Happy Thanksgiving

I have to work this Thanksgiving so I want to wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope your family gatherings are more enjoyable than the turkeys.

The Death of Thanksgiving

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I enjoy Thanksgiving. It is a time to remember those who came to this continent and survived their first winter. Over the years that event has evolved to morning parades followed by football games while fighting over the last bread roll with relatives you see once a year. The joy of getting paid not to work. But all that has now changed. And the culprit’s responsible for this are everywhere.

Being in my mid 40’s I have seen a great deal of lifestyle changes over the years. The one that went to a quick death was having Sunday off. It used to be that grocery store and other types of businesses were closed on Sunday. That changed as a few grocery stores started opening up after Sunday service. It didn’t take long for other stores to join in to eventually every form of business turned Sunday into another work day. The culprits responsible for this enjoyed it with glee.

Soon other holidays began to change as well because of these people. Easter was the last holiday where all stores were closed. People went to church, had cook outs and spent time with their family. Now it’s just another work day. There used to be other holidays that kids had a day off from school and paid holidays for the working people. But all that changed. Holidays merged together. Labor Day is now a regular work day as others were downgraded in importance to a simple memo on a calendar.

Now with Christmas being the last major holiday where individuals and families are truly home together to celebrate this day as Thanksgiving has fallen into the category of just another work day. Grocery stores are opened to nearly 6 PM. Even some department stores are doing the same thing. And if grocery stores and department stores are opened means that vendors have to work to service those stores.

And on this 2012 Thanksgiving many of those department stores like Target and Wal-Mart are ether staying open all day or opening up at 6 PM Thanksgiving Evening. Many grumblings have gone out with threats of a strike from Wal-Mart employees as Target employees are not that far behind. Employees basically have an early Thanksgiving dinner with their families, if possible, then try to get some sleep as they will be required to work all through the night and into the next day.

It should be noted that several years ago a grocery store chain called Winn-Dixie had the idea of staying open on Christmas day. They did very little to no business that day as that publicity stunt cost the company plenty. Public reaction was swift and by the following year the grocery store company closed down all their stores with the exception of a few in Florida.  

The ones responsible for grocery and department stores staying open this Thanksgiving Day, for turning Easter and Labor Day into another work day, the ones who convinced store owners to open up business on Sunday are the same people who stand in front of stores complaining about having to wait to get in. The customers.

These people want everything at their disposal. They were given stores and restaurants that stay open 24 hours. They turned Easter into a day of special shopping deals as kids dye eggs and eat chocolate rabbits. Christians can be found walking the malls and department stores as this holiday gets watered down more and more each year.

Grocery and department stores have bent over backwards for these people. And now as another holiday is going down in flames these stores continue in giving what the customers want. These same customers, who some of them are vendors; now have to adjust to working on another holiday, as others people are finding out that their place of employment is staying open for the holiday.

So as grocery stores are closing up Thanksgiving evening, look at the people inside the stores or banging on the doors to get in five minutes after the store closes. These are the ones who are making everybody else go to work. Their wanting has been given to them at the cost of our holiday.

Driving Mystery

The Bermuda Triangle, The Mystery Spot in Northern California, Stonehenge, underwater pyramids off the coast of Okinawa and seashells on the back of women’s toilets; these are just a few mysteries found around the world. And today there is another mystery to add to the book of life. A section of highway 64 between Raleigh and Wendell, North Carolina has been ground zero to a driving mystery since that section of road was completed a few years ago.

A 70 MPH speed zone between Raleigh, NC to the Outer Banks but those driving on this 10 mile stretch of road have been hypnotized into driving in the middle lane at less than the posted speed limit. The fastest lane to be in to pass this long line of cars has become the right lane. Even though the far left lane has long been considered the fast lane for cars, in this lane they tend to travel just a few miles faster than those in the middle lane.

During the morning and evening rush hour traffic the long line of cars gives off the eerie feeling of a funeral procession. Although no major accidents have happened yet, the police do setup patrol cars at different points of this stretch of highway. Do to the growing fact that cars traveling in the far right line will drive almost instinctively at considerable higher speeds of nearly 80 MPH and more or as people in this area would call it cruising speed.

Be sure to check out this section of road when travelling through North Carolina. Before you know it, you too may join the others hypnotized into the middle lane as cars on both sides of you travel at posted speed limits. 

The Shining Kohl's

Just last night as I was watching TV I noticed that the twins from the movie ‘The Shining’ were now doing commercials for Kohl’s department store.

