"Confidence" and a T-Shirt

My son-in-law is back from a well-deserved break from getting Spiral Light Candle Corporation's new factory up and running, and assembling a staff who see to it that candles get sold - and delivered.

While he was away, he bought a T-shirt that says, "confidence is what you have before you fully understand the situation."

I couldn't have put it better myself.

Now, some unabashed self-promotion: Spiral Light Candle's website, spirallightcandle.com. Also Spiral Light Candle Corp. Storefront, our presence on Amazon.com.

Related (?) posts:

• "Spiral Light Candle Factory Construction: More Photos"
  (January 18, 2012)
• "Factory Construction on Schedule; National Sales Manager Hired"
  (January 4, 2012)
• "Candles: Analysis, News, and Very Odd Questions"
  (December 3, 2011)
• " 'Office Vocabulary' Found on a Few Old Cards"
  (November 30, 2007)
• "Recreation, Relaxation, and Censored Lava Lamps"
  (July 8, 2007)

Why Your Boss Doesn't Understand the Information Age

I was born during the Truman administration, was a teen in the sixties, and earned my first college degree in the seventies. If I'd followed a conventional 'success' career track, I'd probably be in an upper-level management or an executive position by now.

Even from an old-school career-track mindset, considering what happened to the Big Three automakers: that's probably just as well. (December 12, 2008)

Important Executives and a Changing World

Here's a story of two people. It's fiction: the people aren't real; but the situation they were in is, I think, not all that uncommon.

Mr. Jones Wasn't Stupid

First, M. J. Jones. He was born around 1910, was a marginally adequate student in elementary school and dropped out in his mid-teens, to help with the family business. After the Great Depression, Mr. Jones applied for - and got - a sales position with a major corporation. He was very good at it, and his supervisor decided to see how Mr. Jones would do, coordinating a few other salesmen.

Mr. Jones, it turned out, was a brilliant manager. He kept his team motivated, increased sales - and got promoted.

Mr. Jones got a reputation for being a very loyal boss. He supported members of his team, occasionally taking key people with him during promotions. He brought the secretary he'd worked with in his first management post along with him, all the way to the corner office with "Vice President for Sales and Marketing" on the door.

In his autobiography, co-authored with his secretary and published after his retirement, a little secret came out.

Mr. Jones could barely read.

He recognized words like "rest room," "exit," and "stop," and could with great effort work his way through something written at about a 5th grade reading level: but that was it.

He wasn't stupid. At all. He had remembered details of every report that crossed his desk and kept track of a staff the size of a small town. But he'd never learned to read.

From the start, he insisted that reports be read aloud to him: saying that if you couldn't say something in five minutes or less, you didn't have anything worth reading. He also claimed, with some reason, that a sales staff who couldn't speak clearly and coherently should have other jobs.

He'd confided in his secretary on the first day of that first managerial job. She'd worked for management types with bad handwriting: and appreciated a boss who didn't give her illegible memos.

Not Everybody Can Read

Unrealistic? Hardly.

When I was growing up, folks in America were beginning to realize that some of us simply aren't wired for reading. Dyslexia is one of the better-known situations of that sort.

And some folks, like Mr. Jones, lived in a time and under circumstances which didn't encourage expending the sort of time and effort it takes to develop reading skills.

These days, in America at least, it's less likely that someone will go through school without a reading deficit going undetected.

On the other hand, you may know someone like this fellow:

N. O. Jones isn't Lazy

N. O. Jones, M. J. Jones' nephew, can read pretty well, although he doesn't have much time for 'unproductive' reading. Before he graduated from high school, N. O. decided that he wanted to work in a corner office and have a company car, like his uncle.

N. O. studied hard, worked his way through college, and graduated with an MBA. After that, his career track was fairly similar to his uncle's. Today, N. O. Jones reads reports in a corner office overlooking Lake Michigan.

There's a computer on his desk, but N. O. only uses it when he absolutely has to.

While he was in high school, assignments that absolutely had to be typed were done by N.O.'s younger brother, from N.O's handwritten copy.

In college, N. O.'s girlfriend typed his reports.

On the job, N. O.'s hunt-and-peck typing method kept him going until his position warranted access to a clerical pool - and later a secretary.

Unlike his uncle, N. O. Jones' lack of keyboard competence was fairly well-known. And, if anything, increased his status: as someone who was too important to have 'merely clerical' skills.

N. O. Jones had heard about computers while growing up: but didn't pay much attention to science fiction stuff like that. His nerdy younger brother - but that's another story.

Back in the 90s, N. O. read something about a "World Wide Web" in a report from one of his area's regional offices. He made a note to tell his younger brother about it, and went back to the serious business of managing his department.

