"Yeah I go to Work, True Winner"

Well, I don’t really like to dwell upon bad experiences but the worst job I ever had, and this is no reflection of the company, as whole or its practices was at working at Goodwill.  The thing primary problem I had with the place was that it made me sick. Even though the money was good (questionable?), $11.00 an hour /32 hours a week before taxes, the work was laboriously boring and they had us do everything: the first day I was there, they had me doing security. We were always cleaning up after messy customers, they called it recovery. I was occasionally a fitting room attendant apparently this was supposed to mitigate theft, it didn’t.  The coworkers were the oddest assortment of people, ever, and the customers . . . well, some of them were crack heads, literally I’m not exaggerating or being facetious.

The best job I’ve ever had was a job that wasn’t mine. I had recently reconnected with a friend of mine who worked at a Skullcandy kiosk in the mall that sold earphones. It was just cool; we would just hang out, listen to great music, and joke around all the time and every now and then, sell headphones. His sales were consistently the highest. Since I wasn’t working at the time and all I was doing was hanging out all the time anyways it win-win. We had previously worked for the same company, and since he knew I could sell, I would field some of the questions when he had too many customers. Eventually I was, unofficially, selling headphone as well, I just couldn’t operate the cash register or collect the commission. But, he usually bought lunch so it even out, and this kept my sales skills strong. Good Times.

Afterward: An Epilogue to Freakonomics

Freakonomics is an entertaining book about the statistics of life. It challenges you to rethink how seemingly unrelated events and occurrences can actually, unknowingly have a huge effect on one another. The chapters that I liked the most and think inspired the greatest conversation, was chapter 4: why do drugs dealers still live at home, and chapter 6: A Roshawnda by any other name. What I found particularly interesting, was how the economic infrastructure of a drug dealer hierarchy almost directly mirrored how a successful legitimate business operates. Also, how much, or more accurately, how “less” the people that actually sell the drugs are paid, about $3.30 an hour. One of the remark that circled or discussion was “Man, this drug game ain’t workin’ out! I gotta go get me a real job, so I can afford to sell drugs again”. The discussions that resulted from A Roshawnda by any other name, was just as lively. We talked about the perceptions associated with a person’s character, their parents, and their socioeconomic background, all based upon their name.

The way that Freakonomics was written was a little hit and miss at times but, overall they were able to get their points across

Reading Freakonomics

There usually a certain level of disdain that I hold for all assigned books that I read even if I like it and "Freakomonics" has definitely been a challenging book to read. Not in its content or vocabulary; but in the ideas, augments an oddball corollaries that it presents that are constantly questioning how I think about the world I live in. Typically when get a book I’m done reading within a week. I have actually had to go out of my own way to make sure I don’t read past what it required, by having a secondary book to read.  I honestly haven’t utilized any elements of active reading aside for m just making mental note if things that I thought were interesting so that I could bring them up in discussion at later time.

            As far as advice goes, unfortunately, I don’t think I in the position to give any: I always remember most of what I read, I read while listening to really loud music and I read really fast (seriously, 30 plus pages in less than an hour, it’s a problem). The only advice I could give, if any, is that for reading for retention is  like exercising a muscle, the more you do it, the betterat it you will become.