Sunday, May 30, 2004

Fighting Back.

Several hundred dead. They keep coming. I'm fighting them off as many as I can. I thought I had them beat. On the morning rise not a single one in sight. Then around 18 hundred hours. One was spotted. A scout perhaps. Soon there were more. I fought back valiantly. Maybe about 20 of them died. There will be more. We'll see how long they will last. Soon they shall all perish......
~Zerg Defense Infantry

Going to look at an apartment tomorrow. This one is in a great spot. I hope the insides are good. If its worth it then I might just be like, give me a pen. This time though I'm checking all drawers and cabinets. I'm going to inspect every apartment like Consumer Affairs and the DEP inspected Chinkies. Any droppings or dead carcasses are a sign of past battles. And I don't want to be having that.

Time's have been rough. My bank account just seems to be getting lower and lower. Not a single deposit for about 3 weeks, maybe more. Hopefully there will be a pay check coming sometime soon. Who knows. We will see what happens. I hope I get one soon. Then i can start measuring my expenses against real numbers.

anyways ill be back

Friday, May 28, 2004

What up Wyoming

What up Wyoming! The Internet. I never get to use it much. So this update is probably going to the only one for awhile. Sux!

My job Rox0rs! I've been training all this week, and I just finished the first "phase" of my training. My trainer Shannon said I was doing pretty good. (Hi Shannon!) She's cool. I'm going to sell toys!... and stuff. On tuesday I start phase II of my training!

My new apartment sux a lot! My actual room is alright. My Roommates are okay. But ... Seriously. The bathroom was horrible! The kitchen was and is infested with roaches! I just laid out some Combat Gel today, and sprayed around some raid. The place kinda smells like insecticide, I doubt my roommates would notice. The router, for the Cable is set on the floor right by this cabinet in the kitchen. And yeah as always the router is something that is always on. Which means what? It is very warm. Cause of the constant flow of electricity. Anyone know where I'm going with this? The router is freaking gross, at any given moment you can see about 5 roaches crawling on top of it, and several of them crawling in and out of them. I live in Joe's apartment. I am Joe. And they don't talk. They aren't friendly. At they wont be building any parks for me. They are basically keeping me away from the kitchen, I shiver when ever I see them. Hopefully my insect killing efforts are going to annihilate enough of them to a point where I wouldn't mind buying any food. For now I'm eating out, all the time, every time. I just cant even fathom eating or putting any food in that kitchen.

I'm going to go check out some more apartments this coming week. Hopefully I can find something I like and I think I can afford. Either way for now I'm going to have to suffer in Joe's apartment. Oh well.

Later. Keep on trucking

Sunday, May 23, 2004

my new job

Its Sunday, and tomorrow I start my new job. I don't know what's going on with my living situation right now. I'm feeling like I'm going to be making rash decisions without carefully thought. But oh well, I'm sure it will all work itself out in the end.

I created a excel worksheet, for budgeting purposes. Much like Bobby's BPL MODEL, which saved my life during Business Policy (this is a class). Basically what it comes down to, is how much am I willing to save or not save at the end of the month. As long as I don't go into the red at the end of the month, I'm sorta fine. After working out the numbers, its something like, do I want to save $600 at the end of the month or do I want to save $400? And when I look at it Annually, well, one choice looks even more undesirable. See the main difference is privacy and distance. At saving $600 a month I will be having roommates, be living quite far (not as far as I am now), but my liabilities are shared among roommates. At saving $400 a month, I have a one bedroom apartment, by myself, complete privacy, I will live either 1 to 3 miles away from work, but I have full liability for the apartment, all costs are on me.

After some rational and irrational thought I think I'm going to go for the $600 for now. Being that I haven't even started my job and don't know how much I will actually be earning every week, all the numbers in my Budget Model are estimates. And hopefully the difference between my Estimates and Actualls won't be that big. I see a standard deviation of about $50. Watch it be more like $300!

The first apartment I took was an easy choice. This one is getting all complicated.

