Obligitory winter blues rant (and bond movie spoiler)

[Redlined]

Wow.. just wow...

Absolutely shitty winter.

Got lucky and got dispatched to a three week job in November. Been Unemployed since. First week after the job contact Oregon Unemployment. (via their websight) apply for unemployment. Claim expired, need to reopen.... Has it been a year already? Reopen claim. wait standard waiting week. apply for benifiets. second week apply for benifites, claim expired need to open a NEW claim and wait another waiting week (apparently it HADNT been a year) Try to file claim on line. run into issues. directed to contact Unemployemnt office. Phone line "Unavailable". go to the office. No one there to help me. Directed to call phone line over and over until I make it through. several hours of hitting redial later get through. Advised work is all out of state (company I work for is based in Washington) Directed to file claim with Washington Unemployment. Due to Loss of Time injury in 2007 unable to file claim on line. Directed to call phone line.... Phone line has an automated directory that takes 2 minutes to navigate. including a 90 second recording about some fedral plan. and if you hit ANY button durring the recording your forwarded to the spanish speaking line. at the end of the 2 minutes get a recording advising me that "due to high call volume your call can not be answered" and call disconncets.

This passed month I have lived out of pocket. Including new side skirts for my RV to help heating (got wind of the snow storm before it hit) Frozen water Pipes. Electrical breaker went bad. cell phone disappeared and I ended up replacing it (wouldnt have been all that bad except I kinda went overboard on its replacement) Christmas presants for friends/family. and my sons step brother sister and like 4 kids hes not even directly related to. My winter Bank pad is rapidly depleating and I have probably two months until work begins to pick back up.

to top it off (totaly different direction) saw Quantam of Solace. (Theater prices have gone off the nut $7.50 a head for miners and studants and $22 for a tub of popcorn and two sodas? And they call internet downloading a crime.)

WHAT... THE... FUCK??? this is barely recognisable as a James Bond flick. The actor was blond and came across more Australian that proper english. no Bond gadgetry. the old Bond gimics are there but seem to be tacked on. He steals a tux, drives a DB7. and.... drinks a vermouth Marini with lemon(shaken till ice cold)? and the story? James bond saves the middle east from people selling bottled water? At least The world is not enough had Bond gadgets even if the story wasnt upto par "Bond saves the Oil cartel and turkey from a rich spoiled girl who wants to compete with them"

So... desperate I call the unemployemnt offive... for four hours. finally get a line through and get an automated message telling me "Due to high call volumes we are assigning times to call. call back between tuesday and friday *disconncets*

AUGH!

I'm ready to paint myself brown wrap a turban around my head and drive a truck of cow mannuer and disel into the side of a building. (not realy but it sure feels that way)

somebody just kill me.

/rant off

[kimokalihi]

You'd think if the prices were so high you could go with out popcorn and soda?

I've never in my entire life bought a single item from a movie theatre to eat or drink. Never. Never will either.

In a way I'm kind of mooching off everyone else if you think about it. The only reason ticket prices aren't $20 a piece is because people like you buy stuff to eat there. So I guess I should thank you! Thanks, if it weren't for you guys I wouldn't be able to enjoy going to the movies because there's no way I'm spending $20+ to see a movie I can download a month or two later or even sooner. I had the two towers in DVD quality a week or two before it hit theatres!

Sorry to hear about your unemployment problem. Bad time of the year to be going through that for sure. What do you do?

Did you see Casino Royale? I thought that was a pretty good movie. I have not seen the new one due to poor ratings and again, high ticket prices. I think they're $9 here. Seems they go up just about every other time I go.

[Aerotech]

If you haven't seen it yet, go rent "Tropic Thunder".

I guarantee it'll cheer you up!

One of the funniest movies of the last year, IMHO...

[legacy92ej22t]

I loved the new bond film. I think next to Sean Connery this new guy is the best bond yet. Pierce was pretty good though too. Grew up on Roger Moore and looking back, he stunk.

They saved people in South America, not the middle east and I for one liked that there wasn't as many "gadgets" and cheesy lines like all the old films. He was just a cold blooded, smooth, calculated killer. More like what a secret agent should be imo. I loved it, my wife did too and she hates these types of movies.

Sorry to hear about your unemployement woes but hey, look on the bright side, Obama is going to fix everything, right? We're all going to be spoon fed the life of lovely in The New Socialist Republic of America. Enjoy!

[entirelyturbo]

Hear, hear! We should enact Obama's 'spread-the-wealth' campaign by unionizing the entire American workforce. That way, we can mirror the success of the Big Three American automakers.

