Halos Heaven

I'm in commercial insurance biz, as of this year. Spent about 3.5 years doing strictly personal insurance. And no...I don't do health. I'm licensed to, but I aint goin' near that stuff!

I thought a line in the above post said “a corporation partnering with artists to grow their beard”. That’s a pretty smart move, if you ask me.

By now most of you know that I am a Sales Engineer for a large computer storage company.

Except for the fact that we are understaffed for the amount of business and change being generated in my industry right now, and I am grossly overworked, I wouldn’t alter a thing.

I have picked juice oranges for Sunkist, washed dishes for Coco’s, been a fry cook, a dinner house cook, ran a kitchen, tended bar, been a phone consultant to redesign corporate phone services and reduce phone costs, sold phone systems, did voice networking for a computer vendor (now defunct), moved into data networking, became a network analyst for a customer, became the chief technical architect for a global law firm, became the director of computer operations for said law firm, and now work as a sales engineer for a vendor again. All with a high school education that was heavy on auto shop, drafting classes, and after-school sports.

I have had some cool tidbits in my technical past, worth bragging about. In the early 1990’s I had a personal one-on-one strategy chat with Bill Gates, sitting on a couch together at a convention and brainstorming for about 45 minutes. I was the very first person in America with voice mail on a cell phone. I was among the first in the United States with a Blackberry, helping them launch into corporate America as their first reference account. I am a major part of the reason you type in a logon ID and password into Microsoft Windows. I am a major part of the reason why you get TCP/IP and the ability to plug into the Internet, for free. I built what was, at the time, the world’s largest client-server network based on Intel chips. I was part of the wave that pulled Cisco out of DOD contractors and into mainstream corporate America. I helped kill Novell and Wordperfect and Banyanand I helped elevate Microsoft.

Good times.

I made up the word "hoebag". At least I seriously think I did...my friends have heard this claim for decades and groan every time I bring it up.

Oh, and I drank 13 7&7’s at Barney’s Beanery last month, in about a two hour span.

I think you’re accomplishments are cooler and probably more easily verified.

But I bet you had more fun achieving your accomplishments ;)

agent_99 - October 22, 2010 reply

You probably drank four 7&7's, and the 9 plain 7's.

My friends and I invented that thing where you stick your ID card or CC card in your hat in front of your ear.

Also, in Jr. High my friend Paul and I invented wearing you shorts on your head. Primarily as a way to transport them to gym class.

Match Day 5 - October 22, 2010 reply

I wish.

The most frustrating thing about all that was that I was in a prime position to invest money in all the right technology companies, back when their stocks were just breaking out of single digits. All my fellow teammates were single and did just that. I was marreid with two small kids and no working wife and zero disposable income.

One of those original co-workers passed away from AIDS about 10 years ago. When he died, he left his estate to his nephew. All $3 million worth. Had he survived, that estate would have been worth north of $15 million before the economy crash, and still worth north of $8 million today.

e Trader

If my wife found a job things would be a lot more flush but I shouldn’t complain considering how other peopple are suffering these days.

Side Salad - October 22, 2010 reply

AM/PM ALL CAPS MINI MARKET

MYSPASCOBAR - October 22, 2010 reply

this is funny timing

as today is my 7 year anniversary at my job, and has left me somewhat depressed. I have wanted to leave for many years now, but first I was content staying while I finished my bachelors, and since finishing have been stuck by the tuition reimbursement rule that if I leave 1 year after finishing my degree, I have to pay the $10k I was given back to the company. that ended though a few months ago and now I am simply stuck due to the job market being not-too-great.

I work in the accounting dept. for a commercial real estate owner/developer, so needless to say, due to the market the company isn’t really growing or promoting at the moment. actually, I’m lucky to still have my job as they cut 60% of the work force last year.

my mother has wanted me to go work for the printing company she started a few years ago, as it has been extrememly successsful and grown a lot since its inception, but I do not get along with her and know that I would quit within a month if I had to work closely with her on a daily basis (seriously, she’s nuts).

my best friend’s stepdad, who I have known for 25 years, is the marketing director for 710 ESPN, so I have been thinking about calling in a favor. at least it would be a job in the sports field.

this may be more than you asked for, but like I said, this is a funny day for this post as I’ve been doing a fair amount of reflecting this morning.

What firm do you work for?

If you don’t want to answer on this forum, please send an e-mail to me. E-mail address is my screen name here at Yahoo.

I'll email you

I’m not very worried, but you never know I guess

in addition to my previous post

we had to fill out and turn in our yearly performance evaluations today. needless to say, mine had a somewhat bitter tone to it.

UNEMPLOYED OOPS (i mean freelance web designer)

jockoautry - October 22, 2010 reply

I run marketing and account development for a commercial equipment service company.

I’m usually glued to my phone and answering emails all day.

I used to hate it but now I’m warming up to the industry. I used to be in the software industry but I was laid off about a year ago and fell into this position through a family friend.
In light of the job market, I’m just happy to have a full time job to bitch about.

If I can change jobs today I’d enter a teaching credential program and eventually teach high school English. I read about 2-3 books and week and would nothing more than to share this love of reading with the younger crowd. I also feel like grammar and punctuation are becoming extinct thanks in large to t3xting and the in7ernet :( .

As for school, I have to admit that business school didn’t really prepare me for the reality of business and working with actual people. The only ability I mastered in school was how to work with my idiot group mates who had no drive or initiative and were content with getting a C on a term project. Ha, still kind of bitter about that since I’ve only been out of school about 2 years.

Happy Friday to all!

angelsownredsux - October 22, 2010 reply

full-time student. part-time job at an action photo company

i never actually work though. i’m always on my i phone on HH. even in class i’m on my i phone on HH.

I work for our local school district (shipping-receiving dept.)

One piece of advice I give anyone who asks- do not vote for any school bond. You might as well light your money up with your Bic. I am in a position to see exactly where the money goes (ALL of it). But I like my job, Peyton Place that it is, anyway.

Like the previous posters, this is probably more information than anyone wanted to know.

agent_99 - October 22, 2010 reply

Restaurant manager

Wood Ranch BBQ & Grill. Usually the Cerritos location but I’ve spent time in most of their locations. The only change would be to pursue my own restaurant, which I intend to do at some point in the future. I love food and alcohol so it’s basically my ideal job.

dmhead - October 22, 2010 reply

Former Middle School Teacher, but...

I found that being “on” all the time with a class of 35 kids was too tough. Nowadays, it’s me alone in the Watch Commander’s office at a local municipal law enforcement agency (30+ years now).

Believe it or not, compared to teaching, police work is less stressful!!! I’d rather deal with complaints and criminals than those tough-to-control rug rats.

Well, I used to be a rocket scientist. Really.

But now I write crypto software.

It’s a shame, because one of the perks of my previous job was the ability to say, “Why, yes! As a matter of fact, I AM a rocket scientist”.

angelsownredsux - October 22, 2010 reply

haha that's probably one of the top ten perks of all time for any job

My best friend is a rocket scientist as well.

I on the other hand am an IT puke working for the largest residential and commercial security company in the world. We just acquired one of our largest competitors and the promise of a ton of work hasn’t appeared yet.

I have many interests but haven’t figured out how o make them pay me a living wage for my family and I. I would love to own my own business or write the next great novel, but I don’t have the money to start the business or the writing skills (I have the imagination) or the attention span to write the novel.

When I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7 years old, I wanted to be a forest ranger.

rmhalofan - October 22, 2010 reply

Hey, I've always wanted to edit the next great novel!

Story here.

What a hoot!

I just read your link- great stuff! Reminds me of some of the banter over postings here at HH.

agent_99 - October 27, 2010 reply

If anyone out there used to be a fan of "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader"

And you remember the time they had “Rocket Scientist Karl” as a contestant, he was one of my co-workers at the time.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to find this post funny

Hey. Once a Rocket Scientist, ALWAYS a Rocket Scientist.

Full time student/student-teacher.

Thank you GI Bill.

Who's this GI Bill? He sounds like a nice guy.

Thank you LA/OC BAH rates!

$2152 month for going to school!

feNOMINAL - October 22, 2010 reply

Jesus Christ!! You must get that good Post 9-11 one. I'm finishing up my Chapter 30 before moving on to that one.

I’m still making 1500 a month, but that’s only because I did the kicker. And that has to take care of tuition, books and living expense. They said they’d pay for college, what they neglected to say was I would need to pay the living expenses! I never thought I’d say this but I’m only scraping on 1500 a month.

Looks like I need to covert my remaining benefits over and transfer to USC.

I do

plus the $1000 a year for books, and free tuition.

plus, I have a Military Scholar Scholarship, and I’m poor. So, I get grants…

I guess when you’re done with Ch. 30, you get an extra 12 months of Ch.31, if you qualify?

feNOMINAL - October 22, 2010 reply

OEF/OIF Vet?

Yup! My Ch. 30 ends the semester I graduate. I'll use the Post-9/11 for Grad School.

I also got scholarships throughout the Horatio Alger Assc.

norcaliangelsfan - October 22, 2010 reply

Thats pretty sick.....

Im working full time, plus doing full time school. 1289 is my monthly stipend uphere in Redding.

Well, in order to get GI Bill to start doing all your chores for you,

you first have to serve all the rest of us. And, for that, I salute you.

Welcome. There's quite a few on this board. Commander Nate as well.

Seconded!

Clutch - October 22, 2010 reply

Yup. Misssed this comment. Thirded!

And fourth'd

Thank you

rghan - October 23, 2010 via mobile reply

Anyone who serves their country in the armed forces

deserves the admiration and praise of those of us that were unwilling or unable to do so ourselves. To be willing to risk EVERYTHING commands my total awe.

Thank-you.

rmhalofan - October 23, 2010 reply

I work as a construction manager for a general contracting firm.

Work is really slow right now. We started furlough days (2 per month) about 2 months ago. Most of our clients are in downsizing mode. That’s helping provide some work, but profit margins are ridiculously low. No bonus this year! Just having a job in this business at this time is relatively fortunate, so I’m not complaining.

