Greater Expectations

I probably should not discuss this on an open forum, but I need to vent my frustrations!
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is frustrated with their career, or lack thereof, but I have just about had my fill lately. Sometimes, I feel like the most un-hirable person in the world. I’m still trying to figure out if my resume is really that poor, or if I’m just a victim of circumstance(s).

I am currently employed at what most people consider a very nice place to work. I have no complaints about compensation, as I feel my salary and benefits are more than fair. There are only two things I don’t appreciate about it. The first is that I’m stuck in a third-shift position. There are some advantages to this schedule, but I think most people who have worked it will agree that it really takes away from your quality of life. The second is the fact that I am doing a job that is not very challenging for me, let alone helping me achieve any personal career goals. For some crazy reason, I need to be intrinsically motivated!

I’ve tried to apply for almost fifty different jobs with the company I work for, and only received one phone interview, that did not go anywhere. This is very disappointing considering that the company is paying for most of my education, and that I have received nothing but great performance reviews. I started to look outside my current employer, and have come up nearly as empty. I’ve applied for jobs where I can leverage my experience (pharmaceutical) and have reached for those I was not quite qualified for on paper (editor), but feel very passionately about.

I don’t think it’s any surprise that I want to write, and have aimed for those types of jobs. I’m even satisfied if writing only makes up about 10% of the workload, as long as it’s there. I’ll be finished my degrees in Organization Dynamics and Human Performance Management in 2008, and expect to attend graduate school soon after.

What I’m looking for is advice from anyone who has made a radical career move, or broken into the professional writing business, or just has sensible career advice. I’ll be waiting to hear from you!

Viva le Papa!

Would all of you join me in congratulating my father? He has taken another huge step into the computer world. He sent me one of his first emails! Of course, his muse was the opportunity to make fun of me for not selling my car, and to wish me a happy birthday. I suppose that’s fair, I did poop on him when I was born, and probably a few times after. If only I could get away with that now, without being institutionalized…

Regardless, it’s a good piece of progress, especially considering he’s not very old and still very viable. I never wanted to shame him with the fact that I have received emails from computer literate folks aged three to ninety, and that he was behind the curve in this facet of technology. It’s a natural progression, considering how much he loves other forms of electronics.

Viva le Papa!

Solution?

Aside from scholastic and ethical debates at the university, I usually steer clear of political and religious discussions. I’m usually of the viewpoint that self-serving individuals pursuing their own ingrained desires for power and vanity corrupt 99.9% of the political institutions of the world. Typically, religious discussions tend to be very personal and are not worth the tension that they may cause. I will preface my comments with two points before I begin. The first is that I understand that I have no legitimate facts to back my point of view at this time. The second is that I am very proud to live in this country and desire to be no place else, regardless of our collective faults, real or imagined.

What I feel a need to discuss is one of the current hot button political issues of the foreseeable future: Mexican immigration. This is certainly of concern to residents of our county, as we have traditionally had a large number of migrant workers and immigrants from Mexico in our community. If you don’t believe me, take a ride through Kennet Square. A visit there is almost as good as a trip across the border to Nogales. The uninitiated can always get a sample of authentic imported dishes and goods there.

Many would ask, “How did this come to be?” The answer is that the majority of sane human beings strive to have a better life for their future generations and themselves. Legal, or illegal, these individuals only desire what the majority of “native” county residents yearn for: something more, and something better. I, for one, see nothing wrong with this. The only problem I really see is that business owners that are “forced to compete” are unmercifully exploiting some of these people to the point of indentured slavery.

Maybe the solution for our illegal immigration problem in this country needs to be something different than border fences, National Guard patrols, and identification papers. Maybe we would be better off investing our dollars and passions into making Mexico better, insisting that they raise their standards of living to a point where their citizens can live proudly, justly, and healthily. Force them to bridge the gap between their rich and poor. They just need a reason to want to stay.

Time to step off my soapbox. Is this point of view a little naïve? Likely. At least it’s no worse than the politicians in Washington pandering to voter’s fears and ignorance.

Gettysburg Addressee, Part Two

Gettysburg is a great place to live if you have a family, aside from the fact that parking can be a little trying when a Civil War reenactment is in full force. Due to its historic nature, the town tends to remain physically unchanged and has beautiful views of the Appalachians. The outdoorsy types among us would certainly appreciate all of the hiking and skiing opportunities that are only a short drive away. The town literally closes shop at dusk. Even living next to the Gettysburg College campus, I was hard-pressed to hear a pin drop on most nights.

Being the single guy I was at the time, this really didn’t work for me. Even though these are some of the friendliest people you will ever encounter, at least on the surface, the town leans towards parochial. It was a bizarre paradox. There were currents of intolerance swirling around the town, but at the same time these people would go out of their way to make your acquaintance. While walking to work, I even had someone run out on his porch at 5:30AM just to say hello, and ask if I knew another soul at the hospital. This is quite a bit different from living in the Philadelphia suburbs, where you don’t make eye contact with strangers and you mind your own business. Who even has time to say hello around here?

