I regularly read a blog called Hope to Prosper. The author, Bret, often addresses personal finance issues not covered by others. Just as often, he gives an old topic new life with a thoughtful post that looks at things from a new angle.

This week, illustrating how a career can become a non-starter, Bret wrote about dead end jobs and what you can do to avoid them. Among other things, he says:

Not everyone aspires to be wealthy or to rise to the top of the corporate world.  But, to work so hard, get paid so little and have no opportunity for advancement is a definite fail.  I’m not talking about someone choosing a low-paying profession because it’s their passion and they enjoy it.  I’m talking about being stuck in a dead-end job because they never made the effort to pursue a career.

Well played. No one wants to think of themselves as being on the road to nowhere. The alternatives Bret proposes are good, but I’d like to point something out.

There’s no such thing as a dead-end job. Every company, from the 2-person ditch-digging service to Wal-Mart, either has leadership positions that will eventually need to be filled, or has the potential to expand if managed right. Working your way up from gas station clerk to shift manager to regional manager may not be glamorous, but it is realistic.

So why does it happen so rarely? The problem is, if you come into a job and label it “temporary” or “dead-end”, you’ve lost your own mental battle before you’ve ever put your dukes up. This is just a summer gig or some emergency cash until something better comes along; why bother doing anything above the minimum?

The truth is that it doesn’t take much effort to glide by. Just show up on time, accomplish in general what is asked of you, and tolerate your customers. Some people may even get promoted this way.

If most people making minimum wage see their jobs this way, is it very hard to do a little more? In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. If you always come in a bit early, always take a little bit of initiative, always ask where you can be useful outside of your barebones job description, it’s easy to set yourself apart from co-workers who are just going through the motions.

Does this mean working your way up in this manner is your ideal path? Maybe not, and Hope to Prosper’s post can give you some great ideas for alternatives, but in the end it’s only a dead end if you put the transmission in “Park”.

There was no way I could resist this one. A text message making the rounds in Nigeria is spreading the rumor that picking up phone calls from the number 09141 has resulted in anywhere from 7 to 10 fatalities. Read More »

My penchant for browsing strange sites like the U.S. Patent Office often leaves me scratching my head as I try to figure out what something does. As a result, I often figure out with what I think would be a good use for an item, only to realize that I’m an idiot.

Let me share some of these inventions and see if you agree with my guesses. Click on the images to go to the patent pages. Be sure to leave your own ideas in the comments.

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In a world of guerilla marketing and over-the-top campaigns to get products noticed, it’s easy to forget that we aren’t the first generation to make advertising immersive. This is a story of one campaign, largely forgotten by history, that stands unparalleled in terms of “taking you there.”

In the winter of 1942, allied governments were rallying their populations to buy war bonds. Victory over the Axis was far from clear-cut, and the Western world was experiencing a fear we could compare to the days and weeks after September 11th.

It was in this context that the Canadian city of Winnipeg experienced a Nazi invasion. On the morning of February 19th, 1942, 3500 Canadian soldiers were defeated by an attacking German force to the sound of air raid sirens and enemy fighters screaming through the skies.

The attack started before 6AM with patrols into the city. By 9:30AM city officials were arrested. The police chief happened to be on a break and evaded capture. Flags were replaced with swastikas and a German tank was driven through downtown Winnipeg.

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A fire that started on June 28th as a result of a lightning strike on the western edge of Hinesville, GA, has flared up again, sending an imposing column of smoke up over the town. I took a drive down highway 196 to see the extent of the damage.

Residents of nearby mobile home parks told me that county sheriff’s deputies have warned them they might have to evacuate. Some could be seen in the distance dousing fences and rooflines with water in the hopes of forestalling the flames while a private plane circled overhead observing the scene. This is the approximate location of the fire.

Here are some photos I took from areas surrounding the fire.

A pillar of smoke visible from GA Highway 196 Westbound (Hinesville, GA)

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