Recommending Endorsements

I am on LinkedIn. I have a number of connections. I have also joined a few groups. I occasionally browse the jobs because, you should always be looking for the next great opportunity. Other than that, I don’t do much on LinkedIn. I have recommended a few people, and my resume is up there and job history, the usual LinkedIn stuff.

A while ago, LinkedIn added something called “Endorsements”. Maybe it is called something else but, basically, you list what skills you think you have and people can endorse you for those skills. Now, when I joined a group, I wanted contacts because I was looking for a job at the time. I have a lot of contacts that don’t know me other than the guy who said “will accept all contact requests”. Even these people can endorse me for skills. And they have. Without knowing me. At all.

There is no way to verify whether or not someone actually has the skill they are saying that they have. To go along with that, there is no way for someone to verify that the endorser knows if the endorsee actually HAS that skill or not. People are endorsing people just so that their name goes into as many places as possible. I personally am endorsed for things that I didn’t know that I knew … I think. I don’t think I have endorsed anyone for things that I don’t know if they can do. I might have … just to get my name out there ya know.

I am not sure if LinkedIn is reputable for that or not or if people even look at that, other than to see if their name is out there. I am going to have a sense of humor about it. Kind of like I do about most things. I am going to put skills on there (you can make up your own for cryin’ out loud) and go from there. They will be actual skills. Maybe not business related or things that others consider “marketable”, but they are skills none the less.

You can find me on LinkedIn here. Feel free to connect with me. You can even endorse me if you would like. I can’t guarantee that I will endorse you though unless it is something I know that you are good at … like endorsing people on LinkedIn.

  Bubble Guppies in one messed up show. I’m just sayin’. I mean, how the hell does it rain    underwater?!?!

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It Hurts To Be Healthy

As some of you know, if you actually pay attention to my ramblings, and have been reading for the last few months, I was recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Because of this, as with any condition that puts you at “high risk”, the Dr. starts having you do a bunch of preventative things that you or other healthy folks wouldn’t necessarily do. Most are the standard like flu shots, tetanus booster, making sure you go to the dentist and eye exams, etc. Others are not so standard like podiatrist exams, extra preventative meds and other vaccines. The one that I got yesterday was the pneumonia vaccine. Now, normally at 43 I wouldn’t need this necessarily but because of the diabetes, the Dr. said it was standard for me to get it. I said “ok”. Dumbest thing I did all day.

I am having a major gathering next weekend and I have about a million things to do to get ready. Among them are some very physical projects. I was not expecting that this shot, given in my left arm, would cause me so much pain that I would be up basically all night, and not be able to lift my arm at the shoulder.

I have had tetanus shots before and I know that you can get sore however, I have NEVER had anything that hurt this much short of breaking my ankle and leg a number of years back. I could NOT find a position to sleep in that did not cause excruciating pain. Once I found some position that I could relax enough, I would start to doze off and either I would roll a little or the wife would roll into my arm and it was all over. At one point I actually woke up screaming in pain. Maybe only moaning … but woke up noisily none the less. We had no pain killers upstairs and I couldn’t go downstairs because our lovely 3 yr old decided she wanted to sleep on our floor.

Fortunately, the pain lessened enough that at around 5 a.m. I finally was able to fall asleep … until 6:30 when above mentioned daughter decided to wake up. It is going to be a long day. We are going to my mom’s for her birthday this afternoon. The upside is that she has arthritis and some other issues (that is not the upside) and maybe I can score some of her killer pain drugs. Just don’t tell the DEA.

