Uncouth PerspectivesNot on the rug, man.

It’s good. It’s yummy. It comes with a fortune cookie.

Or, does it? This evening my friend James and I went to a Chinese “restaurant” called “Wok & Grill,” located in Irvine, CA at Irvine Center Dr. and the middle of nowhere, just east of Jeffery. They are fairly new. They have fantastic food! Go there, try it, and tell them we sent you. It is in the middle of nowhere, after all.

So, we eat this awesome meal. And, we finish it with the infamous fortune cookie. Delicious and you get a present! What more could you ask for?!

An actual fortune?

Allow me to share with you the fortunes we received:

Isaac’s fortune:

You have great physical powers and an iron constitution.

Okay, first, this is a statement, not a fortune. Secondly, hehe, if this cookie had ANY idea who it was dealing with, it would know “physical” and “constitution” do not fall under my realm.

James’s fortune:

You will always gets what you want through your charm and personality.

Same thing. First, another statement. ALMOST a fortune. Secondly, no offense, but if you know James, you can have a chuckle at the mention of being a socializer.

Now, not that I expect for the fortune to come true, or even count on it to plan my day (the “Lotto” numbers on the back really help it’s credibility, too!), but I would still like a moment of entertainment, which experiences like this come as a sore disappointment. And it is becoming more and more common to find cheap and quick “fixes” to situations like these. If you are going to bother trying to entertain, do it because you love it, do it because you want to put all your energy–don’t cheapen it by doing it quick and sloppy.

However, I do not think this is the case for most people. When the average person goes job hunting, they encounter a series of other people whose idea of reality and their own self worth is skewed to no end. What I am talking about is people who feel the need to control everyone they come in contact with, and some of the greatest areas of control are with job hunters.

“Ah, you want to work for ME, eh? Well, I’ve got this series of really weird standards that you will have no idea about, and if you do something wrong, you are immediately disqualified.”

Yeah, that’s a way to get a winning team. Work on “disqualifying” people instead of trying to find people who will do the best job.

Allow me to share some of my experiences:

I’m driving, and I get a phone call from Joanne’s on my cell phone. I say “I’m driving right now, can I pull over and call you back in 5 minutes?” The caller responds with disdain, “Yeah, I hate that. I’ll call you back.” No call.

Bath and Body Works–SAME THING! Oh, all excited at the job. We’ll definitely call you! No call. When I call, of course voicemail (I never get a person; ALWAYS a voicemail!) I leave a message, no call back.

So, essentially, what I am saying is that make sure you look at how people treat you when you are trying to find a job. It’s a reflection of the company and it’s a reflection of how you will be treated. Yes, you are looking for employment. However, they are looking for employees. Without employees, that won’t have a company. Find out if that matters to them.

I’ve been asking myself that question a lot lately. Everywhere I look people are voicing their opinions nowadays. This is all fine and dandy. We should use our brains more often, but why can’t people have the decency to make sure they know what they’re talking about?

I have no problem saying “I don’t know.” I make a lot of educated guesses, but I try not to disguise them as truth. To be honest, there is a whole lot of stuff I don’t know. I have no idea how the human brain works. I know plant cells have something called an endoplasmic reticulum, but I have haven’t the foggiest about what it does. I could go on, but I’m sure my point is made. I don’t know a whole lot more than I do know.

Maybe some of you do know how the human brain works, and that’s just great. I’m sure there’s something I know that you do not, however. We all are well versed on some subjects and clueless about others, and we all sound smarter admitting that and saying, “I don’t know,” than we do being proven wrong.

Everyone says we live in an information age. Maybe people think they know more because of easy access to the Internet. Maybe people have always been this way, but now they’ve been given a much louder voice. Who know… certainly not me.

If you want to debate something, KNOW THE FACTS. If you want to express your opinions and want others to listen, listen to the opinions of others with the same open mind you want others to keep when listening to yours. Respect people’s beliefs and opinions, they’re entitled to them just as much as you are. Be prepared to walk away from a debate without there being a clear winner. If all parties held their ground without resorting to nastiness, then hopefully everyone learned something.

Then everyone wins.