Finding a Focus

I'm almost finished with Matthias Becher's Charlemagne. After reading that, I think I will go back in time and read up on the Anglo-Saxons. I love their art and would like to become more immersed in their language and culture. I could see myself specializing in this area. Magic would be another area of interest for me as well as ecclesiastical culture and how they use mysticism to convert and keep followers.

Charlemagne

Currently reading Matthias Becher's book on Charlemagne. It's a very interesting read, but where are the footnotes?

A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift - My Two Cents

I just finished reading an article on today's New York Times, titled, A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift. I was so disgusted about how unfeeling some companies have become that I had to vent and write about it here. Not only is there a shift from hiring full-time workers to part-time workers, but some of these part-time workers are not even given steady hours. Scheduling programs like the ominous sounding, Kronos, can calculate how many employees might be needed in a given day for any specific hour, right down to quarter hour increments. The result is that an employee's shift may be cancelled at the last minute. The other scenario, where they are called to come in at the last minute without regard to the arrangement of their lives outside of work, can be equally stressful. Some of these employees want to work full-time and would be willing to work extra hours. As retail consultant and managing director of the Strategic Resource Group, Burt P. Flickinger III, points out, "Many part-time workers feel a real competition to work hard during their limited hours because they want to impress managers to give them more hours." But is their dedication acknowledged and rewarded? In some of these cases, instead of giving hardworking employees the hours that they need, they simply hired more employees. Part-time employees are not expected to receive benefits and as one manager puts it, "By the time they get to the second half of their shift,  they don't have the same energy and enthusiasm. We like to schedule people around four- to five-hour shifts so you can get the best out of them during that time." Talk about taking advantage!  I can't help but think of vampires sucking the blood from innocent victims.

What sort of world do we live in when things like this are allowed to happen? I hope that it will not be a trickle down effect where ruthless companies create employees who, in their need, become embittered. I don't understand how, but the whole system seems rather twisted. Workers who interact with guests/customers/clients keep the company in business yet are the ones who are most harmed. Front-line workers who are productive and do their best to keep their jobs make the least in comparison to their managers and everyone above them. Not only do they earn less, they usually also receive less vacation time and benefits, in comparison with management whose time is often spent in meetings. Managers who are employed full-time, compensated at a higher rate per hour than front-line workers and receive more benefits (although they may be less productive) are the ones who drain money from the company. The front-line workers are the ones being taken advantage of and there is little that they can do to better their situation.

Stamp Fun

I've been thinking about sharing my stamp collection with the online world and today, was able to sit still long enough to put something together. I wanted to keep a consistent look with the rest of this site, so in order to do that, while keeping a link to my collection under Blogger's "Pages," I created a similar Blogger site and copied the same design over to it. It's not perfect and the layout is not consistent, but I somehow got it to work. Have a look at some of the medieval stamps I have. The descriptive text is still in the draft stages, but hopefully, it will get there eventually. I love how each stamp can be enlarged by clicking on the image.

iPhone Blogger App

Just downloaded this app for the iPhone today and am testing it this very minute. So far, so good, although I am a little disappointed that the screen won't flip horizontally so that I have more room to type.

With this app in hand, maybe I will blog more…

Here is a picture of today's lunch:

I just discovered that I was awarded the Hot 500 Yahoo! badge for the month of February. I am posting a picture of my Yahoo! Profile page here to immortalize the moment:

The Duel, A Shakespearean-Type Sonnet

For the month of January, I wrote a Shakespearean-type sonnet called The Duel as a Yahoo! Contributor. It was more difficult than the sestina I wrote in December, The Winter Journey Home, since it has a predetermined rhyme scheme and a set number of stanzas. Ok, that might not sound so intimidating, but adding iambic pentameters to the mix to form a short-long, short-long, short-long, short-long, short-long rhythm should give any budding writer something to be hesitant about.

Another Writing Challenge

I picked up another assignment at Yahoo! Contributor. This one is for a Shakespearean sonnet. I've never written a sonnet before, so this should be interesting. After the success of the last poem, I wonder if this one will be as well received. I am thinking of using a Valentine's Day theme since it will be released before then. If nothing comes to me, I won't force it. I'll just write whatever feels right. It worked for the last poem. Maybe it will work for this one as well.