Around the turn of the millennium, N. O. had his secretary circulate a memo that all reports and memos must be printed on paper and filed in accordance with department policy. He'd heard that his staff had been communicating with each other with something called "electronic mail."

He prided himself on being broad-minded about office chatter: but company business had to be done in a business-like fashion. No nerdy toys for his department!

Eight years ago, after several key staff members quit over the issue, N. O. Jones carefully studied various proposals, and finally allowed his department to use "electronic mail."

N. O. Jones isn't Stupid

The younger Jones, like his uncle, isn't stupid.

He's specialized.

N. O. Jones decided, in his teens, that he wanted to pursue the conventional management-executive career track with a major American corporation. And he succeeded.

That sort of career takes many qualities, including a sort of discipline which often doesn't leave room for learning "useless" skills.

Like being able to type.

Typewriters, Technology, Skills, and Me

After a less-than-adequate experience with a high school typing class, I enrolled in a summer program at a business college and learned touch-typing. After I passed, my speed was around 50 to 60 words per minute: which was adequate for the clerical jobs I've had from time to time.

Time passed. I learned a good-enough way to deliver plants across town, how to be a radio disk jockey, and what was called "desktop publishing" at that time. I was working for a small publishing company when the Web emerged: and was one of two people on the staff who was even marginally comfortable when working with a computer.

I wound up being "the computer guy," among other things.

I'm not a 'techy.' My son knows more about what's now and wow in information technology than I do. But I do try to keep up with the times.

Back in my youth, someone who didn't think a business needed a telephone might have been right. Some outfits with a strictly local, walk-in clientele still don't need the added expense of a telephone. But they're few and far between.

Today, I think some of the clueless online behavior we see - particularly for the larger, well-established companies - may be credited to important executives: who have been too busy and too important as the decades passed to notice that the world has changed.

Sense of Touch Affects Decision-Making? Maybe Not a Crazy Idea

When I read this article's headline and first paragraph, I was ready to dismiss the whole thing as silly science: the sort of thing that folks with letters after their name do sometimes, to increase their own status or push some political preference. Or maybe because they don't know any better.

Anyway: here's that headline, a link, a citation, and a few excerpts from that article

"Sense of Touch Shapes Snap Judgments"
Wired Science (June 25, 2010)

"Sitting in a hard chair can literally turn someone into a hardass. Holding a heavy clipboard leads to weighty decisions. Rubbing rough surfaces makes us prickly. So found researchers studying the interaction between physical touch and social cognition.

"The experiments included would-be car buyers who, when seated in a cushy chair, were less likely to drive a stiff bargain. The findings don't just suggest tricks for salesman, but may illuminate how our brains develop.

" 'The way people understand the world is through physical experiences. The first sense they develop is touch,' said study co-author Josh Ackerman, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology psychologist. As they grow up, those physical experiences shape how people conceptualize abstract, social experience, he said. 'Later on, you can do what we did - trigger different physical experiences, and produce changes in people's thoughts.'..."

"...Other research shows that the brain doesn't always have different structures for different functions, but often uses the same systems in a variety of ways. And given the importance of touch, it's easy for developing brains to use tactile associations - heaviness requires effort, roughness leads to friction, hard objects are inflexible - in understanding social situations.

" 'Those connections that people have, between physical experience and mental understanding, don't ever disappear,' said Ackerman...."

"...For those fearing exploitation by marketers, Ackerman noted that tactile suggestion's effects diminish when people pay attention. 'It's when you're distracted, thinking in a shallow fashion, that you get hit by these cues,' he said...."

The sort of research described in the article is in a relatively new field called embodied cognition.

The parts I left out describe - briefly - how the experiments were done. It seems to me that if the researchers were careful about procedures and crunching statistics - they're probably on to something here.

I was particularly impressed that they had a working hypothesis to explain the apparent link between our sense of touch, and how we're inclined to interpret social data.

Apart from the practical business angles - like 'no hard chairs for the clients' - there's some really interesting science going on here.

"Gold Rush in the Gulf:" a Guest Post

Get the oil back and boost the economy of affected regions at the same time. Advertise an all hands on deck approach to the American people, enlist their help, and create a "gold rush in the gulf". BP has an opportunity to turn its stocks around, retain customer loyalty, and be a driving force in economic recovery in a time of devastation.

It's my humble understanding that it doesn't take a lot of talent to pick up oil. And there seems to be economical solutions for doing so. The problem with many of the solutions is that it takes an army of people to make a difference. Recruit an army, and pay them commission on each barrel of oil they collect.

With a bounty plan it would inspire entrepreneurs to set up EPA licensed distribution centers for collection materials. Those who want to collect must go through a training process for the specific area they will clean. Hotels would be booked solid, the tourist industry would be temporarily replaced with oil workers, and entire industries would pop up over night, thus restoring the real-estate market to a more manageable level.

