days and nights

I am in Dallas now. It is a pain in the ass though because I don’t have work. Backstory comes down to me moving down here for a company only to have them eliminate the position in a budget meeting. Good times.

So now, I get to do what I did in Utah. Search for jobs and watch movies. There is nothing else. It is pathetic too. I was pretty stoked to get down here and get moving with Verizon. Such is life I guess.

Ok. Time to go. I really don’t have a whole lot to say right now. At least you know what is going on right now though. As if I actually have any readers.

With what little cash I had left, I went and bought some seeds. Various things like corn, watermellon, tomatos and some other things. I have told people to do it lately as a hedge against food shortages that will begin to occur this winter and spring. I suggest you all do it too. Having that bit of extra food available is going to be something that we will all need soon enough. Even if there are no shortages, you spent 2 bucks on a packet of seeds and got hundreds of dollars of food from it. Do the math.

Beyond that, I got more water as well. I figured I could survive between what I have and using the springs in the area. My next purchase is going to be more ammo. I just get this gut feeling that we may not come out of this with our lives quite the same as they are now.

In other news, nobody is hiring because of this crap. Such a shame.

Yeah, so I had a phone interview with Rackspace this morning. It went quite well. I am rather stoked to get back to work. Not excited about having to move down to Austin to do it, but whatever I guess. I have to live. And I can’t find shit here.

As for everything else, I am doing a BBQ tonight. It is smaller, but should be a good time. Have about 6 or 8 people coming. Good times.

I should have some pictures posted of it tomorrow or the next day at the Alienspeed.com Gallery.

That is really all that is going on. Time to have a shower right now. I stink from running, but wanted to update here before I poofed for the night.

Oh yeah, and I do have to say that I am starting to enjoy Twitter. It is starting to get fun for me for some reason. I think it is that thought that someone may actually give a shit about what I may or may not be doing. Kindof nice when you are as cut off as I am from things right now.

I have been working on a story over the last several years that I have decided to put here. It is called The Walk. I have only put a few hours here and there, but I think it is quality for the most part. I will begin posting portions of it in the very near future.

Please take a look at it when you have a minute. I hope it turns out great.

Not sure if all of you remember, but I was working to get my record clean. I thought I was good to go, but alas, I received a letter recently telling me that I was denied. I am officially ticked off still. Regardless, I have been turned down for something near 20 jobs because of something that happened 8 years ago. Does anyone else smell a slight case of dickishness coming from all these companies and people.

Bah, just an update. I update The Story as well. Go ahead and check it out. There is at least another page or three there to work with.

So I went down for an interview today. It was with this company that I would love to work for, but have yet to interview with. Finally I get an interview with them and my stupid past comes into play. They can’t hire me until I finish this stupid expungement. I am going to fucking kill whoever is in charge of this shit at the state level. How fucking long does it take?! I have been waiting for damn near 6 weeks now with nothing. Here is a clue for whoever is in charge of expungements for the state of Utah. GET A CLUE! Fucking morons.

This shit has bitten me more times in the last year than any other shitty little mistake I have made before. And this is smaller than most mistakes I have made. But because the country prosecutor needed to make some money for the county, I get fucked. I didn’t do a fucking thing then, and now I am paying for not noticing someone else stealing shit. Good times. This is what I get for not being fucking perfect in my friend selection in this police state shit that we are living in now.

Damnit… I am fucking pissed.

I have been busting my ass for a couple weeks now looking for a job. No luck so far. It seems that I have been blacklisted or something. I am not even getting emails now. And I have applied for damn near 100 jobs with only two solid leads. It is a shame. I should have just dealt with the job until I couldn’t anymore, but such is life.

If anyone out there has something, I would LOVE to hear about it. I am going to be seriously in trouble by next Friday if I don’t have something lined up. I am good with contracts or full time. I am an administrator, so if you need computer work done, and it pays something above $26 an hour, let me know.

There is really no other news. I have been job hunting and studying for my LPIC 1. Studying is SO freaking tiring though.

Oh yeah, I started running again. I go and do stairs up at our local football stadium. Each flight has 33 steps. So far, I am up to doing 24 flights. It isn’t much, but I am busting my ass trying to make it happen. I will keep you updated and such. I am hoping to be up to 42 flights by the end of the month. We will see.

So I failed a background check with Overstock.com about 6 months ago. Since then, I have gotten the previous issues taken care of and my record is clean. Expungement is AWESOME. So I am working with my recruiter down at KForce, and he tells me that they are hiring again. I am stoked because I really think that a job with Overstock would be great. He starts talking to them and getting the ball rolling a little bit. I get a call. Overstock informed him that if you fail a background check in the past at all, you are not eligible to work for them again. Major fail.

So yeah, I am working to find something else. I was really hoping that this transition would be a fast one, but it seems that I was incorrect in placing my hopes so high.

Time to get to work looking for more work. I really want to move back to Dallas. I think I will start looking much harder there.

So in about 9 hours, I have an interview/meeting with a guy that is a recruiter with KForce. I am hoping these guys actually have something for me. I have just started this job search thing and I am already sick of it.

In other news, I have started working with Fedora 9 a little bit. I love it. So far it is much better than Ubuntu 8.04 in almost every way. Wine works out of the box, which is a definite start in the right direction. Beyond that, the boot times are MUCH faster for the same machine. I do have to say that I am now running a 64 bit kernel now as opposed to a 32 bit kernel with Ubuntu. Regardless, what a difference. Everything from install to initial login was smoother and more efficient. In my eyes, Fedora 9 is the way to go.

I will update as soon as I have any information on the job search. I have four major opportunities I am looking at right now. One in Utah, two in Dallas, and one in New Jersey. I am really hoping to either stay in Salt Lake or go to Dallas. New Jersey would be an adventure, but it would be quite a change. And starting over is a bit of a pain when it comes to friends and such. Though I have some friends in Boston, that is a bit of a drive. So yeah. There you go. You are up to date on my life.

Well, my last post was laced with a bit of angst as I am sure my 3 readers could tell. Actually on that subject, I am up to 11 readers now. Return readers, not just come once and leave types. Regardless, my last post was rather pissy. I am now jobless as of the 30th of this month. I put in my two week notice yesterday, and began working on replacing my current workplace with something more tuned to my IT career goals. I think it is a great move.

I have mentioned in the past that I have been working on my LPIC-1 as well as my CEH and CHFI. I have made some significant strides forward in studying for my LPIC-1, and expect to take both the 101 and 102 exams next week. It will be a grand occasion when I pass them. My education has been lacking recently due to a downturn in my job duties, and I have decided that I won’t be allowing that of myself anymore. Once my LPIC-1 is finished, I will move on to my CEH to finish that and turn around to finish my CHFI directly after. I could probably finish my CEH sooner, but the LPI certifications have been a goal for a while, and I intend to complete that goal before setting any others.

I have applied for more than a dozen jobs in the last day or two all over the world. Most of them have been either in Dallas or Salt Lake City. There are a few in California and spread all over the world at various United States Air Force bases. I feel that working for the government might not be as great as it should be, so I have put those ones on the back burner unless a real spectacular offer comes across. I want to stay in the private sector and keep getting my name out there. I feel that name recognition is more valuable than any job experience will ever be. It is quite hard to get in this industry, but marketing myself correctly will help that.

If anyone is in need of a System Administrator or Technical Requirements Analyst, please let me know. I am looking actively right now, and will be accepting an offer in the very near future if all goes well.