Occupy, Bitcoins and Keeping the American Dream Alive

Dear Reader,

I had an interesting conversation with my father the other day, Mom and he were on speaker phone. We discussed the state of the political unrest, their fears about our government. It was a great conversation. I found myself talking about fighting against the tyranny, politics and corporate greed with the only weapon I know works:
Love.
Love is unconditional, it is pure thought, word, and deed and fills one with a feeling of beauty and light.
If Love chose a side, would it not be through peace and courage? How does one fight against such negativity without falling down prey to the dark side?
Love. It is the answer I come back to time and time again. My parents are fighting by becoming less dependent on the government. Choosing to be prepared for economic collapse, talking to others about awareness and getting ready. I am proud of them, they are choosing to fight back. To stand for something they both believe in. While they are not pushing me to take their side, I can feel their worry for their children, family. I just can't accept that view, that fear and anger are the tools to fire up a nation into change.

I have a family too, in front of me and behind me there is family. Every time I look into the eyes of the children, of our grandchildren I cannot tell them to do good in school, get a good job, and when you retire you can do whatever you want. I can't feed them the same bullshit I heard growing up about right and wrong, normal and not, secrets or sharing. I can't because I know the truth. There are less jobs that support a person to live. People in need are suffering and those in the system who need help don't get enough food stamps to eat and still rely on food banks. My own parents can't afford their prescriptions that help them live. Corporations, like Lowe's cut payroll hours two weeks before Christmas because the shareholders are pissed that the stock price missed the mark by a penny.  I know young people, in their 20's that can't tell me how many inches are in a foot or how to change a flat. And I know people who deserve better but won't get it because of fear, dependence, and lack of education. I know these things because I see them in my life, in my friend circles, my family. I hear about them at the bars, coffee shops, random conversations with checkout cashiers and bus stop patrons. We are floundering about like fish without enough water. The land of milk and honey which promised freedom from oppression is a dream we thought was true, but somewhere between corruption of power and superiority we forgot our commonality.

Humanity.

So I am launching a new campaign,
Seeding Small Business.
We know that there are two things that run an economy, goods or services and how you pay for them.
Small business's are the driving force in creative development which from BIG business perspective is easier to let grow and buy later than doing your own research and development. Second starting a small business takes capital which the majority of American's are short on (see previous blogs on trickle down economics).
So how do we fight against the system that seems a labyrinth straight out of Lewis Carroll's Wonderland? How do we defeat the Queen of Hearts that lies in dungeon office at the Federal Reserve? What weapon's do we fight with to overcome a power corrupted government that no longer value's the people that it was created to protect and serve?
You guessed it, with Love.
And Bitcoins.
 Why Bitcoin? Because it is the only currency that is not backed by a centralized bank, or run by a small group of people none of us elected, EVER. Bitcoin because despite the bad press, arrests and knowing it was created by open source code which makes it great for illegal businesses, it is also surviving the onslaught of press.


Bitcoin is now rising in value because like you others notice that the world seems out of whack, and in need of a good Japanese torture massage.
Because Bitcoins are now being used by merchants like Target, Amazon, and over 20,000 business are accepting crypto currency. Not only does it cost less to process transactions but the checkouts are fast. And the top reason, no bank to tell you No.
No your business can't work. No your plan for selling this is a waste of time. No because your credit is poor. No. No. no.





Seeding Small Business is a non-profit which fighting against the Corporate and Political state of America with Love for the dream of Freedom and Bitcoins.
 If there was a way to reach people without a central bank breathing down your neck. If there was a fight against tyranny that didn't include firing weapons. If there was a way to stand apart from the government and demand love without rioting wouldn't Love fight back?
So here, now, with you, and with each other we can stand against Corporate greed, bailouts that hurt the economy, and a government that hides behind fear propaganda.
Donate to Seeding Small Business and keep the dream of Freedom alive!

Lowe's Employee Appreciation

I took a part time job last summer to fill in the gaps between semesters at ASU. While job hunting I found Goodwill was holding a job fair, so I dressed to interview and went down to my local thrift store. After signing up for a goodwill account and filing out an application I waited for my turn with the rep from Lowe's. The interview went well and in two weeks I had a temporary job as a weekday team member. My job was perfect for my needs: 10 - 2 pm, and I walked around the store helping customers. During training I spent a week in every department learning about products. After a couple of months I felt right at home. LOWE'S gave us ample training and supplemented it with videos, one on one, and handouts.
Their mission statement instilled a sense of pride and empowerment for their employees:

"Our goal is to provide customer valued solutions."

