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the different view of news

#OccupyMonday

Occupy movement has taken to Mondays. Photo courtesy of salon.com

The Occupy movement has decided to take on a new challenge: Mondays! Long the most despised day of the week of the 99%, the movement seeks real reform against the pain and terror this day brings.

True to the social media revolution, the protests were planned out through Facebook. Each company took its own approach. In some offices, not a soul showed up to work. This scene panned out at a local office of major financial institution, where a lone Senior Vice President came in to work. The SVP, who asked not to be named, was furious that he came into work this morning and had to make his own coffee. After several hours of trying to answer the phone for himself, he eventually locked up and went home.

Other places took an approach more common from the Occupy playbook. At one company, employees staged a sit-in in the break room. Several workers had brought boxes of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. After failed attempted by managers to break up the group and resume access to the coffee pot, the police were called. After a tense stand-off, with employees sitting down, arms locked and chanting,  officers – in fear of their safety – pepper sprayed and billy-clubbed many of the protesters, and place three under arrest for failure to disperse. No one was serious injured, however the doughnuts and several cups of coffee were taken as evidence. The Chief of Police went on record supporting the actions of the officers, even showing off how delicious the evidence was. However, internal affairs in investigating the actions of those officers, and have place several on paid administrative leave.

Some protestors took their concerns all the way to the White House. While most of the company-based protests were asking for solutions such as work from home Mondays, half day Mondays, Mondays off, full buffet breakfast on Mondays (a favorite of our staff!), the group in DC had much bolder solutions. They have requested that President Obama draft an executive order, removing Monday from the calendar, and replacing it with Funday. All Fundays would be required holidays, with employers unable to make employees work that day. They are suggesting that this is protected under the 1st Amendment, as it is everyone’s religion to rather have fun on Mondays. The President has given support to these ideas, but believes it will take an act of Congress to push through. OccupyMonday has recommended you reach out to your Congressional representatives in support of such an idea.

However, it hasn’t been all fun and games. Several prominent politicians and many business owners have spoken out against the Occupy protests. Hermain Cain went on record telling “those lazy bums to get to work.” He cites the millions of unemployed who would gladly work on a Monday. When asked if he was referring to the same millions he said were too lazy to get a job in an earlier speech, he swiftly concluded the interview. Michelle Bachmann has also spoken out against the protests, comparing the protesters to the “fags and queers” that her and her husband have tried to repair. Rick Santorum went on record that he believed that this was not considered protected speech, and the protesters should all be arrested. Many business owners chimed in, with common buzz words such as “anti-capitalists” and “socialist movement” being thrown around like monkeys with a bag of poo.

While the 99% might agree that Mondays are no fun, if the OccupyMonday movement is successful, we have to work what’s next, Tuesdays?

Thanks to staff writer Sharon Houston for tipping me off to this story. Now I must join her and the rest of my colleagues to protest Mondays.

A lesson for citizenship

Ok, Ok. This is a joke I got in the email. Some of you may find it offensive, but if you do, then you’d probably walk out too. Just remember, I don’t discriminate, unless you’re russian ;-)

The other day, I needed to go to the emergency room.

Not wanting to sit there for 4 hours, I put on my old military fatigues and stuck a patch onto the front of my shirt that I had downloaded off the Internet.

When I went into the ER, I noticed that 3/4 of the people got up and left.
I guess they decided that they weren’t that sick after all.
Cut at least
3 hours off my waiting time
.

Here’s the patch. Feel free to use it the next time you’re in need of quicker emergency service.

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border patrol

It also works at the DMV and Laundromat. Don't try it at McDonald's, the whole crew will exit and you'll never get your order. (ok, so that last part a lil harsh)

Graduation and Acceptance

What a day. At 7PM, I was at my graduation ceremony at CPCC. Although I won’t technically graduate until this summer, since I’m a summer graduate I could attend. I’ve never been to my own graduation ceremony before, so it was finally a tangible taste after all those years of hard work. It was also nice graduating with honors (Mu Alpha Theta, Phi Theta Kappa, 3.7-3.99 GPA), at one point being one of only a couple of students standing to show off their honors (I’m a member of Mu Alpha Theta, a national mathematics honor society, and we are a rare breed apparently). I’ll tell you what though, it’s a pain keeping all of those cords and the stole in place.

The commencement ceremonies were nice, the guest speaker may have been a bit better ( she had occasional fits of verbal diarrhea), and it was a relief to finally see something tangible for all of my hard work. Now that I am past that, I can focus on my final course and be over and done with (oh yea, and getting that CPCC accounting issue resolved).

