Well, THAT was surprising, but very refreshing!

Yes, a new tag.

... No, I'm not crazy.

YES, I FOUND A JOB!

Now that I got out of the way... remember that job fair I posted about ? The one with guys and weird shoes and girls in party clothing ? I saw a French ISP there, they offered an interview on the spot.

The interview was on Thursday (22nd). First we had a test with 40 questions to reply to (including things like "If I am with ISP 1, can I use the POP settings of ISP 2" or "What is a DOS attack ?" which made me laugh because in French "dos" is "back" and the first possible answer was "An attack in your neighbor's back"). Apparently they wanted to see if some of the candidates could end up technical hotliners :P .

I ended up with a group of three people, but one guy left early because he realized he'd been told incorrect things about the job openings. He thanked them for their time (two charming ladies were interviewing us) and they apologized for someone else's mistake.

Then had a test (other applicant and I played customer/CSR and said applicant told me I sounded awesome) . And then my personal interview. They liked my little CSR roleplay, they liked my attitude, and they seemed to like me in general. We may never become best buddies, but I felt it had gone very, very well.

They told me they'd reply soon because training start date is October 3rd. I did not expect an answer soon, to be honest,  because there were at least 15 applicants that day, and I was thinking maybe they'd seen more people earlier.

Long story short, I got an e-mail Friday morning to tell me that I did, indeed, get the job. Full time permanent position (most coveted type of contract in the French private sector, hard to explain) ... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Job Search Amusement

Hello :D ... I am back to tell you about that job fair I was supposed to go to. Job seeking is fun... NOT. Mostly because, when I try to dress up as nicely as possible, I feel like I am not me at all (grr flat shoes, yay sneakers is one example). Thankfully, I have a rather nice attitude (not trying to compliment myself here, this was actually said to me :D ) .

If you're still with me, you might wonder why I am amused, then. Well... let's just say I am not surprised the world is in a recession (that was the first "joke" that came to mind as soon as I entered the fair with my friend) . A few examples :

- Blonde girl walking around with a dress similar to this : http://www.kiabi.com/femme/robes/robe-bustier-finition-fronces/188/P224053/C1 and shoes similar to these, but shinier : http://www.zappos.com/betsey-johnson-teasee-black-suede . She really did not look like she wanted a job at all.
- Men with large jeans and shoes looking like these : http://www.zappos.com/dsquared2-sn013-v-016-81-verde

I could list more, but then it would take a while longer. There were MANY people who looked like they did not belong at a job fair, let alone at a job interview. It was really appalling, especially when you'd see people with very bad attitudes (not necessarily vulgar or nasty, but way too casual, as if chatting with friends for example) .

I hope people wake up. Dress appropriately for a job fair, just as if you were going to a job interview. Look the part. Look smart. Behave as if you were in a job interview, with respect and consideration for the status of the person you have in front of you.

Facebook and their ads :D (re: "fashion" )

Today, of course, between the job fair I was supposed to go to (I went, more on that in another post haha) , I was geeking away on Facebook and since Adblock was giving me too many problems, I disabled it and have the pleasure of seeing Facebook ads again. So I give you something that strikes me as rather "funny" , if not "completely deranged and offensive" ... an ad for a clothing website!

Now, let me tell you about French fashion a little bit. Or rather, let me just tell you that, while we surely have our version of "white trash" , most websites, while they can have semi-sexy to super sexy clothes like in Victoria's Secret (I almost get a nosebleed everytime, yeah... sorry) , are nowhere near as... well, they're not what I'm seeing on this website. I'll show you.

I've been on those websites to buy clothes: www.kiabi.com , www.quelle.fr ,  http://www.c-and-a.com/fr/fr/shop/start.html , http://www.laredoute.fr/ , and these are just the beginning.

Example of something I find rather nice, that can look sexy or professional depending on what you pair it with : http://www.laredoute.fr/vente-robe-drapee-fluide.aspx?productid=324245195&documentid=222311&categoryid=61254598&numberpage=1&pos=38_n_n&prodsize=00042

And then you have... ugh. This. 

Forgot this tidbit yesterday

I know I babble a lot about Facebook, but I guess this will be a plea to everyone:

IF you have people on your list that are NOT American, can you PLEASE hide them from your uber-American status updates that may/will offend non-Americans ? 

I am not saying people should not post what they want to their own status. But please. (And while I'm at it, another collection of "Copy and Paste" statuses that make my head go BOOM.

A new Facebook copy and paste that has me go "WTH"

So no one forgets: Don’t buy the new Pepsi can coming out with pics of the Empire State building and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. Pepsi left out 2 little words in the pledge "Under God." Pepsi said they didn't want to offend anyone. So if we don't buy them, they won't be offended when they don't receive our money with the words "In God We Trust" on it. ~ How fast can u re-post this..

come on everyone...lets ALL repost!!!

