Health is a funny thing.
When you have it in abundance you don’t think about it. When you are sick it’s the only thing you wish for.
The problem is, since in normal times your health is the last thing on your mind, the inclination is not to do anything about it. Exercise and good nutrition take a back seat to the everyday stresses of life. Daily activities take up time in a way that make something as labor intensive as lifting weights or even going for a walk nearly impossible. It is true that everyone, even the most busy of us are not truly ‘that’ busy, but we manage to make enough excuses that simple exercise and nutrition get ignored.
Or if you are anything like me, it moves beyond disregard into the realm of callous contempt. Not only was I not working out or eating right, I was drinking way too much, sleeping less than 5 hours per night for months at a time, forcing myself to work through pain and injury, and generally treating my body like a 15 dollar whore. And to top it all off, I had a job that I absolutely hated and it showed in my every action and feeling. I hated getting up in the morning to go there, I hated being there and I hated going home each night knowing that I would have to go back.
It got inside and did a number on my mind and naturally my body followed.
Never let anyone tell you that your mind isn’t the most powerful force in the world. If you are convinced in your mind that you are sick, your body WILL agree with you. Stress starts in the mind but if its left unchecked, it will affect your physical body. What started as occasional headaches became overall body pain. That morphed into even less sleep, no dreams when I did sleep, and an increase in the amount of alcohol I was drinking trying to make myself sleep.
Ultimately it culminated in an event that scared the hell out of me.
One day at work, for no reason that I can figure, I experienced an intensely sharp pain in my head above my left eye. When the pain was over and I could see again without it hurting I realized that the entire left side of my body had gone numb. Talk about panic attack city. It lasted for about an hour. I could still move my arm and leg, but I couldn’t feel them. I pinched myself a few times and it was extremely eerie that I couldn’t feel the fingers of my right hand touching the skin on my left arm. It didn’t hurt, it was just numb.
Like I said, about an hour later I got a pins and needles sensation and I realized that I could feel them again. I didn’t tell anyone about it at work. I didn’t say anything about it to my wife until later. I did still go drink with my friends on their back deck. The cold air felt good to me and helped me get my bearings back.
I realize that I probably had a mini stroke. It’s not that I didn’t care, but what was I supposed to do? The doctor was out of the question. I’d recently been to the ER and since we don’t have insurance I wasn’t interested in putting us even more into debt. I am still paying for other medical stuff. Plus, I felt fine now. No loss of motor control, no slurring, no lasting pain or numbness. Personally I think it was a physical reaction to the stress I was feeling at work and my body took the only route it had open to get my attention.
I’ve suffered with panic attacks my whole life. I chalked this up to one hell of a grand mal attack. Later on when things got weird again I did finally go back to the doctor. 6 visits, an MRI, a CAT scan and a barium test later they determined that I have a 2mm aneurism in my brain on the left side behind my eye. Did it cause the pain and numbness? They don’t know. I went to a specialist but he wanted me to have surgery, something that wasn’t going to happen without insurance. So after talking with my regular doctor and doing some reading on my own I realized that I’d just have to live with it and hope that it didn’t get any bigger. I still have weird headaches and this tingling feeling from time to time. It feels a bit like a tight hat sitting over the top of my head, I’ve come to call it ‘helmet head’. It doesn’t hurt, but it feels…strange.
Anyway, I started this blog as a warning to myself and anyone else who reads it. When your health is on the line it’s not a good idea to ignore it. Drinking won’t make it better. Hanging out with people to all hours of the morning won’t make it better. Hating your job and not doing anything about it won’t make it better. Acting like it isn’t helping won’t make it better.
The only choice you have is to realize that you only get one body and you have to take care of it, regardless of how much ‘work’ it takes. Granted, we all live only until we die, but I am of the mind that your time alive should be spent as healthy as possible so that you get the benefit. If you are always sick there’s no fun in that.
And if you are sick through indifference, that’s even worse.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
...of those who've gone before
Since this year is all about being honest with myself, I have to work through a problem that is preventing my success as a writer.
