Daily thoughts of a Downtown Memphis resident
In honor of Tube Top Month and Bob Barker’s last day:
(It’s work-safe for those of you reading this from the office)
Amazing what you can find on YouTube these days. Thanks to Marcus for sending me the link. I should’ve known this video would be on there.
Today is the last Price Is Right episode starring Bob Barker. And in my opinion it should be the last one ever, because no one can replace Bob. But what do I know compared to corporate execs.
But, it made me have a thought… you know how there are people who come from all over the country to have Civil War re-enactments? They’ll pick a Civil War battle and fight it out as realistically as possible.
Well, it’s time to make love, not war. It’s time to re-enact the greatest moment in the 35-year history of Bob Barker and The Price Is Right. It happened in 1979. A woman got called to Contestants’ Row and got so excited that she jumped right out of her tube top.
Re-enactment clubs are forming all over the country as we speak. I’m willing to get the Memphis chapter going. I’ll be Bob Barker. Who’ll be the contestant?
– Just got home. After getting tired of being at Starbucks, I headed to The University Lounge at 663 S. Highland. It’s about a block south of the train tracks. The lounge’s claim to fame is that it’s a hookah bar, where you can buy and smoke their flavored tobacco. I didn’t smoke, though; I was more interested in their free Wi-Fi. Very nice place and the owner couldn’t have been friendlier. There were couches to sit on, and a big TV tuned to CNN for me to watch. They had Sirius Satellite radio tuned to the coffeehouse channel (channel 30). The volume was just right, not too loud like it had been at Starbucks.
I had a strawberry smoothie and some chicken spring rolls while I worked. They have a full range of coffee drinks, smoothies, and desserts, and a limited appetizer menu. They’re open 10 AM to midnight Sun-Thur, 10 AM to 2 AM Fri-Sat. I was impressed with the place and it seems like a very good place for laptoppers to go during the day to get work done. I’ll be back soon.
Is there anyplace else near the U of M that has free Wi-Fi? I know MO’s does. Any others? I love hanging out in that neighborhood.
– I just went on an Amazon.com shopping spree. It started when I stopped by Bookstar at noontime and saw the following book on the shelf:
Wikinomics examines how global collaboration through social networking is changing business. You’ve heard of Wikipedia, MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr, but there are also large, traditional corporations such as Procter & Gamble, BMW, and Lego that have embraced the new model. A good look at the direction business will take (whether it likes it or not) in the 21st century. I almost bought it at Bookstar, but then I realized that Amazon would probably have it for 30% cheaper and I wouldn’t have to pay sales tax. So I ordered it there, and I’m glad I did, because while I was reading reviews for Wikinomics I found this book:
Wealth of Networks appears to offer more in-depth, scholarly coverage than the other book on the phenomenon of social networking and how it will change business. I ordered them both.
Since I’ve been programming mainly in ASP.NET for the past three years and will now be building some sites with PHP, I decided I needed to brush up. The last book I bought covered PHP3; PHP5 is out now. So I did a search and this one
came up.
PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Websites was among the highly rated books on PHP (4.5 stars out of 5), and several reviewers said it was the only book you’ll need. They also said that it’s free from the typos and errors that render many computer programming books useless.
And just for fun, I ordered
In 1997, World Championship Wrestling was the number-one pro wrestling promotion in the world, generating tens of millions of dollars of profit a year. It was so strong that they were on the verge of putting their major competitor the WWF (now WWE) out of business. However, just four years later in 2001, it was WCW that went out of business, purchased by WWE for only a few million dollars. The Death of WCW looks at the causes of WCW’s decline – idiotic storylines (making David Arquette the world champion), wrestlers whose egos came before the good of the company (Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash), corporate execs who ass-kissed the wrestlers when they should have been managing the company (Eric Bischoff), writers who didn’t have a clue what wrestling fans wanted to see (Vince Russo), talented young wrestlers who were kept down in favor of the older guys (Steve Austin, Mick “Cactus Jack” Foley, Chris Benoit, Booker T). WCW was just plain awful to watch for its last three years and this book chronicles the events that led to the company’s demise.
In keeping with the blog’s theme for the month, I need to mention that WCW employed dancers (The Nitro Girls) who looked smokin’ hot in tube tops.
Since I develop affiliate marketing websites, I should have no problem writing the first three books off on my taxes. It may be harder to convince the IRS that I had a business reason for buying the WCW book.
