The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Heading Out
I left work early to get my allergy shot. I dropped Kiwi the Grey and Eloise the Foster Grey off at the Refuge so that my mother could get the house painted. Packing up Kiwi is a pain in the ass between the toys and the treats and her food.
Rich and Jodi have already checked in and Jodi is very pleased with the oysters. I am now packed and fussing over the Blackhawks. In overtime. Again.
I am so tired that I can’t even say I am excited. I just want to read books and drink margaritas.
Hopefully, I will come back with something good to write.
Too Much Responsibility
Last night, while I was at the library, my mother sent me an e-mail saying that my friend Jodi called and asked me to call her back when I got home. I am flying to New Orleans to meet Jodi and her husband, Rich, tomorrow and my mother was worried that something might be wrong.
I wasn’t going to make a call from the desk at the library, but I checked my Blackberry to be sure I had her number. I could tell that the home number was old which made me less sure of the cell phone number. I checked her Facebook info. The cell number is correct.
Then I saw that she had posted an update. She was on the train. I forgot that Rich doesn’t really like to fly so they compromised – train on the way down and fly back home. And if she was on the train, I could presume that everything was fine.
Kay thought that was the best use for Facebook that she had ever heard. Alert the press.
So when I got home, I tried to call and left Jodi a message. Then I started staring at my bookshelves. What should I take with me on vacation? I posted that thought on Facebook. This morning, I saw Jodi had sent a message that she forgot her book and I should bring her something good, too.
Am I a freak or is that serious responsibility?
First, she might hate a book that I pick. If I give her something “good” in the universal sense – not up for debate, we have all agreed teh book is good – it might not be vacation material. If I give her an Oprah book, she might roll her eyes. Or think I am judging her an Oprah-type.
Oh, and then calculate the percent probability of getting back books that you lend to people. Modify for the fact that Jodi lives in Milwaukee and I don’t see her very often at all. I don’t want to lend her a really good book.
I am tearing my hair out.
Capitalism
I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. Mostly it is because I have read an awful lot about the way the corporation treats employees and I do not approve. I also learned – in school – about the Wal-Mart model of vendor relationships, which are designed to keep the prices low. I remember thinking that Wal-Mart sounded to me like a big corporate bully.
(She says as she types in MS Word for publication in her Google blog).
However. I have always supported Wal-Mart’s decision not to carry certain types of entertainment that it finds graphic or offensive (or whatever). Not because I believe in censorship, but because I believe in capitalism. If Wal-Mart thinks something is dirty, and doesn’t want to sell something dirty, then Wal-Mart can choose not to sell it: just as I can choose not to shop at Wal-Mart.
What has happened, though, is that Wal-Mart will say, “OK, Eminem, we’ll sell your CD if you clean it up to our standards.” Is that ok?
Hm. I still think it’s acceptable. Lame, perhaps, but not evil. No one is making an artist change his or her work. Just saying that if you want to do business with this company, you must play by its rules. Again, it is Wal-Mart’s prerogative to distribute or not and the artist’s choice whether to comply or walk away cashless.
Green Day just told Wal-Mart where to stick it. According to the AP:
“Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won’t be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.
The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, “21st Century Breakdown,” because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.”
Excellent. That is how it is supposed to work. Green Day can find other businesses to sell its album.
Billy Armstrong gave a “what about the little guy” quote. I considered it, but don’t agree:
“If you think about bands that are struggling or smaller than Green Day … to think that to get your record out in places like that, but they won’t carry it because of the content and you have to censor yourself,” he said. “I mean, what does that say to a young kid whose trying to speak his mind making a record for the first time? It’s like a game that you have to play. You have to refuse to play it.”
What does it say to a kid? It says this is a business. Art versus profit is a conflict older than Green Day and older than Wal-Mart. “A young kid trying to speak his mind” can speak his mind. A young kid wanting to make money and become a rock star can play by the rules.
The great thing is that no one in this conversation is talking about bans or boycotts. No one is calling names. And anyway, I thought the kids were all downloading from iTunes these days.
State of the DVR
I cleaned out my DVR yesterday. Mostly it was deleting episodes of my “must see” shows that I watched in real time. But I also deleted all of those Grey’s Anatomy episodes – I think I will just skim through Television without Pity. I didn’t delete Private Practice yet, but I can’t say I am rushing home to watch those, either. I deleted Ugly Betty because I literally didn’t watch all season.
