The Haunted Chair.

The Internet can teach you many things. I learned that a cemetery that is about a mile from where I grew up is allegedly haunted. I went by there all the time and never knew that. If you go here, scroll down to states, click Illinois, and scroll down to Mason City you will find this cemetery listed. If you look under the word Big you will see a cement chair that is someones tombstone. Supposedly that chair rocks at night. Mom went up one night with one of my nieces to check it out. She said it is an optical illusion. If you stare at it long enough it does appear to move, but then your eyes shifting focus in the night would do that. When I go back to Illinois next year I will take a better picture and post it next Halloween.

Incidentally, this is the same cemetery that we laid Dad to rest in. I told Mom if she sees the chair rocking now it is just Dad keeping an eye out for her.

Someone Needs A New Job.

No not me. I am satisfied with both of mine, thank you very much. Richard Beard, who I talked about last Sunday, was fired Tuesday by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Of course his attorney is claiming the firing was premature since he hasn't been convicted yet. I think considering the man's past it was a just firing. He has brought disgrace to a wonderful place. I realize our judicial system is innocent until proven guilty, but considering Mr. Beard pleaded guilty before, for the same thing, his removal was appropriate. You can read about it here. Now they can focus on next year, which marks Lincoln's 200th birthday. It will be interesting to see what they do for it.

Farewell History Channel.

I received a letter today telling me that effective November 12 the History Channel will only be available with the Digital cable package instead of the basic cable. Since I don't pay for my cable I will lose the channel. I rent a one bedroom apartment. I pay by the week and my utilities and cable are included in the rent. The only other thing I have to pay for is my phone and internet.

The bad thing is the History Channel is one of the few that I watch. My main viewing is History, Discovery, Food Network and VH1. I haven't watched network tv regularly in years. I will occasionally watch Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Comedy Central. Actually tv is more background noise than something I actually sit down and watch. Usually I am online or doing something else. If something really interesting is going on I will stop and watch, but I don't just sit and watch.

One other thing that was in the letter was the actual cost of basic cable. I have lived here for over 5 years and had no idea what the cost is. Basic cable is now $52 a month. If my landlord decides to quit paying for cable I will drop it. What I watch is not worth that to me. I will pick up the DVD's from my favorite shows or watch what I can online. $52 is too much to pay for what amounts to background noise.

We Sell Everything.

We really do sell everything at Wal-Mart. You can even buy toast. Not just any toast, Bimbo brand toast. Obviously Bimbo has a whole different meaning in Mexico than it does in the United States. Because we have such a large Hispanic population in Calhoun, we carry a lot of Mexican products. I have asked a few people what Bimbo means to them, and they have told me it is a bread company. In fact, they were the first Mexican company to sell sliced bread in stores, which they did in 1945. It seems a little odd to us to sell toast, but I am sure toasters aren't quite as wide spread there as it is here. I have been told a lot of their products aren't as sweet as we are used to.

Another odd name I have ran across came when I worked at K-Mart. There I stocked many departments and with the shampoos we sold Placenta brand. I believe it also was a Mexican company, but I could be wrong. I did a web search and found some for sell, but no website and no picture. Retail can be a lot of fun.

Good Things From A Bad Relationship.

One year ago today the one I have mentioned before walked out after living with me almost 4 years. I talked out it here. I am not sad she is gone. The relationship is over and I have moved on to what I feel is a better relationship. I still occasionally talk to her and she actually came for a visit a couple of months ago. She was with her new guy and I had Vickie over so they could meet. I have no animosity towards her and I do wish her well. I tend not to dwell on anything negative and there were several things she introduced me to. The last game system I had owned was an Atari 2600. Her sister bought her a PlayStation 2 and she got me interested in playing it. I do not like action games, but I enjoy role playing games. Those are the games where you set up what your characters do and then watch the results. The game shown here is Dragonquest 8: Journey Of The Cursed King. She took the PlayStation with her but I acquired another one. I completed this game once but am doing it again. I find it relaxing and I play about a half hour every day before I go to bed.


