I'm Proud To Be An American (CEO)

If tomorrow all the jobs were gone,
I’d achieve my goal in life.
I'd give away my shares,
To just my children and my wife.

I’d thank my lucky stars,
to be livin here today.
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom,
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the unemployed,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

From the factories of Africa,
to our friends the Chinese.
Across the plains of India,
From sea to shining sea.

From tech support to textiles,
To production and offshore banks.
We've cut our costs in taxes
and its time you stand and say.


That you're proud not to be an American,
where at least you know you're free.
And you wont forget that you're employed,
And you got that job from me.

And you'll gladly stand up,
Next to me, and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt we love this land,
God bless the USA.

And I’m proud to be and American,
where at least I know I’m free.
And I wont forget the unemployed ,
who gave that right to me.

And I gladly stand up,
next to you and defend her still today.
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land,
God bless the USA.

- Jake

GOP Party Time!

It's party time again, for the Grand Old.  I don't see so much "grand" as I do "old" this time around, though. How many of you out there on the interwebs have watched at least one of these debates?  If you're into reality TV crap, this is your Mecca.  The stuff on so called "reality" TV isn't real.  Take Jersey Shore for example.  A group of guys and girls who do not have jobs, do not have responsibility (well, to their credit, they do laundry once a day, which is more than sufficient to keep clothes clean, but hey! they're being proactive about something, right?) or accountability, spend nearly every day and night drunk out of their minds, and buy stuff with an unseemly never ending bank account.  That's not reality.  You know what is?  Watching these candidates display the worst of human nature. Oh sure, you can see that on The Real Housewives, Survivor, and any other reality show where contestants "throw each other under the bus."  While I'm on the subject of scripted reality, I think I'll tackle it really quick. 

Another way to poke holes in the "reality show" bubble is to examine the cliches that are used each season.  Everyone says them, so it has to be scripted.  Another one I hate to hear is "for the right reasons".  They always say that, and how are we as an audience supposed to interpret the phrase when everyone on the show says it?  See how confusing this could be in my example: Tammy says, "Freddie went to the kitchen, but I don't think he went for the right reason."  So why did Freddie go to the kitchen?  Well, you might say, he was hungry.  But if he was hungry, and someone thought he wasn't going to the kitchen for the right reason, then that means he went to the kitchen with ulterior motives.  Maybe  Freddie finally snapped, and the voice in his head said he needed to kill Janice after all.  Tammy would be right, because you would think the right reason to go to the kitchen is to make yourself a ham and cheese sammich with light mayo, lettuce, and tomato on a croissant.  But!  Then again, that might not be the "right reason" either, because maybe to Freddie, the "right reason" was to extract his revenge on Janice for "throwing him under the bus".  So Tammy is incorrect in the assumption that he didn't go for the "right reason", because her "right reason" and his are different.  Confused?  Me too.  Let's talk politics.

Politics.  I'll break that word down to its roots so that we can fully understand what the situation is (and I don't mean the guy from Jersey Shore).  Politics comes from two words "poly" and "ticks".  "Poly" meanining many, and "ticks", meaning blood sucking ectoparasites that can infect their victim with bacteria, viruses, and protozoa while engaging in a predatory relationship.  

So let's look at some highlights of the recent debate between the parasites who want to suck your vote for President:

• Nearly every time the Bachmann speaks, she throws in and emphasizes Obama or Obamacare, whether or not it's relative to the question asked.  
• Perry calls Cain "brother".  Wow, you've got some nerve doing that, Texan.
• Cain confuses everyone (including himself) by talking about fruit.
• Romney reaches out and grabs Perry to ask him to shut his pie hole.
• Perry exercises restraint and does not punch out Romney the way we know he would like to. 
• The audience boos Perry repeatedly for comments he makes.
• Ron Paul philosophizes about how great a Utopian society would be as long as it is definitely not a Utopia,  Ronald Regean is dictator (but not called a dictator), health care doesn't exist for those who can't afford it so they die off and natural selection dominates.
• Cain reemphasizes that if you're poor it's your own fault.  Not to mention 9.1% unemployment, outsourcing, corporate greed, machines taking humans' jobs, graduate students who are more than qualified for work but no one will hire them, unbalanced budgets...
• Santorum refuses to make eye contact with anyone as he responds to questions.
• Romney is attacked brutally for cutting his lawn.
• Perry is attacked brutally for being Rick Perry.
• Cain takes heat for his 9-9-9 plan that none of the candidates have read, but know that it has to be awful because they have yet to write a plan of their own.
• Bachmann says, ""Anderson! Ander- Anderson! A- And- Anderson! Anderson! A- Anders- And- And- Anderson! Anderson!" And Anderson Cooper disappoints by not responding with "WHAAAAAAAT?"
• Newt Gingrich throws in his two cents before each commercial break to remind us that he's been there all along.
• Each candidate tells us how far superior they are from everyone else.
• Each candidate belittles at least two others with sub-belt punches.

