I've made so many job applications since March 7 I finally started listing "job applicant" as my current job. I've heard the dumbest collection of excuses for not hiring me, & I get no unemployment & I don't want welfare! Excuses include: you know too much; you have too much experience; you were in business, we can't hire you; you have a limp. Lessee - the Army advertises "be all you can be". Hm. Must be just a slogan, not real encouragement.. After over 30 years of work, I should have lots of experience! I do - at a high level, too. I've never been a slacker. I wanted to retire & just work a job, but apparently it's not an option, although I can't figure out how to get back in business, since I am currently down to less than $50 total money.. & temp services aren't doing anything either. As for the limp - who's hiring gymnasts these days, anyway? (Not to mention, it's illegal to focus on the limp.. but this is ND - land of bigotry of every kind & accompanying denial lockstep..) You know why we bang our heads on walls? Because it feels so0o good when we quit! That's my rant for the day.. Thanks for listening.
Your thoughts are still welcome. Anyone interested in beautiful custom handmade moose or buffalo leather mocassins, let me know.
Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives. Long time no hear. I've been so far behind the 8-ball, I had to take it on faith that it was still out there ahead of me. "Making a living" has been incredibly tough this year & last. Try a gross in of maybe $9000. It's enough to make a person think of welfare!
But since I'm no fan of welfare, especially for me, I was wracking my brain & praying as hard as I could for an idea & suddenly, my old patent's subject sprang into my mind. So I'm bringing it back, with an updated 2nd version.. going to put a store on Amazon & see what builds.
If you're into prayers or finger-crossing, this very Traditional Indn thanks you for sending some my way. I've had to pull in every favor I can recall anyone owing me to get the money I need to make this happen - & it's less than $1000. But I don't have it, nothing to sell, & the bank still treats me & my micro-corporation like total strangers, so this appears to be 'the route'.
I'll keep you posted - & if anyone is interested in investing, I still need $500 to get this to happen "ASAP". You can email me for details. Otherwise, I'll let you know more "soon".
Hanh mitakuyapi / hello my relatives. Long time no hear. I've been so far behind the 8-ball, I had to take it on faith that it was still out there ahead of me. "Making a living" has been incredibly tough this year & last. Try a gross in of maybe $9000. It's enough to make a person think of welfare!
But since I'm no fan of welfare, especially for me, I was wracking my brain & praying as hard as I could for an idea & suddenly, my old patent's subject sprang into my mind. So I'm bringing it back, with an updated 2nd version.. going to put a store on Amazon & see what builds.
If you're into prayers or finger-crossing, this very Traditional Indn thanks you for sending some my way. I've had to pull in every favor I can recall anyone owing me to get the money I need to make this happen - & it's less than $1000. But I don't have it, nothing to sell, & the bank still treats me & my micro-corporation like total strangers, so this appears to be 'the route'.
I'll keep you posted - & if anyone is interested in investing, I still need $500 to get this to happen "ASAP". You can email me for details. Otherwise, I'll let you know more "soon".
Hanh mitakuyapi / Hello my relatives. It's been a long time since my last post. Last winter was brutal up here - I literally spent the entire winter doing nothing but going to a temp job & home to eat & sleep, battling snow like we haven't had in over 10 years "both ways against the wind". And where I camp, it can be uphill both ways, too. This was "life" for most of the people I know here, too. We literally didn't stop being dog-tired until roughly this August!
A friend who is the County Commission Chair said he was so tired, he fell asleep while driving his tractor this spring! Then came The Flooding. Everyone was caught off=guard by a sudden thaw & resultant flooding. In my friend's-&-my county, there are now over 1000 bridges in dire need of rebuilding, & at least that many miles of roads in the same canoe. I thought - we all did - that I would be so busy working on road crews I would meet myself coming & going. Not so.
I have a limp. I've limped for something like 28 years; some days really bad, some days not so bad. Have no idea why it isn't uniform, but I don't really care.. If I had the money, I would maybe go to a whiteman doctor & see what s/he had to say about possible reasons. As a Traditional Lakota healer, my guess is, internal scar tissue & tincture of time. Even with lots of supplements over the years, time tends to make all injuries worse; & I have scars from the top of my scalp to the bottoms of my feet. I earned 'em; I'm not ashamed of 'em; but now they are causing me 2 kinds of grief - physical pain & financial pain as people claim they 'can't' hire me "because my limp bothers them" ( ! ). Stupid, when you think about it, because people are not hiring a gymnast or a runner; they're hiring skill & experience & brains. Or they are supposed to be.. And they don't have to live with it..
