Family. Isn't it about . . . time?

Hey! Glad to see that I didn't fall off the surface of the world (yet)?

I know it's been a L O N G time since I last graced you with a blob post. I never said that this was going to be a weekly (or even monthly) thing on my part. So if you don't see a post from me for a while, it's most likely caused by me inability to post more than 2 things a week (i.e. because I posted over on the Reset Radio blog page).

Last weekend we headed up to Salt Lake so we could, A: Get our taxes done & B: See family. This was a great trip. I even got to help my little bro buy his Xbox 360 with the money he had so diligently been saving. The "bug" got to see her grandma and her great-grandparents, as well as her aunt Timaree and her uncle Kolten. She really loved the trip!

Spring Break was this past week, so Shani was home working on cleaning up the house (which we usually get done on Saturday). We were also anticipating the arrival of MORE family. This time, my dad and his family were coming up from California. To give you a brief history of my family...

My mom is from Salt Lake. My dad is from Southern California. They met in California, got married, bought a house, sold the house, moved to Murray (Utah), separated, divorced, my dad moved back to California... whoo, that was a long run-on sentence.

I didn't talk to my dad very much, or even see him... Until the summer after 3rd grade. That was when my dad got remarried. That was the last time I saw my dad for a long time (about 18 years). Thanks to myspace, I got back in touch with my half sister, who then got me in touch with my dad.

So about this time last year (March 2008), we met up in Vegas and hung out and got to know everyone. I met my sister before, but she was only a year old when I did. But I also had another sister and a brother, both of which I had never met before. This was also the first time Shani and Kenli had met my dad and his family.

So after a year of chatting on the phone and visiting in Vegas, St. George (Utah), and San Bernardino (California)... We talk my dad and his family to come back up to visit us in St. George for the 2nd time. It was really great! We didn't do a whole heck of a lot, but we did go to Zion National Park on Friday. Then on Saturday I had to work at the radio station, so I took my dad with me, so he could see what I do at work.

hmm... I guess that about sums it up. Shani is going to post some pictures from the trip, so I won't here.

Thanks for reading the blog!

follow my twitter feed over at Twitter.com/resetradio. Twitter is the fastest way to know what I'm doing up to the second. I'm a lot better at "tweeting" than I am at blogging. Or, drop my an email over to firemouth55@hotmail.com

-Sky

Shoot me in the FOOT . . . Solutions

Hey all! I know I've been VERY bad a posting to this little blog of mine. It seems as soon as I think of it, something else comes up. For instance... Lately I've been playing a lot of Gears of War 2. I think that I may have ended up even becoming an Xbox 360 "achievement junkie."


Other than that, I really haven't done a whole lot since my last post. . .
OH WAIT!!


I guess I kinda forgot to mention that I am now working at a business called "Foot Solutions" where I hope to eventually become a
certified pedorthist or "C. Ped" (professional shoe fitter, in layman's terms). There I get to work with all types of people, but it seems that most are over the age of 50, and a good lot of them are diabetic. I never stopped to think about the impacts diabetes has on ones life until I had this job. I also never realized that diabetics on Medicare receive 1 pair of shoes a year free. . . just for having diabetes. hmm.



On the Reset Radio side... we posted episode 17 a couple weekends ago... Now we just need to get together to record episode 18. I'm sure we will do it sooner than later. It's really nice to have an outlet (or an excuse) for playing video games, watching movies and TV, all in the name of "research."

Last month Rustin and I went to Vegas to go to CES, which was AWESOME!!! Here is a video of SOME of the highlights. We didn't have our cameras going all the time... but then again, if you're around cool electronic stuff... would you record it all?

It's Christmas Already?

I've noticed one key thing as I've gone through the years. It seems to me that the years go by a lot faster the older you get, and as the years go by fast, so do the holidays.

I'm just not in a mental state at this time to celebrate the Christmas season. You can call me a Scrooge, but the truth is I'm not even ready for my birthday to come around on the 17th. It may only stem from the lack of cash-flow that we are faced with, but at this point I'm still not sure if that's the case.

About a month ago we started to buy "The Bug" (Kenli) her Christmas presents. As we would shop I would find things that I really wanted. As time went on I grew more and more irritated that we didn't have enough money for me to get what I wanted for my birthday or Christmas (sense the pattern here?).

Fast-forward to last night. I don't know if it was something said during the course of the day yesterday. But, I felt like I had been the Grinch and my heart just grew last night... We went together as a family to the St. George Temple to go and see the lights. As we were there, it just hit me like a ton of coal in Santa's sack... I had been so selfish, I had started to forget the reason we even have it in the first place. Somehow, getting the newest Xbox 360 game didn't sound as important as it used to.

As a result, I've found myself wanting nothing more for Christmas than to spend good quality time with my family (because, quite honestly, thats about all I can afford to do right now). I just have to fight the urge to want things. Shani is so selfless, to the point that sometimes it drives me nuts that she can't understand me when I say I want something. But after that moment last night, I hope she doesn't have to hear me beg and plea for the things I want this year for Christmas. I've seen the bigger picture and by doing so, I have opened up my heart to "The Christmas Spirit."

