The Mind of Mr. M

Today was one of those days where I almost spoke out of turn just on principle.

 

I was working out at the gym today and at the bench next to me were these two very opinionated guys working out. They were discussing their inability to look past someone’s looks. More specifically, they were discussing how they have to keep getting after their wives to lose some weight.  Wait, it gets better. Then they discussed their expectations for how their wives should look and after having kids how they need to try harder to look good.

Over the space of about five minutes, they went from there to making comments about the girls in the gym their wives should look like and how they knew that each time they bring up the topic to their wives their wives get testy. But they can usually walk away and she knows that if they do, they better keep their mouths closed.

I was appalled on behalf of all the women in the world and embarrassed for men in general as these two considered what they were saying to be ok.

Here is the clincher…both of them were huge overweight, balding guys with distorted tattoos, unshaven and wearing cutoff sweat pants and three days growth.

They say that we complain most about the things we refuse to see in ourselves…maybe this is proof.

 

P.S. Yes, I know I am being judgmental but for this post, I really don’t care.

Tomorrow marks the last day at a job I began just back in March…I am actually a little melancholy about it. It’s a good company and the people are good people, but family life dictates where and what I do more than anything else. I have always been one to review my family’s financial situation, needs and such when and opportunity comes up and the job I start on Tuesday is one I really couldn’t pass up. That being said, I like the job I was at and the freedom and flexibility it gave to me.

I guess, I started thinking about loyalty when it comes to an employer. It seems that the loyalty from my grandfather’s day is long gone. Not just from an employee perspective but also from an employer perspective. Not that it is my current situation.

In the past people would take a job and stay there until retirement. Partially because of retirement. But that word is almost irrelevant in today’s economy. So many people have lost that twenty plus years of investing that retiring simply means move to another job and cash out the old one’s 401k. But I think the same economy that compels employees to always look for the better opportunity, causes employers to make less of an effort to keep someone. This is because, there seems to be quite a line of unemployment that is willing to fill a vacancy someone else creates.

I can actually recall a LONG FORMER, employer making the comment that he didn’t care about turn over because the job was brainless and any “monkey” could fill it. This same analogy was applied during any loss of moral. He would throw out some sort of competition and make the employees compete for who got a reward, his throwing a banana in the cage routine. This distracted people from being upset at him and forced them against each other.

In reality, the world is constantly evolving, technology and discoveries and off-shoring, make jobs irrelevant on a daily basis. So, how could you not keep trying to ride the wave as long as possible.

Anyway, next week, new opportunity, new challenge, same goals.

I thought with the three-day holiday coming up this weekend, I would find out why we celebrate Labor Day and what it’s all about.  It’s actually a pretty brutal reason that brought it about.

 

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September (September 6 in 2010).

The first Labor Day in the United States was celebrated on September 5, 1882 in New York City.^[1] It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.^[2] The September date was chosen as Cleveland was concerned that aligning an American labor holiday with existing international May Day celebrations would stir up negative emotions linked to the Haymarket Affair.^[3] All 50 U.S. states have made Labor Day a state holiday.

 

Read the Full Article at Wikipedia

Rules are in place to make things fair and consistent. I get that. I have played team sports, I have worked in corporate environments. In most cases the rules are never deviated from, and when they are everybody sees it and someone will throw a stink if they see someone getting away with breaking the rules.

What I don’t get is when rules are enforced for some and not others. For example, if someone asked for something like a change in work schedule and they are told no because, the job requires them to be at a certain place during certain hours otherwise everyone will start asking for the same thing and pretty soon, everyone is gone at different times and teamwork is impossible. Another example would be that certain incentives are based on specific rules and if you don’t adhere to those EXACTLY you can’t get those incentives. Pretty cut and dry right?

So, hypothetically, “WHAT IF” after someone is told what the rules are and those rules are enforced for them, they see someone who get’s that schedule adjustment, or walks away with an incentive that didn’t adhere to the rules.

Yeah, that would be confusing, wouldn’t it?

I have been following the story of Clay Sannar an LDS Bishop that was shot and killed in a church meeting house in Visalia, Ca. Today they released the name of the man who committed the shooting. It was also released that the reason for the shooting is that he felt “shunned” by a former Bishop back in 1988, 22 years ago. It was also explained that the man suffered from mental illness and had taken his grandfather’s gun.

