8 ot of 10 Toys are Made in China?

Recently I took a class, a career seminar, where we essentially visited local businesses to get a feel for employment issues, concerns, and needs. I learned a great deal in this one week seminar (which I meant to talk about earlier), but recently I was reminded of one specific comment made by an HR member from one of the local business. The company specialized in some kind of manufacturing that seemed to have a focus on energy. The man was talking about the trend of going green and seeking alternative fuel sources and he told us "We will need to do something because so much of U.S. money is being spent overseas for oil, etc., so eventually some sheik will own the U.S." This comment really made me think because, well, it seemed like a strange thing to say, but also because I had never really given it much thought until he phrased it that way. It's obvious business common sense though- if we are importing more than we are exporting, we are sending out more money than we are taking in - not good obviously. It made me think...

A few weeks later, my kindergartner and I were sitting on her bed when we started talking about where toys were made. I decided this conversation may be a good lesson for her. So I asked her to look around her room and tell me where 10 of her toys are made. One Disney poster was made in Canada and she picked up one figurine that was hand painted in the U.S., but the rest...China. The bottom line, from what I could see based on this little tiny experiment, is that Barbie is a main contributor to the killing of U.S. dollars. Now, I am not saying I will never buy Barbie or Disney stuff ever again because I, well, am wondering if that is even possible; plus, I know there would still be ramifications on U.S. jobs that way as well. Additionally, with the economy, I realize people are going to buy whatever is cheapest and Barbie is still relatively cheap (probably because it is made elsewhere). I mean, I know first hand, I have been to some of those cute shops with local clothes and toys and I simply don't have the money to buy a $50 doll, $60 sweaters, or $25 locally made underwear from some fancy boutique for my daughter. I do think we should really take a look at what we are buying and definitely choose local when we can; however, I think it would be great if we as a society could figure out a way to make things more reasonably priced here at home because I don't want to give all of our money away to other countries either. I also think this would be a great lesson we could implement in our educational system for our kids because, after all, they are our future manufacturers, designers, business owners, and government officials. The conclusion I have come to in the mean time is based on another lesson I learned from this week long seminar - self-reliance and creativity are key - Own your own business if you can and try to buy locally. Give your business a creative edge that Barbie and others just can't top. The more locally own businesses we have and use, the more likely they will be forced to have competitive prices to one another. Anyway, it's just something on my mind...

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Some of the other things I learned the week we toured all different sorts of business including a microbrewery, a power plant, and the local correctional facility:

Anything that can fit into a box has a chance of being outsourced according to one of our interviews with a local businessman.

Those who are right-brained vs. left brained may have an advantage because left-brained jobs are more likely to be outsourced or eliminated by computers. Creativity allows a person to go with the flow, adapt, change, and enhance marketability.

Thoroughly research any company that you go into an interview with. Companies find it offensive when you don't know anything about them. Interestingly, this has changed some with the Internet because researching wasn't always so easy. Now, the Internet makes it easier for someone to have an edge over you by spending a little extra time researching things.

Internships are a great way to get your foot in the door and to see if something is what you want to do. You don't necessarily need a degree to do this.

Attitude is key to getting a job. Make sure you fit your personality to the job you are applying for or you will both be miserable.

Creativity and persistence (without stalking) pays. One company said a girl brought them fresh baked cookies everyday for two weeks. I also heard about a girl who sent a cake to the HR department that said "Hire Jane" (or whatever her name was).

A good bet for the future is in green jobs.

Compared to some other nations, the United States places a lot less emphasis on hours spent toward education; yet, the U.S. seems to have a better insight into extracurricular activities and socializing, networking, etc.

Walmart is actually doing a lot to make their stores greener and more efficient, which also helps the bottom line. Which brings up another good point: As a business owner, if you take a hit, get back up and make the changes necessary to recreate a better public image.

I think that is it? Oh, if you ever want to work at the county jail, be honest on your resume and in the interview because they would rather you have a blemish on your record than to find out you lied about it. Okay, that is it...for now!