No plan is a perfect plan but a plan that empowers people to help and gives them hope creates a win situation for everyone. It might be a sticky situation but let's not make it a hopeless one.

Aaron McWilliams
Executive Producer Oasis Productions

Related post:

• "Gulf Oil Cleanup Idea: A Bounty on Oil"
  (June 12, 2010)

---

More:

• "Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: Posts"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North

New Code for the Easy Griller

I've been (slowly) adding a new sort of ad to my Easy Griller website. No big deal: just using some of the white space at the top of one page, and making use of a couple of new features from AdSense.

That top-center ad will have company on other pages, as I go through the website, cleaning up and improving the pages.

Now that I look at the results, I may have goofed. Oh, well: it was a cosmetic error. No problem with function.

Gulf Oil Cleanup Idea: A Bounty on Oil

Here's an idea, for how to clean up that oil slick on the Gulf of Mexico. On British Petroleum's dime.

It's not mine, by the way. The idea, I mean.

Put a Bounty on Collected Oil

A whole lot of people live on and near the Gulf coast. Quite a few of them are looking for a way to make some extra money. BP has money.

Why not let BP pay people for petroleum glop that they've collected on the Gulf, and on the Gulf shores, where the stuff has run aground?

BP gets some of their oil back - plus some sand and seaweed; Locals get bounty money, which they spend - stimulating local economies; and we all get a somewhat-cleaner Gulf of Mexico.

Like I said, the idea's not mine: Thank Aaron McWilliams, the executive producer of Oasis Productions. Who 'just happens' to be my son-in-law.

Transparency, like they say these days.

---

More:

• "Oil in the Gulf of Mexico: Posts"

Out on a Limb: Having Opinions That Aren't Approved

I'm coming back with an excerpt from Saturday's post:

Don't be afraid of opinion.

As P.R. says: "...It's my belief ... that one of the big reasons consumers don't trust companies is that companies often strive so hard to be 'PC' that they lose a sense of culture and personality...."

Think before posting something - but when you do post, say something.
(from "Patricio Robles, via Econsultancy (May 27, 2010); micro-reviewed in this blog (May 29, 2010))

Patricio Robles may not have had someone like me in mind when he wrote that. My daughters have told me that it's hard not to tell what I think and feel about something. In person, and in my writing. They're probably right.

My guess is that P. R. was thinking of the common (in America) idea that someone in business should never discuss politics or religion - or pretty much anything else that a potential customer might have an opinion about.

It's not the worst idea, in a way. There's no sense alienating someone who is convinced that the Cubs will win the World Series this year, by opining that the New York Yankees will come out on top.

But What if They'll Find Out You're a Yankees Fan, Anyway?

I'm not a Yankees fan - or a Cubs booster - so I don't need to worry about anybody discovering that I'm a closet fan of some particular team. I am, however, a practicing Catholic. Yep: One of those people.

It's not the sort of thing I can keep a secret, since one of my blogs is A Catholic Citizen in America. Sure: I could have kept quiet about my beliefs. But the bottom line is that even without that blog it would have been a struggle - and probably an unsuccessful one.

Like my daughters observed: I don't hide things well.

So, I've decided to let what I believe come up in posts - where they're relevant to the topic. Like home schooling. Yep: I'm one of those, too. (May 20, 2010, in another blog)

Don't worry, though: I've no intention of being heavy-handed about it. Except maybe in that one blog.

It'll be an interesting experiment. And, I hope, a successful one. My guess, based on a few experiences, is that there are a whole lot of folks out there who really don't mind a blogger who's got religious beliefs.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Related post:

• "Sincerity: Once You Learn to Fake That, You're Set" (May 29, 2010)

Easy Griller: "Grilling for the Rest of Us" Website Upgrade

I launched the Easy Griller website about five years ago. Quite a few websites discuss what I'd call the high end of outdoor grilling: involving lots of equipment; elaborate recipes; and words I had to look up, like "marinade."

That approach to grilling is fine: for someone who is willing to invest time, effort and money in pursuing the culinary arts as they pertain to the outdoor grill.

Me? I like to put burgers on the grill and then eat them.

I figure that there are quite a few folks like me: and now we've got a website and a blog dedicated (mostly) to simple, effective outdoor grilling techniques.

I'll admit that I've strayed a bit from the "simple" thing. But that's still the main focus of Easy Griller.

Today, I finished a long-overdue upgrade for the Easy Griller website. The navigation should be 'friendlier' now - and I've changed some of the content.

Now that the site architecture is improved (I hope), I intend to start working on the content: More pictures; streamlining the text, that sort of thing.

'I am the Office Girl' - or - Heads up! It's Not the Forties Any More!

