Well, first, it's not called the unemployment office anymore. It's called the...drumroll, maestro...The Career Center. Ta-da. No it is not a Career Center. Let's face facts here, people. It's the unemployment office because you go there because you're unemployed.
I tried to sign up for unemployment benefits--that's code for money--a couple of times over the phone, but the sheer volume of people seeking career advice--that's more code for money--caused the Career Center to implode. First I was shunted to another day based on the last digit of my social security number, and then when I called on that day I was held in a holding pattern, eating up my cell minutes like Pacman on speed, then after about twenty minutes I was unceremoniously disconnected.
So I decided to go in, in person. With much trepidation, I might add. Because in this country, it is shameful and embarrassing to be out of work, or poor, or just not a bright and shiny lie. But heck, I'm an actor and a writer. I need life experiences to keep my creative juices flowing.
And you know what? It wasn't that bad. As a matter of fact, it wasn't bad at all. Just regular folks needing a little help. I even saw a woman there who I used to see on the T when I commuted. Small world. We're all in this together, people.
I took two books I'm reading: A Journey in Ladakh by Andrew Harvey and One Man's Wilderness by Sam Keith. (Sorry. I haven't updated weRead on Facebook. I've been a little busy.) Both books are about people searching for spirituality, each in their own way. One, in Ladakh, India, and the other in Alaska.
The Career Center was a bit hard to find, sort of tucked away on a side street. I asked a UPS driver where it was. He told me, and he was the one who ruefully told me it was called the Career Center now, and we laughed, then he said there were a lot of people there and wished me good luck. Boy I tell you, the regular response of people when they learn you got laid off is that you've been diagnosed with cancer.
It wasn't that crowded. I expected the place to look like they were giving away Springsteen tickets, but it was quiet and friendly. I had to fill out a form, then sit for a bit longer than an hour. I read a bit about the man building a log cabin in Alaska, then while I was reading about the British intellectual looking for spiritual enlightenment in India, my name was called.
A brief meeting with a consultant, and I was out of there.
Oh, and I also learned that the state is hiring prison guards. Now there's a job for a writer/actor.
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
You know, the T really ain't that bad
The T--the MBTA, Boston's public transportation system--is, like politicians, an easy target. Commuting is rarely fun or comfortable, and so you don't have to scratch too deeply to find something to criticize. Whether it's late-running trains or the lack of shelter on outside platforms during Boston's brutal winters, there's always something that you can improve.
And let me say I'm one of the first to always take a potshot.
But while Sue and I were away in Arizona, we talked about the advantages we have with the T. We talked about this a lot when we were standing on street corners in Phoenix for an hour waiting for a bus on which we would then spend maybe another half hour just to get a few miles.
When you think about it, there really are only three cities in the United States with decent public transportation systems that you can pretty much rely on: New York, Washington, DC, and good old Boston. For two bucks, you can pretty much get wherever you have to go, and do it in a relatively timely fashion. Sometimes you have to work within the T's schedule--weekend or holiday schedules when the trains don't run as often--but that's just something you factor into urban living. And for fifty-nine bucks, you get a monthly pass that pretty much gives you free rein throughout the city.
The thing is, there are factors--let's even call them wolves--that have been coming to the forefront of our country's consciousness, and have arrived. Yes, the wolf is at the door. The economy, jobs, our dependency on foreign oil, the decline of American industry, the environment.
You see where I'm heading, don't you? Large-scale public transportation is the answer to all those issues. But it's going to take some real visionaries to see and implement them. People are going to have to be convinced. They don't want to give up their cars. But if you had asked people back in 1984 what they wanted in a computer, no one would have said I want this little thing I can push around on my desk so I can point at pictures on the computer screen. The visionaries at Apple, though, could see it, and made it work. Visionaries are going to have to make this work, and show people what they're missing when it comes to saving time and changing their commute.
In short: public transportation projects will address and solve the economic and environmental issues facing our country:
Jobs. Somebody's got to plan, oversee, build, and run transportation systems. You cover the bases from the system architects to the IT people to the conductors, hiring all skill sets and levels of education. Somebody's got to build the trains and tracks. During WW II the automakers retooled and built cars and trucks and fighting armor for the war effort. Times change. Why can't the automakers make their hybrid cars, but branch off into other forms of transportation, too? This is war; we are fighting for our survival when it comes to the economy. We're all going to have to take a new look at how we live and operate.
Dependency on foreign oil. This is obvious. Less cars on the road. Most trains run on electricity, which will come from other green industries like wind farms and solar power.
The decline of American industry? There should be a mandate that stipulates that these projects be American-built, that everything from the locomotives to the bolts holding the tracks together be American-made.
The environment. Again, this is obvious. Less cars on the road means less air and water pollution. (We forget that cars leak oil and wear rubber on the roads, which all washes into our water supply.)
