Blog move

Hi-

Stains has moved from blogger to tumblr. Feel free to follow us there.

http://mrsldubs.tumblr.com/

One of My Top 10 Fears

Job interviews. Well, maybe not in the top ten, but up there. 

I really fear these. Truly. I look good on paper, I'm experienced, honest, intelligent and work hard. But the minute I get in the room with a hiring inquisitor I freeze. Freeze. Clothes don't fit, bad hair day, tongue swells, hands sweat, teeth chatter. The dentist chair looks good comparably speaking. 

I over think everything. What is a good color to wear? Perfume or no perfume? Business casual or Art Department Interesting? Jewelry? Make-up? A lot of this stuff I don't do normally. So in my mind I'm going in wearing a costume. Do Vermont employers look for different things than Connecticut employers?

I hear myself answering questions by rambling. I figure if I keep talking maybe I'll say something they want to hear. As I'm hearing the words my mind races. "What do they really want to know? Surely it can't be 'what kind of tree would you be?'" I was stumped in one of my interviews with "what do you mean by 'easy to get along with?'"

I'm the example of what NOT to do. I'm well studied in what I should do. I've borrowed, googled and purchased all the information I can find on job interviewing. Prepared for all contingencies. I know the questions before they are asked. I know what I should be wearing and what questions I shouldn't answer. When I should stop talking. But once I am in that room, the mind slate is wiped clean.

I should have paid attention in grade school during oral presentations. Give me a written test. Something I can research, take my time answering and editing.

"Greatest weakness?" No problem. Interviews.

Hmm, what do I think I'll be doing 5 years from now? Hopefully still working. 

Here's a good site for many hints on a successful interview and job hunting:

http://www.womenforhire.com/advice/job_interview_preparation_and_advice/preparing_answers_to_likely_questions

Lisa's younger brother is 25

A tip of the hat and Happy Birthday to Apple's Macintosh. 25 years old. 125k, I think. Wow they've come a long way. 

Have a read.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7846575.stm

I had a couple of good friends who sold the Lisa's. I remember them being very expensive. I'd never be able to afford a computer, I thought.

Looking at the first mac again, makes me smile. I didn't own one (my first "real" computer was a PC Limited—I think that was an early Dell) but I was envious even then. I was falling in love. That PC Limited was my last PC. Mac was my future.

Now I am the proud owner of a MacBook Pro and a G4. I still drool every time a new upgrade in Apple technology occurs. I look forward to my current machinery wearing out so I can purchase the biggest, fastest machine on the block. Somehow the thousands of dollars of expense can be rationalized easily. Weird that.

Well, Happy 25, dear Macintosh. Happy Birthday to you. And many more.

Free Is Good

I'm on the look-out for free opportunities to gain the education I need. Kirsten is right. Take advantage of the free classes/workshops in your area. 

But in my case, for some reason, there have been none of those opportunities on the I91 corridor in southern Vermont. Oh yes, there are Knitting, Bird Watching, Alaskan Arctic Exploration, Journaling, Abenacky Archaeology, India Exploration and MicroSoft Word offerings. In addition great information on Resources for Women and Making Ends Meet. Nothing yet to meet my particular job hunt needs.

I have found a couple of sites offering free- and somewhat free- tutorials in Dreamweaver CS3. Here are the sites for your reference:

www.webstockbox.com/css/learn-to-use-basic-css-tool-in-dreamweaver/

There are related links on the bottom of the entry.

www.weblearningseries.com/free-tutorials/dreamweaver.html

I've been following these along and have gotten a lot of useful information.

www.lynda.com/home/ViewCourses.aspx?lpk0=270/

This is an awesome site and only some of the content is free. They are trying to sell their service. The site and tutorials a well reviewed and for someone like me, it's an affordable alternative to paying for college courses.

There are most likely similar sites for many other programs. Surprisingly, the best place to start is youtube.com. Search the program you are interested in learning. Many of these websites have tutorials posted there. They will also link you to their sites (and better resolution video).

Another source is the iTunes podcasts. I have found a couple of wonderful learning series there.

First Friend's Advice

FROM: Kirsten Navin

Ok. here is some of what I've been doing.

