This Morning (9/10/07/)

This morning, I was suppose to go to my interview today, but I had to reschedule due to car related issues. I had to postpone my payment for this month :( and the dealer said that is fine, because I have been making my payments in a timely manner up until now, but (there is always a but) there is nothing he can do to keep my car from turning off and locking down. Many new car dealerships are installing those electronic devices on the cars that will automatically shut the car off, after so many days of the payment not being made. I will be without the use of my car for about a week and a half :( I am at the mercy of my sister who also works overnights, but at a different job, to take me to work, and I will walk back home in the morning. I am not looking forward to this next week and a half....

This morning I also decided to visit a few old coworkers (who were quite happy to see me) at my old job. Going there now is bittersweet. In some ways I miss the place, because of a few people, but at the same time I still have some resentment towards the way I was treated by the company. One thing I miss, but I am glad that I am not around to see it, is all the wonderful textiles. I love fabric! I love coming up with different ideas and designs. However I am glad I am not surrounded by it at work anymore, it keeps me from spending money I do not have. I did splurge a little today and brought 3 small pieces mainly for my bags. I did not feel too guilty either as I have not brought fabric in a very long time, and it is rare for me to have even $5.00 to spend on myself. I didn't really have it to spare today either, but I made an allowance for my actions. Funny how that works....,.

Last Night

Last night was the usually lack luster night at Wally World I went in loathing having to be there. I prayed that it would be pretty slow, with not much nocturnal shoppers, and that the most annoying co-workers would not bother to talk to me. Well at Wally World that rarely happens. Besides having the nickname "Wally World" the store has other names it is known as, such as "Club W.M." because it is such a social gathering place. People come in dressed (or barely) to impress and on the prowl. It's Friday Night and where do you go to hang out and meet people? Is it a fancy restaurant, or the local nightclub? Wrong! it is "Club W.M." The #1 destination in your weekend social festivities; the first stop you make before hitting any other clubs. This is not necessarily good for those of us who want to do our job and go home at 7am. People linger in the "too-narrow-for-25-people-to-fit-in" aisles, and catch up with current affairs, tell tasteless, crude, and really-not-that-funny jokes about each other or random people, conveniently find ways to "accidentally" brush up against or touch you or other people, and my personal favorite have an occasional game of "lets-sling-products-at-each-other-." It makes trying to maneuver around people in the tight space and put away the freight a "little" difficult. Surprisingly enough, last night was not too bad, I think this had something to do with the tropical storms brewing. I thought to myself, "Great I can get through this night without anyone bothering me" as I was not in a very good mood. But of course it wouldn't be a Wally World night if you did not have at least one annoying situation. So just as I was thinking how wonderful it was not to have anyone in the way, standing between me and my work along comes two quirky females. I was not in the mood for quirky. I kept it in of course being trained in the arts of "good customer service." I had to endure a half-hour visit from these ladies in my aisle, and a stupid conversation concerning the shampoo and conditioner. --OK I'll admit I am female, and I too can take a minute to decide about the right products to buy, but at some point you make a decision.-- But what made the conversation special was that the commentators were two ditzes. I painstakingly had to listen to a conversation that went something like this, " Ha ha, tee hee, SHAMPOO, ha ha, blah, blah, PANTENE, blah,blah, SUAVE tee hee, ha ha, I LOVE THAT SONG, blah, blah, blah, SHAMPOO tee hee." OK, seriously shampoo is not that funny... Was the conversation even about shampoo? I know I wasn't a happy little camper last night so maybe I was especially irritated, but they were standing in the way of the section where I had alot of freight to put up. Why did I not just say, "excuse me but I need to get right where you're standing" you ask? Because then that would have meant I actually would have to speak to them, and given the mood I was in, my lack of adequate sleep before coming to work, the 1:30am time frame, and the fact that I did not want to mar my reputation for being a good customer service worker, I decided to work around them, putting out what little freight I could and try not to appear annoyed... Just when I thought I could hold it in no longer they made a decision. aaahhh safe

