Ann Coulter is at it again

She's badmouthing John Edwards again. But she has a complete lack of panache. She has no style whatsoever. She simply resorts to her old, "school yard taunts". It occurs to me that this is a woman who is supposedly college educated. Someone in her shoes should be capable of more intelligent insults than she has unleashed. It just makes her look incredibly dim.

Chris Matthews of Hardball mentioned this evening that every time she starts spouting her mouth she actually sells more of her books. YUCK! Who buys her brand of crap?!

The waiting game is over

My guy did not get the cool job in the cool city and state we would love to move to. So we will probably be staying put for a while. Onward my life moves...

I'm a few years shy of 2 decades out of high school and I have not gotten my bachelor's degree yet. My major has always been Art Education. However I have absolutely no desire to sit in a classroom and teach. I suppose that's why I never bothered to get my degree. Most of the course work left to get my degree in Art Ed doesn't interest me either.

Several months ago my guy and I had a conversation about why I haven't gotten my degree. He said something very interesting. He suggested that I might be interested in Communications. So out of curiosity I went to the website for the local state university and checked out what a degree in Communications entailed. I was drooling over the required courses! Examples of the coursework include: "Gender, Race and Communication", "Political Communication" and "Persuasion and Propaganda". (I wonder if Karl Rove wrote the syllabus on the last one.) Everything sounded interesting. If I had the time and money to take classes for shits and giggles I would take those classes.

2 performance classes are required for the degree. Public Speaking I should be able to ace in my sleep. Among the list of other choices was one gem my guy and I had a good laugh over; Storytelling. Yes friends and neighbors, they offer a 4000 level Storytelling class! I have been a professional children's entertainer for over 14 years and incorporate storytelling into what I do on a regular basis. I'm sure there are painfully shy people in this world who would freeze in terror at the mere thought of standing up in front of a group of people to-GASP-tell a story. I am not one of them. Truth be told the class sounds like a great deal of fun to me and I am thrilled at the prospect of taking it.

I've been mulling this over for the past few months. This week I took action and made an appointment with academic advisement to change my major. If I am correct I only need 12 classes to get my degree. If I go part time I can easily finish in 2 years going at a nice leisurely pace. It won't throw my entire life out of whack. What's the point in remaining an Art Ed major if I'm not going to finish and I won't use the degree? With a Communications degree I can actually see myself using the degree. I could go into public relations or promotions. I'm sure it would open other doors for me as well.

I plan on taking at least 1 class this semester (along with the Dreamweaver class I want to take at the local vocational school). I'm excited about this! I think the fact that we are staying put for now pushed me to really consider the possibilities. I will update after I have my meeting with academic advisement, which is next week.

Lockdown

We live in a nice, middle class condo community. Our complex is gated and sits on a golf course. We are surrounded by picturesque landscaping. We have lived in condos for years and have come to accept that there is always one kook or nutjob. There is always one jerk that annoys everyone. In our building for close to 2 years it has been a family of renters. These people make trailer trash look classy. I have never been inside their unit, but everyone who has states emphatically that it is beyond disgusting with garbage everywhere. I know for a fact they smoke pot because I've seen them in action. I cannot be certain, but I strongly suspect they are doing harder drugs. Their three kids have been trouble makers from day one. (These are people who should not reproduce.) When these people moved in problems of all kinds started cropping up. Our condo association has started the legal process to evict them.

This week the Nutjobs had the police out at least 3 different days. I heard from one of our property managers that on the third day the police finally saw the inside of the unit and called the department of children and families. I don't know if the kids are still here or not.

Anyways, this morning the police surrounded our building. For over an hour they have had our building on lock-down. I don't know if it's related to the Nutjobs or not, but given the events from this past week it's a reasonable assumption. I have to leave the house in about an hour for work. I hope the police will let me out.

I can hardly wait until the Nutjobs are gone!

