January 30th

I VOTED. HAVE YOU?

I love absentee ballots. My ballot for the California primary election is completed and mailed. I really don't have a lot of use for any of the main contenders, so in the primary I voted for Ron Paul. I like the way he thinks: Ron Paul on Health Freedom . I don't believe that vaccines are good for any living thing, and I truly resent that the gummit tries to force us to vaccinate ourselves, our children and our pets. He won't win, but I wish he could.

THE JOB SEARCH-STILL SUCKS!

Not even a glimmer of hope here. I did get a response to a resume, but it just made me mad. I applied for a position as a manager that sounded very much like a legitimate job. I got this response:

"Thank you for responding to Fellow Solutions, Inc's job offer on Craigslist. I represent Fellow Solutions, Inc. My name is Aleksandr Kostanda, I'm a manager of this company. We are a rapidly growing
comprehensive Business Solutions, Internet and Website Design company. We specialize in getting businesses onto the Internet quickly and professionally.We have been in Business 7 Years and many of our staff have been involved with the Internet for a lot longer, we are somewhat of an OLD business in this
relatively new industry.
Our manager team will grow the next 3 months. In this e-mail I will kindly let you into the details of Fellow Solutions, Inc position of Manager.
Our Marketing Department has developed a perfect idea to boost sales (our company produces web items).The idea is to have more subsidiaries that would resell our Webstite Templates. As more we have the
websites (subsidiaries) as more we can get new customers and of course we get more profit. The advantage of having such subsidiaries lies in having different business names sell our web design services. It's business strategy. Manager is the person who owns a subsidiary company.Anyone can do this, because
setting up a small company of your own is very simple, and provided with easy-to-follow
step-by-step instructions of your personal Fellow Solutions, Inc manager. After your company is set up, Fellow Solutions, Inc will create a website (online store) for you which will resell our templates.
Final step is launching your store live on the web and taking your commission from sales. Your income will increase as the business progresses.
Let me emphasize extremely advantageous features that are sure to help you make the right decision and become our partner. They are:
- No skills and experience in programming and web design are required from you. Fellow Solutions, Inc professionals will handle all technical questions; - You will not have to sell or advertise anything. It is our special marketing department that will be responsible for it; - It's good opportunity for the manager because for this work he spends not too much time and can work for his usual work and for our company because we have the opportunity to enter to the USA's market.
If you've got a burning desire to succeed and are interested in maximizing your personal and professional growth, please kindly get back to us via our email address aleksandr_kostanda7@fellowsolutions.com). I will
get back to you with every little detail of how our cooperation will develop.
Please reply to this email: aleksandr_kostanda7@fellowsolutions.com
Respectfully,Aleksandr Kostanda,Fellow Solutions, Inc.36 Dragan Tsankov
Blvd., Sophia, 1057 Bulgaria,Phone/Fax for US: (606)
764-1922"

Gee. Think this just might be a scam?

ADS FOR CONTENT?

The Google ads over there ---> are supposed to be selected by some robotic brain based on the content of my blog. Sometimes I get a chuckle out of them.

I posted about FlufferNutter eating the power chord, an ad shows up for Pet Cremation. What? You think I'm going to kill him?

I wrote about needing a job, and this showed up:
Need Unemployment?
Get facts about unemployment Get a $250 grocery food debit card.
No. I have unemployment. I need a job! I could use an extension of unemployment BENEFITS though.

And, when I wrote about Hillary, I got this:
"The Hillary Nutcracker; Great gift Stainless Steel Thighs" I don't think that requires any further comment.

CHANNEL 10 STUFF:

From a field reporter: “The night was rather calm than usual.”