I was familiar with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before I met her but did not know a lot about them. I really liked the movie that came out last year and am now following their new comic book adventures.


She also introduced me to Dragonball Z, which is about as close as Japan comes to doing super-heroes. It is a fascinating srory. Since she left I have picking up the manga and plan on getting the DVD's. The pacing is a lot slower than what American story tellers use, but to me that is part of the charm.


One year after she left I am very happy with my life. Vickie is a wonderful lady and we are in love. At this time we have no plans to get married. We enjoy the time we spend together and that is good enough for us. After I was left alone I had no intention of getting involved with anyone else, but I am glad things worked out the way they did.

More Stupidity.

You make $150,000 a year. You have a second job that pays an undisclosed amount. You run the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. With all that, you have a problem. You like to take things that don't belong to you. The man you see here is Richard Beard. He goes to trial next month for stealing a DVD set, House Volume 4 from a Target store in Springfield, Illinois. This is the third time he has done it. I am amazed after the first time he was allowed to retain his job. You would think that after getting away with it once he wouldn't try it again. Obviously he couldn't resist. You can read about it here.

As for the museum, if you ever get to Springfield I urge you to take the time to see it. I was there in August and was amazed by it. I plan on going there again. You are given a tour of Lincolns life and the visuals and settings are fantastic. There is a video hosted by Tim Russert that shows campaign ads for the 1860 election if they had television then. There is also a large display of campaign buttons and memorabilia from most of the presidential campaigns. While in Springfield you can also visit Lincoln's home and his tomb among other historic sites.

Another Tangled Web.

Why is it when people are going to tell big lies they feel the need to call a press conference to do so? Do they think that no one is going to look closer at their story if they do? Pictured here is Ashley Todd, who claimed she was attacked by a black man because she had a McCain bumper sticker on her car. When I first saw her picture I was suspicious of her story. Just looking at her face led me to believe her tale was false. The suspect would have been illiterate, yet very neat. A backwards B can be easily explained. Just do something like that while standing in front of a mirror. That is what I thought had happened. It has now been revealed that is what happened.

Did she really believe that was a way to get people not to vote for Obama? The only way that plan would have made sense would have been after consuming mass quantities of adult beverages. She still is not telling the entire truth, but at least the police are not looking for the Invisible Man. Andy Warhol talked about people having their 15 minutes of fame. Ashley Todd just had hers.

If You Think Your Job Is Bad....

be glad you don't have the one they featured on Dirty Jobs this week. This week Mike learned about sheep castration. Once the incision is made they pull the testicle out with their teeth. If you think I am joking, catch a repeat of this episode. Of course, when they were done they had a fine dining experience.

I have helped castrate pigs before. I never cared for it but it had to be done. Next time you think your job "inhales vigorously" be glad you don't work with sheep. And if by any chance someone reading this actually does this kind of thing, I salute you. There is no way I could.

Last thought---Yesterday I saw a link to an interesting article on improving your memory. I forgot to click on it.

I'm Rich.

I got an email yesterday telling me I am going to get a bank draft worth $500,000. Sound too good to be true? Read it for yourself:

- UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION UNIT, IN AFFILIATION WITH THE ZENITH BANK.Attention: Beneficiary,How are you today? Hope all is well with you and family?, You may not understand why this mail came to you.We have been having a meeting for the passed 7 months which ended 2 days ago with the secretary to the UNITED NATION. This email is to all the people that have been scammed in any part of the world, the UNITED NATION have agreed to compensate you with the sum of US$ 500,000.00.This includes every foreign contractors that may have not received their contract sum, and people that have had an unfinished transaction or international businesses that failed due to Government problems etc. We found your name in our list and that is why we are contacting you, this have been agreed upon and have been signed.You are advised to contact Mr Jim Ovia of ZENITH BANK PLC, as he is our representative, contact him immediately for your Cheque/ International Bank Draft of USD$500,000.00 This funds are in a Bank Draft for security purpose ok? so he will send it to you and you can clear it in any bank of your choice.Therefore, you should send him your full Name and telephone number your correct mailing address where you want him to send the Draft to you.Contact Mr Jim Ovia immediately for your Cheque:Person to Contact: Mr Jim Ovia.Foreign Remittance Dept.Zenith Bank Plc.Tel: 234-709-009-6292.Email: info.zbn@gmail.com.Thanks and God bless you and your family. Hoping to hear from you as soon as you cash your Bank Draft.Making the w orld a better place.Regards,Secretary-General

