Of course lots of people will tell you that networking face to face is still the best way to get a good job.  It’s been one of the only ways I have gotten some jobs, but they weren’t all good.  I have gotten writing jobs by writing, and it didn’t require any face time.  It might be nice now that I write, but face time isn’t required.

The hard part about networking is that the majority of people who are unemployed aren’t necessarily in a networking mecca.  What to do then?

• Well, most of my neighbors are going back to school to work in  health related fields.
• Others have signed up for temporary placement agencies.
• Some of my friends have started their own businesses.
• Some of my  neighbors have just started doing work under the table to make ends meet, because declaring income means a reduction in unemployment, and they are afraid of losing their homes anyway.
• I know some people who have taken to giving out cards with everything from coffee certificates to website advice to try to get leads.  Incidentally, I don’t know that any of this worked.
• Some friends just take whatever low-end job they can find.
• I know of others who hit the on-line job boards every day.
• A local group hits the MI job office everyday to see if any new jobs come up.

Maybe some of those will work for you.  The people I have seen become the most successful are those who open their own businesses.  They have opened restaurants, small stores, started herbal stores, and other smaller but more precise businesses.  Perhaps that is the better road, but I guess for the digital natives, there is always Monster, Dice, The Ladders, and all the others.  For myself, I think I will just keep writing….

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Lt. Choi may be in line for losing his job because he has told the truth about his sexuality.  His letter is pasted below.  He is appealing to Obama to save his job, but he may well join the ranks of the unemployed:

An estimated 65,000 LGBT Americans serve in the armed forces.

Lt. Daniel Choi is an Iraq combat veteran and a West Point graduate with a degree in Arabic.

By Lt. Daniel Choi
Special to CNN

Open Letter to President Obama and Every Member of Congress:

I have learned many lessons in the ten years since I first raised my right hand at the United States Military Academy at West Point and committed to fighting for my country. The lessons of courage, integrity, honesty and selfless service are some of the most important.

At West Point, I recited the Cadet Prayer every Sunday. It taught us to “choose the harder right over the easier wrong” and to “never be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.” The Cadet Honor Code demanded truthfulness and honesty. It imposed a zero-tolerance policy against deception, or hiding behind comfort.

Following the Honor Code never bowed to comfortable timing or popularity. Honor and integrity are 24-hour values. That is why I refuse to lie about my identity.

I have personally served for a decade under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: an immoral law and policy that forces American soldiers to deceive and lie about their sexual orientation. Worse, it forces others to tolerate deception and lying. These values are completely opposed to anything I learned at West Point. Deception and lies poison a unit and cripple a fighting force.

As an infantry officer, an Iraq combat veteran and a West Point graduate with a degree in Arabic, I refuse to lie to my commanders. I refuse to lie to my peers. I refuse to lie to my subordinates. I demand honesty and courage from my soldiers. They should demand the same from me.

I am committed to applying the leadership lessons I learned at West Point. With 60 other LGBT West Point graduates, I helped form our organization, Knights Out, to fight for the repeal of this discriminatory law and educate cadets and soldiers after the repeal occurs. When I receive emails from deployed soldiers and veterans who feel isolated, alone, and even suicidal because the torment of rejection and discrimination, I remember my leadership training: soldiers cannot feel alone, especially in combat. Leaders must reach out. They can never diminish the fighting spirit of a soldier by tolerating discrimination and isolation. Leaders respect the honor of service. Respecting each soldier’s service is my personal promise.

Watch Lt. Choi on CNN’s American Morning

The Department of the Army sent a letter discharging me on April 23rd. I will not lie to you; the letter is a slap in the face. It is a slap in the face to me. It is a slap in the face to my soldiers, peers and leaders who have demonstrated that an infantry unit can be professional enough to accept diversity, to accept capable leaders, to accept skilled soldiers.

My subordinates know I’m gay. They don’t care. They are professional.

Further, they are respectable infantrymen who work as a team. Many told me that they respect me even more because I trusted them enough to let them know the truth. Trust is the foundation of unit cohesion.

