My first working jobs occurred when I was in High School. Part time during week-days, and full-time on weekends. I worked at a coal mine, and as a clerk at the local grocery store.
Today, I want to talk about my days working at the grocery store.
In those days, we were not paid by check. Instead, we were given an envelope of cash and change. On the envelope was the amount that we were supposed to be paid.
I would work all week, and make something like $63 dollars.
Well, since I had no expenses, I would get the envelope and throw it in a drawer in my bedroom, and forget about it.
One day, one of the cashiers was all upset. She was being short changed, and the entire crew just about walked off.
So it got me to thinking, and I went to my stash of pay envelopes. The envelope would read $63 dollars, but inside would only be two or three one dollar bills and some change.
The accountant was screwing all of us over.
Now, guys, keep in mind that at this time, my parents were separated. My mother was always gone, and I had no father figure. I had no direction, and I was only 16 years old.
I didn’t know what to do.
Well, from then on, ALL OF US, sat there and counted out our salary to the manager before we left for home.
I figure that the accountant must have siphoned off from 60% to 75% of my hard won earnings…
For, perhaps, years.
As an adult now, I would contact a detective, and the police and make formal charges, following by suing the store, but Jeeze! I was only 16 years old. Something like that. I hadn’t even kissed a girl yet, for petes’ sake. So do not get on my case about this.
Lesson learned.
What lessons?
Bad people will constantly surprise you with the evil and selfish actions that they will do to you. Often getting away with it due to inconvenience, youth, or simple ignorance.
Today…
Cats
Ancient Egyptians held Cats in the highest esteem, cats were praised for killing venomous snakes, rodents and birds that damaged crops and protecting Pharaoh since at least 1st Dynasty (3100-2900 BC) of Egypt. Cats were also represented in social and religious scenes dating as early as 1980 BC. Skeletal remains of cats were found among funerary goods dating to 12th Dynasty (1991-1802 BC). Protective function of cats is indicated in Book of the Dead, where a cat represents Ra and benefits of sun for life on Earth. Cat-shaped decorations used during New Kingdom of Egypt indicate that domesticated cat became more popular in daily life. Cats were depicted in association with name of Bastet.
Mafdet was first known cat-headed deity in ancient Egypt. During 1st Dynasty, she was regarded as protector of pharaoh’s chambers against snakes, scorpions and evil. She was often also depicted with head of leopard (Panthera pardus) or cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus). She was particularly prominent during reign of Den. Deity Bastet is known from at least 2nd Dynasty (2890-2686 BC) onwards. At the time, she was depicted with a lion (Panthera leo) head. Seals and stone vessels with her name were found in tombs of pharaohs Khafre and Nyuserre Ini, indicating that she was regarded as protector since mid 30th Century BC, during 4th-5th Dynasties. A wall painting in 5th Dynasty’s burial ground at Saqqara shows a small cat with a collar, suggesting that tamed African wildcats were kept in pharaonic quarters by 26th Century BC.
Amulets with cat heads came into fashion in 21st Century BC, during 11th Dynasty. A mural from this period in tomb of Baqet III depicts a cat in hunting scene confronting a rat-like rodent. From 22nd Dynasty at around mid 950s BC onwards, Bastet and her temple in Bubastis grew in popularity. She was later shown only with small cat head. Domestic cats were increasingly worshipped and considered sacred. When they died, they were embalmed, coffined and buried in cat cemeteries. Domestic cat was regarded as living incarnation of Bastet who protects household against granivores, whereas lion-headed deity Sekhmet was worshipped as protector of pharaohs. During reign of Pharaoh Osorkon II in 9th Century BC, temple of Bastet was enlarged by a festival hall. Cat statues and statuettes from this period exist in diverse sizes and materials, including solid and hollow cast bronze, alabaster and faïence. The penalties of injuring a cat were severe and killing a cat leads to capital punishment. When the cat dies it is the duty of the owner to gave them proper burial along with rituals and shave their head, eyebrows or beard to show their grief and even conduct after life rituals for their cat in order to gain blessings from Goddess Bastet.
In mid 5th Century BC, Herodotus described, annual festival at Bubastis temple, attended by several hundred thousand pilgrims. During Hellenistic period between 323-30 BC, cats were systematically bred to be killed and to be mummified as sacrifices to gods. As described by Diodorus Siculus, killing a cat was regarded as a serious crime. During 60-56 BC, outraged people lynched a Roman for killing a cat, although pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes tried to intervene.
Cats and religion began to be disassociated after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BC. A series of decrees and edicts issued by Roman Emperors in 4th-5th Centuries AD, gradually curtailed practice of paganism and pagan rituals in Egypt. Pagan temples were impounded and sacrifices prohibited by 380 AD. Egypt has since experienced a decline in veneration once held for cats. They were still respected in 15th Century AD, when Arnold von Harff travelled to Egypt and observed mamluk warriors treating cats with honour and empathy. Gentle treatment of cats is part of Islamic tradition.