Sound too good to be true? It has got to be legit. After all it is signed by the Secretary General. Of course it doesn't actually give his name but he must have been in a hurry, right? Also the fact that I have never fallen for one of those scams is just a minor detail. I have received a lot of the other scam emails, where someone wants your bank account information so they can transfer millions into it with you keeping a third of that. I am not exactly sure what they gain by sending you a bank draft but I know it can't be good.

It is amazing how many people fall for these scams. The old adage is right. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

I rarely answer my phone. I have caller ID and unless I know the person I don't answer. Also I sleep every afternoon which is the prime calling period. Since I have voice mail, I let it catch the calls. Most of the calls I get are from telemarketers. My three favorite ones are:

1. We will help you reduce your credit card debt. One even told me "I know you owe at least $5000." Really? That is amazing, especially considering I don't own a credit card.

2. Your car warranty is about to expire. This was even better when I had the 1993 Bonneville. I was almost tempted to call back and see what their reaction would have been.

3. They are selling burial insurance. Are they trying to tell me something?

It Can Happen Anywhere.

Dalton,Georgia is usually a quiet town. Population is around 33,000 but not a lot goes on there. There is a lot of carpet being made each day. Big police news usually involves an immigration raid at one of the mills. Last Thursday the city was literally rocked by an explosion. A 78 year old man, who believed he was being cheated by a 79 year old attorney, tossed a canister of some sort into the lawyers office. The explosion killed the man and has put the attorney in a burn unit in critical condition. The full story is slowly coming out, but it appears that the bomber had severe mental problems and whatever wrongs he had experienced were in his head.

The whole thing could have been worse. The man tried to use his SUV as a car bomb. He had propane, gasoline and natural gas in his vehicle, and he tried several times to ram the building.

Some days you wonder what the world is coming to. What drives a man to do things like this? I read today that the mans sons were scared of him. They had talked about committing him to a mental hospital, but were afraid of what he would do when he got out. The attorney spent some time trying to calm him down before the explosion. You could almost get paranoid about going anywhere. 2 people hurt there were simply there to address some legal problems.

You never know what can happen, but then you face the same risks by getting into your car and going anywhere. It is sad, but it was an isolated incident and life will soon return to normal in Dalton. The man injured is showing signs of having a great attitude, which helps in recovery. He sent word to his pastor that he would not be able to sing in the choir last Sunday. I am hoping he recovers enough to make it home.

It's Not As Easy As It Looks.

Several of my friends responded to my post I Believe. I am going to address this more tomorrow, but my friend Travis posted this on his list:
"3. I believe...everyone should work retail for one year. Then maybe some common courtesy would return to the world, and there won’t be such a sense of entitlement."

Preach it, Travis. I think you could have them do retail or wait tables, but they really should experience it. Presently I don't deal with the public as much as I used too. You just don't see a lot of people at 2:00 AM. The rudeness of some people is amazing. I used to be a department manager for K-Mart. The things that people expected you to do was unreal. I always tried to be accommodating but there were times when I had the authority to do so I refused to do anything. One that stands out was a phone call I had from a lady berating me because I had dared sell an "obscene" CD to her 13 year old daughter. I knew that I personally had not but some cashiers would not check ages on age restricted items. I asked her what the CD was and she told it was from Tina Turner. I explained to the lady that there was no restriction and due to copyright laws we would not take it back. On this I did have some discretion and had she not launched into such a tirade I probably would have exchanged it for her. I was tempted to tell her if she thought Tina Turner was bad I could play some stuff for her that would have curled her hair, but I resisted.

