That's my ebay listings for today. I'm liquidating a bunch of crap that's been laying around, either untouched or unwanted junk I've managed to accumulate through time that I don't want to just toss out. There's probably tons more, and I'll sell more stuff through Craigslist when I got done with my videography business, but it's a start. The older I get, the less crap I'd like to gather.

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Have a job interview tomorrow at a cinema, have absolutely no idea if they need a popcorn sweeper, a toilet cleaner, or a shift manager. Absolutely no idea what the pay would be. I guess I'll find out tomorrow if it's worth the time. Scary thing is that if no one replies to my resumes, I might have to take the job.

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Kids are sick. Not terribly sick, but they're coughing and they're sniffling. Blame it on the stupid weather I suppose, but my allergies have been going haywire as well. They have slight temperatures and intially, Alex tossed some cookies as well. I told my wife that my allergies were so bad that I didn't even smell the mess I was cleaning up. Whoopee!

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Having a rather blah Sunday - it's Summer but you couldn't tell from looking outside - seems like October with the blustery winds and the chilly temps. We're just staying indoors because of the weather and they're sick.

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Resident Evil 4 is cool.

Hi, I'm... um... er... Shit.

That pretty much sums up my demeanor at the job seminar. I'm no good in groups, and in no good, I mean absolute twat. I stammer extensively, turn beet red, and verbal vomit pours out of my piehole. It was a tricky situation - it wasn't exactly a job interview, but it wasn't completely an informational session - so everyone was trying to stand out by being interesting. Whenever I try too hard, I usually self destruct, starting with my bad attempts at jokes, my nonsensical blathering, and then I sometimes, like today, I will stop talking mid-sentence, picturing myself standing next to me, shaking my sad little head.

I don't think it's really as bad as I think, gotta wait till the end of the week to see if its a yay or nay. I'll be getting an answer either way, I just hope I get another, more personal swing at it.

Sigh.

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Watching Mulan now, to try to make up for the demeaning visions of women in Peter Pan. The film is pretty good, though it gets a bit more serious than the usual kid fare.

Pan, Interview, Alaska

Watching Disney's "Peter Pan" with the kids right now and I think my PC radar is going off the freakin' charts. They're at the "injuns" camps singing "What makes the Red Man red?" and Peter is hussing it up with the Chief's daughter. Other than the injuns/cultural shock, there's that ever present sexist undertone. The mermaids, Tinkerbell, and all the other lasses in the movie get jealous and clamor over Peter, a scoundrel who is on the sadistic side. Right now Hook is trying to persuade Tink by playing on her jealousy. Not to mention some of the Piratey behavior, like Hook shooting a sailor for singing, talks about hanging, slitting throats... My brain's freaking out.

I guess in a way it's slightly better than Pirates of the Carribean, which has managed to glorify pirates to some unholy cultural phenomenon. It's become family friendly so much so that last year (or the year before) Seafair adopted it as a theme. Maybe in the next century or so they'll be having terrorist themed events if the right movie is made about it. I don't personally dislike pirates, I just think people going absolutely gaga about it is a little silly. They've just taken the raping and pillaging and murder out of pirating and made it into some kind of rock star profession. Odd.

But anyway, I may not be recommending this 50 year old movie to the kids again. It's a bit disheartening because all the kids movies I used to watch are now so... wrong. Peter Pan, meet Little Mermaid in the seldomly watched movie pile.

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I'm nervous about the interview tomorrow, and in all likelihood my moustache (I spelt it correctly today) is going because I don't want to chance it. Oh well, I'll miss playing with it more than the look of having one. It made me look a bit different, though I don't know if it improved my looks. Some of the photos I took today with my short hair makes me look almost like a short sighted sausage.

I have to reprint the resume that I submitted in to the company, and I am not kidding, but the date on that resume was last January. That would either mean that they haven't had an opening for my coveted position since then, or that it might be based on my second resume, which was for another position. I dunno which I prefer it be.

Oh boy, I hope everything goes well.

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I drove my mom to the pier this afternoon, where she'll be taking a cruise ship to Alaska for the next week or so. She might stop by to see Dave. Maybe not. But it does feel a bit odd to know that she won't be around. I've kinda gotten used to having her around, even if some days I don't really have much to say to her. But I hope she'll have fun on the cruise. She's never been.

Well, the movie's ending, and the kids have to go to bed, and I have to go about the resume. Bloop.

The Interview

That's pretty much been the gist of my day. The job that I applied for two days ago has an all day on-site interview event today, so I spent most of last night slightly off because my sleep schedule was completely out of whack. Then I woke up today, kinda took my time, got into my monkey suit, and went for the interview. So I was thinking that they'd be some delay, maybe a bit of waiting time, but no. This other guy and I who went in at the same time got signed in, and whisked away to another room with computers. Introductions were passed around as I practiced my art of "instantly forgetting names as soon as I learn them." I was just born with it.

Anyway, I felt pretty manly for a second because I had already filled out an online application, and the other guy hadn't. So I got whisked away to another room with more computers, and I had to go through a profile program thingy. I didn't worry too terribly much about it, since I've taken them before. They ask you pretty basic questions to weed out the doofuses and whatnot. So I got signed in, and I'm taking the first part of the test.

It's a personality test of sorts. Do you lose your temper? Do you volunteer to help? When was the last time you volunteered to help someone else, etc. I answer the questions somewhat honestly, though I'm pushing the confidence bit a little more than I really am. No one wants to hire a mouse. Especially one who seeks constant approval. So I'm breezing through it, la la la.

The second part was when my edges of my eyes started to throb. It was to do with following policies and rules, but no, it wasn't that simple. It was deductive policing sorting. If a person has Health Plan 1, they can either have Dental 1, but not 2. Optical Plan 1 or 2. So if they had a pet monkey with rabies, what plan must they have to get their shot? That sort of thing. And they threw different situations, not just the health care bit. I struggled a bit through it, having to utilize that peanut that's been dormant in my noggin. There was also a time limit before the program kicked you out, so I couldn't use all my toes to aid with the questions.

The third part I was bleeding from my ears, and I suffered a fair amount of hair loss. It was freakin' problem math. Percentages, fractions, all in story form. I had to quickly remember how the hell to do math, and it's really tough when there's a timer and you have to keep wiping your nosebleeds and tears from your face. I even got kicked out from the last two questions because I had run out of time.

I thought I was done for, and yeah, I was damned surprised when she told me that I had passed. By then I was so happy that it was over that I didn't even care why I was even there. But they lead me to another room and three managers proceeded to mentally rape my fragile mind with THE INTERVIEW.

I stuttered, stumbled, and mumbled my way through the interview, and though they didn't seem overly impressed with me, they didn't hate me either. It's a matter of, if the rest of the day everyone sucked big ass, then I might have a chance. They said they'll keep in contact with me, which means I'm not out of the game, but I'm not in the ball park quite yet.

So I got home, being unable to really focus on anything after that experience, and later tonight, I was reading about the position online. People who have worked for and with claims adjusters. The news was downright depressing. The insurance company I applied for has the worst customer service - bottom of the barrel of insurance companies. They leave their customers unhappy. Even worse, there was even a lawsuit filed by its employees against the employer for failing to pay overtime wages in CA. The turnover rate is high, working overtime is common, and the push is to save the company money.

But you know, I'm trying to take this all in stride. I'm not working for the company as of yet, and damnit, if I had to deal with those things, then I'll deal with it then. We'll see what happens.