Mmmm...capitalism.

The new earth friendly pigs can now produce excrement without damaging the environment! Yaaay, we’re all saved by science!

…Since when the F@#$ have animals craping been BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT!!

p.s.  as you might have guessed, in reality, the only environment being damaged are the confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which is a creepy story unto itself. 

It seems to me like another finger in the dam of profit-streamlining living things AKA our food supply.

This has been an angry moment with-
Joe
________________________________________________________

~pp

From "We Blog Cartoons"

Alright, I admit it.  I have iPad envy… and its not because my iPhone is small.  Well, maybe it is.  Anyway, I was out the other night chilling with the family having some sushi and the table next to me of college kids had a new iPad and were showing it off.  And damn!  It is as cool as it looks on TV.  I haven’t actually had the chance to hold one and play with it but it does look seriously cool.

One thing that can go away is the constant media attention to it.  I can’t turn on the TV or radio without someone talking about iPad this or iPad that.  Its everywhere! Which is probably why they have sold 500k of them already.

Does everyone who writes and article or has a blog feel compelled to write about the thing?  Oh wait.  Anyway, I don’t think I will be able to get a P.O. from the wife to get one anytime soon so I will have to learn to live with envy.

And my iPhone is not small.

Brian Masterson?

Some think it’s all fun and games when traveling for business.  Movies are made about it (Up in the Air, Airplane, the list goes on), books are written about it, and hundreds of stories are told at businesses all over the world. Different cities, different countries, new faces, new adventures.  To be fair, I have traveled more than my share in my short time of business travel, and have visited hundreds of cities and towns around the world. I have visited friends halfway around the world, eaten interesting cuisine, seen some amazing things, and had my share of fun. Someday, I hope my children can experience the same things I have been able to experience.

There is another side of business travel that most either do not know about, or care to think about.  The DARK SIDE of business travel.  From sitting next to and meaninglessly chatting with the nameless (and sometimes smelly) faces on airplanes, to eating dinner on your own (again), getting lost because the GPS you rented is not working, driving through snow/ice, it’s not always glamorous as some folks think it is.  Think about it in these terms – for a normal week long business trip, it takes about 6-8 hrs of preparation –  setting up appointments, booking flights, finding hotels close to the meetings, booking car rentals, figuring out directions to each appointment.  The list goes on.  And this is PRIOR to you even leaving.

So the night before, you pack up, confirm your itinerary, send it to loved ones, recheck it, go to bed.  Next morning, you wake early and head off to the airport.  There of course, you encounter long lines, crying babies, tons of people that are not “frequent travelers” and confused on where they should be, go, do.  Wait in line for your ticket, wait in line to get through security, get patted down because you look like you might be bad news, wait in line to get some food for the plane (because we all know how good(not) and cheap (NOT) the food can be on planes).  Then of course, you get to wait in line to get onto the plane.  Just too much fun.

So you get there, rent your car, take your train, get picked up, whatever your means of transportation may be for this leg of the trip.  Head to the hotel, first meeting, and so on and so forth.  This of course assumes the airline has not lost your luggage. This goes on for days and in some cases a couple of weeks.  No sleep in the hotel, wake up early to construction; eat a crappy FREE meal at the hotel, and the days starts again.  Honestly, there have been trips where I literally forgot not only what room number I was in, but what HOTEL I was staying at.  At the end of the day you eat alone or sit at a bar and talk with some stranger that is in the same situation as you.  Small talk, blah blah blah.  Gets old, you know?

As I mentioned initially, frequent travelers may say they have their share of fun on the road.  However, each trip is not just a joy ride.  Live one day in another man’s shoes, they say, and you will truly have your eyes opened to a whole new world.

It’s what we do, and we love it.

Here's to you MTV!

Well, its official.  MTV has announced their focus on Millennials, casting aside Generation X… the generation that made MTV.  Sad news indeed.  I’d like to give a big FU to MTV.  Not just for this recent admission, but for the crap they have been broadcasting for the past 20 years.  There was a time when MTV was about music television.  It was certainly a revolutionary, but simple, concept that changed music forever.  Play popular music but with supporting video.  It changed everything.  No longer were we sitting by the radio listening to music while doing something else.  Now we were completely focused on the music as a total sensory experience.  And when I say focused, I mean sitting like a zombie starring at the TV, one music video after another… completely enthralled.  It was a perfect formula and our generation shaped it.

Then something along the way happened.  Something terrible.  MTV changed focus from what made them great, music television, to a soap opera channel.  I blame the Real World and it was all down hill from there, recently culminating with Jersey Shore.  While this metamorphosis was occurring, MTV did still try to retain the Generation X market via MTV2.  This worked for a while but ultimately failed.  I want my MTV!

As I mentioned, we shaped MTV, but in a way it shaped us as well.  It changed how we absorbed music and how we responded to it on a social level.  Do you remember going into school on Monday after seeing the latest and greatest new MTV Video over the weekend???  MTV Network President Van Toffler said “Millennials are really about authentic reality and family” and that MTV “played up the camaraderie and famliy elements on Jersey Shore to appeal to them”.  What???  Has he seen Jersey Shore???  If this is any reflection on what Millennials are about, or if they are at all being shaped by MTV’s content… God help us all.

Certainly on some level I can understand MTV now focusing on Millennials.   They spend the most time in front of the television and apparently care far less about music than our generation had.  I wonder though, would Gen-Xers spend some of our prime time viewing hours watching MTV if there were still something that appealed to us?  Its hard to say because, despite their recent admission, MTV cast us aside many years ago.  So, again MTV… FU.  How’s that for cynical?

~cg

Between making less overall than our parents did (accounting for inflation etc), the housing market just plain sucks, Baby Boomers taking forever to retire and eating up social security and basically sucking the life out of the economy, and don’t forget the cost of health care; Maria points out we are pretty much SOL.  And lets not forget about the melting polar ice caps, but that’s for another bitch session.

Maybe it is time to just roll over and accept the fact that we are screwed on so many levels?  Never!  If Generation X knows anything, its that we can expect the worst and there isn’t much we can do about any of it.  But don’t give up hope, somehow we always persevere.  ~cg

What I especially like is the point Kelly makes about the number of Baby Boomer employees in the workforce today who are planning on retiring in the next 10 years, but the number of Gen-X employee which will back-fill them is fewer than the number retiring.  Now, this is no panacea but its at least a glimmer of hope.  One point Kelly does miss is the fact that many Boomer employees are working further into their 60′s than their parents generation, which certainly doesn’t help the Gen-X workers waiting for promotions.

Well, I could stand a little more appreciation at work – even if it is only through attrition.  ~cg

P.S.  I just ran across this blog on Roberts Virtual Soap Box called Why we (non-boomers) hate our jobs.  You should definitely check it out.  And while you are there check out his list of people he would like to see die in 2010 in his Top 10 Wingnuts Whose Deaths I’d Celebrate, 2010 Edition.  He has Glenn Beck as #1 and I couldn’t agree more!