I am friends with a number of professional authors. Two of these people are making really large strides towards building strong careers and lasting legacies of books and other materials. I have seen them accept awards for their stories and work towards writing for their own television series.
I listen to podcast novels and short stories by a bunch of other authors who have found a way to make a name for themselves in the podosphere. Multiple novels over the course of the year and a half that I’ve had my iPod. I can’t even count how many short stories I’ve heard or read.
You would think that all of this wonderful content and access to talented people would catapult me into the stratosphere of creativity. But please remember, this is me we’re talking about.
It has done the exact opposite.
I have one novel that is 15 chapters in. The story on this one is developing. I wrote the first 15 chapters in a white heat with only a vague idea of where it was all going. I developed one very strong lead character and a cast of supporting characters. I established a mystery to be solved in the first chapter and then added even more questions as it went on. I put the primary character in mortal danger and I even put her in the way of a force that may be stronger than she can handle.
And then the bottom fell out. I started that story two years ago. It’s still at the same point 15 chapters later. I don’t even remember the last time I added anything to it. At this point I would have to re-read the entire thing to remind myself were I was and try to figure out where I was going. Basically this one is dead in the water.
I have another novel that is 10 chapters in. I already know the entire story that this one entails. I know the beginning, most of the middle and the end. I know the primary characters, the basic plot, two of the sub plots and the structure. I know the genre. I know the meme. I know the heroes journey of the two primary characters. I know most everything needed to write the story outline, skeleton and even add some flesh to the bones.
I know that I have to write the rough draft first and that it’s okay if the rough sucks. That’s what rough drafts are for. I’m smart enough to know that I’m not supposed to allow the editor to sit with the writer while he is doing his thing. I also know that the rough is just for me. No one else will ever read it.
Despite knowing all that, this one has been dead in the water for almost 9 months. I got to a point in the story where it felt like I ran into a solid steel wall. And despite a few false starts over the last few months, I haven’t been able to scale or circle around the wall. (Recently I’ve been considering tunneling under it…)
These are just the two I am willing to admit to now. There are several other novel starts that are quite a bit older than these two. One of them goes back more than 20 years.
So, I began to wonder, why is it that I am having such trouble? Why is it that I’ve surrounded myself with writers, published authors, editors, and those who think of themselves as intelligent wordsmiths? Having all of that backup, what is my problem?
When I decided to be honest with myself, I never realized where it might lead. It didn’t occur to me that being honest meant digging out all of the old shit that’s been cluttering up my head all of these years, examining it in the cold light of reality and then making a value decision about what mattered, what was real and what was my foolish imagining. I naively thought that I would be able to just go on with my daily life and maybe fix a few things as they came up. Kind of like holding a starship together with spit and duct tape. Man. Was. I. Wrong.
I’ve spent so long living in other peoples heads trying to figure out how they got what they wanted that I forgot a simple truth about life. My heroes journey has very little to do with the heroes journey of the people I know. Again, I know this sounds obvious, but I’m a bit slow.
I haven’t spent nearly enough time getting into my own head to figure out what I want and who I am. It’s really no wonder that I am having trouble writing. I keep comparing myself to the published authors I know. I wonder why my stories aren’t as good as theirs. I wonder why I feel a pang of jealousy and anger each time I hear a new story by someone I know or even worse, someone I’ve never heard of who managed to sell their first piece on their first try. So, since I don’t know myself, I can’t access the part that tells stories that resonate within me. They come out of desire. They come out of a sheer stubbornness. They come out of a touch of talent, but they DON’T come out of my heart.
I have rejection letters, just like every other writer. I recognize that there is a rite of passage that I apparently haven’t paid enough dues for. That part only mildly annoys me. I know that the price of entry is high.
Social media has become a crutch that I have to scale back on or eliminate entirely. It’s too easy to sit and commiserate with others like me who haven’t published anything. Wallowing in shit is easy, even if it does stink. But there has to be an end point.
I’ve reached mine.
