12.31.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:28 pm by livefood
The other day, while sitting at a traffic light, a car rolled through the intersection that begged a new question. Well it’s actually a question I’ve had for a long time.
The car was a small sedan…one of those Hundee Nada models…you know…the nondescript foreign models that all sort of look like nothing but all look the sameish…but this car was unique in a non-unique way. It had large chrome rims with small profile tire…really very common in the particular town I was in…and an exhaust system that gave it a little zippy sports car sound (makes the chipmunks running around on the wheels under the hood feel good about themselves)…and it was leaning to one side.
It was leaning to the drivers side as it came through the intersection…vroom vromming awary…lookin fiiine…oh sure…with the most humougous person filling the drivers seat. The person (I couldn’t tell whether it was male or female from the available profile…none) was immense…huge…jumbo…way WAY beyound fluffy. Why do the largest people buy the smallest cars? i’m not sure how this one turned the wheel…it seemed tucked into the rolls.
But man-o-man did that car look cool…big shiny rims and it sounded good too…very zippy.
The particular town (Pittsburg, CA) has a very high percentage of folks with the same tire profile look…on SUVs and Pickups and every size and dimension of car…beat to pulp cars…brand new german ones…big rim…skinny tires…all so that the driver can be unique. Sometimes being unique doesn’t happen because everybody else is trying to look the same unique way. It’s like that with a lot of things…but in Pittsburg, it’s about those tires. Oh yeah…and lower the rig a bit…that helps in that uniqueness. About as unique as white farm houses in Kansas…you know, where the directions go something like…”I live in the third white house on the right after you pass the cows next to the white house on the left”…you know what I mean.
Enough.
So today, I’m reading about the milk scandal in China…the one where people added melamine to the milk to ge the mild past inspectors. Six children died…100s got sick…world wide recall (eventually)…bad story. The head of the company is on trial as are 10 or so other officials…a couple hundred other folks including melamine producers have been gone to court…many, including the head of the company, face the DEATH penalty.
The fund set up by 22 major milk producers to help the victims has about $160M USD in in…the children effected could get $290 US…families of the 6 victims could get $29,000 US…
So the heads of the company get put to DEATH…and the children get $290…something seems a bit odd with that picture. Are US attorney’s in on this deal? Where’s all that money going too? Have the Chinese lawyers been working on commissions (we’re nice and call them contingency fees here)…and you thought that the system was messed up here?
I can tell you right here and right now, I will not be driving any miniature Nada cars with phat rims and exhaust system hauling my dairy cows around China anytime in the near future.
You think I’m weird? Look around…they’re all around you.
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12.29.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:22 am by livefood
Turn signals on cars should (or could) be optional. Folks don’t use them anyway. Some use them as they are changing lanes…like we couldn’t know by then. Some just turn them on and then drive…maybe they’ll need to turn that direction sometime…or perhaps someday. Why turn it on and off…just a waste of motion.
So “Detroit”…save the money and me the frustration…just don’t install the turn signal and use the money for fuel for your jets.
Speaking about Jets…well…not the Jets but the LIONS…what’s with THAT. The worst record in the NFL EVER! We all know it’s pretty rare to go undefeated in the NFL…apparently it’s even more rare to go through a season without a win…nobody had ever done it before this year…way to go Detroit.
Of course you could pay the players more and you would get better performance (uh…no).
It’s like saying that raising teacher’s pay will improve education. No…that’s just a bunch of 1/2 truth. Now if you paid more you might get a few folks to choose to become teachers…but teachers generally teach because it’s a passion. The pay is not the reason they got into the profession. I’m NOT saying that we shouldn’t pay the teachers more…they’re underpaid for sure. I have two parents who taught school and a daughter about to enter the profession…did that myself for a while as did my wife…but money is not the major component to the lack of education nowadays.
Try respect for the profession and the value that it adds to folks…like your kids…or you. You get value added to people through education. BUT society just gives education lip service when we talk about correcting the situation. The first thing one considers if you have the money is to place your kids in a private school…so that there is a perception of better education.