Rising Gas Prices After Election

As with all political elections, the compensation for all of the presidential elections is the lower gas prices we are “rewarded” for putting up with phone calls, TV and radio ads as well as pop-up ads on the internet that convinces us to vote for the candidate who least annoys us.  

No exception this year and just as soon as the election was finished the gas prices began to climb back up again. Living here in North Carolina I can only imagine how high these prices could get although I do know from a dear friend in California that they are currently paying over $4 a gallon. 

Wreck-It Ralph personnel review

Well after weeks of being bugged to death to take the family to see this movie, I finally said yes to my wife. It didn’t take much to convince our two boys to want to go as I myself was looking forward to seeing a few old game characters I grew up playing. And I must say, after almost spending nearly $70 on tickets and food, it was well worth it.

The main deciding point for me was that John Lasseter, the man who gave the world Toy Story, was the executive producer of this movie. And I could definitely see the PIXAR magic sprinkled throughout this wonderful feature film. The first clue was that with this being a Disney animated movie, the Broadway tunes were left out. Remember the Mulan musical number “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”. A Disney anime movie with a high death count as everyone is running around doing a musical production number.

The second one was a very believable story line that wasn't dumb-down too much. Disney movies were getting to the point to where you could predict what was going to happened next. A few low jokes sprinkled throughout the movie to kill the boredom but predictable no less. This movie though was somewhat predictable with a few low jokes. Mostly the 'duty' jokes which I do admit were funny. But the predictability of this movie was similar to Japanese anime movies in that life is not a fairy tale movie with happy endings. People do die, get hurt or are and remained scarred for life.

One of the closing songs was a song called Sugar Rush by a Japanese group called AKB48. 48 girls ages 13 and up who are right now very popular in Japan and other parts of the world to Otaku fans and pedophiles. Many of these girls after graduation from this group simply disappear or they find their way into the adult entertainment business in one form or another. The song was great to listen to but as I am in my mid 40’s, I do not wish to be associated with the types of fans that follow these young teenage girls.

This movie is worth seeing. The story development between Fix-It Felix Jr. and Sergent Tamora Jean Calhoun is very entertaining, especially the Nesquiksand scene. The bug infestation scene near the end of the movie was a bit scary for one little girl I saw and heard in the movie theater but she quickly got over it by the end of that scene. The movie did end with a Disney style happy ending but not without the sense that one day their game might be unplugged. 

Namie Amuro - Damage preview w/ lyrics

Damage

lyrics & music: Nao’ymt

note: (not an official translated version)

have you ever doubted your destiny

tell me who’s last standing, is it you or me?

have you ever seen the place that never sleeps

and the god who became a human being

lights flicker across the darkness

and a faint, strange smell is in the air

every day I come alive at night to win the game

this may be the labyrinth with the keys I need

and the clock’s ticking

I, I, I’m going insane

don’t, don’t, don’t put me in chains

I won’t control my brain

‘cause

I finally got

nothing left to cling

break out of my shell

no hesitating

I can’t stay here anymore

break out of my shell

nobody actually

wants to be alone

being negative

time and time again

how will that

change

anything?

how long am I

gonna float above

this backward world?

let me fall down, down, down

somebody save my life

down, down, down

I can’t heal this damage

the discomfort index is makin’ me sweat, heat’s rising

overwrought, I react to their aggressive attacks

killing my ears with noise

shut your mouths all you mosquitoes!

jus’ do your thing

I, I, I fear nothing

fly, fly, fly higher than me?

no one makes my life for me

I don’t

wanna take

anymore steps back

break out of my shell

no hesitating

I can’t stay here anymore

break out of my shell

nobody actually

wants to be alone

being negative

time and time again

how will that

change

anything?

how long am I

gonna float above

this backward world?

let me fall down, down, down

somebody save my life

down, down, down

I can’t heal this damage

I looked up

through the cracks

of the rubble

from my past

the red sun

used to shine

a little more light

on my future than it does now

never again will I

call forth worry

and I will rewrite

all the bad memories

without hiding away

the last of my liberty

cause I have enough pain

break out of my shell

no hesitating

I can’t stay here anymore

break out of my shell

nobody actually

wants to be alone

being negative

time and time again

how will that

change

anything?

how long am I

gonna float above

this backward world?

let me fall down, down, down

somebody save my life

down, down, down

I can’t heal this damage