In my former life, I worked retail management for numerous companies, and it's not that that I job jumped, I'm a fix it guy. My background is music and video. I started out in Atlanta, where I worked at the very first video store to open in the city. I would go in, help them get set up, get their inventory in order, mainly work out any bugs that would arise. Now keep in mind, this was before the computer age, so all rentals and inventory had to be done manually, for those of you who don't know what manually is, that means, written on paper.. ='s major headaches. Now you may ask, how did you train for such a job, I didn't, I bs'd my way in, because I'm a walking encyclopedia of music and movie knowledge. Once I had that store under my belt, I was off and running.
I went on to open up numerous stores, both music and movies, this was the time of the independent stores, so business was very good. Word apparently got around, because then I started getting calls from the music chains. I would go in, clean up their inventory issues, train folks, place orders...etc.
Now what this did, it kept me on the road quite a bit, but it allowed to me to also pursue a career in music. Never hit the big time, but played steadily in numerous bands, studio work, commercials, voice work for around 20 years. I even did a stint as a gunfighter at Six Flags over Georgia for a year, which was a blast.
Time goes on, blah, blah, blah......I get a call one day from Best Buy, they're expanding like wildfire and are looking for someone to head up their California and Southern state regions in the music depts. Of course by now we call it Media, since it consist of music, dvd, computer software and whatever offbeat category they can think to dump on the dept. I go in, start doing my thing, make the usual suggestions for improvement. I haven't even been there a month and they want me to open a box, meaning that you go in, hire 175 people, do everything from fixture construction, signage placement, stock inventory and so forth. You literally take it off the truck(21 semi's to be exact) and place it where needed.
Now what I haven't told you is that I have a disability, a bad hip from birth that causes me to walk with a limp, no biggie, I just get tired easily some days and we're not talking just a hip replacement, we're talking some major surgery if I ever have it corrected(like a new leg)....
So I worked there for a year, then one day, I just couldn't take it anymore, I'm talking major, not gonna get over it, no matter how long of a vacation I get, burnout.
I went home, sold all my stocks and moved back to Tennessee, where my parents had retired to. Looked around for a couple of years for work in my field, only to find out there wasn't anything but factory and farming. Gathered up all my information, my job research, doctors files and went down and applied for my disability. The only question ask, was why did I wait so long? Answer, pride.
So now what do I do? I karaoke.
But that's not all, jeeze, there's no way you could ever make anything out of it in my area other than a weekend gig.
But I also do a lot of volunteer work. When I took my disability, I did it with a great amount of reluctance and guilt. I know veterans who are still waiting for their benefits and they fought wars, became wounded and the govt. still wont do the right thing. So I do volunteer work as a way of giving back to the community. I'm on the board of directors at the local Senior Center. I read to the kids at the local Headstart and library when time allows. I'm an election officer in my county. I do motorcycle fund raisers for charities. I work with Rolling Thunder and the United States Citizens Assisting Vets(USCAV), both are motorcycle groups who work to help veterans with benefits and the yearly Run for the Wall ride to D.C. and help keep the citizens aware of how much they owe to our vets.
So that's about it, other than that, spend way too much time on this message board and in front of this computer.
And here all this time, you folks thought I was just a biker, Karaoke newbie with a mouth like a truck driver. Well yeah, that's true too, but hey we can't all be perfect.
Anyways, sorry to ramble on like this, but just kinda felt like this was an opportunity, to let you folks know a bit more about me. And I guess I could've put all this under my Newbie, tell us a bit about yourself thread, but oh well, too late for that.
Anyways, I'm really glad to be here, you folks have been great. Thanks for taking the time to make me feel at home and for reading my latest novel
James
Maninblack
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