And Another One

By Jennyjinx | Published: July 7, 2011

So, I got another new job. I know, I know, you’re thinking “Geez, woman, pick something and stick with it!” Well, yeah, you’re right. But I had this opportunity to do something I like and am good at and…is in my field. I can’t really say where it’s at and, well, some of it’s just private1. This opportunity was perfect for me, so I jumped all over it.

Last Friday I had three interviews. The first one was the technical stuff. I was so nervous and so afraid I was going to trip all over myself. I get tongue-tied in the worst way and that’s embarrassing. The lady I spoke to was really nice and understanding though. She helped me get comfortable and then told me I was in for the tech stuff. Then I had my other two interviews and they offered me the job. Woo hoo!

I started working yesterday. It was tons of fun. Lots of info about the company and our superiors, what’s expected of us and things like that. That was boring. But the people on my training team are super fabulous. They get the jargon and the meme talk and do stuff like compare the size of their monitors. It made me laugh when they did that. I told someone who doesn’t get geek humor and she was decidedly not impressed. Oh well, that was ok. Because my team mates and I got a great laugh out of it. I told them I couldn’t play that game because I don’t have the proper equipment.

My trainer and his supervisors are really laid back and understanding. He expects us to keep our ha-has to a minimum but will laugh right along with us. There was a serious, passionate conversation about a new processor coming out soon. I know this is typical for everyone else working in tech, but this is my first official w2 job in the industry so I’m all kinds of excited.

The guys in my class have taken to calling me “Jenny” without my prompting. I don’t know why because I introduced myself as “Jennifer”. But then some folks on Twitter call me “Jen” or “Jenn”2 so whatever makes their boats float. We had an argument over which was better– Buffy or Charmed3– and someone commented that Buffy was “bomb-diggity”. I almost pee’d my pants. No lie. It was great. Also…I’m the only female in the class. I’ve taken to marking their silly jokes with “That must be an XY thing”. I’m positive it’s going to catch on soon.

I had a whole other take on this post before I got distracted by Google+ (I’m there!) and Twitter, but the general idea is I love this job. Well, the people I work with (so far). The pay is decent (entry level) and the benefits rock socks and I’m just glad to have a job, really. It’s not a glamorous position but I don’t even care about that. I get along great with my coworkers and my bosses are fabulous. I wish I could go into more detail but I signed a NDA, so there ya go.

I keep getting distracted by conversation on Google+, which means I’m probably done with this post. I’m really excited about that service and am planning a post just about it. Also a post about the stupid assholes on Twitter who are attacking Rachel Maddow4. I’ll have to do the Google+ post first though because I really like it. I follow tech people and early adopters mostly, so their conversation is interesting to me. It’s like Facebook, but better (for me) and less cluttered. No game invites or protest invites or spammy stuff– yet. Plus, I always get excited when there’s a new service. I’m hoping G+ gives Facebook a real run for their money. Man, I love to imagine Zuckerberg freaking out. Hey! If they didn’t do shady shit with our private info I wouldn’t hate them, but they do, so there.

  1. Maybe I’ll do a private post for more info. [↩]
  2. Don’t care for that spelling. [↩]
  3. Guess where I was in that argument? [↩]
  4. That one had me steaming today. [↩]
Posted in The J-O-B | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Lower Your Standard of Living

By Jennyjinx | Published: June 27, 2011

I’m so fucking pissed.

I was reading a forum1 and a lady there mentioned that she’s angry that Georgia’s new immigration law separates American-born children from their immigrant parents. I haven’t really considered that part of the immigration equation, but I’m thinking I would take my child back with me were she really young or give her a choice to say if she were old enough to decide for herself. I’m not sure that the fact that these parents put their children in the custody of family friends is so heinous, because the kids are citizens and the parents aren’t. So, I don’t really have an opinion on that right now2.

Anyway, the discussion devolved into that same “arrest all illegals” shit and somehow the “illegals” were stealing American heritage from legal citizens.

