I started reading a new book today. A little light reading called The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout. I saw it a couple weeks ago while browsing at Barnes & Noble and put it on hold at the library. According to the book, 4% of the U.S. population are sociopaths, or 1 out of 25 people. That number seemed alarming until I started to read the book, which points out that this doesn’t mean that 1 out of 25 people are violent or serial killers. There are more ways to qualify as sociopathic. The one common element is a lack of conscience.
From time to time, Baby Jane Hudson appears here with her question and answer column, But You Are In That Chair: Baby Jane’s Advice For the Confused, Depressed and Clueless. Today’s special focus is Career Advice for the Confused, Depressed and Financially Dependent because, even though Baby Jane hasn’t worked since she was 12, she has a lot to say about the subject.
Dear Baby Jane,
I’ve been looking for a job since July 2009 and I’ve only managed to get two interviews during that time. This leads me to believe that maybe my resume isn’t very good. Any advice for what makes a strong resume?
Will Work For Food, Little Rock, Arkansas
On this drab, January day, what I feel like doing is putting on a tiny black dress, going into my big white studio and dancing around.
Does anyone else feel a little bit of nostalgia for songs like this? The young, virile Bobby with his floppy dance moves, waxed chest… It reminds me of summer, 1988, when I was most likely bored. Maybe I danced around to “Every Little Step” in my bedroom or something. I was quite the fan of New Jack Swing.
I think a commenter on YouTube said it best when she said, “Bobby Brown IS KILLIN it on the Dance floor.”
Everyone is always bragging about how great etsy.com is but I found at least the initial store set-up bewildering and time-consuming. But still. I’ve got a Not Shallow store and it’s open for bidness.
I’m going to add more portrait t-shirts in the months to come. But who wants to think about that after all the labor of just getting these first t-shirts up there? Guess what? I won’t be quitting my day job anytime soon.
Really, all I wanted to do was make a Little Edie t-shirt available to the masses. Or, uh, about 13 of you.
Was anyone else scandalized that Drew Barrymore didn’t even give any thanks to Little Edie or Big Edie in her acceptance speech for her Golden Globe on Sunday? She’s no Little Edie!
And that’s the revolutionary costume for today.
To show the polo riders, in khakis and topsiders,
Just what a revolutionary costume has to say.
It can’t be ordered from L.L. Bean.
There’s more to living than kelly green.
And that’s the revolution, I mean.
Hooray! It’s Hollywood Foreign Press Association 2010 Golden Globe Awards Eve!
We’re scrubbing floors, tidying up and planning the menu for the big day tomorrow. How about you?
Kidding! Well, OK, I’m planning a menu but that’s mostly because I like to eat things and will make any excuse to do so.
I’ve read some online “analysis” about why the Golden Globes are better than the Oscars. Mostly it has to do with a lack of stuffiness and a willingness for the HFPA to vote their hearts and not according to some old grudge or because someone is blood brothers with Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg or, God help them, Ron Howard. Or that strange, little Brian Grazer creature who turns up everywhere, his hair like a periscope announcing his arrival.
Man, I’m really into the song “Heads Will Roll” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs right now. I don’t know much about the band, except that Karen O is known for her extravagant dressing (at least until upstaged many times over by Lady Gaga). I guess I just don’t pay that much attention to music. But this song actually motivated me to go out to YouTube and find the video.
A few years ago (five, seven?), during a time when I was looking for a job and not having any luck, I came across a classified ad that exemplified everything I didn’t want in a job and I cut it out, almost as a reminder to myself that, no matter how bad things got, I could never allow myself to sink to the level of what this ad was asking someone to be.
Last night I was looking through some old papers and found the clipping again. I’m going to reproduce it here because I know a lot of people are looking for work right now and maybe this clipping will help them clarify in their minds what they will or won’t do or remind them that, yes, things are bad but maybe they’re not so bad.
Day ten on the island. I’m going through suitcases on the beach, sorting stuff into piles. Clothing. Toiletries. Books.
It occurs to me that I could start a small island lending library with all the paperbacks we’ve found. Mostly Harry Potter, Tom Clancy stuff, two copies of Memoirs of a Geisha, romance novels, one Life of Pi, Bridget Jone’s Diary. It seems that people tend not to read the classics when they fly. Who can blame them? I’m glad I wasn’t reading Russian literature when the plane started to break apart, or I would have been too paralyzed by depression to reach out for my oxygen mask.
Some phrases and words that bother me a great deal…
Event listing descriptions that begin “Get thee to XXX tonight…” Yeah, I don’t know why this is common enough that I’ve noticed it. Drives me mad. Like, ha ha, I’m funny and Olde English and I’m doing a take-off on the line, “Get thee to a nunnery!” Which might have been effective once but not 234 times. Get thee to the Jagged Edge Bar tonight for the wet t-shirt contest. Get thee to the feminist spoken word slam. I just received an event announcement via email with one of the listings beginning, “Get thee to Uptown this frigid January eve for a hot, hot set by melodic indie supergroup, Communist Daughter.” Get thee to Uptown? Snort. And get thee to Uptown on this frigid night? No fucking way, anyway. I’m not even going to touch “melodic indie supergroup.” OK, yeah I am. Indie or supergroup… which is it? Supergroup makes me think of Boston or Air Supply. Or… Aerosmith. Communist Daughter… not so much.
Still sometimes missing this curmudgeon. She sure was a trial but she was our trial. And she kept me company through some very lonely times during my 20s. Love you, Ella!
From time to time, Baby Jane Hudson appears here with her question and answer column, But You Are In That Chair: Baby Jane’s Advice For the Confused, Depressed and Clueless. Today’s special focus is Career Advice for the Confused, Depressed and Financially Dependent because, even though Baby Jane hasn’t worked since she was 12, she has a lot to say about the subject.
Oh, hi. Thank heaven you’re here.
Day ten on the island. I’m going through suitcases on the beach, sorting stuff into piles. Clothing. Toiletries. Books.
