Is a Little Efficiency Too Much to Ask For???

I found out this weekend that my brother and I make out our grocery list the same way. We weren't taught to do this nor did we know the other has this in mind when making the grocery list. I'm sure many of you do this. We try to make out the list based on the lay out of the grocery store. That way you aren't forgetting items on the list. Of course if your spouse adds items to the list wherever there's room, it kind of messes with the flow and you still end up forgetting things at the store. Still we have this in mind in an effort to save time and money.

This got me thinking to my desire for efficiency, mostly in the work place. Being a government employee is counter intuitive since no matter how much you'd like to be the person to "save the tax payers some money," unless you are the head of the agency making this demand, it's pretty difficult to do. And I don't know that I can be appointed head of an agency with such a desire, unless a governor is elected and decides to clean house. Which would be my dream to be able to clean house.

Then I started thinking about how there's always an ongoing joke about the nature of government, city, state, or federal, and their inefficiency. The thing is, they are all supported by our tax dollars, and we are all voting representatives into office. Why aren't we the taxpayers demanding efficient use of our tax dollars?!?!? We should be outraged that there is so much unnecessary fat that our money is wasted on. We should be calling our senators and congressmen, on the state and national level and demanding efficient use of our money or let them know we will vote them out of office next election.

More Proof Mama Lohan is a Pimp and Not a Mother

Here's the story if you want to read it.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,395283,00.html

Basically little sister Ali tried out for a movie role for a producer that happened to also be behind a some porn movies. This isn't one of them but supposedly Dina was furious when she found out. Right!!! Everything like this is calculated. She knew and thought it would make great publicity to be "furious" about it. Well the TMZ article link in the above link states she got the part. I don't hear her mama Lohan refusing to allow her to work for this guy. She's not "furious" now, is she!!! It's all apart of her evil plan to get her kids working so she can make bank off of them.

Need I say more???

Onto the entertaining part of this post
http://bittenandbound.com/2008/06/23/plastic-surgery-disasters/

Check out these plastic surgery disaster. Scroll down to the bottom and there are several pictures to click on to see the terrible after shots...Look at Tara Reid's stomach....what happened?!?!? better question. Why would you wear a bikini after that?!?!?!? anyways maybe I'm the last to see these either way, look again, they'll make you feel better about yourself when you hate your job, or think you're ugly, or just generally not feeling good about yourself. At least you didn't pay a lot of money to get butchered.

Have a great weekend!!!

Since When Did Criminals Become the Victims?

For those of you that don’t know the story I’m about to discuss, a guy from Houston, or there abouts, shot 2 buglers dead, who had broken into his neighbor’s house and were stealing from him while the shooter was on the phone with 911. His name is Joe Horn, and last week the Harris county grand jury decided not to indict him in their deaths. As they chose correctly in my opinion.

What I’d like to talk about today is the terrible perspective written about in the following article written on CNN. If you’d like to read the article in it’s entirety, here it is. Otherwise I will post and address specific quotes that rile me up below.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/01/roland.martin/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

“Yet while folks revel in Horn's actions, it really does call for a moment of reflection about the seriousness of taking someone's life."

What about the seriousness of burgulary? What about the seriousness of drug dealing? What about the seriousness of being in this country illegally?

“But I just don't see exactly what there is to celebrate. Two men -- both illegal immigrants and one of them with a conviction for selling drugs -- are dead for stealing some personal effects, and we are supposed to welcome this vigilante justice?”

Does this mean you think we should lay out the red carpet for illegal immigrants, convicted drug dealers, and burglars? At what point do you plan to hold these guys responsible for their actions? Why is Horn the only responsible party here? They are dead because they broke into the wrong house. They are dead because they are in this country illegally and chose to repeatly break laws. Not because of vigilate justice. If someone breaks into my house, damn straight I won’t hesitate to blow them away. And If I see them breaking into my neighbor’s house, I hope the cops get there before they start to leave. I hope I’ll have the courage to stop them, follow them or something so they don’t get away with it. I don’t care if Joe shot them. He stopped them. They shouldn’t have put him in that position to begin with.

“Yes, the law was on Horn's side, whether he knew that or not when he fired. But when does our core decency come in when we make such life-altering decisions in a snap? Don't you think making the choice to kill someone should be based on something more dire, such as if your life is in danger?”

“Core decency!!!”…the criminals didn’t exhibit “core decency” and you want to talk about the “core decency” of Horn protecting himself and his neighbors? What was he supposed to do, go out there and tell them when to take his things when they are finished? And even help them load the truck? Is that what you mean by “core decency?” And who’s do say his life wasn’t in danger? Just because they were robbing his neighbor and not him at the moment, doesn’t mean that they weren’t coming to his house next. And when you see someone doing illegal behavior that egregious, you can’t assume that they are peaceful criminals, because by definition, criminals are disturbing the peace. At what point would you say it’s appropriate to interpret your own life being in danger? He was a witness, they could have left and come back in the middle of the night, or followed him one day to take his life. “Something more dire!!!!” Is it appropriate to pull the trigger before or after they put a gun to your head? REALLY!!!

