November 2, 2020

Once again, an election presents itself as the "biggest election in our lifetime". And considering how divided this nation is getting, they may be right. Since I last blogged, the House became Democratic and the Senate got more Republican. An annoying virus swept the world, and killed 2-5% of its victims. Riots have gotten more commonplace. Antifa is getting bolder, and ideas that were considered crackpot when I attended Brooklyn College over 20 years ago are now the mainstream of the Democratic Party. And cancel culture is the norm.

I don't how likely any of these are to win, but here are my endorsements for tomorrow's election:

PRESIDENT
Donald Trump. Yeah, I know, from a character perspective, he's the Republican version of Bill Clinton (and that is NOT a compliment). But he has caused the economy to grow far better than it did under my distant cousin Obama. Trump has actually governed as a conservative, and has gotten tough with our biggest economic and military adversary (China, not the rapidly declining Putinist Russia). He has appointed 3 originalist Supreme Court Justices and hundreds of Federal judges to undo the activist judiciary promoted by his mostly Democrat predecessors. I don't know if it is because of his mainstream policies or his outrageous behavior, but the Democrats have gotten more radical in their opposition to him. Since 2016, the Democratic Party has embraced radical left ideas such as socialism, critical race theory/1619ism, higher taxes, Supreme Court packing, restrictions on religion, and bringing back the hated Obamacare Individual Mandate. Joe Biden may be the Democratic name on the ballot, but the real power if Biden is elected will be with anti-Catholic VP Kamala Harris and the radical left. Since Trump is the only thing standing between these leftist lunatics and control of the United States Government, I have no choice but to support Trump.


SENATE (Colorado)
Cory Gardner. He is probably the only statewide elected official that I have any respect for. He is a common sense conservative, and the only member of the Colorado congressional delegation with any major accomplishments (The BLM and Space Force headquarters moving to Colorado). Hickenlooper has broken his previous rule against negative campaigning, has gotten even more left wing, and has an ethics problem that mainfested during his last term as Colorado Governor.


HOUSE District 3
Lauren Boebert. She made her name as a vocal opponent to the state's COVID 19 restrictions on businesses, and parlayed that into an upset win in the Republican primary over incumbent Scott Tipton. Diane Mitsch Bush is an academic socialist masquerading as a compromising moderate.

District 5
No endorsement. This district has never been represented by a Democrat. The palatable Libertarian candidate (Doug Lunde) pulled out of the race days before the election. Democrat Jillian Freeland is too liberal for this district. And Doug Lamborn is the kind of Republican who gives the party a bad name. He muscled out any primary competition this year despite a recent challenge to his ability to run for re-election.

NY House District 11 Nicole Malliotakis. Historically this Staten Island based district has been the conservative beacon of the NYC Congressional delegation. It needs to return to that.

Colorado Amendments

Amendment B
No. Tampering with the state Constitution to lower business property taxes inevitably results in higher taxes for homeowners.

Amendment C
Yes. A common sense loosening of restrictions for charatable organizations that want to obtain charitable gaming licenses.

Amendment 76
HELL YES. Passing this amendment means only US Citizens can vote in Colorado elections. The status quo is in violation of federal law, so this should be a no brainer.

Amendment 77
Yes. Only 3 cities in this state allow legal gaming, so why shouldn't those cities' voters determine allowing more (or less) gaming types and regulations?

Propositions

Proposistion EE
Yes. This allows vaping to be taxed- currently it is far cheaper to vape than to smoke cigarettes. Personally I think all forms of smokable tobacco should be outlawed and eradicated from the earth, but that is not up for vote this year.

Proposition 113
HELL NO. Tampering with the spirit (if not letter) of the US Constitution in order to make it easier for popular vote winners (i.e. Democrats) to become President is a very bad idea.

Proposition 114
No. Gray wolves don't need government intervention to return to the wildlands of Colorado.

Proposition 115
HELL YES. Currently abortion in Colorado is legal up to childbirth. While I would like to see this barbarous practice outlawed, this proposition lowers the age at which a fetus can be aborted to 22 weeks, which is line with most of the rest of country.

Proposition 116
HELL YES. This lowers the state income tax from 4.63% to 4.55%. Sadly, there is a very vocal opposition to lowering taxes in this state, mostly by the same idiots who want to overturn TABOR.

Proposition 117
Yes. This strengthens TABOR by mandating voter approval of any government enterprise that is currently exempt from TABOR.

Proposition 118
HELL NO. Paid Medical and Family leave is the reponsibilty of employers, not the government. If this becomes law, expect taxes to be raised considerably in order to pay for this.

