Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 46 of 78).

Attitude

Its been fun answering honestly whenever someone asks me “how are you?” I stopped by Garner’s world-famous Agri-Supply to get parts for the damaged trailer and that question was inevitably asked.

“Look at him,” one good ol’ boy shop worker called to the other. “The kind of week he’s had and he’s still smiling.”

After his buddy picked his jaw up off the floor, the first turned to me again.

“I can tell you gonna be okay,” he said. “If that don’t faze you, nothin’ will!”

True enough. Its been a wonderfully fun day. I spent the evening wrestling two gleeful, giggling kids.

The van? Its just a thing. The job? I’ll find another. The love of my family and friends? That’s what its all about.

Why I was laid off

My former place of employment was an interesting place: one with a split personality. There were offices in the U.S. and a headquarters in Germany, with radically different business styles. Different styles is precisely why two offices are needed – a company needs to understand the business culture of the country in which it does business. What works in Germany does not work here and vice-versa.

It was in this cultural tug-of-war that I got caught. My official boss was in Germany while at the same time I had a boss that was local. Each had different visions for what my role was supposed to be. The adage about pleasing two masters applies here in a big way.
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War and peace on Veterans Day

Walking around the State Capitol building on Veteran’s Day, it occurred to me again how strange its monuments would seem to visitors from another planet.

“Why do you celebrate war so much?” they might ask.

Good question. The Capitol grounds are peppered with statues of warriors toting weapons. Kids play on cannons and machine guns. Its as if conflict is the only path to glory.

But where are the peacemakers? Why are there no statues of Dr. Martin Luther King? Or Mother Teresa? Or the countless home-grown heroes in every town of our great state, quietly doing their part to make a difference in someone’s life? The teacher, police officer, coach, or parent: the one person who gave a kid a glimpse of his or her potential.

Then I remember the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, forever strolling outside of Marbles Kids Museum, and it gives me hope that someday we’ll get it right.

Barack Obama can lost President’s Chair!

Got this spam in the ol’ Inbox today. Its so convincing!

From: “Election News”
To:
Subject: Video: Obama post-resignation speech

McCain Lawyer Impeach Obama!
McCain has reached an agreement with the Obama lawyers that makes Obama
resignation effective November 11.
Barack Obama can lost President’s Chair.
McCain video report 7 November:

Proceed to the election results news page>>

2008 USA Government Official Web Site.

Paper airplanes

The News and Observer has been flying out of downtown newsstands like paper airplanes thanks to the coverage of Tuesday’s Obama win. Out of the elevator this morning stepped an African-American woman clutching six copies. I myself had to grab an extra copy yesterday morning to replace the one Hallie cut up to take to class. That same dispenser was completely empty when I walked by it again at noon. Good thing the N&O printed up 20,000 extra copies.

Yesterday I saw an African-American man walking down Hargett and clutching a freshly-bought paper. On my way home I passed another man who might have walked into traffic he was reading his paper so intensely.

Good to know more people are now engaged. America’s problems didn’t disappear overnight, though. There’s a lot of hard work still to be done.

GSK to only have one US HQ

When I contracted with GSK in the early days of the Bush administration, one of the things I found puzzling was the dual U.S. headquarters GSK maintained: on here in RTP and one in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. It was like a snake with two heads or something.

Well, the N&O says that now RTP will be the only headquarters. Yet there’s this one interesting tidbit:

Spokeswoman Mary Anne Rhyne says that’s meant to eliminate confusion. Rhyne says there are currently no plans to cut jobs or close offices in Philadelphia.

No job cuts? Seriously? KOP will no longer be a headquarters but nothing is really changing? Or will the folks supposedly doing HQ jobs be given new jobs?

Sometimes I just can’t figure GSK out.

Opus comic strip ending

Cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is ending his Opus comic strip after five years. The last strip ran this morning. Breathed says his core readership – the 13 to 30 crowd – no longer reads papers. He also says he doesn’t want to see Opus take on Breathed’s political pessimism.

“Now is the time to get out and leave the sweet little bastard the way people would like to remember him, and how I would like to remember him, before he inevitably gets drawn into my bitterness, which I cannot seem to divorce myself from in cartooning,” Breathed said.
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Brainy Halloween

Kelly’s and my love for teaching kids things obviously shows. Tonight our kids will go trick-or-treating for Halloween. Don’t expect to see them dressed as fairy-tale or cartoon characters, though: Travis is going as an astronaut and Hallie as a geologist!

I’m so proud of them!

North Raleigh bank robbery

Says here that a bank was robbed this morning at 9650 Falls of the Neuse. The getaway vehicle was parked in my old Windsor Forest neighborhood on a street called Grassington Way behind our former home.

Little did the suspect know but at least two Raleigh police officers live on Grassington Way, one on either end. That might be why the robber was arrested an hour after the holdup. It also takes at least 20 minutes to walk from the bank to the car, and that walk is in plain view along busy Durant Road.