JerseySmarts.com

The First Paycheck

Joe — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:10:20 +0000

Since I can’t remember the last time I put some jokes up on the blog, here is a humorous interlude brought to me by an e-mail forwarded from my Mom and brought to you by my benevolence. Enjoy!

First Pay Check
Here’s a truly heartwarming story about the bond formed between a little 5-year-old girl and some construction workers that will make you believe that we all can make a difference when we give a child the gift of our time and conversation.

A young family moved into a house, next to a vacant lot. One day, a construction crew began to build a house on the empty lot. The young family’s 5-year-old daughter naturally took an interest in the goings-on and spent much of each day observing the workers.

Eventually the construction crew, all of them ‘gems-in-the-rough,’ more or less, adopted her as a kind of project mascot. They chatted with her during coffee and lunch breaks and gave her little jobs to do here and there to make her feel important. At the end of the first week, they even presented her with a pay envelope containing ten dollars. The little girl took this home to her mother who suggested that she take her ten dollars ‘pay’ she’d received to the bank the next day to start a savings account. When the girl and her mom got to the bank, the teller was equally impressed and asked the little girl how she had come by her very own pay check at such a young age. The little girl proudly replied, ‘I worked last week with a real construction crew building the new house next door to us.’

‘Oh my goodness gracious,’ said the teller, ‘and will you be working on the house again this week, too?’

The little girl replied, ‘I will, if those assholes at Home Depot ever deliver the fuckin’ sheet rock.’

Kind of brings a tear to the eye – doesn’t it?

Ha ha ha ha! Hilarious! Made me laugh – hope it brought you a smile, too.

Another Ridiculous Piece of Fear-Mongering

Joe — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:25:33 +0000

Earlier today I heard yet another ridiculous piece of fear-mongering on FOX News’ 2-hour Saturday morning business block. I forget which of the half hour shows it was on, but one of the special guests made a comment that America is losing more than 20,000 jobs each day. Twenty-thousand jobs each day.

Really?

Let’s think about that in real figures for a minute. If America was losing 20,000 jobs each day, that would be 140,000 jobs lost each week. There have absolutely been horrible announcements about new sets of layoffs each week. But if this country was losing 20,000 jobs each day, that would mean that we’re losing 7.3 million jobs each year. Ahem…losing seven million, three hundred thousand jobs each year.

This is clearly not the case. Think about it in terms of real jobs: Wal-Mart employs about 2.1 million people; McDonald’s employs some 400 thousand; Home Depot employs about 330 thousand; Bank of America has around 172 thousand employees; and Macy’s has about 182 thousand people currently employed. Combined, you’re still looking at approximately 3,180,000 workers – less than half of what the woman on the show this morning was fear mongering about.

If you believe what this fear monger believes with respect to America losing jobs, then you might believe that more than double of the equivalent amount of total jobs provided by Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Home Depot, Bank of America, and Macy’s will be gone in a twelve month time period.

The economy is in a rough period right now and it might last for a few more weeks, months, or even years. But when people go around trying to sell fear like this it does nothing to help get the nation’s psyche back where it needs to be.

Anyway, check out New Jersey Carpet Cleaning for the best carpet cleaning in the Garden State!

Green Snobbery? I Don’t See It…

Joe — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:10:39 +0000

Earlier today I read an article on FOXNews.com entitled, “Green With Envy: Prius Owners Smile as Neighbors Fume.” The purpose of the article was to detail how some of the early adopters to the “green movement” are acting snobbish around their neighbors and friends. However, if you actually read the article, there really aren’t any concrete examples of this going on.

Plus, as someone who works in a twelve person organization where there are two Prius owners, I can tell you that there is no eco-snobbery going on in my office. My company, however, is moving aggressively into the sustainable energy, eco-friendly market. One of the start-ups that we met with last week is an “upcycling” company called TerraCycle. You may have seen their products at Home Depot, Office Depot, Walgreens, or at Wal-Mart or you may have seen their logo stamped on the back of Oreo or Capri Sun packages (among other places). This is a company based out of Trenton, New Jersey and they are doing some of the best adaptive reuse of garbage that I’ve ever seen.

Their legacy product – worm poop – is bottled in pre-used soda bottles. Their spray caps are models that companies like Windex no longer use that would have otherwise wound up in landfills. Their offices are stocked with used goods from tables to chairs to couches (I can vouch for this as I’ve walked through the place). I encourage you to click on the link above (or the one that is now a permanent part of this blog’s sidebar) to learn more about this amazing company! Click here if you want a review of their bathroom cleaner product.

But to get back on topic – I don’t see any eco-snobbery going on in my part of New Jersey. I think this is because in this state we’re all too busy to have our heads up our asses!