Over the next few weeks I will return to this subject and give you an overview of what I do. I will do a post for the dairy department, frozen foods, and on a night where they put me in grocery, there. I may even throw in Taco Bell just for the fun of it and to see how many people scream "Stop. No more." Frozen will wait until we get our big freezer running. The original plan was that to happen today. However, it has been delayed. The door isn't working right and they put the wrong shelving into it. The fun continues.

Movies Teaching History.

Some people believe that movies are historically accurate. Yahoo movies just did an article about the inaccuracies found in several biographical movies. You can read it here. I know someone who believed Billy The Kid was not killed by Pat Garrett because of the Young Guns movie. Some things get changed for dramatic effect. Things also get condensed because they simply don't have the time to tell it exactly. I don't mind small changes, as long as they don't totally distort history. I enjoy researching things so I will use a movie as a starting point for examining something closer. I don't tear apart a movie because a few small errors.

Gettysburg is my second favorite movie of all time. There a few minor things they missed or adjusted but on the main points they got it right. I know someone who hates this movie because it shows Robert E. Lee apologizing for the defeat. He claims Lee would never have done that. Lee may not or may not have apologized there, but he did offer his resignation to Jefferson Davis because of the defeat, so I don't see any problem. After Lewis Armistead was shot he was told Winfield Scott Hancock had also been wounded. That was done for dramatic effect because the front line soldiers would not have known that.

The thing that helps make Gettysburg so great is the battle scenes. They used Civil War re-enactors for those scenes. You get the feeling of what it must have been like to be there. I am a Civil war buff and have always had a hard time picturing the camps, the mens movements and the battles. This movie helped me visualize that. It also inspired me to research the events of those 3 days more. The movie is based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara. If you are interested in this subject, I strongly recommend both the book and movie. Movies should not be used in place of history books, but they can be an excellent starting point.

How About A Burger?

When I decided to do this I was going to write about a 6 pound burger. Then the gentleman in the first picture topped that. The burger you see in front of him weighs 15 pounds. He ate the entire thing in 4 hours and 39 minutes. Since he ate the whole thing in less than 5 hours he got it for free. The full story can be found here. When I was younger I could eat a lot, but not that much. I find the older I get the less I want.







The burger shown here was the one I was originally going to talk about. It "only" weighs 6 pounds. The burgers are both from the same restaurant. After they introduced this one another place came up with a 12.5 pound burger. Thus came the 15 pounder. I wonder if these burgers come with an after dinner drink........Alka Seltzer. More details can be found here.





Last night at work I was stocking eggs. A friend came by and said "So there is the eggman." I told him "Yes. But I am not the walrus." We are so easily amused at work.

Yes We Have No Bananas.

In Japan anyway. It seems we Americans are not the only ones who go for fad diets. A new diet sweeping Japan involves starting your day eating a banana and drinking room temperature water. It will go the way of every other fad diet eventually, but for now bananas are a lot harder to get and people are now paying more for them. I learned a lot about fad diets and the different diet pills from the one who moved out last year. She did several of them. Short term they worked, but all were too hard to stay on. You can read more about this here.

I Really Do Like My Job.

Tuesday I was whining about my job and I may have given the wrong impression. (Yes, I would like some colby-jack to go with that whine.) I really do like working in retail. My former mother-in-law used to complain to my wife about it. She would ask my wife when was I going to quit K-Mart and get a real job in a factory. After K-Mart decided my services were no longer needed in 2004 I did go to work in a factory. I could have gone to Wal-Mart then, but I decided to try factory work. Five months later I went to Wal-Mart. I started working retail at age 17 when I went to work for a grocery store in Mason City, Illinois. I like helping customers and I do enjoy stocking shelves. Some nights are aggravating, like Tuesday morning, but overall that is the exception. I hear a lot of grumbling from my co-workers. Their main complaints is Wal-Mart has the audacity to expect them to work for their money. Cruel, aren't they?