The Judiciary
Colorado allows for Judicial elections for state and county judges. In other words, if you don't like a corrupt judge in this state, you can fire them with your vote in this state. As nearly the entire state judiciary on this year's ballot was appointed by Democrats, I urge a no vote on all of them. Too bad this is not an option in my former home state of New York.

December 30, 2018

What a long strange year it's been. I started the year with a high paying job in a small town in Maine. I had an apartment, a cat named Misty, and a 17 year old Ford Taurus that had handled a cross country move from Texas to Maine with minimal difficulty.

Less than a month later, I was unemployed, the apartment was no longer in my name, Misty was in the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society shelter, and the Taurus had barely survived a move from Maine to Brooklyn after a steering hose burst that wiped out my savings. My remaining possessions were in a storage unit in Long Island City. By the end of March, the Taurus was in the possession of a formerly car-less West Indian couple from Long Island, and I was in a psychosis inducing living environment in the New York City shelter system. By that time, I had resumed regular writing for the first time since March 2016 thanks to the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Writers' Workshop.

By the end of April, I had enough. Elmhurst Hospital diagnosed me with a severe case of depression. I had snuck my laptop into the shelter and composed a few songs- one of which mixed EDM and classical. I used what little savings I had from my state tax refunds and public assistance to pay for a one way flight out of NYC and the shelter system to Denver.

I spent a little over a week in Denver before ending up in one of their shelters, which was run by Denver's Catholic Charities. That situation was a lot less chaotic than the CAMBA, Ward's Island, and SCO shelters in New York. I was able to find temp work rather quickly. But the temp assignments were not permanent, and the one permanent job I secured (which lasted 10 days) put me at odds with my body clock and the shelter's meal schedule. During my spare time, I joined a writer's group from Denver called Hard Times. But after 2 months in the shelter and nothing permanent on the horizon, I decided to move back to my hometown of Colorado Springs in mid-July.

I blew most of my savings on a month and a half of a house share rental in the Hillside neighborhood. After numerous job rejections (including one at the Chidlaw Building where my father worked in the 1970s), I was hired by Elwood Staffing (the successor to my former longtime employer of SOS Staffing), and sent to a warehouse on the south side of town. The work was unlike any previous warehouse or assembly work I had done before. My coworkers were very close-knit and social, a major departure in attitude from previous co-workers in Denver, NYC, and Texas. My medical records were transferred to Peak Vista and Aspen Pointe. By the end of my first visit to Aspen Pointe, I found out I was misdiagnosed in NYC and Denver- I have been suffering from (previously undiagnosed) PTSD for years, dating back to when my father was still alive. Numerous events have triggered it, including my mother's sudden death in 1991, the events of 1995 (when I lost my grandparents and father within a 9 month span), my eviction and subsequent blacklisting by the Colorado Springs Salvation Army in January 2015 which led to a Catholic Charities assisted Greyhound ticket back east, and most recently, the violent DeLousio-mandated NYC shelter nightmare.

By late October, I had enough money to buy a car, a Buick Century. Due to an extended Thanksgiving break, I drove the Buick east towards Pennsylvania and NYC. I got to visit my relatives in PA for the first time in over a year. And the Buick was big enough to fit all of my belongings from the storage unit, which I emptied in the Buick's only (day) trip to NYC. The ride back was scary, after running out of money due to an unexpected insurance bill and snow-related road closures in Missouri.

Less than a week after my return from Pennsylvania, the warehouse laid me off. Apparently the decision was made high up in the company because my supervisor and co-workers had no idea until I returned to clean out my locker. Elwood sent me to a lumber company (which resulted in 2 hours of work and a finger injury) and to a moving company that handled events at the Broadmoor. About 10 days after I was laid off, I was called back to my former warehouse site, and I'm still there to this day.

I have been going to Mass at St. Mary's Cathedral since I returned to the Springs. A few people there remember me from the previous times I attended Mass. One family even invited me to their Christmas luncheon, to which I am very thankful.

What a long strange year it's been. I'm not quite up to where I was in early January. But I've discovered a lot about myself. I'm probably more open to different kinds of friends and relationships. I'm probably more Catholic than I was at the start of the year, as various church-run institutions in Denver and Colorado Springs helped me recover from a traumatic and violent situation in New York. I'm a more prolific writer than I have been in years. I have written 2 short stories with characters I haven't written about since 2011. Thanks to Holy Apostles, Hard Times, and Wattpad, anyone can read and comment on these works. I haven't composed as much music as I normally do (although I'm working on a couple of tracks for my annual New Year's Day release on Tuesday). Hopefully in 2019 I can get more settled.

