Well, it seems that a compromise in the metallicman dispute issue has been realized.

It’s a hustle: a scam. A fraud.

Ah… The head honcho at the CN domain office has offered me to purchase the domain names before the interloper does.

Great. Or so I thought.

Then he sent me the price list.

Not so great.

So I will need to cough up 20,000 RMB to secure the metallicman website.

20,000 RMB is a tidy sum.

Uh oh!

…

But then, a mm subscriber suggested that it was a scam.

So I went on Google and checked it out.

I discovered this….

Beware the following email originating from John Liu <chinaregistry177 (at) aliyun.com address individually to you. It is a scam trying to get you to part with your money. The website at the end of the message does not exist.

Mine was a Mr. Albert Liu.

Albert Liu<albert.liu@chinaregistry.org.cn>

Subject: CN Domain and keyword

“(It’s very urgent, please transfer this email to your CEO. Thanks)

We are the domain name registration service company in China. On Dec 30, 2015, we received an application from Huaxun Holdings Ltd requested “XXXXXX” (name removed) as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China?

Kind regards

John Liu
General Manager
China Registry (Headquarters)
8052, Douhai Building, No. 59 Baolian Road,
Shanghai, China
Tel: +86 21 6191 8696
Mobile: +86 138 1642 8671
Fax: +86 21 6191 8697
Web: www  .chinaregistry.com.cn
Email: john (at) chinaregistry.com.cn

Phone numbers and URLs are equal to what what I got in my mail.

Comment and Advice

The unsolicited email you receive is from a Chinese domain registrar (could be a certified registrar, agent, affiliate or private person).

In the email they explain that a supposed company (try to Google the name) is interested in some available domain names (typically .hk, .cn, .tw), which correspond with your brand name.

In only a few days the other party will register these domains, unless you secure them first. The domain registrar can even send you an email from the interested third party (it comes from a hotmail address) claiming that they want to register your domain names, and they are only waiting for approval from Mr. Jim or whatever his name is.

Identical to what happened to me. Only this was from a sina address.

Zhihai Ning<zhihaining@vip.sina.com>

There is a similar domain name: www  . chinaregistry.org.cn.

Yes. This is the URL.

In trying to connect to this my anti virus protection gave the following message so beware:

“When we visited this site, we found it may be designed to trick you into submitting your financial or personal information to online scammers. This is a serious security threat which could lead to identity theft, financial losses or unauthorized use of your personal information”.

It can be very expensive if you fall for it.  Just ignore it.

Yuppur. It’s a pretty well established e-mail scam.

Remember the name of the organization that registers domain names is CNNIC. Not “China Registry”.

I’m gonna ignore it. Thanks MM crew!

Happy Dragon Year!

Today…

Why is the Western cooperate media so keen on the Chinese economy but not their own economies in recession?

Excellent question.

Thank you for asking. It is easy to understand. Western governments need to hoodwink their own people who are now very wary about their dropping standard of living for close to 3 generations now. The average westerners are now worst off then their parents and even their grandparents.

Homelessness is rampant, inflation exceed their growth rates and set them back further. Take the UK. In 2023 it’s economy had a negative growth of -3% yet its inflation is a full 4.2%. Together British people suffer a 7.2% deterioration of their standard of living.

The U.S. grew by 2.4% in 2023 but suffers a 3.4% inflation. So once again it’s standard if living fall by 1%. But it has deteriorated back to the levels of 1960’s. Even life expectancy has dropped below that of China! Homelessness has reached a million and a third of Americans cannot afford their health insurance and their college debts consume most of them.

So with such a scenario, it is hardly surprising that they used their media to channel western minds to Chinese economy that is purportedly deteriorating. These are simply a pack of lies to deceive the westerners. Just imagine 2020–2022 over the 3 years post pandemic China grew by 5.5% per annum while most western economies had negative growth.

But what is worst is that it suffered close to double digit inflation while China’s inflation rate is on average 0.5%. In 2023 China grew by 5.2% with a mere 0.2% inflation. Chinese people’s standard of living grew by a net +5.0% in 2023! Yet if you read western media it accuses China of a host of things casting doubt on China!

By right westerners ought to be mad at their government for lying to them. But most pretend to be living better than the world. It’s a fell good factor! It is not good because truth will dawn on them sooner or later.

When did you realize that your parent was verbally abusive?

I realized my mother was verbally abusive when I was around 13. One of my first friends invited me to dinner. I was worried, but I went. It was a normal dinner, with home cooked casserole and green beans. I wasn’t used to that. Everyone sat at the table, and the father cleared his throat. Uh-oh, I thought, here it comes.

Then, he launched into a funny story about how he and a coworker kept hiding each others waste baskets, and how he had won the last round thanks to his daughter’s suggestion of putting a plastic lei on it and photographing it as though leaving the office.

Then her older brother spoke. He was in college, and told an anecdote about a professor who kept losing chalk. Mum spoke up about Chippy, a little squirrel that she fed by the back door. My friend moaned a little about a huge homework project.

Everyone turned to me. I actually spoke, suggesting that we should build our school project in such a way that it blocked the principal’s door. None of these stories were actually that good. but there was a tenderness in the telling and listening that I had never seen. People listened. They chuckled. They talked. They praised Mum’s cooking. No one said one derogatory thing.

They were a normal family. My friend teased her brother about his lack of hockey prowess, and Mum and Dad liked different baseball teams. My friend got grounded for sass, sometimes. But, instead of the parents trying to destroy the children, they held them up.

I cried all the way home. It was winter, and the tears froze on my face. Mother was there. Her first comment, what did you do to your face? My God you were an ugly baby and it’s just gotten worse. It’s good you don’t wear make up, lipstick on a plow horse.

And it didn’t stop until I went to bed. It never really stopped until I left home, always under the guise of helping me fix my flaws.

But after that dinner with the B family, I knew there was another way to live. And that made all the difference.

Pasta con le Sarde

If there is any pasta dish that represents Sicilian tradition to its fullest, it is pasta con le sarde. Combining the culinary footprints of Sicily’s kitchens, this classic recipe mixes maccheroncini (macaroni) with fennel, tomatoes, pine nuts, raisins, anchovies, onion and fresh sardines.

The pasta is always ladled out of the pot, never poured into a colander, and then put in a serving dish. During two weeks in Sicily, we never had a piece of overcooked pasta. Test, test, test was Chef Tino’s rule, and, apparently, every other chef’s.

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh sardines
• 1/2 pound fennel bulb
• Olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8 ounces uncooked tomato sauce*
• 4 ounces pine nuts
• 1/4 cup raisins, softened in water
• 2 salted anchovies
• 1 pound macaroni
• Pecorino cheese

Instructions

1. Bone the sardines. (If you slit the fish lengthwise and grab it by the tail, the bone easily strips out). Chop the fennel and boil under just tender in water that you will use to cook the pasta. Strain the fennel out of the pot and chop finely.
2. Heat a sauté pan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to just cover the bottom. Brown garlic and onion in oil until soft. Add tomatoes, chopped fennel, pine nuts, raisins, and anchovies. Simmer for 10 minutes. At this point, start the macaroni and add the sardines to the pasta sauce. If the sauce is too dry, add a very small amount of the fennel water. Don’t stir the sauce once the sardines are added, to avoid breaking them up.
3. Place the cooked pasta in serving dish and pour the sauce over, finishing off with a sprinkling of Pecorino and a little olive oil.

Serves 4 to 6.

* This is best made with fresh tomatoes, coarsely chopped, skin and seeds included. If tomatoes aren’t in season, you could use good canned tomatoes.

What is the greatest waste of human potential?

The first Emperor of a unified Germany, Wilhelm I, was a strict and conservative man. His son, Frederick III, was a liberal mind. A brilliant man and a keen reformer, he was full of ambition to transform German society, do away with stuffy nobility and its ancient war-like ways, and usher in a new, open-minded and scientifically oriented Germany.

Wilhelm I, however, kept on living… born in 1797, he didn’t die until 1888, aged almost 91 years old. Frederick had to wait for a long time for it to finally be “his turn”. He was eager, and excited for the task. But then, three days before his father passed away, Frederick was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had been ill for a while, and his health rapidly took a turn for the worst. By time his father was buried, he was already too weak to walk in the procession. He looked on from the palace window, and wept…

No small part of Frederick’s sorrow? His son and heir, Wilhelm, was a war-like man, imperialistic, aggressive, expansionist, conservative… the polar opposite of his peace-loving, progressive father. Frederick wanted desperately to make good use of his remaining time on earth. But cancer of the throat soon took away his ability to talk, and a botched operation to fix his pain resulted in even greater pain and discomfort when the resulting wound became infected.

