2 Years Past

While joking with a coworker, he informed me that I should start a blog of all the funny "problems" I have that aren't real problems.  I then went to blogger to find out that through my Gmail account, I already had a blog, this one. 

Reading my old posts has made me realize I am pretty much the same person, just a bit more wise.  Reading about my job search makes me chuckle.  Yes, while it was hard and so very time consuming, ultimately it all worked out in my benefit.  I now have a contract job and have reached the income threshold of being able to pay my student loan payments monthly while still eating, paying rent, putting towards a 401k and an actual savings account.  I am also on a path to maybe one day be able to have my "dream job," but if not, I am content where I am.

My ideologies and where exactly I fit on the political spectrum is still not solidified, but I don't think it could ever be.  I don't fit in a box and I really don't think anyone does.  Yes, I am still for liberty and the protection of freedom.  I believe that government is there to promote advancement, not provide it.  I am in constant turmoil over what I believe is the ideal level of government, especially because I am now a part of the big government complex by working in the contracting business. 

The last two years have come and gone and with them I have learned more about myself.  I sometimes bud into conversations when I really shouldn't.  I also have gotten really good at maneuvering DC Metro traffic (which means I am an ass with road rage everywhere else in the country).  I am way too polite for this area and I need to stop letting others impoliteness bother me.  Lastly, I need to stop comparing myself to anyone else.  I am doing just fine and need to always remember that.

The Joys of Applying to Jobs

So as a recent college graduate who has changed my mind quite a few times on my career path through life, I never thought applying to jobs would be so difficult. Since applying and realizing that many jobs in the fields I plan on applying to ask for web writing samples, I have decided to restart an old class assignment... my blog. So, here I am and hello to the management teams and HR departments that will now have access to my blog.

Now, what else to discuss but what has consumed the past months free time? So here I am in my description of the current ways that I and my peers are searching for jobs.

First one has to create accounts on such websites as Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Washingtonpost.com/jobs and the no brainer for my major, USAjobs.gov. After spending a weekend completing those tasks, spend an evening sitting with my old childhood neighbor , who is the career counselor at a university I never attended, going over my resume. Now some may think that that is not a daunting task, but let us look at it. I created a resume for going into the education field because a year ago that was my plan. A year before that I created a resume for going into various government jobs because that had been my plan most of my life. SO now, lets take both of those resumes, get the good stuff off and put in the key words necessary to even get looked at. I am also a big fan of respect and therefore spent unnecessary time letting my neighbor figure out my new version of Microsoft Word that here university had yet to upgrade to. After all of that effort, here are my steps that I perform every week.

1. Go to USAjobs every 3 days to advance search jobs near me that have been posted within the last 3 days.

2. Scroll through all of the 300 jobs in the Greater Washington, DC area and find maybe a few that I can apply to.

3. Read the descriptions of the jobs and realize that I don't have the prior federal service experience but get hopeful when it states that a combination of education and experience is also acceptable.

4. Spend some time applying to the federal service jobs (For anyone who has yet to try to do this, please be warned that almost every government agency has their own employment website, which you need to create an account for and put your contact information in each time. On top of that each has different password requirements. Someone could own my life if they ever found my little black book of passwords for applying for jobs.)

5. Next I visit the websites Washingtonpost.com/jobs, Careerbuilder.com, and Monster.com (in that order) and try any combination of the keywords: government, research, education, intelligence, analyst and as a last resort since I have 3 years of admin experience, administrative assistant. I save jobs in these three sites to come back to them on the weekend.

6. So Saturday comes and I now go back to the 3 aforementioned sites and search again for jobs and save them. Next I weed out the ones that are not exactly what I thought they were or that I know I do not have the experience/degrees they want through further research of the job post.

7. Now I spend my day applying to the jobs that I think I fit well into.

So, to most that may read this you may think, "okay, that's what everyone who is applying to jobs right now is having to go through." You are right and I agree. It is just difficult to think that I put myself about $50,000+ in debt by putting myself through college to get a degree that would automatically make me a better candidate for jobs. When I graduated high school I was told get a degree of you want to get a good job but now that I have that degree every email I get back from USAjobs is saying I am eligible for the position, have the qualifications but do not rank high enough against other applicants to be referred to the selecting officer. At this point I'm not sure if anyone has seen my resume except the few companies that have called me through monster that once googled, they have the reputation as being a scam.

So, here is my plea, if you are reading this, I hope you got a good laugh and no know that I can be a fun person, but also that I appreciate you going to the effort to do so and please email me back, even if you don't want to hire me. A job would be awesome also but it really depends on how you might take this post.

Oh, and by the way, I can write academically as well. I figured this might be more fun though.

Websites I love

My favorite websites

Drudge Report Because they are awesome.

Post Secret Because it brings reality into perspective.

Fox News Because it's what I grew up to.

Washington Post Because it is also what I grew up to and I'm too cheap for real paper newspapers most of the time.

Facebook Because, hello, we're in college.

My love for Drudge Report.

So, I have recently realized how much I rely on Drudge Report for my news, and so does everyone else.

Drudge Report

A few weeks ago drudge had the story of a man who lost his pants to a ski lift and was hanging upside down for a good 15 minutes at Vail, CO. A day after, the news hit CNN and Fox's nightly news ( I try to watch a variety of news sources). Similar occurrences have also happened where I'm listening to the news and realize I've heard it before but can't seem to figure out where. Then, I remember, of course, I saw it on drudge.

