Reflections, Paulo Coelho, and GQ

Again - ding dong, the strike is dead. Everyone's slowly emerging from their 'cautious optimism,' that things are gradually picking up.

So just some personal thoughts, since they're on the brain. The agony of career-debating and related quarterlife questions and those all-important 'transitional' periods in life continues.

After spending much of the past couple of weeks, I mean months (MONTHS!), interviewing, temping, actually cooking at home, contemplating other jobs (and less lofty aspirations), and becoming buddy-buddy with sites Defamer and 100 Days in Bed, I've had some time on my hands. To blog. To reflect. To reevaluate everything I've ever known in life. Fun, I know.

Consider other industries, possibilities, American coastal cities. I would have to say my greatest success is having survived the last several months of my own life. (Take that, cookie-cutter job interviewers!) A roller coaster of emotion, these twentysomething years. Considering all those years I've spent studying, writing, showing up prepared.

So I'm widening my horizons. My passion is film and television, my creative juice is good writing. The tools that I use and search for are wit, thoughtfulness, and brutal honesty. But it is possible that life will lead me to other places - my life in the grand scheme of things, is just one life. Wow - am I just another hack? Okay, I'll just go wherever God takes me. The only problem with having a Judy Blume moment when it's not as a kid, is that it's not as easily dismissed. Oh, character building experiences of your twenties. If only I could somehow include the aforementioned on my resume...

"We who fight for our dream suffer far more when it doesn't work out, because we cannot fall back on the old excuse: 'Oh, well, I didn't really want it anyway.' We do want it and know that we have staked everything on it and that the path of the personal calling is not easier than any other path, except that our whole heart is in this journey." Oh, Paulo Coelho. Do you have any idea what you've done?

COTW

This week, it's whatever Cecil Donahue was having when writing about job interviews in GQ's February 2008 issue.

Questions an interviewer should not ask (and the answers I'd like to give them)

Honestly. They cross the line in terms of legality and, well, some are just plain trite.

Where do you see yourself in ten years? Hopefully as someone who doesn't ask such hackneyed questions.
How thick is your skin? Why do you ask? I mean, how unprofessional and condescending is the work environment you provide?
How old are you? That's illegal to ask. And also, hah, you never ask a woman her age.
What's your ethnicity? Other. Yeah - you've got to be kidding me.
Can you come in tomorrow for a second interview? It would be from 9 to 5. No, its not paid training, its just a long interview. No - I refuse to give up an entire day of my life to train with your company and not get paid for it because you call it an 'interview.' My time is much more valuable than that.
Why should we hire you? I think the question is really, why should I work for your company?
Actually, I don't know why she can't keep an assistant. What do you think makes you a good assistant? Why would I want to work for someone who can't even keep an assistant?

Ding dong, the strike is dead. So I've heard. Corresponding updates pending.

The Holidays Are Upon Us

Well - we are now in the heart of things, I suppose. Thanksgiving is done, the retailers' season of make-it-or-break-it is in full swing, and Christmas, New Year's Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa all out and about in full decor.

SO

Retraction - er- correction - addition? It has come to my attention from a trusted source in the medical industry that many shipments and blood samples are received through FedEx. WELL - shouldn't there be another system? I don't know - EMERGENCY and MEDICAL TRANSPORT related, something on a national level? I feel that would be more efficient and treated with a bit more care. Otherwise, the regular FedEx envelopes that the regular working world of America uses shouldn't need to have that warning label. Ah well.

So I've begun to pack on the holiday weight. The season of overindulgence begins. Must..get some sort of cardio. Otherwise the surrounding comfort foods in bakeries and restaurants coupled with the super-lean and attractive bodies of the greater Los Angeles area will be the death of me. I would say, sure, at least there's the comfort of your own home and the appeal of new episodes of Scrubs, Heroes, Ugly Betty, and The Office - but who knows when AMPTP and WGA will agree on something final?