Objectively, I can’t for a moment imagine the horror the Bishop’s family is going through. To have something so horrible happen, for something that wasn’t your fault. My heart and prayers got out to the family.

What strikes me also, is the assailant. A man with mental illness that spiraled out of control to the point that he took another’s life then his own. I have to wonder that if his issues were know, had someone reached out to him earlier if both lives could have been spared. i guess those kind of questions are irrelevant and asking them doesn’t change the current situation.

What happened is so tragic, and though honestly, I am appalled by what happened, if we don’t try to look at why, we will never be able to stop them.

This is a copy and paste from a pledgies donation page. Please use the links at the bottom to visit the page directly and make a donation.

(via Pledgies) Clay Sannar, a lay bishop of the Visalia 2nd ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was murdered by an armed assailant just minutes after church services ended on Sunday, August 29, 2010.

Sannar leaves behind a wife and six sons, ranging from 14 years of age to just three months.

All funds donated will be sent to Sannar’s wife for use in funeral arrangements, or for other needs she and her family has during this difficult time.

Please donate and share with family and friends so we can help the Sannar family from a distance.

This fundraiser was organized by Connor Boyack, a fellow Latter-day Saint living in Lehi, UT. Sister Sannar (Clay’s wife) will shortly be informed of our efforts, and all funds will be sent directly to her. For any questions, you may contact me at cboyack@gmail.com or 801.376.2647.

 

Direct Link: http://pledgie.com/campaigns/12975

In a conversation this last week, I actually had someone reference those that comment on my posts a cult following. I chuckled because there are really very few people that read or comment on what I post on the internet. That isn’t to diminish the excitement I get when those of you do read or comment. But realistically, I know that I am virtually an internet nobody, and I am ok with that.

 

Why do I post about, what I post about?

Really the major reason is because I am really bad at keeping a journal. I hate writing. The freedom to type and delete and edit is more my speed of record keeping. I am able to start and come back to something I was working on also.

You will also notice that most of what I post about has to do with my family and kids. This goes back to my first paragraph, I am really doing it for them. Everything I post I save to a special location on my computer to eventually print and give to my posterity. It will accompany the several partially written in journals I also have.

When I was young my mother and father separated and my dad died when I was 10, all I have from him is a couple pictures and crumbling memories. I don’t want that for my kids. Good or bad, I want them to know me. The best way I can do that is to try and record it. You will also see in my posts random things about what I cooked or where I went and pics of me with my kids on date night. It is simply my hope that each of those seemingly random posts may in the future be a little spark to ignite a memory or minor emotion.

 

Then why make it public everywhere?

Well really, I don’t have to and despite what anyone my think, it is not digging for compliments or try to say that I am doing any better than anyone else out there. Really, there is so much garbage and degradation on the internet that I think there needs to be some good stuff too, and to me family family and family life is good stuff.

 

That’s it, if you actually read this, thank you for stopping by. ;-D

I lieu of the recently posted Empire Avenue photo challenge, I thought I would post a photo of my own. Consider it another minor poke at the new selling restrictions…

 

I have grown very fond of rainbows. Every time I see one, I think of a special family that lost one of their children as an infant, just weeks after he was born. It was a very sad and tragic experience. At the funeral, his mother delivered the eulogy. I don’t think that I have ever been more impressed with someone’s courage. I can’t and don’t even want to imagine what that would be like. She spoke she talked about how she loved to sing  the song, “You are my sunshine,” to her little boy and she just can’t help but think that her sunshine was gone.

It was for me one of the saddest moments I have ever felt. When we came out of the funeral, it was a gloomy over cast day, and we made our way to the cemetery. It began to rain while we were at the graveside as a few people shared their thoughts and condolences. It was quiet and melancholy. As the service finished up and we began to get into our cars, the clouds broke just slightly and off in the distance was the most beautiful rainbow.

It is a moment etched into my mind, I thought to myself, there is her sunshine, peaking through the clouds at the end of such a gloomy day to make a rainbow and remind us all that those we lose are only as far away as our memories.

To this day, every time I see a rainbow, I think of him and I am in awe of what beauty even the smallest glimpse of sunshine can bring to our lives.

Just wanted to let you know that the Boardwalk Tool: Share Where for Empire Avenue has been updated. You can now click the point and get a picture of their profile and it links directly to their Empire Avenue page.