As it stands when you expose yourself to strangers, particularly on the internet, you are bound to run into wonderful people and those who mean you harm and a little of everything in-between. Now that my blog is getting more readers, I’m starting to get more comments from predators, soul crushers, elitist and experts. These people are more than welcome to their opinions and thoughts but quite frankly, they have little to do with me and mine.

The posts getting the most negative attention are the ones about my container home project. I’ve written the posts as I learn about building container homes and/or recycling, renewable energy, blah blah blah and I am not an expert. However, I’m capable of learning and applying that learning so I’m not going to act as though my knowledge is meaningless and neither should anyone else.

Such is life right? Sure. However I do have something to say about it and I’ll breeze on afterward. I use the web for what it is, a tool. So many use it to attempt to verbally manhandle others in an artificial environment or to “control” the behavior of others. A part of being a powerful person is recognizing when someone is trying to steal your time with negative interactions and being able to avoid being sucked into it.

Having said all this, I will be disabling comments. I simply do not have time to interact with the patients in line for medication before bedtime. If you have something engaging, humble, or honest to say (even if it’s humble criticism) by all means send me an email via my comment form. I have been in contact with many wonderful people who have left sincere comments or have sent me an email. I just refuse to have any more of my precious time on earth wasted by miserable people. I have one life and I value every second of it.

Cheers!

However, I would say for the past 8-9 years now, the abilities of job recruiters have plummeted to a point where I don’t even want to hear from one of them. They are nearly on the same level as a bill collector now. *Smile* It’s sad really. It used to be a respectable job. The first thing I noticed was they began contacting me with jobs they knew I wasn’t qualified for and then proceed to ask me if I knew anyone who might be interested. This used to be an harmless question when called about a job you were qualified for but simply didn’t want or were no longer available to work but now it appears to just be a “doggy paddle” tactic from unqualified recruiters who contact you about a job that’s not even in the same state you are in (especially if it’s noted that you aren’t willing to relocate) for a job you aren’t even qualified for. My answer is always “Why should I do your job for you for free when I’m looking for work?”. Whatever.

The biggest issue is individuals with no technical background are being hired as recruiters for technical jobs. This has been tragic for the IT industry. Think about it. How well do you think you would do with a recruiter with no technical knowledge trying to match you with a technical position they don’t understand the requirements for?

Let me put it another way. How well do you think you would do if you had a computer programmer as an airline pilot, having only ridden in a plane? No training, no flight school, nothing. The only experience they’ve had is having taken a couple of trips in a plane. That’s what it is when individuals with no IT experience are hired to find jobs for computer professionals. The only experience they have is using their work computers to send you job listings you don’t qualify for. *Smile*

How does this all play out? Check out the latest email I received for a job I don’t qualify for. Aside from the usual, “do you know anyone who would be interested”, there was a new and far more horrifying gem amongst the ridiculous list of requirements, only Superman could meet:

“Additionally, please let me know exactly how your credentials and resume speak directly to the job requirement”

What??? So… now, not only were they asking me to give them candidates for the job, now they are asking me to do the very core of their job! If a recruiter is unable to read through my resume (mind you, I abandoned the “lazy man’s” resume for a more professional and comprehensive Curriculum Vitae years ago) and determine how my experience fits the job they are sourcing for, they are unable to do the job they were hired to do. Period.

This is equivalent to me going to work where I create batch jobs in Control-M and asking a developer to create a batch job to test his VB code.

I just had to speak on that for a minute. If you are a recruiter and you are good at your job, that’s wonderful. However, there are too many that aren’t. I’d like to see everyone with the ability to provide for themselves but some effort needs to be made as well. If you aren’t a technical person and you get hired as a technical recruiter, it is your personal responsibility upon accepting a job you know you aren’t truly qualified for to bring yourself up to speed. Google your ass off on anything you aren’t familiar with and stop asking job seekers to do your job!

