Bullish: Tomboys, Career Women, Male Models and Other Words We Should Dismiss Forthwith
April 5, 2012
Is the term “tomboy” pejorative yet?
I would be severely confused, rather than insulted, if someone called me a tomboy today (I’ve jumped out of an airplane, but I’m sure I wore eyeliner), but if I had a daughter who just wanted to climb a damn tree without worrying about her underwear showing and someone called her a tomboy, I’d be pissed, especially if my daughter were also perturbed.
In fact, I’m reminded of a scene from Idiocracy (the best banned-by-corporations underground-cult-movie-even-though-it-stars-Luke-Wilson flick ever) in which a man says: “Why do you keep trying to read that word? You a fag?” More »
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Bullish: Kim Boekbinder On Making A Living As An Artist
March 31, 2012
Musician Kim Boekbinder made news last June when, in response to a show she played for 18 people – netting exactly $12.50, which she spent on whiskey – she announced her new business model:
The problem, as I see it, is that we’re living in THE FUTURE (cue theremin!) with ease of communication, downloadable gratification, large networks, and constant information at our disposal, but we’re still acting like it’s the 1990?s and being a musician driving around in circles is going to help you “Make It.”
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Bullish on the Radio on “How to Start a Business When You’re Broke”
March 29, 2012
Around the 44 minute mark, hear my thoughts on starting a business when you’re broke:
Let’s Talk About It: Health Care Mandates, Trayvon Martin, and Starting a Business When You’re Broke
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Bullish Turns Two! Ballsy Advice on Work, Life, Men, Money, and Unicorns
March 29, 2012
As Bullish enters its Terrible Twos, look forward to much more shouting “No!” and sticking forks into outlets. More »
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Bullish: Getting Bullish on Bullies
March 29, 2012
I know that a lot of us like to pretend to be too cool for mainstream things – for instance, I took a good swipe at Coors Light recently – but it’s hard to deny that Friends was a pretty good show.
I remember seeing the episode, “The One with the Bullies” (Googling “Friends Ross hat bully” totally worked), in which bullies demand that Ross and Chandler give up the good couch at Central Perk, take Chandler’s hat, and order Ross and Chandler never to return.
Sure, the episode was funny, but I remember it out of hundreds of episodes I must have seen because it really hit on something – as adults, we don’t necessarily have better responses to bullying. It just happens less often and it’s easier to get away. More »
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This Weekend in Cambridge, MA at the Women in Comedy Festival
March 24, 2012
How to Make Money Without Becoming a Republican
Date/Time: Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 11:45 am (60 minutes)
Location: Le Meridien Hotel
Tuition: $35
Description: Jennifer Dziura lives a double life — as an educational humorist, and as a writer TheGrindstone.com and TheGloss.com, where she gives career and life coaching advice. Her column, “Bullish,” advocates fiendish hard work, dastardly cleverness, extreme advance planning, and overall panache. Jennifer will talk about finding your target market, cultivating multiple income steams, and thinking productively about money without becoming an asshole. Her one-woman show “The History of Women in 30 Minutes” also appears in the festival.
About the Instructor: Jennifer Dziura makes bank without anyone telling her when to get up in the morning. She likes to help.
The History of Women in 30 Minutes
Date/Time: Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 7pm
Location: ImprovBoston (mainstage)
Tickets: $12
From Eve to Oprah, from Cleopatra to Gaga, women’s history gets the mile-a-minute treatment in a show that won’t make you say the c-word.
Part of “A Night of Oral (Tradition)” — more info here.
(The show was originally 60 minutes, but it’s been cut to 30 minutes because, in a festival of 200+ hilarious ladies, we all have to share, and also I hear ladies are good at that when we’re not fighting in tubs of baby oil.)
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Bullish Life: Achieve Goals and Glory By Recreating Like a Total F*cking Badass
March 22, 2012
Get more done by planning and enjoying your recreational off time like the bad-ass you are! More »
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Bullish: Do You Belong In An Institution?
March 22, 2012
I’ve been thinking a lot about institutions – those who can’t function without them, and those who can’t fit into them.
Two things converged for me this past week: I’m working through a training program in executive coaching and considering the difficulties of coaching my clients to function better within large organizations, especially in cases where the clients may not really want to be part of such an institution the first place. And then, a question came in from someone wondering whether to drop out of college to start a business.
