This is the Last Thing I will say about it...

So, I am totally election-newsed out. Completely. But the female embaressment that is Palin stories keep arriving at my doorstep (and trust, I am no longer looking for them, after I read the entire interview and after I listened to innane comments comparing her to Obama when all I really wanted to know was "why?").

After the Katie Couric interview, which I watched in it's entirety via youtube, I am officially anti-Palin. I wasn't even anti-Bush. And, FYI, I was pro-Hillary.  I actually would be voting for McCain if Obama (and honestly, Hillary would have been here too) were not an alternative. I like lower taxes for my tax bracket.  I often voted for Republican candidates in state elections; I like lower taxes for my food, car, and everything else. The Republican candidates kept their word; while they weren't grand at bringing in businesses, they were grand at keeping the tax rate down. So don't judge my political alligiances just yet. And, you don't know why I am voting for Obama. But I digress.

The interview. What a f-ing disaster! I have been interviewed by the press, and I know how stressful it can be. But repetitious sound bites? What the hell is wrong with you? You end up sounding really dumb. Even I know that!  If you are asked about the idea of recession, don't actually answer the question: say the current economy makes you sick. If you are asked about tax-payer/homeowner bailouts, don't actually answer the question: say the current economy makes you sick.  

Sarah Palin has political experience. As a former mayor and now governor, she can at least draft an independent coherent thought.  Why won't they let her? And why would she agree to this method of interview, that makes her sound like an idiot. 

And before you make the obligatory "but Obama comment" remember that he has been interviewed by Mr. "I'm an idiot racist" O'Riley (I didn't spell it right, and I don't care) on Fox. Yep, the same man who blamed hip-hop for teen pregnancy and single-parent homes in poverty. True genius, right? And Obama did NOT use talking points. Obama doesn't use talking points. 

A huge part of this is experience. Of a different non-state-mayor kind. Of a worldly kind. I would assume Palin has it. Why doesn't she use it.

And, FYI, I have been interviewed approximately 5 times by different press. I had a one-on-one interview once. It is really hard. And with the press, you never know what they will latch on. But the only thing wrong with a bad soundbite is a whole bad interview. You would think that McCain's camp would know this.  

She's Not Really That Dumb

I am embarrassed by the ignorance that is Sarah Palin. She is a female reincarnation of the Bush act, taken on the road.  She suggests litigation that Obama has already sponsored and gotten signed into law.  She suggests changes that already exist. She says everything is sexist (while if a Black woman said that about race, she would be a laughing stock). 

The double standard in place is sad. Especially since the same people saying "don't treat her that way because she is a woman" were sharpening their knives to have another woman for dinner.  They talk tenderly about how someone's family should be out of bounds, after spending months attacking Obama's wife for claims of using the word "whitey".

The absolute icing on the cake has to be that Palin says she is a product of Title IX. If you don't know, title nine is a promise for equal attention (and money) for education for men and women. It was passed in the 70's. I had no idea Palin was a college athlete, because that has been the single impact of this legislation.  Title VII, however, is probably what she meant, but then again maybe not.  Title VII, and AA programs, have made the biggest impact on the number of women enrolled in higher education.  But then, that would mean actually knowing something about government and law. And Palin has shown that she is not very knowledgeable. 

I am not trying to be hard on her. I don't have a vindetta against women.  I do, however, dislike when people of inferior intelligence are used to give minorities or women a bad name. It's like when Barbie used to say she wasn't good at math. Why? So she could discourage women from showing aptitude. Palin is a Republican version of no-math Barbie. 

The Recession Brings Benefits to Young Workers

There a small benefits to be found in today's economic woe if anyone takes the time to look.  While it might be darn near impossible to find that job on wall street, young workers fresh out of college trying to meet their "American Dream" goals have a lot to be glad about.

