Testing new software and shifting into a new life

The first thing to test is how well this works posting from my phone. Hopefully it will work. If so, yay!

Other fun news for anyone that is actually reading this. I finally got a job! After years of doing nothing but temp work, switching from job to job, and from state to state, I finally have a position that is full time, salaried, with benefits. It is about a 35 min commute, so not so bad.

The group I help to run is finally starting to get back on track and I am branching out and actually having a social life outside of the group. So yay part 3!

Hopefully, if I play my cards right I will get to move out in the new year and get to be free of dept in 2.

Wish me luck

-ysb

The life of Yonatan: Spring Edition (Part 2)

So when I left off the story, I was glad to have a week break and get a chance to get my head in order. I spent most of the time watching Law and Order and relaxing, knowing that I would soon get a phone call about a new assignment.

Unfortunately, the call never came. It has now been over a month since I have had any assignment that lasted more than a few hours, and I had only two of those.

So what have I been doing?

Sitting in Columbia Heights Coffee, my neighborhoods amazing coffee shop, drinking massive amounts of Tea and applying to jobs.

In the last month I have gone to interviews at 3 staffing agencies, none of which have gotten back to me, and had a couple interviews.

In fact one of the companies that I have interviewed with: The Democratic Campaign Management Program, has just offered me a job. I am not sure how I feel about it as it would mean leaving DC and going somewhere else in the country. It would be another leap of faith in my life, but it would probably be great for my career. So we shall see.

If anyone reading this has heard of them, please pass me any inside info that you might have.

So that is what I have been up to recently...

I am heading back home of Pesach which will be really nice, and will soon be making a decision.

I will get back into normal blogging soon...I promise

The life of Yonatan: Spring Edition (Part 1)

Well I haven't made any real updates here in quite and while and so I figured I might as well get around to doing this whole blogging thing again.


What have I been up to?


Well If I had written this back in the fall or even at the beginning of the winter I could have said "Not much." I had been doing what I had been doing ever since I got to do: Coasting. I was getting fairly regular assignments. Money was coming in and life was... acceptable.

But then things changed.

The first major slap across my contentedness came in December.

Through a friend I had gotten an interview with the American wing of the Israeli peace movement: Americans for Peace Now. I had a good first interview and was called back of the second one within an hour of leaving the first one. At the second one I was told that I "practically had the job" and that they were going to conduct a couple more interviews but that I "was in the top tier." I was also told that they would try and make a decision by the end of the week. This was on the Wednesday before Christmas.

When I didn't hear anything back by the end of the week, I wasn't too concerned. After all they were probably on vacation now, like most of the rest of DC. It had seemed like such a surefire thing but. as I sat at home, with nothing to do and no assignments, the "Christmas break" only thing that kept my hopes up. Come the New Year, I eventually got a new assignment with AIPAC and sat back and waited to hear. And waited. And waited.

I tried to call on several occasions, but no one took my call or returned any of my messages. One month after my second interview, I had completely given up and was more than a little annoyed.
Eventually, I just flat out asked the person who answered the phone if she was the person who had been hired for the position. She was, and she had been hired some 2 weeks earlier.

After my assignment with AIPAC ended I got another assignment with a consulting firm which was amazing dull and annoying. When that assignment ended, even though i didn't yet have an assignment for the next week, I thought it wouldn't be too long before my next one and was kind of glad to have a break.

However things were not to be so easy.

This is not to say that some fun stuff didn't happen in this time period, including my teaching on Parsha Mishpatim at the DC Beit Midrash, and helping some friends move and their moving party. Bit I wasn't really happy with my life.

Next....things get worse.

Something cool for a lazy tuesday

Seen hanging from the ceiling of some bar in Adams Morgan

The SoCal Fires

One of the cracks that I make about Southern California is that, unlike Northern California, the south of the state tends to burst into flames every once in a while.

However, in the two years that I lived in Irvine, the fires never started up, and the only thing that the Santa Ana winds brought us was a warm summer.

