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Confetti Drop

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Today’s post is a request for a personal favor that came from perennial sophomore Bubby Spamden.

Hey Mr. C.,

How about that election, eh? I was sure inspired by it, and suddenly I’m feeling really optimistic about my future!

It’s not that I’m a big Obama fan or anything like that, but I thought his speech was awesome at the end when they lit up some massive confetti fountains.

http://youtu.be/of8k9a2RD9s

That was amazing!

I don’t know much about what he said, but finishing in a blizzard of flying red, white, and blue strips makes it all seem so much more terrific! And trying to watch the president and his family move around through that biodegradable blizzard was just a really, really cool effect – like Instagram, but in real life.

I’m pretty sure I want to work in the confetti industry when I grow up.

I’m not sure if I’m going to sell confetti cannons or just be one of the assembly line workers who cuts the paper into the shape of bats or balloons, but I know I’m going to do something to bring more confetti into the world! Call it a mission. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be totally dedicated to it.

And it’s also a smart plan because confetti is getting to be more acceptable at big public events and celebrations, including weddings! Throwing rice is out – now it’s confetti launchers and customized shapes. Confetti is OK just about everywhere, except funerals.

But that could change.

My folks used to look at the condition of my room and tell me I would only ever get hired by someone who really wanted to make a mess. I hope I can make their dream for me come true!

Do you know anybody in the confetti business who is looking for an intern or a cannon loader?

Your pal,
Bubby.

I told Bubby I would love to help him, but I don’t know anybody outside the very small industry I’ve worked in for the past 40 years. I certainly do wish him well, though, as he tries to get a foothold in the confetti biz. I assume success there is less about what you throw, and more about whom you know.

Describe a time when knowing the right person changed everything.

58 thoughts on “Confetti Drop”

  1. Good morning. I’m like Dale. I don’t seem have hooked up with a lot of people that would help Bubby and not too many that were a big help to me. The exception is a guy who recommended me for my first overseas volunteer assignment. He worked for the non-profit that ran this volunteer program. He knew me because he was interested in sustainable ag and was familiar the work I was doing in that area. I didn’t know him. I was assigned to help with an ag project in Bulgaria which was a great experience and which led to two more very interesting assignments.

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    1. You ever think about looking into this again Jim? You obviously enjoyed the heck out of it and there is obviously still a need and you obviously know your stuff (just be careful writing country western songs about your experiences) I think you should look into it before time passes you by.

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      1. I do keep my eye on the openings they have at the non-profit, ACDI/VOCA, that sent me to Bulgaria and the other two places. They haven’t had an opening that is a good fit for me recently. There is another non-profit, Partners in Health, that might also have some overseas work that I would like to do and I might contact them sometime. I’m sure there are other organizations that need volunteers for overseas work. This is a great way to see the world. I think anyone who likes travel would probably find this kind of volunteer work very interesting.

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        1. talk to seed savers about opening a new chapter in their organazation. ill bet they would be a great fit for this kind of thing

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  2. I was looking around in my world of selling stuff to the big chains like w mart target home depot and I hooked up with a guy who was wired at many of these. I told him I wanted to learn how to do this and he let me on on it. I learned a lot and he is still in my Christmas card list.

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  3. Almost every job I have had, including my first non-babysitting gig, came about because someone I knew pointed me to it in some way – from Tom S. asking if I had a summer job and would I be interested in working at a floral shop to my current new job that I got to ultimately because my best friend heard about a contractor job three years ago when I was out of work (and that lead to me getting my shiny new regular full time position – new and improved as of yesterday with my own, unshared, cubicle!). I don’t count my work study jobs in college, those were just assigned as part of my financial aid (though I did luck out and get a job working in the scene shop freshman year, not in food service like most of my buddies – I suppose that goes back to being friends with Lisa B. who got me started in theater if I really want to stretch the idea), and a couple of summer jobs came straight out of the newspaper – but even those I wound up finding people I knew already working at the places after I got hired. Pretty happy with where I am now, so I guess I have a good network of friends. 🙂

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    1. reminds me
      my st thomas entrepreneurial son is looking for an intern opportunity this summer and would like best buy target or the like. any leads on who i should send him to?

