ninj: (Default)
( Jan. 25th, 2012 05:31 pm)
Being unemployed is a drag. I mean what are you supposed to do with your day? It's really bad. I want a job. But I did what no one should do-I got used to certain income level. I'm earning unemployment for the next few months and lets just say taking a job that pays less than $12 an hour would not be worth it. Which in Texas is most entry level jobs.

As it turns out an MBA doesn't do you much good finding a job. For two main reasons.

1. No concentration. I didn't get an MBA with an HR emphasis for example. I just got a general MBA. So as a result I don't know very specific HR laws. I took an HR class and it was very general. So this puts me out of the running for all the HR jobs, accounting jobs etc.

2. No experience. I can't go into a Housing Authority here. I applied for one, and got rejected for a position higher than the one I had held in Fresno. I applied for entry level, but I haven't heard on those jobs. I want to go into the oil and gas industry-but they require experience, in that specific industry.

Now many of you may be reeling in shock after reading that last sentence. The oil and gas industry you say? It's nothing like the media portrays it. Nothing. And I have talked to people who work in the industry, and I have researched companies and I am ashamed of myself. Because I took what the media has always said and didn't consider the bias. When the Deepwater Horizon blew up I didn't research offshore drilling. I have now. It's not a perfect industry (no industry is) and clearly we (as a nation) have an oil dependency problem, but that doesn't make the industry itself a bad industry or the people who work it bad people. I hope I can find a job there.

They make a lot of money, but they always give a lot back to their employees. And the big company around here gives a lot back to the community too. I realize that people who work in the industry have their own bias and of course they like it when it's paying their bills, however, I think the important thing I learned is always, always to do my own research.

My dogs are getting spoiled with me being home all day all the time. I don't know what River is going to do when I go back to work. She freaks out if she's alone in the house. Since we're living with my parents someone is almost always home one way or the other. She tore up one foot on New Year's Eve with the fireworks and it's just starting to heal. She almost did more damage Sunday when I took my Mom to the airport and no one was home for about an hour and half. We have bought her Benadryl for the storms. She gets a full adult dose to keep her from loosing her mind during the thunder.

Haley is hanging in their despite the vets estimation just after Thanksgiving that she had one month to live. She coughs a lot and it's pretty clear that her heartbeat is not right, but she eats a lot and seems happy so I don't feel like we're hurting her by letting her live.

Since I live in Texas now where it is legal to say this-I have two ferrets and two dogs. If I every talk about my pack of animals that's what I mean. The ferrets are illegal in the state of CA which is why they may have been mentioned in less than detail.

Rachel Alexandra dropped her Curlin foal on Sunday. She had a cute colt that was 125 pounds. Mom and the colt are doing well. Zenyatta is due to foal in early March. Rachel Alexandra is scheduled to be bred to Bernardini this year which is the sire of the foal Zenyatta is carrying currently. Bernadini is also the sire of Zenyatta's half sister Eblouissante who starts her racing career this year.
ninj: Yee! Dork Icon (Spike)
( Jan. 16th, 2010 10:54 pm)
Well, other then the fact that it is a three day weekend for me I have other happy random news.

Zenyatta is racing in 2010! They have decided not to retire her after all. This makes me happy. Yes, winning the Breeder's Cup might be the most accomplished thing she's done, and will do, but I believe after seeing her that this horse loves to run, and to win. So I'm truly happy that she's going to get to keep doing it. Plus, since she races in Southern California there is a chance now that I might see her race at Santa Anita or Hollywood Park. AND there is a chance that the racing world might still get to see the big show down: Rachel Alexandra VS. Zenyatta. It would be amazing.

Horse of the Year will be decided on Monday and I'm sure at that point I'll have more horse related things to say.

In other sports like news: Winter Olympics soon. I'm sure I won't enjoy it as much as the last Olympics, but still, I think parts will be fun to watch.
ninj: (Default)
( Nov. 7th, 2009 04:04 pm)
Enough said. Dead last to first and she made it look easy. Horse of the year to Zenyatta. She came and Rachel didn't. This is the year of the female race horse.