Is it the $18K a year that gets the better education in a private school (that’s the high school price tag around here) OR is it that because the parents shell out those kinds of bucks that the parents are on top of the student to produce and value the education? I don’t know. It’s a complicated set of issues…many twixed and woven into a web of complicated side bars.
But I do know that IF all if took was money, we could have solved the education down turn in the US a long LONG time ago. The money that is talked about is a politcal mantra to pacify folks and garner votes. Both sides promise to fix education…both promise more money…both sides know that isn’t the only issue…but they want your vote. They get it. We don’t.
Ready for the short week. It’s a 2 1/2 day week…really. My phone could be pulled out of the wall for the two weeks of the holidays…p\oh yeah…I use it to call out on. Maybe I’ll call Detroit and ask if they have any tickets to give away for next year…can you believe folks will be paying for the tickets to watch the LIONS play? Maybe the Lions organization should take that money and pay teachers more…oh no…don’t do that. Then Little Johnny will become better educated and know why he is really wasting his hard earned cash supporting the NFL…or paying for turn signals he won’t use anyway.
I really do go round and round with myself on these types of things. I have been told to get a life…but this is my life. Sad really.
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12.28.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:07 am by livefood
Well it came it went and now it’s time to wait again.
Of course I can’t possibly be talking about the BCS bowl games or bowl games in general…those go on forever…or so it seems. I think I liked it alot better when the bowl games meant something more than money going back to the team’s schools and conferences. You remember those bowls…the Cotton Bowl, the Sugar Bowl, the Orange Bowl and of course the Rose Bowl. Now it’s gotten so polluted each species of bowls has it’s own set of sub-species and varieties…Cotton Bowl…cotton candy bowl…Sugar Bowl…Sucrose Bowl…Nutrisweet Bowl…Low Sodium Bowl…Orange Bowl…Tangerine Bowl…The Fruit Cup…and of course the Rose Bowl…the pansy bowl…the tulip bowl…the daisy bowl…and the ever popular artificial silk petal bowl.
I mean come on…you’re bumping my favorite re-runs.
Really…do folks really want to battle it out for the 22nd place in the nation…or the 17…or 16th. I think if you’re not “in the hunt” for the National Title…you shouldn’t be playing in a bowl game. Now granted that would mean that my team of choice for the past few years…The Boise State Broncos wouldn’t be playing in a bowl, BUT they would have had an undefeated season this year if they hadn’t played in one. They can still hang their hats on a great year…bowl or not. ALSO BUT…as long as the schools and conferences get their grubby little hands on the money, there will be bowls and lots of them.
Today I watched part of the Emerald Bowl…oh joy. It was sold out! Turns out there is a market for second and third tier teams and their fans. Great…so who’s settling for twenty second place…the fans or the teams. The real opportunity we all get by having so many bowl games is to watch more shirtless young men with ill-defined bodies painting themselves in a series of letters…hopefully correctly spelling their team of choice.
All this while baseball teams are ponying up $180 million for an 8 year contract with a singel (albeit very good) player. Do you wonder why your ticket price is so steep? Do you really think that the wieny on a bun is worth that $6? Of course I think the the parking for $15 is a steal…or was that a robbery (too)?
It is “worth it” because the fans say it is and are doing so with their dollars as votes. If you go to the games you are feeding the system to charge you more next year…and more the next and on and on. Sure you can chauk it up to entertainment…but you can rationalize it any way you want…you are only selling it to yourself and others who think like you do. When you step back a bit and look at the “big picture” you can see that perhaps nearly all popular forms of entertainment is costing too much.
But what you pay to be entertained may not be the only cost of the entertainment. What about all the things you give up to pay the money for somebody else to prance around on a field or wiggle for you from a stage? What happened to taking your kids to the park or the zoo or on a road trip up the coast for the afternoon? Heck, even the movie theater (and I just love those prices…sure I do) is a bargain compared to field games or stage acts. Oh sure…now try to come back and tell me that the time you take them to the ball game (you know the once or twice a year you can afford to take them) is “quality time” with the kids…sure it is. And perhaps that two hours is a good time. But what happens when you get to paying for a band instrument at school or perhaps even college and didn’t save for the event…was that 2 or 3 hours of such high quality time such a good lesson for the kid? Ouch…I strike low.
