Friday, August 10, 2007

Friday Five

Okay, there's been some shenanigans around here. Dear Willow Tree informed me of a little buggy making it's way around blogs which originated in Myspace. If your blog has been hanging up, (or mine for that matter!) that seems to be the issue. You'll find the malignant code in your template and it refers to d5d1 . com Notice I made sure that didn't come out as a link. You can get it by commenting on infected blogs, or, if someone who is infected comments on your blog. You can apparently find the script if you click Edit HTML under your Template settings. If you then hit Ctrl-F, you can find the script by typing in d5d1. You can find some info about it here, in the Google forums. My template appears to be clean now, and I'm not having anymore issues. But it appeared widespread yesterday.

Okay, on to the list:


My Five Favorite Jobs (in no particular order)


1. Tutor

I worked briefly as a tutor during high school, helping elementary school kids to read. Sometimes I became a glorified baby sitter, and sometimes I had kids who just refused to do anything. And there were a couple of parents who blamed me for tat. I did have one little girl who went from not being able to read at all, to being at the top of her reading group in the second grade. I loved that kid.

2. Frederick's of Hollywood clerk/asst. mgr.

I've never been a girly girl, but I really liked this job. It was the best retail job I've ever had, and it got better when we added the plus size collection. It was so wonderful to help women who felt unsexy realize that they were beautiful, and help their husbands see them that way, too. And it wasn't about "dressing up sexy". The lingerie was just a tool to get people to see themselves a little differently. We had one girl who was so happy that we outfitted her wedding trousseau (and that we carried pretty things in her size), she brought us cookies for a month. And all it took was being helpful, and caring about making people happy.

3. Linco, processor/gluer

One summer while in college I worked for a small local company in Michigan that made cardboard products: boxes, tubing, that kind of thing. I used to cut raw cardboard to make boxes in the morning, and then I'd glue up the sides in the afternoon. It doesn't sound nice, but the people I worked for were great and the job required very little thinking. The best part: they fed us lunch every Friday, usually Chinese. I also learned a lot about people who do "blue collar" work. Ken and Linda, who owned Linco, cared a lot about the people who worked for them. In their eyes, we weren't grunts. We were intelligent human beings who deserved to be treated well. Ken always made me listen to Rush Limbaugh with him while we worked, but he also loved Garrison Keilor. When my summer was up, they tried to convince me to stay, but gave me a big party and a huge cake when I chose to go back to school, anyway.

4. Capital Broadcasting, Raleigh, NC Part-time air talent

This was the best company I've ever worked for, hands down. As a part-timer, I still accrued vacation and sick time (paid!!!), and they were always throwing parties for the employees and their kids. The Easter Party was wonderful, and TFYO got to go twice. All paid for out of owner Jim Goodman's pockets. Capital is privately owned, which is a rarity in the media business today, and it allows the company to be actively involved in employees lives on an unheard of scale. I also worked with some fabulous people there, including my APD Jim, who taught me more about programming in three months than I learned in seven years of radio. I can honestly say I truly liked everyone I worked with. It was the toughest job I ever left.

5. K-mart, receiving dock grunt

I did a lot of temporary light industrial work early in my college career, mostly because it paid better overall than working as a file clerk. I also don't like wearing dressy clothes. I wasn't supposed to be assigned to the receiving dock, I was supposed to be sent with the other women to "repack" where boxes were unpacked and goods repacked for shipment to stores. There was me and one other girl who accidentally got sent down to the docks to unload import trucks. We did it by hand with the help of a mobile conveyor belt called "The Goose". Hence, we were called "The Goose Crew". The first couple of weeks, we had a lot of traffic down our end of the warehouse, as every guy seemingly had a reason to come talk to me and Amber. I even had a company VP ask me what the hell I was doing there and if I wanted to transfer up to the office. I told him no. Even though the floor foreman hated me (and tried to give me some of the dirtiest jobs), I loved the guys I worked with. I loved the fact that they never cut me slack because I was a girl. I lost twenty pounds on that job, and I also learned to drive a forklift. If I'd stayed and become union, I would have been making $50,000 a year driving that lift, but I went back to school.

Okay, there are my five, have a great weekend!

PS I've been thinking about a new template fo rmy blog, but I'm rubbish at HTML. If anyone has any suggestions or would like to help me attempt to write a new template, I'd be most grateful.

11 comments:

Jo Beaufoix said...

Brill Friday 5 Jen.
Ok, here goes...

1. Record Shop Christmas Assistant (Playing music all day. Daft dance competitions when the shop was empty. Doing the chart using funny voices. I was 18. It was great.)

2. Hippy Shop Assistant
Crappy money but great work mates and interesting products, ie. 'ornamental bongs' - is there such a thing...?

3. Kennel Manageress and dog groom. Low money, but I've never been so healthy or happy in a job.

4. Diet Company Sinline Operator.
People phone up to see if they can have cake. Great fun, and it got me through Uni.

5. Special Needs Teaching Assistant. Lots of laughs, truly rewarding, hard work, but great.

Have a good weekend sweetie.

Susan said...

