: one that drifts; especially : one that travels or moves about aimlessly
Oh, ok. I thought I would actually fall into this definition, but there's nothing particularly aimless about it.
Regardless, yes, I am moving. I moved to San Antonio with the hope that a lower unemployment rate then Chicago would mean more jobs, and me getting my unemployed ass a job. It worked! It totally worked. Not only was I able to get myself a job, but I was able to get myself a DIRT cheap one bedroom apartment, as it is also the second cheapest place to live in the country.
And for a wihle it was good; my job was right where I wanted it, a part time position in some back slave-closet of an office, managing and organizig data and files into a comprehensive system. I'm good at that for some reason. I don't know why. I don't particularly want to be good at that because it has become my most marketable skill, and ends up being the soul-crushingly boring (but decently paying) job I get over and over again. But this was nice because I was only working 28 - 32 hours a week, allowing me to start TEXARRAKIS OBSCURITIES, the new commercial wing of TEXARRAKIS. My girlfriend also has a successful Etsy store, where she sells her handmade jewelery. Check it out. She has helped me immensely in the success of my store.
Which I have had a lot of fun with, and is the reason this webpage fell by the way side. After my day job, and working on the Etsy shop, all I had the energy to do was watch Star Trek. I didn't even have the energy to take screen shots of Star Trek, as I had promised to do. Sorry.
Then, suddenly I became the office manager at my day job, and started working full time. I don't like working full time. I just really don't think it is good for my soul. Plus I think I have some sort of psychological disorder that makes me just really hate being bossed around. Maybe that is natural. I don't know. But I apologize to anyone reading this who is working full time that is grumbling to themselves like "yeah well why don't you just try I mean what are you lazy I have to work full time you should to I have 300,000 mouths to feed you can't just expect me to I mean get a job", I fully understand where you're coming from.
But yes, all of a sudden I found myself staring down the eternal barrel of working 40 hours a week 15 miles away from my home doing things I wouldn't have any desire to do if it weren't for the fact I was being paid to do them. Then, I got a bafflingly large tax return from the federal government, apparently my reward for being an unemployed weirdo for most of 2010. Then, I was contacted by someone (or something) that, for better or worse, reminded me of exactly what my life has been, and should be. At the very minimum, living in the middle of the desert, and surrouded by mountains.
photo by Haley Filamond
That, and being self-employed. TEXARRAKIS OBSCURITIES is enjoying fairly moderate success, especially considering it isn't even three months old yet. Each month I make more sales and more money then the last. I have enough money saved from working and the generous donaiton from the federal government for being really poor in 2010, that I will be able to pay for rent for FOUR months outright, giving me at least a two month window of opportuity to attempt going FULL TIME with my Etsy store. Not just the Etsy store, but all aspects of TEXARRAKIS; this blog, Star Trek screenshots, the TEXARRAKIS youtube channel; everything. If I fail at being to fully support myself with this, hopefully at least I can go back to being a wage-serf extremely part time.
At any rate, the amount of money I am making right now from TEXARRAKIS OBSCURITIES is definitely living off grid in the middle of the desert sort of money. A vague plan is underway right now to make another attempt at FORT AWESOME in February of 2012, with building up it's infrastructure remotely from Alpine in the mean time. I don't want to move back out there until some BASIC needs are met. Living out of tents as weird desert sages was certainly an amazing experience, but not at all conducive towards anything productive.
It was amazing though, and was an incredible first step; it would have been nice to know it would just be a first step as it was happening. That's ok though.
Until I am settled in Alpine, this is Gene of TEXARRAKIS saying thank you for your continued patronage.
Alright. I really haven't posted on this site for a while. Or done anything of any kind on this site, besides delete spam comments. I have an explanation for this.
I had moved to Chicago with the expectation I would be able to find a job there, and start saving cash up to get back down to West Texas. It did not work out this way. If I had a nickel for every job I applied to and never heard back from, then maybe Chicago would have worked out. But instead, I never got a single response, from ANY employer. I mean, not even from gas stations or supermarkets. Or even Target. Not that I am above working at Target or anything, but that was my last resort job, and not even that worked out.
the chicago collective
Every time I walked around, going in to random places looking for work, I was just told to apply online. These online applications were just ignored. EVERY SINGLE JOB I APPLIED FOR, MY APPLICATION WAS IGNORED. Not even letters or emails or phone calls thanking me for my interest. Not even automated emails.