“At no point was Horn's life in danger. We also know that his neighbor was out of town and no one was at home. So don't try to bring up the various hypothetical situations that could alter the basic facts of the story.”

And you know that the burglers knew that his neighbor was out of town how? And so Joe Horn should have also known this to be a fact too, and should have said, “oh it’s ok, my neighbor’s out of town, the insurance will cover his stolen property, I’ll just let them walk off with his stuff and hope they don’t come to my house next,” while cowering in a corner. Are we supposed to put signs out on our lawns when we’re out of town letting criminals know that it’s ok to hit our house because we’ve instructed the neighbors not to worry about you hitting their house since they are home? Meanwhile the premiums on our homeowners insurance start to creep up as they have to pay out more and more claims.

“Two sorry men who already broke the law by coming in the country illegally chose to hasten their fate by robbing the wrong house with the wrong neighbor watching.”

Do you mean they were sorry people because they were criminals, or they were sorry because they got picked the wrong house with the wrong neighbor watching?

“Our choices have life-altering -- or life-ending -- consequences.”

“But Horn could have chosen differently. He didn't have to fire on the men. He could have heeded the advice of the dispatcher and not gone outside with his shotgun. He could have left apprehending criminals to the folks empowered to do so -- the police.”

So Horn should have chosen differently, not the criminals? Really? How is it that YOU get paid to write crap like this? I thank God that there are decent people out there who will come to the aid of their neighbors and even strangers, risking their own lives to help others. Sure he could have chosen differently, but had the criminals been deported when they were busted for selling drugs, had then chosen not to break into someone’s house and steal their things, Horn wouldn’t have even had to make this choice. But yes, the criminals are the real victims here. Not the guy who’s house got broken into. Oh right, but he shouldn’t have chosen to be out of town right?

A High School Pregnancy Pact...ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!

This is a special post as I couldn't pass this up when I heard about it today.

If you haven't heard about this yet, you can go read about it here.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1815845,00.html

Is this what high school girls dream about now? Having babies at the same time, while still in high school. And how convenient that free daycare is offered at the school so the girls can drop their dolls off at daycare while they continue on with a normal life. These girls were in serious need of babysitting the sick babies job before making this decision.

The discussion goes back to the old discussion about whether or not schools should be allowed to dispense birth control to kids. That has nothing to do with this, because they clearly were trying to get pregnant. A homeless man as a father isn't enough of an indicator that they were trying to get pregnant? If you don't care who the father is enough to pick some random guy as your sperm donor, you don't deserve to reproduce. If you dispense birth control at the expense of the tax payers, these girls would have just thrown it away. Or taken what I like to call "air birth control" which I firmly believe accounts for the not 100% effective rate of oral contraceptives. I know I know, you were part of that group that got pregnant on it. Fine, I can't argue with you because I didn't watch you take it every day at the same general time. When it happens to me, and I know for a fact that I didn't miss any days or times, THEN, I will change my opinion on the subject. So I won't get into it any deeper as I am digressing from the point.

The point is, it's the parents' job to be so involved as to educate their kids about sex, and prevent a conspiracy like this from happening. You can argue abstinence vs. prevention all you want, but the fact is, there's only one guaranteed fix to prevent any teen pregnancies and I already wrote about it. If you didn't see the first time around, here it is.
http://sunshineinsight.blogspot.com/2008/05/mandatory-birth-controlwhat-concept.html
This story just provides further evidence that this isn't such a bad plan.
If you want to teach them abstinence, fine, just don't tell them they are on birth control.

Billy Ray Cyrus, The Father of the Century

I tried to ignore this subject, but it's out there and this is so ridiculous, I can't keep my mouth shut about it.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Music/06/17/cyrus.vanity.reax.ap/index.html

Here's the link to the story where the below quote is coming from. This is his response to the Vanity Fair photos taken of his daughter.

"I wasn't there at the time," the 46-year-old country star said in an interview Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show.

"(Miley's) publicist was there, and everyone seemed in control," he said. "I didn't know they (were) gonna strip her down and wrap her with a blanket."

"So I was surprised when I saw it, you know, but ... stuff happens. That's life. Things happen and sometimes things get a little out of control and you just gotta deal with life," he said. "Again, it's peaks and valleys and ups and downs."

Um YOU'RE HER FATHER. It's your job as a parent to be there and oversee something like this!!! If not you, her mother!!!

"Stuff Happens"!!!!! What are you a walking bumper sticker now? Stuff doesn't happen if you're there being a parent rather than off turning a blind eye to the daughter who is the basis for your revitalized career. That's no excuse to let her get away with whatever she wants, and take whatever pictures she wants, and post whatever pictures she wants. Your appearance on Oprah was scripted and rehearsed then I take it. Because this certainly doesn't back up any comments you or your daughter made to her.

Shame on you Billy Ray!!! Who, by the way, has turned into oogy middle-aged man by the looks of the picture posted with the above article. With is flavor savor grossness below his lip. Yuck!!!
You better take back the role of being a parent. I'm sure you've seen the many examples of where that road leads.

