More stuff to talk about....

No calls….in the past it has taken a couple of weeks between stages of the interview process with the casino people, so I am not really worried. If this doesn’t work out, something else will.

The library supposedly has THE LONELY POLYGAMIST by Brady Udall in transit. I’m excited about it, I was hoping to finish vol. 1 of my Civil War odyssey before starting it, but I’m only halfway through vol. 1 and the Udall book may arrive tomorrow. It’s an epic length novel about a contemporary polygamist and his troubles. Udall has polygamist ancestors and has always been interested in the subject. If it sounds like the HBO series BIG LOVE that is not a coincidence, there is a very strong likelihood the series was based on something Udall wrote for Esquire about twelve years ago. He considered suing, but his agent said that would really mess up his personal life. Hopefully he will get the last laugh, there is a ton of buzz surrounding this book.

I actually like BIG LOVE a lot too, although the series has really gone off the deep end.


I loved his last novel, THE MIRACLE LIFE OF EDGAR MINT. Back when I worked at Borders I made it one of my Staff Picks and it sold a few copies which I was really happy about. That was something I liked about that job, doing staff picks and seeing people buy the books I selected. Some of the ones I picked sold at least 10-12 copies, although EDGAR MINT was not one of those. By the time I left, they had discontinued employee picks, they wanted to push some kind of “official” company picks [most likely paid for by the publishers.]

Surprisingly, I liked working at Borders for the most part. I ended up actually being pretty good at it, although working the register stressed me out I would often get comments on how good I was with customers. It all went sour when I transferred stores after we moved---the new store was not a book oriented store, and it was very poorly ran. I couldn’t get the support I needed to do my job, so I ended up quitting during the holiday rush. I guess it was a crappy thing to do, but I wasn’t being treated very well either.


I’m also getting some Harvey Pekar stuff, which is something I will probably write further on tomorrow.

We’re waiting from a call from the vet, my father-in-law’s dogs are having dental work and other stuff done today and it is an all day affair.

Today is the last day of my tenth month of unemployment. I still really feel optimistic that I will have some kind of breakthrough over the next couple of months. Even if I don’t, supposedly it looks good as far as my getting an extension at least till the end of this year, which means I would be receiving benefits well into 2011. I don’t want to have to do that, though. I’m tired of the job hunt and the paperwork that goes along with collecting unemployment.

No news is...no news.

It's 4 PM and I haven't heard anything. It's okay....I keep telling myself that.

I am not going to give up completely for another week and a half, I've seen that they can be pretty slow, even though I was hoping the process might be a little faster toward the end.

Got all my various chores to do, dishes, clean the coffeepot, water the plants. Really tired.

Finally saw the new [well, last year's] STAR TREK over the weekend, enjoyed it well enough. I have not really followed Star Trek in decades, I'm thinking about geeking out and at least watching TNG. It's all about escapism.

Monday morning blues....

My wife and I didn't get enough sleep, there were too many things we had to do to prepare for the next day. I have some outdoor chores to do [mainly clean up dog poop for our lawnmower guy] but I found a new federal job to apply to so I'm working on that while writing this. We still have dial-up so things take an eternity to load, and we have bad luck with pages loading sometimes.

I figure I will still continue to apply for jobs and do my unemployment paperwork until I actually start working again. There's always some federal job or accounting firm or other place where you can guarantee that you won't actually hear anything in the near future. I specialized in doing that type of thing back when we thought we were going to relocate, before my wife got her job.

I'll start kind of "expecting" a call starting around mid-morning, that is, be in a state of readiness for it. They didn't give me a real timeframe other than "we want someone ASAP, but the gaming license business slows things down..." I've looked around at other tribal commissions' gaming license procedures [they vary by tribe] and I'm thinking I will probably have to put down contact info for my crazy landlady.
I guess I will explain the situation to the investigator ahead of time, and let them know that she is likely to say anything. Hopefully the other landlords I've had in the recent past who love us will make up for it. I figure they are looking more for criminal history, credit problems, child support issues, etc. Whatever issues I might have will probably seem pretty minor. The HR guy couldn't believe I didn't have *any* criminal stuff at all. "At all? Not even a DUI?" So I think I probably don't have much to worry about.