How the fuck is it possible for them to steal someone’s heritage, by the way? The only thing I can figure is that they’re having children with American citizens and somehow contaminating our gene pool. Still, which heritage? I want the exact heritage they’re stealing, because it varies by area of the country, right? Here the primary heritage is Scots-Irish and German. Are they going to take our traditional Pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes on New Year’s Eve? Bah!

Now, I get fired up thinking of how American companies exploit these folks in their homeland and basically force them to seek better living conditions far, far away. If their lives were livable in their own country, would they risk so much to cross the desert? Really? No. I refuse to believe they would. I get pissed off at my state legislature, but I can tell you that it’s not so bad here that I’d swim across Lake Erie to get into Canada. No fucking way.

Then this dumbass says that Americans expect to much money and we should, basically, lower our standard of living to compete globally. Lower it. Further? It’s so unfair to these companies that they have to pay their employees wages and follow labor laws and make sure their workplace is safe. We are fucking behind the curve here, people. Behind it! There are not enough poor people in this country. And if more people would be voluntarily poor, then our country could compete in a global marketplace. Those motherfuckers expecting decent wages are all holding us back! Don’t you see it? Sure, a guy making $25 an hour is going to spend more money on stuff, buy a home, buy a nice car and be able to afford health insurance. But he’s bringing the rest of us down. It’s that selfish motherfucker’s fault our manufacturing industry moved out of our borders. If he’d have been fine living in a hut, making less than minimum wage3 and not caring about his teeth, then we’d still have jobs. It’s the guy wanting to have a good life causing our economic woes, bitches!

Instead of saying “Well, maybe the poor saps in Guatamala would do better with wages more in line with ours, allowing them to have a decent life, then they wouldn’t want to leave everything they know and come here” this guy thinks we should all just lower our standard of living, which would, I don’t know, make coming here less appealing? Instead of allowing our own people the opportunity to flourish and do better, we should be happy with the part-time minimum wage shit offered by companies like WalMart. And then those dirty fucking South and Central Americans wouldn’t want to come here. Or something.

I’m going to say again: Why should we lower our standard of living so that corporations can make bigger profits? If more people make more money, they’re going to spend more money. They’re going to have pride of workmanship because they get to fucking build stuff. They’re going to be able to own their homes and raise their families and then spread the fucking wealth. Poverty will probably always be here, but I know that the area where I live now did a whole lot better when we had factories and steel mills. We’d congratulate people for getting into Republic Steel or the Hoover Company. Because those were good jobs. Those people didn’t get food stamps or need the medical card or have to go to food banks. They could pay their fucking gas bills every goddamned month. They didn’t have to worry about losing their homes. Back in the day, Hoover vacuums were the shit. People got paid good money to put them together and they took pride in that. Not anymore. Nope. Gotta look at that bottom line so these fucking CEOs can have their fleet of jets.

People want to point at the immigrants as the problem. They don’t want to look at why the immigrants are flocking here. Look at this article about WalMart’s jewelry (5 pages long). Think about what kind of fucking life the people in that factory have compared to the life they could have picking vegetables here. It’s no wonder that they want to come here. Our corporations go there and rape their land, barely pay their people (they’d try to get free labor if they could– believe that) and leave a mess. Then we buy the shit they make. Of course they want to come here. They want to buy the shit they make too. I know I don’t blame them. If I had a life like that I’d do what I could to improve it. In fact, my own heritage originates from people who fled horrible conditions to come here.

There’s an argument that we’re making the lives of those people better by offering them employment opportunities, but I don’t buy that. If we cared about making their lives better, our corporations would be required to pay them decent wages and follow strict labor and environmental laws. They lived decently before we came in and built our factories and shoved our own culture down their throats. If we insist on doing that then we should insist that they be afforded the same labor protections that we enjoy.