Friends of mine pointed out something VERY interesting last night – since I now have an online store called The Romania Store, if I took a trip to Romania I could write it off as a business expense. Good point! Too busy to go this summer but maybe in ’08 I’ll visit Romania.
Whew! Tired of typing. Going to head to the Second Street branch office with the laptop to get a couple more hours’ work done, then head to the Madison around 6 for The Dempseys.
Posting from the Poplar/Prescott Starbucks this morning. I don’t know if this is going to be a place where I can get a lot of work done. Music’s a little too loud, tables too close together. And no one here has a tube top on. I’ll probably stay here about an hour, then move to a different Wi-Fi hotspot.
– Big controversy in Memphis that’s getting national coverage: Jessie Morrison, a local projectionist at Malco’s Ridgeway Four theater, got fired from his job this week. He had written a negative review of “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” for Ain’t It Cool News, and Fox, who distributes the movie, saw it. The Fox execs apparently called the theater and threatened to pull the movie from the entire Malco chain if Morrison wasn’t fired. Fellow blogger AngieDawn is a friend of Morrison’s – check out her blog for more details.
– The Orpheum invites you to Breakfast at Tiffany’s tomorrow night, the first in their summer classics movie series. There will be an after-party at the Westin Hotel, and while there you can register to win a night’s stay at the Westin. Details on the flyer below (click it for a larger-sized image):
– I’ll be sweating to the oldies tonight, as I hang out on the Madison rooftop in 94-degree heat to listen to “That’s All Right Mama,” “White Lightnin’,” “East Bound and Down,” and other songs performed by The Dempseys. I’ll be there by 6, which is when the band starts. I have a feeling I’ll get tired of the heat by the end of their first set, and will probably move on to the Saucer for a beer, then to EP’s for their rooftop party. Won’t make it to the Peabody tonight, but Kevin and Bethany Paige are playing there, so that should be pretty good as well.
– Last week I posted about a job-hunting site called Climber, which is like a dating site for finding jobs – you fill out a personality profile, companies fill out a profile of their corporate culture, and then Climber’s computers match you up. This morning I received an e-mail from Climber’s CEO thanking me for the mention. I thought that was a really classy move, and it’s smart of them to search to see what people are saying about them. I’m all for any resource that helps people find jobs they love. Click the link below if you want to check out Climber and fill out a free profile.
– Last spring, I hung out with fellow blogger Ptolemy Kat one night. I had just started my Memphis City Schools job, and I commented that it paid more than my previous job. Knowing how I love Romanian girls, Kat replied, “You’ll be making enough money to BUY a Romanian if you want!” She was joking, of course – but yesterday I was doing some surfing online, and it appears that it really is possible to buy a Romanian. Romania has one of the worst records of human trafficking – young girls get kidnapped over there and get sold as sex slaves for as little as $300. Check out this very disturbing story and also this CBS 48 Hours report about Romanian girls for sale. Bulgaria, the Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus were also mentioned as problem areas for human trafficking.
All right, I’m gonna go find a quieter place to work. Have a good Thursday afternoon everyone.
– After ignoring it for a year, I finally logged back in to my LinkedIn account, updated my profile, and approved the 5 people who have asked to add me to their network (some of the requests were as old as May 2006). LinkedIn is sort of the professional equivalent of MySpace or Friendster. You set up a profile listing your work experience, education, and professional goals, and then invite people you know to join your network, so you can have access to their contacts. You can write recommendations for people you know, and you can use your network to hunt for jobs, business leads, or other professional opportunities. Here’s a link to my LinkedIn profile – I’ve also added a permanent link to it on the right site of my blog, underneath my picture. If you’re on LinkedIn, or if you’d like to join (it’s free) and do some professional networking, I invite you to add me to your network.
Looks like LinkedIn is really starting to take off in Memphis – when fellow blogger AngieDawn invited me to join a year and a half ago, it was big on the East and West Coasts but not so much here. Now it looks like people are really starting to use it to leverage the power of connections. The more people who know who you are, and what you’re looking for professionally, the better the opportunities that will come your way. I still have plans to build a website about passive job hunting to get out of the rat race, and LinkedIn is going to be one of the tools I talk about.
I hope to use LinkedIn to make contacts who can help me learn about affiliate marketing, where I partner with businesses and put their links on my websites – and every time a sale is made through my links, I get a commission. I was going to list my existing affiliate sites on my LinkedIn profile, but then I thought, how “professional” am I going to look if I mention that I run a site called the Tube Top Boutique? I decided to leave that one out..