“I had so hoped to have been of use to my country. Why is Heaven so cruel to me? What have I done to be thus stricken and condemned?” wrote Frederick III in his diary. He died in June 1888, a mere 99 days into his reign, aged 56. It is often speculated that, had Wilhelm II not ascended to the throne, his father would have moved away from Prussian militarism and Germany may never have entered WWI. WWII would have been averted as well.

Gary, Indiana

What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?

Not to me, but how she treated my co-workers.

We were all working overtime and being stressed out. Sales weren’t doing well, people were quitting, and everything was dysfunctional. Some items at the store weren’t even there or expired.

My boss was in a bad mood, taking it out on everyone. Nitpicking, tearing others down, and calling people incompetent. I’d already gotten a warning for talking back. I had told her that she shouldn’t be treating people that way. We were all working hard and doing our best. She said that if I didn’t like how she ran the store, then to get out. I was really tempted, but kept working.

It was the final straw when a pregnant co-worker needed to go home on time because she had to walk home at 11:00 PM. My boss refused and my co-worker was in a lot of pain. My boss told her to suck it up, that it was her fault for being an irresponsible wh*** and being stuck as a single mom. This made my co-worker burst into tears; her boyfriend had just broken up with her and left her after the news she was pregnant. She’d been taking it hard since.

I marched right up to this and told my co-worker to gather her things because she worked enough for the night, that I would drive her home. My co-worker listened.

My boss was furious for undermining her. I blew up at her, telling her that she needed to work on her morals and values. I asked her how she could even think about doing this to someone, especially her own worker? My boss answered that it was the wh***’s problem, not ours.

I told her that she should never call someone that and her behavior is exactly why she was losing employees. I said this was why nobody wanted to be around her or get to know her. She was an awful human being, no matter how many times she lied to herself.

I ended it that she was right, that I couldn’t work for someone like her. I didn’t like how she ran the store and I quit; the only time I ever did.

I drove the pregnant woman home and thanked me for everything. I explained that I quit, but would drive her if she needed me.

Apparently, I started a chain. Five people quit after me, including the pregnant woman.

The ironic part is that two months later, that boss was fired… for her treatment of employees.

What, as a first responder, is the dumbest complaint you’ve ever had made against you?

I don’t know that it was the dumbest, but it was certainly an interesting and unusual complaint against me.

I was notified that officers were at a housing project and were requesting permission to force entry into an apartment. The officers had identified a man who had multiple warrants for his arrest. As they were arresting him he broke away from them and ran into an apartment where he did not belong.

I was a watch commander at the time and advised them to set up a perimeter around the apartment and I would be there in two minutes. Upon my arrival, I knocked on the door and spoke with the tenant who was very angry that my officers were threatening to kick down her door.

I had an advantage in speaking with this woman as I knew the complex manager and I also had studied the lease agreements with the various complexes. One reason for an immediate start of eviction proceedings was allowing criminal activity to be conducted at the apartment. I explained that I did not want to see her violate her lease, or have to pay for the door if the police had to break it in.

I explained the search process, and that we were just going to take the man who had run into her house into custody, and leave, without messing anything up inside. She allowed the officers to enter as long as I agreed to stay at the scene. I entered with the officers and actually helped in the search, checking one downstairs closet.

The man was found upstairs fully dressed in bed under the covers (so creative!). He was taken into custody and transported to the department for processing.

Several minutes after I get to the station, I receive a call from the resident. She said, “One of your cops stole $1000 from my apartment.” I advised her that I would take the particulars of her complaint and get to the bottom of this immediately.

I asked where the money had been located and she answered: “In the downstairs closet.” I thought for a minute and replied, “I’m the only one who searched the downstairs closet and I didn’t see or take any money.” She replied rather sarcastically, “Well, it was there before you came in and it’s gone now, so if you didn’t take it, where’s my money?”

Now my mind is going over each minute of the search, with no reasonable explanation. I asked to place the woman on hold for a minute and went to the processing room where the accused was.

Also in the room was a young woman who was counting out a pile of cash. I asked whose money is this. The girl replied, “It’s my money and I’m posting his bail.”

Now I remember, the girl was in the house. I said, “I saw you at the house. Where did you get all that money from?” She replied, ”From the closet downstairs.”

I put the resident, who was the girl’s mother, on speaker phone and had the daughter explain where the $1000 in bail money came from.

I spoke to the mom afterward and she apologized repeatedly. I told her it was already forgotten, and how much I had appreciated her cooperation at the scene, putting her trust in me.

After that, she thought I was a good cop and would wave to me or stop and say hello. Out of a silly misunderstanding, a higher level of trust would develop. So much of police work is about building trust, one person at a time.

You want a wife

What is the most ridiculous reason for which you have been fired?

I learned how to do some simple programming on my own. I wrote simple programs at work for my own and my department’s use. My boss knew about it. One day she came into my office and demanded that I write a program for another department. I tell her, politely of course, that I would be happy to do it but she had just hired a well-trained person to do just that sort of thing and it might be better if he did it. She quickly turned on her heel without saying a word, walked immediately to HR and wrote me up for insubordination. HR suspended me with pay immediately and I was escorted out of the building by security. I hired a lawyer, the best employment lawyer in the area and a friend, immediately. The lawyer told me that I would eventually get fired and then he would go into action. He also told me that my boss would be fired in 6 months and her boss would be fired within a year. Soon I got fired in person by my boss, who smiled throughout the whole ordeal (I had been with the company 21 years and had nothing but excellent reviews), while a security guard stood behind her. I was smiling on the inside.

My lawyer went to work. With 3 weeks my status was changed to retired (at age 56), my legal fees paid, was given a sizable settlement, and never had to go back into work. In about 8 months my boss was fired and her boss was transferred to corporate Siberia. To my surprise, a year or so later the company newspaper published picture of me standing in front of a beautiful new RV in the retiree’s section of the paper. I had bought the RV with part of the settlement check and sent the picture in as a joke. No one probably knew that it was a joke.

China + Russia

Is huge.

As a waiter/waitress what have you done to get back at a rude customer?

Back in about 1990 I was waiting on a group of six men at Baker’s Square. Five of them were normal people, but the sixth was just a funnel when it came to coffee. He wanted me to leave a pot at the table, which we weren’t allowed to do. I told him I’d keep him topped up. He was skeptical, and he was right to be.

I have never seen any three people drink as much coffee in an hour as that guy. I couldn’t keep up. I asked my manager if I could leave him a full pot and was told no. The guy was going from kind of irritated to outright crabby, probably partly due in part to the caffeine overdose he had to be on the cusp of. Glares, passive aggressive remarks, like that.

Near the end of their meal I got kind of slammed and the poor man’s cup was probably empty for five minutes. As soon as I had the chance I hustled to the table and was filling cups. Coffee Man was on the far right and I was going left to right. As I was tipping the pot over his cup he snapped at me, “Could you take a little longer with that fucking coffee?!”

Instantly aborted the pour with less than a teaspoon in his cup. Looked him in the eye with a smile (more of a smirk tbh) and said, “Yes, I absolutely can.”

Turned on my heel and left, with the sound of his friends laughing behind me. Went to the break room and had a cigarette. A whole one. Customer’s always right yeah?

Told the manager what happened on my way back out to the floor. He couldn’t keep from laughing but also said you can’t do that and he was taking over the table. I think he comped Coffee Man’s meal, but I never heard another word about it after that.

Ended up with a pretty good tip, I assume from his friends.

Passport Bros – The Men Fleeing The West | Japan Street Interviews

Pretty interesting.

What’s something your husband did to you that you will never forget?

Bob loved me unconditionally and always respected me during our entire relationship.

We were married for over 31 years. We worked together for much of that time in a very public business. We met on the job when Bob was hired as the news director at a TV station I was already working for as a reporter/anchor. So not only was he my boss, but we co-anchored the evening news as well.

Bob was incredibly careful to make sure I was never granted any special privileges in the newsroom. His decision at work, went. He would always listen to my point of view and that of the rest of the staff, but his decision was final.

He was always able to switch to the mindset that we were equal when we went home.

He loved me like nobody ever had before , even when I didn’t love myself. He loved me when he was mad at me and when he really didn’t like something that I had done or said.

Bob was my husband…my partner and my best friend. He was my teacher and teammate as well.

Although he was not purrrfect (sorry, we were owned by cats), he was purrrfect for me.

I lost Bob to suicide. He had gotten incredibly sick and wasn’t going to get better. I believe that even this final decision and action, was done with me in mind. He didn’t want me to live the rest of my life as his caregiver while our bank account dwindle to pay his medical bills.

One thing about his final decision. In my opinion, Bob wasn’t wrong very often, but for me, this time he was wrong. The problem is, he was DEAD wrong. I will love and honor him forever. I work hard to make sure people remember his career and his accomplishments instead of just his final decision. I also work with several mental health organizations, including the local medical college, in both suicide prevention programs and postvention efforts (following up with people who have lost a loved one to suicide). I have done very television and radio interviews about Bob as well. I believe that since we spent most of our careers telling other people’s stories, that I should be willing to share ours.

