Jobs and being car less

Last year I wrote a post, Welcome to my world:car about me being car less. I have never owned a car and I would like to further discuss what I have experience not having one. Here in the United States it a must to own a car so you can get to and from work. Of course there are some state where that not the case like New York. Not owning a car, I have learned that people, society have these sterotypes for us car less individuals.

I like to first say that I would love to have a car. Having that freedom to move around and to go place. Places that not your public transportation can take you nor your urber driver or taxi. I can’t just take a bus or call urber, take me to the lake. The main reason why I don’t own a car is I can’t afford it. The math with my income and other bills, the number don’t add up. As they say numbers don’t lie

I consider myself a introvert. I don’t drink nor smoke which probably make me less popular to hang out with. Not having a car adds to that cause most people or friend wouldn’t want to travel to the other side of town to pick me up or take me home if it late at night. They don’t have to say it, it just obvious. Am not sure about you, but not having a car, you aren’t on people top 5 list to call to go out on a Friday or Saturday night.

Now take that a step further and tell a future employer that you don’t have a car and you take public transportation. Your name will probably be put at the very bottom of their call list. In my opinion employers see that as a red flag. That you will be the employee who will be late for work, a no show, unreliable. Am begin to see the pattern. I remember applying at Macy’s for the holiday. I was talking with the manager about the hours I could work and mention I can’t stay late. The latest I can stay is 1030pm , maybe 11pm, because I don’t have a car and I would be taking the bus. Their response was something like that stores like them wouldn’t get things done nor profit, if they hired people like me. Who don’t own a car, relay on public transportation.

In my current job, now former job, which last week was my last day, during my interview I informed them that I don’t have a car. Is that okay? I will be getting drop off and picked up. Is there any problem with this? Will there be any problem for my ride to enter the job site just to drop me off and picked me up. The job site is a military base. The person who interview me, “that no problem.” I stress to them, “are you sure” He said,”it isn’t a problem.” So for that past 5 months there was a few set back for the job since it is a contract position. Not on my part, but the government side. During this time, I stress this with the people who are leading this contract, is this going to be a issue? Do you have any information or someone I can ask about my ride being able to enter the job site(the base), to drop me off and picked me up. Nothing, not even maybe. So two week ago, I get a email that I been place with someone in the government who I will assist(work for). Again, no one given me answer. So I contact the person I will be working for since I now have their number. I find out a few hours later, I shouldn’t have done that. Another administrative assistant call me saying what I did about ask about get drop off etc raised some red flags. The red flags that they see I don’t have a car, I will probably be unreliable, late to work. Fast forward 24 hours later I found out well my ride won’t be able to enter the job site to drop me off/pick me up. I will have to walk from the entrance gate to the the building am working at, which is about a 20 minute walk carrying a labtop.

So I had to make a decision, what am I going to do. We are heading to the summer months and around this time we usually get our spring time rain. Do I just do the 20 minute walk to get to work and 20 minute walk back to meet my ride right outside the gate? I decided to quite. I can see this being an issue and I hate to be fired from being late. Especially if it raining and having to carry a company labtop. I really don’t mind walking, but then am not a fast walker. So it back to looking for work.

Prompt: autobiography

You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?

Did you read my blog? Yes or NO? If no then why are interested in reading my autobiography?

Sketchbook Filled

Finally filled my Strathmore Toned Tan sketchbook. It took a year and one month to fill the 50 sheets. Of course I missed up on a few, but my drawing and using color pencil have improved. I also filled my other sketchbook which has 120 pages which I started in 2020. Below are the rest of my color-pencil portrait drawings.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!! Hello 2023. As we begin this new year, I feel pretty good and positive it will be a good year. Even though we are seeing inflation sky rocketing, am keeping a positive attitude. I left 2022 finding another job and I hope to keep that momentum going. Continue on with my financial goals and excel career wise. My financial ambition is to reduce my student loan debt and to invest my money in the market. I already have a Roth IRA and planning on opening a brokerage account to grow my money over the long term. Awhile doing that continue on with school which has been going pretty smooth. Been getting “A”s in all my classes and should be done by the spring of 2024. From there, hoping it lead to other career opportunities or open other doors.