This year, however, it seems like most of SoCal is aflame. I had heard about Malibu being engulfed in flame and about celebrities loosing their houses. But then I saw two things that hit the fires home for me.

First of all, the foothills above Irvine are aflame and in an area not a 10 minute drive from where I lived.
Secondly, 250,000 people have been ordered to evacuate in San Diego today. Yes you read that correctly,

Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand People!!!

Check the LA Times for more info

Thousands of firefighters are on the scene and more are probably going to be coming. Of course this is something that the California National Guard would be great for, but they, and their helicopters and probably all in Iraq now.

Oh and Glen Beck thinks that those who are loosing their homes tonight are people who hate America. Glad to see that there are still assholes out there who will make political points out of horrible tragedies like this.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So to all of my friends in Southern California: Keep safe and I hope that you and your loved ones make it out of all of this one.

Fuck You HP

Fuck You for selling me a Laptop that has a shitty cooling system
Fuck You for selling me a Laptop in which one of the USB ports breaks after a month
Fuck You for selling me a Laptop where the wireless card stops working after 8 months
Fuck You for telling me that I had water damage on my Laptop and thus I will have to pay you $800 to get the system fixed.

Fuck you for generally treating my dad like crap since the bubble burst.

Basically just fuck you in general.


I am this close to being done with Laptops. Until a system is made that can handle everyday normal wear and tear without turning into a brick...


I have a desktop system back at home that I built myself with my own hands back in the summer of 2003.

It has a Gig of RAM, 160 Gig's of Disc Space, a 120MB Video Card, one of the first DVD+-RW drives a second DVD Player and (because it was $9.99) a 3 1/4 in Floppy Drive


I didn't quite build it correctly .

Somewhere in the construction of the colling system i screwed up and thus the computer is always a lot hotter on the inside than it should be. I have to turn off two of the sensors otherwise that would be constantly beeping at me.

The only problem that I have had with the system is the colling problems.

The only money I have spent fixing the system is replacing, as of last month, all 4 of the case fans ($9.99 each)

I have also added a TV card to the system and was thus able to watch season 5 of Angel even though there hasn't been a TV in my home since 1996. It was also very useful in the Dorms since I was able to watch TV in my room.

In that time period I have gone though 2 laptops.

While I am going to try to get my old Laptop out here (since it only really needed a new battery), the thing I would really like to get is my desktop.

Sigh...

Hopefully I can get something out of HP.

Doctor Who, Life and Updates

For Years now I have had an almost complete collection of the Doctor Who novelization that were done by Target Publishing (nothing to do with the US retailer.) In fact I am only missing 4 of the novelizations. Mission to the Unknown and The Mutation of Time (the two Novelizations of the 12 part Daleks Masterplan from the First Doctor's era and The Happiness Patrol from the 7th Doctor's era. Oh and I still dont have two of the "Missing" 6th Doctor stories (The Ultimate Evil and Mission to Magnus) but since they were never actually broadcast they dont count as much. Other than that I have everything, the episode guides put out during the 5th Doctor's era, the Quiz books,I have it all. Hell I even have Turlough and The Earthlink Dilemma, Harry Sullivan's War and I believe I even have the Crossword Puzzle book.

Well as of yesterday, I can tick one off of my list as I received the copy of Mission to the Unknown that I had purchased on Ebay. So, this afternoon, for the first time since the mid-90's I will have a new Target novelization to read. I cant wait.

In other news, my laptop, which was purchased new in January has decided to stop working. Luckily I have a backup of the system and it is still under warranty. Unfortunately, the backup is from early August so the pictures that I uploaded since then are now lost as are the IM logs for the last year. Thank goodness for uploading pictures to Facebook.

Went and saw Alan Alda talk last week. He is a very funny man, and I am almost finished with his first book "Never have your dog stuffed: and other things I've learned"

Current Assignment: Trust for America's Health: Database Creation and Archiving News Articles
Weeks I have been on assignment: 4

Things I have done recently

Saturday: While fasting I played some Heroclix, got my ass kicked

My team in the Starro Tournament was
Abracadabra
Dr. Alchemy
Wonder Woman
The Crimson Fox

the team came in at exactly 300 points and while I was able to take out Hourman in one game and Doctor Light in another, my team really wasn't that good. Hopefully I will get a better team next time.