Bottom line, DON’T get the pneumonia vaccine if you are susceptible to those kinds of complications. I was a tad upset that the Dr. didn’t mention this possibility. At 3:30, since I was awake, I decided to look this up on line. It seems the only thing I could find about this vaccine is people who had extreme pain. Then I looked on WebMD and it seems it is only around 1% of people that get this much pain. Maybe that is why doc didn’t mention it. Still …

Anyhoo, time to go pop another hand full of Advil. Have a great weekend anyone! And if anyone wants to come mow my lawn … I got money …

 

A Loyal Pain In The A**

This morning I was getting supplies ready to bring to day care for the Dude. They needed a new supply of diapers and wipes. Before I bagged it up, I took off the reward point stickers. Let me splain. We have switched brands in the last 6 months or so to Huggies, which is carried at Costco in the giant boxes. When we made this switch, I noticed that there was a sticker on the bags for some type of reward program. I checked it out and signed up to get the points for buying their product. I am not sure really what I get yet for taking these stickers off every time and saving them and then entering them online. The only thing I know, is that it is a pain in the ass. Basically, ALL rewards programs are kind of a pain in the ass.

Every retailer, restaurant, credit card, movie theater, local brothel and back alley drug dealer have some sort of “loyalty program” that rewards you with something for remembering to bring some goofy little card with you to show them that you took the time to give them your email address. I used to refuse to sign up for all the programs because I didn’t want to have to carry around 400 plastic cards or key chain fobs. Most of these programs give you points to cash in for something. A lot of these programs are basic … you buy this much, you get this much. Some are complicated as hell … you buy this much on this day with this card and you get this to buy this but can’t use it until then and if you come back then you will get extra stuff to do at another day. WHAT?!?!

I admit I use some of them> Best Buy and my Sears/Kmart as those give you points that add up to actual cash value. There are some I don’t even know what I am earning “rewards” for, but I am told I get them all the time. Off the top of my head, I think I (I include the wife in this) am loyal to the following companies/brands: Best Buy, Huggies, Amazon, Toys/Babies R Us, Sears/Kmart, Jewel, Dominick’s, Pet Smart, Border’s, Red Robin, Walgreens, Lowe’s, Petco, Best Western, Disney Movie Rewards, Capital One Credit Card, My Coke Rewards, AMC Movie Watcher, Craftsman, Barnes & Noble, American Express, Speedway, American Airlines, Luke’s of Carpentersville, Hollywood Casino and I am sure there are a number of other ones I haven’t touched or thought of in years like the alcohol and tobacco ones that I used to send in things for when I worked in the bars.

Fortunately, most of them have gotten it through their heads that we shouldn’t have to carry around a card and can look us up through our phone number. Which is good so the wife and I don’t have to have separate ones. Jewel, has recently gotten rid of theirs all together and now everyone just gets the good prices. Makes sense since if you forgot your card or for some reason didn’t have one, they just scanned the store card and you got the discount anyway.

Most times, if some place asks me if I have a card, I tell them I don’t know and give them my phone number. If I do … cool. If not, I am not signing up for another one. Unfortunately there is only one solution to all of this. We need to get chipped and then that is how we are tracked. Either that or everything just needs to be free like on Star Trek.

I thought I had a point coming into this but I guess once again … I am pointless.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Dead Celebs – Simple As That

It’s time for me to get off my butt and update you on the deaths of people who are apparently more important than the 1,000s of soldiers killed or children murdered on our streets every day. Wow, that was uncharacteristically political and socially conscious of me. I need to stop that. Seems like it was a shorter list this month. Once again, it was a month full of unexpected passings. Let’s review … shall we?

 

Charles Foley – 82 – Co-creator of Twister – July 1

Paul Jenkins – 74 – Actor Waltons, Dynasty – July 1

Dan Van Patten – 60 – Drummer Berlin – July 2

Douglas Engelbart – 88 – Inventor of the mouse – July 2

Michael Mastromarino – 49 – illegal body parts harvester – July 7

Amar Bose – 83 – Founder of Bose – July 12

Cory Monteith – 31 – Actor on Glee – July 13

Mel Smith – 60 – The albino in The Princess Bride – July 19

Helen Thomas – 92 – Journalist, White House Press Corp – July 20

Dennis Farina – 69 – Actor – July 22

Frank Castillo – 44 – Ex-Cubs pitcher – July 28

Eileen Brennan – 80 – Actress – July 28