It was amazing. She is a race horse for the ages.
They keep asking if she can win the Classic. I keep wondering if they really think they can stop her. I mean unlike every other horse in the field she has never known defeat. NEVER. When she goes out there to run if horses do pre-run imaging she's always the first one across the line. Today, when she goes out there with all these male horses, in a field larger then any she has eve faced why would she see anything differently? I mean, again crediting horses with possibly more intelligence then they have she might know races end differently for other horses, but not for her.

Lets go back to Rags for Riches. Anyone remember her stretch run in the Belmont? She intimidated Curlin. They were next to each other and she laid back her ears and he backed off. He might have been tired, but she won. So these mares do have that edge and the urge to dominate.

So I'm really rooting for Zenyatta. I do feel the European Rip Van Winkle might be a threat with Summer Bird. Sorry, Mine That Bird, but you're just out. It should be really interesting to see how this all plays out.

So far it's been good day for the ladies with the Mile having been won by a filly. The same one that won last year. Goldikova was her name.
ninj: (Generation Kill)
( Sep. 7th, 2009 09:40 pm)
So sadly some unhappy news on the Rachel Alexandra front: no more racing in 2009. She's not injured I guess they're just giving her a break. I know she's not going to run in the Breeder's Cup, but come on there are other races for super filly to run in. Baffert, on the other hand is burning up CA tracks with his two year olds. However, this is sad trend with Baffert in that he trains super 2 year olds that never seem to make it to three year olds super stars. I miss the days when he ruled the crown.

To my list of things I will be watching this fall I should add Castle. I enjoyed it a lot last spring and I plan to keep on enjoying it.

If anyone is looking for a good mini series about the war in Iraq there are not words enough for me to recommend Generation Kill. You can watch HBO's seven episode mini series of amazingness or you can read Evan Wright's book. I plan on getting the book once I have disposable income. Which may be never. Please see new icon for GK love.
ninj: Yee! Dork Icon (Spike)
( Sep. 6th, 2009 08:40 am)
Rachel Alexandra won the Woodward yesterday against the boys again. The fifth grade 1 race in a row. Fillies are really burning up the racing world. I would give so much to see her and Zenyatta race against each other. Or, in a really cool world they could rule the Breeder's Cup in October by having Zenyatta run the in the Distaff (Zenyatta does not run against boys) and Rachel in the Classic and they could win win win. Oh yes. Sadly, Rachel is not running in any Breeder's Cup race because she doesn't like the surface. So this Woodward was no easy win for Rachel either. She only won by a nose or so, but it was sweet, wire to wire and Macho Again couldn't catch her neither could Da'tara. Some familiar names in that field. So this makes my weekend.

Also on the up is still Leverage. I don't talk about it as much because it's cute and fun and not a show I'm obsessing over but I like it a lot. So much love for Elliot, Hardison, and Parker. This will be the last week of Leverage for awhile. Summer TV is ending and fall TV is not close enough.

Things I Will Be Watching This Fall
1. Dollhouse-I like it enough to watch the second season especially after Ephitaph 1 and with all the BSG cast members they're going to have me thinks it will be amazing.
2. Not Sarah Connor because people are stupid and cancel the show I'm really going to miss
3. NCIS-MAYBE. I've heard spoilers that make me really unhappy with this show. I mean as in I may stop watching on my own personal principles of not supporting a show that treats women the way this show does and thinks that it's okay. There is no excuse for a show that constantly promotes that women will always die over men due to being incompetent, traitors, and that because they're feminine they're deaths are more upsetting. I just think it's disgusting and it's really making me not enjoy the show anymore.

I think it's it. Woe is me for there is almost no fall TV. Ideas?

