Starmail sucks ass.

Some might think I went overboard, frankly I feel like I didn't go far enough.

Logan quite his paper route last week. Today, a Sunday, they call and make him feel obligated to deliver for one more week because "he has to give 2 weeks notice". 

Um. What? Hate to break it to you Starmail, but: 1- He hasn't been there 3 months. He's barely been there for 2. Within the probationary period neither side is obligated to give ANY notice of any kind. How do I know? I walked into work at Dollarama, punched in and was told I was fired. 2- It's a fucking once a week paper delivery and he's a KID.

I told them all this on a message I had to leave at their office today, commented on them being a chicken shit outfit, and calmly told them that if the flyers arrive on my doorstep, will happily return them to their doorstep and set them on fire. 

DO NOT ORDER FROM PIZZA PIZZA

My letter to Pizza Pizza:

I'd like to thank you for giving me the WORST pizza experience ever.
I placed an online order at 8:22 pm on August 17, 2013. Your website said 40 minutes or it's free. With 10 minutes left, I turned on my lobby camera channel to keep an eye out. He didn't show up by 9:02 pm. Even with the extra 10 minutes you added to the website timer, he wasn't here by 9:12 pm.

When I called, I was told that he arrived 6 minutes early, couldn't buzz my apartment, called the store and since they couldn't get a hold of me the order was cancelled.  I was also told that they would reprocess it, and we'd have to pay for your driver's stupidity. Why?

When I demanded to speak to a supervisor, he spoke to me for less than a minute and put me on hold. 10 minutes later, when someone FINALLY came back, it was someone from Pizza 73? Really? I realized that I forgot to change my phone number info before ordering, but the buzz code is on the receipt.

I don't know what the hell your people are trying to pull but this is ridiculous. Hell, we watched a PizzaPizza driver show up while I was on hold. He stood in the doorway looked and the intercom, opened his cell and walked out.

I will NOT be ordering from you ever again. Pizza Hut Doesn't require a phone number for an online order, why do you?

I will be telling everyone I know not to order form you .

Still moving forward.

Tuesday was the last day of my workshops at Goodwill Industries Career Center. I now have a new updated resume and a have my three references. I've also learned a few things about how to conduct myself in an interview. I'm feeling a lot more confident now! I also had Workplace Hazardous Material Identification System (WHMIS) training and received my certification on it!

Today I had a follow up appointment with my facilitator, Linda. I had to confirm I completed what we agreed upon in March and make plans for the near future.

So, Monday I go back for Personality Dimensions. I'm told it's going to be a busy day but fun. I'll find out what "color" my personality is, how to tell what color someone else is and learn how to deal with them effectively. After that, I don't have anything there until May 27 & 28 when I go for my CPR/First Aid training.

Then in July, I go to their Expert Customer Service course. I'll be able to knock the dust of my skills and learn a few new ones. 30 hours of in class training and then 50 hours working in all areas of the Goodwill retail store.

Because the last course is so far out I was told I could go and sit in on the Employment Placement meetings. I'd like to, but there's one minor hiccup that puts it on the back burner. 

Carrie has a date for her gall bladder surgery. May 23, and we have to be there for 11:00 am. With her needing 6 to 8 weeks for recovery it's good that I have to wait so long to finish up with Goodwill.

Now it's time to eat and maybe have a coffee.

2 weeks

Of job workshops will be completed shortly. I'm sitting outside Goodwill Career Center waint for the final session to begin. I thought it started at noon but it starts at one pm. A little less than half an hour from now.

Today we will be finalizing our resumé, saving it to their system and printing some copies off.

While I like the way my resume now focuses on a customer service position, I'm used to seeing the old school resumé.... this one just seems really thin.

But I'm not done here yet. Tomorrow I come back for Workplace Hazardous Material Identificaton System, or WHMIS for short, training. Then on Monday I'm back for Personality Dimensions. We find out what colour my personality is. They tell me there are 4 colours you fall into. One is strong, one is weak and the other two and middle of the road. With my luck they'll need to add a new colour.

Next month I come back for First Aid/CPR training. I'm also looking and doing some volunteer work. But that may have to wait until after Carrie's surgery, depending on when it is.

If also managed to lock down three job references.  All three are great guys and I know they'll give  me a good review.

