Our Instantly Wired World

Networking. This often is the bane for those of us who have had difficulty looking for work in the age of the WEB. We can attempt to create contacts, and friendships - well not really friendships but definitely close working relationships from where we can develop real work connections. Great conversational exchanges that can bring about a meeting of minds and can generate possibilities of finding a place to be creative - and getting paid for it, too.

How does anyone take that first step online when you can't talk, except through the translator of your keyboard? That's just one of the big difficulties that can arise from putting yourself and your writing out on the internet, but there are also advantages. There were very few newspapers that in the past have had the readership that could reach around the globe, but many blog sites have that capability here in the 21st century.

Writers like Mark Twain often didn't get known as much for their work as journalists, as for those early pieces of fiction. But today a single writer can become well known instantly through an article, or sometimes through the simple turn of a single phrase.

So, if I really want to become a writer with a well visited and subscribed to blog I often have to be first a good reader and responder in various other blog communities around the WEB. Staying in one community alone will probably not get you noticed in this age of instant communication, and that is where the idea of connecting with other writers and those who hire becomes so important. The forum for such communication is no longer that cocktail party where you might be able to look a prospective boss or colleague in the eye and size up your chances from the interactions and maneuvering that occurs one on one in those kind of settings.

Today, often the contacts themselves are ones that are almost unreadable - which can be good for a prospective employer, but more than a bit frustrating for any possible employee. Even through the networking online you can only get a partial picture of who you might be dealing with because there usually isn't the conversational time where you might talk about interests and jobs which can create a well rounded view of who you're dealing with to actually take that next step that might secure an interview.

Networking on the WEB is still in many ways in its infancy and hopefully through video conferencing and similar methods of communication there will soon be ways to develop a form of that "getting to know you," dance so we can get beyond that black and white of the written word and into a career reality with actual prospects.

The Comics Are Magic for The Mind and The Heart

When everything seems to be falling apart in the world there is one place I can go a laugh, or simply escape. It's the world of crazy animals, kids, families, and people at work called the comic page.

My husband always has called those pages the educational pages. To him they were always the place to begin in any paper and the place to end as well and he would often read them to all of the kids around the table during homework time as I worked on dinner week nights. I considered myself too much of an intellectual to begin there when I read the paper, but gradually over the years it has also become my own start page as well. Sometimes - well honestly most of the time the news is too much crap and very little that is either interesting or uplifting.

What saddens me is as newspapers die on the printed page and move online, they seem to be losing much that made them a source for the everyday person. The local news and events, and that section that held the best in humor as well as a wonderful observation of our American culture. You can look up those daily comics individually, but it just does not hold the same wonder and awe that occurred when I opened the paper to those who populated the many boxes on the comic page.

I hope we don't lose the comics, because those are the pages that are really the heart of any newspaper. They are gifts of thought as well as laughter, and despite all the important news found in those few paper pages, they're the items that most people look to every day to lighten their mood and share with someone across the daily breakfast or dinner table. This could end up being one of the worst losses imaginable.

A New Look, and a New Hope

West Michigan is that place where all those horror stories about job loss and despair begin these days. The rest of the country is in a recession, but here where the auto making world got its parts and supplies made and where the beaches are a tourist haven and a comfortable vacation place, is no longer that sanctuary for those of us who live here with our hopes and dreams.

Much of our industry here is tied closely, if not exclusively to the auto industry and has refused to desert the sinking ship called Ford, Chrysler and GM. Many people believe that idea is really a stupid one to continue to do, but over the years and through all the recessions we've experienced that loyalty to the maker of cars and it has kept jobs strong here. but along with those loyalties developed in this Northern European ethnic stronghold ripened a stubbornness and some times an inability to see change as something worthy, or even good for our communities. Many still feel if they hold out till the worst is over that all will be well.

Don't get me wrong, there are industries that have had come that are independent from those makers of the minivans, sport coupes and basic family cars. But we have to find a way to recreate the jobs and hope for our workers. We have to find a way to get beyond the fear of the crash and begin creating again. Creating jobs, secure lives...and a future for our families.