Waiting game begins...

...tomorrow. This time, I really expect a call, and I think the only problem might be just the bureaucracy of it. They really want someone to start as soon as possible [they mentioned a pile of reconciliations and other things that need doing] so I think even if I had to get my gaming license before starting they would want to get that ball rolling as soon as they could.

Everyone seemed to like me, and I think the accounting staff I had met with in the first interview were "pulling for me" with the CFO. The CFO and I seemed to hit it off pretty well too.

It will be a ton of work. There will be a lot to learn, since I've only done tax work. But I feel up to it, and am eager to "reboot" my career. It will be nice to have work to do and a clear agenda about why I'm there. We'll be insanely busy one week a month, but that's better than being insanely busy from mid-Jan to mid-April.

I'm probably jinxing it.

Meanwhile, I'm a little over a quarter away through the first volume of Shelby Foote's three volume Civil War narrative. Lots of interesting things I didn't know--the people of both sides were highly critical of their leaders and generals throughout [Lee especially was very unpopular at first], both Lincoln and Davis had to throw a lot of people in jail at various points, suspending habeas corpus, etc.

The writing is "dense" but very readable. Never dry. I'm eager to read more, just hoping I will be able to find the time. I hope to do what I did during my last job, trying to find an hour each day to read, then reading like a fiend on my days off.

Interview post-game report.

BTW, the Excel test I was so frazzled about...turned out I only missed one question,
I guess on one of the others they only wanted to know if I could make a chart, they didn't care that I couldn't figure out how to do the labels.

Also did really well on the weird personality test.

This is the closest I've gotten to getting a job over the past ten months, and I'm pretty excited, but I know there are still hurdles to be crossed. The main thing I am concerned about is the background check taking forever, also I am worried that the situation with the psychotic landlord might create a snag if they ask for contact info of every place I've lived. But a) What are the chances of them asking that, and b) of the hundreds of people in the area who work at casinos, none of them have any kind of similar issue? [we ended up suing each other and settled out of court, so it isn't even an issue of a judgment on my record or anything.] I really doubt it will be an issue, but I know the best policy is full disclosure. All of the reading I've been doing on the subject has said that many times when people ended up losing their jobs or not being hired over background check issues, it was due to not disclosing something that in many cases would have not been a big deal had they only been open about it.

If I do get hired, this blog could be a little more interesting, though posts will be less frequent.

But wait....

Just before I was about to give up, the HR guy from the casino called to schedule a second interview. I met with the same accounting staff from before along with the CFO.
Thought it went very well, even one of the interviewers who led me back out onto the casino floor said as much.

So things might be changing soon. I think the most difficult part will be waiting for the paperwork involving my gaming license, it sounds like a long, painful process similar to a federal security clearance. I'm not worried about any criminal stuff or credit---I recently passed a Department of Justice background check in order to receive my CPA license and haven't paid anything late despite everything. Just worried about things taking too long.

Will write more tomorrow, time for bed!

Still holed up.

I haven't died, just been somewhat busy and haven't felt like writing. I'm guessing this is the point where a lot of blogs breathe their last. I will persevere.

No news---will give up on the casino job this week if there is no word. Who knows what happened. I'm considering no longer posting about job interviews or anything related to that, it turns things into a slough of self-pity.

I re-read CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC by Tony Horwitz, an excellent study of the Civil War as perceived in the South. Interesting that most of the attitudes about the War Between the States only became prevalent during the 20th century. General Sherman, for example, was not perceived as a villain by Southerners in the years immediately following the war.

As usual, this has caused me to seek out other books, and I have started with Shelby Foote's massive three volume narrative of the Civil War, around 2200 pages in total. Having a ball with it, there is nothing like having a sizable book that you are excited about reading.

Also interesting that the Ku Klux Klan that people are familiar with today is very different from the original organization, which was disbanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest when it started veering into the direction that people know it for today.
The behavior that people associate with the KKK these days was that of the "reborn" Klan from the 1910s onward. I will be interested in reading more about that as well.

