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Shut up and take my money!

I’m over it,

I’m tired of corporations being political. I’m tired of companies who feel that they’re somehow entitled to attempt to shame any of us into thinking the way they do. Yes, that includes Apple and Microsoft.

All of you have exactly one thing that you need to do. Provide your products or services and shut the hell up about anything else.

You don’t dictate policy, and you deserve what ever punishment you get when you stick your noses outside your area of expertise.

If you want to pull advertising, or make a statement about politics or elections… DON’T.

Either you’re a goods & service provider or you’re not. As a shareholder I’d be seriously pissed off at Kellogg and their executives, not for their opinions per-se, but because they’re stupid enough to remove themselves from the advertising sightline of potential customers.

How moronic can you be?

Conservative money spends just as well as liberal money.

Have you people learned nothing? Trump won because a rather large percentage of people in this country are sick and tired of being told what they’re supposed to think, how they’re supposed to act, and what they’re supposed to feel; by a bunch of ivory tower “Elites” whose sole concerns during the day are if their maid is stealing cleaning supplies, whether to wear Channel or Cartier, or if their driver is smoking in the limo.

Get a clue.

The larger majority of Americans are concerned with feeding themselves, and paying the bills.

Which does open an interesting possibility…

If the demand for Kellogg cereals drops, does it follow that the company will be forced to lower their prices? Isn’t that one of the market factors that control prices?

I don’t as a rule eat cereal so that’s a non-issue for me personally. But I can’t see myself purchasing products from companies that don’t know their place.

That’s the bottom line, isn’t it? I don’t have to actively protest or boycott anything. I can simply choose to make my own coffee, cook my own taco, breakfast, or burger, I can hold on to machines and other durable goods for a few more years and in the process save money.

So to corporate America, keep your opinions to yourselves and take my money.

To Kellogg… I’ll expect deep discounts in the coming months and an apology would be nice too. $6 for a box of cereal? Really?

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Probably Unwise…

Apple was running a Black Friday sale.

On the plus side of the page, my Christmas shopping is done. On the negative side of the page my Christmas shopping is done.

My iPad and the other half’s iPad were both getting long in the tooth. For example some of the applications that I use on my iPad were no longer updatable.

The other half was in even worse shape. That iPad wasn’t holding it’s charge very well and was prone to arbitrary resets and hangs.

Enter Apple’s Black Friday… $100 gift cards with the purchase of new iPads. Uh Oh.

Well the $100 does offset the cost of Applecare.

The short story is that there are now two new iPad Pros in the household. The other half’s is the 12.9” unit and mine is the 9.7” The other half is already using the thing as a Gig book and to some extent a replacement for the Macbook Pro.

Both have keyboards, pencils, max memory, and cellular connections.

Sigh… Now the trick is to pay them off.

I must say that these machines are pretty amazing. I could easily see having only the iPad if all you needed to do was web surfing, email, and a bit of writing. Office 365 runs very well on them and that gives you direct access to documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

The latest versions of applications let you access the cloud storage of your choice, (icloud, onedrive, dropbox, and I think even google docs) so you could do most if not all the routine business tasks with just the iPad.

I think I’ll stick to developing using my Macbook Air.

Why you might ask didn’t I just update to the latest and greatest Macbook Pro? Well, the cost vs the power differential just didn’t add up. My Macbook Air is still fast and efficient. When you’re talking GHz processing speeds .5 GHz isn’t really all that significant unless you’re talking about audio / video processing. The new touch bar would be nice but having it or not isn’t a deal breaker for me.

So, rather than updating my Air, I chose to update my 4 year old ipad.

Perhaps, you can even expect to see more blog posts, since having an iPad out at work isn’t nearly as “Odd” as having my personal computer running on my desk.

The first thing I used my new iPad for was polishing my resume a bit. Yes, I’m looking for a new job and I’m hoping to find something in the next couple of months.

If all goes well, I may actually be able to return to my field and the pay that comes with it.

In any case, I hope that you’re enjoying the holiday season and avoiding the stress that so often comes with shopping. I’m looking forward to the annual shopping trip with a friend even If I don’t buy anything.

 

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OH Shut the hell up!

I wake up, get coffee, wake up the computer, sit down…

The very first thing I see as I’m firing up my browser to check which bills need to be paid is an AP headline article. 

Trump family dinner raises issues on press access

You have got to be freaking kidding me!

Other articles report it like, Trump leaves his Dark Tower.

Sauron 2

Really? So you’re using a literary allusion implying that President Elect Trump is Sauron from the Tolkien classics.  Oh For pete’s sake.

The man hasn’t taken his oath of office, he’s the President Elect, not the President yet. 

And let’s face it Journalists, you haven’t done anything to endear yourselves to the President Elect. Is it really all that surprising that he’d like to have a dinner with his family away from your scrutiny?

