One solicitation I started getting right away was from a credit company that offered me an unbelievable line of credit, and not a bad interest rate. As if not seeing Visa or Mastercard weren’t enough to tip me off, the catch was that I could only buy stuff directly from them.

The solicitation I got a while ago from First Premier Bank was somewhat encouraging until I read the Schumer Box. In case you didn’t know, the Schumer box is the table that all credit card companies have to use to disclose all their fees in plain terms. It’s named after my wonderful Senator, Chuck Schumer.

Anyway, the box had a poopload of extra fees listed. After the encouraging 9.9% interest rate, there were some fees I’d never seen before. First, an account set-up fee of $29; a $95.00 program fee; an annual fee of $48.00, and a $72 Annual participation fee. So for a mere $244, I could have a credit card with a limit of… are you ready for this? $250!!

I looked at the fine print outside of the Schumer Box to explain where they got off charging all these fees. The account set-up fee, the Program Fee, and the Participation Fee are all “a condition of extending credit to you.” It’s kind of like the enterprising fellow at the gallows selling you a very nice rope to hang yourself with.

Admittedly, this card offer isn’t as reprehensible as others. For us bottom feeders, there’s no such thing as free credit. This card provdes the ability to rebuild credit, but at a very high price. The moment you accept the card, you have a balance of $244. Did the folks at First Premier forget that we’re broke? Of course not. They want us to pay lots of interest in addition to those first fees.

COMMENT!
Use the comment box to rant on reprehensible banking practices! Go ahead! You know you want to!

Technorati Tags: bankrupt, credit industry, Visa, Mastercard, First Premier Bank, Schumer Box, Chuck Schumer

Let’s face it, unless you’re a career sub, substitute teaching sucks. You get mindless lesson plans that usually involve nothing more than glorified babysitting. I’m just as guilty as everyone else of supplying these types of plans. The kids will most often treat you like crap, and you’re seldom taken seriously by administrators.

Given these circumstances, it’s very difficult to put your best foot forward and impress the right people. In a situation in which even the best kids will be worst behaved, all you need to do is to have one bad day and that will damn your chances forever in the district.

When I was hustling for a job, I also felt like a vulture. My opportunity would only come with someone’s illness, retirement or worse. This dawned on me when someone in a district I worked in got sick, and I was actually hoping for them not to come back any time soon. Sick, but true.

Ultimately, I didn’t get hired in any of the schools I substitute taught in, but it wasn’t because of having any bad days or bad performance as a sub. Quite simply, no jobs opened in the districts I subbed in.

All that being said, we recently hired one of our regular substitutes. His performance wasn’t the sole reason for being hired, but he did a great job as a sub. He did his best to follow the lesson plans we left, had a fairly good rapport with the students, and left detailed notes about how his day went. He had a lot of other great qualifications for the job, but having proven himself as a substitute helped us make our decision to hire him.

Another regular substitute interviewed and didn’t get hired. He got the job done, and kept the kids quiet, but had over time gained a reputation as being somewhat lacksadaisical. While none of the people he’d subbed for were on the interview committee, the word had spread to the teachers who were.

The bottom line is that if you want to be a substitute teacher to have something educationally related to include on your resume, and to get your face around to a school you may want to work in, go ahead. However, it’s NOT a guaranteed stepping stone to a teaching job, and ultimately can hurt your chances.

Technorati Tags: substitute teacher, lesson plans, teaching job

I’m not a numbers person. Ever since I took my SAT’s in 11th grade, that fact has been painfully obvious. I’ve always been a classic verbal/linguistic with a heavy emphasis on the visual. Letters are my thing.

Upon assuming my quasi-administrative role, I knew that I’d have to make peace with, and live somewhat harmoniously with numbers, and the type of logical thought processes that go along with them. I knew I’d have to step out of my comfort zone to be successful in my new job.

One of the things I admire most about some of my students, and the attribute that I tend towrite most about on their college recommendations is their ability to function outside their comfort zone. Teaching mostly AP students, I get a lot of bright students who are “techies” that have a lot of trouble functioning in the largely verbal/linguistic world that is history. I love it when this type of kid excels, or even manages to keep their head above water in my course while they’re skating through their upper level chemistry, physics, robotics or engineering courses.

