The Third Saturday in October
With all the important issues of the day, to this home boy, it’s the third Saturday in October, which means only one thing: “Go Vols!” vs. “Roll Tide!”
The supercomputer’s on its own today. I’ll let it talk to itself and reinforce its self-reflection algorithm.
In the meantime, here’s your video for the day. Enjoy!
One Shirt, Two Skirts, Red Shirt, Blue Skirts
Thanks to Penny, Gift and the staff at Thai Garden, to begin with.
The local and the universal.
While tracking meteoric dust streaking across clear, dark, star-filled nights, we pause…
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the hangout, where we stand and shoot the breeze, recalling with ease the moments we encountered the law rolling down the highway — expired tags, headlights out, speeding home after work — and pulling over for friends with badges.
Thanks to the guys at Advance Auto for that one.
And now, as we look back, thanking Brad at Bill Penney Toyota, Tony and Becky of Mowdy’s Old Fashion Apple Butter, the folks at Amis Mill Eatery, Cassie at the Apollo Cafe, Tasheria and Shermika at McDonald’s, and finally, Aaron and Rachel at Walmart, let’s take a breath…
Because here, in skills both rudimentary and complimentary, we spin around the floor at KCDC.
Harold, Joe, Naomi, Nicole, and Kelly instructing patiently.
We, the patients (sometimes patient), repeating, missing the beat but having fun, while high school football rules the battlefields and airwaves, repeating, stepping softly and loudly, sweating, perspiring, laughing, sitting, repeating.
A week before the Halloween party/contest/dance.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and back to Friday.
In the span of those 24×7 hours, we’ll see, well…we’ll see what we’ll see.
Tango, samba, rumba, foxtrot, waltz, swing, cha cha, salsa…
Ahh…
Almost sounds like the International Radio Operators or NATO Phonetic Alphabet, doesn’t it?
See why we go dancing? We can talk about our aerobic activity and pass secret codes in the open at the same time. Wished you’d thought of it first, didn’t you?
Never underestimate the power of dancing or leaving hints like accidental misspellings or hiding Morse code messages in the rhythm of typed speech.
I’m still a kid at heart, playing cowboys and Indians, knights rescuing damsels in distress, or capture the flag in this grownup body, but on a larger scale than in our neighbour’s backyard.
After all, what else have my friends got to do with our trillions, billions, millions and thousands of dollars wasting away in secret island hideouts?
Turn the whole solar system into an endless game of Dungeons and Dragons, Monopoly, Command-and-Conquer or Civilisations.
Isn’t that what you’re teaching your children?
I sure am.
Money is just a tool, a means of converting labour into investment credits, after all.
If you want to cure cancer, prevent disease, stop malnutrition, convert heathens or feed the poor, go right ahead.
Just don’t expect those who are in the middle of a game between monetised giants to play along with your wants and desires, unless you can find a way to make it interesting to them/us.
I have to keep reminding myself that we’re playing with live ammunition on continental scales because some days I forget they aren’t pop guns, paper boats, model rockets and remote-controlled toy airplanes, anymore.
In either case, the fun is still the same.
Sure, go ahead and pretend the stakes are higher. To the big boys and girls, though, the local and the universal are the same.
The game is everything. We’re just chess pieces that’ll all die sometime.
Remember, the rules change as the next set of players gets bored with the old rules and writes new ones to keep the game interesting.
There’s no conspiracy. There’s only those who are willing to play with the lives of billions and those whose lives are played. You always have the option of choosing which life you want to be.
See you in the next round we’re calling the Corporation vs. the People.
Choose wisely.
The rules are a little tricky this time – we’re adding an option for a select group of people to leave this planet and start a new game somewhere else, sacrificing a few thousand of us, maybe even millions, to make that option happen.
Sorry, but that’s just the way it has to be, giving all seven billion of us direct participation in the game we choose to play or get played.
Begin the beguine, as they say.
Private security contractors are not officially at war
You want extra large electrified Finnish fries with your order?
If you perspire, are you a sweater?
If you brag about how much you perspire more than others, are you a sweaty pants?
Oh, the Committee is at it again. Some argue that, with Libya’s reorganisation under way, we should move the drone army/navy into Iranian, Israeli and/or Saudi territory and keep the global revolution on schedule. Apply the usual political pressure, at least.
What is your definition of despotism? A tyrant or a tyrannical society?
If a corporation was chartered in a geopolitical region that values freedom of speech, should the corporation’s policies and procedures actively protect freedom of speech? If not, should the geopolitical region’s representatives legislate/require/regulate/adjudicate corporate policies and procedures to ensure freedom of speech is fully protected by law?
In other words, beware the corporation’s fear of the power of the consumer to control corporate behaviour and influence profit margins. 😉
To be a kid again, absent of the knowledge of adult games, freely playing on the street, cataloging fauna/flora in the woods, impressing teachers with studious habits…
Enough of this chatter. Time for concrete action.
See you in a few days.
Murdering us with statistics
<start chapter of humorous novel>
As a species, we like to hunt and kill one another, it seems. So be it. I admit I am who I am because of what my species does, regardless of the percentage of us who wouldn’t hurt a fly but would call in an air strike without hesitation.
Or kill formerly caged wild beasts, reliving our nomadic hunter-gatherer days once again for 15 5.352 seconds of Internet video fame.
But back to statistics. Here are two more data points worth considering:
Next up, give me that oldtimey religion – a word about archaeology and a word about modern belief structures.
= = =
Thanks to Miranda and staff at Beauregard’s, Eric Mc and staff at Chili’s.
= = =
To the Saboteur Squad, you know which solar manufacturers to target – the ones doing the dumping. Proceed.
<end chapter of humorous novel>
Spoiled by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
My wife and I consider ourselves fortunate to have grown up with a fastfood retail chain that makes quality a core ingredient: Pal’s Sudden Service, which won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001. For an interesting perspective, read where business students studied and reported on the business’ success.
Does that explain our expectations of [near] perfection when visiting fastfood stores for quick meals, especially in Rocket City?
Last night, my wife ordered two meals from a local Wendy’s restaurant.
At the drive-thru order screen, she noticed the total cost displayed was $11.09.
However, when she pulled up to the drive-thru pickup window, she was informed the total was $12.16.
My y wife commented about the discrepancy and was informed offhandedly, “Oh, it’s probably just a glitch in the system,” making my wife feel like she wasn’t taken seriously. At her request, my wife double-checked with the restaurant worker to make sure the food she ordered was the food she was going to receive.
In addition, she asked for ketchup, was told ketchup was already in the bag and discovered, after opening the bag at home, there was no ketchup.
Thank goodness for the Internet.
On the drive-thru receipt, a website was listed, which we visited, easily finding, at the top of the main page, the link to a sub-page where we could leave a complaint, compliment or suggestion.
We chose the first selection, detailing the above incident.
Within an hour or so, we received an email from the store’s general manager, who asked to speak with my wife about the visit, including details such as the time the incident occurred.
Granted, that is an exceptionally fast response and we commend the Wendy’s franchisee, First Sun Management Corporation, for setting up a quick way to address customer complaints.
However, the email began with a misspelling of my wife’s name.
Details, details, details…
Is it “first impressions don’t last” or “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”?
My wife and I have always noticed that the Wendy’s in another part of town (on University Drive, not far from Cummings Research Park) has a much smoother and more efficient operation than the one my wife visited last night.
Boy, do we miss Pal’s here in north Alabama!
Anyway, I scanned the drive-thru receipt into a PDF file so my wife could email it back to the general manager, who gets to address this issue with her staff, including drive-thru workers and IT personnel, we hope.
Maybe the general manager will take this as a lesson in finetuning how she hones or sharpens her attention to details. Perhaps she or the FSMC owners should visit Pal’s and see what they’re missing.
In our town, missiles and rockets require the highest level of quality, because a misspelling or a disconnect between the console display and the actual reading onboard usually means the difference between life and death.
My wife is inclined not to visit this particular Wendy’s store again. We hold nothing against the corporation or its stores in general. But something about this particular store has always bothered us – slow or lackadaisical service, frequently, as if management is off playing golf or bass fishing, and the workers know it.
We challenge the general manager to prove us wrong, should my wife and/or I visit the store again.
UPDATE: After this story was relayed to my father, he reminded me he was the executive director of the National Center for Quality when he introduced the quality management info about Eastman to the Pal’s ownership/management, including Pal Barger, at Skoby’s Restaurant years ago.
Will the ISS look bigger in your telescope?
Contracts up for bid: Russian Federal Space Agency opened competition for new module, according to Izvestia:
Federal Space Agency has ordered a new module to the ISS for 3.72 billion rubles
Station itself may be operated up to 2028
Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has opened a competition to create a new module for the Russian segment of International Space Station. The maximum price contract – 3.72 billion rubles.
This amount should include the creation, deployment and operation of a new laboratory module to the ISS. Terms of the contract: November 2011 to July 2013.
The tender documents published on the site office.
On the eve of the chief of manned programs Roskosmos Alexei Krasnov said that the life of the ISS can be further prolonged and the station can provide up to 2028.
= = =
Meanwhile, Bigelow worries about “ownership” of the Moon and Branson helps dedicate the space terminal in New Mexico.
Increase your hits by linking popular topics of the day
So much to say, so little motivation to organise my thoughts today.
As long as officials in small countries that serve as tax havens can be easily bought and paid for, well…a supercommittee is practically useless and defenseless against such a system, n’est pas?
As long as highly-profitable speculation drives growth in one part of the world, the other parts will never succeed in corralling speculators.
Those are the problems.
What are the solutions?
See, life on Mars decades from now is no different than life on Earth today.
The full spectrum of muddied, transparent personalities exists outside of time.
Be an immigrant/artisan, you say?
Then take away the conveniences of modern life.
Until hardships or other means to provoke our competitive nature, our desire to feel alive, dominate, change is slow.
Molasses at the South Pole.
What did you expect to happen when an automated, robotised future freed us to enjoy leisure but took away our means of making a living?
Until the robots work for us, all of us, not just the automated factory owners, we live in a disjointed society/economy.
How do you spread the increase of productivity around?
My wife and I invested in the means of production via purchases and longterm holding of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. That way, we capture some of the benefits of continuous productivity improvement.
We avoided the debt trap of purchasing objects which reach their depreciation to zero within a few years.
House paid for. Transportation vehicles paid for. You know the scenario – we did not leverage debt, ours or someone else’s, in order to speculate.
Yet, we have enjoyed artificially-fast portfolio growth because of speculators. We have suffered artificially-fast portfolio decreases because of speculators, too.
That’s why our investments are spread across the globe, to capture differences in socioeconomic conditions.
Thus, our lives our intertwined with the richest and poorest of us seven billion sets of states of energy.
My wife participates in the office-style work environment. I manage a visibly transparent network that feeds this blog/never-ending story. Together, we, as past/present/future millionaires (in USD), have a keen interest in ensuring our global economy is relatively stable and free from control by selfish tyrants/hoarders.
Who are the selfish tyrants/hoarders?
They are the ones who gained wealth by high-risk speculating with the wealth/debt of others without providing a way to share the profit through dividends, stocks, bonds, mutual funds or other less/low speculative ways of channeling their hordes to wise, longterm investors.
What is the difference between high-risk speculators and low-risk speculators?
That, my friends, is a view that changes with the popular topics of the day; meaning, there is no easy answer to that question.
We hope you figure out how to enjoy the bounty of automation and increased productivity while some of us figure out how to define the constantly-changing difference between high-risk speculators and low-risk speculators and protect the wise investors from the wild, reckless ones.
That, in itself, is motivation to get out of bed every morning and compete in the marketplace of ideas to create a better future for all of us.
treetrunkdings 