Just stuff to think about during the Holidays…before the credit card statements arrive next month…another low blow. But…as you can probably surmise from my previous posts…I’m perfect in everyway and I only offer these concepts and ideas because of the perfection…and the bridge I have for sale in the middle of the desert is still at a bargain price for anyone buying.
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12.26.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:40 am by livefood
Well the day is nearly over according to the silly clock on my computer. If you don’t know how I might feel about clocks and the atomic clock on my computer…read previous posts. Time is relative…and sometimes realtively silly.
But this day is a special day for thousands of thousands of people (that’s millions) around the World…all colors, all sizes, all languages and all preferences. It’s a day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Last night, my family was asked to light the four candles of advent and the “Christ Candle” and at that time to read some words about the season’s lessons. I got to the part that reminds us that the story of the birth of Jesus is a story…but just a story?…I just about lost it. It’s never been a simple story for me.
I really do believe that Jesus sends us powerful messages of love and hope and peace and justice…all the makings of a Hallmark moment. I’m a sap when it comes to this story. But a little deeper, I believe that the story of the birth is for all people to learn from. It is a cast of a wide range of people…the Magi…we sometimes call them Wisemen…intellectuals of the time…the shepards…the less than educated and lowest of the working class…Joseph a tradesman…Mary…a woman, a classification that didn’t exactly elevate her to a prominent place in society…but they all come together in the story and are equal on the billboard…it wouldn’t be the same story without one of the stars of the show. They are all part and parcel to the way we remember and pass on the story.
I often wonder why we think we have to classify people into various boxes and piles and then to label those units in relative importance…are other people really “less than” myself? I certainly would hope not…it would be nice to remember that we are all special in some way.
Last night, one of my friends came to the Christmas Eve services dressed in an emergency jacket…bright orange with reflective stripes…sort of stood out a bit. But she didn’t have time to go home and change. She and her family were working at the County’s emergency shelter for the homeless that evening and where on there way home. She was a little embarrassed with her outfit…but I told here it didn’t matter here (at the Church). It reminded me that the work of the Church is not in the building but outside. She’s a good person…her husband is a good person…I’m sure that the lessons that their daughter is learning will be put to good use down the road.
This morning we slept in a bit later than we had planned and had a rolling start to the day (okay the last one rose at 11:30 or so)…we had a few gifts to share and then we played some games. Just a reflective day. We talked about some of the prejudices we had witnessed…had some dinner together, called our family in various locations and then headed off to our respectives home. Just a perfect day with family and a friend.
In just a week we will be turning the page on the calendar. Perhaps I’ll keep the “perfect day” for a week before it fades into a new year’s hubbub. I wish it could last longer, but it never does. What’s with that?
But then if you read some of the early posts, I don’t look at “years” the same as other folks might. For example…I am going back to 39 this year…didn’t really like the 55 year…and enjoyed the first 15 years of being 39. I’ll still have grey hair…had them the first year of 39…should be interesting. But time does change…not that long ago the kids would have been leaving the house on a day like today riding their bicycles and not the Mini Cooper. But I’m still going back to 39…I’ll let you know about the progress.
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12.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:40 pm by livefood
I love this day. The day before Christmas is like the best day…I’ve been working on music for tonight since sometimes in June. We’ve been practicing the pieces for a month or more…so the pump was primed for this to be a wonderful day…of course the smells of stuff baking is enough to drive anyone crazy.
Turns out that we had huckleberries in the freezer…we we’re having a huckleberry/blueberry pie tomorrow. Now that is worth the wait. Cinnamon rolls are in process for the morning (it’s one of our traditions)…so even with our decision not to put up the tree and lights we’re getting in some sort of mood.