I have always tried to find something to enjoy in every job I have had. Even the factory wasn't that bad. The main reason I left is I had a feeling they wouldn't be around for long. They closed about a year after I left. If I get to the place that I hate my job, I will find something else to do.

I still am working at Taco Bell for 2 reasons. One is I like the bosses there. They simply stay out of my way because they know I get the job done. The other is I like what I do there. I am only working 2 days a week, when the deliveries come. I get in between 6 and 7 hours a week. I had originally planned on quitting at the end of the year, but as long as things stay the way they are I will remain. One thing my Dad told me shortly before he passed away was he missed being able to work. I am glad I am able and if the day comes I can't, I will know exactly how he felt.

100 Posts.

100 posts. It should be more, but have a wonderful habit (if your sarcasm detector has not gone yet you better check it) of not doing today what can be put off until tomorrow. Hopefully post 200 will be a lot faster.

I have had a lot of fun doing this. More people than I realized have read it. I knew my friends from the Captain Comics Board would be reading, but I have had several comments from others, including the person who took to to task for declaring Scott Peterson is guilty. For the record, I still believe and if that person wants to comment here I will ignore them. Hopefully that person now has a life outside of that crusade. To the rest of you, thank you.

I have revealed more about myself than I planned on, but I am having fun doing that. If you find what I say interesting or entertaining that makes me very happy. I have always enjoyed writing but am not very disciplined when it comes to that. I am trying to change that, slowly but surely. My goal for the rest of this year is a minimum of 5 posts a week and to try to post daily. For next year I hopefully will be disciplined enough for daily. As for the baseball cards i had been posting, I have suspended them temporarily. I am working on an idea for a second blog which would post a baseball card a day. I need to get ahead on that before I launch it. It probably will appear on January 1.



Last night Vickie and I watched Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck and the man I consider the greatest movie villain, Alan Rickman. Rickman hires Selleck for his marksman abilities, but when he tells Selleck he is to kill aborigines, Selleck refuses the job. Selleck finds himself left to die in the desert with Laura San Giacomo, but of course being the star of the movie he comes back. It would have been on awful short movie if he hadn't. The showdown at the end is one of my all time favorite movie scenes. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend it. IMDB rates it a 6.5, I gave it a 9.



I have talked about Vickie and here is a picture of us. You can tell I spend a lot of time getting my hair just right. Thank you for reading for blog.

What A Night.

I was definitely glad to walk out of the store at 7:00 this morning. We are in the process of putting in a new freezer and replacing most of the refrigerated cases. To replace the freezer means we are currently keeping all frozen foods in a refrigerated trailer. Last night we received 10 pallets of frozen foods and I had space for 5. There is a separate freezer for bakery and 2 of the pallets belonged went in there, after I did some rearranging. The other 3 I had to put in the meat cooler, which is kept around 38 degrees. Not exactly freezing, but cold enough until the pallets get worked. I put one of them out myself and left the other two for the day crew. I got a headache from dealing with it. I took two Tylenol and the headache just sneered at the pills.

This is one reason I am no longer interested in leadership at Wal-Mart. I had to deal with that, but the department manager got to figure the rest out. At one time I was interested in becoming a department head, but with what I make I would not get too much a raise and would have all of the headaches to go with it. What I do now is show up, do my job and go home. I like that.

I have also had the offer to become a salaried manager. I did that for almost a year at K-Mart and will not do it again. There my salary was based on 48 hours, but I usually put in 70. I took that job after my wife died. It got me through the first Christmas after her passing, but I don't need to push myself that much anymore.

The good thing is this is Tuesday, which means Vickie and I will get together to watch a movie and have some personal time. Tonight we will be watching Quigley Down Under. Vickie has never seen it.

Cake, Anyone?

Welcome. I was hoping you would stop by today. I prepared a cake. Would you like a piece?

