Thanks to LiteMind for referencing one of my favorite memory tricks ever.

Granted, the hangover often interferes with the clarity factor, but whatever.

Labels: blogs, lists, tip o' the day, useless blog, websites

Everybody has it.

Thanks, aNYthing

Labels: useless blog

I realize that Detroit's not the most pretty city in the world, but who wants to take me to the Air Race? I really wanna go.

Pretty please? I'll give you Gobstoppers. Maybe even Twizzlers.

I'll be your best frieeeeennnnnd!

If you want to go to San Diego this weekend, I'm free for that, too. If you pay, I'll make dinner. Deal? Anyone?

.....

Bueller?

Labels: useless blog

Dear Prospective Employers,

I realize that I worked for five years in higher education. Thanks. I need the reminder, daily, because sometimes I forget that I let five years of my life waste away in that trap where I couldn't get anyone to pay attention to the fact that no one was learning any additional skills that they might use in the future. Really. Fortunately for me, I had the sense to go out and fulfill my desire to learn something by earning an MBA in the meantime, focused on marketing because I thought it was fucking thrilling (actually... that part is true). Good thing I dropped $100,000 on my education because now, not only do I not have the right skills for the position I actually want, but you think that I will want much, much more money for your crappy administrative assistant position that might earn me some additional skills over time to get into your marketing department's pants. You're right; I do want more money, but I also realize that you probably won't give it to me. So please, get over yourselves, don't make me take the MBA off of my resume. I'm proud of the work that I did, the GPA I maintained while working full time at my job. Just because you think that I have nothing to offer you, I can promise you, PROMISE YOU that if you'll just give me a chance, let me talk to you, you'll love me.

And then, only then, will you realize that my skills go above and beyond knowing the applications that only your company uses, that I can talk a brick wall into buying your product, and that I have ideas you've never even considered to improve your supply chain, lessen your marketing costs while increasing effectiveness, and develop your staff by recognizing their talents and using them effectively.

So, get off your high horse and hire me.

Labels: business, confidence, development, interviewing, jobs

And I'm still unemployed!!! Hooray!

Last week, I headed up to the great NYC for a 2nd and 3rd interview with a music publishing company who seemed very, very impressed with my preparation, experience, potential, etc. Apparently, however, they neglected to think about what exactly it is that they needed from the person they wanted to hire for the position I was interviewing for. Given the posted job description, I had what they wanted, but it turns out that what they wanted was much, much more than their job description led any applicants to believe. Therefore, my lack of experience in particular areas (and their inability to develop a training program) left me hanging out to dry. Based on the description they posted online, I will be very surprised if they are able to come up with an employee with the qualifications and contacts necessary to complete the tasks they were hoping to complete in the US market... I will be shocked, in fact.

So, back to the drawing board I go; literally.

I spoke to John over at Ratchet today about one of my projects and I finally got a good, solid answer as to initial costs for starting a networking application like the one I have developed in my little head. $100,000-$150,000 is the magic number and let's just say double that for the sake of other incidentals and legal schmoozing that has to happen in order to reach completion in the next year. $300,000+. I'm looking for investors, so if you know of anyone who might be interested, the project is related to the music industry and is a grassroots project geared towards musicians at an unsigned level. For more information, email me and I'll happily share all the goodies with you.

Additional projects include some random music marketing tools (oh, touch screens and compacted singles) and the best workbench/desk design ever. More info to come - designs for both might be sold to the right firms willing to work with me and develop these products.

Yah. I'm bored. If I don't do things like this now, I might go completely insane.

Also seeking part-time work in the Winter Park, FL area, willing to travel up to a 20 mile radius for work, work from home/telecommute, etc. Looking for something in marketing, but really, I'm open to anything... except maybe things red-light related. Come on now.

Things that make me feel like a kid again:



TGIM.

Labels: business, complaints, confidence, confusion, daisichain, design, development, economy, ethics, failure, interviewing, jobs, linear walkout, marketing, meetings, recession, useless blog, websites

I've made it this far.

The company I'm interviewing with let me know that I made the cut to round three. On Saturday, I have my third interview with the Owner, General Manager and the Royalty Accountant. There are only about a million things running through my head, most of all, how am I going to convince two additional people that I can do this job when I have the hardest time understanding just what it is this job entails?

Not sure.

So I'm spending the day looking around at what other music publishers do and what this company offers that is beyond what anyone else can offer. I hope they don't expect me to figure it out before tomorrow... but I'll do my best.

The idea after that, of course, is to figure out how to make my blogs about nothing much more interesting.