1) The prime rate is down. This means that if you have any student loans, even private, they will be cheaper if you haven't consolidated.  Right now, my federal loan payments are nearly $200 dollars cheaper and my private loan payments are nearly $100 dollars cheaper.  And, I have time to sit and wait and see if the rate in fact goes down again. 

2) Homes are cheaper.  I have been looking at real estate and it looks a whole lot better than it did when I was about to graduate law school.  Condos that were going for over $200k suddenly are in the $180's. While I do feel bad about someone's lost value, I am glad that this means my 20% down payment will arrive faster, and I will be out of renting sooner than even I had planned.  

3) The evolution toward the outcome driven workplace is accelerated.  Face time is going away even faster. Because of high gas prices, employers are more likely to allow workers to work from home.  Which is good for young workers, who tend to be less into face time and more result driven.  This means that we can be with the ones we love AND meet the deadline.  Without the antiquated need for our employer to watch us work. 

4) Young workers haven't invested much yet, so they can play around with finding the right market mix for themselves to ride out the economic downturn.  Right now, one of the safest places for money is a savings account.  Many investments portfolios are tanking right now.  My 401K has been steadily losing money since the beginning of the year.  I would imagine that it is down by about 10% by now.  However, I can shift my focus.  Now I put less in the 401K and IRA, and put that money in my traditional savings accounts.  And I am young, so I have time to get it right. 

These are just a few things that I think are actually made better by the current economic climate.  While there is a lot of doom and gloom, benefits do exist for young workers who are trying to meet their personal, economic, and career goals. 

Falling Victim to Low Expectations

Growing up, my mother would read to us from the Bible every day. One verse admonishes believers to be the head and not the tail. For my mother, that meant that I had to be the best at everything. Mediocre was not rewarded. She also would read about Daniel to us on the morning before a big test. In case you don't know, God made him ten times smarter than everyone else. 

I continued this tradition in college. While everyone else was happy with an A, I was happy with a perfect score. Anything less had me really upset. 

I admit, I got a little off track in law school. They told me a B+ was good, so B+ it was. But, in the work world, I was assured over and over again in talks about the steep learning curve and up-or-out mentality of the law firm world that if I did not succeed, and kick butt while doing it, I would utterly fail.  Failure is a dirty word for me. First of all, I think that there is never an excuse for it. Clearly you did not try hard enough. If you are even at all competent you should be able to succeed at almost anything. Given my maxims, I thought I had found the perfect place for me.  

But I find that the work-world has all types of detours on the way to success, is littered with lower expectations for certain employees, and these are of a nature that even my mother's Bible quotes can't seem to fix. These expectations ultimately have nothing to do with your actual intelligence. Nothing to do with apt or ability.  They are perception-driven, even in an age where such philosophies have been proven wrong time and time again.  The first of these I have faced is gender.  The second is age or perceived experience.  And both can cause a worker to be seen through a distorted lens, and cause them to fall victim to another individuals low expectations. 

Male co-workers talk to female co-workers in either an authoritarian or coddling voice.  I really don't know what to do about this. It impacts how I am communicated with in a very negative way. It is different than how they talk to one another. I hear the bravado and shared confidence in their communication, with a little profanity thrown in for good measure. And I hear the kindness and pity in the communication to women. However, I have seen that if a woman imitates their communication, it is threatening. I am not saying all men. I am saying that I have observed this in a general way since my first job.  I once had an interview with a total jacka$$ in Ohio who was counsel for a hospital system right after my first year in law school. First of all, he had no intention of hiring me. But he wasted my time, didn't validate my parking, and talked down to me in a very soft voice.  Then informed me that he was certain that I was not ready to meet the challenges he faced as counsel for a hospital.  I have shadowed counsel for a hospital.   The guy I shadowed was great; I just didn't want to move back to Michigan.  Yes there are challenges, but for goodness sake, I was just going to be a summer intern.  And I had offered my services for FREE! I thought to myself, are you serious.  All I really wanted to do was curse him out. But I smiled, paid six dollars for parking, and promised myself that if I ever could, I would make sure he was fired. 

