Let's talk about "Black Friday"

Well it came and went with a flurry. I'm talking about Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving that is by FAR the biggest, most hugesest (lol...that is MY word) day of the year for retail. Some of you may know about my recent job situation with my full time job. Being fired from there left me with my Part time job at, of all places, Best Buy! Needless to say, I worked 12 hours today.

It all started out innocently enough. 3:30 am wake up call from my stupid alarm clock that I hate and hated even more at 3:30 this morning for waking me up! Shower and get dressed to meet the masses. Now, I am about to experience my very first Black Friday of ANY kind because I refuse to shop on that day on principle.

Anyway, I get to the store and we are instructed to park in Home Depot's lot. Home depot is about a half mile away. We had to walk...WALK! WALK I said! Well, me and walking don't get along in the daytime, much less at 4 am. But I walk. And I'm steaming when I get to the door and lo and behold there are at LEAST 1000 people lined up in front. This is about to become one interesting day!

Five am. Doors open and I'm standing in the back at the computers where I work and this mass of people come storming in the store like they are taking the Beaches of Normandy. I swear I thought I saw bayonets. The sea of sweaty, smelly human beings all rush the computer section to get their grubby hands on one of the sixteen eMachine packages that we were selling for 199.00. Needless to say, chaos ensued when two hundred sleep deprived people with smelly breath started fighting for one of the sixteen that we had. Yeah. Police were called. Calm got restored. I never stopped moving all day long.

Twelve hours, doing nothing but directing traffic.

"Where are the iPods?"

"They are that way ma'am".

"Do you have any of the two hundred dollar computers left?"

"Nope, it's noon, sir. Those were gone at 5:03."

"What do you mean they are gone? This is false advertising. I'm gong to sue"

"No problem sir, that line starts back there."

On and on this went for twelve of the most grueling, but fun hours of my life! I wouldn't take anything back, except for the fact that I was told to go to "Lunch" at 9:45 this morning. I get in the hub (that is Best Buy for break room) and find that lunch consists of 4 chicken nuggets from Chic-Fil-A. They ate ALL of them and left our team FOUR nuggets. Our team has SIX people on it. YOU do the math. Needless to say, i was NOT a happy camper after that. As a consolation, the managers DID come around with a bowl of Tootsie Rolls for us. Limit four per person.

Now, I'm hungry. I'm going to get a Turkey sandwich! More later, Folks.

Various thoughts

Sitting here, waiting on my pants to dry so I can go to work, I had some thoughts about my life and my writing. I figured I would write them down here to save them.

If you have read this blog, you know that I have experienced some life altering events in the past few weeks. Events that have caused me to have to sit back and rethink my current state of mind. Before I go further on this, I want you to know that this is NOT going to be a rant post. In fact, it is going to be a positive post as will ALL of my posts from now on.

First and foremost, I have come to the conclusion that no matter what happens in my life, I have to keep pushing forward. Pushing forward with my life, with my career, with my writing. Especially with my writing. I have sat down to write while this was going on, and couldn't put one word on paper. The emotions and the feelings that were racing through my mind were blocking the very creativity that I needed to write...in fact, to live. I can't let this happen anymore.

I started writing some things a few days ago and actually got a few pages down. They were so dark and so violent that my wife said it scared her to know that those thoughts were in my head. Not the thoughts of ME doing any of this, but my character in that short piece. I tried to tell her that is was a story and it wasn't real, but she said she couldn't believe that I would have thought up what was on the paper. I got out a lot of emotions in that story and now I feel better about myself and my writing.

Another realization that I came to over the past few days is that God will not put anymore on me than I can handle. God said that, I believe that, and that settles that. Even though my chest felt like it was going to burst wide open, and I wanted to just crawl in a hole somewhere and die, God was with me and he led me through. I'm still not out of the woods as far as my situation, but dagnabbit (that's a Southern word, BTW), I'm going to make it through this trying time in my life. I'm going to make it through and I am going to be bigger and stronger and MUCH better for it.

Finally, I realized that my attitude was half of the battle. Moping around and letting this get the best of me...thinking I was a failure at life was getting me absolutely NOWHERE. I woke up and realized that a positive mental attitude is the best thing in this world. I can do anything I want to do. All I need is a positive mental attitude. I am sure to fail if I DON'T have it, so why not go with it?

That is what I am going to do from this moment on. I'm not going to complain, or whine, or moan if something bad happens anymore. I will give my problems to God and let him handle them and lead me in the direction that he wants me to go.

I WILL write...EVERY DAY! I WILL get better at this. I WILL do the things necessary to fulfill my dream of writing a novel. I will push on through to the end to get it done. I WILL sit and write, even if it is just gibberish. Even if it is writing the Preamble to the Constitution in my own words. I will write SOMETHING! I WILL create.

Pressing forward. That is the rule of the day. Not looking back and wondering "what if", but looking FORWARD and wondering "what if".

Starting over...

Well, after my latest debacle with almost losing everything in my life, I am writing a little bit again, FINALLY! Not much, mind you, but I am doing something. It seems like the only thing that gets my mind off of my personal problems. That and football. LOL. Im going to be making the rounds and hitting all of my favorite blogs that I haven't read in the past week and do some catching up.

A good thing is that I have a phone interview in the morning (Monday) at 8:30 with a company that will be a HUGE step up for me. I was told that if the interview went well that they wanted to bring me on ASAP! This would mean a LOT more money for me and will put me in such a better position. I am praying and keeping my fingers crossed about it. I am REALLY nervous about the interview, but I will get through it.

Anyway, just thought I would drop by and catch up and let you guys know that I am still alive and kicking...well, kicking may be taking it a bit far, but I AM here!

More later, folks!

Life has officially gotten in the way...

