Occupy Laziness!

Here we go I have spent a couple years letting things fall behind and not rant rave or "blog" about things. Have I lost my opinion on things? No way in hell! I haven't had much time, and without being able to vent this has become a powder keg that cannot be contained any longer.

I posted this picture on facebook today, and captioned it with the words "This speaks volumes." One of my friends replied "It does?"
And that was enough for me to start writing a massive response. (Which I'll post at the end just for shits and giggles.) I decided not to go with the long winded reply and respond with a quick summary of what I wanted to say. Unfortunately this has left me with the need to unleash the rant you read now.

Occupy Everywhere!! People gather around all of the major cities in a large scale protest that 1% of Americas wealthiest people are controlling everything that effects 99% of the rest of us. Make you voice heard by occupying the land around their buildings and let them know who we are!

Bullshit! That is what I have to say about the Occupy Everywhere campaign. It is just straight up bullshit! Here is my take on everything I have seen over the "Occupy Everywhere" campaign and the people that I have seen involved with it.

So far I have seen a lot of younger people involved. People that are anywhere from 22 - 28 years old are the majority of the people that are camping out for weeks at a time, asking people to bring them more blankets, water, and condoms.

Some of you might remember previous rants that I have written about the "Snowflake" generation. These are the kids that are the "Precious Snowflakes" that can do no wrong no matter how horrific they are being. They have grown up and there are certain things they are accustomed to:

1) When you play sports you will get a trophy even if you come in last place.
2) Failure is not an option... mostly because they are not allowed to fail no matter how bad they do.
3) Fairness is required. Everyone is allowed everything they want, that is fair.
4) You express yourself no matter how disrespectful it is to others, because no one wants to stifle your creativity.
5) You are a precious snowflake and you are unique, special and perfect, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, if your feelings are hurt they are in the wrong.

This is a generation who has had to put less effort into everything they do because of Political Correctness. Parents, teachers, people everywhere have been trying to spare their feelings, keep them from feeling left out of anything, and flushing everything that establishes a strong work ethic down the toilet.

This is a generation who has never had to fight to get what they want because they couldn't have something. No child left behind, has ensured that many children although not competent enough to write a 5 page paper with clear, well constructed, sentences are graduating from school.

These kids are getting out of college under the expectation that they will have a job waiting for them, and it will be one that will cater to their strengths and pay them well. (I can't tell you how many people have started working for the company I am at and have tried to spend their days downloading music, watching Netflix, and chatting on Facebook while putting in the minimum effort to the job they were hired to perform.) I can tell you that many people would be stunned to find how much porn people store on company computers (the place I work at now has less that others... but that's not to say that I haven't found a lot of it).

So here we are with a generation of people that are crowding around financial buildings for weeks at a time complaining over the fact that the people who work in these buildings are making money hand over fist while we are losing money left and right. The idea is not the worst idea, but the motive is entirely wrong! If they were gathering to protest how Wall Street trades against futures that are not predictable; and how to generate more money for themselves over inflate the estimation which costs people everything they have invested, then they would have something there. This movement would make sense.

That is not what this is about however. This is about how 1% of the people who have money are the richest people in the country. The 99% of the people are not rich, and that is "not fair". These people are also the same people who get out of college, can't find a job in the specialized field that they have chosen, and decide "There are no jobs, I will get government assistance until I can find a job that meets my talents." These are the same people who will not take a minimum wage job because they feel that with a college degree in the history of basket weaving with a minor in vampire romance novels for tweens makes them better than the title of lead fry cook at the *insert fast food restaurant name here* for $7.25 and hour.

Yeah the job isn't glamorous, you won't get to be a millionaire by working there, but hell its a job until you find something else. Yes it sucks, yes the hours are long, and no the pay is not great, but at the end of the week when you get paid you can bank what you have and be proud that you EARNED the money you have.

I got out of college in 2000... I accepted a job for nearly 40k a year when I got out doing what I love to do in computers, and then the market crashed when the dot com bubble burst (future trading didn't work then, doesn't work now) and all the jobs dried up. The job I had I lost and there were people 10 - 15 years older than me with more experience fighting for the same jobs that I was trying to get. Instead of crying and saying "I want the government to give me money because I can't get a job doing what I want" I put my application in at places that I knew would hire me so I could still make my car payments while looking for something else. I went from earning a great salary to earning minimum wage. I took every opportunity I could to show off my talents and skills, and to get promoted and earn more, I took every job that I could find that would put more in my pocket at the end of the week and cover my bills. It took me 4 years of hard work before I got another network job, and then once I got it I did everything I could to become the most well known tech at that company. And when I moved on I did the same at the next job, and the next one and the one after that until I finally felt I was in a better position. I kept up with the people I used to work with and I still do to this day. We help each other out when we can and based on that we help each other become successful in a legitimate method. This is the ethic that I feel has died. There are so few people these days who understand that things are not just given to them. Fairness doesn't exist in the work force, there will always be rich people, there will always be poor people. Those that never give up and keep pushing to do what it takes to survive will be the ones who prevail in the end. Those that give up and sit around waiting for others to just give them things will rely on politicans to find new ways to give them money, and piss off people like me. Will they ever be successful? No. Will they ever do better in their lives? Not likely. Will their children grow up to be exactly like them? Mostly yes... then you find the one "odd duck" in the family that looks at the scenario and says "isn't this wrong?" And they move on... but those are the few and far between.

