So Many Roads to Choose

This commercial moves me, but I'm still not convinced that online universities have the credibility that "real live" universities do. You can get as many well spoken celebrities as you want to do a commercial for you, but unless they are graduates of that online university, their presence really doesn't have much validity. I think that the university system does need to go through an evolution. Times have changed. The world has changed. And really, the system hasn't. I'm sure there are courses, practices and procedures that haven't been looked at since the schools inception.

I'm thinking about going to back to school these days. I have several ideas about what I would want to study, school psychology, urban studies, or non-profit administration. The problem, is the actual act of going back to school. I can take the GRE. I've always been a pretty good test taker. I actually went to a party the night before I took my SATs (that I didn't study a lick for) and got a 1110. Not exceptional, but good. Mind you I look back now and know that I just wasn't ready for college at that point. I wanted to go and knew that it was important, I just didn't have my heart in it.

I digress, I've created this life for myself (and my boyfriend and dog). We don't live luxuriously, but in order to keep living the way we do (in a safe neighborhood, tons of mac & cheese in the pantry, and an occasional movie) there should be two moderate incomes. The school psychology degree would take me out of work for sure and the other two would require less time at work. I could work at night, but to be honest I have never been good at running on fumes. When I get tired I get a headache, delusional, and just plain clumsy. Yes, I could run myself into major debt with student loans. But then I really need to hope that my new income from the big degree I just got actually pays well enough to pay off that debt.

Also, the schools that offer these degrees aren't always near by. It's not just me anymore. I can't just get up and move (especially because I love where I live). So I have to think about transportation costs and time.

It's scary. What if the school system is still in shambles when I get done and they won't hire any school psychologists? What if I'm not good at being in charge of a non-profit? What if I don't know it all instantly? What if I'm not perfect at it from the start. High expectations? Maybe, but my lazy perfectionism keeps me from doing a lot of things. I don't want to do it unless I'm good at it. If I don't get a gold star once in a while, I loose my gusto.

What I do know is that I can't stay in my current position forever. I need to keep growing and learning and taking steps to get out of the typical "assistant" position. The title keeps me from putting my good ideas out there. I keep my mouth shut because I don't think that the people that have the actual authority would listen to an assistant. It may be just in my head, but it holds me back.

Ok, enough rambling. I've got some stuff to work out.

So Sweet, It's Sour

I love, love, love this commercial. It creeped me out at first, but now I find myself talking about it pretty often. You just can't help but love that little guy at the end. I think I have an affinity for cartoon-ish colors and shapes too. For example, I can't get enough of those Pixar movies. I think it is purely because my brain is being stimulated with all of the pretty colors. Keeping your brain stimulated can ward off Alzheimer's so I'll keep watching those colorful movies.

Back to sour patch kids, I forgot about them for a while but now am on a sour patch kick. I have been going to the movies a lot lately (gotta love when there are good movies out) and I kept getting candy that got stuck in my teeth. I used to really enjoy milk duds, but now I can't eat them without sticking my finger in my mouth to dig between my teeth. Gross, I know, hence why I don't get them anymore.

Changing Your Tune

I know it has been a while since I've written. I probably have no readers at this point. I don't blame you, I would have taken me off of my follow list at this point. No excuses, I've been busy with work and really enjoying life. Now the connection to the commercial above.

This commercial bothers me. I feel like the original had a different song, maybe something more electronic, and when the ad company showed it to the Michelob people, the Michelob people thought that the song needed to be more uplifting. But they didn't change the colors in the film. So you have this happy go lucky song trying to make all the gray seem extra cool. It just doesn't work for me.

You can't just slap a happy-go-lucky song on something and expect everything else to seem happy-go-lucky. Sometimes, you have to apologize for making a crappy, dismal, lackluster commercial and instead of just replacing the music, you need to re-shoot the whole thing. Sometimes this should be done in every day life, say a conversation with your boss, where your boss should apologize instead of pretending like certain things never happened...I'm just saying.

How to be Funny with a Good Message

The first thing that grabbed my attention about this commercial was the song, a classic in the hip hop world. It was more entertaining as other people in the car started singing the words and then the final scene with the driver singing made me laugh out loud. At first I was like "why is the old guy hanging out." but alas, he is the taxi cab driver. If only all taxi cab drivers were that cool with drunk people in their cars at 2am.

True story: two friends of mine were leaving my birthday party a few years back, one of those friends being WASTED. They were being smart and getting a cab home but when the driver saw my said wasted friend he said "is she going to puke? If she's going to puke I'm not driving you." My semi sober friend assured the cabby that no puking would be taking place. And it didn't....until they got to their stop, open the door and semi sober friend put one foot outside the door. Of course, they gave them all their money to pay for the trip and the future detailing and airing out of the cab.

Hey but that's better than a d.u.i. or killing somone in an accident.

Getting Out of the Straitjacket

I am thinking more and more that non-profits, charities, city governments, schools, etc really need to start thinking about revamping their missions, goals, and ways of doing things.

I feel like the school system is failing not only it's students more and more but it's teachers as well. And non-profits are holding on my the skin of their teeth right now. Of course the economony doesn't help, but this would be a great time for those organizations to take a look at what they're doing and really see if it has been working, or at least working to the best of thier abilities.

The country has changed. The world has changed. The people these organizations cater to have changed. And yet the organizations don't seem to be moving quite as quickly.

I know we all like our comfort zones, and change is scarey, but my head is exploding with ideas about how so many problems could be improved with just some tweaking.

Look At Me Now

Originally uploaded by LewisChaplin

I used to have coworker that I really admired because she would just get things DONE. She knew who to call and just did it. She would plan exotic trips and then just go! She didn't worry (at least not enough to let others on to it).I dreamed that one day I would be that proactive. Today I feel it. I'm energized with getting s**t done!





The stuff that I kept telling myself that I needed to do, I'm actually doing. It's allowing my brain to work in new ways and I've come up with at least three great ideas today which I then passed on to the correct people to handle.





I like this new me. I really hope that I can keep this up.

Where to now?

Originally uploaded by noahg

I have coworker that asks big questions like "If you could any job in the world what would it be?" Really? Really? You're asking me this? There are so many parts to that question. Because really if I could do anything I would choose to be a writer/interior designer. But that would be if (big IF) I had the talent and connections to actually make a living. Maybe those dream jobs should stay just that and I'll take joy in designing my own house and writing for myself or my fellow blogmates.

But it asks the bigger question of what I want my career path to look like. I'm learning that it's not really about "what do you want to be when you grow up" but more "what kind of job do you want?" What do I want to get out of my job? What do I want to be proud of at the end of the day?

I love working in the non-profit world. I get to stay in contact with the world around me and keep learning about the people within it. I am surrounded by amazing people that have done amazing things. These are people that didn't let excuses get in the way. So how do I get there too? I have a whole lotta excuses ready to use. More so, I have a life style that I want to be able to live.

So does this career path trump my desire to be debt free? or is it figuring out if the chicken comes before the egg? And what is the chicken and what is the egg? Oh wow, more questions.