There’s a lot to be said about dinner etiquette, please and thank you gestures, and just manners in general. In a nail salon, etiquette may not be set in stone, but a lot of it is just common sense. For the people who don’t realize this, chances are, someone is watching.
This is a guest post by Kendra Greaves, a professional aerialist, circus performer and avid biker who lives in and commutes around Philadelphia by bicycle.
Yay! It’s summertime. I’m so happy that you are outside biking, walking, running, rollerblading, walking with your kids, walking your dog…. whatever you might be doing. I have a few comments and suggestions to make everybody’s (mainly mine, I guess) journey more enjoyable.
First. This might seem simple, but for most people, this seems to be a concept unimaginable. Get out of the middle of the path. Not so hard, really. This counts no matter if you are biking or on foot. This is especially important if you have music blasting in your ears. If I am saying “on your left” over and over while I am stuck behind you on the narrow point on Kelly Drive where I can’t pass you, I’m going to eventually get pissed and ride up directly behind you and literally scream. I have had to do this a few times. It’s great you are running or biking slowly. Really. Your fat ass thanks you (but maybe you might want to not wear spandex just yet….). But if you are going at a snail’s pace and I have to get somewhere, or I am just sick of staring at your jiggling white thighs, I will scream at you until you hear me. Then I will most likely curse at you, and consider pushing you into the trees. Turn down your fucking music, or better yet, stay to the right of the path.
Which brings me to my second point. You are not from England, or Australia. I hear that South Jersey accent. I know you are from the tri-state area. So stay on the right side of the fucking path. Seriously. And when I glare at you because I barely miss hitting you, do not get mad at me. You know the rules of the road. Oh, wait…. you drive like an asshole too? My bad. I just assumed people who walk or drive can do it the proper way. I guess I was wrong.
That said – if there is a tiny narrow curve in the path (there are quite a few – some of them even have lines painted down the middle, and signs saying “go slow”), do not pass the person in front of you just yet. Because you can’t see who is coming in from the other side. Stay over as far as you can or you will probably get hit. You can wait an extra 8 seconds before you swerve out and potentially hit me, who is staying on the proper side and going slowly in tight areas. Because let’s face it, you aren’t going that fast anyway.
If I yell “on your left” and start to pass you, do not jump in front of me. You don’t have to move at all in fact. I have taken into account passing you by the time I tell you that I am. You’re fine.
Do not let your dog, horse, or small child lunge in front of my bike. If I do miss hitting them, I will narrowly miss them, and you will yell at me and get upset, and little Bobby will start to cry. Hold them. Hold their hand or their leash (leashes are for your dogs though, not your child). Get off your fucking Blackberry. Stop texting your friends. Pay attention to your kids. Otherwise they will wind up writing angry posts like this one in 25 years.
Please do not swing your fishing poles around. If one hits me again, I will take you and throw you into the river after I break your fishing pole over my thigh.
Do not walk three or four abreast. I don’t care how cool you and your friends are. You do not deserve to take up the entire path. It is not the Yellow Brick Road.
Look behind you and see if someone is approaching if you need to suddenly get to the left side of the path. Not so hard, but people never seem to do this. Likewise, if you suddenly must stop dead in your tracks, get over to the grass or something.
A few random bits I would also like to mention:
I’m sure that I can continue on here, but those are the major things that I would like to mention.
So please, be considerate so I can get back and forth between work and home without wanting to run someone over.
I have been job searching for three months and here’s a look at the experience in today’s economy and with the current methods of applying for positions.
(I’m not at an executive or above level, I’m not at the minimum wage level, I’m near the middle somewhere, so I am only speaking to my spot on the spectrum.)
The briefest, most honest characterization of job seeking right now: Totally sucks. This is due to several reasons:
We all have heard the unemployment numbers across the nation. With the exception of North Dakota, it seems, unemployment is at the highest levels seen in decades. Therefore, there are millions of people searching for work, decreasing one’s chances of getting hired. Hiring managers can pick the cream of the crop, so if you don’t have everything they both require and prefer, you have little hope of getting an interview.
Hiring managers have a very hard job to do, because of the above: Depending on the open position, dozens, hundreds and maybe even thousands of people are applying for it, whereas in times past, perhaps only handfuls or dozens and maybe hundreds would have applied, burying HR folks with application results and/or applications to sort through. This means the process takes longer. (E.g. it takes longer not to hear back from them and not get a rejection letter. More on that later.)
