... so how many of you, like me, find yourself having to prepare for a job interview? I haven't been on a job interview in a good 20 years and it's definitely a hirer's market.

With so many people out of work, potential employers have a HUGE pool of applicants to choose from. Most of the people in that pool are like me.. older, with families and responsibilities. We have tons of actual "work" experience but maybe not the necessary "degrees" companies are now listing as requirements in their ads.

So how do you  make yourself stand out?

Recently, my cousin Freddy wrote a fantastic blog outlining things to consider to ensure a great interview. Unfortunately, that post is no longer exists so I can't link to it here but having read it the night before my first interview in AGES, I can tell you that he was spot on. There were a few other things I thought of also so if you find yourself getting in the same position, here's some things to consider:

BE CONFIDENT
There's no question that confidence is a huge selling point to employers.  Being timid and looking like a deer in headlights doesn't leave a good impression and believe me impression is everything. YOU know you can do the job and your confidence will let a potential employer know that you can do the job.  My father always said to ".. look them in the eye and give them a strong handshake!" and when you think about it, he was right.

LOOK THE PART
It doesn't matter if you are interviewing for an office job or something to do with manual labor, you need to dress appropriately. Your clothes are your "packaging" and while you want a potential employer to remember YOU, you don't want them to necessarily remember your clothes! Steer away from anything flashy, overly trendy or flesh exposing attire. You don't want to wear anything wrinkled.. too tight.. or uncomfortable. The last thing you want to focus on during an interview is whether your buttons are gapping or hiding your muffin top. A sloppy dresser reads as being a sloppy worker.

PRACTICE YOUR ANSWERS
While you don't know specifically what questions you'll be answered, you can count on explaining your past work history.. the companies you worked for.. why you left or were let go.. etc. They're basic for hiring employees. Nerves tend to get the best of us and there's nothing less appealing that having a potential employee start off an answer to a question with, "Um".  As my cousin Freddy said in his post, pretend like you are memorizing lines for a play. Regardless of HOW they ask the question, you will at least be familiar with what you want your answer to be. Also prepare to detail your strengths, why you want to work for this particular company, where do want to be in X amount of years, etc.

KNOW YOUR OWN RESUME
Here's the long and short of it: Don't lie on your resume. Everyone expects a certain amount of embellishment. You know the whole Domestic Engineer being another name for a home maker kind of thing but giving yourself experiences you never had is just setting yourself up for failure. Your resume should be an outline of your experience and achievements and you will be asked about them in an interview.

BE RESTED
Ok.. let's be real. It's the night before your first interview in ages. Do you really think you're going to get ANY sleep? Probably  not.. you're mind will be going a million miles a minute but the trick is to not give it any fuel. Don't drink the cup of coffee that will keep you awake.. don't leave the television on to get you engrossed in the latest and greatest ShamWow product. Let your body rest and eventually your mind will do the same.

BE EARLY
Nothing puts a big red X on an application then being late. Give yourself PLENTY of time to get where you need to go. If your SUPER early, hang out in your car or walk around the block a few times. That little hassle is FAR better for you then being late will be on you.

BE YOURSELF
This is the most important piece of advice I can give you. If you pretend to be something that your not, it's going to catch up to you.. and not favorably. Being hired is out of your control.. you can only do the best you can. To not be yourself means that you have to continue to not be yourself if you get hired and that's just too hard.

BE PROFESSIONAL AND POLITE
Regardless of what is going on around you, always be professional and polite. You don't know what may interrupt your interview but handling the interruption in a polite and professional manner will look good for you.

Bullied Boy Fights Back

Have you seen this video yet?

When I first saw this video, I was like, ".. you GO BOY!!"

Agree with me or not, I don't care..

I live with a 12 year old boy who is picked on EVERYDAY in one way or another by kids in his class. For an adult, it's easier to see bullies for what they are. Maybe they're insecure... maybe they have issues going on at home that make them re-direct their anger and frustrations on some one "weaker" .. or maybe they're just an evil seed.

But that doesn't compute on a 12 year old.. it doesn't compute that his reactions only make the bully want to bully him more.

To be fair, teachers and school admins can only do so much .. if something happens on school grounds that's one thing.. if it's on the way home from school? Something completely different.

A few months ago, we received a call from the schools saying that one of the bullies punched him in the face.. during recess.. on school grounds. The kid got suspended and then re-assigned to another school and that's all fine, well and good .. but I was a little put off that he didn't try and hit the kid back.

