The last couple of blogs have been serious in nature so I'd really like to turn away from serious topics and just rife on some amusing stuff I see.
Facebook - oh, how thee has changed - So ever since Facebook became serious about making money (cue the theme from the movie, "Wall Street"), there have been somewhat amusing (mostly irritating - but not earth shattering, so I go with amusing) changes. I so appreciate the birthday reminders - really, I do. Not so appreciative of the constant begging for gifts. Really, Mr. Zuckerberg, when you have kids, you will realize the irritation in always being around a request for a handout. (I wonder how the 84 year old lottery winner in Florida is coping...). If I'm close enough to buy you a gift, there's a good shot that it's already been done, or I don't buy you one, because we don't exchange gifts. See Sheldon Cooper is right - there's a whole etiquette thing to gift giving. I mean I hate admitting to agreeing with a man with the last name of Cooper, but let's not upset the balance by buying a Starbucks gift card for somebody...unless it's for me...
Anybody with too many K's in their name - ok, not really anybody, just those genetically blessed, turning it into a multimillion dollar empire, Kardashians. I guess it's a talent to make money off of people for doing nothing, though I did think you needed to be in politics for that. I'm a little tired of hearing and seeing that pregnancy, thank you very much.
Back to Facebook, and the ads - once again, as a woman who would love a real job, I understand the need and desire to earn an income. But just as I don't grab everything thrown my way, do you really take money from anyone who offers it, without any investigation? I ask because my Facebook now is filled with the most wonderful ideas for how to lose the weight equivalent to a nine year old child in the time span of the life of a fly. Apparently Facebook also views me as very, very old since the ads not revolving around my weight, revolve around my wrinkles. Who is this miracle worker, Dr. Oz? He seems to know how to solve all my problems with some root juice stuff. (I jest, I know who he is, and I suspect he hasn't lent his name to all this stuff I keep seeing.) All these ads need is a foreign prince in need of my bank account to hide some perfectly legal money, and I'd think they were all a bunch of scams...but surely not...
So it's a quick one - and as I said, not a single earth shattering thing - just sorta funny...now, please excuse me, I hear some root juice calling my name...
Climb Aboard the Double Decker Bus and Gab With Us
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Awful Failure aka Abercrombie & Fitch
By now most of you are aware of the hailstorm caused by the reemergence of a 2006 interview with Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO. There have been a number of articles written, and quite a backlash in comments and tweets and blogs. Here is the quote as reported in the LA Times article, "Abercrombie CEO tries to stem backlash":
"Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends," he said in the article. "A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong."
It seems that if you are a teen girl who wears a large or extra large in women's clothing - you are not worthy - they don't even carry those sizes. Well, dude, I don't belong in haute couture, and some celebrities don't belong in the outfits that they wear to the awards shows, but really, why did you think it was a good idea to point this out to a segment of the society who are at the time of life where they are particularly vulnerable to others opinions????
Now I do need to add a disclaimer - you had never received any of our money before this. My teenagers are boys, and blissfully uninterested in labels unless wiring and an on/off switch are involved (really, really wish I had bought Apple stock). They are great kids, but not your demographic anyway. They think it's stupid to be so overwhelmed with appearances, and clothing. And I'm proud of that, (except when I make them dress up - Jimi Hendrix t-shirts are not appropriate everywhere). Maybe because it's a lesson I've tried to impart. No one is better than someone else. Someone who can't afford nicer clothes is not a lesser person. We all have our talents, and our faults.
Your lesson seems to be - buy our brand and be seen as a cool kid. If you're a fat girl - you aren't worthy. *&(&^%$^&*@##$%$@@! (please interpret the preceding with your favorite curses). HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF EATING DISORDERS?
