2 Months of Unemployment - Strange Days

Unemployment is an epidemic. Seems everyone knows someone without a job. Without a job because their company felt the need to tighten their belts. Because their company felt like they needed to make more profit. At one time companies would make less profit for a time in order to do the right thing and take care of their employees. That time is over.

I found my self on the business end of a layoff this year. At the time, I was somewhat relieved as I was beginning to hate my professional situation. Politics, favoritism and a general lack of vision made much of the work activity useless and without purpose. I received a severance package, I had the potential to get re-hired by another department, I was in a company-sponsored program to find a new job, I was fine.

2 months later, I am still looking for a new job. The company-sponsored program ended up being not much assistance, the re-hiring still hasn't happened and the endless sending out of the resume seems to be a dead end. I know there are a finite number of jobs out there and many people after each one. It is going to take time. I have to find the one company ready to give me a chance. Trying not to get down in this time is hard.

Financially I am okay. I applied and received unemployment benefits. I know that it will only last for so long, so I am looking every single day for a job. Looking for the job that is right for me. As much as I need work, this is an opportunity to get in a professional situation that is right. I honestly can say the last year at my last place of employment, I was not in the right place. It showed in my work. It showed in my motivation. You can only force it and fake it for so long. I know something is just around the corner.

What plays on your mind is that there have been millions of others who thought something else was just around the corner as well. They were wrong, found themselves out of a house, on the street and losing everything. It is reality. That is gnawing at the back of my mind. The fact that I might not find another job for another year. The fact that bills will pile up. The fact that I might lose my drive, my motivation, my will.

Budweiser grows again

At one time Budweiser made one beer. Budweiser. That was it. Then in the 70s Miller introduced Miller Lite to the world and Budweiser countered with one of the best selling beers in the country, Bud Light. In the past 10 years, Budweiser has tried to branch out, diversify it's offerings. There was Bud Ice (cheaper Budweiser), World Beer (a Heineken ripoff), even an energy drink, B2E (truly disgusting).

Lately they have gone overboard with the new brands. Bud Select, Bud Light Lime (Miller Chill), American Ale (Sam Adams), and now Bud Light Golden Wheat. Bud Light Golden Wheat is Bud's entry into the Wheat market that Blue Moon (Coors) currently dominates. Bud Light has the name recognition to get people to try it and I am sure Bud Light drinkers will think it is something new. But from all accounts Golden Wheat is a watered down wheat beer.

What remains to be seen is if non-Bud Light drinkers will even try it. Maybe the goal is to stop people from leaving the Bud family. By creating variations on the familiar bud formula with hints at other types of beers, maybe they feel as though they can keep their loyal customers. That really is the only sense I can make out of the strategy of coming out with so many different types of beers every year.

To give Budweiser credit, Bud Light Lime has been a hit. Why, I have no idea, but it has been a big hit. I see all kinds of people ordering it and loving it. I think it tastes nasty, but different strokes. With a $30 million advertising budget, I am sure Golden Wheat will be a hit as well. The question is will it be a hit for new Budweiser drinkers or will it keep current drinkers in the family.

Heat and Is It the Shoes?

Summer in Houston is hot. I know this is a news flash to you. But this Summer has been incredibly hot. We have had the least amount of rain for a 60-day period in the history of the city. That means it is historically hot and dry here. It feels it too. Temperatures of 103+ are the norm lately.

My neighborhood has started mandatory water rationing. The only problem is they haven't told anyone exactly what the means. They have put up signs, but no real explanation what it means. So people have been watering their browning grass as normal. Hopefully not too much watering as we had a severe pressure problem a couple of weeks ago. The water slowed to a small stream of liquid coming out the faucet.

Historically August is the hottest month around here. No telling what the month will bring. Hopefully it won't bring another hurricane. There are businesses just recovering from the storm now, so getting hit by another storm is the last thing this region needs.

EASports Active update. I have had to stop using it for a couple of weeks. No I haven't given up, I was forced to stop. No, really. I was working out with some regular tennis. I did start to notice my left ankle and both knees were in pain almost constantly. I did a little research online and this was a common complaint from people. Seemed that the common thread tying everyone together was the lack of proper shoes. So I ended up going to the local Academy and spending over an hour to get crosstraining shoes. I will be honest, I never thought fancy shoes made a difference. But immediately I felt the difference, even when walking.

