As many know, I've been looking for work in the Keys for over a year and am not having any success.  

During that year only one person gave me a lead but that as gone no where.  At least it was something.

Now that I lost my job of 6 years as the CTO of a publicly traded company to a 26 year old snot nosed punk with no experience of knowledge of network engineering I tripled my efforts in finding work.

So far nothing.  Not one interview.  The few recruiters that called have done nothing to place me except to jerk my chain.  The job outlook is dim at best.  And I am not only focusing on Florida, but other places in the country as well.

Under our current administration it is doubtful that anything positive will happen.  And I doubt that the contender for office will be much better for he seems to favor the wealthy and not the working stiff.

I received an email from one of my Facebook friends who told me that unless you are rich or retired you will need to work two jobs just to keep your head above water and that there is no tech work at all in the Keys.  The business there is tourism and that is that.

I spoke with another person on the phone who lives in the Keys and was told that I really should consider opening up my own computer business there.  They said that there is more work than the competition can keep up with.  And that most people run businesses out of their homes. 

Not a bad idea but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered first.  I'll post them in another blog entry.

I reached out to a successful person there to ask some questions.  First setting the ground work so I could ask the questions.  She never replied back so I am still curious about if I should open a computer business or not.  I still need to reach out to others.

Then in an email from a LinkedIn connection really put a damper on things.  I was told that their business dropped by over 50% and it was so bad that even they said you need two jobs just to survive.   The pay there is so low you have no choice but to have two jobs.  And they are seeking to leave the Keys for greener pastures.

And they told me that in the 9 years that they have lived there, they have seen so many computer businesses come and go it was like a revolving door.

Like the first person that I've been in contact with a few months back,  they said that there is no industry for a network engineer of my caliber.  There are only a few 'large' companies like the power authority and the turn over there is non existent.   I reached  out to them anyway and have not heard back.  I even contacted a TV station there for they have to be up on technology and have had no response  one way or the other.

Of course one of the biggest companies there is the U.S. Navy with the airbase in Key West.   Errr sorry, as much as I respect the USN and the rest of our military that really is not for me.  First off I am too old for that plus if I was in the Navy there would be no guarantee that I would be stationed there.

With the two comments that the pay is so low that you need two jobs to survive unless you are wealthy or retired really does not sit well with me.  Going from 6 digits to $7 an hour?  I'm just guessing at the $7, but you get the drift.

So at this point it does not look like that the Keys is the place to move to.  More food for thought.  I really would like to get some conversation going with people from there.

And here is another thought, one of the sayings I've come across is that "Key West is a drinking town with a tourist problem.". That gives me the impression that if you are not from the Keys, spend your money and then go away.  Could there be some truth to this?  I think every town has a certain section where alcohol flows like tap water so I  wouldn't pay too much attention to the first part.

A friend moved off Long Island several years ago and went upstate NY.  He opened up his own auto repair shop like what he had here on the island.  He closed up within a year.  Because he was not a local no one wanted to do business with him.  He would not be considered a local unless he lived there his entire life.


Is it possible that same line of thought is in the Keys as well?  "If you are not from there, go home"?

But looking at some of the blogs I subscribe to from people that live in Key West, they make it sound so wonderful to live there.  Even from the posts on Facebook make me yearn for living there.

I reached out to a person who writes one of the blogs twice an he never responded back.  I still subscribe to it for he makes Key West sound perfect.

I would like to live and work in the Keys and there is no question on that.  But as time passes and with no luck in getting interviews from there I have to wonder if it is nothing more than a pipe dream.  I also have to ask myself if I should give up on trying to get a job there.  Am I being foolish or what?  I would like feedback.

I will still keep playing the lottery no matter what and if I hit the big one....Let's see, I've seen some nice places on Big Pine....

'till next time

The senseless killings in Colorado has heated up the gun control debate once again and NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg is stirring up the anti-gun pot by pounding on the doors of Obama and Romney.