My wife works for the local school district as a Educational Assistant. She works with handicap kids, specifically those with Autism. It’s really challenging at times, but she loves her work.

I love my job. The entire process of building is extremely gratifying. The best projects are when we get on board early (pre-construction phase) and participate in the decision-making process. I absolutely LOVE that level of interaction with developers, owners, tenants, engineers and architects. We can really help the client save money if they get us in early enough.

What would I change? When I started 30 years ago, many (but not all) activities were done on the basis of a verbal agreement or handshake. Rightly or wrongly, there was a greater sense of trust. Today, there is an overwhelming sense of having to cover one’s ass. So, EVERYTHING of the least importance has to be put in writing. I wish we could return to the way it was 30 years ago, but I doubt that will happen.

The other thing I dislike? Years ago, we would receive a well-developed set of plans and specifications from an architect. These would be coordinated with their engineers and consultants. Now? We get a lot of…junk. Seriously, what is depicted on plans is garbage. We can’t build what the plans depict. It’s unbelievable what some architectural firms get away with.

Schooling helped very little. But then, I think that’s the case for many that attended college.

BTW, the best job I EVER had was working in a pizza parlor.

I was in my early 20’s in a small college town. Most of the employees also attended college. A few were high school students. We also had a good mix male/female…close to 50/50.

It was such a great group of people. When it’d get busy, we’d work our asses off and get the job done. When it was slow, we’d screw around a bit, flirt, eat the “accidentally” over-cooked/incorrectly made pizzas, make fun of each other, argue, piss and moan, laugh some more and on and on…

It felt great being a part of a team like that. What a great time with awesome memories. And I STILL love pizza!

Oh, hell yes. I worked in a pizza place my junior and senior year of high school, then worked for a different one a few years later, when I was 20-21(as a manager that time). Both were fun as hell.

I was fired from both pizza parlors, too. Maybe too much fun was had.

I think I've been fired from every job I've ever had, aside from my last two.

I've been fired three times out of probably 11 jobs I've had since first working at age 16. Two pizza parlors and bartender at TGIFriday's. Most jobs I had up until I was about 25 were lame and meaningless, so I didn't care.

Getting fired from the bartending gig hurt, though. That was the last job I had before getting a good career, in an office, where you don’t end up boning half the female workers and/or customers. Stupid adulthood.

Just gotta try harder

with the boning, that is.

Slasher52 - October 22, 2010 reply

I never figured out the "boning the customers" thing while I tended bar.

By the time I finished closing and got out of there, it wasa 2:30 in the morning, the city was deserted because ALL the bars were long closed, and I stunk to high hell. All the ladies that I had gotten inebriated and warmed up were long gone with the first knucklehead who sidled up to them and said hello.

The customer thing was never an after work situation...well, okay a few times by luck or happen to be living nearby and they want you to text them when you get off. Pun.

Usually though, it was far less lecherous. It’d be more like them coming once or twice and talking you up, then you get digits or give them your cell number, and next thing you know, you’re getting random calls from these ladies. Residual boning.

Ah. God Bless technology!

My stint at bartending was back in the day of payphones outside the powder rooms and Thomas Brothers Guides in the back seat. Pagers were the thing back then, and even those were costly and limited to business people.

Hahaha...yeah, I never thought about that. It's like the scene from the 80's in Hot Tub Time Machine.

Jacob: I’m kinda right in the middle of a thing right now, but can I text you later?
Girl at Club: Can you what?
Jacob: Are you online at all?
Girl at Club: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Jacob: How do I get a hold of you?
Girl at Club: You come find me.
Jacob: That sounds… exhausting.

Yeah, that is all true.

If you wanted to hook up with a particular girl you had to go hunt her down. So you did some mental math. How much work was going to be involved? How long was it going to take? What are the odds that any of the 100 other guys between you and she have already found her? Once you found her, was anything going to happen? If it did, was she worth it all?

That was why getting a gig in a restaurant was such a high-caliber lifestyle upgrade proposition!!!

me too

worked at Round Table Pizza when I was 19. good times. before working there I had never realized what a pain in the ass it is to make pepperoni pizzas. that topping always took the longest to distribute, by far.

but the best job I ever had was most definitely waiting tables at Macaroni Grille in Huntington Beach. started when I was 21 and worked there for 3 years. there were always 60 servers on staff, and at least 75% of them were girls, usually in college. not to mention the fully stocked crop of hostesses, who were usually around 18-19 years old. GREAT TIMES!!!

Ha. See my comment that's a little above this...I feel ya. Working at restaurants ruled for just the girl factor alone.

Right there with ya, pal!

My restaurants were all 80% female from either the local high schools, or the closest Community College. When I was working at Coco’s in Fashion Island, that meant Newport Harbor High and Orange Coast College.

Being 18 the lead dinner cook made me THE MAN. And I was living the dream…

Fellow Round Table Pizza wage-slave

I worked at the one in Lancaster when I was a teen before getting fired after 3 months. Mostly I washed dishes & hated it — thought I moved up to bigger & better things when I joined the Army right afterwards — only to find myself washing dishes again during basic training at Fort Benning.

Quad Fin Rider - October 22, 2010 reply

Best job I ever had?

Lifeguard at a retirement home.

For those who are Valley-ites, it was the Tampa campus of the Jewish Home for the Aging (at the time, it was separate from the Jewish Home).

My mother was DON at the time, and got me the gig. I had about 5 “regulars”, and they all knew their limitations. So my main responsibility was to make sure that cookies and punch were out for them, and keep an eye out for newbies.

I was getting paid three times minimum wage to sit out in the sun and get a tan.

I hear ya!

My first job when I was 16 (about 6 years ago) was at Chuck E. Cheese’s…for a high school student that was an awesome job without a doubt. I did everything there by the time I left. Yup, that includes dressing up in the rat costume! Lol Even the management was awesome to work with.

maze88 - October 23, 2010 via mobile reply

Had a couple jobs like that.

And they are the best!

(My BF is an architect, but he worked construction to put himself through school (and misses actual building). He has the same problems with architect-generated plans and works extra hard to make sure that his don’t suck. Sorry you have to deal with that!)

http://www.iammiracledesign.com/

Thanks for reading this sort of long comment.

(I read yours and responded below). The best plans we get are from architects that actually worked in the field (like your BF) and actually understand how to translate what’s in their head to what can actually work in the field. And – most importantly – they understand the importance of coordinating architectural drawings with structural, MEP, civil, and other engineer’s documents. Those type of architects are rare anymore. There is one international architectural firm I worked with about 4 years ago. They have local offices and an excellent reputation. I could not believe the poor quality of their work. Incompetent garbage.

The process becomes very political. If we point out the flaws in the documents, we risk alienating the architect. That’s not good because then they will not put us on preferred contractor lists. If we don’t point out the flaws, the owner/construction manager claim we aren’t doing our job, and reject change orders. So, we tip-toe through the minefield as best we can. This circus would be completely unnecessary if the architects would simply do the job for which they are hired.

I thought it was bad enough a few years ago. It has become worse – believe it or not – over the past couple of years. Many firms have laid-off their senior personnel. What you see in architectural firms offices are lots of kids right out of college or interns. The architectural business has greatly diminished in 30 years. It’s really a sad development.

sothball - October 25, 2010 reply

I was a marketing director for a text book/content company.

i went to school for that, after realizing a BA in history is as useful as a sausage in a knife fight. Got laid off. been “unemployed” for a couple years, but started my own art/design/marketing house. I get sporadically paid to make shirts, posters, post cards, do copy writing, album art, advertisement art etc. I’m hoping, over time, to turn it into a career.
Here’s the much in need of an update website…

i also earn scant rent by doing key word search matching, content searching, etc. for heartless telemarketing firms. I am half hobo, and wish for a real job, but am glad to have something to do with myself while the summer of recovery lingers.

Jerry Brown’s gonna fix it all for me, just like he did before…. and before, when i lived in Oakland.

gitchogritchoffmypetis - October 22, 2010 reply

Your "much in need of an update website" needs to be looked at by jockautry (above).

MBA, CPA, E-I-E-I-O!

Animation production company finance exec — things are pretty crappy right now, but we still haven’t been hit as hard as others in this industry. For instance my older sister, a long-time marketing manager at Disney, was laid off by the Rat in January 2009 and is still out of work.

Quad Fin Rider - October 22, 2010 reply

Did she work on the lot in Burbank?

yes, she worked at the Burbank location twice

She worked for them shortly after getting her MBA from USC back in the mid1980s until about 1995, then left to work at LucasArts Entertainment up in San Francisco, but later came back again to work for Disney’s computer gaming division about 6 years ago.

Quad Fin Rider - October 22, 2010 reply

During my stint as a bartender, one of my regulars was the retired payroll clerk for Disney Burbank.

Back when the employees used to get in line at the pay window and get their weekly salary handed to them in cash. He was a glorious old coot who, by definition, knew EVERYBODY. I took him back up there shortly before he died for a personal tour. He was way too old to make the journey on his own, and had not been back for a couple of decades. he was delirously happy to walk the studio grounds one last time. He had access to friggin’ everywhere. At the time, they were making The Black Cauldron and I got to see animators still using the original multi-layer camera rig that Walt invented. I also went onto the sound stage where they recorded Mary Poppins, and they were testing the largest projection screen in the world at that time, destined for Epcot.

I had a few construction projects there 07 - 09.

They cut WAY back with after the Lehman Bros. crash in ’08. So, nothing this year. They have more work upcoming next year.

They can be incredibly difficult to work for. Good luck to your sis. I hope she finds employment. It’s tough out there right now. Too much uncertainty.

What it feels like to me is that we need to be filling jobs right now,

but companies like the better margins of rising gross income against the current lower employment overhead. They don’t seem to notice that the horses are starting to foam at the mouth.

Companies are making money, but...

