Butterfingers Job Hunt

Well, this time last week I was on Cloud Nine: I had just submitted an application for a job with a design firm in Burbank that prints about 30 publications for various law enforcement and firefighting associations around the country.

Following the information I got in my job-hunting boot camp seminar, I tried to find the e-mail address of the woman who was listed as a contact, but to no avail. Feeling gutsy, I sent an e-mail to the CEO, since I did find his e-mail.

Low and behold, he called me up within a few hours and I had a phone interview with him. He was online, looking at my portfolio website as we talked, and he was very complimentary about my work. It seemed like all was going swimmingly. He told me that the woman listed as contact would be calling me sometime this week to schedule a full interview.

Monday and Tuesday passed without a call. Wednesday afternoon, I saw a job posting from the same company for a web designer. So on Thursday, I called up the place (I had found their phone number by then) and asked to speak to the woman. After a moment on hold, I was talking to the CEO again. He said the production manager had decided to go in a different direction with the additional position, and that they were looking for someone with more experience with the web.

He immediately asked me if I would be interested in free-lance work with them, and I said yes, but I was really looking for a full-time gig. He said he would keep my resume on file and keep me in mind, repeating that he really liked my publication design work. I thanked him for talking with me personally about this and we hung up.

SHIT! SHIT! Shitshitshitshit shit! Not only did the job sound right up my ally, but the design firm seemed just the right size; a place I could work publication and get my feet really wet in the web with a team of people who really knew what they were doing.

I sat down and designed a thank-you card for him (his name is Mark, too), and let him know I appreciated him taking his time to talk to me, even though the news wasn't good. Most people would have left it to the receptionist to do. It felt good to get at least that much respect, and from the CEO of the company.

So I went online and found a posting for a job with a real estate development firm in Koreatown called Real Estate Idea, Inc. From the information online, it seems they do condo conversions and development in the mid-Wilshire District. I could take the subway to work. And they were offering a nice chunk of change for the work, which was very diverse.

Looking over their website, it was obvious that this was a group with one foot in L.A. and the other in Seoul. Some of the writing on the site had serious syntactical errors, and one or two sentences just kind of petered out without really saying anything, but you got the gist of what they were trying to say.

They actually wanted nothing but snail-mailed resumes and cover letters, and that always gives me a leg up, since I am very good at writing cover letters. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Being very bummed out by Burbank falling through the cracks, I sat down and did an financial inventory. All the bills and credit cards are paid off and we've got enough in savings to carry us for almost a year without any income from me. Also, we have a massive amount of untapped credit at our disposal (not that I'm eager to use it).

So, I'm seriously thinking of starting my own design studio. I know I've said that before, but I'm coming up on the two-year mark of unemployment, and I'm thinking maybe this is the message I'm getting from God and I just don't want to hear it.

Steve is very supportive, saying he will gladly handle the accounting and collections side of the business for me. That leaves the networking and marketing end to me. And the designing, of course.

The logistics of setting up a business are overwhelming for me, though. I'm not quite sure where to begin.

I think I'll begin by praying and asking for help.

Tune in next week for an update.

Plugging Along, Puzzle Solving

It's been a weird week for me. There were eight jobs postings I sent resumes to, but I have pretty much given up getting answers. I just put things out there and hope for the best. I go through spates of being bummed, anxious, depressed and anticipatory, but I'm getting used to the cycle anytime a potential position shows up in the job posts.

In the online arena, I'm gaining knowledge and insight on a daily basis. I have some new JavaScript code I'm using for a cross-fading slide show effect on the website I'm working on (First Prize Pet Products). I decided to integrate the code into the opening page of my portfolio site, so now there are two rotating slide shows that display more of my design samples on the first page (not just the publication design, but brochures, labels and even set design and interior design work).

Save for a couple of pieces of artwork, the First Prize Pet Products website is ready to go up and get tested. I may have a sticky time getting the form on the site to connect correctly and return the form information, but I won't know for sure until I've actually launched the site. Luckily, not a lot of people use the form, so I'll have some time for testing.

This weekend was a good one: we got the recycling done on Saturday and got hooked on the series "Heroes" via Netflix. On Sunday we cleaned out a good part of the garage and watched a couple old movies ("My Man Godfrey" and "Sunset Boulevard").

