The Vacation...

So I chose a bad time to come "back" cuz I could post once and then had to go to visit family with no internet.

Anyway, I thought it interesting that the thing that really stood out on this trip was the music. To kick things off we talked about the music we were going to take on the trip with us and were thinking back over what we used to listen to on long trips. We brought up Judy Rodgers and her old kids sing along cassettes and sang our way through every song we could remember.... kinda random and I know not really interesting but still....

At the reunion in Tennessee we had a house packed full of people and somebody would randomly start singin a carol and pretty much instantly all through the house people would pick it up and soon "Hark the Herald" was bein belted out by 25 voices young and old from various rooms. Then the carol (or verse of it) would end and everyone would go back to their cooking and movie watching and card playing. One of my aunts also brought along a book of carols and the history behind it and we who remained around the dinner table would sing them after hearing what we were actually singing.

Sunday morning was also kind of musically cool. We went to a good 'ole souther baptist church where we sang a wide mix of musical styles, but of course we sang "Go tell it on the Mountain" and "Beulah Land" in good southern gospel tradition.

So yeah... kinda lame but i thought it was kinda cool all the same that the most fun we had over that vacation was with the music and we aren't even a super musical family.

Christmas Tip #1: Packaging

Ugh we love it at Christmas, the nice easy gift wrap that tears wonderfully and makes a satisfying rip sound like a school worksheet that you have finished with. But about that plastic stuff....

The packaging of electronics is twice as bad as the rest. First it is extra thick to protect the contents. Then they heat seal the edges and hone them and their serrations to resemble a steak knife, and crimp it to a 90 degree angle so several pairs of scissors must be broken on them trying to obtain the stuff you actually wanted inside (forcing you to go out and buy more scissors and stimulate the economy.. so its a good thing?).

If blood is not drawn at first attack, then you obviously aren't trying hard enough to get at what's inside and this may tip off to the giver that you are not overly enthusiastic about their gift. So be sure to always stab yourself on the devil's wrapping paper at least once and demonstrate your excitement.

Cleanup for these things is also somewhat difficult as the environmentally conscious celebrationist (<----Bushism?) does not know what to do with the plastic waste. Typically none of the plastic packaging that houses the goodies is nor marked with a recycling symbol and does not indicate its recyclability in any way. This is one for brighter minds than mine to figure out though.... so having raised that guilt inducing question.... g'bye!

The Return of the Jedi. The Return of the King. Return of the Living Dead. Return to Neverland. Return of Jafar.....

So I'm back to blog. I don't know what I'm going to say, but facebook statuses and notes cannot communicate the huge quantity of emotion and passion that has built up over a semester. And so I shall continue writing and ranting and raving and hopefully motivate myself to think!

But Sheesh you people are prolific. 71 new posts and those are just the recent ones! I am sorry but *hits read all button* now I can start afresh and glory in your quirkiness and snarkiness and BRILLIANCE without feeling like I am days behind in a literature class.

101 posts. A year and a half. Its over... Its kind of sad, but for a while this blog filled a need I had to express and try to stir up ideas for others, and now it doesn't fill that need. I don't have the mental energy to write anything worth reading anymore...

SO for now I have to say goodbye. It won't be forever, I know that. Keep me in your aggregators and every now and then I may pop in with something new, but for now, its time for no guilt and to move on with life. Thank you all for reading and please keep in touch with me still! Somnite@gmail.com and u can search for me on facebook using the same username, just please leave a note saying how you know me.

Well, farewell for the moment!!!!

Anthropological Observations

I like that title.

So this is another post on racial issues, but it goes in a very different direction from my past posts.

A lot of this post is theory taken from a dissimilar situation and applied to the racial divide. I work dish room at a tourist restaurant in Lancaster County. The managers are extremely nice and friendly people and will often help us with our work. Most of the dishroom staff, myself included try to be sensitive to others who may have disabilities or handicaps and most of the workers have some kind of learning disability or handicap. Well, there is this one man that I work with frequently who we'll call Carl. Carl is a bit slow, and someone who you would say is "not all there." We get along and work together, laugh and joke when we are in a good mood but mostly just work.