After I publicly announced that I am gay, I reported for training and led rifle marksmanship. I ordered hundreds of soldiers to fire live rounds and qualify on their weapons. I qualified on my own weapon. I showered after training and slept in an open bay with 40 other infantrymen. I cannot understand the claim that I “negatively affected good order and discipline in the New York Army National Guard.” I refuse to accept this statement as true.

As an infantry officer, I am not accustomed to begging. But I beg you today: Do not fire me. Do not fire me because my soldiers are more than a unit or a fighting force – we are a family and we support each other. We should not learn that honesty and courage leads to punishment and insult. Their professionalism should not be rewarded with losing their leader. I understand if you must fire me, but please do not discredit and insult my soldiers for their professionalism.

When I was commissioned I was told that I serve at the pleasure of the President. I hope I have not displeased anyone by my honesty. I love my job. I want to deploy and continue to serve with the unit I respect and admire. I want to continue to serve our country because of everything it stands for.

Please do not wait to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. Please do not fire me.

Very Respectfully,

Daniel W. Choi
1LT, IN
New York Army National Guard

Lt. Choi will be a guest on CNN’s AC360 Tuesday night beginning at 10pm ET.

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I started this post today, because I saw the record numbers of foreclosure going up in today’s news.  I don’t have any set answers about how to get more money coming in, because really, isn’t that what everyone needs right now?  Even Playboy is having trouble and looking to sell property.  What I can give you are a few steps in the process:

1. You miss 1 month’s payment: the companies start calling you and reporting you to credit bureau agencies where your credit history will take a hit.
2. You miss 2 month’s payments: you are put on a probation of sort and the lenders will now state that they will only accept 2 months payments at one time.  Lots of lenders will not allow 1 month’s payment, and this is all designed to make you pay up or put you in foreclosure.
3. You  miss 3months payments: You are now in violation of your lender’s terms, and they can begin the foreclosure process.  In short, the lender can say to a judge that you have forfeited your rights in the original contract (your loan), and therefore are no longer part of the lender’s payment plan.  The lender can then ask you for all the money that you originally borrowed.  You have defaulted on your loan, meaning you didn’t follow the original lending agreement and now the bank can take whatever they loaned you money for.
4. The lender will put your asset up for sale. If it’s a house, you may be allowed to live in it.  If it’s an apartment, you will simply be evicted.  If it’s a car, it will be repossessed, as in gone from the curb when you wake up in the morning.
5. If you refuse to leave the bank’s property (ie:  formerly your house, car, etc.) the police will be called, and they will aid in the lender’s removal of their asset.  In other words, the police will help the bank remove you from your home, your car, or anything else the bank lays claim to because of your missed payments.
   

Essentially, if you can’t pay the amount your loan calls for, the lender then owns it and has the right to sell it to try to recoup in their “investment” aka: your loan.  If you don’t relinquish whatever it is that you haven’t fully paid for, the lenders have the right to involve the law and remove you.

It’s a sad business for the people involved in losing their homes and cars and other items.  It’s even worse business for the banks, because having foreclosed and empty homes for sale drops the property values, but it’s currently written into our laws.

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• How does one collect unemployment?
• What do you need to know to keep your house?
• What happens in the foreclosure process?
• What do you do about medical bills?
• How do you hand a possible bankruptcy, or if you are already struggling, what does the process look like?

Keep checking back to these posts, because I plan to cover these topics.  There is a lot of shame in unemployment, something that millions of Americans are experiencing, but few want to talk about.  I am going to try to put the information out there for those of you who need it:  through blogging, through a book (which should be available in a month or two), and possibly some teleseminars (which I have to figure out yet).  But, I will be looking for information, and I will pass along what I find.

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I created this site to go into the details of being unemployed in this country.  As a nation that has lost close to 6 million jobs over the past 6 months, we are a nation moving toward ever-increasing numbers of unemployed.  Since this seems to be a common phenomena, I am dedicating blog to it specifically.

Unemployment has systems, like every other social status.  So here is to the Blissfully Unemployed, those of us who wouldn’t choose to be unemployed but are here just the same.

Look for future posts on applying for benefits, dealing with cell phone companies (hint: Sprint reps have tallied up $450 in charges for us), and all the other intricacies that will hit us, like bankruptcy, missing mortgage payments and all the rest.