The weirdest thing to happen, and one that I found most compelling, is the knocking over of the puzzle box. About eight or nine years ago, my Aunt Kit gave it to me as a Christmas present. It's a clear plastic box with a maze inside and a single steel ball. Locked within the maze is a $10 bill: complete the maze and the cash pops out.

Over the last eight or nine years, I've given the puzzle a go every now and then, always being very frustrated (not being very good at those kinds of puzzles), eventually shelving it only to take a crack at it a few months later. I always told myself that if things got really bad, I could always take a hammer to it and retrieve the cash. Most recently it was sitting on the filing cabinet next to my desk in the office.

Now you must understand our cat rules of the house. The first, and major, rule is that anything on the floor is available as a toy. Our younger cat, Patty, has expanded on this rule, so that anything she can knock onto the floor becomes a toy. This is especially valuable to her in the office, with rubber bands, paper clips and other small objects out in the open.

Thursday evening we were downstairs in the living room and heard a thump from upstairs in the office. When I went up to check it out, I found the puzzle on the floor, Patty ready to run for her life, and the tray with the $10 bill open and protruding from the puzzle.

I yelled, "Oh, my God!" and started to laugh. Patty barreled needlessly for cover. And it got me to thinking.

I had spent the last eight years in a halfhearted attempt to solve that puzzle and, unbeknownst to me, it was only one move away from solution. When Patty knocked it to the floor, the ball bounced into its final position and the solution presented itself. I plucked the $10 out of its slot because it was obviously time to spend it.

My first impulse was to call Aunt Kit and tell her about this amazing happening, but she died about a year and a half ago. I think it was the first time I felt sad about not having her with us without grieving.

So there's lots to glean from this event:

1. No matter how impossible a problem seems, if you continue to work toward a solution, you will succeed.

2. If you have a problem that you don't have a knack for solving, put it out there and share it with others; somebody with the knack will come up with a solution when you least expect it.

3. This is why we truly miss those who die: we can no longer share these priceless moments of which they were an integral part.

4. Coincidence, serendipity, dumb luck and delight are things that cannot be scheduled; make room for them when they arrive.

5. Patience is not a virtue, it is a vital life skill.

As for my ongoing job search, I shall continue to be diligent, keep putting out the resumes, keeping at the web design. At some point, God will knock that puzzle off my shelf and that long-desired career move will pop open for the plucking.

In Like Armageddon, Out Like Scrapbooking

It's been two weeks since I made a blog entry: I really feel like I'm dropping the ball. I felt so proud that I'd made 70 entries last year (averaging well more than one a week) and so far this year I'm lagging behind. Between our rainy days and the horrible news from Japan and Libya, I've had just no motivation at all. So March came in like Armageddon, with chaos and destruction, and is going out like pasting in a scrapbook, making what's happening seem to have a semblance of rationality.

I think I hesitate to write because I'm waiting for that entry when there's really good news. I dream of writing the entry letting everyone know I'm gainfully employed once more (or that I've won the lottery, which is much less likely to happen).

I'm getting tired of writing entries about jobs I've applied for that I would really like to have and for which I think I'm well-qualified, but I don't get an interview or even a rejection notice. It's like having a lover who keeps wooing you but ends up texting to someone else just when you're primed. And March has been especially slow for appropriate job postings; only four that I felt were worth the time applying for.

I did have one last week where the application was actually fun. They had an essay section with questions like, "Tell us about your biggest, most monumental professional screw-up. What did you learn from it?", "Why are you wrong for this job?", "Scenario: You have to generate $500 in profit for [the company] by end of day today using a phone, a pen and a cardboard box. What would you do?", and "If you had to go into battle, what kind of weapon would you choose? Battle axe, bow and arrow, sword or spear: Why?"

They also required a 90-second video pitching yourself for the position (that's a new one for me). It took several takes on the iPhone, but I got something that was sincere and comprehensive on the third try. Even if I don't hear from these people, at least their application form was a lot more compelling than the typical online form.

So I keep hanging in there with the joblessness, but at some point all the wise and meaningful things I say to myself about unemployment ("You only need to find one job") start to sound like bytes from impotent self-help books.

