Watching College Volleyball

I usually go out to eat with my buddy from college twice a month. This time around, he wanted to go see the women's volleyball from his graduate school play. He asked that I drive us there. He hurt his leg. So I thought I could drop him off in from of the venue. He told me we could walk if I parked close.

At the ticket box, my buddy tried to pay with cash. They only accept credit card. Weird. We arrived just as things were getting started. They announced each player from the home team. We sat right at the 50 yard line (where the net was). They did not let you enter the upper decks. So we were pretty close.

There are 5 sets of 25 points each (except set 5 goes to 15 points). So winner if best of 3. The opposing team from Albany won the first 2 sets. It could have been a short game. However my buddy's school came back winning the last 3 sets, and won the match.

We tried to spy on the merch store. It is not open for volleyball games. At each match point, the crowd stood up and cheered. One intermission entertainment was a bunch of pizza boxes on one side of the net. Some contestants tried to serve volleyballs from the other side and hit the box for free pizza. Three out of 25 people actually hit a box.

Little Kat has been studying for his first certification. It is CompTIA IT Fundamentals (ITF+). I had got him some study materials. He went through all 11 modules. Then he hit the practice exams. I think you need a 75% to pass. He kept retaking the practice exams until he could get at least 90%.

This weekend Little Kat drove to a local testing center. He was not sure what percentage he got. They scored him out of a total 900 points. But he did pass. This is a relatively simple entry level certification. I have not really seen any jobs that require it.

Now Little Kat is starting his job at the school with Momoko. He is going to be a computer lab instructor. This is just something to make money and get a current job on his resume. It might take him a few months to get his feet.

Once Little Kat is set in his new job, he will start studying for the CompTIA A+ certification. This one has two exams. Little Kat thought it would take at least two months of studying for each of the exams. Once he passes both and gets certified, he will start looking for a tech job again.

I have seen a few jobs Little Kat applied to that want you to have a CompTIA A+. In the end, Little Kat wants to get some specialized forensics certification. That will cost a lot of money for training. It might be worth it.

High Prices at Checkers

Momoko went out for happy hour this afternoon. So at night she got hungry. She asked if I would drive her somewhere that had a drive through. I did not want the usual McDonald's fair. So I recommended we go to Checkers.

Momoko found wings on their menu. We had ordered funnel cake fries before. They were delicious. I used to order banana milk shakes there in the old days. This was a new Checkers that came to our town. It was the first time I went.

Momoko wanted wings with BBQ sauce on the side. I got hot wings. We both got large shakes and funnel cake fries. The total ended up being $44. To top it off, we got parked for over 10 minutes. The food was good. But no where near worth $44. Will not be returning unless we win the lottery.

Keeping the Trash Can Clean

Our trash collectors are not careful when returning trash cans to the neighborhood. So the other day, I somehow got 2 trash cans. I found out one new neighbor has double. I gave him his back. Then later I found that the can I kept seemed to really stink.

I tried putting some baking soda in there to absorb the smell. It did not do much. This sucks because I used to keep my trash can fresh by double bagging trash. Today I decided to do something about it.

I got some pressure washer cleaner. Used a mop to scrub the inside of the trash can with the cleaner. Then I broke out the pressure washer to rinse the trash can out. Also ran the pressure washer over the outside of the can. Now at least the thing does not smell too bad.

Might have to rinse and repeat a few times. Now it would be a good time to label my trash can. Don't want a repeat of a stinky can.

Little Kat Gets a Job

After graduating from college, Little Kat took a small gap vacation. It lasted about 5 weeks. Then he got down to business applying to jobs. I told him to shoot for at least 100 applications a week. He has been doing this for about 6 weeks.

Little Kat got some online assessments. But aside from that, he has been ghosted. There have been no interviews. I used to think computer science graduates could get 1 interview for every 100 applications they submitted. It seems like it has devolved to 1 interview every 500.

I had some ideas. Little Kat should get some tech certifications. I also started a project with Little Kat that I thought we could pivot into an internship or a position at a company we co-found. Little Kat started on a program to kick off the startup. He found it very difficult.

At school, Momoko was talking with the principal and assistant principal. It seems elementary school teachers are understaffed and are having trouble getting their planning time. Their solution was to create a new computer lab position that would allow them to plan. Momoko told them Little Kat just graduated with a degree in Computer Technology and was looking.

Long story short, Little Kat got the job. It is not his dream job. The pay is good. The requirements are not difficult. He will work for people he knows along side of people he calls friends. The plan is for his to stop job applications and stop the project we are working on. I told him to spend all time before the job starts getting at least 1 certification. We will give him a few months to get acclimated to the new job. Then we will regroup.

The Start of Project X

Little Kat has graduated from his 4-year college with a bachelor's degree. He needed a gap month to rest. Now he is looking for a job. He has recently passed the 500 applications point. He did got 5 or 6 online assessments. However he has not received any interviews.

I knew the market for new grads was poor. I did not know it was this bad. Recently I saw a Reddit post about a guy that submitted 3000 applications and only got 5 interviews. Not sure if any of those translated into a job offer. I doubt it.

For now, I am working with Little Kat on a secret joint mission I call Project X. Today we had our initial meeting. I set some end goals for 6 months from now. I also gave Little Kat his first task. I hope he can finish it in a few weeks. Today I mailed him 10 "data files" for him to process.

Project X will at least give Little Kat a chance to work on a real world project. I think he can use what he learned in college and hone his skills. There is even a chance our project can make some money. Who knows? We might be starting the next FaceBook in our basement.

Playing the Slot Machines

The only slot machine I like is Jackpot party. The casino we visited did not have my game. I ended up downloading it on my iPad and playing it a lot. It gave me a daily bonus to spend with. My second favorite game was Black Knight. There was a variation of it at the casino. However it had a large gate, under which my matches did not count unless the gate was raised. Overall, I lost around half the money I came with.

Momoko found some Three Little Pigs type of game called Huff and Puff. You would enter a bonus round if you got  6 helmets. That was where you would make the most money. The helmet round would be a search for subsequent helmets that would fortify your houses from straw to wood to stone. Then a wolf would try to blow down your houses. The longer they stood, the bigger your bonuses. Momoko even got some mini and minor extra bonuses as well. In general, she doubled her money that she came with.

There was an old style slot that I did have some fun with. Initially I was hyped that it let me bet just 20 cents. All the other slots were mostly 75 cents minimum bet. I did not initially understand the payout rules. Momoko clarified that I had to bet at least 60 cents for the sevens to count. And I had to bet a dollar for the wild to count. Betting 60 cents was profitable. But the dollar level seemed like a huge waste. Momoko tried a similar machine that featured some type of jalapeno pepper theme.