The problem isn’t that we’re giving them such a wonderful life (obviously we’re not) but that Americans don’t want to pay the price for people making a livable wage. This argument extends to the crap about “illegals” picking our crops. Georgia’s having a problem with that right now and Americans aren’t stepping up to do the job. They don’t like the work. But even worse is they don’t like the idea of paying a higher price for otherwise cheap food. Instead of eating food in season, as the case historically has been, we want it year round, but we want it cheap. So the huge commercial farms need workers to harvest these crops from hot climates– workers who are grateful for less than minimum wage and who won’t bitch about unfair treatment. My side argues for immigrants using the argument that we’re going to have to pay more for food. Why the fuck shouldn’t we? If we paid fair wages to everyone we exploit– here and abroad — shit would get extremely expensive but more people would be able to afford it. And companies would be less likely to look elsewhere to build their manufacturing facilities. We’d all benefit from fair treatment of the immigrants before they decide to leave their homes.

I get very frustrated that people think that those suffering are the ones who should be punished. When Park Farms ships in workers, they get a fine, but other than that they’re free from prosecution. Some dude complains about his treatment in that chicken plant gets called a criminal. The root cause of the immigration “problem” isn’t even examined because corporations enjoy special benefits for…job creation?

Just imagine if these folks didn’t have a reason to leave their homes. Would they bother you then? Imagine if their standard of living was on par with ours. They’d visit here and then go home. Home, to their families and their own way of life. They leave home for a reason and that reason is our own fucking greed and apathy.

So endeth the rant.

Updated:
I added the link to the article about the effect of the Georgia immigration law. I’d like to point out that the point of that article, to me, isn’t that the current workers are probationers. It’s that these jobs are available and in such an economy, the government has to encourage “legals” to take them. Consider that and then consider the pay.

Also, we’ve already been forced to lower our standard of living in this country. I know 4 families who have had their gas turned off because the rates are so high and their incomes are so low. Our environmental standards are going to have to get lower too, thanks to the need of these same gas companies. They’re raising their rates for us while their polluting our ground water. Makes perfect economic sense.

  1. Sorry, folks, it’s private, so it makes no sense to link to it. [↩]
  2. I’m all over the place because I really do think there could be some benefit in these children going to their parents’ homeland and coming back here later as citizens, but I don’t know for sure. [↩]
  3. Which is wrong! Holding us down! [↩]
Posted in I'm Pissy, Internet Drama, Politics, Slap Upside the Head, Walmart | Tagged , , | Comments closed

New York Calls It Marriage Whether Gay or Straight

By Jennyjinx | Published: June 25, 2011

A Republican-controlled New York State senate just made Gay Marriage morph into regular marriage. Gov. Cuomo is signing the bill tonight and in 30 days LGBT people all over New York will be lining up to make their marriage contract official. There were even Republicans who crossed the aisle because they could not in good conscience vote against the bill. That is a beautiful thing to witness, I can tell you. I was on Twitter and watching the final voting on LiveStream. I was excited, even though this doesn’t directly benefit me. I was excited because New Yorkers are gaining the same rights that I have. They can get married– instead of the separate, but equal crap called “civil unions”. You know my feelings on that name nonsense, don’t you? Well, don’t worry, if you don’t, I’ll enlighten you soon enough. It’s an exciting time for New Yorkers who actually want to get married (god love ‘em) and, later, actually want to get a divorce. I want to share the benefits I have in my marriage with everyone in this country. And their are serious legal issues, besides the word “marriage” that these newly humanized citizens get to enjoy along with the rest of us. That makes my heart swell and my arms develop goose pimples.

There was a massive celebration on Twitter as it was happening. If you can’t be at a party to enjoy the good news, Twitter is the place to be. Thousands of people on the hashtag, whoopin’ and hollerin’ and just loving every minute of it. It really feels like a party when Twitter is like that over an important issue such as marriage equality. This is a huge victory in the battle for rights for all people and it was a grand victory too.

It doesn’t take long for the party poopers to start jamming their elbows in people’s noses though. I say this is a state by state fight, because there is almost no support on the federal level for marriage equality. That’s fine with me. As someone reminded us of what President Obama said:

POTUS: Marriage equality “best addressed by the states.”

