End of Year - 2009

The Xmas roundup of 2009.

The year started off great. I was in school, doing a diploma in business administration and thoroughly enjoying myself. I was also finally losing weight after being somewhat obese for the last 25 years.

It is now the end of the year and things are not so good.

1 - My son is now at home for the next 2 weeks (school Xmas holidays) as he is no longer in daycare. He likes that I can drop him off at school at 9 and pick him up at 3.30 but thats only because I am not working.

2 - I have been out of school for 5 months and still have not been able to find a job. Which is why my son is out of daycare. One must have a job to keep the daycare subsidy.

3 - Because I have lost so much weight (70 pounds) and we now have very cold weather outside, (arctic winds but no snow yet) my body is FREEEEEEZING. I have lost all my insulation and now I have to put on extra layers of clothing just to keep warm inside my own apartment.

4 - My husband brought me a SNUGGIE for Xmas to help me keep warm. It is very warm too. Fortunately some places in town also sell them so we did not have to buy one online. And yes I got the free booklight as well.

5 - I have been working with a number of employment agencies trying to improve myself. I have a good cover letter and a good resume, and I am still getting some interviews. BUT I dont get the job offers.

So either it's my grey hair that is scaring them off, or it might my lack of confidence and enthusiasm. I have an appointment next week, to do a mock interview on video (with an employment agency) and then to discuss it afterwards to find out what I need to improve. I hate being on video or TV, but this is necessary.

6 - I am still reading books. I dont review so much now because I just do not seem to be able to finish what I am reading. Right now I have bookmarks in 8 different books. One book I am still reading is a chunkster - over 600 pages.

Every now and then I pick up a light fictional book from the library and read that.
I will have a new review up after this post.
Thats enough from me for now. I hope you all have a....

Very Merry Christmas and

a Happy New Year

No post for 3 weeks - my apologies

I am so sorry I have not posted for the last 3 weeks, but I am currently still looking for a job. So I am not reading as much as I usually do. I have sent out lots of emails but with the recession going on right now, I am not getting any responses.

Woofstock is here again already?

A year ago this weekend I was meeting some fellow book bloggers here in Toronto. And how do I remember this? Because Woofstock was on that weekend. And goodness gracious but it's on again this weekend as well.

I know I am not blogging much, but I still reading and I am also busy looking for jobs. It takes a while to redo the resume and rewrite the perfect letter for every application. I know I am doing good if I can get 4 applications off in any one day. That is - if there are 4 good positions I can apply to.

Now I just need to snag an interview and get the job.

Its the end of May

Well it's the end of May. My family got through all three birthdays, pretty much ok. My son turned 6 years old, and got a Star Wars light sabre (a big one with lights and sounds) and a guitar for his birthday. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, we also purchased a new computer as well. The 9 year old PC had to be replaced because it had insufficient RAM and hard drive memory. Which meant that the boys could not play the newer video games on it. (the boys being my 6 year old son and his dad). We have now purchased both a memory card and a video card for the new computer, and the new games are running very nicely now.

May however was not complete without a major upset along the way. About a week after my birthday, I was dismissed from my job. This was the first job I had found after my surgery. So I am back to hunting for yet another job. I hate looking for new jobs.

Because there are no jobs out there that allow me to actually do what I love doing. And what I love doing is surfing, blogging, reading books and reviewing books. I would also like to do bibliography, but with no experience, I cannot make any progress in that direction.

There is one job in Toronto involving books that I would love to do and that is to be a book scanner. For the Internet Archive. They have an office at the University of Toronto (in the Robarts Library) where 12 people do nothing but scan in books (page by page) for the archive. Old books, Rare books. This is one job I would love to do. I have applied twice so far, but all I get is silence. Not even an interview.

That new job

Remember that interview I mentioned last week? the one where I lost interest during the interview because there might be some weekend work?

Well, I ended up actually getting that job. I accepted it, because I need a job and because I have not heard back from any of the other jobs I have been applying for. So right now it is 10am Tuesday morning and I am waiting for the new employer to call me. The hours (30 hours per week) the pay and working from home, are all perfect. This is a Marketing Analyst job - writing reports and accessing their database to do my work. A major step up from the survey interviews I used to do, a few years ago.

Canada is too cold to be looking for a job

This has been one of the worst winters ever. Apparently there is an arctic mass of cold air sitting over much of Canada and probably Russia and Europe. It has been much colder than usual all around the Northern Hemisphere. It's not global warning, but global cooling. Today is -10 degrees Celcius and the windchill is -27 Celcius. Apparently -27 degrees is where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet. In Hawaii, the locals have had to resort to wearing long-sleeved T-shirts - instead of the short sleeves they usually wear.

Yesterday was a bad day for me. I lost my bank debit card - the result of my memory getting worse since my operation - and I am very lucky I did not lose my credit card as well. So after tramping around several shops where I last remember using it, I headed for the bank to get a new one.

I also had a job interview - on the telephone. It started off well until the job started expanding beyond what was originally stated. This was a home based position writing market analyst reports (results of survey and focus groups). I was happily stating that I would be available at home during the day and the evenings (with a 3 hour break between dinner, and sons bedtime) until the employer mentioned that occasionally there might be some last minute work that would mean working the weekend. I immdiately deflated. The weekend? Thats family time. I lost enthusiasm after that. I'll have to wait and see who they choose, but I dont expect it to be me. It's too cold to be looking for a job.

And my son has a new craze. Well two new crazes really. First the skateboard - I purchased that last week because it was on sale and the prices was really too good to pass up. Now he wants Chaotic cards. Chaotic is the latest TV craze. A cartoon program where kids fight imaginary animals in an imaginary world. Someone has developed a card game out of this. And my son was upset that I did not immediately go out and buy him a pack of cards. Well for one they are hard to find. I had to call several shops looking for them. Am still debating whether or not to actually get them, right now. It's too cold to be outside.

I should have another book review up later today.

Administration, Bibliography, Cataloging job required

Things are really happening on the Shakespeare front. I received an email from another Shakespeare author this week. She has written a book on a woman contender for being the playright. I wish it was January 1st already, so I can start reading my Shakespeare books now, instead of waiting another whole month.

I am in the process of looking for another job, so if anyone in Toronto knows of any vacancies in the Toronto Public Library, or any publisher, bookshop (first run, remainder or antiquarian), magazine or newspaper who needs an Administration Assistant who has a can do attitude and is willing to work on cataloging, bibliography, research, filing, record management and archives, please let me know. I do have library and cataloging experience. Money not important. 25 to 30 hours per week at least. Thank you.