My first impression was their musak style music being beamed all over the place. Yes, folks were humming along to Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. I stepped into the door and the smell of meat being over grilled was so heavy in the air. I wondered where I had smelled that before, Astroworld’s medieval cafe. Yep, their cafe where season ticket holders ate because the discount was large, and well you were eating at an amusement park so the food didn’t need to be tasty, just salty.

Now the food, honestly, it is all over the place. The grill master was a little over concerned with overcooking beef, if it was made of hamburger, that meant it had to be charred to a crisp on the outside. While wonderful for keeping down any danger of food poisoning through undercooked hamburger meat. The vegetables were honestly tasty, and reminded me of what I would make a home. I found that many of their vegetables to be quite tasty. I enjoyed their take on the famous green been casserole that is served for the holidays. I loved their addition of chopped onions into the mix and they added some smokey country ham as well.

Now their baked goods, if they simply closed the restaurant and simply opened bakeries that would be the way to go. They made wonderful yeast rolls, cookies, pies, and so much more. For me, this was the most solid part of their food offerings. Their chocolate chip cookies, while they weren’t made of butter were tasty. They do their own version of the Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits, but their biscuits are more dense, and a little less garlicy.

I found my experience to be full of contrasts. Meat, isn’t something I found particularly good here, but it came in ample supply, live and onions, fried livers, fish in a variety of forms, grilled meats, and so much more. They had tasty vegetables, and wonderful baked goods. Would I go back? I think this would be a great breakfast spot or even a decent lunch spot. If you are going to go, bring your sweet tooth.

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1. Google your name, be aware of where you show up, and how your name is being used. This is a double edged sword; you want your name to come up first when people search for your name. The best way to do this is to purchase a domain name with your name. You could set up a wordpress blog there; you could simply leave some basic contact information about yourself, or make it into a personal site. Keep in mind this is your public face, and don’t put anything there that may be potentially embarrassing.

2. Create online professional profiles – LinkedIn.com is a great way to do this. Connect with former and current co-workers, build a resume there, and make yourself visible professionally. Do not put up too much personally information on LinkedIn.com don’t place links to your vacation photos or the like there, keep yourself professional there.

3. Facebook – while everyone may be on Facebook, and Facebook is a wonderful way to connect to our friends, use with caution. You really can’t say anything you like on Facebook without others having access to what you say. Want to complain about the person in traffic, mind your language, want to make comments about your neighbor who has the dog that won’t stop barking, and be mindful in your comments. Funny jokes and comments are fun to engage in, but realize people have lost their jobs over what is posted on Facebook.

4. Online photos – remove any potentionally damaging photos online. There are a lot of photo services out there online that store your photos, but does anyone in the world need to see you drinking from a beer bong? No. Be aware of the photos you are tagged on Facebook, you can remove those tags from your profile, but be aware those photos may still exist somewhere else.

5. Want to remain semi anonymous? Get a separate email address to register to social networking sites, and be aware you can not reveal your true identity to anyone.

6. Watch your social media – be careful of what you tweet; realize that once a comment hits cyberspace, your comment is out there. Again, be mindful of what you discuss online, you never know when this may come back to haunt you.

Controlling your online presence is crucial for many reasons. You never want to isolate yourself from anyone based upon what you have written online. If you simply have a voice you need to express consider doing so anonymously. Things you may want to do to promote yourself are creating your own blog, keep it simple write about hobbies, and possibly charitable causes you are engaged in. Write thoughtful commentary that may be related to your professional life, be known for being an expert. Consider posting to questions others have on LinkedIn.com or creating good questions around your profession. Watch what photos are made available for everyone to see online, be mindful of what you post on Facebook. You have the ability to shape your online presence, and it is easy to do so with all of the social media, blogs, and Web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Stumbleupon, and Hubpages, that you can really use these to your benefit, and you can use them to show people about your skills and your abilities, so why not take that opportunity to do so?

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1. Groom thyself – let’s make sure we are freshly showered, shaved, and our hair is neat. You would be surprised at how often people come into an interview smelling less than fresh. For interview days skip the perfume and cologne, you don’t know if the person that is going to interview you has an allergy, the objective is not to rule yourself out. Don’t stop and have a meal on your way, you may walk in smelling like fried chicken, or some other odor. Smokers be aware that smoke lingers on you and your clothing.

2. Clothes should be pressed and professional – make sure your clothes have been pressed, if you haven’t touched an iron, do so, if you don’t have an iron, bring a couple of outfits to a dry cleaners and have them press your clothes for you. Interviews aren’t the time to have wrinkled clothes, and be too casual. Dress professionally, don’t wear jeans, tank tops, stained clothing, or anything that has neon in it. You want to look like you fit in; you don’t want to look like you don’t belong.

