stay away,,,

I try not to pay attention to market reports and economic news...it's depressing and it's something I have no control over. I just need to keep on trying to make more than I spend right now. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about losing my job.

But one thing I read yesterday made me pretty upset. If you know me at all, you know I strongly dislike Walmart. There are many reasons - economic impact on local small businesses, poor pay and benefits for employees, extremely high distribution of goods made in sweatshops in oppressive areas...not to mention how crowded and crazy-huge all the stores are. I've only shopped there about 4 times in the past 5 years I think.

Anyway, I read an article yesterday saying that in these difficult times, Walmart is making more and more money. "It is our time. We are well prepared at Wal-Mart," Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott said. It's Walmart's time? That sounds scary. I understand that as money gets tighter, it sounds great to save money at a store with cheap prices. But in my economically-uneducated mind, doesn't it seem that more people shopping at Walmart will only put more small companies out of business which will lead to more unemployment which will lead to worse economic times which will lead to us all working at Walmart because they are the only ones hiring?

So here's why I care about this story. There is something I can control here, unlike most economic troubles. I can keep away from that store especially during this Christmas season where they make something like 50% of their annual sales. I can buy from small businesses in my area and online. I can look for toys for my kids that aren't made in China of cheap, led-painted plastic. I can be creative in what I give to others, maybe even making some of it myself. Sure, my kids may not have a plethora of gifts under the tree. We may pay more for fewer gifts. But at least I'll feel good about what I give.

cell phones are ruining American values...

In order to get from our neighborhood to the freeway (or interstate as it's called in these parts), I cut through a little trailer park neighborhood. Some of the properties are in pretty bad shape, but there are some people there who seem to take pride in how their property looks (mostly doublewides that have been turned into permanent homes with nice landscaping).

Anyway, there is an older couple who rock in large, white rocking chairs on the front porch most days. I see them almost daily either on my way to or from work and without fail, I get a friendly smile and a wave from the kind, old man. I am always sure to wave back so that he might not think I'm one of those Damn Yankees that's moved to the area and is creating a ton of traffic through his neighborhood. And honestly, it makes me feel good when I get a chance to wave to him. It reminds me of how simple life should be compared to how complicated I can make it. How often do I take time to rock and enjoy a nice morning while greeting passersby?

At any rate, the other day on my way to work, I waved to the gentleman, and I got no response! What?!? How could this be? I mean, he was looking straight at me with no smile? Was I driving too fast or something? Then I saw it. He had was talking on his cell phone! Sheesh. I thought we had reached a new low when I overheard a guy talking on the phone while sitting in a public restroom stall, but this is the worst! The heart of American values has been ripped out and thrown on the floor by cell phones!

mixed feelings about the Olympics...

Sarah and I got to watch some of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics last night. What an amazing show! I could hardly believe the scope of the performances and the coordination of the thousands of dancers. I'm always blown away when I watch the parade of nations as well. It's crazy to see representatives from countries across the world, some at war with one another, and some countries whose names I've never heard! There was one country represented (whose name I can't recall) whose population is only about 71,000 people. There were over 91,000 people attending the ceremonies!

However, as I watched, I kept getting mixed feelings and I found myself having a difficult time enjoying the show. The Olympics is supposed to be an inspiring time. It's supposed to be a time of unification of the world. Yet, China has done a lot of things in the recent past and it continues to do things that the NBC commentators are not going to cover during the Olympic broadcasts.

I'm sure many of you know more about this than I do, but I have heard so many unjust things that China has done to make themselves look better for the games. For instance, they went around to several poor areas in Beijing, kicked people out of their homes and tore down unsightly houses. In a news story I saw a few weeks ago, some of these homes housed several generations of families that did not have enough money to find new housing. They did not know where to turn. The government has banned many groups of people including the mentally ill to avoid any disruptions.

Of course, there also are the human rights violations in Tibet. I also just read that China recently revoked a US athlete's visa because he is outspoken on China's involvement in the genocide in Sudan. Evidently, a recent study showed China has been supplying 90 percent of the weapons to the Khartoum in Sudan. I had no idea!

