Teacher Marc,

Haiku for you:
Not using my degree
teaching makes me miserable
found out too damn late

If I go back to teaching, first of all, it’s going to cost me money. Though I am still certified in Illinois, it doesn’t mean I am certified here in California. I would likely have to take classes, again, and pay for tests, again, and it all costs money. I don’t want to spend the extra money to prove I can do what Illinois feels I do just fine, especially not to do a job that makes me miserable.
True, I could stay a substitute teacher and not have to pay for classes and tests, but then I lose things like: health insurance, sick days, regular hours I can count on being given and paid for, hope of having a paying job of some kind every summer. I was a sub for almost five years, and worked an after school program at the same time, and it was killing me. Teaching was a nightmare. This is what my book is about, which I hope to publish sometime in 2009.

And, I have been doing some basic things to market myself. I write for Helium.com, (which pays writers, but nowhere enough to live on). I talk about my book Haiku of Frustration: Wage Slave on my podcast, and my myspace blog is pretty much devoted to more Haiku, and the hopes of generating more interest in the book. I am on twitter as QueenofHaiku, posting only in Haiku, and once in a while posting where to get the book at, for those that are interested. I have applied for a blog writing job at About.com, but, they filled the position before even looking at my application (or so says the email they sent me). I have an entire book written and in the editing process right now (which is going slower than I ever figured it would). The problem I’m having isn’t so much marketing, it’s competing with the big publishing houses who can afford to pay big chain bookstores to keep 60 copies of someone’s book on hand at all times. And Oprah hasn’t found me yet. And right now, I haven’t paid the money to get an ISBN number on my book, so it will never ever be in bookstores anyway. But even if it were, I work at a bookstore, and know how that goes. One spilled drink takes can take out the entire stock of your book in one store. And, if your book isn’t “modeled for”, it gets taken right off the shelf, never to return. This is why writers drink.

Lots of things I could comment on but I’ll stick with the Middle Class lament that Shawn offered up. While it is true that there are many working poor in this nation I have a difficult time reconciling the need to treat them justly over the reality that they may not have any marketable skills. Jen, I would assume that you went to college in order to have been a substitute teacher in Ill. Are you using your degree at all?

Admittedly I’m what I like to call a conservative Democrat. I believe that the job of government is to take care of the people but not aid them in every aspect of their lives. If people want to be able to take vacations then they shouldn’t desire the minimum wage to go up but rather they should get a better a job that affords them a lifestyle they desire. Teachers don’t make much compared to the time/effort put in to the job so that’s why many of us advise clubs or sports. That little extra pay will cover that summer trip to wherever-it-is-land.

Jen, you’re a good writer and Shawn is obviously gifted with an on air personality, guitar skills and sound engineering. There must be a way for you to market yourselves … but you guys know as well as I do that SLO has almost no job market.

When Holly graduates from Poly with her degree in Architecture in June we’re moving away. We don’t know where to but it will be somewhere she can make money as an Architect. You have to go where the jobs are.

If it’s any help, I get drunk to listen to your show!

If your phone has an mp3 player built-in, you could also try installing the Podcast Ready myPodder client on the phone, and use it to download our shows directly to your phone. My experience with myPodder hasn’t been that great, but maybe it’d work better for you.

I have a question for you. I have a smartphone and just downloaded an rss reader specifically so I could access your show. I got it up and running but now what? I’m not really sure what an rss is to be honest. I could read some some faq somewhere but that takes too much work. I would much rather get back to playing WoW and let you respond.

And that comment I made earlier about “catching hell from Jen,” that was kinda snarky. I’m sorry, Jen. I shouldn’t have posted that. I’m in a bit of a dark mood this morning, and that’s not your fault. As usual, I’m a master of insertion-of-foot-into-mouth. I hope you’ll accept this pile of kittens as a peace offering.

1.) Alex’s Restaurant – McHenry, IL
2.) Mr. A’s – Crystal Lake, IL
3.) Luke’s – Carpentersville, IL
4.) Tommy’s Red Hots – Crystal Lake, IL
5.) Dino’s – Lake In The Hills, IL

Honorable mention goes to a place called Michael’s that was in business in Algonquin, IL for about a year. The restaurant was opened by the son of the founder of the Portillo’s chain, and the food was very good. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay open for very long. Guess the guy got tired of running his own shop and went back to work for his dad.

By the way, I’m gonna catch hell from Jen for all of this food talk on here. But, you guys started it, so it’s not my fault. At least, that’s the story as I see it.