Saturday, June 16, 2012
Fire Island (Sunken Forest)
My favorite place to go in the summer is Sunken Forest at Fire Island. I love the fact there is never anyone else around and I feel like I have the whole beach to myself. The only drawback is that it takes forever to get there and it's gotten ridiculously expensive compared to how much it cost just a few years ago. I think now it's $29, whereas a few years ago it was $14.50. It's double in price in three years. Ugh. Otherwise, it's like a mini-vacation. I just walk up and down the beach looking for pretty rocks and shells. I'm thinking of going there tomorrow, but we'll see...
Thursday, June 7, 2012
We the Corporations...?
There are two ways in which money has destroyed our democracy and the entire political system. The first is the easiest and most straightforward way- buying politicians who are already in office. When corporations or special interests "donate" to those politicians, there are specific strings attached. Once a corporation buys a politician, they own them. Then they simply direct them on how to vote when it comes to legislative bills. Individual citizens can never hope to raise enough money to buy legislation and compete with the massive and continuous flow of money available to huge corporations.
A corporation is made up of people, but a corporation is not a person. A gang is made up of people, but a gang is not a person. A union, a school, a hospital are all made up of people, but none are or are representative of an individual person. Collectively, any of these groups is obviously larger and more powerful than any one person, but none of these groups' primary purpose is political activism. Corporations provide goods and/or services. Unions represent workers. Schools educate students. Hospitals care for the sick and injured. None of these groups should have an "extra" say in our political system, but especially corporations. The goal of a corporation is to make money. There is nothing wrong with that, until it goes wrong. When corporations do things that hurt the public or the environment or buy politicians in order to enact legislation that helps them be more profitable- that's when things go wrong.
The second way money has destroyed democracy is more complicated, but it involves actual elections. The sickening amount of money spent on attack ads and trying to discourage certain groups from voting and suppressing voter turn-out. One national trend going on right now is individual states trying to suppress the Latino/Hispanic vote by creating laws that require a person prove citizenship before being allowed to vote. While this may discourage illegal immigrants from voting, it also discourages legal immigrants as well. The right has an amazing ability to rile people up and get them motivated enough to get up off their fat asses and vote. They do this by tapping into their base's hatred and bigotry. The people on the right hate Obama so much and are so angry and do not want him to win again so much that I predict they will be showing up in record numbers in the upcoming presidential election, while the people on the left have become so disenchanted and disappointed with Obama, there is no way they will show up in the same numbers they did in 2008. The republicans have dominated the debate no matter what the issue and no matter what it means for the country. They are experts at taking over and twisting an issue to their favor and they are never called out or punished for their tactics, which often involve outright lies. Republicans are admirably united and unwavering in their talking points and stance. Democrats are so weak and so pathetically incapable of fighting back or uniting or taking a stand, they are utterly useless. What bothers me the most is that despite the fact Obama has been more to the right than Bush and Reagan, the republicans have succeeded in convincing a huge portion of the American public that he is a far-left, liberal, progressive, socialist. I am not going to vote for Obama not because he IS any of those things, but because he is not. No, that does not mean I am voting for the alternative, and should my non-Obama vote mean that the other side wins, so be it, but that is not my fault.
And this is how I arrive at wondering what's the point and why should we bother anymore. Even if Obama wins, it's still Obama and Obama is not progressive, not liberal, not even a democrat. There is no candidate who represents me and my values and my views and even if there were, once elected, there is no reason whatsoever to assume they would govern that way. I've written about this before, but I honestly believed in Obama. I believed him and his campaign promises, his promises for the country and to not have "politics as usual," I believed in his message of hope and I felt excited for the future. I'm embarrassed at how naive I was and my cynicism is bordering on turning into complete indifference. I find it very hard to believe there is any way to win back democracy without having the country fall so hard, it leaves no other choice but for the people to take it back, but even then I have my doubts.
