from earlier this summer...but its not like much has changed, save the amount of time the sun is out.
--
Today I read an article, which was actually printed on a Wednesday,
about, well, I think the precise title was “Fighting the unemployment
blues.” It was in that nice front page they do to disguise the ugly
reality, which is seeped into all of the classifieds. Anyway, I took
about three minutes to read it, to determine if, in fact, this person
knew what they were talking about.
They did not. Clearly.
Who does this person think they are? Obviously they themselves have
a job, even if it is writing fluff articles, really giving those who
are on the edge of suicidal hopelessness and despair, a cute little
cover letter to the bleak ads on the inside…and I mean, they have no
right telling me or anyone else who’s facing the, what did they call
it? “Unemployment blues” what to feel or fight when I am sitting,
reading an otherwise horrible article, an article that even contains
lines such as “But each rejection bring you one step closer to a job
offer.” You have got to be kidding me.
The classifieds, like WomanNews and Cars, were usually parts of the
paper that I immediately threw away when I opened it, and now, its
like I’m a crazed dog when I get the paper, I can’t open it fast
enough…
Like many of the conspiracies that so many Americans prescribe to,
this one rang true today: media one dimension… all of the major media
outlets reported the same old crap with the same old spin that day,
all circling around unemployment in one way or another… Marketplace
declared that the unemployment rate had dropped to the lowest it had
been in almost a year from 6.4 to 6.2…but that many workers “gave up
looking for a job so they just aren’t counted.”
I wondered if that was a joke. It sure sounded like a joke.
This was another quote: “Since WWII, the democrats believe
that the US is headed down its worse jobless rate since Hoover.”
Hoover!
And then they cut to President Bush, the second, talking
about how “this administration is one that cares about lives.” That
odd transition wasn’t NPR’s fault (it never is, remember, I’m a
public radio groupie), but Bush’s mistake, or the underwriters who
write all of Bush’s stuff, probably Yale graduates, but it’s like, he
seems to have a way of fucking up even the most basic of things: i.e.
reading a speech and memorizing key line and then seeing if they
actually make sense. Just the other day, he was trying to speak, with
an emphasis on “trying,” in fact, trying probably to be candid and
extemporaneous, about the state of the US and how it “misconstrued”
things with Iraq and the war we just HAD to wage, and he is even
quoted, and I kid you not, even quoted as saying “Muhummoud
whatever.”
Whatever! He actually said “whatever” as a way to tell the public
that he had no idea how to pronounce this terrorist’s, who really
allowed for the dovetail into the war, how to pronounce his last
name.
And it just gets you to think, you know, I mean, who is
running this country?
At least the lackluster employment, however, hasn’t stopped
consumers, which Marketplace attributed to the fact that the people
just haven’t stopped buying, no matter what the status of the
economy.
Who are these people? Wait, why do I ask such, such lackadaisical
questions: they’re my neighbors, recall the Lincoln Park status and I
swear to God I have seen a new mini, at least one a week, appear
outside my brownstone. Because, I mean, the companies that make the
Hummer and the Mini are currently the only automotive companies that
have been turning a profit. In my mind, this just feeds what I have
been saying all along: who are you really without a novelty car? I
have almost stopped buying toilet paper to just scrimp and save to
get my fare for the el, let alone buying for buying’s sake.
And then I looked closer at the actual statistic of the statement and
began to wonder, really, what part of that made sense? I mean, where
is this money that they are using to buy stuff to stop the economy
from going to hell, completely, coming from? The logic moves in
circles.
Its almost too much at times.
I began to question what exactly this meant for me, the exact
demographic which is out of a job right now, or a “real” job as I
like to call it.
As of two months, two months precisely, since I graduated, I have
been offered several coffee shop jobs, and the manager, when offering
me the job, said that he was looking for someone “just like me, with
tons of experience.”
I began to wonder if he knew that my “experience” wasn’t so much in
espresso…as arsty and innovative and indie as that may sound, but
really, that kind of experience is just plain embarrassing: a slap in
the face. I also am hosting on the weekends at a local restaurant.
Hosting pays pretty much nothing but it’s the first step to getting a
serving job, which is where they say the money is at.
I just wrote that, “where the money is at.” I mean really here. After
four years of college and accelerated attempts at boosting my resume,
networking, and studying, I am writing phrases like “where the money
is at.” And, I mean, really meaning that. It, I mean, its scary
stuff.
