| lol |
[30 Oct 2009|10:08am] |
I just got email from one of my creditors that my "TransRisk Credit Score" which is presumably 1/3 of a credit score (the TransUnion 3rd in particular) had CHANGED! Well, since I am kind of fucked financially, I expected I no longer had good credit. So I logged into their site, expecting the very worst, and found, MY CREDIT SCORE IS UP OVER 100 POINTS! Now I have "excellent" credit...
...instead of only "very good". So that's what I get for only paying the minimum due, instead of paying them all down to $0 every month.
WHAT A RACKET!
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| p.s. |
[17 Oct 2009|10:40am] |
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It would seem that, instead of me not really being from anywhere (even when I go back to where I grew up everyone can tell I'm not from there), I am from multiple places! It's just that none of those places contain my own apartment yet.
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| Return to the country |
[17 Oct 2009|08:17am] |
It's only been 2 days but I've already run into 4 people I knew from the beet plant! You see, it's a small...couple of counties.
Turns out they are having a really shitty harvest this year. If only I could have predicted that maybe I would have waited til I got laid off...maybe in December or January this year. There is a farmers' market going on right behind here where I am staying at Betty's and LuAnn from the beet plant is working it. It's so muddy they are having to pull beet trucks with tractors just so they won't get mired in the field. Still, apparently there are only 7 days of beets in the factory yard. This means if they were to stop harvesting right now, they would run out of beets in 7 days! There are only about 2 more weeks until harvest is over. Then it will be too cold and the beets will start getting frozen and unusable. Already the beet plant has sent trucks away because the beets were already frozen! They get spread back out in the field. It looks like the beet plant is in some trouble. There goes my backup plan in case truck driving is a bust...
Yesterday I met a truck driver who told me about another company with another trucking school. He said he wishes he stayed in school so he wouldn't have to drive trucks. I said it probably beats working in a sugar factory. Anyway he hates most how everyone is slow to load your truck, like you get somewhere and they aren't ready and they make you wait 4 or 5 hours to get loaded, and then YOU get blamed when the delivery is late! I suppose I need to anticipate a lot of not taking anything personally.
Anyways, I'm off to look online at the other school. There is a day labor place I noticed yesterday in town. I might look there for a few extra bucks while I'm waiting for my pee to get clean (Hey I was in Amsterdam 3 days ago, not trying to take a piss test so soon lol) while studying up for the written CDL permit test. Oh, and it turns out a CDL is good nationwide so I could actually get out on the road for real and do interstate runs right off the bat.
Also I'm going back out to the farmers' market to get some more good fresh from the farm food while I still can, and maybe later I'll hit the beer store, as tomorrow is Sunday, and there is no takeaway beer for sale in MN on Sunday. After all, there is no piss test for alcohol...
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| No failure, only adventure |
[09 Oct 2009|01:10pm] |
I spotted a certain tiny car right off Damrak the other week. It was there again the next day, and THAT time, I had along a camera...
I suppose Haazard County is somewhere in Zuid-Holland.
ETA It's just come to my attention that today is going to be the last beautiful sunny day before Monday, so I am going to get out in it instead of hanging in the Bibliotheek posting silly pictures. Tomorrow will be a better day for that.
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| Ok |
[09 Oct 2009|12:23pm] |
I haven't been writing in lj in a while. It seems things aren't working out here, and I am going to abort this mission.
I left Ireland some weeks ago, maybe 3 weeks, and I've been in Amsterdam since. I already bought a plane ticket out of here, leaving in 5 days. I'll have a good 34 hour total journey back to Willmar, MN where I will hole up with a friend, renew my driver's license, and get a CDL permit. Then after a month or so it will be time to go to a truck driver school. This was my plan 3 years ago, before I had dueling citizenships and decided to try my luck in other countries even during a worldwide global recession (although they say it's ending). Now, truck school's my plan 0 years ago too. I will probably drive for Swift for at least 2 years since the company will pay for all the school tuition if I do. Money will be made, and I get to "travel", even though when I get my CDL for more than one state, I will see a lot of crap that looks the same: interstates, truck stops, the ass end of some warehouse, wash, rinse, repeat. But I do not mind long drives and there will be little to no dealing with the public! I imagine it will be like cab driving only on a grand scale and without people getting in and out all the time. Kind of perfect actually...
Maybe someday I'll be able to get a nice big piece of land and plop a trailer into the middle of it, far away from everyone. Maybe another time I'll get me a sailboat, a serious enough one that I can do sea voyages, and sail back here, park in a canal, and hang out for a while, til it seems time to press onward.