No one in their right mind can disagree that what happened was a true tragedy in the purest extent.  Holmes who can now be branded as a nut job slaughtered 12 innocent people and wounded 59 who were all out to enjoy a movie.

The gun control proponents will scream that we need tighter gun control.  They will also scream that if we had tighter gun control this would have never happened. I personally disagree with them.

New York City has the toughest handgun law in the nation making it almost impossible for a law abiding citizen to own a hand gun.  New York State has the second toughest hand gun law.  Every year in NYC we hear about some person or group of people that are either robbed, assaulted and or shot by a criminal with a hand gun.  Very recently as of 7/23/12, the news tells of of someone being shot in a robbery in NYC.  This is a perfect example in how gun control fails.  Like the saying goes, if we out law guns only outlaws will have guns.

And Bloomberg has to run off at the mouth when he can't get illegal guns of the streets of NYC. Sorry Mike but the gun laws in NYC simply do not work.

Let's not forget that Holmes bought the firearms legally.  So as far as that is concerned no laws were broken.  And from what I gather anyone over 18 can legally own a firearm in Colorado including hand guns.

With that thought you would think that some of the patrons would have been armed.  But apparently that was not the case.  Why should they?  This is not the old west.  Gun opponents like to point out that without gun control things would be like the old west and everyone would be shooting up the place.  Here we see that is not the case.

I am sure that if there were a few patrons in the theater that were armed and knew (keyword: KNEW) how to use a firearm properly, the death toll and those injured most likely would have been a lot less.  Of course Holmes would have been been shot and possibly killed all in the line of self defense.  I know that I would have returned fire once I had a clean shot.

There are two towns in the US where in order to live there you must own a firearm.  Of course they do have certain exceptions like an ex-felon, someone with mental issues, or who conscientiously objects to firearms and or who cannot afford them.  One town. Kennesaw GA was selected in 2007 as one of the ten best towns to live in and they have less than one half the US Average crime.  In the years 2003 - 2008 crime dropped significantly.  (source: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennesaw,_Georgia).

It stands to reason why. Would you want to break into someone's home knowing that they are armed?  I didn't think so.  You want to rob someone knowing that they might be armed, think again.  You want to assault someone knowing that they might have a 9mm?  Hope your affairs are in order.

What bothers me is that a big red flag went up and no one saw it.  That nut job bought 6,300 rounds of ammo.  The media never said what calibers.  Were they .223, .40 or for the shotgun?  And how many for each?  Why would a person want or need that much ammo in the first place?

OK if the person competes in shooting I can see buying large amounts of ammo used for practicing.  In that case it would be very easy to burn through 6,000 rounds in a week.  And if the person owned a gun range and supplied or resold the ammo they would buy it by the packs, unless the bulk sales had them prepacked say in 50 round boxes.

I know a few people that hunt and they don't use that many rounds in a season.  One guy I knew bought a 20 round box several years ago and has yet to fire a single shot when he went hunting.

So buying large amounts of ammo should raise a read flag, especially 6,000 rounds.  Unless he bought a thousand one week, another thousand two weeks later and so on.   I don't know.  The media did say he got a package of ammo that weighed over 100 pounds.  I would think that should raise a few questions.  Don't you?

Now here is a suggestion that has a lot of merit.  Forget about gun control all together.  It does not work.  Like I said earlier NYC is the perfect example.  Instead make it a federal law that if you want to own a firearm you must attend a mandated firearms safety and marksmanship course and pass it.  Much like a drivers license.  And it must be renewed say every two years by retaking the course.  Here is where the keyword from above comes in.  You  must know how to properly handle a firearm to own one.

This could be a good source of revenue for the states and those training people.

And let me point out even though people get drivers licenses some can and do a lot of damage with a car.  A case in point when a SUV was traveling at 80MPH in NYC hit a concrete pole, flipping and killing 5 and injuring 2 on 7/22/12 (source: Newsday.  http://www.newsday.com/long-island/five-people-killed-in-fiery-queens-crash-1.3852945).

So licensing is not a cure all but at least people would know how to use a firearm properly and safely and could potentially become a deterrent for another nut job.

