Good Humanity Sunday - 4/20/08

This week's Good Humanity Sunday is just a reminder that I'm hosting the 58th edition of the Carnival of Feminists. (Check out the 57th edition at Pandemian!)

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, April 22nd at 6pm EST.

Submit your post here or email them to me at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com.

(All these great submissions have been keeping me busy! I'll have a more uhh... topical Good Humanity Sunday next week.)

Send me your proofs of good humanity! If you've found some on the interwebs, or would like me to post your good humanity story (maybe like my Subway Hero!) drop me an email at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com.

The times, they are a-changin'

Those of us with common, easy-to-pronounce names are doomed to be unoriginal. And I have to admit, I came up with this blog idea on a whim after staying up late one night, freaking out after watching too many news programs. I wanted to write about how we're treating each other and the impact we're having on the world.

Turns out, someone beat me to it. The Good Human is all about how to live more sustainably and respectfully and be, well, a good human. If you haven't checked it out yet, go there right now. RIGHT NOW.

So in an effort to stop the confusion, I'm going to make some changes. And I need your help! If you have any ideas for a new blog name, please, by all means, leave them in the comments or email them to me at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com. I will post a poll with the ones I like the best in a few days and expect to go live with the new site on May 1st.


And now, Bob Dylan:

Good Humanity Sunday - 4/13/08

I love old people. Seriously. They have seen and done so much. Even if you spent hours with them every day, you still wouldn't be able to take in the breadth of their life experiences. Woah.

But the way they represent the inevitable end of life never fails to make me feel all introspective and sad. Take this guy that I found via Boing Boing, for example. He's 80 years old and calls his late wife's voicemail every day just to hear her voice.

Until, of course, Verizon changed their voicemail system and the voicemail message was lost.

But Verizon made it right by retrieving another message that she left, so he can continue to call it, hear her voice, and feel a little closer to her even though she's gone.

Send me your proofs of good humanity! If you've found some on the interwebs, or would like me to post your good humanity story (maybe like my Subway Hero!) drop me an email at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com. I love to read them!

Call for submissions

I'm hosting the 58th edition of the Carnival of Feminists! (Check out the 57th edition at Pandemian! Go right now!)

The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, April 22nd at 6pm EST.

Submit your post here or email them to me at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com.

Perspective

In the patchwork group of people that I call my family, Jim Joseph fills the role of a grandfather perfectly. He is unfailingly practical and not one to waste words. An extremely skilled mechanic, he made sure I didn’t drive my first car into the junk yard with my teenage irresponsibility. When he tried to retire from volunteering with Habitat for Humanity a few years ago at the age of like 72, they convinced him to stay on one more year because they couldn't manage without him.

Over the years, he and his wife Florence have taken in people whose own families are lacking and made them a part of theirs. They opened up their home to so many and showed them nothing but love and support, regardless of their lifestyle or background. They’ve lived in that same home for probably 50 years and their phone number was one of the first I committed to memory.

If there is anyone who embodies the proof of good humanity that I’m so desperately trying to find and emulate, it would be my Grandpa Joseph.

Yesterday, I found he has been battling prostate cancer for several months. He didn’t want to tell me because, as it was explained to me, I had “enough to worry about” with the job search.

I guess I get worked up pretty easily over comparatively silly things. Stupid shit republicans do, for example. And my boyfriend’s inability to remember what night to put the recycling out. And my 13 year old sister’s insistence on telling her boyfriend that she loves him when, in fact, she only like-likes him. I’m not sure where I’m going with this other than I guess I cry wolf a lot.

And then a real wolf comes along and I’m left speechless.

Good Humanity Sunday - 4/6/08

Guys, I'm not sure if you know this, but Wal-Mart is a Hellmouth. Seriously. They do bad things.

So it feels so strange and wrong and alternate universe-y to be writing about them for Good Humanity Sunday. But whatev. Watch my tv crush Keith Olbermann tell us what they did. (Skip to 1:28.)



That's right. Brain damaged and unable to care for herself, with memory so spotty that she must be reminded that her son is dead every single day and Wal-Mart tried to rob her of everything she has.

But they finally conceded (thanks mostly to all the press that Countdown got for continuing to run this story every night until Wal-Mart backed down) and stopped seeking the money Shank needs to live on:



I'm thrilled that Wal-Mart was finally shamed into doing the right thing here. This is proof, albeit maddeningly slow and only after they couldn't stand all the negative press, that somewhere in the dark bowels of their corporate office/hell on earth in Bentonville, AR, there is good humanity. Now if only they'd start paying a decent wage, stop discriminating against women in their promotion policies, quit selling products made from Chinese slave labor, start offering an affordable health care plan so their employees wouldn't need medicaid, stop bullying their way into small town America and closing down all the local businesses that can't compete with their prices, and LET THEIR WORKERS UNIONIZE, then we'd really be getting somewhere.

Send me your proofs of good humanity! If you've found some on the interwebs, or would like me to post your good humanity story (maybe like my Subway Hero!) drop me an email at beagoodhuman11 at gmail dot com. I love to read them!

Hired!

At the request of my blog-friend, Rapparee from Sex Sells, I thought I wouldn't leave you all hanging about the triumphant end of my job search. I tried to sneak it into Good Humanity Sunday from a few weeks ago, but he caught me.

So just to recap, I lost my ever first grown-up job waaaaay back in December. And it sucked. I was also naive enough to think that my former boss wouldn't inhibit my new job search, costing me an excellent opportunity with a company I really admire. Dumb, I know.


Then while in the midst of fighting over unemployment benefits with my former company, (see a pattern of asshole behavior here?) I picked up a freelancing position at a really cool youth marketing agency. And by really cool, I mean too cool for me. I was so not trendy enough to work there. But they let me roll in at like 10:30 and I had complete control over the work I did, so I didn't mind being the only girl not wearing those ridiculous neon tights as pants.

The boyfriend, who is lucky enough to work in a job that offers overtime, was working 6 days a week to make up for my lost income. By mid February it was starting to wear on him. Dealing with me in a constant state of disappointment wasn't easy either. But he did it all without complaining or blaming me. And he absolutely kept me going when I let myself get frustrated.

[/lovey-doveyness]

So throughout all this, I was still looking for a full-time J-O-B. I tapped out most of my linkedin network and used Monster and craigslist as well. I even looked in the newspaper classifieds. (It felt old-timey and weird.) After seeing their ads during the Superbowl, I threw up my resume on CareerBuilder and then didn't give it much thought.

But a VP of human resources at my new job was using CareerBuilder to fill a position in a department due to a large growth of new business. (good sign: business growing despite recession) He liked my resume enough to call me in for an interview with the team, which went great. And then... nothing for like a week. He called back to tell me that they were in the midst of "reassessing the needs of the department" so it would take them some time for them to get back to me. Naturally, I thought he was giving me the runaround and I almost wanted to tell him that he should just be up front with me instead of stringing me along. I was mad.

Then another week went by and I realized that this was a place I really wanted to work at. I had gone on a lot of interviews since I didn't get that other job and this was the first one that I was really excited about. I sent over samples of the freelance work I was doing and reiterated my interest. And lo, I got a call back! And they wanted me! So I wrapped up my freelance work and started up last week.


Now, I can't tell if my first job was so horrendously bad or if this job is just fantastically good. I will reserve judgment until I at least can remember everyone's names. However, I just have to mention that my boss was considering taking on new business and she asked us, her subordinates, what we thought. I was really floored to have my opinion even considered, let alone sought out.

My birthday isn't for a couple of months, but I'm thinking that this is the chocolate fountain celebration type of job. Yay! (Watch video to understand what I just said.)