Blog For Peace

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Wall Street To Lose Top Talent

Some of the top Wall Street companies are complaining that if they are restricted in how much they can pay their top talent they'll lose them to other pursuits. And this is a bad thing. This so called top talent is what brought us to the situation we're in now. For more on this go read here.

Windows 7

Has anybody upgraded to Windows 7 yet? I was wondering how you liked it if you did.

I thought I had read that Microsoft was going to make Windows 7 fairly inexpensive. The prices I've seen are all over a hundred dollars. Now maybe that's inexpensive to Microsoft but it's going to make me think about upgrading first.

A Few Things That Have Been Bothering Me Lately...

Why are we still focusing on the balloon kid and his parents? You'd think with everything else going on in the world, you know things like the economy and the war and all, the media would have something a little more important to report on. If the media keeps making events like this EVENTS than parents are going to continue to do things like this.

How hard is it to get the fist in a fish fillet sandwich on the bun, not half on the bun or partly on the bun, but on the bun so when you go to eat it the sandwich isn't falling half out all over the place? This one really irks me, as usually the only time I'll get a fish fillet sandwich is when I'm running the streets and go through a drive through and keep going as I eat. Do you know how hard it is to get the sandwich back in place when you're trying to drive? Really how hard is it to get it right the first time?

Today at work I heard two customers complain about their wait and how it was Obama's fault. Don't ask me how, I had to keep going or I would have gotten into a lot of trouble. This happens a lot at work, I'll hear comments about the President that are so stupid or that make no sense and I just ignore it. At work I'm not there to argue with customers about their politics, but sometimes it's hard.

Ok, that's it for today. Just a few things I've been thinking about lately that has been bothering me.

The Difference Between Pot and Alcohol

Go here to read "Why Is It Bad to Smoke Weed but Ok To Drink Beer?" I don't do either, but I agree with the article. If someone wants to do either it should be their choice.

Two New Books

I recently ordered two books from Amazon and they came in the mail a few days ago. I didn't realize it at the time I ordered them but both comic strips shared the newspaper page around the same time and they both ended the same year.

The first book Looking For Calvin and Hobbes is as close to a biography of the strip's creator as we have and might get for awhile. The author was hoping to get an interview with the publicity shy Watterson to lend some insight into his book, but the creator never even contacted him to refuse his request. As far as I'm concerned Calvin is one of the best comic strips ever created, but after reading this book, I'm reminded of the old adage about not wanting to meet your heroes. Watterson comes off as a pretty cold person. He was passionate about his art and he believed that his comic strip was art (and I do too) but he comes across pretty much as a cold fish when it comes to interacting with other people. Still this was a fascinating book about the author's efforts to learn more about the creator.

The other book is the first in a five volume series that will reprint the entirety of Bloom County. I'm not sure where I would rank this comic strip but it was always one of my favorites and I look forward to exploring it from the first strip to the last.

We're living in a time where some of the great comic strips are being reprinted in deluxe editions. Besides Bloom County, there is the definite Calvin and Hobbes three huge volumes that reprint the entire run of the strip. And of course there is Peanuts which started with the first volume in 1959 and right now is up to the year 1973. Especially with the early volumes there are a lot of strips that no has seen in decades as Charles Schultz never wanted to reprint his early work until it came time for the complete edition. And happily there is Pogo coming, another of my favorite strips.

Peace For Everyone

Peace means more than just an absence of war. We need peace for everyone. I found this video on Mark Eavnier's blog.

Dress For Success

I'm going to sound like an old fart here, but I can't help it.

Part of what I do at my job is interview and hire new associates. This week I've interviewed three young men. Now I realize that people don't wear a suit and tie to an interview. I wouldn't expect it. I had a job for twenty something years where I had to wear a suit and tie and am thankful now that the job I have is a lot more casual. We wear a polo shirt and slacks. So I'm not looking for a potential new hire to come dressed up, but....you all knew there was a but coming right? One guy came in shorts and flip flops! Now I'm sorry, that's way too under dressed to be coming to interview for a job. Another guy when I walked up to the counter where he was waiting for me was chewing so hard on gum that he looked like a cow. Really. I have nothing against gum chewing, but keep it low key. Throughout the interview he kept smacking his mouth as he chewed his gum.

I don't understand it. I would think this is common sense. A pair of jeans and a polo or nice shirt, that's all I ask for. You'd be surprised by how some people come dressed for an interview. I just don't understand it. I'm all for casual dress, but there is a limit.

Blog For Peace

Again we remind you that on November 5 everyone needs to blog for peace. Do we think that simply writing about peace everyone will lay down their weapons and we'll have everlasting peace? It would be nice, but no one that is doing this is that naive. But the long march towards that everlasting peace has to start with one step and that's what we're hoping for. Let's take that first step together. Who knows who might read you post about peace and be moved? Peace can start with a word. Let that word be yours.

