Choose Your Own Adventure

Today is 2 for the price of 1 day...

Choose Your Destiny

For a light-hearted story detailing the randomness that occurs in my house, turn to

For a rare statement from me on what I look for in a woman, turn to

The Tension and The Terror

It's been a little over a month and a half since I last sat down and did one of these "How's life going" posts. Since I've got the time and nothing else pressing that I want to talk about, today is a good day to do another one.

On the job search front, things are getting better even though I don't necessarily acknowledge that they are. The genesis of my "Money For Nothing" post was actually a rant on how tired I was of looking for a job.

I think I'm finally getting to the point where I can no longer consider myself unemployed. No, I haven't found a job. It's just that I'm finally getting to the point of being discouraged. Hunting for a job, and not just the job I want but any job, seems like nothing more than an exercise in futility. It's the same routine, over and over and over again. I apply to jobs, I hear back from the ones I don't want and hear nothing from the ones I do. When I do hear back from someone, there's a 5-stage interview process to go through that ultimately leads nowhere. After six months of this, the idea of moving back home and just hiding my head in the sand doesn't seem so bad.

To an extent, some of that is still true. I am tired of looking for work and would love to pretend that this is all a bad dream, but that's not how life works. It's OK to bitch and moan (which is what that post was turning into), but it's not OK to quit. With that said, I'm still actively job searching. Maybe not as actively, but after seven months of looking, what do you expect? I get tired too.

In more positive news, I do have a couple of interviews lined up. One on Monday with a company who impressed me by how quickly they responded to my application. I applied to their job posting Monday night and I was on the phone with a recruiter Tuesday afternoon. My ego definitely needed that pick me up. Hopefully things work out well... I'll find out in a few days.

The other interview is with a company with an extremely long hiring process. I applied for a position in March, had my first interview in May, and don't have my second interview until the end of the month. Had things not changed, that would have worked out perfectly (my lease runs out at the end of the month). What changed you asked? The start date. The track I was looking to be hired into was scheduled to start in late July. Apparently that's now been pushed back to a January start date. When I found that out, it felt like someone had punched me in the gut. As I really want to start working ASAP, I almost considered not even bothering with the 2nd interview. "January is a really, really long time away! I'm not dealing with this!" Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed and I went ahead and accepted their invitation. In a worst case scenario, this works out for the best. Let's say I ace the 2nd interview and get offered a position. Well, for starters, I'd have a job -- even if I did have to wait for it to start. During that wait I could do other things of interest. I could re-learn Spanish, take a computer programming course, or look for another job. And even if I didn't do any of those things, college football season is coming up and this job comes with a signing bonus. Knowing my friends, I won't have to spend too much time concerning myself with what to do with all of that "downtime."

For those of you wondering how my experiment from a few months ago turned out, to date, I've heard back from 8 employers. 8 out of 37 = 21.6% Slightly better than I predicted (16%) and right in line with the "talk" of [in this current economic downturn] only 20% of resume submissions getting a response.

Elsewhere in my life, things are fairly pedestrian. Barring a miracle, I'll be moving back in with the folks at the end of the month. I'm cool with that. Sure, my social life will take a major hit but that's alright. Especially if it'll save me the trouble (and time...and money) of signing a new lease, then trying to break it/find a sub-leaser when I do get a job. I have no problem with exchanging short term pain for long term gain. But damn if I'm not looking forward to packing all of my stuff up. Moving sucks.

Since I don't really have a way of wrapping this post up, I'll close with one of my mom's favorite quotes.

"It's not as long as it has been."

She's been saying it ever since I was a little TOPolk and at times I think it's a little dumb -- but it works.

Platinum Status [Poll]

This morning, Nintendo sent out an email to its Club Nintendo "Elite Members" detailing their rewards for achieving elite status in Club Nintendo. Now before I go any further, I guess I should explain exactly what Club Nintendo is. In a nutshell, Club Nintendo is Nintendo's reward program. Purchasing Nintendo-produced items earn you points that can be redeemed for items in the Club Nintendo marketplace.

Like any other loyalty program, the value of the items you can redeem your points for leaves a lot to be desired. Some of the "exclusive" wares you can snag from the Club Nintendo marketplace include a Wii Remote holder, a Nintendo DS game case, and a set Animal Crossing playing cards. Exciting. But coming from the always frugal-minded Nintendo, this selection of trinkets isn't surprising. Even so, Nintendo does manage to do their hardcore fans a little bit better...