Back in MY day, things were settled in the playground.. so to speak. I've gotten in WAY more then my share of fights with other kids in my school .. either because of something done to me or coming to the defense of my older brother .. but it was done.. it was settled.. and afterwards, things went back to normal.

It bothers me that not only did this kid DEFEND himself.. but HE will be the one getting in trouble, not the bully. You can clearly see who the instigator was.. and because I live with it, I can tell you that the bullied kid was probably taking this and taking this and taking this until he couldn't take it anymore.

Good for him!

I say forget all about the purple haze of huggy-feely-political-correctness and let boys be boys and handle things the way boys used to.

And before you start the argument about guns.. and knives... and bricks of C4 straps to a kids chest .. think about how things USED to be and be honest with yourself about the reasons why they're not that way anymore.

Puppy.. Um.. Love?

Wednesday night wasn't such a good night...

I'm not going to go into the details but let's just say that if I had suddenly found myself wearing nothing but socks on the top of Mt. McKinley, I would have been a happy camper.

Anyway, so I was pretty pissed of and wasn't in any better of a mood on Thursday.. but things needed to get done so around 1pm Tim and I headed out to the Dollar Store and then to the supermarket.

Josh was in school and Matt was cemented, as usual, in front of the computer.

We were gone for maybe about 2 hours.

Now, the front door is not a door I use. I park on the side of the house and come and go through the back. The only time Tim uses the front door is to take the dogs out so basically, only the kids have anything to do with the front door.

So we come in the back door and as I drop the bags onto the kitchen floor and walk into the living room to hang my jacket up I notice that the front door is open half way.

It's like.. winter here? Like.. just WHY is the front door half way open when there's 38 mile an hour winds and the heat is on?

I think there's a reason why Matt wears headphones when he's on the computer and it has little to do with talking to his friends because I didn't get an answer. Tim walks to the front door and then I notice that my bedroom door is closed and funny, the dogs weren't barking.

And then it hit me and I can't even describe to you how my lungs shriveled up into little balls and my stomach collapsed.

I rush to the bedroom calling for the dogs and nothing.. and then I yell to Tim that both dogs got out and grab my jacket.

We both rush out of the house but to... where? We didn't know how long they were loose.. didn't know which way they had gone.. do we walk? do we drive? OMG!! Bella didn't have her collar on! OMG!! The tag had come off of Ernie's!!

I wanted to throw up.

The dogs have been loose before.. usually for the same reason. One of the mensa kids left a door open but usually then we knew immediately and they hadn't gotten far. This time was different. Did they head towards the cemetary? Did they go down by the trolley tracks? Did they go straight down the street in front of our house?

The longer we drove around.. the longer we or people we saw on the street didn't see anything.. the more we yelled with no response.. the sicker my heart became. Ernie is young and spry. Bella isn't. She also has a gimp because of arthritis in her hips and a skin condition that caused her to lose most of her hair from the middle of her body on down. She doesn't get around well at all so I got sicker thinking that they weren't together. Would we find one? Would we find neither? Would we find them hit by a car or worse, the trolley?

I couldn't help but cry.. especially for Bella. She's old and we've been through a lot and this was NOT how I wanted her end to be.

Tim went one way.. I went the other.. and Matt, well, he walked around for about ten minutes and then came back in the house. Something that really didn't sit well with me. At all. We chased every barking dog sound and believe me, if Indonesia has another tsunami in the next few days, it's because I was running.

Nothing.

I happen to see Josh on his way from school and told him about the dogs being loose. He was headed towards the house so he had that direction covered. I was going the opposite direction and only Lord knows where Tim was at that point.

About a half hour had passed when my cell rang. Josh had found the dogs. In the cemetery right near the house. He had tried for me but I had already went into the cemetery and didn't hear him. Boy, that would have saved Indonesia, huh?

But the dogs were safe.. Bella has some cuts on the top of her back where it looks like she followed Ernie under chain link.. but at least they were home. Me and Josh drove around and found Tim and then headed back to the house.

Now, I have to tell you this:

Ernie is a very... very.. modest dog. He has never humped on a leg but routinely rapes the doggie bed or the pillows if you don't put them away when your not around. But he does it in private and if he even THINKS your going to catch him, he pulls his ears back and slinks under the bed in shame.

So it was kind of weird when I walked into the bedroom and saw him going to town on the doggie bed. I had put Bella on our bed because I felt bad about her ordeal. She can't' jump on our bed anymore and it's a very rare treat that we lift her up there. Ernie jumped on the bed and tried to hump Bella's face. I yelled at him and he jumped down but then jumped right back up and I watched him bite the corner of one of the pillows and try to drag it over to him.