People need to wake up and realize that things are never going to be just given to them. Work is required to survive. If you want to be rich there are 2 ways to do it:

1) Honestly - Work hard and save every penny you have. Don't spend it on anything frivolous. I don't know anyone who has made it rich by spending their money on booze, weed, or videogames/movies (I am not rich now and may never be, but know what beer I like, and I don't worry about not having a movie to watch).
2) Dishonestly - Work hard and stab everyone in the back that poses to be a threat to your success. Lie, cheat, and steal your way to success. You'll be wealthy and everyone will know your name... just ask Bernie Madoff. Of course in the end you will most likely die alone or in jail... but you'll have made it to the top if only for a moment.

That's all I'll say for now... and as promised here is the rant that I abandoned earlier when on Facebook. It repeats some of what I said here, and adds some story to my thoughts on how the work ethic of our culture is nearly dead.
-Ryan

It does to me, honestly I look at the "Occupy Everywhere" idea as something that in theory could be a powerful way to show that Wall Street is screwing with everyone by not learning about why trading on "Futures" is the wrong idea and only leads to quick money gains, and massive money loss with extremely slow recovery.
Instead the majority of the people in the "Occupy Everywhere" campaign are people that are hanging out for weeks, doing very little.
Unfortunately I really find myself despising some of the current generation because there are so many that have the perspective "I won't work in a place that pays min wage, while looking for something else because it means I'll get less from my government benefits" (I personally know a few people doing this, no going to school, not working, collecting off the dole, and everytime they get close to expiration of their benefits they file for an extension and they argue until they get another 3 months of benefits... and it makes me sick. I've stopped talking to a few people I considered friends because they are doing this and they laugh about it.)
However generations before us, had a different idea of things. Work was work, money was money, no matter how little it was and how fast it vanished, people took any job they could find, no matter how menial just so they could buy food for their family and put clothes on their back. My great grandfather, although he died a penniless bum on the street was an ice-carrier. It paid nearly nothing, and he had to lug 30lb chunks of ice to peoples houses for the ice boxes.
Another friend his grandfather worked as an umbrella repairman in the 40's money was so tight he would go door to door and ask if anyone had any umbrellas that needed to be mended, he worked for pennies but it was a much stronger ethic, you never saw people organizing and sitting in the middle of the cities because some people made more money than others. Instead, people did what they could when they heard of a job that made more money they tried for it.

So to me, this isn't a cartoon about a man who saw war talking to a kid that has done nothing. Its just a strong statement reflecting how peoples ethics have changed. There have always been rich people, there have always been poor people... but the lack of drive to fight to get what you want has never been less than it is now.

Fairest of All – A Tale of the Wicked Queen

To be fair I must first say that I have always enjoyed reading the Fairy Tales as told through various generations. In recent years we have seen various books emerge re-telling these well known tales through the eyes of a different character.

The story of Snow White dates back as far as the 16^th century. While it has many variations, I have come to appreciate the ones which stem from the version depicted by the Brothers Grimm; included in this blood line we find Disney’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Serena Valentino, the writer behind such beautifully wicked graphic novels as Nightmares and Fairy Tales, and the Goth Comic Gloomcookie, revisits the kingdom of the Widower King, his daughter Snow White. She lures us in not by retelling the same story we have all read, or in most cases seen, but by telling us the events that lead up to the Queen’s treacherous attempt to murder her step-daughter.

Daughter of a Mirror maker, abused by her father, she could not believe that she was chosen to be courted by the widower king. The tale of the queen is not what one would expect. The tale draws us in on the date of the queens wedding, Snow White is still just a child, and the new Queen is quite overwhelmed by the responsibility that she has now acquired. The Queen’s past is revealed to be torrid and while she resents her father, she vows to give Snow White everything she never had in a family and more.

Serena has obviously done her homework before writing this tale. In an endearing moment the Queen is telling Snow White a story about dragons. Those who are unfamiliar with the other versions of Snow White wouldn’t know that in other countries there are no references to dwarfs, instead they are dragons. She has also done a lot to bring back the wickedness of the Grimm tale, in which the Queen is Snow Whites actual mother and not her step mother. While she was unable to change the Queen from being a step-mother, she has brought so much compassion along with the character that you can see that she treats Snow as though she were her natural daughter.

After having finished the book I must admit that I could see the story as though it were an animated film. Through Serena’s beautifully chosen words and the way she develops not only the main characters but the secondary characters as well the book draws in the passion of the original 1937 film. Read a chapter and close your eyes and you can practically see it as it would have been animated to coincide with the movie.

Ms. Valentino I applaud you as this book is nothing short of amazing. I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of the classic fairy tales.

Who I will NOT be Voting For

Ok, this is probably the most heated topic that I will take up simply because I honestly hate discussing politics. The subject it stymied with far too many influences of subjects that can be misconstrued in an effort to swing the appeal of the candidate in the direction of one group or another. The problem is that many of the candidates have speech writers that will twist the words that they use to make them very generic and yet seem as though they are a positive statement to the crowd they are trying to reach. If the words aren’t generic then the candidate is instantly caught flip-flopping (see John Kerry for a good example of this).
Over the years the words “Blame Bush” have become synonymous with everything that is spiraling downward in the USA. Of course those that are currently crying “I blame Bush” used to say “I blame Bush and Congress” and now that the congress has been “Democratic” (there is no democracy in our current government everyone is in it for themselves and in my humble opinion they should all fined 500K for every year they have held office for misrepresentation to the public) they feel that Congress is doing a bang up job, and that its obviously the president that is this countries puppet master… as Bobcat Goldthwait once said, “Blaming the president for the problems of the country is like blaming Ronald McDonald whenever I get bad hamburger.”

