First press release

My first press release is below. I sent it out this morning to various newspapers in an effort to get people to audition for an upcoming performance. Now I've just added to my job skills, and here's the proof:

Auditions are being held Jan. 30 for "Hansel & Gretel's House of Rock," an original show by Moving Arts Dance in Concord.

Created and directed by Terrin McGee Kelly, the production will be a chance to build your resume by performing with a professional company. The show will include a variety of phantasmal characters in a dark and magical forest. It will be set to a variety of music, including rock and roll, and soft metal, and will be a treat for all ages. A variety of parts are available for children, teens and adults, from non-dance roles through professional dance roles.

Participants should wear clothes that are easy to move in and show your body, bare feet and hair back with no bangs (no baggy clothes, please). Dancers should arrive warmed up and ready to learn choreography, and arrive on the floor ready to go 15 minutes before their start time. Start times vary by age and experience: 4 p.m. for children ages 5-8; 5 p.m. for children ages 9-12; 5 p.m. for age 13 to adult who are beginner dancers and character actors; and 6 p.m. for others age 13 to adult.

A $5 audition fee is required. If cast in the show, a participation fee will be required to cover costs related to rehearsals, costuming and performances. Fundraisers will be available to students to help cover their fee.

The Moving Arts Dance Theater is at 1281-C Franquette Ave., Concord. Go online to www.movingartsdance.org or call 925-825-8399 for more information. Moving Arts Dance is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable arts organization. Donations are tax-deductible.

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Rickey Henderson

I continue writing for RedwoodAge.com, and today I wrote and blogged about Rickey Henderson on RedwoodAge.com and his election to the baseball Hall of Fame. I wrote about how Henderson is an iconic baseball player for many Baby Boomers, and was my favorite baseball player growing up.

The work I do for RedwoodAge.com is a volunteer job that will hopefully pay off some day with stock options if the Web site takes off. Until then, I work for the site for free. It's a way to get some clips and keep my hand in writing, although I'm doing plenty of writing for WalletPop.com also.

I think everyone should find some volunteer work that they enjoy, and while my volunteering isn't for a non-profit in the true sense of the word, it's an area I'm interested in: Baby Boomers. One hope is that the volunteer work will lead to paying work. I did some volunteer work in November for a Bay Area Congressman being re-elected, and I'm now trying to get a job with a state senator. I think that experience helped me land an interview there, and my experience and training in journalism can only help.

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1,000 profile views

My profiles view are now at 1,000 and counting! Thanks everyone for helping UnemployedDad hit this milestone. I haven't converted it to page views, or looked that up, but 1,000 profile views must mean something, right? And that's in less than four months of publishing (start date of Sept. 11, 2008, the evening after someone in an informational interview told me to start writing for the Web if I wanted to get a job writing or editing for the Internet).

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Return calls, now on AOL

I've written about not getting calls returned from employers in your job search, and I've expanded on it in this WalletPop.com post I wrote today for this personal finance web site run by AOL. It's about how to get a callback for a job interview.

Along with getting paid by AOL, I'm trying to increase and improve my workload for them by writing about some of the issues in this blog, mainly being unemployed and looking for work. That's what this blog led to, I'm happy to report, so it's time to start writing more about those issues for that audience.

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Ad whore

OK, I've become an ad whore. I've been a capitalist from the start, and with Google's AdSense program running like mad on this blog, I thought it was time to add some more Amazon.com ads to see if they can help an unemployed man get some cash.

I've tried to make them a little interesting. I read books (or at least I want to when not with the kid or writing for someone else for a few dimes), so the banner ad on top features books. The ad on the bottom and the "cloud" ad on the right side feature products based on what's written on this page. I expect a book about whores to be on sale here sometime soon. Go ahead, buy.

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Unsuitable for children

A warning: Some of this post may not be suitable for children.

Fuckyoupenguin is now one of my favorite blogs to read. Not so much for what it's about or the content, (The subhead is: "A blog where I tell cute animals what's what") but because of the way it's written. Very funny. It even has a tipline: "Do you know an animal that needs a good talking to?"

I bring this up here because it has 1,394 followers and could be a potential goldmine. Call me a sellout, but I'm looking to try to make a little cash from this blog if possible, and try to do that by providing insight into the world of an unemployed dad and attract readers and thus advertisers. I have seven followers, who I'm all thankful for, and get a fair amount of page hits. But if I had 1,394 followers, I think I'd be getting mass advertising to get some cash money.

As I've noted in a few recent posts, I'm looking to expand this blog with more useful content and possibly start another blog on a yet-to-be-named subject in an attempt at bringing people to it. I've just got to figure out what my passion is and go from there. I enjoy writing, so I'm trying to determine how to work that in. One idea is a site devoted to storytelling. We'll see what develops.

In the meantime, read http://fuckyoupenguin.blogspot.com/ and find out why anyone would cuss out a prarie dog.

Blogging for pay

Exactly two months after I started this blog, it has led to a paid job blogging for an AOL web site about personal finance.

It's called Walletpop.com and it's devoted to personal finance. I'll continue writing about my job hunt and how it affects my daughter, but I'll be expanding to layoffs, budgets and other areas of personal finance. My blog entries can be found here:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/bloggers/aaron-crowe/

This blog, http://www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com/ will continue, but the other will take precedence since it pays. It all adds up to another part-time job for me (five total now), but I continue looking for full-time work with benefits. And to think, just two months ago I was a blogger hoping this would lead to a job.