A person who has been a good friend for almost 11 years received an award from the NAACP and instead of feeling elated and enthusiastic, I got a major attack of jealousy. It was their night to shine and though I did feel happiness that their efforts had been rewarded, all I could think about was how much further I had to go.
Time to stop with the Bull. My career. My choice to succeed or fail.
I know what it takes to write a novel. I know what it takes to write a short story. It’s not impossible to do, even for someone who has a history of starting and stopping like I do. So my pledge to myself is the following seven steps:
1. I will ignore social media for the next 90 days until I have finished the rough draft of Hunter.
2. I will stay away from fan sites or author official sites or any other web presence that will tend to make me doubt myself.
3. I will only listen to the older radio shows on my iPod – there is no direct competition from The Shadow, or Gunsmoke or Suspense. I can listen to these and just enjoy the story.
4. I will write a minimum of 500 words per day even if it’s the same word over and over again.
5. I will work towards shutting down the goddamn editor so that the writer can do his thing without being.
6. I will remake the connection with my own mind. I will forge a new link to my heart so that I can concentrate on my own stories.
7. I will give myself a damned break about whether or not I am any good at creating stories.
I’ve seen enough bad ones to know that I can do better.
90 days. Not a life time. Just enough time to write a rough draft and then give myself two or three weeks before starting a new project. Enough time for a new change to become a permanent habit. Enough time to turn things around for good.
Wow.
I am friends with a number of professional authors. Two of these people are making really large strides towards building strong careers and lasting legacies of books and other materials. I have seen them accept awards for their stories and work towards writing for their own television series.
I listen to podcast novels and short stories by a bunch of other authors who have found a way to make a name for themselves in the podosphere. Multiple novels over the course of the year and a half that I’ve had my iPod. I can’t even count how many short stories I’ve heard or read.
You would think that all of this wonderful content and access to talented people would catapult me into the stratosphere of creativity. But please remember, this is me we’re talking about.
It has done the exact opposite.
I have one novel that is 15 chapters in. The story on this one is developing. I wrote the first 15 chapters in a white heat with only a vague idea of where it was all going. I developed one very strong lead character and a cast of supporting characters. I established a mystery to be solved in the first chapter and then added even more questions as it went on. I put the primary character in mortal danger and I even put her in the way of a force that may be stronger than she can handle.
And then the bottom fell out. I started that story two years ago. It’s still at the same point 15 chapters later. I don’t even remember the last time I added anything to it. At this point I would have to re-read the entire thing to remind myself were I was and try to figure out where I was going. Basically this one is dead in the water.
I have another novel that is 10 chapters in. I already know the entire story that this one entails. I know the beginning, most of the middle and the end. I know the primary characters, the basic plot, two of the sub plots and the structure. I know the genre. I know the meme. I know the heroes journey of the two primary characters. I know most everything needed to write the story outline, skeleton and even add some flesh to the bones.
I know that I have to write the rough draft first and that it’s okay if the rough sucks. That’s what rough drafts are for. I’m smart enough to know that I’m not supposed to allow the editor to sit with the writer while he is doing his thing. I also know that the rough is just for me. No one else will ever read it.
Despite knowing all that, this one has been dead in the water for almost 9 months. I got to a point in the story where it felt like I ran into a solid steel wall. And despite a few false starts over the last few months, I haven’t been able to scale or circle around the wall. (Recently I’ve been considering tunneling under it…)
These are just the two I am willing to admit to now. There are several other novel starts that are quite a bit older than these two. One of them goes back more than 20 years.
So, I began to wonder, why is it that I am having such trouble? Why is it that I’ve surrounded myself with writers, published authors, editors, and those who think of themselves as intelligent wordsmiths? Having all of that backup, what is my problem?
When I decided to be honest with myself, I never realized where it might lead. It didn’t occur to me that being honest meant digging out all of the old shit that’s been cluttering up my head all of these years, examining it in the cold light of reality and then making a value decision about what mattered, what was real and what was my foolish imagining. I naively thought that I would be able to just go on with my daily life and maybe fix a few things as they came up. Kind of like holding a starship together with spit and duct tape. Man. Was. I. Wrong.