Ok now that I have gotten that out, let me tell you who I will not be voting for:

Barack Obama

I will not be voting for this fool for the following reasons:

1) He is a flip-flopper.
a) The Wrong Button Excuse:
1a) In 1997 he voted against the election reform bill and then claimed he pushed the wrong button.
2a) In 2000 he voted for a ban on human cloning and then claimed he pushed the wrong button.
3a) In 2000 he voted for a gambling measure that was opposed by church groups, and then claimed he pushed the wrong button.
4a) In 2002 he voted to defund a social service office in Chicago and then claimed he pushed the wrong button.

b) Caught Lying to the Public:
1b) Claimed to be anti-war before becoming a Senator, and yet once he was admitted to the Senate he voted to extend the war more than 5 times.
2b) Claimed in a speech given before a Jewish Audience that his Uncle helped “Liberate Auschwitz”, which is amazing considering Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviets not the Americans or the Kenyans.
3b) Claimed the church he was part of (which he has since denounced and abandoned) never propagated Anti-American or Anti-White speeches. Upon reading his autobiography he apparently did hear both of these kinds of speeches at his church, he finally admitted to this once put under journalistic pressure.

2) He lacks both Judgment and Character
a) Pledged to dismantle our national defense system, including development of future defense technologies.
b) Has said that he believes that sex-ed is appropriate for kindergarteners to learn.
c) Pledged to sit down with state sponsors of terrorism without preconditions in his first year as president.
d) Refuses to have anything to do with our countries flag including wearing a pin of the flag, or standing before it hand over heart during the pledge of allegiance (He usually puts his hands behind his back, and looks to the ground during this time).
e) He is promoting open boarders and no capital punishment.
f) While he claims he is in favor of racial equality, he also is in favor of the Congress forming a “Black Caucus”.
g) While is said he is for pulling out the troops in Iraq (and later in his televised campaign promotions says that he wants to dictate troop levels), he has also threatened to “Bomb Pakistan” without government authorization. If you were unaware, Pakistan is one of our allies.

3) The company he keeps:
a) Tony Rezko – A convicted criminal, indicted on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, bribery, attempted extortion, mail fraud and corrupt solicitation.
b) Bill Ayers – Convicted terrorist and a murderer.
c) Alexi Giannoulias – Obama helped Alexi become the Illinois State Treasurer, Alexi took mortgages and gave the funding to Michael Giorango (a noted crime boss) who in turn purchased a Casino with the funding.
d) Jim Johnson & Penny Pritzker – Two people that somehow made out huge on all the of the subprime mortgage losses that have occurred in the last couple years. Johnson being a former CEO of Fannie Mae (and made out huge with Country Wide Loans) and Pritzker being a former Co-Owner of Superior Bank FSB ( a bank that made loans to people with less than superior credit). When Superior folded, Auditors Ernst & Young covered the FDIC loss of 40 Million, while Pritzker and her family made off with 2 Billion in the bank’s assets.

As you can see based on just the few facts that I have posted here, Obama is definitely not someone we as intelligent citizens should be putting our faith behind. I cannot see any kind of bright future behind someone that wants to disarm the country, host sit downs with terrorists and anti-American dictators, and will most likely steer us into a position of destruction.

Of course now you are thinking oh so he’s not going to vote Obama, so that means that he must be voting for McCain… WRONG.



John McCain

I will not be voting for this old man because:

1) McCain is pro open borders
a) He has voted in favor not only of completely opening the borders of the country but to instantly process and allow 15million illegal immigrants immediately become citizens. (I am not against foreigners becoming citizens of the USA, after all trace every persons heritage in this country and you will find that less than 1% have no foreign blood, I simply don’t believe that someone entering the country for the first time that is 70 years old should be able to walk into the nearest city hall and be able to receive Social Security without ever having paid a penny into it.)
b) He voted against the statement that would have made English the official language of the USA. (Yes, I want to learn Spanish, I currently live in Florida and it would help me to have a basic understanding of it, but I should learn it because I want to learn it, I don’t believe that Americans should be forced to learn it because a politician wants a larger stem of voters that choose not to learn to speak English.)

2) He is out of touch with the younger generations
a) At 73 years old how could this man possibly have anything in common with those of us that are coming into our own at 30? I mean sure he was our age once but that was back in 1965 and as far as I can tell there is a slight… slight… change in the times since then. He is known for being quick to act on anger and impulse, how many people 18 – 30 do you think he force into battle should someone insult him?
b) The policies that he is suggesting will not affect those that are his age, they will not effect the Baby Boomers for very long either, considering the first wave of Boomers are on their way into retirement now, and it is now our legacy to support them through retirement he will be long gone from this mortal coil once we see the effect of having to support our parents and the foreigners that decide to live off the American dole. (As it currently stands we have already been told as a generation that once the majority of the Baby Boomers are on Social Security there will be no SS for our generation… guess what that means, if we don’t pack away all of our money now there will be no such word as retirement.. we will work ourselves into the grave, and at the rate that businesses are dropping the pay of their workers in relation to the rising costs of everything ,we will all be working 2 full time jobs just to make ends meet without having a penny to save). His plan is to raise the retirement age and cut back on Social Security (as I mentioned, we won’t get to retire, and there will be no money left).