Every time I hear about the millions and billions being spent on campaigns and Super PACs, I can't help but think how awesome this country could be if that money was actually spent on something real- like high-speed rail or just improved public transportation, infrastructure, education and research, technology, science, even a fucking awesome theme park, for crying out loud! Anything other than "air space" to spew bullshit. If all those corporations and super rich "donors" reinvested that money into their employees, into improving their products, into the public sector, into making the country better for EVERYONE, this country could be better than ever and a place to be proud of again. If we could get true campaign finance reform and get the money out of politics, corporations and the rich "donors" would save a lot of money or they could choose to spend it elsewhere. It's not as though they would lose as this is not about anti-capitalism. It's just about having a fair and just political system where the individual citizens have the most powerful voice and we decide how the country is run and most importantly, the politicians WE elect, represent US- you know, as in, "We the people..." Remember that?
FedEx World Service Center Bronx, NY
FedEx World Service Center
670 East 132nd Street, Bronx, NY 10454
(6/18/2010) I wasn’t home for the delivery and usually the FedEx guy calls me and we coordinate, or if for some reason he can’t reach me, he leaves it at my door or he knows my downstairs neighbors will take it. Maybe it was a different guy today, but I can't wait until Monday for the package so I'm thinking, OK, I’ll go pick it up at the Bronx location. I don’t know my way around the Bronx, but how bad can it be since it’s a FedEx World Service Center? I tried to get directions from hopstop. Their first direction after exiting the subway is to turn right on “unknown street.” Wtf is that?! Next, I tried google. I kept thinking there was a problem with the map because there were no streets listed, but obviously it’s not a technical glitch. I don't know what to do. I need my package, but I don't want to go to some sketchy neighborhood in the Bronx, especially alone! Plus, I get lost really, really easily. I don’t really have a choice but to go, so when (if) I return later tonight, I will write another review and tell you what happened. If I don’t write again, you know I never made it back…
Update: I made it! OK, I went and I took photos too so I am going to post them here so people know what to expect. First of all, it wasn’t as difficult to find as I had anticipated, but that is only because I finally got decent directions by combining directions from FedEx and studying the map before I went. Prepare for a strange, long walk though. It IS in the middle of an empty field and it’s definitely in the middle of nowhere. Here are the directions from the subway that worked for me.
Directions:
1. Take the 6 train to BROOK AVENUE (& E 138 St.)
2. When you exit the subway station, walk South on Brook Ave towards E 137 St.
3. Keep walking south several blocks until you get to BRUCKNER BLVD.
4. Make a LEFT onto BRUCKNER Blvd and you will hit ST. ANN’S AVENUE (which runs parallel to Brook Ave.)
5. At St. Ann’s, cross Bruckner Blvd and continue going South until you get to the next block (which I think is E 132 St.)
6. You will see a little red guard booth in front of what looks like the entrance to a parking lot or the back entrance to a building. Walk towards the guard booth.
7. You can ask the guard to point you in the right direction or just walk past him as if you were a car driving into the “lot” and turn LEFT following the road (there is only one way to turn anyway). Just follow the road.
8. When you turn the corner, you will see a bridge, a field, old train tracks and a couple of old train cars and pretty much nothing. Just follow the road to nowhere until you get to the bridge area and by then you’ll see the FedEx building on your RIGHT. Just walk along the edge of the road and it will lead you there. It does feel really strange walking in the middle of nowhere. There aren’t many cars, but a few FedEx trucks passed by.
Like I said, it’s strange, but I felt pretty safe and I’m a girl and I was by myself. I wouldn’t go when it was dark out, but as I was leaving it was starting to get dark and it was fine. Anyway, I hope this helps! Good luck and tell FedEx they are insane for putting this “World Service Center” out in the middle of nowhere!