Yes, I know what it looks like. Trust me.

Oh, you did on my Cubs prediction. Well, you can't win them all. Once would be nice, but.

This is the kind of cake to make and give to your new neighbors. Let them know what they are getting into.

Seriously, this is a Cat Litter Cake. The "cat nuggets" are shaped tootsie rolls. Here is the recipe if you are interested.

CAKE INGREDIENTS

1 box spice or German chocolate cake mix
1 box of white cake mix
1 package white sandwich cookies
1 large package vanilla instant pudding mix
A few drops green food coloring
12 small Tootsie Rolls or equivalent

SERVING "DISHES AND UTENSILS"

1 NEW cat-litter box
1 NEW cat-litter box liner
1 NEW pooper scooper

Prepare and bake cake mixes, according to directions, in any size pan. Prepare pudding and chill. Crumble cookies in small batches in blender or food processor. Add a few drops of green food coloring to 1 cup of cookie crumbs. Mix with a fork or shake in a jar. Set aside.

When cakes are at room temperature, crumble them into a large bowl. Toss with half of the remaining cookie crumbs and enough pudding to make the
mixture moist but not soggy. Place liner in litter box and pour in mixture.

Unwrap 3 Tootsie Rolls and heat in a microwave until soft and pliable. Shape
the blunt ends into slightly curved points. Repeat with three more rolls. Bury the rolls decoratively in the cake mixture. Sprinkle remaining white cookie crumbs over the mixture, then scatter green crumbs lightly over top.

Heat 5 more Tootsie Rolls until almost melted. Scrape them on top of the cake and sprinkle with crumbs from the litter box. Heat the remaining Tootsie Roll until pliable and hang it over the edge of the box. Place box on a sheet of newspaper and serve with scooper. Enjoy!

Sunday joke.

A cab driver reaches the Pearly Gates and announces his presence to St. Peter, who looks him up in his Big Book. Upon reading the entry for the cabbie, St. Peter invites him to pick up a silk robe and a golden staff and to proceed into Heaven.

A preacher is next in line behind the cabby and has been watching these proceedings with interest. He announces himself to St. Peter. Upon scanning the preacher's entry in the Big Book, St. Peter furrows his brow and says, "Okay, we'll let you in, but take that cloth robe and wooden staff."

The preacher is astonished and replies, "But I am a man of the cloth. You gave that cab driver a gold staff and a silk robe. Surely I rate higher than a cabbie."

St. Peter responded matter-of-factly: "This is heaven and up here, we are interested in results. When you preached, people slept. When the cabbie drove his taxi, people prayed."

Not A Good Idea.

1. If you are going to drink, watch what you pick out to wear.

2. Driving drunk is never a good idea. I applaud the gentlemen here for not getting behind the wheel. However:

3. Do not use a 10 year old as your designated driver.
You can read the details here.

I Believe.

This is a list of 10 things that I believe, some serious, some not. When I come up with 10 more I will do another of these lists.

1. I believe that every person should have their own theme song. Mine is If I Only Had A Brain.

2. I believe in God, but I think he sometimes shakes his head at those who do things in His name.

3. I believe in the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I think too many people believe it reads "Do unto others before they do unto you."

4. I believe in respecting all people until they give me a reason not to. I do not judge anyone based on their skin color, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or religious affiliation. I tell ethnic jokes as moron jokes. I believe anyone offended by a moron joke deserves to be.

5. I believe movie critics have forgot that the main purpose of movies is to entertain. Not every movie has to have a deeper meaning. Sometimes I just want to sit back and enjoy.

6. I believe too many people take life too seriously and don't laugh enough. Life is way too short as is and laughing is very good for you. Enjoy it while you can. I truly know how quickly it can end.

7. I believe teachers, nurses, police officers, firefighters, and many others should be paid more than athletes and entertainers.

8. I believe too many people don't know the difference between love and lust. That is one of the reasons our divorce rates are so high.