All that's left is to actually get an interview.

15 minutes left now. Guess I have time to check emails and Facebook.

No School for Me.

I'm not sure if I'm upset or not. Mostly because I'm not sure if I was excited or scared shitless about going back to school. Not that it matters, I don't qualify for the Second Career program. Oh well.

On the plus side I do get to go to a couple of job finding workshops. Once those are done I'm in for Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS) training, personality profiling and First Aid/CPR training. Once those are done I'm able to take some other things through Goodwill. 

Guess I either need to get a student loan or find another way of getting into school. 

Back to college?

I'm really hoping so now.

I have an appointment with the Goodwill Career Center on March 19. They'll help me figure out if I qualify for the Second Career program.

Business 1 is what I want to take. I've never seen a school uses levels before, but I guess they are the same as semesters.


Level 1
Take all of the following Mandatory Courses:
ACCT-1004 Principles of Accounting 1
MATH-1052 Business Math
BUSI-1060 Strategies for Success
WRIT-1032 Reason & Writing - Business 1
MKTG-1012 Principles of Marketing I
BUSI-1005 Introduction to Business Processes

Level 2
Gen Ed - Take a 3 credit General Education elective course
Take all of the following Mandatory Courses:
COMM-3020 Professional Communication
COMP-3077 Excel for Business-Adv
LAWS-3018 Ethics and Law
MATH-1175 Financial Math
BUSI-1099 Customer Relations

Level 3 Credits
Take all of the following Mandatory Courses:
ECON-1019 Contemporary Issues in Economics
FINA-1031 Financial Management Applications
MGMT-3041 Organizational Behaviour

Level 4 Credits
Take all of the following Mandatory Courses:
MGMT-3005 Strategic HR Management
BUSI-1070 Small Business Ownership
BUSI-1068 Effective Meetings & Presentations



Level 2 elective : acct-1069 Quick books
  MGMt-3053 Suprvisory Managment
  Prch-1012 Purchasing & SCM
  COMP-1413 Adobe Suite for Business


Level 3 electives: Acct-1068 Intro to Payroll
  BUSI-3004 Critical thinking
  MGMT-3011 Project Managment

Level 4 Electives: MGMt-3053 Suprvisory Managment
  Prch-1012 Purchasing & SCM
  COMP-1413 Adobe Suite for Business

I'm still debating on the electives and when to take them, but right now this feels good to me. But there are several other options too.

Life begins in you 40s?

First some background.

Carrie has been on disability for several years now. In the beginning the policy was such that I wasn't required to work. But policies change and they now require I do work. I don't have a problem with that, per se. However with a thin job market and no post secondary schooling I'm at a disadvantage.

Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) has put me in touch with the Ontario Works. Great, another government angecy that's going to screw me around with a ton of useless rules and requirements....

The first meeting went better than I'd hoped. My case worker gave me information that was very usefull as well as getting me set up with a monthly bus pass paid by the government. That alone is a massive help!

She also told me about a program called Second Career.  Once I start going to a job club type deal, they'll tell me if I qualify. If I do then I 'll be going to school for 2 years. I'm looking at Fanshawe College and their business course. Even if I don't qualify, I'll look into a student loan.

At thus point I can't decide if i'm scares or excited about going back to school.

the boat sucks...

   Everyone has been in the same boat as I am, at least once in their lives. If someone tells you otherwise, they're lying. For some of us though, there never seems to be a shore line in sight, no chance to to stop fighting the current and choose the direction you want to go. I'm not up shit creek without a paddle. Not by a long shot, but, DAMN! My arms are getting tired of rowing.

   We've cut back all of our services; phone, cable, internet, cell. Yet that still doesn't seem to be enough. There always seems to be that one extra thing that needs to be dealt with YESTERDAY! UGH!! So to "help" out more sacrifice needs to be made. When you feel desperate sometimes you can make things worse.  That almost happened this past week.

   We've put a few odds and ends up for sale on Kijiji and Craigslist. Nothing super important, just some items we have that we don't need or use, such as my paintball clothes. Earlier this week we got a response through Craigslist. At first I was pleased but the buyer wasn't local. Panama City, Florida isn't even close to home. But what the hell, right? Ship the stuff and pay the bills. Once the guy said he wanted to pay via PayPal things started to feel wrong.