This post has a point to make, but I'll save that for the end.

First, I'll indulge in some reminiscences. These really do have something to do with this post's topic.

I am the Office Girl

Back in the late seventies, I worked for a company called Pellegrini Refrigeration. I was the only employee permanently stationed in their San Francisco plant. My job title was something like "general clerical:" I was responsible for taking messages, keeping things filed, copying blueprints as needed, tracking petty cash: that sort of thing.

I'd been told that there was a particular customer who had been calling rather regularly. The issue seemed to be that he'd received services, and didn't want to pay. Well, I could see his point: but Mr. Pellegrini had bills to pay, too.

Anyway, I'd been told what to say to him, so I wasn't at a loss when he called.

He didn't like the courteously-worded 'I can't do anything, talk to the main office' message I had. But, since there were multiple incoming lines and I'd been told to be polite, he and I had a mildly extended conversation.

Near the end of our dialog, he said, "look here, I've been talking to the office girl. Let me talk to the office girl." I replied, quite accurately, "I am the office girl."

It took him a second or two to respond. Then he said, "oh." Followed by another longish pause.

He addressed me as "sir" after that. And he never called again.

I think it might have something to do with my sounding quite a bit like James Earl Jones. The actor who played Thulsa Doom and was the voice of Darth Vader?

Why Talk To Me? She's the One Who Called

My wife's family are competent, and she's no exception. Let's put it this way. I'm the one with a computer, she's the one with power tools.

Sure, I can disassemble a lock - but I'm getting off-topic.

A few years ago, she noticed an issue with our home's electrical system and called an electrician. I have a notion she could have handled it herself, but the Sauk Centre city government is calmer when electrical work is done by someone with a license. I can see their point. I'm getting off-topic again.

So, the electrician comes. He and my wife are in the kitchen. I'm there too, just to see what was happening. (I've learned a lot by listening to technicians talk with other people.)

The electrician has a question. He asks me. Not my wife. She's closer to him, and started the discussion. But no, the electrician asks me a question.

I explain that I haven't a clue and ask my wife the same question. She replies. To the electrician. He doesn't respond. Until I tell him exactly what my wife told him.

After a while, we settled into a routine. The electrician said something, I'd tell my wife, she'd say something, I'd tell the electrician.

Hey, don't knock it: We got the job done.

And I think it's hilarious. My wife, not so much: but she sees the funny side of it.

Then there's the time, back in the day, when one of my sisters-in-law took shop class - that'll wait for another post. Maybe in another blog.

Got a Business, in America?

Guys? If you're a man and run a business, I'll tell you something you should already know. American women aren't any less competent than we are. Many of them stopped putting up quietly with male dimwits who hadn't caught on a long time ago.

I'm not on the same page as the bra-burners, but let's face it guys: America isn't an all-boys club.

Personally, I like it that way.

But even if you'd like the 'little women' to act like it was still pre-WWII America: that's not the way it is.

I played along with the electrician's cultural blinders because he had the skills and certification we needed. And because I don't mind adapting to cultural norms, when I can.

But not everybody's like that.

Never mind the chance of a discrimination or abuse lawsuit: does anybody in business want to lose the customers?

Jobs, Skills, People and Micromanagement

There's a post in another blog, that's also on-topic for Starting a Small Business Without Losing My Mind. Instead of copying the whole thing, here's a link:

• "Lemming Tracks: Jobs, Skills, Status and Stress"
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (March 13, 2010)
  Particularly
  • My Boss Makes More Than I do! It's Unfair!!

A terse summary: People aren't identical, micromanagement is a bad idea unless an employee needs that much structure, managers making more than clerks is okay - to a point.

Comment Moderation Goes Into Effect Now

I didn't want to opt for comment moderation, but I reached my limit for Chinese-language pornographic spam a few minutes ago.

I'm switching this blog to 'comment moderation' mode. You'll have to wait until I get to your comment and determine whether or not it's spam. It could take a while.

Posting a comment in a language other than English simply isn't a good idea. I'm familiar with a fair number of languages: and I do check comments. If you've got something obscene to peddle to Chinese- or Japanese- speaking folks - don't bother.

For everyone who has something to say about these posts and isn't comfortable with English: sorry about that. I simply don't have time to run a multilingual screening process.

'New and Improved' Schedule Worked: Pretty Much

Last week, I started working with a 'new and improved' schedule. ("The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work" (September 8, 2009)) Ten days later, I haven't followed it perfectly, but that's okay: I got the important tasks done. Most of them, anyway. Easy Griller and Narcissus-X are surprisingly hard blogs to write for.

Still, I can do better. I've penciled in (literally) some time tomorrow, for moving items around on the schedule - mostly, a matter of putting all of each day's 'to do' items in one spot.