And I keep wondering what it is that God wants me to do with this time that's been forced upon me; what kind of change or growth should I pursue? I've gone back to school and learned web design, I've put together two websites and I'm on my third, my personal and internal reflection is almost constant (with so much time on my hands) and my patience, at this point, seems almost eternal.

Maybe He wants me to clean the house more often.

The third website mentioned above is for the same Pearce Plastics that Steve works for (I did their cosmetics line site last year). They have a line of pet products that I'm putting a site together for now. Woody, the owner of the business, is 91 years old and just doesn't get the web. He asked me to put something together and so I came up with a home page and a look and style for the site, and went in with a quote for the work (extremely reasonable, but pricier than before).

When we met, he said he just wanted to put a web page up with a flyer for their Smart™ Locking Crocks and leave all the other stuff off. I kept trying to explain the concept of interactivity to him and the fact that folks will click through the site and view various products in one visit; they want to feel in charge of their search through your site.

He said, "I'll bet only 15 percent do any clicking at all." Here was a statistic I could run with. "Actually, Woody," I said, "It's just the opposite: 85 percent of the people who visit a website will leave within 10 seconds if there are no links to click on." He harumphed. "Besides," I said, "We have a page on the site where people can download copies of all your flyers and catalogs and print them out to show their bosses and buyers."

The more I talked, the more stubborn and confused he got. I had his wife (who also works there) call up their website to show Woody how the links worked and the page where people could click on pictures of their flyers and download a PDF file for printout. The receptionist (the only one in the office under 60 years of age) chimed in, "I like to be able to move around a website and pick and choose what I look for. I think that part's important." Woody grumbled and said, "Well, maybe I'm just not up on this technology stuff."

I finally said, "I'm a designer and you're hiring me to develop this website as a marketing tool for you, so you need to trust me. The last one turned out well, ('Oh, yes, the customers love it,' his wife interjected) and this one will turn out to be just as effective."

In the end, he signed the quote, and that was all I really needed. From my experience last time, he will never look at the website once it's up, and he won't even write any of the copy. Still, I think it could very well increase their sales to small pet shops, since they have no real marketing plan for this line at all.

So that's about it. The only other news is that the local water treatment plant (which serves about 4 million people here in the San Gabriel Valley has been offline for maintenance for the last 10 days. This means endless laundry and cleaning this coming week, as we have had to cut water usage 40 percent during this period.

Maybe God does want me to do more housecleaning.

Where Does the Time Go?

I know, it's almost been a month since I posted anything on the blog. That's partly because nothing much has happened during that time. We've had a shower or two but the weather has been consistently nice (in the 60s and 70s), and we even had a couple days when it hit 80°.

The news about the quakes in Japan, the resulting tsunami and now the problems with their nuclear reactors is something that is foremost in my mind. It's a terrible time, and I heard a Cal Tech seismologist on the news saying there is a good likelihood that they will have another 7-magnitude earthquake as an aftershock of the first one. My heart and prayers go out to everyone there.

Of course, Californians can't look at this without thinking about the fact that we're overdue for "the big one" here. But, again, Cal Tech seismologists say a magnitude 8 quake in California would be qualitatively different since the fault lines are of entirely different sorts. Still, it's a reminder to be ready for it, no matter when it comes.

On Academy Awards night, Steve and I attended the annual Oscar party at friends Steve and Roberto's home in Claremont. This year we got a good seat in the living room (the love seat) and stayed put the entire evening, so we weren't relegated to plastic folding chairs like last year (which killed my back). The TV screen was smaller in the living room (as opposed to the 56" screen in their sitting room), but it was worth the extra comfort. And, although I thought the reorganization of the presentation of the actual awards was good, nothing of real note occurred during the evening.

Today is the anniversary of our adoption of Pitty-Pat the Kitty-Cat (more commonly known as Patty). Here's a picture I took of her last evening. The smaller photo is the first picture I took of her after she finally decided to come out from under the bed two days after we got her. Taking a look at the two photos, I don't think she's gotten much bigger over the course of 12 months, and I don't think she will in the future. Six-toed cats tend to be the runts of the litter, I understand.