Just for the heck of it I looked at some statistics on motor vehicle deaths vs deaths by guns.  Now I don't want to get into a pissing match or a flame war over the figures nor do I want to split hairs on any of them.  What I found out is the raw total data.

In the year 2009 there were 33,808  killed in motor vehicle accidents.  (source: US Census Bureau Table 1105 Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents National Summary: 1990 to 2009)  Unfortunately I did not see any newer data.  It might be there, but I was unable to locate it.

In the same year there were 9,146 were killed by firearms (source: The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state#data).  It is interesting to note that in 2010 there were 8,775 people killed with firearms.

Here we see that 24,662 more people were killed in motor vehicle accidents as compared to those killed by guns.  And I don't see anyone yelling that we need to eliminate cars.

At the end of the day, 1 person killed is 1 person to much regardless if it was by a gun or car.  I don't want to overshadow that fact.  But things really need to be taken into perspective.  It is easier in many states to own a gun than a car.  With a car you need to have a license to drive and for the most part you don't to own a gun.  But let us not forget that 33,808 people were killed in 2009 in motor vehicle accidents.

And what is really ticking me off is the fact they everyone is forgetting the fact that the nut job wired his apartment with explosives.  I don't see anyone screaming about that either.

Looking at the TV news the police were able to blow the bombs up safely at a range where no one would get hurt.  By looking at the size of the blasts from the bombs, if they went off in the apartment the entire building would have been leveled.

How did he get the bombs in the first place?  The media reported that he studied chemistry in college and was good at it.  Who better can build a bomb than a chemist?  But I don't see chem classes canceled or chemists registering like you would a firearm.   Nor do I see anyone screaming that we should ban chemists all together.

And let us not ever forget the Oklahoma bombing.  Here a nut job who was not a chemist used diesel fuel and fertilizer as the materials for his bomb.  He was no chemist, just a complete wacko.  And look at the damage he did.

If that is not scarey enough you can find the instructions in the library or the internet in how to make one.  I remember I was doing a school report in Junior High School in the '60s on WWII and came across a book in the school library that showed how warheads were made.  I never built one nor have I heard of anyone like that nut job doing so either.  And some people want gun control?

And never ever forget the tragedy on 9/11.   Here more nut jobs used box cutters to turn airliners into guided missiles.  They didn't use guns or bombs, just routine everyday box cutters.  I don't see a ban on the sales of those, do you?

Now to toss in a woulda-shoulda-coulda thought.  The media reported that the nut job went into the theater and out a fire exit and blocked it open to let himself back in.  Maybe a new law should be put into place that emergency exits must be wired to an alerting system.  This way if someone opens the exit door say in a theater again an alert would go off in the managers office and in the ticket booth.  This way someone can close the door.  I know it is rough but it is an idea that needs to be refined and expanded on.

It is certain that the nut job is never going to see the light of day again.  The state has I think it is 2 months to decide if they want to go for the death penalty.

As a father and husband and if it were my family that were victims, you are damn right I would demand that Holmes get the needle in the arm.  Only instead of getting knocked out, having the breathing stopped and then the heart stopped, I would rather see them give him the paralytic and have him suffocate while still aware of what s going on.  But like I said that is the father and husband speaking and I am sure many of the survivors would agree with me.

But if you look at it, the death penalty has not stopped any crimes in all of history.  The state of Texas has executed more people in the US than any other state since the death penalty was re-established and their death row is full.  Plus the cost of putting a person to death is higher than keeping them in prison for the rest of their lives.  This is due to all of the appeals and what have you.

I feel that this nut should get life in prison at hard labor instead.  This way he can think about what he did to those innocent lives for as long as he breathes.  Maybe even have him review the lives that he took so he could get a better understanding of those he hurt.

Besides even if he does get death, he might never see the execution chamber.  Colorado executed only 1 person since they re-enacted the death penalty and that execution was in 1997.  Currently there are 4 already on Death Row.  (source: Death Penalty Information Center, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state) so the chance of Holmes getting put to death is slim.