"THEY CAN'T BELONG".....&^%$#!%^@^&^&&&&@!@##$@@@!##$$$%%%%
Once again, I struggle to keep this a PG blog. Now I refuse to take part in the vicious comments I've seen regarding the CEO's own looks. Two wrongs don't make a right. And as an accountant, I understand the business sense in having a niche and sticking with it. But as a human being, I will never comprehend the need to dismiss others based on the outside appearance.
It seems your stock has not taken the pounding it deserves, and most analysts believe the teenagers will ignore or dismiss this and continue to shop at your stores. Maybe. And maybe the next generation won't - because maybe the next generation will be parented by those kids who weren't worthy. And maybe they'll remember how it felt to be excluded. My husband hates when I discuss how I was bullied. Because he loves me, and hates to hear about the pain. But I think the pain has made me a more compassionate and empathetic person. I remember being excluded. And I hope these kids remember it, too. It's a lesson worth remembering.
Let me leave this topic with the lesson I heard growing up - "Pretty is as pretty does." Note the word does, not appears...
"Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends," he said in the article. "A lot of people don't belong [in our clothes], and they can't belong."
It seems that if you are a teen girl who wears a large or extra large in women's clothing - you are not worthy - they don't even carry those sizes. Well, dude, I don't belong in haute couture, and some celebrities don't belong in the outfits that they wear to the awards shows, but really, why did you think it was a good idea to point this out to a segment of the society who are at the time of life where they are particularly vulnerable to others opinions????
Now I do need to add a disclaimer - you had never received any of our money before this. My teenagers are boys, and blissfully uninterested in labels unless wiring and an on/off switch are involved (really, really wish I had bought Apple stock). They are great kids, but not your demographic anyway. They think it's stupid to be so overwhelmed with appearances, and clothing. And I'm proud of that, (except when I make them dress up - Jimi Hendrix t-shirts are not appropriate everywhere). Maybe because it's a lesson I've tried to impart. No one is better than someone else. Someone who can't afford nicer clothes is not a lesser person. We all have our talents, and our faults.
Your lesson seems to be - buy our brand and be seen as a cool kid. If you're a fat girl - you aren't worthy. *&(&^%$^&*@##$%$@@! (please interpret the preceding with your favorite curses). HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF EATING DISORDERS?
"THEY CAN'T BELONG".....&^%$#!%^@^&^&&&&@!@##$@@@!##$$$%%%%
Once again, I struggle to keep this a PG blog. Now I refuse to take part in the vicious comments I've seen regarding the CEO's own looks. Two wrongs don't make a right. And as an accountant, I understand the business sense in having a niche and sticking with it. But as a human being, I will never comprehend the need to dismiss others based on the outside appearance.
It seems your stock has not taken the pounding it deserves, and most analysts believe the teenagers will ignore or dismiss this and continue to shop at your stores. Maybe. And maybe the next generation won't - because maybe the next generation will be parented by those kids who weren't worthy. And maybe they'll remember how it felt to be excluded. My husband hates when I discuss how I was bullied. Because he loves me, and hates to hear about the pain. But I think the pain has made me a more compassionate and empathetic person. I remember being excluded. And I hope these kids remember it, too. It's a lesson worth remembering.
Let me leave this topic with the lesson I heard growing up - "Pretty is as pretty does." Note the word does, not appears...
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
We Are Boston
Yesterday I started a blog with all ideas of finishing it and publishing it today. It was a whiner - but somewhat funny. I was complaining about waiting at a doctor's office. Needless to say it got tabled. Whining is not appropriate while the nation mourns, again.
The first two years we were married, I spent more time in Boston than I did with my husband. I adore that city. The horror yesterday struck home because I spent so much time there, but doesn't it strike each of us? We realize the insanity of simply being someplace, and horror strikes at the whim of madmen. Then I realized that today is the anniversary of the Virginia Tech horror. Yesterday I wrote the following on our Facebook page:
Courage...cowardice...can any two words convey more difference? Our hearts go out to all affected by the tragic events today in Boston. We are grateful for the courage displayed by the first responders, and saddened by the cowardice causing this.
