The Job Hunt

There is nothing worse than looking for a job.  Absolutely nothing.  I am not a person with exceedingly high self-esteem as it is, so constant rejection isn't exactly doing wonders in that department.  It doesn't help that Kelsey can apply for a job and get an interview with the snap of her fingers.  Ok, it's not that easy, but it isn't surprising due to her talents. I'm proud of her, but I can't lie and say it doesn't bother me a tiny bit.
As I said in my last post, I've resorted to applying for almost anything.  Today was a truck delivery job. But the light at the end of the tunnel was an email from a headhunter today about a GIS analyst position.  I don't know much about it yet, except that it is in the Milwaukee area. If it is far enough west, it will be worth looking deeper into. I'm also passing along an updated resume so they can keep looking for me.  Fingers crossed on that one.
I'm holding out hope for the Nature Conservancy position, but that doesn't actually close until the 25th, so I have to keep looking, applying, and being rejected until then.

Still No Job

It's time to get serious here.  I really thought I had the job in La Crosse on lockdown, but it was not to be.  I guess the place for me is Madison.  The combination of not getting the job, and focusing on Madison has had a two-fold effect: My job search has both narrowed and broadened.  Geographically, my radius is about 40 miles from my home, fortunately we don't exactly live in Northern Alaska, so there are plenty of opportunities around.  Professionally, the search has broadened considerably. Just this morning, I applied for 3 very different positions.  The first is one I really want to get - working for The Nature Conservancy here in Madison. The second was a general banker position at a local bank, and the third was a costumer service position at Wisconsin Aviation (the private airport.)  Further, I am meeting with 3 different temporary staffing agencies sometime next week, so there's that.  There would be four, but one flat out said I was over-qualified for the type of work that they have.

I never thought I would be in the position of being over-qualified for some work, and under-qualfied for everything else.  I guess most places won't hire someone over-qualified because they don't think that person will be there in the long term.

So here we go again, I have some time, so I'll be writing on here more often.  I won't be advertising every post on certain social networking sites, as I am not sure why I am still even a part of that world. Who knows...maybe I'll become a little more active on there as well.

My bi-annual "I'll get back into this" post

What has happened since last September when I last posted?
-Finished that semester burnt out. Thought I did terribly, so didn't check my grades. Needless to say, I did just fine and am on track to graduate next semester.  Then what?!?! Gotta find a job.

-New semester started, it is again a lot of work.  16 credits with 2 little boys, a wife, and a house is enough to keep anyone busy.  For example, by next Thursday, I have  a final project implementation defense, Trigonometry Exam, different final project proposal, and a Chicago/Seoul comparison poster. Not to mention Trig homework and readings.

-I have a cold, it sucks.

-I still don't like winter, and no one can try to convince me otherwise. There is literally no silver lining to 5 months of cold darkness.

-Kinda excited about my intro drawing class this summer. I have always been terrible at art. Maybe Kelsey (who if you don't know is quite impressive in that area, among others) can just do my homework for me.

-Lastly, I tried to grow my hair out.  I end up looking like a defective chia pet.  Enough said.

-Some exciting stuff coming up, I'll do my best to keep whoever looks at this up to date.

Waiting for class

I'm back in school for another semester.  After my class in 20 minutes I will have finished my first whole week.  I am stressed and busy already! It's going to be a long few months.

Anthropology 314: There is a ton of reading to keep up with. Reading about landmark supreme court cases that pertain to American Indians isn't exactly "stay up all night" reading.
Class grades:
Interesting: C
Amount of work: D (F being ungodly amount, A being show up and pass)
Difficulty: D (F-too hard to describe, A-again show up and pass)

College Algebra: Difficult because I haven't done any more math than figuring out a tip at a restaurant for the past 7 years.  I took algebra at UWEC but since it is 4 credits there and only 3 credits here it didn't transfer. Damn the man.
Interesting: D-
Amount of work: D
Difficulty: D

Intro to Cartography: Finally, a sweet class. Granted it is going to be a ton of work, but at least the work is fun. (For me anyway. Call me a nerd, but maps are sweet.)
Interesting: A
Amount of work: F
Difficulty: F

Remote Sensing: Learning to interpret and map aerial photography. What's not to like? I can't figure out what this pink stuff is on a picture, but if I can make it up and come up with a decent reason, I get full credit.  Nice.  Like Cartography, a whole lot of work though.
Interesting: A
Amount of Work: F
Difficulty: D

Qualitative Geographic Analysis: Kelsey makes fun of this one, probably because of the name. But i'm sure you've seen shows on Discovery about people who immerse themselves in a culture to study it. That's all it is. It's about researching people, how the speak, their stories, their lives, etc... Very cool
Interesting: A
Amount of Work: C
Difficulty: C

That's my semester. Stay tuned for the life of a delivery driver.

