JOB HUNT

Can anyone recommend any reputable science/conservation jobs or companies?

JOB HUNT: "Seeking Qualified Employee for Insurance Scams"

So I'm sitting in a coffee shop, waiting to be interviewed by an insurance company. I've put numerous applications out for jobs, and I'm pleased to have been approached by a company that looks somewhat reputable. Now the company I originally thought was a bank, not insurance, and is based in another city. They sound professional on the phone, and we arrange a meeting.

Ten O' clock rolls around, and I've begun to a be a bit skeptical about the interview. I've been warned about being head hunted by insurance companies and begin to think this would be the worst kind of job in an economic downturn. Looking around, I'm hoping to see someone professional waiting. An older hippy looking guy walks in with a long grey beard. He gets a coffee and sits down waiting for someone. In a panic that this is the "insurance agent" I turn my phone to silent, and wait to see what happens.

After adjusting my glossy computer screen for a better look, I'm happy to see someone show up to meet him. Listening to them discuss instruments and drumming, I cautiously look around for the interviewer. Another guy with long gray hair and untidy clothes looks around waiting, and I continue my casual observations, still hoping for a "professional" to show up. I nearly give up when my phone rings, and a suited man on the phone walks in for coffee. I bounce up and introduce myself, only to find its the wrong person.

Walking back to my table, I notice a pirate looking man with a lazy eye and plastic business appearance on the phone. The number just went to voice mail and matched his tone. I would have preferred the hippy. Nothing worse than wasting your time being scammed into scamming other people.

Wish me luck on my job hunt!!

Home: Big Sky Montana

It's so nice to be back in beautiful Montana. I had actually forgotten the spectacular the snow covered Rockies Mountains, green spring hills, and wild mountain flowers. Its been much colder here than I had become accustomed to in Asia.

There's nowhere like home, especially when it comes to family. I've got 10 brothers and sisters, myself being the oldest. It tends to get a little busy, somehow my family manages to entertain up to 20 people in one household. It can get a little hectic, but there is always something going on. My brother Dominic just won the Soccer State Championship last week, my 3 yr old niece and I have been working on learning Chinese, and I've been making hula hoops with my younger sisters.

I know I wont be able to stay long, so I'm enjoying my time with them. I'm headed to Seattle tomorrow to meet up with the rest of my family, everyone seems to have changed having been away.

I suppose the best advice I can give is to enjoy where you are and who you are with, because you never know how long it will last. Time moves faster than we realize.

Freedoms of the World, and a Love for Travel

“Traveling is like falling in love; the world is made new again." Jan Myrdal

Its such a strange feeling, being in love with the world. Accepting the land, the people, the cultures, and the governments, better or worse, simply for what they are. You cant begin to explain why it is you love the odd things about people; moles, birthmarks, odd digits, snaggle teeth, and so on. These oddities that make us unique are in a way like the countries I've visited. Every person is different, as is every country. They live by a set of rules, sometimes the same and sometimes different from our own. Cultures have their own likes and dislikes, ways of relating, of showing affections, and perform in a variety of work environments. 

I must admit, the world isn't as different as I thought it would be, at least different in the way I thought it would be. People are people, and we are all governed by the same set of invisible rules that makes us so. We feel happy and sad, stressed, eagar, and we all hope to communicate such things to the world. Some of us are far more fortunate than others, and for some, dying is just a part of every day life. 

The idea of freedom has been threatened in my mind, once defined as having the capability of doing anything you wanted any time you wanted to do it. This definition leaves out one very important aspect. Safety, and the rights to live. Not a threat by gunpoint or by anyone in fact. Rather the threat to life is having the ability to earn or grow food,  to be able to medicate or treat an illness, or even having the possibility to obtain clean drinking water. For them, freedom means simply a bottle of water, a loaf of bread, and a healthy body. 

I've taken these things for granted my whole life, everyone seems to have these freedoms, or so I thought. I didn't even consider the hard working families who live in the street gutters who will never have the freedom of education. I'm still understanding that and education means having the ability to think, problem solve, and create solutions to everyday problems. I've always been able to do this, I just never knew how free it made me.