Think Twice Before Saying My Job Sucks

Posted on July 1, 2011 by mmunson

Personally for those of us who have any job, from a part time job to a full time job cleaning toilets we should be happy we have one at all. My sister in June ended up applying to 66 jobs and only got 3 job interviews and no hire yet in the last four months she has been unemployed.

It’s a employer’s market, compared to 2006 when people hired anyone that moved. I used to remember a Las Vegas gas station offering $200 signing bonus for people who wanted to be gas station attendants. Now people are lining up 10-20 people for 1-2 slots at most firms big and small.

My sister’s childhood friend stupidly made a tantrum saying she wanted to be paid the same higher wage as her co-workers at $14, but she was recently hired at $12 and she felt offended. This individual ended up making a tantrum to her new company’s HR department and will likely be layoff bait in the near future.

Right now, the part time job that helped me through college is all I have right now. I would love to have a full time 25-40k a year job, but there is not much right now for the asking. I just make good in an imperfect situation and am trying to get motivated where I could enter a new career and another $10k in student loans to boot where I can finally get some good use out of my degree from UC Riverside.

Even though the pay not be exceptional or the job may cause us deep stress, we should be happy that our situations may be better than others and hope that the economic climate will be better for the time we need to move on to a new company or field of work.

More Asian Food Choices in Upland

Posted on June 19, 2011 by mmunson

To replace the school uniforms store in Upland, a Vietnamese restaurant serving traditional dishes such as Ph? is being added to the shopping center line up at Mountain Green. Sadly its not another Mexican food restaurant, where I would like to have some nachos each day I work at one of the stores there. Personally I like to go across the street to Connals.

When the restaurant gets opened I will be pleased to report on it.

Goodbye Blackberry

Posted on June 16, 2011 by mmunson

It has been a nice two years with your products Research in Motion, but I have to say is you guys have failed in the consumer market. The browser is not up to current standards, there is no space to install applications worth owning. OS6 was a promising operating system with a better browser, but there was no space to add any new programs after installing it, and not enough ram to open up pages when using the nice new OS6 browser. So I went back to OS5 and its own limitations.

Android and iphone have cleaned RIM’s clock big time. It was nice knowing the Blackberry. Too bad the 9900 was not out 6 months ago.

Reflections on Jury Duty

Posted on June 8, 2011 by mmunson

I recognize that jury duty is an important function in our society to make sure all defendants are judged by a jury of their peers, but I feel it’s irresponsible how people are yanked on their chains where they are basically tethered to their phones like a physician waiting for their next assignment at the emergency room.

It would be better to have people show up at one set time instead of being rescheduled for another possible time 4 hours after your previously scheduled time. If it is not going to be in the early morning then dismiss us the day before, or schedule us in the early afternoon the first place. It is a bummer when individuals who use the public bus service end up paying their fare and call the jury hotline and find out they did not have to show up at the first place.

Obviously I am not going to disregard my summons, but for our courts if they want to increase participation in jury service they should respect the time of the individuals called for this duty.

The Show Is Not Over (yet)

Posted on June 2, 2011 by mmunson

My elder dog that lives with my family is basically 16 years old, which makes her a very elderly canine. With old age comes limited mobility and fears that time will be short. My father was worried that my dog was refusing her food it meant it was her time to go away. However we should not be thinking entirely that this is a signal to put her down, but we should wait at least 2-3 days before considering visiting the vet to see if her vital signs are down, or something else is wrong.

Because as soon as my father came home she ended up eating a bit which made us relieved. I guess we should be hopeful for more encores before the 16 year old decides to hit the long sleep ahead.

Just like our elderly friends and family, we should cherish the time we have with our animals before their time is over.

Life in a Nutshell

Posted on June 1, 2011 by mmunson

The problem in life is I have increasing debts due to my dental fees from each visit I have. The failed crown in March basically killed off my dreams of fiscal stability where over 800 dollars was blown. Because there was no contacts for the crown, the failed crown ended up infecting my mouth causing me horrible pain until I had to visit the dentist.

Then at work I find out that Memorial Day was painful due to an extremely busy store and my boss ended up watching me for almost a hour to see if I was serving the customers fast enough. I am trying to work on reducing non-work related conversation when it gets so busy. I wish I could split myself into two, but that is more science fiction to be honest.

