You mean you actually did your job? Here's an excellence pin!

There’s this thing at my job called a service excellence pin where you are awarded a pin if you have what is called a “star card” filled out about something “excellent” you did at work. The whole system is flawed and bogus and it’s something that’s irritated me for a while now.

The idea is a good one. If you do something above and beyond at work then it’s nice to be commended for it. The only problem is that the system has become one that isn’t used in the way that it should be and has led to employees effectively begging and somewhat backstabbing each other just to see who can receive the most cards and pins. To my knowledge there is no bonus or raise or really any perk for receiving a card or pin. As one co-worker said to me, it’s really just a morale thing.

I feel that I must get this out of the way, because this entire post might come off to some as bitter over the fact that I do not have a pin. The truth is that I don’t give a damn about getting a pin. I go to work every day I’m scheduled and do my job the way that it’s supposed to be done. I don’t expect a pin for doing this. You shouldn’t be awarded just for doing your job. Have I done things at work that probably could’ve gotten myself a pin? Sure. I’m sure every single person who works at this place has done the same.

The reason why I don’t give a damn about earning a pin is because they’ve become meaningless. The laziest, least productive, worst co-worker that I can think of has received multiple pins. The hardest working co-worker that I can think of has never received a pin. That right there tells me all I need to know about this system.

Popular people are more apt to get pins. Kiss asses are more likely to get pins. Quiet people who put their heads down and work their asses off each day in the back away from the spotlight are not as likely to earn pins.

The most bogus thing about this entire system, and the thing that most irritated me enough to write this post, is that there are multiple people I know who beg and plead and intentionally seek out these pins to the point where they physically show a person where the cards are located or verbally ask someone to fill a card out for them or even go as far as keeping a stack of cards on their person so as to intimidate someone into filling them out. How arrogant and narcissistic do you have to be to do stuff like that, in the first place?  

Helping somebody out or doing something special for somebody is something that should come randomly and without a hint of wanting to be pointed out for doing so. It’s only special, in my opinion, if it’s truly heartfelt. Wandering halls seeking out people in need of directions is not the type of stuff that should be commended. In fact, it’s something that should probably be punished, because if you’re spending your time doing that are you really doing your job? Giving directions to someone in need or smiling warmly at a customer or saving somebody a type of item because you know they’ll come back for it isn’t something that you should be awarded for anyway. Those are all things you should do because you’re a good person.

I may receive a pin at some point in the future. But I won’t beg for it and I won’t kiss ass for it. It wouldn’t and doesn’t mean a damn thing if you do. I’m going to continue to do my job to the best of my ability, because that’s what we’re all supposed to do. If I do get a pin someday I won’t even wear it on my I.D. badge like most of my fellow co-workers do. It really doesn’t mean shit. It may have at once, but needy and greedy people have taken away any meaning previously attached to it.     

 

Gratitude: Get Some

Being a cashier you’re going to become accustomed to people complaining and bitching to you about certain things (pricing, selection, etc.). The bitching and complaining is typically held to a minimum at my workplace, but lately there has been a certain group of customers (where I cashier we get the same customers almost every day and these customers are also sort of co-workers, as well) that haven’t done anything but complain.

Complaining is one of those things that can have a slow build before it finally irritates you and this situation is one of those. At first the complaining didn’t bother me at all. Then it started to slowly bother me. Then something happened on Thanksgiving that finally did it.

My work, in a showing of appreciation to employees working on the holiday, was giving each employee that had to work a free meal. The employees had the choice of having one entrée (either turkey or ham), two sides, one roll, one drink, one dessert and one salad for free. If the employee decided to take advantage of the entire meal than the price would approach upwards of $10 per employee, which is way more than fair, if you ask me. Most places probably don’t do this for employees working on major holidays, but my place of employment likes to spoil (to a fault much of the time) most of their employees.