WANT:

Labels: business, confusion, interviewing, jobs, panic

You still get this lousy blog for today:

Labels: useless blog

Goodness. The job market has made a dramatic upturn since last week.

I regularly scour through about a dozen sites that post jobs, as well as another three dozen individual company sites that list their jobs online. Last week, a total of four (4) new jobs were posted amongst the array of industries I regularly search. Many folks reposted jobs I had already applied for, which doesn't really help me. (Uhhh, hai, you ignored me the first time; please pay attention to me this time? No? IWANNAINTERVIEWGIMMEONENOWWWWWWWWWWW!)

[Ahem]

Anyway. Today, I fiddled around a bit online and found that the market must have touched a socket or something, because it appears to have revived a bit. The Midwest has piqued up a bit, as well as the Bay area and Los Angeles so far this week. Multiple postings in London, England, as well. Interesting. If someone wants to employ me in Euro at the moment, I don't think I'll argue.

Cheers. Things are look up, at least a bit. You may feel free to continue to worry about the economy. I know my bank account is still screeching, so I will understand if yours is, too.

Tip of the day: Don't forget to breathe or else you'll die.

Labels: business, jobs, listings, recession, state of unemployment, tip o' the day

it will be over.

Labels: interviewing, jobs, useless blog

I'll warn you now, my train of thought on this one is a little messy, but I know you're a faithful reader (all two of you) and you'll read anyway.

Labels: business, confidence, friends, interviewing, jobs, recession

Sometimes, Firefox decides to update itself...

and then I can't login to Gmail anymore.

More sadly, Twitter runs some updates,

and my tweets disappear.

Rough day.

Labels: complaints, friends, useless blog, websites

There's been a lot of bitching and griping going on about the program offered by Matt Bacak for just a lowly dollar. One, U.S., not-worth-much-anyway-next-to-the-euro dollar.

Personally, I'm over it. (I mean, after I'm done writing this blog, I'll be over it). Read everything, before and after you sign up for anything. Especially online. Duh.

Sean Marler has good arguments, too. And no, it's not as simple of an argument as I'm making it out to be, so edumacate yourself and read a little more about it.

Labels: advertising, business, complaints, ethics, marketing

Taleggio cheese.



As I was trying out yet another Top Chef recipe, I taste-tested this fabulous cheese; a little stink, a little sweet and a little bitter all at once. Fabulous.

Wine Pairing: Pair with a young full-bodied wine such as Merlot or with a dessert Riesling or Sauternes.

Serving Suggestion: Goes well with fruit on a cheese board, in salads, or mixed into hot pasta or polenta since it melts well.

Profile by Donna Pilato

Labels: cheese

Some inspiration from Trainspotting, instead.

"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?"

Labels: business, change, useless blog

This is really one of my biggest pet peeves about job hunting. Folks call you up for a phone interview, love what you have to say, talk about making the arrangements to have you come up for an interview, ask you what the best days are to come up, tell you what day they're going to call you with the arrangements, you get all psyched up...

and then, no one ever calls.

Why? Why do that to someone? Not only that, but they simply choose to never acknowledge you again. If you can't afford to fly me up, if you can't fit me into your budget this year, fine. But, for Christ's sake, call me up and tell me. It is the most rude and inappropriate action to take when you're trying to get someone into a position at your company. It makes me lose respect for you as a company and even more respect for the individual who had me going for a few minutes there.

Follow through. No news is good news? In this case, never. No news is god-awful frustrating and no one wants to deal with it. Always follow through with people because you never know where they might end up along the way, in a position to help you.

Labels: business, complaints, customer service, interviewing, jobs, state of unemployment

I got a little crafty and decided to cook this:



I know it sounds bizarre, but actually... it was amazing. It didn't taste at all what you thought it might taste like. Cheers. Try it out.

Labels: snack foods, useless blog

I've been waiting for months to hear that we are officially in a recession. The message keeps popping up, are we? are we not? Who decides?

The Economist reported last week that "a jump in the unemployment rate to 5.1% and the loss of 98,000 private-sector jobs in March, the fourth consecutive month of decline—point to a shrinking economy." I believe it. Looking over the job postings for this week so far, I haven't seen much of anything prominently pointing to recovery from last month's job loss numbers.

What kind of recession will this be?, the article questions. Long or short, deep or shallow? Mortgage crisis aside, what other factors will drag us down or pull us up? So many areas of the country were undergoing development and were over-valued for the growth expectations. Businesses falter because some didn't charge enough during the boom to cover for this shit-end experience.

