Several years ago, I was working full time while attending college full time and pastoring a small country church. I also had 2 school aged children at the time. Needless to say, my life was very busy. Production was picking up at work and they instituted a voluntary overtime schedule. Since it was voluntary, I chose to not work it.

My supervisor approached me one day and said they needed me to work overtime.

I said I thought it was voluntary.

He said it is.

I told him I didn’t want to work it.

He said but I need you to work it and set an example for the less senior people.

I told him, I’d set the example by getting my work done in 40 hours.

But I need you to work overtime.

Then it isn’t voluntary.

Yes it’s voluntary.

Has anything been late shipping because I haven’t worked any overtime.

No.

Then I choose not to work it.

This went back and forth several times. Then it happened on several different days. Same result I refused to work the VOLUNTARY overtime.

Since the supervisor wasn’t getting anywhere with me, he had the plant manager talk to me. Basically, the same conversation, just a different day and a different boss. Finally they said if I didn’t work the voluntary overtime, I would be written up.

I called their bluff and submitted my 2 weeks notice. I stated that I didn’t think that was the best for myself or the company, but I had too much going on in my life to work the voluntary overtime. I submitted a written copy to my supervisor, the plant manager, HR, and the company president.

When I hadn’t heard anything back in over a week, but before the 2 weeks were up, I asked my supervisor about it. He simply said, “Oh, you don’t have to work the overtime.”

Hmm.

I ended up working for that company for over 20 years after that. Actually, staying there longer than my supervisor, the plant manager, or even the CEO/president.

Chili Garlic Stuffed Peppers

This recipe is sure to be a crowd pleaser! It’s packed-full of delicious flavor from Johnsonville® Sausage.

Ingredients

• 1 (16 ounce) package Johnsonville® All Natural Fresh Italian Mild Ground Sausage
• 5 red, green or yellow bell peppers
• 1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 1/2 cups garlic & herb marinara sauce
• 1 2/3 cups shredded Italian blend cheese, divided
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. In a skillet, cook and crumble ground sausage over medium heat until browned and fully cooked; about 7-10 minutes.
3. Add the spinach, marinara sauce, 1 cup cheese, garlic and crushed red pepper.
4. Cut top off each pepper; scoop out pulp and seeds.
5. Place peppers on a microwave safe plate; cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender.
6. Fill peppers with sausage mixture; place peppers in a greased baking dish.
7. Sprinkle with remaining cheese; bake for 20 minutes or until completely heated.

Notes

For a fun appetizer, use mini sweet bell peppers instead of large peppers and omit microwave heating step. Place mini stuffed peppers upright in muffin cups while baking.

I was at a mutual friends house when my ex bf showed up asking to speak with me. My friend told him I didn’t want to talk to him at the moment then he closed his door. All of a sudden all you could hear was something hitting the windows, followed by the sound of glass shattering. Over and over all you could hear was the sound of windows being busted out.

My friend yelled, “Get down he is shooting!” I was thinking their is no way, surely he is just throwing a brick or something. After the ninth window I told my friend I’m going to go get help. I didn’t have a cell phone at the time because my ex had broken it earlier in the week and intercepted the new one when it came in the mail.

My parents lived two blocks away. I grabbed my dog and started running towards my parents house. I heard another gunshot. I didn’t know if he was shooting at me, or if he had turned the gun on himself. I ran in my parents house crying hysterically and called 911. The police came right away and arrested him. My ex threw the gun in the sewer so the police never caught him with it.

My friends landlord was so mad about his windows. He asked my friend what type of company was he keeping. The police put a restraining order on my ex after he broke out the window to my car (with me in it), and the window to my house.

I don’t know when I first realized that my childhood wasn’t normal but I do remember some of the specific realizations I had.

I was very neglected and realized at a very young age that if anyone was going to take care of me and make sure I had food, I had to take care of myself. I jokingly say that television raised me because television spent more time with me than either of my parents ever did.

There was no alcohol or drugs in my home so I didn’t have that problem but my parents were very religious and controlling. I was only allowed to wear green dress shirts. I was never allowed to wear red, blue, or t-shirts. Somehow though, I managed to always forget to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day. I never wore what any of the other kids wore. I was always the outsider, the freak, the shunned one.

I think the reason my dad ignored me was because I was a disappointment to him. I wasn’t born a strapping young holy man. My dad often did buy toys but he bought them for himself and he played with the toys until he broke the toys and then he gave the toys to me. I don’t think I ever had a toy that wasn’t already broken before I got it.

