Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Gentrificationalisms

I'm old enough to remember when there was a REAL variety to society.  Where, if one needed furniture they went to a store that specialized primarily in selling tables, chairs, couches...or if one wanted to purchase a good Hi-Fi or stereo system they went to an audio store, or one that specialized in electronic appliances (i.e.: everything from refrigerators to televisions to vacuum cleaners to stereo units)...if they needed tools or hammers or screw drivers they would go to a hardware store to buy them...if they bought records there were record stores.
Granted, there were also department stores that sold these items as well, but often either they were "low-end" products or their selections were limited.

These days all the small businesses and specialty stores are being displaced by all these "WalMarts" and others of their ilk.  They would want everyone to find their niche products at one of these "one-size-fits-all"
 mega-marts.  Out the window goes all the specialty shops along with all the knowledgable clerks who would know said products inside-and-out...not to mention also the substantial variety of brands of such products those types of stores afforded.


I also remember the various freedom-of-choice aspects society used to have...
For example, if one needed a place to live, but couldn't afford a house and also fell short of the requirements necessary for meeting the qualifications for renting an apartment, there were always the "flop houses" or motel rooms that rented on a weekly basis.  There were also rooming houses as well.

But, alas...they've been shutting these places down one by one over the years, allegedly due to the way such places attract "questionable" personality types and the way such places seem to be "magnets" for all sorts of criminal activities.

Of course in the process of shutting such places down, that also means that a lot of good people who would have trouble obtaining a place-of-residence in a normal manner---due to, perhaps, a lack of local social ties, or because they "don't make enough money" to qualify, or because of an arrest record, or maybe they're a bit eccentric---will, anymore, risk being left out in the cold or becoming homeless because all of these flophouses and cheap weekly rooms are being torn down and replaced by exotic high-priced luxury apartments affordable to only the top-salary upper-echelon types.

Just as is the case with modern-day merchandising, modern-day housing is also losing all the "escape route" aspects that made it possible for those of us "who could never have the same success doing things the 'normal' 'appropriate' or 'correct' way that most people do" to have our own minor small-scale "successes"---to at least have a place of our own to live and a few personal possessions of our own, as one example.

American society is becoming more and more one reserved "for the overpriveleged only"
...and also becoming more and more monolithic as well.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Consideration of others, respecting the rights of others

You ever notice how hypocritical most people are when it comes to this?

They're always going off about "not being violated" or "infringed upon" and about what they find "offensive"
...yet they always behave odiously, are constantly infringing on others with their invasive behaviors, and are eager to remind you of what you're "not allowed to do".

"Your liberties end where the other person's liberties begin".
Yeah, well maybe if you allowed me a little more space instead of letting others hog everything I might be able to take a couple steps or so without "crossing boundary lines" or speak up once in a while without "disturbing everyone else's peace".

Monday, January 21, 2013

Job Interviews

QUESTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY ASKED BY INTERVIEWERS
                    ...AND HOW TO ANSWER THEM...

Tell me about yourself.
Okay, but this may take a few hours as I am a 48-year-old man and have quite an extensive personal and academic history.  We may want to order a couple of pizzas and brew a pot of coffee while we're at it...

Why should I hire you?
What?  Someone told you you SHOULD hire me?  And you're asking me WHY?  Well, hell, whoever it is must like me a lot to try to help me get a job HERE.  I should take advantage of THIS situation.

Why do you want to work here?
You guys seem like a naive bunch...easy to take advantage of...I could really "get one over on you"...

What kind of relationship did you have with your last employer?
What makes you think I would ever have a relationship with someone I work for?  Do I come across as being THAT promiscuous?  You have a dirty mind, you know that?

What have you learned from some of the jobs you have held?
Disconnect security cameras before "shorting" the cash register for "gas or meal change"...

What is the worst thing your last employer could say about you?
Besides the way I "came on" to her 12-year-old daughter? ...Well, she didn't like me "helping myself" to "free" sandwiches and donuts, never mind that I pointed out that, considering how little she paid me, I was "entitled to a few perks"...

What was your greatest accomplishment in your previous job?
I managed to "give" myself a $300 "bonus" one month without my boss ever figuring out what I did.

What kind of boss do you prefer?
Young, female, nice-looking, and horny-as-hell...

What jobs have you held before?
All my jobs held ME more than I held them...that's why I had to quit them...

How did your previous employers treat you?
Like I was useless crap...but I understand that it's because they were such arrogant blowhard jerks...

What is your strongest asset?
Knowing when I'm being watched and when I'm not...

What is your weakness?
When I misgauge my "strongest asset" and get caught doing things I shouldn't do...

What jobs have you enjoyed the most?
The ones where my bosses were so hungover they weren't there when the place opened and I could come in as late as I wanted...