During the dinner shift I had a group of customers (employees) come in and get their free meal. This group typically complains about prices of the food, which they always erroneously claim have gone up, when they haven’t budged a single cent in the 10 months I’ve worked this job. One of the customers in this group began to bitch about the fact that we didn’t have bacon bits on our salad bar this particular night. Bitching about such an insignificant thing while in the middle of receiving a free meal frankly pissed me off, so I decided to call this customer on it (even though I probably shouldn’t have) saying, ‘Are you seriously going to complain about a free meal?’ The customer continued to bitch about the lack of bacon bits until finally going about their way with their free food.

It’s unnerves me that on a day when people are supposed to be thankful and on a day where the workplace is being so gracious as to give away around $1000 worth of free food that somebody would be this ungrateful. However, it seems to be coming commonplace in this world of “me, me, me” and “more, more, more”.

There are millions of people in this country and even more around the world that are in dire need of a meal right now and we have fools like the one bitching and moaning about something as inconsequential as bacon bits. This customer didn’t deserve a free meal, even for working on Thanksgiving, because they clearly didn’t get the meaning of the entire day.

People need to learn to show a little bit of gratitude in their lives. Unfortunately, gratitude is something severely lacking sometimes in my place of work.     

 

Apocalypse Later

So the world’s going to end on December 21^st this year. At least that’s based on those who believe the world ending coincides with the ending of the Mayan calendar or those who believe one of the many other 2012 apocalypse myths and theories out there.

It amazes me how many people out there actually believe that the world will be ending this year. Being the reasonable person that I am I’m fairly certain that the world will continue on after December 21, though, being the habitual worrier that I am I do worry about the possibility of it happening and I’d love to spend the entire day in bed asleep just in case. Not that it matters in the long run, but it just seems more comfortable to end the world while you’re snoring away in the comfort of your bed. Maybe that makes me a boring and unadventurous person. I know many people would want to be witness to the end times.

Even though I believe that the world will keep spinning and people will continue on with their lives after the date hits, and a new Apocalypse day will certainly be created for the calendar (after all people, particularly Americans, are fascinated by the end of the world), I do believe that the world will probably end at some point. I don’t think (and certainly pray this to be the case) that the world will end in my lifetime. I’d like to live a full life to a very old age before I finally pass on. Death is the scariest thing imaginable to me (I don’t really want to or have the time to get into the reasons why) so I want it to come much later than sooner.

I think that the two most likely ways for the world to end would be 1) disease and 2) something to do with space.

I believe that it’s very possible for a deadly disease to one day wipe out the entire population of the earth (I could be very wrong, though, I don’t have science on this nor do I wish to look it up). This would be the more painful of the two ways to go and I would much rather prefer death by asteroid or some other space-related issue. In this scenario the world wouldn’t actually come to an end, but life would cease to exist on it (at least in human form).

The most common way that you see earth end in the movies (except for alien invasion, which I’m not dumb enough to believe would ever occur) is via giant asteroid, meteor, other planets colliding with earth, etc.) Something like this happening and destroying earth seems perfectly within the realm of possibility, but I wouldn’t count on it happening before this calendar year ends. If something colliding with earth and effectively ending it is ever going to happen than I’m confident that we will know about far ahead of time because of scientists. If we can land a rover on Mars than we can certainly see a giant rock hurdling toward us.

The world ending is really a moot point. I could die in my sleep tonight or I could die 75 years from now. I like the fact that we don’t know (for the most part) when we’re going to die. It’s comforting. This is the main reason that I don’t like apocalyptic dates. I don’t want my death scheduled, because being the way I am I’d worry about it non-stop until it finally occurred and that would be a terrible way to go out.