But even though my parents tried to turn me into a righteous, holy man, I found my dad’s secret porn stash. Hypocrisy anyone?

And if you think my parents were bad, just wait till you learn about my crazy grandfather who believed that God had told him to sleep with many women and children in order to spread his holy seed.

People told me they admired how I never conformed to peer pressure. How I wish I was able to conform to peer pressure. How I wish I would have been allowed to wear red t-shirts.

One day, when I was in the seventh grade, I missed the bus. My family only had one car, which my father drove to work. For this reason, my mother made me walk to school. It was springtime and the weather was pleasant.

I walked to school (and it was not in 10 feet of snow both ways, nor was I barefoot). By the time I got there and signed in as tardy in the principal’s office, I had missed two classes. I was told to sit and wait for the bell and join my next class…so I waited.

The bell rang and I dashed off to my next class.

The next day my first two teachers both asked for a note for being absent. I explained that I had missed the bus and had to walk to school. That was end the of the discussion.

A lightbulb went off in my head.

• The school did not call my mom. Even if they had, she knew I was on my way there.
• My teachers had no idea that I was late and not absent.
• The office did not contact my teachers when I was not in class, nor did they inform the teachers in my later classes.

So, the next chance I got (weather allowing) I purposefully missed the bus and walked to school. I then signed in as tardy in the principal’s office. Then when the next bell rang, I walked out the side door.

I was free.

It was a warm day. I went to the town park, where I found an envelope that simply said “Paperboy”. In it was $6.00 in cash.

I was rich.

I went to the local news shop and bought a National Lampoon magazine, a sandwich, and a soda (those were the days). I went back to the park and enjoyed the rest of the day. As I read my new magazine, I decided that tomorrow I would bring my boom box.

“When I was 20, I worked in a nursing home. I befriended a man who talked about WW2 and how he’d lost so many guys in his company. One day, he had a stroke. When he returned from the hospital, he couldn’t remember anyone but me and told me he wasn’t doing good. He knew his time was coming to a close. He said it was time to pay for all the horrible things he’d done in Europe. He wasn’t religious but asked me where I thought he was going. I said to bed because it’s lights out. He said, ‘No, Jodie, my name’s Mike, ‘I mean up or down.’ I’m not a religious person, but I said, ‘That’s not for me to say.’ He laughed and said, ‘I know where I’m going. There’s only one place for people who have done what I’ve done…I’ve killed so many people, Jodie. Most of the time, it didn’t matter who it was. We went into buildings just shooting. There’s only one place for me. It’s what I deserve.'” “I worked there as a dietary aide, and it was a pretty nice nursing home. He and I’d become pretty good friends, too. I had absolutely nothing to respond with when he’d said that. He passed away the next day.

When I say that experience shook me to the core, I really mean it. I quit that day. That man’s face is burned into memory because of that conversation. His son said he kept asking where Jodie was at. Working in a nursing home is a haunting place. It takes a special type of person to be able to watch people just die around you.”

I live in Dunedin, New Zealand – it’s a small-to-medium sized University city. At the time of this story, the city’s population was around 120,000 and the University had around 7,000 students, many of them living in the 1000 or so student flats which dot the city.

I was visiting a friend in a town about 100 miles north of Dunedin – Oamaru. While I was there, my friend introduced me to a couple of her friends, Chris and Natalie, and we started chatting about various things. Eventually the subject turned to music, and I mentioned the band I was in. Among the things I mentioned was that we’d had our first gig the year before at a party in a student flat that was unusual because someone had put an old public telephone box on the upstairs balcony.

Chris said “Was it in Park Street? I used to flat there when I was at uni.” Chris had flatted, three years earlier, in the flat where my band had its first gig.

The Natalie chimed in – “My brother lives in that flat!” Natalie’s brother Shane was now an occupant of the same flat.

The following month, I started my master’s degree course and was given study space to share with two other students working on similar topics – one of them was Natalie’s brother, Shane.

I’m 21F and ugly as a pig. I have a birth defect that causes asymmetry and makes my speech kinda wobbly and stuff. On most days it doesn’t bother me much, I get by. I have my puppy, jobs here and there, I’m very close with my family.

But then I go out. No guy ever looks at me. Even if I’m hanging out with people and there are guys, they don’t glance at me or say a word at me. Even if I ask them a question, they don’t answer.




