Stress at Work

November has been a very stressful month at work. There's not much I can say about it other than the fact that a lot of things happened. A lot of things have been happening that one may not agree with, but I guess that's the way things are. As much as I could say that things could be different, and most definitely a lot better, it is not my decision. I can only suggest and hope that perhaps somebody listens and takes things to heart. I can try to keep that smile at work and try to put a smile on the faces of my coworkers but it's getting harder to do that.

The truly unfortunate thing is that the stress has affected my work at Mahalo as of late. I'm writing less and less and even the articles or tidbits I write have been of a lower quality than I am used to. There have been a number of projects at Mahalo that I wished I could have been a part of. I really wish I could spend more time there but I also need a lot of winding down time after work. The swing shifts also do not help as in the past while I've been unable to sleep well. Maybe it's just a sign I'm getting old.

Promise

I've made a promise to continue create more pages and do more work on Mahalo, even if it involves waking up early or staying up late. If I'm getting paid to write a page, then why shouldn't I be doing more? Even with my confusing schedule at the casino I should be able to devote a bit of time each day to write or update a page, or complete any assignments given to me. It would also give me time to properly write a page, as with my rushed schedule the quality of my work has dropped a bit as of late.

Besides, I will be going on holiday end of November for two weeks, so I should probably get as much done as possible before my trip. I don't want to lose my creativity, and hopefully when I get back I'll be able to devote as much, or even more, time as before. It is such a rewarding and relaxing job for me, and who knows, maybe I might end up more and more involved with Mahalo. It would take a lot to get me away from the casino industry (despite the stress and pressures) but for a long time, when people ask me if I had a choice what would I do: my answer is simply to write.

Sports on Mahalo

Earlier this year Mahalo had a different system where writers would create their own pages and then be responsible for updating them as facts or news changed. This was perfect for me as I was able to create a lot of hockey-related pages from scratch. Because the company is based in California, hockey is not as well known to them as other sports. As a bonus, I did a few pages on the Dallas Cowboys as well. The very first page I did was on the Dallas Cowboy jersey. With the help of my mentor Jeff Hoard (who luckily was Canadian and believe it or not a big Montreal Canadiens fan) we got most of the Habs pages going. I wrote pages on most of the Habs roster and updated the playoff page during the amazing run. It was with sadness that I had to update the part where they lost that last game to the Philadelphia Flyers. Maybe next year.

The system is a bit different now, we are no longer in charge of updating our own pages. Nobody really "owns" the pages anymore, they are just updated by whoever is available. I will explain this shortly.

Mahalo Pages

This week there are a number of categories of pages on Mahalo that have been assigned: actors, Black Friday sales, Thanksgiving, and coupons. Most of the actor pages are for TV actors who don't have a page on Mahalo. So far I've done pages on Paul Guilfoyle (Jim Brass on CSI), Bonnie Bedelia, and Brian Benben. Benben was on an HBO series Dream On that I enjoyed in the 1990s. There are a lot of actors left to do.

You can perhaps begin to see the enormity of this whole "project" of starting a search engine by scratch. Mahalo has been around a while but there are so many pages in so many categories. The old system (which was discontinued this past June) had the writers doing pages in their "preferred" categories but that has changed for the time being. I would love to continue writing pages about the Habs and anything to do with Las Vegas and gambling, but for now I have to do what is assigned. We do have the option of suggesting new pages to do, but we also have to do what is assigned.

Goals at Mahalo

Eventually I would like to be a part of the Quality Control Team at Mahalo. Currently there are three people who are working way too hard but doing a fine job of critiquing new pages and updated pages. It's been hard for me sometimes to put together a good page. I usually like to spend a lot of time proofreading my own work, and sometimes if I'm updating a page, I have to proofread somebody else's work. Updating pages takes about an hour a page. This involves checking for grammar, adding news if necessary, and making sure all the facts are still true. We frown on words like "current" or "today" as these tend to date the page. Pages have to be free from bias, so things like "Montreal Canadiens rule" unfortunately don't work (even if it is the truth).