One more week until True Blood is over and I can swear myself off of such shows. yay. But I will miss Eric and Pam and they're snarkiness. Oh Teacup Humans. I laughed my ass off.
Ahhh. Crap. I hate you fandom. Torchwood broke my little fangirl heart and I swore off fandom for awhile, but True Blood. I should have known my love of vampires was going to suck me right back in. Possibly, I should re-think that last sentence. Anyways, thoughts are under a cut for spoiler purposes.

Read more... )

IN RL news I'm having to switch dates for going home to WI. Well, at least i hope to be. There's a lot going on in September for Chris and I and I don't know if I can take time off, plus work is being pushy about how I knew I didn't qualify for paid time off. Yes, I knew. I just assumed I'd take unpaid time off. Apparently, that's not allowed.

Work is stressful because we're so far behind and there's so much to do. Good news is that I stay busy. I like being busy.

The dog and I have been on better terms this week. We're working on a strict schedule of walks and feeding, and I realize that unless I want to deal with a sick dog I no longer get to sleep in on weekends. Ugh. Life is not fair.

I spent time in Borders this week reading the latest book by Michelle Sagara. Very interesting. I really enjoyed it despite missing 60 page gap of which 30 showed up randomly in the book later. No really. The book went from 270 to 300 something and then later 270 to 300 showed up but the rest of the missing pages did not. So I was really confused for awhile. Tiamaris and Nightshade are going to be having some interesting conversations.

Bah it has suddenly turned hot and muggy. I am turning on the AC. In good news-Chris is coming home for the night. I don't know why, but he's on his way. YAY.

And: RACHEL ALEXANDRIA WON THE HASKELL AGAINST SIX BOYS INCLUDING SUMMER BIRD. GO RACHEL!!!
ninj: Miss Jaffacake gets credit for making the icon (Torchwood Snark)
( Jul. 27th, 2009 06:36 pm)
1. Rachel Alexandria is running in the Haskell on Saturday!!! She's going up against the boys again. Oh this is going to be so sweet. I really hope she wins. For a filly to win another Grade 1 race against the boys is huge! I will have to watch now. Something to look forward to this weekend.

2. Second season of True Blood. So much better then the first. Although since I've read the books I have a lot of thoughts. There will be a True Blood post in the near future. A long one.

3. CARS program. Chirs and I traded in his clunker and got a new Ford Escape. I will never buy a new car again, but we're very happy. And it had such perfect timing because we were really going to be in a bind on the car front. So YAY.

4. KaBoom! I get to volunteer on Thursday to help build a playground for youth without access to a local neighborhood playground. Sounds like fun to me. (As long as the kids aren't there)

5. VAAD meeting tomorrow. This is for work-but we really need a unit meeting to clear stuff up so I'm excited.
I was cheering for Bird to go go go, but the wrong Bird listened. Mine that Bird came in a struggling third and Summer Bird came in a dazzling first. Oh what a race though. With Dunkirk they really battled it out for the lead. I can tell you though that Birdstone (sire to both of them) is going to have his stud fee increase. His babies are doing some good running. Birdstone was also an upset in the Belmont. This pretty much wraps up horse racing for awhile. I'm going to try and catch some of the later summer races like the Haskell and the Travers, but we'll see. My track record with those races is not so good.

Moving is not going so well. So I'm not going to talk about it.

I recently was at Barnes and Nobles and decided to read though and catch up on the Anita Blake Series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I would recommend the first six. And then I would recommend that you drop the book series like a hot potato and never cast eyes on them again. You will no longer recognize the main character. Anita, whom you might previously have thought to have morals and at the very least standards drops those faster then the aforementioned hot potato and picks up more guys then I have fingers to sleep with. At once. I think even porn stars would blush at how many people she's sleeping with. And the books become pages of badly written porn. I read better fanfiction. Anyway, I've stopped buying the books a long time ago and even sold the ones I did have to half price. Still, reading these books now is like a train wreck you just have to wonder who's pants will fall off next. I mean the number of guys she's "accidentally" had sex with is just...yeah. To get to the point, I skimmed through some of the most recent books last weekend, and on Tuesday the new book Skin Trade came out. Now Skin Trade had a character that I had missed (one who hasn't been sexed up) and so I decided to read it. It was almost like the old Anita.