I am Ahnold! (Maybe not)

I have P90X.  I started P90X.  I stopped P90X.  I was telling myself that I didn't want to get too bulked up before my half-marathon in May.  Didn't want to look like this guy.--------------->

Turns out that was just an excuse not to do it.  I was flipping through the P90X book and found an alternate work-out program that, while just as difficult, is geared more towards lean muscle and endurance training.  Game on.

Since there is now money on it (thanks for the free cash Dad!), I am good to go.  I made it to the Y 4 times last week, and I think I have figured out a time to go everyday except Thursday.  I'll take one day off on the weekend as well. 

First Week in the Books

I just finished my first week of classes.  Admittedly, it was a short week thanks to the contributions of Dr. King and the fact that my only classes on Fridays are discussions which don't meet during the first week.  Here's a quick rundown:

Geography 360: Quantitative Methods of Geographical Analysis -  Sounds scary right?!?  Basically it is simply a statistics class for both the Geography and Cartography/GIS majors. (I am double majoring in those two.)  I imagine this will be my most difficult class because it has been a while since I have done any significant math.

Geography 377: Introduction to Geographic Information Systems - It is what it sounds like.  This is going to require quite a bit of time outside of class doing projects using GIS software that I have never used before.  This class is the foundation for all the later more interesting GIS courses.  It was important that I made it into this class as if I didn't it would push my coursework back a whole year.  Fortunately I was the last one in.

History 432: A History of Scandinavia since 1815 - Trying to do a little learning about Kelsey's heritage.  Like did you know Finland isn't actually part of Scandinavia?  Or that the King of Sweden during that latter stages of the Napoleonic wars was actually a Frenchman?  Weird.

English 167: British Literature of the 19th Century - I had to take this class for a literature requirement.  I was not excited about this as I figured I would be forced to read some Jane Austen text for the umpteenth time in my life.  I have yet to enjoy any of it.  Then I got the syllabus and no Jane Austen!  Of course the instructor had to talk about her in the first lecture, so I didn't totally avoid it.

LCA 421: Survey of Tibetan Buddhism - My teacher was a Buddhist monk for 25 years then woke up one day and decided he wanted to see what the real world was like.  "It turned out it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be," he said.  "I didn't know I would have to do so much work."  Should be an interesting class, though there is a guy in the class who is definitely going to be a nuisance.  Already the first day he was asking questions about how the instructor could believe in someone other than Jesus.  If you can't go into this with an open mind, why even take the class?

Gotta get the kiddos to bed so I can start reading the 300 or so pages that I have to get through before school next week.  It begins...

What a difference 8 years makes!

So, for those of you who aren't aware of my current life situation, I am officially enrolled in courses as of this morning at UW-Madison.  Turns out that was the easy part.  The hard part is figuring out how to get all the paperwork that they need to them.

Was it like this 8 years ago when a "normal" person is entering college at age 18?  Did my parents have to do all of this? Surely, if they did, they didn't have a 4 and 3 year old to drag around from office to office compiling a to-do list that rivals War and Peace.

Normally, an 18 year old doesn't have to worry about where their kids will be while they are at school.  I'm in the process of finding a second daycare that can watch the boys in the afternoons 3 days a week.  The other two days they boys will have to be in full-time care but the school that Owyn is currently at is awesome and is able to fit them into a full-time class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Since Cayden hasn't been there, they need his immunization records as well as the specific date and time of every splinter or knee scrape he has ever had.  (That goes double for the new day-care which needs that information for both kids.)  Also, because we have (in my professional opinion) the most out-of-date, inefficient medical record systems on the planet. (Okay, I suppose places like Sub-Saharan Africa might be worse off, but only because they don't have access to the technology. I bet if they did, they could come up with a better system than we have.)  Anyway, because our system sucks, I have to call every clinic the boys have been to since we have been in Madison and see if they have forwarded information to the next, and so on, and so on.  So there goes my Tuesday. Not that I had anything better to do.

Also, every department in the whole university needs a copy of my 2008 taxes.  I went to our taxes folder, found 2008, and wouldn't you know, no tax return.  I have all of the W2's and 1099G's and KRS-One's (Hip-Hop joke for the un-informed, good stuff, check it out if you are into that kind of thing).  I think we had to give it to some bank, or credit union, or some other institution that charges you more money the less you have. We must have forgotten to get a copy and given them the original.  I got a hold of the IRS but apparently it takes 10-15 business days to find a file, print it, put it in an envelope, and send it off.  That said, I'll be calling our local IRS office to see if I can oversee the opening and printing process and pick it up in person.  I doubt that will help, I mean, they probably have 7 or 8 of them to do today, if it isn't some crazy government holiday.  So there goes my Wednesday. Again, not that I have better things to do.