Now why did he do this?  At this writing I don't think anyone will know for sure.  I have my own theories and some have merit, at least to me.

First look at the movies and TV.  How many films and shows do we see that have a lot of graphic violence in them?  A lot.  Can it be that people are desensitized by seeing and wanting more gore?  It seems that the more gore that a movie has, the better the sales and ratings.  When I was growing up when a person was shot they fell down.  And it was one or two people not the bulk amounts that we see today.  Today when a person gets shot we see blood splatter or spray, body parts, limbs getting cut off and more.    A lot different than the past.

As an example we watched an episode of Criminal Minds on TV.  They showed and were very specific in it in what to do with a plastic bag and duct tape.  It left nothing to the imagination.  Hollywood should really re-think how it makes movies and TV shows.

Video games are getting as bad or if not worse than what is on the screen.  The big sellers are filled with violent acts with loads of gore.  Again another way we are desensitized.

I also feel that the school systems are partly to blame.  Years ago if you did something wrong you were punished and when you got home, mom and dad had their turn.  I am not talking beatings here folks.  A good whack on the rear never hurt anyone same with being sent to bed without TV and what have you.

Today the schools say they would rather you talk it over with the child to see why they were bad and to discuss the matter.  Plus when they go home mom and dad are not to do anything except to say I am disappointed in you and let it go at that.  The schools feel that if you discipline the child they could become a mass murderer.  Err excuse me?

When my kids were in school that is exactly what they told us.  Not to discipline our kids but rather talk things over with them and reason with them.  Then let them have the TV or computer all they want.  The schools gave all kinds of lectures on that and even implied the threat that it would be child abuse otherwise.

I gave it back to them telling them that the butt is made for three things, sitting, sh...ing, and hitting.  If you are kinky in later life there is a forth thing.  I said if need be I had no problem in giving the kids a swat on the rear if they needed it.   Otherwise it is off to bed without the TV.  Come out for supper and then back into bed.  I even challenged them to go ahead and take me to court, I could use the money from the law suit.  They backed down from me real fast.

All in all only one child was swatted on the diaper once.  They all got tossed into their rooms without the TV and computer for punishment at times.  So far they have all grown up fine and are doing better than their peers.  So much for the schools theory on child rearing.

Besides years ago before I was around my parents got a good swat or two when they were bad and no one in their generation ever turned out to be a mass murderer like the recent nut job.

Finally another theory on what could have happened.  Life is moving faster today and more pressure is being exerted on people than ever before.  Pressure to get ahead and get rich.  For those of us that are older we can handle it better but those that are younger simply cannot cope as well.  They seem to crack.

The idiot that took my job away from me is an example.  He wanted my job so bad he went out of his way to screw me over instead of sitting back and waiting for me to retire.  He too was pressured to go to the top as fast as possible without learning the ropes and paying his dues.  Eventually he will fail.  A few birdies have whispered in my ear that he cannot handle the pressure that I was under.

As an example that 26 year old punk went into a full blown panaic attack when a server had a small problem.  He said that the server did a fatal crash (mind you he never worked in a network environment before) and my nasty boss belived him over me all because he paniced.  The kids of today just cannot hanlde stress.

There is just too much pressure to succeed that back stabbing is at an all time high and those that cannot handle it take to drugs or have some sort of break down.  Maybe that nut job had an episode like that.  Maybe all of those theories played a part.  Who knows?

Is it possible that all of my theories or at least some of them could have lead to Holmes going off the deep end and killing innocent lives?  I honestly don't know.  That is not an area of my expertise.

All I can say is that gun control is not the answer.  Education, eduction and education with a good dose of rethinking life is.

'till next time

Yesterday it was 20 weeks since I was replaced by a younger person at my job.  20 weeks of collecting unemployment.  And 20 weeks with no luck in finding work.