– Speaking of affiliate sites… people have asked me if I really think anyone who reads my blog will buy anything from my newest site, The Romania Store. No, probably not. The reason I mentioned the new store is so it will perform well in search engine rankings. If Google sees a popular site (like this blog) linking to it, it figures The Romania Store must have valuable content and will move it toward the top of search results. I’ve tried to search engine optimize the site as much as possible, including each county in Romania as a link (and there’s merchandise for each county, so it makes sense).
– I’m going to have to take one for the team today. The Rapscallions have a $25 gift certificate to the Flying Saucer that expires today, so I’m going to buy it from the team and spend it. Dammit… I’m going to have to drink $25 worth of beer. It will be hard, but it’s a sacrifice I have to make for my friends.
Won’t be able to make that sacrifice until happy hour, though, because it looks like I may have a business meeting for the new job, or possibly a phone conversation to go over how existing sites have been built.
– It was good to meet fellow blogger Amy W Sunday afternoon… I passed her on Main Street as she was walking her dog. I think I insulted her dog though, referring to the dog as a Chihuahua when she’s actually a miniature Doberman. Oh well, what do I know about dogs.
– Bored. Think I’ll hit a coffee shop and work from there for a while, maybe Otherlands. There’s a new Memphis Flyer out today, so I’ll see what’s going on this weekend and post if I see anything interesting.
My new online store – The Romania Store – is open for business. It has links to books about Romania, Romanian language courses and electronic translators, posters, signs, and clothing/apparel about Romania. Unfortunately I could not even find one tube top to sell, which is a shame because Romanians look good in tube tops. This is an Amazon.com storefront with all orders, credit card processing and shipping going through them.
Went to the Superior Bar for lunch, review coming soon.
Congrats to the Rapscallions on their second-place finish tonight. Our stash is now $255.
Last night I ran into former Sleep Out Louie’s bartender Josh, and he told me he is now serving at The Superior Bar on Beale. He told me a little about the menu, and it sounds pretty good – so good that I think that will be my lunch spot for today. He said they had an eggplant club sandwich. I figured that meant it was vegetarian, with the eggplant replacing the meat – “yuk,” I thought. But I was wrong… they deep-fry the eggplant into thin slices and use it to replace the BREAD. Now we’re talkin’. I’ve had salads the past two days in a row, so it’s time for something unhealthy. He said they also have meat-and-two and meat-and-three lunches every weekday, and he mentioned some other tasty items too – I seem to remember lasagna and a Cajun turkey wrap. If I get down there today I’ll get a better look at the menu and make notes on my favorites.
Josh also told me that the King Biscuit Diner which will be located on the ground floor of the Westin, on Lt. Lee Avenue facing the Gibson, is a month or two away from opening. There’s already a King Biscuit open in East Bumblefuck, so you can check out their website to get an idea of their menu and what else goes on there. (And you can buy discount gift certificates to eat there at Memphis Discount Dining.) He also told me that the Ground Zero blues nightclub, also to be located in the Westin, is 2-3 months away from opening and the Eric Hughes Band will be the house band. They’re fantastic and it’s great to see them getting a gig at a big-name club, run by management who will treat them well.
If you’re one of Josh’s former Sleep Out’s regulars, I’m sure he’d appreciate it if you stopped by Superior and said hello. I’ll give a more detailed report on Superior after I’ve eaten there. It’s summer so maybe I’ll see some cute tourists in tube tops on Beale.
My first project for the new company is currently in limbo, so I guess I’ll work on completing my new online store today. Trivia tonight at the Saucer at 7, of course.
I had lunch at the Flying Saucer today, and ordered the smoked turkey salad with the jalapeño vinaigrette dressing. Second day in a row I’ve ordered a salad – can you believe that? First time I’ve ever had the jalapeño vinaigrette, and I only made it halfway through the salad before I gave up. My mouth and throat felt like they were on fire! I couldn’t take any more. That dressing was hotter than anything I’ve ever tasted at a Mexican restaurant. Felt more like habanero dressing than jalapeño.
Hmmm… I’ve heard of people using hot peppers to diet… they’ll top everything with jalapeños or other spicy peppers, so they’ll stop eating sooner due to the heat. Maybe I need to start squeezing a jalapeño into my beer instead of a lime.
