GreenEye Wire

I’ve called my little apartment complex home for a year now, and it is time to renew the lease. When I first moved here, I loved that the management was really friendly and open to people with large dogs. In fact, I really liked the idea that they didn’t discriminate against any breeds, choosing instead to interview each dog before the owner could move to determine if the dog was vicious or mean. I’ve seen a lot of Chihuahuas bark and bite at people and every apartment complex allows them to move in, but god help you if you have a dog over 50 pounds. This complex actually recognized that and took each dog on an individual basis.

I remember being really really nervous about Sebastian’s interview. He’d never bite a fly, but he is big enough to scare a lot of people just by his looks alone. I made sure it was afternoon when he had his interview and also that he had been walked first to get out any nervous energy. He passed with flying colors when I showed them all the agility tricks and training he had. From then on, he was welcome in the clubhouse, and the managers would even feed him cheese slices. It was a good thing.

Two months ago, the apartment complex was sold to new management, and the manager — a woman who does not like to deal with people — was just a witch to everyone. I’m not even going to call her a bitch because she isn’t a bitch..she is just plain MEAN.

My lease was to come up and I asked her for new carpeting before I signed. Frankly the carpet wasn’t that great when I moved in, and it just needed to be replaced. I figured I had a good shot at it because I pay my rent a month in advance each month and I always contact them promptly to fix things so they don’t get into disrepair. I’m a *great* tenant. And, I wanted to renew for 2 years.

You’d *think* any apartment complex would really want to keep me.

“No,” she said,”We’re allowing you to stay even though we’re not supposed to allow people with dogs over 35 pounds to renew.” Her tone was snotty and frankly, condescending.

So I went over to the apartment complex across the way that I knew allowed big dogs.

And for slightly more than I’m paying now, I’d get a bigger place with 2 floors and an incredible floorplan. I signed the check on the spot and I will be moving in 30 days.

All they had to do was give me new carpet. Stupid Stupid Stupid.

I have been fighting this for ever. And after a friend of mine that I’d not heard from forever left me messages AND I was away from the screen, I knew I had to find out how to do it. Thank you Astraith for the following video:

When Shirley Maclaine had several flops in the early 70’s, she re-evaluated her career. At that time, most people wrote her off as a ‘has been’. She started her career dancing ballet in the 1940’s, and realized that going back to the basics and really hitting it hard would be a way to get her career back. Literally, she headed back to the barre and took voice lessons to perfect her singing.

A couple of years later, she opened up a comedy, dance and singing show in Las Vegas. At the time, she was 40 years old and was afraid that her show would be seen by people as ‘what has-beens do when they can’t get parts in Hollywood.’

She couldn’t have been more wrong. Her show in Vegas sold out. She then expanded the show and traveled worldwide for over a decade and made millions.

Her strategy was simple: go back to the basics, fill in the holes of your craft and then work your ass off.

I’ve been in SEO for nearly a decade now, and I’ve spent so much time specializing in online marketing that I feel like I’ve missed out on general marketing tactics as a whole. In fact, I’m a little sick of the ‘optimize keywords’ and ‘get links’ routine that has been the standard for so long that I feel like I’ve started to stagnate. I’m bored, and actually considered looking for a new career. However, after some thought, I’ve decided instead to go back to the basics. Like Shirley, I’ve decided to back to the barre.

In the past week or so, I’ve been busy researching different marketing methods and basic marketing techniques, and for the first time in a long time , I have felt a new interest in the craft that I actually considered leaving.

I’m also teaming up with some other people in the marketing field who are specialized in totally different aspects other than online marketing. While I cannot say much at this time, I know that this will bear fruitful, and will be very profitable for me in the long run.

I also know that I will probably working harder than I ever have in my life. But honestly for the first time in a long time, I’m excited for it.

Oh, what a small world it is.

I went to lunch today with a good friend with whom I’ve just recently gotten back in touch when I got my email back into order.

But first, I must tell you a little about my background and how I was raised, otherwise you won’t understand my statement about Grandma Keats. My Great Grandma Keats graduated from K-State back in 1913 with a Master’s Degree in Education and then taught school. She was a fireball for her time, not only was she very educated for her time, she believed that women were as capable as men. She chose to keep her maiden name through marriage and passed her name to my Grandfather as his middle name. She very much believed that all people — particularly women — should be educated and be able to work for themselves. These beliefs she passed to her only son, my grandfather, and he passed them to all of his descendants. As a result, my mother’s side of the family is very educated, and the women — myself included — are fireballs.

OK, so back to lunch with my friend today.

We were talking, and I asked her about a particular place she was working, and asked her why she decided to leave. And she said — and I’ll never forget this:

“I left my employer because he was a pimp” and then told me about a web site that was about — of all things — Sugarbabies.

This started to ring a bell for me. One time, a few years back, I was asked to interview for an SEO contract position for a dating site. When I arrived there, I learned the ‘dating’ site was actually a site where ’sugarbabies’ would try to find their perfect ’sugardaddy’.

Now, at the time, I’d never heard of a sugarbaby. A sugarbaby, for those of you who don’t know, is a woman who wants to be taken care of completely by a rich older man. She does no work, she depends soley on her ’sugardaddy’ for money.

Due to my upbringing, this is a completely foreign concept to me. Even when it was explained to me, I still couldn’t wrap my brain around it. I think that was why I remembered the interview — it was just so weird to me.

I also remembered that if I even thought of taking the job, my Grandmother Keats would fly out of her grave on a bolt of lightening to smite me down.

I told my friend, “Oh, that is so funny. I had an interview with a guy who ran a sugarbaby site. He was this weird little portly man who lived in this huge mansion on ____ street in Plano and he had this little 18 year old Russian girl who was his sugarbaby.”

And then she started laughing. Hard.

We came to realize that the man I interviewed with was her ex-boss. And almost at the same time, we both yelled out

“WE BOTH KNOW THE SAME PIMP!”

Of course. This went over very well in the Omni Hotel restaurant where we were eating.

OK, I’m officially excited! I got my new airhorn today and it works great! You wanna hear it? I knew you would:

Listen to my airhorn SCREAM

The little whimper at the end is Sebastian telling me to stop blasting his ears.

I’ve still got to work on the golf ball containment system for my bicycle as using velcro is fairly effective, but not completely. If I go over a curb, the balls fall off. My new crank and bigger chain ring work awesome though, and I go a lot faster with the higher gear ratio. More speed is always a good thing.

Oh, and one other thing. I did get to use the golf ball method. After screaming and screaming with no results — this was before my airhorn arrived in the mail — I chucked a ball at her car. That woman couldn’t stop fast enough.

And, bonus, she was driving a new Lexus.

Oh Yeah. It’s been a good day.