In teaching, and in any field, it’s good for all of us to function outside our comfort zone for a while. It could lead to some long term changes in the way we do business. For example, when I started in my district, I was predominately a verbal/linguistic learner, and taught the same way. Cy Resch, one of my colleagues, was, and still is, the King of the Visual. He showed me during our shared planning periods how to teach my entire Global History course visually. Cy helped me revolutionize my teaching and thinking.

It had profound effects on me as a learner also, since I applied what I now refer to as “Reschian” thinking to my Comprehensive Exam in grad school. I managed to condense two years and thousands of pages of reading into three pages of illustrations and diagrams that I recreated as soon as I sat down to write my essays. I’m a great paper writer, but not a good test taker, and was hoping just to pass. I passed with distinction, and I owe a lot of that success to Cy.

That’s why the prospect of budgeting and making sense of reams of data intimidates me. Two of my colleagues taught me how to make and use Excel spreadsheets. They worked great, and eased me somewhat painlessly into number crunching.

Until yesterday. One of the spreadsheets didn’t work the way it was supposed to. My first impulse was to call one of my colleagues for help, but I didn’t. I carefully worked through the spreadsheet, and found the root of the problem, applied what I knew about the spreadsheet and fixed it. Not only did I fix it, but I adapted it to make it work better for me.

How often do we as teachers, confine our teaching methods to our own comfort zone? We tend to find things that are easy for us to teach, and we retain techniques that worked great one year, whether they’re successful with future students or not. Having worked successfully with a spreadsheet now inspires me to grapple with some edgier technology, and now I’m wondering how I can apply spreadsheet applications to help me and my students to better understand history.

This really applies in any aspect of working. How often do we limit ourselves by sticking within the narrow confines of our comfort zone?

These people actually enjoy meetings at work. Nobody really enjoys meetings at work. They’re a means to an end. They’re tools for a group to get something done. Therefore, if the meeting is in itself a tool to get something done, the last thing the meeting needs is someone being a tool.

They’re typically the type of person that nobody listens to most of the time, and they’re pleased as hell to be included on a committee where people ostensibly want their input. They very well might have some valuable input, but only for about thirty seconds.

You’ll discover who these people are when the discussion on an issue wanes and there’s a moment of quiet that SHOULD signify that all productive discussion has come to an end. Just before the facilitator can lay down the proverbial gavel, into this vacuum jumps Annoying Meeting Person with JUST ONE MORE POINT.

At this point, the meeting attendees who understand that if their input isn’t important to the overall task at hand begin to roll their eyes and try not to stare daggers at Annoying Meeting Person. I’m a proud member of this group, and I wonder if other people’s thoughts are going to the same extremes mine are.

Would Stalin have killed him?

Maybe Stalin was right.

I wonder if he’d notice if I held my fingers up and pretended to squish his head between my fingers?

Can we put a trap door in this conference room?

Would she shut up if I “accidentally” spit my coffee all over her?
Meetings with more than one Annoying Meeting Person are sheer hell for the rest of us. That’s okay though. I have faith that there’s a special hell for people like this. They serve their eternal damnations at meetings where they know everything about the topic, and are stricken mute for all of time.

10. Once I accidently spilled a pitcher of ice water on a two month old baby. Hey… at least it wasn’t coffee.

9. I never got the hang of which table was which number, and they kept changing stations on me, so I would often bring the wrong food to the wrong table.

8. I was so disorganized while I was on duty that the managers either had to help me with my side work or sit and wait for me to finish it by myself.

7. Since I worked in a Mexican restaurant most of the entree’s came in some form or tortilla or another, and so I couldn’t tell which entree was which, and often resulted in my bringing the wrong food to the wrong table.

6. Since getting the right food to the right table was too much for me, forget about remembering which person got which entree, so the people at the table, who knew even less about what the entrees looked like, would have to figure out what they got.

5. Most of the time the other waiters would end up bringing my food out to my tables, or it would sit under the heat lamps for too long.