That, and a procedure of crossing out tasks as I do them, printing a new schedule sheet each week, dating and filing them as they're filled, should help me spend more time productively, and less on 'management' tasks.

Eleven Blogs, Thousands of Posts: Dropping the Ball is Too Easy

I've got nearly a dozen blogs now, and discovered that I can't trust my memory to update each of them in a timely fashion.

Besides, I think they'll do better if visitors learn that they can count on something new on certain days.

I still think I can make blogging a reasonably profitable occupation - but I'm also looking at other ways to make money. More about that another day.

Now, if I'm going to get that apple eaten by an hour before Mass, I'd better wrap this up.

Related post:

• "The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work"
  (September 8, 2009)
• "I'm Not a Forty-Year-Old Kid Any More: Time, Organization, Energy, and Priorities"
  (July 20, 2008)
• "Organizing, Schedules, Impulse, and Making Decisions Without Agonizing"
  (August 4, 2007)
• "Getting Organized: Not the Best Start"
  (August 2, 2007)
• "Tomorrow I Gotta Get Organized"
  (August 2, 2007)
• "Stay Focused: But on What?"
  (July 30, 2007)
• "Scheduling, Organization, and Less"
  (July 21, 2007)
• "Next Week I Gotta Get Organized"
  (July 20, 2007)
• "Computers and Kids: Return of the Sequel"
  (June 27, 2007)
• "The Principle of the Speckled Ax"
  (June 19, 2007)
• "Back to Work"
  (June 18, 2007)

The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work

One of the advantages - and disadvantages - of being self-employed is that you get to set your own schedule. No more having a boss keeping track of what needs to be done and when.

I've got, so far, eleven blogs and a handful of projects that I 'really ought to work on.' The blogs are a high priority - not because they're fun to write, but because they're what's bringing in the most revenue.

I had a task schedule, defining what needed to be done and when, dividing the week into half-hour segments. When I was done, it visually represented a reasonable, practical allocation of time and effort.

I last modified it on April 27 of this year. A little over four months later, I've come to the conclusion that I haven't used it because I won't use it.

Reasonable? Yes. Practical? Yes. The way I work? No.

The Best Organizational System in the World Won't Work

My task matrix was far from the 'best' anything. But even if it had been the ultimate organizational tool, it would have done me no good - if I didn't use it.

The problem, I think, wasn't so much that I don't like schedules. It's that my mind doesn't work that way. Deadlines I can handle.

So, the new-and-improved schedule has time for things like Mass and Soo Bahk Do marked out - and deadlines for each day in bold.

We'll see how this works.

The Soo Bahk Do, by the way, is a more hopeful thing, than part of my regular routine. I started learning, some time ago, but stopped a bit before getting my hips swapped out. I'm getting a little less out of shape now, so it's a matter of deciding to get involved again.

Waiting for Inspiration? Start Working!

Thought for the day:

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action."
Frank Tibolt, The Quotations Page

Recession! Unemployment! American Economy Failing! - Been There, Done That - Still Here

I have it lucky.

I was born during the Truman administration, and lived in an upper Midwestern city with three colleges: Fargo-Moorhead. I still miss having access to the NDSU architecture, agricultural sciences, and main library collections; Concordia's library, and the library at what they're calling MSU-M these days. It was "Moorhead State" through several of the name changes.

Students went to those colleges, of course: enough to fill the small town I live in now, several times, if memory serves.

So, when I started looking for work, I was one of the horde of older teens and twenty-somethings doing the same thing.

An employer looking for someone to take out the trash could chose between someone who would be an architect in a few years, a grab-bag of liberal arts majors - - - you get the picture?

These weren't your stereotype pencil-neck geek intellectuals, either: so it wasn't a question of picking whoever might be able to lift fifty pounds without snapping.

And, there were an average, at some points, of about a hundred applicants for each job.

I'm Not Complaining: It was an Educational Experience

It didn't help that I graduated from high school in the spring of 1969. My timing, for the next several decades, was impeccable:

• Recession: late 1960's
  • December 1969 - November 1970
  • 11 months
    
• Oil Crisis: 1970's
  • November 1973 - March 1975
  • 16 months
    
• Recession: 1980's
  • January 1980 - November 1982
  • 22 months
• Recession: 1990's
  • July 1990 - March 1991
  • 8 months
• Recession: early 2000's
  • March 2001 - November 2001
  • 8 Months
• Recession: Late 2000's
  • December 2007 - Today
  • 13 months and counting

That's a lot of recessions, isn't it? Different people will say it's George Bush's fault - either one; Clinton's fault, Reagan's fault, or the fault of a Bourgeois Capitalist System's oppression of the proletariat.