My first recommendation is take advantage of anything free. For example my church hosted a job search workshop for it's members (more on this in a minute) but libraries and other public venues are all doing something, look in your local paper.

The workshop I attended I did so a little skeptically, I'm coming from a specialized field so what could they really offer me. I was hoping to get a tip or two. Happily I couldn't be more wrong. It was an all day event, most of the people were wall-streeters, cpas even a lawyer, however there was another woman in publishing so I at least made a connection. Making connections was the main theme of the seminar, and how to be prepared to sell yourself. The people who were running the session had all lost jobs before and all three are in some form of recruitment now, hearing their antidotes eased some anxiety. They did a resume critique and I offered mine. I thought I had a pretty good resume going in but now I'm very confident that it reflects who I am and where I want to go. One of the main points they made was that they felt I was underselling myself. And to focus on the unique things that I did to shine at my job rather than just list my responsibilities. The recruiters even offered to look over our resumes again after we re-worked them from the critique. I was most impressed with how much of their personal time they gave to help the group.

Here are a few tips:
1. Take advantage of free seminars and workshops - check your library!
2. Keep your connections updated, use professional based web-sites like LinkedIn.
3. Join or attend local networking groups
4. Have your resume in both PDF and Word formats.
5. use bullet points in your resume
6. Try to personalize cover letter.
7. Have an on-line portfolio. can be your own site or join one of the many groups like coroflot.
8. Don't use the oversize portfolio case with the big zipper - too 80's it's like showing up with big poofey hair and MC hammer pants. (which I did by the way - not the poofy hair but the oversize book)
9. Have business cards, or what some people are now using resume cards - name, contact info and a few lines on their experience, special skills or what they are looking to do.
10. Recruiters do have real jobs, but recruiters find people who are easy to find see #4. Recruiters are looking for ways to quickly screen people out so check spelling etc.
11. Get some web skills, Almost every job wants at least a little familiarity with web design.
12. Ask friends for advise or feedback. (I got great suggestions for my site and believe it's so much better with those few tweaks)
13. Be flexible and try to develop a thick skin.
14. Remember looking for a job is a job in its self.

That's where I am, still trying to accomplish many of these.
-k

Where can we go? (to our friends of course)

Ok. Now we are all intelligent, talented, professionals, who are currently un- or kind of-employed. Each of us have our own unique situations. Each looking for many answers and some advice.

We've been doing a lot of research on our own. Yet, we wake up everyday wondering what to do. Oh, there is plenty to do, we know that, but in what order? We need a job now. We need insurance now. We need leads. We need contacts. We need to pay the bills (baskets of them). Additonally, some of us must also tend our children's and/or parent's needs. 

Are we going about this the most efficient way? Reading web articles, researching on-line and at the library, speaking with passerbys. Each article, book and person has a different approach to give. We are gathering job hunting knowledge and experience. 

We try to help each other individually, forwarding thoughts and some posted job ops. But I think we have a lot of power together. We are in the same field. We are watching it change. We've done that before...remember the computer revolution? Typewriters and mechanicals surrendered to the "new wave"?  We had to take a fresh approach, and figure out a way to morph (grow?) our current talents to the new situation.

Here's my thought (finally, right?): a place we can share experiences and new tidbits of information as we collect them. We can concentrate on our specific issues.

Answers to questions like:

--How do I approach this huge endeavor? Am I just looking for a specific position?

--I've polished my resumes but how do I repurpose it to try for other positions? 

--Do I need more education? Should I take the time and money to sign up for a class on web design? If so, do I concentrate on a program (Dreamweaver, Flash...) or code (XHTML, HTML, CAD)?

--How do I write a cover letter? Can it be modified easily?

--How do ask my friends for job referrals (to keep an eye out for me) in such a tough economy?

--Should I have 2-3 letters of reference available?

--How do I effectively use the internet? When does it become a waste of time?

--Portfolio website? Can I figure it out with little or no web training? Do I need one before I start?

--E-mail or snail mail? Is one better than the other?

--PDF resume or a MSWord resume attachment?

--Why am I gaining weight?

--Does prayer help?

There are tons of questions. 

