By the Letter E

Being without a job is no fun. Regardless of your age, sex, or location in the world not having a job can be one of the most frustrating times for anyone. I think if there is any consolation during this bleak period it is the small pin point of light that comes to the dark in the form of job fairs. I like them. They are a one stop shop of varying employers willing to hire people on the spot, or connect with them and exchange information to be in touch at a later date. This year I had the pleasure of attending the Tech Career Expo at Austin, Tx South by Southwest event. This event was held this year at the Austin Music Hall in the center of downtown Austin. Even with the day starting out rainy and cold, the turnout for the event was still non-stop. The good people with Dice.com were manning the doors getting every participant who entered to 'connect' with them on Twitter at #DiceConnect. This enabled real time tweets to and from potential employers and job fair participa...

I was saddened today when I discovered that an Austin icon had passed away early this morning. Any visitor to my home town of Austin, TX would have seen him as he frequented the downtown area that was such a tourist destination. Many people came from everywhere just to see HIM. You couldn't miss him, as he was the only dude with pink hair and a scruffy beard wearing a tiara, a tutu, or 'booty' shorts and stripper heels. He was truly one of a kind and I think many may have secretly envied him because of his ability to express himself so freely simply because he could. He often touted that people often have a tendency to take themselves too seriously and life is a dance and should be enjoyed. He dared to enjoy his life, the world, and the people around him. Always willing to stop and take photos with tourists, and always able to talk your ear off. I encountered Leslie when I was in college and I had to use the city bus system to get through campus because parking was...

Who hasn't been to a blog or received an email from someone that has used the wrong form of "it's" or "they're" a time or two hundred? Well the good folks at copyblogger.com have put together a nice little infographic to help weed out some of the common mistakes and errors that we sometimes make that can have a huge affect "effect" :) on the way that you communicate online. Enjoy and feel free to share...especially to those two hundred. Like this infographic? Get more copywriting tips from Copyblogger . This re-post was brought to you today by the Letter E... blog on. ~Elaine

Today I stumbled into my neighborhood Ulta cosmetics store because my curling iron bit the dust and I needed a new one.  As I wandered through the store to get to the curling irons a display showcasing the latest magnetic nail polish fad caught my attention. I don't know if there are other brands on the market, but the one I decided to use is by a company called LAYLA and the color is #08 Velvet Groove.  Groovy name for a nail polish I guess.  I snagged the bottle for like 15.99 or so.  Quite a bit more than what I'm used to spending on a bottle of nail polish, but anything for experimentation.  :)  It comes in various colors from metallic silver to purple 'velvet groove', blues and greens. Ok fast forward to this evening, when I actually had time to paint my nails. (rare) I followed the instructions on the bottle and painted one nail at a time and after I coated the nail with a liberal amount of polish I closed the bottle and applied the magnetic close t...

This isn't much of an 'informative' blog this morning...just a little piece of whimsy I happened to stumble upon... On my morning drive today I reached a point where I was stopped in a line of traffic along a busy street.  So as I waited for the light to turn green I sat and people watched for a few minutes.  One woman stood out among the others because she was walking away carrying a newspaper in one hand and a cup of coffee in a red cup in the other. She wore a dark blue 'suit' of sweatpants and a jacket of the same blue color.  Around her neck she had a small shiny key on a lanyard that swung side to side as she walked.  She wasn't very attractive per se...but the way she carried herself made her more appealing I suppose.  She looked like someone that needed that coffee in order to function properly throughout the day. She had that groggy puffy eyed look to her as if last night had not been too friendly to her but I still couldn't look away.    So ...

Searching for a job can be a daunting task for someone who has not been in the workforce for quite some time, has been out of work for awhile, OR if you have been in one position so long that you don't really know where to start once the 'end' has come.  I find myself in the initial category of having been out of work for awhile.  I allowed my spouse to do all of the working and the bringing home of the bacon so to speak.  This situation has it's good and it's bad points.  The good being you don't have to pay for child care if you have children, you save money on gas and other work expenses and you can concentrate on other pursuits like furthering your education.  The bad (and I'm going REALLY bad here), if your spouse loses his/her job, dies or decides to dissolve your union and you are unprepared without a job or insurance YOU are left with a huge mess.  Many people think it is easy to acquire a job and will give you the whole 'oh things will get bette...

The past couple of weeks I have been indulging in my two passions.  Photography, and the internet.  I was sent an invitation by one of my Facebook friends to try Pinterest.  Not knowing much about the app except what I had read about on other sites my curiosity piqued.  So I accepted the invitation and moseyed on over to check it out.  I discovered that Pinterest is an online scrap book of different things that interest you and others on the web and all bundled into a pretty visual package.  It allows you to click on an image uploaded by another user or to load your own.  You can add a link to the images that directs to any webpage.  For example, yesterday I 'repinned' an image of Thai Coconut Curry soup, but clicking on the image itself took me back to the web page where I found the recipe.  Can't wait to try it.   So after exploring for the past couple of weeks I have found that I enjoy this site immensely.  It brings people and ...