One of the pluses of having her in the house is that Marcel, our 12-year-old black cat, has actually started playing on a regular basis. He's a rather sour cat with a sometimes-disagreeable disposition, but he has not only been playing with Patty around the house, but actually plays with cat toys on his own every now and then. Also, I think he's getting kitty dementia, since there are times he sits and stares at us, yowling, like he isn't quite sure where he is or who we are.

Another month and another dozen resumes have gone out. I never heard back from the Jim Henson people (it's been about five weeks) and there's no action on the position I applied for at the American Film Institute (graphic designer in their creative services department). I do have an old coworker from the Reporter who is now a lead editor at Variety, and she knows the president of AFI, so she's putting in a call for me on Monday. Every little bit helps.

I found out my last extension on EDD benefits will run through June. Since I've had a couple weeks where my self-employment (website work) has precluded a benefit check, my 99 weeks will ultimately end up being 103 weeks, just shy of two years. Hopefully, we won't hit that point, though.

I'm doing a second website for Steve's boss, for a line of pet products that they manufacture (feeding bowls and such), and the design is even better than the first site. All we need to do is sign the quote and I'm out of the gates with the project, which should be done in a couple weeks, since there's only about a dozen or so items they produce.

Also, I've tweaked my portfolio website a bit, putting some automatic animation into the navigation bars (my pixelated portrait) and adding a slide show of work samples; if you click on an image in the show, it will open the corresponding PDF file automatically. I'm hoping it will get folks to go deeper into the site than they have been (average visits have only had about four page hits apiece).

Life goes on. We lost an hour for daylight-savings time early this morning. It will be nice to have the sun around later in the evenings. And I'm seeing flowers around town, especially all the flowering trees here in Pasadena. Spring is a really great time here, so I plan on enjoying it.

Waiting for the Rain

The day outside is blustery and gray. Big rain is forecast for this evening and into Saturday, so that's just another thing for which I'm waiting.

One to check off the to-do list: the patio is done. I know that was a couple weeks ago, but it just looks so nice, and we don't have to worry about getting water stains on the slate (since it's the soft variety). So here's a shot of the patio. You can kind of see the sheen on the stone, but it's not overpowering. Also here is a "before" picture when all we had was a cement slab. It really is an improvement.

The other thing I'm waiting for is a response from the places I've sent resumes. The Jim Henson Company has an opening in its creative services department, as does the American Film Institute, and I have resumes out to both of them (I'm giving up my jinx fears and talking). There are nine other places I've applied to this month, as well. I keep telling myself it's just a matter of time, and I only have to land one job.

I received a claims form from the Employment Development Department, so I did have one last extension left. It should take me into late April or early May.

For Valentine's Day, Steve got me flowers in a candy-kiss bowl. I designed him his very own Valentine's Card and got a couple filet mignons, which we had with artichokes and baked potatoes. It was nice and low keyed. (One of the things I like about Steve is he doesn't feel the need to give big or fancy presents; just remembering a birthday or anniversary is enough. I'm very much that way myself.)

And, finally, a nod of the hat to the demonstrations in Wisconsin: it's good to see that the state workers aren't about to have their collective bargaining rights taken away. I think they should realize, though, that paying more into their benefits is kind of a necessity, unless they want thousands of people tossed out of their jobs. If we had been able to take small pay cuts at the Reporter, we could have saved quite a few jobs, but corporate wouldn't hear of it: they wanted heads to roll and an immediate reflection of it on the bottom line.

The story is the same in the public sector, it just takes longer to run out of the money. Something needs to be done, and unions are there to give workers a say. But it's absolutely slimy of the Republicans in Wisconsin to write a union-busting bill and then call it a cost-saving measure. The Democrats walking out was an amazing move and I can't wait to see what happens next.

It seems like the people of the world are rising up and moving toward something. The authority to govern is derived from a mandate of the people, after all.

Some of our Christian neighbors and friends are saying it's the rapture coming, which is allegedly scheduled for May 21, 2011, (I've seen the biblical math laid out on an informative website; the entire thing dependent upon creation being dated to 11,013 BC. It's very twisty and turny, and makes some big assumptions to arrive at the date of the rapture as exactly 7,000 years from Noah's flood).

