John Hattaway » economy

Generic Updates

smokingpen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 03:07:33 +0000

As I wrote that title, I had images of growing up in Texas and going to the H.E.B for food and then heading down the generic isle that was filled with white boxes, black lettering, ingredients, and a barcode. Because teenagers aren’t all that creative, one of the things we ended up doing was putting barcodes on our shirts and clothes as an emblem of our generictude. However, the outcome of all of this is that you could get cheese snacks, crackers, cookies, and all sorts of other things for very little money and it generally tasted good. As this was before the public internet, rumors had it that major food manufacturers made the products and then sold them to grocery stores without advertising or anything else. Other than being something that connects one thought with what I am planning on writing, there is little else that connects the two thought processes (the second of which I haven’t shared yet), and yet I proceed.

For starters (and I will post links when it is done) Erin and I are going to sell her Hyundai Accent. The cost will be $10,000. It’s a 2007 and in great condition. She got a Simonize warranty on it and called the dealer (that sold her the warranty) to find out that we had to take it to a Hyundai authorized retailer who then had to write a letter that was then forwarded to Simonize who would, most likely, send out one of their reps to try and clean the problem and only then would they consider whether or not the problem is covered under the warranty. I have to tell you, not all that promising. Regardless, we put four new All Season tires on the car today, am getting it detailed tomorrow. Taking pictures. And then advertising it for sale tomorrow.

Truth told, we are hoping to end up in England for work. In which case, we will also be selling my car. Though, at present, we are only selling Erin’s.

I am still looking for work. And I am looking for work in England as well as the United States. This does not mean I am going to get a job in England, though, I have to admit, I hope I do. It’s just one of those things. What that means (for you all) is that I have been reworking my resume and will probably create a page with the All Purpose resume or the Technical Writer variant or whatever on this website. I am also thinking of putting up the All Purpose cover letter as well.

On a slightly different tack, I am also going to take a short story I wrote a couple of years ago for a class and post it under /story. My plan for that was this past Sunday (yesterday) but ended up hanging with the fam (Erin and Camper) rather than playing with websites. Truth told, the resume update requires that I change some of the look of the website in order to accomodate the changes and as a result the outcome (e.g. your ability to see it) will take some time. At the same time, I will also be doing some altering for the short fiction I am posting, though that will probably be slightly faster.

I think, for the moment, that shall be it. More tomorrow.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

Plan B

smokingpen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:20:39 +0000

Today starts Plan B.

What is it? Well, I am now looking for work in an ever broadening circle. That should prove to be fun. I did go to Berkshire Works today (essentially the local office for the state employment offices) and I stopped by a temp agency and I applied to be a substitute teacher. The Berkshire Works stop was to get the information I needed to apply for an editor position at a magazine that promotes an interesting philosophy. The man at Berkshire Works told me that the lady that does the hiring is actually very good at communicating with people who apply. Either to inform them of what the process is or to inform them they are not interested so very little or no effort is wasted. That was good news.

On the other fronts, I am not sure what I feel. I do know that Erin and I have asked different members of our families if they would participate in fasting and praying for us over the weekend. I am looking for work and am not being picky about where. We would like to stay on the east coast, but at present I am expanding the search and need to spend some hours sitting in front of a computer screen (like the one I am in front of now) and just hitting everything I am qualified for. My only requirement for jobs that are not within reasonable driving distance from where we are is that they pay for the move. Some years ago I had a company outside of Washington D.C. interested in me and (from what I believe) willing to hire me but not pay for the move across the country. Interestingly enough, the job and the interest disapeared when the economy crashed in 2002 and as a result my life took a very different turn.

That’s the thing with some companies. They are willing to offer, they are not willing to move and I have spent a sufficient amount of money moving myself and now my family places. I guess, as I write this, that if we felt right about an opportunity that might change our attitude, but that would be an exception and not the rule.

As a part of this, I will be traveling to Manhattan tomorrow to go to the LDS temple there. I would go to Boston, but that temple is currently closed for it’s bi-annual cleaning. As a result, I drive into New York state, jump on a train, ride into the city ending at Grand Central Station and then riding the subway over to Lincoln Center where the temple is located. I am kind of excited to go, but somewhat sad that Erin won’t be going with me. There are multiple reasons for this, but the main one is that she is staying home with CAMPER.

The outcome, we hope, is that something begins to look up and positive for us. Sure, I am willing to work for a temp agency or substitute teaching for a while, but the outcome is that we need to get our financial feet back under us. I realize not everyone is LDS or active or even willing to admit they are spiritual let alone the need to humble themselves before deity. And that’s fine. However, for those that are reading, those that are out there and want to help, please keep Erin and me in your prayers. Our fast will take place Saturday night into Sunday. If you want to participate, keep us in your thoughts and prayers at that time. We would appreciate it.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly

The Global Pie

smokingpen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:35:24 +0000

Trillions of dollars have been lost in retirement accounts and in the housing market. This is a tragedy. At least, we are led to believe this is a tragedy and truth told I think that people who own homes and now owe more than the home is worth makes them also feel as though they have gotten the worse end of the global economy and housing economy. And yet, this is still all about inflation.

According to this article I came across at Yahoo! News there is a single world pie.

What does this mean? It means that in all of the world at any given moment there is only so much money. This amounts to wealth existing only in proportion to the overall world wealth. The problem with this is that once wealth increases due to inflation (which is natural) over time, and then the markets crash and the value of property and the amount of wealth resets, businesses still want the inflationary amount for property rather than the reset monetary amount. In essence, a $100,000 house can (and in the current economy does) reset to a $60,000 range. The theoretical money is gone and the individual is now less rich; but in turn, that is how the economy works.

This is not an impossible situation to understand. The United States went through the Great Depression after a period of inflationary growth. The government tried a lot of different methods to bring the country out of the depression, but in the end it required a war and massive spending and exporting.

What is happening right now may not lead to a depression. But what is happening is that the economic pie is shrinking, like magic, and people are (theoretically) losing wealth.

John Hattaway | smokingpen | Alicia Grey | Clockwork Princess | Cassandra West

Real Heroes Fly