Those things aside, I... am extremely frustrated with Barack Obama's comment last week about the Midwest clinging to their religion and their guns when thinking about the future and not the economy. Born and raised a Midwesterner myself, I realize that there are those few out there, who find comfort in religion and entertainment, but to stand up and say that this group of people don't focus on economic issues, or cling to these other things because of their economic situation is naive. Ohioans struggled to pool for economic recovery, working together to be one of the biggest swing states during the last election. That doesn't count for something? Does he believe they were talking to each other or just praying on the election the whole time? Do New Englanders cling to their sports teams during the recession? Do Californians cling to marijuana and surfboards? Do Floridians cling to the Mouse?... You never know, I suppose any of the above is plausible.

I was a strong supporter of Barack Obama, but this comment shows where his knowledge of this economy and country falls short.

Labels: Barack Obama, economy, jobs, recession, state of unemployment

HOORAY!

Labels: blogs, cheese, useless blog, websites

1. Meerkat Manor
2. Fresh [free] grilled cheese for lunch
3. Getting the mail
4. Seeing the FedEx truck pull up and realizing it might be something fun
5. Decorating the office = cleaning house
6. Every day is Bring-Your-Pet-to-Work day
7. Apple cinnamon waffles
8. Watching Clean House
9. You don't have to go to the 4th floor to do #2
10. Lunch meeting involves homemade cocktails. Delish.

Labels: lists, useless blog, waffles

This weekend was spent scouring the USPTO website for a patent that is already held by another individual. I am trying to get the design information so I can alter it juuuuuuust enough to call it my own.

After hours of searching, I find that some bastard has actually already come up with the thing I would like to do... in a cheapened, crappy design. My biggest problem is that I haven't figured out the ideal format in which to produce a quality, collector's level product. I can tell you exactly why this guy chose to create the cheapest thing possible; the combination of product construction & advertising costs combined with the product start to get to be astronomical.

My question is, if the product is designed at a level of quality that it would be perceived as a collector's item, will folks with bigger budgets be willing to help out the little guy by purchasing more advertising space and allow for smaller budgets to buy less and therefore, be more rare than the bigger budgets? Is that fair?

Not sure...

Labels: advertising, business, design, development

I am having a difficult time seeking out the best music blogs there are. A lot of people quote off the mtv blogs, a lot of people have nothing to say, many are genre specific, nothing is comprehensive... how long will it take me to build the most comprehensive music blog in the US?

Sounds like a challenge to me.

Labels: blogs, business, complaints, confidence, new music

I have reached a point in my obsession with blogs that I really need to find some bloggers on the other side of the world.

Why? you may ask yourself.

Turns out that I am often awake looooong after my favorite US of A bloggers have gone to bed. It's so depressing to head over to my Netvibes and see not a single update after midnight. I realize that it is Friday night and all normal people are either out at the moment or hammered, but this happens every night, not just Fridays.

They're like friends, these bloggers. I miss them when they're gone. Wish I lived in some of their neighborhoods; sounds like they party hard.

Cheers, after-midnighters.

Labels: complaints, friends, useless blog, waffles, websites

Hawt.

Labels: useless blog

You know, I think I watch more than enough TV for the entire neighborhood block. Strangely enough, one of the only things that ever stands out in my memory as not being the most obnoxious commercials I've ever seen are the Dyson vacuum commercials.

First of all, the guy has a sexy voice. Who can argue with that?
Secondly, he tells you straight up that he f-ed up a few times before he got it right.
Most importantly, I think the man tells me something new every other month or so. I don't know if he films six or seven commercials at a time, but I always feel like I'm learning something new... about vacuums!!!

Check out Dyson's newest invention, a damn vacuum on a basketball.

Labels: advertising, business, confidence, customer service, design, marketing

Shock and what it really means...

Tonight, I was flipping around on Twitter and I accidentally, believe it or not, came across someone with my first name and my ex's last name. Considering the tremendous heartache this breakup has left me in, I cannot explain the way it made me feel to see my first name with his last name and the physical, wrenching feeling, part shock, part nausea, part fear, part devastation.

Normally, I wouldn't blog about that, but I'm exhausted and can't find a better outlet for this awful feeling I just want to get out.

Labels: failure, friends, useless blog, websites

I like lists... a lot. So, I'm going to try to give everyone a throwback to High Fidelity and make up some of my own little lists to annoy the hell out of you.