I’ve spent so long living in other peoples heads trying to figure out how they got what they wanted that I forgot a simple truth about life. My heroes journey has very little to do with the heroes journey of the people I know. Again, I know this sounds obvious, but I’m a bit slow.
I haven’t spent nearly enough time getting into my own head to figure out what I want and who I am. It’s really no wonder that I am having trouble writing. I keep comparing myself to the published authors I know. I wonder why my stories aren’t as good as theirs. I wonder why I feel a pang of jealousy and anger each time I hear a new story by someone I know or even worse, someone I’ve never heard of who managed to sell their first piece on their first try. So, since I don’t know myself, I can’t access the part that tells stories that resonate within me. They come out of desire. They come out of a sheer stubbornness. They come out of a touch of talent, but they DON’T come out of my heart.
I have rejection letters, just like every other writer. I recognize that there is a rite of passage that I apparently haven’t paid enough dues for. That part only mildly annoys me. I know that the price of entry is high.
Social media has become a crutch that I have to scale back on or eliminate entirely. It’s too easy to sit and commiserate with others like me who haven’t published anything. Wallowing in shit is easy, even if it does stink. But there has to be an end point.
I’ve reached mine.
A person who has been a good friend for almost 11 years received an award from the NAACP and instead of feeling elated and enthusiastic, I got a major attack of jealousy. It was their night to shine and though I did feel happiness that their efforts had been rewarded, all I could think about was how much further I had to go.
Time to stop with the Bull. My career. My choice to succeed or fail.
I know what it takes to write a novel. I know what it takes to write a short story. It’s not impossible to do, even for someone who has a history of starting and stopping like I do. So my pledge to myself is the following seven steps:
1. I will ignore social media for the next 90 days until I have finished the rough draft of Hunter.
2. I will stay away from fan sites or author official sites or any other web presence that will tend to make me doubt myself.
3. I will only listen to the older radio shows on my iPod – there is no direct competition from The Shadow, or Gunsmoke or Suspense. I can listen to these and just enjoy the story.
4. I will write a minimum of 500 words per day even if it’s the same word over and over again.
5. I will work towards shutting down the goddamn editor so that the writer can do his thing without being.
6. I will remake the connection with my own mind. I will forge a new link to my heart so that I can concentrate on my own stories.
7. I will give myself a damned break about whether or not I am any good at creating stories.
I’ve seen enough bad ones to know that I can do better.
90 days. Not a life time. Just enough time to write a rough draft and then give myself two or three weeks before starting a new project. Enough time for a new change to become a permanent habit. Enough time to turn things around for good.
Wow.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Limbaugh is the RNC? Really??
I’m trying to work out a small problem in my head that maybe you can help me with.
I am looking for the point at which Rush Limbaugh allowed his ego to grow so large that he felt he could eclipse the will of the President and the country at large.
I was apparently asleep at the point which he felt that his opinion would sway policy intended to get OUR country back on track. Is it the 20 million listeners? Is that the drive behind his destructive words? Well, who the hell cares? I don’t see that he was ever elected to public office. I don’t see where he ever helped balance a state budget. I also don’t see where he led anyone anywhere except down the garden path of hatred and bigotry.
He’s never held office. He’s never lead a major company. He’s never even picked up a single piece of litter on the side of the road that I know of. Divorced three times, failed out of college, controversy at every step. And this is the guy that people listen to?
So why the hell is what he says so important? For that matter, why is anyone who’s never brought a damned thing to the table except complaints worth listening to?
Every day in this country, good, honest citizens try to make a difference in the lives of others around them. They go to jobs as firemen, police officers, community leaders, pastors, activists, sanitation workers and a thousand other things. They DO something every day that makes a physical difference to the world around them. It isn’t just hot air being spewed out of both sides of their neck. These people sacrifice daily to make the country work.
To be honest, I wouldn’t want the president’s job. It’s largely thankless and despite the power and authority, it ages people at an accelerated rate. I think that Barack Obama is one hell of a brave man for even wanting to do it. Brave and maybe just a bit insane.