I have 17 episodes of Chuck. I think I will watch them.
I have seven movies recorded from when Showtime did a preview weekend. Six I haven’t seen before and one was the last Highlander movie.
I deleted the three Star Wars movies that I recorded from Spike TV, just in case I was bored. And too lazy to walk down the hall and get the commercial-free DVD’s?
I went from 29% capacity remaining to more than 50%.
And then I watched hockey.
Guillermo the Awesome Terminix Guy
Sunday night, I saw some ants on the floor of my bedroom. I have wood laminate floors in the bedroom, so they were very easy to spot and smash. By the time I had killed six, I pulled out the pet friendly Orange Guard (pictured because I couldn’t make myself post a picture of the actual bug) and sprayed. I believe I killed two dozen ants in my room that night.
Monday night, there were a few more ants and this other tiny bug that I didn’t recognize. Then, when an ant crawled across my computer keyboard, I went crazy. I sprayed every corner of the room, then stripped my bed and changed the sheets.
Then wiped up the spray, per the instructions and vacuumed.
My mother asked me to bring her one of the “new” bugs. She got online and searched and thought it might be a carpet beetle. She called Terminix. The front office said that our guy, Guillermo, was scheduled to come out on Friday to do a regular outdoor spray and couldn’t come any sooner. As if I would last that long. She called Guillermo’s cell phone. He said he would stop by after his last appointment.
Moral of the story: always know how to reach your guy directly.
Guillermo arrived as promised, identified the bug as a carpet beetle (even though there is no carpet in the room) and mixed his spray of perfectly pet friendly stuff to stop the madness. I told him how irritated I was that the first time since I have lived in this house I have a relatively clean bedroom and this is the first time bugs have invaded. He assured me it was nothing that I did and they probably just hatched somewhere.
We asked if he’d been busy lately. Crazy busy, apparently. Mice or bugs? Both. Plus rats and roaches. I didn’t ask any more questions – just felt grateful.
Terminix service costs a couple hundred dollars a year. Right now I am feeling like it was a great investment. As long as we can reach Guillermo directly.
Recruiters
Working in HR means that I receive calls – by the dozen – every day from recruiters wanting to place candidates with me. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them that my turnover is incredibly low and that I have a list of retirees that I call when the receptionist goes on vacation.
I’ve stopped returning the calls. I know they are only doing their jobs and they know I am not likely to call them back. Most just want to make sure I remember them just in case.
Even so, I still have some negative feelings from a decade ago, when I went to half a dozen recruiters in my job search. It took me nine months after graduation to find the perfect job – and I found it by answering an ad in the Chicago Tribune.
I felt the recruiters were either trying to place me in positions that I didn’t want or ignoring me altogether. One started ignoring me five minutes after I quit the job that she pressured me to take. I wish someone had given me this advice (from MSN Careers):
Louise Kursmark, author of “15-Minute Cover Letter,” says the most important thing to remember about recruiters is that they don’t work for you; they work for hiring companies.
“They are not ‘your’ recruiter and will not try to ‘find a job for you.’ That said, recruiters can be your best friends during a job search — provided you have the skills, experience and industry expertise their client is looking for,” Kursmark says.
This piece of advice has come back to me in several forms over the last few years. In any business relationship – financial planner, attorney, recruiter – make sure you know who is footing the bill. Whoever is paying is the true “client”. That knowledge makes a big difference in perspective.
I am not saying that recruiters are bad, or that they won’t care about you. Just that understanding their purpose, which is to find candidates for hiring employers, might save you some frustration. In the scope of a job search, recruiters are just one resource. My advice is use it, but don’t count on it.
You can read the full text of the article here.
Changes at MNF
I like Tony Kornheiser, but he made me crazy on MNF. So I am not sorry to see Fox Sports reporting that he is giving it up. And Chucky is replacing him! Kornheiser says:
“If I could handpick a replacement of a football guy, I would cast a net and drag in Jon Gruden,” Kornheiser said in a statement released by the network. “He is the two things you most want — smart and funny — and has the two things I don’t — good hair and a tan.”
And that is why I like him. He says that he looked at the schedule, saw how much flying he would have to do, and turned in his mike. He is afraid of flying. And he is no John Madden.
Maybe it was time for Gruden to leave Tampa, but you have to give him credit. He turned a perennial loser into a perennial contender. I remember the year they broke the they broke their curse – they had never won a game when the temperature was below freezing – on the Bears. In Soldier Freaking Field. I knew that day they were going to win the Super Bowl.