--
Today I read an article, which was actually printed on a Wednesday,
about, well, I think the precise title was “Fighting the unemployment
blues.” It was in that nice front page they do to disguise the ugly
reality, which is seeped into all of the classifieds. Anyway, I took
about three minutes to read it, to determine if, in fact, this person
knew what they were talking about.
They did not. Clearly.
Who does this person think they are? Obviously they themselves have
a job, even if it is writing fluff articles, really giving those who
are on the edge of suicidal hopelessness and despair, a cute little
cover letter to the bleak ads on the inside…and I mean, they have no
right telling me or anyone else who’s facing the, what did they call
it? “Unemployment blues” what to feel or fight when I am sitting,
reading an otherwise horrible article, an article that even contains
lines such as “But each rejection bring you one step closer to a job
offer.” You have got to be kidding me.
The classifieds, like WomanNews and Cars, were usually parts of the
paper that I immediately threw away when I opened it, and now, its
like I’m a crazed dog when I get the paper, I can’t open it fast
enough…
Like many of the conspiracies that so many Americans prescribe to,
this one rang true today: media one dimension… all of the major media
outlets reported the same old crap with the same old spin that day,
all circling around unemployment in one way or another… Marketplace
declared that the unemployment rate had dropped to the lowest it had
been in almost a year from 6.4 to 6.2…but that many workers “gave up
looking for a job so they just aren’t counted.”
I wondered if that was a joke. It sure sounded like a joke.
This was another quote: “Since WWII, the democrats believe
that the US is headed down its worse jobless rate since Hoover.”
Hoover!
And then they cut to President Bush, the second, talking
about how “this administration is one that cares about lives.” That
odd transition wasn’t NPR’s fault (it never is, remember, I’m a
public radio groupie), but Bush’s mistake, or the underwriters who
write all of Bush’s stuff, probably Yale graduates, but it’s like, he
seems to have a way of fucking up even the most basic of things: i.e.
reading a speech and memorizing key line and then seeing if they
actually make sense. Just the other day, he was trying to speak, with
an emphasis on “trying,” in fact, trying probably to be candid and
extemporaneous, about the state of the US and how it “misconstrued”
things with Iraq and the war we just HAD to wage, and he is even
quoted, and I kid you not, even quoted as saying “Muhummoud
whatever.”
Whatever! He actually said “whatever” as a way to tell the public
that he had no idea how to pronounce this terrorist’s, who really
allowed for the dovetail into the war, how to pronounce his last
name.
And it just gets you to think, you know, I mean, who is
running this country?
At least the lackluster employment, however, hasn’t stopped
consumers, which Marketplace attributed to the fact that the people
just haven’t stopped buying, no matter what the status of the
economy.
Who are these people? Wait, why do I ask such, such lackadaisical
questions: they’re my neighbors, recall the Lincoln Park status and I
swear to God I have seen a new mini, at least one a week, appear
outside my brownstone. Because, I mean, the companies that make the
Hummer and the Mini are currently the only automotive companies that
have been turning a profit. In my mind, this just feeds what I have
been saying all along: who are you really without a novelty car? I
have almost stopped buying toilet paper to just scrimp and save to
get my fare for the el, let alone buying for buying’s sake.
And then I looked closer at the actual statistic of the statement and
began to wonder, really, what part of that made sense? I mean, where
is this money that they are using to buy stuff to stop the economy
from going to hell, completely, coming from? The logic moves in
circles.
Its almost too much at times.
I began to question what exactly this meant for me, the exact
demographic which is out of a job right now, or a “real” job as I
like to call it.
As of two months, two months precisely, since I graduated, I have
been offered several coffee shop jobs, and the manager, when offering
me the job, said that he was looking for someone “just like me, with
tons of experience.”
I began to wonder if he knew that my “experience” wasn’t so much in
espresso…as arsty and innovative and indie as that may sound, but
really, that kind of experience is just plain embarrassing: a slap in
the face. I also am hosting on the weekends at a local restaurant.
Hosting pays pretty much nothing but it’s the first step to getting a
serving job, which is where they say the money is at.
I just wrote that, “where the money is at.” I mean really here. After
four years of college and accelerated attempts at boosting my resume,
networking, and studying, I am writing phrases like “where the money
is at.” And, I mean, really meaning that. It, I mean, its scary
stuff.