I love Labor Day, mainly because it marks the end of the summer with cooler weather on the way, all the kids are back in school, and football season is about to go into full swing. What I don’t like, and I am sure all those who continue to look for full-time work day after day don’t like either, is the reminder that Labor Day is technically for those who labor (that is labor in that stereotypical means created years ago by that industrial revelation we had), not those who labor looking for labor.
A Labor of Love
For all practical purposes, I have been looking for a full-time labor of love match since we sold our book business about three years ago (see How I Can Save Your Business Money from back in April, or the other articles at the bottom of this post). Although I have a great part time job, work more than full time at graduate school, and my days are busier now than they ever have been, looking for and finding a full-time position that matches both person and company has been one of the most difficult endeavors of my now 20+ year working life.
I have found more jobs and “careers” than I knew existed and made more connections with my resume than I can count. [On a side note, if you are a single college student in or around the Auburn area, there is a company looking for OSHA "inspectors" to work on barges in the Gulf of Mexico, no experience needed, pay is great, 21 days on 21 days off, and you get to fly to work.]
It is the Economy Stupid
After a while you just scratch your head in amazement at this current marketplace. Resumes and 3-piece suits are not what they use to be 20 years ago (thank goodness), but the lack of practical sense in some HR departments is almost comical, and expectations some business owners have is borderline ridiculous. Just for means of example, I give you one from this past week:
I had a company contact me from my blog asking if I would be interesting in writing articles for their website? Why sure, sounds great. I only have about 10-15 years experience writing well researched, SEO packed, properly formatted content, including about 1,000 articles on this blog alone, sounds great. His email to me then gave me a list of things he wanted me to do, including writing two articles for him so he could get an idea of my writing style, then after that, if they were interested, they would be happy to pay me $.007/word for 200-400 word articles? Yeah, that was a whopping $1.40-$2.80 per article. Probably cost me more to power my computer for that length of time than they would pay me. I get those all the time, and never reply to them, but someone out there does I’m sure.
Labor Day for All Labor
So today, at least in my mind, we can take some rest from those things which we do to sustain life. Enjoy what is probably a beautiful day outside since the calendar reads September, and be thankful for the work we are given to do.
Posts Related to This Topic:
Today all across the country people came out to protest the taxes and spending our government started months ago and has continued into present day. After flipping through the mainstream media outlets, even CNN, I have determined that they just don’t get it. They portray this to be a GOP or Republican thing and they are so far from understanding that people are fed up with our government overspending, growing larger and larger, and more importantly today, ever-increasing the taxation (in various forms) its citizens.
The media downplayed the Tax Day Tea Parties as insignificant and just noise that only a few loons from the far right would attend but in city after city thousands of people have gathered to say enough is enough. Even the Texas governor this morning said he was personally going to three different Tea Parties in the state of Texas, and as governors go, Texas holds a mighty powerful position in the Union.
It started out with large cities like Boston and Atlanta but soon enough there were small rural towns, and yes, even Auburn University, who played host to a local Tea Party. Below are just a few of the images from the Tea Party in Auburn today out in front of the University library. Sadly, even the signs were censored as you will see below. One of the guys holds up the sign that says “Stop Over Spending” was told he could not hold up his sign, which originally said “Stop Obama Spending”. He was made to cross out the Obama reference and told he couldn’t say that?
I guess Bush did do a bit of spending before he left office but come on, this guy should be able to hold up a sign that has the word Obama on it? Like no one ever made a sign that had BUSH on it with far more hateful things than that. Oh well, such is life in 2009.
Here are some of the photos from today’s protest (thanks Deb).
Posts Related to This Topic:
Some of you may not know that I was once (and still in a different way) an aviation nut, buff, fanatic, whatever you want to call it. I did get my private pilot’s license, and I did work for and was hired by several airlines earlier in my life/career. One of my most favorite types of photography that I ever attempted was aviation photography (made almost impossible after 9-11). I started while I was still shooting film and moved into digital SLR’s to enhance my aviation photography.
Air Force One is probably one of the most recognized aircraft in the entire world. I love the plane and have been to Boeing field north of Seattle to see the older Boeing 707 that Nixon and Kennedy flew on as President. That plane is no longer in Washington state (I think it is now in the Smithsonian), but even at 30-40 years old it still evoked feelings of pride in a country that is still one of the only countries in the world that has a fleet of aircraft for its leader.
I use to watch Tony Blair get on a commercial British Airways 747 and think what a disgrace to put the Prime Minister on a commercial aircraft but I guess it did save quite a bit of money for the British people, but didn’t do a thing to create an iconic air force fleet like we did with the Presidential aircraft.