Top Ten Things that Annoyed the Hell Out of Me Today:

1. Cat barf on my rug
2. The dog and his never-ending neediness
3. The fact that jobs I applied to over 6 weeks ago had the balls to go and re-post their listing without ever calling me
4. Stinky roommate
5. I didn't get any mail today (not even a catalog)
6. My favorite blogger has yet to post today
7. Having to chase the cat away from lizards she caught on three different occasions
8. Discovering that my roommate ate my last Amy's burrito (bitch)
9. Not hearing back from a guy I need to get in touch with re: music publishing
10. Not having enough money to change my car's oil. Sucky.

Labels: lists, useless blog

Some interesting goodies from the folks over at Lifehacker (preview below).

Jeff and David claimed their four part productivity boosting F.A.S.T. program was used as “a way for us to bring a number of companies working together.” The four parts of the FAST program are as follows:

1. Focus.Everyone in the company including those on the factory floors have become highly focused on delivering results. The people at Kodak are all tied into the larger context of what the company is working toward. They are informed of more than just their small part of the picture. Is everything that you do geared towards your goals? Is it in the larger context of what you are working toward?

2. Accountability. This is about promises and keeping them. Jeff said “I’m accountable and I’ll deliver those, no matter what – short of doing something dangerous or illegal. We treat everybody inside the company as if they were a customer.” Ask yourself, how good am I at delivering what I promise?

3. Simplicity. Jeff said, “We have 125 years of rules and regulations. To be a fast and nimble company, do we need a lot of those? We gave permission.” A huge chunk of their policy and procedure manuals were scrapped. The company did an end to end review and eliminated waste throughout the organization. It transformed itself from a bloated behemoth into a lean organization in much less time than any other company of its size ever has. What have you done to remove unnecessary clutter or stuff that gets in the way of real productivity?

4. Trust. “Good open conversations. We agree to be in fair and open dialogue. This is in a spirit of cooperation and accountability. Even if we screw up, we’ll do it faster.” Kodak clearly values true communication. How open are you in conversation? Do you express yourself clearly and with candor?

Labels: blogs, business, change, customer service, development, marketing, websites

When is Good

"An a easy online tool that can help you choose the time for your next meeting or event.

Just click the grid for all the times that a good for you - we send you a link to circulate to your participants. They see your proposed times and click on when they are free. You see the combined results. Simple.

* Eats time zone confusion - perfect for international conference calls
* Beautiful personalized URLs for each of your events
* You write the invitations - no cheesy automatic emails
* Free for basic usage

No sign-up form. No password to choose. No fuss at all."

Labels: business, meetings, websites

every day!

I am only who I am today. Yesterday, I might have been someone else. Tomorrow, I will change again. Some days will be better than others, but tomorrow is the next opportunity to be better.

I am responsible for my own emotions. I can't place the blame on anyone else for my anger, frustration, aggravation, happiness, lack thereof, insecurity or deprivation. I am responsible for discovering the source of those emotions and figuring how they can be used effectively to solve situations rather than making them more complicated.

Whose business am I in? Unless you are directly involved, it is unnecessary to get involved in other people's business. This applies to more situations than you think. Your assumptions about other people, what they are doing, how they think and what they think about you are examples of this kind of inappropriate involvement. Making these assumptions, discussing other people's relationships, these things aren't really your business. You're not in the relationship, and it's likely your judgments are misinformed and lacking vital knowledge that only the involved parties can use to work through their issues.

Most importantly, I cannot change other people. They will make their own decisions, move forward with their lives, and this is something I have to respect. They need not offer an apology or an explanation; people change.

Labels: business, change, confidence, friends

I'm going to start selling my lemonade on the corner for $100 a pop. And by lemonade, I mean my body.

Labels: business, complaints, jobs, marketing, start-ups, websites

You know, as I have been sitting around and questioning every move I make while other businesses (banks, web developers, etc) do me the favor of also judging my decision-making, I have begun to realize that my confidence level is nil. Besides the one time the guy told me that he couldn't work on my project because too many other people are doing it, I think I have questioned every other move I have made since I began this whole entrepreneurship thing. Not sure how that's going for me now, but I read this article about decision-making today, and I feel a renewed sense of confidence.

This is my life, this is my business. I made the choice to leave my job because I wanted to do something to better my life. I left my relationship because I was unhappy that we couldn't commit to each other at the moment because our lives were about to blow up into something much bigger, though separate. I didn't want to hold anyone else back from becoming everything they want to become and I hope I opened up the opportunity for growth for many people. Ultimately, that, above all things, would make me feel justified in my need to change.

Labels: change, confidence, friends, linear walkout, start-ups, state of unemployment, websites

to support my friends.

Cheers to a beautiful life and an inspiration as to the kind of person I could be and want to become.



rip gordon riker 4.4.07
stay +



Help Everyone Live Longer

Labels: friends, gordon riker