lowrentkicker

Two things are happening today. One is a celebration of a man and his legacy helping people rise up, and the other is something that happens every four years regardless of circumstances. We get to choose how we frame the day, and what we want to put our thoughts and personal energy into. For me, I'm focusing on what's important to me, and I like to think it's something important to all of you as well.

Most of us believe that people who work for a living ought to earn a living. But today, the wealthiest people and corporations get richer and richer off our backs while our wages stay the same. We need to elect people who will fight for working people to keep the money they earn by cracking down on price-gouging at the grocery store, making wealthy tax cheats pay their fair share, and lowering the costs of prescription drugs. We all want the people we elect to really represent us.

I'm part of a group that's helping the Working Families Party grow in Illinois. This is an active political party that's working from the local level and up putting their efforts and resources in endorsing candidates that reflect working people. And, we're winning seats in local, state, and national races. We're not here to be spoilers, but rather shift the focus back to you and me. We're having a Welcome Gathering for Illinois soon (one in the Chicago area and one online), and I'm going to be inviting you all to join me. We want everyone to join and join where you are. Are you ready to march in the streets or you want to help in your free time from home? All are valid, needed, and wanted.

Have questions about the Working Families Party? Watch the video below, check out the WFP website (https://workingfamilies.org/about/) or contact me directly. And even if you aren't in Illinois and are interested, trust me, WFP is already established and have people just like me who want you to join them. Just let me know!

Websites: Gizmo.ai - makes AI flashcards and quizzes based of the material you give it Dende.ai - makes AI flashcards and quizzes based of the material you give it Julius.ai - AI that performs data analysis STORM - AI from Stanford University that turns the subject you're studying into a wiki that can "talk" to itself SQL Practice - what it says on the tin Statistics Without Borders - Volunteer projects for data/statistics Datakind - Volunteer projects for data/statistics Bluebonnet Data - Volunteer projects for data/statistics specifically for progressive candidates in the US Catchafire - Skill based volunteering Elements of AI - Free AI basics course Learn Anything - Resources to learn anything online Class Central - Resources to learn online free including certifications The Missing Semester of CS Education - MIT's guide on how to use the tools used in computer science

Dumb bullshit to buy: Quaffer - a shot glass that also holds a chaser HAKO-AKE 2-way scissors

Articles: How I Learned to Concentrate Always Go to the Funeral

This past Wednesday, on my 92nd day of the new job, I was laid off with about 2200 other coworkers. I was still in training. I got a survey the day I was let go congratulating me on having been there for 90 days and to ask my experiences so far. One of the questions was "do you think you'll see yourself continue to work here after a year?" I said "No, because I got laid off today."

The person who was assigned to me to be my "mentor" to help train me didn't know this was going to happen. The person who I was doing the most recent round of training sent me an email asking why I didn't show up to classroom time. My now ex-manager didn't know I was going to be let go (and I genuinely believe him; he also wasn't told another person on our team was let go who had been there for a little over six years). Doing a little digging it turns out I was one of only a few newer hires to be let go. People laid off were on pretty much every level; VPs on down. Found out an entire software engineering department of around 25 people was let go which, considering it's a software company, didn't make sense to me but whatever.

Found out they were going to do the layoffs this week but they accidentally sent out FedEx labels too early to some people working from home telling them to return their computers so they had to do the layoffs last week. I have to send back my laptop but I can keep everything else they sent me which includes two very fancy monitors and a docking station when combined cost more than the laptop. I don't mean to be a dick, but a good way to save money for your company is don't send out multiple $1000 monitors and only ask for the $600 laptop back.

Since I live by the mantra "if you don't go to the doctor then you'll never be told your decaying meat prison is decaying faster than it should", I've willfully ignored going to any sort of doctor for far too long. When I got this job I leaned in hard to doing all the medical things I've ignored. I've seen more doctors in the last two months than I have in my life. My insurance through my now former employer will disappear soon so I'm trying to cram in as much as possible by the end of August when it's officially turned off for me. This is what I get for doing something about my health. Side note: saw a podiatrist for the first time and I genuinely think he was thrilled that I had nothing wrong with my feet. In another examination room I could hear an older woman screaming in pain. Meanwhile, he felt up my feet for like half a second and was like "COOL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR." Also I found out the weird pain in my right foot is a pinched nerve. Huh!