It's too bad I can't spend more time with my writing, but hopefully with a more balanced schedule at the casino I may be able to.

Life at Mahalo

So what do I do at Mahalo? Simply put, I write! It's one of my favorite hobbies so I'm doing something I like, and getting paid for it. I am a part of two departments, the Gurus and the Guides.

Gurus are in charge of asking and answering questions on various topics. The main "answer" site is located at Mahalo Answers but there are other more specific topic pages as well. One of the ones I am heavily involved at is on the Ask Inc site. Gurus are paid money for each question and answer they ask, subject to quality control policies that must be followed. Each question and answer must be a minimum number of words and include a video.

Guides are more involved with writing and updating pages. Mahalo is a page similar to Wikipedia, which you may be familiar with. Once on the Mahalo site, you can search for a specific topic (like Marie Osmond for example). A page comes up with a description or snippet of what you are searching for. As you can probably figure, there are a LOT of pages to do. My coworkers and I are basically in charge of writing an encyclopedia from scratch. It is a tedious process. Many pages are assigned but the guides are also available to suggest pages that they wish to work on. Due to my knowledge of hockey and gambling, I have been able to do a number of pages on River Rock, Aria Las Vegas, and Venetian Macau for example.

Guides also have to update pages that are already in the "system". The task this week is to do a lot of updates on the 2010 Senate Elections in the U.S. Yes that's very exciting for a Canadian like me but it's part of the job. I'm waiting for them to assign hockey page updates.

Anyways, if you have any questions, let me know!

Where Have I Been?

There was a time when I would try to update my blog every day or at least every two days. But unfortunately that time seems to have passed. But I'm still here. I think everybody has an idea where I have been and what I have been doing. It's the four-letter word every dreads.... W-O-R-K.

Things have been quite hectic at the casino. A lot has happened in the past two or three months. The Party Pit has been going well as of late. We even have an unofficial Party Pit hostess Jessica who is great with the guests and even some of our VIP players upstairs. And of course the casino gets busy when the cage dancers get going at 9pm.

My part-time work at Mahalo is also going well. It is unfortunate that I can't spend more time writing for them but work at the casino comes first. But I enjoy what little time I can devote as I am doing something I truly enjoy. I'm writing little pages on topics that I love, what more can you ask for? If you are interested in working part time, let me know. Or email jeffhoard@mahaloguides.com and mention you are interested in working for Mahalo. Include my name as I will get a referral bonus!

Priorities

I really have to sit down and decide on a schedule for my life. As much as I'm enjoying my "side job" working at Mahalo, I need to put aside some time (hopefully every day) to do some writing or editing. Right now I'm still considering it somewhat of a fun thing (even though I'm starting to make more and more money). I'm getting a lot of searches for some of my articles, but I need to put in an extra effort to get them to or near the top of the Google Searches. How do I make people more interested in the Montreal Canadiens Roster? Who wants to know more about Jaroslav Halak? Do people still want to hear about Marie Osmond? Do you buy Iams Pet Food for your pets?

Freelance Writing

Aside from the bad drivers in Richmond, and the occasional "stuff" at work, I am happy. My dream has always been to write for money and right now that dream is starting to come true. The last month with Mahalo I made about $200, which is nothing spectacular but it's a start. The more I write the more I earn. The more people search for my tidbits the more I earn. It's something called SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization. I'm learning more and more about it. Currently my Vertical Manager, Jeff, has given me a lot of tasks on the Montreal Canadiens, what more can I ask for? I've tried not to write too biased an article on Jaroslav Halak. I was also part of the GoTeam last week, where we spend 8 hours cleaning up other pages. It paid $10/hr which is cool. I'm getting a lot of projects to do which is time-consuming but I'm doing something I love. I have a page on Marie Osmond, and even a page on Amy's favorite actor in the world, Daniel Henney. And believe it or not, they assigned me a page on Iams Pet Food, even though I've never had a pet in my life. It's great.