Every new year I do my best to staying healthy physically and mentally. Leaving 2022, I drop about eight pounds. That what the scale say. I gain about ten pound during the two years of the pandemic. I believe it was from sitting down a lot at work. This really wasn’t a goal or something I planned, but with things returning to normal, going to the gym more often and doing my weekend walks around town, the weight began to fall slowly. Mentally, well I keep a written journal and been writing in the same one since April 2021. For 2023, am starting a new one. Journaling is awesome. It another way to let whatever you have on your mind and put it on paper. In life, sometime we might not having someone to talk to about what going on in life, so journaling is the next best thing. Of course this blog is somewhat like a journal.

How about you? Looking forward to anything in 2023? Goals or changes you want to make?

Merry Christmas!

Alvin and the Chipmunk Christmas

Give your old computer new life

With Christmas and the New Year, it likely that you might be looking into replacing your PC or your MAC with the holiday deals going on. In my case, I have a old PC that was running window 8 and next year Microsoft will stop all support/update for windows 8. I could have upgrade to the latest version of windows, but would probably cause my computer to run much more slower. I didn’t want to buy another PC, not now, since I do have a labtop that I brought two years ago during the pandemic.

My alternative and this might be something for you consider if you want to give your computer a few more years is installing a Linux OS. Now if you are not familiar with Linux I recommend you just do a Youtube search. Am still learning about it myself. Linux is more light weight and not a resource hog like windows. So it will work with older computers which don’t have resources and hardware to run the newer version of windows. One of the Linux OS I found was Zorin OS. From my research is seem to fit what I was looking for since my PC is about ten years old. Of course there are other Linux OS out there and you just need to do a little research. I was going to try elementary OS, but the Zorin OS website convince me to try their.

So for the past three weeks I’ve been using Zorin OS on my computer and no problem at all. Am typing this post using the Linux version of Chrom. Of course there is also Firefox if you prefer that one. I even told my mom what I did and if she need to use the computer, told her the new password, where find the Linux version of chrom. Even mention it just like using your phone. She had no problem. So not that hard to use, if you are using it for just the basic stuff. I recommend you give it a try if you plan to give rid of your old computer. There are different Linux OS free to download and all you need is a USB drive. Zorin OS website have good instruction how to do an installation.

Daily Prompt: When are you Most Happy?

When are you most happy?

When am I most happy? Am most happy when am just doing my hobbies and being with my dog Lilly. These hobbies are going for my walks around town and just taking random pictures with my film camera. Walking just calm your mind and then just greeting people or they greeting you as you pass each other. Since I have a film camera, I’ll get approach by someone. The best part of my walks is seeing all the dog owners walking their dog. Love seeing these little furry guys just walking and waggling their tail. My other hobbies is just drawing, watercoloring or coloring using color pencil. I find that lift my mood and since I do most of my art work at night, it makes it easier to go to sleep. One hobby that I haven’t done in awhile and make anyone who does it happy is dancing. I enjoy dancing salsa and merengue.

I can’t forget about my dog Lilly. Seeing her and being around her makes me happy. When I come home, whether it from work, walking around town, running errands, she is happy to see me. She a dog that stay inside our house when we leave and once we return home and open that door, she off, running toward me to greet me. Everyone else is second priority, she running full steam towards to me. Nothing beats that feeling, especially since she a dog, she so happy to see me.

Gym Attire

The gym, sometimes I think people forget that they are in a public place and not in their comfort of their own home. I’ve been going to this gym for a long time now. Every now and then it it puzzle me why people do certain things. Maybe that no one is watching and everyone is just caught up in their workout. Maybe? For me, awhile am zone out and focus on what am doing, I still just observing what going on. I try to see what area of the gym and what workout machines are available and there not a crowd of people

For instance I hate when the free-weight/dump bell area is crowd because you got all these people moving around with weights. For me is somewhat of a distraction, but when it isn’t crowd, I make sure I get a full work-out. So I had this opportunity to do that the other day. As I was beginning my work-out, I notice from the reflection on the mirror a girl workout behind me using the machine. I didn’t have my glass on since I take them off awhile I work out, but she a regular I’ve seen her few times before. A few minutes into my workout I notice from the corner of my eye, someone moving the work-out bench near me. It her and I continued on. I also notice more people coming to this area. This girl beginning her work iyt and then lift her shirt to check her abs on the minor. I don’t know why people do this, but she continues on.

