i thought to write again about airplane mechanics skool. it has not been the great experience that i wanted it to be. it mostly hasn't been a horrible experience, either, just not the really wonderful combination of intellectual and mechanical challenges that i had hoped. hopefully, the job experience will prove to be satisfying. so, i am on track to graduate this november and try to get a job, just as all the striking mechanics from northwest airlines are looking for work. so not the best time for to be looking for an aviation maintenance position. still, not the worst time either. i am already working for a cargo airline, it just not very steady work. its more of an on-call position. they call me when they have too much work, about twice a month. that was good when i was in skool, but now i am going to need more steady and more well paying work. i also have a job as a deicer at the large international airport near us. this job should give me more hours, and a decent rate of pay. as for getting a real job, i have got a big head start on the rest of my classmates, since i have got my first mechanics license! i am the first person in my class to get one. it is quite a bit of hassle to complete all the requirements necessary to be qualified to take the several tests you are required to pass before being granted your license. but all that is behind me now, and i am a federally certified airframe mechanic. at times, i thought i would never make it. not because it was hard, but because it was so stupid. really stupid and boring. mind numbingly boring. you can actually feel it lower your iq boring. there are about three guys in my class who i would even let work on an airplane that i was about to ride on. as for the rest of them, just hope that they never work in commercial aviation- they'll kill fewer people that way.

my brother is finally working. after about seven years of unemployment, and a long serious slide down the slippery slope of depression, near homelessness, and some consequences of dental neglect, my brother is on the mend. he moved back here from california, since he had no work out there and was increasingly unable to care for himself. he had been gainfully employed for quite some years before that and had saved up a very nice retirement account. then when his last job ended (he was doing software maintenance as a contract employee) he just collected unemployment and then proceeded to burn through his retirement money. after he was down to his last few bucks (and our folks had bailed him out on rent a couple times) he was moved back here to live with my dad and stepmom. supposed to be a sanctuary, right? collect himself and recharge, ready to face the world again? well not so much, since dad lets himself get caught in the latest of a string of affairs, and stepmom accuses my brother of facilitating dad's indiscretions so she divorces dad and kicks my brother out. now he had done nothing to hurt her or help dad in his nefarious goings on, but stepmom was adamant. fortunately, dad had a spare condo that he is paying for; a leftover from another former lover. (my 'father' is a hopeless sugar daddy) he had bought the condo for her, but then kicked her out when she stopped making the payments. he is trying to sell it now, but brother is living there until it gets sold. its been a couple years now that dad has had the thing on the market. don't know why it hasn't sold. maybe its karma. anyway, bro lives there, but not really. he and his cats (there are but two) live in one room of a rather large and airy condo. there is no furniture, except for what is in his bedroom, and that is where he stays most of the time. he says that he doesn't want to be blamed for if the condo deosn't sell while he lives there. it seems like a constricted type of walking on egg shels existance for him. i don't like it. he deserves more and better. especially from the sperm donar who ditched him decades ago.