Online job hunting is difficult at best for many reasons, mostly because it is such a time suck:
First, everything is now so impersonal, it’s taken the “human” out of human resources. If you try to go the old fashioned route and go to a brick and mortar location to ask if they have openings and can you speak to a manager, you’re sent back home (without getting to a manager) to fill out an app on line.
Second, back in the good old early days of online job hunting, there was Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com. Now there are hundreds and hundreds of similar sites, each one promising to deliver great positions to you daily. Because job seekers are anxious and even desperate, they spend hours and hours setting up their accounts on all of them, and end up with countless notices in their inbox for jobs that bare no resemblance to the preferences they set up. Often, when one finds one to click on, even though you just got the notice today, it comes up “job expired”. Well, at least not too much time was wasted, which is some satisfaction, though not really if you really wanted the position.
Third, perhaps the most maddening thing of all is when you have saved resumes and all your information on a job search site, ostensibly to save you time in your job search, you upload the resume, write the killer cover letter, thinking you’re done, only to be sent to the company’s site to input everything manually because it’s required. I can’t tell you how furious this makes me. It makes no sense from a design standpoint, and is certainly not user-friendly. If you’re an employer and prefer applicants use your online form, just have the applicant get right to your form and skip the job search engine’s protocol, or at least have a notice that you will have to do both, just out of courtesy. (I admit I’m not sure if these are options, but I’m pleading with anyone out there who has such a say to please make it so.) If you’re a job searcher, you’ve just lost another block of time you could have been applying or searching, and more time is lost to get back to focus because you’re so angry you had to duplicate your efforts.
Fourth, as previously mentioned, hiring managers do have a daunting task with so many people applying compared to years past. One way of screening people online includes requiring them to fill out questionnaires with items that typically would be asked in a first interview. Some of these include essay type questions asking you how you have handled x-y-z, explain your knowledge of 1-2-3, list your experience with a-b-c, and so forth. Some of these fields limit how much you can say, making it difficult to make your case for why you would be good at that and get results for them. Some ask you to list your experience with various software, or supervision duties, or situations you may have faced that you would face in this position, but there’s a very ominous tone to the statement accompanying it, in effect saying if you claim to have more experience than you actually have, if you lie or embellish or make false claims you will be immediately disqualified, your hand will be slapped, and you will have to wear a red U on your forehead for still being unemployed because WE won’t hire you and therefore no one else should. Okay, I embellish. But it’s very, very discouraging to be well-qualified for the position except for not having advanced Software A experience, which will disqualify you, because they state explicitly that not meeting every one of the qualifications is grounds for not being considered. I don’t embellish on that one. So, do you lie and take the risk, hoping that if they like you on the 99% there’s a chance you’ll get the interview despite the 1%. What would you do?
Job seekers always face ethical dilemmas with how much to tell or not tell about their backgrounds, this is nothing new, it’s now just more daunting and the stakes are higher. There’s been much discussion in the media regarding job searching about whether to list advanced degrees if you think they will count you out as being overqualified, for example, with no real answers or direction. I personally think honesty will let you sleep well at night, but this is a whole new cutthroat world of job searching.
Fifth, okay, you made it through the gauntlet of an online application, feel good about your chances after hitting that submit button, to get this: “Thank you for your application! We will contact you if we feel your qualifications meet our needs. Do not call or email to ask about the status of your application: Due to the large number of applications, we will only be calling those people we want to advance to the interview stage. Please wait for this notice, or if we don’t contact you, thank you again for applying, check in again for future opportunities, and we wish you great luck in your career search!” Meaning, if you aren’t contacted, you won’t get a rejection letter in the mail saying as much. You’re just left in limbo, wondering, waiting, or for those following the advice that has proliferated about how to job search, you go searching for a contact name, an email, anything that will allow you to follow up with your earnest interest in the position, typically to find a brick wall or a receptionist who is not about to cough up any names for you, and just gives the generic company line about hiring. I have only received one snail mail rejection letter out of dozens of applications. It’s a very dehumanizing reality of how companies manage applications now.