After all how many poison pens have you emptied on how many thousands of reams of paper trying to tear the man and his family down.

God knows, I wouldn’t want to have my food turn to ash on my tongue (obscure literary allusion) because some reporter saw me not using a salad fork.

I can see that headline.

Can wwducat be trusted at state dinners, he doesn’t know which fork to use!

 Look Journalists…

You’ve betrayed the public trust. You’ve been caught time and again displaying incredible bias over the past eight years. That is your responsibility, you have no-one to blame but yourselves. So it’s time for you to own it.

Decide if you want to continue to be yellow journalists or if you want to move back toward being the folks the nation looks to for truth.

Mordor

I’m sorry, but it’s going to take consistent unbiased fact checking, for years, to regain the people’s trust. The mistakes and excesses of  the past will be visited upon newly minted journalists, today and well into the future.

Stop looking for the fluff pieces. WHO the hell cares if Trump goes to dinner with his family away from prying eyes? Why does that matter?

If you must report on the President Elect; report on his cabinet postings, his advisors, his plans for uniting the country, improving the economy, and all the other major issues we face.

You might begin by being polite and checking your privilege. It probably wouldn’t hurt if you quit your whinging about being shunned as well. 

We don’t need moment by moment coverage of the President Elect’s flatulence.

We need you to understand that the duty of your profession is to provide information.

That information, should consist of simply the facts of a situation with as little personal opinion or bias as possible.

You’re rather tough job is to report what you see and what you’ve discovered via investigation, not hearsay. Then you must leave it to the people to decide what they want to do with the information. It’s a tough job, and often thankless, but it’s a vital job to ensure the freedoms we enjoy in this country.

Recently, you’ve gone wrong; a bit off the rails… Fortunately, Americans are generally forgiving and it’s not too late to regain the respect that you one enjoyed.

If you want to express your opinions write Op-Ed pieces. Otherwise keep your opinions to yourselves and report the facts.

Just my opinion…

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I’ll be danged

Finally found a decent car wash in Escondido. 

Nice to head up to the mountains and have a clean car… at least at the beginning of the weekend. 

It will be a busy couple of days. Stuff to fix chores to do and then back to work. 

Hopefully next week will be better than the last one. 

Time will. I doubt tell. 

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Correct me if I’m wrong…

MoveOn.org has been arranging protests over the election results.

Americans to Come Together in Hundreds Peaceful Gatherings of Solidarity, Resistance, and Resolve Following Election Results

Hundreds of Americans, dozens of organizations to gather peacefully outside the White House and in cities and towns nationwide to take a continued stand against misogyny, racism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia.

Tonight, thousands of Americans will come together at hundreds of peaceful gatherings in cities and towns across the nation, including outside the White House, following the results of Tuesday’s presidential election.

The gatherings – organized by MoveOn.organd allies – will affirm a continued rejection of Donald Trump’s bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and misogyny and demonstrate our resolve to fight together for the America we still believe is possible.

Within two hours of the call-to-action, MoveOn members had created more than 200 gatherings nationwide, with the number continuing to grow on Wednesday afternoon.

WHAT: Hundreds of peaceful gatherings of solidarity, resistance, and resolve nationwide

WHEN / WHERE: Find local gatherings here. Major gatherings include in New York City’s Columbus Circle and outside the White House in Washington, DC.

RSVP: Please email press@moveon.org to confirm attendance.

“This is a disaster. We fought our hearts out to avert this reality. But now it’s here,” MoveOn.org staff wrote to members on Wednesday. “The new president-elect and many of his most prominent supporters have targeted, demeaned, and threatened millions of us—and millions of our friends, family, and loved ones. Both chambers of Congress remain in Republican hands. We are entering an era of profound and unprecedented challenge, a time of danger for our communities and our country. In this moment, we have to take care of ourselves, our families, and our friends—especially those of us who are on the front lines facing hate, including Latinos, women, immigrants, refugees, Black people, Muslims, LGBT Americans, and so many others. And we need to make it clear that we will continue to stand together.”

WHAT?!?!!?

Isn’t this the same organization that fairly shouted down any and all opposition by disenfranchised voters when President Obama was elected?

Weren’t they the ones who said it’s a done deal, shut up, and get over it?

Didn’t they unfairly label anyone with a dissenting view of President Obama’s policies as racists?

I do find a number of the causes listed on the MoveOn website to be worthy causes. That being said, I can’t get over the irony of the organization organizing protests similar to the ones they railed against just 8 years ago.

Humm,

MoveOn, perhaps it’s time for you to take the lead in unifying this fractured nation. Instead of fomenting fear, alienation, and anger over something that is fait accompli, start meeting with the President Elect and hammer out a workable plan. 

Alternatively, maybe it’s time for you to… Well MOVE ON.