Write If You Get Work
Posted at 5:00 AM on April 20, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(24 Comments)
I had another e-mail this morning from Bubby Spamden, perennial sophomore at Wendell Wilkie High School.
Hi Mr. C.,Thanks for your note asking about what I'm up to, now that my latest sophomore year is coming to an end.
We had the Job Fair at Wilkie High last week where people come to give you information about all the different kinds of jobs you can do once you get out of high school, which I don't think I ever will get out, but sometimes you have to pretend you think something crazy will happen just to make other people happy.
But I didn't see any jobs I wanted to have.
It was set up in the gym. I took a picture so you can see how it looked. I don't really know these kids. The ones I hang out with aren't looking for work.
All the jobs people are at tables with colored balloons to make it all festive and happy, but once you get talking you find out that jobs people are gloomy, gloomy, gloomy.
Don't get me wrong. They're happy THEY have jobs. For them, the jobs the job fair is all about are the jobs they have being job explainers at the job fair. Nobody was really saying they had any other jobs to offer now or anytime soon, but we should all be thinking about our education so we can learn what we need to learn to get the future jobs that will be around someday. What will those jobs be?There was a government table and health care table and one for teachers and stuff. Law enforcement was another big one.
This one guy from the State Department of Criminal Something or Other said that the people in law enforcement have to really know ALL the rules. And not just rules that other people have to obey. There are are rules the rule enforcers too!
Boy, they sure know how to take all the fun out of a cool job!There was no table at all for any of the jobs I'd actually want, especially the one I want most of all - "You Tube Sensation".
You Tube Sensation is a really great job to have because you hardly have to leave home to do it. And there are all sorts of ways to get there, although a lot of it has to do with either looking silly or having an amazing talent. And if it's a hidden amazing talent nobody expects you to have, that's the very best.
The latest You Tube Sensation, Susan Boyle, is that last kind. She's is really cool in a nerdy, I-don't-care-about-being-cool kind of way.
I would like to be like her but the singing thing has already been done, and besides, I'm too cool to pull of the "I'm not cool" thing, and also I can't sing.So I was thinking I could amaze the world with my wicked talents at fire juggling.
I don't look like the sort of person who could do fire juggling, because I'm a little shaky, especially when I stand up in front of an audience. And I'm afraid of fire. So I've never actually done it.
But that would make it truly amazing when I get up there, totally looking like some geek who's going to burn the place down, and it turns out that I am an excellent fire juggler! People would jump to their feet and cry like babies.
And the extra moisture might come in handy.
I think we would want to have a hose nearby too.So keep an eye on You Tube. That's where I'm going to be working as a genuine sensation, if and when I finally get out of school.
And then maybe I'll come back and hand out some information about it at the job fair!Sincerely,
B. Spamden
Sensational Fire Juggler
What do you think of Bubby's career plans?
And If you were going to be a You Tube Sensation, what amazing hidden talent would you reveal to the world?
Comments (24)
Good morning RH,
Bubby should check to see if he broke the world's record at the number times of putting the word 'job' in an email.
My left thumb is double jointed (when I put it in motion it's pretty creepy), I can burp on command, I can soft-shoe to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, and I'm working up a tap-dance routine to Waiting for the Great Leap Forward. I'm also related to George Washington. Hidden talents galore!!
I think Bubby might want to practice by a lake -- just in case.
I just learned how to make pancakes, does that count as a hidden talent?
Thanks for the comments, Donna.
As a high school sophomore, Bubby is very word-count focused for every bit of writing he does, so using one word over and over again works for him if it gets him to the total. Especially if it's a short, easy-to-type word like "job".
Put on your tap shoes. Billy Bragg coming up!
And who says Monday mornings have to be a drag? I totally get Bubby's rationale! Actually, I tap dance best in bare feet.
Good morning, all! I'm afraid you'll not be seeing me on youtube... now or ever. ;-)
Was wondering if we could hear some Lucinda Williams this morning!
Thanks, elinor. Lucinda Williams coming up!
By the way, has anyone seen the Susan Boyle video on You Tube? She's pretty amazing, but I worry about what will happen to her next with all the attention.
Good Morning all….
Are you alright?
I was hoping you would play this one.
I Love this song……Thank You for playing it!
Good mornin'
Compared to Donna I am completely lacking in stellar talents. I do know a lot of trivia including the word to describe Donna's thumb-triphalangeal.
Someone may want to direct Bebby to Tom Rush's comments on PHC about his youtube hit about getting old. I think he said, "I didn't see a peeny from it."
Have a great day!
Thanks for playing Lucinda Williams, Dale! My five year old loves Lucinda Williams, and that is one of his favorite songs to sing (though he is at home snoozing now).
I have seen the Susan Boyle video on YouTube and think she is lovely and amazing. My kids, who are YouTube junkies, do not grow tired of watching her. For certain, hers is one of the classier acts to entertain them on that site.
Obviously typing is not one of my talents either...It was a penny that Tom Rush did not see
I can wiggle my ears, make a funny face by raising the left side of my upper lip and lowering the right side of my lower lip, and I have double jointed elbows. I usually just make kids laugh with these talents, but if I can make some money with them, that would be great! You Tube, here I come!
I don't have hidden talents as stellar as Susan Boyle (who certainly is getting her 15 minutes of fame - you go girl!) - though I am also a sometime tap dancer like Donna (I once tapped to the theme from S.W.A.T. in a recital, which worked better than it should have).