Bob loved me, unconditionally. That is what he did for or to me.

OnlyFans = Video Games

Do companies ever pay for their employees’ tickets?

Here’s an odd story for you.

Several years ago, my job was to sell robots to SWAT teams. Every SWAT team (except two of them) wanted one, but they couldn’t all afford them, so the problem wasn’t that the potential customers didn’t want to buy. The problem was that it was difficult to get to the SWAT teams. Lots of people wanted to get to them to sell them various things they didn’t want nor need, so the department didn’t make it easy to reach the SWAT commanders. I had several different ways of getting to them, all of which worked some of the time, but none that worked all of the time.

Then one day I figured out a new approach. Whenever I saw a cop along the road waiting to catch speeders and such, I would deliberately speed up in order to get pulled over. When the cop walked up to the window, I would say, “I have a SWAT robot in my trunk.” The response was always a variation of, “You have a what?” I would then ask if he wanted to have a look at it.

Sometimes the cop got very nervous about me opening the trunk, but they always wanted me to. (Could have been a guy with a gun in there; the cop had no way of knowing.) Once the robot was revealed, I would hand the cop the control and show him how to operate the robot. Then I would ask for the department’s SWAT commander’s name. The reason for this was that I wanted to be able to say “Officer so and so told me you would want to have a look at this robot.” It worked every time.

However, one time the cop was already writing the ticket on his way to my car. After the standard conversation and demo, the cop said that he couldn’t tear up the ticket, because he would get in all kinds of trouble for a missing ticket number, so he wrote me up for 1 mile per hour over the speed limit. If I had gone to court, the judge would have thrown the case out, but I just went ahead and paid the ticket instead.

Later, when I told the founder the story, he said, “From now on, the company will pay for every ticket you get while on the job.” I never got another ticket, though.

Ukraine SitRep: Finally A Wonder-Weapon That Does What It Promised To Do

The battle of Avdeevka is about to be finished.

The city of Avdeevka, (not to be confused with the small town of Andreevka near Bakhmut), is situated immediately north-west of Donetsk city. It has been used for years as a Ukrainian fortress well positioned for artillery attacks on Donetsk. The whole city, and especially the coke and chemical plant in its northern sector, was well prepared to defend against Russian attacks.

But despite all attempts to hold on to it the Ukrainian garrison within the city is about to be encircled and fall.
Source: Live UA Map – bigger

The Russian attacks are coming from multiple directions and are more progressed than the Ukraine friendly map above is showing. The biggest danger to the Ukrainians is the Russian move in the north west which threatens to cut the city off from its supply line through the northern coal and chemical plant.

The Russian victory in this battle was accomplished with the help of one type of weapon created during the current war in Ukraine.

In the early 1990s the U.S. developed a strap on kit for unguided bombs that turned dumb weapons into precise ammunition.

The Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) is …

… a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs, or “dumb bombs”, into all-weather precision-guided munitions. JDAM-equipped bombs are guided by an integrated inertial guidance system coupled to a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, giving them a published range of up to 15 nautical miles (28 km). JDAM-equipped bombs range from 500 to 2,000 pounds (230 to 910 kg).[5] The JDAM’s guidance system was jointly developed by the United States Air Force and United States Navy, hence the “joint” in JDAM.
…
The JDAM is not a stand-alone weapon; rather it is a “bolt-on” guidance package that converts unguided gravity bombs into precision-guided munitions (PGMs). The key components of the system are a tail section with aerodynamic control surfaces, a (body) strake kit, and a combined inertial guidance system and GPS guidance control unit.

The JDAM kit, of which more than 500,000 were produced, allowed for the use of large piles of cold-war era bombs with previously unknown precision.

After the 2022 start of the war in Ukraine Russia engaged in a program to develop an equivalent to the JDAM kit. The program was finished by the end of 2023. The Russian version can be strapped onto a 500kg or a 1,500 kilogram dumb bomb extending their range by attaching wings, guidance kit and control surfaces to already existing dumb bombs. Prototype of a FAB 500 with (folded) wings and guidance kit

bigger

After being programmed with target coordinates the bomb gets dropped, turns 180 degree around its length axis and unfolds its wings. The wings enable the bomb to fly some 50 miles before hitting the ground. This allows the planes dropping these bombs to stay outside of the enemy’s air defense envelope.

The guidance kits are cheap and can easily be mass produced.

Yesterday some 65 FAB500 and FAB1500 were used against targets in Avdeevka.

The use of these bombs, which carry 300 kilogram and more of explosives, near one’s own troops requires careful planing and observation. Observers on the ground have to make sure that their own troops are outside of the deadly circle of these bombs and that the coordinates of targets are submitted in a disciplined but secure and timely manner. Pilots have to make sure that the received coordinates are programmed into the bombs and that their release is done at the right attitude and positions.

This kill chain requires intensive training and disciplined soldiers. Yesterday’s attacks demonstrate that the Russian army and air-forces have mastered this discipline.

Any detected resistance or position of Ukrainian troops was visited by a precise FAB attack within just a few minutes.

There is no defense against these weapons. It is no wonder then that any resistance against the Russian onslaught is breaking down. Russian troops can proceed through bombed out Ukrainian positions without taking losses.

Previous reports have talked about a Russian superiority in artillery by a factor of 5 or higher. But consider that a 155mm artillery round has a weight of some 50 kilogram, 60% of which are explosives. One FAB carries 10 to 30 times the explosive equivalent of one artillery round.

The Ukrainian army has nothing comparable in its arsenals.

The introduction of mass FAB500 strikes onto the Ukrainian battle field have given the Russian forces a new qualitative advantage that will change the course of the war (though not its outcome). The U.S. political and military specialists who still believe that attrition is a viable strategy for the Ukrainian army are clearly way off the path of reality.

On February 1 the German broadsheet Bild reported of the conflict in the Ukrainian leadership:

The Bild publication writes that Zaluzhny wanted to withdraw troops from Avdiivka a few weeks ago, but Zelensky refused him this and on December 30 he personally went to the city to the front line to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters.

So all the coffins that arrived from near Avdeevka to Ukraine since December 30 are solely on the conscience of Zelensky and his passion for narcissism.

Zelenski had asked Zaluzny to resign which the General rejected. The Ukrainian president has since made clear that he wants to fire the more popular general but is still looking for the right time and reason to do so.

The loss of Avdeevka may give him a marketable excuse to finally do that even when it is clear that it was Zelenski’s narcissism, and not Zaluzny’s advice, that has caused high Ukraine losses while inevitably losing a not holdable position.

Posted by b on February 8, 2024 at 12:38 UTC | Permalink

Ray Eldridge

What is something that your boss has said or done that you will never forget?

It was my last job in Vietnam before I moved to the U.S. I was in that job for almost 5 years.

When I first started my position and reported to my boss, he was extremely difficult with me. He questioned everything and demanded an explanation for everything I did, including why I did it the way I did and how I came to that solution. This continued for six months. I felt so ‘roasted’ by him.

After those six months, one day, I received an email from him saying, “Read this email thread and tell me what I should do.” In another email, he replied to someone else’s email about a solution, added me to the loop, saying, “++ [my name]. I will approve this after [my name] has reviewed and gives me the green light.”

I had earned his trust.

One day, I messed up something important in an important project. I panicked, ran to him, and asked him what I should do. He sat me down and told me, ‘Remember, after you mess something up, admit the issue and come up with a solution to fix the problem yourself. You need to control how YOU are going to fix it; do not let anyone tell you what to do, because it won’t be in your favor.’ Listening to him, I calmed down and thought of a solution myself.

That was the most valuable lesson I learned from office. He is the best boss I’ve ever had, and I am thankful for the time I had the chance to work with him.

During a court case, what was your most, “You just messed up.” moment while someone in the opposition was talking?

My dad was called as a witness to an accident that a member of the public had allegedly had on a building site he was foreman on. The victim had apparently fallen into a deep hole that had not been labelled clearly and then been laughed at and not helped by my father. Apparently when the victim had spoken to my dad he had refused to offer any help. The victim was suing the company for actual injury and for pain and suffering.

Prior to appearing in court the victim’s lawyer had contacted my dad and told him what was going to be said (I don’t know why, the case was a long time ago) My dad replied with “Are you really sure you want to do that?” The lawyer said of course and see you in court. My dad repeated “Are you really sure you want to do that?” The lawyer hung up.

On the day of the court case the victim told their story then they called my dad to the stand. The lawyer asked what job my dad had been doing onsite on the day of the accident. My dad replied with “None, I wasn’t on site on that date.” The lawyer called my dad a liar so my dad got his passport out which showed an exit date of 2 days before the alleged date of the accident and a re-entry date 6 weeks after.