   I didn't have PayPal, but I set one up and sent the guy the info he needed. Shortly after that I got an email from "PayPal" stating that the money was waiting. Cool! No, it wasn't.

   The message stated that the funds were being held until I sent PayPal a copy of the tracking number. This is to prevent fraud, apparently, and the information had to go to paymentagentfour at consultant.com. Now something is screaming at me, "It's a scam!!" but I had to be sure that it wasn't just first time jitters.

  I couldn't find anything in my account to show there was a pending payment. Checking the PayPal help page didn't turn up anything for this sort of thing, neither did Google. More Googling, checking web forums and such turned up that consultant.com isn't used by PayPal. I found other things that might indicate a scam, such as how the email addressed me. Now the red flags are waving big time. The final nail in the coffin was when I tried to respond to payment agent four and the email was bounced back.

   This doesn't mean I won't use PayPal. It just means I know I need to be extra careful. Now that I've gone back over the emails sent to me I've spotted some spelling and grammar issues. I don't expect anyone to be perfect, but for a major company to have the number of errors I found, not only should it raise a flag, but someone should be fired if it's for real.

I could buy a house?

"No damned way! ", I thought, and I was right.

Csrrie saw an ad on Kijiji about how the city of London will pay the 5% down payment on a house upto $145, 000.00. Yeah, colour me skeptical. 

We contacted the poster of the ad, a real estate agent, for more info. She set us up with a mortgage broker.... really starting to smell like a scam now.

Turns out the city has been doing this for a few years. Sweet, right? Sadly, though not surprisingly, our credit isn't where it needs to be to be accepted. Add to that our current yearly income won't let us have enough to actually take care of things...

Oh well. Hopefully they keep doing this and we can take advantage in a year or three.

Been feeling a bit down fo4 the last week.  Not really sure why. It's easy enough to blame the time of, S.A.D.S., but I don't think that's it.

I had a job interview a couoke of weeks ago but didn't get. The job search is a pain in the ass and probably bringing my mood down.

We got rid of our rent to own furniture a couple of weeks ago and just the other day we we got some free stuff. It's not beand new but it's in decent shape. Moving it in I screwed up my back a bit. Not some much I had to see a doctor but I did soend most of the day in bed and taking a few pain killers.

I also need to get myself a hobby of some sort. Making chainmail seems interesting. Down side is I need some $$$$ to get started. I'm also thinking of doing some 8-bit type art. Just have to hit up the paint department for colour chip. Going to need some glue or tape too.

Powerless!

It's been a day at the very least. Had a meeting at Logan's school in regards to his "learning disability", better know as A.D.D.. I just had to sign a form to formally inform the school system about it. I thought we had done that when we discussed his Individual Educational Program. Guess I was wrong. Shortly after I got back home, we lost power. This was at about 1530 hrs. The building generator kicked in. Sort of. Some apartments have full power, some have none at all. Ours has power but only in the bathrooms. So we have an extension cord running out the the living room giving us some light and sound. I'm getting tired of the radio though. The super told us we should have full power around 0130 hrs. Better then being told 2 or 3 days I guess. Sigh.

It's a new year...

Hopefully it will be better than last year. We're 19 days in and so far it's not too bad.

I had a job interview this padt Monday. It seemed to go well, but I haven't heard anything yet. I'll be calling on Monday to find out.

Logan ate part of a raw chicken sandwich from KFC last night. Thankfully there have been no ill effects. He also got a new hair cut and looks better.

Carrie is doing ok. The cold weather is causing some back problems but that's to be expected. Her gall bladder has been causing problems but she sees a surgeon in Feb.

Right now we're kicking back to watch the Red Wings in St. Louis. Sad to see that Lidstrom has retired. Hopefully Zetterberg can lead the team to the Cup this year.

Moved in and Settled

The move went well, Aside from me having to do all the loading and unloading by myself. Logan did help a bit but someone with a bit more strength would have been better.

We're slowly getting to know our way around London. Walking downtown sucks, but we had to do that 3 times. Thankfully we don't need to go there until next month and by then we should have a nice stockpile of bus tickets.

We haven't talked to my mother in a couple of months and, sadly, it has nothing to do with the move.

