buy a couple thousand marketplace points tomorrow (gotta pay the bills and go grocery shopping first) and get the full version, or maybe not.

I came up here sometime around 12:45, but I wasn't sleepy, so I decided to do some NetFlix queueing. I put 19 things on my DVD queue, and 22 on my instant queue, starting with Medieval Lives, a series of eight episodes that I'd seen half of at the Haven, but didn't catch the rest of yet. Among the rest of my queues are Quantum Leap, Shark Week, Murder, She Wrote, and SeaQuest: DSV. I've got a few movies and such on there too, but the serieses take up most of the queue lists.

I think I might actually be sleepy now.