Speaking of spicy foods – a reader e-mailed to let me know that the gumbo at Pearl’s Oyster House is a good dish to try if you love spicy food. He also recommended the fried dill pickles (among the best he’s ever had, and it isn’t the first time I’ve heard that), crawfish dip, and red beans and rice.
I wanted to stay at the Saucer and work all afternoon, but there was a problem with the wireless – my computer could connect to their network, but it couldn’t find a DNS server so it couldn’t determine where to find the websites I was trying to hit. So I gave up and came home. But, my work is done for now, so I’m heading back up there for Pint Nite. Hopefully on a hot, humid day like today, there will be some tube tops to look at. Later in the evening, I’ll come home to watch the special three-hour edition of WWE Monday Night Raw (it’s the annual draft lottery where some of the wrestlers will jump brands between Raw, Smackdown, and ECW). After that maybe I’ll work on my new online store for a few hours before going to bed. If you see me out today, look at the T-shirt I have on: the new store will sell it, and other, related products.
Time for a beer!
People say I’m crazy
Doin’ what I’m doin’
Well, they give me all kinds of warnings
To save me from ruin
When I say that I’m okay,
You know, they look at me kind of strange
“Surely you’re not happy now,
You no longer play the game”
I haven’t given an update on how things are going for me career-wise in a while. Let’s see… last time I wrote about it, I had been a contractor with the Memphis City Schools for a year. They had a permanent position come open, and offered it to me and I took it as of April 16. Not only did the position offer long-term security, but it had great benefits. And of course, society teaches us that there’s nothing more important than finding a safe, secure job with good benefits.
So it looked like I’d be there forever. Interesting ASP.NET projects to work on… the opportunity to learn new technologies like Active Directory and Microsoft SharePoint… great manager who was interested in my professional development… co-workers who I got along with very well.
So, when recruiters and people with jobs to offer would contact me, I’d say, “No thanks, I already have a very good job.” They contacted me quite often by the way, because I still have a resume online and it performs well in Google searches. I’d estimate I get 1-2 calls or e-mails a week about jobs.
In mid-May, I got yet another e-mail, from a local company that builds websites for client businesses. They were experiencing such tremendous growth (partly because they have an excellent sales guy) that they needed to bring another person on full-time, on a contract basis. Would I be interested?, they asked.
No, I told them just as I told the others. Even though I’d make more money with them (as an independent contractor), I’d lose my security and benefits with MCS. Not interested.
The guy replied saying that he understood. “But, there’s one thing you should know. The position is 100% telecommuting, except for occasional meetings with clients. You can work from home, or anywhere where there’s an Internet connection.”
Suddenly I was VERY interested.
You see, as much as I liked the MCS job, it was still the Rat Race in a sense. There were still rules to be followed that I saw no point in having to follow. I had to be there by 8 every morning, take an hour lunch between 11 and 1 when all the restaurants are crowded, and stay there until 4:30-4:45. I’ve worked that schedule for 6 years and have never adjusted to it. From times when I’ve been able to work on my own schedule, I know I’m at my physical and mental best when I go to bed around 2 in the morning and get up at 9:30.
Another thing was, I had to sit in a cubicle all day. I know the kind of environment in which I perform my best, and it isn’t a cubicle. I tend to be sharper mentally when there’s a TV on in the background, or when I can get up and bounce a Nerf basketball around for a few minutes. I also tend to be a lot more productive when I take my laptop to a Wi-Fi enabled coffee shop or restaurant than when I sit at a desk all day.
I also have problems with some of the other rules of the Rat Race. Like, if I want a day off, I have to schedule a vacation day – if I have any to schedule. As a contractor, I can just say, I’m not working today, don’t pay me (as long as I don’t endanger any project deadlines by taking too much time off). I like that better. Why does some corporate or government entity get to determine that 12 days off a year is the right amount for me? Maybe I want to take 6 days off a year. Maybe I want 25. Pay me when I work, don’t pay me when I don’t.
Again, none of this is meant to criticize the City Schools, I enjoyed working there. But these kinds of things are business as usual in most offices, and in my opinion business as usual sucks.
So, anyway, I e-mailed the web guy back, and told him I was interested. We talked on the phone a couple of times, I e-mailed him a portfolio of sites I worked on, and he told me I was hired. My last day with the City Schools was Friday. I start the new gig today.
When I told people I was leaving, reaction was mixed. “But Paul,” some of them said, “You’re going to be giving up your BENEFITS. What are you going to do? You won’t have any health insurance. And you’ll lose out on the City Schools’ retirement plan!” Come on. Please. I can buy my own health insurance. As for retirement, I’ve been self-directing my own IRA through Ameritrade for years. And the thing these people are failing to understand is, HAPPINESS IS A BENEFIT.