I'm starting to formulate a plan on what I'm going to do next. If I'm being 100% truthful, I had discussions with the wife well before being laid off that I needed to think of what I want to do with my life because this industry/career path I've been in for the last 15 years has been slowly eating away at my brain, I hoped this job would help (since it was a totally different take on what I've been doing and the fact it paid well also helped), but the only thing it did was drive me more insane; literally and figuratively. While I'd like to be all "it's was secretly a blessing for this to happen", I would have liked to have a little more runway so I didn't feel rushed to figure out what I'm going to do next, actually do some of the work I was hired to do instead of only being in training, and that phrase feels so patronizing to me. It's like when I hear people say "they're in a better place." Fuck off with that horseshit.

Extremely good movie, but it felt like it should have been two separate movies. There were parts of it where I felt like they breezed by certain things that I wanted to know more about it. I guess I have to read the book like a goddamn nerd.

While it was 3+ hours, it moved at a clip. With that said, the editing in the first third in the movie just felt weird.

Casting director: "So who do you want in this movie?" Christopher Nolan: "Get me every white dude that makes you go 'oh yeah that guy' when you watch every movie."

Cillian Murphy is phenomenal, Emily Blunt is fantastic, Robert Downey Jr is excellent (except for that freak out at the end but I can overlook that), but Matt Damon is Matt Damon no matter how much he tries.

I love looking at boobs at much as the next person, but I think Florence Pugh was only in the movie to show her boobs.

Hey Josh Hartnett! Looking good, homie!

A person who was interviewing me for a job casually mentioned he had stage 3 colon cancer and breezed by that like he mentioned he had a hangnail. At the end of the interview when he asked "do you have any questions?" I immediately asked about his health and if it was OK because he brought it up like that's a minor thing. He basically responded "Oh, that old thing?" and was like "I'M ALIVE AREN'T I?!" The whole thing floored me.

Someone I've known for over 30 years texted me using self-made "stickers" of himself and my first thought, "you think you know somebody and THIS happens; shameful."

I met up with a friend who I was extremely close with during high school and college and over time we just didn't keep in contact anymore. The last time I heard his voice was over 13 years ago. It was like we hadn't stopped and everything was the same. I'm not one for big emotions, at least outwardly, but I have to admit it felt wonderful to reconnect with him and a little jarring as well. Or, as I've noticed as I age, old man regret is a son of a bitch.

I don't think I hold a grudge, but the wife informed me that my whole family is a gaggle of grudge holders. And she's right. The one thing I did realize, and I think the wife would agree (at least I hope), is unlike other family members I have the ability to realize the problem is me and I'm aware the supposed grudge I'm now harboring is due to my actions and I'm just too stubborn to do anything about it.

I'm not one to ask for help even when I know I need help, but I asked for help on LinkedIn (*barfs a little in my mouth, then swallows it*) in the job search and I'm floored by the genuine help I've received. From total strangers even! Has an actual job come from it? No, but it feels like one is close? More possible?

I signed into Facebook today and got this message. What?

I changed my password on it a few weeks ago, no apps are connected to my Facebook account, and absolutely nothing has authorization to post on my account. So, what's up?

Old record: 3 hours 42 minutes

There is a lot of "true crime" watched in our home (*waves at the wife*) but if I'm being honest a lot of it gives me the ick especially the way it's presented. However, this documentary, They Called Him Mostly Harmless, I really enjoyed. Not only is it about solving a death, but the complexities around cases like this that don't wrap up neatly for a tv show or podcast, how the internet distorts a person's involvement and emotions, how we perceive other people, mental health, and forgiveness for yourself and others.

Of the 100 jobs I applied to:

Number of places that did not move forward: 48

Number of places that have not responded: 50

Number of places I'm currently interviewing with: 2

Number of jobs I had absolutely zero business, like "let's just toss this completely unrelated resume and no transferable skills at this job because YOLO", applied to: 3

Of the 48 places that did not move forward:

Number of places that asked for at least one interview: 12

Number of places that ended after the 1st interview: 3

Number of places that ended between the 1st interview and the final interview: 4

Number of places that ended after the final interview: 3

Number of places that no showed/no response after scheduling an interview: 2

Fastest "we are not moving forward with your application" response: 3 hours 42 minutes

Slowest "we are not moving forward with your application" response: 92 days

Of the 50 places that have not responded:

Longest time with no response: 100 days

Number of companies that either shut down or merged with another company after applying: 2