Pepi!

Reader and friend Anne Sasso sent me this card that she had propped on her desk for laughs. She said, "I don’t know when your birthday is, but this guy made me laugh."

Well, can you stand it? I opened it ON my birthday!

Can a dog’s face really say WTF? I think so now! (Dogs, of course, aren’t crude like some bloggers.)

Anne’s advice—don’t open your IRA statements. By the time they type up this stuff and mail it, it’s probably worse anyhow.

Incidentally, speaking of Mexican-monikered, too way cute dogs, I was going to adopt a weird senior lady spitz-corgie named Lupe this weekend. They say she has a saggy face. Well, so do I. Unfortunately, they gave her to someone else and now my face is sagging more than ever.

I will keep looking.

In the meantime—find the funniest card you can and prop it on the desk. A coupla bucks well spent.

Better yet--send a few to friends. Coming out of the blue, cards are a spirit-brightener.

You could also save money and send a letter or note. Is that too retro?

Copey Award: Hanging in

Recently, there was a story in the Arizona Republic about a management company that went into receivership, stranding hundreds of tenants in no-man’s-land. This may lead to foreclosure.

There are $30K in overdue water bills, but no one has been shut off.

The tenants have been told they will not have to move, and many employees, who have not been paid in weeks, are still on the job helping tenants.

The grounds crews are working without pay to keep the buildings looking nice.

I have never seen such dedicated employees, one expert said.

Of course, this can’t go on forever. Is anyone listening out there? And would you do it? Just bang it out because it needs to be done?

Know anyone else who deserves a "Copey"? Email me.

Are you broke enough?

In the 1982 “downturn” (as opposed to “freefall"), I wrote an article for Savvy magazine (now long gone) about a talk show I saw about how people were faring in the recession. One man mentioned his truck—and they were on him like crazed harpies. If he had a TRUCK, he could sell that and until then, he could shut up.

I see a lot of eyeballing and judging going on—did so-and-so take a vacation last year and buy a new car? Well, the have THEIR nerve declaring bankruptcy (which costs thousands to do, by the way)!

You still have cable and DSL? Well, don’t come crying to the NYT if you can still get online, some people have to go to the library.

Everyone who ever re-fied a house must have partied hearty with that dough—not paid off a persistent hospital or gotten dentures or anything.

Speaking of parties, the wonks are now fond of calling themselves “grownups” and saying, “The party’s over.”

This wasn’t a party—this was life! We lived our lives. We worked hard, we got a few bucks ahead or could get credit, we got something we needed or wanted. Life is short, death is long.

Now…since bazillions of so-called taxpayer dollars (really Chinese dollars) are at stake, everyone thinks they can critique everyone else.

I have been guilty of this, too. I wondered about those no-paper loans. I had some. Would they require people filing now to show income? Then, I thought—I am not going to get into that. It’s not REALLY my money, even though it is my shared pain.

You can do whatever you want, but I am going to try to lay off peeking into everyone’s life and trying to decide if they are doing what I do or what I think they should do.

Don’t want to pay for someone else’s mortgage? They probably have other gigantic problems.

Anyway, there are so many things in these proposed wads of spending I don’t want to pay for, I would have time to do nothing else if I fretted over all of them. Remember, it’s not really your money—you are just going to have to pay it all back, or someone is.

Judging? Just raises the blood pressure and you may not have all the facts, anyhow.

Agree? Disagree?

Want to see some fatcats perp-walked? No, Star, no, no.

Job hunting--social style--does it work?

By Maria Esposito

When Star asked me to write a guest post, she said I could choose any topic (on coping) short of jumping out the window. I figured that opened up a pretty wide range of possibilities; so I thought about it, and I decided I’d like to talk about breaking through the white noise when you’re using Social Media to job hunt.

As more and more employees are being kicked to the curb by their faithless employers, they’re all looking around in desperation trying to figure out what the next move is.

If you find yourself in this predicament, conventional wisdom says go ask the experts what to do. And the pundits, in all their resplendent mental acuity, say go network on as many Social Media sites as you can, and you’ll make connections that will get you re-employed.

Okay, so everybody runs to their computers and starts Facebooking, My Spacing, LinkingIn, and, of course, Tweeting on the oh-so-trendy Twitter. The problem is, nobody seems to be listening. Discussions are started that trail off into nowhere, tweets are posted that go unanswered, and invitations to “visit my blog” go unaccepted.

How the heck you going to make a connection, much less find a potential employment lead, if you can’t break through the non-stop chatter? It’s like that annoying phone company commercial says, “CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?” No, I don’t think so.

What all the brilliant experts forgot to mention is that in the great bazaar that is Social Media, everybody’s out there trying to sell their wares just like you are. They can’t hear you above their own hard sell. You have to take your chances that somehow what you have to offer is fresher, and more appealing than what’s at the other stands.