If this is true, I don't think I have any real problems: I won't need to get a job and my unemployment benefits will run out the week before.

I'm not banking on it, though. I recall similar predictions numerous times in my lifetime and they never came to pass. I think we're all here for the long haul, and we've got to face the fact that we're responsible for one another on this little planet; the only place we have in which to survive.

Life Under Construction

I just got my last EDD check on this latest extension. I believe there is one more extension left, as I have not yet joined the ranks of the "99ers," who are the folks who have gone through their entire 99 weeks of unemployment and federal extensions. I'm on week 82. I never imagined it would have taken this long to find another job.

But we're still in the black. All the bills get paid on time and we haven't had to touch savings or retirement yet. But we haven't added anything to savings or retirement, either. And any remodeling has been put on hold just in case that money is needed to cover essentials if I get the honor of joining the 99ers.

As usual, I have a half dozen or so resumes out and haven't heard anything back yet. There is one in particular that I'm very interested in, but I haven't heard anything from them (well, the job was only posted six days ago, and I sent in my cover letter and resume on Monday). No discussions on this one, as you know my penchant for fearing a jinx if I talk about it prematurely.

Also, I got an unsolicited call this morning from a recruiter in New Jersey who wanted to place me in a graphic design job in San Diego. I was on the toilet at the time (they always seem to call in mid-ablution) but he had also sent me an e-mail. I wrote back, explaining that I lived in Pasadena, which was about 140 miles from San Diego, and even Californians don't commute that far to work. It was nice to get the attention, though.

The sealing of the slate on the patio ended up being bifurcated, since we decided it was easier to do one half at a time instead of trying to empty out all the plants, tables and chairs and tackle the chore whole.

The process has be extended since a lot of drying time is necessary to do the work properly. First one-half was cleared and swept, then cleaned thoroughly with a jet spray (after this process, the grout takes about a day to dry). Then a first coat of sealant was applied and given three hours to dry. Then a second coat went down to finish the work. The surface needed at least eight hours to fully cure (which was functionally overnight).

This all being so, the first half took the entire weekend to finish.

Nothing was addressed Monday, since that is one of my job-search days and I had that special cover letter and resume going out.

Today, I moved everything to the finished half of the patio and swept and cleaned the other half (which was amazingly dirty after the recent rains). The jet wash was accomplished in the early afternoon and this evening the grout was still drying. Tomorrow morning the sealing process will begin, and by Thursday we should have the entire patio back for our outdoor enjoyment.

The whole process is rather like this post: tedious, uninteresting, and literally like watching paint dry. If you've read all the way through this and are still awake, I congratulate you: I fell asleep twice writing it.

C'mon, Corporate America

I keep seeing these reports on studies that show that 64% of companies are planning to add employees in the next six months, and I do seem to see a lot more jobs showing up online, but it hasn't translated into a position for me … so far. I'm still sending out four to eight resumes a week, and I plan to get a little more aggressive. I'm starting to send out resumes for copy writing positions, since I know I can do that, and I would be really good at it.

Well, here it is: the picture of the carrot cake. I was going to take a shot of it when it only had a couple pieces out of it and had a really Betty-Crocker look, but forgot. And, yes, it came out looking as sloppy as it seems in the picture.

The recipe was pretty good, except there were way too many pecans (it called for 1 1/2 cups; I'd say 1/2 cup would be plenty) and there weren't any raisins. Then there was hand-grating three cups of carrots (about six or seven large ones).

To cap it off, the frosting recipe came out really runny. I would have put it into the refrigerator to let it set up, but it was 12:45 a.m. by the time the cake cooled, and I wanted to slap the cake together and get to bed. Altogether, it was a good dessert, but I would have to work on it to make it more to my liking.

This weekend we get to seal the slate on the patio, since winter it taking its toll on it, and we'll be back into the sunny mid- and upper-70s, so things will dry in short order. I'm hoping it will look really cool when it's done, with the colors looking deep and not all washed out, like now.

That's all for now. I'm trying to focus on the fact that things are fine and not focus on the stress and anxiety of not having a job. Somehow, I think releasing all that angst around unemployment is going to be one of the keys to getting employed again: Sounds really Zen, I know, but I believe it's part of the equation.