Blog Posts by Marci Alboher, Working the New Economy

In a black silk blouse with skinny jeans and stylish black boots, Jessica DuLong doesn't look like she spends her days in the bowels of a 78-year-old fireboat. That's because I met her on a day when she was inhabiting her other job, that of the author of a newly released book. A former dotcom executive and freelance journalist, DuLong had an accidental career change after spending some time volunteering on The the John J. Harvey, a retired 1931 New York City fireboat that has become a living museum. Now one of few female fireboat engineers in the world, DuLong's newly published book, "My River Chronicles," is both a tale of career transformation and a compelling narrative about a time when working boats and industry played a large role in America's economic and civic life.

DuLong never left the world of words. And she is using her new book as a vehicle to get white-collar and blue-collar folks to talk to one another. DuLong isn't the only one thinking about this subject. Another book

I just finished a marathon week answering questions about small business with Kevin Salwen over at the Yahoo! Small Business Center.

We got a slew of interesting questions ranging from how to use social networking to grow a small business, to how to prevent people from stealing your idea, and how a small business can become more socially responsible. You can read all the questions and answers here, under the "See Expert Answers," tab.

I always enjoy answering reader questions, but this time I also got a cool work experience out of the deal. Though I'd been aware of Salwen from his days at the Wall Street Journal, I'd only met him briefly before Yahoo! asked us to work together on this project.

If that match hadn't gone so smoothly this week would have been a disaster. Instead it was one of the smoothest collaborations I've ever had. We figured out a process to do the work, divvying up the questions based on our areas of expertise, using Facebook chat to let each other know when a

This blog is going to be a little quiet this week as I'm spending my time on another area of Yahoo! helping people with their questions about small business. So if you'll excuse this mini-advertisement, I'll tell you what it's all about as it's a pretty nifty way to learn about small business and potentially win some valuable stuff.

Are you thinking of starting a small business, but stumped as to any aspect of it? Wondering how to write a business plan? How much money you'll need to start up? Whether it's legal to run your business out of your home?

If so, head over to Yahoo!'s Small Business Answer Center, where Kevin Salwen and I will be answering questions as part of a contest sponsored by Yahoo! and Bank of America. Kevin and I will select and answer 25 questions over the next few days and one of the questions we answer will be chosen as the contest winner. The winning writer will receive a $20,000 Yahoo! marketing credit and a 45-minute telephone consultation. If you have a

Getty ImagesI'm back in business after taking pretty much the whole month of September off for my wedding and honeymoon. And since we returned on the night before Yom Kippur, back-to-work was further delayed by another day.

I've had quite a few work/life interruptions over the years -- times in which I've said no to almost everything that comes up on both the personal and work front because life is just too busy. Some of them have been for awful reasons like when people have been ill or passed away. In those cases, people usually understand that you're going to be out of commission for an indefinite period of time. And they usually leave it to you to tell them when you're ready to re-engage. When you're lucky, they offer the right kinds of support.

But few reasons for dropping out of work and life feel as good as taking time off to get married.

When you announce you're getting married, coupled people tend to tell you about how they fell in love. Single people tend to ask about how you met your

Getty ImagesThe best moments on a blog occur when a conversation is sparked and readers engage with one another, or with the blogger, and minds are changed. I'm happy to report that I've had several of those moments while writing this blog over the past few months. Here are a few recent highlights:

A post asking whether online higher education will replace the bricks-and-mortar kind inspired a flurry of informed comments, including many from people who had worked in online education or taken online courses themselves. Readers pointed out that students need to do their homework before enrolling in online courses to verify whether an online institution is accredited, whether course credits will transfer to other schools, and whether online courses even make sense for a given course of study. Readers who had been students of online education weighed in on the benefits (convenience, affordability) and drawbacks (absence of a physical community, wide disparity in quality of programs) of online

RealPissed.comWhile spending some time at the Jersey Shore, I read about a new local business venture, RealPissed.com, founded by three friends in their twenties. The site is a social network where people share rants about what they are pissed about in the form of blog posts and videos. And it's a sign of the times that its founders see opportunities in a communal online kvetch-fest.

On visiting the site, you're greeted by a jarring black, white and yellow color scheme, along with the sound of video which automatically loads (the next times I've visited, I muted it.) Two of the founders have a background in promoting Atlantic City night clubs and that gives a sense of the site's audio visual vibe.

The site already has a Facebook fan page with over 1500 friends, a Twitter account with nearly 500 followers, and an active group of contributors complaining in vivid language (much of which is not printable on this blog) about the latest offense the world has delivered to them.

Doctors say it's healthy

Getty ImagesSince January I've been gobbling up the Love in the Time of Layoffs column by Deborah Siegel on Recessionwire. Siegel is an academic-turned-author/consultant (as well as a friend of mine) and the column was born when her newly wedded husband Marco lost his job as a graphic designer (full disclosure: Marco designed the logo on my personal website.)

The column is so readable because it talks stuff few people are talking about. Like what happens to a heterosexual relationship when a woman suddenly becomes the sole breadwinner, what happens when someone who's used to office culture suddenly gets used to the rhythms of home life, how two people (one of whom is pregnant with twins) can avoid driving each other batty when suddenly confined to a 650 square foot apartment.

Like any good serial narrative, Love in the Time of Layoffs had a major plot twist this month: Marco is back to work, albeit in a freelance gig. Questions abound for interested readers. Will he keep the job? Will the couple

We've heard the cliches: "That which doesn't kill us makes us strong;" "Something good will come of this;" "A blessing in disguise;" "Find the silver lining." And when it comes to the impact of the current recession, they are the kind of empty words that don't usually make us feel much better. But after reading Kurt Andersen's book, Reset, I started to believe that once we come out what he calls this "economic emergency," we may be living in a culture that is a lot more sane and healthy than the one that brought us down.

Andersen traces the crisis of the past few years to the excesses that began in the late 1980s -- the increasing size of the average American house, the rise in consumer debt, the ubiquity of state-sanctioned and state-run gambling, even the expanded girth of the average American. He uses the vocabulary of addiction to explain how America needs to get back on track -- "to teach ourselves to buy and sell and borrow in healthier, more moderate ways."

I had a chat with