The current climate is one of the worst in 70 years. Certainly the worst in my short lifetime. The house is falling over and he’s out there with his bare hands and brain trying to hold the damned thing up and the only thing idiots like Limbaugh can do is complain? Jeez.
It’s no wonder that the Republican Party is in the shape it’s in. When they have people like Limbaugh as their water boys, the team goes thirsty. He has gained such a reputation that when the RNC members go against what he says; they have to apologize to HIM? WTF?
The following citation is from Wikipedia and CBS News –
"Leader of Republican Party"
On March 1, 2009 CBS's "Face the Nation" asked chief-of-Staff, Rahm Emanuel: Who represented the Republican Party? He answered, it was Limbaugh. "He called for President Obama to fail. That’s his view. And that’s what he has enunciated. And whenever a Republican criticize him, they have to run back and apologize to him, and say they were misunderstood. He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party."
On March 2, 2009, Limbaugh responded to Rahm Emanuel:
I'm going further and telling you today it's not that I want Obama to fail; that's not it anymore. The President is presiding over economic failure. The President is watching it, doing nothing about it. He's watching unemployment grow; he's watching the stock market plummet; he is watching people sign up for unemployment. The President of the United States is doing nothing to stop the downward spiral of this economy. He has no economic recovery plan. The truth is, the President of the United States and Rahm Emanuel, who, remember, said, 'Crisis is too great a thing to waste'. What does that mean? They want you suffering, they want you miserable, they want it worse, they want you rejecting conservatism. They want you rejecting capitalism. They want you turning to them in fear and desperation and angst for an immediate fix to the problem. They want you thinking you have no ability to fix your own problems. They think you have and they want you to have no ability to take care of yourself. So as the stock market now approaches minus 2,800 since Obama was elected, the statement today is to speed up the economic recovery, we're going to focus on health care. Ask yourself how that is going to get you your next job."
On March 3, 2009, The Wall Street Journal opined that Mr. Emanuel is more preoccupied with malevolent partisan conflict than beneficial "economic leadership".
In remarks aired by CNN on March 1, 2009, Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said in jest, that he, rather than Limbaugh, is "the de facto leader of the Republican Party".
On his March 2, 2009 radio show, Limbaugh responded that Steele is not fit to lead the Republican Party.
Steele later telephoned Limbaugh and apologized,
"I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh. I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership. I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking. It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not." Steele later issued another statement to say that Limbaugh "is a national conservative leader, and in no way do I want to diminish his voice. I truly apologize."
So where was all this yelling and screaming when Bush was in office? Where was this huge sense of right and wrong when billions were being sent to banks so they could buy jet planes? Does anyone else see a problem with all this?
The republicans did their best, the people wanted something else. To Rush and the others I say – Let it fucking go and help build the country back up.
I am looking for the point at which Rush Limbaugh allowed his ego to grow so large that he felt he could eclipse the will of the President and the country at large.
I was apparently asleep at the point which he felt that his opinion would sway policy intended to get OUR country back on track. Is it the 20 million listeners? Is that the drive behind his destructive words? Well, who the hell cares? I don’t see that he was ever elected to public office. I don’t see where he ever helped balance a state budget. I also don’t see where he led anyone anywhere except down the garden path of hatred and bigotry.
He’s never held office. He’s never lead a major company. He’s never even picked up a single piece of litter on the side of the road that I know of. Divorced three times, failed out of college, controversy at every step. And this is the guy that people listen to?
So why the hell is what he says so important? For that matter, why is anyone who’s never brought a damned thing to the table except complaints worth listening to?
Every day in this country, good, honest citizens try to make a difference in the lives of others around them. They go to jobs as firemen, police officers, community leaders, pastors, activists, sanitation workers and a thousand other things. They DO something every day that makes a physical difference to the world around them. It isn’t just hot air being spewed out of both sides of their neck. These people sacrifice daily to make the country work.