After that I went to services and then came home and enjoyed eating again.

Sunday: I cooked pancakes for breakfast, saw the National Opera's free telecast of La Boeme on the Mall (which was an amazing preformance), came home and cooked dinner ( a beer and onion stew with chicken and apple sausages) for my roommates.


Monday, just as I was about to begin one new project, I got another one dumbed in my lap, so that took up a day or so extra.


Yesterday I went back to Six and I Historic Synagogue (where I had been for High Holy days) and saw Alan Alda speak. He is a really funny guy, and I got him to sign a copy of his first book. Also I think he would look really good in a smoking jacket and an ascot.

Now I sit at my desk waiting for 5:30 so I can go and get my comics.

Good G_D Yonatan wrote a post!!!

Ah the day before Yom Kippur, when all Jews eat massive amounts of food to prepare for the fasting tomorrow.

Anyway it has been like a month since I last posted, ive been up to some interesting stuff, been some interesting places and well... things have been interesting.

At some point this weekend I will make another post about comics, movies and other stuff.

I swear*

Until then work, more food and then going to Synagogue.

Ta for now

-Yonatan



*He says 6 odd hours before he goes to Kol Nidre to have all previous oaths removed.

%$&^%$%& Voicemail

I have been calling Area Agencies on Aging all day long...why wont any of them pick up the phone?

Free Ice Cream and New Comics

It is a good combination

(the free ice cream is at my work)

US News rankings are out today

UC Irvine is tied for 44th place in the Nation in the ranking of all colleges, and it tied for 14th place in Public Schools

So says US News and World Report

GO ANTEATERS!!! ZOT ZOT ZOT

It looks ok from in here

There are many thing that my mother trained me well on. One of them is a liking of foggy and overcast days.

Looking out of the window at my desk at work right now it is a very overcast and grey day and since I have the AC on right next to me it is also chilly (outside it is in the 90's). Oh and the lights aren't really on in here.

Dark, Overcast, and chilly...mmmm...if only I had a book and could just curl up...

Seizures

So as some may have heard Chief Justice John Roberts suffered a seizure yesterday and fell 5 feet, injuring himself and causing him to end up in the hospital. While I find Justice Roberts to be a repugnant bastard who is setting back the rights of Americans by decades, having a seizure is no laughing matter. For many years growing up I would have, once every couple of years a feveral seizure. What this means is that basically if my internal temperature got hot enough my body would reboot itself.
Unfortunately this rebooting would be accompanied by shaking and sometimes screaming. Once this happened to me in middle school in the middle of class. When I woke up, there were firefighters there and I got taken to the hospital. The doctors never found out why I was having them, and my pediatrician believed that I would just outgrow them. I did but it took until either 7th grade or 9th grade for this to happen (I don't remember having a seizure in 9th grade but my mom does.)
Luckily I have not had one since, but when ever I feel a temperature coming on, I always make sure to pop some tylanol and go home and have a lie-down. The time in 7th grade was the only time when i had a seizure not at home in my bed and, if I the reason I haven't had a seizure in 10 years is simply luck, I don't want to endanger myself or scare anyone around me again.

So, in conclusion, Justice Roberts, i despise you from the core of my being, but I know what you are going through and I wish you a speedy recovery and hope that you never have another seizure.

For more information of what happened to Chief Justice Roberts look to this New York Times article
For more information of Seizures check the Wikipedia article
These were the type of Seizures that I was having. I had them from when I was very young and none of the drugs ever worked.

[edit ( 8-31-07) It was pointed out by my mother and sisters that what I had aren't actually called Feveral Seizures but are, in point of fact called Feberal seizures. The More you know...]

Random Stuff on a Sunday

So this morning I was, for some reason watching Meet the Press and The McLaughlin Group.