But of late, everything is about "hiring the young" & "giving the young a chance". PHOOEY! I'm not much concerned with their straits - we "older goats" need to pay bills & eat, too. Food, clothing, & shelter are not frills for us any more than they are for anyone else.
So - since I have not even made the poverty line yet this year, I see this as The Spirits telling me I'm supposed to stay in business. To which end, after profound marathon prayer-&-meditation sessions, The Spirits have guided me to resurrect a product I had in the market in the 80s (19- not 18-) & add a newer version with a new/old wrinkle.
I made a profit with the original version both years I originally had it out; I've historically been 15-20 years ahead of the curve - so I should be about on the peak of said curve now, then - & the updated version may bring in additional market. Let us hope! Otherwise, my options appear to be close to "1" - living like a homeless person in my own home.
I'm currently hand-building these units, while 'living' on temp-job income, but if it weren't for the Internet, I doubt I could bring this product out in such a way on the dollars I have available that the entire effort would be viable. Still, I have learned over the years that when times are tough, not only do the tough get going, they invest in themselves first, dig harder & deeper, & generally, do well enough to survive where those of feebler dispositions fail (& go on welfare; which costs us all deeply).
I tell you these things so that if any of you are putting yourselves thru reams of misery worrying about whether you can survive or not, you can take hope. My Unchi (Grandmother) Pearl taught me, "my girl, you can have anything you want, if you want it more than you want your next breath". In the Indn way of speaking, she said that you have to insist on how you want your life to be & refuse to hear the voices of nay-sayers & doom-speakers & those who look at appearances & accept them as true. She should have known - she had polio when she was 6; & was told she would never walk again. She walked. For the first 8 years on braces & crutches; then one day, she threw them as far as she could & walked for a few days with canes, which she then pitched as far as she could. After that, she learned to run again, she could dance the county into blisters, & she walked just fine.
I'll keep you posted as to how my latest endeavor goes.. and thank you for your positive thoughts on my/our behalf. Mitakuye oiasin - all (are) my relatives.
As you know, I am not one to leave a stone unturned when it comes to finding ways to build financial independence via micro-businesses for minorities. Particularly, I admit, my own, not that it matters.
I have a strong friend who is a grandmother, a grand person, and lives in poverty that rivals that of us Indns. Proud, not accepting of welfare, she raised 9 good children & a "husband". He's gone on, now, & so has 1 of her sons, but it seems like some kind of record to be able to say these days, "9 good kids, not a dud in the bunch".
By the bye, I really dislike that word for a male spouse because it means, according to the Oxford Standard Dictionary of the English Language, "a keeper of livestock & other dumb animals". I'm neither a livestock nor a dumb animal.. the term has been this way since William of Orange, & I frankly think it's long past time to replace it with something better. (Suggestions are always welcome...)
Anyway, my friend sews & makes all kinds of unique things, so I decided to help her & find an online outlet for them. Since she is not computer literate, & doesn't want to learn, I decided to make a site for both of us. Having a vested interest in the site will motivate me to keep it updated more than anything else will.. I get spread pretty thin. If the site works for us, it will work for other Indns, & thereby we will decrease poverty in Indian Country while increasing pride of accomplishment in the same area. This is definitely a win-win!
I found a site I liked & put up a storefront on it today. If you're looking for something unique & handmade for gift-giving any time of the year, need a stocking-stuffer for the gifting day coming up, you might take a look here:
As far as I'm concerned, this is what micro-business development is about.. bootstrapping, the Internet / WWWeb, and Power to The People. If you've read my blogs, you know that remark by a certain state senator still rankles me.. "how do you survive?!? We control everything in this state, & we were sure we black-listed you so you couldn't get a job.." Petty cretin, him.. I love the Web!
Hanh mitakuyapi. Hello my relatives.
I believe I've said before that I take no salary from my company in order to give it more to build with, & instead, I work outside jobs.
