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It is a wonder…

It is a wonder that I have kept any job.

In 2001 I took a programming job with Saks at their Information Technology center in Jackson, Mississippi.  It is a long story how it came to be there, I will not bore you. At that time Saks was the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue, and three other department store chains.

The week I started the departmental secretary sent me an email requesting that I write a short blurb about myself.  She was going to put my “bio” and the photograph from my ID badge on the departmental bulletin board to introduce me to everyone.  I did so, she did so, but she failed to read  my expository remarks, simply cutting and pasting my profundities into her document.

Click to see bigger

A few days later she came to me all excited asking about what I had written, insistent that I “correct” it.  Unfortunately not every one gets my sublime sense of humor.  It might also be the reason that a year or so later when I asked her out, she was very adamant about having to wash her hair seven nights a week.

Just in case you cannot read the verbiage in the image here is what I wrote:

“David joined SAKS in February of this year. He came from American Electric Power in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is working as a Senior Programmer with Greg Kinsley’s IT Logistics Team. David has two kids and a granddaughter. They reside just outside Ft. Smith, AR. David resides in the Reservoir area.  His interests include golf, photography, fishing and backpacking. He volunteers part-time with the Frankenstein Laboratory of Experimental Humanity.”

And so it goes.

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Quote of the Day – Émile Zola

“It is a crime to exploit patriotism in the service of hatred, and it is, finally, a crime to ensconce the sword as the modern god, whereas all science is toiling to achieve the coming era of truth and justice. Truth and justice, so ardently longed for! How terrible it is to see them trampled, unrecognized and ignored!”  ~~ J’Accuse by Émile Zola

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #3,187

yeah I know you did not ask!

Asking for a friend… logicians check your slide rulers at the door.

Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Now if God created man in his own image, and humans sneeze, one can assume God sneezes.  When he does so do you say, God bless you, God? I suppose it would be a form of self-love, part of any healthy personality when not done to excess.

I’ll let my friend know your answer.

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I don’t mean to be a Grinch…

A while back I enrolled on an app for neighborhoods, Nextdoor, as I had the need to sell some items.

Left turn Clyde… if you ever have a need to fill up a nut house, just put something vaguely of value on Craigslist for free.  I guarantee that within 24 hours your institution will be overflowing.

Another left turn Clyde… I suppose nut house is not political correct these days, perhaps I should have said, “abode for the sanity challenged.” Oops, cannot use that name, Congress has already taken full possession of it.

Back to the main road Clyde… I’m not a big fan of Nextdoor.  It seems to be a lot of Millennials and a few Gen Xers whining about nearly anything. We live in a neighborhood with reasonable sized lots, lots of trees and a huge, miles long greenbelt with a small stream running the length of it.  Lots of wildlife to be seen at times, mainly deer, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels, hawks, but no lion, tigers or bears, oh my.  Almost daily someone on Nextdoor is warning about one or the other.  A while back someone was upset because their male neighbor was mowing his lawn with his shirt off.  Complaining of speeders is another recurring theme, even though CPD makes its budget with speed traps on major ingressing streets for this neighborhood.

I have my notices from Nextdoor going to an email address I use for sites I believe will spam me, and I only check it sporadically.  So when I saw this notification of a posting with just the first few words in the email, I thought, “well another Millennial aspiring to be a Curmudgeon!”  Wanting to verify my impression I opened up the posting:

“I don’t mean to be a Grinch however………. to those of you who are placing Christmas lights/ decorations in your yard, would you please avoid anything that has red and blue lights flashing together. Every time I come around the corner, I think it’s the police and I have a panic attack. I have to brake hard, toss my margarita out the window, fasten my seat belt, throw my phone on the floor, turn my radio down, and all while trying to drive. It’s just too much drama, even for Christmas.”

Cracked me up, and it does capture the spirit of Nextdoor.

And so it goes.

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Word of the Day – Liminal

  • Adjective: Liminal
    1. of, relating to, or situated at a sensory threshold : barely perceptible or capable of eliciting a response liminal visual stimuli
    2. of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition : in-between, transitional … in the liminal state between life and death.
  • Synonyms:
    1. transitional
    2. changeover
    3. interim
    4. changing
    5. fluid
    6. in flux
    7. unsettled
    8. intermediate
    9. indistinguishable
    10. inappreciable
    11. imperceptible
  • Usage:
    1. “… and one I’m actually quite good at, hovering in the liminal space between sensitivity and paranoia.”
  • Encountered:
    1. Reading the essay Not Grumpy Cat in Ross Gay’s The Book of Delights: Essays

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

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INTJ Targeted by Big Brother

Big Brother aka Google fed me the following article in my news feed today:

INTJ Personality: 5 Traits, Strengths, Weaknesses & More

It is not surprising at one level as I tend to at least glance at articles related to science subjects, such as psychology.  I am chalking it up to coincidence that it was an exact hit on my particular Briggs-Meyers personality type.  I have to, otherwise the paranoia will be too much.

Years ago, when I was around 30, I took one of these tests in a more or less medical situation.  I came out INTJ then – only 2% Continue reading “INTJ Targeted by Big Brother”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,376

yeah I know you did not ask!

There is a house in our neighborhood that I can see their front yard from the kitchen window at the back of our house.  The house is actually the one street over on a street that runs perpendicular to our street.  For Halloween one their decorations was a witch on a broomstick crashing into a tree.  For Christmas they have Santa Claus falling off of the roof.

I do believe I am going to knock on their door and introduce myself.  They seem like my sort of folks.

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I Love You – Part 1…Maybe

I’ve been thinking a lot about 3 words of late, “I love you.”

“Why,” you ask.

It is my wife. She says those words all the time, to me, of course, but also to many other people, mostly her women friends.

Let me explain my wife, perhaps something no husband should ever attempt to do. She has a certain charisma that is not lost on me, even after many years together.  She attracts people, and probably more importantly, she really likes people.  She has lived in the St. Louis area all of her life.  She has friends dating back to her nursery school days.  I’ve never sat down and analyzed it, but she has 3 or 4 or 5 different circles of friends.  A couple of the circles overlap Continue reading “I Love You – Part 1…Maybe”

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Less Reading = Less Empathy

“The research, led by Sara H. Konrath of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and published online in August in ‘Personality and Social Psychology Review’, found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years. To make matters worse, during this same period students’ self-reported narcissism has reached new heights, according to research by Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University.” ~~ Article in Scientific American, What, Me Care? Young Are Less Empathetic

I stumbled across this article while researching another subject.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with my Canadian friend, Le Canuck, who lives in Memphis.  I was there Continue reading “Less Reading = Less Empathy”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,995

yeah I know you did not ask!

What is wrong with me?  Yeah, yeah, I hear you muttering under your breath that you have been asking that same question for much too long now.

La señora purchased a tin of pre-popped pop corn as a gift for my brother, James Michael Rush, CPA,  when he was here recently, visiting. He opened it, ate some of it, and drove off without it.  So I have been liquidating his gift, grudgingly of course, one handful, one bowl full, at a whack.

One type of pop corn contained therein, is caramel covered.  I have been taken these, putting them in a small bowl, shaking a few peanuts into the the vessel, and voilà, Instant Cracker Jacks.  This afternoon I found myself digging around in the bowl looking for The Surprise!

I understand that it is possible now days to engage the services of a therapist online.