Friday, November 17, 2006

Idiot drivers

Just this morning I am minding my own business and driving to work like I always do. I am in the far left lane, the fast lane, going up 526 getting ready to get onto I-26 to go downtown. We are zooming along around 60 to 65 mph when all of a sudden the lady in front of me puts on her right blinker to move over. Then the same lady starts putting on her brakes so she can slow down and get over two lanes. The problem is that there were cars right next to her going the same speed. That means that I went from 65 mph to around 45 to 50 mph within about 15 seconds while I waited for her to find the room to get over. If I had been not paying attention my SUV would have made her Honda Civic a snack. I was pretty upset about it so I blew my horn at the lady and then watched her as she exited the freeway. That caused her in turn to flip me the bird on her way down the ramp. Isn't that special?? I guess she has never heard about being courteous to other drivers. That means that if you miss your exit due to heavy traffic or poor planning or not paying attention do not make the rest of us have a wreck because you decide to slam on your brakes so that you can make a hole for yourself in traffic.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Back to the drawing board

I found out today that the job that I had applied for was not mine. They gave the job to someone else. Can you imagine that? Well, I am disappointed in some ways but I am not surprised. I am going to have to go back to the drawing board and see what I can do to find something else. The hard part about not being a permanent employee somewhere is that it is so easy to get rid of you. We have enjoyed working with you and we wish you well in your new endeavours. We really do not have anything else for you to do. Thanks. I can not tell you how familiar I am with those words. Corporate America loves out sourcing and hiring temps for temporary assignments because they do not have to pay any benefits. Once your usefullness to them is gone they can throw you out like a piece of trash.

So, with that in mind, time to start digging through the newspaper again on Sunday. I can not wait to do that. I love taking my magnifying glass and reading glasses and gaze through all the tiny micro print reading all of the many jobs that are listed. The million dollar question is this. Are the jobs that are listed really an actual job or are they just trolling for available candidates to keep their resume database full? I know for certain that recruiters love to do that on the Internet on the supposed job boards. That means that all you can do is throw a million and one resumes into the Cyberwind and hope that one of them is an actual job and someone contacts you.

I remember job hunting in the old days when you drove to the business, filled out the application and could speak to someone about the hiring process. You could call back later and talk to someone in HR to find a status. In those days there were very few businesses that would accept a resume online via the web and most of the time they wanted a fax. With the advent of the Internet the hiring managers can put a form out on a website and you can fill out all your information there and then if they like you they call you for a phone interview. If they do not like you then you wont hear a thing. Sometimes there is not even a phone number to call or a contact to check status with. It is faster and easier for the employer and also much more impersonal to boot.

I think I need to win the lottery soon so I dont have to go through finding another job all over again.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net

Bad technology

Some days are better than others and yesterday was not one of my better ones. I went to work feeling fine and then around 9 am my blood pressure went through the roof. Go figure... I was feeling dizzy and that is because the blood pressure was 181/110 and climbing. I had some slight chest pain and a small tightness in my chest but that only lasted for a couple of seconds. Co workers called Public Safety and they in turn called EMS. I can not tell you how embarrasing it was to be carted out of the building on a stretcher. Anyway, we get into the ambulance and that is when things get interesting. The EMS personnel were very courteous and professional however they ran into some technical glitches. Imagine lying on a stretcher feeling dizzy and listening to the paramedics talk about nothing is working right.

The first thing they did was to try and transfer the oxgyen from the bottle on the stretcher that they took into the building to the oxygen source in the ambulance. That did not work so they had to stick me back on the bottle. The next thing they had to do was try to figure out how to attach the leads to me for the EKG machine on the ambulance. I think that they knew how to attach the leads in the correct order but the EKG machine was not cooperating. I heard the paramedic say that he could not tranmit the telemetry correctly because it looked all messed up and was not right. At this point I am thanking Jesus that I was only a little dizzy and not really having a massive coronary event. The next thing that happened was that the person sitting behind me nearest the driver said that he could not contact the hospital ER because the radio did not work properly. I was starting to wonder if they would be able to get me to the hospital without the engine falling out of it.

Within an hour my BP went down to semi normal and after two hours I was starving and wanting to walk out of the ER and to Hardees for a thick burger. Just writing this makes me hungry enough to do that right now. LOL... Anyway, I was there about 2 hours and then they cut me loose. Katy drove me back to work so I could scoop up my laptop bag and truck keys. I stayed at work about 90 minutes to help out a co worker and then I went home and tried to get some rest before bowling.

I hope that the ambulance staff are able to work out the technical kinks that they were having so that if they really do have a heart attack victim or someone that is really ill that they will be able to provide a better service to them. Luckily for me I was only 5 minutes away from the hospital and did not have to depend on the technology at hand.



James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net