Speaking of such, today is the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing [and indeed, as I write this, it is less than an hour from the time the bomb exploded, 9;02 AM Central time.] I lived in Oklahoma back then, and remember what a shock it was to hear on the radio [my primary source of news back in college, during my long commute to classes.]

I visited the OKC Memorial eight years ago, it was heart wrenching, all the more for the special exhibit they had at the end of all the rescue workers from NYC who had assisted with the recovery efforts, many of whom had gone on to perish on 9/11.

I know at least a few from my home state who have become irritated and feel "forgotten" due to the subsequent terrorist attacks, but I feel that is the wrong way to look at it. What is sad, though, is that that type of terrorist act seems much less shocking or unlikely than it did back in 1995, to the point where I doubt younger people might be able to understand why the idea of an American bombing their own government stunned people so much back then.

Holing up.

Nope, no calls or e-mails. They reposted the ad, don't know if that means anything. Not sure what will happen. I'm in a bad mood, so I'm laying low today, watching DVDs. Thank God for Netflix. Think I'll take a break from...whatever. Back later.

More waiting....

No contact yet about the casino job. Hoping maybe tomorrow....they could still be interviewing first round people.

Had an annoying experience with a placement agency today. There are a lot of things unemployed people would like to see change. Many would like benefits to be extended indefinitely. Others want to see a change in the criteria for who gets benefits. The change I would most like to see as a job seeker is for some kind of regulation to be forced on these crappy placement companies, especially the placing of bogus ads. This is the second time I've fallen for it, but this time I'm more irritated just because it was so obvious they were just collecting information so they could add another person to the recruiter's quota. Anyway, I wasted over an hour there today, and it turned out my wife had came home for lunch and we ended up not seeing each other at all because I was stuck watching asinine training videos and filling out stupid clerical aptitude tests. Doubt I will ever get a call about the job they placed the ad for, one that I really should be qualified for. Guess we'll see.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

So...the interview. Or interviews.

Had three total, although none were really formal. Two with HR people, then a panel one with the accounting staff I would be joining. That one went really well. Although I don't have a lot of hands-on experience, it turns out that I do know a lot about some of their issues, sales and use tax stuff, and a lot of the unique aspects of tribal gaming. I feel that has to be a plus, and I doubt that many of the other candidates are going to have that knowledge or have my other qualifications.

Only snag...an Excel test early on. Badly flubbed at least two of the 10 questions. I don't know if it was pass/fail and I passed it so they went on with everything, or if it's something that will be taken into account later. Really should have tried to review a few things beforehand. Problems using Excel, etc., are probably one of my biggest issues at work. I wasted a lot of time at the Big Firm trying to figure out how to do a lot of it. I used it for basic functions in school, but that was all. I'm going to try to brush up on it. One of the other places I've applied to is doing a similar test.

Unfortunately, they have a ton of applicants, so this was just the first round interview. I don't know if I will be selected for the second round, or if I will be interviewing with other people next time. What I think will happen will be that it will be the same accounting group, but much tougher questions--these questions were really general.

As usual, we shall see.

I ended up gambling! Yes, I gambled at my job interview. There was about a two hour interval between the HR interviews and my meeting the accounting staff, so I had to do something. So I ended up playing Time Machine again, but ended up losing around $10. I think the interval may have been by design...get that extra gambling revenue out of the applicant! Still, better by far than my spending nearly a grand on a plane ticket and hotel room for a half-hour interview, which is what I did back in January for the IRS.

Do I feel lucky?

I haven't posted this much in one day since my ranting and raving about the Big Firm.
The casino people called, the interview is tomorrow morning at the casino. Bad part is that my interview clothing [probably not the full suit--people don't do that here] will end up smelling like cigarette smoke.