Hey guys..just a quick update on me.  I did lose my job as predicted and now I am working every hour that I can at my part time job and sending out resumes like crazy.  So, I havent had much time to post here or to comment on any of your blogs.  Rest assured though, I will be back here and stalking your blogs very soon.  

Please dont forget about me in my absence.  I will be posting here, but only maybe once or twice per week instead of every day...so please keep checking!  As soon as I figure out my situation, and get settled back down, Ill be back with a vengence!

More later Folks.

Associated Content...

I think I am going to start doing some things over at Associated Content for some extra cash.  I just signed up tonight and it looks like that I can write about anything that I like.  Sports being something that I like so I figure I can write some stuff on my favorite sports.  It's not going to be anything like writing fiction, I am sure, but at least I'm writing.  

I kind of feel like no matter WHAT I am actually writing, that if i am tapping these keys on this keyboard and those taps turn into words, then dammit, I'm writing.  It doesn't really matter what the subject matter is, does it?

So, I think I might try to churn out 5-10 articles per day just to see what i can make out of this.  I want to try to get into some freelance writing anyway and maybe this will help me.  After all, this WILL be published, even if it IS just online.

I want to thank Misti Sandefur from Life of A Writer for posting the info for AC.  Just think, Misti, you may have just given me my start in freelance!  Maybe Ill autograph something for you when I make it big :D.  go check out Misti's blog as well...it is one of my favorites and i read it daily!

More later, folks!

How about a Flash Fiction contest - WITH PRIZES!!

Jason Evans over at The Clarity of Night blog is doing another flash fiction contest.  Not only will you get bragging rights, should you win, but you also could win a nice hefty prize package.  Jason has an awesome sunrise/sunset (I cant figure out which) image to write a short 250 word fiction story around.  You should go check it out.  I sent my entry already.  I know I won't win though (in his best Eyore impression).

You can get directly to the contest by clicking this link.

Happy writing on this one and GOOD LUCK!

Well, aint this a kick in the head...

I found out today that I am about to be jobless.   The thing is, I found out that Im going to be jobless by mistake.  My wife was perusing the jobs ads, as she always does, and finds an ad for the store that I work in.  She clicked it and it was for MY job!  What a crock!  We have been slow...S-L-O-W and haven't been selling a lot of anything at all.  Apparently, they think that is MY fault, I guess.  

The fact is, and I have brought this up, they do not advertise ONE BIT. They will advertise for the other two stores, but never for ours.  Now, if you owned a business and needed sales, wouldn't YOU advertise to get that business in the store?  I would.

So, I am about to be jobless...when, I don't know, but I do know there is an ad for my job.  So, it's back to the job hunt for me starting tomorrow.  I'm going to bury my nose in some job sites and get something better than I have now.  I didnt care too much for this job anyway as the pay was lousy and the hours sucked.  But it was a job.  I feel terrible about it now and I have a knot in my stomach and I KNOW Im not going to sleep very well tonight.  Hell of a way to find out, that's for sure!

Any of you have any freelance writing you need help with?  I'll work cheap :D

Do we NEED another reality show?

Pete Tzinski over at CarrpeeDiem blogged yesterday about the writer's strike going on in the entertainment business. Now, I know why they want to strike...they are getting screwed and the producers are getting richer by the day.

My question is, can we use just ONE more reality show? That is what we are about to get. We will have more reality shows that we will know what to do with in the next few weeks if this strike goes on. How many more ideas can they come up with for a reality show? It seems like that is all that is on now, anyway.

I just hope that the writers get what they deserve. The producers are taking these shows and blasting them on the internet and on DVD and they are making BILLIONS off of the Intellectual Property of these writers. The writers arent making a dime off of the sale of the DVD's etc.

I say good for the writers for standing up and demanding a change so that they can get paid what they deserve. On the other hand, I just wish they didn't do this so I wont have to watch "At Home with Ghandi" or some other stupid reality show.

Real Newspaper Ads...

I got such a kick out of this when i read it tonight that I just HAD to post it.  Hope you guys enjoy them as much as I did!

Real Newspaper Ads 

FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER .
8 years old. Hateful little dog. Bites.

FREE PUPPIES:
1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbor's dog.

FREE PUPPIES...
Mother, AKC German Shepherd.
Father, Super Dog...able to leap tall fences in a single bound.

FOUND DIRTY WHITE DOG.
Looks like a rat ... been out a while.
Better be a reward.

NORDIC TRACK
$300 Hardly used, call Chubby.

GEORGIA PEACHES
California grown - 89 cents lb.

JOINING NUDIST COLONY!
Must sell washer and dryer $300.

WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE .
WORN ONCE BY MISTAKE.
Call Stephanie.

AND THE BEST ONE :
FOR SALE BY OWNER:
Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, 45 volumes
Excellent condition
$1,000 or best offer
No longer needed, got married last month.
Wife knows everything.

Changing BACK to Blogger

I liked wordpress, I really did. But in the end, it was just easier to come back to Blogger since this is what the majority of people are using now. Not that I want to conform to the masses...Lord knows I dont want to do that and didnt come back for that reason. Everything is just easier here. That, and the fact that wordpress allows NO advertising on their system. This seriously limited me with adsense since they wont allow it.

I need to generate some more revenue to my meager earnings so I did put up adsense on my blog. I usually wouldnt put advertising at all on anything that I do, but if I can make an extra dime here and there, what is it hurting, ya know?

Anyway, here I am. Back on blogger. Cant import my old posts, so I guess Im starting over. I guess Ill stay here for a while. I kind of like it. Doesnt have the functionality that wordpress has in some areas, but it far surpasses wordpress in others. It's that others that I need from my blog and WP just didnt cut it.

So, Ill be here for a while. Anyone wanna throw me a housewarming party, Im up for it. :)