As the Geek Dyke Turns...

There are many things that possess a Geek Dyke to do things. Sometimes life changes in so many ways that you are not even sure yourself on which path you might be taking a week from now. And as the story goes, my life as a Geek Dyke is changing!

Today I spent the day with a friend and  we spent her day off with me teaching her the ins and outs of playing disc golf. This was a great course for a newbie since there aren't any major challenges like water holes, gators (I am in Florida now), tight fairways, etc. It was a bit hot out today but we had a lot of fun playing out in the sun.

On the way back home again we stopped by a feed store that had some very charming sun conures to play with and a yellow capped Amazon. Just sitting there playing with the birds and listening to the wonderful sounds that birds make, made me miss my Pita even more! It was a lot of fun though just to visit with them and play with them for even a little bit.

We made it back home and I updated my info on Disc Golf Course Review and on Geocaching so that they were both updated with my Florida information. It is still hard to fathom that I am in Florida now!

I think I need my creative outlet to come out and reach out and touch {somebody's hand} because I am feeling like I need to write again and be a little more on the creative side. Not that hanging out with the chitlins or going to the beach or laying around the house watching mind numbing television isn't great for the creative juices, but it just isn't enough right now.

So tonight I pulled up all of my old blog sites and decided it is time to write again. So much is going on right now with deadlines always around the corner. I am ready to do some gardening. I am ready to be crafty. I want to make candles and develop new sites and make things.

I mean, I am a geek dyke, I like to be tactile. I like to do things that use my brain. I feel weird if I am not in brain overload! So all while thinking up this blog, I just popped in a pan of homemade eggplant parmigiana. Yummy! I also just picked some fresh basil so my hands deliciously smell like basil.

Now I think I will close for tonight. I will try and pick a topic a day or week - depending on how busy I get! TTFN!

G-d Bless the USA

The good ole US, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. The place where opportunities surmount and people need not want for much. Yet here we are in year 1.66 of our economic recession and people are still fighting for jobs. In my local paper this morning it stated that job losses have included "a net 7.6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007 (Dayton Daily News, 2009). Highly educated people who have previously been laid off are unable to find jobs due to the market not offering jobs in their fields. So where does it leave the rest of us? The rest of us are applying for minimum wage jobs when we previously made the big bucks in Corporate America. A friend of mine who works as a manager for Speedway said that she sees people come in daily filling out applications and leaving their resumes and that many of these people have lost hope in finding jobs. Foreclosures are imminent in more communities and taxes are higher than ever. Schools are forced to pass more tax levies to keep their sports and extra-curricular activities and libraries are being forced to close because there isn't enough money to pay the employees.

I work a full-time job making barely over minimum wage just to keep my business afloat and my bills paid so that I have a roof over my head and food on the table. Even in my job things are tough. We are "punished" for having overtime by having our time docked on our next check and I am being forced into purchasing a vehicle that I can barely afford just to keep my job. Companies are changing dress code policies for minimum wage employees without the compensation to the employee. My friend said that on the management level they look at it like this, there are enough people filling in applications on a daily basis that if employee A leaves or gets fired due to the fact they can't afford the new policies, they will just hire the next schmuck in line. This just goes to show that we are in a slumping economy where pay raises are becoming few and far between and cost of living raises are non-existent. Groceries have gone up in price, gasoline is staying steady on a 6-month low. Public transportation fares have gone up even when drivers are making close to $100K a year. Gas and electric bills have skyrocketed and no one is getting what they need to keep up with the economy.

In the article this morning they were talking about how many companies are desperate for people in certain positions but that they are unable to afford the time and training it takes to get someone up to par for the positions they do have available. When I was working in Corporate America, just in our department alone it cost us $25,000 to bring in a new employee, give them the equipment and tools they needed to do their job and train the employee for that position. Even for a multi-billion dollar company, that is a lot of money when you multiply that times the number of employees that are needed each year to stay ahead in the business world.

Even for myself, it took me a year and a half before I was able to find a job that I could work to support my family. The reason... when I applied for job openings where they paid minimum wage they would look at my resume and see that I made $80K a year in the past and wonder why should they hire me for pennies on the dollar? I can't even count how many times I just wanted to shout out to them that I didn't care how much it paid as long as I could get to work and pay my rent. I have been at my job for over a year now and when I asked my manager why she decided to hire me when her manager thought the same thing about my previous income and she said that I seemed like a good person and I knew the job and she seemed confident enough that I would be good at the job and show up. Well a year later I am finally being trained as the Assistant Manager but still making barely enough to make ends meet.

They said in USA Today that people were spending more time watching the new television series than they were spending on doing outside excursions such as ball games and movies and such. Who can afford to pay $10 - $15 per person to go to the movie theaters when we can sit at home and watch something? Also in our news this week it featured a politician in our state who was running for office but has a past felony on his record. Now the controversy exists because due to state law, he can run for office even with the felony and take office, but someone else who has a felony on their record even for something as minor as cashing a check that bounced is forced to wait 3 years after the court has dismissed the case before applying for job that require background checks. Regardless of what they say that it won't automatically disqualify you from a job, in this economy all gloves are off and you are just out of luck. Even when time has been served and restitution has been paid, people are still punished for their crime and people wonder why first time offenders turn to crime to make it.

So for all of you foreigners who are fighting to get across our borders wrestling arm and limb and risking your life to live in the land of the free, turn around and go back to where you came from because in all actuality you were probably better off in your own country than you would be in mine. In fact, can I come over there and stay with you instead?

Welcome Back!

After a long hiatus, the Geek Dyke is back and ready for some action! The Geek Dyke apologizes to her readers that she has been away so long, but it has been a healthy sabbatical for the Geek Dyke and she has been in need of some "Geek Dyke" time. So, sit back and grab a cup o' joe because we are rip raring to go and have a lot to talk about from the last year!