Another successful party has come to an end.  Can I take some guacamole home with me in an air tight container?

Water

So, out of curiosity, I started tracking how much water I drink during a day.  The average person is supposed to drink 8 cups a day.  I just started keeping track of how much I drink, and turns out, I was only drinking about ONE CUP A DAY.  I would get a sip from the drinking fountain when I was thirsty, but that was all.  I might have one cup of milk, or a 32 oz cup of soda every now and then, but that is no substitute for water.  You do get some water from the food that you eat during the day, but that doesn't make up for pure liquid either.
So, I figured that you need to be drinking water constantly throughout the day. That means you have to drink even when you're not thirsty.  Now that I've been drinking a minimum of 8 cups of water per day, I feel much better.  And not only do I feel better, I have less of an apetite as well.  I had to eat more to get the water I needed since I wasn't drinking it, but now that I'm drinking it, my body doesn't need as much food.  How do you like them apples?

Serenity Now!

One of my favorite lines in a TV sitcom ever is when Frank Costanza screams, "Serenity now!" in an episode of Seinfield.  Ever felt like shouting that?  I've been reading the news a lot the last little while.  Every day I read what is going on in our country. For the first time I've been absorbed in keeping up with current events, understanding economics, finance, and political bathwater.  I've never before been so engaged, involved, and dissatisfied.

I heard about the tragedy in Afghanistan with the American troops that were shot down, and so I wanted to read about what happened.  It was actually not that easy to track down.  It wasn't a big headline or on breaking news, so I wondered if maybe it had been too long between the incident and when I tried to find it.  But when is too long?  If it happened Saturday, and Sunday morning I go to read about it and I have to dig around to find it, has the media already forgotten about it?  Have they already forgotten about the families affected?

Guess what's on the front page of CNN right now?  A huge story about a convention where hackers from across America get together to learn tricks of the trade.  8 year olds are learning how to hack computers and pick locks.  There are several stories about the national debt and the foul play in Washington.  A crazy sect leader who raped his nephew.  Robberies, shoot outs, and a story about people who lit cars on fire because of a murder.  And guess what also shares that same page?  An article about how Ashton Kutcher filmed his first episode of Two and a Half Men.  That's worthy of sharing the same page as Americans shot down in Afghanistan?

It makes me sick.  I'm sick of the media feeding us such depressing material.  I'm sick of the awful people creating depressing material to be shared by the media.   I'm sick of headlines. I'm sick of politicians.

What an awful place we live in.

I read an article on Friday entitled, "Are the Millennials Cut Out For this Job Market?" which at first glance leads you to believe that its another article publishing the stories of recent college grads destined for greatness that are parking cars and waiting tables.  It is, however, not about that at all.  The misleading title lures you into a slanderous and condescending article written by a Baby Boomer who believes that my generation is annoying, demanding, self-centered, and lazy.  There are members of my generation who fit that description, but there are also a great deal who fit that description who span other generations as well.

Apparently my generation is being deemed as a failure by many, and it's predicted that we don't have what it takes to carry this country in the future.  Well, we're being handed a very difficult burden to shoulder, and who's fault is that?

I was proud to be an American.  I think I'll be apathetically complacent to be a Canadian.

Serenity now.