I believe that people don’t use common sense when they go to gym. You are there to work-out, exercise and not show off. Dress appropriately, you going to sweat, that apply to men and women. This girl who now working out and done looking at her abs in the mirror, now decided to take off her shirt. So now she in a sport-bra or look more like a bra with a visible sight of cleavage. She within her rights to wear that and am not shaming her for that, but she laying down on the work-out bench. Well everyone behind her can see right threw the valley of twin peaks. Again common sense, she with her right, but be more aware of your dress attire. I only say this because at the gym there only a certain direction you can face awhile using a machine. So from a women point of view if can look like if a guy is stary at her boobs or checking her out. Probably a lot worst if the guy or person has their phone out pointed in her direction.

People don’t think about their dress attire when going to the gym. Just a week ago, there were a lot of people using the machine I was planning on using, so the next available machine was those I give you resistance. Again another female, in front of the machine, so I ask if she was using it. She said, “no”. She was doing a lot of stretching and flexibility stuff. Like yoga style. So I continued on. When using this machine I can only face one direction and that was toward her. So we are basically facing each other, about five feet apart. As she is doing her yoga style stretches and am doing my work-out, she has her legs apart and stretch one leg at an angel that I can see up her short shorts. Not directly what between her legs, but just the inner inside thigh. I was going to tell her that, hey I see your inner thigh mid section with those short shorts, but then that might be awkward. I don’t know, how many girls would want to know that you are flashing the guy in front of you awhile working out? So during my small breaks in between, I would put my back towards her, looking the opposite direction. Hoping she might pick up on that and turn around as she does her stretches. Nope that didn’t work, so I continue on with my work-out and did my best not to stare toward her. Am not trying to shame women or men, but people really need to check in the mirror at home that their gym dress attire covers those private areas and everything is “secure”.

Nudity:Female

So lately I’ve been switching between three different sketchbooks. The goal to draw the whole human body. In one, just drawing portraits and coloring them using color pencil. In another sketchbook, drawing the chest and arms just using pencil and the third sketchbook, the whole body. In this third sketchbook, practicing how to draw the human body in different poses..

Big guy problems: Shopping for clothes

With a new job comes the task of getting new clothes. I consider myself a simple or you could say “minimalist” type of clothes guy. When am not working, just shorts and a regular shirt, usually a UT-Austin longhorn shirt is what I wear. Why? They are not to expensive, so if they get dirty within a month, get torn or whatever else I didn’t loose a lot of money. Beside they are also my workout clothes. Just simple.

Now when it comes to shopping for work clothes or shoes, I just hate it. Hate it like a kid who hates having to eat their vegetables. When it comes to shopping for clothes I fall within the sizes between big and tall and not so big and tall. It like the borderline where a lot of clothes store don’t carry the size. For instance, I have been look to buy jeans for awhile now and the brand and style I like seem to be the one they don’t sell at stores. At any stores. I have to buy it online and my size is always sold out. Simple solution, look for another brand, they might have my size. No! There something about jeans of today that they are design to not give you enough fitting room in the thigh area. They aren’t loosely fit, so they fill somewhat tight. The other thing, my size. For some reason my size is the cut off size that stores won’t carry. I have to order online or go to a store that carries big and tall size. The only problem with a big and tall store is their start size is a the next size or two above mine.

Now shopping for dress clothes, well am secrewed there to cause they don’t carry my size. Looking for a dress shirt is just a pain in the a$$. They are either short in length or tight from the shoulder area. Tight as if I had to fold my arms, I’ll probably tear the shirt. Also they are expensive as hell. One dress shirt could be more then $50.00 depending on the brand. Shopping online is just stressful. You just don’t know how something is going to fit, even if they have your size. The one online retailer that I’ve brought from before, their sizes are a different standard then what am use too.

Any big guys out that have this issues?