I know the Chinese people have little to do with this and we can enjoy the games and the celebration of the Chinese culture. I mean, the Chinese make up about 1/5 of the world's population! But I feel like I'm finally getting an understanding of the Chinese government and why so many people are upset about the Games being hosted there this year. I also find myself torn on President Bush attending the opening ceremonies. Sure, I think it is noble of him to go in support of our athletes. I think that is extremely important. But I also think his absence would have made a notable impact on foreign relations that might have transcended sports. It's tough to say what the right decision was, but he went and we can't change that.

So I don't really have any conclusions about this whole topic, other than the fact that I have mixed feelings. Hopefully, the Games will provide lots of good drama and inspiration. But, hopefully, they'll also shed some light on some unfortunate circumstances in our world that need to be changed.

funny post...

I came across this posting in the free section of Craigslist this morning and had to share. I love what people post up for free. If any of you out-of-towners are interested in this stuff, let me know and I'll grab it for you and put it in the mail!

boyfriend left these behind...want anything?

He ran off and left these things behind. I saw her picture on his IM identification, and she's not that pretty, so I'm guessing she had nicer furniture and lived closer to where he works.

I threw away the toothbrush and the rest of the Head and Shoulders, but the Axe Bodywash is nearly full, and the Polo cologne is half full. You can also have the shaver, though it is fairly used.I could clean it up a bit for you.

The Wrangler carpenter jeans are in good condition, waist 29/length 30.He tied a string to two belt loops to hold them up, but I can cut that off. The long sleeve maroon stripe shirt is a medium, short sleeve blue Hawaiian shirt a large, both in decent shape. The socks and briefs look fairly new, but could use a run through the washer. Cut off shorts a bit ragged, but wearable around the yard.
I want nothing more to do with his stuff, but it seemed a shame to just throw it all out.
There is also a deck of cards, I think the Jack of Spades is missing.

phunny speld wurds...

Being a special ed teacher and a journalism major in college, I have to say I really enjoy seeing misspellings in funny places. I have to laugh sometimes when students misspell words in their writing. For example, a student last year wrote an entire paper about how he "licked" a girl. It disturbed me at first until I realized he meant "liked." I really enjoyed Los Angeles where so many businesses were run by immigrants and they tried their hardest to advertise their services in their new language. Those provided some of the best entertainment. I have to say, however, that I am not a perfect speller either. Just a month ago when I launched my new photography website, I sent the link out to some friends for their opinions. A good friend who majored in English wrote back and said, "Pete - I like the site, but what is a potrait?" Unfortunately, photoshop doesn't have spell check that I know of and on my main graphic, I had misspelled portrait. It happens. But here's a good rule of thumb: when you're going to a protest, you should get a few people to check out your sign before you start yelling:

And if you're painting on a permanent surface such as a road, you might want to double-check yourself:

yahoo vs. google

So, I've been a huge fan of google for the past few years, namely because of gmail and picasa. However, I must say that yahoo really impressed me tonight and I'm thinking I might have to switch. If you search for Peter Davis in google, my blog shows up somewhere on the 5th or 6th page behind some name-stealer who wrote a book about Hitler's mustache! However, if you conduct a similar search on yahoo, their ingenious software brings my name up on the 2nd page! Obviously, yahoo is a much smarter program. We'll just have to teach google a lesson. I'm calling on an official boycott of google until I reach the top! If you consider yourself a devoted reader of this blog, then join me in my quest to bring google down! Once they realize my profound influence on the blogosphere, they'll have to list me at the top of a Peter Davis search.*

*Mr. Google, if you're reading this, please don't delete my gmail account...I really like it.

you thought gas was expensive...

So you think $4 for a gallon of gas is expensive? Try $100 for a cup of coffee! Now before you caffeine lovers run out and stockpile your garage with coffee beans, don't worry. I'm not predicting a coffee shortage. I'm talking about the most rare coffee in the world, Kopi Luwak.

