Well, as I predicted, there is nothing going on in the world now that the election is over. No one is talking about anything, no one is complaining about anything. Pretty boring. I suppose most of the news reporter people are on vacation and once they return, there will be something.
 
I don’t have anything going on either, which is why I’ve decided to change blog themes today. I don’t mean the actual “theme” of the blog – I’ll still be talking about nothing and trying to make it funny – just the visual theme that you are now seeing. That is new.
 

I have decided that the world needs a new Jimmy Buffett/John Denver. Hang on – hear me out. When you listen to a song sung by John or Jimmy, you are supposed to feel like packing it all in and heading to the mountains, or to the beach, respectively. I like feeling like, if I were to pack it all in, that there is somewhere I could go to play guitar and hang out – possibly on a boat – where other folks who had also checked out were waiting for me with a margarita and a nice rayon shirt. But, today’s music pales in comparison. No one is creating a movement, or getting people excited about anything. No artists are instilling rebellion in the youth or reminding people that life is really all about getting high around a camp fire.
 

Part of the problem, I think, might be timing. When I was a kid I could tell that if I were just a little older, I would have enjoyed the television show “Thirty-something.” Now that I am thirty-something, there are no shows like it anywhere. Similarly, when I was but a lad, musicians were protesting war and railing against the rich man’s gold and our unending quest for that gold. Today’s musical persons actually promote the pursuit of gold, quite literally. I am almost 40, and I am ready to start the second part of my life – the part where I take part in a few smuggling operations and spend the better part of the year in sunglasses and sandals. But, there is no movement right now. Everyone is all about making money and sending kids to college and saving for retirement. Dude, if we were having a good time every day, we wouldn’t need to retire.
 

I do play a little guitar, so it is possible that in just a year or two, I could start my own movement. I would write war protest songs, because I think that is an important part of our culture that is missing. But, I am not a risk-taker, per se. I have never been the guy that would do something, and then think about it. So, the likelihood of me starting a movement is pretty slim. But, if you were thinking about it, send me an email, because I have some ideas I could share with you.
 

Last thought. I got an email today from this company that wants me to join their career site thingy. It is expensive, so I have not yet joined. But, one of the articles today began with this quote.
 
“If you haven’t figured out that you are being Googled in your job search just as frequently as you are Googling your business contacts, then it is time to enter the world of modern career management. Whether you want to or not, you must develop and maintain some kind of professional online profile and recognize that people are forming opinions about you based on what they find after typing your name into a search engine.”
 

It is not that I had not realized that, but when I think about all the things that are out there with my name on them, it makes me wonder what opinions people are forming of me. Probably they think I would be a good worker, because I have excellent written and verbal communication skills. Also I am self-motivated, and can work on multiple projects simultaneously. Actually, what’s interesting about that is that yesterday in my daily Seth Godin article, he said that if he were hiring someone, he would look for the following:
 

• You’re relentlessly positive
• You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes
• You can ride a unicycle, or can read ancient Greek
• You’ve taken on and completed audacious projects, and run them as the lead, not as a hanger on
• You’ve become the best in the world at something
• You easily engage with strangers and actually enjoy selling ideas to others
• You are comfortable with ambiguity, and rarely ask for detail or permission
• You like to tell stories and you’re good at it
• You’re intellectually restless
• You care enough about new ideas to read plenty of blogs and books
• You’re curious enough about your own ideas that you blog or publish your thoughts for others to react to
• You’re an engaging writer and speaker
• You understand that the system is intertwined, that your actions have side effects and you not only care about them but work to make those side effects good ones
 

I don’t ride a unicycle, or read ancient Greek, but I did teach myself guitar. The rest of the items, I think, describe me pretty well. I think that employment should be a relationship. You can’t base it on a picture and a paragraph – you need a 47 point inspection of the person to truly get to know them. If someone rated me on the above criteria, I’d probably get the job. If someone rated me based on my blog posts, I might get the job. But, how does anyone hire anyone by looking at a resume and meeting with the person for half an hour?
 

The world is a very strange place.