February 6
From my brain
Happy Birthday Ceraun!!!
Contents |
2009
Me 09:00, 6 February 2009 (EST)
As the shizzle's coming down today, there's no reason to not pass the news along (besides, who the hell reads this blog that cares in the industry?). Here's the email I sent yesterday:
- Hi AdeccoGirl,
- I'm going to speak candidly for a moment.
- We received an email today that "work force reductions" are in the plans (this isn't for public consumption, so please keep this under your hat). While I'm fairly confident in my own role due to the integral part my current project is within the designs of the company going forward, I've never felt confident that anyone is ever "safe" when times get like this.
- In the last eight years, this is the third time something like this has happened. I neither want to be a part of it on the receiving end, nor do I really want to watch my friends terminated in droves again. I still really can't risk the impact of a pay cut, but even the short term offered by this contract with Cardinal is seeming more and more palatable.
- Whether it be for Cardinal or some other opportunity, please keep an ear out for me. My gut feeling tells me I may be needing your services more than I initially thought when we first spoke months ago.
- Sincerely,
- Me
And...her inevitable reply:
- I am glad to hear from you. I wanted to reach out to you this afternoon.
- I am very sorry to hear about the new finding. Times are definitely rough out there and although I’ve been hearing of more and more lay-offs it never makes it easier to hear. I do hope for your sake you have a decision in the end whether you’d like to explore a contract role or not.
- I did speak with B this morning about his expectations for the remainder of the interviewing process. He did say he was made to ‘narrow his budget’. This means he can only provide a payrate of $20.00/hr. Because of this I think it might be best for you and I to move on from this opportunity. I know he is struggling as a manager to get what he needs but remain within corporate restraints.
- Please feel free to call me when you have a free moment or reply at your convenience,
So, yes boys and girls, we have yet another Black Friday here at ThePit. At some point in this day, our group will start to get bombarded with emails from HR showing everyone being terminated. (We get those emails because of all the automatic email reports we have out there need to be blocked, and we record them in a table.) Sure, there will be a good number of asshats that will be tossed out, but we're also probably going to lose a lot of friends that will make you say, "I can't believe they let him go!"
Our group hopes it's in the clear. We're all so integral to the schemes and designs of upper management, that we really can't imagine any of us being let go...but I don't trust the overlords any further than I could throw one (and I've been working out). I never consider anyone 100% safe.
This isn't going to be a great day.
Me 14:47, 6 February 2009 (EST)
Round and round the layoff wheel goes, who'll she'll stop on, nobody knows!
So far the head count is just over 40 between those on the second floor and those up here.
Shitty, shitty day.
2008
Me 17:03, 6 February 2008 (EST)
OK, so I haven't posted in a couple days cuz we've been packing like mad. Rather, we've been arranging like mad, packing the truck yesterday, and I just spent the better part of this afternoon unloading it into a storage unit.
That's the boring part. You want to know why I posted the mad cow laugh, right?
OK, so I come home and Wifey begins to relate to me that our neighbor introduced her to her daughter-in-law. You see, our neighbor's kids aren't the most responsible adults in the world. They quite literally dump their kids onto their mother without a care for the woman's health often times. Grandma babysitting is one thing, but being in your upper sixties, taking care of four to five kids ranging from three to 13 at one point.
Anyway, that's not true of all of her kids. She has one son that we hardly ever see because he's actually responsible. He's got a good job (I think as a contractor), and as a hobby...get this...refurbishes houses. We had mentioned to our neighbor that "It's time...NOW," especially when she noticed the U-Haul sitting in our driveway as we loaded it. She mentioned it to her daughter-in-law, and as she came over for a visit today, she asked Wifey to take a look at the house.
In the end, she asked if she and her husband could make an offer on the house before we got involved with a real estate agent. She asked how much we wanted for the house, and Wifey said $150, she quasi-balked at that, and Wifey then said we absolutely couldn't take anything less than $140. She said she'd talk to her husband.
Nothing may come of this, I know. We'd definitely get a lawyer specializing in real estate to make sure everything is kosher since we're not using an agent. However, if this does work out...?
Hence, you have the mad cow laughter.
