I had to experience a time of loss and pain. It was not fun

My dog is in the animal hospital and she’s fighting hard to live. She was misdiagnosed at her home clinic and it was not pancreas problems, it was blocked stool in her digestive track. The toxic shock is killing her and I hope she gets better. She gave me and my family loads of love and enjoyment. Bless her!

Update: They removed most of the stool, but the stool was ultimately trapped in her gut and we would of been rocked with 2200.00 of debt if we chose to do the surgery. It would not guarantee that she would of survived, it would of been nice to have her back with us.

Then they called us stating that her organs were failing and turning abnormal in color where she would of failed anyways. So we made the right decision to let her depart.

But I will always will miss her.

Askua 2004-2008, always in our minds.

I do not understand why old women from Seattle and Kirkland want to call me. My mobile phone clearly states its “Matt Munson’s phone” please leave a message. If you honestly want to talk to me, leave a message on my voice mail and explain what would you like from me. However all these old ladies keep on saying is hello? hello? and they do not have much to say.

I think I should take advantage of my caller id and not answer these calls. Or maybe I should reciprocate their stupidity and do the same back and do likewise for wasting my time.

The dentist is becoming a money pit. My likely bad dental hygiene habits are causing me to blow so much money. I am getting 25% 4 scores on my gums and that is bad news. Maybe its the plaque that is on my gums that cause the inflammation.

I think for now, I am going to floss religiously, limit my consumption of soda for one a day and see what happens from there. It seems I am getting the broken record message from the dentist, but worrying about my dental health is going to be more of a time sink than an online video game. I do want my teeth to last me, because you only get one set and dentures are not fun either.

It is unfortunate that I have not been to Disneyland in 11 years. The price increases of their tickets prove how less of a bargain the park will be for many people in the economic climate of today. $69 for a 1 day ticket for one park makes me want to cringe. It used to be $56 in 2005, and now in 2008 they raised it to $69. If $69 covered both parks then I would consider that a sensible bargain.

My sister and father both like Disneyland, but I do not find buying an annual pass worth the investment. The annual pass costs around 2.5x the price of a 69.00 ticket, but I find it like a gym membership where I would barely go twice a year at best.

I know Disneyland counts on the holiday vacationers, but they are out pricing the average people who live around their park in Anaheim.  Disneyland used to be affordable, but expensive when I was a child. Now it is a unrealistic luxury to many.

Hearing the stories from companies doing business in my town going bankrupt is rather scary. Seeing that businesses going out of business who will not see the light of day. Its going to be near impossible to make a living or support someone else’s income in retail right now. Part timers are becoming more of a joke. It seems like you need two or three jobs to make what a good part time opportunity used to be. I also kind of laugh at the people applying at my workplace knowing that you are not going to get much hours or shifts either.

I thought about applying to other retail outlets, but even at other stores at the local mall you only get like 1-2 days at worse. It is becoming a joke.

If you are in high school right now, start thinking about what skills or education you will need to make a good income. Become risk adverse to the ups and downs of the economy. Hopefully the economy will be better for all of us. The housing bubble was the worst bubble that many people did get suckered into.

And welcome readers of Sharon’s blog who found the link to my website.

Recently milk was bought last Thursday with an expiration date of the 19th. Even after a few days bought I noticed the milk was tasting rather awful. I decided to leave the milk back in the fridge until my father decided to pour it on some cereal. Then my father asked me the same question, I just recently bought the milk and it goes spoiled this quickly.

If you thought you were crazy, you are most likely telling the truth about your spoiled milk story.

The Consumerist has a feature called Is Your Milk going Sour Faster? and explains the mystery of the rapidly spoiled milk. Many people are suspecting that its companies skimping on the temperature either in the store or during the transportation of the product. Maybe we need to go back to buying the gallon containers of milk, because the smaller the container the faster the milk becomes sour.

For the past few days construction crews have been drilling at 7 in the morning, I wish they gave the surrounding residents notice so we could adjust our sleeping routines. I am so tempted to get a boombox to play music that the construction crews would be not wanting to listen to.

I understand the construction crews for the gas utility company do not want to work in the heat, but giving the residents proper notice would of been nice.

It just simply blows when you go to bed at 1 in the morning and then you get a nice wake up call 6 hours later.

I officially changed sides in the debate for a Super Wal-Mart in Ontario, California on the intersection of Fifth and Mountain. I know I might get disowned politically for this position, but I do have some rational arguments to support the project.

A Super Wal-Mart has a supermarket and a wal-mart plus several other businesses within the business. In Las Vegas, the Super Wal-Marts I visited had hair salons, nail salons, a portrait studio and much more. However, due to concerns from the residents maybe we could simplify the project to just have a pharmacy, the McDonalds and the portrait studio like the standard Wal-Mart in Upland.

The critical feature that faces opposition is the supermarket business of wal-mart. The corporation is anti-labor union, where they will close down any store or function that unionizes like the butchers. However supermarkets such as Albertsons are overpriced compared to other stores that are unionized like Stater Brothers. Even with the Albertsons loyalty card, prices are still high. I know residents would like to protect reasonably paid union jobs, but if the company can not compete in the marketplace then customers will make their own decisions.

However, Wal-Mart has massive buying power where they can negotiate the best price possible while maintaining their bottom line. In this new economy, its critical that the people of Ontario, California are able to have this resource.

Since the parcel is near a residential district, I would suggest that the store is open from 6 to 11, and 24 hours during the holiday rush in the winter. This would be the compromise that would help reduce traffic and crime at night.

Also, Wal-Mart could purchase the former Hollywood Video parcel and use it for more parking so the lot would be easier to get in and out compared to the Costco in Montclair.

There are a good number of people who would like the expanded retail opportunities as consumers. However Wal-Mart and the city of Ontario should try to make reasonable accommodations with the residents that surround the project. It seems that Wal-Mart should of built their Super Wal-Mart when they were about ready to build that Sam’s Club back in 2002 near the Ontario Mills since it is in a pure retail/industrial district.

If reasonable accommodations can not be addressed then we should just buy back the property from Wal-Mart and have them try and build in the new development in southern Ontario.

If Wal-Mart wants success with the residents here is the plan:

A. Reduce the operating hours to 6am-11pm

B. Simplify the layout

C. Buy the Hollywood video lot for more parking

Since my part time job became less of a part time job, I decided to look for better opportunities. Part time, full time or temporary any improvement would have been appreciated. I decided to look at Craig’s List for my local region and decided to reply to an advertisement for a bookstore’s seasonal cashier team for a two week period.

The bookstore did not staff these positions on their own, they used a staffing service in Upland California which I will keep nameless. I had a decent meeting with their staffing coordinator and made a decent impression. I was indeed qualified and I was willing to take the position. However my current job needed to be maintained since this assignment was a seasonal one.  I needed to program my availability with two week’s notice and I wanted to get a schedule that would be compatible with both jobs.

I asked two days later because she said her client did not have the schedules ready, then I asked a week later and she said she did not have the schedules ready from her client still. Then I received no reply from her when she said I will communicate with you when I receive information form the bookstore. Then two weeks later she said all the schedules were distributed and I only have the door guard assignment. I thought it was also her part to also communicate with me, because without applicants she does not have business for her firm.

I do not really feel confident that I should consider an employment agency again even though they are the gatekeepers to many job positions. I learned that I should be persistent, but polite when I deal with an employment agency and just keep on hammering them until you get the assignment or a definite no from them.

The job market is a bit rough now, so I guess I need to be more persistent.