Theory:
A culture that doesn’t recognize, understand or value the circular cycle of life and the connectedness it creates (which allows people to make connections between concepts and to use past knowledge to build new knowledge or to use past knowledge in current applications) results in fragmented societies, individuals, and minds.
The school system is at its worse.
There is little or no additional learning taking place outside of school for children or adults.
People simply do not read what is written carefully.
Our listening skills are near zero due to emotional discomfort, immaturity, selfishness, and the biggest of all … ego.
Excessive television, video game, computer usage leading to declining social skills.

Some examples:
I offered video services to a woman wishing to produce a video series. I e-mailed her explaining my availability. Pretty simple, I’m available on the weekends and I’m NOT available anytime during the week until after 4:30pm. I e-mailed her this three times and three times she responded with “Lets meet on “x day during the week” in the morning”. I was left thinking she was simply not reading what I wrote at all, have reading comprehension problems, doesn’t really want the services, or is mentally ill.

On several occasions where I currently work I’ve sent written requests and information to developers and sys admins and have had them ask me for details that are clearly written in the original text and we are talking about a 3-4 sentence paragraph here. Re-posting the same paragraph made them say “oh”.

The same is true for those writing or speaking to others with little or no context to their statements so others have a difficult time knowing what they are talking about. I knows some people who talk like this and I often have to ask for clarification. For example, have you ever had someone write or speak to you and leave out the who, what, when, and where? It would feel like this… You and your friend are talking about baseball and have been for the past 15-20 minutes and then the friend says something like “She really didn’t know what to do about that, you know? All I could say was “I would never have allowed that.”" The problem is 1. What does this have to do with baseball? 2. Who is “she”? 3. What didn’t she know what to do about? 4. What would they never have allowed? I have had many many people communicate this way and I must say it has been within the past 10 years. I don’t recall any of these communication and comprehension issues occurring this often prior to roughly 10 years ago. You are left having to ask 4 questions to learn what they are talking about instead of them saying “Let me switch up on you here because something just popped into my mind. This chick I know at work doesn’t know what to do about her rude boss, you know? I would never have put up with her boss yelling at me in front of our co-workers.” (a name is really only important if the other person knows them too. On the flip side, I have a friend who talks to me about people at work by name, who I don’t know as if I know who she’s talking about and that also leaves me asking more questions)

There are simply countless times where I’ve written a question in particular and have gotten back an answer that was so out in left field that I had no choice but to conclude the person did not understand the question. I feel I’m constantly left thinking “Now what in the world does that have to do with my question?”

These are just some examples off the top of my head. There are many more I have experienced. And we see some of these examples every day on the news.

Just a thought:
It’s just such a strange phenomena to me. Especially the issues with reading comprehension. I just remember it being such a big deal to learn reading comprehension in school. Besides it being an extremely important skill to have, regardless of in school education and this is even more true with listening comprehension.

This issue is significant to me. If we get to a point where we do not understand each other on a basic level, then of course we will have some serious problems. I also think we tend to overlook how important socializing is and we deny how easily our social skills are affected. But as a real world example, I recognized a decline in my own social skills when I moved from Florida, where I had many good friends, to Idaho, where I had a few friends and my social skills increased in leaps and bounds when I moved to Seattle and not only had many good friends but ones who had sociable hobbies (ones in bands, etc.) and who hugged a lot. It doesn’t take much.

……………………………………………………

As for the movie. It was pretty bad for a few reasons.

1. This whole, letting really old men be in action movies has gotten out of hand. The first shot of Harrison Ford in this movie made me just about fall out of my chair. He looked like an 80 year old man (as joked in the movie). Hell, he looked too old in The Fugitive. We were also assaulted with Al Pacino in a very terrible action movie 88 minutes and Micheal Douglas in more movies than I care to recall. But make no mistake, it’s not about ageism as it is about offering respectable roles to our mature actors/actresses (this doesn’t seem to be as big of an issue with women). For instance, as Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman have aged, their accepted roles reflect their maturity.

2. It would also appear some of the story for this film was ripped from various other movies. There is no honor in that at all.

3. When you have to make Aliens a large part of your action adventure movie set in the past, your movie is officially garbage.

