Freedom, Entitlement, and Complacency

Now there's a lofty title. Freedom and Entitlement. The american people have the freedom to get a loan. They feel entitled to get as much as they can. They then get as much as they can whether or not it is wise to do so. They then have difficulties paying the payments and default on the loan(s). This has happened to millions of people in this country and it seems to me that then we want the government to clean it up, help us out... because, it wasn't our fault for not being responsible. The money was offered and boy howdy, we took it! YEEEEEEHAAAAWWWW!!!!!

In the current economic crisis, I really don't know who is to blame. I think we are all a part of a majorly messed up whole. We are all to blame. Having the government bale us out is one option. Is it the only option? I honestly do not know. I don't think we have been given a choice.

What I do know is that I am frightened of what is coming. Bale out or not, we are in for a good hard kick in the american ass on this one and we have no one to blame but ourselves. Remember that when you go to vote this November.

About that voting, wouldn't it be nice to have your vote count no matter where you lived? I think the electoral system should be abolished. I would really like my vote to be counted. I live in Utah. Its a RED state. I would say that I am not a republican or a democrat. I am registered as an independent. I don't like either candidate for president. I haven't for the past several elections. Its sad really. What is it going to take for the american people to stand up and say, "The lesser of two evils is no longer good enough! We want someone who is honest, ethical and responsible! Someone we can believe in!" Was it ever like that? Power and greed. The great corrupter of men. I feel so powerless.

Here is an interesting article. http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article3656.html

Food for thought and have a nice day. I have to admit that I am finding it hard to make lemonade out of this and am open for suggestions.

eddie

Here he is! My newest furry freind. His name as the title of this blog says is Eddie. He belongs to my roommates, April and Jason and is a pistol. He likes to watch t.v. and has a habit of barking at some programs. My understanding is that this certain trait did not begin until he watched the Olympics. I wasn't living here then and have to wonder why that event would inspire him to speak.

In the picture he is on my bed and he really didn't want his picture taken. Can you tell by what I think is a very disgruntled look on his face? It's like he is saying, "FINE"


Here he waiting for a treat. I am holding it in the hand that isn't holding the camera.












And here he is playing dead. I said "bang bang" and this is what happens. Funny how dignity goes all to hell when a treat is involved.

some time off

I have this week off at work. Taking the time off was a voluntary choice. It just happened to work out with my budget. Will the choice make me short in the future? Considerably, but temporarily. My rent will be paid, I have food and gas money to get me through. Not participating in a lot of other activities is, well, fine with me. I chose this time to be for me.

Its cliche, but at this time of year, things are getting ready for the long sleep of winter. The Dark Time. Its time for introspection and putting things in order. I have taken a little time off so that I may get myself in order before work turns into the mad rush of x-mas and demanding people. I want to put my world in order so that when I am exhausted I have a place of refuge. I am not just speaking of my physical place either.

This is a time of year where one needs to take stock of those things in one's life. What serves and what doesn't? Can you accept responsibility, or do you need a hand in doing so? Are you willing to pay the coin? Can you move aside your ego and ask for help? Be careful what you wish for... Not and admonishment but a suggestion to help clarify intent.

So, at this time of year, take a moment for yourself to take stock of your life. Take a good look at the things you feel are important to you. Re-evaluate, take stock and chuck the crap that doesn't serve you. Create that vacuum for the universe to abhor. Let things go so more things can come to you.

Happy Mabon!

just because

I think this states how I am feeling in the current political climate. With the choice before us, why not just write this fella in.

Cthulhu is a giant fictional creature, one of the Great Old Ones in H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. It is often cited for the extreme descriptions given of its appearance, size, and the abject terror that it invokes. Cthulhu is often referred to in science fiction and fantasy circles as a tongue-in-cheek shorthand for extreme horror or evil.

That said, how could he be worse than the man in office now? (For those who don't spot sarcasm, that was it. It was also a rhetorical question.)

oh my stars and garters!