If I get lectured on this issue again, I am going to politely tell my boss to consider other independent metrics such as the amount of items I processed per hour AND number of customers served which is available from the terminal software. Some customers had pricing issues or breakable items I had to wrap, but there is always room for improvement.

I am hoping for a stable amount of hours for each paycheck, a chance to improve my skills to meet the assistant manager’s standards and for me to complete the last four classes I need for Western Governor’s University so I could start on the teaching credential program in January of 2012.

Disappointed by Microsoft

Posted on May 22, 2011 by mmunson

I was tempted to get into some more consumer debt and do something I would obviously need to do if I get accepted to the Western Governors University secondary teaching credential program. I would need to buy a laptop so I could use it at field sites during my 1.5 year program.

The Windows Experience Blog states in their story, “When students buy a Windows 7 PC over $699, they will receive a FREE Xbox 360*” and the Asterisk mark does not state that retailers can put extra conditions on the deal.

Basically Dell, one of the leading participants in this deal wants to add extra conditions and Microsoft should of talked to their OEM’s and made sure they were on the same page. Which led to some angry comments on the blog.

I’ve been thinking about buying the XPS 15 for a bit now, as I need a new laptop and my Macbook Pro is finally giving out on me. This deal was the extra push I needed to go PC this time instead of Mac.

Then I find out that you can only buy specifically configured Dell PCs, and the only XPS 15 configuration I can choose from doesn’t have the specs I want at all. Not only that, but it’s marked UP, which means I wouldn’t be saving any money at all! What a scam, Microsoft. Very disappointing.

I wanted to give Dell $1700 for a new PC, and they won’t LET me? Maybe Apple will get my business again after all.

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College Bookstore Issues

Posted on May 19, 2011 by mmunson

I just find it sad that our college bookstore in collaboration with the instructors for some of the courses subject students to over 160 dollars in books for courses that do not require technological or specialist knowledge.

There are ways to lower the cost of these books while still supporting the bookstore. If an instructor subjects students to high textbook costs, then the student will not likely sign up for the class.

First, we could go the online textbook route. The bookstore could facilitate tablet sales where we could read the textbooks on our ipads or android tablets as an example. The bookstore could get a nominal referral fee for each digital download and tablet sold.

Second, instructors can use custom editions which could meet department standards that could be sold in the Chaffey College bookstore exclusively. Instead of Business Law textbook for 130 dollars, the custom edition could be sold for 85 dollars.

Third, instructors should generally use the same book for a class and mandate that any supplemental book costs no more than thirty dollars. This would allow for the bookstore to reduce their costs in ordering potential textbooks, minimize student costs and give flexibility to instructors to have extra perspectives taught in addition to the official book used for a particular course.

We have a horrible economic climate and we need to work together as a team in the college to make sure all parties can succeed with their respective missions. Making it harder on the students will only make it harder on the bookstore and instructors.

Personal Progress Report

Posted on May 18, 2011 by mmunson

I have my first class out of five completed and now I have four more classes remaining. I am thinking about taking a CLEP test for US History and just focusing on World History and geography to meet my admissions requirements for Western Governors University. I will likely break even where it will be compared to buying the textbook if I CLEP out of the US History post 1865 class.

I can not sustain the income I have right now and I would like to have expanded opportunity.

As long as I get these classes done by the end of the year I should be on the road to success.

I think I got my first A grade in a long time. And It is a great thing that I am getting prepared to reenter the world of academia. I hope to continue on the standards of success.

Animal Control and Stray Cats

Posted on May 13, 2011 by mmunson

I wish animal control took care of requests to dispose of stray cat litters before they ended up becoming kitten makers making the pet overpopulation problem much worse. Also I wish veterinarians were required to authorize people to have prescriptions for feline birth control for those who feed or take care of stray cat colonies.

You want to be humane, you do not want the baby feral kittens to starve to death or get killed by dogs. But it seems people are screwed in trying to deal with the problem in the proper and ethnical way. I wish there was a way where the animal control service would HAVE to deal with the issue on the same day even if you paid a nominal donation of $20.

I was worried that my father would be unsuccessful in the stray kitten rodeo, but he was able to round them up again for collection. Instead of 10 being around my next door neighbor’s back yard, there is only 1 of the new generation lurking about.

Maybe the best idea is not to feed cat colonies and let the feral cats to their own devices.

Inland Utopia

Life in the Inland Valley

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