What jobs have you enjoyed the least?
Any place with "rules and regulations"...

What are your greatest accomplishments to date?
Made out with my last boss's 12-year-old daughter and no one else ever found out about it...

Happy MLK Day

Still striving to attain that dream of racial equality---to this day, already into the second decade of the 21st century.

So far the only "success stories" to date in that category are The Big Band Era, The Jazz Age, and The Rock n'Roll Era.

Otherwise everyone still wants primarily to continue "sticking with their own kind".
"Outsiders" are okay as outsiders, but just don't try to "join groups" you haven't been "designated" to be a part of.

More Myopic Musings

They say "Doing the same thing more than once and expecting different results is the definition of 'insanity'".
Then reality must be "insane" since results depend just as much on time place and circumstance as it does action and behavior itself.


If you have something in mind or to say, you might as well come right out with it
...sooner or later you'll make yourself obvious with your actions and attitude anyway.  In time someone's going to figure out what you're "all about".
You can't hide behind the cloak of acceptable behavior and " cliches"


There are essentially three types of people:
Those who build and create
Those who bomb and destroy
And those who witness and observe

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Campy Quotes

"What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas"
I'm sure if a terrorist attack, a major earthquake, a 20-car wreck on the freeway, a mass shooting, a major sandstorm occurred in Las Vegas it would, in all likelihood, make international news.

"Only the Strong Survive"
...except when shot in the head, or killed in a plane crash, or suffering from terminal cancer, or falling off a 10,000-ft cliff...

"To Each His Own"
Does this also apply to serial killers, or child molesters, or embezzlers, or extortionists, or armed robbers, or burglars, or...?

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Another Adage For You

Chagrining should only be reserved for the reckless, malicious, or negligent...not the socially awkward, uninformed, or vulnerable.

Business Owners

...they're a strange bunch.
Some of them figure they can just open a restaurant and merely staff it with managers and employees, underpay them and take in the bulk of the profit...or purchase rental property and simply sit around and collect the rent money while "going fishing" or taking off on vacations or focusing on that "other job" of theirs (little more than one-man/one-woman "collection agencies", so to speak).

But property ownership doesn't work that way.  Whatever one owns they have to nurture and "baby-sit" the same way as one does raising a child or owning a pet.

If one purchases property that needs intense repairs and restorations or remodeling they're also "purchasing" all the responsibilities that come with any kind of property ownership.  Including all upkeeping with the possibility of being penalized by local/regional government for any code violations incurred for failing to correct critical problems---even if said problems predate and were already omnipresent prior to when they took over ownership.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Stormy

With all these pacific storms coming onshore and working their way over to the midwestern and eastern portions of this country, I'd like to think that at least all this damn precipitation is filling the water tables back up---considering all the hot dry weather  a lot of us had to endure a few months ago.

Nature should make this all worth it.
Don't be plaguing us with all this snow and ice crap only to throw yet ANOTHER hot and dry summer season at us.

In short---don't "build up a surplus" then "cut taxes" and create another "deficit".

Nature and politics---two vexations people complain most about.
And for good reason.

Plunging Into a "Fiscal Cliff" Musing

Why is there "government spending"?
Why not "government investing"?

Where the money and funds go to worthwhile programs and to items of value whose performance and results more than justify their costs?

For example: Initiate a program for restoring the physical infrastructure of this nation.
There are plenty of civil engineers, construction workers, draftsmen, trucking companies, companies that manufacture building materials and others of their ilk living right here in the U.S. who wouldn't mind being given a chance at making a decent wage for performing tasks and duties pertaining to their line of work.

And, even though paid in tax dollars, the "private sector" would still benefit when they spend some of their earnings at restaurants, stores, bars, car dealerships, or on travel expenses and vacations, or concert and/or theatre venues...

Put money and funds toward that which yield beneficial long-term results and enhance the functionality and overall collective social climate.

It seems that society's always "shooting itself in the foot", and then wonders why it "can't seem to go anywhere".

An Ideal Existence

No,it's not having unlimited personal wealth...nor having everything I want the way I want to have them.

For me it would be one in which I can simply go about my "business-as-usual" unfettered...not just in terms of pleasure or leisure, but also being able to take care of obligations, necessities and responsibilities without all manners of undue distractions and interferences

...an existence wherein the laws of "cause-and-effect", logic, and reason rule.
...where "2+2" always equals "4".  None of this inexplicable algebraic "Things are actually more complicated than most people realize"...with "2+2" equaling "7" one moment, then "23" or "15" the next, depending on whatever the "current trends" happen to be at the time.

We all know that kind of crap is little more than a smokescreen intended to cover up sabotage and all sorts of "favoritisms".

When things "don't make any sense" it's a sure bet something's probably been rigged.