National Crises

"Most Americans, regardless of political party, don't understand how we can ask a senior citizen to pay more for her Medicare before we ask corporate jet owners and oil companies to give up tax breaks that other companies don't get. How can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries? How can we slash funding for education and clean energy before we ask people like me to give up tax breaks we don't need and didn't ask for?" - Obama


"We can't allow the American people to become collateral damage to Washington's political warfare." - Obama


"This debate isn't about President Obama and House Republicans ... it isn't about Congress and the White House ... it's about what's standing between the American people and the future we seek for ourselves and our families.You know, I've always believed, the bigger government, the smaller the people. And right now, we have a government so big and so expensive it's sapping the drive of our people and keeping our economy from running at full capacity." - Boehner


If Medicare and social security disappear, what will happen?  What will happen to me and my family next week if things aren't resolved in the White House?  Senior citizens won't be able to get prescriptions, college kids won't be able to afford school, cars, families can't buy a house.  How will young couples get monetary support to start families of their own?  I fit into a large chunk of those categories right now.


Why do the working families of America have to shoulder the debt, while the wealthiest get more wealthy?  How in the world does our government "by the people, for the people" allow this to happen?  If things don't get better, I may seriously consider moving to another country.  I'm really questioning my patriotic feelings for my country.  I've been very disappointed.  Why can't our elected officials play nicely?  This shouldn't be an ego feast or a battle for a dominant party.  This should be about keeping the quality of life for every American the best that it can be.  It's about providing an environment where people can grow and flourish,and have the pursuit of happiness.  It is difficult to do so when taxes are high, unemployment is high, interest rates are high, and it's all caused by those who hold the keys to our financial freedom.  


Washington, don't screw this up.  We were counting on you.  Now we're pleading you to listen to reason. Ease our burdens, don't increase them.

At The Scene of the Crime

Last night I went with my wife Hannah and her sister Carolyn to see Harry Potter while in Provo.  We were very excited, having done a Harry Potter movie marathon leading up to the event.  We were in the movie for about an hour and a half, when some lights started flashing in the theater, and a recorded message repeated something like, "an emergency has been reported.  Please move towards the stairs and take the closest exit".  As we were walking out we asked a staff member who said she thought there was a minor fire.  When we got to the parking lot though, the general manager announced that there was a man who entered the theater with a bomb.  Soon enough, several policemen, ambulances, and fire trucks arrived at the scene.  They walked all over the theater, including the roof, and then asked us if we had seen him.  He more than likely left with the crowd.  We didn't get to see the end of the movie, for the which we were rather peeved.

"Man uses homemade bomb to rob Provo theater"

So...Whodunnit?

A lot of people are really bent out of shape about the ruling of a recent court case in which a woman accused of murdering her child was found not guilty. I've got two points that I want to address: the role of the media, and the effectiveness of our court system.

1) The role of the media.
The media with all it's wiles and attention grabbing has to dip it's hand in the cookie jar at every opportunity. And what keeps watchers coming back more than the story of a cold hearted killer? Look at the Amanda Knox case in Italy. Because of the role of the news and media, the jury was swayed by non-existent evidence and slander from the media, and a gentle push from the the prosecution. There was a severe lack of substantial evidence to pin the crime on any one person or various people. The news pulled out all the stops on Casey Anthony exposing all the dirt there is on her to paint her as a killer, despite the severe lack of evidence presented in the court room. Which leads me to my next point.

2) Effectiveness of our justice system.
Unlike Amanda Knox, the jury was not seduced by the enticements of the media. The jury could not convict Casey Anthony because they were not shown evidence "beyond a reasonable doubt". There was plenty of doubt. And they couldn't live with themselves if they convicted someone for life (or death) for something they could not say they knew was true. She may have done it. She may have not. But according to the evidence, there wasn't enough to tell.

So. Go ahead and blow up, get upset, rant and rave, but the truth is our system works. She was given a fair trial from our court system, and unjustly harassed by the media. Thank goodness for the good people of America who saw the facts and lack thereof for what they were, and did not get bullied into a decision by networks.

Late Night Philosophical Nonsense.

I haven't blogged in a long time. So I guess wide awake at 2:00 in the morning is as good a time as any. Sometimes things happen in your life that you have no control over: a death, a car accident, being fired, receiving a miniscule and degrading annual raise defining your worth and status in a company, what have you. Being affected by something and being powerless to change it is a difficult pill to swallow.