Well, on several occasions we would have a very busy day at the dishwasher and at 10:00PM we would still be backed up in which case "John" one of the managers would jump on the dishwasher and start helping us. The odd thing is that as soon as John started working, Carl doubled his pace and they both started singing and laughing and joking. Several of John's jokes however were extremely insensitive and he poked fun at Carl's lack of intelligence. However instead of being resentful or angry or hurt, Carl loved it, and feels more accepted by having his differences poked fun at. Instead of denying that such a problem existed, John closed the gap and treated him like an equal that didn't have to be treated sensitively.

I wonder if the same thing is applicable in racial contexts. I have known many people of Asian-American descent, but the relationships have been a lot less strained and polite than those I have had with people of African American descent. Part of this I think is due to the respect that I think society often demands for people of one minority group over another. While we may be friends with Asian people groups, we must acknowlege and be cautious the African people groups. To this etent, racism most certainly is present in our culture today. Most of the Asian kids find their identity in their origins, but poke fun at themselves at the same time.

At college my one growth group leader was asian and we would always say "where is the asian kid" and things like that or poke fun at Asian stareotypes because it was a way to share something with them. It is somewhat akin to the hilarity we get from listening and debunking homeschool sterotypes.

Yet society blocks us from having this casual kind of relationship with african americans because we are to respect an not look down on them, when in fact all that is sought is a casual an light-hearted interaction.

That's all for now I guess....

This is your friendly reminder...

... To not give out your address, DoB, or Social Security Information of the phone. My family countered a scam today.

A lady called saying that we owed $103 on a Wal-Mart credit card and asking if we would pay it. My mother of course said that she had no such card and never did. The lady said statements had been mailed, but could she please verify address. My mother gave the first line only. The lady was very hesitant to give any information or verify anything on her end, and asked my mother for her SSN and DoB. Upon which point momma said heck no! and asked for a phone number where she could contact someone and get things straightened out. At that point, the scammer hung up.

True story.

(yeah, I am feeling lazy again and am not signifigantly emotionally destraught over Obama's doings these days to write another rant... maybe in another day or two)

From the last post...

I'm revisiting my last post referencing star wars, but taking it beyond just posting a link to the article. lol, I am actually going to be posting quotes and stuff with a link you can visit if you want context or more information. A warning though, when I post quotes, I will be leaving out bracketed sections which is the reporter's INTERPRETATION of what the speaker meant by a pronoun or ambiguity. I want to post it just as it is, so you can read it with same amount of offense, patriotism, or stupidity that the speaker said it with, not some spin put on it by the media.

-------------------------------------------------------

"What I have no interest in doing is running GM," Obama said. His only goal, he said, was to get GM back on its feet and then "to get out quickly."

Yet, the U.S. could end up holding the shares for some time.

Neither Obama nor his spokesman offered an indication of how long the government's involvement with GM would last. "I don't know that there is a timeline," said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary.

This is intresting. So Star Wars! I'm thinking of Epsiode 2 when the senate votes emergency powers to the chancellor, and he runs things "reluctantly" and with prmoises of "turning power back over to the proper authority" as soon as the crisis has been averted. This while covertly doing everything to make sure that the crisis continues. Obama = Palpatine.

Why do I say that he is ensuring the crisis continues? Well, Obama just sold GM's Hummer line of vehicles to China. Godbye jobs, goodbye income for GM. GM can't make money, financial insecurity and more gov. control! Grats Obama, stage one is successful!

Stage 2: Enact tax policies that will either slash profits of major companies (forcing them into "bankruptcy protection" and government control) or force them to ship jobs over seas, causing further economic slumps and bankrupt companies to take over.

