Alex Csura:  

and should be there for months), doing the NY Jets new Training Facilities in Florham Park. Now all I need is to put in ANOTHER 25-30 years doing the same old thing, but at least I'll have a pension when I retire now. Should've done this when I was 18 instead of almost 45 years old. Thankfully, because of my experience, I was able to start of as a journeyman earning the top wage. UPDATE: May 2009 Well, 'cause the economy blows, I've been unemployed from my union job for about 9 months. Took a job with the US Census Bureau, as an *enumerator*. Job deals with canvassing different assignment areas, and, with a handheld compter, updating address data base for each street in that area. Adding, aditing, or deleting addresses where needed. Every household in the US now has a GPS map spot for it on file with Uncle Sam. Good job, but only lasted 6 weeks. A month later, Bureau rehired me as a Partnership Assistant. Job is basically a public relations thing, and we work with business, community and religious organizations, forming partnerships with them. Partners donate space so the Bureau can use it for administering tests to new job applicants, as well as possibly using these spaces around the time the census gets mailed out, to every household in March 2010, so we can set up assistance centers (manned locations where people can go to get assistance if they need it), or Be Counted centers (where extra forms can be picked up if people didn't receive one). We also set up tables and exhibits are events like fairs (e.g, both NJ State Fairs that were held at the Meadowlands, as well as the one that just passed at the Sussex County Fairgrounds), carnivals, parades, flea markets, farmer's markets, food pantries, etc... This is so we can inform the public of the upcoming census and the importance of filling it out and returning it..as well as answering any questions people may have, and reassuring them of its confidentiality, ease and simplicity. All forms this time will be short forms, with only 10 questions that should take 5 mins to complete. Job is supposed to last until May 2010. But who know..it's the federal govt. after all. ;-) UPDATE: Sept 2009 Well, after a bit more than a year being unemployed from my union job, I got called for a job over at Hoffman-LaRoche in Clifton in Mid Sept. The job was a godsend, as I only had 1.5 weeks left in my unemployment funds. The job was one of the best I've been on, and kept my gainfully employed right up until the final cuts were made on Dec 22 when the job was nearly complete. Had 4-5 oppertunities during that time to work some OT on Saturdays, and took full advantage of it. Best oppertunity for OT came on the Sat (Dec 19) before I got laid off. It was for working at another job site the company had, and it was a 13.5 hour day (at time and a half). That was the single best pay day I've had with the union and clearing over $550 for that single day certainly helped when getting laid off right before X-Mas. UPDATE: Feb 2010 So, I went back into the ranks of the unemployed and used up the remaining week and a half of unemployment money I still had. Because of the fact that I didn't work at least 20 weeks or make over 40X my unemployment base pay (top base pay was $584 in 2009, so 40X that would be $23,300+) I'm not eligible for any of the numerous extensions the govt made available for people to tap into. Only worked 15 weeks and made about $21,000 in 2008 when I filed for unemployment in late May 2009. So, I got screwed. And now, I can't re-apply for unemployment until 1 year after my original filing date. So, I hafta wait until May 22, 2010 to file. The only good news is that if(when) I file), I'll have qualified on both the 20+ weeks AND 40X more than my base pay which would be the top pay available (for unemployment, and rises to $600/wk in 2010). Here's hoping that I get some work soon and 2010 and on won't be as horrendous as the past 2 years. That's about it until anything newsworthy causes me to update this again. Cheers, Alex