I was part of a leadership team for an organization at USU. I have been for a year and a half, and had planned on continuing that until I graduate. Some changes occurred, a new president was put in, and he decided to start everything fresh by replacing the entire leadership team with a new team. Our former team that I was apart of won a prestigious award that we went to Las Vegas to receive. And yet, unfathomably, the new president replaced that team wanting a fresh outlook and "new blood". He created a new team of people who scarcely know what the organization is about.

The worst part of all of it, is that he didn't bother to let the former team know that they were being "let go". So now I won't have three and a half years of leadership experience on my resume, or all the networking possibilities wah wah wah, boo hoo. And there is nothing I can do about that.

It seems small and insignificant, sure, but how about the humiliation I had standing in front of my peers who knew I was no longer apart of the team and addressing them as one of their own without the slightest clue that I had been axed? And then confronting him later and being told that I wasn't a part of the team months after the fact? And after having contributed most of the ideas that he said he was going to implement as if his own thick head conjured them from the vaults of wisdom hidden within.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

What do you do? Do you chew the person out? What good does it do? Sure, maybe he'd put me back on the team if I made a fuss, but if I know I wasn't wanted on the team, I won't want to work with the team. And I sure won't want to work with him. The decision was made and it's finality was well established by everyone but me because he didn't have the guts to tell me I was no longer a part of the team.

Remember in elementary school the kid in the class that always told you you colored wrong, you jumped rope poorly, you shot the basketball and crossed the monkeybars like a pansy? Remember how that made you feel? The nerve of some people. You pull out the rubber and glue analogy and try to throw it back in their face. And why? Cause you're kids and you don't know how to handle it. The kid just laughs at you because he made you feel stupid and then you personally affirmed your intelligence by reciting poetry to him in defense.

So a decision was made and whether or not I like it, giving the president a piece of my mind won't change a thing. And why should it? If I tell him what to do he'll resent me for it, even if he knows it's for the best. I won't fuel the fire of his indignation by telling him how to run the group. It's not my place. And it's not anyone's place. Nothing anyone says to him will change his mind. He cut me out. It was his decision. So deal with it like an adult. Take my bow to the silent stunned audience and pray the curtain doesn't hit me on the way down to add to my embarrassment.

Did I have an earful for him? You bet I did. How dare he he cut me out without even telling me? I was boiling beneath the surface that was hardly masked by a pleasant demeanor. I was livid. But I had to see this guy every day for the next three days because I was stuck in a city with him far from home. Was I a coward for not wearying his ears with my anger, or trying to throw it back in his face with an elementary school jingle of sticks and stones or rubber and glue? I don't think so. I'm not going to lecture him about coloring in the lines or shooting a basketball, and I'm not going to tell him how to run the organization he's hand picked and worked with for several weeks without me. I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of hearing me whine after he figuratively slapped me in the face.

Life gives you lemons, and sometimes life throws them viciously at you when your back is turned. Michael J. Fox once said, "The only decision in my life that I don't have, is whether or not I have Parkinsons." And for me, the only decision in my life that I don't have is the decision that is made by someone else. I don't have to like it, I only have to accept that it was made and decide what I can do to improve my situation. Sometimes it's "going to the mattresses" and sometimes it's the path of least resistance. Why contaminate someone else with my anger if it doesn't improve the situation? It's sort of childish, isn't it? He wronged me. He threw that lemon at my head and knocked me off my feet. Sure it's gratifying to throw it right back and strike an adam's apple, but didn't Ghandi say that "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, and the whole world would be blind and toothless"? Maybe it was Rev Tevye.

The point I'm getting at is that there are things that happen that are beyond our control. Sometimes people make decisions that we can't understand. Maybe I just don't have all the facts. If I did, maybe they would add up to be a carefully constructed formula that is both logical and intuitive. Or maybe it's complete garbage and foulplay. I can dispute it, I can fight it, but I can't change it because it's out of my control. It's done, it's over, now what? How many times has that question been asked: now what?

