rob’s place

Now this looks like the site for me
So everybody just follow me
‘Cause we need a little controversy
It feels so empty without me

Just wanted you to know that I’ve got a special July 4th post scheduled to post just after midnight. I did a little research and wrote it up this morning. Wanted to let you so you can check it out Friday. I’m proud of it!

Are you on LinkedIN? I posted on my business blog how to Start Your Social Media with LinkedIN | Orangejack LLC

Perhaps you’ve heard about Social Media but haven’t signed up to participate on any of the sites yet thinking they are all for kids with too much time on their hands. Well let me share with you one of the more useful websites you can start with for your entry into social media: LinkedIN.

LinkedIN is a professional network. It’s like a networking event you attend but this is all online.

I encourage you to create an account and play around.  Feel free to invite me to be one of your connections by requesting from my LinkedIN profile.

You can throw away pretty much anything in the world except for a trashcan.

We have 3 plastic trashcans that are all messed up from years of abuse. Some have holes in the bottom good for leaky bags. Some lost their handles from raccoons ambushing the cans and knocking them over. Some of the tops don’t fit anymore.

I’ve left these things at the street over and over to be picked up on trash day but they always give them back. I wouldn’t mind recycling them but those guys won’t pick them up since they don’t fit in the bins we leave at the street.

I guess I have to take them to the dump or a trashcan behind a store or something. I just never thought about how it’s not that easy to throw away a trashcan.

The place I grew up made #4.
Many places I would move to made the list, including #10.
The place I currently live didn’t make the list.  Longing much?

Real Estate and Home Buying Site- Relocate-America’s™ 2008 Top 100 Places to Live

Throughout the year, we accept nominations for cities & towns throughout the country to be considered as a “great place to live”. The nominating parties must include their own reasons why they feel their city should make the list. The nominations, along with key data regarding education, environmental greenworthiness, economic opportunity, parks & recreation choices and real estate & home ownership options are reviewed, rated & judged by our editorial team. We list the TOP 100 places to live and rank the TOP 10 on consistency and number of nominations received.

Geeze.  I almost forgot to tell you my desktop was published:

Three Cool Desktops from MakeUseOf Readers | MakeUseOf.com

Of course I’ve changed it a bit since then.  Oh well.  But cool, eh?

Thanks, Marta, for the shout out in the Gnooze last week.

Do you watch the Gnooze? The G is silent.

Do you remember that I’ve been saying I have a lot of things going on and more announcements to make? Well today I have a big one that we’re very excited about. Any yes, today is April 1, but this isn’t a joke.

Patricia and I have opened up our own small business called Orangejack LLC. Today is Orangejack LLC’s Grand Opening.

Right now we are focusing our service to Internet Strategy, Internet Consulting, Internet Marketing, and Internet Training.

So stop by the newly redesigned (and continually tweaked) orangejack.com today!

We are open for business.

I’ve been really busy lately and have not been able to post here as much as I’ve wanted. One reason is that I’ve spent a lot of the last few weeks building up my new site 170spoons.com.

I’ve tried to design the site and write it for people who feel a bit intimidated by their computer or the web. I want to break down the barriers that people have to taking full advantage of technology.

Have you been there yet? After two weeks, we’re hovering in the 50-60 subscription rate. If you’re not subscribed to it I encourage you subscribe.

I also ask if you like it, please share it with your friends and on social networking sites.

I’d love to see us hit triple-digit subscriptions within a week. There’s over 100 subscribed here, so I know the rob’s place posse can make it happen!

But most of all, I really hope that site is useful. Let me know what you think.

I had my first day working for Disney on Saturday. It was really just orientation so it was an all-day class with about 100 other new employees. It was a long day, but it wasn’t bad. The quick breakdown is that I’ve been assigned to the one of the PhotoPass Photographers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I should get about 16 hours a week on Fridays and Saturdays. I start Saturday with my training.

I decided to put that my home town is Simpsonville, SC instead of Orlando. They gave me the choice to put where I currently live, where I grew up, or where I consider home. I decided Simpsonville is a much more interesting place to have on my nametag than Orlando. Maybe that decision alone will lead to a few conversations I never would have had before.

Now I thought you’d be interested in a few observations I made from Orientation:

• We are all CAST members. It’s about a show, not a job.
• Disney has a certain look they want their cast members to adhere to. For example, I have to take my earring out. But also at orientation, they had someone checking people. I heard one cast member say to one of the new guys that his sideburns were too long and his options were to come back when he shaved them, or Disney would give him a razor to take care of it right now. They’re serious about this!
• Speaking of the Disney look, did you know men cast members couldn’t have any facial hair until the year 2000?
• Oh, my mistake. It wasn’t orientation. It was “Disney Traditions”. My apologies.
• Our common goal is to create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages everywhere!
• At Disney, we define success as Faith + Trust + Pixie Dust. We all must find our Pixie Dust.
• When I got my name tag, they sprinkled pixie dust on my head.
• I never knew the story of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit until Saturday. Interesting story. The short version is Walt Disney was successful with Oswald but contracts took Oswald away from Disney. On the train back from New York to LA, Walt drew a mouse that looked like the rabbit. Walt’s wife named him Mickey.
• I’m kidding about getting sprinkled with pixie dust.
• One thing that was fun on the first day was I kept sizing everyone up as if they were going to be a Disney character. Like one girl I saw would make a nice princess. Another girl I saw would make a great evil witch. And there was a guy who could play a prince. I’m sure none of them will play those roles, but it was a fun mental exercise when nothing was going on.
• I am less than 2 months older than The Walt Disney World Resort. It opened Oct 1, 1971.
• There was a guy in our class who is 69. He said he’s been to Disney almost every year of his life and when he retired he wanted to work there. He’s now a custodian and he’s thrilled!

Did you know that I share items from time to time that were not authored by me? Shocking but true.

Well, I now have all my shared items all in one place at orangejack shares.

I’m sharing favorite blog posts from around the blogowebs from Google Shared items, my status updates/announcements from Twitter, some great articles from Digg, my photos from Flickr, and saved websites from del.icio.us — all in one place!

Or get the RSS feed.

What do you share?

Yesterday morning I entered into unemployment.

Yesterday afternoon I did my part in lowering the unemployment rate. I’m going to be a part-time Disney Photopass Photographer.

I go to orientation all day on Saturday and should be working at least 2, 8-hour blocks on Fridays and Saturdays.

Meanwhile I still have a few interviews this week for full-time employment.

And I’ve got another trick up my sleeve. I’ll tell you about that one later.