Another New Beginning?

I'm going to try to start posting here again. I would like to make this a place that friends and relatives can keep track of what I'm doing. I hope to create an interesting record of the next phase of my life.


I graduated from Portland State University in August of this year (2013). I now have a Bachelor's of Science degree in Economics. I'm finding out that this isn't really worth much. I've submitted dozens of applications for jobs in Portland and nationwide to both private and public organizations. I haven't gotten a single bite yet. Its already getting discouraging. To make anything of this degree I think I need to go back and do graduate level work. But I'm done with school, at least for now. I may go back eventually, but I can't take several years of more school right now. I need a change. Something big. It's time.

I've been fantasizing about teaching English as a foreign language in other countries for a long time. I starting thinking about it again about 6 or 7 months ago. A couple of months ago I upgraded the fantasy to an actual possibility. Now, I think I'm ready to upgrade again to actually doing it.

I've been doing a lot of research on the subject. I'm pretty sure I want to go to South Korea for at least a year.

First, I'm going to head to a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) school in Guadalajara, Mexico. I'll probably be there for 5 weeks and end up with one of the more desirable TEFL certifications, as it includes an actual teaching component in addition to the classroom time. I want to be done with school, but I think I can handle one last course. I plan to leave Portland on January 4 and return for a few weeks on February 8. The school year begins in March in South Korea, so the timing should be just right to spend a little time wrapping up any loose ends and saying my goodbyes before leaving for at least a year .

Trunk Monkey letter

Written for my technical writing class -

Capitalistic Crap Products

320 Cirrus Blvd.

Cloud City, IA 52240

April 8, 2013

Frederick Engles

Customer Service Manager

Trunk Monkey Enterprises

1414 NE Marx Dr.

Moscow, ID 83844

Dear Mr. Engles:

The Trunk Monkey Deluxe you recently sold us had a defective aggression dampener that had to be replaced while driving to Atlantic City, NJ. Consequently, we are requesting reimbursement of the expenses to our company to replace the dampener.

We purchased the Trunk Monkey Deluxe from your Iowa City store on January 4, 2013. (See attached sales invoice No. 63229.)

The Trunk Monkey worked extremely well for the first several months, but during that time we had no reason to activate the aggression dampener.

On March 30 one of our sales employees, George Modoc, activated the Trunk Monkey after following the pre-activation procedures specified in the owners manual. After driving down the interstate for only 9 hours, the Trunk Monkey became violent and tried to escape from the trunk of the car. Mr. Modoc attempted to activate the aggression dampener, but it did not respond. He then turned the Trunk Monkey off and restarted it after consulting the emergency procedures manual that was provided by your company. Less than 30 minutes later, the Trunk Monkey became even more violent. The aggression dampener once again did not respond, forcing Mr. Modoc to do a “hard deactivation” on the Trunk Monkey.

Because the Trunk Monkey Deluxe is neither sold nor serviced anywhere east of the Mississippi River, Mr. Modoc was forced to buy a replacement aggression dampener (a Vicks Model 44D), which has since worked fine. I have enclosed the defective dampener, plus a copy of the sales receipt for the replacement dampener that Mr. Modoc purchased from Knock-Off Monkey Products in Youngstown, OH.

Please send our company a check for $2,987.63 to cover our costs for replacement of the defective dampener.

Sincerely,

Alan Keynes

Vice President