You hear that networking is the way to find job openings, that because of the vast numbers applying online for anything and everything, clogging the system for those that are qualifed and should be considered, your odds are better if you can get names and have someone on your side to refer to in your application. Given that networking is 180 degrees opposite of sitting at the computer alone searching and applying, you'd think job seekers would relish the chance to talk to people in the flesh. My experience: Networking events tend to be attended by solo entrepreneurs expecting that you are there to hear their pitch and hoping you will want their services, as that is what their industries tell them to do to find new clients. Networking events are rarely attended by people in hiring positions, for obvious reasons. Networking requires you to have your elevator speech polished and ready to go, which is a good thing, but no one seems to listen as they're so busy getting ready to give you theirs (and to get you as a client). Typically, the host or hostess gets to do their pitch to the group, during which you're expected to sit graciously, be attentive and actively participate as a thanks for this great networking opportunity. In fairness to many of the good people I have met at these events, there is some hope of some opportunity here and there (usually for freelance work more so that knowledge of open positions), and they truly understand the tough spot a job seeker is in, so at least the validation and talking with people face to face for a change is worth it. As the saying goes, nothing ventured, nothing gained, and new friendships and contacts can be developed at times. It's good to put on inteview clothes and work your best lines, prepping your interview skills for when you hopefully get one.
I have signed with a temp agency: In years past, this has always been listed as a way to meet new people, gain more experience and skills, and hopefully land a job. I signed up with one in June, have subsquently signed up with one of their partners, signed up at a different agency, and have yet to be placed into a position: The temp agencies aren't getting the work due to the economy. Or, the work they offer is, well, you decide: "We have an opening that is a long term position, 6-8 months minimum is projected, 21 hours per week, Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, and you must commit to that time frame." Oh and it pays slightly better than minimum wage (which, let's remember, is not a living wage) with ten times the responsibility for the pay. I don't regret signing up. It's been good to do the interviews to get the practice, and to take the tests and remember I do well under pressure. Remains to be seen if I get placed prior to finding a position myself.
A new reality of what work looks like is coming out at this time, related to this. Many people will take that temp job listed above, and hobble together two or three other part time positions, just to pay the bills and be working. There are thousands of people doing just this, and I think it’s a horrible trend – they have no health benefits, and companies are lowering and lowering the pay scales because they know people are desperate. Where is it going to lead? Where is the bottom? I guess that would be ‘I (employee) pay you (employer) to work for no salary’ (and thus it’s not even a volunteer position. Oh and I am volunteering, per the other conventional wisdom out there. Remains to be seen what that may lead to).
I initially thought I would not have a hard time finding a new position because so many of the job losses in the past year or so have been in manufacturing or construction, neither of which I am in, and because of a good work history and strong references (thank you, you know who you are), and of course, my, ahem, good personality (okay, I saw the eye roll, and yes, I know, that’s subjective). However, the latter doesn’t come through on most online job apps so the cover letter is your only chance, but given how heavily weighted the online forms are, it’s hard to know how much relevance the cover letter has, given the computerized nature of keywords and matching requirements compared to eyeballs on a page making determinations. If anyone doing online hiring can shed light on that, it would be greatly appreciated, but I’m guessing that info stays hidden away somewhere.
If you have done any reading about job searching, you will know it now takes five and ten times the effort, creativity and work to land a job. I had read that most job searches take 6-9 months, but this was prior to the current state of unemployment, so I know I have to pace myself and take all this into account. It’s hard to project how long this will last (the current methods of job searching and the recession), but it’s not for the feint of heart. (Remember that unemployment figures don’t count those who have lost heart and given up job searching, or are underemployed and still looking for a better position.) Even for those with a system for their search, faithfully working at it daily, it gets very disheartening and discouraging, even for those with lots of resources and stamina. It’s unnerving to think the economy won’t turn around until next year some time, based on current news reports; people’s severance pay, savings, and unemployment benefits won’t last forever (and I shudder to think of those relying on credit cards to see them through, given the whole scene there nowadays).
Whether you were laid off, fired, or voluntarily left, the reality of finding a new position is the same for everyone. It gets to your self-esteem, your confidence, your endurance. It’s a ripe ground for contemplation and values clarification, but it’s sometimes hard to justify the time when you don’t want to miss opportunities to apply for something, or network, or pound pavement looking for work not listed online. It is worth it, though (and, if you go to a networking event you are sure to find a life coach who would like you to hire them to help you with it; in all fairness, there are good ones and it can be worth it, but expect to put out a few hundred dollars or more). There’s nothing like a job search to make you take a hard look at yourself and your life, which can be rewarding if it sparks a new direction, a clarity or understanding of what you want your life to be.