To be honest, I wouldn’t want the president’s job. It’s largely thankless and despite the power and authority, it ages people at an accelerated rate. I think that Barack Obama is one hell of a brave man for even wanting to do it. Brave and maybe just a bit insane.
The current climate is one of the worst in 70 years. Certainly the worst in my short lifetime. The house is falling over and he’s out there with his bare hands and brain trying to hold the damned thing up and the only thing idiots like Limbaugh can do is complain? Jeez.
It’s no wonder that the Republican Party is in the shape it’s in. When they have people like Limbaugh as their water boys, the team goes thirsty. He has gained such a reputation that when the RNC members go against what he says; they have to apologize to HIM? WTF?
The following citation is from Wikipedia and CBS News –
"Leader of Republican Party"
On March 1, 2009 CBS's "Face the Nation" asked chief-of-Staff, Rahm Emanuel: Who represented the Republican Party? He answered, it was Limbaugh. "He called for President Obama to fail. That’s his view. And that’s what he has enunciated. And whenever a Republican criticize him, they have to run back and apologize to him, and say they were misunderstood. He is the voice and the intellectual force and energy behind the Republican Party."
On March 2, 2009, Limbaugh responded to Rahm Emanuel:
I'm going further and telling you today it's not that I want Obama to fail; that's not it anymore. The President is presiding over economic failure. The President is watching it, doing nothing about it. He's watching unemployment grow; he's watching the stock market plummet; he is watching people sign up for unemployment. The President of the United States is doing nothing to stop the downward spiral of this economy. He has no economic recovery plan. The truth is, the President of the United States and Rahm Emanuel, who, remember, said, 'Crisis is too great a thing to waste'. What does that mean? They want you suffering, they want you miserable, they want it worse, they want you rejecting conservatism. They want you rejecting capitalism. They want you turning to them in fear and desperation and angst for an immediate fix to the problem. They want you thinking you have no ability to fix your own problems. They think you have and they want you to have no ability to take care of yourself. So as the stock market now approaches minus 2,800 since Obama was elected, the statement today is to speed up the economic recovery, we're going to focus on health care. Ask yourself how that is going to get you your next job."
On March 3, 2009, The Wall Street Journal opined that Mr. Emanuel is more preoccupied with malevolent partisan conflict than beneficial "economic leadership".
In remarks aired by CNN on March 1, 2009, Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele said in jest, that he, rather than Limbaugh, is "the de facto leader of the Republican Party".
On his March 2, 2009 radio show, Limbaugh responded that Steele is not fit to lead the Republican Party.
Steele later telephoned Limbaugh and apologized,
"I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh. I was maybe a little bit inarticulate. There was no attempt on my part to diminish his voice or his leadership. I went back at that tape and I realized words that I said weren’t what I was thinking. It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently. What I was trying to say was a lot of people want to make Rush the scapegoat, the bogeyman, and he’s not." Steele later issued another statement to say that Limbaugh "is a national conservative leader, and in no way do I want to diminish his voice. I truly apologize."
So where was all this yelling and screaming when Bush was in office? Where was this huge sense of right and wrong when billions were being sent to banks so they could buy jet planes? Does anyone else see a problem with all this?
The republicans did their best, the people wanted something else. To Rush and the others I say – Let it fucking go and help build the country back up.
Monday, March 2, 2009
The new shift
In the olden days, when the web was just a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye, if you wanted to find a job you simply got on your horse and rode out to the nearest job fair. There you would schmooze with all of the other job fair attendees and companies looking for a few good men (or women). You would smile, nod politely, answer a few inane questions and then start your new job next Monday at 9 sharp.
Or, if you weren’t into the whole ‘cattle call’ event, you would gather up your resumes and head for the nearest place of business. There you would hand out your resumes, fill out a 30 page application that asked questions like – “Why did you leave your last job?”, or “May we contact your last employer?”
Yeah, that’s just what I want. My hopefully new employer learning about all of my bad habits from my last employer…
Sometimes this method paid off. It was far more likely that you ended up with a sore wrist from filling out all those pages of information that the application required. If you were lucky, your skill set matched an available job and you would get called in for an interview. IF you were lucky.
