Job Search

I was working on a project at work. We do software maintenance. The yearly option for the contract was coming to an end. Usually, the customer just turns us on for another year. This time around they said they were not renewing. In theory, some government people could take over. The hope was that a new system would be in place. Then they would not even need maintenance for the old system.

The money on the end of the project was tight. I was forced to take some vacation days. Our company is working on the replacement system. I thought I could slide to that project. My boss said he could see me working there for at least a couple weeks. I was only given one week. Then I had no project. The boss said without me, they could not deliver. So, he tried to get me to come back for a couple weeks to wrap up. He was only able to get money for a week and a half. After that, I am again without a project.

I am looking far and wide. Applied for 7 jobs at the company so far. Couple of them rejected me. I think my best bet is to go outside the company. I found one that pays even better than my company. They gave me a link to an online assessment. The company running that was unable to process a copy of my ID with a picture taken from my video camera. I went and tried to get a scanned copy of my ID. By then, the exam got disconnected.

Eventually I got the company to request another exam for me. At first, I was taken aback. It wanted me to code in the JavaScript programming language. Don't think I have used that for 14 years. I did find a way to switch it to python. There were only 4 questions on the exam. They all required writing a program to pass all the tests. I got the first 3 questions right 100% passing all tests. I did not have enough time to finish the last one. It only passed 4 out of 10 tests.

I was supposed to have an interview with my recruiter at the company today. He said he had to cancel because I failed the assessment. LOL wut? I got an 85%. Maybe because they offer so much money, they require 100% passing. My recruiter told me I would need to wait 6 months before they would consider me again. Back to the drawing board.

Portable A/C to the Rescue

A friend of the family had her A/C system fail recently. She has a geothermal one. The repair guys said the required part to fix it was on back order. Although it is still spring, the weather is getting hot. The friend and her cats were suffering in the hot house.

Momoko suggested we could loan a portable A/C to the friend. Little Kat used to use a portable A/C in his bedroom. It has since been replaced by a mini-split A/C. Little Kat dug the old portable out of the closet. He located the accessories. Then he gave them to our friend.

The friend called and said the unit was blowing hot air. We had a second unit in our home. But we sort of hard wired it into our dining room window. Little Kat was able to disconnect the hose leading to the window. But he was too busy with friends to deliver the unit.

Momoko and I drove to our friend's house. Momoko made me stand the unit upright in my car. I carried the thing up the stairs to the master bedroom. It was a huge room. I swapped it for the broken unit, which I took back down to my car.

Initially it was 83 degrees in the master bedroom. After an hour, it was 78 degrees and falling. I hope the cats know to come upstairs to the master bedroom to sleep tonight. I figure by midnight, it should be 68 degrees or lower.

McDonald's $4 breakfast meal deal

 

Our handyman was coming over this morning to finish up some work on a bathroom fan. So, I ran out early to get McDonald's. There were a lot of cars in both drive through lanes. A truck with stuff sticking out the bed was in the left lane. I went right. The car two ahead of me took forever.

I planned on getting the sausage McMuffin $4 meal deal. It comes with a sausage and cheese McMuffin, a hash brown, and drink. I chose a large Coke no ice for a $0.50 upcharge. The person taking my order was slow and seemed distracted. When I got to the window to pay, they thought I ordered a biscuit. I corrected them.

When I got to the second window, they handed me a biscuit. I told them the sandwich was wrong. They then proceeded to give me a sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin. I did not complain. I found a bonus of an extra hash brown in my bag.

All in all, it was a hassle to order. But I got two bonus items in the end.

Getting Rid of the Chaise

Momoko said she needs more desk space in her study. It is time to get rid of her chaise. I recall having a really hard time getting it into her study. So, this weekend I decided to cut the thing in half. I turned the thing over to get access. I put two boards underneath to protect the carpet.

I used a chainsaw to cut through. It took a while to get all the way through. Some steel wires popped out. A lot of fluff fell on the floor. I called my brother. He said he could be home in 10 minutes to help carry the stuff out. We started with the biggest piece. It was half a chaise, but was hard to get through the doors.

At first we put both halves in our carport. But the big piece was sticking out. So, I moved it to the patio outside our sliding glass door. There was one square cushion that came apart. I ran the sweeper when we were done removing the chaise. There should be a lot of room for another desk, or at least a longer one.

Introduction to KATSEYE

Momoko and I watched a series on Netflix called "The Debut: Dream Academy". This was an 8 part series of hour long shows where they found the members of the band KATSEYE. The training was based out of Los Angeles. They weeded out a girl or two, ending up with a list of 20 candidates.

One of the first people to be booted was Adela, a strong blonde singer from Slovakia. She did not fare well with fans. I thought the judges would overrule the crowd voting. However, they sent her home early. I thought she was the best singer in the initial group. Her dancing skills were mid.

Then they started adding new candidate girls even as late as 12 months into the show. One was Lara, a girl from LA who was Indian. She made the final list. There was another girl I liked named Emily. She was a short blonde girl good at dance. She made it to the final 10, but was but when they determined the final group of 6.

Big Thrifting

I have been watching shows like Storage Wars and Pawn Stars. So, I got the bug to acquire second hand things of value. I figured I could return to the local thrift store in town to do so. I waited until Momoko had a day off. And we went early, around an hour after they opened.

The parking lot seemed full for a weekday. Up front they had jewelry. Off to the side, they had home ware wrapped in small plastic bags. I made a bee line to the first couple rows that had sporadic art. Another shopper told us the art was in the front corner of the building. Momoko grabbed a cart.

I first surveyed all the art there. I kept an eye on price. Did not want anything for $20. Felt like $10 was near the top of my range. I did pick up one item for $12.99. The cheapest was $1.99. Momoko and I paid separately. It was all self checkout. Momoko had trouble with the credit card taker. She paid cash.

The shopping cart had a pole preventing you from wheeling it out of the store. I carried stuff to the curb in front of the store. The exit door was one way and locked. I pulled the car up and loaded my goods in a no parking zone. Here are some treasure I picked up:

• A large framed portrait of dogs playing billiards. On the back was another of dog playing poker.
• A heavy mid-sized frame picture of an owl
• A black stretched outline of a baseball playing made out of words
• A photo album with an old time cover image, dirty but still nice
• A huge artwork that Momoko through looked nice
• An open top tool box with our local baseball team logo on it
  

Desk Chair Swap

I was working out in the yard. I saw some delivery guy come to our house. So, when I was done working, I went in front to see what we got. There was a large box in front of our door. It was for Little Kat. I figured I would bring it into our house. The thing was heavy. I needed the dolly to wheel it in.

Momoko thought that Little Kat broke his chair. All of a sudden, a chair appeared in our library. It did not appear to be broken. Momoko thought maybe Little Kat assembled his new chair in our library. That made no sense. Why would he not build it in his room where he needs the chair.

Later, I quizzed Little Kat. He said he upgraded his chair to one with more lumbar support. He was giving away his old chair. My brother did not want it. Little Kat thought it did not fit Momoko. I just happened to start noticing my desk chair in my study was not comfortable. So, I took the old chair and am sitting on it now. Let's see if it is comfortable in the long run.