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      1. I can check on it – we had a couple summer interns this year on our team and we were able to keep one on during the school year. I’ll find out who his contact was for the initial internship and how it worked.

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    2. There is a down side to this tendency for people to get jobs because they know the right person. I think people should help their friends get jobs. However, I think everyone would agree that knowing the right person should not be the only way to get a job. That leads to a lot of unfairness in hiring practices.

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      1. In principle, I agree, Jim. When working at the law firm it was a given that certain partners’ kids would fill whatever summer job openings the firm had, a practice that I was not always happy with. On the other hand, I think if you personally know someone who is reliable and has the prerequisite skills for the job at hand, I think most of us would pick that person over some unknown person off the streets. But obviously it’s a problem if you hire someone you know over a better qualified candidate for the job.

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      2. Indeed – you should always get hired on merits, not on who you knkow. In my case it was more a matter of friends pointing me to jobs where they thought I was a good fit – I hope I wasn’t hired just because of who I knew. In several of the cases it was a friend letting me know about the posting, but they were not the hiring manager or sometimes even in the same team/department – and frankly, I don’t know that I’d be very picky about friends I would work for directly (my best friend and I would not be a good boss/worker pair I think – good friends, but totally different work styles).

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  4. right place right time
    my buddies who called me out to join them in the rock band were a godsend. i as off into lord knows what without a particular direction . doing sports but not being allowed to do them without a lot of flack due to long hair hippy issues in the 60’s 70’s. i wanted ot be judged for me. dream on with coaches. so these guys asked me to join the group and head it up as the front man. i went from listening to lps in my room and strumming along with the radio to a full blown musicisan in a weekend. it lasted a couple of years but the fallout was transformational. they were into art which i was also and it opened the world of u o m art department and all the abstract expressionist stuff the world have been keeping to itself prior to that moment in time.

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  5. I have a couple of those, both related to writing. I’d already applied to Macalester when I happened to go to the art fair at the College of St. Catherine. I loved the campus and liked the idea of a women’s college, so when my acceptance came from Mac I turned it down in favor of St. Kate’s. I also decided to follow my heart instead of my head and major in English/Creative Writing, which meant that my advisor was the novelist Jonis Agee. It turned out her teaching style was very good for me, particularly her emphasis on cooperation instead of competition, and my writing improved drastically thanks to her. Late in my major I took exchange classes at Mac and Hamline, and realized what a good choice I’d made. I wouldn’t have done nearly as well with more aggressive classmates and less nurturing professors. We had a lot more fun, too, far as I could tell–those Mac students were terribly, terribly serious about their “art”!

    One of the important things Jonis had taught us (besides reading in a natural voice instead of the “MFA accent”) was to critique in ways that didn’t tear down the other writer, something that turned out to be important in my next encounter with the right person. In 1995 I’d just gotten a poem published in a local semiprozine, “Tales of the Unanticipated,” and the poetry editor at the time, Laurel Winter, invited me to their publication party at one of the conventions–either Minicon or Diversicon, I can’t remember. I met her, and when I bemoaned the fact that I was writing less since I’d graduated college and didn’t have deadlines to spur me on, she invited me to join her writing group, what soon after became the Lady Poetesses from Hell. Thanks to that party, I’ve acquired several good friends, become poetry editor for TOTU myself (which is completely unpaid and sometimes costs me money, sorry Bubby!), done a few dozen public readings, and collaborated in self-publishing a group anthology. Networking hasn’t gotten me any RL paying jobs, but it’s definitely enriched my life in other ways.

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      1. Self titled, “Lady Poetesses from Hell.” Dreamhaven and Eye of Horus should both have copies, but I don’t know about Uncle Hugo’s. Thanks for asking!