Also it would be fun to learn to fly airplanes. Probably the cheapest place to do so is in the midwest. lol I'm all over the place ...but that's they way I am and I like it. damnit!
Just wanted to let you know I'm still here, somehow I am still alive, and touch pad mice on laptops still suck!
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| Maybe, maybe... there IS hope. |
[21 Sep 2009|05:46pm] |
I might get a job at a coffeeshop! I think it's a bartender job not a weed-tender one, but either way that's cool! I started talking to a cool Dutch girl and got an insider tip that a certain place needed someone! Maybe it really is true what I said in an email recently, that if I start talking to more girls all my dreams will come true. Lol well, I might get a job out of the deal at least. Annoyingly, the guy who hires for the place in question is on holiday til the end of the week. Bah! Anyway, by the time he returns I will already have a SoFi number! Another thing I hear about this coffeeshop is the owner always does everything by the books since he is really into the idea that coffeeshops should not be shut down and he doesn't want to give them any kind of a bad name by being sketchy. Therefore, I would really NEED a SoFi number to work there.
The place is kind of cool. It caters to an older crowd. They played Frank Zappa and Blood Sweat and Tears while I was in there adjusting my CV over a nice cup of black coffee. The real problem was getting the damn thing printed! I walked all over the place looking for an internet shop but ended up going to the library, which is kind of a ways. I left the bike near the hostel today since I was more in the mood for walking. I regretted it a little when I was walking to hell and back today, but still...NO WORRIES!
As long as I don't spend money stupidly I will be able to hang in the hostel for just a little...while...longer.......
Oh I have the remainder of the Ireland pictures all resized and made up onto html pages! But I haven't written any text content yet. I fear if I just upload them like they are, they will languish without text forever, kind of like the first page still is. So, I will upload them later, when they are done.
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[17 Sep 2009|05:48pm] |
I've had mixed reviews from people about finding work here in Amsterdam. It seems there's more work here than in Galway, but that's not saying much...
Today I rented a bike for €5, the price that can't be beat. It probably would've cost me twice that or more taking trams all around the place looking for where to get a SOFI number. In the end I went back to the first place I tried, namely, the Belastingdienst (tax office) which sounds altogether too much like "blasting" is somehow involved. The trick is to say you are only going to be there for a couple months so that they don't make you produce a rental agreement (when you don't have one yet). The lady the second time I was there was very nice, I might say even approaching conspiratorial, as she figured out what I was up to and seemed strangely delighted. She was telling me it's pointless that they make you prove an address since you can just move to another house the next day. She even dialed the number for me on a phone, calling the guy who speaks English.
I really need to get started learning Dutch. I know only the very teeniest amount. I don't even know enough to bust out with a little Dutch in order to practice up and learn more...They have classes here I could take but that costs money, and money is what I don't have right now. BUT I DIGRESS!
ANYWAYS Turns out they wanted from me an Irish address including postcode (which I had and remembered!) so I gave it to the guy on the phone. Aha! So I did live in Galway for 2 weeks for a REASON! Now all I have to do is show up at some other office on Wednesday with an Irish passport and BAM 20 minutes later I walk out the door with my new SOFI number!!!
Also I may be able to hook up some kind of cleaning gigs, quick cash, €40 for like 3 hours of work, multiple times. Something to tide me over before I get some sort of real job...
And then, suddenly, MANNEQUIN PISS!
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| Happy 9/11! |
[11 Sep 2009|11:17am] |
Happy 9/11!
I made it to England! I am in London after an all night bus ride.
Tis a shame I won't be here even tonight! There are a few people I wanted to go visit while I was in the UK, but that will have to wait til later, as a friend and I are going on an all night train and boat ride to Amsterdam tonight!!! I will be there for a wake-and-bake tomorrow morning ;) He is pressed for time as he needs to be back in Grenada early next week, so I am zipping along with him.
The train might even go through Norrich but I won't be able to get off and back on. From somewhere East-Anglia-wards, we will catch a boat probably to Rotterdam and then another train to Amsterdam.
I made a new UK friend on the boat ride from Dublin to Holyhead! today, 9/11, is her 40th birthday and we explored the ferry together last night. Then we went to sleep head-to-head on a bench for a couple hours cause it seemed this was our only chance to! Bus seats are damned uncomfortable for sleeping. Anyway I have her phone number so I can txt her from Amsterdam and next time I get back to the UK and get a UK sim card in my phone she is getting a phone call. She got off the bus earlier than me (in Birmingham).
