Thursday, October 27, 2005

Idiot's Delight

[Insert random string of profanities here] I usually pick the worst times to update this thing, but right now I'm more than reasonably annoyed at that "employer" who was so sure he was going to call me this week, after he "talked to his boss" about my application." I'm at a complete loss now. I try to do things right, I try to be honest, and open with employers, I don't lie on my applications, I don't lie in the interviews, yet I can't get job. Do the emloyers think honest and willing people are bad for business? It seems they would rather hire people of questionable character who's string of previous employment looks like an NCIC rapsheet, rather than someone who's willing to admit "I've never had a job, but I can learn just about anything." Is it any wonder customer service these days is deplorable? Think about it next time your browsing in a store and three or more "overworked, underpaid" associates step in front of you without so much as a word. Those rude ignorants were hired over polite, intelligent people who would have taken the extra few seconds to stop and say "Excuse me Sir/Ma'am, is there anything I can help you with today?" the job market can go straight to ---- for all I care right now. Anime Dreams

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Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Bleh!

Simply put. I've gone through my recent posts, and noticed that I've not really been myself lately, and had to wonder why. After sitting down and staing at the screen wondering "Did I really type that?" the cause to my, well, slightly delusional state of mind, came to me. I've been looking for a job for a while now (Five years to be close enough to exact I can get), and just last week I had another interview. Now the people where I live are under the very erronous assumption that an interview automatically means a person will be hired, when in fact it just means the first of a few obstacles was overcome, that being the application. My interviewer couldn't understand why I was skeptical of him when he said the line I've heard in one form or another too often lately "I have to talk to my boss first, but I will call you back next week." I'll believe it when the phone rings, or the Titanic docks in my front yard to take me on a cruise around Saturn's rings, whichever comes first. I did have a slightly interesting conversation with my interviewer though, about anime. He didn't know too much about it, but had heard the term (I cringed when he said that to me too) before. I got to correct some misconceptions before they were formed, and hopefully, he'll follow through on the one suggestion I made to him to start off in the anime genre. So not to overwhelm the guy with the more complex stuff, Spirited Away was the recommendation I made to him. WHile I'm waiting on that, I'll be filling out more applications, and more, and more, and hopefully before Christmas, ten years from now, I'll have a job. Anime Dreams

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Monday, October 24, 2005

Poor Excuse of a Post

Please excuse the paranoid rantings of my previous post. I do and say the stupidest things when I'm tired. I did promise updated info here it is: The Art of Otaku is coming out soon(I don't know when, I'm just following information on other blogs here), it'll be an "ebook" delivered digitally, and I asked about payment methods, and learned that checks and money orders will be accepted. That's what I was concerned about mostly. Now I only hope I have enough to get a copy when it comes out. Anime Dreams

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Looking Beyond Darkness

Right now I'm so frustrated I can't even think to type coherent sentences. If what I've just read is an indication of things to come, I'm about to feel the sting of a rather nasty little whip. I'll try not to jump to conclusions this early, but so far my hunches have been right, and one more says things are going to be all the harder for me with regard to an art guide I'll no longer be naming until I'm sure one way or the other about something important. When I know for sure, I'll pass that information along here.

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Saturday, October 22, 2005

Calm

For the first time in a while, I don't have much to say. I'm still curious about the Art of Otaku project, and hope it'll be out soon, and in such a way that I will be able to acquire it. I haven't really had time to devote to my art lately, maybe I'll try to put something together later, or post something I've drawn a while back, I don't know. Anime Dreams

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Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Lost Paradise

