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Faded (A Post For Video Store Day 2015)

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

For 2 and a half years in high school and college I worked at a pair of video rental stores. It’s still one of my favorite jobs I’ve ever had.

There were a lot of perks when I worked at the video store. Free rentals. Getting new movies before they were released. Easy access to giant tubs of buttery popcorn.

The most underrated perk of the job? Free movie posters.

Every month we’d get a new shipment of movie posters to plaster in the windows of the store promoting the coming attractions. Whenever new posters came in the old ones came down. Before they went in the dumpster these old posters were fair game for any of the employees to take home.

To a college kid this was a jackpot. My walls were covered by posters for “Batman Begins” and “Wallace and Gromit” – high art to a 20-year-old.

FullSizeRender(3)There was one problem. Often by the time they came off the wall many of the movie posters were faded. Continue reading →

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11 Lessons From My Resume

/ Alex Doriot / 3 Comments

photo 2-7As I enjoyed the Labor Day holiday this past weekend I had a chance to read an article in my hometown paper where the great columnist Bill Kirby shared lessons from some of the many jobs he worked over his life. I thought it would be interesting to go back and do the same for my years in the workforce.

Though I’m only 29-years-old at the moment I’ve amassed a good size resume and I believe there’s at least one lesson to be learned from every job I’ve had over the years. So, with full credit to Mr. Kirby for the idea, here’s one lesson from every job I’ve had since I started working at age 16:

1) The Masters Tournament (First week of April 2002):

The Job – 4 straight 14 hour days in a concession stand at the most popular golf event in the world.

The Lesson – The paycheck is not always worth the work. Continue reading →

How To Have Complete Job Security

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

Anchorman-2Weathermen and Sportscasters have it easy.

A good portion of their job performance is based on prediction. Each night the weatherperson forecasts what the temperature will be. One segment later the sports anchor gives you their gameday picks.

They’re both just guessing. And most of the time they’re both wrong.

Yet there they sit night after night, week after week, offering their often incorrect predictions.

You probably saw it this week with high-stakes playoff football and wacky temperatures across the country. Even with incredible technology tracking the weather and advanced analytics watching every game, no prediction can be perfect.

Forecasters and sportscasters are given gobs of grace based on their personality rather than their prediction performance percentages.

It must be nice to have a job where you’re not really judged on your performance.

I think sometimes as Christians we become too concerned with The Measuring Stick – how we are judged by God based on our performance in this world. Continue reading →

Why The Church Should Not Evolve

/ Alex Doriot / 2 Comments

blockbuster_1250Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35)

The video store is dead.

This is not really news. The video store has been on life support for years. And in some rural communities Mom and Pop movie rental shops are still hanging in there.

But after years of fighting a terminal, self-inlicted disease, Blockbuster finally decided to shutter its final 300 stores. Continue reading →

The Declaration Of Dependence

/ Alex Doriot / 1 Comment

IMG_5107Do you remember your first summer job?

Cashing that paycheck from a first job is a rite of passage for most teenagers. Whether it’s out of necessity to help support the family or just to earn a little extra spending money, securing a summer job is a gateway to the first taste of independence.

My first summer job came when I was 16 years old. I worked at a movie rental store (remember those?) called Video Warehouse. I wore a red polo shirt and khaki shorts to work four days a week that summer as I checked out the latest DVDs and videotapes (remember those?) to Augusta families.

I made minimum wage, and I didn’t mind. Adding any amount to my bank account was an exhilarating feeling.

My parents were always generous with granting me spending money when I didn’t have a job. But there was something different about being able to provide for myself.

I might have been taking home only a couple of hundred dollars each month, but to me the possibilities of earning my own paycheck were endless. With a little bit of money came a greater sense of independence.

The longing of every teenage heart is to be independent. After you’ve tasted a little freedom from your parents, it’s hard to forget how sweet it is.

The older you get, the more embarrassing it becomes to have to depend on someone else to provide the things you need. There’s a stigma of shame attached to not being able to provide for yourself.

Why, then, does God want us to depend on him so much? Continue reading →