Carnie, Cook, Clerk, Customer Service ( #AtoZChallenge & #IWSG )

        

   

          Coulda, woulda, shoulda--yeah, I could have done lots of things in life.   But I did what I did and that was pretty cool for the most part.  Still, it's fun to think about what might have been--or what I'm glad wasn't.

          I could very possibly have been a carnie, traveling the country conning customers with shyster games, operating carnival rides, or working in a tent show of some kind.  Actually, I have on a couple of past occasions worked in a carnival show for short stints.  Not a lifestyle I'd probably have wanted to continue for any long period of time, but it was fun to do it for those short whiles when I was younger.  During my college years I also worked at a carnival supply company where I encountered many carnies.  Sure, they get a bad rap (sometimes deservedly so), but most of the carnies with whom I dealt were okay people.  Most worked hard during warm weather months and some of them spent winters in Florida or some other warmer clime. Seems like it could be an interesting life, but the life of the carny is not really my thing.

         Since I was a kid I've kind of enjoyed cooking, so I guess the career of cook or chef could have been one I might have pursued.  From all I've heard, restaurant work can be pretty stressful and things can get hot in the kitchen.  Cooking as a career choice might have gotten old fast.  I do enough cooking these days since I'm the cook in our household.  When my kids were growing up I usually cooked for them.  Now they are gone and I just cook for my wife and I.  That's enough cooking for me.

         Over the years I have worked both as a store clerk and a customer service representative.  Those were okay jobs, but I can't say I would have wanted a life career doing either.  Same with construction worker:  That was a job for the younger me and I wouldn't have wanted to do that my entire working life.  Though it's all commendable work.  There are just other things I'd rather do.

        Sometimes we just take jobs because they are there and we need them.

        Have you done any of these jobs?  What do you think of work that involves constant travel?   What is your favorite food to cook?

      The Insecure Writer's Support Group

Join us on the first Wednesday of each month in Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group--a forum of writers who gather to talk about writing and the writer's life. For a complete list of participants visit Alex's Blog. 
     The co-hosts for the April 3 posting of the IWSG are Janet Alcorn, T. Powell Coltrin, Natalie Aguirre, and Pat Garcia

April 3 question - How long have you been blogging? (Or on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram?) What do you like about it and how has it changed?

         I've been blogging almost as long as I've been doing Blogging from A to Z April Challenge--15 years!   When I first started in September of 2009 I was transitioning from a career that had basically ended primarily because of the internet and into a life where I was exploring the possibilities of income derived from the internet.

       The first few years were challenging and exciting.  The blogging world was so new and unique to me.  At last I had a way to fulfill my writing aspirations without going through the traditional channels of the past.  Now I could set up my own platform, write whatever I felt like writing, and just publish it for anyone to access.  That was what I liked.  However eventually I found the computer life interfering with my real world life.  In recent years, my enthusiasm for blogging has waned to some degree and certain other issues with computer and personal time have decreased my online time.

        Over my years of blogging I don't know that blogging itself has changed as much as the attitudes of individual bloggers have changed such as my own has.  I've seen bloggers come and go and the ones I continue to follow seem to be carrying on as they have.  And there are those who now blog in a similar way to which I do.

        For now, I continue to keep blogging since I do understand the potential in it.  Maybe my blogging will increase again as I find more personal purpose to it.  Or maybe I'll just continue doing what I've been doing.  I don't think I'll ever stop posting on my blog anytime soon, but for now I've got no great blogging impetus propelling me forward.  If that comes, then maybe I'll be on fire for blogging again.  For now I'll just tend to the embers of creativity until it's time to fan the flames.

        What do you find to be the most useful aspect of blogging?  Has your blogging activity ever interfered with your life?   Do you now blog more or less than you used to?

Barker, Baker, Booker, Blogger, ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

   

          Blogger?  I am a blogger, but I can't say I'm making much money doing it.  Then, I don't really pursue blogging with any great degree of seriousness.  In my early days of blogging I was pretty avid about the whole idea.  After all, that's the main reason I came up with doing this Blogging from A to Z April Challenge thing.  Over the years I've drifted away from my big blogging enthusiasm that beset me in those first few years.  Things happened and my attentions have been drawn elsewhere.  Not to say that I'm ever going to give up blogging, but for now it's not a big pursuit of mine.  For now blogging is a placeholder for something that might come up later where my blog will serve a real useful function.  Big ideas on hold for a moment I guess. For the time being, blogging is a dalliance rather than any real occupation, though sometimes I put as much work into it as I have many of my past jobs.

        Throughout my years in show business I've come into contact with barkers and I'm not talking about dogs.  If the term seems unfamiliar to you, a barker is a "talker" in front of some sort of attraction at a fair, carnival, circus, or some other public function.  The barker is the person out front who is drawing a crowd and giving the sales pitch for the attraction they are fronting.  Since I'm not much of a shouter who can glibly come up with things to say to persuade people to buy whatever it is that I'd like to "sell" then the art of barking is not my schtick. 