3) He is unable to remain loyal to his constituents
a) Has sided with “liberals” on most ideas although he remains that he is a “Republican”.
b) He seems too unsure of himself and when he lacks direction he turns to the Kennedy’s , Lieberman’s, and the Feingold’s not as a last resort but as his first.

4) Is collecting disability even though he certainly doesn’t need it (He is currently collecting $58,000 a year in disability. There are many people, myself included, that don’t make that much and we work more than 40 – 50 hours a week (he doesn’t even work half of that). I just can’t trust someone that will collect on this when the man has millions in the bank already.

5) He is in favor of prayer in Public Schools. (I am always in favor of separation of church and state). He is also a supporter of “Intelligent Design” which for those of you who don’t know is being in favor of teaching Creationism in public schools as opposed to teaching evolution.

Well my list of McCain is not as poignant as Obama’s but I can tell you that I have no desire to vote for either of these people. It is impossible to think that as Americans we cannot come up with a better group of people to push for Presidency. The worst part about it is that we are not the ones deciding who should run, we are simply told “Here are your choices”, and those choices come from rich elitists that decide upon a couple of puppets that will do exactly what they say. So we get a small group of people that are completely worthless when it comes to the election and suddenly we now (as Lewis Black put it) have a choice between two bowls of shit whose only difference is the smell.

Well this is it folks… there is no more… I won’t be voting for either of these people this year. In fact if I decide to use my write in I’ll vote for my dad to be president.

Jim Fulton

Why I WILL vote for him to be president:

1) The man has strong convictions and he sticks with them. I stand behind the fact that when he has made a decision he will stick with it and he doesn’t flip-flop to appease those that his decision does not effect.

2) I can safely assure you that hasn’t taken even a penny from a single big oil investor. He also has no ties whatsoever with anyone in the Middle East!

3) He puts in over 40 hours a week at his job. He rarely takes time off, unless he has something special planned for his family you will usually find him doing something for one of his many jobs.

4) He is up to date on the plights of the younger generation, he has heard not only myself, but my sister and brother bitch consistently about how difficult it is to get on your feet these days. He knows that we are not the only ones out there struggling to survive, and he listens when we have something to say.

5) He can be intimidating. He doesn’t have the McCain angry scowl, but he does have what I call “the collective calm” that appears when someone is doing something he doesn’t quite approve of, he’ll let you go and make an ass of yourself without really responding. He pays close attention to what you are doing, and (for the most part unless you are really doing something god awful) he will let you go about your business, and once you have finished making an ass of yourself, it is at that point when you are all worn out from stupidity that he prepares to strike.

6) He will keep trades with foreign countries peaceful, while he buys many things that are made and produced right here in America, he’ll be the first to allow Japan to ship all of it used Honda’s Accura’s, Toyota’s, and Nissan’s into the country (as long as he gets first pick of the lot) to sell at reasonable pricing.

7) He’ll not only lock the boarders down, but those that have been deported will suddenly fall under the “Fulton Household Living Rule” which includes you are allowed to stay in the house until you have moved out or been kicked out, after which you are only allowed to return for visitation, you will be closely watched, and any sign that shows that you may be trying to move back in you are kicked for good. (Not that he would permanently kick his kids out of his life, but I am living proof that he will be damned before I’m allowed to move back in now that I’m out hahah).

8) Those that are on death row will not be allowed to grow old and die. You think Texas has been quick to pull the trigger on death row inmates, that’s nothing. If you are convicted of a serious crime that warrants death as the punishment… you might as well kiss your ass goodbye once my dad is president. Our prisons won’t even need a “row” for death row. Hell they may only need one or two cells.

9) Hugh Heffner’s birthday will be celebrated right along with Martin Luther King’s. Martin Luther King helped bring equality to the black community, and Hugh Heffner helped bring Playboy Bunnies to the world. These men have done some amazing things for our lives.
10) The national deficit will finally get balanced. Cash only everything! If there is no such thing as credit then you won’t have to worry about accruing a deficit. If you don’t have the money to pay for it… guess what? YOU CAN’T BUY IT! Ta-da! Crisis averted and the USA once more becomes a hell of a lot stronger as it no longer owes itself money.

So, on this Election Day skip over those that are in it for themselves, and their domestic and foreign friends. Vote my dad for President!

18+13

Yeah here it is, my 18 + 13 birthday*. Looks like I am getting a little wiser. Today I am at work (we’ll see how long that lasts, I have a meeting at 2pm to attend, and I’m probably going to take off shortly afterwards). Being that things have been all over the place in terms of getting my life reorganized (trying to get a new job, and getting back to some kind of mental comfort zone… comfort is achieved when I feel that I don’t have to stress over little things.) I am looking at this year as being a pivotal point and I am going to have to make some very important decisions.

Thanks to everyone that is sending me happy birthday comments, and I’ll be talking with all of you soon!

*I am reminded by my friend Keith that once you pass 29 you change the counting structure to cover the age that you feel plus the age that you act I feel 18 and I act 13… therefore I am going to get to be 18 for the next 17 years, and by then I’m sure I’ll find another factor to add into the equation.

The Beginning....

The Beginning….

