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Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:53:46 -0700

How To Tell If You're A Flaky Employee

by James Darnell

Being a flaky employee is not such a mystery. If you are one, you probably already know it, without someone pointing it out to you. You come into work, just barely on time. You tend to take a lot more bathroom breaks than someone with a normal sized bladder. Your need to hit the water-cooler is second only to the dying man in the dessert searching for an oasis.
The work performance becomes (or always has been) something that you give little thought to. you figure that if you got it done...sort of on time, that should be good enough. Helping others with their projects is out of the question. You are either too busy or no one can find you to even ask for help. Chances are you are in the bathroom at the time. As a flaky employee you are probably the one that complains the most about not having enough vacation time. Never getting that raise or promotion that you feel you are qualified for. For the life of you, you can't understand why no one ever asks you to join them for lunch or an after work drink. You figure that they are a bunch of snobs and that you are better off without their company anyway.

The mere mention of working over-time send shivers up your spine. When the unthinkable happens and you are forced to stay late, you become moody and feel like everyone is against you. You scribble your anger on the bathroom wall during one of your many ventures there. As the work is being handed out, you begin to formulate all the excuses as to why it could not be completed in the time-frame set forth. With the exception of an Act of God, you prepare your defense for handing everything in late or at the very least incomplete.
Your desk is a mess and the chaos can only be understood by someone studying quantum physics or a mental patient. You lose much of the notes and phone messages in the ever-growing sprawl that was once a work area. You will of course blame it on the fact that you either never got the message or that you were out that day. Chances are you were getting a drink or getting rid of all that water in the bathroom. In any case, the fault is not yours and was caused by someone else's over-sight.
Eventually you will of course get fired. not because you production is low or that your sense of teamwork is not even a afterthought, it is because all the managers and the people that you work for cannot possibly understand your depth and vast talents. As you clean out your desk, you will certainly take the stapler and as many pens and paper clips as you can find. After your last trip to the bathroom (ah memories) you head out and wonder what lucky company will sweep you up next. All the while thinking how to polish up your resume that you have your buddy write for you.

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/20601654/

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:48:04 -0700

Did you ever miss a step? Timing was just a bit off? There you were, just going thru your given life and...Wham!..next thing you know, everything is off-kilter. Where did you go wrong? What part of the delicate balance of life's strands did you unknowingly unravel, you ask yourself.

True, life binds everything within it. All actions really DO have an opposite and equally powerful reaction. We can plan our lives as detailed as we like, but there are many variables that intersect with these same plans. The colors and hues of our picture of our life is constantly mingled with others and traces of them will always reside, in a small but important way, in the streams of who we are.

So, you may wonder, "Am I powerless in my own life to direct it in the path I wish to go?", of course not. That would not be a life. It would be a program with a preset outcome. How fun would that be?

But being aware that what we do in the here and now, will affect another here and now that we will be in, in the future. Again this does not solidify the outcomes that we would always wish for, but it will keep our vision much clearer and our expectations more realistic and grounded.

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/17796472/

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:31:01 -0800

Look for the things that your heart already sees.

JD

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/11578532/

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 07:58:21 -0700

Thomas Jefferson once said, "If a free country gives up it's civil rights in order to be secure, then it becomes neither secure nor free.".

As the terrorist become more and more wide-spread and their message of blood-lust fills more and more of our television screens, our leaders become more controlling.

As an American I understand our need to secure this country. Many things have changed since 9-11. One thing that did not change and should not, is the fact that we are still a free people. No one gave us our freedom. There was no country at the time that saw what was happening to us when we ventured out across the oceans and started to become our own masters of our destiny. No army came to our rescue to help us fight what was then considered a totalitarian regime. We fought for our own right to exist as a free nation.

As we venture into the new era of a post-9-11 world, I had expected to see much more from this country as a whole. Shortly after the attacks came, all party lines seemed to have been erased and we all came together in our goal. To remain a free country and we were ready to once again fight for that right. Our leaders did not see the same picture as we did for very long, sadly.

We asked to be secure. To tighten up control of our borders. To install more systems to ensure our airplanes would be safe from future hijackers. To keep our dependence on foreign oil to a minimum and to make our voice be heard to all others that entertained the idea of attacking us. As in the past when the cries rose from the masses, our leaders in government saw it as a sign to not so much make us safer, but to control more of what we do.

Suddenly much of our lives have become regulated and restricted. To a point where the people of this country are much more concerned about what next the government wants to take from us, than where the next attack on America will be.

