In which there’s, um. Psssh. Yeah. Whatever. Gah.
1.) Kid behind the counter: I know you look at me and see an ol’ lady, but seriously. I’m capable of irony. Hell, I’ve done your stupid shitty job and tons more just like it. Don’t roll your eyes at me, punk, when I smile at you after some conehead customer does something stupid, because I could totally beat up your mom.
2.) My hair is now about 20% gray. WTF, over?
3.) In my WordPress installation, on the Add New Post page, is a Categories window. It doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked for years. The only way I can edit or add categories is to go to a whole ‘nother part of the interface, which I don’t, which is why my categories suck. I’ve never been able to figure out how to fix it.
4.) There’s this website called freelancer.com. I spent an hour this morning looking at the jobs posted. My observations:
- You can get a part-time virtual assistant with pretty much my entire skillset for $200 per month. That person will live in India, and that $200 will probably go much farther there than it does here.
- There are persons or companies out there who need teams of ten or more to type CAPTCHA entries. I can’t for the life of me figure out why, unless they’re using cheap human labor to open doors for irritating fucking ‘bots. The pay is $.70 per thousand CAPTCHAs entered.
- There’s a huge market for “writers,” where “writers” equals “people who bang out enthusiastic three hundred-word articles about meaningless crap and get paid $1.50 to $3.00 per piece.”
Apparently if I wanna work in this world, I need to get new skills or move to India.
5.) I painted my nails red yesterday.
6. I have no idea if starting my EB while they were still debating EUC has fucked up my school plans or not. I have still not been awarded any financial aid, but they don’t even mail the stuff until August 20th.
7.) I sleep much too much.
8.) I cleaned my room and did my laundry, but I need to vacuum.
In which yesterday was guru purnima. (I celebrated with a Lalita Sahasranama and some midnight meditation under the full moon.)
“The great Adi Shankara (the first Shankaracharya) of the 8th century summarized the entirety of Advaita Vedanta (non-dualistic philosophy) in six stanzas. When a young boy of eight, wandering in the Himalayas seeking to find his guru, he encountered a sage who asked him, “Who are you?” The boy answered with these stanzas, which are known as “Nirvana Shatakam” or “Atma Shatakam.” (‘Nirvana’ is complete equanimity, peace, tranquility, freedom and joy. ‘Atma’ is the Supreme Being, the true self.) The sage the boy was talking to was Swami Govindapada Acharya, who was, indeed, the teacher he was looking for.”
NIRVANA SHATAKAM
Mano-budhy-ahankara cittani naham
na ca srotra-jihve na ca ghrana netre
Na ca vyoma bhumim na tejo na vayuh
Cidananda rupah sivoham sivoham
I am neither the mind, nor the intellect, nor the ego, nor the mind stuff. I am neither the body, nor the changes of the body. I am neither the senses of hearing, taste, smell or sight. Nor am I either the earth, the fire, the air. I am existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am He, I am He.
Na ca prana samnjo na vai pancavayur
na va sapta-dhatur na va panca-kosah
Na vak-pani-padam na copastha-payu
Cidananda rupah sivoham sivoham
I am neither the Prana, nor the five vital airs. I am neither the materials of the body, nor the five sheaths. Neither am I the organs of action nor objects of the senses. I am existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am He, I am He.
Na me dvesa ragau na me lobha mohau
mado naiva me naiva matsaryabhavah
Na dharmo na cartho na kamo na moksah
Cidananda rupah sivoham sivoham
I have neither aversion nor attachment, neither greed nor delusion, neither egotism nor envy. Neither Dharma nor Moksha. I have neither desire nor object of desire. I am existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am He, I am He.
Na punyam na papam na saukhyam na dukham
na mantro na tirtham na veda na yajna
Aham bhojanam naiva bhojyam na bhokta
Cidananda rupah sivoham sivoham
I am neither sin nor virtue, neither pleasure nor pain, nor temple, nor worship, nor pilgrimage, nor scriptures. And I am neither the act of enjoying, the enjoyable nor the enjoyer. I am existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am He, I am He.
Na mrtyur na sanka na me jati bhedah
pita naiva me naiva mata na janma
Na bandhur na mitram gurur naiva sisya
Cidananda rupah sivoham sivoham
I have neither death, nor fear of death, nor caste. Nor was I ever born, nor had I parents, friends and relations. I have neither Guru nor disciple. I am existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am He, I am He.
Aham nirvikalpo nirakara rupo
vibhutvacca sarvatra sarvendriyanam
Na ca sangatam naiva muktir na meya
Cidananda rupah sivoham sivoham
I am untouched by the senses. I am neither Mukti nor knowable, I am without form, without limit, beyond space, beyond time. I am in everything, I am the basis of the universe, everywhere am I. I am existence absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am He, I am He.
OM NAMAH SHIVAYA
In which I share my quiet Saturday afternoon.
