I'm 42 now

 Another birthday is here! 

image from Shirtscope.com

And so is the midlife crisis! 

I mentioned about a midlife crisis in my 4oth yr blog post and video, but I think the midlife crisis has been magnified this year.

Long story short, I want to move on from the main employer I had this year, but I'm trying to move on to something that's better suited to me.

Back in late 2020, I left my previous job and applied for what I expected to be just a temporary job for the winter holiday season. I applied to be on Macy's merchandise team (the ones who organize items on the selling floor in the morning), because I like to organize stuff. But with their bait & switch tactics (sadly typical), they had me sanitize hi-touch points, which I just went along with because it's an easy job. That "seasonal job" was extended to year-round. 

 However, the geniuses at Macy's decided to do away with sanitizing hi-touch points when the mask mandate ended in March 2022. I thought that was stupid because that would be when you needed sanitization the most since all those maskless people would be spreading their germs. 

Then the geniuses at Macy's thought it would be a good idea to switch me to "back of house support" which has plusses (organizing incoming materials, which I love doing) and minuses (working with machines, which I hate doing). After a few weeks, I had a discussion with them, telling them they are negligent about workplace safety, I told them I'll go to OSHA, and I told them they should've asked me if  I liked working with machines before switching me to a position involving machines. After that, they switched me to folding towels (which was what I should've been doing the whole time because that's where I excel).  But now the new problem is the reduction of work hours.

And soon, the geniuses at Macy's want to have us start using earpieces. Earpieces was THE reason why I left Nordstrom Rack a few years ago. Learn more at this blog post and this video.

So yeah, it's time for a change.

I like jobs where I can organize items (both physical and digital), provide information services, do something creative, and be treated with dignity.

I'm applying for work in several different organizations (ie. libraries, schools, archives, other government agencies, temp agencies, etc). I don't want to get too specific, because announcing the exact organization and position I'm applying for has always been bad luck to me.  

Going through interviews and dealing with rejections does take its toll financially and psychologically.  Yes, I know it's not always personal, since organizations can't hire everyone that applies. But it still stings. Like come on God, am I that bad?

I did file some applications so hopefully, a good organization will hire me for a position I can thrive in.

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Another part of the midlife crisis is knowing that some of the products I love aren't being manufactured anymore.

I usually buy the Big Student Backpack by Jansport. They used to come in different colors. But now that product isn't sold on the Jansport website, and what is available at other vendors (ie Walmart, Office Max) is limited.

This is what I wrote to Jansport

The Big Student Backpack wasn't just merely an accessory, it was the perfect backpack for someone who needs all the compartments in the bag because I want easy access to supplies, medications, folders, ponchos, books, et anywhere I go. The 5 compartments ( 2 large, 2 medium and 1 small) within that bag was the perfect number, the other bags I see on the Jansport website have less than that.  The Big Student Backpack wasn't just great, it was legendary. Please inform your supervisors that the Big Student Backpack had some loyal customers and we would love to see it back. 

I'm also very picky when it comes to the weekly/monthly planners every year. I want the pages of the planners to be a certain way. The best one was the one I bought for 2019. But that exact model isn't available anymore.

I'm a big fan of smartphones that have a physical keyboard. That was why I bought a BlackBerry Q10 in 2013, and a BlackBerry KeyOne in 2018.

The problem is that BlackBerry hasn't manufactured a new smartphone in years. Yes, that company does still exist, but its main focus now is on cybersecurity.  

The company did partner with TCL Communications a few years ago to manufacture the KeyOne and the Key2, but that partnership expired. BlackBerry did attempt to partner with another company (Onward Mobility) to manufacture a 5G phone, but that company went under. Learn more at https://www.techradar.com/news/blackberry-5g-2021

I did hear Unihertz does manufacture smartphones with physical keyboards. While I'm still using my BlackBerry Keyone, if that phone goes old, I hope that Unihertz, BlackBerry or at least somebody is still manufacturing new smartphones with physical keyboards.

I also miss the Daily C, the Vitamin C tablets that used to be common at stores. Yes, there's others still available, but I miss my Daily C!

Now I know I'm sounding like those "back in my day" geezers who complain that the old days were better.  I sometimes cringe when folks like Bill Maher keep complaining that things aren't like they were in the 90s.  But it's so easy to become like that when things aren't going your way.

But I had rough years before. 2011 and 2017 were rough years for me.  Those years were followed by better years. I'm looking forward to better years. And of course, to finish 2022 on a good note.

Nury Martinez and the Oaxacans

 Nury Martinez, a now former Los Angeles City Council member, was recorded saying negative remarks about African-Americans, Oaxacans, and other groups.

In Nury Martinez's district, Angelenos react with disgust to news of racist recording (msn.com)

Column: Nury Martinez's rant reveals the worst enemy of Latino political power: ourselves (yahoo.com)

Key moments in racist leaked recording of L.A. councilmembers - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

I'm going to focus on the Oaxacans, because my father is from Oaxaca, a Mexican state with a large indigenous population. 