My world is built around me in a cosmos of circuits, cables, power supplies and monitors. This is where I have been for many years. A geek? Yeah… most would probably call me that. The funny thing is that there are a lot of people that don’t even know where that name comes from… they just remember people in school who seemed to understand electronics and proved that they could be quite good at complex things being called “Geek”. The term actually comes from long before computers were readily available to anyone (roughly 1876, and it was referring to a carnival “freak” who would open the side show attractions usually by catching a live chicken in front of the audience, biting its head off, and swallowing it… no I’m not that kind of geek.)

Anyway, here I am after 4 years in Florida, trying to figure things out. My mind is somewhat mushed. How do you look at your life and try to compile all you have done into a few pages just to impress someone that more than likely doesn’t know the first thing about what you understand?

Let me simplify…

July 9^th 2008 there was a meeting. I was told a week earlier that I had to attend. No matter what I had to be there even if it meant that I would have to call the company and have them put me on speakerphone just so I could be in attendance… that wasn’t necessary.

At 9:30am I entered the conference room as I had many times before, only to see that the room had been arranged as though this meeting was going to be a presentation of sorts. Within 10 minutes the management meeting began. The president of the company stood before us, leaning against the wall that we were facing and the first words out of his mouth, “Welcome to the meeting… How should I begin? I guess I should say this is where I make my money….”

As you can imagine the meeting was not what we wanted to experience. Our location was being shut down in 60 days. We were told that the company had been doing well in late 2006, for the first time in years it was in the black and it was finally starting to profit. Then the company decided that it wanted to have its own accounts. They didn’t want to be a company that maintains other companies accounts… they wanted to see their profits increase as any company would, so they took out a loan and bought up a number of accounts that they would now own.

Over the next year the company would screw up these accounts so badly that they would ask us to bail them out. The screwed up the billing, they screwed up the sales, they screwed up the installation, and they made a lot of people angry. How did we bail them out? They would dump the billing calls onto our operators and ask them to make phone calls to the customers and ask them to make a payment over the phone… or inform them that the company made a mistake and did not bill them for 4 months and now those months have accrued and we want the money. They also turned some people into an answering service to respond to those that people that were calling up screaming about an alarm system that was supposed to be installed and the techs ripped up their ceilings and walls, never finished the job and haven’t been back in days. Or the occasional call we would get from an apartment owner that would ask who the hell we think we are installing an alarm system in an apartment that was being rented, without asking the owner of the apartment if they wanted or would allow an alarm system to be installed? So yeah, they weren’t the ones that took the brunt and most harsh attacks from these people, we did… and then once we diffused them we would send the complacent person on to the main office to handle someone that is now more calm and ready to listen or talk. They thanked us for it too… did they compensate us? Hell no… but we did get a “thanks”.

Now here we are half way through 2008 and we have just been told that because of the mistakes that they made, our facility is being closed. The company decided that they would remove the core business and to keep their investors happy they would focus on nothing but the accounts they bought.

Apparently some people just don’t learn.

Why is it a mistake to do what they are doing? Look at the company Sunbeam. Most people have heard of it but there are many people that could never tell you what they do. Sunbeam was a company that began making home appliances in 1910. The company survived through the depression, and continued right through over the years until the 1990’s when it began to see some serious decline in its business. In 1996 the company hired a man name Albert Dunlap to become the companies CEO. Over the next year he became known as “Chainsaw Al”. The nickname came from his management style… in the first year he fired most of the management and hired all new management. He sold or closed 2/3 of the 18 plants that Sunbeam owned, and he fired 6000 employees. He ruthlessly went through the company as a chainsaw would cut through lumber. His rules of running a successful business were:

Get the right management team
Know your business
Pinch Pennies
Get a real strategy

These concepts were all well and good except for the fact that he was unsure how to rebuild what he destroyed properly? A company that had been around longer than he had been alive was not going to come back fresh when you kill new technologies, terminate your core competencies, and then spend money that hasn’t come in yet. To cover for his efforts of ripping apart the company by the seams he bought up 3 brands to add to the Sunbeam name, Coleman Camping Gear, First Alert Smoke Alarms, & Mr. Coffee Signature brands.

It would 2 years later than the Sunbeam board of directors would fire Dunlap. It took 2 years for the board to see that his actions would sink the company. It would be in 2001 that because of Dunlaps actions the company would file for bankruptcy protections, and it wouldn’t be until 2002 that Sunbeam would come out of bankruptcy only to have to change its tarnished name to American Household Inc.

Anyone that knows business strategy would know that you don’t kill the core of your business and expect to come out clean.

What could have been learned by Chainsaw Al’s mistakes?

Cutting costs isn’t impossible, anyone can do it, but there are better ways than to hack & slash jobs
Both New & Old Employees matter
Motivation is extremely important
Keep those around that know your business & product
Trade relations are extremely important
Don’t believe what you read from management books!

So here we are in 2008, the president of the company I work for is closing the facility that handles the majority of its business. They are selling off all of the liquid assets and doing god knows what with its hard assets. To be honest, because there is no board of directors to take the reigns back and make this company powerful again, I give the home office a year or less before it collapses.

But Ryan, why would you have such a grim outlook on the future of the remaining portion of the company? Honestly based upon what I have seen in the last 4 years I have come to discover that when your head office is lead by a ship of fools then running aground is inevitable. Need proof? Here are a few things that I found out about the company that give me such strong beliefs....

