A Life Without Times

Even though I love the new ‘job’ and the opportunity to learn new things, there are certain things about it that make me cringe.  Mostly, the things that remind me of my old job. Things that  take me to a mental place I never wanted to return.

Now that our first project is nearing completion, it’s time to think about documentation. I could live happily ever after having never written another line of documentation. I’ve been doing a great job of avoiding it up until now.

Tonight, I finally gave up the battle.  Before I’d even finished the first page, I realized a wonderful thing about my new life. Something I left behind 8 months ago but never even thought about till now.   What’s happily missing from my life ? The font -  Times (in all it’s flavours Times, Times Roman and Times New Roman).  You can call it whatever you want but nothing about that font says hip or fresh.

Font was a four letter word in my old life and no font caused me more grief than Times Roman. I hate it – it’s so old school, so last Reagan. It’s a newspaper font and we all know the way of the newspaper.  Just now I googled it to discover I’m not alone. There are even ‘I hate Times Roman groups’ on facebook and mySpace. One blogger summed it up best when he said it’s:

ugly, amateurish design, lacking soul

Times is an old trick. We would never, ever use it at our new venture, New Tricks.

So, tonight I celebrate ridding my life of Times Roman.

I think I’ll go with ‘Gloriola’ for my documentation. It won the 2008 TCD2 awards. Typographica says:

It succeeds in being a typeface of the now, without resorting to trendy gimmicks or ornamentation.

All of a sudden, I really dig documentation

The Next Leap

Normally, I’m not big on the self-help stuff, but since two different people people gave me Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Eat, Pray, Love’  when I left the ‘corporate’ job last summer, I figured I should give it a shot. After a bit, I got into the book.  I finished it while sitting on a beautiful beach in Mozambique.  The book follows the three chapters of the author’s self-discovery – eating in Italy, praying in India, and learning to love again in Indonesia.

Originally, I’d planned to give myself 6 months to sort out what I wanted to do with life. While my journey hasn’t been nearly as glam as Elizabeth George’s, I do feel like it’s had distinct phases.

Purge

Phase 1 was spent detoxing myself of the old job by traveling to South Africa/Mozambique. It was the only bit of my journey that was planned – if you count a FF Award ticket as a plan.

Pinch Myself

The second phase was spent volunteering for something that I’m really passionate about. It was a wonderful experience full of amazing stories. I still have to pinch myself that I got to be an itty, bitty part of history. I’m convinced that it happened the way it did because, just about the time I returned from South Africa and start volunteering, most of the Obama staff members were being shipped out to other states.  If I hadn’t  been able to find a parking space that day (a major miracle given the parking situation at 1080 spring st), I probably would have driven home and given up on volunteering.

Pinch Myself Some More

Once I finished celebrating our accomplishments and catching up on my sleep, the 6 months were over.  I still hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do but I knew alot of  things I didn’t want to do.  Every time I got ready to send out a resume, I choked. The only jobs that interested me had to do with website design and social media but I don’t have a whole lotta experience in those areas so, in today’s competitive market, my resume wasn’t exactly going to the top of the ever growing pile.

As it happened, my friend, Judi, who I met through the Obama campaign (Judi and her husband Duane graciously donated Urban Oasis, their fab Inman Park home/b&B/Studio, to the campaign as our get out the vote Staging Location) had been working on an informal basis with small businesses/artists to help them convert their old outdated or non-existent web sites to WordPress. WordPress, the blogging platform I use, can also be used as a CMS system. While it looks as good as high-ticket websites, it’s much easier to update/maintain.

Judi got the double-good genes – she is blessed with both an incredible sense of design and savy business skills. So, when Judi asked if I wanted to join in her new venture, I got out of the pjs, put on some shoes and headed right over.

The new venture is called ‘New Tricks’ and the tag line is that ‘It’s Never Too Late!’ – meaning you can always learn new tricks.

Before I joined the fun, Judi had completed a couple of projects on her own. We are just finishing up our first team project – a website launch for Milk Money Consulting. Milk Money provides talent and studio space for the recording industy. It’s been a fun project to work on and I can’t believe how much I’ve learned.

We hope to have a few more tricks in the bag before our official launch in mid-April.

So, I think I’m starting phase 3.  It doesn’t seem like a leap – more like a happy skip.

Stay tuned for more….

Note To Judi – No, I didn’t insist we go with orange  just so the logo would look good on my blog.

Happy Birthday Barbie – where’s my invite ?

Today is Barbie’s 50th birthday.

I wasn’t invited to her party (maybe the evite went to my old work email address?) but I’m guessing she celebrated last night with vintage champagne and carrot sticks.

Since I grew up with Malibu Barbie, I’m envisioning the event was held in LA.  Even with the economic downturn, I suspect it was a lavish doo.

I’m sure she wore a glam new outfit to the party – after all she had her own show in Feb at New York Fashion Week.  I’m not sure which dress I would have chosen – maybe the Vivienne Tam – but I certainly would have gone for those hot Christian Louboutin shoes.

