In which I need a new attitude

On May 20, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy1 Comment

I feel like that video yesterday didn’t get enough attention, guys. That shit was genius, on a number of levels, and deserves to be appreciated properly. Go watch it. (And, to be clear, Child cleans Ramsay’s clock.)

I’ve been in either a towering rage or a pit for most of the last couple of days, and I’m really trying to find a way to shake the mood heading into the weekend. You may already have guessed that I didn’t get a call back from that job interview last week; I got a shot of confidence on Friday when my online resume, which on a typical day gets no traffic at all, got 27 hits from 3 viewers, two of whom Googled my name to find it. It got three more on Monday. The interview was last Tuesday and the interviewer told me I’d either get a call from him or an email from his assistant in “Oh, a week?”. We’re at ten days; I’m assuming that writing on the wall is as legible as I think it is at this point. So back to square one, again.

I’ve started applying for sales jobs, because fuck it– probably five or six of them in the last couple of days. We’ll see if that gets me anywhere. People need to sleep, right, and sit on things? And occasionally, like, place things on top of other things? Sure they do. I can sell shit. Why not.

The good news is that I think I’m going to blink and the next two weeks are going to evaporate. My brother’s wedding is June 4th, once I’ve recovered from that the primary election season finally ends on June 7th, and then I’m tuning politics the fuck out until the conventions. Or at least I’m going to try.

Okay come on now

On May 13, 2016May 13, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy6 Comments

The following results were returned– in fact, were the first seven results– by a search on Indeed.com that specifically excluded the words “nanny” and “babysitter” and specified within 25 miles of my house: Screen Shot 2016-05-13 at 11.44.04 AM

Two jobs in New York and only one job that doesn’t use one of the words the search was supposed to eliminate. Nice job, Indeed.com! Perhaps you could use someone skilled with coding to rework how your search functionality does its job?

(I will never not be mystified about how I can do a search for a thing on a site, and get results that don’t use the words I searched for before I get results that do.)

In other news, fiction is actually being produced right now. It has been a long time since that was true. But yes! I am working on a Benevolence Archives story in between pointless job searches.

Arglebargle graaakh argh wait what BLAH

On May 10, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Work27 Comments

Ugh.

I had a job interview today, for a job I applied for on Sunday and got called about on Monday. I walked in not entirely sure I was interested, became sure I was interested maybe fifteen minutes in, and then the interview was over at the twenty-five minute mark. I am reasonably certain it wasn’t a fast interview because they hated me, although I feel like I really bollixed one of the questions. I think the owner is just a quick-decision sort of guy. Hopefully I made a good impression; I think I came off better with the second person I talked to than the first. I’ll know by next week, apparently.

The question I screwed up? What is your greatest weakness, which has gotta be fucking Interview 101, and which I stammered at for longer than I like before joking that my greatest weakness was being crap at deciding what my weaknesses were and then mumbling something slightly more useful. Like, even sitting here now, damn near two hours later, I still don’t know what the good answer is to that. I want to call the guy and ask if we can do the interview over only he asks any other questions other than those two.

My greatest strength is that I’m good at shit. Like, this shit here, that you want someone to do? I’m good at that shit. Give me some money so that I can do that shit and I’ll do that shit for you.

This may be why I don’t have a job yet.

Sigh.

In which the world sends me mixed messages

On May 6, 2016May 6, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn movies2 Comments

On the one hand, I got neither of the two jobs I interviewed for last week. I really, really thought I was done with this, guys. Hearing that I didn’t get called back for one of them because the boss thought I was probably smarter than her was just the icing on the cake.

On the other hand, the wife has taken the day off and I get to go see this in a bit:

So… will there be a second post later today? Probably.

Team Iron Man, btw.

What shall we talk about?

On May 2, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Well, the A to Z challenge is over. I finished it, which shouldn’t surprise anyone as the last day I missed a post was in December of 2014. So getting through April wasn’t that difficult of a job.

That said, I did it wrong. A to Z is supposed to be about meeting people and interacting with other blogs, and I failed to do any of that. I got my little posts done and had them pop first thing in the morning and let them serve as an excuse to not do a whole damn lot of other writing or exploring new blogs, which is not what the month was supposed to be about. It also didn’t help with sales any. Sales in general lately have been miserable, and that’s basically entirely on me; I’ve not been marketing smartly– hell, I’ve not been marketing at all, basically, short of some passive links on the website. My last few sales went unadvertised because I didn’t feel like pushing them. So no surprise when they don’t result in untold riches and massive fame.

