Ahh the Job Hunt, the best way to depression via computer

I have to say that the phrase "looking for a job is a job itself" is so true. Since finishing my degree in January I, like hundreds of thousands of other unemployed New Yorkers and Americans, have started the job hunt. Now mind you, I have not much to complain about, there are others out there that have exhausted their savings, ran out of unemployment benefits and are two steps away from resorting to selling their bodies (if they are hot enough to) or jumping off the nearest high building. Ok, a bit dramatic true, but you get my point here. So where does one look for jobs these days? Gone are the days where you would look in the New York Times help wanted section, it is almost non-existent. Of course, you can go on popular sites such as Monster.com, Jobs.com and Careerbuilder.com etc. Honestly, I have had no luck from these sites, zero in fact. I sometimes wonder if the jobs on these sites even exist, or is some evil little gnome sitting somewhere at a computer, deep inside a bunker at Monster.com headquarters, entering in jobs that don't exist and giving an evil chuckle as he sucks on candy canes and drinks too much soda. That is a weird visual and a scary one and I think it might just be right. Of course there are other schools of thought, network with everyone you know via facebook, twitter, myspace and the like, but that has its own problems, you get sucked into playing mindless games and reading peoples updates and wondering why their lives are so great and yours sucks. In my case most of my friends can't help me or don't want to hear my snivelling, whiny rants anymore and have long ago given up on me. Yet I continue to try of course, because we have no choice do we? A few good friends have tried to help so that can't hurt. Any other ideas? As I talked about in earlier posts, "The Sign Guy" as I dubbed him had a good one, stand in the street all day with a suit on with a big sign saying "I lost my job can you help me?" Or "Will work for food" is always a good one that gives me a chuckle. But alas, these don't get the job done and working for food alone won't pay your rent or electric bill. Now, the city is gradually warming up so one could realistically stand outside all day in a suit with a sign and look for work that way. I never saw the sign guy again after a while, I keep the hope alive within myself that he finally did get a job and got off the street. My dark side thinks however he froze to death or left the city to hobo around on the railroads from place to place, seeking redemption in the long forever of the U.S. landscape, a bottle of cheap whisky in his hand, staring blankly out from the open boxcar and wondering where it all went wrong. Ok maybe this is overly dramatic, but these are dramatic times we live in, we all desperately want the 90's back, where jobs were plentiful and there wasn't a natural disaster happening every other week. So here I sit writing my woeful articles and wondering if anyone reads them, maybe this is just my way of therapy. A way to exorcise the demons stirring within my tortured New York soul. We all need this, it helps and is cheaper than drinking ones liver into swollen oblivion (which I don't do thank God). Depressions come and go in history and you have to just weather the storm if possible. If you can't, well it's getting warmer so you hopefully won't freeze to death if you are forced out of your home due to joblessness and hopelessness. New York is a shitty place to be homeless in, the shelters are disgusting, not that I would know, but I can only imagine. I would think being homeless in South Beach would be cool, there are showers on the beach and it's warm enough that you won't freeze to death. Maybe you can even be a travelling poet and sell enough poems during the day to afford a couple of cans of food that you can eat right out of the can, how romantic no? Well maybe not, but hey it beats freezing to death while sleeping over a subway grate in New York City. Keep the faith people, we can't be in a recession forever but I feel that this recession is different, the game has changed and I think somehow the U.S. got left behind, we are slowly being knocked off our pedestal of world power and maybe someday, we will wake up and we won't be the big kid on the block anymore, just a bully with alot of weapons and no jobs. I hope this is wrong, America used to stand for something and I hope we get our "mojo" back, I love my country and love New York City, but I am slowly forgetting why and that bothers me. So I go online each day and type and search until my eyes blur and my back aches and have less and less to show for it, but I still try because that is the "American way", we don't quit when the going is tough, we get tougher. More to come soon and keep the faith people, fate has a funny way of coming back around when times get hard. Peace and hair grease.