(6/18/2010) I wasn’t home for the delivery and usually the FedEx guy calls me and we coordinate, or if for some reason he can’t reach me, he leaves it at my door or he knows my downstairs neighbors will take it. Maybe it was a different guy today, but I can't wait until Monday for the package so I'm thinking, OK, I’ll go pick it up at the Bronx location. I don’t know my way around the Bronx, but how bad can it be since it’s a FedEx World Service Center? I tried to get directions from hopstop. Their first direction after exiting the subway is to turn right on “unknown street.” Wtf is that?! Next, I tried google. I kept thinking there was a problem with the map because there were no streets listed, but obviously it’s not a technical glitch. I don't know what to do. I need my package, but I don't want to go to some sketchy neighborhood in the Bronx, especially alone! Plus, I get lost really, really easily. I don’t really have a choice but to go, so when (if) I return later tonight, I will write another review and tell you what happened. If I don’t write again, you know I never made it back…
Update: I made it! OK, I went and I took photos too so I am going to post them here so people know what to expect. First of all, it wasn’t as difficult to find as I had anticipated, but that is only because I finally got decent directions by combining directions from FedEx and studying the map before I went. Prepare for a strange, long walk though. It IS in the middle of an empty field and it’s definitely in the middle of nowhere. Here are the directions from the subway that worked for me.
Directions:
1. Take the 6 train to BROOK AVENUE (& E 138 St.)
2. When you exit the subway station, walk South on Brook Ave towards E 137 St.
3. Keep walking south several blocks until you get to BRUCKNER BLVD.
4. Make a LEFT onto BRUCKNER Blvd and you will hit ST. ANN’S AVENUE (which runs parallel to Brook Ave.)
5. At St. Ann’s, cross Bruckner Blvd and continue going South until you get to the next block (which I think is E 132 St.)
6. You will see a little red guard booth in front of what looks like the entrance to a parking lot or the back entrance to a building. Walk towards the guard booth.
7. You can ask the guard to point you in the right direction or just walk past him as if you were a car driving into the “lot” and turn LEFT following the road (there is only one way to turn anyway). Just follow the road.
8. When you turn the corner, you will see a bridge, a field, old train tracks and a couple of old train cars and pretty much nothing. Just follow the road to nowhere until you get to the bridge area and by then you’ll see the FedEx building on your RIGHT. Just walk along the edge of the road and it will lead you there. It does feel really strange walking in the middle of nowhere. There aren’t many cars, but a few FedEx trucks passed by.
Like I said, it’s strange, but I felt pretty safe and I’m a girl and I was by myself. I wouldn’t go when it was dark out, but as I was leaving it was starting to get dark and it was fine. Anyway, I hope this helps! Good luck and tell FedEx they are insane for putting this “World Service Center” out in the middle of nowhere!
Careers Plus Resumes - They are insane!
(Originally posted Jan 29, 2010 on my old Wordpress blog)
I have been absolutely dreading the whole resume nightmare. I decided that because of my unique employment history, I need a professional resume writer to tackle the task so I have been researching various websites and services. It’s very difficult to assess some of these websites because there is not really a way to ask questions before signing up and paying for them. I have very specific needs and I want someone who has solid experience with career changers, since that is the entire reason I am willing to hire someone for this in the first place. I don't need help with job descriptions and wording since I think I do a pretty damn good job of that myself, but I do need help with figuring out the format and how to address the major career shifts (i.e. medical research in a hospital to horse trainer/riding instructor) and gaps (which weren’t so much gaps as multiple part-time jobs and reconfiguring my life post Hurricane Katrina.)