1) The CEO of the company does not live in the same state as the home office (He flys to the office every week stays in a hotel, rents a car, and then flies home a few days later.)
2) The person in charge of Telephony in the home office spent over $300,000 on a telephone system for our location that DOES NOT work with the most vital component of the business. He bought it because of its popularity, and it seems to be preprogrammed for Hotels but not for security monitoring. The system still does not work and cannot be returned... he still has his job.
3) They still have billing problems with their customers.
4) They are still having people go door to door to sell alarm systems... this means more irate customers and no front line to diffuse their anger.
5)They have no core business to pick them up and a major debt that they can't possibly repay any time soon.

So here I am… back to the beginning….

After giving 4 years to a company and pushing to do everything I can to improve it… and if you saw the condition of everything when I first started you will know that everything has improved.

Now I am in a unique position… I still have a couple weeks in which I will get a paycheck, I have revamped my resume and I have been distributing it in every direction. I have even been setting up interviews (I gotta say I am sick of hearing from recruiters though…. They are paid to get me in the door, the only issue is they don’t always know how to work it out so I get the benefits or the salary I need to survive).

I am also in a unique position because my lease on my apartment is up this coming month. So I have to figure out what I am going to do. If I fight hard enough I will find a job in the area and I get to keep the apartment that I really like. It’s in a great area, the price is right, and I have no problems with any part of it. The only thing that seems to be killing me is the fact that I am really getting sick of Florida. Yeah it’s a pretty place, it’s nice to visit, but I gotta say it can really get on your nerves after a while.

I feel a little better in the respect that I have been hearing back from various companies now that are interested in having me interview. It means that I have enough knowledge and skill to represent myself in a professional way, and that they see that I am not some inexperienced kid that hasn’t cut his teeth yet and is trying to make a name for himself.

The strangest thing is that when I was first told that the facility was going to be closed within a couple days I got sick. Suddenly got this violent strain of some kind of virus which I believe was strep throat. The symptoms were all there and it felt like things did when I was a kid (and I got strep all the time as a kid). So I finally recover after a week… I go through everything including losing my voice for 5 days. Now that I am supposed to be better I don’t know why the sickness hasn’t quite stopped. It’s been a couple weeks and I still haven’t fully recovered yet. I know I haven’t….. I’m doing everything I can but I still have this sickly sweet smell that fills my sinuses so I can smell it when I breathe… it happens every time I get sick and until I recoup 100% it doesn’t go away. Then again neither does the dizzy spells, or the coughing fits, or the feeling that sudden desire to worship the porcelain god…. While I haven’t gotten that far the feeling sits on me for hours at a time before I go to bed.

Yeah life can be a funny thing… its said that it is the only game that no one wins. It is the only thing that anyone can’t accurately explain. Life is like a business, a select few control it, there are some that are rich, many that are not, and some that just choose not to do anything and yet they are still around. It’s one of those few things that will give you the illusion of being ahead of the game momentarily before dragging you behind the 8 ball without so much as a moment’s notice. Don’t believe me? Ever spent a number of months saving every penny you could just so you could afford something special? Perhaps you may have sacrificed a number of things that normally bring you happiness just so you could have one thing that was truly special. So you saved, and you scrimped and you managed to put enough money aside so that on the next paycheck you could afford what you have been waiting for… suddenly your car has a major problem , or you get a ticket, or god forbid someone in your family is suddenly on their death bed and you need to fly home to see them… (I use these examples because in the last 4 years I have had all of them happen to me, not that it doesn’t happen every day or that I am some kind of unique case because I know I’m not.. but these are all examples of how one minute you are ahead and the next minute you are caught in the undertow of life).

Well… you’ve made it… my long winded schpeel is over. Am I a better person for it, no, not really. Do I feel as though I have accomplished something? Well aside from giving me a chance to spill a variety of topics onto electronic paper I don’t think I’ve changed anything. My mind is just as much a mush as it was when I started… I’ve applied for a few more jobs and I’ve heard back from a few more places… asking me when I will be in the area for an interview… damn recruiters…

I think if given the right amount of time I could figure things out…

Precious Snowflake Syndrome

The tail end of a generation. We have had a lot of labels, most of us are familiar with the moniker "Generation X". I can say that I include myself in the tail end of that generation. It is the one that came directly after the "Baby Boomer" generation. The few years after I began growing up there was another generation... it is one that has no defined moniker... it is a "morphing" generation that we have heard referred to as "The TV generation", "The MTV generation", "The Pepsi generation", "Generation next", and a dozen other names that are there to tie in a current pop culture trend to the kids that are growing up from the early 80's.
It was within this new generation that things began to change. The 80's, the age in which style was disgusting, yuppies were making millions on the people that were spending as frivolously as possible, and perspective was something that no one could seem to find. The issue was that in this time when drugs were rampant in the highest paying jobs, children were accessories, and kids were being given names that were supposed to be styled and tailored for success: "Taylor", "Dakota", "Tyler", and a thousand other non-conformist names were designed to make these kids instant celebrities.
These kids were raised to act like their parents were acting. They were not raised on Lego's they were raised to be demanding and influential, and because of which now we are getting the ultimate backwash. The "influential" kids began acting as adults far too soon, never being reprimanded when they did wrong, and threatening to take adults to court if they didn't get their way.
I can remember being 13 years old in the early 90's and hearing about kids that were taking their parents to court for various reasons. These thoughts all came flooding back when I read on June 18th that a 12 year old girl in Ottawa Canada took her father to court for grounding her. He had decided that there were some online chat sites that he did not feel it was appropriate for her to be accessing. He put a block on those internet sites preventing her from accessing them from home. Later he apparently found that she had accessed those sites from a friends house and posted pictures of herself online that he considered to be somewhat risque. For disobeying him the punishment he imposed was to ground her for 3 days, she was also prevented from going on a school field trip, and he took away her internet access.
She in turn took him to court, and SUCCESSFULLY sued him. Judge Suzanne Tessier decided that the punishment was too severe and she ruled in favor of the child.
On June 19 Bill S-209 was approved by the Canadian senate and it headed to the house of commons. What is Bill S-209 you might ask? It is the "anti-spanking" bill. Yes, you read correctly, the Senate has passed a bill which may very well become Canadian law which will prevent any person of authority including parents from spanking their children.