Just inside London city limits a guy with a pink mohawk signaled us to pull over and he warned the bus driver that diesel was pissing out of the engine all over the M1 motorway (it's like a freeway in the US)! We all got off the bus cause really that was like a wick with us sitting in a bomb at the end. They closed the road and firemen came to put down sand or sawdust or whatever they soak up diesel with. After about an hour, another bus showed up to take us the rest of teh way to Victoria Station.
ok got to run bbl!
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| 09 09 09 !!! |
[09 Sep 2009|03:15pm] |
It's too beautiful of a day to not be outside. Anyway here are a few pictures while I'm waiting for another shitty day to maybe feel like making web pages again:
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| back in Dublin! |
[07 Sep 2009|04:56pm] |
Before I left the hotel I ended up staying at in Limerick, I had a heartening conversation with the receptionist. She used to live in Amsterdam for quite a long time and gave me a few pointers on where to hang out and who to talk to about living there. It made me feel that much better about everything. Meanwhile, someone sent me a website about cheap rooms to rent in Amsterdam and hey hey they're affordable!
I am actually kind of glad I am not on a bike any more. The ride to Limerick bus station (Colbert Station) was excruciating! My knee started hurting worse than ever before, and I became glad about my decision to catch a bus. The last mile the front tire went flat and made it that much harder to stay in control of the huge load in the pissing down rain. I left my silly hat (bike helmet) and also the fucked up camera tripod I never use. It was very sad watching the bike go by out the window as I left the station. My bag is still pretty damn heavy, but I can carry it around. It just looks ridiculous like I am toting around a body!
Turns out I fucked up my knee a lot worse than I had figured. It even hurts to walk. Today I walked quite a bit but I had to go very slowly and deliberately. I was trying to find where the ferry leaves, since my plan was to catch a boat to Holyhead and hang out there for a couple of days before heading for London. It turned out to be alllll the way down a long pier. My knee was in searing pain as I hobbled down the quay. I decided maybe I should catch the ferry from the other terminal to the south at Dun Longaire since a train goes straight to it, there would be a lot less walking with a huge bag, and it leaves in the afternoon instead of stupid thirty in the morning. At one point on the way back, my knee stopped hurting, but then I realized I had left something in a store, so I "hurried" back at normal walking speed and tore the shit out of my knee all over again! It's especially bad going up and down stairs. I have to step with my right foot first, and then bring my left foot to join it on the same step, all the way up/down, like a feeble old man. Fortunately the pain is all in one knee. I hope this pain is gone or at least lessened by the time I press onward toward London.
I carried my huge bag off the bus yesterday and noticed a hostel right across from the station! Only €15 a night too! I bought 2 nights. I went out last night and got quite a buzz on and walked all over the place. Today my knee was very unhappy about that. Also today I discovered there is a bus that goes all the way from this very bus station across the street to London. It rides across to (probably) Holyhead on the ferry and keeps on going. I decided to buy 2 more nights here, catch this bus Thursday night, and meet up with Moth in London the next morning on 9/11.
Sunday night or Monday...we will set out for Amsterdam!
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| sad sad sad |
[06 Sep 2009|09:48am] |
My bike has seen better days. It's just not as badass as my old blue bike. Sadly, I am going to have to abandon it today. I'm going to be riding a lot of buses, and buses here (and in the UK too) are extremely bike unfriendly. 4 years ago when I was in London, I had an international bus ticket suddenly raised to 4x the price when the driver noticed I brought a bicycle. AND IT WAS ALREADY IN A BOX!
I was thinking of abandoning the bike tomorrow, after one last day of riding, but yet again I am faced with more classic Irish weather: yet another grim, dismal day of pissing down rain. Do I really want to meet distant relatives who I have never seen before after a long shitty day in the grit and the rain? I am really getting sick of here. Honestly I can't wait to leave. Not to mention my knees feel like they have knives in them. I wonder if that's from getting old, or from riding an inferior bike.
I hear I can find a bike for €80 on Waterlooplein in Amsterdam, and that's not from a junkie! *sigh* I hope they were talking about a 3 speed. I won't buy it til I have a place to put it INSIDE. No need to get the damn thing stolen.
Next time I do a long distance trip with a heavy load, I am doing it on a longer bike. My old blue bike was at least 6 inches longer than this one, and it didn't have the problem with wanting to do a wheelie every time I tried to park it. I didn't have the problem with my knees swelling up and feeling like they are coming apart either. There are a few VERY long models that are designed for carrying weight. My next bike after the Dutch one I am getting soon will be one of those.
I really don't like the idea of abandoning my bike. It IS good for not carrying a load, but what can I do, faced with a lineup of bus rides the way I am? I am so sad, I might cry on the bus as it pulls off, and that would be embarrassing. Carrying my huge bag on foot is going to be no picnic either. Maybe I will rid myself of more things...but what? My half fucked up tripod that I never use for one. It's amazing how much everything weighs! Just some clothes, a tent, a computer. WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!