By IF, I mean – IF you weren’t suddenly too old (never be fooled, ageism is alive and well) or IF you hadn’t been fired from your last job for an addiction to internet porn (you sicko!), or IF your skills matched an available job right down to the last possible microgram or IF…well you get my meaning.
It’s not that I am down on the whole idea of searching for a job. No, quite the opposite, I think that right now is the best time to be enhancing skills, taking classes and polishing the old resume. My problem comes from the fact that the old way of searching for a job has undergone a shift not unlike the upheaval in the economy.
Going door to door simply won’t work. How many dozens of companies have online forms that are designed to weed out the weak? No one seems to welcome the drop in anymore. I know this for a fact. I have filled out the online forms and then gone to the stores just ‘to get more information’ and what I’ve been met with is a wall of stupidity a foot thick. No, they don’t know if they are hiring. No, that manager is out for the day. No, the website should have given you all your answers….
Some stores won’t even talk to people who walk in. Kroger doesn’t accept paper applications. Neither does Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, WalMart or a dozen others. I can’t swear to this, but of the stores on that list, they all seem to use the same company for online applications. The hiring team isn’t anyone on the ground at a store. It’s some nebulous web site that may or may not process your application.
Okay, so online apps are kind of a waste, what’s next? Ah, yes, the venerable county or city website that has jobs posted. At least there is a human being that you can talk to at a local desk. These sorts of places include County agencies (city hall, public works, police & fire, etc.). You can go into their office, fill out and application, take a placement test and then be told (very politely) to have a nice day. Of course, the person who takes your application isn’t involved in the hiring process. For the most part, they don’t even work in the same department or agency that you are applying for. There’s no way to track what happens to your application and resume. If you call them, they will refer you back to the website, which carries the following line of text that you are pretty sure wasn’t there before – If you match the minimum requirements you will be contacted. Do not call or email this office. Damn. Gotta get better about reading the fine print…
Okay, so now we are to the cattle call, oops, sorry I mean Job Fair. Since there are so many thousands of people out of jobs, Job Fairs can be a bit daunting. When there are about 300 jobs available and 6000 people show up, it tends to lower your odds. You’d better have all of your ducks in a row.
On second thought, never mind the ducks, they just increase the competition.
If you go to a job fair make sure you are dressed to kill. A nice suit, tie and clean fresh breath are essential. Bring lots of copies of your polished resume and all of your patience. Depending on how long the event is supposed to last and how many companies are there, it will be a lot like speed dating. You get about 45 seconds to make your pitch, ask and answer questions, pass on your resume, get some idea of what job specifics the company wants, find out where they are physically located, get a business card, admire how the interviewers manage to keep a smile on their face despite the fact that they can see the 300 foot line behind you. Whew, it took me more than 45 seconds to type that last line.
So what’s left? Oh, I know. Start your own business. Yeah, I know. It’s probably not the best time to be trying to drop into the business world. But think about it... There hasn’t been a time like this for entrepreneurs in a lot of years. Since the early 1900’s the focus has been on getting a job with some big company, staying there for 25 or 30 years. Climbing the ladder and getting the gold watch at the top.
But like everything else, that paradigm has changed. Companies are about as interested in having you stay with them for 30 years as you are. New blood is more important to them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard about companies finding legal ways to push out everyone above a certain age. Also, the last two job fairs I’ve been to and the networking meetings contain people who are well past their early 30’s. I think that things are changing on an hourly basis at this point.
It almost makes more sense to develop a plan while at your current job, and then work that plan for all you are worth. Who knows, you might find out that you are better boss than anyone else you’ve ever had. At the very least, if you are the one calling the shots, you get to pick your own destiny.
Or, if you weren’t into the whole ‘cattle call’ event, you would gather up your resumes and head for the nearest place of business. There you would hand out your resumes, fill out a 30 page application that asked questions like – “Why did you leave your last job?”, or “May we contact your last employer?”