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  6. I cannot think of a single instance, but that cannot be true. But nope, not a one comes to mind.
    Bubby, I have done a funeral with confetti. I have done several funerals and attended several with balloons. I have told my daughter to pop balloons at my funeral. No helium. Just inflated balloons to pop. I like color and splash and joy at funerals. Not at all, of course.
    Now that I think about it, meeting my partner made a negative difference, in the end negative. But we met because my boss suggested my name to work with him when we worked for regional coop. Sorry about that one.
    Back to the dark.

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      1. We didn’t have the whole band, but I did play a recording of a Dixieland jazz band playing, “When the Saints Go Marching In” at my dad’s internment.

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    2. sounds great on the internet. i am not familiar with him. not able to go this time. thanks to pj for involvement in bringing good music to us.

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  8. One person led me to meeting my wife, getting into writing (which I need to get back into), and getting a book published.

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  9. I find it really helpful to be able to tell Native Americans I come across that I know and can name and am friends with people from their reservations. It has been helpful personally when I have been a visitor on reservations, as well as professionally when I have cause to provide services for reservation residents. The veil of distrust melts away.

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  10. While working at the American embassy in Moscow I got to know a lot of embassy staff members. One friend with whom I regularly played Scrabble worked for the US Dept. of State. When I left Moscow he told me to be sure to contact him if I should ever need a visa to visit the US. A little over one year later, having married an American GI, I was in need of a visa not just to visit the US, but a document that is much more difficult to get: a so-called Green Card. This was at the Peak of the Cold War, and Soviet US relations were, shall we say, cool, so I was worried that having spent a year in the USSR, my application would draw extra scrutiny and take forever to go through. I wrote a letter to my friend, who by this time had been transferred back in Washington, DC., and he shepherded my application through the red tape that can cause great delays in the issuance of such documents. Three weeks later, new Green Card in hand, I first set foot on American soil in New York City.

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    2. a true example of being wired in the right places. my daughter just sent in part two of her husbands visa stuff for the transfer form kosovo. i thought once you were maried it would be a done deal. taint so.

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      2. A lot of people make that assumption, and it just isn’t so, tim. Back in those days there was a quota system, countries were allotted a certain number of immigration slots. England obviously had a whole lot more slots allotted than did Denmark, and because I was born in England, it was their quota that applied to my case, so I got lucky…twice. There is not doubt that under normal circumstances it would have taken months for my application to go through. It also helped that I was known to so many embassy folks who could vouch for me as character references.

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        1. I understand there is or was a system where those seeking a green card could put their name on a list. A person who claimed to be familiar with how people are selected off this list said that a very large number of people are selected off this list to get green cards. He said that people who want the number of those who get green cards to be highly restricted would be very upset if they knew about the large number of people given green cards off that list.

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        2. If that’s in fact the case, why wouldn’t everyone put their name on that list, Jim? Doesn’t sound right to me.

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        3. It’s just something I heard. I think they don’t pick everyone, but do pick more than you would think they would. I don’t know if this guy had it right.

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    3. I made an attempt once to help with some problems related to immigration. If you don’t have a contact like the one PJ had, I think you are lucky if you can get anything done without the services of a lawyer that specializes in this work. This is really terrible. When I tried to talk to someone by phone at the federal offices I was sent into a phone loop that had no end no matter how many times I tried to get a person who would talk to me.

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      1. Jim, it’s probably a lot tougher these days than it was in 1965. When Hans applied in 1978 we certainly had to jump through a lot more hoops, but even then could manage without an immigration lawyer. Nowadays, that may well be very difficult.