Deutsch Macht Spaß [German Is Fun]

I am making progress. At least I hope I am. I was able to send out a letter to my friend V and study a bit of German yesterday. I'm starting to forget what I learned in school and I put too much time and effort into it to start forgetting now. Vielleicht soll ich ein bisschen in Deutsch schreiben. Morgen möchte ich zu meine Freundin schreiben aber ich habe zu viel zu tun. Hoffentlich kann ich Zeit finden. [Translation: Maybe I should write a little in German. Tomorrow I would like to write to my friend, but I have lots to do. Hopefully I can find time.]

The Paper Chase

I started thinking about the purpose of job descriptions as I was taking a shower today. Why was I thinking of that in the shower? Beats me. I think of lots of strange things there. It's probably one of the very few times during my day when I'm not distracted by things going on around me.

Anyhoo, getting back to my first statement... I was thinking how job descriptions pigeonhole people into specific jobs according to their past job experience. I think I mentioned this before in a previous post, The Measure of Man's Worth. From reading some job requirements, it seems that employers want the world. I understand that many companies have downsized and employees are often required to take on additional responsibilities, but judging from what I've read, some of the requirements seem a bit overly ambitious. There is just so much time in the day. To be able to wear all the hats that some employers want would require a person to have lived only to work and not to live. Either that or perhaps the employer is looking for someone with years of experience, but I doubt that that is always the case. Wouldn't it be better for a company to find someone who has gotten a lot out of life by being able to experience it outside of work and contribute some of that experience to the company instead of being programed to meet job requirements? And wouldn't an employee have a more balanced, satisfying and richer life if there were less job demands on him? A happier employee might stay longer at a company and would contribute more if permitted. Leaving a job is always disruptive for both the employer and the employee and his family. I see it as a win-win situation.

Another requirement that bothers me has to do with degrees. A degree is almost always a requirement for a decent job, but not only must there be a degree, but it must be an industry-specific degree. Heaven forbid that someone without that degree should have the gall to think and learn on their own! Self motivation, one of the characteristics of an achiever, is rarely ever seen in the list of requirements.

We have become so industrialized that, in most companies, it seems that everyone needs to have a specific skill set to play a specific role. With everyone set into their tidy little niche, company hierarchies become more inflexible, which makes it frustrating for those who are qualified to advance to better, more suitable positions within an organization.

Breaking the Chains

I was surprised to receive a job offer by e-mail for a work-at-home customer service position today. The rate is $19 per hour (full- or part-time during regular business hours) and my responsibilities would have included using the computer to respond to customer requests. The e-mail was professionally written and I believe that it is a legitimate employment opportunity. It was tempting. They had invited me to apply for the position, which shows that they were already interested in me. A steady work-at-home job with the promise of a regular paycheck also sounded like a dream. However, after thinking about it, I did not respond to the ad. I've decided that I should really try to start my own business. A steady paycheck is nice, but I need to find out whether I am able to make a living on my own. Although job searching is very difficult, once the job has been landed, settling into daily responsibilities and receiving a paycheck is easier than having to use your imagination and wits to figure out how to make a paycheck happen. I also feel that if I have to devote my blood, sweat and tears to a job, I might as well reap its benefits and do something that I enjoy. Life is short after all and, at 39, it's getting shorter and I have so much yet to do. Sometimes the more insurmountable a thing is, the more gratifying it is once you reach the top.

Promises, Promises

I usually don't like to make resolutions for the new year because I'm not very good at keeping them. I hope that if I write them here, I will feel obligated to follow through. They are similar to the promises that I made to myself in prior years, but this year, I'm going to add writing and photography to the list.

1. Write more and find some paid writing assignments
   
2. Learn to use my camera better
3. Write to my penfriends every month
4. Practice my French and German
5. Choose one fictional work to read every month

There. It's written in stone now.

For this month, I'm planning to read Purge by Sofi Oksanen. It was given to me by my Finnish penfriend as a birthday gift, but I only read the first chapter before becoming consumed with my job search. It doesn't look like a long read, so hopefully I can finish it by the end of this week.

Who Would Have Thought?!

Woo HOO! My sestina, The Winter Journey Home, was featured in the Creative Writing section of Yahoo! Voices! Maybe it had something to do with the news feature about the grey wolf in California named Journey who is searching for a mate or another pack...