August 28, 2018

At this point, I don't know what to think of life anymore. I moved back to my hometown of Colorado Springs 6 weeks ago and blew my entire savings into getting into a room rental that is cheaper than anything I've lived in since San Antonio. But the job market is nowhere near as great as it is presented in the local media and government websites. I don't know how much of this is due to my bad history (i.e. the Goodwill fiasco in 2007, my lack of transportation since March 2018, and being banned for life from anything to do with the local chapter of the Salvation Army in January 2015).

I finally did secure temp work this week, at the successor to my longtime former Springs employer of SOS Staffing (which was the only Springs employer to give me a positive reference). But I won't see any income that could cover my monthly rent before mid-September.

I don't know what happens next. I have no money to cover non-rent expenses. I don't expect the landlord to accept rent 2 weeks late, especially because that is longer than the unpaid rent time required for eviction. I've tried most of the charitable organizations and even GoFundMe, to no avail.

I don't expect to blog again anytime soon because I don't know if I can survive this after a combined 6 months of homelessness so far this year.

March 27, 2015

My first new blog of the year was composed in a place I never thought I'd be again. New York, or more specifically, my now seemingly permanent home neighborhood of Rockaway Park, Queens. And for the 4th straight year, I spent a good part of Lent in a homeless shelter. But I ended up in the shelter (in Jersey City, NJ, of all places) after getting into a disagreement with the super/resident manager of my Salvation Army-owned transitional housing in Colorado Springs. That led to me being evicted with 10 minutes warning and being blacklisted from the city's main shelter. After getting thrown out and threatened with arrest if I stepped foot on Salvation Army property without approval, I went to Marian House, the main low-income/homeless information center in Colorado Springs. After rejecting their suggestions of relocating to Portland or Seattle, I took a Greyhound back to New York and ended up in New Jersey when my now seemingly permanent residence didn't have any rooms available. One finally became available on the 25th of March, and I moved back with the unemployment I had accumulated while in the shelter. And after about 20 interviews and 19 rejections, I got hired by Urban Express, which means next week I will be a foot messenger again, albeit one paid slightly above NY's minimum wage and making about twice what I did in my last messenger gig.

So now, it's back to the beach and back to delivering on the streets of Manhattan. And (in a somewhat repeat of Lent 2013 and 2014) back to creative artistic pursuits- namely a writers' workshop run by the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen. Hopefully some of the pre-work stuff I submitted can get published.

December 13, 2014

What a difference a few weeks makes. Right before Thanksgiving, I was told there would be hours reductions but no layoffs at my job, and as of the afternoon of December 9, I am unemployed again. I don't know how long it will take to find another job- since December is the absolute worst time for job searching in Colorado Springs. So for now I am waiting for my unemployment paperwork and pouring my free time into promoting a song submission I made to Indaba Music at this link.

For now, Colorado Springs is warm for this time of year and looks something like this:

But thanks to an impending storm that brought flooding to California, tomorrow might resemble mid-November when the streets of Colorado Springs looked like this:

November 23, 2014

4 months ago, I had no idea what to expect or if I would even stay in the Springs. By the end of July I was stuck in the local shelter. And in the beginning of August, I found out my uncle and Godfather Larry Bowling had died. But I managed to find work with a local temp agency that picked up many of the contracts of the now-departed SOS Staffing (my previous Springs employer from 2007-08 and 2010-11). Now I have spent nearly 3 months in a transitional housing program that is nicer than my previous residences in Texas and New York. That housing is in Knob Hill, just west of my home neighborhood of Rustic Hills, where I have worked at a metals warehouse since early October.

Now I get to enjoy Colorado winter weather- including half a foot of snow and a 55 hour stretch below 10 degrees, and a 35 minute walk to work in those conditions.

I released a few original songs in September on Soundcloud and Bandcamp. I also submitted alternate versions of "Down" and "Ask" to Indaba Music.

Now on to Thanksgiving, December, and the commercial nightmare known as the Holiday Season in the United States.

July 29, 2014

I have been back in Colorado Springs about a month. So far, I am not employed, and I have to move out of where I was staying on Thursday. But I still have one more interview scheduled tomorrow in Briargate before I have to move, and another offer for local employment that requires 3 weeks of training in Utah. I also have more songs recorded and for sale. I probably will update this blog again whenever the employment and housing situation settles, because this is really starting to resemble my last stay in the Springs (2012-13) and that resulted in the longest period of unemployment I ever had since I entered the workforce and the longest period of homelessness I ever suffered (although I didn't actually stay in a shelter until after I left the Springs).