Common enough issue
What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?
I had been working for a large company for almost 20 years. I worked very long hours, often late into the night and at weekends, under stressful conditions and had a lot of responsibility but I was happy in my job and took great pride and derived satisfaction from it.
There was a change of management, and after about a year, I mentioned that I hadn’t been given a raise for over 4 years and asked for one – I was given a lecture about commitment and told that I would have to work harder to ‘earn’ it, and was offered a tiny raise which didn’t even meet 1 years cost of living increases, let alone 4 years. The new financial controller was condescending and quite dismissive so I knew instantly that I was finished with them. I didn’t resign there & then (even though I was very tempted to). I thanked them for my new ‘raise’ and immediately set about finding a new role – it took almost 2 years to find a job I was confident about but when I then handed in my notice, they offered me a huge raise, a promotion, new working conditions and all sorts of inducements to stay. It was extremely tempting but I had made my mind up – I no longer wanted to work for them (and my gut-feeling about them was justified by several stories from former colleagues of how staff were treated subsequently)
So my advice is NOT to act impulsively and hand in your resignation immediately (and be forced to find a replacement job urgently) – take your time, find the right job that suits you, put everything in place and then calmly, but firmly, hand in your notice.
How did people know…
What psychological facts that people don’t know?
- You are now aware that your clothes are touching your skin and that you can feel them.
- People who swear more often are more honest than those who don’t.
- For luxury brands, the ruder the sales staff, the higher the sales.
- If you start whispering to someone, they will whisper back, even if they don’t have to.
- Your mind “rewrites” monotonous speech of boring people to make them sound more interesting.
- Your brain defaults to going to the beach as your initial vacation idea.
- You are more honest and open with people that you consider “temporary” friends.
- When entering a packed lecture hall, the left side will always be less crowded.
- 82% of people would feel more confident approaching an attractive person if they had their dog with them.
- We tend to hate people who have the same flaws and make the same mistakes as we do.
- If someone is trying to make you decide in a hurry, they are probably giving you a bad deal.
- A person is more likely to be honest when physically tired.
- Fear can feel good-if we’re not really in danger.
- People who keep their hands in their pockets while around large crowds are generally anti-social or shy.
- The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.
Sounds like unrhymed poetry
What’s the most disturbing thing anyone has ever told you casually?
My late husband and I were on our way home from being on the lake with friends and were pulling a boat that belonged to one of our friends who didn’t have a truck or anything suitable to pull it with. We got to his house and pulled into the driveway shortly after the friend pulled in. My husband got out to talk, I rolled down the window and stayed in the truck. Across the street was a group of girls playing with a water hose and water balloons . The girls are obviously young possibly 11 years old at the most . Our friend tells my husband “ man that’s torture, I would love half a chance “. I was more than proud of my husband’s response . He told his friend that he was sick in the head and if he ever caught him with in a mile of one of our daughters that the torture he spoke of would become reality that he would face a hell that would give the devil chill bumps. Then told him to get his piece of shit boat unhooked from his truck he was ready to leave and don’t ever call him or come to our house . We got not even a mile up the road and turned around, I asked what he was doing , he told me that the family of those girls deserve to know what trash lives across from them . He said if someone can casually mention something like that then they are capable of doing such.i have never seen him react so strongly about something but at that time we had 2 daughters age 6 and 12 . The father of the girls was more than disgusted and thanked him for letting him know .
Very interesting WTF…
Does a boss ever get in trouble when a staff member quits?
When I quit a job over 20 years ago, I was called in by my grand-boss (manager’s boss) and asked why I was leaving. I was the second person to leave that week, and my main issue was money – they immediately offered to match the raise I was getting with my new job, but declined. The secondary issue, of how my manager’s assistant did his level best to cheat me out of $5 (out of $40) in per-diem when working in a remote office, in a way that could not be seen as accidental. They wanted to know what was happening.
Last year, my employer sold his personally-owned company to a much larger firm. During the transition, the new management told me I was overpaid and unnecessary, denied a raise, and generally treated rudely. The old owner did nothing to support me. Two months after that I called up the president of the new firm and gave notice – explaining what had happened and how I was treated without respect or professionalism, and also that I was obliged by professional ethics to inform him that my former employer was aware of several installations that were in violation of the electrical code, but were not doing anything about it to shelter themselves from liability (both legal and financial) until the sale went through. The one installation I was aware of – I insisted that it be fixed, fighting the owner who kept telling me that the cost of fixing it would come out of MY salary and bonus. I corrected him in saying that this was a mistake that I merely discovered, but did not create, and despite him being upset that I opposed his desire to merely ignore this, the cost of fixing it would come out of THE COMPANY’S REVENUE, meaning that no single person would, or could be held responsible for the error. In fact, some of the people who may have been responsible for it were now retired from that firm.
It did not go well for any of the people involved, as I knew the President of that larger firm from my previous dealings, and that he was very risk-averse. Legal liability for engineering errors is a bad thing.