My "ace in the hole" so to speak...it is an Indian casino and I happen to be Indian. Not the distant "grandmother was a Cherokee Princess" Indian, but an actual tribal member. I don't *look* Indian, but am a little over a quarter of my "official" tribe and also can claim another tribe [just not officially--as far as the government is concerned, you can only belong to one tribe at a time.] Anyway, this has helped me before in working with other Indian-oriented jobs, so it might here, although contrary to popular belief I don't think it's automatic. And besides, why couldn't there be another qualified Indian candidate? Maybe even one from their actual tribe [I'm from another part of the country, so for all I know the people here might think that I'm taking a job from one of their people anyway.]

Wish me luck. I will try to avoid the temptation to gamble. Probably my biggest advantage will be the CPA, because I only have book knowledge when it comes to the rest of this. Why oh why did I go into tax? I'm starting to think that going into tax is the accounting equivalent of majoring in English.

"We wish you success in your professional career..."

About a week after I'd figured they would never get back to me, the county finally sent the rejection letter. That was decent of them. "Although you were not selected, this in no way reflects upon your qualifications as a candidate for this position." Okay.

Kudos for them mailing me anything, though. So many have not done that.

I'm considering crashing a job fair at my alma mater. Alumni supposedly have to pay $25, but I've been to the event back when I was a student and there was absolutely no one checking anything. Things might have changed now, though, and I would have to pay for parking which is not as big of a pain at that school as it would be at some other ones, but still...they did send a list of companies, only a few seem promising anyway. I guess I might depending on what else I have going that week.

Busy doin' nothing...

Not doing a whole lot, just household chores [I actually get a lot of satisfaction out of doing these, much more than I ever got at my previous job.] I've applied to a couple of things and at least one place [a casino] wants to interview but I am currently playing phone tag with them. I could go either way on that job--the commute will be miserable, but it might be a good work environment for me.

I've registered with a couple of recruiters--not hoping for much, but maybe they will at least be good for a single interview. I've had bad experiences with the one main recruiter [a national company.] You know, initial enthusiasm, then weeks without contact. Then phone calls about a new opportunity where someone is really interested in interviewing. Then, more silence, occasionally broken by explanations about why those opportunities fell through. I got exactly one interview with them, and that was a complete waste of time for both me and the interviewer. We both realized it right away, so the interview consisted of us both basically staring at each other and struggling for things to say. It was an older guy who was wanting someone to take over his business in a few years. Why he or the recruiter would think that an entry level person would be a good candidate for that is beyond me.

That is one real struggle I have with finding a job in public accounting--the assumption is that everyone wants to be a partner/owner some day. That's not me. I am perfectly happy to spend my days as an employee. I had the partner fantasy for about five minutes when I first started, then I saw how it was nearly impossible for someone to do that, and also how the skills required as a partner are totally foreign to me--marketing, salesmanship, etc. Not the kind of thing I went into accounting wanting to do. But in public accounting, the expectation is that people all want to own the keys to the store.

Finished LITERARY LIFE last night. Need to dig through my backlog of library books now. Faulkner is rough going, maybe a little too rough for me. The Churchill biography is written in a very dry style that is hard to get through. Oh well, I will dig around and find something else soon.

Tired.

No pictures for a while. That is probably bad. I know visuals are often important.

Really tired. Been up since just before 5 AM, our new "normal" wakeup routine. I've done all the errands for the day, and am happy to be enjoying a quiet afternoon so far [the Father-in-Law is out and about, so the TV is off.]

The Federal Agency wtih whom I've interviewed twice has a new posting, which I applied to. Maybe the third time is the charm. I have a much better chance this time around, this job is located here where I am, I'm not attempting any type of relocation. And since I've interviewed with them twice already I think it will be easier for me to prepare. This is assuming I get an interview, but I think I probably will just because I did the last two times I've applied [each time you apply to a specific job announcement you basically have to do everything all over again, with a few exceptions.] Maybe it will work out, although I would probably prefer this other job I am currently working on the application for. The Federal job will involve a lot of conflict and unpleasantness. That will probably be stressful. Oh well, given past experience, I have around three months before they will even call me for an interview, so plenty of time to find something else before then.