As each of us do, I have concerns - a brother whom I adore is in the hospital. I have driving teenagers in high school - enough said there. I watch my father, once the smartest man I knew, struggle with where he is, and am I his daughter or his granddaughter - not the way I imagined the anti-aging cream to be working. Life isn't easy, but we seem to have forgotten that it isn't easy for any of us, and a little compassion towards one another, and their struggles, seen or unseen, is a sign of the humanity in each of us.
I, as so many others, do not understand how humanity has devolved into this. Why are the solutions found through violence? Have we miserably failed at teaching how to disagree peacefully? Our pastor, Dr. Doug Cushing, taught an incredible series on this prayer. I try to remember this prayer - somehow there's always a line which hits home. I'm not always successful (remember the part about having teenagers...), but I try. Please indulge me, because the lessons contained within it are applicable whether you believe or not:
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
To the first responders, to the ones there who simply did the right thing and helped - Thank you, and God bless. May we each have what is in your heart. I do pray for the ones who did this evil act - because they need prayers, also. All of us are Boston, and Virginia Tech, and New York City, and the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA...and please may the madness end.
The first two years we were married, I spent more time in Boston than I did with my husband. I adore that city. The horror yesterday struck home because I spent so much time there, but doesn't it strike each of us? We realize the insanity of simply being someplace, and horror strikes at the whim of madmen. Then I realized that today is the anniversary of the Virginia Tech horror. Yesterday I wrote the following on our Facebook page:
Courage...cowardice...can any two words convey more difference? Our hearts go out to all affected by the tragic events today in Boston. We are grateful for the courage displayed by the first responders, and saddened by the cowardice causing this.
As each of us do, I have concerns - a brother whom I adore is in the hospital. I have driving teenagers in high school - enough said there. I watch my father, once the smartest man I knew, struggle with where he is, and am I his daughter or his granddaughter - not the way I imagined the anti-aging cream to be working. Life isn't easy, but we seem to have forgotten that it isn't easy for any of us, and a little compassion towards one another, and their struggles, seen or unseen, is a sign of the humanity in each of us.
I, as so many others, do not understand how humanity has devolved into this. Why are the solutions found through violence? Have we miserably failed at teaching how to disagree peacefully? Our pastor, Dr. Doug Cushing, taught an incredible series on this prayer. I try to remember this prayer - somehow there's always a line which hits home. I'm not always successful (remember the part about having teenagers...), but I try. Please indulge me, because the lessons contained within it are applicable whether you believe or not:
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
To the first responders, to the ones there who simply did the right thing and helped - Thank you, and God bless. May we each have what is in your heart. I do pray for the ones who did this evil act - because they need prayers, also. All of us are Boston, and Virginia Tech, and New York City, and the Pentagon, and Shanksville, PA...and please may the madness end.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Music Soothed the Savage Copier, While I Danced The Safety Dance.
Tuesday was one of those days, the good kind, where
everything seemed to fall into place with an ease that rarely comes. Where I
work, the caseloads are full and everyone is vigilantly plugging away to meet
deadlines. For the most part we are a quiet group, staying in our offices
(thank goodness not cubicles, but real offices, with real doors), and keeping
the nose to the grindstone. It can be rewarding work, but I’d be such a liar if
I said there were no days when work seemed like an endless escalator ride with
no view; constantly moving with no real destination in sight.
I wish I could claim that the good day was all me, my
attitude, my work ethic, or my vast and very OCD organizational skills. Nope,
nada, not me. It was the iPod. I finally had my replacement iPod Classic,
reloaded and synced, and the muses smiled. I popped in my ear buds first thing
after slinging my purse into a file drawer. What to my ears should deliver but
a huge swell of “Let’s Get It Started” by the Black Eyed Peas. In over a year’s
time I don’t believe I’ve filed so vigorously or planned out the day’s work. Where
the lyrics rang out “and running, running...” I actually felt my blood roar
like an Olympiad readying to cross a finish line. It rocked!