…are their taxes going up at the end of the year? How much will the health care legislation help/hurt? Financial reform…what impact will that have? Are we headed for a double dip? GNP dropped last month to 1%. What about the results of the elections in 2 weeks? How much more are Freddie and Fannie going to need? Are European countries really going to be able to cut back on government services? Are we going to get into a trade war with China?

These are turbulent times. I think a lot of business owners are sitting on the sidelines waiting to see how all this shakes out.

We already are in a trade war with China. We happily surrendered.

I have heard some odd things about the impact of Health Care Reform and small businesses. Things like filing multiple LLC’s and breaking themselves apart into individual units of 40 or so employees, to get under the 50 employee limit. So you have ABC Office Staff LLC, and ABC Operations LLC, and ABC Sales and Marketing LLC, etc., all subcontracting to one another. Should be fun times.

As for the rest of the uncertainty, I cannot recall a time when there was NOT a list of questions about the future.

Student Journalist/Part-Time Photojournalist

5 years Active Army, including two tours to Iraq from 03, 04, 05, and 06. After that, I worked in sales for some shitty travel vacation incentives company.

Completed two-year degree and transfer certificate in 18 months, and am now finishing my BA in Literary Journalism at UC Irvine.

As mentioned above, thank you GI Bill!

On the side, and for fun, I do film and digital photo work. As an aside, if there is a talented web designer who can create a nifty, easy to use and updatable template website for me, I’ll trade my skills for some family portraits or some such other arrangement.

appealtoemulsion.tumblr.com
appealtoemulsion.virb.com
flickr.com/photos/fenominal

feNOMINAL - October 22, 2010 reply

With the Fed Gooberment

I like the agency, but I hate HATE HATE!!! the job. Almost halfway to completion of a Master’s degree (repeat love for GI Bill as mentioned by Halowood and feNOMINAL) so I can leave. Yes, I’m still stuck in Georgia and still am looking for gigs, private and public, in California and the West in general.

Slasher52 - October 22, 2010 reply

Fellow Fed worker here

Which agency?

If he told you, he'd probably have to kill you, ya know...

I have no job.

But I have one hell of a sugar momma!

Monkeyspanked - October 22, 2010 reply

Personal Manager for Actors and Directors

I represent comedic actors and writers as well as directors.

surfpunk - October 22, 2010 reply

can i send you my reel?

Rev Halofan - October 22, 2010 reply

ha! of course

surfpunk - October 22, 2010 reply

My professional life sucks.

Spent 4 years in the Marines working on F-4s and when I got out, got a job at Rockwell in Anaheim building the GPS satellites and space shuttle antennas. Was laid-off and went into the medical device industry (which I loved). Worked my way up to a corporate-level Director (of Operations) and then decided I wanted to move to Wisconsin and buy a bar. Lost my ass and so now I drive a forklift for a well known retailer. The only satisfaction I get from this job is when everyone else is doing the cheer, I only move my lips. Fuck ’em.

I think your story has the most sitcom potential thus far. If the bar was still operating, even moreso.

BJ's Wholesale Club has its own cheer???

For a BJ? For reals????

I used to like you.

Puts a whole new meaning on "I only move my lips", doesn't it? : )

Obviously I'm doing it wrong.

But then, I’m also the guy who said, “I like Wood”.

Do you work for Target?

It hurts so much to write this...

Walmart

Damn. I'm sorry Jim.

I used to be a cashier there if it makes you feel any better.

It's really not that bad.

I don’t work at a store, but at one of the distribution centers so the pay is actually really good for this area.

What freaks me out about where I live is, there is no manufacturing (okay, there’s a little), so all of the jobs are either in a service industry, farming, healthcare, scholastic, or retail.

This is going to sound really shallow, but one of the things I miss most about having a “real” job is going to lunch. I truly enjoy sitting down at a nice restaurant in the middle of the day. Some of my favorites were Mangia Bene in Aliso Viejo, Yen Ching’s and Tulsa Rib Co. in Orange, a Japanese place in Tustin that I’ve forgotten the name of, and of course In-n-Out.

I cannot BELIEVE how popular Tulsa Rib is.

For a tiny little strip mall outlet with dingy, plastic, table coverings. Shall I FedEx some to you?

I worked in a WalMartesque place in '78

in Connecticut, called Caldors.
Fired for getting drunk with the salesgirls one night.
Ah, memories… (or was it mammaries?)

Raaddad - October 22, 2010 reply

Worked at the la Paz in-n-out down the road fro mangia bene

From ’98 to 2002. May have crosses paths with you at some point

rghan - October 23, 2010 via mobile reply

Journalist/Photo Journalist for the Kern Valley Sun

We are a small weekly newspaper in the Kern Valley (Lake Isabella, Kern River anyone?). I get my fair share of Sports, Breaking News (fires, car accidents, deaths) and community events to cover, as well as other great topics. They let me write articles about my annual trip to Tempe for Spring Training, which got me a call from Tim Mead.
I enjoy my job, but time off it hard to come by. On the other hand, I get paid to go to everything!

Erstad4Prez - October 22, 2010 reply

I really love that area.

I’ve gone rafting on the Kern a few times (above the dam), and enjoy camping there too. It’s a pretty location to live.

Ahh, rafting the Kern

I’ve rafted both upper and lower Kern. If you ever plan another trip to the Valley, let me know. I’ll gladly hit some rapids with a fellow HH’er.

Erstad4Prez - October 22, 2010 reply

Thanks!

That rafting is just awesome stuff. What a thrill!

I worked for the Angels...came up with the Rally Monkey.

Here's my $20 for my share of your ring.

rec'd!

Well played, Sir.

Match Day 5 - October 22, 2010 reply

I have done lots of stuff

I used to be a secretary—typed >105 wpm then realized the peole I was typing for were idiots. So then I went into eletronic mfg—I was a wiz at soldering. Then I joined the USAF for my 4 yr stint in total peace time. Then finally went to college. Now am a low life engineer designing RF stuff. Fortunately the company I work for has quite a few (relatively) women engineering so I don’t feel isolated.

If I won the lottery I would totally be a sloth.

deb d - October 22, 2010 reply

We were talking about this just the other day with friends over dinner.

Remember when some kids took typing in high school and/or college, and typing speed was a marketable skill?

These days, EVERY kid can type 90 words a minute by the time they get into middle school. And they can do that speed using only their thumbs!

"can do that speed using only their thumbs!"

AND they can do it on a cell phone with only a number keypad.

I remember typing class in high school where you had everybody in it even the quarterback. Now I don’t see the younguns doing touch typing anymore.

And HEY KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!

deb d - October 22, 2010 reply

AND they can do it while watching a movie....

from the backseat of a moving car…
while chatting up their friends on the bluetooth…
as they try on new outfits on their way from Macy’s to the party…
that they found on twitter.

When I was a kid, cool hi-tech was clipping baseball cards to your rear frame with your mom’s clothes pins so that your spokes made noise when you rode a bicycle.

LOL

+1000

tell me about it!
Will this translate into some sort of marketable trade, Stirrups?
Damn, I sure hope so…

Raaddad - October 22, 2010 reply

Storm Chaser.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I nearly flunked typing in HS.

Had nothing to do with my typing skills — I just cut class around 25 times. I had to do make-up sessions during lunch for two weeks before the end of the semester.

TheAngelsAngels - October 22, 2010 reply

VP at a very large IT company

…the company that doesn’t like it’s CEO playing “footsie” with former soft-core actresses…

mustard_man - October 22, 2010 reply

Assistant to a manager at the largest music management firm in the US

First job out of college and ive been here for about a year now. My manager reps 4 arena filling bands and one “baby band” that we are trying to launch. work on the highest floor in the highest building in the middle of westwood village. Unreal perks, great hours, best co-workers imaginable. only thing is that it is a pressure filled job where you are constantly trying to juggle 100 different things at once. wouldnt trade it for anything tho. i am very lucky.

I.B.E.W. local union 11 Electrical worker

been working in the electrical trade for 7 yrs now. pretty damn awsome i guess, weird thing is its more than just “putting wires together” as some people think. im also a high school baseball coach, for about 4 yrs. now. that is even mor awsome. watching these kids from freshman year to senior year. some can really play, just dont know if ill ever seen them in the pros.

Fellow Teamster here.

Also an electrician, although i’m a state employee, so i’m SEIU local 721. Work and job security has been very iffy lately, and I would gladly transfer over to IBEW local 440 if I hadn’t already put in so much time with the state(I also worked San Bernardino Unified School District for 10 years) going on about 15 years now. I really like my job, and as you said it’s not just randomly “putting wires together”, however the headaches of working for a monolithic bureaucracy can be overwhelming at times. Are you mainly residential or commercial?

Local 11

and the company i work for is mainly commercial and industrial. For some reason the union and the union shops try to stay away from the residential stuff these days. I guess there isnt enough profit in it. But i do my own work on the side that is resendential(shh..dont tell my union) lol. its not all that awsome right now. i feel ok with my situation cuz im in really good with this shop but the union itself is pretty scary. over 1500 ppl out of work right now just in l.a. county alone. How “iffy” is the work these days for you?

Well, the future is "iffy" at best.

There has been a hiring freeze for the last 4 years, and alot of people have been “urged” to put it mildly, into retirement. They took away flex time from us, and for the first time since I can remember, no step raises. At all. Except for the higher ups of course, no matter how much the state bitches about being broke, they always find money for the higher ups. We have started getting furloughed, and our week may be shortened much like the DMV. The only thing that hasn’t been taken are our medical and dental bennies. Other than that, every contract negotiation we’ve been screwed.

i hear ya

they have already taken a few coins out of our check to keep our medical going and then we were supposed to have a new contract 3 months ago, its delayed til who knows when. we are not to the shortened work weeks yet but that maybe be and option for the union soon, we’ll see what happens.i hope the best for you and your family.

Birds of a feather.

