Diary of a Wolfeman

Good news and bad news:

Good: My anti-spam strategy is currently working flawlessly. Analyzing the log files shows that there have been hundreds of attempts and no successes to spam my site.

Bad: Those hundreds of attempts account for about 2/3 of my total traffic. Of course, it’s not like I’ve actually posted anything worth reading in a while. So, on with the content.

Not happy content, but I never promised you that.

The Holiday this year was another good / bad day for me. It was good to see my daughter really loved what I got her this year, but it was a bummer to see her get burried up to her eyebrows in loot from so many other sources – it should have been me spoiling her rotten, damnit! I can’t hold grudges, though, since a large percentage of said loot came from her extended tree of grandparents. What with my parents, the EMC’s biological and actual sets and her husband’s, she’s got quite the coterie going. No suprise she got so many gifts.

The worst part, I suppose, was going home after the frenzy to an empty house. The EMC took Pookie over to see her in-laws, and the Ratboy is off with his mom, so it was just me, the cats and the hamster for a good chunk of the day trying desperately to find something to take my mind off the fact that being unemployed over the holidays really sucks. Thankfully, the roomie came home and saved me by virtue of Age of Mythology: Titans. Nothing like building an army to stomp on the Greeks to take your mind off of things for a while.

Jobsearch this week (and most of last week) has so far been damned fruitless, due to the vacation days obviously being spent. Very few new jobs have been posted, and trying to either cold-call new contacts or check up on old ones has been mostly futile. Lights are on, but nobody’s home. Or in the office, in this case. Oh, and I got a letter from a job I had high hopes for – one telling me thanks, but no thanks. At least there was a hand-written note on it from the recruiter and not just a form letter.

But there is some hope in Stumptown – I interviewed last week for an entry-level position with a company doing some expansion that may pan out. They hadn’t advertised for anyone, but I had been pestering their HR people and they realised it might be a good idea to actually hire some staff for their new office here on the East side. They interviewer seemed impressed after our 1 1/2 hour conversation, and said he would be getting back with me early this week to let me know how the process was working out. I was the first candidate, which can be both good and bad. Hopefully, I set the bar high enough that no-one else will clear it.

The starting wages for the position suck, but that may help out in the end, as the over-qualifieds should turn their noses up at such paltry wages. The owner of the business promised that numbers would improve quickly should I be hired, so that’s what I have to hope for.