Guess who ended up paying costs for that little debacle!? The victim’s lawyer was less than impressed.

She got a gold star

Guys give out the relationships. Women give out the sex.

Be picky.

In special forces training, do they teach you how to survive torture?

All I can add about what to do if captured. At first simply give name, rank and serial number. During the class I asked the following, “what do you do when they bring pliers and a few other devices?” The instructor replyed, “ask politely for a ream of paper (a ream is 500 sheets of paper) and a dozen Bic pens; as long as you are writing they’ll leave you alone that is until they send the notes you wrote up their chain of command.” LOL. We always had a cover story that would make us so low on the classified stuff and if they persist; I would if captured I would tell them that I’m simply a cook. If pressured I’d ask them to let me cook them a meal. LTC Nick Rowe convinced his captures that he was a cook, this worked until they found out his real MOS; that he was a Special Forces 1LT. Nick knew that after 24 hours anything he told his captures would have been changed and will no longer be of any use to his captures. Nick was the go to guy on how to survive capture. He escaped after five years as a POW.

During capture you’ll always be looking for an opportunity to escape. Nick was assassinated while on duty in the Philippines.

Does China know that there can never be a new world order without a previous war in which China emerges victorious?

The Thucydides Trap?

The Famous belief that an emerging power will always be a threat to an existing power and war between them is inevitable

The Belief is incomplete

This is the case only when the Emerging Power desires to be a global hegemon

This is NOT the Case with China

China needs Cooperation for its growth and development

China needs Energy, Oil and Gas from others

China needs almost 23% of it’s Food from others

China needs Global Markets for its Trade

Thus China lives on a WIN WIN cooperation

China can flourish only as part of the Global Economy

---

The only thing that has changed is SO DOES THE USA

Until maybe three decades ago, the US could flourish on its own domestic economy, it’s own Oil & Gas, it’s Western and Japanese allies and satellites

Today the US needs many more countries to flourish and CHINA is one of the most important of them.

US needs China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and several other Nations in order to flourish as an economy

This the US does not like

The US doesn’t want to be dependent on China for it’s welfare and prosperity

The US policy has always been to CONTROL ANY NATION ON WHICH IT’S PROSPERITY DEPENDS

Thus it has two options :-

• A China that is shaped as per US requirements. A Lackey basically. Like Japan and South Korea and now even Germany and France OR
• A China weakened enough to accept US guidelines on what constitutes FAIR PLAY

China of course will not agree to either

China believes in a direct win win cooperation in the “May the best man win” mode of competition

So it’s the US that wants to keep the OLD WORLD ORDER rather than the Chinese wanting a new one

The Chinese just want to make money, grow and develop their economy and not be subject to throttling by the West and so to develop their own independent and safe technology and financial systems and military

Maybe 50–60 years later China could change but today there is zero chance of China wanting a New World Order or be a hegemon

It’s impossible

Have you ever smelled something but only found the source of the smell a while later?

We bought a used couch from someone on the Facebook. Seemed too good to be true. $1000 for a couch that goes for $3500 new. Leather sectional with 4 electronic leg rests, cupholders, USB charging ports, etc. A very nice upgrade from our existing sectional.

So, we went and checked it out. They had it in their garage. I asked why they were selling it for such a low price. Aside from some scratches on one seat, it looked almost new. They said he was a surgeon at the university and he was getting a job in North Carolina. So they were packing up and preparing to move quickly. We plugged it in and tested the leg rests. Everything worked. We had a minivan, so it was going to be three trips to get the whole thing home. 30 minutes each way. Kind of a waste of a Saturday, but I felt it was worth it.

On our first trip home, the smell hit us. It was a strong smell of orange, like they used an orange scented cleaner to clean it. This should have been a larger red flag than it was at the time. We still needed to move our existing couch to the basement, so we decided we’d kill two birds with one stone. Move the new couch into the garage, let that orange smell dissipate, and take our time disassembling and moving the other one to the basement.

When we went back to the seller’s house, we asked about the strong orange scent. They downplayed it and basically said they used whatever cleaner they had on hand to clean it before selling. Red flag #2.

We accepted their answer and continued making trips back and forth. They seemed trustworthy. All the pieces of the set smelled of orange cleaner, but especially one section. That piece was much more intense. We left the couch in the garage and sure enough, the smell faded. We moved the living room couch to the basement and the new one to the living room. The orange smell was gone. However, it was replaced by a much worse odor. I don’t know how to describe it except that it was musty, pungent, and kind of stuck with you. It was mostly coming from the leftmost recliner piece.

We reached out to the sellers a couple weeks after buying it. We asked about the smell. She played dumb and said they had hardly used the couch. They had it in their basement and there was never a problem with it. No water damage, no nothing. Clearly lying to us. Red flag #3.

Over the next few weeks, we tried multiple off-the-shelf products and home remedies for removing smells from furniture. None of them improved the smell at all. We finally contacted a fire restoration type of place. They had specialty equipment to deal with all sorts of problem smells in furniture. The cost was high and we didn’t know if it would work, so they offered us a deal. They said, bring in the problem recliner. They’ll try to remove the smell from that one piece. If they succeed, we’ll bring in the rest and they’ll fix each piece at a total cost of $700. If they can’t fix that recliner, no charge and we go our separate ways. Handshake, done deal.

I brought the recliner in and the guy who received it immediately started sniffing all the parts of it like a dog. He got underneath and focused on that area. From under the back, he exclaimed, “Tomcat! Nothing’s gonna work. We’ll try, but it won’t come out. Nothing gets tomcat urine out of furniture.”

Why I’d question the expertise of a guy who crawls under furniture and identifies tomcat urine is still a mystery to me. He was absolutely right. Their process didn’t put a dent in that scent, and we didn’t pay them a dime when I picked it up.

At this point, we’re pissed. We spent $1000 on a couch that’s unusable, and we’ve moved our clunky sectional to the basement and back again, not to mention spending a Saturday moving their couch home. We keep reaching out to the seller. She tries different tactics, from ignoring us to just refusing to do anything for us. All the while, she still insists that the couch never smelled in their house and she sold it in good faith.

Finally, I’ve had enough. I tell my wife to tell this woman that they’re going to return our money and take the couch back or we’ll take them to small claims court. Then she offers to give us $100 back, still not admitting there was a problem with the couch. No. Everything or you’ll be sued. Finally, she agrees, but somehow is able to act like she’s the victim. Great. She transmitted our money back to us, but doesn’t say anything about the couch. A couple days pass, and she demands that we bring it back to them. My wife asked me when we can return it to her. My response? “Oh no. She can come pick it up from us. I’m not spending one minute or a single calorie on bringing her that useless couch.”. She says fine and asks for our address. She responds a couple days later and says they don’t want it either. Yeah, nothing wrong with it. Sold it in good faith. But you don’t want it at all. Huh.

We put it up for sale for free on the Facebook. We were very up front on its condition. The guy who came to get it was excited about it. I warned him that the scent is strong and nothing will improve it. He didn’t care. Said his sense of smell is very bad and he didn’t think it’d be a problem.

Since 99% of real street fights involve punches, why there are so many martial arts and styles other than boxing since what you will actually going to use is boxing (in the form of bare knuckle boxing to be exact) in an actual scenario?

The reason most fights come down to bare knuckle brawling is simple. All that stuff you see on TV, MMA, martial arts tournaments etc are people that are trained to fight like that.

I have had my fair share of fights over the years, some I won, some I took a beat down. I have never seen anyone win a street fight using martial arts. Its probably not because it isn’t effective. Its because 99% of people are just watching TV or taking weekend course at Bob’s Dojo and that makes them think they are qualified to put the moves on Joe the drunk.

Pro Tip: Joe is not interested in style points or looking cool when he fights.

The worst thing in the world you can do if your not a trained professional is to try to kick someone in a street fight. Your foot leaving the ground means you have lost all your balance, your center of gravity is gone and your probably so slow doing it any reasonable healthy twenty-something man see’s it coming a mile away.

When I was young I had this happen to me once (not bragging) I caught the guys leg and slammed him into a brick wall. His Bruce Lee impersonation was over in less then a minute.

That wasn’t special. If you are not highly trained do not try any fancy kick moves you saw last night on TV. It wont end well. To effectively get away with kicking someone or doing most martial arts type moves like you see in the movies requires tons of training. It isn’t something Joe average can pull of just because they saw someone else do it or they took a couple of classes at the local community center.

What’s the most incredible coincidence that ever happened to you?

#1: I went to high school with this girl, Lisa. She kissed me once. Later, in my early 20’s, I kept randomly running into her, all over the world: in a dive bar in New York, on the street in San Francisco, and in an obscure back alleyway in Oaxaca, Mexico.