I do work on the side too, mostly for family and friends, for a nominal fee. I have been known to charge a 12 pack or 2, and on more than one occasion, a bottle of JD. I’m really hoping that our work week isn’t shortened, because i’ll really be hurting minus that day of work. Our contract is coming up again shortly, and we’ll probably lose either pay differential or a paid holiday or 2. But hey, it could be worse, it beats not having a job. Keep on keepin’ on my union brotha!

Filing and document management guru at a mid-size law firm in SD

In my spare time I’m an aspiring author and homebrewer. If I could eventually make money off of either of those, that would be nice.

My job itself isn’t particularly challenging or rewarding in terms of experience or advancement, it’s mainly just moving paper around and keeping track of things like I did while I was in college. But, the company is really relaxed and my bosses all treat us employees very well. Plus I originally applied because I was thinking about law school at one point so I wanted to see what the legal field was like and I’ve definitely gotten a good look. Long term though, I’ll need something with more advancement potential and better pay (Reserve GI Bill was nice, but not as helpful in preventing debt as the full one unfortunately).

Realistically, I’d like to get into international relations in some fashion. The state dept. would be kind of cool and I’ve also started looking at think tanks and things like that in DC and NY. This would also probably lead to grad school at some point which I wouldn’t mind. For right now, it looks like I’ll be staying put in the near term until the right opprtunity comes up.

do you have

a brand name for your home-brewed ale? I’m thinking Commander’s would be appropriate.

also, do you watch the show Breaking Bad? there was a good scene in an early episode where a guy who brews his own beer had a pretty funny/almost crazy moment.

also, also, regarding the think tank query; did you watch that recent show Rubicon? most of it was set in a think tank and portrayed how crappy most of those people’s lives can get having that as a job. I’m sure not everyone’s is like that, but it was an interesting point of view and look into that world.

I am thinking "Masters"...by Commander.

Has rather a familiar ring to it, no?

I hadn't heard of Rubicon, I'll see if I can find it.

I think it might depend on what field the think tank operates in. IR ones seem to involve a fair amount of international travel and hosting conferences with people from all over. That kind of stuff I wouldn’t mind and actually liked the taste of it I got at SDSU. Most places require a masters or years of experience from what I’ve seen. I nearly applied to one that said they would take a bachelors, but I’m in the midst of this massive case at work and think it would have been bad form to just up and quit in the middle of it all.

I haven’t thought of a name yet for my brew brand because I’m still pretty new at it. I’ve had some “rewtastrophies” though – they are good learning experiences.

*brewtatstrophies

it was an ok show

it was on AMC and the season finale was just last sunday. I really only watched it because it came on before Mad Men, which is a great show. it had some slow moments, but was an interesting look at something I’ve never known anything about.

On AMC

red floyd - October 23, 2010 reply

What kind of beer?

if it is something im intereseted in and if its good i will be your fisrt costomer and it can be something you can “make money of”. One thing that is my hobby is drinking beer and i go all over to try beers and see whats out there so let me know.

All kinds right now

Like I said, I’m still pretty new at it. So far I’ve done a hefe, Imperial Stout and American Pale Ale. Right now I have my first batch going that I completely designed on my own. It’s a stout, but I did some experimental things with it because I wanted to get a little crazy for my first original brew. We’ll see how it turns out.

Well sounds pretty good.

let me know how it turns out. craft brew is always awsome, if your making it or drinking it. the best part about brewing is what you are doing, going a little bit crazy and see what happens. thats honestly how most craft brews are make. good luck with it and keep in touch, i will be your first customer to your new wonderful beer brewing bussiness!!

do you sell them in pints?

if so I’ll take 2

I would expect nothing less from you

I'm a big craft beer fan

Seems like the Bourbon/Whiskey barrel Imperial Stouts, Hopped up IPA’s and Sour’s seem to be where the craft brew niche is right now. I’d love to try some of your home brews if you have a couple bottles for sale

dang Nate

business is booming!

2pintsofbooze - October 23, 2010 reply

SWEET

Commander_Nate - October 23, 2010 reply

where in sd?

NoDakHalo - October 24, 2010 reply

I work downtown

Live in Pacific Beach.

Commander_Nate - October 25, 2010 reply

I also dabble in homebrew

It nearly got me fired at work, though, when I brought in samples at lunchtime for my co-wokers. Some people (department heads) are just too tightly wound.

agent_99 - October 27, 2010 reply

The department heads

need to try some of your brew, apparently?

cath619 - October 28, 2010 reply

Most definitely!

agent_99 - October 28, 2010 reply

I'm a math teacher-

at a junior high in Twentynine Palms, the end of civilization. Been teaching for 17 years and in spite of NCLB, I still love my job. Hey- I get paid to be mean to cheerleaders!

Jimatkins - October 22, 2010 reply

You must be some soft of a god or something.

Why don’t you try a career change to something easier, such as President of The United States? Or maybe get your butt to Israel and broker a final peace in the Middle East? Or fix my wife’s cooking?

Your wife's cooking is fine

Ha!

Clearly, you are shtupping some woman NOT married to me.

Reminds me of a true story-

A congressman in 1916 or thereabouts is sitting is a big leather chair, in the caucus room. He is totally bald- The speaker, a notorious philanderer, comes up behind him, feels his head and remarks “nice and smooth, just like my wife’s bottom”- the congressman feels his own head and says “you’re right- it does feel just like your wife’s bottom!”

Jimatkins - October 24, 2010 reply

Research Attorney

at the trial court level. I spend my day writing the court’s rulings for everything we hear – mostly administrative appeals from state and local agencies, as well as matters involving preliminary injunctions and receiverships.

I was a sportswriter in college. Coolest “job” I ever had was as a stringer for the Philadelphia Daily News & Inquirer (they’d hire us to cover basketball and football away games). If I could do any job, regardless of salary, I’d love to do that again. Except at my age, with a family, I’d only want to cover the home games (and I’d hire a college stringer to go on the road).

I also love to cook. It would be really cool to own the type of restaurant that shows up on Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Or maybe own a winery and vineyard in Santa Barbara County.

I could definitely do the winery too, but SB is too expensive.

My wife and I passed through Pahrump, NV a couple of weeks ago. I was amazed that they had a winery! (Chardonnay was great, Merlot…not so much).

So…if they can grow grapes in that climate…it got me thinking about other locations. I am currently considering some spots in AZ where land is still relatively inexpensive. Gotta have dreams…

I know a guy who's buying up cheap land out there.

It’s a play on their potential future growth naturally. Can you imagine the people who owned acres of cheap land in cities like Indio, Dublin, Pleasanton, Corona, way back before there was anything out there? Some people made a killing for sure.

I think about that with the original land grants here in So. Cal...

…like the Irvine Company. Yeah, you’d be real comfortable financially. Water is the key…gotta have those water rights.

Think about how all that land got "granted" to the likes of Irvine...

Water had EVERYTHING to do with it…

Well, that and a little Japanese internment during WW2.

I went off of...

...this historical background. No mention here of the Irvine Company unfairly acquiring land from Japanese immigrants (although I am aware that land owned by these immigrants was unfairly taken without compensation).

Re: Japanese farmers

In the early 1920’s California passed a law denying land ownership or lease rights to anyone not eligible for citizenship. This included all Asians. Irvine was leasing land to Japanese farmers at the time, and they chose to halt the practice “officially” but, in actuality, still leased the land to Japanese farmers through Asian-American “front men”. These were native born Japanese Americans. It was all a scam, and the Irvine Company knew it. When WWII broke out and the families were moved off to the internment camps, the Irvine Company swooped in and took back the land. When the Japanese returned from the camps, it was “Lease? What lease?”

As for the Spanish land grants, google “An Act to Ascertain and Settle Private Land Claims in the State of California”. Note the political undertones. Note the dates. Note that James Irvine I purchased his land holdings in 1864 and 1866. Severe drought, the cost of constant litigation, and the turning tide of political pressures towards anglos (in Washington D.C. and, especially, Sacramento) forced the hands of the legacy landowners. Lots of wealthy anglos had friends in Sacramento, and they had lots of lawyers willing to travel north and work the courts and legislature against the Spanish.

Somewhere up in my attic is a copy of the 100 anniversary history review of the law firm I once worked at. I took the time to read the opening chapters and was fascinated by how they carefully wordsmithed their way through the role they played in the land grab that was going on, which was how they started out.

My father in law who is down here visiting lived in an internment camp as a child

his younger sister was born in Tule Lake, he later joined the military, became a doctor, and retired as head of Nuclear Medicine at a large hospital. He now enjoys tennis and photography.

steelgolf - October 23, 2010 reply

a couple months ago

on my way back from fishing in the Sierras we stopped at the former Manzanar camp, where there is now a museum. a very intersting look into a not so great part of our history. highly intersting and I recomend anyone to take the time to stop off when passing by.

2pintsofbooze - October 23, 2010 reply

Have you read "farewell to Manzanar?"

RexTookMyStash - October 24, 2010 reply

I have not

I didn’t even know what Manzanar was until we stopped by there. I’m assuming its a good read?

2pintsofbooze - October 24, 2010 reply

I enjoyed it.

RexTookMyStash - October 25, 2010 reply

oh, then I'd probably hate it

:P

2pintsofbooze - October 25, 2010 reply

Such a great book

Haven’t read it in many years; maybe it’s time to pick it up again.

I wonder

How much land one would actually need in order to grow enough grapes to put out a profitable pinot noir. I actually looked at some real estate listings recently and saw a small property for sale in the Sta. Rita Hills that, if we sold our house and our rental unit, we might be able to afford. Of course, we know nothing about actually making wine, and so we’d have to hire a winemaker and people who actually know about how to grow the grapes and all…

Yeah, I wouldn't know what I was doing...

…well, not yet anyway. But going to that winery in Pahrump…if someone can make a go of itt there, why not? That’s why it’s more dream at this point…

there are a lot of wineries in Temecula too

some of the houses in wine country have their own little vineyards in their yards. those houses are obviously very expensive, but its another area that has it. and its still somewhat close to the Big A.

Yep, I live in Temecula.