We can post comments and links on this blog or send to them to me and I will post them.

This may be an time-saving way to get to the information without everyone spending hours digging for it. Are you interested in contributing (if I make it take almost no time and easy)?

Bookmark this site. I can make you all contributors. This means you just sign in and go to "New Blog", write or paste whatever into the box, hit "Publish Post". 3 steps.

What you think? I'll start doing some posting. If you want to join, let me know.

The Frozen North

Well winter is definitely upon Vermont. As I sit here I look out my window our yard. It is covered with 17" of snow which fell within the past 2 days. Since you can still scroll down and see last year's pics, I won't bore you with additional images—yet.

Before the snow, only a little over a week ago, we received one of those historic New England ice storms. For 3 days, trees covered with 1/4 inch of ice created a crystal forest. It was beautiful. It was dangerous. Limbs fell. Trees fell. One area in Westminster, looked as if a tornado blew through. Unrooted birch trees strewn across and on the roadside, taking out the power lines along the way. 

Fortunately we lost our power for only a day. It's been 10 days on and there are still electricity displaced people in NH.

Here's a couple of pics. I couldn't capture the sparkle as well as I liked. Note our tiny stream doubled in size. 

Finally Finished

Hi. 

I am so proud of myself. I finished a project I began around 2 years ago. I took a penny rug class at Brookfield Craft in CT. My teacher, Liz Albert Fay is amazing. Unfortunately after the weekend class, I put the project aside. It went into hiding until somewhat recently. I still need practice, but for a first-time effort, I think it worked out well. 

If you ever get the chance (and the funds) check out Brookfield Craft Center. If you are a New England crafter, it's worth the trip.

The Frost is on the Pumpkin

Wishing you a happy and warm Thanksgiving.

Looking closely in Vermont

I like to take photographs with my computer desktop in mind. Since I like a pretty clean desktop, it leads to some interesting shots.

I have a lot more fall images that I'll post at a later date.

Outside the Brattleboro Museum.

I couldn't believe how packed with apples the trees were.

This just looked cool.

A bit of spring.

The very bad blogger

Ok. So I guess blogging was not my forte this year. Sorry. Check in from time to time though. Who knows? Vermont's winter is around the corner... Staying in and writing maybe just the warm up.

Cat as Art

I have two cats, beautiful examples of the American Shorthair. I try to take time to watch them as they go through their day. I’ve come to understand why they are the subjects of many fine art paintings. When they don’t know you are watching, they proudly pose. I love when they are sleeping curled curvaceous, sometimes with paw over their eyes. Waking up they strike the most incredible visual of that “cat stretch”—their butts in the air, shoulders low and that enviable long body extension.

My illustrative talent not fully developed, I tend to use the camera as my medium of choice. Cats sometimes mysterious and playful, are oft-times difficult to photograph. Unless you are patient, quiet and quick with locating, turning on and focusing a camera, the best shots you’ll get are the cat moving quickly out of the shot or looking perturbed directly into the camera.

Midnight is a rich black cat who is hard to find (because she enjoys hiding in dark places). She is most extremely challenging to photograph. I can’t seem to ever catch the right moment in time. Because of this I have very few pictures of her.

When I think of the perfect image of my black cat in my head, the work of Théophile Alexandre Steinlen comes to mind. I visualize Steinlen’s poster La tournée du Chat Noir avec Rodolphe Salis, when she is sitting still and statuesquely. The poster’s cat is pictured chest high, curved yet angular, a bit reminiscent of the Maltese falcon. All that is visible on the face are bright yellow eyes staring out. A circle halos the cat’s head silhouetting whiskers at the nose and eyebrows, which explode outward. Now if I could only get that shot.

As you can see by the picture above, my gray cat, Neitzsche is a bit easier to capture on camera. She’s still not too pleased with me getting in her face.