2007
Me 08:08, 6 February 2007 (EST)
So, last night I spent the better part of my evening sitting in a cubicle a the bank finding out for sure and for certain that our credit sucks.
We're trying to refinance the the mortgage. Not just because Wifey lost her job, but more because three years ago we had refinanced and our credit sucked. The best they could do for us was give us a decent rate that would hold for three years. After that, it would go to an adjustable rate. O_O
Well, shock-of-shocks, our credit still sucks. At first, the best he can do for us is refi in order to avoid it going adjustable. That's it. Our payment is pretty much dead-on for what we have now (within $10/month). The interest rate is like .3% better, but really, it's our local taxes that is killing us.
The house we purchased for ~$125K six years ago is somehow now worth ~$170. I sure haven't done any improvements to it, and my neighbors haven't done hardly anything to theirs. There are no new amenities in the area. No new schools. No gas lines run, no new street lights, no parks. Yet supposedly we've jumped $50K in house value. The problem: the annual taxes have gone up at least $1.5K over this period.
Basically, our house is almost too expensive to live in because of taxes (which are based on how much it's worth), but we can get a refinance because it's worth so much. While $730 for a monthly payment is a great rate, the $400 of taxes is putting us well over $1100 a month. It's killing us. I want our house to be worth less so our taxes would be less and thus we could afford it all. However, when the guy at the bank looks at the amount of loan we need to take out is compared to the value of the house ("loan to value ratio"), he said, "No underwriter in their right mind wouldn't approve this."
One option he gave by the end is seeing if we can roll the buy out of the van into the refi. He even said that a lot of people panic when they think about refinancing a car payment over 30 years, but he said it would give us more wiggle room. "You're talking for the amount you're wanting to try to add on, it will be only another $80 a month. That's saving you almost $400 a month. If you then put $300 a month additional toward your mortgage, you're coming out ahead by $100. Then, should you have a tight month, you drop back to the minimum payment."
It make sense, but Wifey still wants to look around a bit. One thing on my mind with all of this though is the fact (which I found out at the bank) that our refi goes variable in April. Tick-tock-tick-tock.
Me 12:04, 6 February 2007 (EST)
Today's moment of Zen:
"No matter how many negatives you add together, it's still a negative."
This was a half-snippet of a conversation I just overheard, but damn if it doesn't typify this dumbass company.
2005
Me 15:29, 06, February 2005 (EDT)
Won't you give?
Only you can Save Toby.
2004
Me 18:29, 06, February 2004 (EDT)
Sono malato di questo cazzate! I'm sick of this bullshit.
Does it really need any exposition? I thought not...
1995
My mind races with a thousand thoughts of her. I keep wanting to hold back my hand from writing the lines my heart is aching to write. I can't write these things, its not going to get me anywhere. The only thing that it will do is make me more upset and cause me to think more about something and someone that will never be. One day happens and I think I have done everything wrong, and another comes, and something feels right. I feel right. I need to know if she feels right too, or...I don't know. I guess what I said yesterday has already happened. The one person who HAS shown me even the slightest interest has caused me to start to fall head over heels. I've been without love for so very long, I'm afraid that I'm falling into it too easily again. I don't want it to happen quickly, but the time its taking already is killing me. I can't think to write, to drive, to read, every thought is becoming her. I force myself to walk pass her desk just to say hello, steal a candy, just to see her smile. She has these little candy hearts on her desk and I took them all day, one here and there. She finally smiled and said that I kept stealing them. I told her that if that was the only way I could steal her heart, I would do it. She smiled and said I was good at it as I walked away. Things like this make me think that when she smiles up at me and looks through me with those deep blue eyes, no one else gets that smile. That one is just for me. Perhaps this is all just foolish, which makes me a fool for believing it, but it doesn't change the way I feel. I wonder if sometimes that the smile I see is the same she gives everyone else, but I never can tell. I'd have to see it through there eyes and not my own.
- Candy Hearts
- candy hearts lying there
- disappearing one by one
- I take one now and smile
- as you call me a thief in jest
- if only your real heart
- were as easy to steal
1973
Ceraun's Birthday