3. Be on time – Don’t be late, really, don’t be late. Leave with enough time, to get lost once or even twice if you have never been there. If you need to drive out to where the interview is because you haven’t been there before, do so. Take the interviewers address, directions, and their phone number with you. Accidents can happen, if you are late due to circumstances beyond your control, call and let someone know the situation.

4. Don’t be too early. Be there 5 to 10 minutes early, any more is discourteous to the interviewer. You are wanting to interview, not look like you are desperate. The interviewer is likely to have a full schedule, don’t stress anyone out because you arrived there 30 minutes way too early. Bring a book; bring some notes about the company to brush up on before you begin your interview.

5. Know the company you are interviewing for, don’t ever walk in not knowing about the company you want to go work for. Search online on their website, about the company. Read their website, note their mission/vision statement, note their CEO, note what business segments they are in. In finance, read their financial statements. Do you know who you are interviewing with? If you do, look up your interviewers on linkedin.com, this way you can see where you may have commonality, you may have worked for the same company, you may have went to the same college, find common ground if possible.

6. Body Language – sit up straight look interested, lean in to your interviewer slightly. Don’t sit back with your arms crossed looking closed off. Watch your hand gestures, don’t point at your interviewer, it’s rude and unsettling, gestures with palms up makes you look open and trust worthy. Do not scowl at your interviewer, no matter what they say, put on your composed poker face, be calm and collected. If you need to fidget, pick up your pen; hold your pen in your hands. You may be nervous on the inside, but convey that you are calm and collected.

7. Practice the basics; everyone is going to ask you to talk about yourself. When this question is asked tell them about yourself to the extent that it relates to the job. If are a fireman, say you were a fireman, don’t say that you used to dance professionally for a living, don’t say what you did over the weekend, don’t talk about non-job related functions. This is the time you have to sell yourself, tell them how your skills, and how your enthusiasm would work well with the organization.

8. Make the interviewer at ease – they may not have had a lot of experience in interviewing previously. Don’t say just “yes” and just “no”, expand when appropriate, working in how you fit, and how your skills will help the organization. You may want to consider some small talk, for example you may want to note their class ring, you may note a picture that they have, and make a light comment. You are likely to be more at ease if you know that you have some commonality, you may want to simply ask where are you from, how long have you been part of this organization.

9. Bring extra resumes – you may want to have one to refer to when you are going over your resume, you can pass out extra copies if needed. Also consider bringing a sheet of accomplishments with you, chances are you may forget a couple of your accomplishments and you want to get across the job you can do. You may also want to pass out the sheet of accomplishments to the interviewer, and let them look over what else you can do.

10. Bring insightful questions – ask about the organization, the culture, ask why did this job opening become created, ask what factors are needed by the candidate to bring a real success to the role. Be enthused; never walk away from an interview without asking questions. Bring 3 or 4 questions with you, failure to ask questions gives the impression you aren’t interested.

Interviewing is a daunting task, chances are, you may be nervous. Relax there are many things you can do so you can feel at ease when you walk into an interview. Groom, be clean and neat, wear freshly ironed clothes that are appropriate for the position you are interviewing with. Do some homework on the company you want to interview with, look at the website, their financial statements, if you know who is interviewing you, look them up on LinkedIn, or Google. Make sure the person who is interviewing you is comfortable, answer with complete sentences, and make them feel at ease. Don’t be too early, and definitely do not show up too late, be respectful of their time. Watch your body language, don’t convey you are disinterested, and be engaged. Come with questions; prepare your questions ahead of time. Interviewing is difficult, but going in with good preparation puts you ahead of many others. Pick off and eliminate anything that may put up a barrier between you and the interviewer ahead of time, this list of 10 things HR won’t tell you is a good start for interviewing success.

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1. Writing gives clarity to our thoughts.
2. Writing teaches us to see how we think.
3. Writing teaches us how words communicate meaning.
4. Writing helps us to develop a voice that is natural, consistent, strong, and confident.
5. Writing teaches to manage our internal editor.
6. Writing gives us the opporunity to share our strength.
7. Writing inspires your readers and your responders.

Michael Ruhlman, really emphasized sitting down in the same place, and spending the same amount of time engaged into posting. I would like to be able to say I do that. I personally think that in exercising that writing muscle I do become a better writer. So it is my goal to write everyday whether in a journal, or a post online. I would urge you to do the same if you want to become a better writer. I ran across this quote, again, source unknown, that stated something that went like this … “you are always a messenger for someone. When you leave projects undone you deprive someone of their light.”