4. Sizzling chicken and steak fajitas were the most popular menu item, but I’d freak out when I was carrying them on a tray because they’d always be right under my ear.

3. I burned my fingers so many times on hot plates that the tips of them had lost most sensation.

2. I piled two plates on top of one another while clearing a table, and shot a load of lemon butter all over the mayor of the city.

1. I never learned the birthday song (hey…it was in Spanish!) and so whenever one of my tables had a birthday, there was an awkward moment when I was supposed to start the birthday song, and when it finally did start, I would only mumble along with the words.

Doug was actually the first person I met on the job. I clocked in, and Doug was arguing with someone I’d met after the interview. This didn’t look like a good time to meet the boss.

The person interrupted Doug, and introduced me.

“Do you like the WHO?” He asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

“Yeah, ” I said, not missing a beat. “I was just listening to a Quadrophenia bootleg on the way here. Want a copy?”

I loved the job from that point on, because Doug pretty much let me get away with anything.

It’s all about how you answer questions I guess.

However, if you want to get a household appliance really cheap, here are a few tips to getting really cheap used appliances. If you have a little time to look, and don’t mind going through a few steps first, you can get great appliances without forking out a lot of money.

If you live in an urban area, the first place to look is thrift stores. People bring their appliances to thrift stores for a couple reasons; either they don’t use them at all, or they’ve upgraded them. Thrift stores therefore, tend to have a lot of obscure appliances. However, if you’re looking for a bread machine, food processor, George Foreman grill or any number of other appliances, visit your local Salvation Army or Volunteers of America store.

My wife and I recently decided we want a crock pot. I’d prefer a crock pot and deep fryer combo, but I’ll settle for separate appliances. I’ve gone to a couple thrift stores, but I’ve been picky. The first one I found was overpriced at $8.95. You should never pay more than $5 for a good used crock pot. The second one I found had the old fashioned plug. I want my soup or chili to cook all day, and not have to go through all the hassle of burning the house down to cook the soup. This highlights one important aspect of thrift store shopping though… you don’t get instant gratification, which is the enemy of anyone who wants to live cheaply.

Another great place to get used appliances is at garage sales. You’ll find the same kind of stuff there, and if you’re not looking for anything specific, you’ll find it. If you hit a garage sale at the right time you can usually barter for a cheaper price.

Another reason that people sell, donate or throw away their appliances is because it’s missing an important part or two, and think the cost for appliance repair is prohibitive. If you’ve got an opportunity to buy a name-brand appliance that’s missing one or two parts, think about how much you’d pay for that appliance in full working order knowing you can get the parts for it.

I’ve been looking for a bread machine for a while, and there’s tons of them for sale at any thrift store. Bread machines suck unless they have double rotors to knead the bread. I found a Zojirushi double rotor bread machine, easily worth $200 or more, but it was missing the kneading blades, but I bought it anyway.

When I brought it home, I looked up the brand name and model number, and googled them in along with the word parts, and instantly found what I was looking for. The kneading blades ended up costing far more than I paid for the machine, but when all was said and done, I had a top of the line bread machine for under $50.

Along those lines, if you’ve got an appliance that you like but can’t use because its missing some parts, see if you can find the part online before you toss it. There are a number of online merchandisers who sell household appliance parts at reasonable prices. Chances are, you’ll be able to find what you need far cheaper than the replacement cost. If the parts are too pricy, then go ahead and toss it.

Take a good look at your kitchen, and imagine the appliances you’d like to have there. That way, with time and patience, you can equip your kitchen for far less than you might think possible.

This is why you should hire union plumbers instead of scabs for any important home plumbing jobs, much less large scale commercial or industrial work.

But anyway, my main assignment for the day was to hang pipe brackets from ceiling beams for a sprinkler system pipe. My mode of reaching the ceiling was a giant, unsteady stepladder. It had to be at least a 20 foot latter. I can’t help but think that a more safety-conscious union plumber might have used a lift.

I’m not bad on regular stepladders, and have no trouble with extension ladders that lean on buildings for support, but this required a whole new level of ladder legs. No matter which way I moved, the ladder would sway twice as far.