Reading LITERARY LIFE, a memoir by Larry McMurtry, one of my favorite writers. His last one, BOOKS, had almost a stream-of-consciousness flavor and this one is similar, although at least a little more focused. BOOKS was about his bookseller business, book scouting, and book collecting in general. This supposedly is about writing, writers he has known, etc. Like BOOKS, it is a slim volume and I'm glad the library had it.

When I was taking creative writing classes back in my early 20s, McMurtry was a big influence on me, or at least on my better work [only one story, really, that basically was young-adult type fiction.] I too wanted to write about rural folk, something which I am still interested in doing, although at the time I didn't appreciate how much good material I had right in front of me.

The rest of my work was pretty poor. Experimental stuff that didn't work, "look at me" type fiction, attempts to write about things that I had no real knowledge of [and could not successfully fake it,] and so on.

Anyway, LITERARY LIFE seems pretty good so far. There seems to be a sense of finality to these memoirs. McMutry's novels tend to be bleak in some ways, he has a penchant for killing off characters that he's written about for years, I guess a sort of closing of old accounts. Any time he revisits an old setting you know that there will be several deaths before the story's end. He recently seemed to finish up the "Thalia cycle" of novels that began with THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and spanning five books with RHINO RANCH, what seems to be the final installment. I enjoyed all five to various degrees, although I was still college age when I read the first two books and well into my thirties before the others came out.
I should revisit the earlier ones now.

Most of the books I liked in my teens/early twenties have not really stood up for me, or at least I feel less strongly about them. I suppose most things are that way.

Library Saturday!

In the process of finishing DYING LIGHT, which I wrote about a while back. "Prof lit" could probably be its own subgenre, people who write about the academic life, university politics, etc. Richard Russo is another who covers this a lot [STRAIGHT MAN and THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC most of all.] Not all of Hays' stories are about this, but a good number of them are about teachers, coaches, etc., who find themselves in trouble. Well, now that I think about it only three of the stories were, but they are the ones that stick out most in my mind.

Does anyone else find it strange when they have some kind of personal acquaintance with an author, read their book, and find out that it has a lot of sexual shenanigans going on in it? Two of my professors [both Southern male ex-jock types, btw] have written books like that. I don't know, probably people who aren't English majors aren't as likely to make the acquaintance of authors. Anyway, I always find it strange--as if the author is admitting me to their private life. Even if it is fictional. One great idea from one of the Donald Hays [he actually goes by "Skip"] stories...basically, if you hang around a writer long enough, you will eventually end up as material.

Very excited to find that one of my other favorite authors, Larry McMurtry, released another memoir last year that I somehow did not find out about, and the local library has a copy which I shall pick up tomorrow!

Onward!

So, no call today. It's okay, I'm focusing on completing the next couple of job applications. I feel like things *might* be turning around a bit, at least for my field if not for the local economy in general, because I have never had a period where I've had so many irons in the fire. I'm hoping for a productive spring and summer as far as job hunting. And perhaps even job finding!

I complain a lot about things that have happened, but I do feel like my education and experience do give me a lot of opportunities, even if things haven't yet turned around.

In addition, I have library books to read and discuss. Just picked up a substantial bio of Winston Churchill [speaking of stiff upper lips], a book on the 1920s, and a couple of other things. Perhaps tomorrow.

My wife had a pretty good first day, some things she doesn't like, but I think she'll do a great job and they are lucky to have her. I think they may be a bit too casual in their approach to certain things and she is used to a more professional environment, which is how she likes to approach her work. Something we definitely like is that since the building she works in houses a lot of state offices, she gets the benefit of Furlough Fridays [our state makes all their employees take off the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month] without having to take a pay cut!

The door begins to close.

Nearly 3 PM and no call regarding the job. I'm thinking it's probably not going to happen, although I suppose they could call tomorrow or even later today. Time to move on.

Had a meltdown earlier today because we thought my wife's health coverage didn't kick in for a couple of months, but looks like things are okay after all. What a relief. I haven't had coverage most of the time for the last seven years...had it at the Big Firm, and for a job my wife had about six years ago, but that's been it until now. Glad that is one thing I won't have to worry about. I wish they could have done some kind of health reform back in 1994. Not happy about everything in this new bill, but better than nothing.