All I can say is that I have to, and any job seeker has to, keep digging in and doing the work, look for opportunities everywhere, take breaks as needed, whine and vent as appropriate (just don’t get stuck there), and keep the hopes up. I do hope that something shifts in the way we apply for work, however, and that HR and software designers come up with better systems that still have some humanity and dignity to them. I know not every company and organization hires online and/or still has a sane process, but it’s a troubling trend that seems to be here to stay, and that the majority of job seekers have to deal with and find a way to make work for them.
Good luck to us all, and I’d like to hear from both job seekers and those on the hiring side, and those who have just landed a position through a process mentioned here as to their experiences and feelings about it all.
I am more than disappointed that the First Family did not opt for a shelter/rescue dog to join them in the Whitehouse.
According to the Associated Press, the Obamas are in a “gray area” because the dog they adopted was returned to its breeder before finding its way to the Whitehouse. In my opinion, that area is not gray. They were given a dog as a gift from the Kennedys and the Kennedys got the dog from a breeder
.
The press is arguing that it was from a reputable breeder (as opposed to a puppy mill) which is true, but I would argue that even reputable breeders are creating an excess of animals. There are around 3 million dogs euthanized in shelters every year. 3 Million! Out of those 25% are purebred, single-breed dogs.
Right now on Petfinder there are a number of purebred Portuguese Water Dogs listed in DC shelters. Those are just the dogs listed on the site. Rescue groups and other animal welfare organizations have more dogs ready to be adopted.
I find it unacceptable that the Obamas chose to use their daughter’s allergy as their excuse for not adopting from a shelter. I feel that it sets a bad example for the rest of the public and uses a weak excuse as a reason not to act responsibly. It is absolutely possible to find not only a hypo-allergenic, but a purebred dog in a shelter or from a rescue organization.
Oprah was able to find her companion in a Chicago-area shelter, it’s a shame the Obamas could not follow suit.
Looking for a dog or other pet? Try Petfinder.com, the largest online listing of shelter/rescued animals.
Want more information on adopting a dog? Try The Humane Society of the United States for material.
A ew years ago I had some horrible experiences with insurcance companies, here’s a few of them.
I spent the better part of yesterday back and forth between my insurance company and the doctors office absolutely bewildered at the state of healthcare in America. My foot propped up on a pillow; I remembered why I had put off calling the doctor for three weeks, because I was already overwhelmed with what lay ahead. The inefficiencies of our nations insurance companies are mind-boggling. Some might think that they fail at their goal; they don’t provide what they offer. But this is untrue; the insurance company achieves its ultimate goal. This is because its goal is to fail. Its not supposed to provide health coverage to its members. Instead the corporations essentially offer false hope and as a result disillusionment that leaves more Americans in their current social and economic state.
I called Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and was immediately greeted by an automated service. The computerized voice offered me a few options that were none of the options that I was searching for. After about five options I pressed zero thinking I knew the little secret that many others didn’t, the golden number to a live operator. I’ve always been quite proud when I would tell others about my secret, the way that I would skip the line and get right to a live person by pressing the golden “0”. Alas apparently I have told to many people because this was no longer an option. Instead Max Headrome returned and went through the aforementioned options. I pressed “1” and then had to choose between English and Spanish which would be the easiest part of my journey. Of course once I selected a language I had to wait for a few minutes listening to horrible elevator music although I was actually in an elevator. I cursed myself for not finding a landline to make the call thinking about how sprint had to be in on this too as my daytime minutes slipped away.
Finally I heard a pause in the music. My heart raced as I sat silent for a second only to realize it was my connection that was suspect, the elevator music resumed. But alas after a few more moments, while watching Oprah belittle some author I was greeted with a friendly voice.
Thank you for calling Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, how many I help you?
Hi, I don’t know if you are the right person to call, but um, um, I am looking for the out of state, away from home care, do you need my membership number first
That would be great
Why didn’t she ask me this to begin with? It would seem like the logical thing to do considering at one point or another she would need this information. We spent the next few minutes discussing the different intonations of “M” versus “N’ and “V” versus “B” or “C”. For some reason I never think of easy words to offer such as “B as in Benjamin”. Instead I always think of curse words or nothing at all, “B as in bitch” and I giggle to myself in my head. Finally we confirm that I am indeed me, which I always find is a relief. Infact I urge any of us who are having any type of identity problems to immediately call their insurance company. They will certainly give you confirmation and you can go about your existence again. After all this she finally says,
So how may I help you?
I need to find doctors in Philadelphia.
Any type of doctors?
