DMV

I have just bought a new truck. It is a 1985 ford ranger that I hope to fix up and use for various tasks. Anyway, I had to take that dreaded trip to the DMV in order to get the title straight and new tags. It was a long wait and I was missing work for every hour spent in a hard chair, not getting paid.

After I got my number, I patiently waited for it to be called. After waiting for quite a spell, my turn finally came. Guess what happened next. That’s right, I had to wait some more!! I lost 5 hours of work and no way to make it up.

I am always glad to get out of that place!

Hire someone

Recently, the new jobs report came out. The Labor Department reported that nearly 103,000 new jobs were added in the country for the month of September. While this number is not that bad, it was not really what economists were hoping for. They always want more.

Fears of another recession still linger for many investors. The stock market is still skittish. The president is still pushing his idea for a jobs bill that would hopefully create more jobs. In the meantime, I hope those who can will hire someone and help the economy along.

Jobs can be easy

One thing that everyone has in common is their job. Every job has its own set of problems that have to be dealt with. One thing that is good is that some jobs can be made easier using the internet. This happened to one of my relatives when she started a new job. She was overwhelmed at first, but did well in the end.

My cousin works in a hospital. She works in a management position. Part of her job was to write the hospital policies for that particular institution. She was having trouble with it as it’s a huge task. Fortunately, she found a site called policymedical.com. The site made it easy for her to complete the task she was given. She told me all about it.

The site helps people with policy management. They have the policy software that allows people to manage many forms of hospital policies. She has now completed her job and is happy that it is so easy to keep her policies up to date with the software she uses. She loves the fact that the software has saved her so much time and she is able to make changes quickly and easily. I am sure she will do well at her new job.

Emergency visit

It turns out that I had to visit the hospital the other day. I was at work when a friend of mine cut himself while opening some boxes. While the cut wasn’t all that bad, we still wanted to make sure that he got the proper medical care. Anyway, since I didn’t have much to do that day, I decided to volunteer to take him to the emergency room.

Any time you go to the hospital, you are in for a long wait. It seems that we waited forever until the doctors finally called him in. I had already read all the magazines in the waiting room and had gotten some snacks from the vending machines. I must admit that I was quite bored. That’s when I happened to strike up a conversation with one of the nurses.

She was wearing a nursing uniform that was quite attractive. She told me that she had ordered the uniform online from a site called http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/. She stated that it was where she got all her clothes for work. I was impressed as she told me the prices were low and the quality was good. Anyway, my friend finally came out and we were able to leave. I think that next time an emergency happens at the office; I will let someone else volunteer to take them.

Beefing Up the Credentials

Sometimes you just top out at your job, no matter how long you’ve worked for the company and no matter how good you are at your job. At some point, the HR people need credentials to justify giving you a promotion or significant raise. The hard part is finding a way to beef up the credentials while you are still working. That’s why I’m checking into Online Colleges to get my degree. I still need 6 hours to finish up and I’m just going to have to find a way to do that.

I need a college that offers online degree programs in business and then I need to find some financial aid to make it happen. I have been looking at grants and loan programs online, and am not sure which is the best way to go.

The Government has a good web site with some student loan information. I found a free application for Federal student aid http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ and I think there might be a way to get my company to match some of the money with their tuition reimbursement program. There are even programs at the state level because of the lottery money that has been coming in. In fact, making the proceeds available to education was one of the requirements that state had when they approved having the lottery here in the first place.

A Quick Read

Most days I keep one or two paperbacks in the truck so I have something to read if we have a long wait on the job site. Today was one of those days where we had to wait for the concrete truck and there was nothing to do until he got here. So I picked up the “Boneman’s Daughters” and sat under a tree for about 40 minutes.

It’s by Ted Dekker and he writes in a very readable style. It’s a thriller about a serial killer and the FBI mistakenly thinking the father of a victim is a suspect. I’m not through with it yet, but it’s a good book so far. I got about half way through when the truck finally showed up.

Boardwalk Shows

When I was a kid, my father used to load the whole family up in the car on the weekend and drive us to the DC convention Center or to the DC Armory and take us through trade shows. I used to like the shows because the vendors were always giving away free samples of food and drinks, and there were demonstration of new and exciting things. That was probably the first time I was exposed to pop up displays and I remember some great displays, like the life size cut out of a NASCAR driver.

Nowadays, I see pop up trade show displays in a lot more places. We have a lot of trade shows and conventions here at the beach, with many of them out in public or free to the public. I’ve seen displays on the Boardwalk during shows and festivals. I see them in convenience stores (still a lot of life size NASCAR drivers – some things never change!) to promote the sales of beer, sodas or candy. I see them in the grocery store for seasonal items, like candy for Easter this weekend.

Since I’ve just raised your awareness of pop up booths and displays, keep your eye open and write me comment of where you see them in your neighborhood or daily life. I’d like to know. I bet they are all around you and you’ve never really paid attention to them.

Union Woes

Ever since the last election that swept in a number of republicans, there have been changes in the wind. Many republican leaders have been going after public service unions in order to balance their budgets. They are asking for cuts or even trying to banish the unions altogether. This has led to massive demonstrations in some states such as Wisconsin.

The plans to cut benefits and wages of workers are still going forward, but there is growing resistance to the plans. The unions are banning together and spending a lot of cash to advertise their predicament. The battle is certain rage on for many years as the budgets are getting out of control.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

One thing that everyone is talking about is the need for the U.S. to create more jobs. One area that we are doing well in is manufacturing. With recent increased demand for products, companies are falling behind in supplying them. This means they will be forced to hire more people.

One of the best areas that the U.S. is adding jobs in is the manufacturing arena. The trend is expected to continue for the near future and will help create the needed jobs. This will help the economy overall and raise the hopes of the American public who hope that the economy will improve.

Chinese currency

America has been running a trade deficit with the country of china for many years now. The big problem with that is that American companies are saying the Chinese unfairly manipulates its currency. They keep it at the same level as the American dollar which isn’t fair.

The difference keeps Chinese goods cheap in America while raising the price of American goods in china. This creates an unfair advantage for Chinese companies and costs Americans millions of jobs. The U.S. government is attempting to address the issue and I hope they do so soon.