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Monthly Archives: January 2013

Retail Xmas


Having had the opportunity to work during the past holidays from Thanksgiving through Xmas, I have made some observations. All retailers at the end of the year aim for initially “black Friday” then everyday after that to improve their bottom lines. This continues up to and including New Years sales ( the eve, the day and sometimes days after).  There are clearance sales of all sorts, there are end of year specials along with the shock troop kind of ads to help unload the seasonal items that take up shelf and floor space. This transition period usually requires  a team of  people to make these changes move quickly and as smooth as possible. This period of change does create a look of chaos and a Hodge podgy look for a short time but at the same time for those shoppers who delight in bargain hunting and have a “flea market” mindset these areas are gold mines. The upside is that these miners are important in clearing out those pockets of remnants. The downside is that workers toil overnight to police these areas while preparing for the next seasonal change at the same time continuing normal replenishment .These pre and during holiday work times have left me with a sense of not enjoying the Holidays as I once did. Previously I enjoyed hearing the Xmas carols from the wide assortment of singers and musicians but I found my self pretty tired of it since there was loop of the same singers and songs blaring with a sprinkling of company ads to sour the mix. In previous times I looked forward to cueing up several (now CD’s) albums of Xmas music, having a nog or two and some good food or snacks. This year I could not wait for it all to be done, the one pleasure that remained was the fun of setting up of the outdoor lights and the figures. I have decided that when the end of the year harvest time through Xmas rolls around again  I will be taking a vacation from work with or without pay.

Does it Have To Be Shortened?


It seems that there are more reduction of terms, for instance  “24-7”, this means literally all the time. How about fun? Currently the term that was  once  “so much fun”, “a lot of fun” or “great  fun” has now become “too fun” or “so fun”! Are we too busy to make whole sentences?  Why do we  have to endure the short form of legislature that affects all of us.This election cycle and prior ones have seen the advent of the “sound bite” which is a snippet that is designed to get our attention and push us towards an often erroneous conclusion. These shortened bits  are in  reality waste a lot of time  because they force an examination of  the whole  message which tends to upset people when they  understand the whole message. This also serves to aggravate people and lose votes. This creates a situation that pushes voters to vote a certain way or alas not vote at all.  When we were “media “we were happier and the information  was less disingenuous. We had fewer talking heads and more commentators who really were reporting instead of distorting. The media now has become a race between the major and minor networks to have an edge  with a controversial person or program leading the way. Now we have the internet and smart phone media that allows for “tweets” & “face book”. These two mediums allow for social interaction but omit  a certain amount of  “wide area thinking”. Wide area thinking is simply getting information from several sources and forming an opinion based on the conclusion YOU draw from them. The shortening of conversational items as well as every day words and expressions is like regression or going backwards. Thats my opine and so wht.

Poisons We Take In.


A recent televised Dr’s show was pointing out the amount of poisons we ingest daily. While the basic premise is correct but a bit inexact. As humans we have and will continue to ingest these poisons only in the organic forms. These organic forms in the small quantities we take in just pass right through leaving the benefits they provide and causing no harm. The true poisons are the synthetic forms of these same compounds. These are the deadly forms and the ones that are commonly used in manufacturing and food production.  The reason for the synthetic compounds is that they aid in the production of food, clothing, and the maintenance of  crops grown for food. In  the years of scientific involvement in crop production, the processing and growth  of  food crops has involved the synthetic poisons since the organics are not as readily available in the quantity required for those uses.  The scientists have been very successful in improving our lives by creating  these synthetic compounds yet the long range  after effects were never considered. Look at  the vast amount of plastic materials that will never decay and will always be around. These plastics have no purpose once they have been used and the industry has not figured out a way to recycle all of it. Once placed in a  landfill, they  decay at a very slow rate while leaching their individual parts into the air and soil. These components become airborne and are washed out into the ground and thereby the water table due to weathering. This cycle brings the poisons back to us in what we eat, touch and feel. Did you ever wonder why some of the everyday items we use work so well?- poisons!

Remove Yourself


In talking to an old friend today we talked about a lot of things in the catch-up phase of our conversation and one particular item was the interaction with people who as bosses and co workers feel the need to be in command yet feel threatened when a person (an underling or equivalent) performs well. This brings about a confrontational situation which if left to unfold in its natural way could end very bad and to no advantage to either party. The solution is remove your self from the situation and allow the status quo to continue. This is not quitting, ceding or running but more like escaping from a non winnable and possibly damaging situation. This is viable  in  most cases except  when it concerns the welfare of others. This brings me to the issue of our government, primarily the Congress. In the beginning the sole job of the Congress was to insure the people were well served by the law of the land (the Constitution), these representatives all had regular jobs making  the Congressional seat a part time position. The Position is still a part time position yet we pay fulltime salaries plus benefits. These benefits are quite good compared to many of their constituents. I believe we need to remove our selves from the political process in this way:

1. stop voting for these long time servers

2. Stop believing the party hype-it does not address the real issues

3. Remember : if it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck and looks a duck, it’s a duck!

Remove your self from the common and media presented information and dig deeper.

Now Is The Time


Still under discussion is the now past fiscal cliff and the upcoming  smaller ones. I repeat my mantra: “Our Congress is the problem”. these long termers have been allowed to continue their poor work ethics that do nothing to resolve problems long term. They have settled in to a kick the can down the road mind-set to the detriment of the country-financially and morally. Unfortunately any potential 3rd party candidates cannot out raise these neer do wells to pose a challenge. The political system has become more of a fund raising event than an informational one. Each candidate makes speeches about nothing but have bought more air time to have their faces and messages (such as they are) displayed. What if we were able to have these 3rd party people on par with the incumbents and big money backed candidates? We could possibly have a better crop of Government legislators.