This is just more proof to my belief that parents should keep their kids out of show business while their under 18. When they turn 18, they can do whatever they want. I'm not saying there aren't underage kids out there in show business doing just fine, staying level-headed, and focused. But it's a lot of pressure to handle that they don't have time to be kids and so they rush to become adults before they are ready. It's a parents job to make sure they are kids and that they teach them to make good choices in life.

But what could I possibly know about parenting? I don't have kids and so I couldn't possibly comprehend the parent/child relationship. Even though I was a child not so long ago. Well a long long time ago...

That's it for this addition of entertainment outrage.
Have a great weekend folks!! tell your friends and family!

Whatever Happened to Good Customer Service? Suck it Google!!!!

So as you can tell by the title, I’m ticked off at Google. I will use them as my example for my overall beef with a decline in quality customer service in this country. Who cares about your potential customers, if we just ignore them, maybe they’ll go away. Or if we make the two-way conversation impossible for either party to understand, maybe they’ll just give up and let it go. And well, when you refuse to talk to them and you’re a big time company and they are small potatoes, what are they going to do? They’ll get together and bitch about how you screwed them over, and maybe blog about it to whomever will read about it, but not much else other than that. Because you have deeper pockets than they do collectively and can afford fancier lawyers than they can collectively so what are they really going to do?

AdSense, part of Google, is the subsidiary that they handle their Internet advertising through. They make the deals with advertisers, and say that they will give those that publish those ads on their sites a piece of the action for it. But they cut me, and plenty of other people carrying their ads on their sites, off without warning, or reason for that matter. They have the same standard automated email that says you may be a risk to their advertisers and your account has been disabled. Funny thing, this happened right before I was supposed to get paid for the first time. And it’s a piddly amount compared to what they make, but when you add up the hundreds and probably thousands of people they probably cut off each month, it adds up to a lot that they are not paying out. I wonder how they report it on their books? Expense – Ad Revenue revoked to fatten our bottom line.

I will now tell you about the lousy customer service experience. So you can contact them via an email form on their site, but they will send you an automated response with some links that they already sent you when they disabled you. The message will say due to the high volume of emails we are sorry we can personally respond to you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No they aren’t. They would have to pay someone to do that and this saves them money apparently. So I finally found an appeal form. And conveniently they can’t find a publishing account with my email address. Well that’s probably because you disabled it. Of course you can’t find it. How convenient. So I guess I’m just out of luck.

The problem is I think customer service is trending in this direction. And having worked specifically in a customer service department as well as other jobs that required good customer service, I pride myself in knowing a thing or two about providing excellent customer service. It certainly sticks out to me when it’s terrible or sub-par. How many of us are ticked off when we call customer service and can’t understand the person on the other line and they can’t understand us? Google needs a VP of customer service, and I should be that person. And if they currently have one, they should can him/her. Because my theory is, bad customer service catches up to you eventually. There are other search engines, and there are other companies that you can sign up to publish their ads to get paid for. They aren’t the only game in town. They may be the top dog right now, but even the leaders of companies like that have slipped up and let their arrogance get in the way of making sound business decisions.

What Would You Do If you were President?

So I was watching Lifetime this weekend, (I know, I’m embarrassed, but it’s another discussion for another day) and they are now showing this ad where they are asking women what they’d do if they were President. Naturally I’m writing this because one of the responses riled me up so much that I felt it justified a rant. I realize this may be an area were many may disagree with me, and I may come across as cruel, heartless and uncompassionate, but we may just have to agree to disagree because I won’t apologize for my opinion.

The camera flashes to a woman who looks to be a well put together “career woman.” And what do you think she says? It is something along the lines of, ‘I want affordable daycare for all the working mothers…’ Excuse Me????? You chose to have a child and now you want ME and the many other hardworking taxpayers to pay for you to DUMP your child on someone else to raise, so YOU can have a career? Why would you choose to have a child then? Because let’s be honest, no one can raise your child better than you can right?

I understand that there are unforeseen tragedies that happen that mandate a woman return to work after having a child, but this woman wasn’t talking about those situations. She was talking about your average everyday women like me who have a stable family life and if we wanted to, could budget one income to support the family or find alternatives to help supplement the family income without sacrificing the care of a child to some stranger. And I’ve seen many women work it out if it is necessary for them arrange for alternative care for a short amount of time. And I’ve seen families come together to be supportive in those times of need and to chip in and help when possible.

I’m furious because you want the choice to have kids, but then you still want the government, meaning all the taxpayers, to subsidize your daycare now? Why? What good can come of that? Abandoned children and higher taxes, that’s a brilliant plan for your child’s future? Again I ask, where is my choice in the matter? I didn’t get a choice for you to have a kid. And if I had, I certainly wouldn’t have let you have one if you planned on the taxpayers dollars paying for its daycare, health care, and anything else you can come up with. Those things are your responsibility? It is your responsibility to feed, clothe, and care for your child. But increasingly, this nation has become a nation shirking personal responsibility in favor of passing it along to the government. This is so they have someone else to blame but themselves if things go wrong.

If you want to dump your kid in daycare, that is your choice, but don’t ask me to pay for it. It’s ridiculous, appalling, and irresponsible. What is this world coming to?