Oddly, I think that last bunch has a point. It does seem that a boom-bust cycle is part of economies where people are allowed to make money, and keep some of what they make. It's rough: but I prefer it to the systems that look good on paper, but tend to fail when someone tries using them on a society of human beings.

Five Recessions and an Oil Crisis

And I was looking for work in all but two of them. Three, if you count the current one: but I'll get back to that.

I've quit one job, and been let go from one because I wasn't what the employer was looking for: and had the job - or the company - disappear so many times, I've lost count.

It's been a good experience. With each new job, I learned new skills, and that:

• A job is a job - not my life
• Jobs end - life (so far) doesn't
• My next job probably won't be the same as my last
  • This certainly is not a problem

The last job I had, working for someone else, lasted just over 20 years. It ended in the spring of 2006: and I've been working for myself every since. I'm a lousy employer, by the way: I don't pay me anywhere near as much as I'd like. But that's changing.

Whaddaya Mean, the Place is Closing?! I WORK Here!!

I ran across a news item from Michigan today. Wayland, Michigan, is having hard times. They're tied up in the American auto industry - apparently more so than some other places. And, a car dealership closed.

Some of the (now former) employees sprang into action: they got drunk and started fights. One of them explained the logic of his actions:

" 'Does it matter how hard you work, because there is somebody a little bit above you that has the right to control every decision and every effort you put forward, don't you have a right to be a little bit mad when somebody says hey we're all done,' ... 'It's terrible, horrible.' " (WWMT)

Change Hurts, Change Happens

I understand the emotions, I think. It feels bad, losing a job. There's a loss of security and stability. I've gone through it, quite often. Losing a job really, sincerely, doesn't feel good. Even when it wasn't a particularly nice job.

But, I think I'm lucky. During one of those recessions - I think it was around the time of the 1980's one - I had a job in a state-run employment agency. Part of what I did was interview people, find out what sort of work they could do, what they were willing to do, and then connect them with employers.

Caution! Middle-Aged Guy Reminiscing

It was one of the best jobs I had. I'd be doing something like that now, but I looked at numbers then: and there was no way I could make a living at it, working independently, without moving to a larger city. Which I did not want to do.

Back then, talking with someone new every few minutes, I got a pretty good look at what was happening. Everyone was hurting, economically. There were a lot of people for each job, and only one could have it.

And, some of the people I talked to had only had one job in their life.

Don't Like Change? It Happens, Anyway

Applying what I learned in an upper Midwest city to the coastal culture, I suspect that there are people today who are experiencing the same thing. All their lives, they've worked at one job, and been rewarded for sticking to that unwavering routine.

Now, things are changing.

In my younger days, a typical victim of change was the WWII GI. He'd done his tour of duty, gotten started with GI benefits, and for decades been paid for showing up at the factory and doing his task on the assembly line. Nothing wrong with any of that. It was a good life.

But, when things changed, things changed. America's steel industry went through changes, automation had hit middle management (that's a whole different story), and was moving in on assembly line jobs.

It seemed so unfair: You do what's expected of you, and the factory closes anyway.

Or, in the Wayland incidents, the car dealership closes. And about 30 people are out of work.

I've been there: so often that I've started to understand that change happens. That's hardly a new idea. About two dozen centuries ago, Heraclitus said: "Nothing endures but change." today, you're more likely to hear, "the more things change, the more they stay the same," but the idea is about the same. ("The more things change..." is attributed to Alphonse Karr. What he actually wrote was "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.")

So, Change Happens: What Can You Do?

When your employer goes out of business, there are quite a few options:

1. Go out, get drunk, and start a few fights
   • Spending time in jail and getting a 'drunk and disorderly' charge is close to a best-case scenario here
2. Set fire to your former employer's place of business
   • Really stupid idea: Arson is frowned upon in most states
   • Social ostracism may be a result
   • It's illegal, too
3. Give yourself time to feel sad, then:
   • Take a deep breath
   • Run around a bit
     • Or do something physical (and legal) to work off the emotional energy
   • Start thinking.
     • You've got skills, and experience
     • There are other jobs
     • Kinds of jobs that use the same, or similar, skills

All things considered, I think that of these options, #3 makes the most sense.

Option #3 includes starting your own business. Particularly when you open a sole proprietorship (like I did), in effect - you're hiring yourself.

I've had some interesting worker-management meetings with myself. One problem with the sole-proprietorship arrangement is that you can't storm out if the meeting doesn't go your way.

Oh, No! More Reminiscence!

Back in 2006, when the small publishing company I'd devoted 20 years to went through a radical downsizing, I didn't feel all that good. I'd been an advertising copywriter and graphic designer for ten years there, and list manager for another 10. I'd gotten carpal tunnel in both wrists, with all the keyboard-and-mouse work (the insurance company came up with an anonymous Ivy League study that said that repetitive motions don't cause the problem - but that's another story).