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• Take the Pledge to Stand Against Racism (thepetitionsite.com)
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Peace Globes Are Coming

In my slowdown from blogging lately I've neglected to mention the BlogBlast For Peace. This idea was started by Mimi and has grown into a world wide event. On Nov. 5 every blogger puts a peace globe on their blog and writes whatever moves them to write that day. I know there will be a lot of you out there that scoff at the idea and think it's just a bunch of hippie nonsense. But large movements are built from the ground up, one step at a time.

Remember the most powerful weapon might not be a sword or a gun or a bomb....it might be a word. Words have power. Use them wisely.

Ho, Ho, Christmas Is Coming

Working in retail I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas. After seeing parents fight over a toy it's hard to get in the jolly peace and goodwill to all vibe about the holiday. When you have to work more hours than you thought possible it's hard to get too overjoyed when the day finally gets here except as a day off and much needed sleep.

But I still have to admit that there is something about the holiday that I love. Some of my favorite movies; Holiday Inn, It's A Wonderful Life deal with Christmas. And I love some Christmas music. Now I don't love it when I'm working or go shopping and I hear Christmas music and it's not even Halloween yet. Used to be Christmas didn't start going up in the stores until after Thanksgiving. Somehow it's snuck up past Halloween and I've seen some stores start decorating after Labor Day.

Still we only have something like nine weeks till Santa slides down that chimney. So even after what I just said about Christmas music I'm going to start a weekly posing of some of my favorite Christmas songs now.

And the first one is a surprise to me. Bob Dylan just released a Christmas album. I can hear the surprise in all your voices, cause it was in mine. Bob Dylan and a Christmas album! I figured this for a train wreck for sure. Dylan's singing style has always been, shall we say unique, but ten years or so ago he seems to have blown his voice out. It works great for the blues and old country style songs he has been favoring on recent albums. I don't think it works that well when he tries for the Tin Pan Alley material he goes after on his newer albums. I was just having trouble wrapping my mind around this concept.

Well, I am glad to report that it actually works out quite well. I enjoyed the album. His voice puts a different spin on the songs, but they come off quite nicely. I'm posting "Must Be Santa" because it's such a fun song. It's different than most of the other songs on the album, in that Dylan isn't the focus of the singing. On this song it's the chorus. But still it's a really fun Christmas song. Before the nine weeks are up I'll probably post another Dylan Christmas song and you'll hear him better singing yuletide cheer.

Related articles by Zemanta

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Joss Stone Coming

As anyone that sees my heading for this site will know I'm a big Joss Stone fan. She has a new album coming out next week and this is the first single off of it.

Happy Birthday Dad

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a few thousand words about my Dad. Today would have been his birthday.

This is my Dad's parents, my grandparents. I was never that close to them. As a small child we lived in New Jersey where they lived, but after we moved down south we didn't see them that much and my Dad and his Father weren't that close. My Grandfather wasn't the nicest man in the world, but my memories of him are sitting in his lap while he read the funnies to my brother and me.

This is the earliest picture of my Dad that I have. I really have no idea how old he is here, but he's pretty young. Ready to take on the world.

This is probably from when we lived in New Jersey. That's me and the little tyke is my brother with my Dad.
I'm not sure where we were for this picture. I'm assuming Memphis from the age of me and my brother. That's us with my Mom and Dad. Notice how my Dad had pretty much the same hair style throughout these pictures.

A Christmas picture with my Dad and me and my brother. My Dad was not a suit wearer. I can't remember the times I've seen my Dad in a suit outside a wedding or something similar. The little Christmas figure hanging to the right of my Dad, we had that for years, I remember hanging it up till I was past my teens. It was just a plastic leaf figure with a round head, I didn't even remember it till I was looking at this picture.

I'm pretty sure this was from when we were in Florida. I want to say St. Augustine, but not completely sure. That's my brother, me and my Dad holding my sister.

My Dad at work. He was an aviation ordinance man, which meant he was responsible for arming the plane.

My Dad as a sailor. He spent over twenty years in the Navy and served proudly.

This is my Dad and Mom from his retirement. I remember this because I actually got to go. He retired not long after I graduated, so I didn't have school when it happened. It was actually quite a moving event.

This was at my Grandmother's house in Tennessee. My Mom lives close enough to this house now that she can see it from her porch. That's my Grandmother in the rocker, my Mom, my Dad and my sister. I remember this house with so much great memories, it's a shame no one in the family kept it up. Now it's falling apart.

This was right after my parents moved to Mississippi. They had just built the porch at the back of their home. That's me in the cool shades, with my Dad, brother and sister.

Again from Mississippi with my Dad, me, sister and Mom. This is one of my favorite pictures.

Again from Mississippi. My brother, Dad, his sister - my Aunt Bop, my sister and me.

One more from Mississippi. My brother with my niece in his lap, me behind them, my nephew on the ground, my Dad and my Mom with her cool hat behind him and their dog.