All I’ve ever wanted in life is to have a husband and kids and a happy home. It sounds cheesy and really fucking stupid but I doubt I’ll ever even have a real healthy relationship because I am just so ugly. If a guy was into me, he’d judt be settling. I don’t want to be settled for. So I guess I’ll just never experience anyone liking or loving me romantically. It’s very hard and a girl I know is having her second kid and I haven’t ever even kissed anyone because apparently no one wants to kiss me.

The acquaintances I have keep telling me it’ll happen but they just don’t understand that it won’t. It’s kinda hard to date and kiss guys when they don’t even acknowledge your existance.

Take chips and airliners, which China has had to import. China spent more on chips than oil until recently, buying hundreds of billions dollars worth every year.

Why? It made few chips, especially the higher-end ones.

Chips wasn’t a priority in the current 2021–2025 five year plan, because the Chinese had more pressing concerns lower down the value chain.

But Huawei changed everything.

China now has 30% of global chip production capacity, and will exceed 40% in a few years. There is a legitimate case for overcapacity and subsidy, on a free market basis. Unfortunately, trade flow is being reshaped by politics, rather than economics, and that is why Janet glaringly omitted CHIPS from her Beijing spiel.

To emphasize, the overcapacity in chips is solely driven by America throwing its weight around to unfairly contain Chinese development in high technology, and the Chinese threw restraint (and the rule book) out the window.

For airliners, China didn’t make any, until recently. Comac currently has 2 models in service, the ARJ21 and the C919. In a few years, production of the C919 will be ramped up to over 200 per year, along with the introduction of the CJ-1000 engine option next to the Leap 1. The backlog of orders, currently >1,500, will take a decade to clear. The first widebodies, the C929 and C939 (the A330 and A350 equivalent) will also make commercial debut in the 2030s, along with Chinese engine options.

All these form part of a broad spectrum assault up the value chain, allowing China to go from today’s 35% of global manufacturing to >50% before 2040 arrives.

There will be two classes of goods in the near future: China-made or foreign made. By then, China will have an essentially complete indigenous supply chain built on IP it controls. Other than select niches such as specialty pharmaceuticals, software and machine tools, the Chinese will have competent or even superior alternatives to everything the rest of the world manufactures, from green energy to AI. The exclusivity of western high walls and deep moats will increasingly be found in the recesses of history.

On to the consumer. An often underexplored angle is the end-to-end shopping experience. In today’s world, it’s the online stream that drives sales. Finding a product, choosing among options, payment and finally delivery. Today, I can order a $5 item from China, and select the 5-day guaranteed doorstep delivery for another $1.50.

Amazon can’t do that. Rakuten can’t do that.

Temu and Shein are absolutely smashing markets worldwide, because they are offering end-to-end apparel shopping experiences that no one else is delivering today.

What’s their secret sauce?

Affordable quality at the forefront of trendiness, fulfilled in a jiffy.

It isn’t just cost structure, to step up to bat with the Chinese.

The entire service platform including the underlying logistics is just as critical.

The competition hasn’t emerged yet, but I welcome being proven wrong.

Why have I expended so many words without seeming to answer the question directly?

I have come around to the conclusion that cost structure is the wrong question to ask, because friend-shoring is being shaped through politics, rather than economics.

The bigger change is the 1–2 trillion dollars of revenue that foreign firms generate in China, the largest single market in the world. That is why Janet and others have drawn attention to China’s “excessive household savings” and “low consumption”, calling on the government to boost demand. Foreign firms are seeing alarming shifts in Chinese demand patterns, from Tesla to Apple to Starbucks to Boeing. Will French bags, Swiss watches, German cars, Italian fashion be next?

This is irreversible, as Chinese competition improve by the day, attracted by the high margin, glitzy models of western capitalism.

This is the true galactic war being fought, in the mainland market, and not the friend-shoring distraction. The Chinese brands that emerge from this brutal experience will be globally competitive. Even runner-ups will be able to find niches elsewhere, such as Transsion in Africa.

In other words, forget friend-shoring and competitive cost structures. Any firm that doesn’t have a place in the world’s biggest, most dynamic and competitive single market isn’t globally competitive, and will have to rely on political protection to survive.

I’d like to end with a short discussion on the scale of the Chinese challenge.

The strength of the Chinese come from their extraordinary ability to organize and cooperate on multiple scales, including pie-in-the-sky multi-generational goals without set horizons.