Klondyke Barbie for VP?

Sarah Palin was announced as the Republican candidate for vice-president. Is he mad? The beauty pageant queen, President of the PTA mother of five (with a Down's Syndrome newborn in tow) has had no political experience with the exception of being the current governor of Alaska and former mayor of a town with a population of about 5000. Are we kidding? I understand the need to try and pull in the Hillary supporters but this woman still has the new kid on the tit and we would want to see her stand up and do a press conference? Granted the 44 year old Idaho native might get the vote of all the lonely straight men out there begging for Beauty Queen Barbie to be in office but I don't think I want eye candy helping to run my country.

I mean seriously folks, is this what the nation is coming to? So we first pick Obama because G-d forbid we give a strong empowering female the spot. This is a man's world. Then the old geezer picks a woman who is a nobody to stand by his side to persuade the American people that they should have no fear and can still have a woman in office on the republican side. So let's take a look at Sarah Palin.

I tried to go to the State of Alaska website but apparently their server is too busy to allow others in there to look around. Why, you might ask? Because no one knows who the hell this woman is. So I did some research and found out some good information on our new candidate for vice-president. Sarah Palin is a NRA member, mother of five having just had a baby recently, eldest son is stationed in Iraq, orginated from Idaho, member of the Feminists for Life, hunter, fisherman (or fisherwomyn since she is a feminist), husband is an Alaskan native working for an oil field, pro-lifer, won Miss Alaska and MIss Congeniality, and the head of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

Where has she stood on current political issues? She hasn't because she is only a governor! She has said that she is an extremist supportor of Pro-life, against gays getting married, supports the constitutional ban of gay marriage, and she is all for people having guns. Got my vote - not in this lifetime. So what are we thinking?

On top of that, we tried to get into the McCain rally that is today in Dayton. When Hillary was here, you didn't need tickets at all to see her. Everything was clear and plain as day on where to go and what to do at the rally. When Obama was here, same thing although you did need tickets if you wanted on the main floor area. Easy to locate all of the information needed for the rally. McCain - whole different story. We are Ohio. This means we are a swing state who wanted Hillary and we always make or break the vote in the Presdential election. So we call to try to get tickets. Apparently tickets are required for all people but you can stand in a holding area with waited breath to see if you might be able to get in. For Obama you just picked up your ticket. For McCain you have to give all of you PII (personal identifiable information) and sign away your first born to get a ticket. Oh but wait - they forgot to mention that they don't have tickets. Why? Because they gave them all away to people in Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. Big mistake - huge - large. So you gave away tickets to other states while you are trying to convince Ohioans to vote for you. And Mr. Senator, you preach about conserving fuel but yet we could not reach a single person via telephone at your offices and we had to drive out twice to find tickets only to be told they were given away to other states. In addition when we got to your office last night (that closed at 9 PM) we found them closed at 8 PM with a sign on the door turning people away because they couldn't bear to talk to us.

So I can't help myself to wonder how in the hell they expect this circus they are calling an election to turn out. Remember we didn't pick Hillary because she was a woman in this male dominated world.

So I think I am going with Rosie the Riveter for President. Where is Ross Perot when we need him? Remember Obama keeps telling us that we need a change. Costa Rica is looking like a nice country to live in these days.

Insomnia Ramblings

Insomnia and ADHD are not a good mixture when combined in the same evening. I keep thinking that,

"I have to pack up this and unpack that, I need to put in a load of laundry, oh yeah wait is my phone still working (?), okay and I need to clean up, and finish my project, I need to send out updates, go to the post office, shower, flat iron my hair, grocery shop, school supply shop, rewrite my paper for my final, go and register my classes and take the test so I can register, find out where my grant is and why finance doesn't have it yet, apply for the six scholarships I have saved that also have approaching deadlines, think of someone special, oh wait sorry sidetracked - I was thinking of that someone - pick up the remaining Geocaches before I leave tomorrow,"

and probably a million other things I need to do but I just can't seem to get my mind around actually getting everything finished in time. On top of that I am slightly OCD with a mild case of trichotillomania - a condition where one subconsciously doesn't realize that they are skin picking or pulling out their hair.

It sometimes is a neverending cycle. Have you ever stayed awake for three days? Well I have and it isn't always a pretty picture. How else does one think that I became a Geek Dyke? It definitely wasn't from sleeping my life away. Now I don't expect this post to flow smoothly since I am mostly all over the place tonight. So bear with me please.

Some people are afflicted with ADHD and insomnia like I am and honestly I don't know how they get through it. The last time I wrote a rambling post it was a few years ago and it had to be the longest post that made absolutely no sense - not to mention tired out my readers. Although, I think I broke some sort of record for run-on sentences.






So, through my sleepless nights I have learned that I can write quite a bit and I find some clarity that I may or may not have had already. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah the not sleeping part. Believe it or not I even take medication at the night that is supposed to make me sleepy. Nope! Wrong! Do not pass go and do not collect $200! And you will get wet on this ride.

Now, add this to my previous blog where I outlined everything I did when it came to pets and my garden and then you intermingle a brain that just won't quit. I know you are asking me what all that hype means? It means that when I try to fall asleep at night my mind doesn't slow down at all. In fact, it is worse at night!

So how do I cure insomnia and ADHD? I write blogs! It isn't as effective as counting your steps from the nearest bus stop to your office but it does work wonders. You can say anything and everything and people will read it.

If you write it they will read it!

So write get it all out on paper. Drink some hot tea and just relax. Do some Yoga but try not to get all tangled up! That can be very difficult to explain when you got to the ER! I know I had more to write about but I need to carefully and strategically decide what to write to you, my audience.

I can say today that my Venti Caramel Frapaccino was very delicious!