Soooo... as previously mentioned, these things drive me batty. This one even more so. Newsflash: not everyone believes in God, and those people should not have God shoved down their throats at every occasion. I could bet atheists will happily buy those cans... even though I prefer Coca-Cola, even I would buy Pepsi to support this move.

Don't hold on to anger for too long

For some reason, I was thinking about this this morning. You know how when someone does something to hurt you, and you hold on to the anger for so long that in the end you cannot even remember what you were angry about ? Yeah, that's the kind of thing I had in mind.

Of course anger is a legitimate feeling. It can't be helped, and I would even dare to say that it's sometimes healthy. As much as I claim to be a fun and happy person, I will confess freely that I do get angry from time to time, however, as I do not believe in the phrase "Revenge is a dish best served cold" , I decided a long time ago that "giving up" without forgetting was the best option for me.

My blood pressure would go up. I would get more headaches. I would be unhappy most of the time, and people could tell. I was NOT a person you would like to hang out with for a while. More withdrawn, sadder, I did not know how to appreciate life around me.

I have no idea when this all changed. It took me a while to become so "zen" about things (I am not  a zen person at all, heh) that I can now get angry, think about it (those "heat of the moment" arguments are the worst, I think) , and get over it within a day or two. And then, I simply remember and may, from time to time, mention the events again, but in that detached "look what I saw here here and here" way, when you tell friends about some new things you have discovered.

Being angry all the time is counter-productive. Just like being stressed about everything all the time will never help. I am still not as calm and relaxed about things as I wish I was, but the good news is, for me at least, that I am getting there.

Look around, life IS beautiful.

Hello everyone! 

Life is hard for many people. I cannot forget that I am very very lucky and, in some way, over-priviledged. I have a roof over my head, a loving partner, and while I have no job (yet - I am still looking and yes I am sure I will find one eventually) , I have food on my plate everyday.

Still, there are millions of people like me, who still cannot find anything beautiful in life. They are either sad or depressed, sometimes for a good reason (because, let's face it, lots of people suck biiiig time) , and have lost hope.

Well, for some reason, I haven't lost it myself. I see beauty everyday. I see ordinary people on the street who look like they are awesome. Pets, clouds, trees, flowers, landscapes... I am amazed everyday at what I can see and like. 

I am not the strongest person on Earth, but I have to admit I try a lot. I hold some things in because for me, they do not matter in the long run. Sometimes life dissapoints me, sometimes people make me a little mad or sad, but if I am happy overall, I don't even try to fight it. The good things I can see in life always win in the end, so I concentrate on that :P .

If you are reading this, and if I can help you in any way, you can send in questions, and I will reply anonymously. While this is a blog, I would love it if I could answer questions from people to help spread hope, love and good vibes. 

You may contact aletheria (gmail.com email) for questions, and I will use them here. This will be dealt with anonymously, and no personal details will be revealed. If you have a relationship question, a dilemma you are facing, don't hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to help you. Disclaimer: I cannot give out medical, legal or financial advice. Just things on a sort of ethical/moral/emotional standpoint , as I am just another regular human being trying to help ;) .

Job search annoyance

I know, I know, right now it looks like no matter where you go, most job seekers will tell you it's really really hard to find any jobs. First because you don't find any openings you might reply to. Then because when you do, not easy to get an interview.

And then because even after getting an interview that goes over very very well, and hearing that you have a very strong file... the company either hires internally, or hires someone else, or some other thing.

Example. Yesterday, my recruitment agency called me, saying they had a temp job for me, Mid-September/December or, at worst, October/December. Since I do, after all, want to work and need to, I happily accepted. The agent was supposed to call his client back with my info and call me back this morning to confirm start date.

Guess what happened ? Well, this time, the poor agent seemed to be trembling (for some reason, sometimes I can feel things in people's voices) when he told me that his client had actually found "another solution" for the two job openings that had been left until yesterday.

I cannot complain about it. No one discriminated against me (that I know of). No one deprived me of hard-earned earnings. Yet it feels as if, everytime this happens, the sting goes deeper and takes longer to heal.

I will continue to work on myself, and I will, of course, continue to look for work, but this is about the 10th time something like this is happening (although this was the closest to a job offer I've been since January) and it gets really frustrating.

Let's cross fingers though. My life won't end now, thankully, but I hope some fairy from above notices me and gives me a teeny tiny bit of luck on that side :P .

Adventures in web design

Urgh.

While I am, in general, a pretty positive person, sometimes I do get frustrated. Today is such a day! Yay!

The reason: I went to visit my other website today, www.akarui-kibuno.net . I notice that there is some sort of database problem, so I think ooooh okay I will update the thingie that needs to be updated. No biggie, right ?

Well, biggie indeed for this database noob (=points to self) and, after going to my server manager page thingamabob it turns out I have no idea what the hell I am doing :D .

As it stands, I will probably go back to it tomorrow. Bwahaha, it was easier when all I had to do to make a website was create html pages XD ... I did not know anything about it either, but at least learning was easier.

Darn PHP and SQL and things like that XD .