Among my many skills is that of carpentry - master level, frame to finish including cabinet-making. Today, I rode along with someone to install a window in (shiver!) a trailer house. I think they're called "mobile homes" now, but they're 'trailers' to me.
Anyway, like most "trailer homes", this one had substantial rot around the window. We had no way to fix it short of inserting pieces of wood to fill the space, caulk heck out of it, then hand-nail the new window trim in place. This is the tried-&-true way, especially since people who live in 'trailers' seldom have much money. If they did... etc. But - we had no suitable wood with us.
My company makes a product from chopped flax straw. I have been experimenting with this material since I first got a bale ground, & have found many interesting uses for it. Today, I came up with one more, & the copyright application is in the works now.
I had a bag of "Golden Dawn" in my pickup, along with a certain kind of glue. I mixed the 2 together & stuffed the space left by rot removal with this mixture, & we waited. It took a few minutes, but the mixture hardened & gave us a material we could nail into to attach the trim. No "custom sawing", no hassle.
I'll be refining this product & process, & in the near future, I expect to have another product to offer - in this time of lousy economy when supposedly there is nothing going on but "gloom & doom".
It occurs to me that perhaps my current often-scary lack of ready cash for anything & everything is not entirely 'bad' (although I would cheerfully {ecstatically!} trade it for a pocket full of cash any time..) - because 'necessity being the mother of invention', I am always on the lookout for something that will make a product inexpensively & quickly. I can't afford to have a lazy attitude, any more than I can afford more than the bare essentials right now. And maybe that's the secret to success in micro-business in a nutshell as much as anything. You think?
Hanh mitakuyapi. Hello my relatives. The title says it all. 28 being 4 * 7, 2 holy numbers in the Lakota Way, 28 is, too. We're growing, & this is good.
Interesting this should happen when U.S. political history - & perhaps, world political history too - are being made with the election of a mixed-blood, Barack Obama, to the U.S. Presidency & a white man, Joe Biden, to the U.S. Vice-Presidency, instead of the other way around. And, they got elected by a landslide margin with few (no?) questions of legality in the vote-counting and tabulating as happened in 2000 & 2004. I see this as a major shift toward the "good" end of the scale, and I pray it means we all are going to see new "good"s happening in / to the world we share.
Mitakuye oiasin - All (are) my relatives, after all.
I received an email recently that claims Wal-Mart senior management has been calling mandatory meetings for the company's employees in which the employees are told they "cannot" vote for the Obama-Biden ticket "or any other employee-friendly, union-friendly candidates for political office". It's not an urban legend, according to the sources I checked.
This makes me so angry I just boil. When it comes to the Constitution, I am a rabid supporter.
Moreover, a person's vote is their own business, bumper stickers & shop talk notwithstanding. No one has a right - or even, the privilege - of telling another how s/he should or should not vote - even less how s/he can or cannot. Period, no discussion.
<< To complain, go online & send emails to the company's contacts; & / or call 1-800-Wal-Mart & raise stink via phone. Better yet, do both. Then boycott Wal-Mart if you don't already, & be sure to tell them you are doing so. The concept of the Land of the Free particularly includes one's voting preferences; & keeping one's job is never contingent on one's vote.. nor should it ever be. >>
<< And while we're on the subject, I want to get some things about Sarah the Bimbo off my chest. (1) She IS NOTrepresentative of women in general, and women like me in particular. (2) Should you be one of those who thinks she's somehow unique because she hunts, let me tell you she isn't. I've hunted for over 35 years. Took 32 deer in 24 of those years & the guys I hunt with call me "Deadeye". I just don't make a big stink about it, & neither do most of the other women I know who hunt. We just get the job done - without trying to be so damned perky while we do it, as if we were trying to recapture our 6-year-old year. Makes me want to barf!, does Sarah the Bimbo. (3) Sarah the Bimbo is anti the following: (a) Freedom of Speech, religion, and privacy; (b) woman's right - not privilege - to choose whether or not to remain pregnant - which put Sarah the Bimbo in the same camp with rapists, since Gross Sexual Imposition is, by definition in law, the imposition of one person or group's preferences or desires on the sexual organs of another; (c) sex education other than abstinence - we've seen how well that works; she has a pregnant 17-year-old daughter; (d) stopping global warming; (e) preserving the Arctic, polar bears, and wolves (Sarah the Bimbo supports aerial alughter of wolves & promotes a $150/right foreleg bounty on wolves). I got the "anti" facts about Sarah the Bimbo from an email from Republican women who also want to make it abundantly clear that Sarah the Bimbo does not represent them, either. (4) I am utterly offended and repulsed by Sarah the Bimbo's continually referring to the general run of Americans as "Joe and Josephine 6-pack". This promotes the concept that alcoholism is normal for the general run of Americans; that the general run of Americans are more concerned with their (apparently-daily) 6-packs of alcohol than they are with issues; and that this is somehow acceptable. NOT! A! CHANCE! >>
This being a business site, and you having an interest in micro-business, it is my hope that you will raise hell with and about Sarah the Bimbo and vote for any other candidate other than her & John the Jerk. This pair have less than no interest in micro-business; & less than that when it comes to women & minorities.. I'll leave you to look up the facts on their track records on this.