I do have to say this about those who do believe that the world is ending in 2012. If the world is ending in less than four months than well in the hell are you living your life the way you are? Why are you going to work or school every day? Why aren’t you partying or visiting loved ones or creating and attempting to accomplish things on a bucket list? It makes me think that you don’t really believe what you say you believe. If I thought the world was going to end on December 21 I would quit my job instantly and do whatever I wanted to do for the last four months of my life. I’d probably get around to writing all of the things I wanted to, but never got around to writing (even though that makes no sense – who’d read it when the world ended?). I’d enjoy spending time with all my loved ones. I’d watch all those great movies I’ve never seen. I’d go to the baseball hall of fame. I’d see the Atlanta Braves play one last time. And, I would go see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform in concert (wait, I’m actually going to do that one – maybe the world can end, after all?).

If you really think the world is coming to an end soon … act like it!  

  

You’re Going to Vote Republican & You’re Going to Like It

I was talking on the phone with my mom the other day when she informed me that my grandparents were going around to the whole family, especially the grandkids, who they must think are very impressionable and needing of guidance, and informing them to register to vote and to vote Republican in this year’s election.

My mom said that she’d pass along the statement to me, but that my grandparents should just be thankful that I wasn’t registered to vote. Oh, they certainly should! I’m somewhat glad they seemed to want her to pass along the plea to me, because had they done it straight to me I don’t think I could’ve faked my way through the conversation in a nice manner and telling your grandparents to “fuck off” is probably not the easiest thing to come back from.

There are so many directions that I could take this piece from this point that I’m not really sure where to go or where I should start, so this post is most certainly going to be a rambling string of stream of consciousness.

“You need to register to vote and vote Republican.”

You know I don’t really mind my grandparents or anybody else for that matter telling me that I need to register to vote, which I’m not. As one co-worker told me this week it’s my civic duty. Well, that may be the case, but it’s still nobody’s business, but my own. I’m glad that this country allows its citizens the freedom to vote, but it’s rightfully up to everybody to decide whether or not they want to. I don’t agree with that co-worker’s assertion that everybody should have to be registered to vote.

Why am I not registered to vote?

There are really multiple reasons, some of them good, some of them not. I’ll list three of them for the purposes of this piece (despite the fact that this isn’t really the reason why my grandparents’ statement is irritating as all hell.)

1. I’m really not all that political. This may come as a shock to many who frequently read my stuff or who know me as I always seem to have an opinion on things, especially those things that many people deem political. A lot of political topics just don’t interest me … at least at this time and place in my life (they may or may not develop as life goes on). I don’t care about fiscal issues, which seems to be a big one for many (especially conservatives). I care about human rights issues. I believe everybody should have the same rights and stuff along those lines.

2. My vote doesn’t matter. I know they say that every vote matters, but it’s simply not the case. If I were registered to vote my vote in the 2012 Presidential election would be cast for President Barack Obama. Living in Arkansas and voting for President Obama essentially wouldn’t mean a damn thing, except for personal reasons. Voting for President Obama in the incredibly conservative state of Arkansas, whom the majority of its people would probably rather see assassinated than re-elected, would simply be a waste of time. The personal significance of it wouldn’t mean enough for me to actually do it … which leads to my third point.

3. I’m too lazy (this is admittedly one of the not good reasons). If my vote won’t amount to anything in this state than why would I waste my time not only in voting, but also in registering to vote?

Now, I know my reasoning will and probably has already turned off a lot of the readers, whether they are conservative or liberal. Someone reading this right now is certainly thinking that I’m a horrible American. I’ll tell you what my mom told my grandparents, “just be thankful I’m not voting.”

I’m thinking I should have gotten to the main point of this piece and why what my grandparents said really pissed me off before my reasoning for not being registered to vote, but maybe somebody is still reading.

 

“You need to register to vote and vote Republican.”

My grandparents want me to vote Republican because they vote Republican. They want me to vote Republican because the entire family votes Republican. They want me to vote Republican because in their small-minded view Republican is right and Democrat is wrong. Conservative is purity and truth. Liberalism is villainy and falsehoods.

