Tag: work

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Ace Hardware — Hip Hip Hooray

After about 3 weeks of casually looking when I was in a store anyway, I found a pair of gloves for yard work. “Big deal”, you say. Yes, because my primary criteron was to find a pair not made in China. I had checked all the usual suspects, China*Mart, the China*Mart want-to-be Lowe’s, etc. Every pair of gloves I picked had been manufactured in China.

I was close to an Ace Hardware store Sunday, so I decided to buzz in and see what they had in the work glove department. I picked up several pair, and they were identified as having been made in Pakistan. While this is not American made, I had decided that I would not be able to find a pair of American made work gloves and would settle for a pair made anywhere but China.

I am 100% sure that Pakistan needs the work much more than China. Having worked for a large retailer I know that they make a show of making sure their products are manufactured in factories with some modicum of humane treatment. I can only hope Ace Hardware does this too.

I bought them. Thanks Ace Hardware.

See I Want to Buy American

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Illegal Immigration – Pros and Cons

I am still trying to figure out how I feel about all the illegal immigrants in this country and the various action plans floating around to deal with them.  My gut reaction is not kind, but I know there is much more to the picture than what my knee-jerk emotions are telling me.   I do know that many legal immigrants that I have spoken to resent the illegal immigrants that have not jumped through all the hoops they have, yet seem to be able to stay in this country unbothered.

Towards the end of clarifying my thought process I thought I would gather up some of the arguments, favoring and oppositional.

We have a tendency due to our dysfunctional political system to not act, to drift, to let the status quo rock on.  This should not be the case with immigration reform as the current system is full of abuse, personal and systematic.   Continue reading “Illegal Immigration – Pros and Cons”

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Fair and Balanced…Not

There is so much I could say.  What scares me is that Fox News is the most popular cable “news” source.  What scares me even more is that those folks that watch Fox News seem to accept it lock, stock and barrel.  Plus they absolutely are clueless as to why someone would not.   I do not think it a coincidence that NASCAR fans are by and by, big consumers of Fox News.  There seems to a major dearth of critical thinking and self examination in this country.  I have no idea if it is a new phenomenon, but it feels like the extent to which it is happening does seem to have reached new bounds.

I’m not sure what their overarching goal is a Fox News, but it is not the long run good of this country or the majority of its citizens.  The country that Fox News and its bought and paid for political candidates envision is not a country I want to live in.   I doubt it is a country Thomas Jefferson would want to live in.

Below is a link to a commentary on the study.  Obviously from their headline they are a little harsher than I might be.  When I read the study the impression I get is that we are all sadly misinformed or captive to our belief systems.  My personal opinion is that for democracy to work really well, the voters should be informed and involved.  We really have neither.  And there are more than a few sources intent on spreading misinformation aka propaganda.

Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid

The full study from World Public Opinion.org

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Bah…Humbug…

Folks around here have started decorating for Christmas. I, being who I am, have hung pictures of Scrooge and the Grinch on the outside wall of my cube.  I’ve also added a picture of a Santa Claus hat with a big diagonal slash through it.

This morning I added a stuffed Santa Claus that makes Scrooge like comments when he is squeezed.  He has a Christmas tree with a slash through it as part of his outfit.  Some anonymous person hung this on my cube wall last year.

My boss got a call at home last night complaining about my decorations.  My boss declined to identify the caller.  The caller told my boss, “You know that David is not of our belief.”

“What belief is that?”

“Well… he does not believe in Santa Claus” Continue reading “Bah…Humbug…”

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“Sometimes anal is good”

We had a minor crisis at work.  I work on the Oracle HRMS system for a utility.  After applying a patch and upgrade we could not transfer the time from the time card system over to the Payroll system.  People like to get paid so we were more than a little motivated to get it fixed.

We gathered together as a team to work on the problem which took more than a few hours to fix.  People were getting somewhat tense.  Programmers as a group are on the OCD side and when we get stressed it tends to bring out this side even more.

Somebody wanted to double check something a different way.  He apologized for being anal, but he said he needed to do this.

I remarked that, “Sometimes anal is good.”

The room all of sudden got real quite.

I realized what I had just said.

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The Itch

Once upon a time lived a beautiful Queen with large breasts.

Ted the Dragon Slayer obsessed over the Queen for this reason.

He knew that the penalty for his desire would be death should he try to touch them, but he had to try.

One day Ted revealed his secret desire to his colleague, Horatio the Physician, the King’s chief doctor.

Horatio thought about this and said that he could arrange for Ted to more than satisfy his desire, Continue reading “The Itch”

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My Modeling Career

There is a security guard where I work, a white woman of ancient years.  I say ancient as she 10 or 15 years older than I, that must push her over into antiquity.  She stopped me the other day as I was returning to my desk from one of my many bathroom runs.  She knows from a prior conversation that I used to work for the parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue.

She asked me, “You used to work for a clothing store, right?  Did you model for them?”

I looked at her funny and replied, “No I programmed for them like I program here.  Why do you think that?”

“Well,” she said, “you walk with such good posture and your wear your hair long and a little different.”

My hair is on the longish side, and I have taken to putting a bit of gel in it and combing it straight back.  I would have to admit it is not the typical hairstyle you see in corporate America.

Just picking at her I asked, “Are you trying to ask me if I am light in my loafers, as male models have that reputation.”

She tries to back pedal a little, and I then I decide to let her off the hook.  I tell her, “I have a bit of bad back that forces me to walk with good posture or bent over depending on how it is feeling.  And as for my hair I guess we all have our affectations.”

The ole Rev. was male model for Saks Fifth Avenue, who would have known?

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Rev. Joe Goes to The Big House.

My folks would never have been in the running for the Ward and June Cleaver Parenting Award.  The reason they had children, let alone 5, is unclear to me.  It seemed then and seems now that they felt as long as we were fed, clothed, and a roof was over our head they had fulfilled their parental duties.  They were more involved with the youngest two.

For reasons I will not go into here, I was estranged from my father since I was 13. What few interactions we had were never pleasant, and occasionally they were violent.   Continue reading “Rev. Joe Goes to The Big House.”

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Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein


Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein @ Amazon.com

They say that you should not look back at some things.  One example would be looking up old girlfriends.  Another I’ve discovered is reading a book from your adolescence.

I should have known better.  When I was but a wee lad, I loved the movie Swiss Family Robinson.  It was a movie I had viewed several times as a youngster.  After VCRs became popular I rented a copy one night to share with my two children.  I wanted them to experience the joy I had felt watching this movie.   My kids thought it absolutely lame, Continue reading “Glory Road by Robert A. Heinlein”