Seriously? On a job hunt website???

Ok, so I am running into all kinds of things on my thorough scan for job opportunities here in Austin. Moments ago I ran across www.mrpoultry.com . Seriously the oddest thing I have ever seen! It is so worth taking a look at. Check out also the "Bet you didn't know section" for a good laugh. And this is all on a recruiting website. Also pull up a job opportunity just for fun...see what follows the job description.

Books Satisfy More Than The Urge To Read

So the darnedest thing happened. We knew it was happening and just did not want to admit it. Then stage one hit, then stage 2 hit last night. It is our couch. It all began when we sold our really comfortable and very large couch in Las Vegas. I miss that couch, but we had a back up; a cute euro-style click clack couch that was small enough to fit into our unknown space and comfortable enough to use til we could afford a new one. It also doubles as a place to sleep for guests when needed. Well, now that you have the brief background, here goes stage one of the, well, I'll just tell the story.

When we sold our couch we moved the click clack into the living room to sit on til we moved. It was nice and comfortable and we could lay the back down to both be able to lay down while watching TV. One night when I did the rare thing of playing with the dog, I threw his ball back behind the couch (as I have done many times before) and to my surprise, Jasper grew wings and leaped over the couch...not quite clearing it. We heard a crack and a bang. The back of the couch fell back and lay slightly off. We quickly flipped it over to assess the damage. The event caused the back of the left side of the couch to be torn from the mechanism and to our fortune, it was an easy fix. A few large long screws and it was back. We noticed the mechanism on the right side a little off, but it worked and we were happy. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago....
We are happily sitting on the couch after a long day of job hunting and running errands when all of the sudden, the right side of the couch cracked and fell back. We had nothing to fix it with. I just laughed as Walter had a slightly pissed off and slightly distraught look on his face. Great, something more to go wrong. So, we laid the couch back and left it as a bed sitting in the living room. It worked since we had the dresser in there anyway (remember how it would not fit up the stairs in the move...). We pushed it back up against the buffet and threw some pillows on it and Viola! it was usable again, at least until we could fix it. Forward to last week...
We hit Wal-mart and got some screws to screw it back in with. Flipped it over and began unscrewing and rescrewing the bottom and side of the "click clack mechanism". It took a little time and we finished and flipped it over. Clicked it up only to have it come clacking back down. Shit! What were we supposed to do now. I was not finding it as funny as I did the first time. I assessed the couch and realized that we could screw in a piece of wood to the back that would keep it up. Walter bettered my idea by adding hinges to it so the couch could still lay back and function as a bed. It was off to Home Depot! For less than $10 we had all we needed. Back home to make the fix. Here was the result....

We were proud of our ghetto...uhem, I mean innovative fix to our problem. It was great and we have only forgotten to make sure the board in the back is secure before we lean back 2 times. Well, last night stage 2 of couch hell hit. I have to admit, this part did not make me feel too good about myself nor my weight. Walter was on the couch watching TV and I was in cooking dinner. I came in and sat on the end of the couch to watch while my stuff was grilling. All of the sudden I felt the couch lean forward and down. I though to myself "What is Walter doing leaning forward. Is he trying to make the couch flip over?" I turned to him and his eyes were as big as mine with confusion. We looked down and the couch was not leaning, the corner WAS going down and it was the leg that was bending. I jumped off and onto my hands and knees crouched looking at the leg. It was definately shorter than before. I slight grin passed over my face as I began to laugh. I was laughing over the couch. Over that fact that a little more than a month ago this would not have been a problem, we would have just gone (and had the cash) to buy a new couch. Funny how quickly things change (by our choice mind you, but still funny). I could not stop laughing as I told Walter to pick out some books to brace the couch up with. It seemed to work, but I could get a better brace if I just took the leg off. You can see here the bend which was worse, but I had to bend it mostly back to be able to take the leg off.A few more books and here it is. Our ghetto fabulous couch that, well, I do not see getting rid of any time soon, saddly. I guess it just goes to show, sometimes you gotta just laugh at life and what it dishes out.

I've Moved To A Different Planet....

It was not until last night that my brain stopped, looked around, listened and realized that I now live on another planet. It is not the reality of life that I am accustomed to after living in Las Vegas for eleven years. Lets start out by meeting people....

