Here’s to a better half of 2009

Sunday (July 5) is my first day off in five days and my last one for at least the next seven, but probably longer. I’m grateful to be working however.

… First the bad news; big shock coming from me, I know.

We’ve entered a new fiscal quarter at work and surprise, surprise, there was another announcement. Vacation accrual will be on hold for another three months and everyone has to take a week off, paid this time if you have the vacation hours.

So, the news isn’t all that bad; well for me it isn’t. I’m capped on vacation hours so I can take a week off, no big deal. Unfortunately, there are some of my co-workers that don’t have enough hours to take a full paid week off. For them, they will have to furlough the rest of the time.

I had been expecting a pay cut or layoffs like many other co-workers. So this news is best case scenario.

… Work is busy to say the least. As written earlier, I’m in the middle of an agonizing stretch with an overtime shift to boot. So basically, one day off in about 14 days.

The good news with that is overtime. I worked the Fourth of July holiday so I get OT plus holiday so it’s getting paid for 6 ½ days for five days. This week, I’ll get paid for the same for working six days, however.

With the forced vacation coming up, I might be able to go somewhere.

… The Press-Telegram’s union has reached a deal with the LANG over the transfer of union employees over a year ago, me being included in that.

After fighting and fighting, the union was able to win its case over the group to the NLRB. What the means to us is the group has to pay for the extra mileage they made us drive. For others they will get money for the extra day care they had to pay for.

So soon, I’ll have extra money, and any extra money is always welcomed.

… Well, let’s talk about something work related. I’ve started up my website to keep my writing, designing and video portfolio online so I always have my stuff ready to show at a moment’s notice.

In trying to set myself apart from the pack, I felt a website was a good way to do that. As I’m trying to move out of the industry into something more public relationsish, I figure the best way I can show I can sell something is to prove I can sell myself.

So on there I have 12 stories, a couple of designs plus Photoshop work and the two videos I’ve edited together.

I had to go to CSULB and log on to its academic search engines there to find my stories. I also got a little help from a friend in Riverside to help complete the task. Once I got the stories, I was able to make .pdfs on Word when I got home.

For those interested in starting a website, here is what I did. I signed up with Go Daddy and got a domain name. I also paid for a serviced called Website Tonight that not only hosts my website, it allows me to edit it without using html coding – something I still want to learn. I expect the service to cost about $75 a year.

It was easy at times, hard at others. I was up until 5 a.m. on the first night setting it up, up until 4 the next night getting all the stories, pictures and video set up. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty simple.

Hopefully, this will lead to something good. I just hope it happens before the next quarter because you just never know.