Intersting Links:
Michael Ruhlman’s website

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After having moved across the country twice, in a short period of time, I have decided I needed to reduce my quantities of books. I have been in the process of donating books to the library when I can, and to friends, or anyone that will drop by my house, and wants to pick up a book. Thankfully the library takes magazines, they sell them to raise money to buy books for the library. I am still needing to weed down on the books that I have. The love of reading won’t stop, but the quantity of books needs to slow down.

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She notes that the last 7 aren’t terribly horrible, but that you shouldn’t go on and on about these subjects because others do not want to hear about such subjects at length.    After going over everything that you shouldn’t say, what should you talk about?

• weather
• hobbies and interests
• classes you are taking
• sports
• art
• history
• music
• movies you have seen recently
• programs on TV

Limiting office conversation limits the amount of exposure you have regarding your personal life.  While some co-workers may become lifelong friends, the reality of the situation is that you don’t want to give people opportunity to dislike you, to single you out, or even to limit your chances at a promotion.  So mind what you say in the office, keep conversations pleasant, and limit your conversation topics.

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The answer I got was no, it doesn’t get any easier, it simply changes.  I was told the sense of loss never really goes away, that unfortunately has been my experience.  Sadly I was comforted in when a couple of the ladies mentioned how well they hold up in public, and then at times as soon as the door closes when they get home, they melt.  This has been something I have done all too often.  I have melted into a puddle.  I have melted into a puddle when watching certain tv shows, reading a book, or even going over my journal from days past. 

I would love to tell you that the ladies had said, yes, it gets a little easier.  Grief is a vicious monster that hands overhead for a long time.  I don’t anticipate ever being completelly over my relationship with Michael.  It was sadly refreshing to hear what I go through, others go through and struggle with as well.  I was amazed that many had the same reactions as I have had.

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Akismet – helps to prevent spam bots from posting on your site.  You will need to register with them, and get your code.  This is helpful to keep most spam bots from posting comments on your blog.  If you don’t allow comments, well I really don’t consider you a blog, as you don’t allow for two way communication.
ALL in One SEO Pack – INSTALL THIS ONE !!!!!!!! USE IT !!!!!!! While WordPress is optimized for search engine optimization, this plugin will help search engines narrow down what is important.  One of the things I like best on this plugin is you can have WordPress title your page one thing, and you can title the page for SEO optimization as something else.
Bad Behavior – helps screen out assholes who post spam on your site before akismet would catch it, so you could possibly do without akismet, but while I have never had anything go through this, but there is always a first time.
Digg Digg – puts on big buttons for people to share something on facebook or twitter

Easy Contact – easy contact form to install
Google Analyticator – after you sign up at google analytics, and google webmaster, add this plugin to help install that code on your site
Similar Posts – will pull up other posts on your site at the bottom of your current post that may be related
Twitter Tools – let people see what you are tweeting, I don’t recommend posting your tweets from this application though
WordPress Data Back up – emails you a back up as often as you like, automatically
WP-DBManager – you can set up chron jobs so the site will automatically optimize your data tables, this does so from the dash board, and not the back end.
WP Security Scan – helps from unauthorized folks taking control of your site.  Be careful with this installation, READ the instructions carefully.
WP-Post Ratings – let folks rate your posts if you like
XML Sitemaps – Install for google to make an XML site map, this means nothing to you, but everything to google.. 

I am sure from time to time I will have more recommended plugins, but these are the ones I have suggested over and over again.  Do you have any preferred plugins?

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So I am trying desperately to finish up my book.  I finally became a jew, I have went on three vacations, and did tons of socializing.  Today, I will go to my volunteer for hospice, hopefully work out, have lunch with a new friend, go work on fundraising efforts for the temple, and goodness knows what else.  Yesterday I went to the gym, cleaned house, made 4 dishes for the website, shot photos, editied photos, did some consulting on a new website that I will be assisting with, oh and went to a lovely ‘Night of Why’, presented by my temple.  Meanwhile, I just want to catch my breath. 

It isn’t a complaint about being too busy, as much as right now the pace is so desperately fast.  I just want to catch my breath.  I most likely wouldn’t change it for the world either.

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Upon coming back I am still doing diet gourmet meals, and I joined another gym.  Managed to make it to work out today.  So hopefully I will be moving forward on this again. 

My life has been uber crazy for the past month.  During all of these vacations, I have turned in about 80% of my book to the editor, and this weekend I hope to finish the rest.  I have class one night a week, and still do volunteer stuff on the weekends.  I honestly don’t know if I am coming or going.  I hope things slow down soon!

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