This is How I Know I Need a Job

This is a list of things I do in a typical day.  Obviously my day isn't nearly so structured; these are just educated guesses of how long something takes.

A Day in the Life...

9:30AM: Finally wake up.  Slept late because I was up watching Non-stop Nyan Cat until 2AM.  Eat breakfast.  Take multivitamin and medicine that doctor gave me for focus issues.  Wash face.  Take shower.  Make bed.

10AM: Check email.  Obsessively refresh inbox for 5 minutes.  Get bored with refreshing inbox.  Go on Wikipedia...then forget why I went on Wikipedia.  Google something completely random like sdkfleoru just to see what comes up.  Check blog stats.  Go on Amazon and lust over the things I want.

10:30AM: Draw a random picture.  Play Tri Peaks Solitare online.

11:30AM: Tired of sitting down for so long.  Decide to grab my Nerf gun and pretend that I'm Leon S. Kennedy.  Try to do a kick-ass move by flipping over the couch and landing on my feet.  Doesn't work.

12:15AM: Play Resident Evil 4 on PS2.

1PM: Eat lunch.  Pace around the living room while daydreaming.

1:30PM: Suddenly hits me that I've done absolutely nothing all day.  Realize that the focus pills the doctor gave me are not helping.  Wonder how long they take to start working.  Suddenly panic and worry that I might have ADHD.  Decide that I need to do something productive RIGHT NOW as it will somehow be conclusive evidence that I do not have ADHD.

1:40PM: Look for jobs.  Realize that I've applied to just about every single place in Colorado Springs.  End up applying to only 1-2 jobs because I can't think of any other places that I haven't applied to.  Pity my lack of a life and wallow in self-pity.

2PM: Watch the Colbert Report in hopes it will cheer me up.

2:30PM: Feel happier.  Decide to research colleges and narrow down my prospective colleges list, which currently has 89 colleges on it.  I keep having to google "*name of college* Japanese language" and "*name of college* study abroad."  Get bored.  Keep getting distracted and doing other things on my computer instead.

3:15PM: Notice that my laundry pile is really high, but feel too lazy to wash clothes.  Call ex-boyfriend because I'm bored, but he doesn't answer phone.  Call 2 more times.  Still doesn't answer phone.  Consider threatening him if he doesn't answer his phone, but realize that it won't help him answer the phone right this minute.  Realize he'll probably delete the message anyway.  Check email and blog stats again.

3:30PM: Grab my fake sword that I made out of TV cardboard, glossy paper, and packing tape.  Swing it around and pretend that I'm sword fighting.  Decide to practice really hard so I can beat ex-boyfriend at mock sword fight before he goes to Tennessee.

4PM: Happily greet little sister as she arrives home from school.  Ask her how school was and if she has any homework.  She either ignores me or answers with one or two words.  Goes to her room and closes the door.  I try knocking.  She yells at me to stop annoying her.

4:05PM: Play Sims 2 or 3.

5:30PM: Go upstairs to have a light dinner.  Greet family.  Talk to my mom or little sister if she is in a conversational mood.

6:30PM: Go downstairs.  Check email again.  Remember that the anime convention is coming up in September.  Take a mental note to go to Plato's Closet and get money for my old clothes (hopefully enough to go).  Refresh email in hopes that someone replied to my book selling ad on Craigslist.  No such luck.  Pace around my room while brainstorming ideas to make money so I can go to convention.

7PM: Do more college searching, which reminds me that the ACT is coming up in October.  Go on the library catalog and place holds on study books.  Check when I have things due.

7:30PM: Watch anime.

8PM: Play Tri Peaks Solitaire.  Start to pace around my room.  Try to think of fun things I could put on my blog.  Wonder if I could make a living off of my blog so I could stop worrying about finding a job all the time.  Start imagining my life as a blogging phenomenon instead of interesting posts I could put on my blog.

10PM: My mom says goodnight to me before she goes to bed.  I check out my popcorn rock.  Become sad that it is not working.  Wonder why it is not working.  Play one of my visual novels, as a few weeks ago I got 5 on a whim -_-"  (Only after getting them did I think, "Why did I need all of these again?")

11PM: Check email.  Get ready for bed.  Decide to watch vocaloid videos on Youtube before going to bed.

1AM: Spent the past 2 hours watching random videos on Youtube.  Finally decide to go to bed.




Then I get up the next day and do absolutely nothing all over again.

And this is why I need a job.

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NYAN MY BLOG!!!

LOL

Go on, try it.

http://nyanit.com/

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A Disturbing Likeness?