Oh wow, I didn’t think of that, well yea a foot doctor, a podiatrist, I injured myself playing basketball (She didn’t give much attention to this information) But you should know I’m out of state, my coverage is in Connecticut.
I see
The dreaded I see. Its arguably one of the worst expressions one can hear. Right up there with Sorry hunny, I’ve been cheating on you with Hitler or your best friend and, Hi, this is Tina, that girl from the bar last month, you know McFaddens, yea well I’m pregnant. Blasted McFadden’s!
Well sure ill have to connect you with the out of state operator, she will take care of you.
Oh, okay then, thank you.
Why didn’t she do this in the beginning! Why did I spend the last five daytime minutes on the phone with someone who could not help me? It makes no sense, its almost as if she was just teasing me. Like youre 17 in the back of your car with the prom queen, you feel like a million bucks. But then she gets out of the car after two minutes of kissing right when you were beginning to maneuver your hand up her shirt! God Damnit! Stifled again! I feel like a blue-balled teenager.
More time goes by and finally I’m in the right place. This voice sounds much like the previous one and makes me think that I’m the butt of a big joke. Like the guys from Crank Yankers are on the other end having a big laugh. And the first question she asks,
Hello sir, may I please have your membership identification number?
Are you fucking kidding me? Seriously? Now I know I’m the target of some vast conspiracy. Didn’t I just give this information to the last operator? Shouldn’t you already have this information? Now I feel like a foreigner speaking to someone in French. (I chose the French here because they are the only people who have as much disdain for me as insurance customer service operators). You know those times when you just repeat the same thing over and over again as if they will all of a sudden learn English through repetitive listening.
I give up my information all the time praying that she wont ask why I’m out of state, in Philadelphia considering I have a few doctors visits in the area and none in my “home state”. I will refrain from giving up any more information for fear of the obvious, they are watching. After five more minutes she has found three doctors in my network. Hallelujah. My blood rushes, my heart pounds. I see light at the end of the tunnel until I ask the next question.
So do I have to do anything else? Once I make the appointment do I have to do anything else?
I don’t know sir, I only am a locator. You will have to call membership services.
Oh ok, can you please connect me to them.
I’m sorry, I don’t have the directory here so you’ll just have to call the customer service line, it should be on the back of your card.
No shit, I used it to call you. I hang up. I look at the clock and see that I have twenty minutes to Around the Horn on Espn and would like to have all this finished up so I can hear five people’s ramblings on the significance of Kobe Bryant dropping 81 in an NBA game. Upon occasion I marvel at the fact that people are paid to just give their opinions and report events. It seems like such an easy job, I should be paid to do that. I do it ever day, That hot ass chick just bought a chicken parm sandwich, damn she is hot, I should get her number. Seems easy enough. I take a deep breath and call back. Brimming with confidence knowing that it didn’t take me too long last time to find an operator. At least after a few miscues. But this time takes much longer. For some reason all the options that were available the last time I called seem different. I can never remember what option I chose in my Choose Your Adventure story.
You might ask why don’t I just make the appointment? Well rewind a few years when I had a knee injury and was attending college in Washington DC. After finding a doctor in the network I made an appointment and went in for knee rehabilitation. Confident that I was completely covered I went a few times. The doctor’s office never gave notice that anything was wrong. After 9 visits totaling at $900 I find that the insurance company won’t cover it because I never alerted them for authorization. I thought I had considering I talked to an operator. But alas this was not enough and I was stuck with a $900 tab. Insurance companies are the devil.
So this day I growing increasingly frustrated. I had just hung up for the third time, not finding my pot of gold through the winding automated maze. I decided to give it one more go before giving up on the day. Somehow, through divine intervention I found the person I need to talk to. Three daytime phone calls and 20 minutes to find one person to offer me this after I gave her my membership number again,
Yes sir, call and make an appointment then call us again here at the out of state care to alert us to the doctor, date, time and address so we can put through an authorization code for that day.
Once I had to reschedule an appointment after putting the authorization call in. I forgot to call in a second time to alert the change in date and was denied coverage once again. I figure they would be smart enough to know that it was the same patient and doctor. Apparently it was I who was not smart enough. So I ask this lovely lady for some information as well,
May I have your name and extension so I can just call you back?
Yes my name is Monique and I don’t have an extension, but you can just ask for me. Also make sure you ask the doctor if they are still in the network.