Which leads me to the following statement: Hollywood needs to officially shut down. In a short period of time, it is no longer producing art and entertainment. Make no mistake the psychological cycle we are all in is simple. Entertainment is a large part of our lives so when a new film is made we will still go and see it, hoping we will be entertained like we used to be in the past. However, if you check around for reviews from the general public after these films have made their money opening week, then we can sense that an overwhelming number of movie goers are consistently disappointed with movies they have seen. Sure making films is still lucrative for Hollywood studios on some level because they are counting on the initial release where the masses aren’t aware that their movies are garbage until they’ve already shelled out the money.

It’s time the moving going public comes to terms with the death of Hollywood and filmmaking returns to the grassroots level.

Sometime after 2002, the site was hacked and offline for a few years. It was finally back up last year then hacked again. It is back up and running and Cuepop owner, Evan Evans informed me that all security issues have been addressed and additional backup plans have also been implemented.

The first thing I noticed is the site is 100 times faster than it was before. It still sports a rather outdated layout but it works. I look forward to the future growth of this site. It is such a valuable tool for musicians and filmmakers.

Cheers!

Why should you become self-aware?
Imagine turning 70 or 80 years old and realizing that you haven’t done with your life what you would have liked to have done. Imagine feeling the years fly by and you are still stuck in the same cycle; a cycle you aren’t happy with. Realities such as these are often due to a person spending the majority of their lives not being self-aware. They spend year after year doing what they think they are “supposed” to do, engaging in activities that are counterproductive to their life goals, or they never develop or contemplate life goals for a variety of reasons. It’s not their fault. We live in a society where self-awareness is not cultivated from birth. We put diapers on our infants when they are completely capable of learning to control their waste functions much earlier than we allow them to. We send our children to schools to be trained to learn, think, dress, behave, and judge a certain way. We fight our teenagers for thinking for themselves, which we wouldn’t have to do if we were confident that we taught them to be good thinkers to begin with. We send our young adults to colleges or to work and assure them they can “be whatever they want to be” as long as it means working for someone else and never mention anything about choosing the right option for themselves no matter what the circumstances are. So where is the self-awareness?

I think of self-awareness as a time saver. When you are self-aware you save time. You don’t waste as much time with trial and error when you are self-aware and know what you were already capable of doing. I also like to use examples. For example, think about how much time you would save if you knew you were capable of a certain skill and you acted upon an opportunity to put that skill to use. I know people who have had a great skill, such as cooking, who never realized it was a skill they could do for a living. Think of how much heartache you could spare if in knowing you want children, you choose a partner who also wants children. Romantic and personal relationships in this country are in dire shape due to self-awareness problems. Remember self-awareness doesn’t just mean knowing about yourself, it also includes acting upon what you know about yourself.

In Addition, you may find what you know about yourself has changed. People learn and grow all the time and your understanding of yourself may also change over time. So be pre-paried to re-evaluate yourself from time to time and apply that new data to your current life. For instance, if 5 years ago you were not capable of effectively marketing a business you should have hired someone who was skilled in that area. However, if now you have learned some marketing skills and tricks you should be actively applying them on your own; saving you money. If your weren’t ready for marriage or a committed relationship when you were 19 or 20 years old but now at 30 or 35 years old you are, then it is in your best interest to seek a partner who is also interested in marriage or a committed relationship. It would go against your self-awareness to accept a partner who is not interested in marriage or a committed relationship.  

Here are five ways you can become more self aware:

1. Look at yourself in the mirror for 5-10 minutes everyday for 30 days and write down how you feel about yourself when you do.Write a list of the things you like about yourself and the things you don’t like about yourself. Then go down this list and figure out where the negative thoughts come from if there are any. For instance, if you don’t like your size think about where you got that negative message from. Before you get hung up on what is supposed to be “healthy” think about your real and actual health. Despite what is “said” to be healthy, have you been a physically healthy person? For example, I know several overweight people who rarely get so much as a cold and several thin people who are sick all the time. The point is not to have you be overweight, but for you to 1. think for yourself, and 2. get you in the habit of viewing your life through your self-awareness not someone else’s.

Your self-esteem plays such an enormous role in your life you simply can not overlook this suggestion. How you feel about yourself influences the decisions you make, the relationships you choose to engage in, the professions you allow yourself to apply for, the way you relate to your kids, family, loved ones, your mood, etc.