Like most small communities, it’s a tough place for an outsider to meet new friends, let alone compatible members of the opposite sex. That’s when my search expanded to the Internet, and I met my future wife, my future wife who was living in Chester County. Go figure that one. After commuting to see each other, I decided to move back here. This involved a career change to the pharmaceutical industry. The wife was a good move, and the jury is still out on the career change.

“You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find... you get what you need.” -The Rolling Stones.


Now if I could just get that career change into the writing field right, I’d be all good…

Gettysburg Addressee, Part One

A little while ago, “BigHam” requested that I explain my time in Gettysburg, PA. Here goes it. This story takes place about seven years ago.

I was one of those kids they talk about in the news that stayed living with their parents for an inordinate amount of time. Finally catching my first whiff of motivation, I was in the process of completing my internship and education in Surgical Technology at CHI Institute in Broomall, PA. You know the place…if you have ever watched weekday television, you have seen the ads for it and other learning institutions of its ilk. The persuasive pitchmen attempt to motivate all of us slackers to “Start an exciting career in the medical field.” I took them up on the offer, as I was already pretty heavily involved as a volunteer Emergency Medical Technician. Some of you might even remember me from GFAC and Wagontown.

Yearning to finally spread my wings and fly away, I started applying for tech jobs in various parts of the country; like most nursing and medical jobs, there is a high demand for these skill-sets everywhere. I thing the furthest distance I applied was Dallas, TX, but being only a semi-adventurous soul, I mainly stuck to the tri-state area. I ended up at Gettysburg Hospital in Gettysburg, PA.

For the uninitiated, historic Gettysburg is only about two hours away from our fair county. What person who is interested in history and the medical field could pass up the opportunity to work in the middle of one of the most gruesome battlefields in American History? I sure couldn’t. The town lies encased like a pearl in a shell formed by the surrounding national park lands. Because of this, the only big businesses around are forced to the outskirts of town along the Route 15 and Route 30 corridors.

I made my residence in an apartment overtop of a record store (a bad made move for a confirmed music junkie) right off the town square…otherwise known as a traffic circle. That is where it began.

Dance the Night Away!

I’m a huge fan of Al Gore’s creation, the Internet. I use it for expressing myself in this blog, wasting time, communicating with friends and loved ones, playing games, for college coursework, and even as a tool to get actual honest work done. Heck, it’s even the place I met my wife! Even with all its goodness, there is still something bothering me about it.

That bother is advertisements with dancing people and things. They pop-up everywhere! These ads are predominately for mortgage companies. Like refinancing is some kind of impulse purchase… click and save, NOW, NOW, NOW!

They feature everything from silhouettes of shapely people to robots. The one I find most disturbing is the character wearing a suit, tie, and fedora. IT looks like some sort of 1950s G-Man out of one of J. Edgar Hoover’s perverse fantasies. I’ll spare you and leave it at that.

Am I the only victim?

Revenge of "Sound Off"

I found it interesting that I came across two very different responses to my last article. In the article, I offered advice on how respondents could maximize DLN’s “Sound Off” feature, and not sound like the village idiot while doing it. I received a very positive response from “Stickler,” who let me know that these instructions were long overdue.

On the other hand, a friend of mine at work, who I’ll call “CF,” had a very different reaction. CF was a little disappointed in me for giving the aforementioned advice. He looks forward to reading the “Sound Off” comments in their raw form, and revels in the perverse humor of mocking other people’s language deficiencies. I suppose I’m just as ill, as I found great humor in this also, but I did make an argument. My argument is that it can be very funny, but if it’s so garbled that I have no clue what the person is making reference to, it’s not. CF still thinks it’s funny anyway.

Dear readers tell me this: is the finding of humor in other people’s deficiencies symptomatic of a sick society, or has it always been that way? Are we at the crest before the great fall? Are we the next Roman Empire, a carbon copy of a society who reveled in butchery before a great decline? Discuss amongst yourselves, I’m getting verklemmt.

"Sound Off"

Friends, I’ve noticed a problem in our fair county. Well, it’s actually only a problem in the Daily Local News; I think being up at all hours of the night tends to bring out the dramatic in a person. Today’s problem is the “Sound Off” section of DLN’s Opinion page.

“Sound Off” is a great, albeit brave idea for a newspaper. It gives residents a convenient forum to voice their opinions in the raw, and to draw attention to a whole array of positive and negative events in the area. It’s essentially a vocal blog.

Now, my written and spoken grammar can be dissected as much as anyone else’s. I make more than my fair share of mistakes. In fact, I feel pretty sorry for the professors and instructors at Immaculata that have to suffer through some of my papers.