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  11. OT: I only have a moment here and look forward to responding to today’s question later, but I just got “the call” from my oncologist that yesterday’s PET scan is NED (no evidence of disease)!!!! I was sleepless all night because, unlike every previous (6) PET scan, my doctor forgot to call me the same day. I’d already corralled my daughter into going to see him on the scheduled appointment time tomorrow morning “just in case”. Between Obama’s huge victory and another six months to live before the next PET, I just couldn’t be happier 🙂

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  12. Let’s see… probably:
    – without my college friend Susan, I wouldn’t have gone out to San Francisco after college
    – without my roommate’s urging me to join the SF Civic Chorale, I wouldn’t have met Gerald and the hiking group, who introduced me to a Mike W.
    – without knowing Mike W, I wouldn’t have met Eddie (Wasband) and moved to Brooklyn, NY
    – without having visited my freshman roommate in Mpls, I wouldn’t have chosen the Twin Cities to flee to when leaving New York
    (OK, I found my new Mpls job in the Strib Want Ads)
    – without my work friend Rose, I wouldn’t have met her brother Michael (known here as Husband)
    …

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  13. Afternoon-
    My first job pressing formal wear came about because my Dad knew a guy who’s son worked at this place.
    I got myself a job when I stopped to see a guy I knew from high school. Told him I was available to do tech work for the local public schools. He called another guy and I got a call that afternoon asking if I could work an event the next day?
    Lighting work at Theater de la June Lune came about because I knew a guy who’s wife’s sister worked there.
    It really is all about networking.

    Now, let me talk about confetti.
    I loved that image of the confetti and lights after Obama’s speech. It reminded me of this scene from the movie ‘Mega Mind’:

    I’ve used ‘streamer cannons’ onstage several times. They are easier to clean up than confetti. And glitter is called the herpes of the stage because it never goes away…

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    2. Networking is so important, not just for jobs but all sorts of things. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t develop relationships that you feel comfortable calling for referrals, expertise, or whatever challenges crop up. This week I was able to steer an old friend to some resources that can help her deal with her husband’s early onset dementia. Frustrated, scared and worried she emailed me to see if we could get together so she could pick my brain. That’s what friends are for.

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      1. I really like to help people connect with other people which I am sometimes able to do because of the contacts and information I have accumulated over many years of being involved in sustainable agriculture and seed saving. There is some networking in agricultural that is not so good which occurs among some of the good old boys who like to run the show and exclude those who don’t agree with them.

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  14. The one person who most changed my life was Bill Goodman, a therapist who was the very first human I’d ever felt truly loved by to that point. His name even reflects his kindness, patience, and enduring care for a lost soul. Bill was gay and so represented both mother & father to me. I was 41 when this journey deep into my psyche began, the result of quitting smoking. By quitting, I’d inadvertently removed the “smoke screen” behind which a lifetime of pain lurked. Angry? Light up! Afraid? Light up! Hurt? Light up! Suddenly, without the valium-effect of my cigarettes, I had no way to understand or cope with emotions accumulated over a lifetime. And then there was Bill, who tenaciously and lovingly helped me find myself. I recall him saying one time, “All it takes to heal the wounds of a lifetime is just ONE healing relationship”. I’ve since taught this truth to so many others and had the joy of being to them what Bill was to me.

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  15. I think we should figure out how to have guessing contest about what Dale will choose as his topic the next day. I have my guess for tomorrow but I’m not saying. I will be honest about tomorrow though. Uh, huh. I will. I promise.

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  16. I have to admit that wasband was the link to two communities that have been amazing additions to my life.
    When we met, he was church shopping. I hadn’t been looking but liked the idea of finding a place that would reinforce my values for my boys. The second church we tried instantly felt like home and I have been an active member for over 22 years. VS is an example of the fine people there.

    As a fiddler, wasband had connections with some musicians. He was invited to play for a “sampler” for the family folk camp I attend. He went and played at the sampler evening each spring for a couple of years, oblivious to the purpose of the evening. I went with him one year and declared that it sounded fabulous. We attended the following summer and I’ve been every year since 1997.

    I can’t imagine where/how/what I would be now if I didn’t have those two communities.

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  17. OT – in case others don’t get updates via email of late comments for previous days: we were blessed by a visit from Leandra. (perhaps this is old news to all you old-love-baboons).

    “Hello All! We stop by every once in a blue moon and were thrilled to see the OL video pop up here. Tuesday was a good day for Old Lovers! Thanks, Neal & Leandra”

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