The first part of a new year always makes me want to run for cover for about three weeks.  My mail box is full of catalogs, junk mail and solicitations from every place i ever bought anything, funeral homes telling me i need to think about the Alpha-Omega plan as the new year starts.  Insurance companies telling me that this is  the time to think about who is going to pay my bills and support everyone i ever knew if i should croak this year.  Not to mention all the catalogs telling me that all the crap i bought for Christmas is now on sale at 50% off.  Listen up promoters, i spent a few bucks on Christmas.  I am focused on going back to work to pay off the credit cards.  I am not thinking about dying and if do that may have crossed my mind before Jan 2nd, i really don't want to know that the stuff i bought for Christmas was really only worth half of what i paid for it.  I know you do that before inventory but please don't shove it down my throat.  And all those offers for 300 more credit cards that are going to give me more cash back, blah, blah.  Shred, shred, shred.  No wonder the united states post office is inefficient.  They are drop shippers of tons of liners for cat boxes and bird cages and fodder for the shredder that somebody else wants to sell me to get rid of all the junk mail.

So i check my email and the amount of spam from somebody selling everything from every get rich quick scheme to cruises to escape the winter, software updates  and letters from politicians is exceeded only by resumes of candidates who haven't worked in a year, can't or won't read a job description and have made a new year's resolution to find a job.  Great me too and i have no interest in viagra or any other type of male enhancement.  Delete, delete, delete.

Looking for some respite from the deluge of junk mail, email spam and robo calls (every other one for the past few days) i decide to check in on the blogs and websites that i frequent.  Holy Hell, every software vendor, career coach, half baked recruiter and everybody else who has some wonderful solution that is going to make my job a walk in the park is posting some promotional blog about social networking, career advice for free, news reports with links to their web site or blog to generate traffic so they can count the number of hits they got before their boss fires them or splaining that they are "branding" themselves .

GET BACK!!!!!!  Give us a break, or let's start a group called MARKETING AND PROMOTION FRENZY FOR THE NEW YEAR so all you little darlins can promote your selves, brand your selves, generate traffic to your boring blog without making a contribution to this community and generally get your stuff relegated to where it should be.  In a pit where all junk mail, spam and self promotion goes to stink up a place where nobody really wants to go.  You are "branding" yourself but trust me sports, it's not what you had in mind.  Or maybe you should all get together and take turns flopping this stuff out there so we can at least spread it out over the year.  Did you miss something in marketing 101 about not irritating the folks you are trying to sell to?

Or maybe i'm off base and i should deluge every client i have ever had with emails and calls beating them to death for job orders the first week of the year so i can piss  them off early and i can go back to bed.

Oh and by the way.  I can read something that is not numbered.  Just write it and learn to write an interesting headline instead of "4 thousand reasons you need to read this".  That is a lot like saying, "We would like to say thank  you.".  Great, how about you just say thank you instead of letting me know that you would like to.