Some things that Obama said regarding his stance on gay marriage:

  1. Gays should not face discrimination but should not marry. (Oct 2004)
  2. Decisions about marriage should be left to the states. (Oct 2007)
  3. Disentangle gay rights from the word “marriage”. (Aug 2007)
  4. Gay marriage is less important that equal gay rights. (Aug 2007)
  5. Opposes gay marriage; supports civil union & gay equality. (Oct 2006)
  6. Marriage not a human right; non-discrimination is. (Oct 2004)
  7. Opposes same-sex marriage, but also opposes a constitutional ban. Says he would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act and voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment. As stated on the Obama campaign Web site, he supports full civil unions that “give same-sex couples equal legal rights and privileges as married couples, including the right to assist their loved ones in times of emergency as well as equal health insurance, employment benefits, and property and adoption rights.”
  8. The White House front-runner said in an interview with MTV he did not support same-sex weddings and believed “marriage is between a man and a woman”.
    But the Illinois senator reaffirmed his opposition to a proposition on the ballot in California that would change the state constitution to overturn a ruling that recently gave gay couples the right to marry.
    “When you start playing around with constitutions just to prohibit somebody who cares about another person, it just seems to me that’s not what America is about,” the senator said.
    “Usually, our constitutions expand liberties, they don’t contract them,” he added.
    The Democratic presidential nominee voiced strong support for civil unions between same-sex couples “that provide legal rights to same-sex couples (so) that they can visit each other in the hospital if they get sick, (so) they can transfer property to each other. If they’ve got benefits, they can make sure those benefits apply to their partners.”

    9. [all emphasis mine]

That is Barack Obama’s record. That’s fine, because I knew that when I voted for him. Nothing new there. But with this victory in New York, I saw some Progressives claim that it was Obama’s influence that helped get this bill passed. The man who thought that gay rights and marriage should be “disentangled” and that marriage is between a man and a woman and that civil unions (separate but equal) were good enough for LGBT people who were in love and wanted to marry was somehow responsible for a state law calling a marriage between two gays a marriage. No civil union crap. None of that definition of the word marriage crap. Gays can get married in New York. And Obama always, always stated he was against same-sex marriage. How, then, is this his doing? How did he get this ball rolling?

I credit the people who fought the fight. Those on the ground and who were able to win over the hearts of the legislatures who voted for them. That’s where the credit goes– full stop. I am a supporter of Obama, but I was never fond of his distaste for the phrase “gay marriage”. He’s a good Christian man and a politician to boot, so he says what he thinks will get him elected. That’s lovely. But don’t give the man credit for something he didn’t do.

He purposely stayed out of these fights because he believes gay rights are states issues. I’ve provided a quote for that right here. That’s good too. Let’s take Dean’s 50 state strategy and use it for ourselves. One by one, they will fall. And they will fall because of the people who are fighting for it– because of the people who don’t want to settle for separate but equal.

I think Barack Obama is a good President and has followed through with most of his campaign promises. I never expected him to fully support marriage equality, because he specifically said he didn’t. That’s fine with me. He’s the president and when the big change happens in this country it’s usually the people of the country who bring it about– not the man in the Whitehouse. I’m good with that. I’m not good with giving him credit for a fight that’s been going on for decades and is only now starting to gain traction, without aid of the federal government, by the way. This wasn’t his fight and I don’t like people giving him the credit for it.

I’ll also note that this isn’t about his feelings about gay rights as a whole. This is just the marriage issue. I know he opposes constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and he’s against DOMA. I know that he’s against discrimination based on sexual orientation. I’m there with him on that. But he gave the marriage battle to the states and the people of those states are working hard to win those battles. When we do achieve a victory, like the one in New York today, then that victory belongs to the people who fought for it and the politicians who did the right thing and voted for it.

Maybe someday there will be another case in front of the Supreme Court like Loving v. Virginia, but a gay version. And then the decision will become a federal one. Maybe if enough people decide that their marriage rights in their home state should extend to the states they visit on vacation, the Supreme Court will finally get involved and settle this once and for all. That’s the outcome I’m ultimately hoping for– the final decision from the High Court. Until then, the battles wage on– state by motherfucking state. One at a time. We’re doing it just like the President told us we should do it; leaving his hands clean and giving him no credit. Not for this one.