Over the years I have watch things head in this direction, and I have done very little about it. In fact I looked with disdain at people that would allow their children to get away with things. When I grew up I remember being spanked when I would do something I wasn't supposed to do and it kept me on a straight and narrow path. I remember spending many afternoons being told that I was not allowed to leave my room... these days that is no longer a punishment.
Why was it a punishment when I was a kid? That's easy, I didn't have anything in my room other than books a few generic toys and an old turntable. When I was being punished I didn't have any of the entertainment items that we see littering children's rooms these days. If you were in your room for 2 - 3 hours it was boring, you didn't have video games and your own television, you certainly didn't have your own phone, but now a-days things are different. Parents put all of the entertainment in the children's room and they have no way of effectively telling the child "NO!"
I remember having a neighbor who was at the beginning of the next generation. I remember his mother reprimanding him. She even reprimanded me once.... it was the easiest punishment I have ever experienced. I don't really remember what I did, I probably swore and she told me that I was going to be punished and that I would remain in "Time Out" until I was sorry. She put me in the corner of a room and told me to stand there until I felt sorry. I think I must have freaked her out because I was so used to remaining in my room for 2 hours or more that I just stood there, and I didn't move. He son would stand there for 20 seconds - 1 minute and then say "I feel sorry" and she would tell him that he could go. I must have been standing there for almost 10 minutes and she got worried that I hadn't "felt sorry yet". I didn't understand that she wanted me to tell her when I felt sorry. When you are in your own room with nothing to do for 3 hours then you know what it is like to feel sorry. When you are standing in a corner for 10 minutes when you have a friend that is waiting in the same room for you to play then its not exactly a learning or growth experience.
Having experienced the stupidity of the "time out" I realized why my friend had no fear in acting out whenever he wanted because he would only have to say "I'm sorry" after 30 seconds of standing in a corner and all was back to normal. Now when I am out in public and I see a child telling his/her parents off I realize that these are the children of the "time out generation". These kids would have no idea what to do if they had someone bigger than them grab them by one arm and open hand smack them repeatedly on the ass before being put alone in a room without entertainment or outside communication. The kid would most likely start planning to contact their lawyer as soon as they got their cell phone back.
Back in 2002 I did have one experience that I will not soon forget. I was working at a place that I will refer to as the "Blue and Yellow hell" and I had been in the middle of one of the worst weeks. The Christmas rush was over and now people were in "return and repurchase mode". This is when they return the gifts they were given, they get a gift certificate, and then they wait a day and repurchase their gift as an "open box" item thus getting the gift back and keeping the difference of the gift certificate. There was a man that was in the store and he was upset over the fact that all the cheapest computers were sold out and they would most likely not be replaced for a few months. He began swearing up a storm. I told him that since there were children in the store if he did not stop the foul language I would have him removed from the store. He then "dared me to fucking do so", I had 3 of the biggest guys in the store aid me in escorting him from the building along with the assistance of an officer that was in building at the time.
I felt justified in my actions and proceeded to go through the rest of the day as I normally would. It was the next day that I had to do the same thing. This time it wasn't a full grown adult that I tossed from the store but a child and his mother. I was working on trying to keep the department running smooth when I suddenly heard, "NO! I FUCKING WANT THIS GAME! FUCK YOU! I WANT IT!" I quickly made my way to the isle where I saw a little kid that couldn't have been more than 7 years old clutching an XBOX game in his hands and the mother who was looking completely disinterested in her child as he continued to drop the f-bomb over and over again at her. I approached first trying to be passive by asking if there is anything I can help her with, and the lady said "No I'm just browsing". The child on the other hand continued to scream. I allowed this to go on for about 20 more seconds before I approached the woman again and this time I said "Ma'am I am going to have to ask you to control your child. This is a family store, and your child is screaming obsenaties at the top of his lungs. If you cannot control your child I will be required to have your removed from the store." She looked at me as though I had 9 heads and said something to the effect of "He is his own person and I will not stunt his personal growth". It was then that I had the 3 biggest guys in the store assist me with the help of another officer that was in the store in removing the woman and her precious snowflake. Being that the store was in tax free NH and there were a lot of out of stater's that would drive there we had a lot of officers that would frequent it to make sure that things were ok.

I believe that now is the time to shut down on the "precious snowflake" perspective. We need to take away the notion that children need to express themselves however they like. We need to take away the idea that children are smart enough to know what is good for them and that they will learn the most from their own mistakes. If we don't teach them that what they have done is a mistake then how are they going to make that decision? We now have a generation of children that are greedy, immoral, and lacking the basic ethics that we were taught when we were kids. Just because your parents may have assisted in screwing up your life doesn't mean you have to pass those ideals on to then next wave of miscreants. As a society we need to reform the way we view children, we need to teach them that they can't have everything they ever wanted just because they exist, we need to tell them that they need to know what it is to truly earn a reward. There is no such thing as entitlement and if they think that we are going to just give them everything they want simply because they say "I want it!" they are wrong!

