Frustration sets in.....

You know the only thing worse than going through college, getting a degree, and then not being able to find a job? Doing the whole thing over! Going back, getting another degree (one that is supposedly better) and still not being able to find any kind of a decent job.

So here I sit. A year after signing up for a crap job to help my wife and I scrape by. I start to wonder how much longer I can put up with it. Hell I could probably make more money off of unemployment benefits than I make at this job, but I wasn't raised to take hand out when there was another option.

All the same though, having two college degrees but still having to schlep crappy products to dumb red necks and cheap skates makes me want to put a bullet in my head. Every day I get to go to work and wonder if I'm gonna get yelled at by an idiot because we don't have the life vest he wants in stock. I'm fucking tired of it.

I'm sick of this. "This is America, all you have do is work hard and you can live good life." Yeah well, if that's your position, I'd like to kindly encourage you to bend over and kiss my ass. My wife and I both have college degrees and we both have jobs, yet we can't go to the doctor without draining our savings. As much as we both look for jobs, they're not there, and that's coming from a place where the economy isn't as bad as it is in some other areas.

So many of the the types who sit on their duffs behind a desk all day for some business or for the government have no clue about what the rest of us go through. "Yeah I got job on base because my mom knows people, and I just pretty much sit and read novels." Meanwhile that person has no clue how the people that run the register at the store she shops at struggle. She doesn't know that the people flipping her burgers or serving her table at the cafe can't go to the doctor for something as simple as a mild cough.

Therein lies the problem with America. A fundamental error. When the hurricane hits, we all run to throw money at the affected areas and then pat ourselves on the back and tell ourselves how wonderfully generous we are, yet we ignore the plight of thousands of people we come into actual contact with every week. We tell ourselves that if these people work hard and have faith, they'll be ok.

So don't tell me I'm fortunate to have a job. Trust me, I know I am. I couldn't imagine being totally unemployed right now. I know there are always people worse off than I am, but that doesn't mean I don't have the right to be frustrated with my situation either.

I'm gonna be ok, we'll be ok, my wife and I. I still do have enough faith that we're gonna catch a break at some point, and I'm trying to make that break happen as best I can. Still though, the longer it takes, the more that faith decreases. and the temptation to give up becomes ever stronger.

Underneath this smile Lies everything
All my hopes, anger, pride and shame

Make myself a pact, not to shut doors on the past
Just for today,... I am free

I will not lose my faith
It's an inside job today

I know this one thing well...

July 4 Festivities & Other goings on

Well, it wasn't a pool party, but we tried.

A few weeks back Mariel and I got a kiddie pool on sale at work. It's not a huge pool, but not a dinky one either. Anyway, it's finally getting warm enough to use. We have to fill it with hose water from the house, which is pretty cold, so it has to be about 90 out for it to be comfy.



That's me in the pool the other day, wearing one of my dad's old Taco Maker shirts. Makes me look like a fat cow.

Anyhoodles....

We were hoping to be able to set up the pool for July 4th, but alas, we had some Thunderstorms role through Friday night and cooled things off a little too much. So we had to go to plan B.

We decided to go out to Iggy's, a local Sports Bar type place where I had a huge beer. Unfortunately, I wasn't carded for said beer, which made me feel real damn old. *fumes* Also, we had to sit and watch the coverage of Steve McNair's death, which was a bit of a bummer for a holiday. Whatever though, the food was good and the beer was even better. It had been awhile since I had a beer.

We also stopped by work. We had some polo shirts on sale for ten bucks and I wanted to pick up another one. While we were there, we also picked up some fireworks.

After coming home and taking a nap, oh and playing a little Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, We lit the fireworks. It was pretty fun, we didn't buy a ton, but we got our ten bucks worth of Sparklers and fountains. Good times. You can see some pictures either on my facebook or on our photobucket.

After we blew crap up, we came in and some chocolate cake to finish the day.

In other news, yes, I decided to do the facebook thing, we'll see how it goes. If you want to find me, search by my email brandonlbc@gmail.com.

So that's about it. Mariel and I both have a couple of days off and we're looking forward to sleeping in a bit.



Some of our fireworks..

A long week.

Well, if you follow my twitter at all you know it's been a long week. Inventory at work, and Mariel's been working all week too, so we're both pretty damn tired. Finally we both get a day off tomorrow. I think we're gonna sleep in!

Not much else going on. Mariel bought some stuff at work, some oven mitts, kitchen towels, and an apron. I'll tell you what, I couldn't have married a better cook, and maybe with the new apron she'll cook more!

Listening to soem new Bob Dylan. He had a free track on his website a couple weeks ago. Sounds pretty good. His voice certainly isn't what it used to be, but so far I like what I've hard songwise. Kind of bluesy.

Tweet Tweet

Yes, I have now decided to do twitter. It's kind of fun, you can even update it easily from your cell phone! I can bitch about customers online, while I'm at work! You can see the updates here on my blog, on my myspace or at

My Twitter Page


Sweet......

Woah, wait, it's 2009?

So at some point the calendar changed over to 2009 I guess. Funny, feels a lot like 2008. I hope everyone's having a good year so far!

So far for us in 2009, it's been work and not a lot in-between. The economy stinks so trying to find a better job is real difficult at the moment. But we're getting along, paying our bills and managing to put a little aside most weeks so it could be worse I guess.

In between work days we've been watching the first two seasons of "24," which I got for Christmas. We're about halfway through season 2 right now. Gotta love Jack Bauer. We also got the rest of the expansion packs for the Sims 2, so we've both been playing that WAY too much. We've also taken a purely nasty interest in American Idol. Not "Ooh lets watch and hear how well these kids do," more like "Holy crap these kids suck, who told them they can sing?" Of course, after Gaspy Archuleta last year, Utah thinks they OWN American Idol, which is why it was really satisfying to see the Osmond kid get the axe.

Hmm what else is going on? I just finished Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." I'd recommend it. He has a lot to say. Right now I'm reading "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman, and it's stellar.

Hmm, I guess that's about it. Maybe I should blog more often huh?