But the day only got better. After a wonderful after graduation dinner with my daughter – or as she would say, we had a date – we got home and I got her to bed, and I started putting everything up. Then I remembered a conversation from earlier in the day with a lady from UNCC. They had a few questions regarding some of the answers on my application (yes, I was a bit of a hellraiser in highschool, but I wasn’t that bad.. they just needed to know that), then let me know I could go online the next day and check my status. So I checked it.

I GOT ACCEPTED! So now the day ends on an even better note. Starting this fall, I will be somewhere in the area of a Sophomore/Junior at UNCC (depends on how all of the credits transfer over). Another 2-3 more years, plus another 2 if I can do an accelerated master’s program, and I’ll be at the mark I’m aiming for. Wow. Will I ever get a break? Sure, when I die.

Was there a point to this post other than to brag? No, not really. I’m just really… stoked… about the events of today. It’s nice to know that I have written this current chapter in life to be a good one, and I now have direction of where I am going to go for the next chapter. Tomorrow is my day.

Funny scams

Ok, once again I get another one of those funny scams. You know the kind “Hi, My name is blah blah, I’m with the government of some obscure african county, we need to send off millions of dollars, what is your account number.” I will admit they are getting a letter better (spelling issues are getting better at least), and the stories are getting, well, funnier. So now I include the one I most recently received.

WORLD BANK GROUP AND UNITED NATION ORGANIZATION OFFICIAL CONTRACT PAYMENT UNIT.

Our Ref: UNO /SNT/CTB

RELEASE CODE No: 0763

 

 

Attn: Beneficiary

 

 

U.S.A Government, World Bank And United Nations Organization Official Has Approved To Pay You Part Payment Of Your Inheritance Fund And Lottery/Award Winning Payment Valued Of 8.3m.

 

 

The British Prime Minister in conjunction with U.S.A GOVERNMENT, WORLD BANK AND UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION do hereby give this irrevocable approval order with This Release Code: GNC/3480/02/09 In Your Favor For Your Contract Entitlement And Your Inheritance Fund Which You Have Not Received Yet, Now It Was Approved By The World Bank, That Your Contract/Inheritance Fund should be released through UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION. So You Are Advised To Present Any Of Your Choice, On How You Want To Receive Your Fund, Either By BANK DRAFT OR BY ATM CARD OR WIRE TRANSFER, So In Regards To The Transfer You Can Provide Any Of Your BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS For The Transfer Of Your Fund With Out Delay. I Am Contacting You In Regards To The Instruction Given By United Nations, Please I Will Urge You To Try And Indicate On How You Want Your Fund To Be Released To You From The Three Options Above.

 

 

As a matter of fact, you are required to Deal and Communicate only with MR. CLEM WATFORD , HEAD OF TELEX DEPT. OF CITIBANK GROUP UNITED KINGDOM, with the help of monitory team from the CITIBANK OF NEW YORK which is our official remitting bank, Committee On Foreign Payment Matters in United Nations, has look up to make sure you receive your Fund. So reply this e-mail by attention your to: MR . CLEM WATFORD or call Direct Citibank at unn.org@gmail.com OR CALL +447024060926 FAX+448704952404. For immediate release of your contract/inheritance/Award Winning claim be informed that you are not allowed to correspond with any person or office anymore, you are required to send bellow information for your transfer.

 

 

1)  YOUR FULL NAME:

2) ADDRESS, CITY, STATE AND COUNTRY:

3) PERSONAL CELL PHONE, FAX AND MOBILE :

4) COMPANY NAME (IF ANY) POSITION AND ADDRESS:

5) BANK NAME:

6) BANK ADDRESS:

7) ACCOUNT NUMBER:

8) ROUTING NUMBER OR SWIFT CODE NO:

9) OCCUPATION, AGE AND MARITAL STATUS:

10) COPY OF YOUR INT’L PASSPORT/DRIVERS LICENSE:

11) E-MAIL ADDRESS

 

 

Note: Your Personal Contact/Communication sign With Citibank Is CITI909 , You Are Advice To Send Your Full Banking Information To The Citibank London, Telex Dept Headed By Mr. Clems Watford And Make Sure You Speak With Him or email him , With Your New Payment Code For The Release Of Your Payment And Send To Him All Your Banking Information Now.

 

 

Best Regards

 

 

Chairman Committee On Foreign Contract And Inheritance fund Payment Notification from United Nations And USA Government.

Sir. Eric Ben.

CC. Citibank Group London

The part in bold is quite amuzing as well. If everything is on the level, then these things are already known. What was I, the random email address out the hat?! Too funny. Please they ask for my personal cell phone, and my mobile number. Whatever that is about. Hah!

SuperNews!

