OK, I know, I've been remiss....
I haven't written anything in a while, and I know there's dozens... ok, I'm sure someone's noticed. For the one that did - what can I say, I was out of town for a while. I got down to Austin to see family and friends which was nice as always. I'm thinking more and more about moving down there, but we'll see how it goes.

OK, to sum up what's been going on:
- job fair = wasted time. The "sales and management" fair was actually pretty much all sales. The most attractive of the options to me involved selling home security systems, so that tells you something. I don't know I'm sure I'd do ok at it, but it's still sales, and I'm not sure I want to go back down that road. And since I haven't heard anything from any of the employers, I'm guessing they didn't want to go down that road either.

- search firms: I have an appointment tomorrow with a group in Dallas that saw my resume and wants to talk to me. So hopefully I'll get a few more leads through them, and likely through a couple more firms. The career center recommends 4-5 services or so, so I need to pick a few this week. I spent some time looking at my options and what I want to do, and had a good meeting with one of the councilors, and she gave me hope that some of the things I was interested in might really be options for me. We'll see. I still don't think anyone's gonna pay me to sit around and watch tv, but I guess it could happen.

- UT football: how great are we this year? 52-0 at halftime? That's just ridiculous against a Division I team. Well, now we have a couple of weeks before we play again, so I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself. Fortunately there's UT basketball (which I'm listening to right now.) Sounds like we're gonna be pretty good, so we'll see.

- Texas fall: did I miss the memo? I walked outside today and the wind's blowing 80 miles an hour and it feels like it's about 40 degrees out there.

- Raspberry pie: you really can't beat it, and I just say that because I saw some at the store today and had to pick it up. I highly recommend it.

OK, I'll try to get back on pace this week, so both of you that are reading this can feel confident in that! ;)

What is it with laptops?
OK, I knew things had been going way too smoothly for me in this department. I hadn't had a laptop issue in almost seven months or so, and I think that was a new record for me. So finally today something happened and it's down. It seems like once the laptop decides to go into sleep mode all kinds of weird stuff happens. As a result, any computer stuff for a while may have to take place in the warmest room in my house. Don't tell the Realtor this, but I suspect that the AC doesn't work in here.

Anyway, I guess I'm not supposed to be dropping it and tossing it onto the floor or something. Who knows? Aren't those things supposed to be shock resistant?

BTW, I called off the Ameriprise interview. I just didn't feel comfortable about the idea of a slow rampup on salary at this point, plus the uncertainty and the necessity of building a practice largely off friends, relatives and referrals. That just doesn't suit me, which is too bad because I liked the idea of doing financial planning. It'd be nice to find something that I could do that would be productive - that may be one reason I'm not fond of sales.

Having said that, I'm sure that's where I'll be again. My resume and experience just seems too weighted in that area. I knew I should have taken that job as assistant to the traveling secretary for the Yankees - I might have a shot at a sports related job then!

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Helpful hint
Just cause I know that most of you aren't as savvy in the kitchen as I am, I'm just passing on a hint for you. It's totally random and in no way inspired by real life occurrences. I'm just saying, when you preheat an oven, make sure you don't have a pan still in there that you used to grill steaks a few days earlier. I'm just glad my smoke detectors don't seem to be working!

Last one out of Detroit, get the lights, will ya?
Not that I'm still bitter about not being with Ford anymore (I'm really not :P ), but it's articles like this that remind me why i wasn't that broken up about it.

GM spiraling downhill, may break Ford's fall :D

It doesn't really mention Ford in here, but I kinda think all the US automakers are in the same situation. The advantage of a Honda or a Nissan (or even dare I say it, a Kia) is that they've created a niche market that's easier to manage. GM, Ford and Chrysler are trying to offer something for everyone, and that's becoming harder and harder to do I think. I'm not convinced Toyota won't eventually start seeing a similar issue, but right now its brand image is so strong that it can survive it.

OK, anyway, didn't mean to turn this into an industry blog or anything. I'll write something entertaining later.

Ahhh, it finally cleared up!
I was wondering if the kids were gonna have to use boats to go out trick-or-treating tonight, but looks like it's all clear now. I think I may just hide from them tonight - I don't have any candy, and I don't think they'd appreciate dog treats. I could be one of those guys that everybody hates and hand out dental floss or something, but I don't really feel like being egged back to the Stone Age tonight. So I'll just hide in the living room and watch movies or something.

First round of interviews went OK at Ameriprise today, we'll see how the info session goes tomorrow. I need to come up with some questions. It actually sounds like a pretty interesting job - I like the idea of helping people manage their money and build a future for their kids, but I'm always leery of providers such as this that have an inherent conflict of interest - in other words, they are commissioned to sell a specific plan as opposed to being completely free to set something up that's in the client's best interest. I suppose that's typical of any brokerage or financial services organization.
So anyway, I'll have more details on that tomorrow, and then there are two more rounds of interviews to go through.

Just some other thoughts - I think I need to get to work pretty soon because the lazy gene is reeeeeeally starting to take hold. You know it's bad when updating your website seems like work. But I'm gonna do it tonight - I'm making a stand, putting y foot down and committing to something useful. Never mind that I could be cleaning house or scanning the Net for jobs... Hmmmm....

So, anyway! Hope all of you have a great Halloween. I'll let you know how things go tomorrow!