That’s essentially the same thing as the how about I take your number instead? Then you walk yourself home late at night telling yourself she will indeed call. After a few days you start looking her up on Yahoo, Google, Friendster, MySpace to no available and convince yourself that she must have lost your number because why would she have asked for your number in the first place if she didn’t want to call you. Wait did she really ask for my number? Hmmm.
I Google the three doctors whose names I received through the locator operator who has nothing to do with the out of state operator. Only one of them has any information online and two of the others have names that sound like id meet them in the back of a dark alley in Bangkok during monsoon season. I call the listed doctor and leave a message on a shotty old school sounding answering machine. Two days later I get a call back and make an appointment. I ask the secretary if they are still in the network.
I don’t know, how would I know? If they listed us we must be. That’s all on the insurance company, that has nothing to do with us. How about this, you just come in and if they approve it they approve it. If they don’t then you can deal with it later.
Exhausted, mentally and emotionally I say whatever and hang up. I now get ready to call back Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Ill skip past the Choose Your Adventure phase this time but be assured that it definitely occurred. I find an operator and ask to speak to Monique only to find that Monique doesn’t exist. She was like a dream, or a nightmare. Eventually I am reconnected to out of state coverage. This woman was nothing like Monique. Not that Monique was a saint but she was helpful in her role. This woman though was immediately suspect of my out of state care and the reasons behind me not being in Connecticut. After much convincing she accepts my lame duck story and puts through the authorization. I wet my pants in excitement and down a shot of Jamesons by myself. I ask her for her name before I hang up,
My name is Monique sir, anything else I can help you with?
A rope and a high chair?
She doesn’t get it.
I have yet to visit the doctor. They didn’t have an opening for ten days so I have to sit here with my injured foot awaiting news that I already know. You should rest it for a while, a few weeks, maybe we should take some x rays. At which point I’ll have to get the insurance company to cover the X-ray somehow. Which means ill have to go through the whole process again.
I sit here now completely jaded by the whole bureaucracy. I think to myself that there is such an easier way. That the system does not make any sense. Its not efficient and it doesn’t do what its designed to do. But infact it does. Insurance companies aren’t designed to provide affordable quality healthcare to their members. They are designed to earn money and its what they do best. That’s how the companies are constructed.
And all this money goes to one place, the higher ups, the bourgeoisie. The money goes right into the pocket of the ceo’s who are making deals with the prescription drug companies and to lobbyists who then pad the pockets of our civic representatives. It’s designed to keep the current social caste system. A system where the upper and lower class are being even further separated as the middle class disappears. There’s no mistake that every operator is named Monique (reference page 179 of Freakanomics, by Steven D Levitt Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name smell as Sweet). They find people from lower income brackets who they can train and offer full health benefits. To this individual it’s a great deal. They get a steady job; benefits and they can support their families. Meanwhile the corporation dangles the cheese in front of them, consistently creating a falsehood while promising these low-income workers opportunities to move up through the corporate ladder. It will never happen. Although the women’s movement has created more jobs for women there is still a large discrepancy when it comes to women in positions of corporate power. Even more so for African-American women who have lived hanging on the bottom rung since Americas inception. All Monique can do is follow protocol and report problems to her manager who is probably someone named Jim and earns just a little more then her and reports to someone who reports to someone who reports to someone who reports to someone who reports to someone who reports to someone who reports to the board of directors at Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield.
The Insurance companies also keep each division separated. They don’t want their employees developing relations with their peers. Its not encouraged. Hence the reason we have to keep giving them our membership number over and over again. If each division were in constant contact with one another then it would promote discussion and debate. They would eventually find that Monique in the out of state office earns more then Monique at the locator office and would also discover that the another Monique has been working in membership services and hasn’t been given a raise or promotion in the 23 years she has been working with the company. Monique will never move up the ranks because those positions are reserved for those upper class individuals who attended the nations greatest private schools and universities.
Upon graduation, without any field experience these ivy leaguers who will most likely be white will be employed by the insurance companies assuring their spots in the corporate hierarchy. As a result Monique will never be given a fair opportunity to rise up the corporate ladder, bring money into her community, or worry about her social responsibility. In effect her children will grow up without a mother who has to work constantly to pay the bills. The children will have no guidance and have to attend lower income public schools with no money for books, computers, or sexual education. There’s a good chance that one of Monique’s children will get into drugs, another will parent a child at a very young age and neither of them will ever have the opportunity to attend college. As a result little George W. Bush, having just graduated from Yale (where he never had the intelligence/grades to attend in the first place but most certainly the money and lack of pigment) will have his place secured in the hierarchy. Monique and her children will have their places secured as well.