#2: When I lived in New York, I had a dream in which some voice kept repeating a 4-digit number, like 3264, 3264, 3264, like it was very important. At the time, New York had a lottery you could play by choosing four numbers. I thought about playing 3264, but then dismissed the idea, as I had to go to work. As I was about to get on the subway, I noticed that my subway car was numbered 3264. That did it for me, I ran to the nearest lottery kiosk and played that number. The following day, the winning number was announced: 3265. One digit off. I was rather annoyed with the universe over that one.

#3: I exited my gym and hopped into my car, at that time a rather sad and beat-up green mid-1980’s Toyota Tercel. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I noticed that there was someone else’s stuff scattered around. And then it hit me: This was NOT my car! It turns out that for that particular model, the keys are sometimes interchangeable. Toyota made about 13 possible key shapes, and the woman who had already driven MY car away, had the same key I did. It took her longer to notice.

Daddy Issues

Have you ever smelled something but only found the source of the smell a while later?

My wife would occasionally smell something odd. She couldn’t describe it. It happened at random times in random places, like in her classroom or at a concert or on the sidewalk downtown or in our house. If she was with someone she would ask, and nobody else smelled it. This happened over the course of at least two or three years that we can remember.

She also occasionally stumbled or lost her balance, which she attributed to natural clumsiness.

One Saturday afternoon in late March 2022 I came home from an errand to find her shivering under a blanket but not cold, and stammering her speech. I declared “something ain’t right with that girl” and took her to the Emergency Room. There a CAT scan revealed “a concerning mass” in her head. She was transferred across town to the major regional medical center. Sunday morning a MRI showed detailed pictures of a mass the size of a tennis ball behind her right eye.

That Tuesday she underwent 9 hours of surgery to remove a meningioma – a tumor of the meniscus tissue surrounding the brain. It was contained (not invasive) but growing. It had been growing for some years before it pressed on nerves and on the brain itself enough to disturb their function, including vision and smell and balance and eventually seizures. I brought her home that Friday afternoon, six days (to the hour) after we entered the ER.

Beginning immediately and now two years on, her olfactory hallucinations (remember the question was about smelling something?), tremors, and problems with balance and coordination are gone. She has a new eyeglass prescription. Follow-up MRIs continue to reveal no recurrence, and her brain is expanding to re-occupy the space from which it had been shoved aside by the tumor as it grew. She has made a more-than-full recovery, engaged with new sporting challenges, and enjoys every day as a teacher, musician, and Grandma.

By the grace of God expressed through a surgeon’s skillful hands, she no longer smells things that aren’t real, I get to enjoy more years with my lovely bride!

How does the IRS find people who work under the table?

Here in my little town we had this business called the Executive Whirl-A-Sage. It offered massage and spa services for the “discriminating client”.

Everyone knew what it really was.

Anyhooo… The IRS decided to take notice. But they couldn’t figure out how much money the place made because it did everything in cash. They got clever.

Sent an agent in as a “client”. (I always wondered which lucky dude landed THAT plum assignment!) He had his “service” (which I suspect didn’t include the happy ending, but who knows???). He carefully counted the number of towels used.

The IRS then demanded all the laundry bills for the business. They counted the total number of towels and divided by the number used per client to determine the number of clients. Some simple math and they had their estimated revenue.

Needless to say, the place was closed down when it couldn’t pay the bill.

You came to my house

As a woman, what do some men do that creeps you out?

I’d just like to start off by saying, gentlemen, I love y’all. You’re half the world. Most of you are great, many of you are just sweet and adorable.

And then there’s the rest of you who come out of the barn in which you were raised just long enough to scare me out of leaving my house.

The right to have sex with me is earned. It’s not transactional, it’s not a bought and sold commodity, and I don’t owe you just because you bought me dinner or even a lousy cup of coffee. In fact, I owe you nothing of myself except my public courtesy, and that can be withdrawn at any time if you show yourself unworthy of it.

What you men—and this is where you stop being gentlemen—do to really creep me out is that you forget that I am the ultimate keeper of my body, and try to wear me down when I say no. Constantly badgering, hinting, whining like a toddler in a checkout line full of candy. Like a toddler you sulk and stomp around when I say no, and double down on trying to get your way. And just as the toddler screams “I hate you!” because mom won’t buy them a Kinder egg, you turn on me when I won’t give in.

“Bitch.”

“Fat pig.”

“You’d be lucky to have someone like me, you ugly piece of shit.”

Yeah, that’s just the right way to get me into the sack.

You don’t respect the word NO, and in that you disrespect me. That’s just creepy and you make me question my lifestyle choices.

What is the basis for the belief that the United States is more powerful than China? Why do some people disagree with this belief? What factors contribute to their differing opinions on this issue?

I totally disagree!

To me I believed most of the global south world agree with me. I am sure the U.S. dog and slave nations very much prefer to lie to themselves that the U.S. is the most powerful for their own self interest and wishful thinking.

No matter how pretentious you can be, the world’s most indebted nation, the world’s highest deficit nation, the nation that spends more on defence than the next 10 biggest defence spender, the world’s most over reach, over extended war monger and trouble maker cannot be powerful. So the U.S. is at best is a desperado trying to grasp at anything to stay relevant at the cost of bringing its economy down further.

The real power is China whose respect comes from its actions. Not like the U.S. on coercion and threats. China has overtaken the U.S. in most counts. Even militarily. China does not want a poor U.S. or even a collapse U.S. it still wants a good trade with the U.S. but one that has mutual respect.

Why are universities making students pay for classes that have nothing to do with life

What if I don’t want a funeral?

I work with a woman whose WHOLE family doesn’t “do funerals.” I asked her why.

She told me that it started when her paternal grandfather passed away, and they were planning the funeral. It was emotionally draining to plan while grieving, not to mention expensive.

Her paternal grandmother decided she didn’t want a funeral, and that Thanksgiving, with the whole family (my co-workers parents, co-workers in-laws, aunts, uncles, extended family on both sides) she made a declaration.

“I don’t want a darn funeral. Donate the money you’d use for a funeral for me to an animal shelter or a food bank.”

After a long discussion, it became a tradition.

They just don’t have funerals, they put up an obituary and ask for donations to whatever charity the deceased picked.

On the anniversary of their death, the family members take the ashes of their loved ones and spread them.

I don’t think it’s such a bad idea.

EDIT: (04/24/2020) Wow, I have gotten a LOT of feedback on this answer. Thank you all!

One thing I’m going to suggest to all of you is, if you choose to be cremated, please get your cremation set up and prepaid for as soon as you can.

My mom was diagnosed with Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer in March of 2017. One of the first things she did was get her cremation set up.

She prepaid for her cremation, she picked out an urn (a plastic box.) She also separately bought “keepsake urns,” for my sister, grandmother, one to be interred and one for me. She bought 10 death certificates (my dad had passed away on 2010, and she knew you’d need a lot of them for different things.)

When she passed away in February of this year, all my sister and I had to do was call the funeral home and they picked up her body. They had my sister and I go in a few days later and sign paperwork.

They didn’t try to sell us anything, they were able to be human to us. To help us grieve.

When you pass away, your family won’t have to pay anything extra out of pocket unless taxes or death certificate prices rise. We actually received a refund check for $11.38.

The cost of her “package” in 2017 was around $1,600. The funeral liaison we met with said today, it would be around $1,800.

At the time of the loss of my mom, I was so grateful she took care of it for us. It was an amazing gift.

What shocked you when you opened someone’s safe deposit box at the bank?

I was doing part of my internship in a bank in the safe deposit department. It turned out to be quite fun, actually. One day a client came down and asked to rent a safe deposit box, a large one. He was in a hurry, so I did the paperwork as fast as possible, and then took him to his box, leaving him alone to deposit whatever it was he wanted to leave with us (as we were not supposed to watch) and then he left.

About ten days later, the gentleman came back, and, by chance, I was the one who went to open his box with him. I was about to leave him at it, when he stopped me and said “No need, I’m just getting this and I’ll return the box.” I looked and he had a big bag of chocolates which he was pulling out of the box! I gave him a puzzled look and he laughed: “My wife demanded I buy Swiss chocolates for the whole family, but then I had to add a leg to my trip, and I couldn’t take them with me. I thought it would be a pity to throw them away…so…”He raised his shoulders and left.

Still, he’d paid one year’s rent for a large sized safe deposit box, which was about 500 to 600 francs, to avoid throwing away maybe 200 francs of chocolates. And created an insect infestation risk for the bank, if he’d forgotten or neglected to return for his chocs!

Mark Twain great quotes

What should I do if my boss says, “If you don’t like the job, you can go”?