I was getting more and more hopeless, and on a whim decided to apply for jobs in San Antonio, Texas. I had been researching various cities, thinking about a possible move, and San Antonio had looked pretty good, while being relatively close to my property in West Texas. A 7.4% unemployment rate, one of the top lowest in the country. While simultaneously, San Antonio was one of the cheapest cities (in the US) to live in.
So I whimsically applied to some random jobs in San Antonio, as a couch vegetable in Chicago. And bam; RESPONSES. SAME DAY RESPONSES, employers looking for interviews. I called up an apartment locator, who assured me she could easily find me a one bedroom apartment in a cool area for $400 a month.
A few weeks later I loaded all of my worldly possessions (besides from those sitting in a shack in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert) into the back of my truck, and
ambled my way down the country to San Antonio.
the last four hours of my trip from chicago illinois to san antonio texas
I checked into a hotel off of I-10. The next day I went for a walk, called the first "For Rent" number I saw, and immediately went in to check it out. The next day I signed a six month lease on a $350 a month apartment. A few weeks later, I started a job, as a file/data manager at some weird small wealth management business.
i am almost twenty nine years old and this is what i am doing with my life
So, I haven't really done anything with this site for a while because I have been sort of waiting for balance, which I think I have back now. I'll resume my regular scheduled blog posting now, with the addition of Star Trek screen shots, starting with TOS and ending with Star Trek Enterprise.
And now, I am exploring possibilities of moving down to West Texas after my lease is up in April, when I will (hopefully) be a bit more financially stable. Maybe to Alpine or Marathon or Van Horn. Somewhere close to my property. Somewhere in the desert, surrounded by mountains.
It probably should not come to you as a suprise that US cities are still very segregated. If it does, perhaps you have never lived in a city, or live in an ivory tower within your city.
I realized this pretty early on. I grew up in Boston, and went to an elementary school in Roxbury, a predominantly African-American neighborhood of Boston. I was maybe one of three white kids in my grade. Then came 7th grade, and I transferred to the Boston Latin School, the oldest/first public school in the nation, which drips with prestige. Harvard was built a year after BLS was founded, for graduating BLS students. All of a sudden, I was in a school that was predominantly white, despite whites making up only 50% of the population of Boston. While it may seem to people who are new to Boston that it is incredibly diverse and integrated, it is only skin deep, as it is a heavily segregated city.
Now I live in Chicago. As far as I can tell, the segregation here is even worse. One night, I got completely lost, and wound up far down the opposite end of my street. I ended up in an intensely poor, almost seemingly war ravaged neighborhood, which was entirely black. Then, driving further up the road, I hit a street, *literally named Division*, and after crossing this street it seemed the entire demographic flipped on it's head, and suddenly I started seeing white people. Of course, I barely know what is happening in Chicago, so I can't realistically speak for anything that is happening here.
Agree or disagree with what I say, that is fine, I am just trying to introduce these maps, made by cartographer Eric Fischer which visually display the racial demographics of 95 US cities, Boston and Chicago included. In this map, Red is White, Blue is Black, Green is Asian, Orange is Hispanic, Gray is Other, and each dot represents 25 people. The data used in this map is from the 2000 Census.
TORNICANE "TWIRL" WILL CONTINUE ITS ABSOLUTE NORTH TRACK TONIGHT PASSING ABOUT 50 TO 100 MILES EAST OF KALAMAZOO, MI AROUND 2 AM SATURDAY. "TWIRL" WILL BRING STRONG WINDS TO OUTER LAKE SUPERIOR AND SURROUNDING COASTS WITH PERIODS OF HEAVY RAIN WESTWARD INTO NORTHERN IL/NORTHWEST IN. UNDER THIS SHALLOW CHANNEL OF MOISTURE ISO SHRA HAVE PERSISTED WITH A FEW LOCATIONS IN CENTRAL WISC REPORTING MODERATE RAINFALL FOR A FEW MOMENTS. CURRENTLY DO NOT ANTICIPATE THIS TO VENTURE SOUTH INTO OUR CWFA...HOWEVER FEEL ISO SHRA ARE POSSIBLE.
