I’ve always dreaded interviews because I always get in those times where I already know what I’m going to say beforehand but when you actually do get to the interviews, that’s when you start blanking out. I already admit that I am not a very social person (as in not very talkative, not very “outgoing,” so to speak,e tc.) because that’s just how I’ve always been and I don’t think that’s going to change (except for a few close friends, I do get talkative). I also stutter as well and that’s not a very good sign either. Hopefully the next interview workshop I’d be able to attend and finally learn the nuts and bolts on how to do well in an interview.

Second issue that I brought up is keeping my skills up to date. My entire work history involved clerical and administrative with heavy emphasis on data entry, and yet my true loves (web designing/development, content writing) are always hobbies and at times, I lack inspiration in becoming more creative because I get occupied with other interests— such as (fan)fiction writing, anime/manga, video games, you name it. Reason why I rarely have any professional experience with the field I studied because of the fact that the skills I learned from college is already considered outdated in the real industry once I earned my BFA. That’s the only disadvantage of getting in to the IT field and keeping up in the IT field. Technology grows faster than you.

Sadly, I’m not even qualified for free federally-funded training because I’m not even qualified for unemployment insurance. So technically, I have to find other ways to upgrade myself. I have been taking online (free) classes on web development through Code School and Code Academy and that the adviser advised me to continue with these courses. She even provided me with other free online training links as well so I’m going to try that as well. I already started with the Javascript/jQuery class at ALISON just earlier today. It stated that I can even earn certification from ALISON should I complete the course, so certification would truly help.

Well, back to square one for me again. And I’ve always thought that 2013 would be the year that I can finally exit the unemployment life.

1. see 5/02 entry

The first-round nightmare, finished

San Antonio, come!

So, after my long-time reunion with a good friend whom I’ve known for more than 20 years (I think 23 years now?) at the Bank of America stint last month¹, I can feel more at ease that I’m no longer alone in struggling through my unemployment adventures. Yay!

The first place that we went to was at an employment program in Sunnyvale known as CONNECT Job Seeker Program. The CONNECT program is a set of workshops and training classes offered by those who were recently laid off and those who have been unemployed for a long period of time. The program is sponsored by both Nova and EDD and it is a federally funded program. I guess you could say that it’s kind of like going back to school, where you get to learn new skills, searching for career change options or seeking counseling in terms of your job search, and a whole lot more. The complex itself did look like a mini-school where you get the lobby/administration office, conference rooms, and computer labs and it’s in a really quiet location right next to the Sunnyvale Public Library.

Earlier today (Thursday), I attended a registration orientation to learn more of the services CONNECT offers and to fill out the paperwork including making copies of your original required documents (ie. driver’s license and SSN card or a U.S. Passport). There are similar workshops that they offer that also take place at the One-Stop Career Centers, but CONNECT seems to be more in-depth. Since I got my paperwork completed, all I’m doing now is wait for the email to arrive to me letting me know of their confirmation and then I earn my membership badge (you need to have that badge to attend their workshops and counseling sessions, etc.).

CONNECT offers various workshops such as resume writing, interviewing training, career path making, and necessity skills such as MS Office, using the computer/internet, etc. The orientation stated that they offer more, but I still have yet to learn more about that later on.

And that would be it for now! In our next (F)UNemployment Adventures, we will be heading to a job fair in Emeryville on Tuesday from noon until 4pm. A job fair is a job fair but when I do get to it, I’ll share my experiences there.²

1. Guess what! It’s MAY!
2. To be honest, job fairs for me doesn’t help much. It used to several years ago but it’s really different today.

However, I have met some great people there and I even reunited with one of my closest friends from middle school and high school. I learned new tips and such on more effective job hunting, workshops, classes, and such, all for free. This time, I am no longer on my own. I got my friend to join on the journey with me.

I emailed EDD to see if I’m qualified enough to apply for Unemployment Insurance again granted that I had a temporary job and started earning money. I’ve even emailed all of my account managers at various agencies with the updated resume and still, no response. This would be the period where I start to panic and then feel like I’ve been abandoned by these agencies once again.

Other than that, nothing much changed. And I thought 2013 would finally be the year that I’d be able to return back to the workforce in a very stable job.

Yes, folks, I am finally in the workforce, even though it’s TEMPLOYMENT.

