Prioritizing My Life

We’re coming close to the end of the month, which means I have–if you can believe this–two and half months to go in this year of service. It’s pretty exciting, but it’s also quite scary, because I’m not sure what’s going to happen two and a half months from now.

My old man keeps telling me I have options, and he’s right, I do. It’s just a matter of me figuring out which one puts me in the best chance to succeed. So I took a few days to think about it, and decided the best thing to do would be to prioritize the three core options I have to choose from, based on where I am and where I want to be.

At this time, my top priority is returning to school to get a Masters of Business Administration. I have scheduled to take an exam on June 11. They say to give yourself at least a month to prepare for the test. Of course, Dad thinks I need to start right this minute. I suppose I’ll meet him halfway on this and probably begin next week.

Why am I going for an MBA? Because I’m hoping to learn what I can about marketing, particularly the social media aspect of it, which in my opinion is one of the easiest ways to get your message across to people. I’m currently an administrator for the VISTA Corridor Recovery Facebook page, and would love to do something similar to that for a local company.

Next on my list is get another job. We still have a long ways to go, but there are indications the economy is improving. As of today, the Iowa Workforce Development job site shows 1,643 jobs in the Cedar Rapids area, while Corridor Careers has 482. I don’t know how much overlap there is between listings on both sites.

Whether I can find another job depends on who else is out there looking and what their experience is. There really isn’t anything I can do about that, however. I can only worry about me. If I do get work, I can still go for an MBA either by taking evening classes or going online. So I will simultaneously search for jobs and apply for the MBA.

Finally, I can stay with the VISTA program for up to another year. I won’t rule it out: this is a nice little office I have here in the St. Wenceslaus Gym Building, and not making the money I was slated to make at Gazcomm hasn’t burned a giant hole in my pocket. But complacency can be dangerous. It’s time for a new challenge.

I have received a notice of intent from the national office that I am supposed to fill out before my term is up. I am hesitant to submit it right away, because I really do not know what the results of my efforts will be. If possible, I’ll put it off until I know a little more.

I should also share with you the new “card” I made for myself last week, so to speak. It features all my contact info for networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and my Gmail account. I probably should have put my name on it, but this will do for now. If you like what you see, contact me via one of these platforms. I look forward to hearing from you!

Conan on Cable

That Conan O’Brien has signed on to do a new talk show should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. This moment was inevitably going to happen. What is surprising about the news is where he ended up.

I was one of those people who thought he would go to Fox and give the guy who booted him from the Tonight Show–Jay Leno–a run for his money. Nope, he’s decided to do a show on TBS instead.

There’s tons of info on other blogs about this story, so I’ll stick with the key points. O’Brien will host a show four nights a week (Monday through Thursday) at 11 p.m. ET, while the show currently holding that time slot, “Lopez Tonight” starring George Lopez, will move to midnight.

Sound familiar? It’s what NBC wanted to do to O’Brien, move “Tonight” back to midnight and let Jay, who had been struggling in prime time, have the slot he has long dominated back. O’Brien walked away from NBC after saying “no.”

But here’s what makes the situation at TBS different. According to the NYT, O’Brien refused to do the same thing to Lopez and only agreed to come on board when encouraged by Lopez to do so. And judging by Lopez’s verified Twitter account, he is thrilled to have O’Brien as his lead-in.

I think it’s a good move on Conan’s part. Critics were skeptical that he would pan out at Fox, where some affiliates were reluctant to give that 11 p.m. hour they make money off with “Seinfeld” reruns to a network talk show.

Second, TV by the Numbers, citing numbers from Nielsen Media Research, says TBS is the second most-watched cable network in primetime among adults 18-34 and 18-49 for the first three months of 2010, behind NBC Universal-owned USA, but ahead of MTV, ESPN and Comedy Central.

Speaking of Comedy Central, this does leave fans of Conan and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert at a crossroads, since Conan will now be going head-to-head with Stewart’s “Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.” But honestly, it’s the same situation they’d be facing had Conan gone to Fox.

Not to mention you have DVR and Internet streaming that will allow viewers to still catch all three. TBS has a channel on YouTube, Conan episodes would likely be placed there the morning after broadcast, meaning even people who aren’t near a cable box can still catch Coco just as long as they have an Internet connection.

Going to cable will allow Conan to do the kind of show that put him on the map to begin with. He’ll be able to get away with more because cable channels aren’t held to the stingy FCC standards that broadcast networks are. It’s just too bad the Masturbating Bear won’t be able to make that trip with Conan to TBS.

What’s better is that since his show won’t air until November, you can bet that TBS will use the Major League Baseball playoff games it will air a few weeks earlier to promote Conan. To use a baseball analogy, I think TBS has hit a grand slam by signing Conan O’Brien.