The company hopes that after being misled through automated services and constantly redirected the member will just give up. Instead of going through all the hassle they will just pay it themselves and stay in debt. As a result they will never be able to move from the lower class to the ever-dwindling middle class and one day upon the high perches of the 1% that actually control everything. For a good example watch the movie The Rainmaker starring Matt Damon and Danny Devito, or read the book of the same title by author John Grisham.
It’s easy to break a persons back who is already on their knees. These individuals who seek healthcare through the insurance companies are already bewildered, are already ill. Why should a sick person have to put up with any of this? The last thing they want to do is worry about why their insurance company isn’t holding up their end of the bargain, hence the reason they usually give up. It’s a small price to pay for the insurance companies when some members actually follow up on their services and claims. Unfortunately for us the person at both ends of the line happens to be Monique. We are the same person attempting to figure out the same problem and finding no answers.
The higher ups are sitting back with their feet up sipping on champagne in their private jets flying off to their private islands. They marvel at how we don’t get it, they spit on us and look down upon our broken backs, dirty hand and sniffling noses. But if history proves anything its that things move in cycles and if Karl Marx is right, there’s a revolution coming, hopefully sooner rather then later.
I’m not a big fan of people outside my profession telling me how to do it. However, I guess that John Mayer is allowed to since I talk about musicians all the time. I still have a problem with him, being a muscian, being allowed to blog on The Huffington Post… and yeah, it’s because I’m jealous.
What I really have the problem with? This sentence:
“[Don Rickles] made Perez Hilton look like a sycophant.”
Well – no shit. Perez Hilton is a sycophant. A sycophany who happens to be wildly popular (a phenomenon whose logic escapes me). Panic – don’t EVEN think of linking to him – I don’t want to give him the traffic. Also, Hilton’s so three years ago – there are so many other gossip blogs that are legitimately humorous and don’t get off on drawing jizz on the faces of celebrities. Clearly, Mayer doesn’t read them (or maybe doesn’t want to admit that they’re actually… gulp… funny).
Yeah, Don Rickles is great, I get it. But lauding him at the expense of the people who write gossip blogs puts you in the same realm of the people you bash. Oh, and while you’re an incredibly accomplished guitar player, your first album sucks.
Read the whole article here.
Fonts are a wonderful thing, they allow people with almost no design skill to put some flare on common words. There are thousands available for free to download and they can be used in virtually any image creation software out there. Fonts do play an integral role in how a company or service brands themselves though. Everyone around the world knows the Coca-Cola logo for example and the FedEx logo has a cleverly hidden arrow between the E and X. If you really want to understand how fonts and typefaces work in advertising, get the movie Helvetica. It’s a bit geeky how passionate these people are for type, but it will hopefully help explain how important it is in all forms of communications. 
Just shy of two years ago I was browsing through one of the best free font sites, dafont.com, looking for scripty, elegant font to use on a greeting card. I found it almost instantly with Scriptina, my co-workers all agreed that it would fit the needs very well and the dramatic swooping letters added to the elegance of it. Now, finding it on dafont is no miracle, I’m sure hundreds of thousands of other people found it before me and I lay no claim to being the first one, but it was the first place I’ve saw it.
Since then, I’ve seen Scriptina used in so many forms of advertising, clothing design, greeting cards and other commercially available mediums that it makes me want to throw up. My work ultimately decided not to use the card I was working on, but due to it’s really unique style, Scriptina can be seen from a mile away. I am now giving this once elegant and beautiful font the title of most overused font of 2008. If you are currently using it, I highly suggest you find something new and fresh, everyone else, their Grandmother and even the kitchen sink are using it. Your designs are no longer fresh and you will not create a lifelong branded company logo with it.
The title of this piece would make a great name for a porno. Thankfully, it’s not. Below you’ll find my friend Jaxon’s take on last week’s Vice Presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden and Governor Sarah Palin. Jax isn’t a writer by trade, but he makes several relevant points with his own sense of style. Feel free to comment on this site or on his MySpace page. Residents of the greater Philadelphia area can tune in to hear Jaxon on 93.3 WMMR weekdays from 3-7pm.