Is this dog FREAKIN' nuts?? I yelled ERNIE!! And he slinked away. I thought that maybe it was the whole ordeal that got him all wound up so I went into the kitchen to get them a treat. You know.. baby my babies.

When I went back into the bedroom, the damn dog had MY blanket all bunched up under him and he was going at is so hard that he was like.. in a zone or something. He didn't care who or what was near him or watching him. I yelled at him and it didn't do a damn thing.. I yelled again and finally he stopped and when I pulled the blankets away from under him, there he was all EXPOSED and dripping STUFF all over my bed.

The poor dog couldn't move... Tim came into the bedroom and his chin hit the floor.. I was all EWW!! EWW!! EWW!! He's DRIPPING ON MY BED!! and then Tim was all EWW!! EWW!! EWW!!

Ernie was finally able to jump off the bed but he couldn't crawl under it because of his.. um.. STUFF all being out.. and he was dripping stuff all over the carpet in little pools and it was the most disgusting thing that ever happened to me in my whole life.

I broke out the clorox.. we scrubbed and sanitized and fipped the mattress over and made sure there was absolutely no evidence of Ernie's love gun bullets anywhere.

Finally, he went back to normal and hid under the bed. Then the lightbulb went off.. there must be a female in heat in the neighborhood because for the last few days he's been whining to go out every hour or so.. and when the door was open he took the opportunity to explore.

And Bella?

Well, I guess she tagged along with the condoms!

The Most Hated Man In America

... and no, it's not Glenn Beck.

It's Jesus Christ.

Especially during this time of year, it seems that there's an incessant need to remove Christ and anything to do with Christ from well.. everywhere.

I've written about this before and questioned why tolerance for every other religion and belief is forced down our throats and yet my beliefs and my faith can be slammed without any recourse.

The latest attack was in Oklahoma City when the Federal Reserve demanded that a private, Payne County bank remove all it's references to Christianity because THEY deemed it inappropriate. They were offended by the cross' and Bible verses and Merry Christmas pins some of the staff had on display.

And I ask you why? Why does the Federal Reserve think they have the right to tell a PRIVATE bank what they can or cannot do.. especially when it has absolutely NOTHING to do with money?

And please.. please.. PLEASE do not bring up the whole separation of church and state because that has absolutely nothing to do with anything. (If you need me to explain to you what that phrase means and it's original intent then please email me) This is a private bank.. not a government endorsed one. They have a Constitutional right of freedom of religion to do what they want to do.

If you're offended by their pro-Christian displays, then bank elsewhere. It's obvious that the bank's owners feel that their display of faith is more important that someone being offended. Kudos to them.

So explain to me why someone can smear feces on a depiction of Jesus and it's called art but in the United Kingdom and Canada it's considered a "hate crime" to depict Muhammad?

My soon-to-be nephew posted this on his Facebook page:

The greatest man in history, named Jesus, had no servants yet they called him Master. He had no degree, yet they called him Teacher. He had no medicines, yet they called him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried a tomb, yet He lives today.

Maybe that's the problem with today's society and their need to "get rid" of Jesus. To believe in his teachings means that you have to life your life right. It means that those seven things that drive most people are things that you can no longer have, do, want or desire.

I ask those who laugh at my faith or try to minimize it: Why does it bother you so much what I believe it? Why does any reference to Jesus Christ offend you? Look inside yourself, not at me. Question your motives, not mine.

Tim said something recently that is really the best rebuttal to those who condemn Christ:

What does it matter to you how I approach my faith. If I believe in God and you don't and we get to the end and we find out that I'm wrong then so what. But if we find out that you're wrong, then where will you go?

My New Home.. in 51 Days

Well..

That may be a little extreme but that's how it's starting to feel.

We have to be out of our current house in 51 days.

We gave notice to our landlord because a woman up in Coal Township led us to believe that she was going to rent us her house with 99.99% certainty. The only thing she wanted to do was talk to our current landlord to verify the length of time we lived here and that we weren't problem tenants.

The only problem was our landlord didn't know we were thinking about moving and if this woman called, well.. we risked him being an obnoxious prick about finding out. So we took a leap of faith.. called and told him ourselves.. and then fell flat on our faces because we never heard from the woman again. She hasn't returned phone calls or emails.

We then moved on to Plan B and decided that a mobile home will keep costs down. We could pick up used ones fairly cheap but the moving of it from point A to point B was going to be expensive. Initially we had a place for a mobile that was going to be rent free but that fell by the wayside because of irrational thinking.. We then thought we were going to be able to get a loan for a new mobile home.. the salesman was POSITIVE that the industry was making a killing with people in our financial situation and that my credit score, although not great, was enough to approve the load.

