The elevator has a lazy door

The quintessential awkward scenario has somehow gotten worse. I'm speaking of the elevator. It used to be eyes up or eyes on the buttons or everyone watching the numbers light up as you ascended or dropped.

Now...... It's a call for every passenger to whip out their phone and check their phones that, inevitably, don't have anything new since the last time they check them which was when they were waiting for the elevator.

You ever see this move? Dude or doll gets in the elevator, whips out the phone and scrolls around for a few seconds and then puts it in his/her pocket. It's like pavlovian OCD syndrome happens every time the doors close.

American's. I challenge you to get into an elevator and NOT look at your phone. Do it.

Stuff and Things

Fall is here. Chill to the wind. Grey washes over Seattle. I like fall. The colors. Change and cool. Football and warming meals. Pumpkin gets added to everything. Nothing wrong with that.

Watched a Bob Marley interview today from 1979. He made (makes) a lot of sense. And he's doing it in a track suit. So nice.

State of Mind

I am out of a job and therefore collecting unemployment. In order to collect unemployment I need to attend a state run "orientation" about unemployment, how to get it, benefits, restrictions etc... A few observations o the 3 hour course:

1/ There's nothing in the course that isn't online at the WA state unemployment site which, by the way, is a pretty good overall website.

2/ At one point our instructor wanted to specifically point out that the information in the handout we had been given was correct. Huh? I guess I was working under that assumption, but it's nice to have it confirmed.

3/ Our instructor opened the kimono on a power struggle we didn't want to get involved with. And that is, make it as easy as possible for the "intake people" to confirm your job search log and don't give them any lip. Make it tough for them (wrong format, non-sanctioned ink - balck or blue only! - or give them lip and you can be assured that you will be asked to come in for a full job search review which will likely result in you having to give back money. This somehow smacks of the DMV but I'm not sure how.

4/ I asked one question around the ability to collect unemployment while taking education/training classes. You could do so as long as the job you used to have was "in decline" and the training/education was for a job that was "in demand". There's a list of said jobs.

My question: How is it determined whether a job is "in demand" or "in decline"?

Answer: Unknown. 

Really? Unknown? That seems kinda weird. this isn't the BCS where the formula is secret and arcane and serves to generate debate around the list. There should be some sort of empirical formula or evidence that a job is in demand or not. So I did a little digging in the King county list expecting to find several jobs not in demand simply by virtue of the recent number of closings, layoffs etc... Certainly there is not more demand for jobs now than there has been in say the last 5-10 years.

Quick Findings: There are a lot more jobs "in demand" that I would have thought. In fact, I couldn't find one job that wasn't in demand. 

Amusement and Recreation Attendants - 78 openings

Chief Executives - 110 openings.

Fast Food Cooks - 0 Openings. Zero. How is this in demand?

Economists - OK. I can see this one. Same with Bartenders.

Locker Room, Coat Room and dressing Room attendants - Wow! Here lies a shortage of competent talent I never knew existed. Is no cranny shielded from this economic downturn?

Real Estate Broker - This is where i stopped looking because this confirmed that the list was ridiculous. 

Andrew

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Bread and Butter Debut

This is a test for the Bread and Butter blog. Here is a link to something:

The Ting Tings

Their song called "That's not my name" is poppy good. Here's a video link:

Ting Ting Video

And here's an image:

This is a picture of me and Charlie when he was 2 days old.