What NOT to put on a resume
I got some pretty good hints today, and fortunately was able to catch a few things on my own resume before it fell into the wrong hands. Apparently these are some things that may not look good to a prospective employer:
- Disposed of $2.5 billion in assets.
- Instrumental in ruining entire operations for a Midwest chain store.
- Education: Curses in liberal arts, curses in computer sciences, curses in accounting.
- Personal: married, 1992 Chevrolet.
- I am a rabid typist.
- Exposure to German for two years, but many words are not appropriate for business.
- Personal interests: donating blood. 15 gallons so far!
- I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely nothing and absolutely no one.
- References: None. I've left a path of destruction behind me.
- Don't take the comments of my former employer too seriously. They were unappreciative beggars and slave drivers.
- My goal is to be a meteorologist. But since I possession no training in meteorology, I suppose I should try stock brokerage.
- I procrastinate - especially when the task is unpleasant.
- I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voice mail.
- Qualifications: No education or experience - I have an open mind.
- Accomplishments: Oversight of entire department.
- Extensive background in accounting. I can also stand on my head!

Can you take a day off when you're out of work?
Apparently so, cause that's what I did. I think it's all this waking up at 5 a.m. nonsense. I need to figure out what that's about so I'm not sleepy all day. But it definitely cuts into the productivity level, so that's probably not a good thing.
More career counseling tomorrow - I almost feel like I know what I want to do now. Well, almost. I have it narrowed down to a salaried position. Beyond that, we'll see. According to my assessment test, I should be involved in an area such as teaching or social working. Clearly, my overwhelmingly great people skills shone through on that test! ;) It's weird, most of the MBA oriented careers don't seem to match with my personality... hmmm, maybe that's telling me something. Anyway, we'll see I guess. I did learn not to use weak verbs on my resume! (OK, I already knew that). They gave a stat that I for one found shocking - 60 percent of all resumes have some form of misrepresentation (I assume that's referring to someone doctoring their resume? Shocking!)
Well the Astros have just blown a 4-run lead, so things aren't looking too good. Thank goodness I'm focused on college football. (Hey did you notice who was No. 1 in the latest BCS? OK, it means almost nothing right now, still it's nice to be No.l.)
Sorry for the lame entry today - I'll have to come up with something insightful for next time. I'm just ready to get through all this prework stuff so I can hit the job market.

Good advice from the Preacher
I read a verse in Ecclesiastes today that struck a chord with me. (Ecclesiastes, for those not up on their Bible background, is a book written by Solomon, considered the wisest man of his age, and it contains all kinds of sage advice.) Anyway, here it is:

Eccl 7:21-22
21 Also do not take to heart everything people say, Lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 For many times, also, your own heart has known That even you have cursed others.
NKJV

Ever take things too personally? Read motives into actions or words when they're not there, or maybe just take things too personally that people say either in the heat of the moment or when they thought no one could hear them? The writer's point is that all of us say things we may not really mean - or maybe deep deep down we mean them, but we're trying to overcome them just like we try to overcome any other type of temptation. Or maybe we're just looking too hard to find meaning where there isn't any.

Maybe the key is that we need to judge people like we want to be judged ourselves, and realize that we don't want to be known for our weakest moments, how we behave under the worst of circumstances, or to be judged based on the demons that we battle every day of our lives and to which we refuse to give place, even though they may tempt us and work hard to gain a foothold in our minds. And we need to know that our friend, our neighbor, for that matter even our adversary, may be battling those same things. I think that's what Jesus meant when he said "Judge not, that you be not judged." Anyway, that's something I want to work on this week.

Just a random thought....
Does anyone else think it's weird that my dog is fascinated with the garage? He comes in, he hangs out for a while, eats, does whatever, and then he walks up to me with that look that tells me he wants something. So I have to go down the list of words he knows until he reacts - I avoid saying "treat" because the answer there is always yes. So anyway, I'll get to garage, and he gets excited and starts to head over there. I let him in and he just wanders around sniffing stuff - I guess something's going on in there when I'm not looking, and frankly I'm not sure I want to know about it.

Anyway, it's daytrip time tomorrow. The Horns should knock off Tech by about 30 or so - I think I picked 48-20 on the gameday page, but either way, I feel pretty good about it.

The job seach continues - the career center has a lot of good resources that have really been helpful. I already used them to find out that one interview I had scheduled was, shall we say, not entirely the type of group I want to work for. For some reason Monster.com seems to bring those out, because so far all three of my interview opportunities have ended up being a little on the shady side.

Anyway, we'll see how it progresses. I should get through all the training sessions I need next week, so that's when hopefully the interviewing process will pick up. Maybe not the actual interviews themselves, but me seeking the interviews should increase.

Hope all two of you who are reading this have a great weekend! ;)

Good to be back home
A few pretty important things have happened in the past couple of days that mean it should be full steam ahead on the job search front. One, my waver came through, which means I can't sue my former employers now (the line was too long anyway!), but more importantly, it means I get my full severance benefits and use of the career counseling service that Ford graciously provided for those whom they downsized. So I'll be inundated with seminars and job search aids in the next couple of weeks, which should put help me to figure out - for one - what I want to do when I grow up! I'm kind of curious to see how that turns out.

The irony is that after having to wait a couple of weeks for the paperwork to go through so that I can use these valuable resources, I have an interview on Thursday that might mean I don't use any of that stuff. It's interesting in that it's a sales position, but if the sales pitch is true, it actually eliminates a lot of the aspects of sales that I don't like. (I'm telling you, watching Glengary Glenrose has completely messed me up - every sales position I see now, I keep having visions of guys calling people from a seedy office somewhere pretending to have their secretary check their appointment books. Fortunately, it doesn't sound like that kind of job.)

So anyway, I'm a little more relaxed about things this week, now that it's about settling down and getting into the process. I'll keep you updated, but in a way, I'd just as soon have a couple more weeks of unemployment! But oh well, only getting a couple of weeks off would be a pretty good problem to have I suppose. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, I'm watching the Eagles concert DVD I picked up today along with Batman Begins (the absolute best Batman movie yet, my opinion.) And tomorrow it's time to get to work!