So I was watching Game of Thrones the other day and an image like this to this came to mind:

Anyone else see a bit of a resemblance?

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My Ex-BF Sees My Pixie Cut

If you read my bicycle ride post, you’ll notice that I’ve recently gotten a pixie cut.  That’s right, after having the same hairstyle for the past 8 years, I’ve finally decided to go for a change.

Apparently my ex-boyfriend had…uh…mixed feelings about it.

So I decided to go over to my ex-boyfriend’s house last Wednesday because he’s moving to Tennessee soon.  He looks at my hair and says, “Wow…you cut your hair off.”

Me: Yeah!  It’s a pixie cut, like Emma Watson!  They’re very “in” at the moment.  Do you like it?

Ex-BF: You look like a guy.

Me: DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!  I do not look like a guy!  It’s supposed to highlight the feminine features of my face.  Don’t you think it makes me look attractive?

Ex-BF: *Pause* It would if I had some rope and tied you to the bed and…

O_O Wow…I never knew my ex-boyfriend was into that kind of stuff.  Furthermore, what is that even supposed to mean?  “You look like a guy and btw I find it incredibly sexy.”  Uh, okay.  So apparently

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Bike Ride

Today, I’ve decided to practice my art skills and take a different approach to my post today.  Bear with me…my art skills suck, and this is my first time ever writing a personal post that does not have to do with achievements and failures.

I don’t really write about my personal life, but one thing you need to know about me to fully understand this post is that I’m incredibly impulsive.  Often I get these “brilliant ideas” that seem great at the time, and then I go through with them without any thought of the consequences.  This post is a perfect example of one of these times.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at home by myself.  It’s a little after 7PM, and I’m wishing I had a movie to watch.  Suddenly, a light bulb goes off and I have one of my brilliant ideas: I’ll ride my bike down to the library and pick up a movie!

According to Google Maps, it takes 20 minutes to get to the local library on a bike.  Taking into account any delays from traffic lights, it should take no more than 30 minutes to get to the library.  No problem!

I grab my backpack and bike and head off.  It’s about 7:20PM.

At first, I’m having a great time!  But after a while I start to notice that it’s getting a bit dark.  I hesitate.  Well, I’m already almost halfway there.  Besides, it can’t be that late.  Google Maps said it’d take 20 minutes.  Realizing that I’d definitely be back by 9PM, I kept going.

That was when my trip started to become considerably less fun.

The sidewalks started to become narrower.  “No matter,” I thought.  “I go to the library all the time, and I know a bike lane’s coming up soon.”

After getting to the end of the sidewalk, I stop just in time as I realize that the sidewalk has no ramp.  I end up having to dismount my bike and walk it across the street.

I have to do this countless times because from then on NO SIDEWALKS HAD RAMPS.  Not only that, but the further I went, the bumpier the sidewalks became.  Some were literally falling apart.  And the more deteriorated the sidewalks became, the more decrepit the neighborhoods were.  Before long I’m passing places with barbed wire fences and roofs with gaping holes.  Forget worrying about rain; an entire car could probably pass through this hole.

Soon the sidewalks end and there’s nothing but gravel.  That’s right, gravel.  There are few things worse than gravel in your shoes.  But unless I want to drive in the street and get hit by a car (it’s getting really dark out and I don’t have a front reflector), I realize that I’ll have to ride on the gravel.

 

Despite the gravel and the fact that there’s only a small glimmer of sunlight left, I refuse to give up and keep going.  I brave the gravel in my shoes.  I pass a creepy looking gas station.  I barely avoid hitting some huge weird looking rocks.

By this time it is completely dark.  I’m beginning to realize that it has been waaay more than 20 minutes.  Just before I start panicking, I see a bike lane coming up ahead.  Yay!  No more gravel!  Suddenly my life has significantly improved.  That is, until the bike lane ends as soon as I come to the train tracks.

I realize that I’ll have to cross the road that cars are crossing.  I sit there in shock for a few seconds.  I have no reflector.  It’s pitch black out.  The possibility of becoming roadkill suddenly seems incredibly likely.

I see a car off in the distance.  Realizing that I might not get another chance for a while, I take a deep breath and ride across the train tracks as fast as I can.  After about a dozen more seconds, I can once again ride on the side of the road.  I managed to make it…yay!

The library is just around the corner now, so I quickly park my bike and lock it.  I HAVE MADE IT.  I have braved creepy neighborhoods, gravel roads, outerspace rocks, and the strong possibility of becoming roadkill.