A couple of observations:

The one woman in the MTP lineup defiantly seemed like she was the odd wo-man out. Especially in the discussion of the ridiculousness of the fashion critic of the Washington Post complaining that Hillary Clinton wore a blouse that revealed some cleavage. I mean really...she is a woman...women have breasts... and the "cleft created by the partial exposure of a woman's breasts" is called cleavage... It is hardly a new concept.


But in any case, she really did seem put upon by all of the men.

Secondly, the reason that congress has low approval ratings is not so because they are being to forceful in their conflict with Generalissimo Bush, as the pundit class would have us believe. But it is because they not being forceful enough. We did not elect them to congress to serve as Yes-Men and Yes-Women to a king. We elected them to fight the president. Sigh....

Thirdly, why does John McLaughlin feel the need to scream every single question? We can hear you if you just talk. It's like he feels the need to scream so that we can be heard or something.

Anywho...

Was going to have some fun playing Ultimate Frizbee on the Mall this afternoon. However, on the first day out in over a week that I didnt bring my umbrella, it begins to rain. So now I'm sitting aroun watching X-Files. Later howeverI am going to watch Arsenic and Old Lace. It is a really fun movie, and everyone should watch it.

Yes ever you

life...in mid july

I don't know what it is...maybe it is the fact that it is over-cast outside... maybe it is the fact that the work I am doing right now is mind numbingly dull...maybe it was the fact that the internet and then the computers were down till around noon... but I just don't feel like being that productive today.

In other news I had the interview with the American Heart Association. I thought it went ok, but the guy who is in the cubical next to mine thought I did well...so... we shall see.

Also this week's comics were actually quite good. Except for Justice League 11 which was just plain, unadulterated shit. But more on that later.

Oh plus it was my 25th Birthday this weekend. I had a nice a relaxing time hanging out with my sister and playing Heroclix at Big Monkey. It was all very peaceful and I got a couple of nice presents from my family.

Anyway that all for now, I will have another couple of posts once I get back home from work.

But I should really start doing work again...sigh

Oh... my roommates have decided to hold a party this weekend. Hopefully I can get some people to stop by for a while.

Ta for now

-Yonatan

Work updates.

I have an phone interview in an hour...gulp...

It is for a really cool sounding job with the American Heart Association.

We shall see what happens.

Also... after 7 weeks with the DC Convention and Tourism Corporation I may finally be moving on to a new assignment.

Shabbat Shalom everyone

Hope you all have a relaxing shabbat everyone
Oh plus tomorrow is my birthday!!!
If anyone wants to do something give me a call tomorrow

photo was taken by me

Wednesday off

The problem with having a day off of work in the middle of the week is that you have:
Two Fridays: (Tuesday and Friday) (After this day you don't have to work)
Two Mondays: (Monday and Thursday) (You have just come off of not working)
and
Two Thursdays (Monday and Thursday): (You have two days till you don't have to work)


All in all this leads to a very confusing week.

Sigh...

It would have been so nice

Sigh... I had a wonderful post almost finished yesterday all about the comics I had purchased last week. It had pictures of all of the comics and it even used my new Todd rating scheme... but them things got messy...blogger screwed things up and the entire thing got lost. So when I write about this weeks comics I will include last weeks as well.

Other stuff that has gone on in my life since I last updated.

-played a great game of soccer on the Mall with a bunch of Jews from around town. My team won 6-4, with me scoring two goals and assisting in one other.

-went to the Torah learning session put on by DC minyan... it is called DC Beit Midrash and is alot of fun. It meet Mondays at like 7pm at the DCJCC, and is taught by whoever feels like teaching. Afterwards there is either individual or group learning and then a bunch of us go and hang out at some restaurant a few blocks away.
Plus there are alot of cute jewish girls who go. :)

I have been able to stretch my current assignment out a bit longer and will be here for at least another week. Not bad but i could use some more hours.

So thats all for now, this weekend should be nice as I will be playing heroclix on Saturday and then will be meeting up with a friend on sunday.

Oh and welcome to Colleen, GT and Brian, all from Irvine who just arrived in DC.

ta for now