Do men even want relationships anymore? There’s nothing in it for them. Too much to lose.
This is very good.
Playing around with Text to image
Today is my Doc Savage theme.
Prompt is…
doc savage cover art Bantam Doc paperbacks with the wonderful cover art by James Bama and Bob Larkin adventure driving a car through the streets of new york city
Images…
What is the creepiest unexplained event you know of?
In the year 2000, I was working on advanced degrees in theology. A priest I had known from childhood, now serving in Henderson, Nevada right outside of Las Vegas, invited me to teach a week-long adult education class to his parish. This was a no-brainer. An easy class to teach, a small paycheck, but a FREE plane trip to spend few days just a few miles from the strip. I was happy to say yes. I couldn’t wait to try the buffets and see David Copperfield. I planned to spend a few quarters in the slots as well.
The priest set me up in a small little guest house next to the rectory where he lived. I had just two rooms and a bathroom. I was told to meet him in the morning for breakfast then he would bring me to the classroom.
For some reason I could not understand, I had the most upsetting and unsettling feeling when I was a lone in this little guest house. I had the impression someone or something was watching me, I kept jumping at the slightest noise and swearing I saw things or people pass the window. This was very much unlike me. We often say “I didn’t sleep a wink” but often this is a slight exaggeration. In this case however, I was literally awake all night with a terrible feeling surrounding me. I felt a presence in the room I simply cannot explain. I never was able to close my eyes for even a full minute. Never one for superstition or exaggeration, I assumed it was nothing and rejected the notion that I felt some sort of spirit or evil presence in the room. I just went the next day and, although exhausted, taught the first session of the class. Although I wound up in a different arrangement the second night, I could not forget that odd, terrible and lingering feeling in the original guest house. I had a nightmare in the new room. Even when I just passed the original guest house while walking it felt terrible, in a way I did not understand.
One year later, to my shock, the priest who invited me was arrested. He was a violent, disgusting pedophile who was abusing kids in that little guest house for years. I had no clue, and yet, somehow, I felt the presence of pure evil in that room. I will never ignore or dismiss such a feeling again.
Mike Pompeo orders the murder of Jillian Assange
Some Shorpy History
What does it feel like to live completely alone?
I’ve lived alone for about the past ten years. I even let my ex stay with me for a stretch after we split up, but with her in the guest room. We’ve always remained good friends. We were just not a great couple with both wanting different things in life.
A good friend who also lives alone told me that she hates the part where someone doesn’t get to witness her experiences and that about sums up the downside. I live about nine miles away from the closest small town on about 3.5 acres. I’m completely secluded and during the summer you can’t see the house from the road. Yes, there are security measures, but I feel very safe here and safer than I’d feel in a city.
Living alone isn’t for everyone and so much of it depends on what you want out of life. I love my work and I have a personal assistant who’s here often, so I’m not completely alone. I also have visitors from time to time.
The plus side of living alone is that you don’t have the normal routine of others. I can go swimming in the middle of the night or work or play music or watch a movie. I can do just about anything I want and feel like I had a productive day.
I’d probably feel lonely if I didn’t have a busy life, but there are so many great things to do in a day and I love my work. I never ever want to retire and I’m good at it too.
I still go to restaurants, travel, and do other things, but I do have a dog and he’s with me at all times, except when I have to make business trips. I have a sitter here at the house when that happens.
There isn’t a big downside to living alone, other than the risk of some major illness or injury where you can’t get help, but I take precautions for that. Neighbors see anyone who comes and goes. The house is a local curiosity so that’s kind of fun too.
Yes, it would be great to share these experiences, but I do it in my writings. I turn out a massive amount of work and living alone helps that. I never thought this was where my life would take me, but it did. Circumstances took me here, but I have great friends, and a full life and I’m getting a lot out of the experience of living.
Now the USA no longer will answer 911
When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?
When we moved into our first home we bought a second hand washer and drier. Not long after, the drier quit.
In my family, if something broke, you took it apart. If you fixed it, great. If not you learned a few things and had lots of parts to tinker with.
My wife wanted a tool kit as a little girl and never got one because Little. Girls. Don’t. Play. With. Tools.
So I said I’d take a look and see what was wrong. She wanted me to take it back for a refund. A second hand drier.
Have you ever fixed one before? What’s to go wrong? There’s a drum, a motor and a heater element. She could just not comprehend that you could look at something, see how it worked, and see how to fix it.
Finally I just went Executive Action. Took the back off and there was a broken wire. We got years more use out of it.
A few months later, she pulled in with a recliner in the trunk. The owner was throwing it out and warned her it was broken. “Oh, that’s okay. My husband can fix anything.”
Protip: if you are good with your hands, the first time your SO asks you to hang a picture, nail your hand to the wall. It will hurt like blazes but you have no idea how much trouble it will save.
I kid. She died of a heart attack in January after 48 years. I’d build or fix anything her heart desired to have her back a bit longer.
Some interesting AI generations
