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!

A quick update
Thank goodness for free Internet at Scholotzky's! Almost makes me feel better about the huge amount of fat in those sandwiches! (They're good though!) Anyway I'll make it brief because I only have about 20 minutes left on my laptop battery.

Just some random thoughts:
- Is it just me or does everyone eat worse when they're visiting other people? Since I've been in Austin I've really wanted to try that new hamburger at Dairy Queen with the chili, cheese and fritos in it! NIIIIICE!
- Colorado's going down tomorrow afternoon. I'm predicting Texas by about 20. Should be fun - look for me on television - I'll be the one 15 rows from the top of the stadium wearing orange.
- I got my new car yesterday. It's a little bit of a reality check to remind yourself that unlike the past vehicles you've received as sales cars, this one's being paid out of my pocket - so leather seats, mp3 players, rear spoilers, air conditioned seats, etc, are no longer essential items. (This non-Ford life is gonna be harder than I expected!)
- Anyone not in Austin right now needs to get down here now. It's clear, sunny, about 75 degrees and absolutely the best weather in the world. I tell everyone that for about six weeks out of the year, we have the best climate known to man.
Alright, that's enough. I'll be back next week, and hopefully I'll have some new ideas for the site so that the three of you who check it (:D) will have a reason to keep coming back!

Monster.com Lesson No. 1: The Pyramid Scheme
Well, it's only a week or so since I've had my resume up on Monster.com and I'm already catching on to an interesting and rather innovative use of the site. Under the traditional pyramid scheme format, a person would have to go out and enlist their family and friends into the program to either buy life insurance or health and wellness products or whatever or (more importantly) become salespeople themselves and further increase that person's income. But with the advent of online job sites, there's an easier, much less personal way to go about finding people - you just recruit people from there to come in in volume.

Fun stuff - nothing illegal, or for that matter unethical. It just brought a few too many "Glengary Glenrose" flashbacks - for those who haven't seen it, it definitely gives you a new appreciation for all those contests you have allegedly won through the mail, all those wonderful condo offers you receive, all those too-good-to-be-true phone offers. The catch phrase "ABC: Always Be Closing" kept coming to mind. (OK, the stuff in that movie was unethical.)

Anyway, clearly I'm off and running! No job yet, but I feel smarter already - in fact, interestingly enough, I took an IQ test online a few days after I left Ford, and I scored a full five points higher on it than I scored when I first took it two years ago. So apparently, leaving Ford Motor Company has made me smarter!

Glass = half full.

The journey continues... well, I guess it's kind of at a rest stop
OK, no job yet, but I DO have my website up and running, such as it is. I'm kind of playing with it as I go and already see a lot that needs to be changed, but I kind of felt like I wanted to get it up there tonight, just so I could say I accomplished something this weekend.

In case you came here first, you can find me at https://paulhammons.tripod.com/. If you do go, please leave feedback! Validate me! (Just kidding). Actually I do want to make it an interactive site. In case you don't know, you can respond to my blog entries, and I'm thinking of also adding a discussion page on the website that we can use for anything from scriptural discussions to entertainment stuff to basically whatever we want to post. But we'll see how that goes.

I need to figure out if I can use more than one blog - if that's the case, I may do a separate one because I'd like to leave a daily or semidaily (OK, weekly maybe?) log of some of my Bible studies - just thoughts or topics I come across from time to time. I'm thinking of studying the Book of Job, if nothing else, just to remind myself that I'm a long way from sackcloth and ashes and boils and family members being killed by collapsing buildings. (Lord willing I'll stay that way.) Anyway, I'd like to make these something that would be of use to people to read, rather than just me rattling on about junk that no one cares about. That will just be an added bonus for you!

Anyway, who knows, I may have all this changed around by this time tomorrow. After all, I don't have to get up in the morning!