That was an interesting wake-up call. Mark from WorkForce One. He’s been taking a look at the documents I sent with my concerns about the system. As predicted, it is being looked at as both a complaint and a criticism, there is a difference. My intention was to point out that it takes far too long to sift through the nonsense to find good job leads. Plus, it is absurd these days to post a job that does not contain the rate of pay. My writing does have a bite, and I hope the fangs have sunk deeply this time. Several of the [derogatory] phrases I used [to criticize the advertisers] seem to have become stock phrases at WorkForce.
[Author's note: the above is in reference to the computer system that WorkForce used instead of a "Job Board". The it was a primitive database and users could ignore the instructions which stated they must include the rate of pay. Soon, the system was choked full of BS sales jobs saying "depending on experience". Such jokers could not be filtered out and doing a job search stretched into hours to get a few leads.]
From what I understand, Mark at WorkForce, wants me to fill out a special resume detailing my computer experience and send it to him personally. By tomorrow. This is interesting, he did NOT want [a list of] my computer degrees, rather actual job experience. He mentioned he has been disappointed many times by people with the proper credentials. After that, I thought about calling Protech (a company advertising for web programmers) and said, they can wait--I had best see if I can still do it. Instead, I crammed in a day of programming in HTML, and every last item, including the links, worked perfectly the first time. There were some minor formatting annoyances but that I attribute to inexperience with cascading style sheets, a relative newcomer to HTML coding. By mid-afternoon I had to stop, and read. I must find out why the code worked without having to debug. Well, there was some minor debugging, but nothing like a C+ session.
[Author's note: I had programmed a small web page of our adventures gallivanting around, I piggy-backed on the WorkForce server, knowing they would eventually delete the files. They did.]
[Author's note: that type of enthusiasm was quite common in that final stretch before August, when I knew something was going wrong with my health. But I was living large and still banking $500 per week. That is something that never happened when I worked for the union. You made good money, but you had to maintain a system to work that job. The offices were downtown, where you either paid half your income for a crappy apartment, or spent any rent saved in the 'burbs to commute.]
Then we watched that Israeli film, Up Your Anchor. Mostly we did not pay attention because I think John is actually interested in how the Internet connection would benefit him. Upon questioning, it turns out he has never been on-line or worked a computer for any length of time. He did not know he could have paid that electric bill on-line. Remind me to keep an eye out for a good used computer to get him started. I know he’ll be sold on it once he uses the system for a while.
My weight is varying again, up to a six-pound difference per day. Figure that one out. This is a slow day otherwise. I’m searching for things to write about. That happens to everyone who decides to blog. Bloggers-block. How trivial can I get? Try this: Don’t you hate those people who write upside down on 3-1/2” computer labels, so you have to turn it around to read it before you insert it in the drive. Or if its in the drive, you have to take it completely out. Sometimes I try to imagine what it is like to be really stupid, because it takes more work than being smart.
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