Bowlcut’s little piece of the world

Well I did upgrad this blog to the newest software yesterday. That went pretty good Ill have to say. Yup Im a geek, gota have the latest and greatest. Not a lot has changed on the front end, backend is a lot nicer I will have to say. I also upgraded to a new version for my gallery. Im also going to be moving off mindless for my personal stuff. Bowlcorp is going to be my personal stuff and any sort of stuff dealing directly with me. Mindless will be my future home of stuff maybe like…a podcast…I dont know exactly yet. But I do want to keep them seperate and need to quit mixing and matching places. The new gallery is at pictures.bowlcorp.com. Im seeing what I can do there. My big worry is to keep it dialup friendly for dad, but at the same time I want to offer content in new and interesting ways. Im thinking of pulling the camera back out again and taking more pictures and maybe a bit of photo editing. Update your links but there will always be a link here for it. I would like to see more comments coming from people. Be it comments here or comments on pictures uploaded. So speak up say something. And if you have any ideas of what direction I should go with any of my projects definatly let me know.

Well Ive now been to the Mid-West. Not all that exciting. A week spent in one of the smallest towns with a major hotel Ive ever seen. Nashville, IL. The internet in that hotel was slower than sin, or I might have updated some. It was all I could do to check my email from there. I learned a little about what the new company is all about and some of their systems. Then I took off for St. Louis. Figuring I was no more than 45 miles from there I should go see things. Went up in the Gateway Arch and over to the Courthouse. I like history and espcialy stuff like architecture history. Pictures to check them out. A few turned out pretty good. Now Ive got a headache and going to try to do nothing the rest of the day cause of it….

Well I hope to get to blog about the experience next week. Im borrowing a laptop to take with me and hope there is connection in the hotel. Im sure there isnt a Starbucks in this tiny town Im heading towards. After talking with Newman…I do wonder…what sorta training is going to take 5 days? Im skilled labor. Most the stuff Im going to be working on I will probably do best learning there while troubleshooting. Kinda crazy but it gets me out of here for a week what can I say. Think Im going to head up to St. Louis atleast for a little while. Maybe spend an extra day up there and not come back till Saturday night so I can maybe go see something interesting in St. Louis. Id like to see the Arch if nothing else. Guess I should get some batteries and document this trip with the camera. Im loading up the mp3 player now. Been burning disks all afternoon of stuff to watch in the room on the lapt. Hopeing and praying there is some sort of connection in the room by way of wireless….I mean even Elizabethton hotels are advertising wireless internet.

I didnt get this place cleaned up all that well. Ill pull the trash, finish up the dishes, and clean out anything in the fridge tomorrow morning. Then I may pick up a few things so it doesnt look like a total nightmare…doubtful ;). It may be a week up there…but I guess from my trips to east TN it doesnt feel all that major. Just pack up and go. And I know ill end up with a car full of crap Ill not use…Im bad like that

Well Intiertech called me back and offered me the position of Systems Technician. Not administrator, but not bad either. I will be on second shift as the only IS guy there during that time. It is a bit of a drive down to Columbia, but if I do like it and plan to stay there Ill move further south. Move south of Cool Springs somewhere and cut 20-30mins off the drive more than likely. And being on second shift I can still interview with places that offer me something more lukrative.

I go down tomorrow to sign the paperwork. Then Sunday I drive up to Nashville, Illinois for a week long stay there for training. Im guessing its some form of corporate training for the larger company. Plus my boss is up there so sure some time will be spent with him. This part really sounds fun to me as I do like to travel. The boss said he liked some of my ideas for stuff like Nagios so may get to use that down the road some. He is willing to let me study and pay for classes on my CCNA so thats really cool. It seems like a decent place, small factory in a big company. Plus they are expanding right now, why Im getting hired so thats a great sign. Pay…more than Centerstone, and then a pay bump in 3 months. So it seems pretty cool. Second shift could grow old but depends on what I have to do, and what Im allowed to do in terms of other things.

So looks like 3 days of unemployment for me. I will use my large PTO check to pay off some of the debt I think. It should almost finish off the car loan to the bank. Then I can finaly pay dad off, then my school loan is next….fun stuff. Ok now to research Nashville a bit….

Well that went so so I guess. Was hard to get a read off this one. I think that partialy has to do with the fact he isnt looking to fill the position until the first of the year. So its not like the last one where he needed someone ASAP. It sounded like a fun job and the ability to learn more of Windows Admining. Im not turning down anything thats for sure. If someone wants me to learn Windows Server I will do it if they will let me learn it. Its windows for crying out loud, couldnt be too hard to learn.