Scream of joy

"Daaaady," came the yell that in the second that it screams out of her mouth can denote fear that something terrible just happened, but in this case didn't. "I just made a 'W.'"

Emma was at a table in the living room, trying to write her friend's name on a piece of paper, while I was in the kitchen making dinner tonight. In the hundredth of a second when I heard her yell my name, my mind raced that something had gone wrong. It was nothing. She had written a letter of the alphabet and was thrilled to share the news. So was I. I went over and congratulated her, kissed her on the head and went back to cooking.

It's moments like those, taking only a few seconds, that make me glad I'm home with my daughter, even if I don't have a job. Granted, the same thing would have likely happened if I returned home from a full-time job, but who knows? But while making dinner for the two of us, because the sole bread-winner is away at work for the night, I was thinking how difficult it is to find a job while taking care of a 4-year-old. Finding a job is supposed to be a 40-hour-a-week job, and lately I haven't been close to that many hours. Everyone has commitments that take away from the job search, but for me, giving my daughter my full attention limits the job hunt. For example, we went to the park, went to the store, then home to wash the car and play some more before making dinner, then her bath, Sesame Street, more playing and story reading before off to bed. My mornings are somewhat free, but I'm using much of that time networking, volunteering or working at my part-time job. Where is the time?

I could prop Emma in front of the TV for a few hours and then go online and work on my resume, apply for jobs, make calls, etc., but I'd feel bad about that. So I'm doing what I can to remind myself to enjoy this time with her and make the best of the time we have together. She's only 4 once, and unemployment won't last into her teens.

Writing for the Web

One of the top goals of this blog is to show that I can write for the Web. And that includes learning how to write for the Internet. During one of the many informational interviews I've done during the past few months, someone suggested I start learning how to write for the Web since it was so different than writing for newspapers.

Writing is writing, I thought. If I can write and edit concise stories for newspapers that are full of facts and analysis, I surely can do that online. It turns out to be much more than that, and I'm just starting to learn what more it entails. Along with short sentences and stories that are about half the size of a newspaper story, they should include links, video, photos, etc. Other than that, I couldn't get much of an answer out of my informational interview friend. I'm still learning.

Some job descriptions have asked for experience in Search Engine Optimization, which I'm still trying to get a handle on. It has something to do with keyword searches and how best to get search engines to find the Web page I'm writing for. One thing I was told to do was to search "How to write for the Internet," which turned up only 25 million searches, such as this. This could take years. Decades. What I'm looking for is either a class on this topic, or better, someone who does this every day and can explain it to me a lot easier and faster. I don't necessarily want to learn HTML or how to write computer coding, just some tips that could help me get a job writing for the Internet. Suggestions? Please e-mail me.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

A former co-worker this week kindly wrote in an e-mail to me that from reading this blog, it looks like I may "make my fate" through the volunteer work I'm doing. As you may recall, I'm volunteering my writing and associated journalism skills to Jerry McNerney's re-election campaign for Congress. It has only been a few weeks, but I've been busy writing, and this week I did research on campaign sign restrictions in the various cities and counties in McNerney's 11th Congressional District. I'll detail the rundown, in case anyone's interested, on lawn sign regulations in a minute.

One thing I hope to show during this volunteer stint is how my journalism skills can transfer. They include not just writing and editing, but researching, analytical skills, taking complex issues and making them easy to understand, handling multiple projects on deadline, and other skills journalists have. I still believe that they're valued skills in this economy and that someone will pay me for them.

As for the lawn signs, I created a spreadsheet of maximum sign size, where they can go, where to call to complain about an illegal campaign sign, etc. While jurisdictions vary on size and how long they can stay up, they all include the basic common sense of not putting signs on public property or where they can block a driver's view. Other than that, some cities are picky about size and some allow any size sign to go up. It's a bit of an insight into how cities are run, whether they're full or red tape and limits, or free-wheeling and open.

Part-timing it

Like that old "Saturday Night Live" skit about a Jamaican family where everybody has at least five jobs, I'm hoping to get somewhere near that until I find a full-time position. I need at least a few part-time jobs to keep money coming in while my unemployment checks continue to arrive for awhile longer, and definitely after the unemployment money stops coming. And I hope these part-time jobs, along with volunteering, can lead to full-time work. Even when I do find full-time employment, some of the part-time work I'm doing may continue if time allows.

The first part-time job I found was with United Reporting. It's easy work and interesting. I get arrest logs from local police departments and fax them to United Reporting's office in Sacramento. It's only about 5-10 hours per week, but it's a start.

I've also blogged about writing biographies for the elderly, or anyone who wants to have their life story down on paper to pass along to their family. I'm still waiting for my first contract for that side job, and exploring ways to get the word out on it.

I'm also trying to find a way to blog/report on some issue and get paid for it, but so far no takers. My freelance writing hasn't taken off yet either, and I'm trying to promote that as much as I can. Ghostwriting for bloggers is also an option I'm exploring.

And lastly, I'm doing freelance writing/reporting for city newsletters. More on that later.

Who knows, I may be on the side of the road picking up aluminum cans by Christmas.

And just for the heck of it, since I'm trying to learn new job skills through blogging, I've posted one of the few videos I have online. Back when I was on paternity leave and had some spare time to put such things together...so here's some 40 seconds of Emma at about 6 months old.