Update XIX: Melancholy and the Infinite Napping

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Jeff comes from the Marguerite Perrin Theological School of Christianity.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

The Browns could save a little money by making Jeff's ticket to Kenya one-way.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

So any bets on how many jobs Bushie will have in 2015?

The writers haven't done a chocolate factory episode yet, so there's always that option.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Jeff, do you have paid time off?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Or when you're given the option of taking time off, politely decline and say you're happy and eager to work.

It's all about convincing the people there they need you.

Seriously. It's like Jeff thinks his boss is giving them the day off/letting them go early so often out of the goodness of his heart, when really it's just one day less of payroll expenses and he can wring more productivity out of his labor hours by making them all work extra hard when they are in the office to catch up on what they got behind on while being out.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Today on the radio I heard about a guy who was inspired to lose weight when he was incarcerated and told by prison doctors that given his weight and sedentary lifestyle, he'd probably be dead within 5 years if he didn't change his ways. He was in his early 30s, 5' 8" and 230 pounds.

If that guy was 5 years from Death's doorstep, where does that leave Jeff?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I wasn't trying to purposely offend anybody when I trimmed out a few of you guys.  I was taking the advice of several of my real-life friends and have decided to surround myself with positivity this year.  I don't need every Facebook post of mine snickered at or criticized.  My friends know when to tell me the truth and they are the ones who know the real me.  They are by no means enablers.  None of these cuts are personal.  I still consider each one of you friends and I figure we talk enough on here that I can hear the advice from you all here.

You want to surround yourself with people who believe your own BS even more than you do.

Have your "friends" ever told you to lose weight? Have your "friends" let you know you shave a few days off your life every time you sit down to eat more of the crap you do? If they haven't, they're not telling the truth.

But keep talking to them about how you're going to plan to try to intend to think about losing weight or eating your cheeseburger without fries one day a week. And you'll never do that. You wanted everyone on here to pat you on the head like a six year old because you ate a non-crappy lunch one day.

You can defriend people on Facebook but you can't block us on here and you know as well as I do that you can't give this up. You need this. You need to feel like someone out there actually cares. That's why you get mad and say you're ending Update only to start posting again the next day.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

I wasn't trying to purposely offend anybody when I trimmed out a few of you guys.  I was taking the advice of several of my real-life friends and have decided to surround myself with positivity this year.  I don't need every Facebook post of mine snickered at or criticized.  My friends know when to tell me the truth and they are the ones who know the real me.  They are by no means enablers.  None of these cuts are personal.  I still consider each one of you friends and I figure we talk enough on here that I can hear the advice from you all here.

You want to surround yourself with people who believe your own BS even more than you do.

Have your "friends" ever told you to lose weight? Have your "friends" let you know you shave a few days off your life every time you sit down to eat more of the crap you do? If they haven't, they're not telling the truth.

But keep talking to them about how you're going to plan to try to intend to think about losing weight or eating your cheeseburger without fries one day a week. And you'll never do that. You wanted everyone on here to pat you on the head like a six year old because you ate a non-crappy lunch one day.

You can defriend people on Facebook but you can't block us on here and you know as well as I do that you can't give this up. You need this. You need to feel like someone out there actually cares. That's why you get mad and say you're ending Update only to start posting again the next day.

Yes, my friends have told me I need to lose weight.  They are very concerned about my physical health.

Clearly they've had about as much impact as anyone on here has. You don't respond to carrots and you don't respond to sticks. Maybe you'll respond to a trip to the ER one of these days.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Just pretending The Purge never happened...Bushie would make a great politician.

Mr. Brown has no comment on the events that allegedly occurred on Facebook last Friday. He rejects the inflammatory and accusatory rhetoric used by some to describe what was nothing more than a routine reassessment of his priorities and social connections. He looks forward to addressing real, substantive issues like his impending weight loss and future career prospects.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Here is a good update from the employment world.  While nobody can confirm anything at this point, there is growing speculation that we will have enough work to take us deep into the Spring.  It could still end in March, but everybody is guessing April or maybe even May.  Also, they are still very much intent on putting us all on another contract after this contract ends.  Again, nothing is confirmed nor denied at this point, but it took us 10 weeks to reach our first deadline, much of which was slowed down by holiday vacations.  We still have gobs of deadlines to go through before this contract is in the books.  This news all but closes the book on Tulsa.  Current thinking is that after I turn in the notice to vacate in Tulsa toward the end of March, I will start looking for an apartment in either Yukon or Mustang (western suburbs of OKC in eastern Canadian County) which are within 5-7 miles of work instead of 32 one way.  It would greatly cut down on gas money and wear and tear on the car.  I would just have the furniture moved from the Tulsa apartment to the Oklahoma City Metro apartment.  As far as the gas money goes, as soon as I get this new computer paid off, which should be by August or September, I need to trade in my car for a newer model to get out ahead of the repair bills.  My car still runs great, but I am seeing signs that the repair bills may be right around the corner.  It is a 2006 model with almost 140,000 miles.  Remember it did have a total body makeover last February thanks to a rendezvous with Bambi.