I never had a situation like that,but just last year one man that has a restaurant in Rovinj,Croatia called my ex boss to ask him for my phone number since he saw me work the previous season.He then called me and said that he wanted me to work at his restaurant,and since he knew that I’m good at my job he offered me 3000€ a month,accomodation and food.He said that he knows that I’m worth it and that he won’t haggle because he wants me to work for him.I accepted and got there,and started to work. To cut the story short,from all the things he promised,nothing was delivered. It was close but not what was promised.When I got the first salary I noticed that the money paid to me was off,but since my first month there I didn’t work the full month i decided to wait for the next salary and to see what is what.The salary for the full month I got 2300€.When I called him to speak about it he said;”The conditions are what they are,if you don’t like it,good luck!”,and he raised his hand like he wanted to shake my hand.I grabbed his hand right away and said “I don’t like it.”He was surprised,and when I was walking away I heard him say that 2300€ is still a good salary and non of his other workers had that much.But to me it would have been the same if he gave me 1€ less than promised.I would still left.You can’t lie to me like that and expect me to take it.And besides the way he said that”if you don’t like it,good luck”that would be humiliating if I were to stay.Fuck you and your 2300€ a month.If he offered me 2300 from the start,and kept his word I would still come to work for him,and I would be satisfied.But anyway when it comes to your case,I think that saying to people:”If you don’t like it,you can go.” is degrading,and I would go.I think that there should be mutual respect between the worker and the boss,not just respect for the boss.

Some of what was said in the interview by Putin:

– Russia is ready to supply Europe with gas through the “Nord Stream 2” pipeline, but Germany does not want to

– The United States was the one who blew up the “Nord Stream” pipeline.

– Elon Musk’s creativity cannot be stopped, but rather an understanding must be reached with him

– Russia and Ukraine will reach an agreement sooner or later

We want to reach a solution to the Ukrainian crisis through negotiations

– NATO has options to recognize Russia’s control over the new territories

We have information that the United States supported terrorists inside Russia

The West fears a strong China more than it fears a strong Russia

– The Americans pledged not to expand NATO eastward, but the expansion happened 5 times

– The world will change regardless of how the crisis in Ukraine ends

– Russia becomes the first economy in Europe in 2023 despite the sanctions. American attempts are of no use.

– Ukraine is an artificial entity established in the Stalinist era

Russian relations with Ukraine are distinguished by language, kinship and religion

We proposed that Russia join NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but they refused

– When NATO refused to let us join it, they feared Russia as a large and powerful country

We will never attack Poland unless we are attacked by them

How was Andy Dufresne able to walk into a bank and withdraw a large amount of money after escaping without being recognized, knowing his face would be all over the news as a fugitive?

How the heck did Andy Dufresne walk into nearly a dozen banks in the Portland area and walk out unrecognized with hundreds of thousands of Warden Norton’s money the day after his escape from Shawshank Penitentiary?

Signature cards, no photos on driver’s licenses, and no CNN or World Wide Web.

This stumped me for a long time, too. I couldn’t figure out how someone could use a phony driver’s license with no picture on it, and take out tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars out of any bank in the United States.

But apparently photos weren’t always required on driver’s licenses in every state. The first photos appeared on driver’s licenses in California in 1958. Texas didn’t require them until the mid-1970′s. Even New York and Tennessee didn’t require pictures until 1986.

I couldn’t find what year Maine began putting photos on theirs, but, it’s probably safe to assume that in the mid-1960’s, Maine didn’t yet require pictures on a legal form of ID.

The Maine driver’s license Andy presented to the bank was probably state issued and not forged, if we assume it was Warden Norton who created the alias to hide the money he was making by taking bribes from construction companies who didn’t want Shawshank’s cheap labor taking over major construction jobs in the local area.

Also, I remember, from working for a couple of years for a bank when I was in college that signature cards are placed on file with the bank, so if someone comes in without ID, they can just match the signature to the card, and accept that as legal identification.

We would think of that as somewhat of a lax form of ID in today’s day and age, but fifty years ago, the world was different.

Anyway, it makes sense that Warden Norton would use Andy and his wealth of banking knowledge to create all these accounts under the alias, Randall Stevens (Peter Stevens, in the novella) even having Andy sign the signature card (that doesn’t always have to be done inside the actual bank, believe it or not) so as to further insulate Norton from the crime.

As for why no one in the banks or on the street knew Andy by his face, someone else mentioned that this was 1966 (or 1975, if we’re talking about the original text) and in that era, it took a day, or so, to get someone’s photo into the newspapers (which was the World Wide Web back in those days) to get a photo distributed to the three major broadcast companies, and maybe a couple of days to reach all the local TV stations state- and nation-wide.

The instant gratification of the Information Superhighway was still a couple of decades away, so the wheels of communication could take a few days or even a week to get up to full speed back then, so it’s completely plausible that Andy Dufresne could have walked into a bank the following morning to clean out all of Warden Norton’s false bank accounts without anyone even knowing there was an escape at Shawshank, much less recognize his face.

The only thing that’s a little bit implausible is that he could get to eleven banks, all in one day. It has always been a tedious, drawn-out task to go into a bank and close an account, especially if you get an accounts officer, then an assistant manager, then the bank manager, all trying to talk you into keeping your account open, which Andy would most assuredly have run into, considering the money he was taking out of each branch, so the idea of getting to that many banks in a single 24-hour period is a bit of a stretch.

Being Honest

What was a moment when a teacher had a nervous meltdown in class?

I remember the teacher very well.

She was young and timid and always wore full-length skirts and hats whenever she was outside. She was one of the three women who ran the gifted program in my middle school. That may have been a part of her student teaching (internship), now that I think about it. Like I said, she was very young.

The gifted program in middle school was a one-hour-per-week pull-out program. Three or four kids from each class (I was one of them) left our regular class for that hour and went to a different room where the three teachers played logic games with us, discussed current events, and generally tried to challenge us more than the regular teachers were able to, since the regular teachers had to aim for the middle of the pack, student-wise.

The best part of that program was the field trips. It was nice to spend extra time with just that group of classmates and those three teachers. I happen to have some pictures from an 8th-grade gifted class field trip, and she is in some of them. I can tell now that she was maybe 25 years old at best back then.

Two years later, when I was a sophomore in high school, she got hired as a full-time English teacher at the school. It was cool to see her again. All of us former gifted class students of hers were happy to see her again, but sad that she wouldn’t be teaching the advanced English class we were in.

Within two weeks, we saw her for the last time, jogging down the hall mid-class period, crying, heading for the exit.

She was used to working with gifted kids in small groups… Kids who were well-behaved and genuinely interested in what she was trying to teach them.

As is the norm with high school teachers, the newest teachers get the last pick when it comes to classes. So she was stuck with teaching the remedial English class… the students who had the most academic and behavior issues. Apparently, those students were able to get under her skin so much that she walked out on the job. Broke her contract and everything. We never saw her again after that.

I remember seeing the assistant principal running down the hall shortly after that, into the room that she’d left teacher-less. It was the first time I’d heard an adult actually swear at students. (Although I was told that the coaches did it all the time to their student athletes.) He got the class back under control for the rest of the period, mainly by yelling at them like a drill sergeant.

But perhaps that’s what they needed all along: someone with the demeanor of a drill sergeant, not the timid young lady whose teaching career they ended quickly.

Why does prime rib taste better than a ribeye steak even though it’s the same cut of meat?

I’ve read many of the comments on this topic, and I believe my offering here can be helpful.

I worked in food service for 14 years and held the title of Executive Chef at two American institutions. The most notable was at the Augusta Country Club in 1987 up to the Masters’ Golf Tournament of April 1988.

The grilling, broiling, or searing of a Rib Eye steak will bring a distinct flavor to the flat surface of the cut, which is common for all beef seared grilled or broiled. However, that flavor will not be present along the outer perimeter of the cut, and tenderness is not guaranteed, especially once it cools down. (I’ve had to use a jacquard tenderizing device on some.)

A roasted Prime Rib can be prepared in an oven to achieve a dark brown upper/outer surface and can then be placed under a broiler/salamander to add more of that coloring/flavor to the outer surface. Also, a sliced Prime cut can be seared to get that browning onto the face of the cut. Au Jus is a lesser preferred option for me in that it “waters” the flavor as it rinses off some of the rub/seasoning.

Now, just last year I developed what I believe is the pinnacle of prep for Prime Rib. (I moved away from buying ribeye after I got less-than great results in tenderness after paying a high price per pound.)

What I did was to season a whole Prime Rib with a plain mustard binder, and my custom rub. THEN I thoroughly pierced the entire Prime with a long skewer to promote self-basting INSIDE the cut. The final step is the “ringer.” I put the Prime into my Cuisinart pellet smoker on 250 degrees, until the core temperature reached 200 degrees. (about 10 hours) I use dark wood pellets like Cherry, or a dark fruit blend. The outer surface comes out as dark as any sear. The smoke ring all around the Prime is always at least 1 centimeter wide, and the inside is always full of flavor!

