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[Con ate dog]

Definitely: a portfolio.

[Lotus Eater]

If you are using a blog as part of a copywriters portfolio it then needs to be in the style of the copywriting company or area you want to be in.  Philosophical ramblings may not be too worthwhile.

Create several blogs with different styles to demonstrate versatility or to use individually as examples of your skill.

[Calach Pfeffer]

Yeah, you're right--although I was thinking of it in the terms of "how to avoid pointless diarising?"

Blogs--hm?  Novels without a first page.  Diaries that start at the end.  And traditionally the first entry is, "Gee, I don't know how to start this, but...."  But if they're any good, each entry has to be a new first page.

A China blog?  "Hello" has been covered a lot.  And foreign puzzlement at academic standards.  And staring.  And life without cheese.  And the ever popular "Look what I hooked up with."

From there to contests, to actual publication, to--bam!--international celebrity.  From personal complaint to professional writer.  I think I have found my mission statement.  Now, for an actual audience...

Know what?  It used to be that every student I met expected me to write a book.  Maybe that's what foreign teachers used to do.  This was back in the years when students claimed to be studying English because of the WTO.

[Con ate dog]

I think, apart from some cool local angle, a China blog has to incorporate your peculiar interest, e.g. "Kangaroo Boxing: a Chinese Perspective".  The important thing is to be writing about what you, um, write about. 

that sounds stupid, but it isn't.  I don't think.  But then I'm on painkillers.

[Calach Pfeffer]

Changed my mind.  I did one of those "Pro/Con" lists one is supposed to do.  I came up with nothing that looks good on a resume, but which does lay out some fundamental "me" things:

  I am a good “big picture” analyst.  Though, sadly, lacking any particular expertise in any particular field, I have excellent research and decent presentation skills.
  I want people to work together.  Not “In the same office” together, “On the same project” together.
  I dislike novelty, but I loathe finding that nothing new can happen.  Novelty in well-structured, approachable doses is good, and good every day.

So-o-o... what does a fella like that do?  Tips?  Thoughts?  Something that passes as humour?

I was talking with a young lass last night. 
  "Where do people meet people in this dump?" I asked.
  She thought for a while.  "I know a place," she said.  It sounded like, "I know!--a place..."
  "Where?" I asked.
  "It has a lot of people."
  "What's the activity?"
  "It has young and old."
  "What's the activity!?"
  She looked up at me. 
  "You know Amway?"

So there's that, I guess.
 

[Con ate dog]

Management.

[Calach Pfeffer]

And yet I have always viewed business with the deepest possible suspicion.  The lies required alone lead me to fear it.  And the people there are malignant and proud to be cutthroats.

Manage a school perhaps.  Already my skin is crawling.

[Calach Pfeffer]

And on the other hand, demonstrating how one will fail before one has ever tried is the surest path to more failure.  I'll give it some thought.

[woza]

OP you give a whole new meaning to the word, procrastination.
Con, I would denfinitely read an article on kangaroo boxing from the Chinese perspective.

Actually this is one for Mr. Nobody.  He is Australian, martial arts expert and has a sense of the ridiculous

[Calach Pfeffer]

Yes, yes I do.  Why, just today I was in a taxi and--oh, wait!  Procrastination.  Yes, okay, in that case, I see what you mean.

[woza]

CP I could have called you a tosser but I didn't.  In that I mean you are tossing a lot of ideas around. I have too much respect for the varieties of the human condition in all their ups and downs. Their grey areas, blacks and whites and a variation on those colours.
Come on, I can't take this seriously, why are you talking in PHD speak, cut to the chase and tell me what is really going on in your life.

[Calach Pfeffer]

My life?  Nothing special.  Pretty much what I've put up in various posts.

PhD speak?  I've got one.  I guess it shows. 

When I graduated I discovered a thing.  It was pleasing in an odd way.  I discovered I knew how to think, but that I had nothing to think about.  It was pleasing because it meant there where things I had to get out and do.  So I came to China.  I guess I'm looking now to do something more than just graduate China.

Ah, hell--that's way too serious.

[Lotus Eater]

Sounds a bit like 'bite the bullet' time to me.  PhD - gives you options as a research assistant and tutor until you gain credibility in your field. 

Otherwise you go down to your friendly Dole Office, have a chat with them, and they will give you some money and tell you to fox around for a job.  6 months of looking for jobs unsucessfully and they may help you retrain into something really useful.

Of course - tax driving is an option - plenty of PhDs drive taxis.

But - trying to second guess this beforehand - not a hope unless you have very clear and specific skills and experiences.  Sadly most western countries are a bit unlike China - they want you to actually know what you are doing before they employ you.  Bit of a bugger that.

[Con ate dog]

The problem with managers is that too many of them are in it for the power.  That makes them the very last people who should have power over other folks.

Management means balancing the needs of everybody: investor, management, each department, staff, customer.  With a school, it means balancing the quality of education against profit/loss, two utterly different concepts.

A good manager, one that keeps his ego out of his decisions, is depressingly rare. 

[AMonk]

Otherwise you go down to your friendly Dole Office

Which assumes that the country that one is in actually has a Dole Office.....