Because that state has a large indigenous population, the people from there face negative stereotypes from those from other parts of Mexico that have more of a lighter-skinned population. 

When my father moved from Oaxaca to Jalisco as a teen, he did feel some discrimination. 

Nury Martinez's remarks revealed a dark secret within the Latin American communities, that many are just as bigoted as the Anglo-American populations. 

 Even though many Mexicans have a mix of Spanish and native ancestries, some of those who have a tan, orange or a light-brown complexion tend to look down on those with dark-brown skin common among those with a more pure indigenous ancestry. 

And throughout Latin America, those who have darker skin and have visible African or Native American features are looked down upon in society. 

This was the attitude that  Nury Martinez displayed in her comments in a secretly recorded meeting with other Latine city council members. It was obvious in the recordings that she dominated the conversation, that she looked down on people of African or pure-indigenous ancestries as objects of ridicule. 

What really triggered the general public is her "joke" that she wanted to beat up an African-American toddler who happened to be the son of her political opponent. She wants to fight a little kid? How about she fight an able-bodied adult?

I get the vibe from the way she talked that she hasn't matured since middle school.  I get the vibe that she would severely ridicule anyone who even dared suggest some level of sensitivity.  I get the vibe that the other people in the conversation were too intimidated to push back on her attempts at humor. I get the vibe that she would throw a fit if somebody dare tell her "NO". 

Well, the world found out, and the people have told her a loud  "NO!"

People protested at city hall and outside her home.  

Her loud talk is no match for the pent-up rage of the people.

She has since resigned!

This has to be a lesson to everyone - ANYTHING you say CAN BE recorded! 

You have to develop some level of maturity. You not only have to show maturity in public, but also in private.

The way you act and behave in private will seep over into what you display in public. 

The attitude you display with friends will seep over into how you act in professional situations. 

I don't want to hang out with people who still display the inappropriate humor I once engaged in middle school. 

I want to hang out with people who have matured since middle school. 

Over the years, I lost patience with a lot of the edgy humor. 

Anybody who knows me knows I'm not humorless. 

As an adult, I'm all about having an appropriate sense of humor.

And more importantly, having a sense of honor. 

It's time for us as adults to set a good example for the next generation!

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I also saw this great article by Frank Bruni, which sheds light on the stereotype that female leaders are "more humane", and that women like Nury Martinez can be just as mean and nasty as male leaders

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/12/opinion/los-angeles-city-council.html

But Martinez, in her necessary apology, also said something ludicrous — ludicrous but telling. “As a mother,” she confessed, “I know better.”

As a mother?

I’m not a mother. I’m not a father, either. But miraculously, I too know better. 

(skipped paragraphs)

 

The statement by Martinez, who resigned from the Council on Wednesday amid a national uproar over her remarks, invoked yet another popular but debatable idea, which is that women in general and women leaders in particular aren’t as reflexively and gratuitously divisive as men. That they’re more instinctive uniters, more natural nurturers — and as such, demonstrate greater concern for the welfare of future generations.

Martinez, after all, didn’t say “as a parent.” She specified her gender and, in doing so, promoted a gendered if women-flattering conceit. It’s a conceit that, I admit, I buy into. I indeed think that we’d be well served with more women in leadership roles, in both the public and the private sectors, and not just as a matter of representation.

But I also think that our discussions about this can be softheaded and our analysis of the evidence selective. When we in the media admire a prime minister who’s a woman (Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, Sanna Marin in Finland), we often cast her as a parable of women’s untapped potential. When we don’t (Liz Truss in Britain, Giorgia Meloni in Italy), we tend to shy away from such grand generalizations.

and this

And the suggestion that women are inclined to empathy edits a great many of them and big chunks of history out of the picture.

“There’s no reason to expect women to be less bigoted than men,” the historian Linda Gordon said in a 2018 article in Mic by Jack Smith about her book “The Second Coming of the K.K.K.,” which notes the role of women in that hate group’s resurgence in the 1920s. The headline on the article: “Why Women Have Always Been Essential to White Supremacist Movements.”

In Air Mail this month, George Pendle wrote that Italy’s Meloni “is the most spectacular example of a recent trend in European politics in which charismatic women have taken the reins of far-right political parties and led them to increasing legitimacy. Just look at Marine Le Pen in France, Alice Weidel in Germany, Pia Kjaersgaard in Denmark or Siv Jensen in Norway.” Pendle mentioned in particular the “rather worrying obsession with what Weidel calls ‘genetic unity.’”

Here in the United States, I’m rather worried by such current members of Congress as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, to name just two women prominent in the MAGA brigade. Greene, by the way, has three children, and Boebert has four, proving that mothers are as mixed a bag as the rest of us. They’re altruists and narcissists, creators and destroyers, openhearted and closed-minded, colorblind and color-conscious.

It’s not because she’s a mother that Martinez should know better than to hurl racist insults. It’s because she’s human. 

AMEN TO THAT!