Pentagram
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha or pentangle or, more formally, as a star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes. The word pentagram comes from the Greek word πεντάγραμμον (pentagrammon), a noun form of πεντάγραμμος (pentagrammos) or πεντέγραμμος (pentagramos), a word meaning roughly "five-lined" or "five lines".
Pentagrams were used symbolically in ancient Greece and Babylonia. The pentagram has magical associations, and many people who practice Neopagan faiths wear jewelry incorporating the symbol. Christians once more commonly used the pentagram to represent the five wounds of Jesus and it also has associations within Freemasonry. The pentagram has long been associated with the planet Venus, and the worship of the goddess Venus, or her equivalent. It is also associated with the
roman word lucifer, which was a term used for Venus as the Morning Star, associated with the bringer of light and knowledge. It is most likely to have originated from the observations of prehistoric astronomers. When viewed from Earth, successive inferior conjunctions of Venus plot a nearly perfect pentagram shape around the zodiac every eight years. The word "pentacle" is sometimes used synonymously with "pentagram", although their technical usages are different, and their etymologies may be unrelated.


WHEW!

You may have noticed that satan was not mentioned in the above information.

I would like to address this to the woman who called my place of employment and spent 45 minutes going through our catalog with an agent on the phone pointing out how many of our things had stars and that we are all satan worshipers. YOU ARE AN IDIOT and one of the reasons this country is going to hell in a hand basket. For one thing, to spend that much time venting to someone about something so retarded, is... well its just asinine, and the fact that you obviously have no clue as to what you are talking about is obvious. There are no pentacles in our catalog and even if there where (and there aren't) they are not satanic!

Etymology: Satan, (Standard Hebrew, Satan'el), is a term that originates from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally applied to an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and to a jinn in Islamic belief.
While Hebrew ha-Satan is "the accuser" and Satan itself means "to overcome" — the one who challenged the religious faith of humans in the books of Job and Zechariah— Abrahamic religious belief systems other than Judaism relate this term to a demon a rebellious fallen angel, devil, minor god and idol, or as an allegory for knowledge or the enlightenment of mankind.

Soooo, looking at that, I could draw the conclusion that you were being accusatory and that would make your actions *gasp* satanic.

Of course, if I am going to use that logic I could also say that I am being satanic by trying to enlighten you. hmmmm

The fact still remains, there are no pentacles in the catalog and your ignorance is showing.

pagan pride day

Saturday was Pagan Pride Day, here in Salt Lake.( http://saltlakeppd.org/ ) In the past I have vended at this event and had a pretty good time. I am not one for volunteering, or at least I wasn't until recently but this year, I did.
The reason I did is mixed. This year, 3 of my best friends(Tamara, Kayote, and Chrissy) had the job of Local Coordinators. They decided to not have vendors this year but to go with the original mission of The Pagan Pride Project ( www.paganpride.org ) which is to basically be for muggles. It is so that pagans can give information about our beliefs, dispel myths, network and make new friends. So I decided since I couldn't vend, I would give back to the community that has supported my efforts in the past and volunteered to be the Registration Supervisor and I also volunteered to do a drum circle in the afternoon.

It all went swimmingly! We arrived at Murray Park at 8 a.m. for set up with the event starting at 10:00.

This year was going to be different for several reasons. As I stated above it wasn't going to be a free for all carnival where weirdos show up in capes, hats and staffs ready to spend big bucks on pagan trinkets. This was the year we spent money on advertising. We had adds in the Trib, the D-news, In Salt Lake, The City Weekly, Q Salt Lake, The Catalyst and a voice over done by yours truly on KRCL. This year we wanted to get word out to the general public and on Saturday, we had over 370 people show up! I was in charge of getting them signed in! It was something else.

Also as the registration supervisor it was my job to coordinate where we were going to have our donations go this year. I picked the Utah Aids Foundation ( http://www.utahaids.org/ ) and am really happy to report that we collected 412 lbs. of non-perishable food items! I know how much because I was the lucky girl who sat and tallied all the stuff!

Speaking of weirdos, we were all still there, with hats on and smiles all around. People came and stayed. People, lots of people attended workshops and the drumming was amazing. The whole "no vending" thing was an experiment and it went so well. I had a really long day but I am still buzzing about now. I told Tamara that if she needed me, I would do it again next year. WOW! Who'da thunk it?

All and all a really positive experience. I admit I am surprised that I feel the way I feel. Before the event I was planning on just dropping out of sight and not doing anything here in Salt Lake ever again. I am really happy that I had the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. I met so many people I had never seen before and they all wanted to know about paganism and that is GREAT!