9. I believe there are a lot of good people who do good things, but that doesn't get reported enough.

10. I believe that if at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.

I challenge any of my fellow bloggers that read this to tell us what you believe.

Ghost Town.

Vickie and I saw Ghost Town last night. The tag line of the movie is "He sees dead people....and they annoy him." Ricky Gervais plays a dentist who has no people skills. He insists on being put under while having a colonoscopy. While under he died for 7 minutes. Because of that he sees dead people and they chase after him so he can help them move on. Since he doesn't like live people there is no way he will help dead ones. Greg Kinnear, who is dead, offers to keep everyone else away if he will stop Kinnears' widow, Tea Leoni, from getting married. This is a very good movie with some clever twists. Gervais does a wonderful job. IMDB has rated this 7.8. I am surprised only 1749 people, as of today, has voted on this movie. I hadn't checked on its financial success, but a quick look at boxofficemojo.com shows it has only grossed a little more than $11,000,000. It is a shame that is all the more it has done. It is much better than that. My vote on IMDB is 9.

Time To Get Dirty.

Discovery Channel tonight at 9:00PM EST will be showing new episodes of one of my favorite shows, Dirty Jobs, hosted by Mike Rowe. This show in a way goes with my last post, only the people Mike shows have real pride in their jobs. Mike never makes of these people. He usually opens the show by saying:

"My name is Mike Rowe, and this is my job: I explore the country looking for people who aren't afraid to get dirty—hard-working men and women who earn an honest living doing the kinds of jobs that make civilized life possible for the rest of us. Now... get ready, to get dirty."

Most of the jobs I would not want, but it is great to see people who do enjoy what they do, no matter what it is. I also find it fascinating on how certain things are done. Of course, I won't be watching it when it broadcasts, but that is what VCR's are for. This is movie night, but for a change we are going to go to a theater instead of watching DVD's. We are going to see Ghost Town. I will do a review of it tomorrow.

Curses! Foiled Again!!!

Once again we have been led down the path. Some years we have been drug there, but this year we ran. Our hopes were higher than they have been for many years. They seemed to have it all. They were among the league leaders as a team in almost every offensive and defensive category. They seemed destined to break the curse and then they once again ran into a buzz saw, this time one from Los Angeles. Once again, we the loyal faithful find ourselves in that position we know all too well. We sigh, shake our heads, mutter a few unintelligible comments, throw back our heads, and shout to the world, WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR!!!!!!

Pride.

Why do people no longer take pride in what they do any more? I know there are some exceptions to that rule but too many seem to just put in an appearance. I know this is true at the Wal-Mart I work at. My job consists of 2 nights stocking dairy, two nights stocking frozen foods, and one night stocking wherever they put me. In dairy it is extremely important to rotate the stock so the products don't go out of date. Some like cheeses have a shelf life of several months. Others like milk and yogurt have a matter of weeks. Most of my co-workers, sadly including the department manager, don't do that. Last Thursday night I threw 4 items away that were over a month out of date. Georgia has inspectors who go into stores and look for that. They can fine a store and if the situation calls for it close the store. What makes what I found worse was the fact last week the case was totally stripped out. Every single item was removed because new cases were installed. Nothing out of date should have been there, yet it was. I was taught if a job is worth doing it is worth doing right. It is time consuming to rotate the stock, but that is the proper way of doing it. Company policy calls for it to be done, yet most don't. I accept it won't be done, but I will do it properly. I hear so many complaints from people about having to do things, but that is what the job is all about. Some don't want to do anything except for their assigned area, but my attitude is I am paid to work, so wherever they need me I will do it. Hopefully my attitude will change some peoples attitudes, and a few I know it has, but it is a long hard road.

No job is unimportant. Some are looked down upon because of what they do and that is a shame. Many jokes are made at the expense of "burger flippers", but when you want fast food aren't you glad someone is there making it? Janitors are considered low class by many, but what would the world look like if the job wasn't done? Take pride in what you do, no matter what it is. If for no other reason then self-satisfaction.