Have fun, Senator Mento!

Alright, so I've been looking around for an official journalist, and I haven't been having so good luck. Anyone who's got experience wants to be paid...a lot, and anyone who just has a degree is holding out for a paying job. So I won't be able to get professional articles up on here. I did, though, find someone. I went down to the nearby Liberal Arts college yesterday and asked around, and I found a first-year journalist major who was looking for experience. His name is Thomas Jones, and I know it sounds a little lame, but I've seen his work and it's good stuff.

So then. The election is finally over. Most of you readers probably weren't paying too much attention, since there was no presidental seat in contention, but I felt very close. I was (full disclosure!) one of Senator Mento's campaign volunteers, and I worked so hard to get him into office! The incumbent rate has gone down from its historic high a generation ago, thank goodness, but it's still nearly impossible to unseat a sitting senator! Of course, the scandals did make quite a difference--I know I'll never look at my cellphone the same way again!--but we had to work long and hard to win. I'm so proud. It really didn't sink in until today, when he took the subway off to the southeast. I hope he makes good on his promises for tax cuts. I'm...I'm actually a little teary eyed.

There's your news for today. The newly elected Senator Mento :snif: left today by subway to the capitol.

Flat Hunting

Okay, I have a few announcements before I start this week's article. Firstly, Steve reported that "3 or 4 people" came in specifically asking for steak. So that means I have a readership! And it's growing. Yay!
Secondly, I got a mildly angry e-mail from a reader who had been reading when NMD was still a big corporation. She said that she really liked the heavy news articles, and that this was a great site for unbiased reporting before I bought it. Unfortunately, I'm no good at doing that. I tried. But no-one important would be interviewed, and I just couldn't do that. However, if there are more of you who really want a newsblog, I'll find someone who can. That can't be too hard, right? Leave your opinions in the poll I set up.

Anyway. Over the past few days, I've been flat hunting, thus the name of this entry. I know, I'm working for my parents for now, and they're already paying for my trade school which doesn't end for a year and a half yet and why bother looking already? Well, my parents said that I had to support myself by the time I was done with school if they were going to pay off the loans for me, and while I have time, they've been sending signals. Little things, like the empty suitcases that keep 'appearing' in my room, and the draft of a want-ad for a tenant I found on the table. I get it, mom! So I figure I move a couple miles away, and I can walk back here for work and to school for...school.
I started by looking at official mortgages. I know that I'm not likely to pay for it (at least until I can get an electrician's internship, that is), but a girl can dream, can't she? It turns out, though, that they are either incredibly expensive, or decades long. I mean, it figures...only so much space, period, and extra rooms are at a premium, but wow. The only reasonable 1 year and 6 month loans were for deep suburb houses, which were out of the question; I'm not going to bike 50 miles to work, and of course the monorail can't penetrate into the tight grouping of houses. So I'm not renting a house anytime soon.
After a quick trip to the newsstands, I printed out a quick list of rent listings nearby to check. Perhaps, though, it was a bad idea to do all this on Halloween. Most of the empty places wouldn't answer the phone number listed, and the ones with other tenants just gave me candy and a quizzical look. I guess I look younger than I thought! Flattering, but fruitless.
So, here I am with a list of phone numbers and empty candy wrappers. There's a good number, but it looks like it'll still be about a month until I can start renting. At least my parents haven't posted that want-ad yet.

--Trepa Mayfield