I marched down to the all-powerful copier in the hall,
the one that will work only if you stroke it and pay homage to its copying
prowess. “Turn It On Again” from Genesis roared. Yep, I was cooking with gas,
or at least with an Apple. While going over a difficult case and trying to
figure what the heck I was supposed to do, “Keep Your Head Up” by Andy Grammer
inspired. My Classic was giving me her all, even with only one ear bud tightly
packed in. I have to have the other side out to make sure I hear the phone, the
intercom, yadda, yadda, yadda. Who cares? It was working, and I was workin’ it
right along with the music.
My step was lighter; my focus was sharp and all for the
love of a gadget that twenty years ago I called a Walk-Man. Well, you get the drift,
and speaking of that, The Drifters serenaded me with “Up on the Roof” at break
time. The best one came on as I was shutting down for the day. Files were
packed back in, pens aligned (I had a wonderful co-worker who used to come into
my office just to talk, and she would slowly rearrange things on my desk as we
chatted. It drove me crazy, she knew it, and still survived! Such is my OCD.
Don’t mess with my office space.), and cases ready and compiled as Ray Charles
told me in no uncertain terms to “Hit the Road, Jack,” which given that Jack is
my son’s name had me moving out the door.
I walked into our kitchen at home, looked at my small family
and thought to myself, there they are, the reason I work, the reason it all works.
I parked the iPod into the docking station and the real music begins, ‘cause
there “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” to keep me from doing for those who rock
me in a way that even music can’t…but I’ll keep the iPod close for the
soundtrack to my life.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Fifteen, and Miles to Go Before We Rest
Yesterday was my last day as the mother of a fourteen year old. Today my baby turns fifteen - technically at 6:18 this evening, but try and tell him that - and as any mother will tell you - it's amazing how the years fly by. It seems just yesterday that he was born. For that matter I often feel like a teenager myself.
He was always an easy baby - the one that you could lay down wide awake, and he would go to sleep. I know it sounds like a fairy tale or a reinvention, but it really was that way. Even now, he's not a terribly difficult teenager. He can cop an attitude, but it usually doesn't last too long. Though I do embarrass him at frequent intervals - particularly my disco dancing (he needs to be grateful that I can't still fit into the satin pants).
He has some impressive accomplishments, and while I'm tempted to brag on them, the reality is that some kids just get it, and some kids are harder to raise. I get that completely, and I don't think we're anywhere near done with lessons, because accomplishments aren't what will provide love - character is. So a few quotes for my two teenagers, and if you have any words of wisdom - feel free to share:
"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university." Albert Einstein
"Where there is love, there is life." Mahatma Gandhi
"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." George Bernard Shaw
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." Mark Twain
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." Confucious
And your favorite quote = "Who is John Galt?" Ayn Rand
Happy Birthday!!
He was always an easy baby - the one that you could lay down wide awake, and he would go to sleep. I know it sounds like a fairy tale or a reinvention, but it really was that way. Even now, he's not a terribly difficult teenager. He can cop an attitude, but it usually doesn't last too long. Though I do embarrass him at frequent intervals - particularly my disco dancing (he needs to be grateful that I can't still fit into the satin pants).
He has some impressive accomplishments, and while I'm tempted to brag on them, the reality is that some kids just get it, and some kids are harder to raise. I get that completely, and I don't think we're anywhere near done with lessons, because accomplishments aren't what will provide love - character is. So a few quotes for my two teenagers, and if you have any words of wisdom - feel free to share:
"I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university." Albert Einstein
"Where there is love, there is life." Mahatma Gandhi
"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." George Bernard Shaw
"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first." Mark Twain
"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." Confucious
And your favorite quote = "Who is John Galt?" Ayn Rand
Happy Birthday!!
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