Then I got a call for an interview with….*cough*….WebMD. Oh well Ill see what it has to offer. I have heard mixed reviews of working there from a few people. Expected to hear from Mt Pleasant by now, but who knows. I know he has to be back in Nashville IL by tomorrow and he was forced to make his decsion by then. So heres to crossing my fingers on that one.

Heading up to Dad’s this weekend to fix his PC. I have applied to a few places up there also. Dont know if Ill do much up there related to jobs tho. I may drive around to get some ideas of whats up there now, pick up a new yellow pages, and that sorta thing. Dad would love me back up there I know that. I could live cheap…but sometimes its like…meh I dont want to go back up there sometimes I do. Who knows. Ill see what comes along from all my postings.

Well just got an email from the Director of Operations SouthEastern Division of Charter Communications for a posting I replyed to for a Network Administrator I position. I have an interview tomorrow morning at 10:30am in Murfreesboro for that. Will see how it goes. Admin is more what I was wanting but we will see.

Well I woke up this morning to a phone call. That company I had a phone interview with yesterday wanted a face to face. That is good I made it past the prelims. He interviewed like 4 people today he was saying. So I figure I’ve got good odds considering min of 25% then I know I have a ton of experience they want. They called at 8:45am for an interview, considering its in Mt Pleasant which is an hour away…I said sure for a 10am interview. Wow that was a dumb thing. I took a shower as quick as I could and made it down there only like 15mins late. They said they didnt mind since lot of them were running late anyway. I hope that doesnt hurt me too much cause I do have a lot to offer. Think they were impressed a bit with me or so the vibe was like that. He says they should have a decision made by tomorrow he thinks.

After that had a 3pm interview with a head hunter group. They didnt have anything to offer right now but oh well will keep going on that. Ok thats a long message for today I guess. I am still sending out resume’s thats for sure. Even if that other job isnt as good as Id hope Ill probably take it since its a 2nd shift job so I can still interview with other places. Ok back to posting resumes since I didnt do that at all today.

Ok from now on, Im going to try to update this daily on my job hunting experience. I am now unemployeed for one day and have put out probably 50 resume’s online. Im also hitting everyone I know to have them circulate my resume as much as possible.

As for people saying I should apply for unemployment… Rights that are explained by Tennesseeanytime.org , “Even if the wage requirements are met, benefits could be denied if you quit your job without good cause or if you were discharged for misconduct in connection with work.” So with the “we ask for your resignation” puts me into that area of I quit. So no unemployment for me. If they fired me sure, but nope I quit techincaly. Yet another way Centerstone backs you into a corner. So I just have to get a job of some sort.

I had one call today for a local head hunter group, CPI,. I will be going to their office for a meet and great tomorrow at 3pm. They found Newman a job or three so that could be a decent thing. Yesterday had a phone interview with a place in Mt. Pleasant which sounded really promising. He said he should have something better decided by next week on who to interview face to face. I have to say my resume and experience is part of the kicker its nice. So hopefully that will get me something.

Had to go to Office Depot and buy some paper. I ran out of paper trying to print the state application two nights ago. So now I have a big pack of paper and then some nice resume 100% cotton paper that I can use. I lost my last pack of resume paper somewhere in some move. So hopefully I can keep this 1 call a day going, that would be great. Ive spent probably 5-6 hours today going though online postings. Next week will be hit more IT placement firms and head hunters if nothing else. Then maybe something like a 3rd shift job at Walmart or such to get some cash flow going….I hate being unemployed

Well yup Im now jobless. I was asked to resign today. They built a case saying I havent done my job over this last year since Ive been in my position. I called in sick friday with food poisoning and we had a major upgrade to do. They came back today saying I have shirked off all my responsabilities to other people since taking on the position. Since they used that angle instead of saying I wasn’t sick there isnt much I can do to fight it. I have been wanting to leave for the last few months so I guess this is a kick in the rear. I am susposed to get all my Paid Time Off back that I accrued, so thats 260ish hours, or almost 7 weeks of pay. Which will help. But I am scared and worried what will happen. Have had one prelim interview last week for a place and a phone interview today. But ive put out like 40 resume’s over the last week. I gota get that PTO check in and I should be ok for a little while atleast. I do have a paycheck coming on thursday and my 300 in mileage that will help. But this sucks. If anyone needs any computer work done or server stuff…speak up. Hungry computer guru R us.