That being said, I still have a problem with many of the contributions to “Sound Off.” Some of them are so poorly composed that I have not a clue as to what the speakers are complaining about. Granted, I’m sure there is a lot of nervousness and adrenaline involved in that call, but we have to fix this. I hate when good people make themselves look foolish (especially me). In the words of the great motivational speaker Susan Powter, “Stop the insanity!” I will say that this Sunday’s edition was not too bad, but the guilty know who they are without the need of being singled out.

In the spirit of goodwill, I’m offering up a cheat sheet for “Sound Off” contributors:

Step A: Write down what you want to say.
Step B: Read what you want to say aloud to yourself, or a friend.
Step C: If you think you sound like a fool, start over with Step A
Step D: When satisfied that your point has been made, dial (610) 430-1150 and speak your mind.

I hope I have made a difference.

Song of the Albatross

The reason I bought the Albatross and had it shipped up from North Carolina have almost everything to do with Chester County, as do the reasons for trying to sell it. Last winter, flush with some somewhat disposable income, the ending of a vehicle lease, a fifty-fifty mixture of urine and vinegar, and a burgeoning mid-life crisis, I decided I needed something fast. As I currently have short commute, I thought it would be “practical” to lease a brand new sports car. Believe me, I analyzed everything from BMW to Mustang to Lotus. I was tingling with anticipation!

To my dismay, reality struck. My mother-in-law/insurance agent brought me back to a harsh reality. Even with marriage, low miles driven, being over thirty, and having a clean driving record (knock on wood), these gems were still expensive to insure! This was in addition to the already extravagant lease payment. I was appalled and angry, and I needed a solution. I found it in the Albatross.

With the Chevelle, I could have all the power and speed I could handle, but at a low, low, low insurance rate! Not to even mention the fact that it cost me about half of what the least expensive new car I was pining for cost. I thought I was a genius for having a way to beat the system, and I suppose I did win. I got all that I wanted, and then some. Heck, I could even easily fit a car seat into this ride, if needed.

To drive that car everyday is to feel like a celebrity. I may need to get shoulder and wrist surgery to recover from all the waving and horn beeping as I acknowledge the hordes of classic-car fans. Alas poor TGB, it wasn’t meant to last. Things change.

The worm turned. My job has become a bit unstable, expenses increase, and I now plan to commute to a graduate school that is a quite bit further away than Immaculata. I don’t have anywhere to store it, and I may need the money to pay for another more fuel-efficient vehicle.

Even though difficulties have developed, I wouldn’t trade the experience for having made the “right” and “practical” decision in the beginning. I guess I just have to be me. If you would like to see what the Albatross looks like, spend some time on the roads around Malvern, or follow this link: http://www.cars-on-line.com/32882.html.

The Steel Albatross

I’ve done a lot of different jobs in my relatively short life. The one thing I’ll never be is a salesman, or salesperson, if you prefer. One could look back on my life and think that the reasoning behind this assumption is my father’s influence. Dad lumps salespeople in with lawyers and third-world dictators. He has a genuine dislike of what he perceives to be dishonest professions. Frankly, a great many folks seem to agree with his logic.

Before you light the torches and gather the pitchforks, understand that this writer does not necessarily feel that way, at least not today (the winds of change do blow fickle). I understand that you’re just trying to feed your families like everyone else. In fact, I am whole-heartedly jealous of your skills!

The reality is this: I suck at selling things. I’ve been trying to sell my Steel Albatross (a.k.a. 1972 Chevelle) for over four months, without one serious offer. I’ve tried websites, auctions, and subliminal persuasion, but nothing seems to work. Who wouldn’t want a fast, classic, and expensive muscle car? I believe the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s EPA even gives it a fuel inefficiency endorsement!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the car, but it is a constant talisman of my own stupidity. It’s a shining monument to poor decision making and American excess. More to come.

Welcome

Even though I tend to become very bored with what’s expected, I suppose I owe my potential readers some sort of explanation, otherwise known as an introduction.

I’m quickly approaching thirty-four years of age, and according to a book I read this summer, I’m about halfway through my life expectancy. That being said, I had better make this quick!

I’m a life-long Chester County resident, except for that one very disturbing year I spent living and working in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. We’ll get into that some other time. I make my home in Malvern, along with my beautiful wife Shannon, our twenty-five pound flatulence generator (otherwise known as Zeus, a Boston terrier), and one mellow alley cat named Rudy.

I face the never ending nirvana of being a third-shift employee for a major pharmaceutical firm, and I am a student at Immaculata University. In addition to all of this, I aspire to complete a graduate degree in English Publication with what time I have left. There truly is no rest for the wicked. My interests include sports, literature, movies, and whatever happens to hold my attention for more then five minutes.

That being said, I hope you enjoy the ride……….as one of my favorite bumper stickers used to say: strap-in, sit-down, and shut-up! I mean that in the nicest possible way, of course.