Stage 3: Declare regret at this and demand re-election on the grounds that any other candidate is just hungry for all the power over commerce that the office now holds. Oh, and be assured that future Presidents will have this power. Remember according to Liberals, "no timeline" means "forever." Just look at how they handled Bush and McCain's lack of timeline. They declared that "not timeline" meant "forever" and used it as grounds not to elect him. (Oh, btw, I want an Afghanistan timeline! Our soldiers still aren't home, they're just a couple countries east)

Alright, so future speculation asside, lets look at the here and now.

What are Obama's credentials that he should be running one of the largest and once the strongest companies in the U.S.?

-Law Schoold Grad. I don't care where it was. (but I do know, its just not a relevant fact in this post) Law degrees do not teach you economics or business managment, and no law school grad with ZERO company experience has what it takes to go right to the top and determine what is healthy for that company.

-Community Organizer. Basically a person with an agenda (not necessarily one that is beneficial to a large group of people) who gathers other people to his/her cause and makes a fuss about some issue or another. In short? a lobbyist who organizes other lobbyists who are demanding resolution to a local need or want, whether it harms others or not. Lobbyists were a huge part of the campaigns, with both parties declaring that they would not be run by lobbyists. Oops! Our mistake, we elected one of them! Ok, so lobbyist... not really qualified to be running major business in our country.

-Civil Rights Attorney. A lawyer is a person who ignores the facts or manipulates them for money. Most politicians were once lawyers. Yah, society has made a few election mistakes. However, In my opinion, Civil Rights Attornies are the worst of these. They are racists who get paid to be so and manipulate the facts so that other people look racist instead of them. Civil Rights attornies once had their beneficial place in our society, but not anymore, when the public lives in fear of being sued for all they're worth or losing their jobs, because someone called them a name they didn't like after being sworn at and degraded by the "victim." Damaging to the desirablitiy as president? Yes. But whether desirable or not, does this experience make him qualified for running a country or a big business like GM? ABSOLUTELY NOT!

- One Term not completed in U.S. Senate. (because of election he only filled four years) CEO stands for Senior Executive Office. Obama was for four years a LEGISTLATOR, not an EXECUTIVE. If he had been a governor, that would be ok, he would have had experience being in the role of a person making that kind of decisions, but not a legistlator! Sarah Palin would be more qualified to run GM than Obama (Her crdentials were equal in weight to Obama's, but somehow the VP needs more qualifications to be "a heartbeat away" than it does to actually be in the spot. She was also in an executive role as Governor for several years). Several sources site the margin that he was elected by to senate as a credential, as if it carries some kind of weight, but it is merely a testimony to the weakness of the other politicians that Illinois turns out, and the gullability of citizens of Illinois. It merely makes a statement about the constituency, no the qualifications of the man. FAIL! Not quite enough to make it acceptable for him to run GM.

"He has a strong obligation to ensure that there is a management structure in place that is making smart business decisions," Gibbs said. "Is the president going to thumb through engineering reports and each page of the annual report? No."

Now his secretary says that "oh, yes this is a responsibility, but its really not a big deal. Even if he does have a strong obligation (which he doesn't) to this company, as the CEO of GM, Obama does not have the obligation to fulfill those responsibilities of reading through the reports so as to know what is going on in the company. Then maybe he might actually be able to make informed decisions. Who knows? Give it a year, and we may see Oprah running the place, and turning out the latest cars instead of unfounded advice and feel good destruction.

Alright, so I've said my piece on this issue. I've thrown in my opinions, but there is a large amount of objectivity in them. If you disagree, I'd really like to know and read your comments, but please do not swear, call me names (or call me or my posts close-minded or bigotted). <--- these are grounds for deletion of your comment.

Here is the link to the article again if you would like to read the whole thing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090601/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_gm;_ylt=AnWf9Hi51QTZgOT4L6flM0ADW7oF