There is freedom to choose who you want to vote for in this country (or in my case not vote for) and nobody should attempt to persuade or force your hand into voting for somebody simply because they want that person in office over another. I’ll be 25 years old next month. I’m old enough and smart enough to make up my own mind and make my own decisions. I don’t need senile senior citizens, who likely won’t survive through the term of whoever is elected President, to punch my ballot for me.

I think one of the problems with this country is this exact thing. People of my generation haven’t so much decided which political party or stances they want to take for themselves, but have been guided to them by their families. They vote Republican or Democrat because mom and dad vote Republican or Democrat. In an article I wrote for the University of Central Arkansas student newspaper, The Echo, in my final semester on staff political science professor Gary Wekkin called this “a legacy” and “hierarchical.” It’s the family’s predecessors making up the minds of the future generations. When this happens we’re basically no more than robots or pawns that are bred to do what our elders saw best fit. It’s incredibly wrong, but unfortunately it’s incredibly popular and in place in this country. This is the same reason why things like racism and prejudices will never die, they are passed down from generation to generation in families.    

People need to make their minds up for themselves. That’s why things like my grandparents said are ignorant and infuriating.

If not being registered to vote and not voting Republican in 2012 means that my grandparents are going to disown me then so be it. I don’t quite like being owned anyway, and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do. 

          

'Anti-Gay Marriage Day' Disguised as 'Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day'

Today is Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, a de facto celebration for the national fast-food restaurant chain created by former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee that appears to be less about celebrating fast-food chicken and more about celebrating bigotry.

The day was created by Huckabee in response to protests and condemnations from people toward Chick-fil-A after its CEO Dan Cathy came out against gay marriage a few weeks ago.

Even though I realize gay marriage and homosexuality in general is a religious issue for some I stand by my statement that it’s bigotry. Anytime you support a group of people not having the same basic rights as others than it is bigotry. Because of this celebrating a restaurant chain for being against a certain group of people to have equal rights is, in fact, bigotry. It’s really no different, in my opinion, than if Taco Bell came out against heterosexuals or KFC came out against African-Americans or Asians or insert race/group of people here.

It sickens me to see politicians like Huckabee, Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum supporting Chick-fil-A for this reason. Do you really think these politicians are appreciating the restaurant for its chicken nuggets or chicken sandwiches? No. Huckabee, Palin and Santorum are supporting the chain because it shares the same close-minded and ignorant views that they do. They probably didn’t care about Chick-fil-A and might not have even eaten at the restaurant prior to Cathy’s statements.

Asking others to appreciate the restaurant with them is simply asking them to support in the bigotry of the event. It’s really not as much of a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day as it is an Anti-Gay Marriage Appreciation Day, and that’s pretty disgusting. Unfortunately, over a half a million people have accepted Huckabee’s Facebook invitation to Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and another 60,000-plus have given a ‘maybe’ answer. Now, I’m sure some of those people are oblivious to the situation and just like the restaurant’s food, but I’m also sure most of those people have simply joined in as a means of supporting the hatred.

People tend to use their religious beliefs as a means of supporting their bigotry or as an excuse for making their viewpoints seem right or appropriate to them. This is something that’s likely always existed and unfortunately probably always will, but seems to be more of an issue now than ever in a world that’s trying to change for the better, but struggling because at least half of the country allows religion to dictate political opinion.

Because of Mike Huckabee and other ignorantly minded people I’m sure Chik-fil-A is going to make a killing in sales today, but you couldn’t pay me to eat at that restaurant today or anytime, for that matter, because I refuse to give my money to a business that supports and makes money through the hatred of others.  

     

Second Amendment Couldn't Have Imagined Assault Rifles

Seventy people in Aurora, Colo. just wanted to see the biggest movie event of the year, “The Dark Knight Rises”, late Thursday night, but unfortunately because of one deranged man and some ludicrous American laws none of them got to finish that movie as 58 wound up shot or wounded and 12 lost their lives.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I do not want to take your guns away America. Though, I don’t ever plan on owning a firearm myself (because I think it could only lead to more bad than good) I don’t have anything against people who hunt or own guns for their own protection (though some people [George Zimmerman, etc.] take that right too far).