And the wineries are pretty impressive. The properties are beautiful, and very expensive. But hey, if a person can afford it, why the hell not.

we went to a pumpkin farm/corn maze a week ago

I felt like I was in a different state. drool drool drool!

How To Make A Small Fortune:

Start with a large fortune, and then open a winery.

yeswecan - October 22, 2010 reply

LOL

Reminds me of the old Steve Martin line about how to be a millionaire: first, get a million dollars.

Yeah...there's that little detail too...

There is a diner over in Fountain Valley that was on DD&D recently.

It serves breakfast and lunch only, sits in a strip mall off a main drag, and caters to vets. My wife and I went over for lunch about a month ago. With my restaurant background, I happened to be at the right time and place. DD&D had driven up business like mad and the owner was jsut coming back from picking up more meat. I helped him unload while I waited for aplace at the counter.

So that got us to chatting. He purchased the place for a mere $15K just a couple of years ago. He used to open up outlets to The Roadhouse, so he knew what he was doing. He has put more into it to update the kitchen, etc. But the guy has now almost caught up to $200K per year in personal income.

I know all this because this is one of the main retirement plans for us. I cannot just sit and do nothing, and owning a joint keeps you out and about and meeting people. Yeah, it’s a lot of work but I have the experience to know that you make it your lifestyle. We own a second home up in SB County, and are looking to retire there and doing exactlyt he same thing as you are.

Paul's Coffee Shop!

Yep, I’ve had breakfast there. Very crowded since it appeared on DD&D

LanaBanana - October 22, 2010 reply

Chicken fried steak is the best thing in the world!

Even better than drinking beer in the shower.

True story:

My wife LOVES Chicken Fried Steak. We have been from coast to coast and any time we visit a restaurant that serves home-syle foods she orders the chicken fried steak. For nearly 30 years she has been pursuing the perfect CFS and has never found it. Few have even gotten close. So we get to Paul’s, finally get a seat, she orders the CFS and tells the waitress “nothing else”. She only want the CFS, and the diner can keep all the sides. It’s a diet thing. Women.

It shows up. She tastes it. She goes over the moon. It. Is. Perfection. After the second bite she reaches for a little pepper and starts to shake it on. Oops. Somebody had left a shaker of cinnamon with the salt and pepper and she grabbed the wrong shaker! Yup, after finally finding her Holy Grail, she doused it with cinnamon and ruined the damned thing!!!

(That episode really broke the ice with the owner. He told us that the gravy recipe was his mother’s or grandmother’s and she still comes into the kitchen every now and then and inspects the gravy. The secret is a boatload of butter.)

Recd!

RexTookMyStash - October 24, 2010 reply

There was a hot dog joint in Reseda that was on Triple-D

Fab hot dogs

princeton11loveshalos - October 22, 2010 reply

Fab's is SOOO GOOD

jersey style hot dog and cleveland stadium mustard.

I'm a Sales Rep for an educational publishing company.

I call on Teacher Supply Stores. I used to be on the road a lot, but not as much anymore. My territory has changed numerous times and at one time or another I covered the entire country and half of Canada. I’ve been to all but 2 of the States – never been to either North or South Dakota.

LanaBanana - October 22, 2010 reply

Had a great Job. I drank for a living

Traveling wine and spirits salesman i.e. I would drink with the client and get bombed and then write it off on my taxes.
I lost the job because I threatened to file a workmans comp claim on an injury and was mysteriously fired shortly after. I am now unemployed and trying to find my new profession.

I interviewed for a job with the Angels a few months ago, and would love to stay in sales… Though times out there though

Sinatrasratpack - October 22, 2010 reply

Graduate school, the ultimate dead-end career

I’ve got a limited fixed income and a termination date. I spend my time writing about stuff no one cares about, and I’m developing skills that are almost completely unemployable. If I do it long enough, they’ll start calling me a doctor in exchange for ending my health insurance. Then I’ll need to finally find a real job like everyone else. What got me here was a desire to postpone that reality as long as possible, which can actually be a really long time.

I’ll be honest, I still have fantasies about my dissertation being important. It’s about nukes, people care about nukes, right? Well, I’ve got a totally fresh angle on the subject. In fact, this story just broke today. That’s exactly what I’m writing about! Even I’m surprised at how unsurprised I am that this actually happened. Weird and scary shit like this went down all the time during the Cold War. So yeah, I still have dreams of book signings and a sweet tenured faculty position. Dreams keep me working, even though it’s overwhelmingly probable that my thesis ends up collecting dust in a library basement for the next 200 years.

That is, if I can ever finish it while teaching all these undergraduates, grading their papers, and hearing their appeals for higher grades. On the brighter side, I’ll soon have a master’s degree in physics to put on my resume. I can probably use that to feed myself in the future. Does anyone out there running a hedge fund need a dork to calculate loop corrections to a perturbative expansion of some many-body interacting theory of financial agents? I can be available if you make the right offer.

Suboptimal - October 22, 2010 reply

Isn't grading papers a blast?! (dripping sarcasm here)

I call it the ditch-digging of our profession (which I used to do once upon a time)
Of course I also have to “mark” papers since I’m in English, so they can improve.

Which came first, the physics fetish or the policy fetish?

You strike me more as aspiring John McPhee than Joe Matlab.

Were you trying to add ballast to what would become your dissertation, or was your digression into nuclear policy a chance to ‘come home from Copenhagen’ and trade in the probabilities and abstraction fatigue for the improbable facticities of science history?

Turks Teeth - October 23, 2010 reply

I was wonder the same thing.

Also, what’s a physics?

WiHaloFan - October 24, 2010 reply

I'm still looking for my dictionary

princeton11loveshalos - October 22, 2010 reply

Joe Matlab was first

Then I realized I probably wasn’t good enough at it to make it through a Ph.D. in mathematical physics. It was a crushing realization at the time, but I’ve made my peace with it. I was fortunate to discover that a few people actually study the history of such things, so I decided to do that instead. Science and national defense inevitably led me to nukes. Now if I could write half as well about that as John McPhee writes about earth science, I might have a respectable career some day.

Suboptimal - October 25, 2010 reply

Which school do you attend?

Brody - October 29, 2010 reply

im a dentist

so yes, my schooling did prepare me for my job!

kingfish - October 22, 2010 reply

Student

But I work in the Dining Hall as a student manager. Pretty cush job and I get paid about 14.60 an hour to do it. Worked my way up from dishwasher to manager.

I am applying to Law School and Teach for America this year. I hope to be admitted by the TFA program because I would love the chance to teach.

Read a good book on 2 guys that started in Teach for America...

…here is the link. It’s a REALLY good book.

Worked the dining hall back in the day

Great gig – you get to interact with everyone on campus, and the hours were perfect. I got to be the short order cook on occasion because no other student could handle the grill (thank you IN-N-OUT).

princeton11loveshalos - October 24, 2010 reply

yeah so true

I love being able to see some many people that I know. People always say I know a ton of people. Its because I interact all the time.

Third year law student

Looking for a job. Let me get back to you next year?

Clutch - October 22, 2010 reply

Believe it or Not

the court recently lifted the hiring freeze for law clerks. You’ll need to graduate, but if nothing else pans out, look us up when you do.

Sweet--state or federal level?

Clutch - October 23, 2010 reply

state

L.A. County

jjackflash - October 23, 2010 reply

If you don't mind doing non-legal work OPM's Presidential Management Fellowship is a pretty solid option

Great way to get into public service, pay off loans and start with a decent salary in the federal government. There are also opportunities to switch over into OGC and what not

im in the same boat.

good luck out there, brother.

NoDakHalo - October 24, 2010 reply

I'm a medical/lab assistant and part time student

I work in a direct access lab. No insurance, no doctors order, no problem! I like it so far. I pretty much do everything in there, but in the mean time I’m in school as well trying to decide what I want to do. I’m currently registered as a nursing student. If I stay in the field I’d like to do that or continue as a physician assistant. If not, then I’m leaning towards aerospace engineer.

maze88 - October 22, 2010 via mobile reply

Unemployed

I have been out of work for the last two years and am looking for any work.

Please Help?

cupie - October 22, 2010 reply

Hey Rev...

…these make some of the best posts on HH. It’s a great idea. Thanks!

agree!

Agree too!

Clutch - October 23, 2010 reply

as mentioned above

THANK YOU to all of the HH-ers who are members or former members of our armed services.

yeswecan - October 22, 2010 reply

marketing copywriter

I write about cars.

yeswecan - October 22, 2010 reply

So does my nest door neighbor. For Toyota.

our main clients are competitors of Toyota

yeswecan - October 24, 2010 reply

Apparently, Rev does also.. for Chevy

Awesome

Does Madmen capture the whole experience? :-)

How’d you get into that line of work?

various writing jobs for different industries

Then I just kinda landed where I am now. Lots of writing.

yeswecan - October 24, 2010 reply

YES!

Wrong thread.

princeton11loveshalos - October 22, 2010 reply

This made me laugh

The Limey - October 23, 2010 reply

me, too

yeswecan - October 24, 2010 reply

Vlad makes ’em pay.

fordprefect - October 22, 2010 reply

Textbook buying company/Online bookseller

We buy books at college campuses and then sell through a couple of online retailers. Everybody pretty much hates anything to do with textbooks but we generally pay more than the bookstore does and sell them at a pretty steep discount so we like to believe we’re the good guys.

The neat thing about textbooks is that when the economy is doing well, your sales are good and when the economy is down, everyone goes back to school and your sales are good.

I’m a manager in the warehouse so most of the time I do warehouse/inventory work: scanning books in, processing orders, etc. Twice a year you can find me in front of the Starbucks at Syracuse University, charming the students and making fun of bad drivers.

We’d love to do some buying in California so if any of you unemployed/disgruntled types are interested in spending a week at the end of the semester getting paid to ogle and flirt with coeds (while buying books of course) let me know!

