Friday, September 16, 2005: The day the wheels of fate were put into motion and my priorities were changed forever. This was the day I went into my local Job Service office to apply for jobs and was turned down because I had no references. This was the day I wrote three letters and put them in the mail, not knowing what would become of them.
Thursday, October 6, 2006: After a few letters bounced back and forth between myself, one of my Senators, and the Acting Director of the Employment Service Division for WorkForce West Virginia, I received a telephone call from the local Job Service Manager. He wanted to meet with me in person to provide assistance with my application.
Tuesday, October 18, 2006: The meeting with my Job Service General Manager, the meeting that was more show than substance. It did not address, or correct the issues which started the affair the previous month.
Monday, November 21, 2005: The letter that would bear the most weight arrives at my house, this letter, from one of the Senators' offices, indicates that one of the Sentator's staff would like to speak with me over the phone about the incidents I had reported regarding the Job Service Office. I respond saying I would be willing to address the issues over the phone.
January 9, 2006: The date on the last letter I received from one of my Senators regarding the Job Service issues I had been fighting so hard to have corrected. I had only finished up denouncing the Job Service the previous year, and receiving that final follow-up letter was bittersweet.
Wednesday, February 8, 2006: I enter the Workforce West Virginia local office unannounced, and undisclosed to anyone, to give the system one last chance to redeem itself. I attend an "orientation" where I was told to rapid-fire sign a pile of papers without reading any of them over, or without having them properly explained to me (the whole group was dumbfounded by the pacing fo the orientation), among them a grievance procedure which would later come into play and be the end bringer for the entire incident.
Friday, February 10, 2006: The initial interview with my WorkForce West Virginia Case manager takes place. She provides inadequate, textbook advice on improving my r¡§¦sum¡§¦ and provides minimal follow-up instruction. She also commits me to attend an Interview workshop, to attempt to assist me with job interview skills.
Thursday, February 16, 2006: The interview workshop that wasn't. I arrive at the WorkForce West Virginia Office to attend the interview workshop, to learn that it is a "mock interview" scenario, not a workshop. Needless to say I was ill-prepared for the event, thinking the workshop was formatted differently (I was not informed of the format when I was signed up for it). The mock interviewer proceed to provide me with the same inadequate, text-book, unprofessional r¡§¦sum¡§¦ building advice, advice that professional paid r¡§¦sum¡§¦ bulders indicate is not necessary for entry level r¡§¦sum¡§¦s.
Monday, February 20, 2006: I send my first follow-up e-mail to my WorkForce West Virginia Case Manager, indicating my lack of satisfaction with the interview workshop, and my displeasure at being incorrectly informed as to the nature of the workshop's format. I indicate that the issues I presented to her should be handled as an official grievance, she responds asking me to call her to speak over the phone.
Friday, February 24, 2006: The Lead Case Manager for the local Workforce West Virginia Office contacts me with Word document attachments to the e-mail. Those attachments contain an "updated" grievance procedure, and the forms to fill out to process the grievance correctly. This form was not signed by me, nor did I sign any documents saying I agree to honor any revisions to the documents I signed on February 8, 2006. the "updated" grievance procedure required an in person meeting with the Case Manager to facilitate the filing of a grievance, where the older form only required the issues be presented to the Case Manager, the method was not stipulated. Upon reviewing the files' properties, I discovered that this new procedure was created less then one hour before it was e-mailed to me. That told me the procedure change was intended to force me into meeting with my Case Manager directly. I responded with a simple demand, to be removed from the system completely.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006: I receive a phone message from the Staff Assistant to one of my Senators, the one who requested the telephone contact to begin with. As I received the message late, I chose not to respond right away.
