Efforts in Discovery - One Less Dog In The Hunt

September 23, 2021September 6, 2021

Forget the BS

You know, I go back there every now and then. I mean in my thoughts. I don’t really go back there. I avoid it like the plague (sorry, kind of a tough word to use given the times we are in). We do a lot of online shopping these days, not because of Covid; just because we don’t want to waste our time going in.

If you’ve been following this, you know I spent thirty plus years in retail. My first foray was with the Big K, while in college. They were actually a big company then. The largest discounter. It’s humorous now, maybe a little sad in some ways. They really thought they would squash the Big W before it ever got rolling. I remember my old boss telling me about this little retailer that was coming on strong. Based in Arkansas, they were just getting ready to move into the DFW area. “Yeah, we’re going to roll over them and send them back to the small towns,” he claimed. It didn’t happen of course. The Big W went on to crush the Big K and the rest is history.

May 2, 2021May 2, 2021

Could I Do This More Wrong?

I was looking at my stats, my insights, and I just had to chuckle to myself. You know, I don’t do any of this right. In fact, I probably couldn’t do it any more wrong than I do. I don’t promote this site. I don’t listen to the insight suggestions. I don’t pay attention to bounce rate or session duration. I just kind of let it happen. I’ve even screwed up my advertising account by using an old email account which I no longer have access to. If there was any revenue to generate, which there never has been, I wouldn’t be getting credit for it on any of my old posts because that account doesn’t exist.

I had a dream the other night. I don’t usually remember them, but I’ve started this CPAP thing and I’m actually dreaming. Anyway, I dreamed someone asked me if I had a website. I said yes. Then they asked how much traffic I get. I said, “None. I don’t ever tell anybody about it.”

February 18, 2021February 7, 2021

The Edge

I intend this to be my last post which is COVID related. As an exception, I may have a throwback article about the impact to business, but it’s not planned. For this post, I’m going to talk about something more directly related to the virus and its impact on individuals. It’s something I’ve touched on briefly in past posts. It’s fear. More specifically, it’s the fear of death that surrounds this illness.

One of my favorite movies is TOP GUN. It’s fun, it has planes, and it has relationships. I really shouldn’t have to insert a spoiler alert here, because by now everyone on the planet should have seen this movie, but here it is: **SPOILER ALERT** – The scene where Goose dies, has a huge emotional impact. But there is another scene I want to hit on today. It’s early on in the movie and really sets up the situation for TOP GUN’s story line. Cougar, a Navy F-14 pilot, has just come face to face with a Russian MIG. The experience forces him to realize he is in a life or death situation. It shakes him. He is married, has a young son he hasn’t even seen yet, and death scares him.

February 11, 2021January 1, 2024

Away from the Pack

So, if you want to see how this started, you can check out the early posts. Short history is that it was the product of a layoff after a thirty year career. I was searching for my spot. Where was I going to fit in and how was I going to make a living?

That living has come from a non-corporate job. Though it pays about half of what I made, it gives me great satisfaction. And during this COVID-19 period, I am so f… uh freaking thankful that I am not in retail. I mean, you can’t imagine how grateful I feel when we have to enter that Big Box retail store and see those employees masked up all day. We don’t go in often. Just four times in three and a half years, but I’m still glad I’m not there. As devastating as the layoff was, I now see it was for the best.

As life changes, priorities change; goals change; and purpose changes. The purpose of this blog has certainly changed. Even in my old job, I was a bit of a lone wolf. Although I supported my company, I had issues with conformity just for the sake of conformity. I’m an independent thinker, and I don’t just like to go along. That still stands. This site is still about going it alone, rather than with the pack.

I’m still a dog on a hunt. I’m just not in the hunt, with every other dog out there. And this site will still be about independent thinking, traveling, exploring, and living.

November 24, 2020November 21, 2020

What’s My Line?

You know, I’m a fan of Lonesome Dove. I find a lot of meaning in Larry McMurtry’s characters. One character in particular reflects an individual who floats through life using situations, people, and opportunities to his advantage. Jake Spoon is what Augustus McCrae calls a leaky vessel, someone you just simply can’t count on to be there or to do things right. In a fateful scene in the movie, we can see the struggle Jake faces with personal responsibility. When Gus accuses him of crossing the line between being a citizen or an outlaw, his response is one with which perhaps many individuals today can relate.

“I didn’t see no line, Gus.”

In life we come against a lot of lines – lines which separate organization from chaos, good from bad, happy from sad, and life from death. As a society we have drawn lines. Some are helpful. They help us live peacefully together, such as lines of law and order. Others help us establish boundaries – city limits, county lines, state lines, and property lines. Often lines can help to keep us safe – caution lines, traffic lines, and fence lines. Other lines help entertain us – I’m thinking of goal lines, free-throw lines, and finish lines.

Other lines aren’t helpful at all, like the lines we draw between ourselves. Lines which classify us, and divide us – race, ethnicity, age, sex, politics, and religion. These aren’t lines we’ve drawn for positive use in our society, they are lines which have become walls to separate us from each other. These are the lines that many hope to erase within our society, our country, and the world.