The Big Dig in Boston was one of the biggest pork barrel projects ever, on the same grand scale as the credit crisis. We simply spent billions of dollars to keep people employed hiding a traffic jam underground.
If years ago, we had had visionaries running this state, we could have taken all of those billions and made a world-class public transportation system that would have been a model for projects today that would lead us out of our economic crisis.
And let me say I'm one of the first to always take a potshot.
But while Sue and I were away in Arizona, we talked about the advantages we have with the T. We talked about this a lot when we were standing on street corners in Phoenix for an hour waiting for a bus on which we would then spend maybe another half hour just to get a few miles.
When you think about it, there really are only three cities in the United States with decent public transportation systems that you can pretty much rely on: New York, Washington, DC, and good old Boston. For two bucks, you can pretty much get wherever you have to go, and do it in a relatively timely fashion. Sometimes you have to work within the T's schedule--weekend or holiday schedules when the trains don't run as often--but that's just something you factor into urban living. And for fifty-nine bucks, you get a monthly pass that pretty much gives you free rein throughout the city.
The thing is, there are factors--let's even call them wolves--that have been coming to the forefront of our country's consciousness, and have arrived. Yes, the wolf is at the door. The economy, jobs, our dependency on foreign oil, the decline of American industry, the environment.
You see where I'm heading, don't you? Large-scale public transportation is the answer to all those issues. But it's going to take some real visionaries to see and implement them. People are going to have to be convinced. They don't want to give up their cars. But if you had asked people back in 1984 what they wanted in a computer, no one would have said I want this little thing I can push around on my desk so I can point at pictures on the computer screen. The visionaries at Apple, though, could see it, and made it work. Visionaries are going to have to make this work, and show people what they're missing when it comes to saving time and changing their commute.
In short: public transportation projects will address and solve the economic and environmental issues facing our country:
Jobs. Somebody's got to plan, oversee, build, and run transportation systems. You cover the bases from the system architects to the IT people to the conductors, hiring all skill sets and levels of education. Somebody's got to build the trains and tracks. During WW II the automakers retooled and built cars and trucks and fighting armor for the war effort. Times change. Why can't the automakers make their hybrid cars, but branch off into other forms of transportation, too? This is war; we are fighting for our survival when it comes to the economy. We're all going to have to take a new look at how we live and operate.
Dependency on foreign oil. This is obvious. Less cars on the road. Most trains run on electricity, which will come from other green industries like wind farms and solar power.
The decline of American industry? There should be a mandate that stipulates that these projects be American-built, that everything from the locomotives to the bolts holding the tracks together be American-made.
The environment. Again, this is obvious. Less cars on the road means less air and water pollution. (We forget that cars leak oil and wear rubber on the roads, which all washes into our water supply.)
The Big Dig in Boston was one of the biggest pork barrel projects ever, on the same grand scale as the credit crisis. We simply spent billions of dollars to keep people employed hiding a traffic jam underground.
If years ago, we had had visionaries running this state, we could have taken all of those billions and made a world-class public transportation system that would have been a model for projects today that would lead us out of our economic crisis.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Saturday night guitars
It's been a quiet weekend here. It's getting chilly as fall really settles in. We're still getting pretty fall days, and we're enjoying them. I've learned not only to enjoy but also appreciate whatever is free in this world. A pretty sunrise or moonrise, like we have out there right night now, a crisp night, a walk through the city with good friends are things that I've learned can't be replaced by wide screen TVs and all the trappings with which so many people fill their lives. Simple and free is the way to go.
Of course, the economy is on my mind, so free is the way more and more people will have to be thinking. I'm believe this will be a whole new way of life for many people, living with less, living within their means, and I think it's for the better. I sometimes think we've not only bankrupt our treasury, we've also bankrupted our lives. I think so many people have compromised themselves and their values all in the cause of materialism they don't even realize it any more.
We're pretty good at living on the cheap, but we don't look at it like that though. We just enjoy pretty simple things in life. It's a Sunday night, and right now I can hear her strumming on Vida in the other room. We grilled out last night and tonight, and tonight's chicken marinaded all day with a stray bottle of salad dressing we had in the 'fridge. Last night we sat on the floor with a bottle of wine between us, each cradling a guitar until around 11:00.
Before we went to bed we checked out Mad Men on Youtube, something I've seen clips of and have heard so much about. I feel I'm missing something when I hear people, especially at work, go on and on about the TV shows they watch, then I see them and can't for the life of me figure out what all the fuss is about. So I just keep quiet (well, maybe not here I don't) but it just seemed to me to be the same old same old, albeit some high quality same old same old. Good-looking white people, each one with a single distinguishing personality characteristic, then you just overlap small scenes of semi-outrageous behavior and include pithy dialogue that doesn't really appear in real life. I guess I'm jaded (I guess?--are you kidding? I'm the definition of jaded.)