I got over my initial well-justified terror enough to do a half-assed job of installing a few of the brackets. I had an eagle-eye view of the factory floor, and was high up enough that anyone who cared wouldn’t notice the obvious fear in my eyes, and that I wasn’t getting much work done.

Just after lunch a group of workers gathered around a break area. They were having a welcome back party for a visually impaired woman who’d been out on sick leave for a couple months. I watched as one of her co-workers reoriented her to the newly designed work area.

Most of the factory layout remained the same apparently, since she didn’t need orientation anywhere else. I thought nothing of it and went about my poor semblance of work.

I started to get worried when the visually-impaired woman started to head for the bathroom. Because of the location of the pipe I was working on, I had to put the ladder right in the middle of the aisle. When I caught sight of her she was about five feet in front of my ladder, and wasn’t using her walking stick at the moment.

Now I was REALLY terrified, and was about to call out to her when she was distracted by another co-worker who she’d yet to say hello to.

In those few seconds of absolute terror though, my life flashed before my eyes, and I imagined what I would do when I was home getting workman’s compensation, or whether I would even get coverage being a mere temp worker for a cheapass plumber.

Such is the life of the temp.

It took me a few days of drudgery to come to this conclusion, and once I did, I discovered the key to successful line work; if you do your task with the mental and physical characteristics of a robot, you’ll do the job more efficiently, and hopefully get through a boring day with a little more sanity.

My first line job was folding back box flaps in a spaghetti sauce factory. The boxes came out of a room behind me, and my job was to fold the flaps back so the machine below me on the conveyor could drop them into the box.

When I started my shift, box production was really slow, so it was okay. My only problem was boredom. I was sure that at least three hours had gone by, but I’d only been there less than an hour.

As the whole production line sped up, so did the flow of boxes from the mysterious room. I was jumping around the cage like a monkey, trying to pull the excess boxes off the line, while grabbing each box and folding back furiously. I looked like Lucy in that old video of her in a cookie factory or something like that.

Then, I became Mr. Roboto. I stood with my arms above the conveyer, and did the exact same motion with every box that came by. The key was that I’d taken THOUGHT out of the process. I became a robot. From that point on, the boxes never seemed to come too fast… all I had to do was adjust my speed switch.

By shutting off my thought processes, the day also went much faster. I didn’t spend the day thinking about ways to change the world, but given the choice of being a robot and losing my mind… I chose being a robot for the shift.

It’s that particular circumstance that underscores the benefit of temp work. It can get you from point A to point B for the short term, and can give you a variety of work experiences, which, in my case, give me lots of cool things to write about in my blog. Otherwise, temp agencies exploit the people who work for them and undercut the labor market in their area.

Admittedly, working for a temp agency allows a worker an opportunity to “get their foot in the door” of a company that they otherwise might not have. If the company fails to hire them on, they still get some valuable work experience that might help them land a job elsewhere.

For most poor and unskilled workers though, Temporary employment is a form of exploitation. An agency may only pay a temporary worker minimum wage, while the employer pays the agency far more than that. A worker with a little bit of initiative and a decent employment record can do much better for himself by applying for work directly with the employer.

A lot of temp work is work that regular employees of a company don’t want to do for one reason or another. Temporary employees often work at dangerous jobs for which they are woefully untrained.

Two of my own temp experiences involved some serious potential injury. For one job, I worked on a 20 food stepladder where the person I was working for assumed I knew the basics of high ladder safety. I was terrified.

Temporary labor also undermines the salary and benefits of permanent workers. By using temp workers, employers can keep wages far below union scale wages since these workers don’t stay on for very long. Employers also don’t have to worry about providing other benefits like health care to these workers.

This often leads to resentment of the temp workers by other workers. Being young and naive, I had no idea how I was hurting the labor market until a family friend, a union plumber, explained all the detriments of worker for the “scab” plumber I’d been working with at the time.

In short, unless you’re interested in gaining SHORT TERM experiences, or getting a foot in the door for skilled employment, don’t bother with temp agencies.