Anyway, so after visiting several of the major resume writing sites out there, I decided to google each of them to find any reviews, complaints, satisfied customers, scam alerts, etc. Resume writing is not a cheap service and I’m not going to plunk $250-$400 down without having some kind of assurance and confidence that I am going to be getting my moneys worth! One of the companies I googled was “Careers Plus Resumes” (http://www.cpresumes.com) which led me to a complaint board with a complaint about them. I ended up registering on the complaint board because I wanted to contact the poster so I could ask them a few questions. Then I noticed that another user had posted three messages in a row defending the company and claiming to be a satisfied customer, which immediately raised a red flag. If he was truly a satisfied customer, why would he visit and register on a complaint board just to respond to a complaint about the company? When I am happy with a service, I don’t go looking up information and complaints about the company to defend them! I might give a positive review somewhere and move on. I certainly would not try to debunk another persons experience- even if it was nothing like my own! The whole thing is very suspect and I think it’s reasonable to assume that it is actually someone from the company who feels the need to defend themselves, which in turn makes them look extremely unprofessional. There is no reason for anyone other than company employees to invest in such a personal defense. So I made a very rational, measured comment that by posting such a vigorous defense of the company, they were actually doing more harm than good because there would be no reason for a satisfied customer to seek out and defend a company against one little complaint on the internet. I added that I was definitely opting NOT to use Careers Plus Resumes, as it seemed very strange and unprofessional to pose as a satisfied customer. (Well, I didn’t actually write that last bit, but you get the idea.)
Having ruled out that company, I went on to research the others on my list and forgot all about it until I got an email message from a newly registered user on the site who claimed to be the CEO of the company and who had threatened me with legal action for posting negative comments. First of all, I only posted one comment- as a reply to another comment. Second, I was not the one who wrote the complaint. I have had no direct experience with this company! Third, my comment did not include any false information. Lastly, legal action? Seriously? On what grounds? It was one of the most pathetic attempts at intimidation I have ever seen and it failed miserably. This is the exact message copy and pasted:
"My name is Justin Olsen, President/CEO of Careers Plus Resumes, Inc. We have evidence to believe you are either a direct competitor or an administrator of this website. Our corporate attorney has partnered with our local Law Enforcement agencies and have detected and logged your IP address which is a physical address of your computer and can be traced to your exact location. We are hereby demanding that you cease and decist from posting anymore defamatory/false statements about our company and have the other posts removed immediately or we will pursue damages in Federal Court to the fullest extent of the law. You will be held liable for damages and attorney fees for your criminal actions against our organization. Good day."
Aside from being laugh-out-loud funny, it is false and ridiculous on so many levels. I responded to him saying as much and I’ve since received several other “threatening” messages from several “different” users, all of whom coincidentally registered within the last 24-48 hours and who have only made posts concerning (and defending) Careers Plus Resumes. The funniest part of this whole thing is that I wasn’t even the one who wrote the original complaint! Lol! They are insane. Every single company that provides services or goods to the public will ALWAYS have some unsatisfied customers. That’s natural and expected. What is not natural or expected is for the company to waste time and energy posing as various users to defend the company and insult those who “have the nerve” to write about their negative experiences.
I’ve replied to two or three more messages, including another from the CEO who claimed that in addition to being a certified writer, he is also an attorney. If anyone is propagating false information, it is him! Based on his other statements, it is painstakingly obvious he is no such thing. An attorney would know that everything I’ve posted is 100% protected and that libel cases are heard in civil courts and not Federal court- even criminally libelous cases are state-by-state and not federal. Nearly every single thing he has claimed thus far has been false and incorrect. It’s ridiculous.
This is the reason it is so important to do research, and I am writing this blog entry to expose their complete lack of professionalism and moronic behavior so that other people who are looking for information about them can see and judge for themselves. I have had no experience using their services so I can’t even say this is a review, however, I would certainly not recommend them, as they clearly lack professionalism and credibility.
Here is the link to the original complaint and thread for your amusement and should you wish to follow-up on any new developments, though I’ve certainly lost interest in this game. Btw, my user name on the board is “imanygirl.” http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/careers-plus-resumes-c299050.html?selcom=579716#c579716
To view the original Comments for this post on my old blog, you can go here:
http://july7nyc.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/careers-plus-resumes-they-are-insane/
I have been absolutely dreading the whole resume nightmare. I decided that because of my unique employment history, I need a professional resume writer to tackle the task so I have been researching various websites and services. It’s very difficult to assess some of these websites because there is not really a way to ask questions before signing up and paying for them. I have very specific needs and I want someone who has solid experience with career changers, since that is the entire reason I am willing to hire someone for this in the first place. I don't need help with job descriptions and wording since I think I do a pretty damn good job of that myself, but I do need help with figuring out the format and how to address the major career shifts (i.e. medical research in a hospital to horse trainer/riding instructor) and gaps (which weren’t so much gaps as multiple part-time jobs and reconfiguring my life post Hurricane Katrina.)