I live upstairs in my grandmother’s house in a mustard yellow room that hasn’t been redone since the 70’s. This is the landing:
I keep my chrome citrus juicer and my bowling ball on the landing because I don’t have places for them in my room and I use them frequently enough that putting them in the attic is a pain in the arse.
I received the juicer as a wedding gift. I love it so much that I made a point of getting it from my ex-husband’s house and hauling it three thousand miles to the left coast. The bowling ball is reactive but I have it drilled as a straight ball and therefore haven’t been able break 120 with it in five years of not really trying. The poster picture is my uncle as a child; from the wall above the banister hangs a bundle of club cards from Vegas casinos.
I bought live basil from the store; it cost four dollars for three rooted basil plants. It’s been on the window sill now for four days and I think I’m considering potting it so it will last longer there on the sill above the sink, because it’s such a dear thing, a living herb plant.
I hate doing dishes but if I have to do them, this is the kitchen to do them in. Have you ever seen a bigger, better kitchen window? It’s gotta be six feet wide. Such a view.
My grandmother’s house is way cool.
I finally got a load of laundry in, after stating my intention to do so last Tuesday. Few things more satisfying than the view of a load of whites, drying on the line in the sun.
Besides also cooking and walking to the store and back and the laundry and the dishes, I read that entire book – five hundred and twenty pages – in one day.
In which I’m trying to figure out this back-to-school thing.
When I hatched my spend-a-year-getting-certs scheme, EUC was a given. The Training Benefits facilitator even told me I’d get them.
Then time passed, and EUC expired 16 fucking days before my benefits ran out, and now I’m using my training benefits months before I’d expected to tap into them.
My school plan depended on getting many weeks of EUC before having to use my 20 weeks worth of Extended Benefits.
I guess it really was too good to be true, the whole go-to-school-for-a-year-while-getting-deposits thing, because now if I don’t get EUC, I’m going to run out of benefits in mid-November and I have to go to school now that I’ve started receiving training benefits, otherwise I’ll have to pay them back.
Long story short: it’s not free money after all, if EUC fails for me, because I’ll be borrowing more than I wanted to. More damn student loans.
The current EUC bill is still in the Senate, and they’re supposed to vote on it tomorrow… problem is, if they make any changes it goes back to the House. Again. Which means it could easily be weeks, if not months, before there might be any EUC relief for yours truly.
The uncertainty is kinda freakin’ me out, but I guess I’ll muddle through somehow or another. If I get EUC, I’ll borrow less. If I don’t, well, the financial aid portal thinks I need $16k worth of aid for nine months in school and I’m nowhere near the borrowing cap, so I guess I’ll be okay even if I can’t find a P/T job.
In which I wanna post but don’t really have anything to say and am doing it anyway!
The latest WordPress upgrade looks nice! I’ll have to upgrade my dad’s installation this weekend.
I’m using a new template. I like it. Do you like it?
Amazon is pissing me off. It’s been three days and they haven’t answered my question about why their custom software DOESN’T FUCKING WORK.
This was my breakfast:
The onion festival is this weekend; I’ll be going to see Vaughn Jensen play Land Title tonight with Becca ’cause it’s her birthday.
I have fewer than three dollars to my name.
I called about my extended benefits; they had me leave a message and said I’d get a call back in two days.
I need to wash my hair more than all of you put together.
I’m spending tons of online time here and here.
Update: I finally decided to RTFM and the Amazon software works fine, I just need to feed it UPCs I don’t have. Bleggh.
In which there’s a recipe. Sort of.
After my last post, I went to the kitchen feeling poor and dejected. I knew I had corn tortillas, some cheese, and half a can of refried beans in the fridge. I figured I’d nuke the beans and have a taco or two. AGAIN.
Instead, I made enchiladas!
Not only was there half a can of refried beans in the fridge, but also milk and most of an 8 oz container of sour cream, and some grated Parmesan that was just about expired. I also had a can of fire-roasted chiles in a cupboard.
I nuked three tortillas to soften them, put in some beans and rolled them up. Then I covered them with a chile cream sauce and nuked them, finishing with some leftover salsa and a chopped green onion.
The sauce loosely follows the one in this recipe, but made use of what I had lying around, so it contained Parmesan and cumin instead of Swiss.
Not only was this totally delicious, but I have enough sauce leftover to pour over eggs on toast in the morning. Yum!
In which I complain about living in a state with a 9.1% unemployment rate.
I just read a job listing at WorkSource. The job is called PT ORDER ENTRY SPECIALIST II.
The description says, and I quote verbatim, The FT Order Entry Specialist II will check accuracy of and enter orders for equipment and parts, balance daily order reports, request closing reports and acknowledgments daily, provide various bookings and shipments reports, maintain integrity of open and closed sales orders. Review initial sales orders for completeness and accuracy and input into log book. Perform file maintenance, update sales orders, balance the “shipment to customer” with accounting daily. Track and verify customer purchase orders for each piece of equipment ordered. Produce weekly order and shipment reports for both business units. Monthly, generate and mail verification of bookings totals and reports to appropriate personnel. Provide support for product specialists and field sales as required.
