Archive for July, 2006

Despicable Job Choices

Sometimes, when you are down and out, between jobs, just trying to get by, you might be tempted to take a job that you otherwise would not have considered. I’ve seen engineers working at Walgreens. I’ve seen mortgage brokers working as roofers. No matter how bad it gets though, there are some jobs you should never consider.

Most people will automatically make wild claims that they would never do certain things for money - bank robbery, for example. Or prostitution. But, those are personal moral choices that people make because they lead to an undesireable lifestyle which, along with the potential criminal penalties, most people do not want to venture into.

How to Homeschool

How to Homeschool As a father of six homeschooled children, I get a lot of questions from people on how to homeschool - where to get started, how “legal” is it, what type of curriculum to use, what does the father do as compared to the mother, what about socialization, and how to actually, functionally, do it on a day-to-day basis.

Rather than email each person separately as I have been doing, I thought I’d develop a series that anyone can read so that hopefully they can benefit from what we’ve learned - and our mistakes.

I will try to answer the above questions and more (feel free to leave comments / suggestions if I’ve overlooked something). But first, a few disclaimers.

50 Albums that Changed Music

It isn’t often I come across a music list that I can nod and agree with most of it. Usually, music lists are very narrow and tainted toward a certain kind of music. But the Guardian, a UK newspaper, has published a very good list of what they believe are Albums that have changed music - or more accurately perhaps, the character of the music industry at the time of their popularity. I hardly think any album has ever changed music - since it really is something we are discovering and perfecting (or perhaps “damaging” depending on one’s opinion). Perhaps the only thing wrong with this list (which recently was awarded a Yahoo Site of the Day) is that it excludes any serious country/western influences and classical/new age. Other than that, the list is a very solid list.

10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job

Steve Pavlina has done it again with an almost outrageous article called 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job that will be sure to infuriate some people. Yes, you know who you are. Granted, Steve makes a relatively small fortune (by some people’s standards) so maybe he is more comfortable saying what many of us think but are afraid to say.

Why you Should or Should Not Hire Me

You should hire me if…

Top 10 Ways to De-Motivate Geeks

If you read my previous comments on an article called the Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks, you might be interested in Nate Kohari’s personal take on a little reverse psychology: The Top 10 Ways to De-Motivate Geeks. That’s right - to demotivate them.

Sort of reminds me of my favorite company Despair, Inc., who has for their website address http://www.demotivators.com/. They are sort of a Dilbert-esque take on the old Successories posters that were interesting for about 8 months before they got old. Despair, Inc’s posters are the ones I’d really like to see more often.

The Silence of God

I’ve been listening to Andrew Peterson lately and the song “The Silence of God” has really struck me as such a wonderful testimony to the way God interacts with his people. I had a friend lean over to me suddenly in a group of people and say, “What if there is no answer? What if God has said all he is going to say in his Word?”. How right. At some point, you stop searching for answers, you stop seeking for some great revelation, you stop waiting for the other shoe to drop. Your faith is that God alone is sufficient to provide. Is your faith going to carry you - or leave you wanting?

The Silence of God
by Andrew Peterson

Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks

The Retrospector has posted the Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks at work. I couldn’t possibly agree more. I think I’ve finally realized why some employers hate me. They aren’t geeks! They want what geeks can bring to the table, but they don’t know how to manage geeks.

By this I mean that they want geeks to “fix” things in their little office world… make them more efficient, make their jobs easier, make them profitable, etc. But, they don’t want to pay us what we are worth - not in $$$ per se, but in these ten motivations listed by The Retrospector.

A Few Free Ideas for Movie Theater Owners

Techdirt recently wrote about some of the dilemmas facing movie theater owners. I thought I’d give away a few of my secret ideas. The rest stay in my head until some theater owner pays me for them.

I don’t want to give away every idea of mine, but since you are on the subject… here’s what theater owners need to do to fight back — and quit blaming Hollywood.

1. First realize we are in a ADHD society. Movie times like 7:40, 7:55, etc are for the 1960’s, not the year 2010. First theater owner who can GUARANTEE that every movie starts on EVERY top of the hour wins the city. No more calling those ridiculous recordings, looking at tiny invisible newspapers ads (who reads the papers?), and surfing your favorite ticket site (which is sometimes wrong). You just show up at 4:00 and pick a movie. Simple - and no advance planning needed.

Internet to Blame for Lack of Close Friends?

Techdirt pointed out that, according to Network World, the internet is partly to blame for our lack of close friends these days. It is an interesting study that was done that shows that although people might have hundreds of friends on social networks like MySpace and Friendster, they have fewer close friends then ever.

Close friends are defined as someone who you can talk about “important matters”. I suppose that varies from person to person, but it still rings true to me that people are definitely more scatter-brained and less-focused than I can ever remember.