Thursday, April 13, 2006: First thing in the morning, I returned the phone call to the Senator's Office and spoke with the Staff Assistant. She attempted several times in hte conversation to shift the fault of the issue onto my shoulders, and took a hands off attitude toward having the corrupt system repaired or replaced. The conversation of less than an hour ended with no resolution, and no indication anything was going to be accomplished. It was during this conversation that I came to the realization that I would have to use my talents to get out of the situation I am in, I would have to create my way into a steady income. As I set the phone down on the charger, the initial seed of a story began in my head, and I started writing. I began to put the idea to paper and just let it flow. I told myself I would have the makings of a fiction novel by the end of 2006, it was a start in the direction of becoming published.
What does that timeline all mean? What does any of that have to do with my big announcement? Simply this: Late yesterday evening/early this morning, I completed the first draft of the novel I started writing when I learned that the State of West Virginia was complete trash when it comes to helping the victims of discrimination by their own bureaus. Upon completion of that draft, I must now begin the editing process which I expect to take most of this year to complete, but I will take a break first, and work on a couple pieces of art I need to get done for some people, and for myself. I certainly feel better now that the draft is done, that's the hard part, I have the easy bits left to complete now.
I do want to leave you with a quote, my favorite line from one of the letters I wrote during that whole thing. This line was in my response to the November 7, 2005 letter I received from the Acting Director of Employemt Services Division WorkForce West Virginia:
"I mean no offense by this, but your confidence in Mr. [Spelvin]'s knowledge of your system does not reassure me in the slightest. Your confidence alone will not magically knock away my doubts, insecurities, and distrust like "Little Slugger's" golden bat." Probably my best line in the whole fight, and not a single person asked for an explanation of what I meant. And for the record, "George Spelvin" is an in-joke in some theatre's, that's not the guy's real last name (censorship indicated by the brackets wrapping the name).
Comments:
Outlaw Melfina:
Yeah, My birthday is early in the year so I don't have to wait long for it. The wishes are enough for me, I don't need anything special.
There's a really bad joke in there somewhere, but I'm not going to say it (dancing bananas and Micheal Jackson in the same discussion - I'm not going there).
scorchbird12:
Thank you.
I hate to borrow money from relatives, and I can't ask them to do something I wouldn't be comfortable doing myself (I wouldn't shop online if I had a credit card for security reasons, unless the item was unavailable locally), so I just have to make do with what I can find in stores for now.
You got me there. I never thought of that one. Maybe that's why I have some issues finding some of the stuff I'm looking for. Time to change out my search strategy!
I'm just anti-social and really hate shopping. I don't have many subscriptions myself actually, the one free mag from TokyoPop is about all I get regularly, and even it went downhill from the first issue on.
All Regal would need is a little anime friendly competition, and I guarantee they'll change their tune. Big corporations don't take threats seriously until those threats hit them in the pocket books.
Oh, before I forget, Thanks for your comments on my wallpaper. The series Escaflowne is lesser known now than it was a few years ago, but it holds a strong place in my heart all the same.
Mamma Vash:
Thank you.
I only wish I had the talent and energy to make an animated GIF like that. Actually, the smilies and gifs I post here are all things I've found in oddball image searches that I've run, or creatively "borrowed" from Yahoo!'s Messenger, though the good ones I use a lot in IM are all corrupted and I can't rehost them till I figure out how to fix them.
I'll certainly try.
Magnus Lensherr
Thank you.
I posted on January 8th a little after 1PM (that would be around 6PM Greenwich), so it was unusually late on my part. The wallpaper seems to have been well received, and I'm happy about that.
Angel Slayer:
Yeah, I changed my site a little bit from my previous mothman thing (or was I still on the dragon last time you saw my site?), this one works better, and looks good doing it too.
Caffeine can be a problem for some people, but I tend to have stronger reactions from the FDA approved LSD that is Mountain Dew. You want a trip, have a couple bottles of that in the morning, you'll be up for two days straight if not longer.
sikaurai
A lesser person would resort to a dirty joke about the banana, but I won't go there.