Anyway, so after visiting several of the major resume writing sites out there, I decided to google each of them to find any reviews, complaints, satisfied customers, scam alerts, etc. Resume writing is not a cheap service and I’m not going to plunk $250-$400 down without having some kind of assurance and confidence that I am going to be getting my moneys worth! One of the companies I googled was “Careers Plus Resumes” (http://www.cpresumes.com) which led me to a complaint board with a complaint about them. I ended up registering on the complaint board because I wanted to contact the poster so I could ask them a few questions. Then I noticed that another user had posted three messages in a row defending the company and claiming to be a satisfied customer, which immediately raised a red flag. If he was truly a satisfied customer, why would he visit and register on a complaint board just to respond to a complaint about the company? When I am happy with a service, I don’t go looking up information and complaints about the company to defend them! I might give a positive review somewhere and move on. I certainly would not try to debunk another persons experience- even if it was nothing like my own! The whole thing is very suspect and I think it’s reasonable to assume that it is actually someone from the company who feels the need to defend themselves, which in turn makes them look extremely unprofessional. There is no reason for anyone other than company employees to invest in such a personal defense. So I made a very rational, measured comment that by posting such a vigorous defense of the company, they were actually doing more harm than good because there would be no reason for a satisfied customer to seek out and defend a company against one little complaint on the internet. I added that I was definitely opting NOT to use Careers Plus Resumes, as it seemed very strange and unprofessional to pose as a satisfied customer. (Well, I didn’t actually write that last bit, but you get the idea.)
Having ruled out that company, I went on to research the others on my list and forgot all about it until I got an email message from a newly registered user on the site who claimed to be the CEO of the company and who had threatened me with legal action for posting negative comments. First of all, I only posted one comment- as a reply to another comment. Second, I was not the one who wrote the complaint. I have had no direct experience with this company! Third, my comment did not include any false information. Lastly, legal action? Seriously? On what grounds? It was one of the most pathetic attempts at intimidation I have ever seen and it failed miserably. This is the exact message copy and pasted:
"My name is Justin Olsen, President/CEO of Careers Plus Resumes, Inc. We have evidence to believe you are either a direct competitor or an administrator of this website. Our corporate attorney has partnered with our local Law Enforcement agencies and have detected and logged your IP address which is a physical address of your computer and can be traced to your exact location. We are hereby demanding that you cease and decist from posting anymore defamatory/false statements about our company and have the other posts removed immediately or we will pursue damages in Federal Court to the fullest extent of the law. You will be held liable for damages and attorney fees for your criminal actions against our organization. Good day."
Aside from being laugh-out-loud funny, it is false and ridiculous on so many levels. I responded to him saying as much and I’ve since received several other “threatening” messages from several “different” users, all of whom coincidentally registered within the last 24-48 hours and who have only made posts concerning (and defending) Careers Plus Resumes. The funniest part of this whole thing is that I wasn’t even the one who wrote the original complaint! Lol! They are insane. Every single company that provides services or goods to the public will ALWAYS have some unsatisfied customers. That’s natural and expected. What is not natural or expected is for the company to waste time and energy posing as various users to defend the company and insult those who “have the nerve” to write about their negative experiences.
I’ve replied to two or three more messages, including another from the CEO who claimed that in addition to being a certified writer, he is also an attorney. If anyone is propagating false information, it is him! Based on his other statements, it is painstakingly obvious he is no such thing. An attorney would know that everything I’ve posted is 100% protected and that libel cases are heard in civil courts and not Federal court- even criminally libelous cases are state-by-state and not federal. Nearly every single thing he has claimed thus far has been false and incorrect. It’s ridiculous.