Of course if you look around the house and see the piles of stuff and furniture pieces tossed here and there you would probably wonder about our sanity. We’re in the midst of a pretty substantial remodel in the house. That’s why no tree or lights…no where to put the tree and the lights are behind the stuff behind the stuff…and no where to put the boxes to move the boxes to get to the boxes with the lights in them…you get the idea.
Watched Boise State yesterday. Bad day for Bronco fans. The guys didn’t win the game but they certainly didn’t loose it either. Sometimes a team will fumble so frequently or commit so many stupid fouls that they loose their own game. The Broncos didn’t do that…and for that I think we can all be proud of them. It looked to me as if one set of coaches seems to have a better idea of what to do than the other set. Just a little depressing to watch…but once loss for the year is a good record. Bronco fans showed up in the seats too…but was the BCS paying attention. Who cares. Hopefully the BCS goes away…sometime in my lifetime.
My memories of Christmas day growing up is not of snow like some people. When I think of Christmas day weather, I think of fog and haze and crisp cold. I won’t be disappointed if that is what I wanted…but throw some rain into the mix this year. COLD rain. It will be snowing in the Sierras…thankfully I’m not driving over them.
Here it is just about noon and I’m watching the clock. We’re playing handbells at the two services at the Church this evening…we need to be at the Church by 5. It’s going to be a long evening…home by something like 11:30.
So tonight we’ll see a lot of folks for the only time at Church during the year. Some might show on Easter…all of that is somewhat weather dependent. Is that an issue. Nope. It’s okay by me to show up once a year or not at all. Churches don’t fill the needs of some people…they do for others. I think that a lot more people are spiritual than are spiritually oriented. I think it’s human nature to be spiritual…where it may not be in our nature to need to belong or feel like we belong too a Church. So while I will be ringing bells for upwards of 500 people this evening, I am hoping that some of them feel something from the experience…and transfer that feeling into good works going forward.
Merry Christmas.
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12.22.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:43 pm by livefood
…again. The computer is not aware of how my day goes…it only knows it’s internal clock. I only write one of these things in a day…despite what the time on the post might say.
Now some folks have an internal clock also. They have been getting up at 5 in the morning for work for so long that when they retire…well, they do the same thing.
My day starts when I get up and it ends when I go to sleep (sometimes for the second time…I do nap during the day from time to time)…I don’t really care what the clock says. Of course if I have someplace to be I pay attention to the clock, but by and large my clock starts when the eyes open and stop when the eyes close. So for me, one non-sleep cycle (minus the nap) constitutes a day. Anything I do during that period is done within a day. I don’t care what the computer posts as a log in the BLOG…it’s done in that day. Pretty easy to figure out.
This internal clock thing I have going is similar to my calendar…the one I talked about a couple of weeks back…it may seem a little odd to some people but once you understand it’s pretty simple to put your arms around.
Hey…don’t like my clock? Share your feelings with somebody who cares. At least I’m on time.
Hey…49 Faithful…they didn’t give up yesterday. Down 2 touchdowns in the fourth quarter they came back. Guttsy passes and fabulous catchs…then the defense took over. It’s not that easy for a defense that had been on the field for over twice the time that the losers offense was out there. That defensive group must have been exhausted. Still paid too much, but exhausted…
Do you think they might have been watching the clock?
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:13 pm by livefood
The other day I was discussing some of my music compositions with a pianist…she is wonderful on the keyboard…just a joy to listen to. I was talking about a recent arrangement I did for our bell choir and how I was considering changing an F flat to an E natural. She raised her eyebrows…I told her I knew why the composer wrote it that way but for a bell choir that is the kiss of death. A rather large number of ringers don’t read music to start with…but the bigger problem is that the person with the person who would be reading and assigned to playing the F (flat) does not have that bell in front of them…typically the person to their left would have that bell as an assignment. It would be a confusing element.
She didn’t think I should change it…”there are rules in compostion”…ouch. I don’t break all the rules…I stop at stop signs and red lights. I let pedestrians cross THE ENTIRE street before preceeding…I do all those things and more…but the compostion rule HA…they mock me with their rules.
