Back a hundred years ago when I started with TPC, I was advised not to screw UP, and I’d have a “job for life”.  (That’s not exactly the way it was phrased, and all you Bell Heads out there will know EXACTLY how it was, but you get the point.)

Essentially, I did.  Have a job for life that is, not screw UP.

I’m sure I screwed UP many times, but not in a big enough way to cost me my job or my career.

I was lucky for 30 years, escaped layoffs, down-sizings, survived divestiture (the break UP of the Real AT&T for those who were born after 1984), several economic downturns, technology advances, and on and on and on…I was lucky.  I had a job for 30 years, or life.

I never understood career hoppers, I was much more interested in ’security’

I escaped in 2001 with a pension intact, a part  little bit trace  smidge of my 401k left, and benefits – for life.

It’s a good thing.

Things just aren’t that way anymore.

Unless you’re in education – and that’s looking iffy,  law-enforcement, or medicine, you will probably have to change careers once or more in your life time.

Some jobs we thought would be around forever just won’t be.

So, we have to say good bye.

Bank tellers come to mind.  With direct deposit, which is required by many employers, ATM cards, Check Cards, and Credit Cards, who needs to go to the bank?

It’s kinda sad, I remember going to the bank with Dad when I was a boy.  Mr. Oblinger, the bank President, treated us both like we were his largest depositors.  We weren’t.  Seriously, we weren’t!  They had candy on the counter for the taking.  The Bank Tellers always offered me some.  It was an adventure.  And it’s going away.

No one has the title ‘file clerk’ any longer.  Imaging and faxes and email have seen to that.  Everything is scanned.  Our copier not only copies, it scans, and sends to corporate.  Pretty amazing really.  Image over light.  (Thank you Alexander Graham Bell, he didn’t invent it, but he talked about it over 100 years ago.)

Very Jetsons and all.

And wouldn’t you just love to hear a voice when you call a company?  “Press 1 for English” instantly makes me want to shop elsewhere. 

Answer the phone, say “thanks for calling” and ask me how I’d like my call directed.  Don’t put me into Voice Mail Hell.

So we are saying goodbye to telephone operators.  Voice mail and call routing are taking jobs away. 

Data entry clerks are no longer necessary.  Every teenager can type, even if they can’t spell.   Back at Ohio Bell, we had a room full of people who were “order entry clerks”.  Or data clerks.  We wrote the order with codes in the business office and sent it to order entry, via the mail boy.  Well, no longer.  5th or 6th generation software has allowed us to nuke that job and enter the order ourselves.

And speaking of the mail boy.  Most mail is electronic now, remember the old days when the mail boy came by, and people said,  ”I got my start in the mail room”.  Well no more, say ta ta to him too.  He’s going away, or already gone.  The guy on “Drop Dead Diva” who drops stuff off to the fancy schmancy lawyers; he doesn’t exist anymore.  Scanners, email, and photo processors make him obsolete.

Ever use a travel agent anymore?  Well, not for long.  Travel agents are being replaced by the internet, Priceline, Expedia, and the like.  These days only large corporations planning huge trips with hundred of employees use them.  And with the economy in the toilet, and it is, that’s not happening much. 

Unless you get bailout money from Washington.

What about a watch repairman, or watch sales man.  My first job was at B&L Jewelers in Germantown, Ohio.  John Brower was a true watchmaker, and a darn good one.

He hated Timex watches because they were “disposable”.  Now watches are fashion.  If you need to know the time, you can look on your I-pod, I-phone, I-computer, and soon, your eye-ball!   Unless it’s a Piaget or Rolex you can buy just about any watch  at Wal-Mart.  Nowadays, watch repair consists of replacing the battery!  Or shopping for a new one.

And video store clerks, well, bye-bye.  Netflix and On Demand have nuked those as well.

What I’m sayin’, things ain’t what they used to be.  That Summer job or part-time job may not be there.

And things are probably always gonna’ be changin!

So, be flexible, go to school, get an education.

You want to have a lot on your horizons.

Maybe not.

I know we expect too much of our ‘heroes’, but really…win a bronze medal and simulate sex in public?  No.

Scotty Logo’s street behavior after his Bronze Medal winning half-pipe run was an embarrassment to him, the stuffed shirts at the IOC, and the the American public, to say nothing of the girl, who’s gonna’ have a hard time explaining that picture to the grandchildren in 20 years.

Joe Francis made millions with GGW videos, but BGW – I don’t think we’re ready.  Ok, so it’s a double standard.  But the trampelettes on Joe’s videos aren’t Olympic Medalists.  They’re drunken college coeds with too much money, too much time, and not enough inhibitions.

I don’t mean to be all moral and pontificatious, but we all know what was implied. 

Half-pipe and most snowboarding events are little more than skate ratting on snow.  I love the sport, I’m not impressed with the mentallity and the attitude.