Kingston was just too damned expensive to live in. We had to sell a lot of stuff just to try and keep our heads above water. I sold all my paintball gear, my PS3 and some other things. Carrie sold off her DVDs, her wedding ring (Can't sell mine, it's titanium) and some other jewellery. It still wasn't enough. All we had left was Logan's PS3. We sold it after we sent out furniture back to the rent to own place.

Logan was understandably sad about losing his game but he understood why. At the same time he was having other problems he was at school(fights, emotional outbursts, saying he was going to hurt/kill himself). He was a mess.

We'd been looking into helping him before we had to sell our stuff. When he kicked another boy in the balls we knew something wasn't right, so we made an appointment with Pathways. They deal with children's mental health issues. Between them and a psychiatrist at the hospital it was determined Logan has ADD.

Now, when we explained this on Facebook, my "wonderful" mother went on and told us we we horrible parents, it was all our fault and since we obviously couldn't provide for Logan we should give him up for adoption. We should sign him over to the older sister because she and her husband have a much more stable life.

Yes, really.

Not one word of support. Just condemnation.

When I called her, I was angry. Seems like a normal reaction to me. Her response was that I was the reason Logan was suicidal and I wouldn't be this upset if it wasn't true.

Am I the only one that sees the failure of that logic? Then she hangs up because she's "too upset to talk".

So I sent off an email pointing out how we, as Logan's parents have done everything right. That this wasn't just my opinion, but the opinions of family doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, Children's aid, Scout Leaders, teachers and others.

I asked her to explain why she thinks she's a good parent when she's made far worse choices than us selling a game system. Keeping us kids in a house with a drug abusing alcoholic was the least of her mistakes. I'd bring up the big one but that's for my youngest sister to bring up.

I told her that if she's a "good" parent then I'm glad I'm so bad. Told her to take me out of the will and that we want nothing to do with her. Ever.

Now....

I'm still fine with not talking to her. At this point, if she were to drop dead I wouldn't bother going to the funeral.

Carrie and Logan on the other hand seem to be missing her a bit.

Which is the better way to suffer: Have mom in our lives to continue her passive/aggressive bullshit or let my wife and son have a hole in their lives?

What I'd like is for her to realize what a bitch she's been, that she has no right to judge me as a parent. I want her to apologize first.

Growing up I was always made to say I was sorry, even for things I didn't do, simply because I was the oldest. I just cannot apologize for this.

I doubt she'll read this and even if she does it's even less likely she'll say she's sorry. She has my emails, she can leave a comment here. But I doubt it.

Almost a year? Seriously?

I guess that just goes to show how exciting my life has been.... Things since January have gone ape shit though. I quit my job at the bowling alley. It was a quit or kill situation. While killing Richard would have been a fun and enjoyable choice, I have a kid and wife to think about. It worked out for the best anyway. Does anyone really want to work in a building that has asbestos in it? I figure after a year and a half at Cloverleaf Lanes here in Kingston, I put myself at enough risk for cancer. Next on the fun list is our rent is going up. It's just too much now so we're moving. Buh-bye to Kingston!! Our new place is going to be about $140.00 cheaper, has 2 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms and a dishwasher! Down side is that I have to do the move by myself... Most recently though is the mother in law.... Her husband was abusing her and she finally decided to leave him when he threatened to kill her and himself if she came here for Mother's day. He spent the weekend in the psych ward and we moved her and some of her stuff out while he was on lockdown. Sounds simple right? WRONG!!!! It looks like the majority of his family is just as nuts as he is. His sister owns the building they lived in and she saw us moving her. She went right off the deep end. Started screaming that we were screwing her over for rent. To hell with the fact that mom felt her life was in danger. I tried to calm her down but she just kept freaking out. She said she called her son, and that wasn't a good thing. So I called the cops. Her son, his girlfriend(not sure it was a real woman) and his buddy showed up. Immediately got in my face and started screaming. Telling me about how they all know everyone in the police force, saying they were going to tell the cops I threatened them all with a knife..... Talk a bout a cluster fuck. Now mom is here with us until we can get her into a women's shelter. She's feeling better but is looking forward to getting out on her own. Now I think I need something to eat....

My feet at the spa!

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My toes are happy!

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Happy feet!

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My feet back at work.

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My feet having a "chat"

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My feet relaxing on the balconey

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