I will be changing the format of this front page soon. I want to add a ROOMMATE needed sign on the right side splitting this site down the middle and justifying to the left. Once I get a computer that can stand some heavy picture editing and web page making I will do it. Incidentally, if you happen to come across this website and are thinking about moving to Champaign, send me an email if you are looking for a place.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

I GOT A JOB!

I GOT A JOB!

Well okay I guess I already had one but ... I GOT ANOTHER JOB! Yay for me. What will I be doing you ask? Well I will be selling toys! Not not Yo-yos and barbies at Toys R Us. They are actually going to be Radio Controlled ... stuff... to retail stores. Im going to be part of the Channel Distribution thing they talked about in school. Im that one step after manufacturer and right before retailer. Im part of a distribution system. Oh for joy.

so now what does that mean for the future of Dante? Hmmm dont know really. The job is one hour away from where i currently live, so Im probably going to be moving out once I have settled things enough for me to make the move. Bank accounts, change of addresses, and so forth. Hope my car insurance doesn't go up. Last time I moved in this state it went up 15 bucks. Maybe this move will bring it down rather than up.

So with this new job I must say that things are moving along quite well. At first I was very disheartened and very worrisome of what the hell I was doing. But with this on the horizon, I think things are going to be "al'ree".

I'll try to update as much as possible. Of course, I say this knowing that there probably isn't a very large pool of people who check this website, and of the people who do check this website, I probably call them and tell them about the news before I have a chance to update this site. But ah well. If you are reading this then awesome! If not then not so awesome. But if you are reading this, then I give you this. Coupon #456879. Mention this coupon number at any McDonalds and receive a free something or other with fries. (Only at participating locations)

Anyways Keep on Trucking
I know I Am.

Sunday, May 9, 2004

APARTMENT

Here is the link to the apartment page

APARTMENT

It isnt completed, but there are some thumbnails that can be accessed. Although if you are on 56 i advise not checking it out as they are not formated to a reasonable compression for 56 users...

Anyways its sunday and im home. I didnt do much yesterday. My apartment community has turned into a ghost town. Graduation was yesterday and the spring semester is over, so a good number of students have gone home for the summer. So i expect the partying for this week to be very minimal. But Im sure by june, all the summer party people will be moving in for their summer stay. Dont know if i will be here or not, if all goes well i will have moved out by June. If it doesnt, then im going to be back on that job train trying to get off somewhere.

A day ago, played some drinking games with the neighbors. I lost a few of them. I enjoyed myself.

Andrea has 2 finals this week, and shes off for the summer. Hehe although, to end her semester she will be having surgery on Friday. They're removing her wisdom teeth. Kinda sucks but cant leave them in there.

Figuring out what to do next is difficult when you dont know what you are doing currently. Guess i should go figure out what im doing.

APARTMENT

Thursday, May 6, 2004

almost forgot

Oh yeah almost forgot, im wearing shorts today. Its going to be 80+ deg today. So yeah ... later

Still no job

Still no job... Im getting a little impatient. If i dont have a new job in another week, im going to have to step up the search again. I kinda slowed down my job activity because i had a really good feeling about the one toy job. But if they dont take me then im going to have to switch gears again and find somewhere else to work for. kinda sucks but c'est la vie. This weekend i have a 2 day weekend. Yay both saturday and sunday. Andrea has finals week next week, which means im going to have to find something to do to occupy my time. I think i've decided on packing up my stuff here in this apartment and get ready to move again. It may be a little premature, being that i dont have a new job nor do i have a new apartment to move to yet, but i think it will make me feel a little better knowing i can just pack up and blink over to somewhere else.

Speaking of nearing the end of a semester... it is almost summer, meaning that there are probably going to be one or two people who will want to visit. this is perfectly fine, just give me a call or email and we will figure something out. Ive been telling myself that once the summer hits i will go back to new york to pick up stuff and visit for a while. A while being a short enough period of time to get drunk, play poker, maybe get a good game of cstrike, and see a rock concert. There is a scene here, but im so caught up in work and finding new work, that my free time is spent sleeping or driving. Driving to no-where in particular, just driving to not have to be anywhere specific.

