Tuesday, June 27, 2006

I'm an idea person.

I come up with great ideas, all the time. Ideas for movies, books, TV series, a news program. I have a wonderful idea right now for a tourism-based maritime business that is just perfect for northwest Florida. What I don't have is the time to write my books or the five million dollars plus needed to start my tourism-based maritime business. No, I'm not saying what it is. I'm certainly not going to give away the best business idea to ever hit the Gulf Coast.

The thing is, I know people get paid good money just to think, just to come up with great ideas. How can I get someone to pay me for the good ideas I already have?

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Are people just stupid?

So, I go to wordtracker.com, just out of curiosity, to see what the hot search topics are online. The top three are google, ebay, and yahoo. Why are people searching for these terms? Just add the .com and go there. Sheesh.

This afternoon, we went to Rooms to Go, planning to order a pair of nightstands we'd looked at there a couple of weeks ago. We were trying to talk to the same salesperson, but every time we saw her, she was grabbing another new customer that had just walked in the door. So we ended up talking to this little older guy. He was a little older than us, he was older and small. We walked over to the nightstands and asked, "Do you have them in stock or do we need to order them?" Now, we had talked to this chick before and discussed pick-up versus delivery, and she never mentioned that if you didn't want to have them delivered, you have to go to Mobile to pick it up from the warehouse. Huh? That's crazy! That's like a 90 minute drive, one way. "We don't have the room here," the little man told us. "Can you imagine if we had to store all the furniture that people want to buy?" What, you mean like *any other store*? I told Tim he should just call later and ask for the manager and see if that's really the deal or if the little old man just didn't understand how it works. That's just crazy.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

What is wrong with me?

Or maybe I should ask, "What is wrong with all the potential employers who completely ignore my résumé?"

Over the past four years, I've applied for at least a couple dozen jobs, some in Pensacola, some in Nashville (Tim wants out of the Hurricane Zone). I've had one interview and few form letter rejections. This week, I was actually going to call and ask, "Did you get my application that I submitted through your website?" But I applied on Sunday, checked back Tuesday and the listing was gone. Meaning they probably already hired somebody, and my application was a reminder to them to take down the listing.

That's right, I usually don't call to follow up. A lot of places specifically say, "Don't call us. We'll call you." (Or not.) I've also been on the receiving end of "Did you get my application?" phone calls -- the person who actually makes the decision doesn't get the call, the secretary does. And you don't want to annoy the secretary.

Maybe it's because my degree is in Theatre. It seems like nowadays, at least from the way the job listings are written, experience and knowledge mean nothing. It's all about the degree. We want you to have this specific degree, or we might accept this one, if you have 18 years experience with this particular computer software, not similiar software (we assume you won't be able to learn anything new), we know you probably won't stick with our company for very long, so we certainly don't want to have to train you. Tim is a really talented artist, but he doesn't know Quark, so he'll never be able to get a job as a graphic artist. Never mind that all he'd be doing is positioning letters and logos on signs at a print shop. Must have intimate if-Quark-was-a-girl-her-daddy-would-come-after-you-with-a-shotgun experience because we don't think you can figure out how software works.

Gosh, I'm bitter, aren't I?

It's just, you'd think that with several years experience as a TV news producer (6 years as I write this), P.R. experience, writing talent, customer service skills, and a background in retail management, I could at least get an interview. Check out my résumé and see for yourself.

It wouldn't be as bad, either, if I felt appreciated at my own job. I'm the best producer they've got, and one person in authority has basically told me that. A lot of people that have no power at all at the station have told me that. But if any position opens up that I could *advance* to - someone is going to be hired from the outside. Someone who obviously has the ability to make themselves sound much better than they are.

Yes, I'm very bitter.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Here we go again....

Another tropical storm headed to Florida. As I write this, the soon-to-be-Alberto is still a tropical depression, but the next advisory's due out in an hour, and it'll probably be upgraded. At least a southbound front seems to be keeping it away from the panhandle. I'VE HAD ENOUGH!!

I've also had enough of sitting around hospitals with my dad. He's going in for yet another surgery on Monday. This time, it's to repair a hernia that was caused by the surgery he had a few months ago to remove a cancer from his adrenal gland. That was the weird, rare mucoepidermoid something cancer. Before that it was surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. Before that it was surgery to remove and biopsy the huge lump in his neck (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, that one). The lymphoma was the first surgery, back in 2004. Right before my little Quinnie had his heart attack (by-product of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), and not long before Ivan the Terrible tried to blow us off the map. If this surgery is the last for a while, maybe my dad can build up his strength and have a few more years left. I'm really worried because he's so weak, now. He has put it in God's hands, but from the way things have been going, I'm thinking God's not so eager to leave my dad here on Earth for much longer. Why? No idea.