.NEAR TERM /UNTIL 6 AM SATURDAY MORNING/...
-- Changed Discussion --
830 PM UPDATE..."TWIRL" REMAINS A MODERATE TORNICANE...THOUGH TWIRLIES WERE DROPPED 5 MPH ON THE 8 PM ADVISORY FROM THE TORNICANE CENTER. TWO TORNICANE ORBS CONTINUE TO FLY SIMULTANEOUSLY AROUND THE STORM AT THIS TIME. MAX FLIGHT LEVEL WINDS AT 67 KTS IN THE NORTH QUADRANT AND 80 KT WINDS ON THE SOUTH SIDE RAINFALL...KBOX AND KOKX 88D RADAR SIGNATURES STARTING TO TAKE ON CLASSIC TRANSITIONING TORNICANE SYSTEM WITH DEFORMATION ZONE AND HIGH THETA-E AIR ALOFT SETTING UP ACROSS CENTRAL IL/E MI...WHILE OTHER BANDS ROTATING IN FROM LAKE MICHIGAN ACROSS IL HAVE CONTINUED THE TWIRLING FLOOD WATCH FOR IL/IN/MI FOR NOW...BUT MAY NEED TO CONSIDER EXTENDING IT A BIT FURTHER E LATER THIS EVENING. WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR CLOSELY. SEE THE TWIRLING SECTION BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL DETAILS.
WELL THEN. I hate missing hurricane earl's arrival in Massachusetts!
THERE IS NOTHING BETTER THEN A HURRICANE IN NEW ENGLAND.
ATTENTION. ATTENTION. FOR IMMEDIATE WIDESPREAD RELEASE:
ROD BLAGOJEVICH IS A MUPPET
rod blagojevich may not realize he is a muppet, but he clearly is
So I live in Chicago now, and one thing I had not fully anticipated before moving here is just how much I would constantly have to hear about Blagojevich, see his image, or listen to his voice. I failed to realize that I would be inserting myself, directly into the epicenter of Blagojevich central. I am in the belly of the Blagojevich beast.
I could never really bring myself to educate myself or care about this matter. Some random Governor of some random state I didn't care about getting embroiled in some sort of scandal. Whatever, don't need to really get into it. Besides, I don't even understand how a muppet even got such a prominent position of power.
That's right. Blagojevich is a muppet. Look at him. Look at his face. He is, without any doubt, a muppet. And a stupid muppet, too. His floppy stapled on hairdo and his vacant idiot face. He is a stupid muppet, that thinks he is human. And Blagojevich? What kind of name is that for a muppet?
Anyway, I can't wait until he either goes to jail or doesn't.
Boston police take protest recruitment initiative nationally
The Associated Press BOSTON- The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association is looking to beef up the size of its protests at the Democratic National Convention this summer by appealing to fellow officers across the country to join the pickets. The police union bought a full-page ad in American Police Beat, the nation's largest law enforcement newspaper, and has set up a new Web site to help the recruitment effort. "When an officer needs assistance, nothing will stop a police officer from rushing to help, and we are calling out to our brother and sister officers to come to our aid," union President Thomas Nee said Tuesday. The patrolmen's union, and more than two dozen other public unions in Boston, have been working without contracts as labor disputes with Mayor Thomas M. Menino have dragged on for years. The association members cannot legally strike. Nee has said officers would still provide security if they do not have a contract by the July convention, but off-duty officers would be picketing. Dennis DiMarzio, chief operating officer for Boston, said Nee is misuing the threat of protest at the convention to try to up the ante in negotiations.
"All of the stuff he's parading around is nothing more than an attempt to try to create a national picture, a crisis type of environment when in reality all he would have to do was bring his bargaining team to the table in a fair and positive manner ... and we would have a contract with this group," DiMarzio said. At least 18 police associations in nine states, including the New York City Detectives' Endowment Association, the Illinois Police Benevolent & Protective Association and the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, have pledged protest support. "New York is hosting the Republican National Convention and we know the task of preparing for such an immense event amidst reduced police manpower," said Michael J. Palladino, president of the New York City detectives group. http://www.telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040309/APN/40309079...