July 17, 2014

The theatrical production ended nearly 2 months ago. The Pearson job ended about 4 weeks ago. And now I am back in Colorado Springs. I wish I could say I am gainfully employed, but I cannot. I wish I could say I reconnected with old acquaintances when I moved back here, but I cannot. I was able to move all the stuff out of Austin to here. I came up with a few new songs. I even came up with another listening page and a sales page with the following 2 albums: So now it's a race to see if I end up getting a job, royalties, or unemployment by August 1.

February 15, 2013

Another day, another job rejection in Colorado Springs. But the over-the-phone interview I had on Monday with a Randstad recruiter in Missouri has led to another appointment in Austin, TX next Wednesday. At this point I have to move- even if the Texas offer wasn't valid, I don't have enough money or unemployment to keep residing in that motel on the west side of Colorado Springs. So much for attempt #4 to live here. I should know by the middle of next week where I might be working or living. When I do figure out when the Sandy evacuation odyssey from Rockaway ends, I'll resume posting here.

And it's Lent now, which means I had no food on Wednesday and must abstain from meat every Friday until after Easter. I wonder if giving up life in your hometown qualifies as giving up something for Lent? But then 2000 years ago, people were giving up their livelihoods, their families, their homes for something greater- and got ridiculed, arrested, tortured, beheaded, and crucified for it.

February 12, 2013

I'm still not used to writing 2013 yet, even though it's been more than 6 weeks since the year started. I am still in Colorado Springs (for now), and since the start of the year I have moved twice. At this point, I don't know if I could ever live in a place with roommates again- my last encounter with that resulted in me going back to a FEMA hotel in Briargate on January 4. When the hotel voucher expired on January 12, I moved back to my previous (from 2010) temporary motel lodging on the West Side. Due to financial considerations, I have to move out of there on Sunday the 17th. I could barely afford Rockaway which was costing me $150 a week pre-Sandy. Where I'm staying now is costing me $160 a week, plus tax. I have no more FEMA funding and get $176 every 2 weeks in unemployment.

So much for 3 job interviews that were arranged before I moved back to the Springs, as well as 2 warehouse position offers, 1 call center job offer, 1 stock clerk job offer, 2 applications at 2 different Lowe's, 1 sales job offer from an insurance company (still not sure how they found me, as I didn't inherit the Clarke sales gene), and at least 30 other applications and job contacts since Christmas 2012..

I don't know if I should stay in the Springs after this weekend or go with an offer from my old employer Randstad to work out in Texas.

About the only things I did accomplish since I moved back to the Springs were my first dental visit/work since the 1980s, getting unemployment (although it was based on my last Colorado job because my last job in NYC never bothered to pay taxes or unemployment), and climbing to the top of the Manitou Incline on February 8, 2013.

The above picture were taken from the top of the Incline. I was too busy struggling and praying to remember to photograph my journey to the top, but the first (unsuccessful) time I tried to climb the Incline, I took the following (dated January 31, 2013)..

And something I never thought could happen happened yesterday. Pope Benedict XVI announced he will resign the Papacy on February 28. This is the first time since 1415 that a Pope has resigned. As far as I know, Benedict XVI and Celestine V are the only ones to resign for health reasons. The last Pope to resign (Gregory XII) did so to end the Avignon/Rome schism that threatened to destroy the Catholic Church. Benedict IX resigned twice (one of those times, he was paid to resign), and lived a life so dissolute that it was almost certainly a factor in the Church later mandating celibacy for priests.

So in the next few weeks, I should have a new residence (maybe in Texas) and hopefully a new job, and the Church will have a new Pope, and hopefully Benedict XVI can retire in peace.

December 14, 2012

Another holiday season, another move. At this point in life, I have done at least 14 interstate moves, with interstate move #15 occurring tomorrow evening. A little over a year ago, I moved back to New York. Within a month of moving back, I ended up in the city's shelter system, and it took over 4 months to get out of that mess. By the end of April, I got a messenger job, and less than a week later, I was back at the rooming house also known as the Oceanview Hotel in Rockaway.

During the time I was a messenger, part of the Northwest section of my hometown burned in something called the Waldo Canyon Fire.