While we're at it, we should all adopt pen-pals with our soon-to-be best buddies, those wacky Iranians. Nuclear fallout is no big deal... who hasn't wished for a third arm sticking out of their back from time to time?

[jeffast]

Nuclear fallout is no big deal... who hasn't wished for a third arm sticking out of their back from time to time?

it would be useful, but not as useful as being born with a silver spoon wedged up my ass

[jamal]

so did you not see casino royale then? You kind of need to see it first.

I liked quantum of solace but I thought casino royale was much better.

[Redlined]

sorry for the long length in replying to this... been a long week.

Nope. I have NOT seen the Casino royal... Wasnt Casino Royal done already? In the 60s? Kinda tickle at the grey matter there

On the Gadgetry. I loved the older stuff that was vaguely realistic. Durring the Roger Moore phase it kinda got out of hand (a car that turns into a submarine?) they did kinda temper it back for a while in the 80s and went nuts with it again in the 90s. Im not asking for wrist watch machine guns and gaurd dog with eye lasers. Just the sneaky crafty cameras,bugs, GPS locaters and stuff.

My favorite Bond? Sean Connery. hands down. Liked Moore when I was a kind. Think he was to "mopey" now. Pierce Brosnen <sp?> is good too.

On the topic of eats. I dont generally buy food from Theater concessions but I was taking my son and his friend. was supposed to be a big night out so I kinda felt obligated.

Thanks for the movie advise. Ill put Casino Royal and Tropic Thunder on my to watch list.

Ill get over being unemployed. Part of the job. Its why I make so damned much when I do work. Just kinda nice to not have to fight tooth and nail with the UI office. (heres an Idea. hire some unemployed peeps to work at your call center)

Don't know about spread the wealth, how about we make the companies with $100 billion quarterly profits start paying their employees more than minimum wage? Or stop with the automation of jobs? loose Phone pay, E-mail pay, and self checkout stands "for your convenience" and hire peeps. Just my 2 cents. (Im holding back here. Ill rant for hours on this stuff)

On the up side the roads are no longer covered in slush... Thank god Im not 100 miles to the north.

[jamal]

yeah they remade casino royale to kind of start over with the series. It's really, really good.

[Richard]

Sean Connery +1.

But what was his better character? James Bond or Captain Remus?

[Redlined]

LOVED Red October! Not sure its in the same league as Bond though.

Someone asked what I did for a living. Technically Im a Painter. Union local #10. Specifically Im a Sandblaster specialized in Bridges and Hydroelectric dams. Lots of work spring and summer. Little to no work fall and winter. just the way of the beast.

[kbeefy]

yeah, Remus was good. And the better filmmaking technology helps as well. I also liked his character from 'The Rock'.


I think Unemployment insurance is a good idea, but it should be an option. I've had to pay into it for, umm... (have to find calculator) about 20 years now and have never filed a claim or collected any benifits. Would much rather that money went to a 401 or IRA or some sort of savings that I could use as I please if I ever found myself unable to find work.

I could be wrong but it sure seems like a lot of seasonal workers are abusing the system, planning and counting on their benefits instead of actually trying to find a job. I'd like to think if I ever found myself stooping low enough to collect UI instead of getting myself a job I'd at least forgo the $22 popcorn and soda during the movie that definatly wasn't a necessity.

And if you want to bitch about weather, heres the past week at my house. This is going into the 4th week below 0. Our high today was below -10F.

[Redlined]

wow... that hurts

Before you go implying things about people you should maybe look into thier situation a bit more.

Ok yes. the movie and popcorn where not a necessity. for that matter buying christmas presants wasnt a necessity either.

That aside. I had a LARGE pad set aside for the winter. A medical bill that didn't get covered by insurance took a LARGE chunk out of that. I took the entire month of October off, out of my own pocket, No insurance claims, to baby sit my son as he had proved he was unable to do as much as get himself to school ontime in the mornings. Otherwise Id still be sitting on a healthy bankroll waiting for the work season. Lack of work durring the off season is a fact. One that I tried to prepare for. large string of unfortunate events, some my fault, others not. have put me in a situation where paying the bills may soon become an issue.

I don't go out on the town alot so Im not going to be shamed about the one time I take my son out.

I see plenty of people that are out every weekend. going to bars. clubs or whatever, and I wounder how they do it.

I also pay into Unemployment Insurance. And I don't see why I shouldn't be able to claim it when I need it.

[evolutionmovement]

That's what you pay the insurance for.

And Connery's best role was Zed in Zardoz. Probably not, but the opening scenes were hilarious.