For the fans like myself who collected enough points to achieve Platinum Level status, Nintendo provides the option to choose a gift from two or more options, free of charge. In the past, the Japanese version of Club Nintendo gave out gifts that are still long sought after -- like the Super Famicom Classic Controller or Wii Remote TV Remote. With this knowledge in mind, one would expect Nintendo of America to provide something just as awesome for their initial platinum gift.

Not quite. Still free. Still cool. But lacking a bit on the "WOW" scale.

As I'm not really sure what gift I want (neither really jump out to me), I'm going to put it up to a vote here. I trust you guys -- for the most part.

Doc Louis's Punch Out!!

Pros:
- Free games are always cool. I'm a fan of things that I actually can play with.
- For the first time ever, Doc Louis steps into the ring! That's pretty cool. Right?

Cons:
- Call it an exclusive gift if you want, this is basically a demo for Punch-Out!!
- Something tells me that the chances of this being given out as DLC to the owners of Punch-Out!! is pretty high.
- It's download only. Meaning that if my Wii goes *poof*, so does my game.

Replica Mario Hat

Pros:
- It would a nice little piece of gaming swag to show off.
- Based on the dimensions of this thing, it would actually fit my head.
- Unlike "Doc Louis's Punch-Out!!," this is a tangible item. Which means that if push came to shove, I could get something for it on eBay.

Cons:
- I couldn't wear this in public. Nor would I really want to.
- My mom could probably sew one of these in about an hour.


The voting widget should be live in the top of the sidebar to your right, so slide on over and cast your vote. And if you're feeling especially active today, feel free to leave a comment explaining your vote. :)

Sunday Night Selections

Nothing musically really spoke to me this week, so I reached into the SnS Vault and pulled out two of my personal favorites.

Rock
The Killers - "Smile Like You Mean It"
This songs brings back semi-bad memories of sitting down in a dark room, worrying about everything, and being highly upset that my days were reduced to working in a meat plant for 13 hours a day -- all while downing four to five beers. Then somewhere along the line it became a song of motivation. I remember listening to this song when I decided I was going to pull myself up by the bootstraps and move on to something else. Anything else. Long story short, I'm a lot happier now and I'm back to smiling. Smiling like I mean it. Funny thing is, the actual lyrics have nothing to do with any of that.
Watch The Video

Gypsy Punk
DeVotchKa - "Til The End Of Time"
Following quickly in my footsteps on my post about indie movies, a friend and I sat down on my couch a few hours ago and watched "Little Miss Sunshine." The funny thing is we debated on going to the theater to see this movie a year ago, but she didn't think it was going to be good. *shrugs* Maybe it was best that we watched it on the couch as it's a movie that works much better as a evening time waster opposed to one you have to experience in the theaters (like say, "300" or "Transformers"). Anywhoo, this isn't a review of "Little Miss Sunshine," that may come later. What this is, is a quick write up of the what I guess would be called the "theme song" of the movie...and since I've already taken up enough space jibbering on, I'll just let you guys listen to it instead.
TOPolk Trivia: I'm not sure why, but whenever I read PostSecret, I always have this song playing in the background.
Watch The Video

No Words Needed

Update: If a picture tells a thousand words, then a video tells a million. Thanks ABC News for ruining the fun - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbifTbJtgJA

Money For Nothing?

As I've been job hunting for the past few months, I can usually sniff out something fishy a mile away. If it's an unsolicited referral from CareerBuilder or some other job board I've never heard of, 7 times out of 10, it's probably an opportunity that's not quite what it presents itself to be. However when I get contacted via LinkedIn, I usually trust the referral as being something on the up and up. I don't how they've done it, but LinkedIn has managed to keep itself from being bogged down with ads and posts for "not so real" jobs. Probably because more times than not, an actual person/company is attached to each posted position...

Yeah. That doesn't mean anything any more.

About a week ago, I was contacted on LinkedIn about a local e-Marketing opportunity...

Hey Terence,

I noticed your interest in business deals as well as your experience in business. My husband, [name redacted]*, and I have a business and are looking for 3 people in the Greenville area to help with e-marketing, utilizing social networks. We are part of a marketing team that has a system of helping major retailers expand their online markets and repeat business. They currently have contracts with companies such as Office Depot, Disney, Bass Pro Shops and more.
This is an opportunity to generate a strong part-time income, if this interests you, send me your contact information (# and email) and I can go over some additional details.

Have a great week,
[Name & Contact Info Redacted]

I'll admit, I was a little skeptical about responding back to this woman. The name-dropping of three seemingly unrelated companies was a concern, but that was canceled out by LinkedIn's transparency. I could see who this woman was, where she was from, and her work history. Whether it was legit or not, the attaching of a face and business to this message went a long way.