I lost my job after a weeklong stay at Elmhurst Hospital due to a viral skin infection. I had no idea until I after I got out of the hospital that I was unemployed again. While I was recovering from the illness (which took several weeks due to the side effects of the anti-virals), I had to evacuate my home due to a mandatory evacuation order of the Zone A coastal areas of New York City. It was just a precaution, I was told. But most of the people in my neighborhood didn't evacuate. When the storm surge hit Lower Manhattan, it was broadcast live.

It took a few days to discover how badly damaged my neighborhood was. (Check November 5 blog for my photos of the damage.) Thanks to FEMA, I have enough money to resettle. Many who ignored the mandatory evacuation order are now wondering why their aid is delayed if not non-existent. And that's not counting those who didn't live in Zone A and still suffered horrific storm damage. But considering both the city I'm moving to tomorrow and the neighborhood I had to move from both suffered from devastating fires, I wonder if any place is safe. The news this afternoon of what happened outside Danbury in Newtown, CT further questions whether there is such a thing as safety. That situation is still fluid.

And now, people are trying to use this massacre as an excuse to restrict law abiding citizens' rights to own firearms. Do you think a total gun ban would have stopped Adam Lanza from killing people? You think he got his weapons legally? He stole them from his dead mother- whom he killed before the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary. I guess no place is safe from fires or floods or hurricanes or tornadoes or psychopathic killers- or Obamacare or fiscal insanity or NBC.

November 22, 2012

Today is Thanksgiving Day. This uniquely American holiday is used to celebrate thanks for the gifts God has given us. For some people, those gifts are obvious- a loving family, a good job, a nice home. Some celebrate their many gifts, some are internal, some are spiritual, and many are material. Others are thankful they escaped the recent Hurricane with their lives. I guess I should be thankful that I survived Hurricane Sandy with all the major stuff safe and dry, and with a FEMA grant that will allow me to move to a place that actually has electricity and heat (although I don't currently know whether I will stay in NYC after the hotel voucher expires in 9 days or else move to Colorado Springs, Texas, or Nebraska). I guess I should be thankful that I'm spending Thanksgiving with relatives in Chambersburg that I haven't seen in years. But it still doesn't mean there is a lot to not be thankful for, indeed to be irate at.

There is still poverty. Jesus said "The poor will always be with you" (Matthew 26:11). But then that passage does not denigrate the poor, it is meant to show compassion and the Christian need to care for those who cannot help themselves. Too many people cannot help themselves anymore. They need help, but the type of help they need is subject to debate. As someone who spent 8 of the last 19 months in homeless shelters, I can argue that you don't help the homeless by building cardboard boxes to "show solidarity" with them (as a report this morning on WHP-TV suggested), but by getting them off the cold streets, getting them into indoor shelter, and helping them find meaningful work so they can afford real housing.

There is still injustice disguised as "help"- Obamacare being a prime example. This program that was intended to get more people to get health insurance does nothing to control health care costs. Indeed, it shifts some of those costs to the lower middle class who cannot afford health insurance and make too much for Medicaid through the insurance penalty tax. It is driving up operating costs for small businesses and franchises (who now are forced to pay for costly insurance) (see: Denny's, Papa John's). To avoid those costs, businesses are reducing hours for employees and hiring fewer employees. It doesn't take an economist to know what that will do to the unemployment and underemployment rates. And by re-electing President Obama, the American public has approved of his undeclared wars on the unborn (by increasing aid to the eugenics loving, abortion profiting Planned Parenthood) and the Catholic Church (by the Obamacare/HHS mandates that force the Church to pay for anti-Catholic health care practices).

For many, the solution to poverty seems to be by throwing money at those who have none. Yes, part of the problem of being poor is lack of money. Just giving a block grant to someone who has no idea on how to spend that money for needs is like burning that money in a fire pit. A block grant that qualifies as poverty in New York would be a middle class grant in Middle America. Many doesn't even know how to budget- something that should be taught in schools. Too many teachers are focused not on educating their pupils, but on their pay. There is so much bureaucracy and waste in some school districts that taxpayers are paying near 5 figure property taxes for schools that pay their administrators and janitors more than their teachers and the students who do graduate know more about President Obama's personal life and Spongebob than about Algebra and Science.

There is still general insanity- the sausage making nature of American politics, the left wing activism creeping into the American education system, the various wars throughout the world, the Satanism that pervades Al Qaeda and radical Islam, disease, hate crimes, NBC News, materialism, and the worship of money which is in full bloom this time of year. But I'll leave those discussions for other blogs at another time.