1. more then 20 pages without sex
2. only one big magically orgy at the end (which involved a 16 year old and all I can say is ewwwwwwwwww. I couldn't read it. Just way to much squick. Supposedly we're supposed to feel better because she didn't do it on purpose. Yes, that makes underage sex so much better. No consent because of magic)
2. She didn't sleep with Tedward! Wonder how long that's going to last.
3. Creepy Olaf was creepy. and also didn't get to have sex with her

I don't know. It wasn't great, but for once in recent history it wasn't badly written porn. Huh.Still not buying any of them.
ninj: (Default)
( Jun. 6th, 2009 03:17 pm)
Well, Mine That Bird is not looking so good. He's being edgy and nervous. HMMMM. IDK. I still think this race sets up really well for him. Or Dunkirk. That's my bed.

The newscasters are going with Charitable Man. I don't know why they think a front runner will do well this year when they normally trash them.

Nervous even though there's no crown on the line. Go Mine That Bird!!!
ninj: (Default)
( May. 24th, 2009 07:25 pm)
So here I am, a year after graduation and I'm moving again. Yes, we're staying in Fresno, no it is not going well. We've served our 30 day notice and we know where we want to live. They seem willing to lease to us. It's all well and good. We wanted a back up. So right across the street from where we were going to rent is another apartment complex that takes dogs of all sizes. I set up an appointment to view their two bedroom unit yesterday. On Thursday they called to confirm this appointment. Yesterday, no one showed up. So we're going with the first place.

We would like to move around June 11th. We'd done the math, and we were going to have the money but just barely. Until we found out that Chris was misinformed about his pay schedule. So now, we're short on the money. And the apartment complex we're currently living at states we're not getting any of our deposit (which is over $1,000) back until 21 days from the time we hand them they keys. Which if we have things our way is a week after we move out.

See Chris and I are moving ourselves, by car. We hope to get a U-Haul and two of his friends to help us on Thursday. Chris works 12 hours Friday though Mondays so weekends are out. And he can't miss work. Period. So we'd take position of the new apartment on a Thursday and I have a three day weekend starting the next day during which I would move as much of the small stuff as possible. Then, if that went well I would also be scrubbing down the old apartment so that we get as much of our deposit back as possible. We have to hand over the keys to the old apartment by June 19th. Which would be one week and one day after we want to start moving into the new apartment. I just don't know if we're going to have the money to move by then. I mean yes, I know we'll have it by June 16th, but that only gives us three days to move which Chris says we can't do. Because he can take one shift of his internship off, and that's what he does when he's not working.

To show how stressed I am about this, I have started to dream about it. Last night I dreamed that Robin gave us Scout a full week before we were able to move out of this place. So we smuggled Scout for walks at night. It was a horror. Only it seemed everyone in the complex owned dogs and we were all out walking them at four in the morning together. Huh.

Zenyatta won her first race of the season. This makes ten races in a row that she's won. She really is fun to watch. She up from dead last too. Remind you of anyone?

I am sorry that for the next few weeks this journal is going to be about moving. I'll try and through in something interesting now and again.

I'm still bitter about Sarah Connor Chronicles. Because I really wanted to know what happened in that future.
ninj: Miss Jaffacake gets credit for making the icon (Torchwood Snark)
( May. 13th, 2009 06:09 pm)
Well, remember when I said that the noticeable absence from The Kentucky Derby was Barbaro's full brother? Yes well, I know who that is now he's a three year old cold named Nicanor, and today he broke his maiden. Horses who run in maiden races have never won before. This was Nicanor's fourth race and they moved him to the turf (grass) and he won by 15 lengths. An impressive victory. So that's where is. No, not Kentucky Derby material by far. However, if he continues to do this well on turf we might be hearing more of his name later this year. So I found that on my livejournal friends page today and thought I'd share.

