problems, problems, problems

It's one of those days. It started with a return of my stomach virus which wasn't entirely welcome but not unexpected. I don't expect to be fully well again until probably March. I work with children and they're extremely generous with their virusses.

Today's only activity was to complete the 20A cable I started to construct last night. At 30 feet it turns out to be a bit on the short side. I'd thought 20 feet would have been plenty but I need more. I"ll probably get another 30 feet of cable after Christmas. For the moment, what I have will suffice to complete my welding. Welding will, of course, have to be done on a dry day. That's not today.

Meanwhile, the blogging application I used on my Nexus won't install on my RCA tablet and the application I used for the last few posts decided when the tablet went to sleep to delete the entry I had just typed. Clearly local auto save was not a feature built in! Thus, I'm using the blogger web interface and lots of data.

In other news, mentioning my stomach virus to a friend elicited the response that as I've been ill so frequently over the last couple of months, why didn't I see the doctor. The aswer is simple - I have only a part time job that doesn't pay enough to pay rent or buy health insurance. Ineed, if it were not for the generosity of my lady, I'd have nowhere to live other than on the street in my as yet unfinished bus conversion. Every penny I have that does not go on fuel to get to work, goes on the conversion. This is why progress is so slow. I just can't do it that fast when I can spend only $100 a month.

The more right wing amongst my readers will ask why I don't simply get a second part time job or get a full time job. That's harder than you might imagine. Over the past 12 months my applicaions have yielded one single interview. That was with a local college and the interviewer asked for a bribe. Now aside from the fact I can barely afford to live, let alone pay bribes, a company that has employees that routinely ask for bribes doesn't sound like employment that's going to last more than a day or two after they figure out that I'm not going to pay them a percentage out of every paycheck. A second part time job isn't going to work because where I work is so far from any centers - that's in the rare instance that "open availability" isn't demanded. Open availability means one has to be available 24x7 at the drop of a hat for part time work. Basically being unable to work for anybody else! Yes - employers really do that and its very common.

So, right now, I'm just plain stuck. It seems to me that applying for jobs doesn't work in the vast majority of cases. Those interviewed usually seem to know somebody in the upper etchelons of the organisation and I've always kept myself to myself.

Last year, I got a few interviews but several were cancelled as soon as they discovered my gender or race was not to their liking. I had no idea  that gender or race had any impact on administrative work! Surely ability to do work is far more important than gender or skin color? This year, I can add bribary to the list. Things really aren't looking too good for South Carolina employers - racist, sexist, demanding bribes and God alone knows what next!

Recovering slightly from my stomach bug, I headed to the bus to discover the brass tube that I bought yesterday was an ideal fit for my latest magnet. I glued some magnet wire to the end of the tube in order that it doesn't slip while I'm winding the coil. I'll probably do 12 layers of coils and see what happens. No particular reason why I'm doing 12. It just sounds like a good number.

Sheer strength

Not knowing the sheer strength of my 10-24 bolts, I asked Fastenal who were the suppliers and they reckoned on 1200lbs. Thus, they seem ideally suited for my battery compartment. I will, of course put them in multiples, just in case. I had a feeling they were the right bolts when I bought them. In any case, steel rivets would have had a sheer strength of 700lbs.

Yesterday I spoke of the difficulty of getting work. Here is a prime example: I applied online to one of the jobs advertised as being local and had this response.

Clearly I applied for a position on Indeed.com. That's evidenced by the email subject of "Patient Relations Call Center Representative job in Columbia, SC". I receive an email telling me to "come in and apply for this position." So, which is it? A job I applied for or a job I didn't apply for?

Obviously it was a fake job put up by an agency that leaves honey traps to collect resumes. Aside from this being exceedingly dishonest and immoral, they expect me to come to an office over 20 miles from my home and 40 miles from my job, at a time when I will be at work. It's incredibly rude for them to expect me to miss work just to come to waste time and money on a visit to an office without it being an actual interview with an actual employer. If the job was actually working FOR Roper Staffing as a bona fide employee at their office then OK but a spurious visit? Good God, if they think I have time to waste plus gas money to waste on whatever this is, they're insane! Sadly, this kind of thing is so common with agencies that I skip any advert that looks like its from an agency. Needless to say, that leaves very few genuine jobs online. In 20+ years I have never had anything from agencies bar my time and money being utterly wasted.

Hence, since admin and senior admin seem to be treated by South Carolina employers as a "women only" job, I'm building the bus so I can get a job with more forward looking, modern world employers. Indeed, its so bad in Columbia that I rarely apply for jobs here. As an example, I applied for a job, had an email requesting me to ring to book an interview and was told there were no jobs. My lady friend rang 30 minutes later and was told there were lots of jobs and to come on in. That's just one of many examples of sexism in Columbia, SC.