However, I will say that America should look into ways to control guns without infringing on those who live by the Second Amendment. It actually seems pretty simple to me.

The AR-15 isn't meant for hunting or necessary for protection. It's sole intention is killing.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States protects American’s rights to “keep and bear arms”. The original meaning of the Second Amendment was for the American public to retain the right to protect themselves. The meaning was never meant for Americans to have the right to murder.

This is where it becomes pretty simple to me … Americans should have the right to own guns, but not any gun they want. Guns that are typically used for hunting purposes (rifles, shotguns, etc.) or purposes for protection (handguns, any gun that’s also intended as hunting weapon) are fine by me. However, American citizens should not be allowed to own assault weapons, like the AR-15 assault rifle that James Holmes primarily used to gun down and kill innocent civilians in the Aurora movie theater.

Now, I know Holmes also had two handguns and a shotgun in addition to the assault rifle, all of which were purchased legally, but it’s the assault rifle that it appears caused so much harm and carnage late Thursday night.

Assault rifles really only serve one purpose … killing. Based on that there’s absolutely no damn reason why they should be legal in the United States. Illegalizing assault rifles would not infringe on the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens because they definitely aren’t used for hunting and they aren’t necessary for protection.

When the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791 there was no way that our founding fathers could have foreseen such a horrific thing as an assault rifle and if they had they might have thought twice about ratifying that amendment. As previously mentioned, I’m not for eliminating the Second Amendment, but should we really rely on something created over 200 years ago to dictate our world today.  

However, I know we likely won’t get anywhere in this country on gun control, even after Thursday night’s biggest mass shooting in U.S. history, because discussing gun control is essentially a curse for politicians. Republicans would never touch the issue, even if they believed in stricter gun laws, because of the all powerful National Rifle Association’s influence on the party and Democrats, many of whom likely believe in gun control, won’t approach the topic because they realize it could be a hindrance to their political careers.

We’re never going to see an end to gun deaths in this country, even though I’m a pretty big dreamer I know this will never happen, but we can do something to make the killing of mass peoples harder than it was on Thursday night.

Racist Ozark Tea Party Makes It Hard to Be Proud of My Hometown

*Note* I’m continuing my trend of finally writing about topics that interest me long after they initially broke. My apologies.

It’s a shame to be unproud of your hometown, but my hometown, Mountain Home, Ark., makes it pretty damn easy to be so.

For the second time in just a few years Mountain Home made national news for doing something extremely prejudiced. A few years ago the city made national news when the local Harps grocery store inserted a censorship sticker over rock and roll hall of famer Elton John and his husband David Furnish with their adopted child on a magazine cover.

A few weeks ago the city entered the news again when Ozark Tea Party board member Inge Marler told a racist joke at a Tea Party rally in Mtn. Home on June 9. Speaking in a fake black dialect Marler said:

“A black kid asks his mom, ‘Mama, what’s a democracy?’

“‘Well, son, that be when white folks work every day so us po’ folks can get all our benefits.’

“‘But mama, don’t the white folk get mad about that?’

“‘They sho do, son. They sho do. And that’s called racism.’”

The joke itself was disgusting enough, but the truly repulsive thing about the story is that the large crowd of around 500 people had a rather warm reaction to the joke, as reported by the local newspaper The Baxter Bulletin.

Not a single person in attendance stood up and said something or even walked out in disgust. Everybody just seemed to be OK with the racially insensitive joke. In fact, it wasn’t until being approached by a reporter of the Baxter Bulletin after the rally that Ozark Tea Party founder Richard Caster admitted that the joke was in bad taste.

