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.

Out with the Elders in the Ghetto

I went trackting (finding potential investigators) with the elders after an appointment fell through that they needed a third person to sit on. Since I am currently unemployed :( and have alot of free time, I figured it was the best use of my time. Well I usually wear a sweater over whatever shirt I have on that day because the library gets really cold after sitting a few hours. Today I was wearing a Captain America T-shirt under my sweater. Fast forward an hour. It is really humid, really hot and we are walking through the "nice" part of the ghetto of Waterloo looking for possible investigators. Well i decided that even though it looked odd having two guys in white shirts and ties and then me with a captain america t-shirt, it was better than boiling to death in my sweater. We talked with a man on his porch for a bit and since he was in a red t-short I didn't feel so bad.

We went over to another area and it got really interesting. I mean the people were nice and we talked to this lady they knew, but it is always unnerving when you are 90% sure the guy three feet from you put his gun in his pants out of respect for the "church guys".

By the time we got back to the car we were all sweating fairly well and the one elder actually looked sunburned. So next time I go out with the elders I am bringing a different shirt, a backpack to put my sweater and some water.

Toy Story and the recession

So Toy Story 3 came out this week to a record 109 million in ticket sells. The interesting thing about this is because the country is in a ressession and yet people still watch movies. Why is this so? The answer is simple and can be found in the pages of history.

In the 1930s the Great Depression was gripping the nation. At the same time, motion pictures had married sound and created the modern movie experience. Movies became hugely popular even in the extreme economic hardships that people were facing. Why is this so? Because people who are depressed or feeling down want to be entertained, they want to be uplifited. I do not have hard evidence on this, but i would take a guess that comedies and "fun" movies do considerably better than heavy dramas in an economic downturn.

Now some of you are probably thinking that Kim and I rushed out on the first day to see Toy Story 3. In fact we have not seen it. Movie prices here in Cedar Falls/Waterloo are just as expensive as in the valley WITH the unfortunate fact that there are no student discounts. I mean come on, who would pay nine dollars per ticket to watch a movie. I mean seven dollars is a little better, but nine? Even then, Kim and I sometimes even go to the "first showing" on Saturday movies because it is five dollars at some theaters. While I know we will eventually go watch Toy Story 3 (and of course Avatar: The Last Air Bender), Kim and I are content just watching movies from the library or going on a bike ride.

Western Home Communities

This is where Kim is doing her internship. This is one of two sites she works at. The other location is about 1.5 miles south east from this place. It is conveniently about two blocks south of the Cedar Falls Library, so I just walk from her work.

The Library: My home away from home

UPDATE: Photos are here

So I have been spending more time at the library over the past two weeks than I probably did for the last six months. The majority of the time I am on the computer job hunting, but occasionally I will read a book. The other week I finished the last Percy Jackson book I had been wanting to read.






So usually I am here on this here desk surfing away as i look for jobs, browse Facebook or update this blog. Sigh........... such a dull life. At first it was nice to be able to just relax and have some leisure time, but now I'm basically going bonkers. I am thinking of volunteering at one of the many churches here just to keep myself from going crazy.







Well this is me or rather what the interior lobby of the library where I eat my lunch. Looks like I had leftover pizza (yum), yogurt, and a few other things in my red lunch bag of tricks.

I must be pretty board if I am blogging about what I ate during lunch. Sigh.....

We aren't in AZ anymore Todo: Cedar Falls

The sister-cities of Cedar Falls/Waterloo have several unique and interesting aspects that are different than from the Valley back in AZ. This post is about Cedar Falls where Kim works.





The first thing we noticed about Cedar Falls was the sidewalks. Cedar Falls has more sidewalks than Waterloo, but not nearly as many as the Valley. The sidewalks they do have are offset from the road. I actually think its a good idea to keep some distance from the vehicles on the road and the pedestrians. Something else that is different is the lack of crosswalk lines. There are very few crosswalk lines even at major intersections.




Many of the houses in the area have slat paneling on the sides. It doesn't get hot enough here to warp them unlike Arizona. Additionally, houses that are two level will sometimes have an exterior staircase attached to the side. Many of these stairs look as if they were added on after the house was built.






Church buildings here are so much cooler than in Mesa or Tempe. They look similar to some of the older churches in Phoenix. Here is just a few samples.

Driving to Iowa

Ah one of the many different mountains in New Mexico.



Groom Texas had only one Dairy Queen. The food was good but the service was really slow.



For people thinking of taking the Turnpike, it is fast but very expensive. It cost about $12 to go from one end of the state to the other.



Here we are at John and Sonya's place in Lawrence Kansas

Iowa, the land of rolling hills

Hello friends and family (probably mainly family). This blog is dedicated to call things Iowa while Kim and myself are here for the next five months.

For those of you that do not already know, Kim is completing her Music Therapy degree by doing a 6 month unpaid internship in Cedar Falls Iowa. I came along for the ride.