Goalsville: Reviewed

It's been a big year for your Intrepid Blogger. Though my dear little blog has only been up for a part of the year (since August) I'm sure you can all gather enough information to know that it was a long time coming. It seems only fitting that to end 2009, I give you all a rundown of where we stand on the various goals I've outlined in my posts:

Goal: Survive After Quitting My Job in a Recession
Success Rate: 100%
I thought I'd start on a high note here folks. Quitsville was started with the notion that I would spend sep-dec 2009 (at least) scrounging for money and work. The job market was not a friendly place to me in the earlier part of 2009 and I had really no reason to believe that would change when I quit my job - but I had a really remarkable support network and the belief that I had to do it; so I quit anyway. And here I am, 4 short months later, happy and successful in a new company with people I respect and like (not always the same thing). So, consider this goal met (really, knocked out of the park if we're being honest).

Goal: Obtain the World Record in Dr. Mario
Success Rate: 50%
Let's be honest, I've made some great progress on the Road to the Record but bottom line - I do NOT have the record in hand. The fact that I have proven (if only to myself and you dear readers) that I can do it is HUGE so I feel I'm owed some percentage of success even if, in the end, I have not met my goal. 2010... watch out.

Goal: Read 10,000 Pages During the Calendar Year
Success Rate: 138%
You read right! Not only did I meet this goal but I surpassed it by 3,825 pages. I have to admit that I'm pretty pleased with myself on this one. I've read some amazing books and every minute that I spent reading is meaningful to me (sorry if that's a little nerdish). There are a lot of things to spend time on in life and it's difficult to set aside an hour to read sometimes. However, I've never regretted it when I have.

Happy New Year dear readers! I've been spending some time thinking about the future of Quitsville... there will be one... but you'll have to wait until 2010 to find out what it is!

How Jobless are you?

I know this question seems sort of obvious - you're probably either 0% jobless or 100% jobless - but think about it. We've been hearing about the Boomers, the Lost Generation, the Gen Xers, Women, Executives, College Students. But if you're like most people, you're a tricky combination of various elements and aren't only one of those groups.

Luckily for you, The New York Times thought of that and created this handy little tool to help you determine precisely how jobless YOU are.

Click here to visit the New York Times Jobless Tool

Sure, it's not perfect. The age groups are pretty wide for one. And I'm not entirely sure what they mean by jobless. But, it's pretty interesting nonetheless.

I fall into a category that is only 3.6% jobless which, in light of what I know about the rest of the country, feels pretty good. And certainly brings up quite a few conversation points about who is not that lucky.

Blogger Fail?

Hello Dear Readers - are you out there?

It was impressed upon me this morning that my last post was - gasp! - exactly 2 weeks ago. You might remember the post because I went a little ranty all over Consumer Electronics Advertising and then sealed up.

As you all know, December is a month of chaos for the most organized of us (which is not me) and is essentially a s***show for the rest of us. Don't get me wrong, I love the family togetherness and the holidays and I'm a ridiculously sappy fan of Christmas specifically... but, there's just a lot going on.

I haven't forgotten you! Or Quitsville! As the year end nears, I suspect you'll be getting a pretty detailed rundown on some of my progress - as it pertains to my laid out goals - and some news on the failure... (er... recovery) of our economy.

For now, it felt important to yell into the blog void and say hey, I'm still here! This isn't indicative of silence to come!

Why Consumer Electronics Brands Need a Valium

I'm going to preface this post with a disclaimer so you all know exactly what you're getting into here: I usually do not use my blog as a place to indiscriminately rant about a topic. Today, that's different. This post is going to be nothing more than a venting. However, it might just be entertaining.

I haven't written about it here but I recently purchased a snazzy new phone. I am an extremely difficult small electronics consumer in that I like to have the best, newest, most cool electronics but I am nervous about change, have an extremely picky aesthetic, and get easily overwhelmed by technology. I am, veritably, a dream date for consumer electronics brands. So when I started thinking about buying a new phone, I spent a month or two feeling uncomfortable (virtually breathing into a brown paper bag every time I thought about it) followed by more time being bratty about the plethora of non-options (I don't want to switch carriers, that one is too boxy, the Blackberry rolly ball makes my finger feel weird...). All I can say is that at least I own up to the difficulty here.

In the end, the phone I purchased is lovely. It's cute and efficient and intuitive and has nice shiny everything but is also fast and (I can't underscore this enough) WORKS WELL AS A PHONE! And, it doesn't come from either of the brands that I am about to wage blogger rant hatred upon now.

I'm sure you've all seen the new Droid commercials, the old Mac vs. PC ads, and the our phone is cooler than your entire life iPhone commercials. I get it, okay. All of these ads are meant to tell me just how cool and neat and worthy of coveting the various products are. And all I have to say is Ease the F*** up.

