No more butt to chew

I work for $4 an hour. I get my butt chewed at least once a day. Why do I stay? I love my work. However, I could deal with a few extra dollars and few less lectures.

I hope I’m not alone when I say I have no more butt for people to chew off. Somehow all the work I put into my job just isn’t good enough for some.

I currently have a job that is not considered an internship but it should be. I cannot gain internship hours for this job even though I work about 15-20 hours a week. After some calculations (my salary is semester based), my hourly rate is about $4.

When I asked to get a raise, a professional associated with my job told me my position had not had a raise in the last 7 years. Therefore, even though I am working much harder than past people in my position, I am not eligible for a raise ‘just because.’ I was never able to get a straight answer out of anyone as to why I could not earn more since I was doing more.

So my $4 an hour rate continues. Without my husband's income I could only pay my rent three times each semester. That doesn’t include car insurance, gas, groceries, medical bills, heat for my apartment, turning the lights on at night, or doing laundry.

I never thought I would work this hard at this particular job. However, I cannot look bad at this job because of future employers. Therefore, I spend countless hours working as hard as I can to make not only myself look good, but also the people that have other positions associated with my job.

I am not one to moan and groan about any job I hold. I really love what I do. It is exactly what I would love to be doing in 15 years only on a larger scale. However, it seems lately that after all these hours put into my job, I have gotten my butt chewed over everything.

For $4 an hour, I cannot stand getting my butt chewed over anything and everything anymore. My rate is less than minimum wage and I am doing more work than what I am getting paid for. I am tired of it.

I contemplated even posting this because I know it could have strong repercussions. But I have something to say and it is something I believe in. I am going to stand up for myself because I am tired of being walked on. I am tired of getting paid $4 an hour and getting my butt chewed off.

The job has taken a toll on me more than any other job I have ever had. No one deserves to get paid $4 an hour and get their butt chewed.

Running in Heels falls flat

Anything can be a reality show, even a few 20-somethings interning at Marie Claire magazine. The previews for this show on the Style network looked good and I was excited to watch it. After about 10 minutes into the first episode I realized that the three interns are boring, jealous-ridden, monotone, ungrateful girls who don’t have an ounce of ambition in their bodies.

These girls are jealous of every task the other girl gets and they are determined to undermine the next girl by snippy comments and backstabbing. Give me a break. Shouldn’t the girls worry about themselves more? If they were a bit less jealous of the next girl, they would be happier. For example, one girl was asked to help at a red carpet event while the other two interns had to do regular jobs. The two girls moaned and groaned for the whole half hour about how they should have been the ones to do the red carpet task. Get over it. Obviously there was a reason those two girls were not picked to do the red carpet task. Instead of ranting and raving about how one girl gets all the good tasks, they should just work harder to get the tasks they want.

The three interns have such boring personalities it makes me want to cry. For example, one girl was given the task of helping a prominent editor at Marie Claire with her wedding. She wanted to impress this editor (so she said) but she never smiled, was never personable and never showed an ounce of emotion. Hello?!?!?! I just want to scream in her face, ‘get a personality!’ Ugh.

Ambition is another thing these three interns could use a really big dose of. How they landed an internship at Marie Clair baffles me. They are never excited to start a new task. In fact, all three interns waited until hours before a magazine spread was due to start working on it. Sorry girls. Life is not going to be handed to you on a silver platter. You might have to actually work for something. Gasp.

I thought Running in Heels would be a fun show to watch, especially being a journalism student interning this summer. I thought this show would give me insights about working at a magazine. Instead, I have been caught up with the interns and their dull personalities. I hope I don’t have to be like them to get to the top.

Travel blogging gets results

An article on CNN points out a handful of travelers that, thanks to their handy dandy blogs, have gotten refunds, apologies and much more from airlines, hotels and rental car companies. These travelers all had bad experiences on their vacations with airline rules or hotel situations. What did they do? The blogged about it. These blog posts have been picked up by major news companies calling the airline or hotel out on their errors. The article is an interesting read and it has links to the original travel blogs. Check it out!