I did get a nibble yesterday, a recruiter hired by a major company needs a network engineer upstate NY.  The distance would require that I relocate which is not an issue.  I would have to pay into the medical plan, which is fine, there is a 2 year contract involved Not a good feeling, and the kicker was the pay.  They were offering $40,000 a year.

How on earth can you support a family on 40 Grand?  I had to laugh at them.  40 grand, give me a break  I can make that flipping burgers.

And to boot they wanted to know what companies I applied to.  Now here is the trick, you tell them what firms you apply to and instead of trying to place you, they place someone else.  It is a dirty trick a lot of recruiters use,  Robert Half is famous for that.

With Robert half you meet with two recruiters at a the same time and they double team you.  And they pressure you for companies you applied to already.  And of course they do nothing for you.  I worked with them a few years back prior to getting my last job.  They just jerked you around.

I had another recruiter from TekSystems call earlier in the week from Miami and played the same thing.  Who have I applied to.  She was not interested in placing me, especially since I am in NY and would require relocation plus my salary range was way above what she had in mind.

Yep the past 20 weeks has been fruitless and I have only 6 weeks of unemployment left.

Plus to make the job market worse around here, the Town of Islip has announced they are going to layoff more people.  Nassau County is doing that now.  Obama-nomics in action.

On TV there was an add in how a whopping 300 jobs were added in the state!  Wow! 300 new jobs!!! For a state with 19 million people in it and triple that 300 in layoffs this week alone.  Really.  Obama-nomics is really working.

Can't blame him too much, Clinton did sign NAFTA the start of American jobs leaving the country and Bush pork bellied laws allowing companies to take tax breaks if they offshored jobs.  Obama made promises that he would bring those jobs back into the US during his campaign speeches but so far more jobs left and more people are without jobs than ever before in the past 50 plus years.

So right now things look pretty dismal.  I doubt that much will happen in the next 6 weeks.  But you never know.  I am still praying and hoping that some company in the Keys would make me an offer.  But right now I wonder if that will happen.

'till next time

Every family has one.  Yep you know what I am talking about, the one person that is always into something.  Mine is no different.  One of my kids was able to hack into my computers cache and found out about my Facebook name of "Tired Of Long Island."   I am careful about flushing the cache all the time but since I have several books on compute forensics here and everyone in the house knows that I've been studying it on my own it reasons to say that he was looking over the books when I was not around.

This kid should be a computer expert but seeing how my last employer screwed me over has no love for it.

So instead of closing down the FB account especially since I am making connections in the Keys I change the name of the account to "East Egg Bill" and tightened the privacy settings.  I will loosen those up in a few weeks back to normal.

As far as why am I still not using my real name?  You will need to read a previous posting in my blogs as to why.  Let's just summarize it up as to prevent internal problems. 

Heat wave number four is upon us, that is three or more days of 90 degree weather in a row. Thankfully our area has never been effected with brown outs. But the air conditioners in the house just cannot keep up with the heat. I shudder to think what the LIPA bill will be. It was horrendous last year but at least I was working.

Now I need to ask, and most likely will not get an answer, what is summer like in the Keys? Is it hot and muggy like in New York? At least the Keys are surrounded by water which gives ample opportunity for ocean winds to cool the area. But I really don't know. It would be nice to find out.

NYC DOT announced that they are going to be doing major repairs on the Hamilton Bridge starting tomorrow. That will create serious traffic problems on the GW Bridge for many years to come. The mayor of Fort Lee NJ is not happy for the traffic could spill over into the city and create more traffic problems for the.
Knowing how NY runs things, they are most likely are not going to do the work very smart. That is you do as much of the work after 9PM as possible when traffic is at the lowest so not to interfere with work day traffic. But this is New York.

Wells Fargo Bank ripped us off. They took over $1,500 from us illegally and are not going to return it. I'll need to write more in a later entry. According to MSN Money they rate as number 6 for the worst customer service. I am giving the a tie with Bank of America. But as far as with our problem let's say I am going to complain to the SEC, IRS, NYS Attorney General (now that is a waste of time), the Nassau County Consumer Affairs Office (another waste of time), and maybe Arnold Diaz.  Forget about the BBB, that is a true waste and they have no legal powers.  I'll need to give some more details later.