You're in check, and are left with few options. The board is all but cleared and you have a rook and a pawn. Your opponent laughs from across the table, but the game isn't over just yet, is it? You form a new plan. You work with what you've got. You see new paths that otherwise wouldn't present themselves until you're forced to look for them. Sure, maybe you fail in the end, but at least there is an end. At least you didn't drop out before the last piece struck the table and you knew precisely the outcome. You knew exactly where you stood.

So I ask the question:

Now what?

How I Got Home Yesterday

I wish that I had dashed lines following me home from school yesterday like Billy from the Family Circus. Haha, oh Billy, you always take the longest way to get to the sandbox.

The people who lived in our new apartment before us said something about a path and stairs that go straight up the hill to the Business Building on Campus. I was leaving work at the HR department and thought, "It will take about an hour to get home by bus, I could probably get home faster just going down the hill." Good logic, right? So I went to where said stairs should have been, and saw a thin dirt path leading downward. I began to walk down it, when two paths diverged into the woods, and I, I puzzled by the two less traveled paths, and it didn't make a difference. So I chose one and followed it on and on into nowhere. I retraced my steps and took the other path, which lead me nowhere. A little annoyed, I climbed back up the hill and looked around for where my house was located, and then began my descent looking for the secret stairs. I was in my nice kaki pants and collared shirt and was climbing over trees, pushing through branches, and by the way it has been raining all week so I was sloshing through wet knee high foliage and mud.

The way was shut, it was closed by those who are dead tree branches, so I had to double back and move across the hill and after a few minutes was completely lost. I could barely see the road and houses down below in some spots, and nothing but trees in others. I was out of breath from going up and down the hill, and my legs were sore from fighting the wet earth to stay beneath me. I climbed back up the hill a ways again to regroup and try another way down. Finally I came to a clearing, and there was a 10 foot wide canal separating me from a path that looked like it was used for ATVs. There was no way to cross the canal except for a rusting iron bar that was about three inches wide that was spanning the canal. I reluctantly sat down on it and shimmied my way across it, leaving rust all over my already dirty pants. I got to the other side and began to walk. The trail ended at the mudslide from last year with no good way down to the road, so I doubled back and walked for a few minutes until I finally found a way down to the road. I found myself about three or four blocks away from my apartment. No where near where I thought I was.

The secret stairs were indeed, secret. As I neared my home, the bus I could have been on drove by. It was nearly an hour after I began my walk home.

End of Semester Snap

Well it's that time of year again, you know, the time when everything is due all at the same time and even though you've been working on it all along there doesn't seem to be any end in sight. That's the case for me as well as everyone else. I've been so busy lately that leisure time stresses me out. It's healthy to take a break between studying and stressing, but when the impending doom of finals week is rearing it's ugly head over the horizon, you can't help but feel guilty taking a 15 minute break, watching a tv show, or taking a quick walk in the fresh air (in between sporadic rain and snow storms). Heck, I even feel guilty right now for blogging since I've been studying for the past couple of hours.

In retail, the labor budget is driven by sales. When people buy, you work more. When they don't, you don't. When I need the hours the most, nobody buys anything, and when I need time to study, people are busting down the doors to buy stuff. I don't mean to complain about the hours, they are much needed. But they come at the most inconvenient times! I've got two tests this week, a test and group presentation next week, and a paper due that I don't even know when. Could be this week, or next, or the one after, I don't know.

I guess I lost my mind Saturday night. I went to Baby Animal days and got my shoes all muddy, and my feet were wet. I hardly slept at all, and when I woke up in the morning, I didn't feel well at all. No one can ever cover for you last minute, so I ended up having to work that night. I felt like a robot. I was on auto pilot. I didn't think, I just moved, spoke, ate, and when it was time to finally end my day with rest: I waited. and waited. a few hours I waited. Robots don't sleep. I don't believe C3PO at all when he said he was going to rest his circuits. It's like that creepy kid in AI, he just stares through the night waiting for the humans to wake up and teach him how to eat human food.

So monday I slept in until 12:30, I was lucky to have finally fallen asleep sometime around 3:30 or 4. Hopefully tonight won't be a rerun of last night. My shoulders are so tight I have a dull pain in them most of the time. I'm using my massage chair constantly. Today while working in the HR office I pulled my back lifting some boxes too. Oh semester, please end soon. Be kind to me.