Australia

I will be the first one to admit….I don’t like watching movies. Call me weird, call me strange but I don’t care. I can’t stand sitting in the same place for 2-3 hours doing nothing but stare at a screen. No thanks. When I am finally convinced to watch a movie (usually by my husband who likes movies) to watch one, I usually drag in my lap top or latest craft and multi task.

However, the times are a changin’.

I watched a movie, from start to finish without multi tasking (applause please….just kidding). What movie you ask? Australia. Obviously I’m a little behind on my movie watching. I never saw it in theatres because of my annoying experience of seeing Marley and Me (the lady behind me chomped down at least eight big bags of popcorn…very loudly). Anyway. Australia was an awesome movie.

I’m not one to notice costumes during a movie but the costumes in Australia caught my eye. From Nicole Kidman’s blue suit to Hugh Jackman’s dirty torn shirts, the costumes were very authentic of the time period and amazingly designed.

Now I admit, I thought they movie was kind of hard to follow for about the first 15 minutes. After that though, it was so easy to follow and in the end I ended up really into the movie and crying right along with the actors.

One actor I really enjoyed was Brandon Walters who played Nullah. He is only 12 but he was absolutely amazing. This was his first movie and I really believe he will be the next ‘big one.’

If you haven’t seen Australia yet, please please rent it. Even a movie-hater like me loved it.

Goldman

David Goldman and his 8-year-old son have been separated thousands of miles for years. Goldman's wife traveled to Brazil when the boy was young for a vacation. She called her husband days later and said she was never returning to the U.S., or to him. She remarried a powerful Brazilian attorney and later died in child birth leaving her son, Sean, in Brazil with a strange stepfather. Goldman is now trying to gain custody of his son. He has made numerous trips to Brazil to see Sean, but never to bring him home.

At the beginning of this case, the media was very biased, only presenting Goldman's side of the case. Now, the stepfather is speaking to media outlets in Brazil and the U.S. presenting his side of the story. But wait. Isn't there a third side to this case? Ah yes, the son in the middle of this heated custody battle.

What about him? What about what he wants? I'm not saying he can make an educated decision at age 8, but has any media outlet even tried to see what he wants? I'm also not trying to imply that he should not be reunited with his biological father but the job of the media is to give an unbiased view on news (as hard as this is for some people to fathom). All I want to see is what an 8-year-old boy wants. Is that so hard to present?

Only in my hometown...

Sometimes I am truly embarrassed to say I am from North Platte. It's stories like this that cause this horrendous embarrassment. I don't know who this 'tire lover' is but he's making all North Platte people look like a bunch of hillbillies. Thanks man.

Crack addict or wedding photographer?

Since we are talking about column writing in class, I thought I would post one of my favorite colums: An Awwwsome Wedding by Dave Barry.

One thing he talks about in his column is wedding photographers. I worked for a photographer for 2 years and every weekend we had at least one wedding to shoot (sometimes it was more than one, which just turned into mayhem).

On a normal Thursday working for the photographer I did work for, I would have to get out the all-important checklist of the bride and groom for that weekend. First thing to decide: how many divorces are there? That added 15+ photos. Combine biological Mom and Dad, then biological Mom and stepdad, then biological Dad and Dad’s girlfriend, and then some without Dad’s girlfriend because she’s just a tramp and no one likes her so we are just including her to be nice but we really aren’t going to buy THOSE photos. Second thing to decide: how many illegitimate children are there? My favorite bride and groom had two children each from other relationships, one child together and another one on the way (6 six weeks away from giving birth just FYI). I had to put together so many combinations I thought my brain would ooze out of my eyeballs.

The day of the wedding was different. I absolutely loved the weddings where the wedding party, including parents and grandparents, would get completely schnockered before photos. This was my boss’ worst nightmare but I loved it. Being tipsy made everyone so much easier to work with. Granted, I had to physically help the ladies and gentlemen up to the alter, but after that they didn’t go anywhere. They already had a dumb ass smile on their face from being tipsy so I didn’t have to make lame jokes about the groomsmen to get anyone to smile.