The scheduling for this one is very high-demand that we’re all required to work at least one weekend. For day shifts, we get to have two days off (one weekend and one weekday). For swing and graveyard, only one weekend off. Since I’m a very active Catholic, I can’t make it on Sundays, and Mondays would be my day off just so it’d only make sense. I work Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. Because we only have a 30-minute lunch rather than the usual one hour, we get to get off at 5:00 p.m.

Today was my first day of work, so to speak, if I decided not to include the weekend training from last week that made me miss my choir singing last Sunday. Tomorrow (Saturday) will be my first day of working in data entry (in particular, Online Reviewing section), so finally, I get to touch computers! I have no problems doing the sorting but the papers that I touched was a bit hazardous (ie. paper cuts, making your skin all rough and dirty, you know the deal). Best of all, I was able to see my good friend of 20+ years (since 5th grade) and I am no longer a loner in the workplace LOL. Good times!

My day shifts does not hinder my normal “unemployment” activities, such as church volunteer duties (choir) and of course, working out at the UCSC (Zumba and U-Jammin’ baby~!). I get to hang out with my lovely sistahs from U-Jam whenever I can!

Yup, that’s California. Predominantly Catholic and predominantly liberal. Our last few governors and our current governor (Jerry Brown) are all Catholic and liberal (well, Arnold Schwarzenegger is Catholic but a Republican so he doesn’t count). I’m Catholic and partially liberal. The “partially” part makes me one of the “middle of the road” individuals who stand at an equal number of conservative and liberal values. My devotion to Roman Catholicism makes me a conservative, but my belief in the separation of church and state makes me liberal. Does that make sense?

Moving back on subject. In my semi-conservative family, only my mom was the one who voted for the proposition. She has nothing against the LGBT community at all and she doesn’t see anything wrong with having two gays living together under the same roof, but she didn’t like the definition change of what a marriage should be like. She’s always believed that the term “marriage” is the permanent (?) unity between a man and a woman. It’s always been like that for centuries and centuries of world history and it applies throughout all the different ethnic societies around the world. She compared the legalization of gay marriages to the infamous Cultural Revolution back in China where communist Maoists marched throughout China to ban and destroy everything anything that would remind them of the “old and ancient” China and create a brand-new modern culture that benefits all Chinese citizens regardless of background and social standing. She felt that legalizing gay marriage in the first place was like getting rid of the traditional definition and aspect of marriage, that is, the marriage that the whole world knows up to today.

My dad and I argued with her regarding the subject, even though she did have a point there. We’re talking about human equal civil rights here. Not legalizing gay marriage is pretty much discriminatory and taking fundamental rights of the LGBT community. The LGBT community is not a religious group where they have their own scriptures and have their own marriage practices and then consider it legit to the eyes of society and the state and federal government. It just doesn’t work that way. That’s why the gay marriage issue has been up in the air for years (maybe decades?) now. We are talking about equality among citizens here, in general.

And if you think about it, isn’t Prop. 8 unconstitutional in the first place on the basis of discrimination?

Now, if I lived in a country where everything is truly, staunchly conservative then the high level of conservatism in that country’s society, then that would truly affect my way of thinking regarding issues such as gay marriage and would’ve voted in favor of not allowing same-sex marriage. This is the United States, where all religions are welcome, all people of all backgrounds are welcome without discrimination. The LGBT community isn’t an ethnic race from another country. There are American citizens of all different colors and background in there, as well as non-American citizens who have come out of the closet and those who still has yet to emerge from the closet.

Now that Prop 8 is in Supreme Court and currently a split decision, the battle is just the beginning.

(Photo: Los Angeles Times)

As a lifetime Catholic, in a sense, I feel great honor to witness two conclaves in my lifetime. I have to admit that the retirement of (the former) Pope Benedict XVI was quite a shock considering that I’ve always known that popes remain in their position for the rest of their lives, just like monarchs in general. This only gave me a realization that I don’t exactly know my lifetime religion that well, most especially the “politics” side of it, so to speak.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a new name to me. I admit that I don’t normally pay attention to the “political powers” behind the Catholic Church and that I prioritize my personal faith and practice as a Catholic. I don’t deny the controversial issues that’s going on, such as the clergy’s sexual abuse, connections with the Mafia and organized crime, and all others, but those actions, to my belief, has got nothing to do with the religion itself. Just because a number of members of the clergy commit crimes, doesn’t mean all clergy, let alone all Catholics, commit the same crimes, as many haters would regularly spew.