June 17, 2012

Today is Father's Day. I haven't celebrated this event in a long time, as my father died in 1995. At this point, I don't know that he would be speaking to me were he still alive. When my father was my age (40), he was married for 4 years, had a toddler (me) and a newborn (my sister).  My mother stayed at home, and it would be 5 more years until her alcoholism got out of control. At 40, my father had a well paying job with computers at the Chidlaw Building (then an annex of Ent AFB), and was 3 years away from retiring from the Air Force. The family had a nice house on Russell Circle in the Rustic Hills neighborhood of Colorado Springs. But 37 years later, Mom and Dad are long gone. My sister is about to be divorced for the second time. Her college age daughter is not on speaking terms with her. Her soon-to-be-ex-husband is a raging pill addict who stole her medicine and the medicine of their special needs son. And at 40, I have no family, no house, no decent paying job, no car, no computer even. It's debatable whether Colorado Springs or New York is a better place to live. But both have unemployment well above the national average. Due to student loan bills from the 1990s, I have no chance of ever finishing college, much less earning the $30-40K per year (unadjusted for inflation) that  my father was earning in 1975. But I never survived a Viet Cong attack. And my father never had to deal with homelessness, 15 plus years of poverty, or an ongoing war that started with an attack 6 miles from his residence.

But I've been out of the shelter for 6 weeks now, and I get to enjoy seeing the ocean, beach, and a wildlife refuge on the hour-plus commute from a SRO that takes over half my income.

September 25, 2011

It's still September, and I still live in Cap Hill, Denver. Yesterday (for about $100), I got to escape Denver in a rented 2010 Chevy Impala and return to my hometown of Colorado Springs. Rents are still cheap there, but the job market is still worse than Denver's. Due to the abnormally warm weather since the first day of Autumn, most of the local attractions that close for the summer are still open. The Manitou spring water is still available for free. But my trip to the Springs was mainly a business trip- as in rescuing personal items from the storage site I've had there since May 31. Most of my valuable items (computers, genealogy stuff, old photos, diaries, and winter gear) are now in my suddenly undersized room in Cap Hill. Noticeably absent is my wi-fi receiver (which may have never left 618 N Weber Street back in May), which is why I'm posting this blog from the main library Downtown. Normally, I might be inclined to call Century Link and get their $29.95 no-phone internet, but I'm not sure if I want to stay in my current residence after the beginning of next month (when the month-to-month lease rent is due again). Parking in near that building is as bad as it is in New York, as I found out last night. The 2 legged neighbors are fine, but I have a major problem with the 6 legged neighbors freeloading at my place (the bedbugs and roaches) and about 2 hours ago caught a four legged unwanted freeloader- a mouse, who was probably escaping from my neighbors' cats. But I would need a car to move all my stuff out of the Cap Hill rooming house- and it could be months before I could afford to buy another car.

May 28, 2011

About 72 hours left before I have to move. So much for having my own apartment- what's the point of having your own place if you can't afford it? What's the point of moving back to your hometown if you can't find or maintain work without a car? (See May 11 blog as to why I no longer have a car.)

Barring a financial miracle, I will probably move to Denver next week. The job market is significantly better there than in Colorado Springs, and unlike Colorado Springs, most potential employers can be accessed by foot or by public transportation.

I just can't wait for this nightmare to get over with.

May 7, 2011

This might be the last blog I post for a while. I haven't been employed in a while. My car has stopped working again, and I don't have the money to fix it. Indeed, I don't have much money left since the last car repair and May's rent. I have 2 bills due next week (utility and phone/internet) and not enough money for both. At this point, I don't know where I will be in June. The last time I was this bad off (about 3 years ago), I ended up in a homeless shelter. But that was in New York. I don't even have that option here in Colorado Springs, especially since the city's main shelter (a converted motel at 8th Street and Cimarron) is court ordered to shut down due to conditions that are probably minor compared to other places (and shelters) I've lived in.

And tomorrow happens to be both Mother's Day and my 39th birthday. As if I don't have enough to be depressed about......

