Recently I donated $20 to the Best Friends Animal Society due to a solicitation in the mail to donate to their animal welfare organization. Rehabbing unwanted animals of all kinds and helping to shelter animals during natural disasters are both worthy goals and I do applaud them for their efforts. I hear their quarterly newsletters with their progress reports and how its vital to donate to them, but there is one negative thing about donating to national organizations. They share their mailing lists with each other where you get solicitations from other groups.

Not all of us have hundreds of dollars to donate to various charities. The ASPCA, the wildlife way station in Southern California and  Alley cat Allies are also other worthy charities to donate to. The problem is how to balance the limited surplus income for my charitable contributions. Who will do the most lasting impact?

I was thinking the local non-kill shelter, the animal control facility will probably be the ones that will receive my money instead. And if you are not hungry for the tax deduction, and you want to donate to the national organizations just give them a money order anonymously instead so they do not clog your mailbox for more money. National organizations also do worthy causes such as promoting animal welfare and animal medical clinics, but for more junk mail added to my mailbox I do not feel like acknowledging them with any money right now. If I want to have those organizations give solicitations to me, then Best Friends Animal Society should ask me before they share my information.

                This is my post to document my experience in applying for the position of Museum Attendant, for the city museum. I feel that the city needs to reform their human resources policies. It should not take around three months to fill a part time position. It is a waste of money to spend all this time and effort in recruitment when it could take half as much time. The private industry does not take this long for an entry level position.

                If the human resources department was interviewing for police officer or public utilities manager then I could understand a three or four month job search process.

                Also, the pay for any position needs to be discussed during the first interview so the applicant and the city could be up front so there would not be any wasted time during a potential second interview.  If I knew the starting pay would be entry level wage despite my experience and education I would have refused the second interview. All I got during the first interview was never a direct answer; just the city has a formula for compensation. If an applicant has great relevant job experience and education they should be bumped up to the next pay grade to help in recruiting the best for our city.

For the last year I have been selling my used books, movies, music and games to the visitors at Amazon.com. My experience has been above average until I experienced my first disgruntled customer. Customer orders a book on Friday August 10th, purchase happened right after I left for work, so I waited until Monday to ship their book. I packaged it and shipped it on the 13th, and the US Postal Service said it was shipped to their doorstep to their Los Angeles apartment on the 14th.

Then on the 26th, I have received an email from the buyer stating that they never received the book and never received a delivery confirmation number. However right after I shipped their book I sent an email on the 13th with a note that I shipped their book with a delivery confirmation number.

Maybe their email was caught in a spam filter. However If I use half.com or amazon.com marketplace I am going to protect myself by making a form letter to make them aware that they should check their mail and make sure no one steals their packages, and always double check their spam filters in case if important communication is in those folders.

I removed my existing inventory on amazon.com marketplace and will likely migrate it to half.com.

Maybe my buyer allegedly wants a free lunch and is trying to scam amazon.com’s generous customer service policies.

/sigh

$18.88 down the toilet I guess.

People hate tax increases, but they love it when the tax increases hit home when it does not affect them. Recently congress wants to renew and expand the State Children’s Health Insurance Program by financing it with a 61 cent increase in the federal cigarette tax. However when you combine cigarette taxes from the state and federal governments it will be obvious that cigarette consumption will decline due to the cost of smoking.

It may be a positive externality for people to stop smoking, but when you create a government program it needs to be fed with your tax dollars. When tax dollars are missing from a funding source then our representatives will be happy to raise taxes elsewhere, perhaps in your pocketbook.

The job interview with the city of Ontario went okay, the problem with my interview performance was that I was nervous and had to pause for a few moments to think about what I needed to say. I basically was familiar with what they needed from a Museum Attendant at the city museum on Euclid and Holt.

With government they do take their time. It will take two weeks at the most for people to find out if they qualify on group A, B or C on the eligiblity list. Hopefully I will hit the next round. 20 hours a week plus occasional evenings makes the job a bit more palatable for me.

Update: Was placed in group B, wished I done better. However its better than being C or not qualified.

Even if I do not get chosen for this opportunity, it was my first job interview in the last five years and I hope to find out more opportunities in the future.