THE LAS VEGAS WAY WHEN MEETING PEOPLE:
1. The underlying tone and sometimes straight out question is "What can you do for me". Whether it be getting into a club, giving free or discounted drinks at a bar, free food at a casino, discounts in a store, people do not want to be your friend unless you can do something for them and they can do something for you.
2. Location Location Location. It is not who you know, but where you meet them, and that is almost NEVER at their house. They don't want you to know where they live. They prefer to meet out at a restaurant, club, bar, etc. to hang out. Rarely will you ever see where they live like it is shameful or they just don't want you in their "bizness". I had friends that I never knew quite where they lived and they were oddly skittish when invited to my place.
3. It is not what you do, but how important you pretend what you do is and the facade you keep. People were just not honest. Nothing better to hanging out with someone, blowing money left and right, talking about how fab your job and work is, then running into them at the Macy's Gift Wrap counter and miraculously never hearing from them again. The shame in a lie. I don't care what you do or how much you make or even how much you are willing to go into debt to party on a weekend night. I just am looking for a nice person to hang with and have a good time. People in Vegas do not understand that concept.

WHAT I HAVE NOTICED ABOUT MEETING PEOPLE IN AUSTIN:
1. The attitude is "Welcome! Let's be friends. You seem nice!" It is truly like another world. I have a similar attitude toward friendship and am probably too trusting when meeting new people, but really I don't find harm in that. It is easy to stop trusting someone once they cause you to. It is much harder to trust no one and be alone.
2. Come over and lets BBQ is the attitude I have noticed here. It is odd. I love to invite people over for dinner at our place and apparently (after years of unbelieving) other people do too. They are no ashamed to invite you inside for a drink after you drive them home from a night out. They are not even ashamed if they live in a less than desirable neighborhood.
3. No one cares what you do or how much you make, but they do care if you are having a good time and happy. Lately the people we have met have been encouraging toward us in our job searches often offering ideas and even checking with their own companies for potential positions.

The other thing I have noticed here also deals with people. It is the conversations that you have. For the first time in literally 10 or so years, I am able to meet someone in a bar, on the street, at a music venue and talk about something intelligently. Free to have an opinion and they accept my opinion and offer their own no matter how different. I don't feel dumb or out of touch with thinking. I have not heard talk of Brittany, Madonna, or some reality TV show. I have heard about Obama, Gaza, and literature. I am loving it. It is not a strained conversation where you are continually wondering what you will talk about next, with multiple pauses or rude stops for a text or two, but a convergence of ideas and thoughts that make up the conversation...that make it interesting.
Oh yes, from the norm I became accustomed to over the past 11 years, I have moved to another planet. It has ever changing weather, people who are outdoors and smiling, free thinkers, quaint restaurants, farm fresh fruits and vegetables, and a State Capital Building smack dab in the middle. Austin, I have arrived!

A Lesson In Walking part 2: Progress

So, we went. I remembered my orthotics and, for the most part, it was better. We walked a bit farther before it started to hurt and walked farther all together. I found out that walking on flat ground was the best and also when we were walking on the dirt path that my foot and leg felt better when I walked on the up slope of the walkway (so the right side of my right foot was sloping up slightly). All in all it was progress. My feet hurt a bit tonight, but that is how you get your ass back into shape. Little by little, pain by pain til it does not hurt anymore and you just do it. Anyhow, that's that!

A Lesson in Walking

So we have been trying to be a little more active, especially since we spend all morning on the computer searching for jobs and applying relentlessly. We have been tending to spend most our evenings in to avoid depleting the last of our funds to live on until we find some income sources (i.e. jobs!). That leaves our afternoons perfectly free to get out and do something. On Monday we attempted to go jogging. I say attempted because I was less successful on the endeavor. I started off well for the first, well, I would say 400-500 meters. Then I started to be out of breath (naturally since I have not exercised in such a long time) and then my leg started to hurt. Not in the spots you would assume. So I started to walk. It continued to hurt and the pain started to increase. I was ready to head back to the car. I thought I may have over done it and may have hurt my fat ass. So after sitting in the car a minute (the hurt leg is the one I use on the pedals of the car) I started and drove home. I was determined to try again, walking next time, the next day.
The next day came and went. I spent most of it applying for jobs while Walter did some foot work on his attempt to find work. It was yesterday we ventured back out to the lake (we walk at a park on Lady Bird Lake in the center of town). Again, we started off well and at a decent pace. We made it a bit further than the time before but my leg started hurting again. We turned around. I knew I should have put in my arch supports. I meant to to see if that would have helped. I forgot them. It hurt, but I did make it longer than the time before. I may just have to work my way up to getting this muscle worked into shape, but I don't know.
Forward to today. Thank god for the internet! I searched pictures of the leg's anatomy and found (what I think) what might be the problem. I have found a muscle in my leg (the Peroneus Longus) that apparently is the one that stabilizes your footing while walking on uneven surfaces. It is apparently one that I have not stretched out in a VERY VERY VERY long time (because I did not know I had one honestly). SOOOO, my goal today, change my shoes, put in an arch support, stretch the muscle according to www.sportsinjuryclinic.net and see if we can have a nice refreshing walk today. I really hope this works or helps. I love to walk and hate that this pain might effect that. I would like to work up to jogging (mainly because everyone here jogs it seems and I just want to oddly fit in that way) and mostly, just to get some excersize and better my fitness level. There may be another post today about how it worked out. A little lunch first, then the test! Anyhow, sorry the post is boring today, but it is what is on my mind!

