Month: August 2011

Not-so-little Mermaids

Next time you have an idea–any idea, from a new business to a new atonal opera–and someone, anyone, tells you, in so many words that you’re crazy and you should thank Allah that you have a day job, and to shut up, and sit down….consider this: Eric Ducharme creates latex mermaid tails for a living.…
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August 31, 2011 1

If you don’t already listen to StoryCorps (www.storycorps.org), this is a great opportunity to discover a small gem of Americana: Americans (husbands and wives, fathers and daughters, neighbors, widowers, killers and the parents of their victims), asking each other questions about lives lived and lessons learned. That sounds unbearably pretentious: the pieces are anything but. This…
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August 29, 2011 0

Good night, Irene!

I’m writing this in Queens—that sounds like the opening narration for some very bad, 1970s post-apocalyptic “message” film starring Charlton Heston- before Hurricane Irene makes landfall AKA before Queens is washed out…to other parts of Queens? Whatever. Neither the cats nor I am evacuating. We have cash, candles, batteries and kibble…we shall rebuild! On the…
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August 26, 2011 0

Happy birthday, Ray Bradbury!

One of my dirtiest personal secrets is: I was a nerd. (Some of you are rolling you’re eyes like, “Was? As in, no longer? Huh.”) I was a total nerd; I was happiest being left alone, with my dog, Dynamite (Come on. I was eight when I named her.), reading. Voraciously, obsessively reading. Reading anything…
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August 24, 2011 0

Connectivity

Increasingly I understand that life, all life, is about relationships…relationships or lack thereof. These relationships determine where and how we live, the jobs we get, the people we date, the movies we like, the music we listen to…etc.  You go to college, for example, as much as for what you are going to learn there,…
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August 23, 2011 0

So, I recently watched Gomorrah http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929425/ (I know, I know, the movie’s from 2008 and I’m just discussing it. Next week this new film called, Star Wars, and why light-sabers are kewl! But listen: being self-employed means 1) I’m always working, dammit, and 2) when I get to watch a movie, I kind of need to turn…
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August 22, 2011 0

On Maturity

If you’re looking for a job, or trying to make a career-transition, I need you to write this down—not on your hand, preferably—and commit it to memory: you are selling yourself. You’re selling your experience, your education, your connections…but you’re also selling a more “emotional” type of value: your common-sense, your ability to present yourself as…
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August 19, 2011 0

Woman On Top

It is true that I am quite ill–I have bronchitis, which is even more fun in the summer–and The Kitten is reacting with his usual concern…by which I mean, all he notices is that I’m less interested in playing with him, and I’m pretty sure that if I perished, he’d eat my remains. Then, look…
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August 16, 2011 0

Ugh, I


August 13, 2011 0

Doin’ What Comes Naturally!

When working with unemployed clients—whether they’re recent grads, or people with established resumes—one thing I’m obsessed with, is helping them start to see themselves differently. I help them start to consider how they’re going to market themselves. Because, let’s face it, the economy is brutal; it’s like living inside a 3-D episode of “Shark Week.” I…
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August 12, 2011 0