Match Day 5 - October 22, 2010 reply

you want my books

I have 2 boxes full of em

Our website: textbookfetcher.com

But, there are a lot of sites now that you can check and most pay for shipping. Try bookscouter.com to compare. Usually, if you want to sell in person, the indie guy (us) is the way to go but if you don’t mind a little effort and waiting to get paid then an online place might do better. I tell everyone to shop around.

We had a guy at Rutgers last May which is probably the closest we’d get to you. My brother-in-law lives in Roosevelt and I’ve considered doing a buy at Princeton but I think my wife’s head would explode if she was alone with the kids for a week!

Match Day 5 - October 23, 2010 reply

Trying to get a job

Just applied for Army and Navy JAG. I would be thrilled with either one.

jessthelion - October 22, 2010 reply

you want navy

i am in the navy dental corp. the navy jag’s have a much better time than the army/marines. training for army/marines can be a little ridiculous.

kingfish - October 24, 2010 reply

Yeah, definitely did apply for Marines for that reason. Army doesn’t seem to be that bad though (JAG school then a month long direct commission officers’ course).

jessthelion - October 24, 2010 reply

oops

Definitely didn’t

jessthelion - October 24, 2010 reply

Mobile/Club DJ

Best job I’ve had yet. Get to spend the days with my kids & the nights helping drunken guys and girls make mistakes

Seik1177 - October 22, 2010 reply

Tenured English teacher/instructor/professor/whathaveyou

at a SoCal community college.
But a did 1000 things before settling into that gig.
Currently have one of our favorite part-time Halo Heaven contributers trying to pass my Intro to Lit class.
We enjoy boring the shit out of his classmates discussing the Halos. (LOL)

Raaddad - October 22, 2010 reply

which poster?

Rev Halofan - October 23, 2010 reply

Angelscolts

fortunately he doesn’t rub it in that the Raiders are so much worse than his colts

Sounds like great work

My wife is on the verge of entering the academic job market for English. On the one hand, her work never ends; on the other hand, she can structure her day however she wants, and the vacations are great. It’s obviously a tough, tough market right now, but we’re hoping something turns up in the next couple of years.

norcaliangelsfan - October 23, 2010 reply

Yes hopefully

I have several friends and former students of mine trying to find teaching work—it’s got to get better right?

Raaddad - October 24, 2010 reply

I've mentioned it before.......

But I work for the Department of the Interior/National Park Service at Whiskeytown Lake just west of Redding. I work as a Law Enforcement Dispatcher. Not nearly as fun as it probably should be which is why Im back at school working on a degree for Physical Education. I too am thankful for the kick ass GI BILL. Between my job and my school money Im making some fat cash at the moment……unfortunately I have no time to enjoy it. HAHA.

I want to get into coaching………so this is the best way I believe to get there IMO…unless someone can think of a quicker way :-)

Having a cush job with great pay and benefits sounds all well and good……but being stuck in a office 9-10-11 (sometimes 12-13) hrs a day is NOT my idea of fun……no matter what the pay.

The only plus side to my job is I get to chill out on the net with you guys and my Buffalo Rumblings family all while getting paid…..

So there’s that.

"Having a cush job with great pay and benefits sounds all well and good……but being stuck in a office 9-10-11 (sometimes 12-13) hrs a day is NOT my idea of fun……no matter what the pay."

You are already in the law enforcement field. Apply with a local PD. Once hired you’ll find a rewarding career, good pay and benefits (especially in retirement), and you won’t have to worry about being stuck in an office. Every day brings something new and keeps things interesting and challenging. The good part is you can work full time (3 12-hour days) and still have time to coach. August to October each year, I coach a girls volleyball team on my days off. The rest of the year I enjoy having four days off a week for family and other interests. Been doin’ it a long time and wouldn’t change a thing.

angelslogic - October 23, 2010 reply

I have knee problems from my time in the military............(40% service connected)

I would be able to pass any physical performance test.

Thats part of the reason why I left the military, could no longer pass the PT test

norcaliangelsfan - October 23, 2010 reply

I wouldnt* be able to pass the physical performance test.

norcaliangelsfan - October 23, 2010 reply

if your iside all day that sucks but...

…if your outside but job so far

DAD OF VLAD - October 25, 2010 reply

High School Band Director

I have no life from August through December. My electric and gas bill combined last month was $8 bucks. I have one of the only jobs where someone can honestly judge your competence and worth as a professional by listening to high school students perform – and I don’t think I’d trade it away.

reddawnman - October 23, 2010 reply

Drugs & diseases...

…I work for the medical department of a biotech working on a couple of rare diseases (cardiorespiratory medicine).

I do a couple of things – one is medical education, helping smaller hospitals to properly diagnose and refer patients, the other is helping the larger centres to design and fund research to better investigate those diseases (and a couple that are fairly closely related).

I’ll be honest, I’m a little bored of it. Not the job so much, the people I work with are pretty good (if tending towards the all-consumingly geeky) just this particular disease area. And my new boss is awful, with a capital A (for arsehole).

I’d like to teach. I still might if I can make enough money to afford to first.

The Limey - October 23, 2010 reply

Best choice I ever made

Was leaving a consulting gig and going into teaching. You couldn’t pay me enough to go back now.

rghan - October 23, 2010 via mobile reply

and coaching too eh?

how did the team do this year?

First place in Boston!

And then they decided to close our school. We were in the midst of building a powerhouse athletic department too….

Hope you’re good! Any coaching this fall?

rghan - October 23, 2010 reply

Congratualtions!

Now I remember—you mentioned it before. That’s unbelievable!
U12 basketball right? Are you moving to a new school?
I’m coaching U14 ayso soccer, and hope to get the all-star team again.
Son of Raaddad broke his foot end of august, and is finally getting back to play. Hopefully that bodes well for our playoff chances.
A lot of these 13-year-olds are crazy and really hard to control.

Glad son of Raaddad is back on the field

And I hope you have a great season and a long postseason with your allstars.

Baseball for me — I’m a one sport guy to a fault.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I teach math and special ed, so will have some options, but if I can get enough of my kids to stay at the new charter school that’s moving into our old building, then I’ll likely try to stay too. That said, uniforms and extended day are a tough sell to my students…

rhgan, you are in boston?

i am as well. as there a lot of people in boston? we should watch some games together!

kingfish - October 24, 2010 reply

Absolutely.

Come spring, let’s link up for a game or two

I'm responsible for the taxation of intercompany transactions

at PepsiCo. So all the soda, chips, tropicana, oatmeal, gatorade, minute rice, near east, aunt jemima, and any of the other cats and dogs that well sell intercompany cross border, I set the price. It’s a cool job that has allowed me to travel all over the world to interesting places (Budapest and St Petersburg) as well as shit holes (Delhi, Heathrow). I’m looking to retire in about 17 months but if times continue to be tough, I may be offered an early retirement package (fingers crossed).

princeton11loveshalos - October 23, 2010 reply

Lucky bastard!

that I am

on both counts

Big Easy Halofan - October 23, 2010 reply

Communications Specialist at a national non-profit agency

And non-profit work leads to a life of not making a profit, but I enjoy it anyway. Living and working in DC kinda sucks, though, so I’m hoping the wife gets her foreign service job with USAID and allows me to become a full-time trailing spouse.

Like Moondoggy above, I’ve lived and traveled in shit holes and hope to do more of that again in the coming years…

To answer Rev’s question about schooling, I definitely benefit from having a degree in Organizational Communication because people actually think it’s a journalist/mass communications degree rather than a business degree for idiots like me…

I'm also in the process of building my website

to sell instrumentals for any artists or DJ’s out there.

I need to buy the book Web Sites for Dummies bcuz this is a pain in the rear when building it on my own.

maze88 - October 23, 2010 via mobile reply

Construction Project Manager, specialize in structural and misc. steel

mainly commercial, columns, beams, stairs, rails, canopies, and industrial catwalks and conveyors. Was a deputy inspector for awahile for concrete, masonry and steel/welding, owned my own steel company till I realized my partner was an idiot way too late. High school education with some community college, my music career in punk rock was not going well (hard to deal with heroin addicts on a day to day basis) when a friend asked me if I was afraid of heights, I said no, the next thing I know I am climbing around on steel beam 26 floors up in the air bolting them together, and later learning how to weld. In my job I sometimes feel like a landfill for everyones problems and complaints, and everybody thinks they should get things for free as if I just happen to have a bunch of steel, perfectly fabricated and ready to install a bldg. or mezzanine to fit their exact space. Turns out you can’t find steel columns and beams at The Home Depot or Lowes. I would rather be a musician (without having to deal with a damn addicts who think its cool to be an addict) or someone who works in the golf or surfing industry. Congrats on the new job Rev

steelgolf - October 23, 2010 reply

Do you sub-contract or work direct with developer/construction manager/owner?

I’m a PM for a GC. I have worked with Riverton, Eagle, and Washington Iron among others. We are slow right now, but always looking for a better base of sub-contractors.

If you don’t want to respond here, send an e-mail to my screen name here at Yahoo.

sothball - October 23, 2010 reply

I used to work for a strictly steel fabricator/erector, I now work for a sort of G.C.

We specialize in concrete, breaking and sawing of concrete, and I have been hired to grow and try to make profitable a small structural steel division, in the past I have run projects from 25K to 3 million just for the steel. The company I work for now is in Anaheim on Katella just down from the stadium, and I can walk to the stadium or even closer is Throwbacks. I did work at the Disneyland Hotel as the doorman in the late 70s, worked at the Jolly Roger on Balboa Island all through high school as well as a car valet at the Balboa Bay Club and Marina City Club. Eagle Iron is a good outfit as well as Washington Iron, but they are both union operations, our company is non-union though I do some prevailing wage jobs as long as they don’t require union workers, when they do I sub the erection to someone like M.C. Erectors, or Eagle Iron. My screen name is also my yahoo address.

steelgolf - October 23, 2010 reply

I will send an e-mail.

sothball - October 23, 2010 reply

woo hoo

my fifteen percent finders fee on this gig will pay for that new cadillac!

