Final Pictures from the New Zealand trip

I fell a little behind on this but that seems to be the way things are working out these days. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

This is Kelly Tarlton's Antartice Encounter and Underwater World. The black shape in the water is a ray.

Looking Back on a Great Trip to New Zealand

Me at the Pacific Ocean

A trip to Sheep World. Yes that's what it is called.

A trip to the zoo

More Memories from New Zealand

Auckland from the boat cruise

Art and Nigel on our road trip to Wellington

Huka Falls

Wai-o-Tapu

Final Retrospective Pictures from the New Zealand Trip

A yummy desert in Wellington

Love this picture

This is from my last day in New Zealand

Job Hunting in the Modern Age

I remember the old days when you were job hunting. You'd get up get the Sunday paper out and start looking. You'd circle the jobs that looked promising. Once done looking through the whole paper you'd start responding to the ads.

Out would come your typewriter and you'd start working on your cover letters. Typing each one. Then you'd type up an envelope and put the cover letter and your resume in the envelope and mail it off. Your resume would of course have been done at the local copy place on some nice heavy paper to make it stand out.

Yes times have changed and in some ways it hasn't. Thank goodness you don't have to mail anything any more. You can do one cover letter and then tweak it to your heart's content to make it fit with the job you're applying for. Your resume is now a PDF so paper stock is no longer an issue. With email and the web things have gotten so much easier.

One thing that hasn't changed is when jobs are posted. Sunday still seems to be the big day for jobs to be posted. It's the same old idea of getting people to respond early in the week so you can get them in for an interview. Now of course the response are in someone's in box the minute they walk in on Monday morning.

And now you don't have to do all that much looking. You can go to all sorts of sites Monster, Career Building, Duke Jobs, Indeed, Washington Post and a host of others and post your resume. You can then set up a key word search on each of the sites. The sites will then look for jobs containing those key works and email you the listing of the jobs to you. In fact you only have to sign up on a couple of sites because they will share your information with other sites and those sites will send you job listings as well!

Needless to say I have one very full email inbox. I still do some searching on my own on other sites too. There are new postings until about Wednesday. After that it's what I call reruns the listings just repeat.

I get up on Sunday and start looking. I spend a couple of hours looking at the job postings. Sometimes it's a little less. The thing is you can only spend so much time on it and you need a break. I look each day through Wednesday then I take a break.

The hard thing when you are unemployed is you feel you need to be looking for a job all the time. I feel a little guilty when I'm not. But I've learned there is only so much you can do each day. Once you've done that you have to come up with other things to do. I took some classes at the DC Library on Excel and actually learned a great deal. I was planning on taking more classes this month but the times didn't work out for me. I'm going to look at the schedule for November to see what's available.

And that's the new way to job hunt. I'll go into all the different ways you apply on line in another post.

An Escape to Sandy Point State Park

Looking for a new job while employed is stressful enough. But looking for a job when you're unemployed is really really stressful. I'll go into the fun and games of apply for a job in another post. But it is amazing all the different ways you can now apply for a job.

But there is only so much you can do each day without driving yourself crazy. And sometimes you just need a diversion. That's what I did on Monday when I went to Sandy Point State Park. It's located right before you cross the Bay Bridge. It is a really lovely park. And on Monday there was hardly anyone there at all.

A little more about the park:

This 786-acre Maryland State Park is located along the Northwestern shore of the majestic Chesapeake Bay. The park’s beaches and picnic areas are well known for their breathtaking scenic water views that overlook one of Maryland’s true treasures, the Chesapeake Bay. The park was first opened on June 25, 1952 and has provided its guests with various activities and services ever since. Some of these activities and services include Swimming Beaches, Picnicking, Fishing, Crabbing, Boating, Hiking, Youth G​roup Camping, Areas of Historical Interest and Wildlife Viewing. The Park also offers a marina store and boat rentals.

Here are a few pictures from my visit there.

More from Sandy Point State Park

A Dog in a Dingy

Saw this guy going out for a boat ride when I was in Annapolis. He looks like he was having a blast.

I got an Interview

I actually had an interview on Friday.

Now I'm nervously waiting the results.

I think I did well.

But over the weekend I dwelt on all the things I could have said better. Or should I have said what I said the way I said it. Had a couple of questions not sure I should have asked all of them. Hoped they didn't interpreted them the wrong way.

I wrote a nice thank you note to the HR person. That only took three days to come up with. Finally got it done on Monday. In the end I thought it was pretty good. My dad said he thought people didn't do that any more. I said just trying to cover all the bases. Maybe that will tip the scale in my favor. Every little bit helps.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Was so worked up about it yesterday that I had to get out of the house. Went to Sandy Point State Park. I'll have some pictures of that up later. Also a few more from the New Zealand trip.

I seem to get distracted easily with and from the job search. I'm trying to do better but it is a little hard.

A Visit to the National Museum of the American Indian

Took advantage of this wonderful weather and took a walk on the National Mall on Monday. I stopped in at the National Museum of the American Indian. Just a fantastic museum. Here's a little more about it.

A diverse and multifaceted cultural and educational enterprise, the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is an active and visible component of the Smithsonian Institution, the world's largest museum complex. The NMAI cares for one of the world's most expansive collections of Native artifacts, including objects, photographs, archives, and media covering the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego.

The National Museum of the American Indian operates three facilities. The museum on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., offers exhibition galleries and spaces for performances, lectures and symposia, research, and education. The George Gustav Heye Center (GGHC) in New York City houses exhibitions, research, educational activities, and performing arts programs. The Cultural Resources Center (CRC) in Suitland, Maryland, houses the museum's collections as well as the conservation, repatriation, and digital imaging programs, and research facilities. The NMAI's off-site outreach efforts, often referred to as the "fourth museum," include websites, traveling exhibitions, and community programs.

Since the passage of its enabling legislation in 1989 (amended in 1996), the NMAI has been steadfastly committed to bringing Native voices to what the museum writes and presents, whether on-site at one of the three NMAI venues, through the museum's publications, or via the Internet. The NMAI is also dedicated to acting as a resource for the hemisphere's Native communities and to serving the greater public as an honest and thoughtful conduit to Native cultures—present and past—in all their richness, depth, and diversity.

Here are a few pictures from the exhibits that I saw.

More from the National Museum of the American Indian