"There's no point in spending your life in the pursuit of something that's easy." - Alice Kuipers

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Just Jump!

I'm frozen. I have a couple of great leads on ways to get into the writing business and yet I'm sitting here not doing anything about it. I think I'm afraid to try, because if I try and then fail what will I do then? It's ridiculous and I keep berating myself and vowing to start but I always seem to find a distraction or an excuse not to. Right now, my house is sparkling clean (which never happens). I have to bite the bullet. I have to start.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

No Verbal Abuse Allowed

Tonight I had to attend a staff meeting for my retail job. The short version of the story is that it sucked. People that I normally don't mind (even really enjoy) working with infuriate me at staff meetings. You should never place an excessive amount of women in a room and ask them to express their opinions. It will not end well.
The reason I'm so infuriated is because the majority of them disagreed with a core fundamental belief I have when it comes to dealing with customers and people in general. I don't care whether you're in a service industry or not, the policy should be the same. There should be absolutely no tolerance of verbal abuse whatsoever. I don't care if the customer is always right. They can express their opinions like a grown up instead of throwing a tantrum like a child. I feel that if everybody followed my policy then the world would be a much nicer place.
What is my policy? Well it's simple. When someone starts screaming, insulting, or getting just plain nasty with you, the interaction comes to an immediate end. No person should ever have to put up with being yelled at, insulted, or verbally accosted for the sake of customer service. If everyone had a no tolerance policy on acting like a self involved brat than no one would attempt it. Everyone would be forced to remain calm, voice their opinions like a responsible adult and come to some kind of understanding without verbally accosting the person they're dealing with.
It's all about learned behavior. These people have learned that they can get away with it. When they can't, they will learn not to do it anymore. Sounds good doesn't it? And how good would it feel to simply turn and walk away from the raving bitch at your store counter because, guess what? You don't have to take that. From anyone. Ever. I don't care what my retail store's policy is. I will always adhere to mine.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

I Hate My Jobs

The other day I was massaging an overweight lady and every time I worked on a spot that was tender or sore she would fart. They were silent but they were there. All of a sudden I'd be overwhelmed by the nasty, disgusting odour and the desire to throw up.What kind of person does that? I mean, my God! I'm trapped in a small room with you for an hour! Hold it in!
As if that wasn't bad enough, today I worked at my retail job. The five hour shift consisted of unloading the world's biggest truck filled with heavy and awkward furniture. Did I mention that there was only three of us?
Yep, I thoroughly hate my jobs. I might have to find another one a lot sooner than I thought. I just can't keep working at either place while I'm trying to get my writing career off the ground. They make me want to break my own leg so I'll have an excuse not to come in. SIGH.

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Hammer

I love my dog. Today I was out in the yard with her, cleaning up, and she was rummaging around in the bushes. She comes out with a hammer. She then runs about the yard with it before attempting to dig a hole to bury the aforementioned hammer. When she is unsuccessful, she gives up and contently lies down to chew the handle. I didn't even bother yelling at her for the digging the hole. I was too entertained by the ridiculousness of the display. Obviously I took away the hammer.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Blogging For A Living

When I originally started thinking about writing as a new career path I had thought about maybe beginning by doing a little paid blogging. It seemed simple enough. I started by googling paid blogging jobs. As it turns out, the whole paid blogging thing gets a little complicated.
First of all, most sites pay you precious little. I tried a site called oDesk, in which you peruse a giant amount of blogging and article writing opportunities and apply for the ones you're interested in. The average amount they paid per post was $1.00. That's right, one freaking dollar. And they wouldn't want just one article. They'd want thirty articles in a week and were willing to pay you thirty dollars. Really?! So, in order to make any kind of living, one would have to write at least 500 articles a week. No thanks. Who has that much to say?
One site I'm currently trying out is called Suite101. At first it seemed interesting but they have a lot of weird rules. For one, they insist that all articles have at least one picture. Why? I can see where pictures can be helpful but why is it mandatory? Secondly, they insist that you have a picture of yourself as your profile picture (no cartoons, no drawings, no pictures of dogs or etc, just an actual picture of you). Again, why? I don't want pictures of myself on the internet. I don't even have any pictures of me on facebook. I haven't put one up yet and I don't think I'm going to. They have no right to demand that I put a personal picture of myself on the internet. (I don't see my employment there lasting long).
The whole internet writing thing is just so messed up and complicated. They insist that their writers have knowledge of keywording, SEO (search engine optimization), and all kinds of weird crap. It's not about writing at all, it's about tricking search engines into finding your articles so that there's a higher chance of people coming to your site and clicking ads. I don't care about ads. I care about writing quality pieces.
It's true what they say, there is no living in blogging.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Waves of Doubt

This morning I woke up and was overwhelmed by wave after wave of self doubt. What if I crash and burn? What if I have to work shitty job after shitty job for all eternity? What if, in reality, my writing sucks? (Which is a definite possibility).
I've already set the deadline for myself that I want to be done massaging by the end of this year. That's not a long way off. I don't mind working a crappy job for a little while, but there has to be a light at the end of the tunnel. I don't want to settle for reality. I want my dream job. A job that I wake up happy every day to do. Why is that so impossible?
I think I'll go for sushi tonight after work. I need a pick-me-up. (After all, is there anything more wonderful than sushi? The answer is no. Unless we're talking sweet tooth wise, but that's an entirely different story). People say things will look brighter in the morning, but for me they always look worse. At night everything is possible. It's when I wake up in the morning that the glare of reality is far too apparent.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Post #1 - The Beginning

I sit in front of the computer screen, blinded by the light (so to speak, it's late and my office light is burnt out). After listening to far too many songs about following one's destiny and defying social norms (think Glee soundtrack; Defying Gravity, Don't Rain on My Parade, etc) I decided to go for it. I started my blog.

Why is this important? You see, not too long ago I discovered something important. I hate my job(s). (That's right, I currently have two). I hate them so much that when I think of going to work the next day I visibly shudder. My main job, or career if you prefer, is that of a massage therapist. I didn't mind it at first but after doing it now for four years it's starting to wear on my sanity. I have several repetitive strain injuries, make very little money, and quite honestly, if I have to rub lotion on another fat, hairy person with bacne I'm going to scream. Some people have it in them and some people don't. I don't. My second job is in retail. Weird how I ended up in customer service for both jobs when I hate people. I really should have been a hermit. Anyway, I decided I needed a change. A big one.

As I sat and pondered my dilemma one day, I got to thinking. What did I want to do with my life? What new career should I strive for? The thought of going back to school made me want to vomit, so anything requiring a university degree was out. I also needed to make more money, so a simple retail or administrative assistant position was out. What could I do? Was I even any good at anything else? The only thing that came to mind was writing. I love writing. I always have. When I was little I would always tell people that I was going to be a writer when I grew up. When did that stop being my dream? I don't know when, but at some point I took off my rose coloured glasses, looked at the world I lived in and decided to do something more practical. Well, now I've decided to put them back on. My parents have always told me that there's no such thing as the perfect job. That's all well and good, but can I at least like my job? Better yet, I want to love my job!

This brings us to right now and the start of my blog. I've decided to go for it. I'm going to try becoming a professional writer. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't but I have to at least try. This blog will be a personal account of my journey.

(P.S. Don't you just hate the word journey? Oprah and reality TV have ruined it for me. Every time I hear it I think of people trying to lose weight while crying about how they don't love themselves. Ick).