Category Archives: My Life

communication, connection, My Life, Work Life

Standing Around the Accident – Meltdowns in Blogs and Twitter

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Living life on the Internet continues to interest me.  One of the things I’ve seen recently are people, mostly young women, complaining about having web stalkers or people who flame them in Internet after they write or tweet soul bearing confessionals.   This reinforces my belief that people who bare their souls on the Internet will eventually get hurt emotionally.

In general, I don’t like to read to these types of blogs for the same reason I turn my head when I spot an accident on the side of the road.  I don’t want to see the gore.  However, I don’t think that’s how most people are.  There are people who love to stare at accidents and then comment on it as if they know what happened and where to place the blame.

One thing I can say is, unless the person is a professional blogger, blogging in public, in general, doesn’t help a person’s career.  Ranting backfires.  Readers may enjoy reading the author’s meltdown, but in the end, whether the reader agrees with the rant or not, I don’t think much respect is gained by the ranter.  Furthermore, some conservative readers may even think someone who rants is mentally unstable.   This I’ve learned first hand and, due to that tough lesson, I now keep my blog rants private.

I’ve questioned now that I’m in the middle of a job search whether I should continue to blog and whether I should make a potential employer aware of my Internet activities.  In general, I think employers view blogs and participation in social networks as a risk.  I only advertise my web presence when I think it’s an asset for the job.  But when I apply for a job that doesn’t involve the Internet or when applying to “conservative” companies, I remove of all of my web activities, with the exception of an e-mail address from my resume.

So here are some blogging rules I abide by in order keep my nose relatively clean (nothing I list will be original):

  • Never blog about anything negative in your personal life.  Yeah, yeah, you want to blog about your health problems — but before you do that, ask yourself whether this would give your employer or potential employer a reason to get rid of you or not hire you at all.  Also, there are large factions of people who believe that expressions of negativity are taboo, evil, and denotes a person who is depressed or crazy.
  • Never blog or tweet about your drug, drinking, sexual, and taboo lifestyle activities — and please don’t post pictures of your escapades
  • Never blog about religion or politics
  • Never write about non-celebrities or non-public people by their name
  • Never blog about your workplace, co-workers, or anything having to do with your job.
  • If there is an internal blog or social network in your company,  DO NOT use them unless you have to and limit it strictly to work related matters.  Don’t express any personal opinions about the company, management, projects, or anything.  Remove all emotion other than positivity and  keep to the facts — in other words, use the tools to encourage and inform.  NOTHING will get you fired or laid-off sooner than posting something to the public that pisses off a manager or executive, regardless of whether you post internal or external to the company.
  • Keep your rants private
  • Keep your self righteousness to yourself (still working on that myself)
  • Don’t follow or allow yourself to be followed by people who violate any of rules above.  Following and be followed is tacit consent, so don’t consort with anyone you wouldn’t want your employer to know about.  (If you want to follow a “train wreck,” pull RSS feed into a reader or your e-mail program.)
  • Use an alias

The Internet is one big landmine.  Hopefully, things will improve as more web savvy people move into leadership positions.  Until then, though, my suggestion is to put a lid on it and keep your negative emotions and life’s details private.

My Life

Said Right about the Ecomony’s Effects on Citizens

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“For every person out of work, for every family facing foreclosure, for every small business facing a credit crunch, the recession remains alive and acute,”

— Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

I’m still on that sad boat with no end to my unemployment journey in sight.  To be honest, I think nothing of the 3.5% GDP growth last quarter and I’m waiting to hear the revised figure that will come out in a few weeks, as well as a figure that doesn’t take into account programs like cash for clunkers.  I guess I don’t think something can “grow” by eating itself, seeing as how there’s that messy thing called “entropy.”  Anyhow, even if it’s only words, I do admire the sensitivity Secretary Geithner has expressed.

My Life, Stupid

Saturn/Penske Deal Fell Through

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I felt a little dagger go through my heart as I read the headline.  My second car was a Saturn.  I got it at the end of my first senior year in college.  It was a little gold SL1 that I named “spud” because it looked like a potato on wheels.  I always loved the Saturn concept and felt had wiser and smarter heads prevailed, the Saturn brand could have been the car equivalent of Apple.  But alas, GM is GM, and I don’t have anything nice to say about the company.  He’re a link to a story about Saturn’s demise:

link

I seriously feel like I’m going to cry because in my heart I know this may be the end of automotive innovation within the US.  Of all the parts of GM I wanted to survive, Saturn was the only one I was really pulling for.

Music, My Life

The Death of Michael Jackson — My Experience

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I first learned about the death of Michael Jackson via Twitter.  At first I though it was a joke because news broke within a few hours of Farrah Fawcett’s death.  I never expected Michael Jackson to become an old man, but it was still a shock.  So who was Michael Jackson to me?  Well, when I thought about it, I realized his music was a prominent part of the soundtrack of my life.  Considering the length of his career, I was probably listening to Michael Jackson as part of the Jackson 5 while in the womb.  I remember as a tot listening to “Rock with You” in the car with my 2nd cousin, with my aunt, and whle skating around the roller rink.  I remember eagerly anticipating seeing the entire “Thriller” video on Halloween.  I remember watching the debut of the “Moonwalk” on TV.  I remember the excitement in the living room, my Mom loudly clapping her hands, cheerfully yelling, “work it, Michael!” as if he could hear her through the TV.  I have dear, dear-sweet high school memories of seeing “Captain EO” at Disneyland with my best friends.  I remember taking the time to see the debut of the video “Do you Remember the Time?”   I remember the music, the dancing, his charity.  I remember singing along with Michael Jackson with my family and friends.  I grew up with Michael.

I also remember Michael Jackson’s eccentricities.  No, I didn’t like the way he changed his face — I actually had a crush on the pre-surgery Michael and thought he was very cute.  As for the salacious matters, honestly, I never paid them much attention — I figured it to be the cost of celebrity and letting opportunistic people into your home.

I look forward to watching Michael Jackson’s memorial on TV or over the Internet tomorrow with my family.  I also hope some entity is able to piece together the footage of Michael’s comeback concert dress rehearsals so we fans can all experience what Michael had planned (It would be nice to see it at a movie theater).   I will continue to remember and honor Michael Jackson by listening to his music.   And to the haters:  poo-poo on you.  Let the man rest in peace and acknowledge the joy and good he brought to the world.