The five-year plans are a good example, a top-down-bottom-up meeting of minds to drive national progress. For example, a bottom-up request to increase rural income requires top-down connectivity and power, from roads/public transport, to electric and telecoms grids, so that farmers gain market access, and talent and investment can pour in for job creation. This all-of-nation cooperation between public and private is rare, with the closest being Taiwan when the KMT was in charge. Japan and Korea both suffer from opposing clan interests, and as Japan discovered for the past 2-3 decades, competitive advantages can be rug-pulled by Uncle Sam on whim. As a national system, I believe modern day China is peerless in terms of the depth and cohesiveness of broad-spectrum cooperation.

Ten, twenty years ago, Toyota will keep an eye out for what Honda and Nissan is doing, followed by Hyundai and Kia, with a secondary interest in the Germans. Toyota stayed the number 1 carmaker globally wholly on merit, because it has core competencies.

Fast forward to the present and Toyota is staring goggle-eyes at the millions of BEVs being churned out by the Chinese, when its own BEV presence and selection is minimal. Even Huawei and Xiaomi are churning out cars today with smart self-driving features. BYD is replacing shocks/springs/struts with linear motors for suspension, and it is far superior to the best the market has to offer today. BYD, one company, hires more R&D staff than foreign automakers combined.

It is a different scale of challenge when BYD can add hundreds of thousands in production capacity within 12–18 months through local government support in factory building, provision of utilities, upgrading of connectivity, the hiring of staff, and approval of permits. The speed and efficiency takes the breath away. Better yet, the modern Chinese factory enjoys a high degree of automation, and production can be rapidly scaled up at other sites.

One will have to copy the Chinese to keep up with the Chinese, without the advantage of market scale, and the efficiencies enabled by the public-private cooperation model.

Having been involved in retail for decades.

Back in the mid 80’s I was doing a price shop, collecting their lumber & building materials prices, for comparison. The competition store had a policy that I be upfront, not coming in and trying to spy. So one fine day I’m there wearing my company polo and a jacket that had our logo on the back. My name badge clipped to my jacket. I wasn’t trying to hide.

As I was finishing up I was approached by a customer who asked if I could help her with a storm door. I was walking that way so I expected she needed help with putting the door in the buggy.

Wrong, she needed a sales pitch. So I gave her one. She thought that low price equals poor quality. So I did my sales pitch on storm doors and answered her questions.

I ended my pitch with a trick, I threw my 25 ft tape measure at the “glass” and caught it when it bounced off. She asked if “we” installed and I said yes we did. So writing down the UPC I walked the customer to the desk and turned the sale over to a store employee. Smiling to myself I walked out.

A week or so later I was back in the same location again doing a price shop. The Asst. Manager had seen me walk in, he walked up and told me to talk to the store manager. He and I walked to the office. He bought me a can of Coke and got the boss.

The store manager walked out and had one of their shirts in hand. It seems that my help in the store was documented because the lady I’d helped had written a letter to their corporate office.

Corporate had authorization a bonus for the person who had done such a great job. So I put their shirt over my shirt and had my photo taken being handed the check.

The manager offered me a job, which I declined. But I still think that was a hoot.

I live in rural Alaska, and the population of police is as thin as the population of residents! I have called in twice for a welfare check. Both times the police said that the situation did not warrant one.

In the first case, a guy I shared a taxi with once a week to go shopping had not answered the phone in 2 days. He lived 7 miles away, and I could not drive because I was partially blinded by MS (it is better now). It was New Year’s Eve, and I couldn’t reach ANYBODY to go check on him, and felt very itchy about his welfare… I finally put on all my Arctic gear and walked that 7 miles through driving snow to check on him. I still can’t believe I did that on a hunch… Turned out he had fallen and broken his hip the day before. His woodstove had burned out, and he was frozen to the floor by his own urine. It took the fire department to peel him off the floor and get him out of the house. He lived, but he lost 8 toes, and his independence.

The second was just a couple of weeks ago. My roommate would not open the door, and 2 roomies were waiting outside in the garage… no sign of movement in the house… The police did not feel it rated a welfare check! A friend broke into the house for me and discovered her. She was older, and not in great health. She had died in the bathtub. When her BODY was found, the police came right on out! I am really grateful to the friend who found her. I did not have to see her dead at all.

Why Japan, S Korea, Australia, India join the US against China

This is great!