Eager to see how long it took me (and equally eager to get out of the dark and wash the gravel out of my shoes), I run into the library.  8:25PM.  My heart sinks.  An hour?  Seriously?  It took me a freaking hour to get here going downhill?

Well, the good news is that at least I’m inside now.  I go to the bathroom and wash the gravel out of my shoes.  Even though it’s kind of late to watch anything now, I decide to get some movies anyway since that’s why I came in the first place.

Unwilling to go back in the dark and brave the unknown, I decide to hang around the library until 8:45PM.  This was when the panic started to hit me.  The library closed at 9PM.  It suddenly occurred to me that I’d have to ride home.  In the dark.  Down gravel roads and through decrepit neighborhoods.  This was exactly the kind of thing that would happen in a horror movie…an innocent girl is riding her bike home in the dark, when suddenly a murderer jumps out and kidnaps her.  He then proceeds to take her home and chop her into tiny pieces, which he then shoves into a garbage bag and hides in his basement.

Obviously this is a worst case scenario, but there were tons of other terrible things that could also befall me.  I mean, I’m riding a bike in the dark and there are barely any streetlights on the way home.  What if I hit something and flip over and end up dying in a ditch?

It then occurred to me that absolutely no one had any idea where I was.

My parents were at a baseball game (there went my brilliant idea to call them up and ask for a ride).  I hadn’t left a note.  Something terrible could befall me and no one would even know.

Nevertheless, I knew I had to do it.  I mean, what else was I supposed to do?  I couldn’t stay in the library overnight.  I considered asking one of the librarians for a ride home, but I didn’t know any of them that were working that night.  Hesitantly, I ventured out into the dark.  

 

 At that point I realized that there was absolutely no way that I could make it home on my bike.  I briefly considered my options.  I could camp in the woods behind the library.  Considering my fear of the dark, that didn’t sound like such a great idea.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a cell phone, so I couldn’t just hang out by the library’s bike rack and then call my parents when they got home.  Not only that, but when they go to a baseball game they can come home anytime between 10PM-11PM, and I really didn’t want to be standing in the dark for another two hours.  The majority of shops were either closing or already closed.

It then hit me that my ex-boyfriend lived down this way.  Sure, definitely not my first choice, but it beat standing alone by a bike rack in the dark.  Quickly I unlocked my bike and headed off into what I hoped was the right direction.  It’s been over a year since I’ve last been to his house, so I silently hoped that I remembered the way.

After what seemed like an eternity, I finally turned my bike on his street.  Suddenly I was plagued by doubt.  What if his parents refused to give me a ride?  Or worse, what if they weren’t home?

Worrying about this and cursing my idiocy for driving down to the library in the first place, I finally managed to find his house and ring his doorbell.

His dad opened the door a crack.  “Hello?”

“Um, hi, it’s…Katie.  Um, I was wondering if I could…you know…come in for a little while?”

He opened the door a bit more, at which point I lost any mental composure I still had and began to have a breakdown.  Almost in tears and getting more upset as I went on, I said, “I went down to the library on my bike and according to Google Maps it was supposed to take 20 minutes but it took an hour going downhill and now it’s dark and it’s going to take me at least an hour to get home and I don’t want to drive home in the DARK so please take me home!”

There was an awkward pause.  “…Uh…sure.  Come in.  Let me get a shirt on,” he said, opening up the door for me while I apologized profusely for inconveniencing him.

We managed to fit my bike in the back of his car.  On the way home, he said, “It’s a good thing you didn’t come a month from now, because then you would have been standing outside an empty house.  We’re moving to Tennessee.”  (There goes my brilliant fantasy where I get back together with my ex-boyfriend.)  He then proceeded to tell me that Kat (my ex-boyfriend’s sister, and leader of writing club back when I was 13) is currently living in Maryland and is planning on marrying her new boyfriend in a couple of years.  My ex-boyfriend’s brother is moving to Washington DC and is planning on retiring from the Armed Forces in a few years.  And my ex-boyfriend and his parents are moving to Tennessee, because his dad just got a new job there.

All this news was considerably shocking.  I can’t believe they’re moving.  In fact, it makes me feel pretty depressed.

Thankfully, I managed to get home in one piece.  Yay!!!

And despite my misadventure, I learned an important lesson.  Ready?  *Drum roll*  GOOGLE MAPS LIES.

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1 Year Anniversary!

*Blows horn* As of 08/22/12, my blog has been around for an entire year!  Yay! 

Inaniloquent Ramblings was originally on Wordpress before I moved to Blogger.  Tallying up my views between both sites, this gives me a total of 412 views.

