Career vs. Job

I was reading an article on the Matadornetwork.com website about racism in Moscow, (http://matadorabroad.com/should-people-of-color-go-to-russia/) and the author's bio intrigued me.


It says:

In 1992, the guidance counselor at Buster's high school distributed forms to students so they could indicate preferences for Career Day. Buster refused to take part, declaring to the principal, "I don't want a career. The point of education shouldn't be job placement." He has spent the past 17 years avoiding anything resembling a career. He's collected money from the federal government to learn obscure languages of the Caspian littoral. He's taken money to do drugs before being loaded into an MRI machine. He has read over 1,000 surveys filled out by women with breast implants. He's now in 23rd grade and spends most of his time reading library books and begging for money from various institutes, foundations and societies. He still hasn't given in.


This really made me think. That is a very good point the author makes, about education perceived as a means to an end, the end being a career. And I think other generations before us have always seen it as that way: you go to school to go to college to get a job to support your family.

Times have changed.

In one of my communications classes a few years ago, the professor was describing characteristics of our generation. Due to our exposure to technology and the internet, we (our generation) multi-task a ton, and almost can't get by without doing so.

Another characteristic that is new and different from our generation compared to others is that we now look for jobs for pleasure rather than paycheck. Our parents or even their parents used to look for a career to be able to pay for having a family and luxuries or day-to-day needs. They maybe even hated their jobs, but it didn't matter because they had a family to feed. Now, we care about ourselves even more and cannot dedicate our time and efforts into something that doesn't provide us with happiness. We want to do something we like.

Evidence of this is our generation's more "job" oriented idea of work as opposed to "career." Someone working with my dad (a man in his late 20s) had once said that this was definitely not his career. It was his job.

My aunt tells us, frustratingly, that she has to job-train so often with this new crop of people entering the workforce because they come and go once they find something better. No longer are they settling for their first job--they are constantly on a quest to do something better.

Perhaps that is why careerbuilder.com is so successful. If you are unfamiliar, this job-finding website sets itself apart in its advertising campaign by clarifying that they are not for those searching for a new job, but for those wanting to build their resume, and potentially might quit from their new jobs once they find something more fulfilling.


Obviously I am interested in this job vs. career discussion because I do fall into that generation that seeks more. But also, as a recent college graduate, I am looking for a job. Not a career, but a job. I need money and experience at this stage in my life, but I am definitely not looking to do some of these jobs for my entire life. At my grad party, every guest asked me "what do you plan to do eventually" or "what is your ultimate dream career?" There were those who responded to my answer with "that's okay that you don't know, you have time to think" but there were also those who responded with "you better go to grad school to figure that out."

I don't have to figure anything out. I don't care if I don't know what I want yet. I can get a job to collect some money first, and find interests later. I will always love math and writing. I will always love acting goofy while working with kids but also being taken seriously. I want to own a little shop of something, I don't know, maybe antiques, but I hate customer service. I like cooking but don't like dealing with picky customers.

I will do what I want. Right now, that is applying for every job I am qualified for, even if it may not be my future career.

Diablo Cody interviews Adam Brody

Diablo Cody (writer and director of Juno, Jennifer's Body) sits down with actor Adam Brody (The OC), and it is a gem.

Some people find Diablo Cody's dialogue (in her movies, that is...I don't think people really talk to her in person) annoying, but I find this interview pretty hilarious. Especially the "Tiki Ten" rapidfire questioning at the end. But the whole interview is great.


Have a look...

Not birthday wishes.

Facebook notified me of this on my feed today...




Except, neither are birthday wishes. Can people post on my wall without the yearly obligation of a birthday notification being their motivation? CAN I NOT HAVE FRIENDS, FACEBOOK!?

Creepy Video Games

Remember that post I put on here about things that scared me as a child?

Certain mystery video games were definitely on there.

I recently saw this and had to laugh:

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

I have played the Sherlock Holmes game series before. Not this exact one, but the one before it.

Now you know what I mean by the creep factor.

People with Headphones

Two music videos I love, featuring people wearing headphones.

Very touching and sweet, "The First Day of my Life" by Bright Eyes.




Very funny and simple, "Short Skirt, Long Jacket" by Cake.
(I can't embed it...so you have to go to the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF43shMjs0o

Airlines lose luggage AND android heads.

I was meandering through the internet and came across the name "Philip K. Dick," who is a novelist and short story writer whose works have been adapted to many films.
Examples include Next, Paycheck, Total Recall, Blade Runner, and A Scanner Darkly. If you don't know/haven't heard of any of these films, then it's because I am a huge nerd and you are not.

So I wanted to read more about him and went to the Wikipedia page of Philip K. Dick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_k_dick

There, I found he had a creepy-as-hell android made in his likeness. Not so strange for a guy who wrote about alternate universes and crazy governmental control of society.

There was even a super creepy picture of this android:


In the description, it says an American West Airlines employee misplaced the head of the android in 2006, and it hasn't been found since. First luggage, then android heads? Those bastards.

The Package...Jin's Package

I haven't posted a lot on here lately, so I hope this makes up for it.

I was watching LOST, the episode "The Package" and I laughed out loud at this one scene....

Sun is in her hotel room, after a night with Jin. She hides him in the bathroom when two thugs knock at the door. After the guests see two champagne glasses, they suspect someone is there. They open the bathroom door and there is Jin, shirtless and not afraid to show it.




Hellllllooooooo Jin.

The more mysterious Europe

I was on stumbleupon.com, which takes you to random websites on the internet, and the first site it brought me to was for pictures of Europe. How timely!
(the site is http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2NUFRp/www.golberz.com/2010/03/breathtaking-photos-of-europe.html)

But of all the pictures they show, which are labeled as "breathtaking," I must say none of them look that special except this one, taken at night in the Czech Republic.



Doesn't this one just look more interesting and attractive than, say, this one:




I think the beauty is in the lights, the mystery, the intrigue that the first photo has over the second. I don't want to see a city for its buildings or monuments. I want to see it for its history, its people, its personality. And that, I believe, is what this first photograph eerily displays.