Let’s see, what else? I had two interviews for two different jobs in the last week or so that I’m hoping to hear back from soon. Hoping to get back on the horse and get some fiction done this week, too. Now that it’s May I can officially say that I’ve been looking for a new job for a year, so I’m well beyond the point where I’m tired of it. Hell, I’m tired of saying I’m tired of it. I’m sure y’all are tired of hearing about it. So, c’mon, two jobs. Hire my ass.

And the primary is tomorrow. Turns out I haven’t voted early like I usually do and it’s unlikely that I’ll get out early and do it today. We’ll see if I get a sticker tomorrow. I never get a damn sticker.

Here we go here we go here we go

On April 27, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Work2 Comments

Okay.

I’m going to have a productive day today, people. If it kills me. I have a job interview in half an hour, and once that’s done I have a literal list of projects from which to choose from, and I’m gonna bloody well get to as many of them as I can before I have to go collect the boy from school this afternoon. Today will be productive.

You hear me, world?

Productive.

Getting stuff done.

Yeah.

So this just arrived

On April 20, 2016April 20, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Work8 Comments

…I am starting to think that listing my resume on CareerBuilder.com was perhaps not the brightest decision I ever made. This showed up in my mailbox today; the only alterations I have made are the italics and to change my real name to Luther’s:

Respected Luther M. Siler,

Our Company New-W. would like to congratulate you on your selection for the position of Logistics Supervisor. New-W. is a reputed company dealing in logistics of delivery of goods purchased from USA & Canada online retailers to customers all over the Globe. Our company gives you the perfect opportunity to get experience in the field of logistics with field work and provides the best of career growth to hardworking candidates

To confirm your acceptance, please send the following to us:
• Your Name & Surname
• Your Cell Number

As a logistics supervisor you duties will include the following
• Receipt and dispatch of packages to clients Worldwide
• Coordinate the logistics of delivery process with other members of the team
• Control to admin panel on daily basis

SALARY & PERKS
For the 1st month which probationary, you salary will be in the range of 2400-3500$. After successful completion of this period, you will be eligible to receive bonuses depending on your performance.
We look forward for a fruitful association with you.

Sincerely,
Alfreda Hall
New-W. Company

I note also that the return email does not appear to be affiliated with “New-W. Company,” which somehow fails to surprise me.

Jobhunting!

#WeekendCoffeeShare: travel mug edition

On April 10, 2016April 10, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Stories6 Comments

newcoffee

If we were having coffee, I’d… yeah. Coffee would probably be good, 1:30 in the afternoon be damned. I’ve kinda got a headache. Caffeine may well be helpful.

I slept in an empty house last night for the first time in over four and a half years; since the night after the boy was born, I think. My wife is in Boston on bidness, and because she left so late last night the boy spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. So once I got home after dropping her off, I was alone in the house. She’ll be back on Wednesday; this will be the first time I’ve been a single parent for more than a few hours at a time since the boy was born. I’ve left home a bunch of times, but she doesn’t travel often. I’m not griping– I’m a grown-ass man and I’m perfectly capable of taking care of my son for three whole days while my wife is gone– but it was still weird to be alone in the house last night. I’ve officially survived the boy’s Spring Break, and have to manage to get him up and off to school on time tomorrow. Now, that’s usually my job, so it’s not like it’s a new thing, but it’ll be interesting to see how much of a coma he’ll be in when I get him up at “go to school” time and not “Spring Break” time.

I might ask you if you’ve ever had jury duty before. That’s on the agenda for Tuesday, and who knows how many days after that depending on when the trial is, whether I’m selected, and how long it goes. I’ve gotten the letter before but I’ve never actually made it into the courtroom. I’m actually looking forward to the opportunity since I’ve never done it before, but it could have had slightly better timing– in addition to my wife needing to be picked up on Wednesday, we’re having a new washer and dryer delivered, so I’m going to have to do some fancy footwork to schedule everything if I’m going to be in court all day without access to my phone.

Hoping to have some good news on the job front this week too. I’ve applied for several positions in the last several days that are in the “You have no reason not to call me about this” category, so hopefully at least one or two of them will actually come through. And that’s not counting the “work for the devil” job that I mentioned earlier this week, which I think I’m going to have to decline for a variety of reasons, some of which are better than others. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be a mistake. I’m tired of saying no to jobs; I know I’m not actually being a prima donna about what I do next but I’m starting to feel like one anyway.

But yeah. More coffee; let’s make this headache go away. How’re you?