Some of my guests who like rare meats believed they got rare from me. “Rare” is (arguably) around 165 degrees internally, but my Prime at 200 degrees was so tender, juicy and flavorful inside and out, that it pleased all my guests.

I am retired from my career, but I’ll be smoking another Prime Rib for visitors at my home next week!

Do police officers feel uncomfortable or flattered when stores offer them complimentary coffee?

Both. We had one restaurant that charged all cops $2 for a meal. It was a greasy spoon that health departments and vegans despise but it was the only place in town open 24/7 that we did not have to worry about some crackhead cook “doctoring” our food.

That $2 was usually supplemented with a $5 tip, which covered the meal and the waitress’ tip.

The chief stopped us from going to the diner unless we paid full price. So we paid full price. Orders are orders.

When the owner found out why we were paying full price, he was livid. He went to the next city council meeting and actually yelled at the mayor and city manager about how they were trying to dictate to him what he wanted to charge cops and firefighters. He had been doing it so long, everyone knew about it and didn’t care.

The day after the city council meeting, the chief rescinded his order and $2 meals were back with the $5 tip.

This was a place we could bring a homeless guy on a cold night for coffee and a meal and we did many times in the winter. We always left enough money for both and when we came in for our meal hours later, the waitress would give us our money back.

The owner would always feed someone in need for free and didn’t want us to pay for it. He felt it was his duty to do so.

Great food and a better man who, sadly, passed away many years ago.

Rich people

What are some of the most awesome psychological facts?

1- 23% of couples who meet online end up being married.

2. Some psychologists say that humans can not be “just friends” with opposite sex members.

3. A research shows that a woman is more drawn to a person when she is not sure how much he loves her.

4. If you want to know if someone loves you, look at their eyes: if we are in love, the pupil expands up to 45 percent.

5. People who are really in love tend to get jealous over stupid things

6. The way a man stands counts for over 80% of a woman’s first impression

7- More than half of people who believe in love at first sight have already experienced it.

8- Men are known to fall in love faster than women

9-. Falling in love at first sight is apparently true according to psychologists.

10-People generally prefer an attractive face over an attractive body when they are looking for a long term relationship.

Have your neighbors ever called the cops on you for something ridiculous?

I was born to answer this question. I have three distinct instances when my neighbors have called the cops on me, well rather my parents but still.

When I was a child I had a neighbor who would literally spy on my family and called the cops on us several times. The first time she called the cops on us was because she saw a sleeping bag on the roof and was calling because she thought one of us was on the roof. So the police come to our house and ended up waking my mom who was asleep (she works night shift as a nurse). What had happened was one of my sisters had spilled water on the sleeping bag and thought it was a sunny day she would just put it on the roof to dry.

As you can see my house has a window above the one roof so it’s not particularly hard to do this. Anyway the cops came questioned my mom and then went about their merry way.

The second time my neighbor called the cops was when we all were getting ready to go somewhere and my dad was at work so it was just my mom and us kids and so we all got loaded into the van and we were going about our merry way when the cops call my mom and ask if she has all of her children with her. She says yes and the cop asks if it’s okay if he comes and checks. She says yes and he comes and sees that we are all there and goes on with his life.

The third and final time was the most serious. The neighbors kid threatened me and said if I didn’t come over to her house in the middle of the night she would burn my house down. Now of course that wouldn’t make sense but I was under nine and she was three years older than me and I was scared of her. So I went over and spent the night. Her mom was totally okay with this and didn’t call my parents at all. Instead in the morning she gave us breakfast because we were hungry and we went home. Later that day she calls the police on my parents because she said we were not well taken care of and were starving. All because we had asked her for breakfast because after all we had not eaten all night. So the police came and inspected our cupboards and such. They decided that my parents were fit parents and left.

So that’s my crazy neighbor for you. I hope you enjoyed my stories.

Why Chinese don’t get scam calls

How did you come to find your dog? How did you know you found the dog for you?

My last dog was a “street rescue”.

My girlfriend back then was working at a hotel near my house. She went to work in the morning, and noticed a puppy in the back of a pick-up truck in the parking lot. It was yelping and whining, like puppy’s do, so it was hard to miss.

When she left work 8 hours later, the puppy was still in the back of the truck in the parking lot… in Texas. No water. No food. It was a hot day. She grabbed the dog and brought it to my house.

She was a yellow lab mix, and my girlfriend named her Vive. The girlfriend didn’t last, but the dog did. Best dog I ever had. We traveled together through thick and thin for the next 12 years. From small apartments to horse farms, and for a few weeks living in my truck, we were best friends. I could take her anywhere. Never on a leash to control her. Only when others demanded it. She was good with children, kittens, horses, and I could leave a steak dinner on a low coffee table, and she’d never touch it.

She had 2 drawbacks. The first, was that she loved the smell of a dead skunk. Thought it was Chanel No. 5 and loved to roll in it whenever she could find it.

The second, was that she didn’t live as long as me.

What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?

I attended college in the ‘80s, when miniskirts were (again) in fashion. In one class, a lovely young woman sat beside me in the front row.

During the first week of classes, the professor dropped the chalk mid-lecture (intentionally, I suspect) and peeked up her miniskirt. Her legs were not crossed.

She was taking notes, so she didn’t notice. He saw that I had, and he quickly resumed the lecture.

In the hallway after class, I asked did she have a moment. She was wary, probably used to being hit on by strange guys. I told her what had happened, and that she should probably switch seats.

She switched out of the class. I should have.

The professor had seen me talking with her in the hall. From that point forward, he nitpicked my assignments and test answers. (It was an English course, so all answers were written.) Nothing was ever wrong, but he’d find ways to subtract a point here and there until the deductions added up. I had a D in the class at one point.

I was naive, never before having received a bad grade. (Yes, overachiever.) I assumed that eventually the reprisal would end. The realization that college professors are almost completely unaccountable came too late — after the period to drop a class.

My final grade was a C. I was distraught, not only because it was my first C, but also because it threatened my scholarship, which required that I maintain a minimum GPA.

The assistant dean called me in for a conference. I explained what had happened, bringing exhibits of his grading of my work. I also provided the name of the peeking victim to corroborate my story.

A few weeks into the next term, I received a notice that my grade had been changed to a B. It was my only B in my major field.

And I avoided future classes with that professor.

Green Lasagna with Two Sauces
(Lasagna Verdi al Forno)

Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

Meat Sauce

• 8 ounces bulk Italian sausage, crumbled
• 4 ounces smoked sliced chicken or turkey, finely chopped
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium stalk celery, minced
• 1 medium carrot, finely shredded
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 3/4 cups water
• 3/4 cup dry red wine
• 1/3 cup tomato paste
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Dash of ground nutmeg

Green Noodles

• 8 ounces fresh spinach or 1 (10 ounce) package frozen spinach, cooked as per package directions
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 1/2 quarts water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil

Cheese Filling

• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup snipped parsley

Creamy Sauce

• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Dash of ground nutmeg
• 3 cups milk

Instructions

Meat Sauce

1. Cook and stir sausage until light brown; drain. Stir in remaining ingredients. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.

Green Noodles

1. Remove root ends and imperfect leaves from spinach. Wash several times in water, lifting out each time; drain. Cover and cook with just the water that clings to leaves until tender, 3 to 10 minutes. Rinse spinach with cold water; drain.
2. Place spinach, eggs, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 teaspoon salt in blender container. Cover and blend until pureed, about 20 seconds.
3. Make a well in center of flour. Add spinach mixture; stir with fork until mixed. Sprinkle with a few drops water if dry; mix in small amount of flour if sticky. Gather dough into a ball. Knead on lightly floured cloth covered board until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes.
4. Divide dough into halves. Roll one half into a 13 x 12 inch rectangle; cut rectangle into 6 (13 x 2 inch) strips.
5. Repeat with remaining dough. Spread strips on rack; let stand 30 minutes.
6. Heat water to rapid boil; stir in 1 tablespoon salt, 1 tablespoon oil and the noodles. Cook uncovered over medium heat until nearly tender, 15 to 20 minutes.
7. Drain; rinse with cold water. Place in single layer between sheets of wax paper.

Cheese Filling

1. Toss all ingredients together.

Creamy Sauce

1. Heat butter over low heat until melted. Blend in flour, salt and nutmeg. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until smooth and bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir for 1 minute; cover and keep warm. If sauce thickens, beat in small amount of milk. Sauce should be the consistency of heavy cream.

She knows what she wants

What is the weirdest reason you ever found out a co-worker got hired for?

This happened a very long time ago in Corporate America.

Our department worked closely with another that was managed by Marsha, a 40-year-old workaholic who was brilliant at her job. In fact, headquarters had her conduct workshops twice a year to share her methods and to update procedures.

She was totally immersed in effective management, efficiency, quality control and motivation.

Occasionally, she would ‘come up for air’ and momentarily consider that life included much more than work. She would look around for something to do that would benefit the less fortunate and made donations of money, goods, old clothes and books.