December 16, 2010

I am still unemployed- indeed, I have not worked since November 22- the longest stretch of unemployment for me since the beginning of 2008 (the last time I lived in the Springs). I still make frequent calls to all the temp agencies I'm signed up for. And I've had at least 2 interviews this week, as well as a callback on one of last week's applications. However, I was in the bathroom when that call hit my answering machine, and I've tried 4 times to call the callback number back with no success. So much for Colorado Springs being a better job market than New York City- the unemployment rate here is up to 9.2% (well above the Colorado statewide average, although lower than Pueblo). The only good thing right now is that I am on unemployment due to a seasonal job ending 2 months earlier than it was supposed to. I've had a few short term assignments, including ad insertion for the Gazette, and a 2 day moving job at Fort Carson that ended with my left toe getting injured. While the toe stopped hurting the following day, it is still purple colored in spots- and after that incident, I'm not even bothering applying for labor positions that require constant lifting of 60-100 pound materials, since that's what fell on my toe. I'm getting older, and my physical strength isn't what it was a few years ago. But supposedly, Woodford and Walmart's remodeling crew will be calling up people again in January, so if none of these other job prospects pan out, I might be working at one of those old jobsites again. But either way, it beats $132 a week in unemployment or the $235 a week after taxes I was averaging at my messenger job in New York.

This has been one weird autumn. New York, the Midwest, and the southeast are seeing record cold and snow, yet Colorado Springs tied for its latest start to the snow season ever with a 2 inch snowfall that started on the evening of November 28. It hasn't snowed again until this morning, and as of 2PM MT, that snow is gone, and another storm is supposed to hit tonight with a possible 1 to 4 inch snow range. If it must snow, it's better this happens when I don't have to drive out in it.

I have had more time to work on my novel and on my side hobby of music mixing. I put the link to my SoundCloud site that features some of my mixing abilities on the right side of the page. The novel draft (at this point titled Purgatory on the Third Rail) is usually updated on my website. The link to it can be found here (novel link). It took a while to update the last draft because the computer that processed many of these blogs since July 2007 stopped working right after a major virus infection (probably caused by the Wikileaks cyberwars). I got a replacement computer Saturday night, which has a 1.7GHz processor and 250MB more RAM than the old computer. For some reason, the newer Dell computer, which was installed with Windows XP, has Windows 2000 Professional on it instead. That means that a lot of my backed up files from the old computer don't work on the Dell. And because it currently has Windows 2000 Professional, I can't upgrade it to my copy of Windows XP Home edition- it can only be upgraded to Windows XP Professional, which is presently out of my budget. Indeed, between shelling out $45 for the Dell, $70 for my most recent utility bill (which is double September's bill) and $15 for my most recent visit to Peak Vista health clinic, there isn't much leftover money to throw around.

September 25, 2010

As of this writing, I have spent a combined total of 6 years in my hometown of Colorado Springs. But this city keeps changing (probably more so than NYC over the last 3 years), and not always for the better.

With maybe 3 exceptions, the people I knew and socialized with during my last stint in the Springs (May 2007-May 2008) aren't here anymore. This city has one of the highest turnover rates in the country. Some of it is due to the military presence. That's how my family ended up here in 1973 and why it left by the end of the 1970s. In 2007, medical marijuana had few dispensaries in this state. Now, there's too many to count in this city (including one just 2 blocks from where I go to Mass) and the unincorporated parts of El Paso County are trying to outlaw them. And it is not that difficult for a physically well pothead to get a prescription for a joint. Wisely, all the major colleges outlaw "legal" marijuana on their campuses. Maybe the Feds should step in and remind them that non-medicinal use of marijuana is still illegal under Federal law, despite what one would believe by reading the back "Cannabiz" section of the Colorado Springs Independent.

The media and politics are also screwed up here. Why is it that the Republicans have a better chance of taking back Albany than Denver? Because the Colorado state Republican party totally screwed up. An unknown candidate by the name of Dan Maes beat the establishment candidate of Scott McInnis (mainly due to Maes's strong support in this county, since excluding the El Paso Republican results, McInnis won everywhere else in the state). And what does that mean now? An underfunded candidate being attacked by the right (Tom Tancredo, who left the Republicans for the American Constitution Party) and the left (Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, who is a lot more liberal than outgoing Democrat Governor Bill Ritter). At least the tea party is actively supporting Republican candidates Ken Buck (for Senate) and Scott Tipton (who is running against a member of the infamous anti-Springs Salazar clan for Pueblo's Congressional seat). At least in New York, Carl Paladino has enough money to counter the Democratic machine. Hell, Carl Paladino and Rush Limbaugh recently discovered that Village Voice article from 2008 that ties Andrew Cuomo to HUD policies that caused the housing crisis that caused the Great Recession. What is it with New York Democrats and their love affair with candidates that are proven job and economy killers? Hello- read anything I've written on this blog between 2006-2008 with the keyword of "Spitzer".