And, from the mid-day anchor, the Queen of Mispronunciation: “...various muscle tissues.” Pronounced “musk-el”

CRAIGSLIST IS A WEALTH OF MORON-SPEAK:

"graphic artist websight design and photography
Your daily task will be to take photos of the products we sell online. Then bringing them into adobe photoshop to clean up and re-size. creating a descriptions of the products on are web interface. Then uploading the product onto our web-sight. check out the web-sight hanger94.com to see an example of what is required prior to submitting your resume. You must work quickly, efficiently and must follow directions. must be a fast hard worker that is extremley dependable. fax or email OK "

"FREE BEE'S
I HAVE A BALL OF BEE'S THAT ARE CLUMPED TO THE HANDRAIL OF MY PORCH I'M SURE THE QUEEN IS AT THE VERY BOTTOM AND THE BALL IS GROWING, ABOUT THE SIZE OF A CHILDS HEAD. FREE FOR THE TAKING."
Bee's what? Bee's knees? Another illiterate moron trying to get people to work for free.

"Hours Of Working(Book-Keeper Needed)" Huh?

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS MORONS (besides the ones who use all of their lifelines before they even get to the $1000 question...)

From the implode-o-meter about another mortgage company going under:
We spoke to CFO Massoud Kamrooz. He feels making the switch to Retail is the best way to manage the turmoil in the marketplace, without being "forced to close." In a very open letter to us, he places the blame squarely on Wall Street shoulders:
"The purpose of this communication is to inform you that Allied Lending is not closed; we are only temporarily suspending the Wholesale Division, but focusing on Retail at this time.
Declining Markets as well as games played by GIANT FINANCIAL COMPANIES to smash the small companies and chopping down the large Banks by so called CONSULTING them for better and profitable business (Which is in fact profiting only themselves) but in fact they are setting them up so that they can be acquired at much lower price.
We know and it has been proven most Foreclosures are not because of rate changes, but only bad and greedy decision making by some INDIVIDUALS who acted as Borrowers. These people were not creditworthy neither have any positive effect on Real Estate market. These are the people whom falsified their applications and acquired several properties with the purpose of selling them back within 6 to 12 months and profiting hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I believe the # one reason that the market is in this position, because some Giant Financial Companies saw the opportunity and rather than going after these Borrowers and take some of them to highest level of the law as well as exposing them to all the news media so others will see and stop doing same. Because these large corporations wanted to make all these work for their own benefit only, and ignored the fact that this will put hundreds of thousands workers out of job as well as opened more doors to give the same Borrowers better venue to continue their fraudulent acts." But, he's not bitter. Perhaps the main problem with the business was that people like him were running companies.

If you want to read something intelligent about what happened to the mortgage industry, try this:

60 Minutes story

January 27th

IT'S POSSIBLE THAT EVERYTHING WON'T BE OKAY

I've been doing all I can to keep a positive attitude. I keep telling myself that this will work out, that things will be okay. I won't end up homeless or hungry. I keep saying it. I try to believe it. But when I read in the news that the extension of unemployment benefits was left out of the plans for stimulating the economy I finally broke down and cried.

Do the powers that be really think that people like me would rather sit on our asses and get a fraction of our former pay? Do they believe that we've committed some horrid crime for which we should be punished? Most of the unemployed mortgage workers had nothing to do with the questionable loans. We were the worker bees, just doing our jobs and trusting that the industry we had given decades of service to wouldn't abandon us.

Maybe they think I should swallow my pride and take a job that pays less than I'm used to earning. For one thing, a full time minimum wage job wouldn't even cover my mortgage payment, much less food, utilities, and transportation costs to get to work. And, I HAVE applied for less lucrative jobs. I haven't had a single response to any of the resumes I've sent out. I even tried putting something in my cover letter to address the employers' possible concerns about hiring a laid off mortgage worker. Still nothing. Nada. Zip. The buzz out there is that resumes from mortgage people are going straight into the trash, not even getting looked at. But, heaven forbid that the gummit should extend unemployment until we have some reasonable chance to find jobs.

This is rather amusing though. I sent emails to all of the presidential contenders, my representatives and the leaders of both houses of Congress asking them to support extending unemployment. Of course I haven't received responses from most of them. Except for this little gem that I received today:

Dear Marilyn,
Thank you for your interest in employment with Romney for President, Inc. Please submit your resume for consideration for full-time positions via our website at http://jobs.mittromney.com/. Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Team Mitt

This proves one thing. Nobody reads letters written to public officials. They must have an automatic system that picks out keywords and sends the "appropriate" response. In this case the response had nothing to do with my message.