So, the question comes in mind. What are my expectations for the church under our new pope, Pope Francis I? I guess it’ll be almost the same as my expectations back in 2005 when Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected. Modernize and reform, unity within the Vatican through common ideals that would fit today, reach out to other religions and find solutions to break the barriers of hate and respect the similarities and differences, and probably this would be wishful thinking, please do something with these sexual abuse crimes that’s going on within the local churches. Hiding it and pretend that things like this actually happen among the lower clergy isn’t going to solve things. The Vatican has the power to excommunicate anyone they find unacceptable to the representations and beliefs of the Catholic Church, why not use that power to resolve these corrupt crimes that has been happening within the governance of the church? Being an active volunteer as a choir member of our local church, that’s the reason why every year we have to attend these environmental safety seminars held by our diocese as a response to all these sexual abuse crimes that had been going on. Why not apply these to all members of the clergy themselves?

At this moment, all I can do is pray in hopes that God would lead Pope Francis I to the right path and use his humility and service he was known and respected for to his upcoming missions to come.

Viva El Papa!

In a small but fast-growing IT solutions company, just doing massive data entry job. Sure, the position will have repeated routine tasks and the pay isn’t exactly attractive, but at a time period such as this where there are still unfortunate people out there unemployed even up to now¹ and you really can’t afford to be picky with jobs right now. After all, self-survival is your priority, especially if you have a family to feed and provide shelter to.

Who knows, maybe in the future that there will be room for growth. We all have to start from the bottom in every stage of our lives and just start climbing up from there in a few simple steps. I look forward to training, get my skills updated, so I can have better opportunities in the future.

2013 really is glorious. God really is good² and there truly is such thing as second chances. If you don’t succeed the first time, there’s always a second (and more) times to stand up and try again.

My two-year absence from the workforce is a major hinder to my work experiences resume because that would make companies question if you have been slacking off or if you have done other things, such as volunteering or even taking care of your family when they’re sick³. I think from this point, I should be okay and readily prepared if I lose a job again.

Short entry. Nothing more. Right… so I received a phone call from the employment agency just a few minutes ago letting me know that their client who hired me received notice from their higher-ups that they have to go on a hiring freeze, so my job has been postponed. In short, I’m still unemployed up to this date. Yeah. 

1. Look at me… I’ve been out of the workforce for more than two years now…
2. In case you haven’t read my “About” section, I am a practicing Roman Catholic. If you’re not one, please kindly respect my personal beliefs, be it religious or not, because I’m not really interested in all your rants
3. and I have done both— volunteering and taking care of my mom while she was going through her chemo stages— she’s recovering fast right now by the way…

Just as I thought my (un)employment woes were going back to the way it was again just like the past two years, there still is hope. I still have a chance on the job position that I rejected a few weeks ago because of this mobile app job. Although this one is located just two blocks from my house, it’s a very highly-secured area where you handle very sensitive and personal documents. Therefore, I had to be fingerprinted and provide documents that would prove me a U.S. Citizen living in the States. Today, I’m in wait mode for the employment agency’s phone call and see the results whether I get a position in this particular job or not. Dang, cross your fingers. 

At the moment, I am seriously flat broke. I do get paid tomorrow from that training day and my last day at that 2-3 data entry/excel job. Still, not enough to satisfy my monetary needs.

And that’s about it. I’ve been cleaning my room as of late. Come on, it’s 2013. Time for a change, you know?

And also today, because I finally got my first paycheck, I finally was able to renew my domain (adrimarie.us) today for two years. In that way I won’t have to worry about money matters again when it came to renewing domains. I still have yet to do something with my other domains as I haven’t actually had the time to work on them. Well, I’ve been busy with work. In addition, my (fan)fiction writing as well. I don’t think it’s safe to say that I finally got this job nailed in the bag. I really do wish they would choose me though. I think the job is easy to understand (well, this includes reading hundreds and hundreds of receipts) and that I’ve asked enough questions for me to make the process work.

Anyway, if I do end up becoming one of the temps of that company I will reveal the mobile app that I work for, for promotional purposes (it’s a useful app by the way. It could save you a lot of money from your everyday shopping. Of course, your medical bills and your financial bills are obviously not accepted.

Other than that, I have been rather slow as of late. I’ve done so much spring cleaning on my room as of late, so to speak, and now the room is spic and span super-clean again. No more piled up junk mail. Whew. Other than that, everything else is still the same.

I really do start working on my sites again.