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Quiz: Is this a Democrat or a Republican?
I keep saying you can’t tell the Democrats from the Republicans anymore. Freshman State Rep Pam Richardson, in the Commonwealth of Taxachusetts who has a “D” listed after her name, filed a bill in the Legislature to combat the underground economy. The UE comprises people who are paid cash under the table and don’t pay tax on the income. Around this neck of the woods in Massachusetts, that’s code for the Brazilians who work for landscapers and contractors, but let’s not drag this down into the mud and turn it into a racial issue. It’s not, although it would be an easy crack to make that Richardson’s wealthier and whiter Northside constituents are coming down on their poorer and browner Southside neighbors. But we know there are assorted contractors and the like who live on that side of Framingham who surely take a payment or two under the table. It’s really a class issue, once more highlighting the growing gulf between those that have it, and those that don’t.
It’s just a little funny to see a Democrat trying to take money from a worker’s pocket. It used to be Democrats understood the working man and woman’s plight and did whatever they could so people could hang on to what little they had. Outside her district, there are a lot of people who are really struggling and do whatever they can to make ends meet. I mean, by many standards, I make a pretty good wage even as a lowly writer, but I still have to do a little work on the side and I still don't always make ends meet. (Note to Rep. Richardson: I do pay taxes on my freelance work.) Maybe instead of trying to take money, it might be more helpful if Richardson would either a) use her brain and influence to help people earn a better living, and b) use the aforementioned characteristics to reduce the reasons for the underground economy. Here are just a few suggestions.
Work on making housing affordable. Forget the cost of a house, has anyone looked at the cost of renting an apartment lately? Rent can be more than a mortgage, and that's without utiliites.
How about focusing on public safety? This goes hand-in-hand with housing. Funny how it works, but the most affordable housing tends to be situated in the most unsafe part of town.
How about working on the cost of commuting to our jobs? Can we get a break on car insurance in this state? Or how about more, meaning better and cheaper, public transportation? Train fares just went up, so to get to my job in Boston I take three hundred bucks right off the top of my monthly income just to park and ride the train. It’s still cheaper than driving and parking in Boston, but just so you know, I didn’t get a raise to cover this.
Richardson’s background is all in education. That cute picture on her Web site shows a couple of kids. Does she know what the cost of education is? I’m not talking college. Wait until one of those kids wants to plays sports in school. Or needs a calculator the size of an IBM computer for algebra. These are the sorts of things that keep working parents up nights.
How about tax reform? Or at least better use of our taxes. People really hate to see their taxes wasted. Richardson’s answer to solving the UE is to put together an 11-member task force. Billed to the taxpayer’s, I’m supposing. Let me get this straight: She’s spending our money to figure out how to take even more? Nah, she’s not going to last. In four years she’ll be out of a job without a steady paycheck, and then maybe even Richardson will be working under the table.
It’s just a little funny to see a Democrat trying to take money from a worker’s pocket. It used to be Democrats understood the working man and woman’s plight and did whatever they could so people could hang on to what little they had. Outside her district, there are a lot of people who are really struggling and do whatever they can to make ends meet. I mean, by many standards, I make a pretty good wage even as a lowly writer, but I still have to do a little work on the side and I still don't always make ends meet. (Note to Rep. Richardson: I do pay taxes on my freelance work.) Maybe instead of trying to take money, it might be more helpful if Richardson would either a) use her brain and influence to help people earn a better living, and b) use the aforementioned characteristics to reduce the reasons for the underground economy. Here are just a few suggestions.
Work on making housing affordable. Forget the cost of a house, has anyone looked at the cost of renting an apartment lately? Rent can be more than a mortgage, and that's without utiliites.
How about focusing on public safety? This goes hand-in-hand with housing. Funny how it works, but the most affordable housing tends to be situated in the most unsafe part of town.
How about working on the cost of commuting to our jobs? Can we get a break on car insurance in this state? Or how about more, meaning better and cheaper, public transportation? Train fares just went up, so to get to my job in Boston I take three hundred bucks right off the top of my monthly income just to park and ride the train. It’s still cheaper than driving and parking in Boston, but just so you know, I didn’t get a raise to cover this.
Richardson’s background is all in education. That cute picture on her Web site shows a couple of kids. Does she know what the cost of education is? I’m not talking college. Wait until one of those kids wants to plays sports in school. Or needs a calculator the size of an IBM computer for algebra. These are the sorts of things that keep working parents up nights.
How about tax reform? Or at least better use of our taxes. People really hate to see their taxes wasted. Richardson’s answer to solving the UE is to put together an 11-member task force. Billed to the taxpayer’s, I’m supposing. Let me get this straight: She’s spending our money to figure out how to take even more? Nah, she’s not going to last. In four years she’ll be out of a job without a steady paycheck, and then maybe even Richardson will be working under the table.
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