So with high hopes we went a head and started looking for land to rent. We found someone who answered our ad and he's just thisshort of being great. He wanted a more then reasonable price to rent a half acre and was working with us as far as the septic, well and electricity went.

Things were certainly looking up.. and then they all crashed again.

Our loan application was denied.

So now we have the property.. but nothing to put on it. Except for a tent. And in a county where the blizzards have already started, a tent isn't really viable living conditions. Of course, a box isn't either. No options to rent anywhere and no opportunity to buy anything used that's close enough to not bust our budget to get it moved.

And did I mention my car only sleeps 2? Rather uncomfortable?

So two weeks before Christmas and I can't even think about being in the spirit.

I might not have a tree.. or gifts.. but I do have faith. Nothing can take that away and I my faith tells me that God will take care of us.

THE Fastest Why To Losing Your Christianity...

.. a stupid one, at that.

... I'm still shaking my head at this one.

The vaginal incubator that is the boy's mother has does some pretty fucked up things over the years that I've been around.

Without thinking, I can rattle off at least a dozen times when I wasjustthingclose to dropping her on her ass. Because.. you know.. the people that know me in real life know that I can cash any check I write.

The only thing stopping me is the fact that I have a lot more brain cells then she does and the only things I ingest to alter my mood are Sweet Tarts.

Given that she has a penchant for bogus lawsuits, I'm smart enough to NOT knock her on her ass.

However...

Considering that right now, the only thing I own is a 15 year old station wagon and have no viable income AND considering her latest antic.. all fucking bets are off.

Monday night, the youngest one wanted to go to youth group because it was his way of getting out of homework. He hasn't been to youth group on five weeks because he wanted to sit on his ass and play video games. But after asking if he had homework to do (he did) he right away wanted to go and got a pissy attitude about it.

You want to get mouthy? Well, guess what? I'm not going to waste the fumes I had left in the car.

So he calls the vaginal incubator and she takes him.

Youth group ends at 9 and at 9:20, my cell phone rings. He needed to get picked up. I wasn't about to stop doing what I was doing, so his father got dressed and went to get his simple ass.

I went into the kitchen.. put some popcorn in the microwave.. went to the bathroom while it was popping and then back into the kitchen to wait for it to finish.. and then headed back to the bedroom.

So what was that? 2.5 minutes??? Maybe.. MAYBE three??

Soon as I get back on the bed, my cell phone rings. It's the idiot calling from the vaginal incubators cell phone asking if his father was on his way to pick him up.

I told him he was and asked him were HE was at. Well, I KNEW where he was at, I just wanted to know where between the church and the house he was. I could hear her screeching in the background but couldn't hear what she was screeching about. Because she's ALWAYS screeching about something.

The idiot asks me to get a hold of his father and tell him that the vaginal incubator picked him up.

Well.. idiot.. I CAN'T because YOU know as well as I KNOW that your father doesn't have a cell phone and doesn't want one.

They were only a few blocks from the church so I tell him that he has to go back to the church to catch up with his father because his father isn't going to know where he's at.

Not five minutes later, the idiot walks in the door. He tells me that the vaginal incubator wouldn't turn around and go back to the church.

Let me say that again for all of you who might have missed it.

SHE WOULD NOT TURN THE CAR AROUND AND DRIVE THE THREE BLOCKS BACK TO THE CHURCH.

Are you FUCKING kidding me? How bad do you really want that Queen of Cunts tiara? Oh wait.. wait.. you already wear it.

So I ask the idiot WHY he called his father if he knew the vaginal incubator was picking him up? Ooohh.. because she was 20 MINUTES late...

Annnd WHY didn't you just wait there until you father showed up since you already called him to pick you up??

Blank stare.

So NOW, I tell the idiot, you father is in a freezing church parking lot at almost 9:40 at night worrying about where THE FUCK YOU ARE.. because you don't think of anyone BUT yourself and didn't stay. And there's NO WAY to get in touch with him.

There was nothing else for me to do but walk the 3 miles to the church and try to catch his father there or on the roads back to the house. The middle kid asked me if I wanted him to call his mother.. and I was like I. WILL. DROP. HER. ON. HER. ASS. SO. HARD. SHE'LL. HAVE. A. REASON. TO. POP. PAIN. PILLS.

He did offer to walk me but I didn't want to be anywhere near anything or anybody that shared their DNA.