This is the reason it is so important to do research, and I am writing this blog entry to expose their complete lack of professionalism and moronic behavior so that other people who are looking for information about them can see and judge for themselves. I have had no experience using their services so I can’t even say this is a review, however, I would certainly not recommend them, as they clearly lack professionalism and credibility.
Here is the link to the original complaint and thread for your amusement and should you wish to follow-up on any new developments, though I’ve certainly lost interest in this game. Btw, my user name on the board is “imanygirl.” http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/careers-plus-resumes-c299050.html?selcom=579716#c579716
To view the original Comments for this post on my old blog, you can go here:
http://july7nyc.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/careers-plus-resumes-they-are-insane/
Where is gurulib!?!
UPDATE (6/18/12): As I mentioned a couple of years ago, the site has major problems and shuts down with no warning and no explanation or message. In fact, the last time this happened, it did start up again and I went back on and there was an option to export all your library information. I did that and saved it to my computer. (Unfortunately, my computer crashed and I ended up losing all the files I had not saved since my last back-up, including my gurulib library export file.) Anyway, if the site ever does come back again, I can only recommend that anyone who uses it, export all their library info and save it on their computer and then never use the site again. This disappearing act happens way too often and the site is too unreliable. Again, if anyone ever finds a comparable alternative, please share the link here. Also, if anyone knows how to replicate a web program that would do the same thing gurulib does, please let me know. I would love to create an alternative to gurulib- without all the glitches and shutting down crap...
I know it's not the same thing, but for people who love books and go through them as quickly as I do, the site http://www.swap.com/ (formerly known as swaptree.com) is AWESOME! You can create have and want lists and then trade with people for free. The only cost is the shipping of the books, which is really cheap. (I've always paid under $3 per book.) The website actually goes through the process for you so that they will match your "wants" and "haves" with others and it's incredibly simple. There is a rating system so it's very reliable and honest. I've used it many, many times and never had any problems AND the site is ALWAYS up and running!! FYI: The site has expanded so you can swap just about anything, but I've only used the books section.
UPDATE (1/21/10): Once again, gurulib is offline with no explanation or redirect link. As far as I can tell, this is the third major site disappearing act. I don’t know about you, but I will no longer use the site- if it ever resurfaces again. It is completely unacceptable and irresponsible of the owners to do this to its users. If anyone has additional information, please post here and I will do the same. Thanks! I have been trying to access the site for over a week and have been unable to do so! What has happened to the site? Is it gone for good? Have I lost my library- a library which I spent hours building- forever?! Why is there no information about this? I have been googling to try to find information on why the site seems to be gone, but nothing… The frustration is unprecedented. I am furious and curious and utterly depressed.
I know it's not the same thing, but for people who love books and go through them as quickly as I do, the site http://www.swap.com/ (formerly known as swaptree.com) is AWESOME! You can create have and want lists and then trade with people for free. The only cost is the shipping of the books, which is really cheap. (I've always paid under $3 per book.) The website actually goes through the process for you so that they will match your "wants" and "haves" with others and it's incredibly simple. There is a rating system so it's very reliable and honest. I've used it many, many times and never had any problems AND the site is ALWAYS up and running!! FYI: The site has expanded so you can swap just about anything, but I've only used the books section.
UPDATE (1/21/10): Once again, gurulib is offline with no explanation or redirect link. As far as I can tell, this is the third major site disappearing act. I don’t know about you, but I will no longer use the site- if it ever resurfaces again. It is completely unacceptable and irresponsible of the owners to do this to its users. If anyone has additional information, please post here and I will do the same. Thanks! I have been trying to access the site for over a week and have been unable to do so! What has happened to the site? Is it gone for good? Have I lost my library- a library which I spent hours building- forever?! Why is there no information about this? I have been googling to try to find information on why the site seems to be gone, but nothing… The frustration is unprecedented. I am furious and curious and utterly depressed.
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