Expanding Your Conversational Top Five

The other day I was hanging out with a few other moms while we watched our little ones interact on a group play date. The thing is, these play dates really seem to be less about the kids, as much as these outings are an excuse for other moms to relate to one another, compare notes about child development, and to complete a general sanity check-in. So as we were sitting there talking, one of the mothers brought up an interesting game (for lack of better words) her and fellow coworkers were playing. Essentially, the idea is that we all have a list of roughly the top five topics we can boil our everyday conversations down to. I can't really remember her list specifically, but I can imagine it wasn't much different than my list: (1) My daughter; (2) My husband; (3) Fatigue; (4) Stress; (5) School (most people probably could probably find something else to substitute easily into these fields for their own lives, such as their crazy coworkers, money, health, etc.).

So this list made me really think about how we as humans get into a rut in which everything on our list is always the same. Keep in mind, this isn't a list of the most important things in our lives, it's a list of items we converse about the most. I also noticed that the majority of the items on the tops of our lists (I have checked in with several people now as part of an unofficial experiment) are negative things: Stress, being tired, lack of money, etc. This is actually kind of interesting when you start grilling others about what their list might say, or, making your own private list for others vs. what they say, since we tend to mirror the attitudes those around us. Even better, try to think of what others in different aspects of your life might say about you: Are you different at work, home, school, etc.? My husband's list was interesting to me, for example, because I don't hear him talk about me that often, but I was on his list. Hmmm... My list for him? Our daughter, Money, Sports, News, and Work. Interesting...

So what do we do to make these lists have a more positive feel? This may possibly have something to do with the diversity of our "Top 5" list or maybe the thing to do is what pretty much every self-help book that exists suggests: "Focus on the positive." Complaining is negative and negativity generates/attracts more negativity and the next thing you know you are swimming in a cesspool of negative thoughts. In my quest to discovering how to be a happier and a livelier person (this is my new quest by the way), I think I may be onto something here. I think I will try to diversify my "Top Five" list.

It makes sense...We diversify our stock portfolios because we don't want to put all of our eggs in one basket, so it stands to reason that this same philosophy would apply nicely to life as well. We also don't throw all of our money into stocks that are in the negative, so why do we put our thoughts there? I have decided that in order to increase my happiness value I am going to focus my time and energy on a "Top Five" that is more suitable to who I want to be. Then, each day I am going to go back through the day's conversational activity and generate a "Top Five" list to see if I am adequately choosing more diverse and positive conversation that is more congruent with the new happier life I want to live.

I am hoping that by diversifying my thoughts and conversations, I will decrease my general boredom throughout the day as well, but also, by monitoring my “Top Five” I will: (1) Decrease my boredom and the boredom of those around me from listening to me; (2) Diversify who I am as a person and the things I do; (3) Learn to see the big picture of my life, rather than focusing on the same few things; (4) Have a better perspective of how others see me; and (5) Become happier by focusing on the positive.

Split Personalities

Okay, so I have been a bad, bad blogger lately. I have finally had some spare time since being out of school for most of the summer, but I have filled up that spare time with other stuff essentially. : ) Anyway, I found this article and I felt like sharing it as a way of slowly working my way back into posting on my blog. I may eventually talk about how Facebook seems to be a great way for someone shy (like me) to get out of their comfort zone socially, but this particular article discuses the different personalities people portray simply by posting a Facebook status update. In fact, sometimes a Facebook status can be totally incompatible with who a person is in real-life.

The article just gives a fun overview of what your status says about you and how a person can spice things up a bit. I know I have certainly been the "Tired" poster for example. This article will really make me think twice when I post a status update and, at the very least, I may try to make it more interesting when I say something about being tired. For example, a friend recently posted a status update about being exhausted from getting up and getting dressed in the middle of the night after setting her alarm clock without her glasses, but she did it with humor and a little light-hearted self deprecation that made it interesting. Anyway...
Facebook Personalities Article