Though some things have been done to make us seem more secure. Too much bipartisan in-fighting and bickering and political posturing, has made any real effort for security reform void. The wall in our southern border to Mexico has stalled. 400 miles were built and tax collection has been paid for all 2000+ miles needed. But constant bickering in Congress has all but put this effort on the back-burner. Along with many others that would make a difference.

As the political games continue and become more prevalent due to the coming election, it will be the American worker that pays the price in their daily lives. And for all of our sacrifices and those of our brave warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan, nothing much has changed except our eroding freedoms.

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/11214175/

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 14:28:04 -0700

I have never really understood the fascination that America has over the rich and the way they throw their money around. Tons of "reality" shows have crept into the main-stream media about these people that show off their opulence. As much as I would love to have that kind of money, I would like to think that I would find better use for it than to constantly pamper myself and waste it on frivolous extravagances.

I have tried to think about Paris,in an unbiased frame of mind. To allow my mind to be open to everything and anything that Paris Hilton may have contributed to the world, or even the country in which she resides. Has she ever given away money to a worthy cause? I'm her parents do, if only for a great tax loop-hole, but with Paris controlling a pretty large purse herself, what if anything has she done?

Well, there are the parties she hosts for her other socialites and well-to-do kids of the rich and famous. She spends money as if it grows on trees, which for someone who has never really put in a days worth of labor she probably does think it is organic in it's origin.

She certainly has never hosted anything on a large scale to benefit anyone other than herself. I mean, this girl gets paid 25k just to show up at a trendy club and party. Now there is a job that all of us would enjoy. But is she really news-worthy? I can't see the reason as to why she shows up on my TV constantly. She has no talents that I know of, aside from being overly dramatic. The only time I ever saw the human side of her was when they carted her off to jail and she wailed for her mommy. Even then, she served only a fraction of her sentence and was protected in every way possible while in jail. If anything it was punishment for her simply because no one was taking her picture there in jail. Well, save for the mug shots of course.

Now, don't get me wrong. I love rich people. As a matter of fact, I have never been given a job by a poor person, so the rich are alright by me. They have a right, as we all do, to squander their spoils on anything they like. But why is someone there with a camera just because Brittany Spears spent 13,000 dollars on a diaper-bag? Do we REALLY care that much? Apparently some must, otherwise these "shows" would not stay around long.

What I would really like to see is a show about the parents of these trust-fund babies. And have them explain to me what they are thinking by indulging their children's every whim. Fortunes are not set in stone and can be lost as well. Can you see Paris Hilton waiting tables? Now THAT I would watch on TV.

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/10450384/

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:12:55 -0700

One Moment

Your soul crashed upon the shores of my mind
Winds of change beckoned me to pull you in
Had I known that it would someday end
It would have changed nothing

The island that was my life
Saw you on the horizon
Thought you would just pass by, as the others
But your course brought you closer than I dared to hope

Now only a lingering scent of you remains
A memory that will not be ignored
A thousand lifetimes will not erase your touch
Countless loves in millions of worlds are a fraction of what we were

I feel pain but it comforts me
At times I feel nothing at all
Only then do I weep for you
You were every emotion I ever had

My heart endures, beating endlessly
I live with your ghost, a shadow I cannot touch
Until the ocean of life crests
And blends us together again
As it will

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/10390549/

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:26:33 -0700

Wake up call.

We need to enforce the immigration laws we already have on the books. MORE laws will not help much and will only put money into the pockets of bureaucrats and enlarge our government size even more. Countless of committees and study groups. If we had paid more attention to this problem 20 years ago, there would not be illegals daring to scream about what we OWE them! I have friends that came here through the proper channels and I think these Americans are the most offended by the illegal immigrants. That we have become a welfare nation is an understatement. I bet if we did not offer welfare, food stamps, and free medical care and in some instances even cash, I bet the illegal alien problem would all but evaporate like water in the Mexican dessert.

Then there is the greed by companies that do not feel the need to pay a living wage. The argument is not that illegals are taking JOBS that Americans don't want. It SHOULD be that illegals are taking jobs at cut-throat wages that Americans CANNOT support their families. How can the illegals you might as? Because they are willing to live in a 3 bedroom house with every relative that they know. They are a very family oriented people and most are very religious. Americans are not about to move 3 or 4 generations together in one house and work for 4.25 an hour.