One other reason why I took the job – I was worried what I would do if my mother, who lives by herself in Little Rock, got sick. I’m an only child so I’d have to be there. At the City Schools, I’d have to apply for an unpaid leave of absence in order to do that, which technically I’m not even eligible for until I’ve been an employee for a year. And if I missed, say, two weeks of work, that would be two weeks without a paycheck. Whereas, as a telecommuter I can just jump on her Internet connection and keep rolling. That’s a huge burden off my mind.
What this means for the blog: There will be no more lunchtime posts. I know a lot of you have gotten in the habit of checking around noon, 1:00 to see if I’ve put anything up. Now you’re going to have to check 24/7. The posts will be a little more frequent and of higher quality than what I’ve been doing the past couple of weeks. Since it’s Tube Top Month, more posts = good thing.
I’ll probably still hit the Wi-Fi spots I used for lunchtime posting with good regularity – Otherlands, High Point Coffee, the Midtown and Poplar/Prescott Starbucks, Bon Ton Cafe, and the Flying Saucer. In addition, the Majestic, McGuinness, and Blues City Pastry will likely see more of me during the day.
I’m going to to a detailed post at some point about how to get a resume online, how to make sure it has good keywords, and how to make sure Google has seen it. I’ll also post my findings about getting my own health insurance and such. Maybe I’ll make a site all its own for that stuff – “Resources to help you get out of the Rat Race” or something like that. And I’ll be able to add to it over time, without the content getting lost in a sea of old blog posts.
If you see me around town, chances are I’m going to be in a much better mood. I’ll say it again – happiness is a benefit. Outta here for now.
I’m just sittin’ here watching the wheels go round and round
I really love to watch them roll
No longer riding on the merry-go-round
I just had to let it go
– If you’re not subscribed to the Center City Commission’s Livin’ it Up in Downtown Memphis weekly newsletter, you should be. It will keep you informed about everything going on downtown. A couple of notes from this week’s issue:
Development is finally starting to happen in the South of Forum (SoFo) neighborhood. This week it was announced that a new gated community called Butler Rows will be built at Third and Butler. These will be townhomes built in a New York brownstone style. These are going to be big units – 3 to 4 stories with an elevator in each unit, a two-car garage, 2750-3500 square feet. They will cost between $550,000 and $700,000. I hope they have a plan to make that area safe, because a lot of SoFo is still the ‘hood right now. For that kind of money I’d want to be able to safely walk down Butler from Third to Main to catch the trolley to other parts of Downtown. I know they’re working on it – they’ve done a lot in particular to clean up Abel Street (which runs parallel to Third, just east of Third) this year. Hope they keep up the good work.
This week’s Livin’ It Up also gives details about the upcoming South Main Association meeting, to be held Tuesday night at Chiropractor Memphis at 45 N. Third. The reason I wanted to mention this is that chiropractor Matt Hayden will be speaking. I got to know Matt several years ago when I was in a business networking group with him, and he’s a great guy who really cares about his patients’ well-being. If you have any curiosity about what chiropractors do and whether they can help you, you should go hear Matt speak. Social at 6, program starts at 7. Dammit, I never get to go to these because of my trivia team.
– The Commercial Appeal had a good column yesterday explaining how to get legitimate secret-shopper jobs and how to distinguish them from the ones that are scams. I have known a couple of people who have done this and they tell me it’s a fun part-time job that can get you some free meals. Here are links to the three legit companies mentioned yesterday in the CA:
Hmmm… maybe you could get a mystery shopper assignment at a retail store, and buy a tube top in honor of Tube Top Month.
– If you’re out at crowded bars or restaurants, make sure you keep your purses and bags where you can see them. This weekend I heard a story about a woman who was at a popular downtown bar the Saturday of BBQ Fest. Her purse was next to her, but she turned her back on it as she talked to her husband and friends. When she turned around, it was gone.
– Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. I’ll be at brunch at the Majestic at 11, then at the Saucer in the early afternoon. This evening I may grab the laptop and get some more work done on my new online store. Then I plan to head to Blues City to catch FreeWorld, who will be playing from 10:30 until about 2 AM.
Wait? I’m staying up until 2 AM on a Sunday? How will I possibly get enough sleep to be able to make it to the rat race on time at 8?