This is a test...

Of the emergency broadcast system. Had there been a real emergency, you would have been instructed to kiss your sweet @$$ good-bye!

--
Tim Thompson
streetmonk@gmail.com

Legends

I am a closeted artist. I derive a lot of pleasure from creating things and experiencing the things others create. On a lot of levels. Music, check. Paintings, check. Literature, check. Web pages, check? Advertisement campaigns, check?!? DojoToolKit, check..... Actually, check!

So what is it that I love about it? I dunno. My brother introduced me to it yesterday, and as soon as I got home, I booted my laptop and went to their site to noodle around. Now, I do virtually no web programming myself. I use .php, coldFusion, Ajax, etc, to their full extent. I find things I like and install them. I probably drive my brother nuts with requests to upgrade my site or drop another .php thing in my directory. (Side benefit with a genius ColdFusion developer for a brother, server space. Take note and spread the word.) The only reason this blog is here instead of my own space is that I am a bit shy to ask for another addition, since he just put a wiki up for me not so long ago.

So what is legendary? In music I have a few opinions:

• Led Zeppelin
• Pink Floyd
• Rush
• Dave Mathews Band

Art:

• Michelangelo
• Picasso
• Vermeer

Literature:

• Shakespeare
• Heinlein
• Jordan?
• Anthony?

So what will be the legends of the web-page and information exchange art? Google? Amazon? Will DojoToolKit make the grade. It's been interesting to watch the increasing encroachment of the internet into our lives. I remember writing pages when basically everything was client side, javascript was king, and frames were the neatest thing. Now Dojo is making all that look really sick. The implementation is so simple. Drop it in your directory and fire away. There wil lbe the usual learning curve, but imagine what this inspires....

Bitterness

Recently my supervisor left for greener pastures. Due to my lack of sheepskin, I was not able to be considered for the position. However, it was decided that I would be good enough to fill in until they found a replacement. Win-win situation. I get some experience that will prove useful to my career, they get to sleep at night, not worrying about what is falling apart in Food & Nutrition.

Everything seems great, until the person in the position lateral to me is notified. Never has she shown any interest in moving up, putting in extra time, or anything else beyond her 8 hours a day. But now this is suddenly an issue. I am guilty of "playing the game" with the old pros from the hill. Those that know me can attest to the fact that I do not play the game and am usually far too honest for my own good. So.... When she works up the nerve to ask me about my arrangement I am honest about it. Seems that thing to do. Well, I am mostly honest about it. I informed her that I was being compensated as a 12-month employee now. I didn't inform her that they agreed to pay me straight time for any extra time I put in, a benefit I have thus far not used. Why haven't I? I'm not sure. I have several theories on the subject. Mostly I think that one of the cruxes of my not doing it, is that I felt that since she was so blind-sided, that I would flex my time, so the position would not have any serious financial impacts for me.

Why? Still not sure. Money was the largest motivating factor behind her objections. So maybe that's why. Maybe I'm hard-headed and I'm letting them take advantage of me a bit in the hope that they won't fill the position. Wishful thinking.

So, I am constantly in a mental sparring match with her, trying to get things done with out upsetting her apple cart. She is very bitter about the whole situation. I guess that's what this post is about. I don't understand why people let things get to them. There is no advantage behind her ill-feelings, but she persists in acting negatively. Now it is bleeding over into how she does her job (such that she does). Every little thing is suddenly the world getting by on her. She feels black-balled, maybe rightly so. I think she pitched a little too much of a fit about the whole situation and it has come back on her.

Instinct dictates that one do what gives onelself the most advantage. At least from our own perspective. Certainly she thought she had something to gain by making a scene. And somehow believes that her continued antics will bring her some advantage. I just have never observed bitterness ever working to someones benefit. Maybe I'm naive.

Discuss....

The Cost of Organics

I want to eat healthy, I really do. I am rather large, and my work/school/family schedule allows for precious few moments to exercise. So I figure, maybe I can eat better. Less processed foods, more fresh foods. So then I look around. At the grocery.

Have you seen the prices? Is it really that difficult to grow healthy food versus unhealthy food, or is demand in this country so low?

It really makes me think hard about what is actually going into that fast-food burger, or that frozen dinner. Certainly buying in bulk doesn't give them deviated pricing to the point that my $.033 burrito has ingredients resembling anything from nature in it. I wonder if the European countries are going through this.

I am in the food service business, and I like to think that someone, somewhere has the advantage of using ingredients that were grown on a small farm, ripened on the vine, and picked shortly before going to market. Certainly in Europe, the foundation of most things culinary.

I used to think it would be great to open a restaurant in an area where I could go to the farmer's market daily to get inspired for the days' menu. Now I think I would go broke between the petrol bill to get there everyday and the gouging at the market. Maybe I'm a romantic about food, but I think there has to be a better way.

I heard on the radio yesterday that 9,000 farms closed for business in the U.S. last year. Two-thousand of them were in Florida. Less and less oranges grown in what has developed to be a tourist paradise. I live in Florida, but I drink orange juice mostly from California, and I eat their oranges also. There's got to be something wrong with that picture. It is more cost effective to ship produce from California than it is to grow it here? Something's definitely going on, and it's bigger than I think... I think....

Discuss....

So, Who Cares?

Noone, really. That's not the point. The point is to get yourself out there. So here I am. The StreetMonk. Phatz. Rip ( of Rip, Tear, and Torn).

What do I do?

• Father of two, husband of one.
• Food & Nutrition Management for a School Board
• Part-time grfc designer
• Hobby home-imporover
• Member of the best gaming group ever
• Ex-member for the best unsigned band you've never heard of.... maybe...

So that's where all of my various remarks will be emanating from, you were warned.