October 18, 2020October 18, 2020

Sunshine and Lollypops

Maybe it’s just because I’m growing old. Maybe it’s because the people I talk to most of the time are growing old as well. Maybe it’s the tumultuous times we live in. Whatever the reason, I find that the conversations I get involved with tend to center on how much simpler life used to be. I talk with others and we remember the uncomplicated ways in which we lived, grew up, had fun, and learned about life. I find myself wishing my kids had known that world, and I do my best to share it. No, it wasn’t all sunshine and lollypops.

We grew up in a strange time. Our parents were the product of the fifties and sixties. Though Howdy Doody was long before my time, he was still around in reruns, as were the Mouseketeers. I watched Shirley Temple movies, and the Three Stooges which were all more a part of my mom’s generation. Woody Woodpecker and Popeye cartoons started off most movies at the theater. PPPP Porky Pig always told us when we had hit the end with “TTThat’s All, Folks!” We had Mr. Ed, Gilligan, Gomer (Shazam!), and Coyote and Roadrunner (beep-beep). We still lived in the age of the Western so we watched Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, and Have Gun Will Travel. At our grandparents’ homes we were exposed to the weekly dose of country and hillbilly which came the Hee Haw! Yet, we also had cutting edge shows like Salvage 1, The Six Million Dollar Man, Mannix, Kojak (Who loves ya, Baby?) and some of the best James Bond movies.

April 30, 2020April 18, 2020

Diversity

http://clipart-library.com/clipart/1284985.htm

Diversity. If you have any connection to a corporate job, you’ve heard the word Diversity. You’ve probably had it ingrained in you. You’ve been taught the need for it, encouraged to embrace it, and heard the exultation of the positive impacts it can have to your company or your job — unless you work for Starbucks; in that event you got a crash course after everyone else.

What is diversity? Merriam-Webster says, ” the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety OR an instance of being composed of differing elements or qualities : an instance of being diverse.

April 23, 2020April 18, 2020

Gut Check

You know, there are times when you just have to go with your gut. Breaking things down into pros and cons, using logic to distill your thoughts and make an educated decision; its all wise counsel, but that little voice whispering in your ear or that feeling in your gut shouldn’t be tossed aside. To use a comic book reference: When your spider sense is speaking, you should listen. Sometimes you just have to go with what feels right. That’s tough in a world where we’re taught to use our brains instead of our feelings.

I was coming up on two years of unemployment. With no prospects after a long journey through applications, resumes, job posting sites, and unemployment rejections (clue: if you aren’t making any money and you use your retirement funds to make ends meet — you likely sunk your chances with the unemployment office) I went back to my retail roots looking for gainful employment. It was a bitter pill to swallow. It was looking like no one wanted me or could see any value in me, but another retailer. I’d tried. I really tried to keep from walking back toward the darkside, but it was the only job source calling for me.

April 11, 2020April 18, 2020

What’s Next?

Pluck Makes Luck. Good saying. It’s tougher than that when you’re on the other side. With the Covid-19 pandemic wreaking havoc on the economy and jobs, some of you are on the other side. I feel your pain. I spent two years on the other side. There isn’t a person alive that can realistically claim I wasn’t working towards work.

I can’t say why it took so long for a guy with my experience to find a job. I can speculate as to why employers weren’t interested, but they don’t spend a lot of time explaining their reasons. I had an interview where that question was asked. “Why haven’t you been hired in a two year period?” My response was perhaps a little too telling of my frustration. “After this interview, you’ll have a better answer for that than I do. I hope you’ll share that with me.” He didn’t.

Fortunately, I finally found someone to take a chance on me. Maybe it was just a matter of timing. If you believe in divine intervention, then the answer might be that the right job just hadn’t opened yet. If you don’t believe in some kind of greater plan, then it’s just a matter of time, work, and frustration.

January 2, 2020April 11, 2020

Panic Button

So, I got the boot. I think I walked out of that building (escorted of course) in a tunnel. I had a feeling it was coming. We’d been warned there was some corporate restructuring that would impact those in my position. Crazy thing is, they warned us a week before they told us; let us dangle at the end of the hook so to speak. Simple courtesy or even humane treatment would have been to tell us what was happening and then tell us who got the axe. One swift cut, but no, bro.

http://clipart-library.com/clipart/1289443.htm

Anyway, my point isn’t to debate the heartlessness of corporate decision making. I mean to set up the feeling of walking out of a building where I had invested over half my life with no clear understanding of where I was headed. Of course, I had bills, a wife, a kid in college, and I was still at least ten years away from retirement. I was going to need some income, but I had no desire to enter into something I would be wanting out of in six months.

In that week where I dangled, I researched. The number one thing I found was encouragement to stay calm. Don’t Panic. Keep a perspective. Don’t rush into the first job you stumble upon. Therefore, on the trip from the building to my car, with the lump in my throat growing with each step, I forced myself to take deep breaths. I opened the door and dropped my few personal items from my desk into the passenger seat, and I sat… taking deep breaths. I was empty. I was stunned. I was lost. I was questioning, but I wasn’t panicking.