I spent some time in Photoshop tonight to make a REAL template for this blog. I wanted the Web 2.0 look without any of the Ajax functions and while it was difficult to do with only my touchpad mouse (on the laptop) I was able to get everything exactly where I wanted it to be. The header only took me about 20 minutes, coding took close to no time at all and I have to say I’m perfectly happy with how everything turned out.

A few changes include:

- The template, naturally.
- New Archives page.
- New Contact page.
- Actual Navigation.
- A few links on the sidebar for my feeds.

I’m considering setting up actual content here, but based on the fact that it’s a blog made specifically for rants and raves, there would really be no point in that. I’ll see what happens down the road, I may even go as far as creating some kind of a photo album on Flickr or even based on the site here with my own self-written script so I can bring in some more elements of my life. I don’t have many pictures of Sean and I, but I’m sure that will change over time. Another thing I was considering was a video blog, but even with my ongoing weight loss, I’m still a bit uneasy about being in front of the camera.

I didn’t get to sleep until about 9:30 this morning, I found myself floating around MySpace Jobs hoping to find something absolutely perfect for me. I luckily did. There’s a company about ten minutes down the road in search for an XHTML/CSS Designer and you start off on full-time salary, have a 401k and full medical benefits (medical, dental and optical). I emailed back and forth with the listed contact for a little while and now I’m just waiting patiently to find out if I’m going in for an interview or not. Based on what I’ve seen of the company I’m going to bring in at least $25,000 so that will certainly help out with the bills. I just hope it actually happens. Sean and I will finally be able to afford a new car and hopefully an apartment so we can get out of where we currently are.

:: crosses fingers ::

I did some grocery shopping the other night and while I was standing at the check out, I noticed a few interesting reads that were worth throwing into the cart. The first were a few magazines that really only keep me entertained for the first read, this is probably why I like EZines so much, they’re usually free and easier to discard when you’re done with them. Then I began looking through the books, and after turning my nose up at romance novels (they scare me), I found “The Complete Idiots Guide to Financial Aid for College“.

With a $6 price-tag it was cheap enough to throw into the cart and hope to learn something from it. I browsed through it while the women was ringing up my groceries and while it seemed interesting at first, something deep down inside told me this was going to be a waste of money. Fighting this fear, for the sake of getting back into school, I proceeded with the purchase.

I get home, unload the groceries and after whipping up dinner for Sean and I, I sat down for the half hour until dinner was done in the oven to do some reading. Now, the book I linked above is a much larger version. The one I picked up is the readers digest sized version and I’m not even sure if it houses all of the same information that the $13 Amazon based book does.

Anyhoo. I browsed through the pages in hopes to find something that I’ve been missing. I’ve filled out my FAFSA but naturally I want to look into other routes. Scholarships and Grants are the big ones for me considering they don’t require being paid back and I’m still able to get into school to get the degree I truly desire.

Even though I’m 23 years-old and no longer living under my father’s roof I still need to use his income for the FAFSA which I find absurd because he’s no longer financially responsible for me, by any means. Yes, I asked him to co-sign on a personal loan for me but he wasn’t the one handing me the money, and I’m the one paying it back.

The jist of this book tells you that Government Financial Aid is the route to take, another is directly through the school. I already knew this, why in holy hell did I buy this book?

I’m selling it on eBay for the $6 I paid for it. :hmph:

For the past couple of days I’ve been getting my resume in order. While I’m content with working online, this time of year it’s hard to really earn any decent money. October is when things tend to pick up for me, everyone is looking for a new site to launch in January almost as fast as the ball drops. January itself is a bit boring so I tend to look into outside methods. Unfortunately, this year isn’t bringing in very much for me. Thanks to Google’s recent drop in Page Ranks, I’m no longer bringing in the $150 a day I once was. I’m lingering in the $60 a day mark and even though that’s still about $1800 a month, it’s no where near the almost $4,000 I was bringing in up until that point.

So what do you do in a situation like this? Look for jobs in the area that will give you at least some of your money back. I’ve applied at the typical retail jobs, something I told myself I’d never go back to, and I’ve also been bulking up my resume for the design firms in the area as well. Hopefully within the next few months of working I’ll have my own car so I don’t have to use Sean’s anymore and the rest will be much easier on me. For now, I’m just miserable with everything going on.

I don’t like the housing situation, I’d like to be in my own place and I’d like to go back to earning $4,000 a month so I can get all of my bills paid off. I’ve been slacking, I’ll fully admit to that. There are bills to be paid and all I can do is figure out new and interesting ways to make the big bucks and leave the mundane jobs up for grabs for everyone else.

Hopefully something will fall in my lap. I honestly can’t wait for it to happen considering how badly I want a new car, to get back into school and then eventually have enough of a nest egg so I can get the house of my dreams. I’m even looking into “rent to own” properties right now, I just can’t afford the $2500 a month price tag that’s attached to them, even with Sean’s income matching mine. There’s still a personal loan to be paid off, a credit card, I’m putting out about $500 in other bills each month - it’s just not going to happen anytime soon and it sucks.

For the past few months I’ve been working my butt off to get back into school. With the way the economy is right now, it’s really important to me to gain a proper education so that I can get down to the nitty-gritty and grab up the position of my dreams at any of the local design companies in the area. Unfortunately, even with 10 years of experience under my belt, the wet-behind-the-ears 18 year old errand boy stands more of a chance on landing the job than I do. Why? Because a piece of paper is more important than experience in most cases.

I went floating around craigslist for jobs in my area. One of the most common requirements is at least 5 years of experience. I’m almost instantly interested because I have double that, so I continue down the page to the remaining requirements. 99.9% of the time…a bachelors or masters is required to even be considered for the job. What I find amusing about this is the fact that the person LISTING this job more than likely doesn’t meet the college requirements that he’s looking for in staff members. Now, that’s fine and well but why is it “fair” that a dear friend of mine spent over $35,000 on school to become a designer and is still asking me simple questions about DIVS/Tables and other things that should be common in the classroom? I’m not saying the route he took was wrong, by any means. I just don’t think it’s fair that a piece of paper can determine where you’re going in life - and where you’re not.