Job Hunting

It's suddenly very cold here where I live. We went from about 60 degrees on Sunday to snow Monday and currently it is only 8 above Fahrenheit. It seems the weather finally got the memo that it's November and it should get with the end of the year program.

This is a random post, at least I'm in a good mood this time. I figure I should post sometimes when I'm not upset or mad or something like that. Currently I'm typing while my husband is watching Minecraft UFC videos on Youtube. We should both be working on job hunting, but neither of us really wants to.

You see, job hunting is not easy for either of us. He's only had one job and it's not helping him get anything new. I've had several jobs but only the last one really means anything in terms of a career. I won't go into my various jobs though.

Another issue that I have is my current job is the only one that I have stayed at for over a year. This is actually because most of my jobs have been tourist places that have a specific season and hire based on a contracted basis. Those kids of jobs usually last about a month, though the fair job I did once was only for eight days.

My current job is a really hard job to really stay in. If you stay in it you have to find some way to stay on the surface and not get in too deep. If you get in too deep it becomes really difficult to want to stay. Part of my issue is that I have no set schedule. I sort of have one currently but that is changing suddenly.

For example, while writing this post I got a phone call from a co-worker asking me to come in at 6 MST. I take this to mean that for whatever reason she doesn't want to finish her shift (possibly to go drinking). This particular place has been having an extra staff in the evening which is where my steady hours have been coming from. I don't think that what I'm coming in to do is part of that because she wants be to stay until her shift would end.  It could be that it is the extra staff.

I work in therapeutic group homes as "relief" staff, that's basically like a substitute teacher. I go in when people need me, but I could say no. I didn't this time because there's some stuff I would like to learn about what's going on in that house. Working in mental health is very hard, especially since mine are all kids.

I'm trying to get out of this field, not really because of the kids, but because of the staff. The staff issues with this field are crazy. It's not fun and makes working with the kids difficult because of our own inconsistency between staff. It then makes it even harder for the relief staff who can come in in the middle of some crazy situation and make everything worse.

So much for the happy post. Maybe next time I can not be interrupted and not go astray.

Writing

Isn't funny that we all have this obsession to write things for others to see? There are so many people out there who want to write books or even book series. We even have a whole month dedicated to those who want to try and write a novel. I'm sitting watching my husband try and get a job. He's been unemployed for just over a year now. I'm trying to get a new job myself, and not doing much better than he is. While watching him and thinking thoughts about how we'll possibly never move from this metaphorical point, I remembered that there is a file on my computer that is a short story thing I wrote in college based on what comes to my mind when I listen to the soundtrack from the 2009 Star Trek. Remembering that the story has always been the JK Rowling started Harry Potter on a napkin in a restaurant when she was completely broke.

I'm no good at writing much of anything. I can write a research paper pretty well so I think that I could do research reports. Most report things in companies are based on forms anyway. That makes it easier because you just do what the form says on it.

That's right any high schoolers and college students out there, you're ability to write papers is almost completely unnecessary once out of school. About the only people who write papers are reporters and scientists trying to get money.

Really the only writing that is important beyond school is a form of writing that is barely taught any more. Letter writing, specifically how to write a business letter or a cover letter/letter of interest. The only other letter that's important is a letter of recommendation. Those are easy because you just say what is good about a person and leave the bad stuff for people to learn later.

There might be another form of writing that is important, but we learn that through essay questions and not papers. This type of writing is the open answer question answers for applications. I just had to help my husband with his on the application he is working on. He has a hard time figuring out what to put. Thankfully we stated as co-workers so I know how he works and can help him sort through the stuff.

That above paragraph should be read as I wrote the answer I think he should give on a different sheet of paper and he now gets to copy it onto the application because I can't fake his handwriting.

Back to the topic of writing. I once read part of a book standing in a local Target store that was basically an autobiography with Internet Lazy Pictures in it. This person has had some interesting things to write about, but haven't we all? I had to write my life story once for a class in college. I think it was only supposed to be about ten pages. Mine ended up being 32. The professor wanted us to put every thing that had happened basically. I skipped some parts because it was supposed to be a positive theme. I did get major life events like living in a different country as a small child and moving schools several times. However, none of that was really book worthy was it? Maybe, but I doubt it will sell.

See my other problem is that I can 't think of titles either. It's one of the issues with my short story I mentioned earlier.

So, writing novels; harder than some people think. I have friends in college who are trying to write novels. The one is thinking of a book series. If it ever comes out I want a copy, it sounds amazing. She has about three different notebooks that she keeps story ideas in. Most of it is in her head as well. The largest of the notebooks has all of her stuff of the book series that she wants to do. The other two? Other ideas for books unrelated to her book series. These two friends are also both into writing fan-fiction, the great starting place of many people trying to write.

My friends make some great ideas for stories and spend years sorting the whole thing out. Almost none of it gets written or published. However, the characters they create seem almost real. I even got a Halloween costume out of one of the fan fiction ideas.

An example of the idea that everyone wants to write and share with the world, is blogging. It's even become so popular that Disney made a show with a dog having a blog. There are many tips to a successful blog. I doubt I'm following any of them, but it's fun to do this anyway when I remember I even have a blog. I actually started this one because of how much I liked blogging in a college class I took.

I think I've rambled enough for one blog post. Maybe I'll try and flush out my short story, or go back to Minesweeper. Maybe someone will get a kick out of this post, if they bother to read the whole thing.