Yeah. It’s glorified data entry and report-running. Anybody could do it.
What’s fucked up is the part where they list the necessary qualifications to be considered for the job: Two year Associates degree (A.A.) accounting degree, plus four years business accounting experience.
A fucking associate’s in accounting? To enter sales orders? Are you fucking kidding me? Four years’ BUSINESS ACCOUNTING experience? Really? With that kind of qualification, you’re a fucking ACCOUNTANT, not an order entry specialist. Jeez.
~+~+~
I was idly looking at job postings because I haven’t received my EUC (emergency unemployment compensation) ruling yet, it’ll take the EB (extended benefits) people two days to call me back, I’m totally broke, I haven’t been awarded any financial aid for school yet, and:
The EUC program expired on June 2, 2010. The U.S. House passed legislation to extend the dates people can apply for and receive EUC benefits, but the bill is currently stalled in the Senate. The Senate is not expected to take the bill up again until July 12, 2010 or later.
If the bill becomes law people will be able to apply for EUC until November 2010 and receive benefits until May 2011.
Long story short, I don’t know yet but I might not be able to do the school thing if I don’t get EUC and/or a financial aid award.
Which would suck, because I was really looking forward to a year in community college, taking computer science classes with twenty-year-old geeks.
~+~+~
I haven’t paid my rent, I’m a month and a half behind on paying my settlement company, I need new glasses, I want new books, I need to pay my dentist, and my dog’s eating shitty grocery store brand kibbles.
My debit card is ten dollars overdrawn, I’m about to disable my Netflix and eMusic accounts, and the only reason I can drive anywhere is because there’s still half a tank of gas in the truck from when dad was here and filled it up. (I don’t drive much.)
G’ma lets me eat her eggs and bread and has offered to buy me groceries when I run out of my own, but I Do Not Want to cost her money. I’m stalled on my little data entry project for NLW because the Amazon Seller’s Desktop application isn’t working and their ticketing system is backed up. My next paying gig isn’t until August.
Long story short, I was surfing WorkSource because a part-time job right now would be freakin’ excellent, and data entry is my bitch.
Now please excuse me while I figure out the best way to spend my last $20 at the grocery store. I’m thinking tofu, ramen, and beans. Maybe some lentils, too; they’re cheap protein.
Hopefully poverty will help me dominate next week’s competitive diet stats!
In which I do a meme.
A quick google doesn’t reveal to me where it came from originally, but the 12 of 12 idea is that on the 12th day of the month you take 12 pictures and put ’em on the innertubes. Vuboq does it sometimes. It’s what I did today.
Behold, twelve images of my twelfth of July:
I made eggs for breakfast. Mexican eggs. This is mainly because all I had in the pantry was tortillas and a can of tomatoes, and not because I love huevos rancheros. Honestly I’m pretty indifferent to the dish, but it fills the belly. Plus: it’s Mexican food.
I worked on a data entry project for NLW. It was pretty fun until the upload failed and I couldn’t fix it ’cause I had no freakin’ idea what to put in the PID field, since there were successful uploads with blank PID fields. I was all, WTF, AMAZON DOT COM, YOU COQUETTISH BEAST, YOU.
Continue reading »
In which I had a really great gig this weekend.
Saturday, I joined the Coyote Kings at the Pastime in Ritzville for the 17th annual Blues, Brews & BBQs festival.
It was a fantastic time. Great people, great weather, great music (and a fully-stocked green room, so I didn’t have to starve or beg someone to buy me food), and I met tons of great musicians.
I’d write a big fat descriptive post about it, but I’m lazy and I have a movie to watch. (In a nutshell: I rode up with Curt & Shelly, gigged, had some drinks, ran around, got mildly sunburnt, drank gallons of water, met players, and rode back with Frank.) If you want moar you can click the picture for the photo set!
Tomorrow’s to-do list: 1. Get paid for the gig; buy groceries and pay the Internet bill. 2. Work on NLW’s little data entry project. 3. Call the unemployment office and be all, WTF, OVER? WHY DID YOU SEND ME AN EB APP WHEN I’VE ALREADY BEEN APPROVED FOR EB? WHY WON’T YOU GIVE ME ANY MONEY? DO YOU LIKE THAT I’M LIVING ON LENTILS AND RAMEN?!
In which I’M dieting, so YOU get to look at pictures of food.
Here’s my breakfast! Only 400 calories!
Here’s some soup I had the other day!
That soup was good! GAWD I MISS THAT SOUP!
Hmm, soup.
Oh, yeah, this was really good, too:
And this:
And this:
And this:
AW HELL!
Oh, wait! Guess what! I’ll be having this for lunch today:
Argh!!! All I wanna do is eat, and I JUST ATE.
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4 random books from my Library!