My second "working world" dilemma: older co-workers do one of two things to younger co-workers, both of which are inappropriate and reveal an unsubstantiated lack of confidence in the younger worker: they use "slang" to talk down to the younger co-worker or talk about the importance of "experience."  Slang is also used with the minority co-worker, but I won't get into that just yet.  But as for experience, the best part is, often the older worker has no idea how much experience the younger worker has. And people can appear younger than they actually are. A lack of experience does not mean you cannot do the job.  It just means that you might bring different tools to the job.  Young workers, and by young I mean those who are 20-30 and are in my generation, grew up at a time when lots of technology was developing and students had to learn to do things very quickly. While the current late highschool/early college student always had a computer with a gui interface, I remember my old green-screened MAC. I learned how to do everything that MAC could do in about a week, which is really good for an eight year old. Then I had to master the HewlettPackard PC my parents bought in high school. And master I did. Do you really think I can't learn your x,y, or z system in about a week? Try me!

Those are the two biggest obstacles I have faced since arriving in the working world at age 19.  I have learned that a lot of the maxims that worked in school, a place of objective measures and tests which I found very easy to navigate, are thrown to the wind with a place like corporate America where people desperately want their currency to be the only currency. Until there is an objective system to measure your value for your boss who thinks everyone should come up through the ranks like he did, or until there is an objective system for handing out projects for individuals who prefer co-workers who share the same chromosomes or look like them, these obstacles will need to be faced and compensated for.  

If I had a dollar for every time I have been told "here is something for you to do, and don't worry if you don't get it exactly right" when I have done the project in question before, and when my personal expectations are always so much higher, I would be able to buy myself a nice, used car.  When will people realize that the expectations you place on other can act as a motivation or disincentive, and cause an otherwise successful person to fail. 

Social Networking: The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread

Facebook is my ultimate past time. I constantly update my profile, status, and pictures to properly reflect my life. I think I am clever. I also think that I am making a name for myself.

Social networking sites have a lot of potential. Right now, it is becoming all the rage for companies to have a page on facebook. Several partners at my firm, who I wouldn't think to otherwise, have facebook pages. I wonder if it's marketing. But it is clever. People seem connected. And, as part of recruiting, I would review facebook pages of people I knew were being interviewed. Mostly to see if I knew them, to see if we had the same friends, and to see what kind of person they were. You can learn a lot from someone's pictures.

Because I know I have used them in the employment context, I never got to wild on social networking sites. I don't have pictures of myself upside down over a keg of beer. I don't have pictures of myself skinny dipping in the ocean. I do, however, have pictures of myself on vacation, with friends, and with whomever my current significant other happens to be. I think about what information I would like to share, and craft my profile to do just that. I want people to see me as a person, and get an accurate picture of who I am. If someone is turned off from me because of my linked in profile (my profile says I like to travel: who doesn't like to travel?), then they probably wouldn't like me anyway.

Even more than that, I use social networking sites to stay connected. It gives me something to talk about with friends I don't see that often, and allows me to share my life even with those I do. And I can't help but think that one day, these connections will come in handy, when I fulfill my life goals (more than just to be a pop-star/one hit wonder). Hopefully for every party involved.

Thoughts After a Long Weekend

The jury is still out on whether I like my job. I like what I do. I don't know if I like the other things that go with it. Like the fact that there are a lot of politics in the office. Or how I can't control my schedule, which makes it difficult to have a life. 

I promised myself this weekend that I would join a gym. Actually not any gym, but a gym a co-worker recommended that is supposed to be a really great and nice place. I guess I am looking for something to replace law school, a place with treadmills with individual flat screen tvs and a place that is so new and fresh the thought of taking a shower there doesn't make me break out in hives.  I succeeded in spending a lot of time with friends and getting some work done. I guess I will try the whole gym thing tomorrow.  Hopefully I can still afford a trainer.  A trainer is a complete must have. 

There is always tomorrow.