The waiting game

My guy had his phone interview this morning. He thinks it went well. He knows his work and he was prepared for the interview. He said the questions were very tough and there's no way someone could have done that kind of intense interview unless they knew what they were talking about. At the beginning, before they even asked any questions they explained that today they are finishing the interviews and next week they will be decided who will be included for call back interviews. So we won't find out anything until probably sometime next week. So the waiting game has begun.

Doing a happy dance

My guy has a job interview this week! I've been with him for 11 years and he has had such incredible difficulty moving up career wise. He's very good at what he does, but he's a white male. In the area we live in women and minorities always get priority over white men. (I almost feel bad even saying that because I support affirmative action to some degree. The problem is in our area the situation reached the point of reverse discrimination long ago.) He found out yesterday that the hiring committee in our current district alters scores for people who score 100% on evaluations from their current supervisors. They think that no one should be allowed to score 100%. So they automatically drop those people by a few percentage points. It's completely unfair. My guy is one of those people who consistently score 100% on his yearly job evaluations.

It's not up to a hiring committee to decide that no one can score 100% from their current supervisor. That sounds unethical to me. It's strictly up to a supervisor to determine how their employees are performing. My guy thinks they are doing it to get away with hiring people who score lower, are less qualified and more well connected. The entire hiring process is shrouded in secrecy. They are like the Bush administration; they do whatever they want to do regardless of ethics. They do not think they have to justify their actions. At this rate I don't see how he could ever hope to move up if we stay in this town. If they keep this up I suspect they will find themselves with a huge class action lawsuit on their hands.

The upcoming interview is for a position out of town, which would mean a move for us if he were to actually get the position. He applies for multiple positions every year, both locally and out of town, but with his luck he gets maybe one interview every 3 years. We are just excited that he has an interview lined up.

This is the position he received an email about a few weeks ago. The employer contacted him via email to let him know they were hiring and suggested he might want to apply. It's in a newer and growing area of expertise that he has been specializing in full time for the past 3 years. He's always had interest in this work though. I strongly suspect that if he ever decides to get a doctorate this will be his area of interest. (He keeps insisting that if he gets a doctorate it will be in a different field. Yeah, right.)

When I read the job description I said, "This position is tailor made for you!" At first we thought they might actually already have someone else lined up and they just needed more applicants to start the interview process. We have come to the conclusion that they do not have anyone lined up to hire yet. They called him on Tuesday to schedule a phone interview for Friday morning. Then they called back Wednesday and asked if there was any way he could do a video conference. He doesn't have anywhere to set up something like that so they are sticking with the phone interview. He's happy about that though because it will allow him to refer to notes.

On Tuesday night he went online and did some research for the school district in question. He printed out an ENTIRE NOTEBOOK of data on their district! Last night while going over it carefully he discovered something which really annoyed him. He didn't like the way they had figured part of their data. He said the method they used made no sense. I said, "That's why they should hire you. You can read and analyze this kind of data better than anyone."

So we are now crossing our fingers for a good interview and hopefully a request for him to fly out ASAP!

Tools of the trade

Part of my job is face painting kids. I am known for my face painting abilities. I know my craft well and quite frankly, I rock. My face painting kit is extensive. I have a LOT of stuff and I use it all. I purchased my first professional quality kit over 12 years ago. As one color would run out I would buy another container. As brushes or other accessories would wear out they were replaced. Once you buy a kit like that you don't replace it all at once, but rather piecemeal. Every single element of my kit has been replaced, little by little over the years, including the case itself. The cases take a beating and thus need replacing every year or so. In addition, I've added to it over the years. The kit I now own is for a much more advanced face painter, which is what I now need.

I love my kit. Over the years I've tried smaller palettes as well as bigger kits, like the one I'm now using. I love the idea of having a tiny palette which offers a great deal of freedom. But realistically that just doesn't cut it for me. It's not practical for the amount and style of face painting I do. I do keep a palette in a ziplock bag in my car, in case of emergency. I actually had to use it about a year and a half ago. I pulled up to a birthday party and almost panicked when I realized I left my regular kit at home. That backup palette saved the day! Though that was actually the only time I needed it "in case of emergency" I am now afraid to remove it from my car.

