decisions

Well, I guess I need to write something, since, it's been almost a month, but I don't know what to say. Trying to get a job tutoring kids on the side. I found an add a month ago and emailed a resume. They sent an application and I filled it out and didn't hear anything else until last week when I got an email. I replied to the email and they wanted me to take a tutorial online and take some tests. Well, I did that this weekend, it took about an hour or so. I finished it with no problems and got another email saying I needed to fill out some more paperwork. I downloaded the pdf file and emailed it to work as I have no printer ink at the moment. They also said they needed proof of my college degree, so I brought a copy of my degree with me. There had been some mention of a background check, which is no big deal as my record consists of 2 speedding tickets 5 years apart and 10 years back. Well, when I read the contract agreement, I have to pay for the background check. I have to go through a particular company and it costs about $60 bucks. Now what this company does is sends the info to the TBI who does the actual check.

Now what sucks is that anyone can request a background check with the TBI. It costs $25.00. So this company is basically pocketing $35.00 to take a set of fingerprints. What really sucks is I could poke my head into the sheriff or police department and probably get one of them to print me and run the NCIC and fax the info to the company for FREE. I would owe an investigator a favor, or a bottle of booze, but not a $60.00 bottle of booze. For that matter, my prints are on file because I have a carry permit and worked for the IRS for a short time, and work for the state board of probation and parole. Each of these things resulted in a background check.

So I have to decide whether this part time job, which is subcontract with nothing held out for taxes, will generate enough income to justify the expense. It has the potential, it pays from $17.50 to 25.00 per hour. You get to say yes or no to clients, and the scheduling is flexible as long as you get the required hours in, usually from 12 to 16 hours per client monthly, so 2 clients could get me an extra $400 a month for a few hours work per week. Only I don't know how many clients are around here. There must be at least 1 or they wouldn't have emailed me.

TV

Okay this is a 2 part post. First off a bitch, then second off a plug.

This is part one. I live in a rural area and for the most part, I like it. Big cities are fun to visit occasionally, but I doubt I would like to live in one for long. Well, cable TV is not an option where I live. I would like digital cable, but they stop about a mile before our road and won't go any further at this time. As a result, I have dish network. Now the sucky thing about dish is that unless you get a receiver with tivo installed, you cannot tape one channel while watching another, so if you have 2 shows on at the same time, you are sunk. The way I have gotten around this for about the last 7 years is to pay extra for west coast feeds. In other words I get local networks and I also get networks from the west coast which run 3 hours later. So if I want to see both CSI and Grey's Anatomy I can watch one at 8:00 PM and the other I can watch or tape at 11:00 PM. Sweet huh. Well, it is now illegal. Apparently watching networks other than local networks leads to horrible crimes like sheep molestation and nun beating. Actually apparently it is illegal because cable providers apparently can't offer that service. I don't get it.

First, why can't a cable company offer the service. If I can pick up the signal, than the cable company can. They don't want to pay the cash to broadcast the extra networks, and they don't need to, because with cable I could watch CSI and tape Grey's with my old fashioned VCR. But cable won't provide me with service because they don't feel there would be enough new customers to justify running the cable down my road, even though there are 2 subdivision on the road and every single house, trailer, building has either a dish network or direct TV satelitte attached to it. This sucks. Now I either have to miss shows, pay for a tivo capable satelitte receiver, or install a second receiver in the bedroom and hook a vcr to it and pay for 2 receivers. All because cable is bitching about competition they wouldn't have if they played their cards right.

Next, why aren't you all watching Veronica Mars. Watch it. This Week. Right Now. Mark your calendar. Tomorrow. It is cool. Best show ever.