Job searching is still at a stand still.  The most recent was that recommendation from one of my LinkedIn / FB connections.  He did say you never know so it is worth a gamble.

Anyway I need to get ready to go to church.

'till next time.

For many years Nassau County bus service was run by the MA.

Recently Nassau County eliminated the county run bus service. Now it is known as Nassau Inter County Express, or NICE. Nassau sold off the system as a cost savings measure since the service was mismanaged and was losing money. So instead of fixing the problem they cut their losses. Now a private commercial company is in charge of the surface mass transit system.

Talking to several people that ride the bus, they all tell me how the service has gone down hill. The company is moving bus stops around into very inconvenient locations and have even eliminated stops. They also said that the buses do not even run on schedule any longer and some routes have been cut.

Now according to Newsday Nassau County wants to sell off the sewer system to commercial company for $750 million to help offset a deficit of $3 billion.  I will address that in a bit.

Now if the county gets it's way and the sewer system goes to a private company how will the effect the citizens of Nassau County?  What are they going to do, install flush meters on the toilets so we get charged for each time we push the handle?  Of what about a surcharge on each square of toilet paper used or bought?  If that is the case then I'll run a garden hose into the bathroom and make a bidet out of it and instead of push the flush handle I'd just fill a bucket and pour water in that way.

As far as the deficit the county is grossly mismanaged in every department.  Salaries for many are outlandish.  As an example a lot of the professors at the county college work only a few hours a week and get paid full time salaries which many are in the six digits with benefits to boot.  And a lot of them work at other colleges at the same time getting yet another salary or two.  I knew a professor there that used to complain that his $250,000 year salary was just not enough to live on.

The Nassau County police are the second highest paid police department in the country with Suffolk being the highest.  I'm not saying that the police should not get paid, but the second highest pay?  There is a lot of trimming that needs to be done there.  I've seen radio cars behind some building with the officer in it asleep way too many times.  And they are getting paid what?  Now don;t get me wrong, the NCPD overall is a great department and do a lot of good work.  But they are highly over paid.
 
Even in my own town I've seen them in an offshoot of the parking lot from my former company out of sight fast asleep.

I look around and see road crews everywhere.  Many times I see one person working while five or six are just standing there.  I'd like to get paid just to stand.

And the county executive wants to cut services and raise taxes and we pay some of the highest property taxes in the country.

No wonder I want to get off of Long Island and out of New York.

'till next time

Week 17 of being unemployed has started so far nothing. I've been reaching out to numerous recruiters and not one has been able to find me work. I am not surprised for I have never really had much confidence in them. Especially after what happened at my last job.

The company wanted me to have an assistant so they reached out to a major recruiting firm. Eventually they hired me an assistant who was 26yrs old. Next thing you know this kid kissed the right ass, made up lies, made statements that he was not qualified to make. Needless to say he went after and got my job.

Not long after I was terminated during my fruitless job search my resume wound up on the recruiting agent that sent the punk to my company. He claims that he was shocked at what happened and felt that he was responsible. Of course he is making no effort to find me work again.


As you can figure I am really soured by recruiters. I would like to see one of them step up to the plate and help me get another job.


One of my LinkedIn connections so happens to be a FB Friend reached out to me with a lead in the Keys.  I followed up on it but so far I have not heard anything.


I was driving to the store yesterday and was cut off by a school bus.  I followed the driver and she ran several stop signs and then a red light.  I was trying to get a video of it on my iPhone but was unable to do so.  I will need to get a bracket so I can mount it on the dash facing out.  This way I would be prepared if this happens again, which it will.  From there maybe not only send the company the video but post it on You Tube as well.


I see it a lot around here, school buses running stop signs and red light.  Taxis are the next biggest culprits in a tie with people in high end luxury cars.  By my house there is a stop sign and I cannot tell you how many cars go through it on a daily basis and the police around here make no effort in putting a stop to it.