       And though I've baked things at home, I don't think I'd want to be a baker.  My youngest daughter is a pretty good baker.  For a while she was pretty busy with her home based baker business in New Jersey.  She would regularly post pictures of some of her masterful cakes and other assorted baked goods on Facebook.  As a regular job she also worked as a baker in various restaurants.   She really needed an industrial type kitchen to sustain her own business properly but so far has not gone that route.  She's good at the baking, but maybe not so much at the business part of things.  Let's face it--to have a successful business then you've got to have someone who understands the ins and outs of running a business.

    In 1966 after my family moved to Tennessee, my father started a booking agency that he worked as a sideline out of our home.  He did pretty good at it for a while, but maybe it got to be too much for him doing it in tandem with his regular full time job.  Or maybe the show booking business was no longer as lucrative as it had been in the years prior. Or maybe he just wasn't getting the return for his investment, which is probably the downfall of many a business.  Over the years I've dabbled in show booking.  It was not especially lucrative for me either.  Maybe I just didn't try hard enough.  But maybe I wasn't interested enough to keep pursuing that route.

 

      So for me it's been no to barking, baking, or booking.  But I guess blogging is still there as an option.  Arlee Bird--Blogger.  Not bad I guess.  Or maybe I can do better.  Time will tell.

        What "B" jobs have you done?   Have you done any jobs related to baking or cooking?   When is it time to give up on a business dream?

Accountant, Acrobat, Actor, Amanuensis (#BOTB & #AtoZChallenge )

   April Alphabet time has arrived again!  My theme this year is "I Coulda Been..."--all the paths I could have taken but didn't as well as some of the paths I did take on my life journey.   Ready?  Let's go...

   

       I could have been an accountant.  My father's main occupation in life was that of an accountant. So I guess I could have taken that route in my own life, but I don't think I was really cut out for that kind of a job.  My mother had been a acrobatic dancer before she married my dad and she continued this until my sister took dance lessons and took her place as the acrobat in the family.  My parents tried to get me to join my sister in dance lessons when I was probably about five, but I was having none of that either. I stubbornly resisted that talent--probably because I didn't really have that kind of talent.

      My shyness kept me from pursuing acting in school.  I appeared in a few school productions, but not as an actor.  In later life I somewhat dabbled in acting.  For over a decade I managed a stage production where I sometimes also played one or more roles.  Since the soundtrack was prerecorded maybe I wasn't such a legitimate actor, but I was acting out the parts being "spoken" on tape so I guess I was an actor of sorts.  Movie actor would have been an interesting career track I think, but other than working as an extra in the film A Walk in the Spring Rain back in 1970 I never became a film actor.

      These days I don't often run into an English language word that I've never heard before, but recently while reading Richard Dillon's Meriwether Lewis I came upon the word amanuensis.  According to Dillon, Lewis was an amanuensis to Thomas Jefferson--in other words according to one definition: a literary or artistic assistant, in particular one who takes dictation  or copies manuscripts.  Well, that seems pretty cool to have for oneself.  I could use one of those in that occupation.   But, alas, I am an amanuensis to myself.  Since I can't afford to hire my own amanuensis then the burden falls into my hands. Now I realize I can't even afford myself. 

       And that's all I have for the letter "A"!

Battle of the Bands

        Battle of the Bands is the blogging event started by Far Away Series and now hosted by StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands.   This event happens each month on the 15th and on some there is also a Battle on the 1st of the month.  My blog is one of those with a second Battle excepting over these summer months.   The premise is simple:  Listen to the songs presented below and then in the comments vote for your favorite and tell us why you liked it.  Then visit the links listed near the bottom of this post for more Battle action.

Both Sides Now

        Just about anyone knows this great Joni Mitchell song because now it's become a classic standard performed by numerous artists. The song is fitting for my A to Z theme since it reflects on the options we face in life and the myriad things we have all done.  Here are two well known versions by top artists.  Which do you like best?

Judy Collins   "Both Sides Now"  (1967)

Neil Diamond   "Both Sides Now"  (1969)

Time to Vote!

         It's just time to have some fun.  In other words, which song version do you like best?   Hopefully you have an opinion of some kind.  You don't have to know about music to have an opinion since it all comes down to your own personal taste.

        Please vote on your favorite by letting us know your choice in the comment section and tell us why you prefer the version you chose. Then after you've finished here, please visit the other blogs listed below who may or may not be participating this time around. And if you've put up your own BOTB contest let us know that as well so we can vote on yours. I don't know if anyone else will be doing a Battle this time around, but you can still check out these sites.


Here are some other places where you might find BOTB posts:

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

Jingle, Jangle, Jungle 

Landmark Sounds (Diedre Knight)

BATTLE OF THE BANDS BY DEBBIE D

Stine Writing

Trivial Music Silliness

Mike's Ramblings

Results on Monday April 8

       A to Z posts will keep on coming until then.   Hope you'll stay with me for those, but by all means stop back by to see who one this Battle.