Then it was back to being a workaholic.

She was approached by Stan, a fifty-eight-year old, homeless man who refused charity and asked for a job. She spoke with him several times at a cafe where he was sometimes given meals in return for doing odd jobs. Marsha was impressed by his attitude, but most of all, by the love he had for his dog SweetPea, a Lab mix.

That was a side of Marsha that none of us were aware of.

She put her reputation and position on the line, cleaned him up and got him a job in the company’s mail and supply room. Stan lasted two days: he insisted that SweetPea had to be with him.

Marsha didn’t blink. She negotiated a position for him in the large parking area of the office building. He and SweetPea were still there, three years later when I moved on to a different place.

What would happen to China’s economy if it continued to grow at its current rate indefinitely, without any external factors affecting it?

Whatever the US do, or tries to do it does not matter. At the best it will only slow dow China the the U.S. expense of slowing it selves even more. China will grow till it is effectively be 5–6 times the U.S. real size. It may take the most of the 21st century but it will ultimately come to that.

The reason is simple. China has 4 times the U.S. population but it’s political and social system is simply far more superior and stable. It’s growth is sustainable and very healthy. Hence it should put grow the U.S. on per capital basis. But in the real sense. Not in U.S. dollar or even in GDP narrow sense that is frankly a farce and meaningless.

Chinese people are harder working, they are certainly more discipline, the learns more and are more industrious and highly driven. The Chinese language may render its people less descriptive but it makes them more learned and helps them learn faster and better. China is not distracted like the U.S. to get itself into endless wars like the U.S. hence it ought to be at least 50% more successful over time.

That is provided there’s us no war with the U.S. but if war happened it either end the world as we know it or it it world totally implode the U.S. till it becomes several nations. Both are not good outcome for the U.S. To me the U.S. needs to accept that the best option it to hang on to being a strong number 2 till India get its act together sometimes by the 2nd half of 21st century.

I needs to partner not try the shit of containing China right away. It needs to benefit most from China’s inevitable ascendency. Not obsessed with stoping China by cutting of its own limbs.

Men’s double bind

The LOSE-LOSE situation men often face.

What is the strangest complaint you have received at your job?

“You told my granddaughter her shirt was ugly,” an angry woman I’d never met before told me as I was supervising my kindergarten students during their breakfast time.

I looked down at my little student, then up at the grandmother and asked, “I’m sorry, what’s this all about?”

She repeated her claim, saying the girl came home from school the day before and told her the teacher said her shirt was ugly. I couldn’t even remember what the little girl had worn, and I most certainly never said that to a child.

Speaking to the girl, I asked her who had said her shirt was ugly and she replied, “The kids.”

Grandma went berserk at this and yelled at the girl, “No! It was your teacher who said that! That’s what you told me!”

At that point I suggested we take it to the principal and asked the other teacher in the cafeteria to cover my class. Once grandma and I were in the principal’s office, the whole conversation was repeated. The principal told the woman that she’d known me many years, that I would never speak to a child in that manner, and that clearly it was indeed other children who had said the shirt was ugly.

Grandma threatened to take her accusation to the district office. The principal pointed to her desk and said, “There’s the phone.” Grandma turned and left the office without another word, and that was the last I heard of the strangest complaint I ever received as a teacher.

Why are some reasons that cops turn dirty?

1. Debt – had a sgt, when I first started, that lived about a mile from me, so we hung out sometimes. I get a call one day that he got arrested for bank robbery. He bailed out and my roommate and I went to talk to him, because we couldn’t believe it. He said, “I was just trying to show them how weak their security was.” We were new, but we weren’t born yesterday. Apparently he had some big gambling debts and was desperate. He went to prison.
2. The slippery slope – A team of narco cops decided, amongst themselves, that they weren’t being treated fairly. They were bringing in all this money in seized assets, but the department wasn’t giving them money for equipment they felt they needed, like night vision scopes. So, they kept (stole) some of the the money they seized to buy the equipment they felt they needed. mmmmm Okay. But then the equipment they needed turned into houses, cars, jewelry and boats. They went to prison.
3. Greed – A case I heard about recently, a deputy offered up his services to provide security for dope shipments. He said he and his coworkers would escort shipments for a certain amount of money. His “coworkers” were actually just people he knew. They all went to prison.
4. Born dirty – A kid from a generational gang family was raised to stay out of trouble and get good grades. The sole purpose was to get him hired on the sheriff’s department so he could help with the gang’s jail drug smuggling operation. He was found out and arrested. Within a week, he was all tatted up. He went to prison.
5. Stupidity/Naivete/No good deed goes unpunished/Blackmail – Inmates have nothing but time. Career criminals use that time to plan. They will try to identify, target and “groom” young naive deputies. In a case a few years back, 2013, or so, a young kid graduated from the academy and was assigned to one of the jails. An inmate started making conversation with him and being friendly. At a certain point, he gave this kid some sob story about his family and that he couldn’t get in touch with them, or something like that. Whatever it was, this young deputy decided to do something for this inmate, like take a message to his family, or something and then bring a message back. I forget exactly what it was, but it was against policy and being in his first year, he could be fired. The inmate used it against him and blackmailed him into smuggling drugs into the jail. The inmate was caught, gave the deputy up and the deputy went to prison. He made a video for the department about it that the department now shows in the academy.

I can relate

What is something you will never understand?

Until a few years ago, when my mom was still working, she had a very strange habit — She would come back from work tired, request for a glass of coke, a couple of papad, and sit down for a few minutes before resuming other household work.

We would often tell her that rather than coke and papad, you can eat something healthier, perhaps a glass of juice and some fruits. But no, these advices would just fall on deaf ears. I wouldn’t just understand why would she not want to stay healthy.

She would often have headaches in the morning and would wake up tired. Being an advocate of yoga, other fitness activities and it’s importance, I would keep persisting with my efforts to convince her. But no, she would just not have it.

For me, it was difficult to understand why would she not want to have a better life.

Just, why not!

Surprisingly, my father, who used to go for jogging and would really care about his fitness, started ignoring the healthy bits of his life and slowly, with time, stopped doing it at all. He seemed to be following mom’s route of not caring about his health anymore. I tried to persuade him to restart with the brisk walking again, but to no avail.

Years later, I realised the reason — It was the stress that was killing them from inside — something I was not aware of, until recently, especially about the intensity of it they were dealing with.

When it was my turn to get a share of their stress coupled with some of mine, I found out how it overpowers your willingness to do things which makes you happy. It smothers you slowly, makes you want to avoid putting any extra efforts, even for those things which are absolutely essential. You become a person who just wants to do things which makes them feel normal, if not better — like having some unhealthy meals in my mom’s case; or stopping the exercises in my father’s.

Advices, suggestions, words of wisdom are the most readily available things in this world. Every body seems to give it, very few can follow it under every circumstance. What a person is going through and whether he can even make something of your suggestion (intended in a helpful way) is way beyond our understanding at times.

And unless you can be in someone’s shoes, you will never understand why that someone behaves in a certain way, or chooses not to.

What is it like to serve time in a Swedish prison?

I think a story from 2005 illustrates it fairly well.

This was at the Norrtäljeanstalten prison, Sweden’s highest security facility. We’re talking murderers, armed robbery, that sort of people.

One fateful evening, there was a major slip in security. Total disaster. In one wing, the cell doors remained unlocked as the staff went home for the day.

So. It’s not like the inmates could get out – they were still behind several secure layers. They just had the run of the building for one night.

So what did they do?

They made their way to the kitchen, baked a cake, and ate cake and watched TV all night. They all said it was the best night ever.

In the morning, they were unceremoniously put back in their cells, but faced no further consequences. The two staff who had managed to forget to lock got a weeks’ pay docked, and a stern warning.

Swedish prison: turns bank robbers into cake bakers.

Forced to be free

What is the most absurd thing you’ve been charged for on a bill?

My cat went missing for several months. He was a stray that kind of adopted my home as an inside/outside mellow lap cat. I searched and asked around, posted flyers all around town but he was just…gone. One day went to a customers home and on her living room couch is my missing cat!! This older lady had been feeding it and coaxed it inside and he stayed. He remembered me, I pointed out a little crook in his tail that convinced her it was him. I told her that he seemed pretty happy and I guess he lives here now. I gave her his vet records, cat bed, and favorite toys. Part of me was mad because she HAD to have seen those missing cat signs but I was at the same time glad he was warm and happy and not flattened by a truck or something.

About a year later, this crazy lady comes to my door with VET BILL! He got a bladder infection and she took him to the vet and asked them to charge me for it. She took the paperwork I’d given her and told them it was on my account. A bill had been mailed and I was on the phone with them before it even arrived letting know it was her cat and her problem now!

Crazy cat ladies man…..

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