And personally, I have a storied history with institutions: I was always in combat with teachers and professors (like my third-grade teacher who incorrected corrected “ice cream sundae” to “ice cream sunday” – rage, rage, against the dying of literacy!) In my masters in education, I’ve viewed my classmates as horrifyingly subservient and unskeptical. And I always harp on multiple income streams – I don’t want any one boss to have enough power over me that he or she can tell me when to get up in the morning and where to sit for forty hours per week. More »
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Workstation
March 15, 2012
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Bullish: Career Killers You Might Not Know Are Killing You
March 9, 2012
Back when I ran a company, I regularly neglected to respond to anyone whose cover letter began “Dear Sir.”
In fact, I did so with glee. Like this:
Look at this! Dear Sir! Oh wait, where’s my penis? I do not have one, because I am a lady. It’s not sexist or anything to assume that I am a Sir – after all, not everyone has time to use the Internet to research a company or to type “or Madam.” It’s cool. Let me pencil in your interview for the FIFTH OF NEVER. Muhahahahahaha!
It was a small company. My company. My bio was on the website. And in case you consider “Jennifer” a gender-ambiguous name, my photo was on the website as well. Anyone who addressed a cover letter “Dear Sir” was simply lazy, bad at reading comprehension, or very sexist, all of which disqualify applicants from working for me.
Are you committing “career killers” you just don’t know about? More »
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Bullish Life: Let’s Just All Agree on Some Basic Principles of Sexual Ethics
March 7, 2012
Like not being assholes. More »
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Bullish: The Nerdy, Reflective Person’s Guide To Networking
March 3, 2012
I recently began reading the classic networking manual Never Eat Alone. I’m just not that into it.
To an introvert, saying Never Eat Alone is like saying Never Go to the Bathroom Alone. More »
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Bullish Life: O Magazine Can Make You Feel Awesome About Turning 55 in 20-30 Years
March 1, 2012
Although I am a decade or two younger than the target market, Oprah’s O Magazine is a great way to really look forward to being sixty (or at least fortysomething). More »
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March 25 in Cambridge, MA: How to Make Money Without Becoming a Republican
February 24, 2012
How to Make Money Without Becoming a Republican
Date/Time: Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 11:45 am (60 minutes)
Location: Le Meridien Hotel
Tuition: $35
Description: Jennifer Dziura lives a double life — as an educational humorist, and as a writer TheGrindstone.com and TheGloss.com, where she gives career and life coaching advice. Her column, “Bullish,” advocates fiendish hard work, dastardly cleverness, extreme advance planning, and overall panache. Jennifer will talk about finding your target market, cultivating multiple income steams, and thinking productively about money without becoming an asshole. Her one-woman show “The History of Women in 30 Minutes” also appears in the festival.
About the Instructor: Jennifer Dziura makes bank without anyone telling her when to get up in the morning. She likes to help.
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Bullish: Teamwork Is Overrated (How To Be A Lone Unicorn)
February 24, 2012
I started thinking about lone wolves when a friend told me her hiring problem. She posted a job listing for a fundraiser – a very good, executive-level job – and everyone who applied kept talking about how they work well in teams.
Interviewer: “What’s the first thing you would do?”
Many candidates: “I’d assemble a great team!”
Interviewer: “No. Your team includes this receptionist. She’s right here. Try again.”
More »
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- The Math Beast Challenge Problem of the Week – May 21st, 2012 - Each week, we post a new Challenge Problem for you to attempt. If you submit the correct answer, you will be entered into that week’s drawing for two free Manhattan Prep GRE Strategy Guides. Everyone at a party is either a man or a woman. After 8 women leave, there are four times as many [...]
- Sentence Equivalence: Try This Problem Now! - The exhibit is not so much a retrospective as a __________ ; the artist’s weaker early work is glossed over and any evidence of his ultimate dissolution is absent entirely. Select two correct answers. paean philippic tirade panacea eulogy crescendo (Note: When you see six answer choices and square checkboxes, that’s a clue that this [...]
- Cheesy Mnemonics for GRE Vocab: Tantamount - Mnemonics or mnemonic devices are memory tricks to help us remember things like vocabulary words. However, many mnemonics are pretty cheesy — often involving the kind of jokes some people call “groaners.” For instance… Tantamount means, “equivalent, as in value, force, effect, or signification.” The word is often used to say that something is 99.9% [...]
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