Here is a photo link! ENJOY!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfrose/sets/72157607299586081/

please read the fine print

Take 2!

I had this all written up and previewed it and went back to spell check and it erased! So now I will attempt to recreate my brilliance, unlikely as that sounds.

I work in the customer service industry.It pays the bills. I am fortunate (?) enough to have a job answering phones at a small catalog company who's target audience is board, rich women. There are alot of things about these women I might find admirable, unfortunately alot of them have what I call the "I'm Entitled" syndrome. I am not sure how one gets this illness but it seems to run rampant in a good number of our customers.

Here at ******** (name withheld so i don't loose job) we have an amazing returns policy. It basically stated that if you are unsatisfied in anyway with the product you ordered, no matter when, you can exchange it for new one, or return it for a full refund. This leads some people to "renting" our stuff. Buy a new dress for your trip, wear the hell out of it and then return it when you get home for your money back. This bothers me but what bothers me more are the people who buy something and then call to have the shipping refunded. I am sorry but I don't like to refund shipping. Shipping is a service. If we ship something to you and it arrives in one piece in good time whether or not you like it now that you have, you should pay for that. That is how I see it. Now if we made some sort of mistake, I will negotiate but other than that, pay for it. Life is not about wheedling freebies out of people who work for a living!

We are also kind enough to provide a return label will all orders. This label is amazing. You put it on the package, take the package to the post office and drop it in the mail slot. It is ensured, guaranteed and track-able. When we get the package we deduct a small fee of $6.95 from your refund. Its that easy. The instructions I just outlined are that simple and are printed clearly on the paper work. I am now going to give you an example of one of our customers:

me: thank you for calling ********, how can i help you?

cust: i would like to know why i didn't get all my money back on my refund.

me: did you use our return label.

cust: yes

me: there is a small charge for the label ma'am.

cust: *silence* where does it say that?

me: do you still have your receipt of the order?

cust: yes, i do. i am looking at it right now and don't see that anywhere on here.

me: please look on the right hand side above where the items purchased are listed... do you see the instructions for using the label?

cust: OH! yes i see it NOW. well, who is going to read that. not anyone i know. you should send out a letter along with this to inform us about the fee.

At this point I decided that I couldn't argue with that kind of logic. I mean really. wow

There is also the habit customers have of bullying agents into honoring sale prices after the sale has ended. I had a woman call and say she bought a very expensive coat ($750). She had waited a long time to purchase it waiting for it to go on sale but finally got impatient and then bought it. A month later it went on sale for $200 less. Being me, I apologized that that happened but refused to give in. She went on to lament that if she had known, she would've waited because she really couldn't afford it but bought it any way. She went on like this for a couple of minutes and I finally broke down and offered to refund her the difference as a one time courtesy. I thought I was magnanimous and doing a good deed. Well after she hung up, I got into the order to take care of the notes and such and discovered that she has been pulling this for the last 6 months on the same coat. She had been refunded several times by other agents and at this point had only paid $150 for the coat. I felt burned and really pissed off. This is the "Entitlement..." I mentioned. Its wrong wrong WRONG!!!

So, in experiencing all of these things, I have had to reevaluate my position in the customer service venue. We are all a part of this whether we are buyers or sellers. We need to remember that for services rendered there is a cost. For services offered there is an expectation. We are human beings on both sides of the coin and shouldn't take advantage of each other. I have had to check myself while waiting in line at wal-mart or the grocery store from becoming impatient with a checker who is obviously doing her best. It isn't her fault her manager isn't paying attention and hasn't got more checkers to help. Ya, know?

I don't mean to sound preachy. Really.

the first step

Each journey begins with the first step and I am reluctantly starting on this one. As stated, I don't consider myself a writer. This is actually the first time I have bothered to use caps in I can't remember how long.

I don't have any goal other than to maybe put some of myself down and by doing so gain a better understanding of me. There will be time when this blog will contain strong, very course language. For example:
"Profanity is the linguistic crutch of inarticulate mother fuckers" Anonymous

I will do my best to make these minimal but you should know that I do consider myself to be an inarticulate mother fucker, in more ways than one.

So, here is my first step on what I hope will be a good journey. Not always, easy, beautiful and sunny but a good journey all the same.

And Amy, if you look close in the picture, there is a bridge... *snirk*