*sob* I feel so abused! - NOT! I'd picked up quite a few skills in those two decades.

And, on my own time, had learned about the Internet and the World Wide Web. I had a large website of my own developed (Brendan's Island) by the time the boss decided to use the Web. I ended up building a website for my employer, too (Vocational Biographies). Neither one was the best of its kind: but I do think the navigation's decent in both. If you noticed that the two look a lot alike: There's a reason for that, and that's all I'll say.

Around that time, I went into business as a free-lance website designer. Quite a few other people were doing the same thing: and most of them were commercial artists. Their work generally looked anywhere from competent, through professional, to fabulous.

My 'website designer' business didn't too at all well. I learned that the population density in Central Minnesota wasn't high enough (still isn't) to support it. Being more of a Web architect than a Web artist didn't help: There just aren't that many outfits around here that need websites with a hundred or more pages.

No problem. I still had a day job then, and: I'd tried. I started developing ideas for websites that people would like to visit. I figured I had between ten and fifteen years to make them into something that would be a self-supporting retirement hobby.

Then, I lost my job. And, my schedule changed. "Ten to fifteen years from now" turned to "last week," and "self-supporting hobby" to "household-supporting business."

One more thing: by that time, I couldn't feel my hands. Which was an improvement. The stage before that was 'sincerely distracting pain in both hands.' Carpal tunnel syndrome will do that, apparently. And, one finger on each hand had started locking up at odd intervals.

I could still use a keyboard: thanks to learning 'touch typing' in the sixties, my fingers knew where each key was, whether I could feel them or not.

After getting laid off, I had surgery done on both hands (one at a time), and was convinced by my wife and doctor that now was the time to get my hips replaced. They were right. So, one at a time, I had my hip sockets swapped out.

For most of 2006, I was 'in the shop' for repairs.

That gave me time to think - or would have, if the happy juice we used to control the discomfort had let me. I did have time to chew over what I was doing, and why.

Today, I'm still getting A Small World of Websites launched - one piece at a time.

It's slow going: but I got another check today, for advertising: and am learning about publishing 'real' books - ink on paper - on demand. I've got concerns about quality control - and I have yet to produce something worth printing - but I think it'll work.

Change Happens - What You do With it is Up to You

I'm no paragon: I'm just a middle-aged guy in a small central Minnesota town with a checkered job history and a few ideas.

And, I'm certainly not 'earning $40,000 dollars a week in my spare time.' (A whole other topic.) I've looked into those envelope-stuffing things from time to time. A general word of advice, for those interested in pursuing such 'opportunities:' Don't.

But I've gotten pretty good at losing jobs - then picking up the pieces and moving on. It can be done.

In the news:

• "Job loss leads to violent emotions in Wayland"
  WWMT - NEWSCHANNEL 3

Background:

• "History of US Economic Recessions"
  Recession.org
• National Bureau of Economic Research
• Recessions"
  Geoffrey H. Moore, Library of Economics and Liberty (March 27, 2009)

The Town's Hardware Industry: A Parable

On the surface, this is the story of a small town's need for hardware. But, reading between the lines, you may discern a message about a major American industry, presented with the subtlety of a pile driver.

Saving the Town's Hardware Industry

The town had three hardware stores: Bud and Bubba's Hardware and Bait; Central Tool and Hardware; and Abe's Tools. They provided a wide selection of products. You could get an 8-track stereo for your convertible, aluminum siding kits, and all the parts needed to build your own bomb shelter.

People who worked for one of the Big Three hardware stores were the envy of their neighbors. Over the years, they'd negotiated their way into top-rate pay, health coverage, and retirement plans.

Bud, Bubba, Abe, and Waldo, the fellow who ran Central Tool, weren't doing too badly, either.

Now, if you wanted an exhaust fan for your bathroom, you'd be better off talking to Ralph. He had a small stock in his garage, and could have just about anything else shipped in.

You'd call Lacy if you needed an electrostatic filter, and Pat for something like a USB cable.

One day, the Big Three hardware store owners noticed that they were running out of money. And had been for a while. So, they went to city hall and told the town council that they needed money. Lots of it. It wasn't just for them, they explained, it was for the Town Hardware Industry.

Without the Town Hardware Industry, the town's economy would collapse, they said.

The oldest and wisest member of the council, who had seen 8-tracks come and go, told Bud, Bubba, Abe, and Waldo that they shouldn't get one cent of the town's money. And, that the town would be better off getting its hardware from Ralph, Lacy, Pat, and all the other townspeople who had been paying attention.

