Oh, That's Right, I Have a Blog, Don't I?

What? This is still saved as a Draft? Sorry, I thought I had posted it already. Let's try this again:
I realize it's been a while since I posted on Four Thousand Characters, or produced any more of those ASMIC! cartoons. (And don't get me started about Way of the Dodo! I don't seriously expect to be coming back to it any time soon.)
I can say that I've been busy. I'm pleased to be able to report that after the "ridiculously long" period of unemployment I've mentioned before, I am working full time once more. I'll admit that the pay's not as high as I have made in the past, but it's enough to keep me afloat for now. It is keeping me extremely busy, though.
I hate the thought of leaving a bunch of abandoned projects lying around online. But the truth is that I seem to have lost interest in cartooning for the time being. The creative pendulum has swung from drawing back to writing. (Or rather, back to thinking about writing -- usually when I'm supposed to be doing something else.) Primarily back to fiction writing, though I've had to reconsider the idea of posting fiction samples here for free.
I would say that I intend to start posting here a little more often, but let's face it -- I've said that sort of thing before. Saying it and doing it are two different things. Time will tell.

Only Nine Years Behind Schedule!

It's January 2009. As I'm fond of pointing out, we were supposed to have flying cars and cities on the moon by now.
Well, I don't know about Lunar colonies yet, but flying cars may be here sooner than you think! (Again, I know we've been hearing that for years. Just trust me on this.)
According to CNN, a team of British inventors are planning to take their prototype flying dune buggy on a trip from London to Timbuktu.
You can read about it here at CNN.com.
Or you can read about it and watch a video clip here at the Website of iMotor magazine.
Or you can follow the expedition online at its own site: http://www.skycarexpedition.com/.

(Of course, I'd still rather have a car in which you can just flip a switch, take off vertically, and soar above that traffic jam. On the other hand, I suppose that if everyone had that feature, you'd just end up with three-dimensional traffic jams full of hovering cars. So it probably wouldn't be as much help as you might think.)

Please Excuse the Following Rant.

(I've been out of work for an absolutely ridiculous amount of time. So I'll have to ask you to excuse the following, which is written out of sheer mindless frustration. I'm having a really bad month.)

I've read that archaeologists recently dug up a mysterious stone tablet in the Middle East. No one really knows for sure where it came from. Faintly visible on it is an inscription that roughly translates to, "Number eleven: Thou shalt not let Brian have money."

Seriously, these days, it seems that everyone wants money from me, but no one's willing to do anything that might run the risk of having to pay me. Not only can I not persuade an employer to hire me, but pretty much everything else I've tried to do for money has failed. Those Google ads? Those Shareapic galleries? Hardly producing a dime. Work-at-home gigs? Scams, one and all.

This, of course, does not stop a seemingly endless lineup of companies from demanding ridiculous amounts of money from me, without any indication of where in God's name I'm going to get all of that money from. I'm sick of being squeezed like this.

As a job seeker, I've heard the advice before that I should not give the impression of being desperate. The sad truth, though, is that I am desperate. My resources, to say nothing of my patience, are wearing extremely thin. I need someone to hire me. Sooner rather than later.

Notice that I said, "hire me:"

• Not, "Advertise positions that don't really exist, collect my resume and get my hopes up."
• Not, "Take my resume and then never bother to get back to me."
• Not, "Get my hopes up, tell me you'll be in touch, and then drop off the face of the Earth."
• Not, "String me along for three months, while telling me each week to call back the following week." (I had one prospective employer do this for a part-time position. I got in touch with him in March, and in June he was still stringing me along. I finally figured out that he wasn't going to hire. The fact that he posted a typo-ridden Craigslist ad in which he emphasized the importance of accuracy should have been a tip-off.)
• Not, "Try to sign me up with another MLM." I don't do MLMs. I don't consider it a legitimate business model if the participants make their money mainly from signing up new participants.
  
• Not, "Try to sell me something." I don't care what it is. I'm not buying.
• Not, "Try to scam me."

And for you IT recruiters who might read this? I'm a damn good programmer. Once I get up to speed, I can pseudocode in my head, code on the fly, and build a test prototype for you while you're arguing over who's going to run the program every day.
I can design and set up databases. I can write software manuals. I can train your end users. Hells, I can even do data entry if that's what you need.

All I need is a fighting chance.
Why is that so unreasonable?