Brian Schell’s Home

Brian Schell’s Home

updates from your favorite web-author.

 

News

Let’s see… what is new… hmmm.  Have I mentioned that I got a job?

For the most part, I have been keeping busy writing for my blogs, recording audio shows for my various podcasts, and reading lots of books for reviews. That’s a lot of fun, but the pay isn’t exactly impressive. It’s enough to get by, but having more to pay on the student loans would be nice.  So I’ve been keeping an eye on Careerbuilder.com and Monster.com for things that look interesting, and once in a blue moon I have sent in a resume.

So on Sunday evening, I saw one for an “English Instructor” at a nearby college and sent in a resume. The very next day I got a call for an interview. The interviewer offered me the job on the spot (conditional to passing a drug test and background check of course).  It all happened very quickly.  It looks like a nice school, a small college located in an old elementary school. The college is growing and adding new classes quickly right now, probably due to the economy, and it appears that there are many opportunities there due to the accelerated growth.

It’s a part-time position for now, but from the sound of things, that could change fairly quickly.  During the interview, I was told that I would be teaching two Business English courses, but I got a call yesterday telling me that one of them had been canceled for lack of enrollment in that time slot.

During that call, they also asked if I wanted to teach a class on QuickBooks. I hated to say no, but the accounting I did back when I owned a store was strictly the kind done on a spreadsheet; I don’t know the first thing about QuickBooks.  I’m not saying that I’m unwilling to learn a topic this week in order to teach it next week, but I’m so behind-the-curve on Quickbooks that a week’s head start probably wouldn’t help much. I don’t think I impressed him too much by saying I didn’t think I could do it, but it’s better to be honest about these things than have them find out later.  My concern is that now they won’t ask me to teach any computer topics in the future, even though there are many computer topics that I could handle easily.  Still, I’m being hired for my English degree & experience, not my computer background.

They are looking for another class for me, possibly Business Communications 2.  Their system is set up so that some classes start in the middle of the term, so whatever I start out with right now, they could add more classes as early as six weeks from now.  The bottom line is that my schedule is still in flux, so I can’t say much on exactly what I’ll be doing yet. I still need to attend a couple of new teacher orientation meetings next week, and then actual classes will start the week after that.  Depending on class availability, when all is said and done I might end up teaching only a single class at the beginning of April, but I think they really want me to have at least two or three. Time will tell!

Overall, it sounds like it will be fun. It’s a small school and only a few classes to start, which is exactly what I am looking for.  I want to do this full-time, but not for the first term or two. I haven’t taught any classes in over a year, and I want to be able to put in whatever extra time that may be needed on the first few terms.  I’m really looking forward to it!

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New Old Stuff

arcanetalesOK, last time I mentioned that I had some new plans in store for Arcane Tales, and I went ahead and got started with that. The format of the show (or podcast) is now all old-time radio programs. That’s a whole lot more fun that people listening to me read a story aloud.

I’m not old enough to remember the majority of old-time radio, but I do remember that I used to stay up too late on school nights to catch “CBS Radio Mystery Theater” in the 70’s. Those were fun shows, and there isn’t anything like it anymore. Yes, there are people putting out podcasts of modern, newly written fiction, but it’s not the same.

Last week, the first week of the change, I put on Mystery Theater, X Minus One, The Whistler, Dragnet, Tarzan, and Haunted Hour.  That’s one new show every day, and there’s no chance of ever running out of old shows.  I expect for the most part, next week will be new episodes of the same programs, as I hope to get some kind of regular schedule going. I want to leave at least two evenings open for variety or “pot luck” shows that I can vary every week or put on one-of-a-kind shows.

Promotionally, I haven’t really done much with this yet, as I was waiting for listener feedback. Take a listen and let me know what you think.

I did sign up for several new Twitter accounts. If you want to follow me on various accounts, here they are:

http://www.twitter.com/BrianSchell

http://www.twitter.com/TaoOfTheDay

http://www.twitter.com/ArcaneTales

http://www.twitter.com/DailyBuddhism

http://www.twitter.com/ReplayMedia

http://www.twitter.com/DailyReligious

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Whatever Happened To February?

I don’t know where February went, but I must’ve been busy, since there weren’t any posts the entire month!

So what have I been up to?

I’ve been converting one of my sites, Taooftheday.com over to Joomla, and that’s been a lot of work. I probably could have done some kind of automated importing of the old material to the new site, but I wanted it done right this time. Over the couple of years the site has been running, little mistakes have crept in here and there. A date wrong here, a batch of tags/keywords skipped there, and so forth. Not this time; the site is flawless. At least for now, give me time for a whole new set of problems to come up!

Did you even notice that when you aren’t doing anything, you can’t seem to come up with anything especially interesting to do, but once you get knee-deep in the middle of something, you get three hot new ideas? That’s the way this past week has been. Halfway through the Tao/Joomla conversion, I came up with a really neat idea of something to do with the Arcane Tales site. It relates to something I did years and years ago when I designed an online radio station. I’m not going to spill the beans right now, but it won’t take too long to implement.

My latest e-book is getting raves from readers. It’s been out about a month, called “Buddhist Quick Start Guide” available HERE for $4.95.  It compiles together all the foundational stuff that everyone needs to know on the subject. I planned it out as a starting point for new subscribers and readers to the Daily Buddhism site, but it’s a good stand-alone introduction to the philosophy of Buddhism as well.

And that’s where things stand right now. I need to get the Tao site finished up. Actually, it is finished, but there’s always something that turns up with a conversion that massive. Within a few days, I’ll start on the new Arcane Tales project. I’ve got another e-book project in mind, but it may be a few weeks before I even think about getting started on that.

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Update

Not too much really going this month, hence the lack of blog posts.  I’ve been working on growing my various blogs as well as building up my Twitter and Facebook presences, but otherwise, not much major is going on.  I was sick for about a week, and had an ear infection that’s still hanging on after two weeks, so I have been taking it a little easy.

I have a couple of larger writing projects in the works, which are keeping me busy. With the snowstorms we had last week, I haven’t gotten out of the house much, so I’m looking forward to “escaping” into the real world when it melts a bit.

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Genesis of a Blog

I was on Twitter the other night, and for some reason, out of the blue, @tdukes sent me the Tweet:

@tdukes: Speaking of dhana/good works I thought I would pass this along. http://tinyurl.com/8xrcnq

@DailyBuddhism That is just so wrong. So much unnecessary suffering. Hundreds of children living in a garbage dump?

@tdukes: So many live with so little, yet somehow find life, love and joy. This guy is there with others practicing bodhichitta

@DailyBuddhism: There are many like him helping in small ways all over the world. We need more people like that. We need easier ways to volunteer.

@tdukes: yes… we do

And that was the end of that discussion.  Not much really in itself.

Not too long afterwards, I came across the blog post, “Why Your Blog Should Do Community Service Work” at http://www.problogger.net

I had been thinking along those same lines for a few weeks, that I should be using my blogs to DO something, and not just teach.  I know my blogs, especially the Daily Buddhism, have been a real help to some people. Still, that’s a one-at-a-time approach, where I’d like to be doing something on a bigger scale.

How?  I’m poorer than poor, so anything involving money is out of the question. One thing I DO have is a large number of readers and listeners. Then, on New Year’s Day, while trying to make some kind of New Year resolution or plan, it hit me: Use my blogging skills and listener/reader base to do some good for people who are doing good.  I can “give” publicity to those who need it, like the man helping the garbage-dump children that @tdukes told me about.

So here’s my latest creation; http://herobulletin.com where you can help the heroes.

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