I bet Ken was there with his partner. They probably arrived early to do her hair and make up. I’m sure Barbie and Ken remain close friends.  Afterall, she had to have known he was gay from Day 1. If you don’t believe me, then you didn’t watch the ‘Mod Hair Ken’ video above. Ken’s either a car salesman or dermatologist. I’m hoping the later so he can do her botox for free.

I’m sure Madonna was there – since the Material Girl turned 50 last year, I suspect she is helping Barbie adjust to the new age bracket. And, I think Vincent Chase from Entourage was in the house. Maybe he’s Barbie’s new boy toy?

There is some speculation on the internets that Barbie has been or is about to be made redundant. I just don’t see that happening. After all, she constantly reinvents herself.  According to the Guardian, over the years Barbie’s careers have included:

An astronaut and fashion editor in the 60s, a surgeon and gymnast in the 70s, and has since been a rapper, a Unicef diplomat, a palaeontologist, an African-American presidential candidate (non-partisan) and, perhaps most brilliantly, an art teacher.

“Career”, of course, is another name for “outfit”…

My guess is that, at this point, she is either self-employed or taking a career break. After all those jobs, she probably needs some time off.

I’m also guessing she woke up this morning (or perhaps afternoon) with a wicked hangover and aching feet. Serves her right for not inviting me to the party.

early 70s malibu barbie

How dare they find me a job

Vampire hunters kit - also works on do-gooder job hunters

Between saving the world through tireless community organizing, spending gobs of time researching important topics  like poultry production, chicken claws and tiaras for my ground-breaking blog and finding the perfect job for all of my unemployed friends, I’ve been pretty successful avoiding my own job search.

I’m not sure where other people are getting off poking their noses into my job search but these no-good, do-gooders better back off.  This week my friend A.D.D (not his condition – his initials) actually made a phone call to a prospective employer on my behalf.  And my former-friend KKK (not her real full initials but her evil streak inspired me to add an extra K) edited a cover letter for me that I’d been able to avoid sending for several weeks.

Don’t these people know that I’m going to win the lottery any day now ? Just as soon as I manage to get out of the house and actually buy a ticket.

photo from : corpsesforsale.com

I am Madonna

No, I’m not suffering from a delusional disorder. I keep hearing the buzz about creating  your brand for your job search so I’ve been thinking about mine.

Perhaps the Madonna brand may be a good one to model.  Why? Because Madonna is the Queen of Reinvention. Over and over again, she’s been able to reinvent herself and re-energize her career, fashion and lifestyle. She has a reputation as a strong businesswoman who is in complete control of her career.

Who am I?

Spring in my garden

This journey began in August with the goal of finding out what I want to be when I grow up. I figured it would take about 6 months but, at the end, I’d know that I was meant to be a dr, lawyer or indian chief. Then, I’d go to school or training to be that thing.

When the clock struck Jan 2nd (I was too hungover Jan 1st to think about it), I began to stress that my six months was running out but I still hadn’t figured out what I wanted to be.  I’ve been circling around it for the last few weeks.

I’m so jealous of those who know what they want to be when they grow up from the minute they are born.  I’m not that lucky. If I knew, I’d go do it.  I’m starting to wonder if it’s not about ‘what‘ I want to be afterall? Maybe it’s about ‘who‘ I am ? Instead of focusing on a specific title, maybe I need to focus on finding the right job for the person I already am?

Do As I Say Not As I Do

Today was a brutal day for the U.S. job market with over 71,000 layoffs announced.  People are worried that they may be next.  One of my many blessings is that since I don’t have a job, I don’t have to stress about loosing it.

I’m  not ready to write a best-seller on how to conduct a successful job hunt but I have picked up a few bits of wisdom along the way. It’s all common sense but it makes me feel very wise and powerful to share. Guess it’s the Diva/Leo  thing at work.

Hopefully, you don’t need this advice but, just in case, here are three rules to get you going:

A Down and Out Diva’s Wild Chicken Paw Chase

Chicken Paw Chase - no it's not a Burt Reynolds movie

Figuring out what ‘To Be’ is hard work.  Figuring out what ‘Not To Be’ is alot more fun.

The ‘Not To Be’ list grew today when I noticed a couple of postings under the ”Business/Mgmt’ jobs section of Craigslist.

Apparently, a Chicken Farm Owner with four chicken houses can earn between $14.000 to $21,900 every 7 weeks.  I’m thinking the minimum was supposed to be $14,000 not $14 every 7 weeks. While the gig does come with a mobile home, it would be hard to live on $2 per week.

Clipping my toenails and other exciting adventures

I’m still residing in the state of ‘WTF now?’. Trying to figure out my next move but clueless over what I should do.

I think it must be incredibly boring to read about my life these days but my new spiritual guru of blogging disagrees. She seems to think that people enjoying reading about lazy, lost souls who do nothing all day. If that’s the case, I have tons of breaking news to report.