It’s bad enough that Shaun White and his coach can’t say two sentences without the “F” word and can’t remember that every word they say is being recoreded, and it’s bad enough that Shaun White and Scotty acted like fools during the National Anthem while on the medal platform – (just a reminder to anyone else winning a medal for the US:   hand over heart, learn the words, I know it’s hard to sing and musically bad, but it’s OUR national anthem, SING IT!), but really, Scotty and the girl…is that necessary?

And  Scotty, millions of kids are watching you, and you do have a responsibility to behave decently in public.  You may want to Text Tiger for details.

So behave.

Oh, yes, good job on the ABS, BTW!

…to see if Hell has frozen over!

I actually agree with Jay-z!

Jay-Z doesn’t like the new version of “We Are The World”, and neither do I.

As a matter of fact, Jay-Z said it shouldn’t have been remade.  Again, I concur.

The first version, no matter what anyone thinks of it was an iconic classic filled with great singing by great singers.  It was a novel idea at the time…Farm Aid aside…thank you Willie!

Mr. Beyonce told MTV News Saturday night at the 2 Kings Dinner in Dallas, “I know everybody is gonna take this wrong: ‘We Are the World,’ I love it, and I understand the point and think it’s great. But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched.”

Not only did he marry well, he’s very wise indeed. 

The Original, was great, included such greats as Dianna Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Kim Carnes, Huey Lewis, and my all time fave, stuck over in the corner next to LaToya, Bette Midler!

The new one has a rap section, and features a bunch of thugs and criminals including Justin Beiber and Barbra Streisand.

And you know, you can’t spell crap without rap!

The producers decided this time around to remove the only Biblical reference, you know, the one about “turning stones to bread”.

I don’t mean to be insensitive or unkind…wait for it…but how in the name of Lindsay Lohan did Wyclef Jean get a recording contract?  And wasn’t it nice of Lil Wayne to take time out of his dental appointments and court dates to pop in for a solo?

And the nerve of Celine Dion doing the Cindy Lauper part!  Really…take that whiny dog whistle of a voice back to Montreal!

Frankly, if it weren’t for Jennifer Hudson and Pink…it would be worthless.

What did Jay-Z want to do?

He says they should have made a new song.  Says the Jayster, “I think it’s time for us to make a new song.  I tried to do that with ‘Stranded,’ (the song he, Rihanna, Bono, and the Edge premiered at the “hope for Haiti Now” telethon.  He added “I didn’t try to make ‘We Are the World,’ but I tried to make our take on how we felt.”

Jay-Z’s right, the orignial was a classic, it should have been left to stand, and it’s not just because Jay-Z wasn’t there.

…as a cheap education.

You might get one that is worth less in lifetime value, but they are all expensive.

Even “life lessons learned” can cost you.

But, with College Costs out of control, 401ks tanking, Mommy and Daddy telling some students to ”pay their own way”, some folks have had to get creative to pay for college.

There are signs everywhere that say “The US government has over One Hundred Billion Dollars to Pay for Education”.  Really?  How does one get it?  Seems that most government scholarships are tough to get unless one fits a mold, model, or demographic.

It’s frustrating, and I speak from experience.

The Boy is in School in Nash-Vegas, TN.  In the first year, he and his mother have borrowed over $21,000.  He will probably come out of school $35 to $40 Thousand in debt.

There are worse stories.  Go to Med School. The AMA says the average debt for Doctors coming out of school is $156,456.  And 79% leave Med School with at least $100,000. in debt!

Gee, my co-pay isn’t so painful right now.

My daughter, who was able to “Keep Hope Alive” for most of her college years, left school with about $12,000.  Mom and Dad helped with the rest of her college (we averaged $800.00 per month for five years), and the Georgia HOPE Scholarship paid for a great deal of it.  But, she still came out with debt.  She was able to pay it off quickly.

But, I have friends who have been in their careers eight years and are still paying.

So, like I said, some folks are getting creative.  Bake sales and car washes don’t seem to be enough for most, and there’s only so much plasma one can sell.

One Austrailian student who goes by the name UNIGIRL has auctioned off her virginity to help pay her university fees.

Yes, you read that correctly.

She accepted the highest offer of $36,000. US Dollars or $NZ45,000.00 for my reader in Australia.

According to the Australian, Unigirl is quoted as saying, “I have accepted an offer in excess of $NZ45.000, which is way beyond what I dreamed.”

She also wanted to thank the MORE THAN 30,000 PEOPLE who viewed her site.  She was also happy to announce that there were 1,200 offers.

Ok, this is sick.

She descried herself as attractive, fit, and healthy, and said she had never been in a sexual realtionship.   She was not clear on how she would prove her “claims”.

It cost $1.56 BILLION to run the University of Georgia last year. It’s a big school, but things might be out of control.

Seems that college has become about cash. 

And getting in has become about prostitution.

Homeschooling looks better everyday!