(Tip of the hat to my friend Jennifer and her two cats. )

Disney Fantasy

Disney’s Sleeping Beauty synopsis: At Princess Aurora’s christening, the good fairies Flora, Merryweather, and Fauna arrive to bless her. Flora gives her the gift of beauty. Fauna gives her the gift of song. At this point, Maleficent, the film's villain appears. Upset at not being invited to the christening ceremony, she curses the princess to die when she touches a spinning wheel's spindle before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. Fortunately, Merryweather has not yet blessed Aurora, so she uses her blessing to weaken Maleficent's curse: Aurora will not die when she touches the spinning wheel, instead, she will fall asleep until she is awakened by her true love's kiss….(highly edited from wikipedia)

There are very few Disney film characters I think about from time to time. I admit when I was young, I’d imagine Mary Poppins or the birds and mice from Cinderella doing my chores and cleaning. I loved the Small World kids after going to the World’s Fair in the 1960s.  (Great, now I’ll have that song going through my head for days)

Now that I’m an adult and a mother, the character Merryweather the blue fairy from Sleeping Beauty comes to mind very often. As the parent of a newly independent 18-year old, I realize my motherly advice is now weighed differently. As with anyone trying out new wings, her decisions will be mixed. Some good, some not so good. It’s those poor choices I’d love to undo or “weaken”. I wish for Merryweather’s timing, and her ability to lessen the consequences of any really poor decisions. But I know it’s our successes and our mistakes we make that shape character.

It’s hard for me not to shield my child from the harsh things in life. Fortunately, she knows I’m here for her even though I can’t fix things for her anymore.

Wait a minute, now that I think about it, I could use a few cartoon mice and birds--if they clean up after themselves.

 

Getting to Know the Vermont Winter

Moving from Connecticut, we've been used to New England winters. So, it didn't seem all that extraordinary to get snow before the winter solstice. We had a light snow cover Thanksgiving and a white Christmas. Very romantic. But the snow hasn't stopped since.

The depth has averaged around two feet after melting and the re-covering of each storm. The sad part is, though I want to be angry, I smile as I shovel. The snow has been the light fluffy kind. And it's so much more glittery than what we're used to. It falls on the trees like two inches of powdered sugar. I begin to hope the sun won't resurface to melt the fantasy away.  

But as the snow floats and accumulates picturesquely on the landscape, it's piling up on our tin roof. As the weather warms and refreezes, large ice filled chunks of snow build up and slowly make their way down to the eaves. This hangs treacherously until clumps plummet past the windows. On a warmer day this can occur frequently. At times it looks as if people are being thrown of the roof. It also creates a rumble and thud sound which is startling. A large bank is forming in front of the lower windows which looks like a solid wave crashing against the house.

The strange thing is that as I live in this "winter wonderland" my family and friends in Connecticut have had little or no snow. ' Just makes me smile.

Blogging First-timer, an Introduction

Okay. My friend said I should try out this blog thing. She told me it is good exercise. The sort that will put your your head in start mode and help with writing. Not one for exercise, I am probably not going to last long at this. But I'll give it a shot.

I'm hoping the hardest part of this process is coming up with a blog name. It took me two days. I have to say the name is appropriate. I'm always feeling like my mind is so filled with useless trivia that it dibbles out my ear.

So I need to share... Let me think, I tend to ramble. This happens especially when I'm writing. I hope I won't bore you to death with this blog. Please give me a few reads before you give up on me. Remember, I'm a newbie.

There have been some major changes in my life and lifestyle in the past year. My daughter grew up and now we are among the first "empty-nesters" of our group. My husband and I also decided to leave our life in Connecticut, put the house on the market and invest our money and our selves in creating and opening a mystery bookstore in Vermont. We named it, Mystery on Main Street (yes its actually on Main St). We found a great spot for the shop and within three months we were moved and the store was opened. I'm just beginning to get over the whiplash.

Here's my first (there won't be many, I promise) shameless plug for the store. If you are a mystery, suspense, true crime book aficionado, or would like to give one a try, check us out. The shop also carries a small assortment of games, jewelry and giftie items. If you are in the area stop by. Mystery on Main Street, 119 Main Street, Brattleboro, Vermont. There's easy access from Exit 1 or 2 on I91. Our web address, if you'd like to visit from the comfort of your home, www.mysteryonmain.com. Interested in reading another blog? My husband writes about what's new in mystery literature and what suits his fancy at www.mysteryonmain.blogspot.com. Plus, he's a much better writer than me.