Hmm...can't really see turning styrofoam into cheese and lollipops as a YouTube sensation. Nor would using power tools to turn lumber and muslin into ancient China or an English country manor translate well to YouTube. Guess I'm destined to be the behind the scenes gal on YouTube - set and prop maker to the sensations. Sigh.
Greetings Heartlanders! I just watched the Susan Boyle video -- what a delightful lady! If she gets through the process without submitting to a complete makeover, it will be amazing.
As for me, I can bend over with knees straight and put my palms on the floor, do the splits and kick over my head -- all after a good, long warm-up and stretching, of course.
I like Bubby's idea of fire juggling -- it seems fun, interesting and unusual without having to be chained to a desk in a cube farm. Although one has to seriously consider the risks. What about health insurance??
Good Morning!
I think my problem might be that my talents are too hidden like being able to stick out my tongue and then rotate it 360 degrees. It hasn't ever produced the desired result in an interview so I now keep it hidden just about all the time. I don't think of myself as particularly athletically inclined but I can turn the cranks on a bicycle nearly indefinitely; almost 200 miles just last week and I'm just getting warmed up!
Bubby, I tried the Utube thing with the video of my dog, a sure winner I thought, but it only got me 15 nano-seconds of fame and even that might be optimistic. You might want to work on some backup skills like saying "Do you want fries with that?"
Donna - how are you archiving the show? I'm dying to know!
Linda - Thanks for the tip on how to use the Mac to be a Radio Heartland alarm clock!
HAPPY MONDAY EVERYONE!!!
Well, Bubby already has a job, profesional student, or maybe it should be profesional sophmore student.
I don't know what he should do as a profesional sophmore on You Tube. I do substitute teaching and I think there are a lot "tricky" things a sophmore could do, such as make various projectiles to throw at other students when the teacher isn't looking.
I learned a lot by reading all those responses to Dale's questions last week. I think the internet radio might be a really good thing for people who like Radio Heartland as one person suggested.
I think there should be a Radio Heartland internet forum where various topics related to Radio heartland could be posted and people could exchange information and ask questions. This would be separate from Dale's blog. For example, ideas about how to promote Radio Heartland could be collected there. I think a forum would compliment Dale's blog.
I think some one might be willing to help Dale and Mike start a forum and manage it, if Dale and Mike don't have time to do this. It wouldn't be me because I don't have skill for that, but I have participated in internet forums and I think it would be good to have one for Radio Heartland.
Dale- thanks for the Lighten Up song - brought me back from a funk. was feeling sorry for myself because Alba didn't kid last weekend - so she's not pg - so she won't be milking this summer - so we won't have her kids to admire or the income from the milk. not such serious problems in the scope of the universe - somehow you must have known this.
on the bright side, Artie and Tammy W have gained two pounds each in their first week of life and it's like popcorn out there in the kid pen.
i guess my talent is taking care of these goats - nothing that would wow You Tube folks. but the goats love me
and we're looking forward to June and, we hope, Dream's kids.
fun reading the blog today - thanks all, and good day
Thanks Jasper for playing Nanci Griffeth! I am going to hear her a week from tonight at the Guthrie!
Bummer about Alba, Barb. I think it's been the sort of weekend when it's easy to feel sorry for yourself (I've had my spells last few days too - let's blame the gray weather). If you put the goats on YouTube, let us know!
Listening to the archived 7-8am hour (to catch parts I missed), I got to listen to the "All Right" series of three songs. Sure helped my mood.
Thanks Dale, Mike and Jasper!
Would anyone care to watch one more pre-baby boomer's gyrations, vocalizations, gestures and frustrations while trying to restore a crashed computer and missing Radio Heartland?
Very sad morning at my house. Is Bubby a computer geek and, if so, does he do house calls? Though I hope the trolltull (troll nonsense) computer recovered in time for Tuesday morning.
Barb, I'm so sorry about Alba. After Maestro died, she just couldn't move on with her affections, eh?
I once had a goat who had a hysterical preganancy along with her pregnant-for-real daughter. She even went through labor along with the daughter. Ah, goats and their emotional lives...
I'm listening to the replay, and, my goodness, tap dancing to Billy Bragg's Great Leap Forward would be exhausting! Good luck with that, Donna!
Mark - I don't really archive the DC show. I just click on the word "listen" above the hour's playlist for that morning, and usually, magically the sound comes through. So I'm accessing the archived show then, I guess. Dale - IS that what I'm doing??
Perhaps Bubby should consider becoming a high school sport official. That way he could go to all the games all year round and have lots of power and wear cool uniforms. I don't have any unique talents worth mentioning, but my father has been a registered offical with the Minesota State High School League since he was stationed in England during the Second World War. He is 88 and still umpires High School baseball and volleyball. I don't know what we're going to do with all those black and white striped suits when he finally retires.
Yes, Donna, that is exactly it.
The way it's supposed to work, if you click on a day on the calendar on the right hand of the screen, you will go to a playlist and program archive for that particular date.
Renee, your dad sounds like a legend. Do the Bubby-aged athletes know their ump is 88?
Of course, it takes a few years to be able to appreciate the enormity of 88. To an 18 year old, 40 and 88 look about the same, I'd guess.
Dale, regarding my dad-he looks younger than he really is. I don't know if the players know how old he is, but I'm sure the athletic directors don't. They send out their refereeing contracts a year or more ahead of time, and he is still getting contracts for games in 2010 and 2011. He always says that the current year is his last for refereeing, but he's been saying that for 20 years or more. With his two knee replacements he says he can run like a rabbit. He still has chest painshowever, even after his by-pass surgery, but since he's usually the home plate ump he gets to stand still most of the time.
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