And then today FlufferNutter chewed up the power cord to my expensive cordless phone with the extra handsets, (for some reason the only phone jack in this house is in the computer room and I can't hear the phone ring in the kitchen) which I really can't afford to replace. I cried again.

SO, LET'S AT LEAST LAUGH AT MORONS FOR A FEW MINUTES

Heard on Good Morning America: “A common bound...” Is that when a whole bunch of people leap forward at the same time?

From an obituary: (He) was a native of San Diego for 48 years. The other years he was born somewhere else?

From the homepage of an email list: ** This group does NOT!!! except Mass Spam Forwarded Email post from people who mass post about animals all over the US which they personally have no first hand knowledge about. If you do so you will be removed from the group.Thank you **

And finally, there was a solicitation going around for submissions of stories and photographs for an upcoming book about dogs. I checked out submission requirements about photographs and saw this:
"JPEG, 300 dpi (hi-res) image, sized to 5.5 inches in width. Color or black and white. Verticle orientation is preferred, but horizontals will be reviewed." I'll check back with you after you hire a proofreader, ok?

January 25th

KEEP YOUR FINGERS (OR PAWS) CROSSED

FlufferNutter has an appointment to meet some potential families tomorrow. Don't gt me wrong, I do love the dog. But, I am tired of him tearing stuff up. He obviously believes that cardboard boxes are evil and must be slain. Whatever is inside of a plastic bag (like 15 lbs. of bird seed) will kill us all if it is not removed and scattered. Plastic bottles must be punctured, or else the world will be destroyed. I'm just not set up to do puppies-and he's a really BIG puppy.


THE LATEST EDITION OF "MEET THE MORONS"

"SIX INDICTED IN UTAH FOR MORTGAGE FRAUD AND GOVERNMENT SEEKS FORFEITURE OF THERE ASSETS IN EXCESS OF $13 MILLION" Sadly, this is a headline from an on line newsletter. On a lawyer's website. Apparently, the advanced education of lawyers is as lacking as that of broadcast journalists these days.

More from Craigslist (which is itself grammatically incorrect, but it's not Marilyn's List, so I guess Craig can call it whatever he wants to):

"red cart, to pull your kids behind
red cart, universal connector. a must see. TONS OF FUN FOR A FAMILY. san diego is always shinning. if youre a family man, this would be great for you.can put up to two kids in there." I hope that your kids can write better than you can.

From comments on Hillary's website (not that I'm saying that Hillary supporters are morons, draw your own conclusions):


'Hillary is the ture person I trust, her plans must bring American to the better life. " Maybe she has a plan for better education. We can only hope.
"Hillary "really" cares about the common man/women's struggle, in thease turbolent economic times. Her whole life record, of fighting for the underprivilaged is proof enough. Keep doing your job, Hillary we need you now more than ever. " Does she really care, or just pretend to?


This sign was posted in the lobby of a local animal shelter:


Your tax dollars at work!

January 21st

BLUE MONDAY?

I heard on the news that today is the most depressing day of the year. I can see that-I could be really depressed if I let myself.

Still no jobs in my field of experience, and I have one more unemployment check before I get cut off. I've sent a whole bunch of resumes for other types of jobs, but haven't had one single response. No interviews, no phone calls, no email replies. Not even a "thank you for your interest but we picked someone who isn't likely to go back to a mortgage job at the first opportunity". Even if I was really looking forward to earning peon's wages and being treated like a peon, I can't even get hired to lick someone elses boots.

I'm overwhelmed with too many dogs in the house, especially with one of them being a BIG puppy. I can't put my pond back together until he finds a home-he keeps playing in the waterfall and ripping out the tubing. I have things stuck in inconvenient places to keep them safe-like all the toilet paper that I usually keep in the spare room and the bird seed that belongs on the patio.

It's raining and I'm cold.

Oh hell, now I AM depressed.

IS IT OVER YET?