So here’s a tip. Don’t follow what all the experts say will get you noticed, because that’s what all the other guys are doing. Instead, trying actually having some manners, and responding to discussions, answering tweets, and visiting blogs. If that bizarre behavior doesn’t get you noticed, nothing will. After all, as one great philosopher said, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me.”

You just may find that the respect you give will be returned to you when someone emails out of the blue and asks for some samples of your work. I know because it happened to me.

This was contributed by Maria Esposito, who can be reached with more fabbie job offers at mar19511@hotmail.com. Also check her blog at http://medicine.reportednow.com.

Star: I am a LinkedIn beginner. Need to set a day aside to learn it. Any other social networking tips, gang?

New Deal, Tired Deal--bow about the Best Deal?

Was it worth a couple of trillion bucks (the whole gross domestic product is $13 billion, I think) to find out our dear electeds were heaving spaghetti at the wall in Grand Canyon-sized buckets?

Too late now.

Oh—and there may not be more where that came from in the event things get worse. Probably just as well. Having access to money just makes these people crazy.

But we aren’t that far gone, are we, American people? We know we need some money to live, that we have talents or merchandise sitting on the shelf. What the heck—let’s get busy and spend again. Let’s sell these assets to each other. Let’s deal—barter—get things we need at a satisfying bargain.

I call it The Best Deal.

…Did the snooty roof guy want $10K to replace your shingles? Call him again—offer $3000. See what happens. Hey-it’s only money and they are probably taking away our credit cards anyway.

…Let’s see some car dealers run ads that say--$28K if you can get credit, but only $12K if you bring over cash. Today! Drive off the lot! A car isn’t going to appreciate anyhow.

…Need a new furnace or heat pump? Look for the huge rebates. Ask for huge rebates.

…What about those goofy plasmas? If you really feel our politicians are worth that much money to watch in action, get one of those—but get a huge honking deal or walk out!

…People hurting in your neighborhood—get together and each cook two extra meals a night and pass them out. When it’s their turn—they can slap together the PB&Js. No J? OK—PB.

…When those food bank envelopes come—put in five bucks, more if you can. I have never had cash lost in the mail yet. Don’t believe everything “they” say.

…You can still go to the department store and get makeup. Just make it work harder—here’s a secret: Lipstick blends as a blusher and looks mahvelous. Also, you can find high-end makeup on Ebay.com.

….My Mexican neighbors like to cook prickly pear. I have tons—and they bring me a little dish of the salsa. Yummy! It also saves on my cactus chopping fees. But you better believe it—those guys who come around in the trucks to do your landscaping—they are dealing.

We can’t stop spending. Even the dreaded George Bush was more right than wrong when he said to keep shopping after 9/11. We don’t have an industry-based economy anymore—it’s based on consumption. If we stop consuming, people lose their jobs, then they can’t consume—and that’s when the pols get into it and screw it up.

But we are all going to have to settle for less. Those who get foreclosed feel horrible until they don’t have an obscene mortgage payment to make and one that isn’t building anything for them in life. Credit rating? Hey, we’re all ruined.

Don’t worry, it will be fine in the long run. And the beautiful part of getting out there and dealing is that everyone gets something and everyone feels like they got the best of it.

When is the last time you felt like you were getting The Best Deal? How does today sound?

Hmmm...crossing guard...a little seasonal?

Star,

Bummer to drop the health humor site (http://healthsass.blogspot.com)--that has to hurt. Brilliant idea to blog on coping w economic depression. Speaking of which, I am good at vision and years ago I sensed the stock market was going to tank. So, when the Dow was 11,300, I transferred all my funds to secure, stable investments. Then the Dow went up over 14,000. Every man, woman, dog, and cat between Mars and Venus was raking it in, except me. That didn't feel so hot. So when the Dow started to sink, I cleverly waited until it hit 11,300 and jumped back in with both feet and chose aggressive investments.

What I've learned is that, if everyone suffers, we're all in it together. If I'm the only sucker suffering, I feel like an idiot. At this point my 401k will buy a good upscale meal in Northern Virginia. But I keep reminding myself that it's not real money until I cash it in, so I haven't lost a dime. I may, however, be scouting out job openings for school crossing guards.

Bill Neugent
Talecatcher.com

Ah...wisdom

From reader Miriam Ruff, the following...

Yesterday my chiropractor offered me an interesting perspective on life. He said we can live our lives in the past, the present, or the future. When we live in the past, it's usually because of guilt. When we live in the future, it's usually because of fear. It is only when we live in the present that we can truly appreciate who we are and understand how we can live our lives to the fullest, not merely exist.

Star: The present is all too present, so what's up for today?