Enforce the immigration laws as they stand. Keep out new illegals by posting the national guard and reserves on the border. With the technology that we have, heat sensors, motion detection devices, infra-red lighting, with enough man-power we can eliminate much of the traffic across our border. Setting up a few training bases in various locations along the border would help too. A wall is just one more thing they have to go over or under and it helps us little.

Guest worker means that we have the ability to keep track of everyone so that they do not out stay their welcome. We have no such ability. We either get a grip on this problem or we can wait until the global plates shift and in a million years or so the land that connects us will open to become a new sea.

God Bless America

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/10258850/

Wed, 06 Jun 2007 10:11:40 -0700

OK we all hate war. That is a given. Now let's look at Iraq in the analytical sense, without all the emotion and fears that are very natural to all of us as human beings. We already know that this war has become a mess and that our troops are now in the middle of a power struggle between tribes and religious groups that are seeking the upper hand and power. Iraq is also a hotbed and a training exercise for terrorist cells from the surrounding countries that harbor them. Syria, Egypt and of course Iran. So in this light, the war has gone very wrong in many ways. It was ill-conceived and mishandled from the start. For all the reasons that we should not be there, the fact remains. We ARE there.

Leaving Iraq would begin a domino effect of situations that would not be stopped for many decades to come. Let's start with the effects here in the U.S. Oil prices would soar almost immediately. With no control on crude oil (not that it seems lately that OPEC has any either) the memory of 3 dollars a gallon will seem like a dream. Sleeper cells would grow much more powerful and would branch out here in the States even quicker. Considering our lax border enforcement as it is, this will bring the war to our soil. We would be hearing about suicide bombers, not from over-seas, but from New York and L.A. and perhaps even at sporting events and other large gatherings. After the first few attacks here, the government will enforce even more laws that take away rights that we once enjoyed. The government is reactionary. And both parties will continue to blame each other while doing little to control the mayhem that will ensue. Life here would be very different from what we have become accustomed to.

As to what will happen in Iraq. Only God can truly say. We already know that the people that hate us (and not because we went into Iraq by the way, they have hated us for a very long time) are brutal and deadly. The blood-bath in Iraq would make the Killing Fields in Cambodia seem like a picnic in Disneyland. Iraq would become a terrorist state and would also control a large percentage of the worlds oil supply.

I cry for the families and children that have lost so much in this war. The people that would die if we left, would out-number the troops lost in the years we have been there ten-fold. Those are tears I do not wish to shed.

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/9823469/

Wed, 16 May 2007 12:05:01 -0700

Walking down the path I have chosen
Or was it forced upon me?
I look around and I see everything is different
Then why do I feel the same?

Questions I have asked for what seems like a lifetime
Are still questions that linger within my mind
Accomplishments that have been met and many that have not
Make no difference in where I feel I am now

Like an alien from a galaxy far away
Another time and place
I wonder how I could be so different when everyone seems the same
Do they see it too or do they pretend not to?

And when it all ends, that drop in the bucket we call our lives
Will the reasons become clear then?
Or will our very existence still seem
Like a part of the random chaos that goes on without end?

Answer your own questions
For no one else will even understand what you cannot put into words
Even if you are wrong, be proud that you tried
Never give up the fight

There is plenty of time for that later
But what if later never comes?
Feel the sun on your skin as if it was for the last time
As well it certainly could be, there are no guarantee.

http://lostinthawt.stumbleupon.com/review/9803855/

Tue, 15 May 2007 14:16:01 -0700

I have come to the conclusion that NY is very similar to Ore in many ways.
Politically anyway. Highest taxes per capita in the US. Toll roads freaking
everywhere! Sales tax and just about any other tax they can think of. And
today they passed (in the backdoor) a ban on trans fat use in restaurants.
Like I need the government to tell me what I should or should not eat. In a
sense much of this country has become a police state. The drive-by media
are for the most part liberal- progressives. Apparently being progressive
means that in order to become a more enlightened country, we have to not
only take away more rights of the people, but toss aside all taboos and
make what many thought was common sense illegal. We let in illegals from
Mexico and call them migrant workers, God forbid we call them what they
are, illegal aliens. We invade countries for our own purpose and instead of
calling terrorists just that, terrorists, we call them insurgents. I doubt
if most people even know what an insurgent is...FYI an insurgent is a
freedom fighter that is a native of his country and is fighting to oust an
invader. Most if not all "insurgents" in Iraq are NOT from Iraq at all.
They are streaming over the borders of Syria and Saudi Arabia and Iran.
They are called Terrorists!