Never heard of Kopi Luwak? I hadn't either until a few months ago. Even during my two years as a coffee master at Starbucks, I never ran across this one. So you ask, how can this coffee be worth $100/cup? Oh, you're not really asking that. Well, humor me. Go ahead, ask.

Well, I'm so glad you asked! You see, there are only about 450 lbs. of this coffee harvested each year. This beautiful Indonesian creature called the Palm Civet, which is a mix between a cat and a monkey, eats the beans which are mellowed in the camonkey's stomach and mixed with everything else a camonkey eats. Once nature takes its course and the beans pass, the beans are harvested, roasted, and brewed. mmmmm.....

Now, I've often thought about who the first person was to try certain foods. For instance, who was the first person to eat an egg? "Wow, did you see that white thing pop out of the bottom of that chicken? I think I'll crack it open and eat it!" We eat some pretty crazy foods that had to have originally been chosen out of desperation. However, why in the world would someone try to brew some coffee made from camonkey poop? That is just plain wrong.

shooting into space...

Hmmmmmm....
I am intrigued, perplexed, frustrated, and somehow slightly amused by this story about the malfunctioning satellite that will be falling to Earth sometime in March. In case you haven't heard, a US spy satellite packed with rocket fuel and top-secret imaging equipment that was sent into orbit in December 2006 never worked. It's been falling to Earth ever since it was released, but it's supposed to enter the atmosphere sometime next month. The military's response? Blow the dang thing up! Why am I not surprised?

I guess that probably is safer to shoot it out of the sky than risking big pieces of it hitting populated areas. I just read, however, that the mission to shoot it down, scheduled for Thursday, is going to cost about $40 million to $60 million!!!! So you're telling me that a top-secret satellite that took about a kabillion dollars to build and shoot into space takes $60 million to blow up? And once again, we wonder why our country is in such bad shape economically! Just think if we would have had that kabillion dollars plus the blow-up money for something like, oh I don't know, health care for the poor. Or counseling services for our troops coming home with PTSD. Or debt relief. Or road improvement projects in Charlotte. I really like the thought of that last one!

Oh, and by the way, it seems that we're not too confident that the first $60 million blow-up will work. It might take a second shot. Maybe this is what we get for being so nosy. hmmmmm.......

think twice before you steal...

I just read an article about a 33 year-old man who was caught stealing flea dip at a pet store. For his crime, he has to walk in front of the store for two hours per day wearing a sign saying that he stole and he was caught for the next few days. When asked if this will make him think twice before he steals again, he responded by saying, " I think twice before I steal always, I was just in a situation, and I messed up. I mean I ain't gonna steal no more."

I am glad that he always thinks twice before he steals.

Another reason our government is broke...

Below is an excerpt from an article on cnn.com about a government program providing $40 coupons to us poor Americans who can't afford to upgrade our TV's to HDTV in time for the switch from analog TV that is taking place next year. My additions to the article are in bold.

"Congress, in ordering the transition to digital broadcasting, set aside $1.5 billion (that's billion with a capital B) for the coupon program, which will fund 33.5 million coupons and other costs.

The giveaway basically works under the honor system. (that sounds dangerous)

The first 22 million coupons will go to all households that request them. That includes a residence that gets cable service for one television but has a spare TV that still uses an antenna, for example. (oh, those poor suffering Americans with only one TV wired to cable or satellite)

The rest of the coupons, however, are meant only for those who do not subscribe to a pay-television service."

Hmmmm....what else could we do with $1.5 billion?

750,000 teachers could get a $2000 raise. We could buy about 2 million computers for classrooms. We could drill 1 million wells in Africa providing sanitary water to drink. You get the idea. So, if you know me well, you know I don't really watch TV. Reading about the money our government is spending to lead people to sit on their couches and watch ads that force them to grow more discontent with their small 35" analog TV's so that they throw the old ones away and buy newer, bigger HDTVs with their credit cards and go deeper in debt makes me not want to watch TV at all (except for Virginia Tech football and The Simpsons, of course)!