Figuring that I had nothing to lose, I went ahead and contacted this woman. I spoke to her for a brief moment before she handed me off to her husband. Her husband and I exchanged pleasantries before he went into the spiel of who they were and what they were looking for. On the surface, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary about the type of people they were looking for. Hard workers who were business oriented with a passion to succeed -- also known as the same stuff every business is looking for. What was odd was his description of what his company does -- or better put, what wasn't in his description. He talked for about four minutes without ever mentioning exactly what it was his company does. Strike #1.

To be fair, he did mention that his company was heavily involved in marketing via online social networks, but marketing involves a lot of things. Was it promotional marketing? Are we talking sales? Doling out surveys? At the end of the day what would I be doing? And what type of social networks would be used? Youtube? Facebook? Twitter? Blogger? So many questions, so little answeres. Actually, when pressed him about the social networks used, he told me that he had never heard of Twitter.** Seriously? My dad, the same man who is amazed by text messaging, knows what Twitter is. Strike #2.

Right around this point I went on the defensive. I'm asking questions that he has no answers to (or wouldn't answer) and our phone conversation is all but over. The only thing that prolonged it is that I decided I wanted more information. Of course he didn't have a website or anything that he could email me, but he did have a video that I could watch online. Joy.

Being polite and somewhat curious, I agreed to watch his video -- which wound up being as vague and uninformative as every other piece of information he presented to me. The only good that came out of watching the video is that it provided me with the name of his "parent company" - LTD Team (Leadership Development Team). One quick Google Search while "watching the video" allowed me to find all of the information I needed to conclude that this guy's "e-marketing opportunity" was something that I didn't want to partake in. Strike #3.

After listening to him ramble on a little more, I politely informed him that "this opportunity was not a good fit" and that we should go our separate ways. He heard me but he didn't quite listen as he continued to invite me to attend a seminar that they would be having in Greenville on Tuesday [today]. I thanked him for the invitation, but I declined his offer and politely ended our conversation.

Unfortunately, the fun doesn't end there. When I got in Sunday morning, I had an email from [name redacted] waiting for me...

Hey Terrance (sic),

Thanks for talking with me on the phone breifly (sic). Although we did not get together on business I would still like to meet you in person some time. We have a guest speaker in Greenville this Tuesday evening that I think you would really enjoy hearing. Jake Baker is a former Marine and very succesfull (sic) in business and speaks to audiences all over the world about attitude and success. This is not a sales pitch for the business opportunity, I just thought that at not (sic) cost to you this is a rare opportunity to hear from one of the top business minds in the county (sic) from 8-9 pm this Tuesday evening. It is going to be packed out standing room only out the door but if you contact me early I can get you a good seat. I gurantee (sic) you will not be sorry if you can take the time to come out and see this guy. He is awesome.
[Name & Contact Info redacted]

Being as polite as I could be at 4 in the morning, I passed on this offer once again.

While I appreciate your invitation to attend the seminar, I am going to have to respectfully decline.

As of now, this story ends here. I haven't heard from [name redacted] since and I doubt I will. So with no real payoff, why the blog post?

Information sharing. Nothing more, nothing less. There's not a lot of recent information on LTD Team available on the web, especially not any that tells about their recruiting tactics. And with some of their "agents" using LinkedIn now, I figured I'd use my blog as a way to get the word out. Google's bots enjoy my blog, so I'm sure that this post will be indexed within a couple hours. Hopefully that'll be enough time to provide a "heads-up" to anyone who was contemplating attending the LTD Seminar in Greenville, SC on July 7, 2009, where Jake Baker will be speaking...

Consider this one a freebie.


*Why the [name redacted]s? Because I'm a nice guy.
**@LTDHQ - Looks like someone doesn't know their own company.

Sunday Night Selections

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July weekend. Mine was pretty solid, if not somewhat low key. I spent the day of the 4th with some friends at the Greenville Drive game and followed that up with a solid night out downtown. Sunday was a bit slower as just I sat on the couch and watched movies all day. When I did decide to finally move, it was only because I needed to cook dinner -- which was a miracle in and of itself.

OK...that should be enough filler. On to this week's musical selections.

