Work At Home Musings

Now that there is a new search engine around, have you changed? Bing, which was introduced by Microsoft saw a 0.4% growth in December to 10.7%. However, the leader is still Google, with 72.75%. I decided to do a little test and see if the search results are any different. I searched for blackhead treatment, a term that is probably searched by an average teenager.

The first result in Google gave me an about.com site having to do with dermatology. The second result was a site called acnetalks.com. On the other hand, Bing gave me five results before the about.com site and these first five results all seemed to be ad or product sites. Interesting. I think I am sticking with Google for now.

It seems that someone has used his creative genius to come up with ads that depict overeating as suicide. From his website he states:

It is no secret that the American culture is known for overindulgence. This public service campaign dramatizes the effects of poor eating in a way we can all understand.

There is a multi-million dollar industry in diet pills, weight loss programs, health foods and surgery. Unfortunately, the “point” gets lost when you actually read the small print on the poster. It is advertising for bariatric surgery for a surgeon that is not even associated with the institution listed or with the artist. In fact, the surgeon is quite angry:

It has been brought to my attention that there are posters circulating on the internet that are being associated with me. I would like it to be known that I am in no way associated with this marketing campaign and I have taken formal action to have my name and likeness removed from any such product, poster, internet site or publication.

Just for clarification, I have never been associated with this organization and am disgusted by their vulgar display of obesity. This is something I would never stand for and am appalled that anyone would even consider placing material of this nature out for public viewing.

While I think the posters are distasteful, it is shameful that a doctor’s name would be dragged through the mud.

I wonder how many new diets there are in the United States right now. Everywhere I turn there is someone new telling you how to lose weight. There are pills, shakes, bars, exercise machines, food plans, hypnosis, acupuncture, etc. I wish they would come up with the chocolate diet. Now there is a diet I could go for!

Today the temperature is quite mild here in New Jersey. It is a balmy 50 degrees! However, I know the cold weather will be returning shortly. I do NOT like the cold weather. I do NOT like the snow. I am thinking that I should be looking at Wilmington NC real estate and just fly south for the Winter!

My 8th Grade daughter came home the other day to tell me about her Social Studies test. The test was open note. I asked how she thought she did and she said it was easy. Then she told me that some of the other kids were struggling. These kids come to class with either nothing or just a pencil and never take notes. I asked her what did she thinks these kids were going to do when they got out of school. “I don’t know,” she replied. “Be garbage collectors?”

It is truly sad that some children today don’t think about what the future holds. I think they should be teaching children about possible career opportunities staring in 5th grade. It isn’t always about going to a 4 year college or not. There are so many possibilities. Take for instance, http://www.collinscollege.edu. This school is for those who want to be video game developers, graphic designers, interior designers or film producers. Other schools are geared toward just information technology degrees. You can go to a culinary arts school, or do an apprentice as a plumber or electrician. There are so many options, yet I don’t think kids today know what those options are. Too bad! Instead we are graduating kids that are not prepared for life.

I used to work for a University. Every year, you were supposed to be evaluated by your boss. I didn’t mind since I knew that I was a good employee. However, I had a boss one year that wanted us to do employee self evaluation. Huh? He gave us the evaluation form and had us fill it out. That was the most difficult evaluation I ever did! I didn’t want to give yourself the highest score possible and I certainly didn’t want to give myself too low of scores either. Fortunately, I knew what my strengths and weaknesses were and my boss was happy with the way I filled out the evaluation. Other employees in our group didn’t do as well. We had a couple people that felt they were the best employees ever and filled out the form with the highest marks. They had to change it, under his guidance. They still did not understand why they were given lower marks.

We were in the mall the other day and my daughter pointed out a women who was carrying a portable oxygen concentrator. The tubes ran from the oxygen tank to her nose. She wanted to know what she was doing. I took this as a good teaching opportunity and pointed out that some people have those because their lungs don’t work as well as they should. I told her that this could be because of a sickness or disease, but it could also be due to smoking. She was definitely not interested in having to carry around oxygen when she got older. Anything that will deter them from smoking is a good thing.

I love the 4th of July! The flags, the songs, the parades and the fireworks. I often reflect on how great our country is. We have so many freedoms and so much abundance. I have traveled to various countries around the world and I am still grateful that I live in the United States. Even though I don’t always agree with the political policies, it still is the best place to live!

When I was a senior in High School, we did a lot of fun activities. We went to the beach and Disneyland, but the funnest trip was right to our own High School. The PTO actually set the place up to look like a casino. There were roulette wheels, poker tables, blackjack tables and craps. They gave us all fake money to spend and the more money you “made” the more tickets you received for the prize drawings. Some students saved their money, while their were others that went “broke”. You could see how addictive it was.

Recently I read a report about the dangers of gambling. It use to be that there was really only two places you could gamble - Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Now there are hundreds of places, with more in the planning stages. Unfortunately, the this new trend is actually hurting some local residents. Because there are so many more places to gamble, the casinos are bringing in a lot of locals. Many of these locals, are gambling away their money, houses and possessions. Everyone want so make it big, and they get caught up in the excitement. What happens when you have a town full of residents who have lost everything?

I just received an email wanting me to “confirm” my information at my mortgage company. Some of these emails look so real that you have to be careful. This one had the following subject line:

corporate customer cervice: confirm your information!

Hmmm…. You know its spam when they can’t even spell SERVICE right!!