MILK

So today Walter and I went to see the film Milk. I loved it. Not only did it remind me that if you really want something or want to change something, that perseverance and determination can do it, but it also made me thankful. I am thankful because it is the sacrifices and determination of people like Harvey Milk that help me to be an out gay man. I can go to work, to the store, to movies and not hide that Walter is my partner. I can be me and not have to hide in some closet because of the fear that I will lose my job or be beaten. While I still understand that these things still happen all over the country (which is sad) it is people from the 70's and 80's the paved the way to a less fearful life for homosexuals. I think we sometimes forget what others had to go through to get our freedoms. Fitting that this weekend is Martin Luther King holiday weekend. He is a man who, like Harvey Milk, made a change for his community. While he had his people in his best interest, he also wanted society as a whole to change for the better. Maybe if we all could start looking at society as a whole, and not just our "community" that we belong to, and make changes to better everyone, liberate everyone, free everyone to be who they are and not feel judged, this world could be a better place to live. Live more, fear less. That's just my feelings today.

Fresh Food! What am I eating here! oh...and WTF is up with Israel!

So our lunch today was so beautiful I had to take pictures and share. It was so colorful and pretty that it just blew my mind. The taste was awesome too. We had hit the farmers market each Saturday and last week there was a medley of lettuce that was intriguing and beautiful so we bought it. It was not til today that we actually tried it. It was mixed with some purple cauliflower, avocado, carrots, tomatoes, and feta cheese. It was wonderful. We added a lime sesame dressing on top of it.
Some of the lettuce were bitter, but the dressing counteracted it and mellowed that out. The tomatoes were vine ripened (not picked green while still on the vine then shipped to the stores where they ripened "on the vine", but picked right from the plant as they should be to get all the beautiful flavors) and the carrots fresh from the ground. It was amazing.

I accompanied mine with a Yellowfin Tuna steak and some more avocado. It was lovely! It is my goal to try to eat more healthy (not that all the Tex-Mex has been helping with that) and according to Walter I have been losing some weight, so that is a nice bonus.

The other day we also went with a friend on a nice nature walk in the area that was beautiful. I am so out of shape that I needed to stop and stretch a few times since my Achilles tendon was so tight from not being active or stretching it (like the dr. said I need to), but it was enjoyable to be outside and doing something. Here is a picture of where we had hiked...
Ok...enough of that good stuff....so WTF is up with Israel bombing the UN storage for all the aid supplies! The fire took out all the food supply and medical supplies! That is so messed up I don't even know what to say about them. They can apologize all they want and say sorry, but that was just bullshit! I don't think we as a country can put up with that shit. I know we are allies, but I think it might be time to reevaluate that. That, to me, should be considered a war crime. Also the fact that they had fired white phosphorus shells into highly populated areas which totally goes against the Geneva Convention! I just cannot believe what is still going on over there. They are saying in the 20 days this has been going on that 5100 people have been injured and over 1100 killed! Thousands of years of conflict...GET OVER IT!

Job Hunting

I hate looking for a job. I don't really know of anyone who particularly looks forward to it. It is probably why people stay in jobs they hate for so long or in low paying jobs for so long. Now that the house is all together and the chaos is minimal, we started looking for jobs. I spent a good 6 hours yesterday applying for 3, yes, that's right, 3 jobs. First I would add my resume to the main job searching page. Not that I could just upload it or cut and paste it, no no no. I would do that, then it asks you to reenter all the information again into their "application". So more cutting and pasting and entering addresses and phone numbers. THEN, to my major annoyance, it would direct me to the website of the company to do the exact same thing. So here I go again entering, cutting, pasting etc etc. What a joke. With the technology we have, is there not an easier way? Is there just not some standard we can all use to make it easier? Can't I just fax my resume to you and you look at it like you used to? What if I walk in your office with one in hand and hand it to you? OH WAIT, I CAN'T! More often then not the company info is not listed to avoid seeing you in person! But if you do go in, the lovely secretary directs you to their website to apply. Somehow I thought computers made life easier. For who? It is great for somethings, tedious for others and when it is down departments of companies cannot work and function....so again I ask, for who? Anyhow, the good new is I got 3 positions applied for. That is 1 for every 2 hours I was online. Can't wait to do it again today!