Children, on the other hand, were never drunk so they were a pain in the you know what to pose. I had toys and candy and all sorts of fun stuff strapped to me almost like a tool belt to entertain young kids and make them smile. One wedding had 3-year-old triplet flower girls and one of the girls would not smile to save her life. Her face lit up when I tripped over some light cords and onto a church pew. However, her two other sisters were not paying attention. SO, guess who had to trip over the cords repeatedly to get all three of them to smile and look at the same time?

So as Dave Barry puts it, “if you think it’s easy to make 3-year-olds sit still, smile and not mess up their dresses for long periods, then you are either a crack addict or a wedding photographer.” I totally agree.

Recent lay offs could have been avoided

(final draft for editorial 3)

Mark Schwartz, 52, and 53 other men and women are all in the same situation: little money, no job, no benefit package and a dwindling 401K. These 54 individuals are not alone in their struggle. Hundreds of Kearney and surrounding area residents have been laid off from Baldwin Filters and Eaton in recent months. Now, these residents are left with little hope of finding a new job in our current recession.

Because of our current economic situation, many companies believe it is impossible to avoid permanent layoffs. These companies are wrong. However, looking at the history of Eaton and Baldwin, it is easy to pinpoint a series of steps both companies took to avoid layoffs.

Baldwin and Eaton both ran only four days out of the week for months. Baldwin and Eaton also went into a wage freeze where employees were not able to get a raise, but were also not worried about having their pay cut. In spite of this, the wage freeze did little to affect the corporate directors of Clarcor, the mother company of Baldwin.

“If the top executives at Clarcor would give up their awards and compensation for 180 days they could save 54 (laid off) lives,” said Myron Larchick, a long-time Balwin employee and Clarcor shareholder. “Here’s the ridiculous part, that’s not giving up any of their salaries, and they still have an estimated $2.3 million to split in awards and compensation.”

To these executives of Clarcor, these 54 jobs most recently cut from Baldwin are just that, jobs. However, these jobs are people with families, lives and a future. Did Baldwin Filters and Eaton try their hardest to avoid lay offs?

Baldwin Filters and Eaton should have instated work sharing in order to keep their trained employees working and keep the morale of their company high. Work sharing is a program that is popular in California, Japan and most European countries. These places have kept their employees working instead of laying them off. Employees at Toyota, Mazda and Nissan in Japan now share jobs and work less than 40 hours a week, but are happy to still be employed.

There was no evidence found that Baldwin or Eaton thought about instating work sharing when the lay offs occurred.

Work sharing is meant to equally share the pain of coping with the flailing economy. If it was not for work sharing in other states, the unemployment rate of the United States would be much higher. Is it better to work about 32 hours a week, or be laid off in a recession?

Although work sharing was not used during the most recent layoffs at Baldwin and Eaton, it must be looked at for any future lay offs. Work sharing would have allowed Schwartz and all other laid off Kearney and surrounding area residents a glimmer of hope in our current recession. Instead of Schwartz almost losing his house due to being laid off, Schwartz could have worked at least 32 hours a week. We can’t sit back and let the unemployment rate of Kearney rise when there is a solution. Work sharing would allow people like Schwartz to continue working and not be left jobless and hopeless.

Deadly air duster

It takes all kinds of people to make up Kearney.

One kind that just fascinates me is the group of people that can be addicted to drugs but yet they are heroes for telling others not to do what they did. Make sense? Not to me.

Take for instance the girl caught with huffing air duster (yes, air duster) while driving in a residential neighborhood in Kearney. She blacked out and hit a tree going 50 mph with other passengers in her car.

She’s telling people not to do drugs. She wants them to learn from her stupid actions.

I’m sorry. You will never be condoned a hero in my world for telling me not to do drugs. Drug users all across the nation do this. They do drugs and then become motivational speakers about drug prevention programs. People claim these ex-drug users as heroes. “I was going to huff some spray paint until I hear Mr. Marijuana speak, now I’ll never do it again. Mr. Marijuana saved my life.” Sorry, not listening.

The girl who huffed air duster is a drug user. She was caught. Had she not been caught she wouldn’t have cared whether you, I or the Schwan’s man did drugs. She will never be a hero in my eyes. She huffed air duster while driving down a road. A road I could have been on. A road my family or friends could have been on. Thanks for endangering my life.

