Karaoke Forums

I have an English Degree also and actually use it. I write marketing copy and do corporate communications for a uber-corporation that does 85% of the country's loan processing (credit and debit cards, checks, mortgages, car loans, etc.). My most notable work is that I write a good portion of the advertisements you get in your credit card statements and teh marketing material at the bank branch if you bank with a local bank or credit union (the national banks do that kinda stuff themselves.)

I have also been a high school English teacher and it sucked major behind. I even taught an accelerated 11th grade composition class and 50% of those kids couldn't grasp basic grammar. And I won't even start with the 9th grade reading class they made me teach. Yes, that's right, a READING class for 15 year olds that couldn't even read. And my school of 950 students had 4 sections of 30 students that needed to take this class!!! Florida is consistently around about #15 overall in the nation in education, and about 15% of those students graduate barely knowing how to read!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Are you the one I would talk to about getting my bank and credit card companies to stop sending me all that stuff you write?  I think it's great and you're talented and all and I wish you the best of luck.  But our local landfill is filling up pretty fast and it seems to be your company's fault.  Maybe they could take it easy on me and sent that stuff to someone else instead.  That way you could keep your job and we'd both be happy.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

....well most of the stuff you receive comes from national banks and local and national lenders, which we are not affiliated with, but we do send our share of direct mail (though it is contracted out to a company called econoprint out of Madison, WI).

You also should know that about 90% of the junk mail you recieve is actually solicited mail, meaning that somehow, somewhere or another you signed up for a contest, entered a drawing, purchased a product online and signed one of those "I accept and understand" kinda things, downloaded free software, etc.. With very few exceptions, you can not appear on a direct mail list unless you actually agree to it (read the fine print of anything you sign or agree to, it's in there!!).

HOWEVER, there is a national consumer organization called the Mail Preference Service that offers a free service to help reduce direct marketing mailings. They supposedly can cut your junk mail by about 75%. You just write them a letter and they take care of getting you off of all of the lists you somehow agreed to be on for the next 5 years. Google it and I'm sure you can find it!! They offer the same service for e-mails, though they can only again take care of solicited e-mails and the majority of e-mail junk is unsolicited, since the laws are not in place to really regulate that very well. Good luck!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Here is the link for the site I referred to:

http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offmailinglist

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C Mc
KJ, FL

On the internet, the largest problem is that people tend to type 'conversations', as though they were talking to someone. The breakdown is, that the other person is having to read without the benefit of being able to listen. The writer unknownly for the most part is writing in the 'implied' sense, thinking that everyone clearly understands what he/she is 'saying'. The best example is humor. Think about how many times people have taken what were meant to be humorous comments out of context, because the writer wrote in the 'implied' sense that the mood, tone, and inflection were understood.

But back to the subject of this thread, some interesting and soul bearing comments.
It's good that you folks feel comfortable enough to open up like this. On many boards, people tend to shy away from talking about their personal lives. A nice change indeed.

James
Maninblack

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I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

EDIT TMI

Wow Chuck! You have quite a story!  :hug: *speechless*

Thanks Sheree, I really didn't want to overburden this thread with “All About Chuck”, but I do like people to know where I’m comin’ from.

I hope it didn’t wreck the mood of the thread. We all have hurdles to go over in life. Mine are just tough for me to figure out sometimes.

If it’s too long for anyone, please don’t read it. It is just tedious.

I’m cool, I’m really here to have fun so don’t read my previous post if it is bothersome. I won’t mind at all.

I lovethe people here and and having a great time, this is why I'm here.

Chuck

Chuck, thank you very much for sharing that story.   - - Don

EDIT: I may move the long and winding story to my welcome thread. It seems to be a little too heavy for this one.

EDIT EDIT: I think it is, my desk is starting to creak from the weight of the monitor when I have this thread on my screen.

Yep Chuck,  The 20's weren't the easiest years for many of us !   Teen's were hell for me actually.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I hear ya' Kappy...

...and yet, oddly enough, I'm still not a big fan of the blues. Go figure.

Aspires to Mediocrity (I like that better than Chuck . . . go figure),

Thanks for sharing your story.  If I had gone through all of that I can't imagine that I would have been able to relate it without a fair amount of pain and anquish.  That you can talk about it at all is sort of a miracle.

Hang in there, kiddo.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

I've had some interesting jobs I thought you guys might get a kick
out of this-

15 yrs old - dish washer

16-18 yrs old - worked at a karmel Korn, sang in rock band and played the tuba every sunday in an orchestra, worked as a life guard in the summers

18-20 yrs old- still in rock band, manager of the swimming pool

20 yrs and up- manager of a book store, manager of a health club, owned a in home
personal training business, roofer in the summers

In the last 10 yrs - manager of an accounting office and owner of a karaoke business

By the way I did go to college - I have a communications degree  LMAO

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[shadow=pink][glow=deepskyblue]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[updown]~*~ MONKEY BUSINESS KARAOKE~*~ [/shadow][/updown][/glow]

Let's see I was in the Automotive Parts business in my early 20's, a factory rep for several national automotive manufacturers in my late 20's.

In my early and late 30's I was a Abrasive and Cutting Tool application engineer for a local industrial tool distributor and sold to the machine tool industry.

the past 10 years I have been a project/finance manager for a general contractor.
I supervise approx 20 installation crews in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho which keeps me really busy most of the time.

In addition to working fulltime in construction, 8 years ago I started a Karaoke business and now I have multiple sound systems and do several gigs and private parties every week.

I stay very busy....but still try to take a little R&R every once in a while.

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FlipSide Karaoke
Scott

I work in accounting for an industrial construction and fabrication company.... Payroll, Accounts Payable and Receivable and anything else they tell me to do...

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SAY IT WITH MUSIC!!!!

I am in senior management in marketing for high tech companies. Last 3-4 years I have been working for small companies (i.e. start up with less than 150 people) getting their products off the ground. I do strategic marketing and product management. I am both strategist and executor, i.e. thinker and doer.

On the side I have my own Karaoke/DJ business, due to busy schedule I don't do it as often as I would like.

I also volunteer for local Child Advocate organization. As an advocate, you are an officer of the family court system. You get a case, a child in the court system due to various reasons, spend time with them and write report to the courts recommending what should happen to the child for next 6 months.

When I do have spare time, I teach MBA students at local campus of University of Phoenix in marketing, management etc.

I lead a busy life. No wonder I can't find a significant other.

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Seize the day and SING!!!

I'm an independent software developer.

BUT, back in the day I was lead singer in a band that opened up for No Doubt. Way back then, more people used to come and see us then they did Gwen and Co. (who, by the way, wasn't even the original lead singer). Anywho, our band broke up and they went on to be bazillionaires....

Go figure.

Well,  Alot of what we are fan's of has more to do with upbringing.  While most classic rock was blues format, we grew up with the meloncholy type ballads in the 70's... White mans blues (of our era of sort's) might've been Jame's Taylor, Harry Chapin, etc..   We identified more with ballad rock styles. or in the cases of some country rock, country.... Blues styles much of the time, but not the blackman's type blues....

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Lessee here...

White Castle
CUB Foods
Dairy Queen
Long John Silver's
Flaky Jake's
Door guy at a "Gentlemen's Club" (wink)
Bartender/Server
Best Buy
CompUSA
Sears
US Navy
And...where I am now...a bench tech for a test equipment company.  If it's electrical, electronic, or electro-mechanical, I can fix it...or, at least figure out what's wrong...

Sheesh...my work history is as eclectic as my taste in music!!  

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[glow=white][scroll]Live, laugh, and love today--just in case tomorrow doesn't make it[/scroll][/glow]