Let us not forget that this patronizing old man had an affair with a rich heiress before divorcing his disfigured wife of dona-hey years - and then married the rich heiress a week or so after the divorce.. and then has the gall to claim he's a religious man. As a Spiritual Person of my People, I'd like to know what religion that is.
Let us also not forget that this patronizing old man said "I don't think women need more Affirmative Action.. They just need more education and training." Like dogs? Hm? I'm no great supporter of Obama; I admit there's something too slick about him I just can't get near; although I like Joe Biden. But I'll vote for my dog before I'll vote for Sarah the Bimbo & John the Jerk - & we haven't gotten anywhere near my rants on the ability of either one of them to improve the business climate in an environmentally-friendly way, yet; or her potential to take over "in a good way" if/when John keels over..
I received an email recently that claims Wal-Mart senior management has been calling mandatory meetings for the company's employees in which the employees are told they "cannot" vote for the Obama-Biden ticket "or any other employee-friendly, union-friendly candidates for political office". It's not an urban legend, according to the sources I checked.
This makes me so angry I just boil. When it comes to the Constitution, I am a rabid supporter.
Moreover, a person's vote is their own business, bumper stickers & shop talk notwithstanding. No one has a right - or even, the privilege - of telling another how s/he should or should not vote - even less how s/he can or cannot. Period, no discussion.
<< To complain, go online & send emails to the company's contacts; & / or call 1-800-Wal-Mart & raise stink via phone. Better yet, do both. Then boycott Wal-Mart if you don't already, & be sure to tell them you are doing so.
The concept of the Land of the Free particularly includes one's voting preferences; & keeping one's job is never contingent on one's vote.. nor should it ever be.
<< And while we're on the subject, I want to get some things about Sarah the Bimbo off my chest. (1) She IS NOT representative of women in general, and women like me in particular.
(2) Should you be one of those who thinks she's somehow unique because she hunts, let me tell you she isn't. I've hunted for over 35 years. Took 32 deer in 24 of those years & the guys I hunt with call me "Deadeye". I just don't make a big stink about it, & neither do most of the other women I know who hunt. We just get the job done - without trying to be so damned perky while we do it, as if we were trying to recapture our 6-year-old year. Makes me want to barf!, does Sarah the Bimbo. (3) Sarah the Bimbo is anti the following: (a) Freedom of Speech, religion, and privacy; (b) woman's right - not privilege - to choose whether or not to remain pregnant - which put Sarah the Bimbo in the same camp with rapists, since Gross Sexual Imposition is, by definition in law, the imposition of one person or group's preferences or desires on the sexual organs of another; (c) sex education other than abstinence - we've seen how well that works; she has a pregnant 17-year-old daughter; (d) stopping global warming; (e) preserving the Arctic, polar bears, and wolves (Sarah the Bimbo supports aerial alughter of wolves & promotes a $150/right foreleg bounty on wolves). I got the "anti" facts about Sarah the Bimbo from an email from Republican women who also want to make it abundantly clear that Sarah the Bimbo does not represent them, either. (4) I am utterly offended and repulsed by Sarah the Bimbo's continually referring to the general run of Americans as "Joe and Josephine 6-pack". This promotes the concept that alcoholism is normal for the general run of Americans; that the general run of Americans are more concerned with their (apparently-daily) 6-packs of alcohol than they are with issues; and that this is somehow acceptable. NOT! A! CHANCE!>>
This being a business site, and you having an interest in micro-business, it is my hope that you will raise hell with and about Sarah the Bimbo and vote for any other candidate other than her & John the Jerk. This pair have less than no interest in micro-business; & less than that when it comes to women & minorities.. I'll leave you to look up the facts on their track records on this.