Fun times in West Center

I am pretty mystified by something everyday when I wait for my class in lovely West Center. In the big student lounge there are not one, not two, but FIVE people taking a cat nap on the couches. This isn't just a Monday thing, this is everyday! First off, this annoys me. I feel like I have to be quiet so I don't have to wake these dozers up. Second off, how can anyone sleep in there? There is a constant stream of studens coming in and out, chatting with eachother and making noise. How can anyone sleep through that? Third off, how are those blue couches with the wooden arms comfy? If I'm going to take a cat nap, I want a pillow, blanket and quiet.

Has anyone else come across this, or am I the only one?

Work sharing

I found something interesting in my search for my third editorial. I have decided to write about the layoffs that Baldwin Filters and Eaton employees have experienced in the recent months. In figuring out a policy claim, I found what is called work sharing. I just think it's a really cool concept and something all major companies should adopt. The link is actually the California work share fact sheet but it gives the main points of the program in general. Check it out.

The facts of life-parking

Warning: if you are easily offended don’t read this post! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! This is my disclaimer. For those of you with tough skin, please, continue reading.

When it comes to parking on campus, ‘life is tough, get a helmet’ (sound familiar? It’s from Boy Meets World. Does anyone remember that show?!?!?! :D ).

We can’t always get what we want in life. For instance, I want a vacation on a warm, sunny beach, a winning lottery ticket and a cat that doesn’t do the number two on the floor. Am I going to get all that? Nope. Have I come to terms with the fact I won’t be getting all of that in near future? Yes-I built a bridge and I got over it.

Ah campus parking. How I love to hear people complain about it. NOT! I also don’t love hearing different suggestions about parking. Build a parking garage, knock down some houses and put in more stalls, the list is endless. However, are any of us going to be at UNK long enough to see these dreams come to fruition? I hope not!

Parking in a nutshell is as follows. If you have a green permit on your car, you park in the lots only made for the green permits. If you have a yellow permit on your car, you park in the lots only made for the yellow permits. Same goes for the blue permits and any other color I’m not aware of. Why does this simple color coded system dumbfound some people?

I have a yellow permit on my car and as my New Year’s resolution I refuse to drive around mindlessly looking for a spot five feet from my building. Why is this my New Year’s resolution? Two reasons: 1) save money on gas 2) it’s my free workout. On occasion, I have broken my resolution. I have driven through the smaller commuter lots to find a spot, but usually I head for the humongous lot outside the College of Ed. FYI this parking lot is HUGE! You are practically guaranteed a spot any time of the day!

Some of you may be thinking, ‘wow, that’s a lame resolution.’ I’m here to tell you it’s the smartest resolution on the face of the planet. By not driving around fourteen different commuter lots to try and find a space three feet from my building, I am saving gas by just heading straight for the lot outside College of Ed. The second reason is because I am entirely too busy to workout. Lifting weights, jogging, riding a bike, my foot, that just doesn’t fit into my schedule. Therefore, when I park at College of Ed, I am forced to walk a little extra to get to my classes. The workout comes from the fact that I speed walk because I’m usually freezing (my car heater doesn’t work properly), late or have hunger pains the size of Texas.

I will admit though, I have been tempted to park in the wrong lot this semester. Take for instance, last Tuesday. I was running a fever of 100 degrees, had a meeting to attend and a pressing deadline. Did I park in the faculty lot or the 30 minute zone that was calling my name? Nope. Call me a law abiding citizen, but I parked in the yellow lot made for my permit.

Sometimes you are dealt the worst hand in the world but you have to deal with it. I was dealt a fever of 100 degrees, a meeting and a pressing deadline but I met my deadline, attended my meeting and threw up afterwards. Build a bridge over parking everyone and get over it. Don’t moan and groan if you can’t park five feet from your building.

It’s a fact of life. Sometimes you don’t always get what you want. I won’t be leaving for my beach vacation and my cat won’t stop doing the number two on my new carpet any time soon. I’m over it. Buck it up and deal with campus parking. So I dare you. Complain about campus parking. I will just have to tell you to "suck it up pansy and get over it. You can't always get what you want."

Food for thought: do you complain to the Wal Mart greeters when you don’t get the stall right next to the handicap one? If you do, please, give me a break.