As I was growing up and in school, I frequently thought it was a waste of time being required to take English classes. I mean we already spoke English. The answer I received when asking the question was, “it is important to have good communication skills by learning how to speak and write correct English, otherwise you will never be employable.”
That response was not exactly an overwhelming motivator for me at the time. It was not because I did not care about being employable, it was because, with a lot of things at that age, I failed to see the connection.
Later in life, especially with written communication, it did begin to sink in and for me has become something that I am continually working on to improve.
It is also something that tends to drive me absolutely crazy, when I read something written in very poor English. I cannot help but gather the impression, when something is written in very poor English, that the author is not intelligent. Items such as not using proper tense or numerous misspellings. This would include my own writing, and something that also drives me crazy. I frequently have issues with the thoughts in my head and having my fingers follow along as they are typing. This results in words that I had every intention of saying, however somehow forgot to type them.
Going back to the original thought of this post, the importance of having good communication skills in order to be employable. Is it just me or has the importance of good communication skills diminished in recent years?
A large percentage of people that I work with, and granted English is not their first language, possess extremely poor English skills. It is to the point where a brand of Pigeon English is used to communicate in my work place. I work in an industry where good communication is important if not vital. Yet there is no encouragement nor effort I see to improve English skills. And it is not only my business, I see the same thing daily with other companies that I interact with. Have we reached a point where good proper English is no longer important? I am also curious as to the response elementary school students receive today when they ask the question, “Why do I have to take English classes?”
First an update on Fred the missing cat who lives in my backyard. It’s been three days now and there’s been no sign of him. It’s been really cold and dreary out the past few days, I hate the cold, so he might have found a place to stay warm. I’ve just been very sad since he’s been gone. I hope he is ok and at this very moment bringing someone else some joy, that’s a thought that makes me smile.
On a positive topic, I know they have their critics but I think Starbucks is a cool business. As compared to the post I made about walmart a couple of days ago, Starbucks is 180 degrees in the positive direction.
A lot of people will say their coffee is over priced, you could certainly make it yourself much cheaper, but that’s missing the point as far as I’m concerned. This might be contrary to most people’s point of view, I don’t go there because I like the coffee. The coffee is decent, but mostly I go there because I like the customer service.
It’s become my habit, as I’m commuting home from work on Friday evening to stop at the book store to see what’s new. That stop always includes a visit to the Starbucks attached next door. It’s one of the few businesses I actually look forward to visiting.
It’s kind of like the whole week I’ve been putting up with the piles of BS and fixing peoples problems, so it’s a recharge to start my weekend. The people that work there are friendly without being overbearing. And if I decide to hang out for awhile, the atmosphere is pretty cool too. Starbucks is a company that gets it from my point of view.
At this very moment I’m rendering a new animation. It’s got 150 frames in total. It’s been going for three and a half hours and only up to frame 55 so it will go all night looks like.
The project started out as a still image for another contest I was going to try and enter. Along the way of modeling the scene it started going off in a direction that was outside the constraints of the contest, so I just kept following that path. Some time late last night I realized that animating it might actually make for a decent hypno themed thing, so that’s what its going to be. It’s been over a year since I’ve done any hypno themed projects, we’ll see how it all comes out.
For the past couple of months a stray cat has been living in my backyard, as in out there almost constantly. He is the friendliest cat and I’ve grown quite attached to him.
This morning as usual he was clawing at the back screen door to be fed, and I fed him his breakfast. A few minutes later I heard some noise from the backyard, when I looked out Fred was gone and the neighbors dog was in the backyard eating Fred’s food. I chased off the dog and put another can of food in Fred’s dish.
When I got home tonight, Fred was not waiting by the front door as he usually does. And when I went around back to put some food in his dish, the food I had put there in the morning was still there 
I’m hoping that he’s just off on a side journey to someone Else’s yard, but I can’t help worry that he’s hurt or something.
There was a time for the past few years where I didn’t worry too much about money. I mean everyone worries about it to a degree and it wasn’t as though I had endless piles of it to spend. Just that I had enough to pay my bills and enough left over to enjoy a few extras. That has not been the case this past year however, with a salary cut and the general rising of expenses money has started to become tight, and the worry level has significantly risen.
One thing in particular that seems to have gone over the top is the grocery bill. I mean way out there, and not like I’m buying a lot of stuff, its just gotten a whole lot more expensive. I feel like I really need to get that expense under control so I decided to try an experiment and for a month do my grocery shopping at <play Darth Vader sound effect here> Walmart.
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am hanging my head in shame as I write this, admitting that I’ve actually gone into one of those stores much less actually bought anything from them. I’ve been very outspoken against that particular establishment as one of the prime roots of all evil. That being said, I’ve expressed those opinions mostly on hearsay and never truly being a customer to experience first hand. So I did give it a try and this past weekend marked a month since I started, so now I can report.
