Florida Man hates Triangle Man

… lives his life in a garbage can…

Florida, man…

I am constantly amused by the fear of IDENTITY THEFT


it's a thing, sure - I myself had my identity stolen. Twice in fact. One was a pypal scam and the second was my discover card being used to buy gas and take cash advances.

Both times it was a hassle, but I ultimately lost 0 dollars. I know that's not always the case, , but generally it seems to be.

The real theft, tho, is corporate grift. My 5 year old LG refrigerator has ceased refrigeration. I am a prisoner of Wells Fargo bank these last 20 years and they and every other credit card company is guilty of usury upon me and all of their "customers". We are made to fear scammers of all varieties, but the real scam is out in broad sight. 

As yet unused pun names for hair salons

Please feel free to make use of the names below for your own future endeavors for a small, one-time fee*:

• Hair Brains
• Hairstory
• Ken Sideburns': Haircut
• Locks, be a Lady Tonight!
• The Mane Idea
• You Want Mane-Ease on That!?

* Please deposit $8.35 into the Paypal account associated with this blog for use of any of the above names.  Fees are to be paid only one time and you will then own all rights associated with the name of your particular shop.  Note, if your shop goes out of business and you open another shop by the same name, you will need to pay the fee again, but if you relocate your business without dissolving the business, you may use the same name at the second shop.  Also, you may add "II" or "Too" to any of the above names when opening a second location for no additional charge.

Why You Should Major in English

In a couple recent conversations I've had with some colleagues and a student in my 101 class, i've come to a realization that really has no business being a realization at all (because it's so obvious): English, as a discipline, is really bad at marketing.

The thing is, though, that I'm not convinced that English should be bad at marketing. In a recent conversation with setherick, i brought up my "new" concept of "Applied Metaphorics", which he explained to me was, essentially, a marketing major.  I disagreed with this, having taken some marketing coursework in my undergrad, and having discussed a variety of homework that my business, advertising, and marketing majors in my comp classes are assigned.

Near as I can tell, the business and marketing courses at most mainstream colleges and universities has not changed much. Sure, it's added a  squalling assurance that 'social media is the relevant', but otherwise the courses seem, essentially, to teach young people to fill out paperwork. 

Produce a marketing plan, put together a proposal or (arf) a PowerPoint proposal. What's missing, of course, is thought. 

*  *  * 

Now of course, professors of marketing and students thereof and such will object: "...but SWOT analysis and Marlow's hierarchy of needs" &ct., and yes, these are concepts which are learned and internalized, which is well and good as part of a curriculum. 

What English offers that few other disciplines do - you can find it in Philosophy, and well taught History and Psychology courses - is a course of study that questions the underlying assumptions, both of itself and anything that it takes aim at.  This process of inquiry is a great basis for any course of study.

I heard someone at an academic conference (or maybe it was an English class...) once opine that English was the fundamental discipline.  That any other course of study could fit within our purview, and (almost) before you start to work in any other area, you need to "do an English class" on it, and be sure that your terms and underlying assumptions were solid before proceeding.  Someone else had the thought that Physics was in fact the fundamental discipline.  I love this idea, although I think the way that sciences are taught, it can't be used in the way that it naturally would fit.

So, as you're looking at a course of study - consider English... I know when I am looking through resumes and trying to find someone who stands out, a humanities degree, and especially an English degree, make me look a little more carefully at their other experience and qualifications - regardless of the position.

(the second section was composed on 8/27/17 - finally semi-finishing this thought...)

The Pareto Principle states: “Most businesses know that 80 percent of their revenue comes
from 20 percent of their clientele.”



"Learn and capitalize on people's issues -- whether it be their children, health or career desires." (Wall Street ** Update 14 November 2009 **, I honestly don't know {and am too lazy to look up} whether this is from Wall Street the movie, or if I just hadn't typed "Wall Street Journal" yet, or what...

I have no clue what I wanted to write about here... but i'll leave these two quotes from "business types" to speak for themselves. And see what we might do with them.

Roman Numeral J Greatest Hits: 7 May 2007 - 18 June 2007

Throughout most of the month+ prior to my previous post I had a lot of fine ideas for blog entries, but just never got around to blogging them... I'm sure many of you wasted precious moments checking the blog for updates and i want to try and make it up to you, Faithful Reader, by providing you with a sampling of discarded blog entry ideas, that never came to fruition. Enjoy!

I Would Like to Be a Sell-out
Over Memorial Day Weekend, brooke & i decided we needed to lighten our load before the move to Milwaukee and we had a neighborhood yard sale, at which we tried (and to a large extent succeeded) to sell off several of our large items and a good many small pieces of crap.
We advertised in the World Herald (and oddly enough got free Whopper coupons because of it) and people came from all over to view and haggle over our garbage.

At the time it occured to me that i was simultaneously selling a good many books and was pretty well willing to part with almost anything i own for the right price. I'm not into stuff... i'm just into money.

So, my idea was that i would try and market a sweet cruiser bike, a versatile glass-top desk, and some of my books on Amazon Marketplace in an attempt to make a little money off the blog...

Suddenly It's all Good

I meant for this post to be about how just as we were preparing to leave Omaha, everything about it seemed to be getting better and better.

The farmer's market produce was improving, getting better produce each week, the weather was lovely, the College World Series was just getting underway and Shakespeare on the Green was looming. At the same time, we were mentally preparing ourselves for taking what would likely be our last leave of Omaha by going to all the bars, restaurants, and events we'd always meant to get to, but somehow missed like Taste, Tanduri Fusion (which we highly recommend), and Omaha's most recent addition, The Slowdown.

The Slowdown is Saddle Creek's new facility and their grand opening featured a number of great hipster bands (Connor Oberst played a "secret" Thursday night pre-opening show). The place is fantastic, with a balcony, pit & ample seating both near and away from the music (so you can actually have a conversation while a bad band is playing...) Slowdown also features games to play, pool, and some of those sweet garage door-style windows for nice days and would be great for seeing a band at or just hanging out at. The crowd, at least those first two days, wasn't the typical Saddle Creekers, however, mostly, i think, because it was too clean and not enough of a dive...

The crowd was a mix of older folks who go to check out all the new "things & events" in Omaha and the exceedingly young variety of hipster who are convinced nobody who goes to Sokol drinks, they just go to dance... Then there was another type of person who i couldn't quite place... the sort of person who handed me this invite to a kegger, because he butted in fron tof me at the bar. But the music was fun, the lines were long, definitely cool stuff

Taste of Joel & Brooke

This was always going to be an ill-fated entry, but i had the idea to do a brief tour of all the food we'd had recently... Mostly at Taste of Omaha, which happened just before we left (see "Suddenly It's All Good"), Taste of Clinton (which featured somewhat less food and some last minute restaurant visits - really, it would have been a waste of your time, so it never materiealized.


Well, now you're all caught up with Roman Numeral J, thanks for riding along...