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Today I hooked up with a job placement company in New York. Maybe I’ll get some results with them. If I get a job where I do not need a car, I would be saving probably upwards of $3500 a year in insurance and $2400 a year in car payments. That’s a lot of money.

It was nice outside again today, so I went for a walk in town. I like this area… it’s too bad I probably wouldn’t be able to afford this area living by myself. It was 60 degrees today, but the average high for New York City on this date is 38.

Anyone looking to move up to Central Jersey? Hm. Didn’t think so.

So everyone’s talking about the Enron “debacle.” Well, not everyone. Just the people who are concerned about current events. I wouldn’t be talking about it now, in fact, if I hadn’t noticed that the company offers career placement services for their “alumni” (aka. laid-off personnel). There’s an interesting concept.

Today, the warmest January Sunday I’ve experienced in recent history, I went into New York City with my father, his girlfriend, and her 14-year old son. We drove to Jersey City and took the PATH in. When we arrived, her son met up with a friend he knew from summer camp. The rest of us walked down through the Villiage towards “Ground Zero.” My father had worked in the building across the street from the World Trade Center until Septemer 11.

When we got to the viewing station that was created mainly as a tourist attraction, the line was too long to bother with.

We walked back uptown through Chinatown stopping in a little restaurant for a late lunch.

I’m living in a location right now where it’s very simple to get into the city by train. I wonder if working in the city might be a better opportunity for me right now.

I had to change the host name due to Comcast’s dynamic IP ridiculousness. So now, log into the BBS at telnet://hbop.dyn.dhs.org. I changed the code in the button below.

Talk about a disturbing search request! Someone came to my website today while searching for Sussman Hitler.

I’ve made my decision. I’m going to take the elementary school job (providing I get through the final interview with the Superintendent, which shouldn’t be a problem). Here’s why:

• It will get me working in my chosen field.
• It will get me out of my father’s girlfriend’s house. They’ve been kind to let me stay, but that can’t last forever.
• It will get me closer to the high school job that I want.
• I can continue to look for better high school jobs for the fall.
• It’s only four months.
• I may not have to work with a chorus.
• I’ll have a lot of support from other staff members who work with “special-ed” or slightly handicapped kids.

The negatives about taking this job are that it’s not exactly what I want, I have little experience with kids with special needs and I won’t have my own classroom. And even though I still can’t picture myself working with these kids, I don’t have to start right away, so I can do some research and observing ahead of time.

I really should have gone to bed thirty hours ago. Really.

Last night I did it. Over the last week or so I’ve managed to get myself in the position where I don’t get tired until two hours later than then time I was able to fall asleep the night before. This problem culminated last night, when I wouldn’t start getting tired until 5:00am, precisely the time I needed to wake up this morning.

So I lay in bed for a couple of hours thinking I might be able to cheat the pattern. No such luck. I decided around 3:00am to get out of bed and start getting ready for the day.

I had my interview with the principal of the elementary school this morning. It went really well. I learned more about the position, and it now it doesn’t sound as frightening as it had before. Yet, I’m still very uncomfortable about the whole situation, especially since the high school job I would start in the fall sounds less and less appealing.

I did hear about another possible opening in a town in the adjacent school district. (The band director was caught — twice — looking at internet porn websites in his office while school was in session.) So I stopped by that district office to get an application, but nothing had been decided about that band director’s future.

There just seems to be something inherently dirty about being a high school instrumental music teacher.

On the way home I stopped off at a regional Division of Motor Vehicles office to pick up my “abstract,” otherwise known as a “rap sheet.” It’s not pretty.

I went to high school with this guy. I think I was a senior when he was a freshman, but I can’t be sure.

I’d like to urge anyone who logs on to Heart Beat of Pompeii BBS and who has their own website to spread the love by including the following code somewhere on their site:

And here’s what it looks like: