Tag Archives: happiness
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.
Data Points
- Will all governments agree to similar economic packages that prevent tax haven seekers from spoiling the hope for U.S. government revenue growth to increase employment?
- Green is a long way from being economically cheap and easy.
Finally, IndyCar gets what it needed – a fiery, death-filled crash to make open-wheeled races exciting again, hopefully making us rethink going round in fast circles (watched them in Charlotte and Nashville, myself, quickly getting bored with the speed/track disparity, like watching Sprint Cup cars race at the Huntsville Speedway, inappropriate in many ways (is that why tracks like Nashville have faded?)) – infield chicanes, perhaps? A nod of sorrow to the Wheldon family survivors for their sacrifice.
The messy global democratic construction process continues – are you onboard or a dinosaur falling behind the times? Is the Internet the anonymous crowdsourced leader you dreamed of as a kid imagining the Utopia of Walden Pond?
Spider egg cases – the awkward case of his or hers
How often have you taken a skin sample of yourself and examined it under a microscope?
I suppose I’ve talked about buying a microscope from David Cate in high school. I think he sold it during a concert/marching band fundraiser.
In any case, I took the microscope home and started preparing slides of pond scum, tap water, leaves, insect wings, floor dust, and whatever I could fit between the light bulb and the microscope lens.
I knew then what I wanted to do.
And now, thanks to my scientists locked in their cells working for me in subterranean laboratories to pay off mortgages, children’s teeth braces, expensive holidays and other modern conveniences, I now have what I want.
Think of a product in use anywhere in the world and my organization the Committee has its symbiotic microorganisms/nanobots working for us — household cleaners, fuel, motor oil, pipes, clothing, building material, sand, gravel, plants, animals, books, computers, mobile phones, food, water, air, beauty supplies — you name it and we have found a way to connect the item into our global communication network.
Many in the Committee want to use the network to advance their worldview philosophies – left, right, center, up, down, north, east, south, west, literal, figurative, etc.
I don’t care about which philosophies most or least interest the people.
My only goal is expansion of our ecosystem, taking all seven billion of us into account, depending on every one of your opinions to advance Earth-based lifeforms off this planet.
It’s not an easy goal.
In fact, most days, I feel lost and alone, as if my voice is drowned out by the Earth’s desire to keep its lifeforms to itself.
But I know better.
Earth is having growing pains.
Earth is coming into its own as a full-fledged member of galaxy-sentient being incubators.
We just…well, I need your help.
How are we going to move our species forward into its global partnership and create viable lifestyles that eliminate the detrimental effects of speculators and other greedy leeches who prey upon you within the the current finance-based labour credit/investment system?
In other words, how do we protect ourselves against the worst conditions that the right of freedom of an individual can cause?
We are observing several experiments in progress at the local, regional and [super/extra/hyper/macro]national levels – there are no winners or losers, only the mix that works best in the current global ecosystem conditions.
Sometimes, a single person within our seven billion (or a single idea within that single person), the ultimate minority, will come up with the most viable solution.
Therefore, I work with the Committee to protect the right of the individual while allowing a plurality of subcultures to debate which ones get to influence the next generation of children to carry on beliefs and practices for the generations to follow.
Do you prefer his or her, or does gender specificity have no meaning to you?
The Legend of Turkey and Colby Jack, made fresh in store!
‘Twas a time ago, ’twas, they say.
A time before Benny Wilson backed up Janie Fricke.
Before Wayne Bernard became Charlie Chase but after he helped Fred Berry set up radio equipment at the local high school.
A sock hop, dancing on the gym floor in street shoes, classes of 1970 to 1980 getting reunion photos.
Memories…catching up, reliving old relationships.
Where has the time gone?
Earlier in the day: Warren working KAT for 11 years, a quarter left on a table at Buddy’s BBQ, UTK and LSU fighting for football bragging rights.
Wayne/Charlie, have you worked radio/broadcasting for 46 years?
What are the OWS/sympathiser/copycat protestors’ longterm plans/demands? How do we reinvent the past for a livable/likeable future?
Familiar faces – Patricia, Judith, Betsy, Hannah, Dr. Chambers. New ones – Dr. Slaughter, Gerald Street’s brother.
In a world of perpetual war, is Iran a viable target for warmongers/peacemakers meeting quarterly projections?
Innocence is also an illusion.
Is the absence of general news the news of general absolution?
A nod to Doc Severinson and the Pride of the Southland (UTK) marching band.
Glad that Cherokee pregame show honoured EMS crews last week.
Back to the nap making progress in currents, not currants, currently. Shh…
treetrunkdings 