Movie via webcam

So the library here has recently purchased some netbooks for individuals to check out while at the library. I have checked one out to see if it is any good. It actually runs quite well for how small it is. The overall form factor is just a tad too small though to do some serious work on it, but for basic stuff it is sufficient.

Anywho here is a video i made with the on-board webcam.

Nice Cold Weather

So the weather has began to get colder. The average for the mornings is in the sixties and the evenings are in the seventies. The weather has leveled off for the time being, but I suspect that it will dip again in the following weeks. I hope the winter does not come early. We have been told that it either will be a really warm winter or a really really bad one.

Stephen (me) is slowly learning to drive the Kim's stick-shift vehicle. Mostly out of necessity as Kim has been under the weather the past few days. It is not so much the driving that is the issue, but 1st gear that has been giving me issues. If I didn't keep stalling in first, then I would be a decent driver. On the way to Wal-Mart last night I stalled twice near our block and some neighbors were laughing because it was obvious what was going on. In my personal opinion, all cars should be automatic. Sigh, oh well. I guess I will have to master the vehicile eventually.

Self Education

So there is one positive thing about being unemployed and that is being able to research things to educate myself about. For instance, the other day I had an issue with playing a video on my computer because I didn’t have the correct mpeg 2 reader/converter plug-in. So after doing some research I eventually found that I needed to either A) reinstall a program I had erased when i reformatted my system B) spend twenty dollars on another copy of the program and plug-in. I decided on the first. Once I reinstalled it (after having to dig up the serial numbers that were misplaced) my video editing programs can now view and editing these files correctly.

Granted there is some other things I could probably be doing, but you can only job hunt and look up cooking recipes for so long before you need a break of some sort.

Funny Comic

So here is a funny comic I found a few weeks ago while surfing the web. I found it really hilarious.

Cloudy with a chance of rain

Since living here for over the past two months, Kim and I have discovered two things. It is more likely to rain when it is cloudy than not rain. As I type this it has been raining for the past half an hour. There are two main types of rain here. The first is the drizzle. The drizzle is more than a light sprinkling which can last up to an hour. It puts enough water down to actually clean your car. The second type is the downpour. The downpour will start dumping large amounts of water within minutes, but then turn back into a drizzle.

A side effect of having it rain so often is that buildings with air conditioning get colder because there is more moisture in the air and to combat it the cooler has to get colder. Another side effect of the rain in what I call the window-heat ratio. In Arizona if you are next to a window it is much hotter and dryer. In Iowa it gets colder. The same can be said for any of the exterior walls.

From the sound of the thunder it seems as if a downpour is going to occur within the next ten minutes somewhere in the vicinity. As of yet the power to the library has never shut off due to a storm. Of course I can not say what winter snows hold.

Job Hunting: The real numbers

Everyone knows that the recession is tough. The media keeps talking about the amount of jobs that have been lost and how hard it is for people to obtain a new ones. I am in the same position of many thousands upon thousand of Americans that are currently unemployed.

The question that has been on my mind before and especially AFTER moving to Iowa is exactly how hard is it to get a job? The following is real data from my own experiences over the past three weeks about how persistent one must be to get a job.

(Note: I started applying for work AFTER many of the retail stores had hired their summer work. This does need to be considered when viewing my data. I am also including a few applications I have filled out and am turning in today).

Places I Inquired about Employment	Businesses Not Currently Hiring	Applications Submitted	Applications Awaiting Response
60	19	40	38

My research (job hunt) has given me some valuable information on what to do and what not to do when filling out an application for employment. I will publish that data in my next post.

Iowa the land of unevenness

So Iowa is a magical place where the snow messes the roads up in addition to all the snowplows and salt that is used afterwards. Here are some examples of what I mean.





This is the lame pothole that tripped kim and made it so that we couldn't go to Sturguess falls fair. Grrrr those potholes. Kim is ok now by the way.