Queercents

Beginning February 17, 2009, full-power television stations are required to switch from analog to digital broadcasting per the Digital Television Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005.

You may need to purchase a digital converter box to receive network channels if:

1) you do not subscribe to cable or satellite programming
2) you have a television made before 2004 (Most televisions made before 2004 do not have a built-in digital tuner.)

To learn more about the digital broadcasting conversion, click here for the FAQ page at the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration site. (Do yourself a favor and expand all FAQ for faster reading.) Read the rest of this entry »

A few new and varied voices have recently joined Queercents. First up is Walter Schubert. As the Founder of GFN.com: The Gay Financial Network, many people recognize Walter as the face of gay money. Walter has over 30 years experience in the Financial Services Industry with extensive knowledge in the securities business and made history as the first openly gay member of the New York Stock Exchange. Walter joins us as a special guest contributor and will be writing about the market a couple of times a month. You can learn more about Walter by clicking here.

Lana Marconi and Martinique Haller join us as more frequent contributing writers. Dr. Lana, as she is known to her readers, earned two doctorate degrees at the young age of thirty: a Ph.D. in Energy Medicine and Th.D. in Transpersonal Psychology. Her professional therapeutic experience has included working as a behavior therapist and psychology researcher at schools, hospitals, and government funded facilities. She travels globally, educating people on natural approaches to self-help and embodying one’s innate greatness. Read the rest of this entry »

It seems like everyone I know is in the middle of a career transition. Or they’re contemplating one, or they’ve completed one. I don’t know if this is my age group (I turned thirty this year), or the time of year, or trying to be creative in the middle of a recession, but it’s a reality that can’t be ignored.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be taking a look at a handful of queer friends and acquaintances and exploring how they landed in their careers. A gay firefighter, a lesbian CEO of a startup, a gay interior designer, a transgendered community activist, a lesbian newspaper editor, and a closeted gay Navajo artist: what do they all have in common? How did their choices bring them to where they are today?

Risky Business in a Slow Economy: The Interior Designer

The small house next door has been on the market for a long time, at least since last summer. A few weeks ago the For Sale sign came down, and landscaping and patio construction began.

I finally met the new neighbors today, on my way to the laundromat. They’re a couple in their late thirties or early forties, with a little Shih Tzu dog. John pinged my gaydar immediately. (I probably pinged his too, especially since I’d just returned from the hairdresser with a new super-short haircut.) John told me he’d worked at a local retailer for over twenty years as a facilities manager, and last summer he was told his position was being eliminated. Read the rest of this entry »

Public service employment is a topic I haven’t covered much of. This weekend I spent some time attempting to sort out my financial situation in light of my soon-to-be-in-repayment student loans. I graduate from Law School on Friday!

As a quick aside here is a great resource that I wish a financial fairy godmother could have whispered in my ear before I spent the better part of Sunday getting my information organized. The National Student Loan Data System compiles your loan and other finaicial aid information in once place. Even if you have multiple degrees from multiple institutions the NSLDS is a good place to get started.

As part of my research I learned about a new loan forgiveness program Congress recently authorized in the College Cost Reduction Act.  Aspects of this program are sure to offer hope and encouragement to graduates seeking lower paying careers or careers in the public service. Read the rest of this entry »

As gays and lesbians writing about money, we’ve grown weary of reading all the personal finance content that’s written from the perspective of straight marriages. So at Queercents, we’ve turned the tables on money and relationship advice by asking: What if all of our favorite money columnists were gay? Would their advice be more relevant to our lives?

We think the answer is yes! And as such, this is our weekly series called In Search of Gay Money where we reprint their advice by swapping out pronouns and a few other words to make it seem like everyone is queer!

Millionaires in the Making: Ryan Hope and Bill Wells

By David Goldman and Queercents

Ages: Ryan, 25, Bill, 23
Occupations: Car phone salesman, Customer service representative
Salary: Approximately $56,000 combined
Home and land: $125,000 estimated value
IRA, 401(k): About $22,500
Mutual Funds: $3,000 Read the rest of this entry »

I was reading through the 10 Diets You Probably Want to Avoid and beyond the odd ones where a danish author was forced to eat his book and an automobile maker ate weed sandwiches… there were a few that got me thinking.

“When Ernest Hemingway was writing his works of literary genius, he certainly wasn’t dining on filet mignon and caviar. Nope, most of his books were written on a diet of peanut butter sandwiches.”

“British wrestler Sir Athol Oakley maintained his physique by drinking 11 pints of milk every single day for three years. That’s 12,012 pints of milk. When asked how he had arrived at that particular amount, he said it was because a wrestler he admired, Georg Hackenschmidt, gave an interview once in which he had professed to drinking exactly that amount. Hackenschmidt met Oakley and informed him that the 11 pints had been a typo - he actually drank just one pint of milk a day.” Read the rest of this entry »

“My mind is my own church.” – Thomas Paine

Last week, Penelope Trunk, my favorite career authority, wrote a post providing 4 tips that will improve productivity at work. Number 3 on her list: Go to church.

She points her brazen careerists to The New York Times article where:

Lisa Cullen reports that girls who go to church work harder than other people. Maybe you think this is because church girls are so bored in their upstanding lives that they can’t think of anything better to do than work. But I think it actually has something to do with optimism.

People who go to church regularly are more optimistic people in general, and optimism makes people feel more positive about their work. If you feel like you will affect your work in a positive way, you’re more likely to dig in and do it.

What do you think? Does faith influence optimism? And how does this translate in the workplace? Read the rest of this entry »

I have to say years ago when a colleague kept pushing me to network more I was so resistant. Even though I didn’t like the jobs or career I was in I didn’t see the connection. I always had a gut feel that equated networking with undesirable things (for me) like politics and sales in the used car salesman vein. It reminded me of all those years growing up where I was never popular, struggled fitting in, and seemed to experience rejection from my school peers on an almost daily basis. Certainly not an inspiring picture. It didn’t exactly have me clamoring to print a business card and head out the door.

What I’ve since learned now that I am a business owner is that networking isn’t any of that. Well, in some circles it still is…a flurry of desperate people trying to hand out as many business cards as possible. However, effective long term networking that matters isn’t that at all. It is about being open and creating relationships.

This morning I had the pleasure of listening to productivity expert Neen James speak on the topic of sales. She’s a lively Aussie who is known for her energetic presentation style. She started the presentation by throwing the old model of selling into the rubbish. “It is not about closing the sale. It is about opening a relationship.” As I’ve come to learn business success is all about relationships. Sure you need to deliver the goods (product or service), but you need good relationships if you are going to be successful over the long haul. Read the rest of this entry »