Why We Serve

I promised I was going to post the responses Blake Christenson and I received on our survey, if you will. The first question came about as a tool for future recruiting. We’re looking for people to sign on this coming summer, whether it be for a few weeks or an entire year. So Blake asked what made people decide to join this program:

“I wanted to make a difference in my community and learn more about my community while helping people. I have learned many different skills and also learned about the people and what they go through during a natural disaster.”
–Sidney Thompson

“I chose VISTA, particularly the Corridor Flood Recovery program, for a couple of reasons: I went to college in the area and after spending two years away after graduating, I wanted to come back, but after working in coffee shops was ready to do something more fulfilling. After having little success finding jobs in my field (community arts), I learned of the Corridor Recovery team and of the possibility of working in the arts within it.”
–Gabrielle Read-Hess

“I chose AmeriCorps VISTA for many reasons. One of them was the economic situation when I graduated from college. The job market was very rough and it was hard to find something I wanted to do. I also wanted to stay in Iowa. My biggest motivation to become a VISTA was to help people and to work with children and VISTA has given me both.”
–Erin Kiefer

“I chose AmeriCorps VISTA because service has always been a very important part of my life. I expected to have great experiences not only with the people I helped but also with the people I served with and I have gotten that.”
–Tabitha Smith

“After graduating from college, I took a summer job with a local food vendor at a large event, setting up their stands while looking for a more perminent position.  Not finding anything, I stumbled upon this opportunity to become an AmeriCorps*VISTA in Cedar Rapids, helping to re-establish the downtown neighborhoods following the flooding in 2008.”
–Blake Christenson

“Knowing that I was about to graduate with a two-year degree, and that I would be needing to take the next step in developing a career, I assessed my options and I evaluated myself in terms of my capabilities and wishes.”
–Daniel Young

These are further excerpts of what was said. I had considered including all of it, but it would look like a giant glob of text in some cases, so I chose to excerpt. Later on, we will look ahead at what these people hope to do with the future. Again, there are some good answers.

The Earth Says Hello

I mentioned a while back that I’m a sucker for the human interest story. Everyone has at least one story to tell, and I enjoy hearing what they are.

Last week, I collaborated with Blake Christenson on a piece about what inspired our organization’s members to come to Cedar Rapids to do flood relief work, and what they plan to do when they are done with their year of service, which is coming up very soon.

We got a lot of good answers, so many I ended up using only a few of them. It would be a shame to see such well thought-out on the part of these people go to waste, so I think tomorrow what I will do is post more of their responses on here.

I’m also scheduled to do another homeowner profile later this week. We were supposed to do it last Friday, but was pushed back due to other priorities they have. So hopefully, we can get this in once and for all this week.

Again, I think everyone has a story or two to share with the world. Unfortunately, to get to all 6.8 billion people living in it is an unrealistic goal. It’s also too easy for their stories to get lost in the vast amount of information that comes to us faster than a speeding bullet these days.

I’ve read it before where journalists are asked what their dream interview would be, and they always answer somewhere along the lines of a very important world figure, like the President. I really don’t have a dream interview. I’m happy to listen to anyone who wants to tell me about themselves.

There is one story though that I find particularly intriguing, and given the right opportunity, I wouldn’t mind learning more about it. After messing around on the Internet over the weekend, I stumbled upon some information on a guy by the name of John Swofford. While you may never have heard of him, he’s held a pretty integral role in sports over the last several years.

He is the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the collegiate athletic league that includes schools like Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina and one of tonight’s two finalists for the NCAA men’s basketball championship–Duke University. He is also involved with the controversial Bowl Championship Series in college football.

Prior to becoming ACC commish, Swofford had a long history with North Carolina, serving as its athletic director from 1980 to 1997. Before that, he was the quarterback on the Tar Heels football team during the late 1960s and early 70s.

While John was still in college, his brother William became famous for something unrelated to sports. William was a singer who Baby Boomers might recognize better by his middle name, Oliver.

Teaming up with Bob Crewe, the producer for Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Oliver released a cover of the song “Good Morning Starshine.” Originally from the musical “Hair,” it has also been used on “Sesame Street“, “The Simpsons”, and in a commercial for Burger King. Oliver’s version (which is heard on the BK ad) reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.

Bill Swofford would follow that up by singing “Jean” for the film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,” which made it to No. 2 on the charts. His newfound success landed him on the premier variety shows of the time, including “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and “American Bandstand.”

I can’t find it now, but a search on Google turned up a subscription article that says Bill’s quarterback brother toured with him over the summer of 1969 and made a brief appearance on Ed Sullivan. William Swofford died in 2000, having left the music business some time before.

As nuts as it may sound, I’m intrigued by the story of a 20-year-old kid who’s a football star at a Division I college going around the country with his musically talented and famous brother. With the right treatment, it would make one hell of a documentary–or even a motion picture. To me, that’s the stuff dreams are made of.