One of my favorite shots I ever took was a shot of this British Airways Boeing 747 about to take off for London in the middle of a storm with a Boeing 777 landing right in front of it (if you look at the close up, you can see the Continental B-777 at the end of the runway in front of the BA 747). It was no different than any commercial BA flight that Tony Blair would have flown on if he was in Houston at the time.
I can’t really recall a time in history when the press or anyone else questioned when, why, or how, we used the military fleet like they are now. For good reason, it costs a heck of a lot more to fly the military fleet than a commercial flight, but even so, I would never want to see Mr Obama get on a commercial flight while he is still in office. Now that Air Force One is officially part of the Obama administration, it has been taken for a ride, and because of the economy, more and more people are starting to question why we are spending money in ways that just isn’t necessary any more.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do
This week, Mr Obama flew Air Force One to Colorado and Arizona just for the sake of signing a bill. As far as everyone can tell, the estimated cost for Obama to fly to Arizona (don’t know about the Colorado trip) on Air Force One to sign the so-called stimulus bill was about $700,000. $700,000 for a flight that didn’t have to take place to sign a bill to spend $787 billion. So I guess just a drop in the bucket compared to $787 billion, so who cares.
Well, the very next thing Obama said was that American’s needed to start living within their means and at the same time he told us to turn down our thermostats. We have officially entered the “do as I say, not as I do” time.
Posts Related to This Topic:
I will say right off the bat that this post will be totally uninteresting to some and all of my 10 readers may dislike it, but I feel like change is coming to my blog and I am writing this post to map it out for myself. There are a lot of random thoughts here and I jump back and forth, but I will try to tie them all together over the next few months through different blog posts, so for now, just roll with me if you can.
The two taboo topics of discussion in the workplace (politics and religion) are now taboo everywhere, which slowly makes us indifferent to either which in turns makes us unwilling to discuss, learn, and grow in the history that makes up topics like politics, religion, and government. Have we forgotten in this country (the U.S.) that there are countries in this world like North Korea, China, Cuba, and parts of Africa where they can not openly discuss opposition to their government or religious ideas?
I just love websites I go to that say no talking about politics or religion. In some cases that may be appropriate, but that has bled over into everything in everyday life. I am tired of hearing and seeing fellow Brothers and Sisters that avoid talking about politics (and matters of “other” faiths) because it is divisive. Newsflash, if you call yourself a Believer in Christ, you have chosen a side. Although Christ is open to ALL who believe in Him, we know not everyone will. It is hard to think of God as a God of love, and who leaves people out of his Heavenly kingdom but we also can’t even start to think we understand God from God’s point of view. On the flip side, there is “the world” (that would be those who don’t choose Him) that also refuse to talk about religion because it is divisive in nature.
We are quickly becoming a socialist society that no longer wants to listen to an opposing side and are guided to lean towards a muddy middle ground on everything. In the “can’t we all just get along” world, we move to the center of the undecided’s (those who can’t seem to make a decision until someone tells them how they should feel about the topic at hand) where we can all come together and get nothing done. Problem is, that is the most boring and uninformed place to sit, and is not only a cop out, but dangerous.
We have to be careful to not speak badly about another “religion” like extremist Muslims who’s plan is to do harm, and ignore comments by people like Helen Thomas of the White House press corp when she says things at Mr Obama’s “press conference” like “so-called” terrorists when speaking about people who terrorize other people. Don’t know what I am talking about… you could be guilty of political indifference yourself.
Why does this matter? It matters because we are now so far removed from our government, those who make the laws, and how it effects our lives, that we have become indifferent. Indifferent to a government that doesn’t blink an eye to spend $800 billion (about the size of our current national debt, in other wards, doubling the size of the national debt) for things like Frisbee golf courses and digital TV converter boxes, that we don’t even take notice. We just go merrily about our business and hope it doesn’t eventually intrude on our own life.
What did Jesus come to this earth to do? Reach over the isle and make friends, being careful not to be divisive? No, he came to fulfill the Torah, the law. Many times as Believers we ignore or are indifferent to politics because it is divisive. We want to make sure we don’t exclude anyone we could proselytize to by saying the word Democrat or Republican, or liberal or conservative like either of those determine who we are as a person. As one conversation went today, Jesus was not a Methodist, I promise. He was a person who spoke about principles, ideas, and how to change the status quo of thinking.
When we choose to ignore (by ignore I mean not discuss openly for means of not offending someone) divisive people, comments, or conversations, I don’t think we can grow. I am more than happy to listen to an opposing side to my own beliefs if it can be presented in an intelligent manner. I can talk to or converse with right wing religious fanatics and atheistic agnostics until if they can speak intelligently about their own point of view, but it is hard to do that if you don’t know why you stand where you do.
All that to say I am going to be doing some minor changes to the categories on my blog to speak my mind about topics of religion and politics. I am moving my photography category into Media since it is a media form, Faith will be Religion, etc etc. Like I said, if you don’t like politics or religion, stick to my Journal or Media categories.