As we talked a bit, she paused and said, “So compose in a rather organic style.” Well that wouldn’t have been too bad if the face had stay in a normal way and not crunched up like a bad prune…and only one eyebrow raised. So what’s wrong with organic.
My wife and I pay a premium to buy organic fruits and vegetables. We pay MORE for organic. So shouldn’t a piece of music that is composed “organically” be worth more? Shouldn’t a piece that is organic have more value placed upon it…or should one wrinkle the face and suck on a prune when it’s played?
Oh well…I had a number of my pieces performed last year, six out of state and another 4 played by my “home” bell choir…so there. But now that I know that my organically composed music might need to be considered a premium product I may actually have to think about how to calculate the value. Maybe I should increase the rate I charge for composing stuff…maybe I would get a raise.
Of course that old and tricky math problem…zero x zero equals zero…would apply to my compositions.
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12.20.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 2:59 am by livefood
Now that gasoline is back in the $1.68-9 range I was thinking that the $12+ to ship 3 pounds of stuff to WA state from CA was a bit much. Maybe I’m wrong on this, but while the price of gasoline fluctuates with the supply and demand, the postal rates don’t. They only go up. I believe that if we were to mount a national boycott and not to ship anything…the price would still go up…but because they still have to pay their folks.
A number of years ago, we were experiencing some drought conditions. We were asked to cut back and then told too…I did. Lost my lawn and the best part of the landscaping. It cost me a bundle to put it back together when the water shortage ended a couple of years later…and what was the reward for adhering to the orders from the water district? They raised our rates…why you ask? Well it seems that when we didn’t use all that water, the poor folks at the WD didn’t have the same revenue stream and needed to raised the rates to compensate.
Too bad that they are not in a competive situation. Oh they think they are…the WD, the PO and the County (my favorite) tell us that they have to pay the wages they do to keep competitive…with who? There are a lot of folks in those government and government-like groups who could not compete in the real work place. They don’t do a good job. They don’t have to pay gigantic wages to keep incompetent folks…but they have to keep them. They have jobs for life. You have to do something really REALLY stupid to loose your job at the County. I think you would have to have a baby with the file cabinet to be odd enough to stick out over there. It’s the ultimate gravy train. What do the top dogs do when they leave? Many of the become “consultants” and bill back to the County at upwards of $350 an hour (not a typo…that’s like over 300). Geeze.
The latest tweek to the brain was finding out that the wonderful notion of incenting the County employees with cash to use alternate forms of transportaion was working. What is that upsetting. Well first, I think one should not have to get paid to do the right thing. Taking alternate forms of transportation when possible is the right thing to do. Taking money for walking the little old lady across the street would be bad. Second…it seems that we now find out that the incentive is an additional “wage” and accrues such that the retirement benefits are increased. We are paying folks to not drive in their cars long LONG after they are working…and of course would be driving again.
Maybe folks in the goverment should get real jobs first and become legislative clowns after then they have put themselves in a position to not need the money. Good luck. Most I run into wouldn’t be able to work a real job…okay, maybe they could be an attorney…but then I did qualify the statement with “real job” and “work”…neither of which I see legislators at any level doing. Don’t you think that at 90+ one might have marbles running back and forth rather loosly in the old brain?
There are exceptions…Senator Tester from Montana…real guy…real farmer…seems to have a good head on his shoulders. But he’s rare. You would think that a state with less than a million residents turning out some one such as he, would be an indication that a state with 35+ million (like CA) could have 40-50 candidates lining up. Ha ha ha. Let me pick myself up off the floor.
But still…Senator Tester…could you please find out why (really) it take $12 to ship a 3 pound box to WA state? Now I’m confused…was that Ha Ha Ha or Ho Ho Ho?
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12.17.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:58 pm by livefood
I work in the employment world as a Recruiter, specializing in Healthcare Technology (specifically informatics and analytics)…trying saying that three times fast…the sun has set and come back up before you’re done. I probalby should try to shorten that a bit. Of course with all the negative events out in the employment world you would think that business could be slow. Not quite. It’s actually pretty busy.
