And if you can find them

Kitten is involved with the Upward program at our church. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s part of the church’s community outreach program, where they sponsor sports leagues for the kids. When we went in for orientation, the organizer explained they were not going to keep score this year, since out of all the complaints they’ve received over the years, 50% were from parents, and 100% of those were about unfavorable scoring “mistakes.” That’s probably a good decision, as I’ve seen several parents storming out of the bleachers to have a word with the coaches – angry gesturing and pouting included. They’re 3rd and 4th graders, people, not the Globetrotters. If the coach lets some traveling or double-dribbling slide, it’s because it just isn’t that important in the face of the lessons on teamwork and good sportsmanship. On the other hand, I did see one kid that had one of the few ref calls go against him. He slammed the ball down to show how pissed off he was, and his mom teleported onto the court to smack his butt and make him apologize to the ref. I bet that sticks with him longer than having Mommy bawl out the coach on his behalf.

I’m finding that the crappy economy can be a bargain-hunter’s dream if you’re willing to put in a little work and have at least a minimal income. As a for-instance, a local video store is going out of business, so we were able to pick up seven DVDs – including two newly-released titles – for a little more than the cost of one new one. I’m hoping the local office supply store will tank so I can pick up a bunch of whiteboards. I like to brainstorm on them: storyboards, plot arcs, a list of supplies to survive the coming zombie apocalypse. You know…stuff.

Speaking of minimal incomes, I was speaking with a former Marketing femme I know (formerly in Marketing, still a femme), and she clued me into the enormous earning potential of doing corporate logos. I did some research, and it’s not unusual for these things to cost $1000-$3000. Figure it takes you 10 hours total to dash out a few choices, wrangle the VPs into agreeing on one, and finishing touches. If you get the max on that, you’re making the equivalent of $624,000 a year. Guess which cat is hitting the Graphic Design section at Amazon this week (for someone that excels at visual thinking, I have the GD skills of a sea sponge).

I have several friends that are also unemployed, and we’ve all said at one point or another “We should start a company together.” The problem is that, while we are all very skilled in our chosen areas and would make a great A-Team for someone, our collective brain trust lacks a unifying corporate focus. If we could find one person with the capital and credulity to hire us all, that would be awesome.

I want to be Murdock.