In other horse racing news the Preakness Stakes the second leg of the Triple Crown is on Saturday. Now, I'm going to say something shocking: I don't want there to be a Triple Crown winner this year. No offense to Mine That Bird who ran a surprising Derby and all, but I want Rachel Alexandra to win the Preakness. And no, it's not just because of the name. It's because she rocks. Now, some of you may be asking how does this effect the field?

Well, Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks by a strong 20 lengths. Also, Calvin Borel the jockey for Mine That Bird was her rider. In fact, he's contractually obligated to ride Rachel Alexandra over Mine That Bird. So, I just tried to check who is know the jockey for Mine That Bird but the official website still says Calvin Borel. I know he's impressive, but even I don't think he can ride two horses at once. So I think a lot of Mine That Bird's performance was how Calvin rode him. Plus there is the concern for him about the shorter Preakness distance. I would be a fool to count him out of the race, but I think things will challenge him.

Often times I feel like the Preakness is the weakest of the three races, but I really don't feel that this time. The first four finishers in The Kentucky Derby are at the race. Plus Friesan Fire is in the race and I think he would have been a bigger Derby contender if he hadn't stepped on himself coming out of the gate. Pioneer of the Nile did a good job during the Derby of staying near the leaders and I think that stalking style might be to his benefit.

My predictions plus the magic hat (which really screwed up the Derby this year) on Saturday morning.

In real life....human resources departments are failing all over. Mine insists that I can't have two middle names, I must have two last names. Hence why I couldn't log onto my time card because it kept asking for my last name and then rejecting me. Little did I know it's because I don't know my own last name. Okay, snarking done now. SO has also had HR problems. He went up to the park on Monday to do orientation only to find out that none of his background check cleared. Apparently there is two ways to do the math on 'list four years of previous residences'. He did the math wrong. Also his uniforms are not ready. HR insists he can't work without passing a background check (which I understand) but no one else is scheduled to work on Friday so Chris's boss would very much like them to get on that. We're still waiting for word.

Went down to LA for Mother's Day due to some unexpected time off for Chris. It was good times. Got to see Scout, and explain to Robin our hectic moving schedule. We're hoping for limited trips back and fourth between LA and Fresno. Pets complicate lives so much. Hopefully we get Scout when we move by June 19th. It's almost like a birthday present to me.

LA included SUSHI. Fresh yummy sushi. I missed it so so much. There was spicy tuna rolls, eel, CA rolls (for non fish loving SO) and edamame (not sushi). Sushi Don is a very strip mall like place near the Starbucks. A few tables and one counter. It's fresh, the guy who runs in came to America in the 1980's before sushi was trendy and spent time in CO explaining the concept to tourists. Sushi Don is affiliated with Sasabune a much more affluent and well known sushi restaurant in the LA area. Rummer has it they have a sign that says something to the effect of "We do not serve American sushi here-no CA rolls". So I have heard. We shall see.

This entry is getting long and I haven't even gotten to Dollhouse or NCIS yet. Tomorrow is another day.
ninj: (Aya)
( May. 2nd, 2009 10:08 am)
Okay everyone. We knew it was coming. The post on the Kentucky Derby is bellow. For now what the hat says and what I want the order of finish to be. My actual belief concerning the finish should come later this afternoon. The favorite I Want Revenge was scratched this morning due to heat in his right front hoof. So you will be seeing a 19 horse field.

Read more... )
ninj: (Hyde)
( Apr. 29th, 2009 10:14 pm)
Really good article about the cost of horse racing and who might suffer for some of its safetly concerns. Warning: This article is graphic. Graphic descriptions of pain and suffering by humans and animals alike.


http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/news/story?id=4104868

By the way on a funny note the Jenny Craig Trust has a horse in the Kentucky Derby. His name? Chocolate Candy. No lie.
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