On the first couple of shopping trips, it did seem as though things were much cheaper, I don’t know if there is some sort of psychology going on there or what but I found myself lulled into the sensation that every time I tossed something in my cart that I was saving money. And indeed on my first two trips my grocery bill was significantly reduced. That was the good part, the rest I have to say is well, not so much.
I’ve been spoiled most of my life shopping in regular grocery stores, having the ability to casually walk up and down the isles, and if I need some help, its usually not too difficult to find it. Was I ever in for a rude awakening.
Customer service, well, at Walmart I’d have to say, “not so much.” There is kind of the weird vibe, hard to exactly put my finger on it but there is kind of an aura that hangs in the air that if you happen to do something the wrong you’re going to get kicked out of the place. It’s certainly not the kind of place where you’re likely to hear someone say, “do you need some help?”
At one point a couple of weeks ago I was in the yogurt section looking for some plain yogurt, granted not very popular and not always easy to find anywhere. As I’m carefully scanning every cup on the shelves, there is a guy there stocking them. Now in any other store I’ve ever been in my entire life, the reaction from the employee is going to be, “can I help you find something?”. This guy however just kept working, in fact he was right in my way, he didn’t say excuse me or anything, just went about his business.
Finally I asked him if they had any plain yogurt, then I realized why he hadn’t said anything, he didn’t speak English. Now I don’t know if it just happens to be this particular store, but in the month I shopped there it appeared that none of the shelf stokers spoke English. I have to wonder with 12% of the population out of work in this area, why are they hiring non-English speaking employees? Just a thought.
Of course since this is a “super store” you also have this huge department store stuck to the grocery store. And falling for their trap, last week I ventured over the electronics section to pick up some ear buds. My first clue should have been the fact the $10 ear buds I wanted to buy were locked to the rack, I had to try and flag someone down to release them for me. Then I either had to pay for them right there, or after a searing look of suspicion upon me, the clerk finally agreed to place them in a security box so that I could pay for them with my groceries. That took twenty minutes for her to find one and the correct key to lock it up. I mean the place has more security cameras than a casino, is that really necessary?
Again with the department store effect. Some things one happens to buy at a typical grocery store aren’t actually considered “groceries.” For example cat food, its completely on the opposite end of the store. Evenably after making that trek and back, I’d remember that I also needed some shampoo and other half mile walk to go find it.
As far as actually shopping for food, they seem to do a masterful job of placing all the high carb junk food disguised as dinners in prominent places. That sales technique appears to be highly effective, because among my fellow shoppers, there are some HUGE people shopping at Walmart. By the way, they don’t have a health food isle, I know image your surprise.
They also have this other thing, “Value Brand” or something like that. You see the packages all over, a throw back to a decade or so ago when “generic” food was popular. White boxes, black lettering, plain zero faceless products. I could easily envision a time, five or ten years from now where their shelves are stocked with nothing but. Once they’ve driven all the other retailers out of business and have complete control over what to sell you. Kind of like Soilent Green come to be, scary thought.
Finally there is the checkout stand, that alone is an adventure. Of course they only have three open out of the fifty or so available. And again the type of people who shop there. Slow lethargic, “you take the items out of your basket and put them on the belt”, what’s so difficult about that. I didn’t see any signs anywhere explaining this, but without exception every time I shopped there, the person in front of me would change their minds on a third of their basket, just piling the stuff on top of the National Enquirer racks. Good a place as any I guess.
The thing is yes, I did find cheaper prices, but I noticed each week I spent more than the week before. The individual items in some but not all cases were cheaper, but I was buying more of it. Stuff I didn’t really need, again with the psychology. Have to hand it to them, they know what they are doing. I just don’t like being a victim when I do my grocery shopping.
I received an email from Youtube last night. Apparently my animation now has enough views that they are now interested in "partnering" with me. Potentially I could make some money on the animation, hmm ok, yes I’m interested.
So I go over there and check out the tutorial, which is displayed as a wizard. The first page basically explains the program, it’s based on Adsense. I already use Adsense on one of my web sites so I’m cool with that.
The next four pages go on to explain the video can infringe upon copyrights, and explain what that means. I thought, this is a little tad over kill but then I thought maybe its a good thing, might say there is a bit of an issue when it comes to people understanding what copyright is on the Internet. The animation is completely my creation, so no worries there, thinking maybe ok I’ll do it.
Then I come to the last page, once I submit my "application" they will approve it. I thought they contacted me with an invitation, now turns out they still have to approve it. And here’s the kicker, if for any reason they don’t approve the video, it gets deleted. Huh?
Are not Youtube the most awesome people? Raise your hand if either yourself or someone you know has had their youtube account deleted for no apparent reason and with no explaination. That’s what I thought, think I’ll pass on the partnership for now.
If you haven’t seen the animation, I present it here for your enjoyment, thanks for stopping by.