Day 10 In Austin!

Well, I never got back to the story, but here is another update on what we have been up to. The place was smaller than expected. About 150 sqft smaller. But, we are resourceful and made due. We have to get rid of the dresser. It would not fit up the stairs to make it into the bedroom but that is ok. We were trying to get rid of it before we moved too! Love it, just too big!
We sent David off on Wednesday and it was sad to see him go. It was nice to connect again with my brother and hang out. Walter invited some guests to stay this weekend so we spent the past few days registering the cars, getting drivers licenses and putting the house together. It was a creative storage and decorating challenge from hell. Even though we got rid of so much stuff before the move, we did not expect this place to have only 2 closets. Yes, only 2! One in each of the bedrooms. That is it! No linen closet. No coat closet! No under the stairs closet (that is the laundry room AND backdoor). Here are some pics of the new place all finished (well 95% done at least...the downstairs is finished)...

Well, more later. Gotta get ready to hit the farmer's market and for the company to arrive!

On our way to Austin

Wow, what a trip it was to get here but how great it has been so far. We have no furniture so have been avoiding staying at home since there is really nothing to do here. Here is how our way to Austin started...
It was a cool morning and we left at 5am from Las Vegas. With my Vegas Playlist playing (each individual song had to be started on its own due to something I did in Itunes that made it that way. David was not happy having to start each one like that, but we made it through all 45 songs) we headed on the road. I have the songs timed to play at different spots along the highway. I had some tears and some great memories flash through my brain but the anticipation of what was to come made it all better. Our first potty break was at Hoover Dam. We just had to stop since it was so beautiful this time in the morning with all the lights still on.
It was a beautiful way to start the morning. Onward and forward me made the rest of our 16 hour day (2 and 1/2 of which were spent with Walter's grandparents in Sierra Vista, AZ). Many stops and a few energy drinks and way too much Mc Donalds we made it to Las Cruces, NM at about 10pm local time to sleep (and have one more disgusting Mc Donalds meal. I have no idea how Morgan Spurlock did it in his Supersize Me documentery).
It was another early morning and we decided only to have coffee and a muffin from the hotel breakfast to start since we were craving something other than a Mc Sandwichersomething. We decided we had enough gas to make it to El Paso and to find another food option. We did run into a Wendy's at a Pilot station a bit outside of El Paso. It was another day of driving and stops (who knew we had to pee so much on the road) but 10 hours later we made it to Austin. It was exciting. We anticipated getting home. Praying the power got turned on that day. GPS programmed to the address we were almost there. The sun was setting as we pulled up to the shock of our new home. We knew it was not in the best neighborhood. It was the location that interested us the most, but the shock of my first sight scared me. Our house is in the back of the property and this is taken of the front house. Kind of saying to us "Welcome to Austin"...
Just a little graffiti. No biggie, although after a long drive and tiring day it was not what I needed to see. Our next sight was not much better once we drove down the long drive to our house.
Wow! Yes, that is right. We had our very own cart from the dollar store and a cone. It also came with beer cans, leaves and some broken down cd rack thingy. My heart sank as I hoped the inside was better and that car alarms would be cheap to buy. I was sure we would need them. We got the key and entered into the house. It was cute. Smaller than we expected, but still new and a nice setup. Still in shock we decided to just unload the cars and head to get some real food and a definate strong drink.
We headed to the only place we really knew of and how to get there, Shady Grove. After a nice meal and a top shelf margarita we were calming down but still had some anxiety of going home. We had to do it, we knew that.
On our way home we decided to hit our local grocery store H.E.B. to not only see who was in our neighborhood, but to pick up supplies, and booze! Well, we at least got the supplies. It is definately not Las Vegas where liquor is available everywhere. Apparently you can only by booze at a liquor store. But we did get supplies and some Bacardi flavored drinks. We headed home to clean the not so ready to move in house we just rented.
The vaccuum took 2 run overs to make half way decent so we could sleep on the floor. It was dirty, prob still is, but we did take baking soda and Lysol to it so it should be a little safer than it was. The cabinets were dirty as it took 3-4 Clorox wipes to wipe each one down inside and out. It did "look clean" but the wipes showed a much different story. Walter cleaned the bathrooms and then we all went to bed hoping the next morning everything would be better....it was.
Waking up and seeing the neighborhood in the daylight was a relief. It was similar to what we lived in in Las Vegas. Even equiped with our own Taqueria right next door on the corner.
We started to put things away and assess what we needed to buy right way to clean and organize before all our real stuff came. I am tired of writing and hungry for breakfast, so I will continue the story later...