I am getting addicted to metal music again. I got introduced to the band Stuck Mojo. Their music is fresh and unapologetically patriotic at times take a look at the video of their song “Open Season“. Man does not live on electronic music alone, one needs guitars to level out their musical appetites. Its amazing what a visit to Free Republic does for you on the issues you agree with the readership.

I was encouraged to take advantage of the American Express Members Project where card members who hold at least one of their credit/charge cards could vote on what worthy lasting project you could do to make the world a better place. A mother with a child with Down’s Syndrome encouraged people to vote for the project to improve awareness of people with the condition. I do believe all life is valuable, even if a human being does not have the full intelligence that the majority have, they can still live a productive life.  

At work Martha Stewart has her own paper crafting accessories sold at my store. Last night the comedian Amy Sedaris was on the Conan O’Brien show on NBC. Amy was talking about her appearance in the Shrek Movie, but the crux of the conversation was about her book “I Like You: Hospitality under the Influence”.

Amy was showcasing some of the crafting excitement you could have with Conan demonstrating some of the fun projects that she designed. The projects that were mentioned are not serious like what Martha would envision, but insane in a good way.

It seemed Amy wanted to promote her book more than the Shrek movie, and I am likely going to buy the book for entertainment value when I move out and end up having to entertain guests. Party planning, crafting, cooking and gift giving are all featured here and seem like a good book to pick up.

T-Mobile has decided to reduce the functionality of their T-Mobile Web data service. I have enjoyed using the Opera Mini alternate phone web browser and the Google Mail Java interface on my phone. I do not use my minutes as often, and using Google Mail on my phone was my path to communication without using much of my plan minutes.

I do not own a Smartphone, I only own a Motorola RAZR V3T phone and I feel the T-Mobile Total Internet plan is overkill for people who own phones such as mine. I think they need to make a nominal plan that does not include the hot spot access. People who own Blackberries or Smart phones could better utilize the Total Internet plan, but T-Mobile needs to be realistic on how they market their data services. I would not mind paying $11.99 a month to have unrestricted access to Opera Mini and Google Mail for people who own phones such as the RAZR, KRZR, and the Nokia 5300 as examples.

Not all of us have exploited the generosity of T-Mobile, I have never tethered my phone with a PDA or laptop. I just want my functionality on my phone back.

I took the gamble for buying a Nintendo Wii, the irony is people are flocking the stores to pick it up and there is no worthy high quality games to go invest your money in until this fall. Right now Twilight Princess, Paper Mario and Excite Truck are the three games worth owning now.

I should of used my original judgment and waited until there was 10 good reasons to own the console. Virtual Console is great, but it has some flaws with how Nintendo uses digital rights management to deal with the downloads and the selection of games avaliable is somewhat lacking now. I would like to see games like Secret of Mana, Earthbound and Vegas Stakes to appear on the Virtual Console.

Right now, the Wii is just an enhanced Gamecube with slightly enhanced processors and graphics. I do understand gameplay helps make the Wii’s games standout from those released for the 360 and PS3, but most of the third party Wii games stink.

I wish I did not shell out the 270 dollars to pick up this system, probably the Xbox 360 would of been my system of choice. However, Microsoft is just unreliable in hardware as in software with the red ring of death and the system’s laser scratching discs.

I decided to go for broke by extending my T-Mobile contract until March 30, 2009. I was pondering switching to Sprint for the Motorola Q, but realizing they were going to jack up their data plan price the next month from 15 to 25 dollars. I decided to come back home.

Fnding out that I could keep my existing phone plan eased my worries about replacing my Motorola V180 phone I had since December 2004.

I finally got one thing I have been eagerly awaiting in a mobile phone. A camera. I have worked on practicing my photography and I hope to share some photos on my personal photo gallery website and this blog included.

Since my phone is new I decided to outfit it with some extras. I wanted ring tones from my favorite musical acts, but T-Mobile’s selection was limited. I had to run Audacity and edit a 15 second segment of a tune for my special ring tone that I would have to pay $2.49 for.

If I needed to buy something off T-mobile to make further use of my new Razr V3T Id more likely buy a game of Pac-Man. The included games that were offered in the phone were severely lacking. I know phone makers are talking about convergence, but that is probably a few years away. I will still be carrying a Nintendo DS and a IPOD for a long time.