Suck it jesus!

Three cheers for Kathy Griffin who made the only memorable acceptance speech in Emmy history last Sunday. So what did FOX, E! and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences do with her great speech? Censor it of course. She said, "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus! This award is my god now." Watch it in Youtube here:


So the Academy cut it because they found the comments 'offensive.' So I suppose it wouldn't hurt to write to the Academy and E! mentioning that you find it offensive to your intelligence every time one of those moron actors (sorry for the redundancy) thanks jesus. Email the chairman/ceo of the academy Dick Askin at dick.askin@emmyleader.org and email E! here.

Good work Kathy, Our next goal is to have somebody earnestly look into the camera and thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Back to work

So I took a job teaching middle school Language Arts with a large public district down here in SoCal and should be starting that next week. A low-income school, so I suppose for preparation I need to watch one of those hollywood movies like "Freedom Writers" and everything will go just great. Or I suppose I could skip that entirely and actually do something useful, like learn all the CA language standards that I'm now supposed to be an expert on.

I should note that in the interview for this particular job which I have landed I spoke the truth plainly in mostly positive, but some negative, terms and even took a jab at the HR department. So the moral, for me anyway, is that it's not a crime to let out at least a tiny bit of one's frustration with the job search process in an interview. It will show them that you are a real human after all.

Displaced Seattlite

For decades folks in the Northwest have been blaming everything on Californians moving north. They seem to be mostly harmless though except for their constant complaints about the rain. Now that I have moved the opposite direction I find myself complaining about the lack of rain down here.

The best I can tell, it just seems to be the weather and the beaches that have attracted people to LA. At the moment I can't seem to find anything else much positive to say about the area. They have good Mexican food, but so does every other place in the country now. They have plenty of entertainment options of course, but they generally cost an arm and a leg and take hours to get to. Driving comes in two flavors down here, either it doesn't move, or everybody drives like they have to get where they're going yesterday. Despite that the weather is better suited for them here, there is zero respect for pedestrians or bikers who take to the sunny streets, so those who value their lives don't.

The weather here is boring. How about a drizzle once every few months just for a change of pace? I never bothered to wash my car in the Northwest, here car washes are a major industry. Plenty of circling police helicopters overhead to keep you awake at night is a real plus of course. Having to talk to my bank teller, broadband customer service agent and post office clerk through bullet-proof glass seems slightly less friendly than over a counter.

Admittedly there are more things similar between any two places in the US these days than there are differences, but it is the small differences and details that are so annoying and make a place less liveable. I will just stare at the smog and daydream about seeing real clouds again.

Who do HR people call to get a job?

I am developing a theory about why HR departments in many school districts are so worthless. I'm sure they will tell you they are understaffed and all that but that just won't fly with me. I think the reason they are so inept is because they aren't called to task by their 'clients' when they screw up

Generally speaking if you screw up on the job it costs you in some way or another. However when HR folks screw up they only get more and more praise from the people they have to deal with. "Oh so you lost my transcripts and that's why I wasn't considered for the job? No problem, thanks for all your efforts!!!" "So I just put a few hours into an application for a job posted on your website that doesn't really exist? That's no problem at all!

I did a screening interview with a rather large district down here (which will remain nameless for the moment) about a month ago. I was told I would hear back from them if I made it into their pool and be eligible for site interviews. Well today I called them to find out what was going on, and I got passed from person to person in HR since nobody seemed to have a clue about my status. Finally a woman told me I had passed the screening interview and that they did indeed have openings and wanted to know if I was still interested in them. She then asked me if I was living in the local area and if I would be able to start work right away if I was offered a position. So it's quite obvious that despite doing well on the interview my file was hidden in some dark recess of the office and if I hadn't have called to check up on things it would still be growing mold.

This is a district that I'm quite sure complains to everybody about how they have a shortage of qualified teachers blah blah blah, yet don't even look at the ineptitude in their HR department. I think the poorer the district the better the HR department is at screening out the most qualified (read: expensive) candidates. That is the only possible reason I can explain for why I didn't pass the Compton USD screening process where I also interviewed earlier this summer. Hmm three years of experience with good references, a masters, sorry buddy that's just not good enough to teach in our very desirable district.

Like all my other rants on my job search I'm just spouting out stuff that I don't have the balls to say to folks face to face. I've decided I have to let this out somewhere, and seems you're the unlucky one who has to hear it.

Stay positive? screw that!

The mantra you will hear from your friends and family is that the job search process is no fun but you need to stay positive. Well in general, you will enjoy your life more if you try to be positive of course, but I'm beginning to doubt it will get you a job any faster, so I've decided to just accentuate the negative now and see if it works out any better for me.

Ok so last week I went to two interviews, both of which were memorable for negative reasons. For the first one they told me my appointment was 9:20. I got to the school at about 9:05, the office was a bit chaotic with all these families in there trying to register. They told me to sit down on one of the two stackable chairs in the corner of this cramped office. Sitting next to me was a guy who told me his interview was scheduled for 8:50. We were soon joined by somebody who had the 9:40 slot and then the 10:00 slot. This first guy went in probably about 9:40 and got out about 10:15. While I was waiting for an hour, I think I was joined by four candidates who had appointments after mine. I was pissed about having to wait an extra hour for my appointment, I imagine some of them didn't get to talk to the principal for two hours or more after their scheduled time.

So as a candidate I suppose you're supposed to say "no problem" when they say "Sorry to keep you waiting." I just said nothing in response because I couldn't bring myself to say "no problem" but I should have said what I was thinking, which was "Who was the moron who scheduled the interviews 20 minutes apart? I have a life too you know." So I didn't get that job anyway, and probably was DOA walking in, maybe I should have said that. At least that way I would have stood out from the other dozen candidates.

For the other interview the office was also jumping and I only had to wait a few minutes which is normal and quite forgiveable during registration times. However, this principal obviously hadn't even glanced at my resume or application beforehand. He was sort of half looking through it as he was asking questions at the same time as dealing with people coming into his office with their own needs. He basically wasn't listening to a word I was saying and asked the same questions a couple of times, having me repeat the same information. Then somewhere in there he tells me this wasn't even for an official opening, there was just the possibility that a teacher was going to retire and they wanted to be sure to have their bases covered. I just about walked out there and then, and again I should have instead of just writing about it now. I had to drive about 20 miles to the interview, get dressed up, the whole bit, for an opening that doesn't even exist yet?

So you may say I have the wrong attitude, but if the right attitude is (to quote Mr. Saturday Night) : When somebody shits in your hat, you say 'Thank you, it fits much better now!' then I will happily live with my wrong attitude. Go attend your seminars on "The power of positive thinking" if you like, but here at Skepticklish I will preach (but not nescessarily practice) speaking the truth as you know it in all situations, even job interviews.