As always, thanks for reading. Let me know how you are dealing with the holidays. Drop me an email at firemouth55 @ hotmail .com or leave a comment on this blog post.

-Sky

Don't kill me for not posting, I'll do better

So... I always have a tough time figuring out how to start these kind of things. Should I start off with a joke, a story, some kind of joke-story hybrid? I don't know, and until I do, I guess you'll just have to deal with what you've got.

Now, I'd hate to be a downer... but I thought I'd just make a quick mention regarding my employment situation... I don't have an employment situation anymore, that's my situation. Yep, this past Monday (that's right the Monday after the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend) I was laid off, let go, fired, separated from my work experience, etc (you get the point!). So now I'm looking for another job. I know people besides me read this "lame" blog. So if you happen to know of any jobs, let me know. I'm kinda scraping the bottom of the barrel at this point. I'm willing to do ANYTHING. *pause* Okay, maybe not ANYTHING . . . but aside from whoring myself out on the streets at night or hanging out with questionable people in even more questionable dark alleys, swapping products for money out of my car, I think I'd do JUST ABOUT anything.

It's an odd thing that happens when you get laid off from your job. You feel like a suicidal person that has just woken up in the hospital, after ATTEMPTING to kill themselves, just to find out there was one more thing they weren't any good at. In simplified terms . . . You feel like poo.

Anyways... On to better things. This isn't the only place you can "keep tabs" on me. I now have a Twitter account which is at Twitter.com/firemouth55 . I do my best to get on there at least once a day. It only gives you so much room to post, so less is more. I also have another blog that I "co-host" (if you couldn't tell by the stuff towards the top of this blog page) called Reset Radio. It's mostly just a podcast (if you don't know what that is ... google it sucka, jk. It's like a web radio show that you can download on itunes) but once in a while we find good stuff to blog about.

*20 minutes later*

My contacts were bugging me, so I went and swapped em' for my lovely glasses (that nobody else but my wife and daughter get to see me wear . . . brings back too many memories from Jr. High). My tooth had been bugging me since dinner, so I flossed and brush my teeth as well. The funny thing is, I left a half full (see the optimism) can of Dr. Pepper sitting here when I went upstairs. So I HAD to finish it! I can't let good D.P. go to waste. Let me just tell you that the 23 flavors in Dr. Pepper do not go well with the mint left over from my toothpaste. *yuck* Don't you just love the fact that this blog is basically just made-up of useless crap? I don't follow many (make that any) blogs, so I don't know what is and isn't socially acceptable blogging behavior. Personally, I think it just give this blog a little more personality.

On that note. I will type at you later.
Follow me on Twitter or email me at firemouth55 @ hotmail . com

Thanks,
Skyler

Spead to Thin?

This past week was kind of an eye-opener for me. I realized just how much time I invest in the internet. Between recording, editing and posting a Reset Radio episode, keeping up with my friends on Facebook, reading and replying to mail from my 4 different email accounts, editing HTML code all day at work, and finding enough free time to post to this blog (which I've been neglecting for the the past few days)... I feel like I can't quite keep up.

It's like that old saying, "running around like a chicken with its head cut off." If I were the chicken, my body would be celebrating the separation from my brain too.

Tomorrow at 11am, I get to work at the radio station (crossing my fingers, hoping that I don't screw anything up). I love being able to say that I have finally got my foot in the door with a broadcasting company.

This is going to be a very scatter-brained post, but it's midnight and my mind is gone because it's Friday . . . or Saturday now. Please disregard any and all poor grammar and/or punctuation.

I'm really going to do my best to be consistent about blogging on this page. On one hand, it's just there and I'm not sure how many people will actually even read it, but on the other hand, it gives me a medium to vent and talk about the events of the week. Blogging is kind of like having a therapist that tells everyone what you say behind closed doors. Well, it's a "free" therapist session, so I guess you get what you pay for.

I'm really making no sense right now. I'm making perfect sense in my head, but I have a hard time translating this into words to read on a screen. So, that being said... I think I'm going to head to bed now.

Later,

Skyler

Wow. . . really? Cool!!!

The last time I posted something, it was basically just a vent session about me "working for free"over at Portrait Kitchens. But it seem that I have done at least SOMETHING right in the past few days.

I actually was hired by 2 different places yesterday. The first place wasn't really THAT big of a deal. . . I love working over at Portrait Kitchens, it's just hard to pay the bills with . . . nothing. Well, I went an kinda told my boss everything that has been going on in my life(and all the bills I can't pay with my "unemployment" check) and asked him if there was any way at all that I could be paid an hourly wage. . . instead of full commission.

He came back the next morning with the offer of $10/hr plus 10% commissions!!! I was so happy!