This leads me to believe that Caster, who in 2010 became the youngest elected official in Arkansas history when he was elected to the Baxter County Quorum Court, is frankly incompetent at his leadership duties and should have effectively resigned his position. A true leader would have immediately realized the problem, condemned Marler’s joke and apologized for her actions and wouldn’t have waited until he realized that he’d been caught by the press to do so; Caster, by the way, on his website claims that he “will always lead my life with honesty, integrity and hard work.” His leadership in this situation doesn’t fit his statement.

Marler’s joke and Caster’s handling of it aren’t the only ones at fault in the situation. Anybody who laughed at the joke or really even remained in the audience after its telling was supporting racism and prejudices.

The fact that not a single person objected to the joke doesn’t mean that everybody in the room was a racist, but it does mean that they’re OK with racism, which is pretty much just as bad.

The Tea Party has a bad image all across the country for being racist or at least supporting racism. Despite the fact that many Tea Party members denounce this as fact; the Ozark Tea Party has done a damn good job at either proving the image to be true or at least furthering the image.     

Now, this is only one group of people in a city of over 12,000 residents, but there certainly seems to be a recurring theme of insensitivity, racism, prejudice and hatred in Mountain Home. When a city of this size is making national news multiple times in a short span for these reasons then there is a serious problem. I’d like to be proud of the city where I graduated high school and shared many of my most precious memories, but I can’t be proud of it right now.

It's Hard Out Here for a Cicada

I was witness to some pretty weird/interesting/cool (all wrapped into one) nature activity going on as I both walked into work on Wednesday morning and left work on Wednesday evening. As I walked from the parking lot in Conway Regional Medical Center, where I’m a cashier in the hospital cafeteria, I witnessed what I thought to be a rather large bee feasting on an upside down, deceased locust, with another dead locust close by its side. I found it both unique and horrifying at the same time, but didn’t really have time to stick around and watch as I stepped to the side of the flying insect’s meal in an attempt not to attract it to myself from its current prey.

Immediately upon seeing this I felt it would be a bad omen for the day at work. The day turned out to be extremely busy and long and certainly wasn't one of my favorite days ever at work, but it really wasn’t as bad as I expected. I figured that I was going to be the dead locust and the hospital would be the hungry bee; you know, because I think of allegorical shit like that when I’m sleepwalking into work.

After clocking out from the long day’s occupation I made the long trek to the very end of the parking lot and much to my amazement right in front of my eyes was a bee again (maybe the same one, maybe not) in flight with its dead locust prey attached to it, which was quite an impressive feat considering that the dead insect body was bigger than its hunter.

These images stuck with me and interested me enough to look this up when I got home. The primary thing bothering me about the entire thing was that I didn’t realize bees were carnivorous. Turns out bees aren’t carnivorous. After doing some Googling I found an entomologist who answered another person’s question (who must’ve been witness to similar strange sights as I) on Yahoo! Answers. The insect that I thought was a bee was actually a type of wasp simply called the cicada killing wasp (do you realize how much of badass you must be of a creature to be named after what you do/kill?). Oh, by the way, the dead insect wasn’t a locust either, but a cicada, which proves that I’m certainly no expert on insect life forms.

According to this entomologist the cicada killing wasp is a real bastard (OK, that’s my word, not his). He said: “The wasps dig a burrow in the ground, go off and sting and paralyze a cicada noisily strumming away high in the trees [this is what I witnessed before work] and then bodily fly it back [this is what I witnessed after work] to the burrow and carry it down in inside. The burrow has several chambers and several paralyzed cicadas are placed into each chamber (sounds like the serial killer of the insect world). One egg is laid on the last cicada placed in the chamber and the chamber is sealed.”

The relationship between the cicada and the cicada killing wasp is one that I think really represents life for myself and probably most of us in this world we live in. Some days you’re the cicada killing wasp conquering all and nothing can stop you and some days you’re the cicada being stung and paralyzed by all that surrounds you in life. Unfortunately, for me (and I’m sure most people I know) there are a lot more days that leave me feeling like the cicada than the cicada killing wasp. 

Some days you're the cicada killing wasp, but most you're the cicada.