The presidential election. I'm so done with it already. I don't much like any of them, and don't think that anything is going to change no matter who gets elected. I think that politicians don't want to be President in hopes of actually changing anything, they just want to live in the big house and ride in the big plane.

Can we send Hillary to Toastmasters? She needs a few rounds with the “uh” buzzer.

I liked this new email joke:

Subject: Packers quarterback

In a news conference Deanna Favre announced she will be the starting QB for the Packers this coming Sunday. Deanna asserts that she is qualified to be starting QB because she has spent the past 16 years married to Brett while he played QB for the Packers. During this period of time she became familiar with
the definition of a corner blitz, and is now completely comfortable with other terminology of the Packers offense. A survey of Packers fans shows that 65 % of those polled supported the move.

Does this sounds idiotic and unbelievable to you? Well, Hillary Clinton makes the same claims as to why she is qualified to be President and 50% of democrats polled agreed. She has never run a City, County, or State. When told Hillary Clinton has experience because she has 8 years in the white house, Dick
Morris stated "so has the pastry chef".

HERE'S SOME RESOLUTIONS FOR YOU!

Channel 10 ran a commercial trumpeting that their "news resolution" was to give us updated traffic reports. How about these instead?

• We will convince our reporters that the news isn't a dramatic reading, and they should stop hamming up their delivery.
• We will get rid of the reporters who continually mangle the English language, and hire people with at least a high-school grasp of proper grammar.
• We will stop making corny puns, and act like a professional news organization.

Some of their latest boo-boos:

Channel 10 anchor: “...the Tijuana slough...” Except she pronounced it “sluff”. I ask again-don't you need a college degree to get a job as a journalist any more? Oh, that's right. Colleges don't do anything to assure that their graduates can properly use the language these days. It would hurt the students' self esteem to be put into the Remedial English class.

And talking about people waiting to meet the Chargers: “...to welcome home the team from Indianapolis.” The Chargers moved? Already?

And from the returning anchor Kimberly Hunt: “I've been taken back how happy people are for the reunion.” This is from a commercial-which was aired ON PURPOSE. Not even a live broadcast. Really folks-who is running the show over there?

January 13th

I SURVIVED

Getting up ridiculously early yesterday morning that is. Did I take a nap as soon as I got home? Of course.

GO CHARGERS-ROUND TWO!

Okay-we made it through TWO playoff games. I had the game on the TV, but wasn't really watching it. I wandered out back with the dogs at one point, and suddenly it seemed like everyone in SD county was screaming. I guess they did something good.

FOOTBALL IS FOR MORONS?

I am used to football players who obviously didn't go to college to get an education, and have pretty much accepted that colleges don't bother to try to bring anyone up to speed on the proper use of the language before handing out a degree, but I do expect that the people who are paid to speak about football on TV would at least be somewhat proficient speakers. So, this from one of them was a bit distressing:

“...in there defensely.”


AND, FROM MORONS WHO POST TO CRAIGSLIST:
Posted under “free stuff”:

"i have a free pine tree,that need to came down.it on my land but close to the st, a few wire around top of it.i think it about 50 feet or more.it been in the same place sence 1969.you need to know what you doing to get it down safe.you can have it all.you have to take it down and take it all away.."
I think that the “free” thing here is that this illiterate moron is trying to get a tree cut down and hauled away for free. Normal people pay for this service.

"I HAVE THIS OLD SCHOOL MINI BAR THAT U CARRY WITH YOU,ITS A COLLECTERS ITEM,IT HAS BEEN PRESERVED & LOOKS FREAT"
Let me guess. “Old School” was where they taught people how to spell, properly use punctuation and capital letters. “New School” is where you learn that “U” is a word.


SOME IMPLODED LENDERS HAVE ONLY THEMSELVES TO BLAME

Especially the presidents of companies who send out emails like this:

"To Whom it may Concern,
I am sad to say that First Lincoln Mortgage Corp. has siezed all operations as of January 4, 2008.
Sorry to Everyone."