New Wave
XTC - "Dear God"
Like most other groups of people different from me, I have no problem with Atheists. If they choose not to believe in God, that's their business. So, not too surprisingly, I don't have any problems with XTC's 1986 track, "Dear God." In a nutshell, it's an Atheist's letter to God, asking why he stands back doing "nothing" while people suffer and if He really exists. It's definitely not your normal Top 40 fare.
Bonus: Sarah McLachlan covered this song back in '95 for an XTC tribute album.
Watch The Video

Alternative
Sick Puppies - "You're Going Down"
I "first" heard this song a few nights ago while listening to 99x's online simulcast. For a metal song it was kinda upbeat and almost...danceable? It's fun -- in an aggressive, crazy sort of way. After a few more listens I realized where these thoughts came from. Call it brainwashing, call it subliminal advertising, whatever, but for about three weeks straight I heard this song every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Good job WWE marketing department, you snagged another up-and-coming track to be the official theme for one of your monthly extravaganzas.
Watch A Video

Ballad
Martika - "Toy Soldiers"
Writing a "good" song about sad subject matter is always tricky. Outside of a few notable exceptions, topics like suicide, accidental murder, and missing runaways generally don't make for songs that are accepted by the majority of the population. So how did Martika manage to take a ballad about her friend's drug addiction and turn it into a #1 hit? Easy. She jammed a bitchin' guitar riff into it. 1980s + Ballad + Guitar = Profit.
Watch The Video

Rap
Method Man & Redman - "Da Rockwilder"
Throwback. It's only a little over two minutes long, but what a good two minutes it is. Remember folks, quantity isn't always better than quality.
Watch The Video

Adult Contemporary
Sarah Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson - "Winter Song"
I just came across this song via a tweet from a friend. I thought it was pretty, so I added it here.

Random Guest Post: Mandy's Musings on Twitter

Twenty minutes later, the following post was sitting in my email inbox. She does good work on such short notice.

"Lead, follow, or get out of the way..." --Ted Turner

I have been on twitter for more than 6 months now, I think. I've had over 600 updates and I have a small, but eclectic following. Twitter has connected me with celebs and like-minded individuals, both of which are hard to find in and around South Carolina.

First of all, my last name starts with Mc...so my twitter name is Mc_Mandy b.c I think Mandy_Mc was taken. Apparently some people think I am an emcee--like a rapper...I have several DJs and up and coming rap artists following me. I hope that I have not disappointed them when they searched for MC's. [rapper or not you can follow me @Mc_Mandy, I don't bite.]

I follow a wide range of people, but I would say most of the people I follow are of the celebrity variety. My most favorite follow has to be Ice T. @finallevel has become not just a platform for Ice T to speak to his fans, but his followers have now officially become a Twitter Gang. Sometimes there are people who we have to bang on--don't mess with Ice or you'll get some serious FLTG [final level twitter game] @ hate messages. Also, Ice T does bubble tweets and live chats. I just think that it's really awesome to connect to a celebrity on that kind of a level. He's never @'d me, but I have faith that it will happen soon.

Another person I follow is @keyinfluencer. Eric [@ebigness] tweeted one night that he was in @keyinfluencer's tiny chat listening to him DJ. This past week I spent my Friday night in the tiny chat listening to key play some serious jams. I also got to chat with a lot of cool people in the DC and ATL areas. (I think that's where most of key's followers are from or something, b.c I do not know why DC and ATL would go together...) In this chat I got about 4 new follows/followers and something amazing happened...I realized that I was the only white kid in that chat room. No one cared and they still chose to follow me after being outed as a casper. Racial boundaries have been blurred thanks to twitter. (That is...until the #BET awards. I live tweeted this event and gained more followers and saw many of the topics I was tweeting on trend...apparently those trends were not well recieved and thus we have the site http://omgblackpeople.tumblr.com -- I think it's been removed though. The premise of the site was tweets from unhappy white folks that the interwebs had been intergrated.)

I've also been able to do something that @TOPolk has been doing for a while--actually CONNECTING with other bloggers. You read their stuff, but now you can talk to them in real time (or however quick tweet deck refreshes) and become non-IRL friends. Some shameless plugs for some of my new blog friends ---> http://sincerelyandy.tumblr.com/ Andy V's Tumblr (my friend from Tumblr who happens to have relatives in SC near our Dear Old Clemson) and Danny Denhard's Beta Labs http://blog.betalabs.co.uk/ (@betalabs...we were united by DJ White Shadow @djws on #ff) [Editor's note: #ff is short for #FollowFriday -- Each Friday many Twitter users suggest people of interest that they think their followers should follow as well.]

If you haven't begun to follow the trend and jump on the twitter boat, you're missing out. New Friends, Access to Celebs in a way we've never known, and ways to connect to people you may otherwise never meet--what's not to love? Also, if you're into that kind of thing, you can find porn spammers on twitter, too. Not my thing, but that's the last piece of advice I have on the subject of twitter.

xoxo,
M