Directing Traffic with Links---My Journey

My new posts will now look a little different. Sometimes if there is a bold word in the post, that may mean you can click on the title of the post and and you will be redirected to a link.--------- Gaining traffic to you website or blog can be a tedious task; one that is often explained to you in muddled techie jargon, and if you are a real computer techie then it is no problem, but for the novice it is a bit intimidating and disappointing. So is it important to have high traffic to your website or blog? well I suppose it is if you are looking to profit from your writing, but if you enjoy a more personal setting with just a few readers then you could care less. If you are like the former rather than the latter (I am somewhere in between the two), then why not check out one of my frequent read websites at Make Money With Kassper , and learn some of his great tips on how you can Make Money Online The one article that really gave me a better understanding was SEO Series Batch 8 Once I read through it I had a better understanding of how the Google Optimization worked. I will try some of his tips and see if I can get any results from it.

Spanish Phrase of the Day---Complements of My Facebook Page

Te voy a dar----You're going to get it!

Simpons likeness is as good as it gets

Meet Rain & Wasaski: Click on picture to enlarge view

I have seen a few people online with The Simpsons Avatar and have wanted to play around with making one. So I checked out The Simpson's Movie site and it is pretty fun. You have quite a few choices for skin colors, hair, facial features etc. but not too much clothing choices. You can be adult male, adult female, or a child. You can make one that is your likeness in cartoon form (don't expect your spitting image), or you can create a fantasy character. If you're really adventurous you can upload a picture, and they will make a Simpson avatar for you. Then you save them on your computer and use them as avatars. Pretty useless but fun anyway :D Click on the post title to go directly to The Simpson's' Movie website and get started making your own avatar!

Technically I am long over due--

Technorati Profile I just joined Technorati today; why didn't I do it before? Oh yes I remember now..... I went to the sight one day a couple of months ago and it was down. I just never bothered going back.

Spanish Phrase of the Day--Complements of My Facebook Page

En boca cerrada no entran moscas---Sometimes it's better to keep your mouth shut

Too much web helps to keep my spanish up--Introducing Facebook

I know my post titles can be a bit of a conundrum sometimes but that is the way I like it ;).

Not too long ago I joined Facebook because a contact of mine invited me there. I like the place a little too much now I think :S Although I am not like some of those people who live, love, and long for anything MySpace and Facebook related. I like to keep my life exposed to a minimum. I don't invite or accept invitations from everyone in the world to be buddies at these places, I keep my buddy list to a very modest number, and alot of my info is set to private. In fact I never wanted a MySpace account because I did not like the publicity I would see and hear about it. I only recently got an account there because I have too real life buddies who love MySpace and that is one way I keep in touch with them. My MySpace profile is pretty dead through I just joined and that is pretty much it. No fancy pages or anything, and if I can convince them to come to Facebook I will probably disable my account. I don't know what scares me about that site, it just is not my favorite place to interact. I know that there could be plenty of weird people lurking at Facebook as well, but it just does not scare me as much as MySpace and it seems to have just a tad bit more class.

Well anyway I added an application at Facebook that allows me to have a new Spanish phrase a day displayed on my profile. I loved this idea, because when I was in school I majored in Spanish with a minor in Asian studies, I was able to study Chinese reading and writing for a year. That was like a dream to me, I've always loved languages. Every since I was about 9 yrs old, I've pretended that I could speak Spanish. I would walk around the house answering my family's questions or asking them questions in Spamish (that's made up Spanish). I don't know what first attracted me to the Spanish language or Asian languages either. I just took an interest to it. That is why I was so surprised my mother was shocked when I decided to change my major to foreign language during my college career. I've always wanted to know at least 6 languages. But since I've been out of school I have not been keeping up with my studying, and I have forgotten a majority of the language I did learn. That is why I decided to add the Spanish phrase application. Just a fun way to learn a new phrase everyday. I will post it, every time I post here. ......

