Please Hire Me

I see a lot of people complaining about being unemployed for months and years. One lady said recently they would not hire her because she had not worked within the last six months. Although she had eight years of solid experience she had not worked within the last six months. I guess I am lucky in some ways; I have no college diploma and have always been employed. I have never made over fifty thousand dollars a year. The combination of a military pension and two jobs brought me close to fifty thousand dollars for a couple of years. I have never had anyone to pay my way and no savings to live on. I could never wait around for the job I used to have that paid me the wage I was used to making.

I have applied for dozens of jobs that I have not obtained. Employers can use any excuse within the law not to hire you. We all know life is not fair; not in the employment arena, not in the work place, in school, or our daily lives. Why should we expect anything more? But we can be fair to ourselves by getting out and going to work. At least we are out in the world exposing ourselves to people and opportunities around us. I never had one good opportunity knock on my front door and say follow me. If I am out in the world I can tell peopleI meet what my skills are and what I am looking for in the line of employment.
You know the folks down at the unemployment office know what you are looking for. How has that helped you? Are you working? No one is going to work harder to help you than you. So what if you have to work for a wage less than what you desire. At least you are making a living while looking for the job of your dreams. Until next time.
Norm

War Not Worth It

            “Many U.S. veterans say Iraq, Afghan wars not worth it”~ Yahoo News. The problem with war is the road is not clear. There is always a cloud of suspicion about why a country wages war. Politicians throw out a lot of misinformation to confuse their citizens. After participating in the Persian Gulf War, I can say also it was not worth it. Not one service member I served with looked forward to going, but not one of us refused to serve. The problem I have with war is the cost in lives. The innocent men, women and children that are killed for a cause that is not clear. You might say the people of a country are not innocent. Ask yourself, if war was waged here without you wanting it are you guilty or innocent? The price we pay for war; in mental, emotional, and physical pain as well as tax dollars spent and lives lost makes no sense to me. Until next time.

            Norm

I Just Did Not Get It

I don’t understand what happened, I guess, I just did not get it. After graduating from high school I had a hard time finding a good job. The jobs I worked at were dead end jobs that paid little and supplied lots of grief. The boss normally was impatient and demanded more than he really deserved for the money he paid me. There was no pleasing the boss no matter what you did. He was not going to fire me because he would have to hire another person just like me. So I went from dead end job to dead end job with the same type of boss. I eventually joined the United States Air Force, but that is another story.

I did not want to go to college, I already had enough schooling to last me a long time. Unbeknown to me there were opportunities all around me; Vocational schools I could have attended to teach me a trade, Gas companies, Electrical companies, and Factories, to name a few. If I would have joined a local church or some of the other organizations in our community their members would have helped me sort things out. When my friends were given help by their families to gain employment, I was told not to even think about it. If we all had a job at the same place I would mess it up somehow for all of us. Out of desperation I joined the military.
I guess what I am trying to say is help your children sort things out and get on the right track. Get involved in your community for your children’s sake; there are people that can help them. Find out what opportunities are available in your surrounding area to help your children. Forget about yourself for a while and support not only your children but neighborhood children as well. You know who needs help.
Don’t make excuses about the economy or the government. We do not live in a perfect world; the problems we face today are not much different than what our parents or grandparents faced years ago. We are the only ones that are going to make life better for our families, community, and world. Until next time.
Norm

Respectable

There was a man who thought to himself, I am a good man. How can this be? He polled his friends to see if they agreed with his observation. They not only agreed but also realized they were respectable also. They asked each other how this could be. Together they decided they were not born this way. If a man is not born virtuous then how does he become what he is not?

There was a Sage that lived down in the valley. He was known far and wide for his wisdom. The man and his friends traveled down the valley to ask the wise man about goodness in mankind. The sage told them that not all mankind are upright in their ways. If this is so they asked, then why are some men good and some unjust. The wise man answered their question with a question. What are your daily practices? Immediately they understood why they were good. Their parents taught them by example and instilled in them righteous habits. They realized men do not wake up one morning and become upright or respectable. Being respectable is an ongoing lifetime process. Take the hill, become respectable! Until next time.

