Caught a monster bass on Lake Francis a couple weekends ago. Met a guy who loves to fish and we’ve been getting out as much as possible. Check out this lovely thing. I’m thinking it’s around 7lbs. Hard to say, since we didn’t measure it.
Category Archives: General
General News and Information
Ice Fishing
Over the last couple weeks I’ve purchased all the ice fishing gear I will need to catch fish over the ice, aka hard water. I got a nordic legend auger/ice house combo from menards. Highly recommend this for the budget conscious person. It was vastly cheaper than anything out there, and it seems to perform just fine.
Today I met a new fishing friend, we will call him D. Hopefully a long future of fishing is together for us. We seem to have many overlapping hobbies.
I’ve been trying to find the fish all week, but haven’t had much luck. Read fishing reports and got out there and just tried stuff. Today changed that though, I was fishing the west end of Lake Francis, which is east of Madison Lake (east of Mankato). The GPS coordinates for approximate location are 44.210378, -93.723875. I set down a point on the Striker as FRA2.
Fished with pink sparkle top, yellow dot small jig, and a glowing yellow, with orange dot jig. The first being the most successful, and the later working better once the sun started getting lower on the horizon.
Caught about 30 bluegill, a couple small pumpkinseeds, and a small pike.
First Week of Work Done
I got a job with Mankato Clinic in Mankato. I’m working for a month under a contract with a laboratory staffing agency. Then I’ll be full time. I’ve gotten through the first week of work, and I really feel I’ll like working there. Hopefully I can learn everything next week so my coworker (I only have one) can get time off if she needs it.
Since it’s such a nasty commute, I’m looking at getting a commuter car that gets 50mpg. This should help mitigate the cost of having to drive so far. I don’t mind the drive at all, but I’ll be paying a lot of money per month to drive my wagon.
So, everything is going well. I’m still adjusting to the schedule, but it’s really reasonable. I’m so glad I was finally able to find some work 🙂
Job Recruiters
I’ve had a recent in surge of recruiters calling me based on my careerbuilder.com and indeed.com profiles. I’ve put a large amount of effort into making those and my linkedin profiles strong and it’s nice to see those paying off.
I’ve not had much luck directly applying for positions posted on job boards, so it’s very nice that I’m finally making some traction building my online brand. Hopefully some job offers start coming in and I can meet with some companies here in Minnesota to find the perfect fit.
As soon as a job happens, I’ll be able to use my savings and finally start the search for a house to buy. I’ve been renting up until this point in my life and I would really like to start building equity.
Things are looking up, I’m feeling confident, and I can’t wait to see what opportunities lie in wait for me. Thank you everyone who has contacted me, and I hope this website will help you gain an understanding of what I’m like.
Don’t forget to visit my skills and techniques page, and please contact me at eric@ericjohnhanson.com or visit the contact me page to get a hold of me. Thanks for visiting!
Continuing Work on This Site
I continue to back date skills posts to flesh out my skills list. Writing up those posts has me going through a more than 10,000+ photo folder to find pictures I’ve taken that are relevant to the posts. It’s so much work. I’ve already put 40 hours into just adding content to the site. It’s daunting work, and I really and hoping that it pays off in the end.
Some things I’m going to work on once all the skill posts are fleshed out is, reading and reviewing scientific articles. I also am going to start getting involved in the international and organized animal groups out there that bring together professionals and enthusiasts. Going to mainly focus on groups dealing with behavior, ecology, conservation, entomology, and research. Hopefully I can gain some contacts within there and network to a better job. I’ve tried the online job boards, but those just seem to not work at all. I get zero communication, and I’m starting to doubt it’s because I’m writing poor cover letters or not having a fleshed out resume.
Also once this site is done to the point where I’m just adding new content, I can get it up on all the job search sites. I’ve had some luck with recruiters contacting me over Indeed, Career Builder, and Linked In, but the problem is, most of them are wanting me for a travelling histology position. That would be great, if I were not married and didn’t have local responsibilities. I may end up having to take one just to pay the bills, but hopefully something local works out for us.
AeroTek Recruiter
Good news, I have a meet and greet with an Aerotek representative tomorrow. They are an excellent technical and scientific placement service. I look forward to working with them. My husband is also using their service. Here’s to hoping for a good placement!
First Post
This is the beginning. It started it all. I’ve registered the domain and intend to fill this with my personal information for prospective clients and employers. Let this serve as the first post on what will become a tremendous resource for getting to know who and what I am professionally.
Please sit back, put your feet up, and sip some coffee as you navigate through everything I’ve done to get to where I am today.
Thank you for visiting. Please visit my About Me and Contact pages and don’t hesitate to send in any questions.