1. I worked as an usher at Veteran's Stadium for the Phillies one season. That was fun!

2. I worked in a toy store when my kids were little. That was fun, too.

3. All of my museum jobs have been fun, and I like the one I currently have.

4. I did provenance research on an African Art collection one year. That was good.

5. Don't know if you'll count this, but being home with my kids was the best!

Anonymous said...

This shows either that you have an amazingly positive attitude, or it doesn't matter what you do, it's who you do it with.

Sadly for me, I don't like either work or people. I guess that's why I retired at 43. (I'm self funded, ie no government handouts or pension).

Hey, I'm glad you got on top of that bullshit going around yesterday, your blog seems fine now. There really are some idiots in this world!

Jen said...

WT, oh, I've worked some crappy jobs, dear. Those are for next Friday. I just thought given the hell I've been through this week, and what I get to do next week, I should try to be positive today. And thank you again for the heads up on my blog, I really do appreciate it.

Jo, your number four reminds me of Eddie Izzard: Would you like cake or death?

my two cents I was wondering who kept looking at my blog from a museum, now I know! And I think number five definitely counts. I probably should have thought of that myself *grin*

Anonymous said...

Well, in the world of work I won't have any fun stories to share. All of my jobs have beed desk jobs save for a one week stint at a deli that ended after my best friend decided she hated me. And her mom owned the deli. So it was not in my best interest to return there for a second week.

the rotten correspondent said...

So Jen, is getting smacked by the same virus the 2007 equivalent of becoming blood sisters on the playground? What a flipping mess. Thanks to you and Willowtree for figuring it out. I think mine is okay now too.

Top 5 Jobs -

1. Flower delivery in college. Turn the radio all the way up and drive. Tips too!

2. Working on the live TV shows at Paramount. Not the "glamour" job you'd expect, but oh so much fun.

3. Cleaning houses. I like the zen of cleaning when it isn't my house.

4. Working large craft fairs with my mom in high school and college. I was a terrible salesperson, but always smelled great from the potpourri we sold.

5. I have to go along with staying home with my kids. If you won't take copycat answers I'll say my current nursing job.

Fun topic!

Molly said...

Thanks for the service announcement about the template bug. My blog definitely was very slow on Thursday. Google must have resolved the issue as my blog runs smoothly now, but I will check what you have suggested.

I enjoyed reading about your jobs. You certainly have had a variety of jobs. I like that you have something good to say about each job; not everyone seems to be able to look at work this positively.

Dumdad said...

Thanks for the warning.

I've been a journalist most of my life but I did once work in a tailoring shop for a year (selling suits and trousers). I used to be able to tell the exact size someone was as they walked in.

Anonymous said...

K - 5 best jobs.

1) What I'm doing now, which isn't really a job, and I'd never work for him for pay. Working for a Member of Parliament, who is a great friend. (I'll explain). My friend is a Member of Parliament, and he asked me to plan a special event for him in November. I COULD be having him pay me, but taking money from a friend ruins the friendship. Unless your name is Jen and you live in Guyton County in South Georgia, then it's fine to take money from your friend. (Did you find that twenty yet?)

2) My current job. I am, according to my contractual obligations, not allowed to say what company it is that I work for. However, I am a technical support agent for a major computer company, with all of my clients, so far, being from the US. It's amazing to have people thank you for your time when you're getting paid for it. Sweet.

3) Petsmart. It was a fun job - if it weren't for the ineptness of the management and their favouritism of certain employees which was so obvious a blind person could see it. Nothing is better, when you're having a bad day, to have a dog come along and give you the biggest slobbery kiss. Nothing beats that.... almost. ;)

4) Head Chef. Yes, I was a head chef at a resort/camp about 8 years ago. I had a menu I had to prepare, and the fact that I had people who, on banquet night when I had a roast beef dinner to cook for at least 150 people, decided to show up 1 hour before service and I needed them for prep 4 hours earlier, it was a good experience. It taught me that I never want to be a professional chef. Being one in my house is just fine, thank you very much.

5) Babysitter. I have the distinct privilege of being one of the babysitters for TFYO. When I come to visit Jen - which isn't nearly as often as I'd like :( - I get the amazing opportunity to babysit TFYO. Two visits ago was the best - the pictures of the babysitting visit were amazing "That's my soul patch!" Remember that, Jen? I have to admit though - when you guys lived in TN, when you went out and Missy fell asleep while we were dancing to Dean Martin made quite the impression. At 2 years old, she had quite the eclectic tastes in music - still does too! *HUGS to TFYO from Auntie Jill!*

www.ayewonder.com said...

As you know Jen, I lOVE lists.
So here are mine.
1. Rock Band Manager - I did this for three years in my late twenties. Saw a lot, remember little.

2. Money Manager - Not sure if I really liked it or was just good at it. The two can be mutually exclusive but works best if they're not.

3. In retrospect, I haven't had loads of jobs as an adult and certainly none that I truly loved. How can it be that I am such a happy person? Hmmn...must go ponder that for a bit.

Oh and by the way, you will not be getting any lurid details of the Scotland trip, unexpurgated or otherwide. ;-)

www.ayewonder.com said...

Oh hell, not late 20s, late teens as the Rock Band Manager.