Yeah, that’s just what I want. My hopefully new employer learning about all of my bad habits from my last employer…
Sometimes this method paid off. It was far more likely that you ended up with a sore wrist from filling out all those pages of information that the application required. If you were lucky, your skill set matched an available job and you would get called in for an interview. IF you were lucky.
By IF, I mean – IF you weren’t suddenly too old (never be fooled, ageism is alive and well) or IF you hadn’t been fired from your last job for an addiction to internet porn (you sicko!), or IF your skills matched an available job right down to the last possible microgram or IF…well you get my meaning.
It’s not that I am down on the whole idea of searching for a job. No, quite the opposite, I think that right now is the best time to be enhancing skills, taking classes and polishing the old resume. My problem comes from the fact that the old way of searching for a job has undergone a shift not unlike the upheaval in the economy.
Going door to door simply won’t work. How many dozens of companies have online forms that are designed to weed out the weak? No one seems to welcome the drop in anymore. I know this for a fact. I have filled out the online forms and then gone to the stores just ‘to get more information’ and what I’ve been met with is a wall of stupidity a foot thick. No, they don’t know if they are hiring. No, that manager is out for the day. No, the website should have given you all your answers….
Some stores won’t even talk to people who walk in. Kroger doesn’t accept paper applications. Neither does Lowes, Home Depot, Best Buy, WalMart or a dozen others. I can’t swear to this, but of the stores on that list, they all seem to use the same company for online applications. The hiring team isn’t anyone on the ground at a store. It’s some nebulous web site that may or may not process your application.
Okay, so online apps are kind of a waste, what’s next? Ah, yes, the venerable county or city website that has jobs posted. At least there is a human being that you can talk to at a local desk. These sorts of places include County agencies (city hall, public works, police & fire, etc.). You can go into their office, fill out and application, take a placement test and then be told (very politely) to have a nice day. Of course, the person who takes your application isn’t involved in the hiring process. For the most part, they don’t even work in the same department or agency that you are applying for. There’s no way to track what happens to your application and resume. If you call them, they will refer you back to the website, which carries the following line of text that you are pretty sure wasn’t there before – If you match the minimum requirements you will be contacted. Do not call or email this office. Damn. Gotta get better about reading the fine print…
Okay, so now we are to the cattle call, oops, sorry I mean Job Fair. Since there are so many thousands of people out of jobs, Job Fairs can be a bit daunting. When there are about 300 jobs available and 6000 people show up, it tends to lower your odds. You’d better have all of your ducks in a row.
On second thought, never mind the ducks, they just increase the competition.
If you go to a job fair make sure you are dressed to kill. A nice suit, tie and clean fresh breath are essential. Bring lots of copies of your polished resume and all of your patience. Depending on how long the event is supposed to last and how many companies are there, it will be a lot like speed dating. You get about 45 seconds to make your pitch, ask and answer questions, pass on your resume, get some idea of what job specifics the company wants, find out where they are physically located, get a business card, admire how the interviewers manage to keep a smile on their face despite the fact that they can see the 300 foot line behind you. Whew, it took me more than 45 seconds to type that last line.
So what’s left? Oh, I know. Start your own business. Yeah, I know. It’s probably not the best time to be trying to drop into the business world. But think about it... There hasn’t been a time like this for entrepreneurs in a lot of years. Since the early 1900’s the focus has been on getting a job with some big company, staying there for 25 or 30 years. Climbing the ladder and getting the gold watch at the top.
But like everything else, that paradigm has changed. Companies are about as interested in having you stay with them for 30 years as you are. New blood is more important to them. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard about companies finding legal ways to push out everyone above a certain age. Also, the last two job fairs I’ve been to and the networking meetings contain people who are well past their early 30’s. I think that things are changing on an hourly basis at this point.
It almost makes more sense to develop a plan while at your current job, and then work that plan for all you are worth. Who knows, you might find out that you are better boss than anyone else you’ve ever had. At the very least, if you are the one calling the shots, you get to pick your own destiny.
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