The most frustrating part of the deal…well maybe not the most frustrating, but it’s at least one of the frustrating aspects is the hiring manager who sits on their hands and is not capable of making a decision…one way or another. It’s as if they are thinking the hiring process is a shooting gallery game at an amusement park where the water goes round and round in a circle…the target will come back in your sites if you just sit there long enough…the employment world is more like a river…the target goes by…and goes by rather quickly…and never comes by again. You choices of folks to hire changes by the minute…they are all going by and to someplace else (perhaps a competitor)…they don’t normally come around again. I think that if I looked at my job as a “closer” position, I would ask my clients if they wanted their competitor to hire the person…and they interviewing their competition?
Those folks who have a difficult time makeing decisions should probably not in charge of one.
So the news tells us that unemployment is up. That would be the case…why would you think that the unemployement numbers are not true…so does that mean everyone will be in jeapardy? Maybe in some verticals…not in ours…and while there are a few more candidates in the marketplace that a few months ago, do you really think that the best companies are going to release their key players this early in the game?
I could go on and on…but I won’t.
I woke up this morning to frozen hot water pipes, a cold in my head, but blue sky. The blue sky will help…yesterday was dark and dreary…but I had hot water. AND…if you watch weather like I like to…Bozeman is up to 2 F, as is Twin Falls…and that’s a lot colder than here. We’re above freezing so the pipes should be thawing soon.
If you put it all out there, sit back and think about it a bit…I woke up and wasn’t facing up looking at grass roots. it could always be worse.
I’m not one of those folks who lives yesterday over and over. If you ever watch the move “Groundhog Day”…that’s not me. I’m kinda out there in many ways…I’m thinking (or dreaming) of things and places that are days or months or years away. Even as Christmas is not hear yet…I’m working on things for the Spring and Summer. I think that the sitting on your hands approach (see above) doesn’t work well for too many situations…it does in some…learn the difference…life ain’t one of them.
It goes by once (even believing in reincarnation risks coming back as a toad perhaps)….it’s going by once…fairly quickly…and not going round and round. Unless I want to become very very tired while swimming upstream (even the salmon die after that journey)…I’d better deal with the one shot, go with the flow, deal with changing scenery and move on.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 12:33 am by livefood
I thought when I was planning this BLOG thingy, that I would let my humorous side out of this box. Well that didn’t happen. Turns out, I might not be that funny. As it turns out curious, odd, weird, strange and other adjectives in that vein does not translate into funny as in ha ha…but funny as in curious, odd, weird and strange. My bad.
All these years folks told me I was funny and I thought it was the ha ha type.
Had good announcement the other day. Otto Erik was born to my nephew and his partner. A little early, but total healthy…in the mid 6 pounds and 19 inches long. Merry Christmas.
I’m always aware that the miracle of the birth of Jesus could be a metaphor and not a real story. I believe it…that’s my thing. You may not. But if you don’t…the metaphor still works and work really well…regardless of religion and religious affiliation.
All births are miracles. All babies special. All are good and wonderful. They are all sons and daughters of God. Whether they grow up a Muslim, Jewish, Christian et al…they are all children of the World.
If you take the very special child named Jesus and think of Him as a representative of all babies…it really tells you that you should think of all in the same way you would; think of, love, honor and respect, Him.
Well it’s all just about a week and a half away. Shopping is not done…and the house remodel is not done (and won’t be)…but we’re close. The biggest concern around here right now is the music the handbell group is playing on Christmas Eve. All three of the pieces we are playing are unique for our group. Our presentation of them will be unique too. Hard? Oh yeah…one is particularly difficult. Because I arranged the piece, it’s hard to understand how that could have happened. It’s really a simple piece, but because we have 5 members of the group who will not be there on that day, we are playing in deep water and over our heads…we’re learning to tread water pretty quickly. We have a sub coming in (daughter Sarah) to close some of the gap and folks are covering parts of parts when they are not busy. Team work at work.
So once again, nothing too funny about this BLOG. Thinking about the newest miracle for our family Otto Erik.
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