Eventually I will have children, it will be a huge change in my life, but the one thing that I will not do is put them in a position of power especially since I have been fighting to get even the slightest bit of control my whole life, and when I fight and succeed it puts me in a position where I feel as though I have truly accomplished something and that I have earned what I receive.

I'll leave this blog with a quote from the late great George Carlin. This was his take on children from his standup special "You're all Diseased":
" Something else I'm getting tired of in this country is all this stupid bullshit I have to listen to about children. That's all you hear about anymore, children: "Help the children, save the children, protect the children." You know what I say? Fuck the children!

They're getting entirely too much attention. And I know what some of you are thinking: " Jesus, he's not going to attack children, is he?" Yes he is! He's going to attack children. And remember, this is Mr. Conductor talking; I know what I'm talking about.

And I also know that all you boring single dads and working moms, who think you're such fucking heroes, aren't gonna like this, but somebody's gotta tell you for your own good: your children are overrated and overvalued, and you've turned them into little cult objects. You have a child fetish, and it's not healthy. And don't give me all that weak shit, "Well, I love my children." Fuck you! Everybody loves their children; it doesn't make you special.... John Wayne Gacy loved his children. Yes, he did. He kept them right out in the yard near the garage! That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is this constant, mindless yammering in the media, this neurotic fixation that suggests that somehow everything--everything--has to revolve around the lives of children. It's completely out of balance.

Listen, there are a couple of things about kids you have to remember. First of all, they're not all cute. In fact, if you look at 'em real close, most of them are rather unpleasant looking. And a lot of them don't smell too good either. The little ones in particular seem to have a kind of urine and
sour-milk combination that I don't care for at all. Stay with me on this folks, the sooner you face it the better off your going to be.

Second, premise: not all children are smart and clever. Got that? Kids are like any other group of people: a few winners, a whole lot of losers! This country is filled with loser kids who simply...aren't...going anywhere! And there's nothing you can do about it, folks. Nothing! You can't save them all. You can't do it. You gotta let 'em go; you gotta cut 'em loose; you gotta stop over-protecting them, because your making 'em too soft." - George Carlin

The End of an Era

This morning I woke up the usual way as I normally would. Started my regular routine, and grabbed a book that I have been reading called "My boring ass life" by Kevin Smith. Essentially the book is a diary of his life during the time that he was preparing and eventually working on the film Clerks 2.
He began to talk about another movie that he was in called Catch and Release, and how it was appropriate for him to be part of the movie because it was very much in line with the style of his movie "Jersey Girl". It was at this time that I started thinking about Jersey Girl and how it was not as bad as many people have deemed it to be, the saving grace of the film being that he got some people to act for him that made the movie what it was... one of those people being George Carlin.
I began thinking about how Carlin had done some amazing things over the years and how his brand of humor has been one truly reflecting the best points as well as the most asinine ideals that we maintain as a culture.
In fact it was only about 3 weeks ago that I dug out his book "Brain Droppings" and I presented it to my girlfriend to read. She knew about Carlin, but from what I know never really followed a whole lot of his work. I told her that since she and I think along the same level, she would probably really get a kick out his book, and his perspective.
This morning I also had one other thought.... this is odd for me to understand because I have had this thought many times before over other well known celebrities... the thought was "Man, things are gonna really suck when Carlin goes, the world is going to lose an amazing person, a brilliant mind, and what could be conceived to be a modern day philosopher." It was roughly 40 minutes later that I learned that George Carlin died last night at roughly 6pm PDT, (9 pm EST).
While 71 seems like he lived a long life, the average lifespan these days is about 78 - 79 which means to me that he died younger than he should have.
His life was exceptional in the idea that he was one of the few people that experienced things from multiple perspectives but did not allow the worst of things to take him down. Over the years he was an admitted drug and drink addict. It took a number of years for him to work his way past that but once he did he remained clean and sober. He could speak clearly on the subjects that many people haven't experienced first hand and offer a clear perspective of what things are like in layman's terms. He also did this successfully by being descriptively funny. He liked to point out things that people knew existed, but make sure that it came about in a way that it really made them think about what others were actually saying.
Over the years his observations became less playfully observant and more of an attack. His material became more abrasive and brash as it dug into issues that no one wanted to have thrown at them. Even up to the point where after 9/11/01 Carlin prepared for his latest HBO special and ultimately had about 25 minutes of it cut out because the execs thought that he went after the 9/11 subject too abruptly at a time when people might take serious offense to his opinion.
Carlin wasn't what one would call a man of few words, for words were his weapon of choice and he wielded them as only a master could. If you haven't had the chance I would highly recommend finding as many of his albums as possible and seeing the progression of his comedy. Also read his books, he wrote 3 best sellers which can now be bought in one paperback collection. While he may no longer be with us, his obscure thoughts and poignant observations will always remain strong.

It is with a sense of loss that I write this, a final farewell to one of Americas most amazing minds, it was truly a pleasure to bare witness to the brilliance that was Mr. Carlin. While there may be many others that follow in his footsteps there will never be another one quite like him.

-Ryan Fulton