So, to those who want the cool, awkward, awesome news before everyone else, check out drudge report. See link above.

Civil Liberties

We purchased our weekly Washington Post today at the Commissary and two very interesting articles were found within the Wahington Post Magazine. I have been recently trying to decide where I fit in political party wise and this article made me realize that even more.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012302933.html

The first article was simply the Editor's note, but bit my interest. It brought up the fourth amendment:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

When the constitution was written in 1787, our founding fathers wanted to preserve the liberties of man. They did not want big government and wanted to make sure that individual liberties are protected. Within the Bill of Rights ratified in 1791, you find these liberties attempted to be protected.

What I do not understand is the recent want for government to do everything for you. The want for government to bail out companies, pay for health care, give out food stamps, etc. Yes, I understand that sometimes atypical events occur that things such as food stamps and welfare are needed. The problem I have is when people get comfortable within the welfare system and never try to better their lives and are then provided for by the state. People need to be able to take care of themselves and have a system in place that encourages that. Our Constitution was written to protect the individual and to allow the individual to be more important than the collective. We, as America, have stepped away from this and are walking down the wrong path.

So, what does this have to do with the other article? Well, first, it is way too long to summarize effectively, so read it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/23/AR2009012302935.html

But for those that do not want to read it, I'll summarize. A small town mayor and his wife fell victim to drug dealers mailing a package of weed to their home, wanting to pick it up off their porch before the couple got home. The package was discovered in a post office and authorities tracked the package and kept watch on the house. The husband brought the package into the house addressed to his wife thinking it was some new gardening equipment she had ordered online and then continued upstairs to get ready for a committee meeting that night. His mother-in law, who had recently moved in with them, looked out the window to see hooded men with guns coming towards the home. She screamed. Next thing, the door in busted in and the hooded men went after the two dogs. They shot one in the face, then proceeded to shoot it 3 more times, killing it. The more timid of the dogs goes running into the other room and was shot while running away, then once again and bled to death.

Meanwhile, the mother is pushed on the floor, handcuffed with the plastic ties, and a gun put to her head. The mayor, hearing the shots, announces that he is upstairs and slowly walks down the stairs with his hands up. upon reaching near the bottom, he too is handcuffed with the plastic ties. No reasons were given as to why these men were in his house. Looking out the door that was once there he see's police officers, proving that he wasn't being burglarized. He started going through his head as to what he would have done wrong and could not think of anything. The wife is driving home and sees all the commotion and thinks the worst and upon coming out of her car asked about her husband and mother and then her dogs. She breaks down upon finding out that her dogs had passed. They were like her children. The dogs are brought out of the house on stretchers, dead, by animal control, dripping blood everywhere.

The police continue to go through everything and say a "warrant is on the way." They seem defeated when they find nothing, no cash, bongs, rolling paper, nothing that would point to these two being involved in the drug business. They leave with only the box that was mailed to the house and leaves the home in ruins and covered with dog blood. The husband, Cheye, calls a friend to come help clean up the blood for Trinity, his wife. The three of them sleep in the living room on an air mattress because they were scared. Their door wouldn't lock and a drug dealer didn't have his weed.

Trinity's father, her mothers first husband, came in the next few days to help out with the house and didn't leave till all of the blood was gone in the house and the sidewalk. The mother took leave and organized the house to put it back into the state it was before the incident. Their life and home would never feel safe again.



The Prince George's County Police never apologized for what they did. They said that they do know that drug dealers have been delivering packages to innocent people hoping to get the package off the front porch before the people come home from work.


So, what does this all mean? Has the War on Drugs stepped over civil liberties? What rights do people truly have over their property and their loved ones? Has big government stepped over it's boundaries? I believe the answer is yes.


Police should never be able to just go into someone's home without knocking unless they have strong evidence that they will be in danger. The article pointed out that the police could have easily discovered that this was the mayor's house and his wife that the package was addressed to if they simply Googled the name or actually contacted the local police.

I am completely disgusted by this whole story. It makes me see the views of Libertarians as a possible party that I may look more into. I cannot understand how government can do this and believe that our founding fathers would be disgusted by how we are running the country.

Thoughts behind the name of this blog

So, while sitting in class I decided to start on my blog project. I have always wanted to start a blog, but never had the guts to do so. So thank you Govt 300 for giving me a reason to start one.

Why Suburban Politics?

Well, to be honest it is because I am very interested in politics and live in the suburbs of DC. I have grown up with my nightly news being the rest of the worlds news. This person was coming to DC, protests on the mall, inaugurations, scandals, everything you can think of. I love being in the heart of the free world. To be living so close to where the big decisions are made, and close enough to not have to deal with the aftermath if a nuclear attack was ever made to DC (and let's pray that that never happens).

So, I'm interested in politics, but haven't found my niche yet. I interned on capitol hill for a week through girl scouting for the Honorable Senator Wayne Allard and liked it, but didn't love it. I'm interested in environmental issues, only because I think this is just a phase of over glorified Gore loving and that people will be realistic soon and realize most things told to them are meant to push a certain "agenda". I can't speak other languages, which I can thank to 5 years of classical Latin ( not spoken of course) during my prime years for language learning. I'm trying to figure out where I want to be in this amazing whirl of government and politics that we call Washington DC and until then, I will have to develop what my opinions are. So that's what this blog will be, me exploring what interests me and figuring out where that may lead.

Wish me luck :)