Let us not forget that this patronizing old man had an affair with a rich heiress before divorcing his disfigured wife of dona-hey years - and then married the rich heiress a week or so after the divorce.. and then has the gall to claim he's a religious man. As a Spiritual Person of my People, I'd like to know what religion that is. Let us also not forget that this patronizing old man said "I don't think women need more Affirmative Action.. They just need more education and training." Like dogs? Hm? I'm no great supporter of Obama; I admit there's something too slick about him I just can't get near; although I like Joe Biden. But I'll vote for my dog before I'll vote for Sarah the Bimbo & John the Jerk - & we haven't gotten anywhere near my rants on the ability of either one of them to improve the business climate in an environmentally-friendly way, yet; or her potential to take over "in a good way" if/when John keels over..
Homeless Entrepreneur Shares Office With Millionaire| posted by Francisco Dao
I recently read an article that said a recession is a great time to start a business because when times are tight, deals can be found on many of the goods and services needed to grow a company. While this might be fundamentally true, I wondered how many entrepreneurs actually felt the same way. Economic realities being what they are, people still need to eat and pay their rent. With the economy in shambles, how many entrepreneurs would take a chance on a start-up knowing it might be nearly impossible to get a job if things didn’t work out? I decided look for an entrepreneur who was actually doing it.
My first challenge was figuring out where to start my search. There was always Starbucks, but living in Los Angeles all I found were struggling screenwriters. I decided to try a co-working space called BlankSpaces. If you’re unfamiliar with co-working spaces, they are apparently the new trend for people who got tired of working alone at home. After chatting with a few of the usual suspects, I met Edward Lujan, a recently homeless entrepreneur, and Firas Bushnaq, millionaire and executive chairman of eEye Digital Security, working together on a new company. At the very least, they were an odd couple so I had to find out how they ended up together.
I often meet “wannabe” entrepreneurs who say things like “If I just had a million dollars then I could start my own business.” Obviously these aren’t the kind of people who would start a company in a down economy. Edward was just the opposite. A one-time Wall Street trader with a big paycheck, Edward gave it all up to start something on his own. After an earlier partnership went awry, Edward found himself living in his car. I asked him why he didn’t go back to a job and he said, “I just knew in my heart this was going to work.” When he took a part time job to get back on his feet, Edward did something extraordinary. Instead of renting a place to live, he spent his first paycheck on office space at BlankSpaces. Most people, including me, would think this is crazy, but in Edward’s case the decision to rent workspace would result in an amazing turn of fortune.
Firas Bushnaq is a curious man. How else would you explain a millionaire serial entrepreneur who leaves his company to incubate start-ups in a shared office? Someone like Firas was the last person I expected to find in a co-working space, and yet here he was looking for entrepreneurs to help launch – entrepreneurs like Edward Lujan. Because Edward put his start-up dreams even ahead of his own well being, Firas took a chance on him and Setstr.com was born. It’s early, and Setstr still has a long way to go before making money, but Edward Lujan and Firas Bushnaq are doing something most people find terrifying. They’ve started a company during a recession.
When I started my quest for an entrepreneur willing to risk it all in a down economy, I never expected to find one who was so dedicated to his goal that he would pursue it in the face of homelessness. Nor did I expect to find a millionaire incubator willing to give a shot to a guy sleeping in his car. Instead, I found them sharing an office and starting a business together. For Edward, the economy was irrelevant to the pursuit of his dream. For Firas, the trappings of success were no replacement for the thrill of mentoring an eager entrepreneur. Recession or not, it seems true entrepreneurs are willing to put it all on the line and go forward come hell or high water. With no end in sight to our economic woes, I wish Edward and Firas the best of luck. We may need more such visionaries to get us out of the current swoon.