And the local media... I understand Colorado Springs is too small to have all the dailies and free papers that New York City has. But 75 cents is way too overpriced for what the only paper in town gets you. And according to the Nielsen ratings, the number one station in this media market isn't even based in Colorado Springs or affiliated with a watchable network. Between KKTV, KRDO, and KXRM, are there are 3 pretty good alternatives. As far as broadcast quality, I would probably rate KRDO and KXRM ahead of their broadcast networks' owned stations in New York (although WABC and WYNW get better ratings in New York than KRDO and KXRM do in Colorado Springs). And now that the damn Pueblo station's main digital signal picks up in the Springs, why are they on both Channel 42 and Channel 30? KHWS TV is fairly good, but it can only be picked up on cable since they don't have a digital signal. And one also needs cable to get the Ion family of networks. And how come Accuweather isn't on any digital subchannels here? And let's not forget our local cable company is Comcast, which also now owns the worst network in broadcasting and gives it channel preference over most of the Springs stations.

And as far as KKTV, while they're no WCBS, they tend to have the best local news, although one would not believe that by reading the local Nielsens. But I do have a gripe with KKTV- despite being the last VHF station in town (and by far the strongest digital signal on my converter box), they want to move from Channel 10 to Channel 49. Why, so they can weaken their signal? So they can lose their coverage in the the southern Denver suburbs and in Southeastern Colorado? Ever since WCBS was forced to move to UHF in New York, they've lost a lot of coverage in Orange and Suffolk Counties. The FCC is allowing WCBS to get a repeater signal on 22 since WCBS's main signal on 33 conflicts with WFSB Hartford's signal, also on 33. Before 2009, WCBS was on Channel 2 and WFSB was on Channel 3, and both could be picked up in the far northern suburbs. Now, neither can be picked up without cable. Great going, FCC. I see KKTV moving to Channel 49, falling further behind in the ratings, and possibly losing their longtime CBS affiliation if they don't apply for more repeater signals.

While CBS is the dominant primetime network and (in NYC, Philly, Chicago, and LA) a heavily listened to radio news source, there is no CBS radio news in Colorado Springs. CBS lost their longtime affiliate, KVOR-AM (the original owner and callsign of KKTV) in 2007. Despite the fact that KRDO-AM/FM was (and still is) an ABC news affiliate, KVOR's owner decided to switch to ABC. But then KVOR's owner (Citadel) bought ABC's radio networks and could have easily yanked that from KRDO-AM/FM, but didn't. There are also 2 Fox News radio affiliates that pick up here (KZNT and KCSJ).

And now, I need an internet connection to listen to anything resembling a news radio station or a dance music station

August 10, 2010

There has been a break in blogging due to my move. I am now living in the west end of Colorado Springs, CO. The area is very scenic, but the rent is a little high and the amenities are malfunctioning at times (namely the free cable and the wireless internet, which is why I'm posting this from the Old Colorado City Library). I start work on Monday the 16th- making this period (July 31-August 15) the longest I've spent not working since the last time I was living in Colorado.

Today is primary day in Colorado. Normally I would be outspoken about who to vote for, but I can't in these primary elections because (A) I can't vote in them (I moved here too late to vote in the primaries), (B) the campaigns are even more negative than what I've seen in New York, and (C), all the candidates with the exception of unopposed Democratic gubernatorial nominee John Hickenlooper, are to the right of most New York politicians.

I will probably vote for whomever wins the Republican primaries in the fall. Hickenlooper is way too liberal for my tastes (and way too far to the left of retiring Democrat Governor Bill Ritter), and former Republican/ACP candidate Tom Tancredo is way too extremist for my tastes. Unfortunately, Tancredo has a lot of support in this state, and his entry into the race could make leftist John Hickenlooper the next governor.

And for some reason, I reactivated my Facebook account. Now I can waste time when I do have internet access talking to old friends from New York and my relatives.

July 20, 2010

Outside of a highly probable move back to Colorado Springs in 2 weeks, nothing else much to report. I am still off of Facebook. Certain longtime friends I had disputes with last month are still not talking to me. I finally got to return to Bash Bish Falls in Massachusetts for the first time in 4 years last weekend. I have never seen the place so crowded! And the water levels were low, which meant I could cross to the other side of the falls without getting wet. I didn't go to far, since my normal work shoes are not designed for mountain hiking. Out of all the scenic places I wanted to visit when I moved back to NYC in 2008, the only one I haven't visited yet is Montauk, but I should be visiting there next weekend. Ironically, the first time I visited Montauk was a week before I left NYC for a 3 month stay in Pennsylvania, in 2003.