I’m job hunting. Some people I know actually enjoy this. But, those are the same people that seem to lead a charmed life, where things just fall in their lap and one co-incidence leads to a great opportunity. Then there’s me. For me job hunting is one closed door after another and another and another. Seldom do I even hear back from a human being. I dread the whole thing. Of course, those people I know try to understand and give me great encouraging words about how there are so many opportunities and to remember what a great worker I am and how someone like myself is just what a company is looking for. If they would actually notice me.
It’s dragging along. I look at the popular job search sites. I look at local sites with job listings. Sometimes I read them and just disqualify myself. Some I read and just think they sound so pompous asking for university education to man a call centre phone. Then there are those which I think I’d be great for. I send off my resume, tailored to fit. I write a nice cover letter and wait… still waiting, yet not really rushing to check email each morning any more.
It’s enough to make you dislike those people with their charmed lives. Those charmed people who get raises just cause they asked for one. Those people who have their dream jobs each time they get hired, and they always get hired after just a few interviews. It almost makes you want to give up, if you really had a choice about the whole employment thing. But, someone has to ask if you want fries with that… might as well be me.
We moved. It feels like I’m one of a few survivors of an earthquake or some other mass destruction. The house is packed with boxes, furniture stacked against walls out of the way for the painter who might come this week. Clothes are in garbage bags in the closet rather than sort them out into drawers or hang them up. (Hardwood floors were just put in yet we still have that painter guy hanging over our heads so we can’t really move in).
No wonder there are people making a living as organizers. We have so much stuff. Stuff is just the right anonymous word for it all too. I have thrown out and donated and recycled a lot yet it still surrounds me like a nagging flock of seagulls in some Alfred Hitchcock movie. I hope it will all be done, well no, that’s not realistic. I hope we can live in this new house in this new town soon. I’d like to at least walk through the house and not feel I’m in a maze, bumping into untamed furniture.
I will try to get back posting here for the end of this month. Everything is out of whack and really behind now. I was sad to see that my personal blog went from the A List to the B List. I’m not so famous as I thought I was in my own mind.
Welcome to the Twilight Zone… where you pay for the advertising you view.
I found out something new when I phoned my ISP to complain about an $11 charge added to my bill for broadband use. I don’t download music. I avoid huge video files like YouTube. I do upload photos to Flickr and my blogs. I do window shop for open source and freeware programs. Until the last three months I was not paying extra for the broadband I used. That changed.
I am not uploading more photos than before. I’m not downloading more programs. What has changed are the flood of videos in blogs and most of all, the flood of ads using heavier files which take a long time to load even with my new PC and DSL connection. I am paying to see these files. I don’t want to see them and I very much don’t want to pay for them.
Why is it that each time we make the Internet faster we also make it slower? I wouldn’t say my connection running on DSL is really a lot faster than my old dial up connection ten years ago. In theory it should be much faster, light speed in comparison. It doesn’t seem to be that way. First, it was those HTML emails that slowed it down. Then the pop up ads which had to stop everything while they forced a new window open. Flash ads which often opened a new window and crashed your PC cause they couldn’t suck up bandwidth fast enough. Now, sites are running video ads which make you wait for them to load whether you like it or not. They slow your computer right down so you can’t even get it to move to another site or another page until the video has loaded.
Next month my broadband overflow is higher than $11, I asked when I changed my account. If I pay an extra $5 a month I have more broadband for the ads that want to suck it up. I’m still being screwed over. But, maybe it will cost me just a bit less each month. Thanks, yeah… thanks a lot!
Windows Vista is making things very difficult but I’m not giving up yet. I have CDs for an old version but the latest, 7.04 seems to do a better job of working alongside Windows. Not that I really am fond of Windows, especially Vista, but some things will not run on a Linux (Ubuntu) operating system. Some day they will all get it right, all work together so that your computer doesn’t seem to be at war with itself. At least it would be nice. I’m not holding my breath. Though, from a money making view, who wouldn’t be interested and likely buy into an OS that could work with everything.
I am thinking of tossing Windows Vista for my old Windows ME. For one thing it did not nag at me constantly. Vista is like having a dog humping your leg, no matter how many times you swat at it the damned thing just keeps coming back. I don’t know why they did this. How does this seem useful to the PC user? It’s just hugely annoying. Took me years to stop getting annoyed each time old Windows asked me if I really wanted to delete that file. Now the new one is paranoid and asks me if I even want to open that file. Too much!
Question of the week… Why is Windows Vista a LOT slower than Windows ME was when ME was running on a much older PC and Vista is on a brand new PC just out of the store one week? It’s a mystery. It’s the main reason I am thinking ME could be making a comeback for me.
A blog should be published at least once a week, if not daily, with fresh, original content. If you can’t do that you are using the wrong media and selling yourself short. Ezines need to make a comeback in a big way. Although an ezine can use content management systems (blog software) it is the format and style which make them different. An ezine is an online magazine. They don’t need to be published daily, they don’t need to be the work of just one person and they can have various sections geared to offering information, services and promotion of the business. If you can’t write your own blog post each day, consider an ezine. Hire or find people to create the graphics, articles and power up your ezine. It is a great alternative in the SEO sense too as blogs are clogging up their categories in web directories while ezines have dwindled. If you want to stand out try the ezine format, be different from the flock.
A blog should not expect reader feedback or rely on it. People read, lurk and leave. That’s how it goes. If you want interaction with your readers/ sales prospects look at message boards. You only need to make a short post, maybe just a quick question, then let the readers post their opinions, ideas and questions. It is interactive and relies less on your own input than on the people you want to inform about your skills, services and/ or products. It is a good idea to make sure you have recent posts so be prepared to make at least one each week, more when your message board is just starting up. Have family and friends help out until your readership has grown enough to support the board with real traffic. Always go in to moderate your boards for spam, discussions that get out of hand or someone who has asked a question about your business. Message boards are a great way to inform the public. Instead of a blog which cycles posts a board has all it’s content sorted and displayed on the front page. Readers hit the section they want and follow the thread, like a train of thought. It is a great format for site owners who don’t really want to spend time learning how to write and publish.
Another option is the email list. A blog is static, it does not move from where you put it on the web. An email list goes right to the people who subscribe. They will see it in their inbox and read it at their convenience. You don’t rely on bringing them to your site. Though, have a site with more information for them to come to once the email has drawn them in. Post a list monthly, weekly or some other time period that suits you. It does not have to be stuffed with articles. There is a lot you can do, depending on what you are selling. Use it just to notify them about a contest you are running, a sale, something new that has just come in. Or give them tips and advice and keep all them all in an archive on your site which they can refer to. Add a link to your site and the archive at the end of each email. It is important to have unsubscribe instructions too, make them clear and visible.