Do I want a sparkly princess phone? No, Droid, I do not. However, I'm not so interested in having a phone that cuts like a chainsaw through a banana or whatever the hell metaphor you used in that ad. I also don't want a phone that's sent to me from aliens and falls to the earth in pods only meant to scare the bejesus out of rednecks. I don't want people dancing around inside my phone. I don't want a bajillion cute little icons and no service. I don't want most of the things you're trying to tell me I want. I want a phone. That makes calls. And sends text messages. And can access the internet and my email. But will NOT give me the false security that my phone says anything about my worth as an Indie Rock Hipster, a Tech Geek, or a 17 year old boy. And to be honest, I'd much sooner hang out with John Hodgeman than that other guy anyhow.

I understand that men are overwhelmingly seen as thought leaders when it comes to consumer electronics but let's be honest with ourselves here. Women like to buy things - we're more likely to consume than men. And in the age of all encompassing connectivity, just as many women have phones and laptops (and cameras and portable music devices) as men. Trying aiming an ad at us for a change.

Want more ranting? Click here to read You Lie, Luke Wilson: The misleading new cell phone ads from AT&T and Verizon on Slate.com

Job Searching - Yuletide Edition

You might have noticed a certain lack of blog posts the past few days (err... four days). I'm sure that I don't have to tell you, dear readers, that December is a crazy mess of a month. Between the holiday madness that has already started (early this year... I'm blessed) and the fact that December is, in fact, the busiest time for my new company I'm already experiencing a certain whirlwind effect on my life. I know I am not the only one and it got me thinking this morning... how do the holidays affect the job search?

Job searching, as we all know, is a second full time job at the best of times (when you're already employed but looking that is) but when you take into consideration the frenetic pace of the holidays coupled with all of the holiday parties ("So, what do you do?") and family time ("How's the job search going?") as well as the general notion that companies are not hiring in December, it would come as no surprise to me if many job searches foundered during the holiday months.

I've written about the Job Search routine before (check out: How to Survive Unemployment and Job Search To Dos) so you all know I think it's very important to keep yourself "on task" so to speak, but this is even more important during the holidays. I am not actively looking for a job right now and I can't seem to find time to do anything lately (no blogging, my RSS feed is a mess, etc.) so it seems prudent to ease up on yourself a bit but let's say you make sure you do one thing every day to continue the search and keep yourself on track.

Here are some Holiday Job Search tips from the Pros:

1. Since most job seekers take the holidays off, you'll have a natural leg up (from 8 Reasons to Job Search During the Holidays by A Great Resume Service)
2. Take time to fine tune your resume or portfolio (from Rev Up Your Job Search During the Holidays by Career Builder)
3. Use the holidays as an Ice Breaker (from Holiday Hope by Job-Hunt.org)
4. Get a jump on January - you can't start working in the New Year if you didn't interview before then (from Holiday Job Hunting Can Reap Rewards by Career Cast)
5. This year isn't typical - job searches are different in general now (from Three reasons to keep your job search going during the holidays by Laurie Bartolo)

What are your tips for searching during the holidays?

NaNoWriMo: Fail?

It's December 2nd and National Novel Writing Month is officially over as we head deep into the mish mash of the holiday season.

How did I do?

Interesting question. The bold, honest truth is... well, not so hot. I did write (yay!) but I got nowhere near the goal set out by the program nor did I write every day... etc. etc.

However, what I did do was write something and, in a way, it revitalized my interest in writing. This blog started as a lark but I've been repeatedly surprised by how much I really enjoy the simple act of getting something down "on paper" every day (or nearly every day). It's different from the writing I do in my normal life and I find myself looking forward to it. NaNoWriMo helped to reinforce the feeling I get from my blog, the joy of stringing words together and finding the right combinations both to the internal and the external ear (that's right, sometimes I read my blog posts aloud... to myself).

Am I alone?

Turns out no. This isn't shocking but lots of people started out on the NaNoWriMo trek and didn't quite reach the pinnacle of the mountain. I did a quick search through Twitter and some of the blogs I've been reading and a lot of folks are sharing my shoes - the experience offered something lasting but page count was not it.

It's not surprising to find but... I did better when I really got into the groove of writing... setting myself down every day and putting some words on "paper". I know that we all know this and this is a famous lesson lauded over and over by my favorite authors but I had to really feel it for myself. I need to write every day to be successful.

Yikes. Now, just how to squeeze that into my life.

Want more NaNoWriMo content? Here are some of the blog posts I liked:

Post NaNoWriMo Day 2: More than a Manuscript by Writer in Progress

Another NaNoWriMo Ends; Hello December 2009 by Triscribe

(great!) NaNoWriMo Round Up by Critically Yours

My NaNo Reward - Writing Routines by Routines for Writers