Vaction

I've been on vacation for a little over a week now.  I haven't really done anything.  I took the time to do some serious thinking about my career, my life, and all of the other things that matter; but I wound up doing only serious drinking.  I thought that it would inspire me to write about something, but it hasn't.  I don't have anything of substance to say.

Black Sunday

The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday in the retail world, and is fast approaching.  Black friday has always been one of the ways for retailers to predict their fourth quarter earnings.  Soon enough we will know how worried we need to be for these tough times in terms of earnings.  This fourth quarter (October-January) will be crucial for every retailer.  We are all putting everything we have into these next few months.

Do me one small favor. 

Please be nice when you come into the store, we are working almost too hard for you.

News to me.

My head is spinning with buzz-words.  Things that will get a rise out of people.

If you flip the channel to any local or national news channel you will hear things like, "recession," "deficit," "debt," "attack," and "containment."  Why do you suppose that is?  They want to make us nervous.  If we're scared for our lives, we won't leave our homes, we won't spend money on anything but what they want us to.  How can you say no to something on the "news."  It's supposed to be a valid representation of what is going on in people's lives,  it's supposed to warn me of danger and inform me of opportunities.  It's far too exaggerated though.

Life is much more boring (for the most part) than they would like you to believe.  I'm sure that they're not doing this on purpose, they're only running a business.  But at what cost?

I'll stop now; because this argument has been going on for far too long.  I'll cut my losses here.  Although, I think I'm already running the risk of sounding ignorant.

Californication

I've recently become very fond of a t.v. show called "Californication."  It stars David Duchovny, as a writer, with swagger.  The plot isn't that great, but the depth of the characters is amazing.  You love them, you hate them, you are them.  That's good writing.

Paddington Bear

Today marks the appearance of Paddington Bear in children's literature.  I don't remember much about Paddington bear, only that he was a fixture in my childhood.  Not because I though he was the greatest thing in the world.  Not because he kindled my interest in literature at an early age, and not because I thought he was cute.  All of those things, if I claimed them to be true, would be lies. 

Not only can I not remember why I had a Paddington bear doll, or why I had the Paddington bear books, but I don't even think that my mother remembers that she forced them on me.

I remember a few years ago, I was visiting home, and there was a commercial for Paddington bear something or other, and my mother thought it was the greatest thing in the world.  She says, "remember how you used to love Paddington bear?"

Surely you're mistaken, it was your that loved Paddington bear enough to make it a fixture of my early development though I gave you no cue that I would appreciate, or benefit from it.

What we've established from this walk down memory lane is that you have no idea who I was as a child.  I'm sure that you did your best to raise me, and if you ask me, I think you did a bang up job.

In the name of god though, don't give any credit to fucking Paddington Bear.

The only good that came from Paddington Bear, as far as I am concerned, is that I was able to contrive this blog post. 

I can't say anything bad about Paddington Bear, nor can I say anything good about the poorly illustrated bear.

Thank you.

Blogging

Successful blogging, in most circles, would be considered as making money from your blog. Not with me though; I consider successful blogging to be when I get my words on the net in a solid place for myself and others to reflect on. I really just want to hone my writing skills; and what better way to do that than to write a little bit every day.

One day, I hope you become some sort of writer; it's my romantic career. As a manager, I'm held accountable for so many things that my head spins sometimes, and I can't even wrap my head around how I'm going to get all of my tasks done each day. It's a huge investment of time, and I only benefit for the hours that I'm actually working. With writing, you benefit from your work whether you are actively writing or not. You put forth a little effort and use your skills as a writer, and you constantly see a return.

Ah what dreams may come.

Net Neutrality

This is something that I feel very strongly about. I'm not certain about the validity, because it's something that I've just started researching, but if you Google "net neutrality" you can find tons of interesting articles and websites; it seems like the trick is to sort though the ones that are funded by phone and communications companies and the ones that are plausible sources of information.

Don't let them take away our internet! I'll lose my blog, you'll lose your blog, and from there the whole world will fall apart. Insanity! I can hardly stand waiting for certain sites to load on my DSL connection, if we don't preserve our right to the internet, then we'll have to pay extra for torrents, .mp3s, youtube, myspace, and all of our other daily routines.