simplerich

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The Star Spangled Banner, like you’ve never heard it

I first discovered this oral history of the Star Spangled banner by Francis Scot Key on Jan Mickelson’s show on 1040AM, WHO Radio. If you can listen to it with a dry eye your a damned dirty ape!
Happy 4th!

I listened to his music for a 3 hour drive last night, and spent quite a while on the net today watching some of his videos and live performances.

At his peak there was nobody like Michael Jackson in my lifetime. (Maybe Madonna) He was one of the only two superstars I ever paid much attention to. Madonna is the other. They’re the only two to this day I cared anything about meeting. If I had a list of people I’d like to meet it would have just gotten shorter by one yesterday.

He had drama in the last 10 years and God knows he did some outrageous things to himself with plastic surgery. It’s too bad. He was immensely talented and the world is a more interesting and vibrant place because of his having been here. His music changed things.

I quit a job to see one of his videos. It was a second job and a part-time one and I’d asked for the time off in advance and they didn’t give it to me. So, I quit to see the premiere of the video after an episode of The Simpsons. I was old enough to know better. But it was Michael Jackson and there was a group of friends gathering to watch the premiere. I didn’t want to miss it.

I’d hoped this come back tour would be the one for him. I’d have happily bought his next CD, probably on Amazon.com for a DRM free MP3 version of it, but I’d have paid for it, like I have the rest of his music.

Take care Michael, and thanks for the music.

Once upon a time I was the manager of a handful of stores in Central Iowa and then I moved away and was manager of a handful of stores somewhere else. I still saw the people that used to work for me but they had a new boss now and our styles differed. The way we did things wasn’t the same, and while our broad goals were the same, specifically our foci were quite different.

There were lots of conversations along the lines of:

Me: “Hey! How’s it going?”
Mongo: “Can I ask your opinion on something?”
Me: “Yep.”
Mongo: “Do you like how I displayed the widgets?”
Me: “So, how’s your day?”
Mongo: “You didn’t answer me.”
Me: “Nope, won’t answer you.”

Another favorite conversation went along the lines of:

Me: “Good Morning! UPS come yet?”
Mongo: “Not yet. I thought we weren’t supposed to count the bandersnatches any more.”
Me: “What time did you think UPS was coming today? Any ideas?”
Mongo: “No, seriously. You said we didn’t have to count them and now…”
Me: “Tell you what. I’ll go pick up the parking lot or weed the gutters and you call me if UPS shows up.”
Mongo: “You’re not going to answer me are you?”
Me: “Nope, won’t do it.”

In every case the new manager was doing something in a way I didn’t do and wouldn’t have done and hadn’t done. The employees were interpreting them as “wrong” and wanted me to take their side against their boss. Never ever going to happen. It won’t happen because it can’t happen if I’m to remain a decent person. If I were to undermine their current boss I’d be asking for trouble. I’d be setting them up for failure as well. I’m no longer their boss and if their new boss tells them to do something then it’s not the wrong thing to do, so long as it’s ethical and legal and within their job description obviously. So for me to tell them to NOT do something would not help them at all. It wouldn’t serve them well as a friend, an ex-boss, or as a co-worker. The only thing it would do would be sabotage them. I didn’t want to do that.

Now, that being said, if it were the case that the new boss was doing something that was profoundly crazy or out of line or wasteful I might mention to new boss how I’m doing it now and maybe they might want to try it that way, and if they ignore me… I’ve been known to mention it to their boss in a “Did you know that Mongo is still doing X” or whatever. If our mutual boss doesn’t mind then I don’t mind. If they knew and don’t care then that’s OK too. But I very very rarely did that. I would hope that other managers would respect how I did things and keep their hands out of my work so I strive to do the same.

This was brought up recently and the store manager who kept asking me to take sides against their new boss wouldn’t let it go… wouldn’t leave it alone. Finally the store manager got mad at me for not siding against their current boss and then their employee told them, my skip, to lay off. The sales associate got it… the sales associate understood that I couldn’t take a side; that different style didn’t mean wrong. The sales associate had worked with me for a long time and I was very proud of them then. That they got it… that they understood not only the situation as I was trying to explain it, but that it would be wrong for me to take a side.

So, when you go back… and the old crew wants you to gang up on the new boss… don’t. And if they DON’T ask you to gang up on the new boss… maybe you’re the crazy one.

In case you’ve forgotten, my birthday is coming up in October and you’ll want plenty of time to get your shopping done. My amazon.com wishlist can be a lot of help so you don’t stress to hard on what to get me.

The Best Cigarette by Billy Collins (1)

There are many that I miss
having sent my last one out a car window
sparking along the road one night, years ago.

4 years ago today I quit smoking. That’s over 29,000 cigarettes I have not smoked, saving around $6k and gaining about 15lbs. (12 of which I’ve lost in the past 2 months)

If I had known when I lit my first cigarette how hard it would be for me to quit 8 years later I hope I wouldn’t have lit it. The first cigarette was easy to not smoke. Heck. The first pack wasn’t easy to smoke. I only smoked if I had been drinking. After enough of those it became easier to smoke even when I hadn’t had a drink.

I quit several times using the patch and I have to tell you… that was my favorite way to quit but not the most effective way. As I said… I quit several times that way. The patches dose of nicotine gave me almost hallucinatory quality dreams. I don’t take hallucinogens so I’m only guessing but the dreams that were a side effect of the patch were interesting and fun. Surprisingly if I could go back to smoking I wouldn’t, but if I could go back to a patch that would give me the dreams I would in a minute. Sadly, I’m so unused to nicotine at this point that I am sure I would feel nicotine poisoned and sick with even the lowest dosage. So, I don’t use the patch and I don’t smoke… and haven’t for four years today.

I see kids start smoking today and know that nothing anybody says could have talked me out of smoking and I know that nothing I will say will stop them from smoking, but I say it anyway. I won’t buy their smokes and I don’t let them smoke in my car (I’m 40, when I say kids smoking that age goes way higher than it did when I was a kid of 20 so don’t think I’m talking about 10 year olds!).

It’s been a strange four years. I moved from Des Moines, IA to Memphis, TN and then from there to Ft. Dodge, IA. I got a promotion, then a demotion, and changed office locations 4 times. My Dad had brain surgery to remove a tumor, and the company I worked for changed ownership 4 times. In all that time and with all that stress I didn’t smoke.

So, if  you’re out there now thinking about quitting smoking. Do it. Don’t wait for things to get better or for their to be less stress. Life’s not like that. Just quit now. This might not be the quit that sticks, but it certainly won’t be if you don’t try it. It’s OK to quit more than once as long as you keep quitting. There will come a point when you’re tired of it and when the switch inside your head is thrown and at that point you’ll be quit and later you’ll be able to sit and have a morning cup of coffee without reaching for the pack. You’ll hear the crinkle of cellophane without thinking it’s a new pack. You’ll be able to get in your car and start it without cracking the window to let the smoke out. You CAN quit, all you have to do is start quitting.

(1) Billy Collins’ poem, “The Best Cigarette.” Read the rest of his poem here or you can listen to it here.

I’ve finally added a new page to the blog where I name and talk about the software I’d suggest any computer user should use. I’ve marked each of the software titles with whether or not they’re for Mac or PC or both, and all of the ones I link to are free.

Feel free to comment or make suggestions for other programs I should try if you see any on this list that are not as good as what you’re using. I’m always happy to try new software!