Blaster's Blog (9)

Heading back home

Yesterday I was released from the Hurricane Ike Recovery project here in Beaumont, Texas. The circumstances really suck. Apparently my handling of the hotel accommodations was a debacle. Yea, and?? When you polish a turd, it's still a turd. You be the judge. Early on I was given the responsibility of arraigning hotel accommodations for the people coming into the area. When I started this, there were ZERO rooms available anywhere close to the job sites in Orange and Beaumont. This was due to FE… Continue

Added by blaster on November 12, 2008 at 7:29am — 3 Comments

Moving, stage 1

I spent the last day moving my websites to a VPS by Media Temple. I had four live sites and two for demo purposes. After the DNS resolved early this morning, I finished tweaking the databases and uploaded the rest of the files. Since I've owned several domains, I've always hosted the sites on my own server. Using the combination of Fedora Linux and ispconfig. But n… Continue

Added by blaster on September 29, 2008 at 7:26am — 4 Comments

On the move

Yesterday, I finished the paperwork for the job and sent it off. It's going to be pretty sweet, as airfare, hotel, travel, and mileage on the ground are all paid for. So I should be able to make tons of cash in the next few months. The position is actually with staffing agency that recruits for Eaton Corp. I don't have a problem with that. Especially if their are covering the expenses. Before I head off to Texas in the next week, and there a some loose ends I need to wrap up. First, I have to… Continue

Added by blaster on September 26, 2008 at 7:54am — 2 Comments

The job search is OVER!!

Yes, after four long months of searching, I will be employed by the Eaton Corp as a temp for now. I don't have any problem with being evaluated, as I'm sure they get a lot of people through that don't have a clue. I was contacted by the temp agency, so I'm filling out the papers to get hired. I'll be working for the Major Projects Division as a National Tech. So I'm off to Texas after all the paperwork is completed to help with restoring the damage from hurricane Ike. After that, I should be ba… Continue

Added by blaster on September 24, 2008 at 12:00pm — 5 Comments

The phone call!!

I just received a call from the recruiter. I'm on to the next step, another phone interview with the actual manager at Eaton Corp. I can see why big corporation have such a hard time finding good people. It's a pain in the backside for both sides. All the hoops the H.R. departments have to go through to even list a job. And all the flaming hoops the applicants have to jump through to even get an interview, much less a paycheck from some corporations. I will give Eaton some credit, then know what… Continue

Added by blaster on September 24, 2008 at 8:20am — 4 Comments

Waiting is the hardest part

I can't stand waiting for the phone call. I know it's only been 36 hours and he said 48 to 72, but gah. I can't stand not knowing. I'm pretty sure I have the position at Eaton, but it's not for sure until I'm in the office filling out my W-4. There's probably going to be a mountain of paperwork to go through, possibly some sort of orientation, and maybe even the U.A. No worries about any of that, it's just a part of huge corporate BS that some "highly educated" person decided to put into play.… Continue

Added by blaster on September 17, 2008 at 9:35am — 3 Comments

Job search at an end?

About a week ago, I sent off an electronic resume to Eaton Corp for a Field Service Technician position. Last Thursday I spoke with the recruiter for Eaton. He had me take an assessment test to "test" my experience and knowledge. I aced this 15 question "test". It was really easy, REALLY easy. But apparently, some BSEE's have trouble with it. So much for that $250,000 degree. I did some reacquainting of the subject matter over the weekend to prepare for this test and took the test this morning… Continue

Added by blaster on September 15, 2008 at 3:32pm — 2 Comments

My approach to CSS

There are a couple free tools that I use to assist me with modifying the cascading stylesheets used in html documents. First, it's a bit difficult to edit the CSS file when you don't know what element to modify. To find the correct element I use the Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox. It's very handy and gives you the details to make the proper modifications. Go to the CSS drop down menu and select "view style information". This will tur… Continue

Added by blaster on September 12, 2008 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment

Adding local people as friends

Since this all started I have been adding anyone in Washington as a friend. Last night I found that there are three geeks in this little town west of Seattle. I think a lot of people might just put Seattle as their home and actually live outside of it. It's easier find Seattle than Issaquah. So far I think there have been about 50 peeps here in the local area that I have added. So I would encourage everyone to search locally, who knows you might find some one that you can call a friend in real l… Continue

Added by blaster on September 12, 2008 at 7:36am — 1 Comment