I am still keeping my fingers crossed on landing a job in the Keys.  I am also going to restart the plans to take some time and go there.  The last ones where shot to hell and back again in June.  Maybe this time it will work out?


Anyway, it is Friday the 13th and the start of week 17 of not having a job.  Maybe it will be a lucky day.


'till next time.

The Obama Health program was ratified by the supreme court and as such is now a law. In some aspects I applaud the law, but at the same time I disagree with it.

We need a good solid affordable health care system in this country available for all Americans. With the way that hospitals and doctors over charge for their services hardly anyone can afford to pay the bills. The way that insurance companies charge for premiums is so beyond outlandish many people go without. Medicaid is no bargains either, especially here in Nassau County.

One of the best things about the new law is that you cannot be turned down for coverage for a per-existing condition. But I am sure that the insurance companies will wiggle out of that the way credit card companies did with their new restrictions.

So now what is termed Obamacare mandates that all Americans have health insurance. And if you don't the government will levy a penalty, errr tax on you as punishment.

Here is what bothers me and so far no one has addressed the issue. If you cannot afford the insurance how are you going to afford the penalty tax? A lot of people are out of work and are having trouble making ends meet. And what about those that make minimum wage? And let us not forget those that are on fixed incomes. A lot of our seniors have barely enough money to buy food in the first place.

And here in Nassau County Medicaid is a financial death sentence. I'll write more on this in a later entry.

Obama did try to tackle the health care beast, something previous administrations were unable to do. But at what cost to the American citizen?

I for one could not afford to buy health insurance and I sure would not be able to afford the tax penalty. So what are they going to do? Lock my ass away?

There is a lot of work that still needs to be done with Obamacare.  But all of those issues need to be worked out, and the feds moved too quickly to make the president happy.

Right now I started week 16 of being unemployed. So far no interviews and the recruiters that I contacted are not returning my calls or emails. I have to wonder if my former nasty boss is black balling me out of vengeance. It was no secret that she had it out for me from the very start.

I was looking at the SEC filings a few days ago and checked on the company. The new CEO there pounded the drum on saving money, cut costs, and save more money. They sold off a lot of their assets, almost half of the portfolio and terminated 7 people over 45 years old (I was the oldest). And I learned that a new cost savings they implemented was to get rid of most of the local printers from the staff. Plus they are cutting the dividends on their stocks.

Going back to the SEC filings I saw that the CEO gave himself a small raise, 2 million shares of stock and at the time with the market value that was $9.5 million with a $500,000 cash bonus. He saved costs alright, just to pad his wallet.

The former CEO was no where that greedy. He only owns 950,000 shares which is a sizable chunk. The new CEO is there for only a year and is already taking advantage of his position to exercise mass greed.

Hey where is the cost containment?

I don't think that there was any wrong doing in that which would warrant the SEC to investigate. But with the termination of those over 45 would warrant the EEOC to hang them. But like I mentioned in an earlier posting, the EEOC is nothing more than a paper tiger at best. Plus with the packages we had to agree in not making a formal complaint against the company. I think that would prove that the company company knew full well that they were in violation of the law.  And then again the way that New York laws are set up, they can get away with age discrimination.  I mentioned that in an earlier posting in how that was done.

I am not giving up on hope on getting a job in the Keys.   I am keeping my fingers crossed. 

My wife and I were talking about going there for a few days.  As you remember I was hoping to go there back in June.  But things just did not work out the way I wanted so the trip was postponed.  She is not happy about the idea of going there in the least.  But I still want to check things out.

In order to do this I am working all the numbers once again.  Although she refuses to fly I am going to toss in those numbers as well.  But it looks like we are still either driving all the way or taking the Amtrak out of Penn Station.

I have not been on Facebook in a few days.  I should keep in touch with what is going on.

It hit close to 100 here and we spent the day doing as little as possible.  We checked on a neighbor who is 95 to make sure he was OK.  Then we stayed inside ourselves.

Anyway, I have to get a move on.

'till next time.