You financed a computer?!


And you don't need a new car. You really have no business making any major discretionary purchases until you've got an emergency fund of 3-6 months of wages put away somewhere. You have a Sentra. Like its Civic and Corolla brethren, it was designed to be driven into eternity with relatively few issues. I see plenty of old ones on the road all the time.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Of course, there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG with carrying a credit card balance with a 20+% APR from now until August or September for a computer that you didn't need.

What kind of rig did you buy that you're taking nine months to pay off?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Dare I ask how much your computer was?  Did you at least get no interest?

18 months no interest.  I'm not going to say the actual amount.

Oh you dont have to tell me, you got the deluxe model with all the bells and whistles because you have to run all dem high powered CADD programs, that you don't use anyway.

It wasn't the top of the line.  I didn't put THAT much on my card.  It should only take me 6-7 months to pay off.

How does one in your financial situation get credit to begin with?

He has a full-time job with an hourly wage in the double digits. That's good enough for pretty much any store-branded credit card.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Nice sleuthing BRTD. I dont see why you would need an expensive computer. You dont strike me as a gamer, what do you do. Post here and look at porn?

No sleuthing really, I used to work for Best Buy Corporate. But yeah, as soon as he said 18 months I knew he spent a lot more than he needed, as usual. His excuse will probably be as you said, to run some high end CADD program that he'll never run anyway.

So Bushie got sweet talked or was it a hard sell from a Best Buy salesman.  He is really does seem to be a saleman's dream.

I can hardly wait for the upcoming car buying episode that has been hinted at.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Actually let's do the math. Bushie says this job pays $15/hour, but we know he's not working a full week with all the unpaid time off he's taking. But even if it ends up more like $12/hour, that means he's getting about $370/month after taxes on a rough estimate. If the job runs for about 20 weeks, as he's implied, that equals $7400. But of course Bushie has to flush probably about half that money down the drain all for fourth-tier college football games and some church picnic once a month or so.

What a full 24 hour week might look like:

$15.00 x 24 = $360.00 gross pay
$360.00 x 0.062 = ($22.32) Social Security taxes
$360.00 x 0.0145 = ($5.22) Medicare taxes
$360.00 x 0.10 = ($36.00) federal income tax withholding
Net Pay = $296.46

This assumes they're doing withholding to begin with, which they might not since he is a "contractor." In that case he's going to have to pay a higher tax rate for SSI/Medicare as a self-employed person.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Actually let's do the math. Bushie says this job pays $15/hour, but we know he's not working a full week with all the unpaid time off he's taking. But even if it ends up more like $12/hour, that means he's getting about $370/month after taxes on a rough estimate. If the job runs for about 20 weeks, as he's implied, that equals $7400. But of course Bushie has to flush probably about half that money down the drain all for fourth-tier college football games and some church picnic once a month or so.

In my defense we just got through with the holiday season when nobody at my place of work worked a full week.  Now, that the holidays are over, I can work 40 hours a week until my dentist appointment on February 2.

You're missing the point. You're in a job where you don't choose how many hours you work - your employer arbitrarily shuts down the works for a light drizzle - and you aren't given any paid time off to make up for that. Essentially, your take home pay is at the whim of your supervisor. What would you do if you bought a new car and a couple of months later, the contract is suddenly going to be finished earlier than planned and they don't have any more work for you?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

You said that if you get another contract in OKC, you'd get an apartment close to work. You don't need a new car in that scenario because you're not going to be driving very much.

If you don't get another contract and go back to Tulsa, you have no business buying a new car until you get a full-time non-contract job.

I don't see any scenario where you both need a new car and can afford a new car.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

All indications are that I will be moving to Oklahoma City anyway as this contract should go into April.  Of course, that didn't come from management and they can't say for sure because they really don't know at this point. 

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

It's not like you haven't quit a job to look for another job before.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Every professional environment expects perfection, Bushie.

And especially this one!