Rev Halofan - October 24, 2010 reply

You mean that Chevy Malibu !

that way you can cruise down the 5 to Throwbacks and Angel Stadium (it will always be called Angel Stadium in my book)

steelgolf - October 24, 2010 reply

I own a small company

I worked for UPS for a long time in their sales dept before finally getting pissed off enough to quit. I started my own company and was scraping by until finally I got a huge contract with a pharmacuetical company. Its great and pretty secure but its always scary knowing that so much is dependent on keeping that one group happy.

So in conjunction with that, I am also a graduate student. I am working on my Phd in american history. Im writing about secret societies and their impact on american culture and war

Balls and Strikes - October 23, 2010 reply

It's a conspiracy

Balls and Strikes - October 25, 2010 reply

Hell yeah it was. The more I dig in and research the more I see that even from the beginnings of the country it was a conspiracy

It just ended up getting too big for these groups to effectively control in most places. Thats basically my argument at this point. There were two main groups that were really causing most of the dissatisfaction and got a rebellion going, then all of the sudden, the poor uneducated masses join the bandwagon- well after the revolution gets going- and the whole thing changes direction pretty massively. They needed the manpower to push the war forward, but then these people made political demands and there isnt much scarier than an angry uneducated mob that has nothing to lose.

I thought about doing History as my major as well.......

Learning about the past is awesome IMO.

Balls and Strikes - October 25, 2010 reply

I love it. So much of the history that you learn in school is really watered down BS.

Digging in and seeing the complexity and randomness of how things happened is awesome. And you can always use the past to make a statement about the present.

Newly hired business analyst for an IT consulting firm

I’ll be working with Fox studios, as far as I know. I start on Monday.

Does my job have anything to do with my stellar mechanical engineering degree? Absolutely not.

Carl Johnson - October 23, 2010 reply

Isnt that always the case?

Does my job have anything to do with my stellar mechanical engineering degree? Absolutely not.

Balls and Strikes - October 25, 2010 reply

My favorite job I’ve had was working at Disneyland a couple years ago on the Indiana Jones Adventure attraction… but that wasn’t going to get me out of my parents house (after moving back in recently) so I joined the Army back this time three years ago. Now stationed at Ft Sill in bum**** Oklahoma for at least another year. Hate my job… nothing what I thought it’d be, but that’ll change here soon when I can finally re class (let’s just say, Field Artillery is not my thing, lol).

BrentSchmidt - October 23, 2010 reply

Don't you get paid to blow shit up?

Stirrups - October 23, 2010 reply

I got the 13P job, thinking it was the 13M job… 13M is a launcher job, where you’re in the vehicle that launches the various rockets. 13P is the computer side of the job, in a small square vehicle where you push “send” on a laptop and text messages to the launchers. All the Sgt’s are always “yeah I shoot rockets down range.” No, you send text messages… it’s pathetic. FA peeps are full of themselves.

BrentSchmidt - October 24, 2010 reply

So not unlike the rich guys who "build houses" by having construction crews come in and build a house

Its interesting how we as a people give credit for ideas not actions.

When I was active duty

I was actually on orders to go to Ft. Sill.. and then, Desert Storm hit, and I went to Saudi Arabia, instead. From the sounds of it, I think I liked Saudi Arabia better than I would like Ft. Sill..

pattimelt - October 23, 2010 reply

UNEMPLOYED

but looking.. Finally got bored enough to start looking for a gig after 2 years at Disneyland doing customer service. Before you say EVERY job at Disneyland is customer service, I worked in the complaint department for ticketing.

Trying to find part time work—I don’t need full time work, thanks to hubby, and part time will allow me to do something other than live Angels Baseball, which I’ll probably end up doing, anyway, since I just got appointed to the damn booster Board of Directors again.

pattimelt - October 23, 2010 reply

I think the term is "Grunt"

That would be what I am. Minimal skill job. Palletize product, Wrap it up, take it door to be loaded into a trailer. It’s heavy lifting and it’s BORING. And we are undermanned right now (at least if you ask us we are, corporate thinks we are OVERstaffed.) 60 hour weeks are the norm. Thank god for family and a place like this, otherwise I might have gone crazy long ago.

halofan4life - October 23, 2010 reply

I am a veterinarian.

I actually don’t tell people that because so may people come out wood works with questions about their pets. So my social job (what I tell people at parties, the airport, stuff like that) I that I do water quality analysis at a water recycling plant. It is something that I did in college so know enough to BS through it and people are generally not very interested.

My favorite sport to watch is baseball yet my favorite sport to play is ice hockey and I also like to surf.

Like Commander Nate I am an avid homebrewer. If I could brew beer for a living I would instantly switch careers. I think want to name my IPA “Vlad the Impaler IPA”

Trott - October 23, 2010 reply

I actually think potable water is the most important issue in the 21st century

I would corner you at a party

So how much does it cost to get my cat neutered........

:-)

Work as a computational linguist at Google.

Manage an engineering program that applies machine learning and natural language processing to problems involving ads targeting, search query analytics, web content categorization, internationalization, etc. My job is basically to classify the universe in as many dimensions as possible, in as many languages as possible. There are about fifty people associated with the program — engineers, linguists, contractors — and I’m sort of the pit boss for the dream syndicate. It feels like the UN, with about 17 languages spoken among us.

It’s been my job for about eight years, but as I’ve moved more into management, 20-25hrs a week are just meetings, consultations, planning iterations, etc. I tend to work 60hrs a week, and spend another ten in the commute, so Halos Heaven is one of four or five online communities I head to in the interstices to kvetch and spit into the wind.

Turks Teeth - October 23, 2010 reply

Super cool

Are you in Mountain View? Best free lunch in the world…

rjcicc - October 23, 2010 reply

There's about 400 of us in LA.

Santa Monica. I visit Mountain View a few times a year — Seattle, Dublin and Shanghai on occasion. Food can be wicked on the MTV campus, no doubt.

Turks Teeth - October 23, 2010 via mobile reply

A good friend of mine works for Google in the NY building

Every once in awhile he invited my wife and I for lunch in their cafeteria. It is VERY hard to imagine a central campus more tricked out in culinary goodness.

I interviewed there with the Release Engineering groop.

The weirdest thing I saw there when I was interviewing was the hemp milkshakes.

wooohooo my hero...bring on the IPAs

we need to get a pub crawl or homebrewing party going!

ladybug - October 23, 2010 reply

Google just contacted me about interviewing again.

I went through the whole procedure, and was cut at the final phase. Interviewed up in Mt. View and in Santa Monica.

a lot of big words in this post.

princeton11loveshalos - October 23, 2010 reply

My niece (Vanessa Fox) used to work at Google.

She does freelance work now in SEO but has nothing but great things to say about the company.

agent_99 - October 28, 2010 reply

Work as a NAPA Auto Parts salesman

Earning the same dough I did 30 years ago. That was back in my ambitious days when I worked as a draftsman, drawing with paper and pencil. With a 2 year degree and $1.75 for a cup of coffee (used to be a dime), drafting has long been an extict career since the 4 year guys can do my job and theirs too. Learning to draw with the computer prolonged my drafting career until the late 90’s, but soon it was time to become a parts counterman. I enjoy the parts world, and have a small farm in Michigan that keeps my wife and I very busy and happy.

MiHaloFan - October 23, 2010 reply

Who has time for a job

When I’m a full time student as a Film major/ Creative Writing minor. Yeah, I purposely stacked the odds against me of ever having a career.

ryanfea - October 23, 2010 reply

All you hobos with an internet connection depress me.

Where’s the game thread?

Oh yeah, the most important thing for 2011 is leadoff. Aybar is a sack of shit, anywhere above 6. Bobby is fat and old. This team doesnt need fat and old.

im drunk.

clover_black - October 23, 2010 reply

HAHAHA

+10000000000

Internet Consulting Generalist at your service

I help tech startups develop their product and marketing strategies through research, analyzation and testing. Living in San Francisco and working in technology is kinda like being an actor in LA, except with less strippers.

My nights and weekend are filled working on a music streaming website called 8tracks.com. The site is bootstrapped, and the entire team works for sweat equity. Despite not being paid, this is the best job I’ve ever had.

To round things out, I along with 5 other friends, founded a teeny, tiny art gallery called Hibbleton. We’re located in downtown Fullerton, come check us out the next time you’re stumbling around.

rjcicc - October 23, 2010 reply

my job sounds boring

RN for a vascular access company (basically working with dialysis patients). I work per diem, do patient/staff education in the dialysis centers and will soon be involved in a research study.

Mom of 3 boys, 2 cats and a dog.

and a HH groupie.

ladybug - October 23, 2010 reply

RN

FTW!

maze88 - October 24, 2010 via mobile reply

Good on you, Bug.

Mrs. red floyd is also an RN. They get shat on more than anyone I know of.

yup

every other week I used to have to work with the dickest of the dickhead doctors. A patient told me he was shit talking me during a procedure….said I wasn’t worth the scrubs I was wearing.

I won’t work with him if I can help it.

princeton11loveshalos - October 24, 2010 reply

RN

You guys are the best!!!

Mrs. Raaddad is an RN as well

Children’s hospital—but I think I told you already…

Raaddad - October 24, 2010 reply

:-) yes you did!

Jobs, I've had a few. Some were amazing:

My first long-term job remains one of my favorites: From my freshman year of high school til I graduated, I worked at a little-but-legendary ice cream shop in Pacific Beach (San Diego). My parents went there when it opened in the ‘40s, my aunt worked there in the ’70s, and my cousin worked there in the early ’00s. Nothing better than making shakes, malts, dip cones and lunch sandwiches for ~~adorable surfer boys~~ regulars and tourists alike. Okay, maybe not the tourists… Frostie’s is still the first stop when I go home these days.