I just had to put this one up

Graduation looming

After spending the last 3 years of my life battling the fatigue and burnout of maintaining full time employment, full time school loads, a family of your own, and all the added responsibilities of taken care of the house, cars, and finances, one chapter of that is about to end soon. Last Friday I got to thinking “Wow, I’m going to be graduating this summer. Wait a tick, I should have gone by the graduation office last month!” So after a couple of forms, I got my “permission slip” to get my cap, gown, and purple cord (for having a program GPA between a 3.7 and 3.99), I was reading to walk. That evening, it finally hit me again: I’m walking on May 14th, which is just around the corner! Oh my god, I’m almost done!

It’s been a very long, uphill battle, but I think I’ve done good dealing with it. So far I only have 3 B’s, of which all 3 I can contribute somehow to work (they should have been A’s, damnit!). I may not far my best this semester, with everything going on. But I can say I am proud of everything I have accomplished up until now. People can say what they want too, but I could write a book on the difficulties of being a full-time college student while living out the life of a typical middle-class working man. I have heard too many classmates complain about their waitering jobs and such, and I always offer to switch with them. For some reason they always decline.

The best and worst thing I did do though was to get a job that required thinking for most of the day. My second job back, I was a mindless drone, entering in serial numbers and information all day long. Thinking was an occasional benefit, but the job bored me to hell. Then my contract was ended, and I picked up my last job. All of a sudden I’m thinking, planning, troubleshooting, etc. all day long. Sometimes working 60-70 hour weeks. It grinds away at you, especially when you are already shot.

My other main set back came from this same job. Last spring I was taking the same courses I am taking now, when my work did a 180, and I went from potential day trips to travelling cross country. I had to withdraw, which hurt in many ways, and also cost me my chance to graduate last fall, 1 semester ahead of when I drew up my plan back in the summer of 2006. I lost one and paid it back with two. Ugh. I have one course to take this summer, a hard one too. The second calculus based physics, 4 nights a week for 8 weeks. Everyone who took it last summer told me it was a 2 month marathon.

Either way, I can taste this it is so close. I spent most of this semester always playing catch-up, between all of the extreme stresses at work, the stresses at home, the stresses financially. But now it has hit me, and I’ve been catching up quick.

Either way, I’m almost done, and for the first time in my life I get the chance to “walk.” Nothing like that to get you going. Now all I need is to hear back from UNCC regarding my application to transfer.

A real man’s birthday

For years growing up, birthdays were always a big day, a day exclusively for myself. I’m sure many can relate. As I got older, they tended to lead into alcohol induced parties, lots of fun, but still the one and only being the center of attention.

Then you grow up. You have children, you change and mature. It’s not so much fun being the center of attention anymore. Sure, you like the attention, but you don’t have the selfish desire anymore. Take this year for example. Today I celebrated my 26th birthday. What did I do? We went for lunch at the Olive Garden, then went to an early Easter egg hunt at my daughter’s pre-school. Then we headed over to the grandparents for dinner and cake. What kind of cake does a real man eat? A pink one of course, the color my lil girl wanted to make my special birthday cake. Could I say no?

For the record, I don’t believe in the whole “real men wear pink.” It’s fairly lame actually, though some guys have the ability to pull it off. There is a difference between confidence and color preference. Maybe I’m biased against it, seeing it everyday with my daughter. But a real man can wear pink, put on make up, get nails painted, etc., if it means that much more time and enjoyment with their children. I wouldn’t give up my pink birthday cake for the world.

Microsoft does well

Microsoft Headquarters

Microsoft Headquarters

I need to cool it on the software giant. HR took one for the team, saved a little face, and give some breathing room to those who were overpaid on their severance. According to The Bing Blog, Microsoft has announced that they won’t be asking for a refund.

According to sources, 25 people were overpaid by roughly $5,000. Do the math. That’s $125,000, a lot of money for sure, but barely a drop in the buckets of the multi-billion dollar corporation.

This may have been a face job, but regardless, they did the right thing, regardless the intentions. Just remember, the road to hell is lined with good intentions, so those are worthless.

Hopefully HR’s will take a page out of the Microsoft book going forward. It’s bad enough to lay someone off. It’s even worse to realize you overpay them then come back with your pockets sticking out saying we need the money back. Might as well dress em up like spider monkeys and feed em poop pies. 

Now if we could just get Vista to work right….

We need a reminder – “Yes We Can!”

For those of us who have become so diluted in the events over the last few months that we have forgotten the energy and vigor that brought us into November, watch this video as a bit of a reminder. This is our then president-elect Obama, with an inspiring speech after claiming the election.

Something to make you smile :-)

With all of this constant struggle to make it through this recession in one piece, sometimes we forget to smile enough. Lord knows I do. I recently recieved the attached video from my wife. A cheap, simple “experiment” that, combined with either children or liquor (please don’t mix the two whatever you do!), could lead to hours of entertainment. So  watch, and enjoy. BTW, I would assume this came from filecabi.net (?), but that is just an assumption.