So welcome to Chucky! Be nice to the Bears.
Open House – Games
My friend Noah is a serious gamer. He is a perennial game master and plays in one other game that I know of. He is the reason I tried role-playing games in college and got all sucked in to playing Vampire.
When we were in college, he and I had a running game of gin rummy. Noah carried around the score sheet in his wallet and whenever we were bored, we played a quick game.
These days, Noah has an open house every couple of months where people gather at his house to play board games. Because my weekends have been tied up with homework for about ever, Saturday was the first tie I was able to attend.
I was the first to arrive. Noah’s two young children were having Quiet Time in their rooms and Noah and his wife, Jenny were playing Guitar Head. When they were done, Noah made an X Box avatar for me, just in case we decided to play video games. He gave me Princess Leia hair.
Noah has every board game under the sun – most things I have never heard of – and he knows all of the rules and can explain them. I love that he always knows whose turn it is and what actions they can take.
There were ten of us playing and I stayed for two games: Pandemic, which is a cooperative game where you try to eradicate diseases before they take over the earth. We lost that one; and Power Grid, where you compete with the other players to provide electricity to the entire US. Noah won.
One of the things that has gotten better about board games – or maybe this is how Noah chooses his games – is that there is less “elimination”, where the last man standing wins. The games have a point where they end for everyone and there is different criteria for winning. That way people aren’t sitting around waiting for others to finish. We had a good time.
Another Thrift Shop
Friday, on my way to the Library to help set up the book sale, I passed by a new resale store. I forget the name but it had a big tarp sign that didn’t even cover the outline of the old sign – the place used to be a Curves gym.
Resale stores are popping up right and left these days. Besides the recession trend, I imagine it is a renter’s market right now, making set up pretty cheap. A couple of years ago, a used book store landed in Randhurst mall. They were practically giving books away and I couldn’t believe they would be able to stay in business. My mother reminded me about introductory rental rates, and we later found that Randhurst was getting ready to close for construction. So if one has a mobile-ish business, I guess there are opportunities.
Some of the stores are raising funds for charities. WINGS has had a resale store in Palatine for about ever and now there is one near the Golf Mill mall. They might even have a third by mow, raising funds for victims of domestic violence. Another new one in Glenview, Full Circle was written up in the Glenview Announcements recently:
Rather than dilute the growing market of resale shops in Glenview, Solyst and Brechlin believe each is finding a niche for specialty items. The Village Treasure House has the most furniture and home accessories, the resale shop at the Glenview Community Church has a large variety of clothing and Full Circle offers a lot of purses, jewelry and accessories.
I stopped in a couple of weeks ago and bought this:
I had a hook in the ceiling where a lamp used to hang, so for $8.00, this fits. Although as you see, I don’t know what the basket should hold.
The Dentist
USA Today ran another of those “what are we spending our money on during the recession?” articles. No surprises, really, but here was a good point:
Still, when the economy grinds to a halt, people clench their teeth. That could mean spending money at the dentist.
There’s no statistical evidence, but dentists such as Dr. Matthew Messina in Cleveland, Ohio., are seeing more people with tooth-grinding injuries.
“The body responds the same way to a real threat, ‘There’s a burglar in the house,’ as it does to a perceived stress like ‘I’m worried I’m going to lose the house,”‘ Messina said.
Going to the dentist is something people skimp on when money is tight. While there is no statistical proof that tooth-grinding injuries are on the rise, I am pretty sure there is statistical evidence somewhere that skipping dental cleanings will cost more in treatment later on. And treatment is unpleasant.
My parents were always having dental issues when I was a kid. On top of that, I had two bad experiences in my youth – where the dentist did not listen to me and pain and fear ensued. I went six or seven years without going to the dentist. Finally, I knew I had to go back. And I was terrified.
My father gave me an awesome piece of advice:
“You are an adult and you are the client. No one gets to touch you without your consent. If the dentist isn’t listening, you get up out of the chair and walk out the door.”
I’ve never had to do that, and for all practical purposes, it isn’t quite…practical. But the thought was empowering nonetheless. I found a dentist in my neighborhood that is about my age – which was to minimize the feeling of “must obey this authority figure” anxiety. His assistant is fabulous.
I am a convert.
If you don’t have a regular dentist, please find one. And if you have one, please don’t skip cleanings. And remember to floss!
The Next Dark Age 