Because I believe that Obama has been true to his word (quoted above) and don’t expect any help from him, I’ll probably be labeled an emProg or a racist1 or a bitch (as Rachel Maddow, the most liberal member of the MSM ever, was called the other night). I don’t really care. I know who I voted for. He kept to his word and so, for this, he gets no credit.

Congratulations, New York. Welcome to the brave new world of marriage equality and equal rights for all. Bless the members of your legislature who were bold enough to say “yes” and to those fine fighters on the ground that did all of the work to get them to say “yes”. You rock and have made this Ohioan very proud.

  1. Hahahahaahahahaha! [↩]
Posted in Oh, god!, Politics, The Funnies, Women's Issues | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Introducing Charlie

By Jennyjinx | Published: June 23, 2011
Charlie-- the Norfolk

Meet Charlie, our new, probably temporary, addition. He’s a 10 month-old, Norfolk Terrier mix1 and is so freaking cute I can’t even stand it. And he came just in time for my birthday.

The day before yesterday, my neighbor told me that her friend was taking him to the pound because she couldn’t find a home for him and she had to get rid of him. But our pound destroys dogs after two days, so he would have been doomed. She probably told this to me because I’m a huge softie when it comes to animals (see my love the robins nesting on my porch) and knew I couldn’t let him die. So, of course, I said I’d foster him until we found a home for him– and I knew it was going to cause huge problems when I agreed to it.

Well, they brought him over, with all his belongings, and I just fell in love. How could I not? Anyway, they assured me that he’s house trained and that he doesn’t chew much. Since he’s only 10 months old I thought for sure he’d chew. He’s a puppy and that’s what they do. Right? I also expected him to be a little bit yappy, since he’s an ankle biter terrier. I was pleasantly wrong. He is incredibly well-mannered and has adapted to his new home as if he’d been here forever. He refuses to jump on the furniture even when Lil’lady invites him2. He ignores shoes3. And he only barks when someone walks into the driveway. His previous owners did a good job training him so far. He also sits and plays the piano.

That was cute. His ball bounced on the Lil’lady’s keyboard and he got curious about the music. So he decided to investigate for a full 5 minutes. About the time I was able to get the camera, though, he stopped. Figures, huh?

Anyway, I started this post yesterday, but then got distracted. I went outside to play hopscotch with my daughter. Do you know that Old Navy sells kits for that now? I didn’t either. Apparently, Millie bought one for Lil’lady. I tried to convince her that we don’t need little bean bags, that proper hopscotch requires a rock, but she refused to listen. At any rate, I was happily hopping along when my doppy ass didn’t pick my foot up properly which caused my flip flop to get caught just right which brought me down– on both knees4. Keep in mind, that I fall at least 2 times each summer. Last summer it was more than that, but there was tequila involved. Not so this time. I’d had ice cream instead. Anyway, I jumped up and laughed “Har-dee-har! Look at me; no tears!” and off I went. Except then my back started hurting and I am way too old for skinned knees. I laughed then, but I did have a reason to forget about this post.

Today, I tried to walk Charlie, but my right knee is swollen and my left 4th toe is ouchy, so I ended up letting him loose in the yard. I made sure to stay between him and the driveway (there’s a fence around the whole yard except for that part). He managed to chase a squirrel and find something’s burrow and then the little turd took off. Scared me to death. I was yelling as he was tearing around me. Don’t you know, he ran straight to the back door and waited for my crippled self to come let him in? Everyone say “awwww”. Still, he made me run, so it was the leash after that. But isn’t he cute? Of course, he is.

That’s all.

  1. I googled his breed. [↩]
  2. He will chase his ball up though. [↩]
  3. Though he thought it was hilarious to grab my slipper and make me chase him for it. [↩]
  4. Don’t you just love run-on sentences? [↩]
Posted in Adventures of Jinxi, Kids, The Fam | Tagged | Comments closed
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