Hopefully things will take a quick and dramatic turn for the better today.

Well i better go do something of importance before something unimportant comes up.

Tuesday, May 4, 2004

Hello and Welcome.

Hello and Welcome.

Well its been quite some time since i updated this site. No doubt there will be little to no visitors currently checking for updates so this current blog is being made purely to my own satisfaction.

Just had breakfast with new roommate. I still dont really know his name or how to say it, but i think it sounds something like "Sir-Hesh". As long as i keep mumbling it when i say it i think i should be fine. I know i promised some apartment pictures to people for quite some time but i recently lost my desktop pc which had all the pictures and even the website i was working on for the "virtual apartment". Im trying to bring it back to life, but free time to work on my computer is very little, and i find sleep to be more important. By sleep i am refering to the much needed 7 to 8 hours at night, and not the sleep alot of my friends normally associate me with, that being the sleep during classes and when im just bored.

It is May now, and come tomorrow it will be exactly 2 months since i moved out here to illinois from new york. (I am not counting the road trip cause that was sort of a transition period, and who counts transitions anyway).

The job front, well, hasnt been all that great. I am still working the dead end job i got one week after moving here. Everything else is still up in the air. I've interviewed several times at several places, and none as of yet have said "sign on the dotted line, your hired". I am currently looking at this job for a RC toy company, which i am really really anxious to get, but after each interview i have with them, they tell me they need me to come back again for another interview. Don't know if this is the normal way things happen, but i suppose if i get to speak to a different person each interview, I am either moving up in the company before I've even been hired, or the person who interviewed me last was just recently let go. Who knows, either way i want a job, and its taking me forever to find one. This is of course is excluding the job i currently have, of which will probably let go of about 50% of its staff the moment the summer heat hits. (meaning it is a job that for the most part is 50% seasonal, if you understand that then please by all means have a cookie).

It is now 8:56 am, central time, and i have to get in my car in 4 minutes so i can be at work by 9:30. These 4 minutes of course are not really all that important, because even if i do leave in 4 minutes, i will still arrive at work 15 minutes early, which would be perfectly fine if i got paid for being early, but i dont, so really the 15 minutes early that i will have while at work, will be spent sitting in a lunch room looking at a clock, waiting for the minute hand to reach that dooming 6. At which point i will climb a flight of stairs and take my seat at my cubicle. I know this is the norm for many jobs, and probably will be the norm at the job i am applying for at that toy company, but trust me, seasonal work at a place that has an employee turnover of about a week, is not all that great. I look at this job as a means to a paycheck. Its paying the bills, its paying the rent, its basically paying. And im actually saving alot while working here. The cost of living so far, as i see it, is fairly cheap. Of course i am living like a college kid, a step up from a dorm and working 40 hours a week without having to worry about tests or papers, so its easy to pay for things. Im sure anyone anywhere, could sustain themselves the way i have done so far. The question is, is sustaining ones self at a level below what one had expected to live in, worth sustaining at all? Ah and if you ponder that long enough you will know why i really want to work for another company that has more benifits, better management, and a friendlier staff. Not to say that my current co-workers are horrible, in fact they are quite pleasant, I have even made a friend or two. But when saying more than 2 words to your co-worker can get you in trouble, because it is of a non-work related nature, well... how much fun can that be? None at all.

I have though began drawing, I recently brought a pencil and eraser to work, so time has been going by fairly easily lately. I will post a picture or two as i make them, ... this of course is not a promise, because well i have said i would post other pictures before and as of yet, have not done so.

I have also began reading the works of Douglas Adams again, so i expect my blog entries to reflect that. Anyways it is now 9:07 which means, I am late for my 15 minute waste of time. So i better go.

See you all later
Keep On Trucking