What happened to us? Back in the day, you just bought tennis shoes and did your thing. Now we need Runners, Cross Trainers, Walkers, Weight Lifting, Casual, etc. shoes? Are our feet now more sensitive or something? I am not sure, but the truth is that the shoes do make a difference. I am getting back on the EASports Active train within a few days. I actually miss it.

Texans Preview from the NFL Network

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/09000d5d810f3527/32-in-32-Houston-Texans

Workout Video 2009, aka EA Sports Active

Remember the Denise Austin and Kiana Tom shows on TV? Remember the Jane Fonda Workout? Well, now the Wii has ushered in a new era of home workouts. It started with Wii fit last year. A program that allowed the user to do workouts with a new board peripheral. Now it seems there will be atleast 6 workout programs on store shelves this year for the Wii. The biggest release is EASports Active.

Electronic Arts or EA, the company that brings us Madden and NBA Live every year, has jumped on the Wii fitness craze. EA Sports Active might very well end up being the best of the bunch. Bob Greene, Oprah's trainer, was the lead consultant/designer of the exercises. The progam has several exercises, including lunges, squats, alternate biceps, running, walking, tennis, basketball, and inline skating. You can do any of these activities, you can create a custom workout my mixing these activities or you can do the jewel of the program, the "30-day Challenge".

The 30-day Challenge is a pre-made workout schedule that takes 30 days to complete. Factored into the 30 days are rest days and varied activities to mix things up and keep things fresh. You also have the chance to input your eating habits and other exercise you may be doing outside of Active. None of that is extremely detailed. For the food it asks did you drank any sodas, coffee or tea; if you had vegetables and did you drink water and how much. For the exercises there is a list of activities including: walking, basketball, running, etc., you put how long you did it and the intensity of the exercise. Keeping track with all that is optional, but I can see how it would effect the overall tracking of your challenge.

I started this today and in my next entry I will detail how it went.

New direction

I have been thinking about what to do with this blog for awhile. First thing is I really hated the hosting and blogging software I was using. It was so basic and such a chore just to get to the writing part that it made writing a pain. I had thought of going to Squarespace, but while it offered some nice and easy controls, getting to the writing part again was a pain. It actually has too many options.

So now I think I have decided on Google's Blogger platform. I also have decided to change the direction of this blog. It was a previously a sports blog with a little hurricane coverage thrown in. Well, now this will be a Sports/workout/photography blog. Hopefully the new platform will allow me to write as much as I want, as often as I want.

Ike Story - 9/23/2008

I have gotten a few e-mails from people around the country asking how I am doing and how it was to go through Hurricane Ike. 

First of all I guess I should write about the day of the storm.  I had the day off as my office was closed.  I went to the grocery store and bought alot of canned foods, snacks, bottled water, dog food, etc.  Not much, the bill was under 30 bucks.  I sat at home looking at hurricane coverage on TV.  First thing I noticed was that it was about 10 AM and it was already flooding in Galveston.  That was an onimous sign already.  But locally, not much was going on.  Perfect sunny day with light winds.  That changed around 2 or 3, the winds picked up bigtime.  I went outside to catch a view of everything.  Becoming partly cloudy, but nothing out of the ordinary. 

Around 5, the winds were constantly high and gusting to out of the ordinary speeds.  Little did I know on the other side of town lights were already going out.  The rain in my area started late, around 11.  I live about 90 miles from the coast, so I didn't think things would be bad.  Well, around 12 the winds were tropical storm level and the rain was nonstop.  Amazingly I still had power and cable TV was working fine.  Everything stayed going until 2:30am, the lights went off for good after blinking a couple of times.  I had a lantern, flashlight and radio, so I started listening to the local newstalk radio.  They had people calling in giving updates from around the city.  Some were scared crap-less, some were actually calling from outside, some were actually driving around the city during the storm. 

I wasn't really scared, I didn't think the house would blow away, but I was worried about something hitting the windows or windows blowing out.  So I kept away from the windows, but listened to the radio the entire time.  From the hours of 4am to 6am we had the highest winds of the storm in my area.  Could really feel the home standing up to the winds at that time.  The rain continued north of Houston until 11AM.  Most of the city stopped getting rain hours before.  No damage to my house at all.  But a week and a half later I still have no power at the the house with no real idea of when that will happen. 

It was an intense night, but considering my house is still brand new I hoped it would last and it did.