Anyone who really knows me, knows that I have a great desire to please everyone all the time, so this is a pretty big change for me, but I hope this brings more transparency to my blog and my way of thinking. I am tired of being politically correct in my speech and writing and tip toeing around on my blog. I don’t plan on doing so from this point forward. If you don’t like divisiveness (meaning standing, and knowing where you stand), then read my “journal” section and ignore the politics and religion posts, I will keep those posts to the activities in my life.
If you would like to know where I come from, I do have some starting points, and as stupid as I thought Facebook’s “25 Things About Me” goes, I think that is a starting point to getting to know someone. I mention these things so you know the very basis of where my future opinion may stem and how I come to certain conclusions. I will list these on Facebook shortly (I think), but to get rolling…
- I am not for a political party, but I am for certain principles and ideas like smaller government and lower taxes.
- I do not consider myself to be part of a denomination but part of the body of Believers of Christ. I work at a Methodist church but I am currently a member of a Baptist church in Dallas. I don’t care much for non-doms because often they don’t know what they Believe
- I watch and read news and politics from all over the place, not just one single source or location
- I believe the solutions to the problems of this country are going to be solved by people, not government
- I think people forget all about what history teaches. I am slowly trying to relearn what I did not learn in school when I found it useless but now find it priceless
I picked up this book the other day called “I am a Christian” by Jesse R Wilson, written back in 1935 and as I flipped through the book and read a passage to a friend of mine who said “good call” sarcastically. Point is, we don’t always have to just scratch the surface. Everything is up for discussion and debate except the death and resurrection of Jesus, that I hold to be an uncompromising Truth.
Posts Related to This Topic:
I don’t do many political type posts, but that is all that is going on in the news today. I can never remember when an inauguration got so much coverage. It is well deserved, but nothing has stacked up to this $150 million party that Obama is throwing that finalizes tomorrow. Obama has managed to create this show of shows by outspending Bush ($40 million) and even Clinton ($33 million) by bringing out all the biggest names in Hollywood and making such a spectacle of the whole thing and I will be glad when it is finally over and we can collectively get back to the work of the country.
This particular inauguration is turning out to be the ultimate part of appeasement for Obama. He and has been playing both sides and there is no better example than what John Piper gave on a recent blog post How Barack Obama Will Make Christ a Minister of Condemnation. From Gene Robinson, an openly non-celibate homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church who will deliver the invocation to Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in California scheduled for Tuesday, back to Bruce Springsteen standing on the same stage with Garth Brooks (although Rick Warren and Garth Brooks do seem to be the exceptions).
Does anyone remember from back in highschool when you tried to date two girls at the same time? It never worked and more times than not you would lose both girls in the process. That may be a bad analogy, but I hope that doesn’t happen to Obama and he ends up loosing both sides. All he will be left with are the ultra moderates who can’t ever make a decision about anything. Nothing worse in my book than indecision and luke warm. Even scriptures talk about being against Christ is better than not having an opinion at all.
The discussion in our house lately has been if we want to see Obama succeed as president or not (a question Mr Bill has posed on his show lately). I do in fact want to see America become stronger, more prosperous, better educated, and succeed in general (of course that has different meaning to everyone). If it takes Obama to do that, great. No matter if we voted for him or not, he is our President now, we should get behind him, even if we disagree with him.
Some Totally Random Thoughts About Politics on January 19th
- The word “Obama” is NOT in the wordpress spell check database
- I am sick of hearing the news ask someone if they thought they would ever see a woman or African-American as President, I DON’T CARE. I want to see the most qualified person for the job, ANY job, and I don’t care what race, nationality, or genger the person is. If Bill Lester is the best person to put in a race car GREAT, if he can’t win races, get someone else in there.
- What is the reason we have to spend $150 million on a party and not think about how this translates into his Presidency?
- Thoughts on #2 :: Bail-out? Auto industry, economy, people out of work, consumer confidence?
- Bush put everything he had into his job over the last 8 years, we should be glad someone kept us safe
- Pelosi and Reed should be totally ashamed at everything they have tried to do in prosecuting Bush administration officials
- I am waiting for my check in the mail from the Obama administration (never got one from Bush)
- Keith Olbermann is possibly the worst excuse for a journalist that MSNBC has ever hired (and they have a lot who fit in that category)
- OBAMA IS NOT ABRAHAM LINCOLN, he is Obama.
- I personally don’t deserve said check from #8, I didn’t pay any taxes over the last few years because I didn’t make enough money
I wish the Obama administration well, and I hope they can keep American safe while turing around the economy, but most of all, I will be glad when this $150 million party you paid for is over and people can get back to work.