Thank you, and yeah, I was born in the year of the Monkey. I knew a person who was always looking for people with what she called "old souls" Somehow she could look in your eyes and tell you if you had an "old soul" I don't know what it meant, I never took the time to ask her, and I couldn't sit still long enough for her to tell if I have one or not. She was the best make-up artist my Theatre class had, I was the second best, and I'm proud to say I took second to her, she was that good.
It turned out better because I wasn't in a good mood when I made it. Frustration is a powerful motivator sometimes. Thank you for the compliment though, maybe I'll get a couple more up if I take the time to make them.
I'll try, and if I can talk my family into doing it, I'll have one of those jumbo cookie things (less icing = less pain for my teeth). We're having the party next week since that's when everyone else in the house has the same day off.
I noticed you got the code working on your site okay, sorry to hear about the post being deleted inthe process. If you want to make things easier on yourself when you update, you could actually put that code in the "post styles" under the Manage Content heading in your backroom. There's a trick to doing it right, but once it's in there, it'll make all your posts come out the same and you won't have to worrk about putting the code into every post.
Yensid:
Yeah, it's a color that comes around quite a lot. Back in the 80's I didn't really have much choice as to what I wore, but then again I was too young to decide that for myself anyway. My style has changed a lot since my early years. It used to be polo shirts and blue jeans, now it's a little more casual than that, and I have my ear pierced too, got that the same day I beat A Bug's Life for Playstation (Dec 3, 2003)
I couldn't in good conscious just give sikaurai the code to do the scrollbar thing without testing it myself. I don't like to do that to people. I like to be able to say that the code works, and this time I can, even though I gave her the code before I tested it. Besides that, my posts aren't getting any shorter (As today's can surely demonstrate), so I figured it was time to make things a little easier to navigate on the page. I know what you mean about that, and the code I'm using should be able to do that for you, you'd just have to tweak the Division's margins (that's the "secret" to the scrollbar, the content is in a division within a table cell) to get it to float on the picture where you want it to float. I can try to code it up for you, but I'd need the image, and you'd have to tell me where you want the text to float on it.
That's a lot of things to learn at once, and while it may be helpful to compare the programs while learning them at the same time, I'm always telling people to take things one at a time. Decide what is most important and learn that first, then move on to the second, then third and so on.
I certainly will, and thank you.
Thank you for commenting on my wallpaper, I really appreciate that. It is aamazing what a person can do when one isn't in a pleasant state of mind. If I inspired you, then I've done well with the piece.
death alchemist03
Thank you. On the wallpaper, thank you as well. and naturally, the banana lures everyone in with his cooky charm.
Kiki-tink
Thank you. I'm glad to know you liked the paper, and of course the cards were great. And thank you for commenting on my wallpaper too. The sentiments are much appreciated.
Shireishou
Thank you, that's a fascinating piece of your culture to share with me, I appreciate it.
Thank you for taking a look at it, and thank you for commenting on it too. I read all the comments I get, and I appreciate each one.
KanuckGrrl
Generally for me, my art doesn't lend itself to wallpapers very well yet. Maybe once I learn to color digitally I can make some good original ones, but for now, I'll stick to making stuff from the anime I know and like. Thank you for the comment on my wallpaper. I'm glad you like it.
Jaguar
Given that ours is a day apart, yeah, we should stick together. Since the family all works, we're having the party next week when they all manage to have the same day off, so, I'll have to hold the suspense a little while longer.
I thought is was funny too.
MillenniumChaos
Yep, he's Baa-aack! He was last time anyway, not today.
Actually, I only caught my mistake because I was updating my anchor tags so I can skip right to people's individual responses when relevant. (for example, if I wanted to link directly to my response to your comment from last post I would do this and it should take you right to my previous response). Don't forget to come back, that's not a new window link. You would think that having the username in the URL not even 20 characters to the left of the blunder would tip me off sooner, but oh well, it's fixed now and that's that.
Thank you, the day itself was nice and peaceful for me, which I like once in a while.