Second-best job was slinging coffee at a teeny cafe on the PB boardwalk 10 years ago, during my only summer home from college. I was the only girl who wasn’t a waitress, and I worked with lots of ~~adorable surfer boys~~ great people (including my current ~~adorable surfer boy~~ boyfriend. Life is strange). We stashed boards on the balcony upstairs and wetsuits in the storeroom next to the egg crates.

I was a ballerina for a while — it’s why I originally went to Utah for school — then worked for a ballet company in ticket sales and fundraising. Luckily I’d been working on a double-major in mass comm/journalism (@BigEasy Halofan – Org comm was hard!) and a professor got me an editing job at Utah’s biggest newspaper. I had no idea one could make a career from knowing how to spell and regurgitate AP style.

(Incidentally, my first summer working at the SLTrib was 2002. The paper was a big sponsor of the SL Stingers [now Bees], so I scooped up the free tix quite often. It was a good year to be a Stingers fan: After seeing Frankie Rodriguez’s first pitch after getting called up from AA, my friend and I just looked at each other, with our jaws on the floor. There was also this kid named Chone… and a Molina… a Q… and some pitcher who looked like a horse.)

During an ill-advised and short-lived move to Wisconsin after graduation, I started working for Starbucks, which was about a thousand times more awesome than anyone would believe. I stuck with them when I moved back to SLC after 6 months on the prairie, while waiting out a job opening at the paper. When my husband of five weeks got in an insane car accident in which three of his friends died and he was critically injured, my SBUX coworkers rallied like crazy for me. The company gave me a huge grant from an employee-funded hardship reserve. Starbucks kept me sane for a long, long time and I’d go back there in a heartbeat if the need arose…

Eventually got back in at the paper as an editor/page designer, and worked there for a few years, keeping the occasional shift at SBUX. Life happened, got a divorce, and moved to NY to edit/design at a paper just north of the city. Working nights and weekends was miserable — actually, everything about the job except the pay was miserable — and layoffs loomed, so I applied for a magazine job on a lark. To this day, I’m not sure why they hired me.

So now I work at a fancy-pants wine magazine, editing stories about food, travel and wine stuff. While I wouldn’t say it’s easy, and my commute is long and the pay is bad, this still beats the hell out of writing headlines about stabbings, school board meetings, shootings, Main Street parades and corrupt county/town/village politics. No one yells in my ear at 11:35:58 p.m. that I’m about to miss deadline (I never actually missed deadline). I have weekends off for the first time in my life. I get to work and play in an unbelievable city. And yes, there’s free wine. (Sometimes it’s of questionable quality, but hey, it’s free. We drink it so you don’t have to.)

If I could magically erase all of my debt and go back to school/switch careers, I’d do something to help bodies: Nursing, physical therapy, teaching yoga all sound good to me. But life in the mag is fine, for now. :)

I’ve really enjoyed reading about everyone else’s experiences. It’s cool to see other journalists represent. Yeah, Kern Valley!!! Halos Heaven is such an amazing community, and as a displaced Angels fan, I think I’d go crazy without it. Thank you, everybody!

(Holy mole, this is long. Sorry!)

Are you talking about...

Frostie’s, as in Frosties next to Longboards on Garnet and Haines? And would this coffee shop happen to be called Kono’s?

That’s pretty cool about Starbucks. I’ve heard similar stories before. Not to sound “hipster” because I know coffee shops in general and Starbucks specifically have that stigma attached, but I’ve always been kind of impressed with some of the things they support and do.

Commander_Nate - October 25, 2010 reply

Yep, that's the place! Do you go there or what?

When I started, the bar next door was a little shithole called Fibber McGee’s. Lurpiest customers ever. When it became Longboards, it started drawing more people, and more people who needed dessert. One of my high school teachers waitressed there, and she’d send customers over to Frostie’s, where they often tipped generously.

Nope, not Kono’s. It was The Mission 2 and painted bronze when we were there, then became La Cantina and last I saw was painted a weird metallic green. Just north of PB Drive and World Famous. But damn, I miss Kono’s, too.

I don't personally go there, but I know several people who do and see it everyday

I’m not really much of an ice cream guy. Girls always want to go there, though, which I don’t really understand. When I’m drunk or hungover, I usually want Mexican food or a big, dirty, oversauced burger from In-N-Out or Carl’s Jr. Must be a personal preference thing.

Not familiar with the other place. Businesses in that area seem to change frequently.

Commander_Nate - October 25, 2010 reply

Dude, there's so much more than ice cream.

After parties, sometimes we’d go back to Frostie’s and make up a couple chili-covered corn dogs. Yum.

The other place has been there since at least 1995… Great coffee (of course), breakfasts and lunch, unbeatable people-watching.

I’d completely forgotten about Carl’s Jr.; wow. Good thing I’m coming home in 10 days and can eat my way through this thread.

"Holy Moley", or "Holy Moly".

“Holy Mole” would be the Pope’s poblano.

Your punishment for a journailist failing with a typo is to send me a bottle of some of that wine you are busy “taking for the team”. A nice Miner Family red would be Ok.

Stirrups - October 25, 2010 reply

It wasn't a typo.

It was homesickness. :(

I’ll keep my eyes peeled for your bottle, though. :)

princeton11loveshalos - October 25, 2010 reply

the long history of catherine

jeez we have to have dinner sometime. I had no idea.

You had no idea what?

Re: dinner: Just say when, kid. I’ll even drive down there on a Saturday.

Which I wouldn’t do for anyone else.

princeton11loveshalos - October 25, 2010 reply

after fall break.

I’ll be 21!!!

Your writing skills are readily apparent.

I enjoyed reading about your experiences. I think more of us go through similar trial and error as compared to those that know what you want to do in their early/late teens.

I rarely buy coffee at SBUX…I just don’t want to be over-charged for a darn cup of coffee. But,
what they did for your ex-husband was really kind. You must have been at least mildly surprised by their efforts on his behalf.

Have you learned a lot about wine? Or do you concentrate more on the food and travel aspects? One way or the other, best of luck there.

sothball - October 25, 2010 reply

RE: not wanting to be overcharged...

A cup of coffee is more expensive at Dunkin’ Donuts than it is at SBUX, at least around here. Weird, eh? At last when I get coffee at SBUX (which isn’t often, as the little city where I live doesn’t have one), I know that a higher percentage of the money is going to farmers (schools, health care, clean water projects) and employees’ health insurance and other good stuff. As far as the price of other, espresso-based, drinks (lattes, mochas, etc) at SBUX going through the roof: A lot people don’t realize that milk prices have been artificially depressed for a long time. Now that milk prices are going up, drink prices also have to go up. Same with fuel costs. SBUX tries to buy milk from local dairies when possible, and will pay a premium for that, too.

Never thought I’d be such an apologist for that company, but whenever the opportunity arises, I like to try and educate a little about where the money from all the “four-dollar coffee” goes. :)

Thanks so much for your tremendous compliment (writing). I actually have learned a lot about wine, but only enough to know that I barely see the tip of the iceberg. It is endlessly fascinating/intimidating. My big revelation this week – apparently, crappy soil for growing normal crops is great for growing wine grapes. (It might be more complex than that.) I was hired more for the food/travel/etc copy, but as sales of ad pages have dwindled, the amount of “etc” copy has dwindled too, and I’m doing more wine-intensive stuff. It is hard!

Reading through the thread, it seems you’re pretty into wine. How did you find it? Do you mind if I ask how old you were when you became interested in it? Only recently has it seemed (to me) like something accessible to us young’uns. Re: Grapegrowing in Arizona. Here‘s a little, fun interview about it. (If it’s members-only, email me for login info.)

cath619 - October 28, 2010 reply

Booze

I’m a regional manager for a major spirits and wine company.

Tons of travel, but the the bennies are great and I have an epic bar at the house.

HoustonHaloFan - October 25, 2010 reply

My great-uncle was a VP for Seagrams.

Is that where you’re at?

Work as a Patent Attorney

My law school education obviously helped me to be an attorney, as well as my degree in electrical engineering.

For those unfamiliar with patent law, only people that have a technical background are eligible to take the Patent Bar Exam. Also, you don’t have to be an attorney to take the patent bar, only a technical background. People without a legal background but pass the patent bar are called Patent Agents, and can do the same thing a Patent Attorney can do, except litigate in a court (need to pass a state bar for that). So, that means that not every attorney can be a Patent Attorney…it’s just another hoop that one must go through in order to help inventors patent their invention.

Before becoming an attorney, I was an RF Engineer for a wireless communications company.

However, the best job that I ever had was being a cashier at Pauley Pavillion concessions stand while attending UCLA. My shift would end after halftime and then I’d get to watch the rest of the game from the stands. Back in the mid-90’s UCLA was great and won the tourney in ’95, so unless I spent the night at Pauley to get a priority ticket to get a good seat in the student section, I would end up getting a bad seat in the student section. Being a cashier not only helped out by getting some spending money, I also got free food from the concessions stand (which every college student loves) and got to watch the second half for free!

seas98 - October 25, 2010 reply

"only people that have a technical background are eligible to take the Patent Bar Exam."

If that’s the case, why are so many bogus “Something-incredibly-obvious-and-clearly-nonpatentable BUT ON A COMPUTER” or “*BUT ON TEH INTERWEBZ” patents filed and granted?

"There's an app for that!"

oops.

Stirrups - October 25, 2010 reply

Getting a patent...

is all about meeting the statutory requirements. If the bogus “Something-incredibly-obvious-and-clearly-nonpatentable BUT ON A COMPUTER” meets the statutory requirements, then it is patentable.

An inventor can get a patent on their invention no matter how crazy it is. The Patent Attorney/Agent helps inventors get the patent granted, and typically don’t have anything to do with the conception of the invention.

seas98 - October 25, 2010 reply

Except that material that is obvious to a practicioner skilled in the art is non-patentable.

Follow up - example

XOR-ing a cursor was patented sometime in the early ’80s.

I came up with it … independently (we hadn’t discussed it at all) … during my very FIRST graphics class. That says to me that it’s obvious to a skilled practitioner — if a student in his first class on the subject can independently come up with it.