THE UT FORUMS AGAIN

"I have studies art and art history and am an artist in my spare time. All art projects it's creators thoughts and opinions (obviously some more directly than others). Your trying to imply art shouldn't have a message, which is rediculous. People like you are the ones who void out all creativity in life and want everything to conform to your pretty little box, even art. Let's stick with the paintings of mountains, trees and fruit baskets and we will all be 'safe'"
You may have “studies art”, but you obviously haven't STUDIED English grammar.

"I don't get it. So much anger over a peace sign. I'd be darned if it wasn't that guy you republicans call a president that said he sent our young men and women to Iraq to help instill peace there, hmmm, damn hippies, always spouting off about peace they are almost as bad a that Jesus guy who said you should love your neighbor, another damn hippie. i am so confused. i think we should perpetual war everywhere, everyone buy a gun and shoot your neighbor, you know, because someone said he might shoot you ."

"Give me a friggin break. A memorial service for a dog !!!!!!Is this our tax dollars at work ? How many uniformed officers will be there ? What is the cost of this memorial service ? It's a dog people, a dog, just go buy a new one and get on with it."
Regarding people like this I would love to be able to say "Please spay and neuter your morons".

January 11th

WHY?

Why did I agree to do this? Let me start by saying that I am not a morning person. I could happily stay up until 4 am and sleep until noon. So, I'm really wondering why I agreed to do what I'm going to do tomorrow. I belong to a group that gets together to buy meat in bulk to feed to our dogs. Well, it's not all for the dogs. I buy flank steak and beef tenderloin for me. Anyway, it's an all volunteer thing, so we all pitch in to do the work. Once a month all the meat is distributed. Normally I drive for our site once or twice a year, which means I go up to Orange County and pick up all the orders for San Diego people and drive it back to our pick-up site. However, the woman who heads up the group has been pushing everyone to come up and work at the cold storage locker. Not so bad really, just move cases of meat around for a couple of hours. I can do that. EXCEPT that we have to be there by 7 am. In order to do that I have to leave my house at

FIVE IN THE FREAKING MORNING!

I am not going to be happy tomorrow. I haven't seen 5 am since my old party-all-night days. Hopefully I won't have to do this again for a very long time.

GO CHARGERS!

First playoff win in 13 years! I must send an email to my little buddy Luke. NANANANANANA! He always gets such joy from a San Diego team bombing out in the first round of the playoffs. Not this time!

Here's a photo of FlufferNutter after a little romp in the mud yesterday. Not relevant to anything, but he's just so cute.

January 4th

OUCH!

I got my first rescue-related dog bite yesterday. Not the dog's fault-his leg was caught and he was hanging upside down. I tried to free him and he panicked and bit me. Hard. I bled all over the inside of my car. The worst bite is on the ball of my right thumb. Believe me-it's hard to even wipe your butt without using your thumb.

FUNNY THINGS FROM JOB POSTINGS

"Graffiti Artists wanted...Partners of Random house is getting ready to release a new photo illustrated book featuring Erbin street styles." Took me a few moments to realize that Erbin isn't a renowned spray paint artist.

"Seeking writers (you do not have to be a pro) to review various generes of adult DVDs from all major studios from the convenience of your own home. You will get FREE DVDs by mail or online and will be paid cash bonuses up to $150 for your good work. If you enjoy erotica this is areat way to make money while having fun!" Yeah, I'll jump all over that one. NOT.

"Need to have gentle phone manners and the ability to be nice to less intelligent people (and not sound condescending)." Another job that is not ideal for me. I have a real hard time being nice to morons. It's a personality flaw.

And, one more job listing specifically tells me not to bother to apply:
"No lendors (sic) or processors." No problem. I don't want to work for anyone who can't spell "lender" anyway.

RANDOM MORON-SPEAK:

From the Union-Tribune's website: "Park's might oaks: Drying and dying"
What's a "might oak"?

And, more morons with computers posting on public forums:

"And another Republican gone awry..........they kill abortion doctors, leaders, and anyone else who doesn't bow to G.W. Bush and go to church where their kids get molested. I love being a Democat!"