And let me tell you.. I was SO hot, that I didn't even feel the 30 degree weather.

I got almost about half way there when my cell rang and it was the middle kid. I could hear his father screaming at the top of his lungs at the idiot but if you ask me, he was screaming at the wrong person. But that's a whole different post for a different time because he can be a bad ass towards his kids but a major pussy when it comes to the vaginal incubator.

So I get back to the house and I go into the bedroom and I tell their father what happened on this end.. and I say to him that what she did was the ultimate "fuck you" .. he just said "yea" and I wanted to drop him on his fucking ass.

See.. they have child support court on Thursday.

They have child support court on Thursday because she hasn't paid child support in three months. She called up Monday morning and told him to call the courts and request a continuance. Are you fucking KIDDING me? She's also under the impression that HE called and reported the non payment ( um, like SHE would do if the tables were turned and he was like.. I don't know.. five minutes late with the check? ).

Why she insists on NOT believing that the court will automatically send a summons when you miss three months of payments is beyond me.. I mean, it's not like we haven't been through this before.. more then a time or two.

She even told her kids, ".. your asshole father is taking me to court because I missed one month".


The best was THREE MONTHS AGO when they were summons to court because she has missed the previous three months of payments. She called up asking him where she needs to send the check.

Really? Because.. um... you've PAID before so like.. why exactly wouldn't you know how to do it??

Heh .. well, I think I have an answer to that stemming from a conversation I had with one of her *cough* gentleman friends *cough* but yknow.. it's not confirmed. I will say that all the puzzle pieces fit and it's a pretty warped fucking picture.

And you know.. like Judge Judy says, "... you picked her to make a baby with" so you get what you deserve. Only I don't deserve it and I'm not putting up with the bullshit anymore.

So men, take it from me, before you unzip your pants and are too lazy to wrap it up in plastic wrap do  yourself a favor and push for an in-depth psychological exam. It's going to save you A LOT of drama later on in life.

And don't hand over your balls. Women with their shit together won't respect you.

The TRUE Meaning Of Christmas.. or Why It's SO Much Better To Give Then Receive

You guys all know the issues we've been having with trying to find a place to move to.. and the financial situation we're in..

My life's an open book, what can I say...

Anyway.. you know, as bad as we have it sometime you lose sight that there are a lot of other people who have it worse.

And I recently found that out first hand.

The other night I put an ad up on Craigslist looking for a piece of property to move to. We have already exhausted all the ad and listings ourselves and figured, why not just put an ad up outlining what we want, what we need it for and how much we wanted to spend. This way, we wouldn't be wasting our time and resources driving all over the damn state and other's wouldn't be wasting their time if they really didn't want chickens running around their property.

So I posted the ad and when I went back onto the site to see the actual post, I came across an ad from a women who was looking to have some kind Christmas for her kids.

Her husband's unemployment has recently run out, she had to leave her position because of a very serious health issue and her three kids are all afflicted with some type of special need. She explained that her kids were well aware that there was a chance they wouldn't get what they wanted for Christmas but that, together, they would write the ad and see what happens. Maybe there were still good people in the world.

There are a lot of ads on Craigslist from desperate parents who want their kids to remain kids as long as possible. This is going to be a hard, hard holiday for a lot of families and for some reason, this particular ad struck a cord in me.

Out of the things each of her kids requested, I had two out of the three sitting collecting dust in my closet. Forgotten about until now. So without thinking, I sent her an email saying that y'know, I had these things and even though they were used, they still worked. I would have to find some cords or paddle or the what not but I was more then happy to give them to her.

She replied to my email and you know, people say that you cannot feel the tone of an email but believe me, I could feel the appreciation and the relief in her voice. She wanted to send me money. She said she didn't have much but would send as close to what I wanted that she could afford. I told her no. I didn't want her money.. I told her that I didn't know if she was a Christian or not, but I was.. and by helping her I was practicing the true meaning of Christams. I wanted to give.. I didn't want to get paid.

Turns out, she is a Christian also who's faith is as deeper.. or maybe deeper.. then mine and what happened between our email exchanges was the budding of a new friendship. Our talk became less about the physical gifts but the gift of grace. She is younger then I am, with three kids that she and her husband are trying to raise  with morals and values and the knowledge that the material doesn't really matter. She told me that responding to her email and giving her things that are sitting no-used in my house will reinforce in her kids the power of prayer and faith.

Could I ever get a better present then that?

So I tell you.. if you  have the opportunity.. give something from your heart. Help someone who needs it without wanting anything in return.

It's the purest emotion you will ever feel.