Was it all just a dream? Or maybe a vision? No, the embarrassment and the frustration I was dealt by the hand of another was very real. Little did I know that what happened to me then would be the prelude to a battle, a battle against myself more than anyone else. Where I live now, we have something called the Job Service, it's a part of the state Bureau of Employment Programs (BEP). They're supposed to help people who are out of work and can't get jobs any other way find work. Since I've been unemployed for five years, and had a recent bout of bad luck with direct applications, I went to my local office of the Job Service to see what employers had posted jobs with that office, and to apply to a few. I had no idea what I was getting myself into by doing that. September 16, 2005, a quiet, comfortable, Friday morning with a few billows of cloud drifting lazily across the sky. I got up early and headed down to the Job Service office with a couple family members who were also looking for jobs. We went in just as they opened and looked through the job postings, pointing out the jobs we thought each other were possibly qualified to do. That session generated three possibilities for me, which I inquired about at the desk, and was given the proper applications to fill out. I sat down and filled out all three applications, making sure they were as complete and honest as they could be, then I went to turn them in at the desk. The person working at the desk was taking care of another client's needs, so she passed me off to a kind looking gentleman, but looks are most often deceiving as I quickly found out. The man looked over my applications very briefly before addressing me rather smugly, in my opinion, saying: "The employers will not accept these applications without references." Needless to say I was under the impression that I had wasted my time, that my applications would not be submitted to the employers. I wasn't in the office for a minute after I was told that. I grumbled something like "then do what you do with them." Not knowing what the Job Service did with "unacceptable" applications, I assumed they destroyed them due to the sensitive information contained on them, and I hurried out the door. As I was leaving though, I made a promise: "I'm writing a letter to [the] State," and that was it. I left the office before I did or said something I would regret later. It took me almost four hours to completely draft a two page letter to the BEP Commissioner when I got home after trying for two hours to calm myself down unsuccessfully. I took the extra step of sending copies to my state Senators, knowing that if the BEP didn't do something, they would have some serious explaining to do somewhere along the line. The letters went into the mail the next day, and after that, the issue was out of my hands, and I didn't expect anything to come of it. I decided to take my job search out of town, at the insistence of some relatives who live out of state. It was while I was away on this trip, that a phone call came for me, unexpectedly, from the manager of the Job Service office that I had written about to the state BEP, one day short of the three week mark, that's October 6th if your counting. That caught me off guard, because I wasn't expecting anything like that to be done. I expected them to handle the issue quietly, and not bother to contact me about it all, so I was surprised. I decided it was not in my best interest to call the man back, but I needed to satisfy my curiosity about what he wanted, so I contacted him through the e-mail address that's provided on the Job Service website. I communicate a whole lot better in print than I do in person, which was my reason for chosing e-mail to conact him anyway. The manager suggested meeting with me to "fine tune" my application and make suggestions for applying to jobs, but he insisted I call him at the Job Service office to make the arrangements. It took a few e-mails to get a meeting date set, Tuesday October 18, 2005 The meeting I had this morning (today is the 18th of October after all) went okay, there were no major hurdles thrown at me, and I did learn a few things that might, just might, help me in my continued job search efforts. Still, I have my doubts. My personal experience with the Job Service hasn't been a very good one to date, so this light sense of minor progress for me isn't enough to convince me I can let down my guard. I may have been talked into applying for a few more jobs today, and though the suggestions made to me were actually usable, I will not know if I have made any progress with Job Service applications until I get more than one call back for an interview. When I am sure of that progress, I won't have to worry quite so much. All I can do now is wait. I saw the teaser page for the Art of Otaku project the other day. I have to say I'm even more interested in it now. I do hope there will be a way for someone like myself to get a hard copy of it though, no one seems to be saying how that guide will be delivered yet, but I'm sure there will be provisions for us non-credit card holders. I'll keep pushing for a hard copy version anyway. I know I've been critical of the project in the past, but I would like to see how it was handled considering the call out was for ten artists and they ended up with eight. Call it an invested interest if you will, a casual fancy of mine. I want to see this project that appears to have turned out so well, even though I didn't believe it could based on my limited perspective at the time it was announced. I guess that's a good sign of my progress, accepting something that I didn't agree with at first, but have been convinced that it may just be a good idea yet. Time will tell on that one too. That's my story, it kind of explains why I've been acting weird lately, and my posts have been erratic, if I made any at all. Rarely do I get the chance to go that far in depth into my life, but then again, rarely do I experience something so profound that my very core is rattled loose from its mental footing. Learn from your experiences, that's my advice. Anime Dreams P.S. I lost my cable again, so I was watching the extras on my Escaflowne box set and had to take the mechanical animation director up on his suggestion of watching all 26 episodes in one sitting. Let me tell you over nine and a half hours of Escaflowne may sound like a good idea, and you do get an exceptional understanding of the whole story, but it's not a good idea, trust me.

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Monday, October 10, 2005

Prelude to Darkness

Expect quite a post here soon.

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Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Silent Moon

Yesterday came, and yesterday went. No word came to me on my latest interview, which puts me back where I started once again. What happened to the days where an honest person could get a job? I don't have too many resources open to me anymore, so figuring out where to go next is hard. I've applied everywhere I could, got a few interviews, and that was it. My local job service(state run employemnt agency) is a comedy of errors filled with lazy employees who don't do their jobs, applicants not being reffered to potential clients, and reffereal calls being met with the classic "But we didn't call you" line of crap a mile long and ten high. The same can be said for the local lot of generic "temp agencies" that are supposed to refer people jobs, but don't. There isn't a whole lot left for me. No income means no higher education either. So with few places left to go, I'm stuck in a rut. There isn't a whole lot of demand for a mediocre artist/writer with significant skills as an effects make-up artist where I am right now, and I doubt there ever will be. I can cook a bit (Not officially trained), and sing on key (only in Japanese which is strange), and I know a little bit about computers, but not enough to be a good tech support or repair person. Guess I'll just have to content myself with singing solace to the silent moon again. Anime Dreams

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Saturday, September 10, 2005

Zero gravity, What's it like. . .?

Even the soft, melancholy flow of that little tune won't lift my spirits today. I'm worn out, just worn out from doing my best, which once again has proven to be not good enough. I had another job interview the other day, and as much as I need the job, I have my doubts. The interviewer was honest enough to admit the position I applied for isn't rocket science, but He didn't hide his reaction to my not having work experience very well. I know that's a bigger detriment to my being hired than the small sliver of his admitting the job isn't hard to learn. I think after the experience thing came and went, he was just humoring me to fill time, I've seen it before, employers unprepared to handle an applicant who is honest enough to tell them he doesn't have a work history. I'm supposed to hear something by Monday, but I won't hold my breath. I don't know what to do next. I've come to the end of the application road, and the path ahead is so grown over I'm not sure which way it runs. I'll be the one singing solace to the silent moon next time you hear it. Anime Dreams P.S. Has anyone else run into the malware pop ups purporting to be security alerts coming from the banner ads here on myotaku?

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Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Anime News

Wired News put an interesting Anime Article up on their site called: Anime, the Next Generation It's good to see more news agencies covering Anime.

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