Other languages I would love to learn: Arabic, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Tagalog and Swahili

Decisions, decisions and acting upon those decisions--Back To School

Well I have decided that I will try to return to school in January for the spring semester, (with the summer semester being the latest) at just about any cost. Whatever it takes, I will try and go back GOD-willing. I have to give myself a deadline now or it may never happen. I made this decision after I had to go and apply for a second, albeit seasonal job earlier in the week. I said to my mum, "I can't do this anymore, I have to bite the bullet and figure out how to get back in school." I am just sinking further and further into dead-in jobs and even though I can't really can't afford the tuition right now (I was trying to work more to be able to afford going back), it is not helping that I am taking on these dead-end jobs that are not even able to cover most of my expenses.

Besides that every night I go into work at Wally World it is just depressing. I hate the way the management talks to the associates; they talk down to us. They feel that their position gives them warrant to treat people like crap, and they think you don't know much, if anything at all. Sometimes I want to remind or inform many of my overnight assistant managers that I too was once in their place at my previous retail job. I was an assistant manager, and a darn good one if I do say so myself. My old boss and many of my old co-workers would vouch for that. I didn't make the associates feel like peons either. I was always willing to get down in the trenches and do the same work that the regular sales clerks did, as well as keep up with my other managerial duties. My main reason for leaving was because I was paid crap for all my hard work. At Wally World some of the management are some of the most laziest, conceited, and corrupt people working there. It takes everything for me to have to go to work some nights.

On another note, I have an interview with the seasonal job place on Monday, and it is a strong possibility that I will get the job, considering I passed the 2 assessment tests and the fact that they would probably hire a monkey if given the opportunity. This is mainly because during the "holiday season" they are overwhelmed. So I will be back into my mode of working two jobs again...aah it was fun having some free time for the past 2 months, but it is back to business. The good thing about it is that it will only last through the end of this year.

In a way I could kick myself, because my progress with my bags has slowed down, and I am somewhat confident that if I just complete my first round and market them a little, I can have a little success. Not necessarily on a grand scale, just a small humble one is fine with me. I have a few people who have been waiting for quite some time for me to launch the project. I can be such a procrastinator at times. I have to speed the process up back again, but time will be even more scarce now if I get the second job. I just have to re-evaluate and re-focus myself. I feel like I desperately have to get my situation in order.

I can't stand the fact that I am not able to repay my parents and do something big for them. I hate to see my mother not doing exactly what she loves to do, or my dad who has been in a position where he could not work for the past couple of years (he has an respiratory illness which makes it hard for him to go back into the construction industry). My mother has her degree in a field that she is interested in, but her job was not completely fulfilling her passion. She would love to open up a youth counseling center, and or her own restaurant as she loves to cook. I really wish that I could be able to fund her dreams. That would make me extremely happy to know that I could do something for her, that would not be able to compare to her efforts in raising me and my siblings, nurturing us in her womb and giving birth to us, but hopefully it would express my love and appreciation in a small way....Wow I am getting teary- eyed just thinking about it. That is one of the moments that will go into my list of moments in my life that will make/or have made me cry tears of joy. You know maybe I don't show it enough or express it enough, but I really love you mum. She still has not seen or read my blog, but one day I hope to let her read it, so she can understand how I feel.

Saying goodbye to my dear Samsung, while going on I. VAC.

I am going to go on a I.VAC. for the next few days. but before I go....

Today I became sad at the thought of my cell phone/mobile phone. Why you ask? because I no longer have service on my mobile phone :( I can't afford to keep it right now. I know this is a little superficial, however I had the same mobile number for years, and I had finally settled with a company I like; you know the one that features that Welsh actress as their spokesperson. (Ok clearly I am talking about T-Mobile in case you didn't catch that)

[Conversation with cell phone provider: me-"But if you leave how will I cope? What will I do?" cell phone provider-"Frankly W. we don't give a d*#!mn"]