And so, the town council sent Bud, Bubba, Abe, and Waldo away, empty-handed. The Big Three owners retired to private resorts on the lake country, some of their employees went to work for Ralph, Lacy, or Pat, and some opened their own little hardware stores.

And the Moral of this Story is -

Do I really have to say it?

Related posts:

• "Bank Bailout Scandal? Maybe - But Think Before You Decide"
  (December 22, 2008)
• "Bank Bailouts, Bloated Bonuses, and Common Sense"
  (December 21, 2008)
• "So Big Three Collapse: Is That a Problem?"
  (December 12, 2008)

"Spear Phishing" - New and Improved Spam

Maybe "improved" isn't the right way to describe "spear phishing," a new and personally focused sort of spam.

CNNMoney described this new wrinkle in annoying (and possibly dangerous) email: "Unlike traditional spam, most of which is blocked by e-mail filters, personalized spam, known as 'spear phishing'" messages, often sail through unmolested. They're sent in smaller chunks, and often come from accounts the criminals have set up at reputable Web-based e-mail services. Some of the messages are expertly crafted, linking to beautifully designed Web sites that are bogus or immediately install malicious programs...."

These messages could look legitimate, since they may include personal data that the spammers have mined: like where you went to school, your mother's maiden name, or where you do your banking.

Part of the idea is to trick business owners into, for example, giving data about their

• Google (or other) advertising accounts
• Bank accounts

There's even something called "whaling," where an email to an executive claims that the business is under investigation by the FBI. I suppose that a panicked exec might be less than cautious.

How to Avoid Being Spear Phished

It boils down to three words: Don't be stupid. "Imprudent" might be a nicer word than "stupid."

There is pretty good advice in several places: including Microsoft and SANS Technology Institute (Which refers back to Microsoft's resource).

Some major points I found are:

• Don't send sensitive information in response to an email - no matter who seems to have sent it
  • Call (don't email) the presumed sender, to make sure the request is legitimate
  • 'Trust, but verify' applies here
• Don't click links in an email that asks for personal or financial information
  • Never
  • SANS T.I. says to put the Web address in your browser window instead - Microsoft has some advice about how to avoid bogus URLs

It Couldn't Happen to Me - Five Dangerous Words

I've been spammed, and phished, and fielded quite a few bogus phone calls. The experience has given me an appreciation for how easy it is to get fooled. One of my kids has called me "paranoid," for the way I insist on verifying a message before believing it. Much less responding to it.

Well, maybe so. I prefer terms like "cautious."

In the news:

• "Personalized spam rising sharply, study finds "
  CNNMoney (December 17, 2008)
• "Personalized spam rising sharply, study finds"
  Associated Press (December 17, 2008)

Proper British Journalist Adam Smith / Steve Zacharanda and the Morning After

The last time I looked, 125,489 people had visited Adam Smith AKA Steve Zacharanda's interview on YouTube.

He's the 'proper journalist' who announced plans to start his own magazine, declared that he was plagiarizing articles from the BBC, and resigned: very rudely.

The next morning, he didn't remember a thing. Then he saw the video and got a message from his boss, telling him to call the office.

I plan to get back to this, some time on Monday. Right now, I've got some family business to attend to.

More, at:

• "Adam Smith AKA Steve Zacharanda Resigns: Proper British Jounalist in Man On the Sidewalk Interview "
  Apathetic Lemming of the North (November 8, 2008)

Rickshaw Ban: It Seemed Like Such a Nice Idea

About two years ago, Richshaws were banned in at least parts of India. Human-pulled ones, anyway.

This high-minded move was intended to end an inhumane and demeaning job. It also put a lot of rickshaw pullers out of business. Not to worry, though, they were going to be "rehabilitated." ("Rickshaws, ban highlight India's contradictions" (Chicago Tribune (October 18, 2008))

I've gathered that at least some of the foot-powered rickshaws were used by men who couldn't afford a motorized rickshaw.

The guys who have been "rehabilitated" in India were entrepreneurs, providing a service with resources they could get. Okay: pulling a rickshaw isn't as glamorous as being a high-power corporate lawyer. But, it's a way of making money.

By now, quite a few of those entrepreneurs are probably nice, safe, inoffensive employees - and not likely to rock the economic or social boat.

I ran into this while researching a post for another blog: "Bad Day in Guwahati (or Gauhati): Bombs, Fires, and Dead People " Another War-on-Terror Blog (October 30, 2008).

Obama Assassination Plot Stopped

This is going to be in the news for a while: two white nitwits planned to assassinate Barack Obama.

Wearing white tuxedos.

You can't make up this sort of thing.

More at:

• "Domestic Terrorism? Obama Assassination Plot Thwarted"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (October 27, 2008)

In the news:

• "Men charged with plotting to kill Obama"
  CNN (October 27, 2008)