This is why I keep insisting that Jeff needs to get into the Christian nonprofit sector, where the metrics that determine success are often more qualitative than quantitative (and certainly not things that succeed or fail because one of a thousand gears was 0.00037 centimeters too big) and errors and failures can often be BS'd away. Surely there's some foundation out there that does work in Kenya and needs someone like Bushie to be a program coordinator who teaches the participants how to "love on kids" before they head off to Africa.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

How do you plan on developing your potential? Besides forcing your coworkers into the role of teacher, that is.

How many hours has Jeff worked on his CAD skills outside of work?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Since Jeff was a contract employee, only worked there a few months and averaged less than 40 hours a week, I take it unemployment insurance is not an option.

Let me be clear.  This was not a firing.  It was nothing of my doing.  All of us temps are being discontinued.  I am not ashamed of anything.  I knew this day was coming, I just didn't expect it to come this early.

As far as my plans now, I am going to transfer my resume from my desktop to my laptop and get that all beefed up with this addition. Then, after I officially leave work for the last time, which could be anytime the next three days, I am going to call a couple of my CAD recruiters in Tulsa and get them started looking.  Tomorrow night, I am going to talk to a guy at church who is a drafter for a company in Oklahoma City and ask him if he knows how or can help me get on with his company.  We have company coming in next Tuesday who will stay 8 or 9 days.  I will look for a job in Tulsa from my computer in OKC while they are here and then I will go back up to Tulsa to stay before the end of January.  I have a dentist appointment in Shawnee on February 2, so I may not get much searching done that day, but I will resume as soon as I get back up there after the appointment.  I am going to just resume life back in Tulsa and will look for a job in the Tulsa metro and outlying areas like Pryor, Vinita, Okmulgee, or Sand Springs.  Look on the map for the locations of these towns.  As of right now, I do plan on extending the lease at the end of March, but I'm going to opt for a six month lease instead of twelve month and re-evaluate things in August and September when it comes time to make a decision on the lease by September 30.  I will also scale back my cable bill when I get back up there.

You still haven't put your resume on your frickin' laptop and signed up for Dropbox?! I distinctly remember telling you to do that months ago when you were between jobs the last time.

Again with the company? Don't go, Jeff. Just stay in Tulsa. Drive to OKC for ONE day to see them and fulfill your familial obligations. If you stay there, you're going to get nothing done except have endless family dinners and veg out in front of the TV. I repeat, STAY IN TULSA. Apply for jobs. Practice CADD. And use your lack of daytime obligations to actually do some exercise - you really will feel better; endorphins will do that.

Why are you extending the lease on an apartment that you have no money to pay rent on? And why are you scaling back your cable bill? Cancel it. Get out of the apartment and go watch a sporting event that actually matters at a bar somewhere. Order a club soda. Meet some people.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Why don't you look for jobs based in both OKC *and* Tulsa?  Your Tulsa lease is expiring in two months anyway, so if you find a job in OKC, you can ditch the Tulsa apartment.

If I get a job in OKC, I would have to yet again change my address and uproot everything again.  Plus, that would bring back the $1000+ on moving expenses.

What is there to uproot? You're single, you have no kids, no job (as of tomorrow) and you rent. You claim you want to move to Kenya at some point and you're complaining about a Tulsa-to-OKC shift?

It does not cost $1,000 to move one person's stuff out of an apartment. Certainly not in Oklahoma. The fact that someone in your financial shape elected to buy make your parents buy you an apartment full of new stuff just serves as more evidence of the larger issue we're skirting. On your income, you should be furnishing your apartment from Ikea and Craigslist.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Perhaps General Dynamics discontinued its relationship with Bushie's shop after they found out ODF blabbed details about the super secret comm rooms on American military bases.

This includes not talking about it much and not talking at all about the sensitive information that I'm exposed to.

You're doomed.

I mean….someone who gave up his Social Security number to a stranger on the internet is being trusted with national security secrets?

Let's put things into perspective.  It can't be that sensitive.  I didn't have to get a security clearance, so it's not that secure.  The information I am exposed to are just floor plans of buildings on 11 bases in the United States plus one base overseas.  The floor plans show where the comm rooms are located which is where most of the changes have been made.  It's only about 1-3 rooms per building on average.  So, none of it is inherently classified, but it is still information that's best not to be divulged.  I made it sound more classified than it actually is.

Ah, well ISIS and al-Qaeda will appreciate being able to plan to only need explosives in 1 to 3 locations in a given building. Keep up the good work!

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Jeff's work history has so skewed his perception of reality that he thinks if a job doesn't make you pay a fee to apply, show up on shady spam websites or involve a crazy commission-referral-based payment plan, it must not be a real job.