I really didn't abuse my phone usage either I would use it mainly for emergencies, and I would talk long distance with some friends, but I wasn't the type of person you see on the cell phone talking about nothing. I hate to hear this conversation: "Hello?" "Nothing, I'm in the store (on the bus, at the library, in class, at the movies, having dinner with a friend, at work)" This is followed by a five min. conversation about nothing, and then the recipient hangs up, only to repeat this conversation again 2 mins later with a new caller. Or my favorite conversation: "Hello?" "Nothing I'm in line at the store" *1minute of silence* "say something!" *3 sec. pause* "No, you say something"

Oh and my personal favorite is the type of people I encountered when I was working my other retail job. The type who wanted to run a conversation on their phone, and complete a transaction with you at the same time. Then five minutes later they want to come back to your line and refute something on their receipt that you told them was not on sale while they were having their conversation on the phone. But of course even though they nodded their head that they understood, in reality they were too preoccupied with the phone conversation.

Well that was not me. I was a responsible user :) Nevertheless I won't be any more, at least for a while until I can get on track. *sniff* I'm going to miss you my dear little Samsung *sniff Ok as I said this is a bit superficial, but I am not really a superficial kind of person, so please grant me at least this one moment...

On other note... I am trying to make a video interview with some ordinary folks that I will eventually put on Yahoo Videos GOD-willing, the topic of which I will mention later if I ever finish the video and editing it. Don't expect great things out of this though, because I am not some bigshot movie-maker or anything, or even a wannabe one either. The problem is some of the folks that I have interviewed so far are not giving me detailed honest answers. why do I say this? because I have talked with some of them off camera and they have made the complaints and things to me, so I thought I could capture some of that. I haven't so far but I am hopeful someone will give me the gritty truth.

I will refocuse my attention to my bags this week and I have a couple of other obligations regarding sewing promises I made to other people. So i will bid adieu....

Downfalls of being poor: Episode 1---No Health Insurance

Some of the downfalls of being "poor": DOWNFALL #1.

You can't afford health or dental insurance--- a few years ago I burned my foot by spilling a big pot of boiling water on it-ouch...and I went to the emergency room they cleaned it up gave me some ointment and told me to come back in two days to make sure that it was healing fine. I returned 2 days later and the doc looked at it and told it was healing nicely :)....Do you know how much this two day spa treatment cost me? $USD 1000.00 :S I had no health insurance and to pay it all out of pocket, while I was still in school and was making about $6.00 an hour. It took me a couple of months but eventually I paid it off. When I made assistant manager at the old retail job, I decided too get the company health insurance, even though I was making only a little more and really could not afford it, but I decided to bite the bullet and sacrifice that extra $130.00 a month but I soon found out that the deductible was much more than I could afford with what I was making so the insurance became an extra deduction out of my paycheck. Then the dental insurance was completely useless, it would not even cover my extraction of a wisdom tooth that had become abscessed, and I had to go to the emergency room because the left side of my face had become swollen. The emergency room doctor told me that I had better get the tooth extracted, because the abscess infection could spread to other parts of my body--pretty scary. Then he told me I should just stop spending my money on frivolous things and pay the money to have my tooth extracted lol I wanted to hit him for that comment. I didn't have the money to spend on things I needed, never mind frivolous things.

I frantically tried to think of an idea to come up with the money, and finally I realized I could take out $500.00 from the mere $750.00 I had in the 401K that I had at work. Just a year before the incident the company elected to open a 401K for me, because I had been there for over 5 years and reached the required age of at least 21. They deposited a little money for me, so I thought why not put a little money like 5% of my paycheck into the account every payday. Big decision for me; not making too much to begin with. But I am happy I did because I was able to take an early distribution on the money (paid a $50.00 fee for that when I did my taxes) and get my tooth extracted.

Emergency room visit for abscessed tooth: $USD 300.00

Antibiotics: $USD 80.00

Fee for early distribution from 401K: $USD 50.00

Cost of procedure: $USD 500.00

Feeling alot of the pain of my tooth being extracted, because 5 shots of numbing med. did not numb me until 5 minutes after procedure was over.....priceless.

I am not that stupid; I am not that smart

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