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| Time to hit the road |
[04 Sep 2009|05:42pm] |
It seems to me I could be in better places than Galway for my purposes. Ireland has been hit harder by the economic slump than anywhere else in western Europe. Western Ireland and Scotland are the rainiest parts of Europe! Also, a larger city will have more opportunities. For example, Amsterdam is THIRTEEN TIMES the size of Galway, has a major airport, is an international travel and shipping hub, hell, what am I doing here?
I've rethought my finances, and realized they are not as grim as I had imagined. I need to be careful, but I am by no means stuck here.
I just got my deposit back from the landlord. I am leaving here early tomorrow morning, hopefully around 7, definitely before 9! I want to make Limerick City tomorrow. It's not far, just 55 miles or so. Maybe I'll stay in the same hostel where I stayed my second night in Ireland.
Next day, I aim for Piltown, where my grandmother was from. I have actually enough not-so-distant relatives there that I can expect to be able to hang out for a bit. Not that I have ever met them before, but I know I can drop a name or two.
50 miles from there is Rosslare Harbour, from which I will catch a boat to England. So if I on;y stayed in Piltown one night, I would make England in 3 days. Well, make that 4, since the second boat of the day leaves at 9 pm and arrives at 12:45 in the morning! What sucks is the only youth hostel in town is closed. maybe I'll do a B&B, or else camp out and save €50. Better yet, I can check couchsurfing.com perhaps and see what that reveals.
From Fishguard to London is about 250 miles. I'm looking at at least 3, probably 4, maybe 5 days to do that ride. I may cheat and catch a bus if I feel time is running out. If I do cheat, and I suspect I will, especially if I wind up staying an extra night in Piltown, I think I will ride to Bristol (a 2 day ride, probably) for a night and check that place out.
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| fuck you, you stupid cat! |
[01 Sep 2009|08:27pm] |
CIRCLE THE CAT!
http://www.members.shaw.ca/gf3/circle-the-cat.html
ARRRGH!
Actually I was able to circle the cat on the 3rd or 4th try. After that I trapped the little asshole about half the time. ETA oooooo... make that about 1/4 or 1/5 of the time. GOD DAMN CAT!
So last night I heard of a place knows as Fás! I misunderstood and thought it was going to be day labor, and, remembering Mexicans lining up at day labor places in Philly at 5:30 and 6 in the morning, I rode there at stupid thirty in the morning, in the rain! Turns out they don't open til 9:30, and it's more like an employment assistance center, with a bulletin board full of jobs, also computers full of job positions. Funny, they asked me if I had registered at I.C.E. Group and yup! I did, last week. Then they offered me FREE COMPUTER TRAINING to get an A+ certificate. I have to wait a little bit for the curse to start though. It seems like the same stuff I already learned in 95 at CHI institute, except probably updated. Thing is, after I complete that course, I can get in to the real computer course where they teach you networking type skills. Then I can apply for neato keen computer jobs. Also, turns out university is only cheap if you have been on SOCIAL WELFARE for 6 months in a row. It's only €208 a week so really, fuck that. I probably will do all right with the computer courses. Or, I could go back to school part time, for fucking 8 years! Or I could figure something else out.
If I lived very frugally I could squeak by until I get a job, assuming I find one before TOO long. Also, today I found out I *might* be able to get the Irish version of unemployment as I look for work.
I noticed some apartments today called the Arch Mews! I wonder if they let you keep a cat in there. I should call them up and give them shit for it if they don't :) There are quite a few apartments called the Mews throughout Galway. Maybe someday...I will live in a Mew!
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| Vitamins! |
[28 Aug 2009|08:50am] |
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So, lo and behold, my knees stopped hurting after one 200mg dose of Vitamin E last night. Also I devoured 3000mg of vitamin C, since I was feeling something lurking in my chest (it's also gone) and some B12 to make crazy hyperrealistic DREAMS which I don't remember except for the one where I was cycling in New Hampshire and found a red castle. It was a dull red as if it was made of all terra cotta, and I stopped to take pictures. Also I dreamt of making a really strong pot of US STYLE COFFEE here in Ireland! Maybe today is the day I will get coffee making materials, which is to say, a french press, a grinder, and some good Central American or South American BEANS. I would go now, but now I am supposed to wait for a computer tech guy to show up before 1 pm. We lost our internets on Wednesday, but they came back late Wednesday night. Still, when Silvio was on the phone with them they said they could tell something was wrong. Ah well. Makes for a good excuse to be lazy and drink tea all morning :)
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