Thanks for everyone who has supported my blog this far!  It makes me happy that people actually read this :)

I find it quite ironic that the majority of people only find my blog by googling things like “ufoninja college confidential wellesley rejection”.  Wow…to believe that one of my worst failures has been my biggest blogging success.  The irony.

This year I actually plan on taking a different approach to my blog.  Since I’m not going to college this year and don’t have a job yet, I probably won’t be writing about my success and failures so much.  Meaning I’ll most likely be writing about my personal life.  I also plan on using hand drawn illustrations on my blog, since I’m working on my drawing skills this year.

I’m not really sure how these illustrations are going to work out since as of today my drawing skills are kind of crappy -_-"  Please be patient with me and tell me how you like this approach.

Here’s to a great year!

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Gap Year...and the Job Searching Rant That Undoubtedly Follows

After lots of consideration, I've decided to take a gap year.  I really don't want to go to Earlham, and would much rather spend my year doing something, ANYTHING else.  What I really want to do is go to Irvine, CA for the rest of my gap year.  Meaning I'll need a job in Irvine.  But before I pick up and move halfway across the county I need some money for a plane ticket.  Which means I need a job right here in Colorado at the moment.


Unfortunately, getting a job isn't going so well.

In the past two weeks, I've applied to about 40 jobs.  I got an interview for one.  And I didn't get that job.  That's right, I couldn't even get a job that was a measly 4 hours a week.  Three of the other jobs I applied for found someone else for the position, meaning I didn't even get an interview for some unknown reason.  And whenever I ask, I get answers like these:
"We found someone better suited for the position."
"If I didn't call you for an interview, then you didn't pass my criteria for what I was looking for in an applicant."


Fat chance if you want them to tell you why you weren't hired.

I don't get it.  Why not hire me?  I'm the PERFECT applicant!!!  I'm hardworking, energetic, enthusiastic, optimistic (well, usually; right now I'm irritated and therefore ranting), creative, people oriented, have great customer service skills, have the ability to motivate those around me, etc. etc. etc.  Seriously, why aren't I getting an interview here!?  And why is it when I get an interview I still don't get hired?


Is it the lack of work experience?  I only have my volunteer experience at the library.  Lack of good awards?  The highest recognition I've received is honor roll.  My family says it's due to the insanely high amount of people applying.  ARE YOU PATRONIZING ME!?!?!?  Saying, "The reason you didn't get the job is because there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people applying for that same job," is not encouraging.  That's the same as saying, "You're just not good enough to compete with these hundreds of thousands of other applicants."  (Geez, that sounds like my Wellesley rejection all over again.)


Obviously someone is getting the job, so why isn't that person me?


As for the two interviews I've had, it's fairly obvious that my interviewer feels very "meh" about me at the end.  (I'm great at reading people...another reason why I'd be the perfect employee.)  I don't know why.  I try to act confident but modest.  I'm so polite to my interviewer that it's ridiculous.  I reply to all the questions just like those how-to articles instruct me to.

You know, maybe that's the reason why I'm not getting the job.  Come to think of it, it probably sounds like I'm reading the "right" answers off a piece of paper.   Making me sound like a very typical, nothing special, cookie-cutter applicant.

So maybe doing something to make myself stand out would increase my chances.  For instance, dying my hair pink (I've been avoiding doing this simply because I thought it might negatively affect my chances of getting a job).  And instead of putting on the act of being all polite and modest, perhaps I should just go in with my normal so-confident-I'm-on-the-brink-of-arrogant attitude.  I have no doubt I'm the perfect applicant; I just have to convince the interviewer of that.  Here's an example of my idea in action:
Interviewer: "What will  you bring to the company if I hire you?"
My typical answer: "Well, I'm enthusiastic, energetic, and have great customer service skills."
My new, improved answer: "I'm enthusiastic, energetic, optimistic, and highly motivated.  I have superb customer service skills and possess the ability to inspire and cheer up those around me.  I'm trustworthy and driven by success.  I put my all in everything I do.  Therefore, I am the perfect person for this job.  Mark my words: you are not going to find anyone that can do this job better than me, because no one else possesses every single one of these superb qualities."

Arrogant?  Yes.  But certainly memorable.  Who is the interviewer going to remember more: the girl with the typical answers that sounded like she was reading off a script, or the girl with pink hair who gave an answer like that?


Actually, I'm really considering doing that.  It's obvious that my current approach is not leaving an impression on my interviewer.  Meaning I'm not getting the job anyway, so even if I gave an answer like that, I really don't have anything to loose.

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