The other job was kind of a total shock. I've been applying online for jobs for almost a year. I've even emailed my resume to radio stations before, but I must have done something right.

This past Sunday evening I was online looking for jobs. Then I finally got this great idea. I've been hearing a lot lately that one of the local broadcasting companies needing sales people. So I (in my infinite wisdom) decided to email EVERYONE that I could find that worked for this broadcasting company.

Monday I stayed home from work with my sick little girl. (Not to mention the lack of drive I had that morning to even get out of bed and go to work) I was so bummed out when my Hotmail account wouldn't receive new emails. So, here I had just sent off 8 emails to different people, but they couldn't respond back to me (or rather they could, but I wouldn't know). I had just about given up.

Then Tuesday morning I get a call from one of the guys over one of the radio stations telling me they are looking to hire for a "board op" position. He asked me if I was free for an interview. I set the interview up for noon that same day. He gave me the grand tour of the building and introduced me to most of the people that work there.

I love this! I have my first day tomorrow morning at 10 to be "trained" on how to use the equipment for live remote broadcasts. Everyone please keep your fingers crossed that I'll do well at this job!!!

Later,

-Sky

Living on the WRONG side of the Unemployment desk

The title of this post may be a bit misleading . . . I mean, is there ever really a good side of the unemployment desk? I don't really think there is, but I'm wrong a lot so don't quote me on anything.

Yeah so, here I am . . . I have officially become an "unemployed loser." I spent 3 years at my last job, which made me the highest hourly paid employee there. I also just so happened to be working there during a very slow economic growth period. So they decided it would be best for the company, if they took me completely out of the equation. Then they paid someone half of what I was making to do the same thing. Talk about a low blow. The thing that really sucked, was the fact that I was basically laid off via TEXT MESSAGE. They couldn't even tell me in person, even after working there for 3 years of my life! . . . There's a big 3 year chunk of my time that I'll never get back. It's not like I didn't like working there, I just though after hanging out and chatting with these people every day for 3 years, they would have the guts to lay me off in person. (I'm getting off my soapbox now, even though I really like the view from up here.)

Anyways . . . That being said. I was laid off the week after Memorial Day, and ever since then I've been without an official job. I've gone to interviews, I've left resumes, I emailed resumes, I've made phone calls and personal walk-in visits, and I've spent enough time on CareerBuilder.com to actually consider it my full-time job (that doesn't pay). Finally, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. . . a little place called "Portrait Kitchens."

Since mid July, I have been "working" for Shad Johnsen at Portrait Kitchens, starting out as an Outside Sales Rep and later becoming the Internet Sales Manager (it sounds better than it actually is). Well, we all know how bad the economy has been for the past few months. Me of all people should have taken that into consideration as I was applying for jobs. But, little old me has been "stuck" working for FREE for the last 3 and a half months.

The building industry in our little area has seemed to all but come to a screetching hault. When I first started at Portait Kitchens, I was expected to drive around "hunting" for work. I use the word "hunting," but it felt more like begging for scraps. It was my job to find houses that were still in the building stages and see if I could sell them any products or services. It seemed like on average, I would see about 2-3 houses that had been "dropped" (or had stopped being built) every day! . . . Not a great confidence builder at all!!!

About 2 and a half months ago, we started working on our "Worst Kitchen Contest" as well as our online shopping cart, in which case yours truley was put in charge of the latter. . . "Que promotion. . . and . . . Action!"

I was "transformed" from the Outside Sales Rep, that was basically always OUT OF THE OFFICE, to the Internet Sales Manager . . . which looks great on my resume, but not in my bank account. . . like I said before, I was working for free (or on full commission. . . either way it's still free. Tomato... Tamoto). Luckily, I was able to qualify for "unemployment insurance," which pays me about half of what I need in order to support my family. All in all, the whole situation SUCKS!!!

I've tried thinking up new and creative ways to make money. I donate plasma twice a week in return for 50 bucks! It's not a lot, but it helps pay for gas and food. I've thought about selling my guitars, but that's one of the things that I do to take my mind off of everything. . . so I can't get rid of those. I've even gone as far as researching how much money you get for donating BONE MARROW. . . For any of you brave souls out there looking to try this method too, they don't give you anything more than a pain in your side and a pat on the back. I even thought about donating my body to science. No joke! I really looked into it! . . . they don't pay either, otherwise I would have by now.

In this economiclly turbulent time, I figured someone could benifit from my story. If not anything more than to just laugh and say, "I'm sure as hell glad that's not me!"

Money really does make the world go round, and the lack thereof seems to make it all just fall apart. I just know there is something I'm supposed to be learning from this whole ordeal, but right now, I can't see the forest through the trees. I realize that I'll come out of this a better person, so I'm not too worried. I also know that I'm not the ONLY person that has been effected by the slow economy, so that's something to be greatful about.

Well, another long post down the drain. It makes it easier to write this stuff when I'm tired for some weird reason. . . hmm.

Anyways, Thanks for taking the time to read this long-ass post!

-Sky