Because I've added things to it over the years, I had no idea what the retail value of a new kit with comparable items would be worth. So this evening, out of curiosity, I tallied everything up. Holy macaroni! My kit is worth $450-$500.

US immigrant policy

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses...yearning for a decent job paying a true living wage. This country was founded on immigration. I'm not quite sure where I stand on our current immigration situation. I have concerns that really the "problem" is with Mexican immigrants. (I don't have a problem with Mexican immigrants. But apparently many people do.) I think the obvious solution is to try to create policy that will pressure the Mexican government into forcing their industries to pay a fair living wage. Maybe that's an oversimplification of the problem. I'm not sure. But I know that our own current immigration policy is not fair to everyone.

Cuban? No problem. Welcome to the US.

Haitian? Go back to Haiti-we don't want you.

Mexican? Hell no. Go back home.

Etc... etc... etc...

I also think it's rather stupid to create new immigration policies when we aren't enforcing the ones we already have in place. Call me silly, but maybe if we cracked down on employers who hire illegals we might actually see some progress.

Meanwhile my husband has a buddy at work who is French Canadian. This guy is educated, law abiding, very intelligent, in short a yuppie. He's been trying to gain status as a permanent resident for years. To date he's paid at least $16,000 in legal fees. Our fantastic government has told him that if he wants permanent residency, among other ridiculous hurdles, his employer has to post his position nationwide to determine if there is anyone within this country who is qualified for his job. He already has the job and has held this position for years. Wouldn't it make more sense to ask his employer for a reference letter toward his residency?

If I understand it correctly, the immigration bill that died this week in the senate would have, in essence, pushed my husbands friend to the back of the line for residency...behind people who have been here illegally. So this guy, who has been here legally and has gone through ALL of the proper channels and paid a boatload in legal fees, who is law abiding, who has contributed to our society, has paid FICA & SS taxes, who owns property here, would have to stand behind illegals who sell fruit on the side of the road! Not that I have anything against people who sell fruit on the side of the road. I just think someone who has gone through proper legal channels and has paid taxes, etc should certainly be given priority. However it bothers me that there are people in this world who have no other options than selling fruit on the side of the road in order to live. That is a sad statement about our society.

Annoying spoiled brats

Poor Paris Hilton was sent to jail. Poor Paris Hilton didn't like the food and found the accommodations less than stellar. Poor Paris. The sheriff's department decided to send Poor Paris home and allow her to continue her sentence on house arrest. Poor Paris claims she has learned her lesson. (What a line of baloney.) As it turns out the judge residing over her case is LIVID and there is a chance that the sheriff might be held in contempt of court. He deserves to be fired. I'm trying very hard to figure out what people actually see in Paris. There are so many people in the world who are so much more interesting, intelligent, thoughtful, compassionate, funny and truly beautiful than she is.

Poor Paris was sent back to jail, apparently in tears. Puleeeze Paris! Get a freaking life. I have no sympathy for her. If she were more responsible she wouldn't be in this predicament. I also wonder how she got through life thus far. She seems incapable of dealing with anything. "But Daddy, you have to FIX it!!!"

Business is slow

April was great work wise. The first 2 weeks in May were looking up too. I booked a boatload of stuff in early May. Then things just took a nose dive. It's been so quiet. I know, I know, Memorial Day weekend and then school ended a few days later. That's not a good mix for the birthday party business. My saving grace are the summer camps shows I booked for the summer back in early May. Now I'm just hoping the birthday parties start rolling in.

On the plus side, I at least have enough work booked for June to keep me on track for my financial goal for 2007. I'm cutting it close on that goal but at least I'm still on track.