2. Take some time to write down all of your accomplishments and all of your regrets and/or mistakes up to this point in your life. Really give it some thought. When you have a list, go over each item and write down the actions you took or decisions you’ve made that lead to the accomplishments, regrets and/or mistakes. See any patterns?

For the accomplishments, try to find specific behaviors or motivations that helped you make good decisions and see if you can apply those behaviors and motivations in the future. Then try to come up with some reasons for making the decisions you may have made that lead up to mistakes or regrets. This isn’t an opportunity for you to beat up on yourself. We all make mistakes. They are learning tools. Problems arise in our lives when we keep making the same mistakes over and over and ignoring patterns we can control that help us make the mistakes. For instance if you realize that when you are upset or lonely you become impulsive and buy something you don’t need. That is a pattern/behavior that needs to be addressed.

3. For 30 days write down your daily activities. This also includes everything you purchase and your moods. This isn’t an attempt to get you to journal, it’s an attempt to get you to recognize your patterns. Patterns you can analyze. Once you have collected this information, take a good look at it. Some questions to ask yourself:

What were you feeling at the time you made all purchases within the 30 days?
Why did you feel you needed to make the purchases?
Did you put off paying a bill to purchase something that could have waited?
What are activities do you spend most of your time on?
How much time do you spend watching TV?
Do you give up real human interaction to watch TV?
How many people did you interact with during the 30 days?
Were they positive interactions?
Which moods are most prevalent during the 30 days?

4. Write down EVERYTHING you think you are good at. This should include tasks that are regular everyday things like cleaning, cooking, being a good listener to your loved ones and friends. Once you have this list, write down the tasks from the list that you LOVE doing. Some questions to consider:

Is what you LOVE doing what you are doing for a living?
Why not?
What can you do to make what you LOVE doing a career?

Please, let me explain.

Over the years I have acquired and developed very specific skills in the areas of computers, creativity, and personal development. Because of this, my friends and family immediately come to me for assistance before looking for answers themselves, even if they know I don’t have the answer. A friend of mine shared something with me. She said the reason was because even if I don’t know the answer, I know where or how to find it. She added that I’m much faster at finding the answer than she. This made me laugh but it also made me realize I was doing something other people weren’t doing. I had no idea that people would much rather have someone else find their answers than find them on their own.  So I started paying more attention when I was being asked to help with a problem or to find out information. She was right. They weren’t coming to me because they thought I had all the answers. They were coming to me because of my ability to produce a valid answer, even if I had no idea when they first contacted me. Then it became important for me to teach them how to quickly find answers to their own questions.

How silly of me. There was more to it than that. The issue here wasn’t about the act of looking for your own answers. The issue was learning how to learn. It is my drive for answers and knowledge and my ability to know how to get answers and the knowledge that gives me the ability to learn. Application comes after learning. Well that is my interpretation anyway.  So, how could I get them to seek out answers on thier own?

Why do they seek our others to do a task they are perfectly capable of doing themselves?

People learn over time to be helpless. In addition, their self-esteem also suffers over time so they believe they are not capable of finding information on their own.  Think back to when you were in grade school. Weren’t you taught to go to the library and look things up? I remember that very well. I remember when searching for resources was taught year after year to stress its importance. However, over time this may seem less and less important in our daily lives. There are many other reasons why people would rather have someone else do tasks they can do themselves, but it lead me to helping my friends and family learn to help themselves. As I began doing consulting work I became even more aware of this issue of asking before seeking.

So what is this blog all about? This blog is pretty simple. I would like to present to readers the knowledge I have acquired in the areas of Publishing, Graphics Design, Business Image, Creative Writing, Filmmaking and Personal development. However, in order for some readers to make use of this blog, it may also be necessary to help them develop self-behavior modification skills.

So…

Three West Creative Development Blog = Knowledge+Self-Awareness+Self-Behavior Modification = Success

In some instances, applying knowledge from this site to your goals or projects may require life and/or behavior changes in order for you to be successful. You can do it!  Its not just about getting information, its about using it as well.