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Tonight I plan on making a Pepto-Bismol milkshake. 2 tablespoons of Pepto-Bismol. 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream. Blend. Drink. I’m feeling nauseous. I suspect it has something to do with this grating voice I keep hearing in my head. The voice keeps repeating the word “maverick” in this God-awful accent that I can only describe as maybe the sound made by the offspring of a dyed-in-the-wool Minnesotan and a retarded polar bear. The voice stops every few minutes only to be replaced by the same irritating voice repeating “NUKECULEAR”.
So not only has the bush administration spent our money like a 13 year old looking for a quick sugar fix in a candy shop (mind you this 13 year old is extremely hyper yet lazy and is somewhere around 400 pounds), but now he is asking for close to $1trillion to help bailout beleaguered financial institutions!!! WTF!!!!??
Bush gives banks carte blanche to run amok during his terms in office and then sticks the taxpayers with the bill. Its like you are planning a reunion for a bunch of your highschool buddies when one friend who you aren’t particularly close with (but hes someones brother) says “don’t worry, i got the hook up at the club, we will be straight, i got us vip bottle service!” You and your buddies get all excited, you take a limo to the joint and down copious amounts of redbull and vodka on your way there. You pull up to the spot ready to do the damn thing, the line is wrapped around the block but you don’t worry, your friend has the hook up right?! Sure enough you go to the front of the line and all of a sudden said friend turns and says “alright yo, let me get your credit card cuz they wont let us in!” This really happened. And thats what bush and all his cronies are attempting to do to us.
We will be stuck with the bill and left with a dead dollar whose worth will value my crusty toe nails and some lint in my pockets. If we have learned anything its that short term solutions don’t work. You don’t spend massive amounts of money to save money. You pull yourself up by the bootstraps and dig in. You get ready for the long hall and don’t trust doods who say they have the hook up for the vip bottle service (bush).
Last week, Mike suggested we write about our experiences with or thoughts on the events that occurred on September 11, 2001. I thought about it… where I was (Russian TA session), how old I was (freshman in college – I had just turned 18), who was affected (my roommate and dorm neighbors were from Manhattan; my uncle worked in the Pentagon), and how I felt (outraged, shocked, numb, upset). I had retold the story a hundred times – to friends, mostly foreign and often younger, and mostly on the anniversary of the attacks. I thought about typing it up again, here, but decided it was almost too difficult to articulate. Also, why would my experience be worth reading about? Everyone was freaking out, especially us on the East Coast. I dropped the idea.
Until today.
I was catching up on my Preston and Steve podcasts and listened to the show from September 11. They had an author of a book about the action taken at the Pentagon that day (a story which I agree is overshadowed by the harrowing events in New York City and the legend surrounding Flight 93). A moment of silence was observed, during which all the emotions of that day came swarming back. Those feelings of deep sadness for our nation’s collective loss (loss of life, loss of peace, loss of security) were replaced by the statement’s made next.
While interviewing the author of the Pentagon book, Steve Morrison (co-host of the radio show) made a comment about conspiracy theorists to the effect that to even posit an alternative theory on the events was not only disrespectful to the dead, but made you a stupid human. And this is the most prominent ideological (note: not PHYSICAL) loss to America – the loss of our ability (and perhaps, our will) to question the government.
I’m not saying that I disagree with the standard story of events surrounding 9/11, nor am I a “truther.” The point I am making has nothing to do with my own personal or political beliefs surrounding that day. However, I DO believe that is our right and our DUTY as Americans to question the actions of our government. Why is it suddenly WRONG and UNPATRIOTIC to question authority (and, thus, the authority of the mass news media)? Is it because we’re really that incapable of conceiving that maybe, just maybe, the government killed its own people? Did we forget that this is the same government built out of bloody revolution? The same government who sold arms to Iran and lied about it. The same government who passed a law to listen to your phone calls and read your text messages without a writ of habeas corpus. Yeah – that government.
People who question the events of 9/11 are often compared to those who denied the Holocaust. From what I’ve seen, no one is questioning the fact that the events were horrific and that they did, indeed, occur. That’s not the point. We should be able to question HOW and what our government KNEW (if anything at all) that they didn’t tell us. The freedom to police our government is one of the fundamentals of democracy and shouldn’t be quelled simply because a tragic event occurred. ESPECIALLY now, when the event led to a war (um… that the government admittedly started under false pretenses) is when we should question the motives and methods of our leaders. Even if it leads to a consensus, at least the job was done.
When lives are lost on American soil, it becomes inappropriate to ask “why?” Seems like now, when thousands more Americans are dying in Iraq, all we can say is “why not?”
