By Earth Day of 2008, Whole Foods will eliminate disposable plastic grocery bags.  Instead, WF will offer 99 cent “Better Bags” made out of recycled plastic bottles or you will get a refund of at least 5 cents per bag you bring in to use with your groceries. 

My brother sent me a very well written article pertaining to mortgages and saving for the future.  It covers many of the misconceptions and disbeliefs that we’ve all come to think about when working with mortgages.  The article gives the example of two brothers — one has the old-school ‘pay off your mortgage immediately’ mentality, while the other believes in better investing elsewhere and other saving methods.  The article is definitely worth the reading time.

How the Affluent Manage Home Equity to Safely and Conservatively Build Wealth (PDF) by Steven Marshall and Mike Lowe

Receiving a bonus and a 3% raise in one day is a great thing.  Cheers.

(Thanks, Rachael)

The other day I went to see my doctors pertaining to my ongoing issues with sleeping and seeing various people, objects, animals, so on and so forth, in my bedroom when I wake mid-sleep. I’m typically embarrassed to speak of such issues, but talking about it with my fiance has greatly improved my issues — however, they do still occur; just not as violent. Hopefully writing about it through this outlet will help, as well.

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When you work full time, and you’re used to waking up and sleeping at certain hours, being awake at 12:38am really feels more like 4:38am.

Fuck me, tomorrow is going to be a LONG day.  Growing up is SO overrated.

I’ve decided to finally speak of my previous place of work — mainly because I don’t work there any more, and also because I’m currently in a great job that I actually really enjoy. 

Previously, I worked for the Rutgers University New Brunswick Computing Services.  I was employed as an Assistant Lab Supervisor for the Livingston Computing Center.  My daily tasks included making sure the consultants were providing great customer service, maintaining an array of computers and printers, and providing adequate documentation for our team on various topics.  The job was quite enjoyable, mainly because of the people I worked with on my level (other ALS) as well as the consultants below me.  It was also quite enjoyable due to the fact that the pay rate was highly competitive and I was allowed to work plenty of overtime. 

The managers at NBCS, except for my assistant manager, were almost clueless.  They were all typically very nice, and they all, for the most part, wanted to see you succeed.  However, most of them had no idea how to run such a large organization.  Now, I’m sure if I was in their situation, I wouldn’t know how to run the organization, either.  So, my point in this entry is to shed some light on what was occuring when I left.

You know how when you were little, you’d set up a mock business, play store, or even play house?  You’d over dramatize the “events” that were occuring, make bogus rules and regulations, and pretend things did or did not exist.  You would also pretend to over-teach as you were “teaching” a classroom.  You’d also punish your employees for actions that weren’t entirely their fault (oh man, that was a good one). 

Well, all of the above techniques were used throughout NBCS.  It was like one large playground — lets over-teach, lets be really dramatic, lets make bogus rules and regulations, and let us definitely not trust our employees.  It turned out that many of the managers came straight out of college (mainly Rutgers) and into the manager position.  And as such, I don’t think anyone really captured that ‘entry-level’ mentality that builds great managers and supervisors.  Many ALS (all students) left very dissatisified with their stay at NBCS — many claiming much of what I’m claiming, as well. 

It’s sad because there are one or two managers (read: assistant manager) who actually do the right things for the the right reasons.  Yet, they’re being held back by those at other campuses who a) don’t like change b) are racist fucks and c) have huge egos.  Those one or two individuals?  I did learn a lot from, and I value everything that they taught me during my years there. 

But, it’s the other ones which result in my having a bitter taste in my mouth — and many other former student supervisors.  I suppose the managers just don’t know any better, since they haven’t experienced anything other than NBCS in their lives, in terms of work experience. 

Lately, I’ll be speaking with someone having a full conversation and or interaction.  But when I walk away and get to wherever it is I was going, I cannot remember what had just transpired.  I typically remember the points of these conversations, but I cannot remember exactly what I said or the feelings I was feeling while conversing.  Is this normal?

For instance, I walked over to my manager today to ask if it would be okay if a colleague and I could switch our work hours.  She said yes.  Some conversation filler was in there.  I said thank you, and I walked back to my desk.  As soon as I sat down, I couldn’t remember what exactly was said — did I mumble, or did I call her by a different name? 

Do we typically remember these details?  I feel like as of lately, I forget these details — like there’s a mental block not letting me even probe my brain.  I don’t quite think I’ve encountered this before, especially not as frequest as the last few weeks.  Maybe I’m just getting old. 

But perhaps this is just normal as you age, and it’s just my brain forgetting the irrelevant details in order to capture the underlining goals, facts, and transactions.  When I was younger, I’d forget to do common tasks and chores — I’d forget to burn a cd for my father, or I’d forget to take out the trash, or I’d forget what I was suppose to do for homework. 

Perhaps, indeed, it’s just my brain maturing and or aging. 

Having a stiff neck is absolutely the worst thing in the entire world. Well, besides listening to that horrible Weather Channel music over and over again.

Seriously. I don’t know about you, but I strictly go to the Weather Channel for weather updates — I don’t pay attention to that elevator music playing in the background. Apparently, some folks like it. And by some folks, I really mean, more than likely, old folks which flip between the Weather Channel, Judge Judy, and Girlfriends on UPN.

But hey, at least it plays more music than MTV these days.

Google has planned to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in coming years to promote a move to encourage cheap renewable electricity. 

This is certainly what the world needs, and I’m surprised it has taken this long for a large company to open the financial doors to other sources of renewable energy.  But, it has finally come, and I feel, for the most part, that Google is the right company to be pushing this initiative. 

Google, thus far, has been able to challenge the tech industry with it’s search engine capabilities, web-based mail applications, and it’s various other services and tools.  Google applying this same creativity and innovation to the energy market will only benefit everyone — cheaper energy, less toxic emissions, etc. 

This comes in a time when the “clean coal” advertising schema are starting to appear throughout the media.  These schemes are making it appear that “clean coal” is much safer, and cleaner, than traditional coal.  Unfortunately, this isn’t entirely true.  “Clean coal” may be cheaper than others, but it’s certainly not “cleaner.”  It still produces many hazardous and toxic byproducts.