Norm

Self Improvement

A person should ask him or herself what it is they want to improve. Is it wealth, health, employment, or something else? After giving these things considerable thought, I felt I should improve myself first. I need to know me, who I really am and how I feel about important things in my life; How do I want to appear to others around me, What are my thoughts on government, the church, and my family. What values do I really want to adopt as my own? We as humans have the ability to make decisions on how we want to think, speak, and act. We have the ability to change our character at any time. If I’m not happy with what I see in myself I can re-create me. Maybe if I change me, all the other things will fall into place.  Sometimes the question “What is wrong with me” could be a fair question to ask yourself. To examine one-self might be to improve one’s self.     “I am not who I think I am, I am not what you think I am, But I am what I think, you think I am”~ Robert Harold Schuller. The quote above by Reverend Schuller really had an impact on me years ago.  I never thought about why I acted this or that way at any given time. I am like a leaf in the wind; I can be anything the world wants me to be. “If you want me to be Satan I can, if you want me to be Jesus Christ I can”~ Charles Manson. Call Charles Manson what you want, but don’t call him stupid. There is a lot of truth to his words. You have the power to be anything you want to be. How will you use it? Until next time.

Norm

Comments please

On the Yahoo News pages, there is a place to send in your comments on the subject matter. I love to read what my fellow readers write and send in. A certain percentage cannot spell which really cracks me up. These people are calling other people stupid and much worse, but cannot spell the words they are using to describe what they are trying to say.  Another percentage believes it is all one- sided and refuses to place equal responsibility on both sides. When it comes to other countries most of us never take the time to really explore why they act and think the way they do. Of course you always have the prejudice card thrown in along the way. If you want to see how uneducated, uninformed, and narrow minded America really is, please read the comment section under the Yahoo news pages. I hope this is not an accurate sample of the American mentality. If it is, America is failing its children miserably. Until next time.

Norm

There is a Spider

This morning my wife said “there is a spider, I wonder if it bites”? I said I do not know, but maybe you should kill it just in case it might. Now I do not like killing, as a rule I do not kill anything. This morning after my wife killed the spider I thought to myself, how would I feel if someone said “there is a Norm, I wonder if he bites”? We should probably kill him just because he might. If you do not believe we live in a violent world, pay attention to your thoughts next time you see a spider, fly or any type of bug. Until next time.
Norm

Let's Cut Some Hair

I got up this morning and when I looked in the bathroom mirror, I decided I needed a haircut. I got my mustache trimmer out and went to work. I trimmed the hair on the right side of my head and my trimmer went dead. Yep it is battery operated. My wife said, “Why don’t you just go spend ten bucks and get a hair cut?” I told her I could do it myself. I went and got the scissors out of the drawer in the china cabinet and went back to work. This time I trimmed the hair on the left side of my head. Well I took off too much and thought I had better quit. It does not look too bad if you do not look too close.
This is not the first time I thought I could cut hair. When our son Jeff was four years old, I cut his hair. No matter how you looked at his hair, it looked awful. I broke down and took him too the barbershop. I was wondering what I was going to tell the barber when we got there. I had thoughts of telling Jeff to tell the barber his mother did it. I knew if I told him that he would tell the barber I cut his hair. We all know little kids are painfully honest and I did not want him to tell I cut his hair. Anyway, we went into the barbershop and set down. We sit there a little while and they called Jeff to get his haircut. The first thing the barber asked was who cut this kids hair. Jeff must not have been paying attention because I said his mother cut his hair and Jeff never said a word. As we left the barbershop, the barber told me to keep his mother away from his hair. So I am pretty much thinking I might be able to point the finger at you know who when I go to get my next haircut. Until next time.
Norm

Raisins

Marie told me she had to stay out of the candy. Marie is my wife if you do not know it. I told her she would not eat anything good for her like raisins. She asked, “Have you ever read the nutrition facts on raisins? “ There were two boxes of raisins setting on our coffee table so I picked up a box and took a look at it. Right away, I lied to her about the nutritional facts on the side of the box. I told her total fat, sodium, total carb, fiber, sugars, and protein was all zero. I asked, “Do you believe that?” She said “no.” I then told her total fat was 0 gram, sodium 10 mg, total carb 33g, fiber 2g, sugars 30g, and protein 1g. Marie asked me “do you like raisins?” I said “not especially.” Then a thought come to me. I told her when I was a kid mom kept a box of raisins in the cupboard. When there was no candy in the house, I would get into the raisins and eat them. My next thought was my father would have had a fit if he knew I had my grubby little hands in the raisins.
Until next time
Norm