 

    There was room for improvising, thinking outside the box, and even old fashion elbow grease.
During my last 5 months I took part in safety barbeques, employee lunches, and volunteer service work. As Christmas approached we began to gear up for the season. I am not oblivious to business needs, and expected black Friday sales to be typical of the commercialization of the holiday season. However, I was very surprised at the value system of the corporate machine. They changed little things in a few months that ripped at the fabric of their own mission statement.
First the cheer at morning huddle went from "never stop improving" to '"sell some stuff". Then the pep talk of pushing sales for unnessacary items. After the sales and inventory reports came back, the entire store was emailed with the amazing news. We broke almost every one of our records. Our store was a success and in the email from our own store manager the success was a direct result of associates stepping up to the challenge, digging deeper and upholding our mission statement. We had successfully separated ourselves from the competition by providing superior customer service. In the bottom line model we made more money, increased sales and found ourselves in another bracket: the 45 million dollar store.

That's when the bottom fell out of the illusion of a corporate giant making people first instead of money.
With only two weeks till Christmas Lowe's announced they were cutting 400 payroll hours. Several full timers with over 5 years were fired and there was another employee lunch scheduled with a Wii tournament.
Suddenly the store was vacant of red vest experts  and customers  wandered the isles hoping to find what they needed. I went from 30 hours to 15 almost every part timer was down  to less. Fulltime associates worked without backup and their departments left abandoned so they could take their lunch. For the last  three weeks I have worked a total of 6 days and while I have a secondary source of income many  others do not.



This treatment of people will undoubtedly trickle down to customers and the once valued asset: people will be the one cutback that costs the store millions. It is this very reason why corporate America continues to decimate the economy: the greatest resource in business is people. If the value of the bottom line outweighs the camaraderie of human beings then we shall perish in refuse of our greed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year...The Laundry List

Happy New Year! It's a new year, a fresh start and even perhaps there is something changing in your life.  And yet, I feel as rundown as I did last January as eachumbilical cord y brought new drama to life. Let's start with the here and the now.
I am sleeping on an air mattress which is slowly reaching the cold tile floor as air is escaping from an unknown source. The cold tile floor belongs to my dear and best friend who thinks its warm in her apartment. Aleshia is curled into heras se here.self on a chair in three layers of clothes and jackets. My tool bag is at my head waiting for 730 am when we embark on  the journey of working for myself instead of corporate giants and stockholders. Aleshia is the one on the right in the picture. Her dearest wino friend, Cynthia is sitting at our kitchen table for a smoke break.  We have just spent the last two hours moving and cleaning for the bed bug  treatment on the 10th.
In the last week I have cried, cussed, bitched, moaned and prayed my way through mattress throwing, laundry by the ton and expensive pest control.
On a positive note my wife and I have launched our new business with a great buddy of mine and this pest problem is giving us the motivation for organizing our house.

Ben, our new business partner calls it the Bank of Karma. He is also found of saying I am more apt to make deposits into the bank so that any withdrawals don't leave me with a negative balance. Interesting way to see things but I am still asking myself "Are bed bugs a withdrawal??"
I am known for taking a negative and seeing a positive through the murky waters of the abysmal happenings in life. And my first reaction was action, hence my yard now appearing to be the new city dump. My second reaction was to clean....everything. Then the phone calls to everyone who showed up on Christmas day for Aleshia's famous raspberry ham.
Here's what I told the lucky recipient:
"Hi ..... I am calling you because we discovered bedbugs last night in our bedroom and our couch. Yes I know this is completely disgusting and I am sorry to have to call you with such creepy news. Its like calling everyone you had sex with becuase you have an std."

 I usually get a laugh at this juncture. The next conversation is how and who brought them over. Which prompts the discussion about my stepson and his fiance and their inability to conform to normal social standards. 

After the first or tenth time he lies or she lies we find ourselves questioning our own enabling behavior. There comes a moment when you have to decide to cut the umbilical cord and pray for sanity to return. When kept us in the game so long was the little ones whom we fell head over heels in love with. Our first grandchildren and although you know people can use children as weapons against you, there is this thought in the back of our minds that maybe, just maybe this isn't the case here.

We were mistaken and $2000 later we are dropping off all of their belongings.  Statingour boundaries concerning their hygeine and the ramifications of their actions on the little ones. Now this has been an ongoing battle for a year and a half, which for me was a year to long. When the appointed day arrives for their apartment to launch pest control we are told they didnt show up. Hmmm so i am supposed to sit back and say oh wel m you tried? Bullshit and thats what i sId, then i picked up the phone and made calls. 

Now I am qquickened out of my house mulling over the bank of karma that my friend Ben refers to, the air mattress is lower and the tile floor feels like a glaciar. And I ask the cold, dark room what do I see in this?

My answer comes quickly as we spent a few days talking about our business ideas and how we need to really get organized. The check list for bed bug treatment is to bag everything, throw away what cab be tossed, wash what needs to be washed and prepare each room for extermination. We have a five bedroom storage house with remodeling projects going on in three rooms. Guess I can rip out the carpet in those other two...

so the positive is we asked for the time and energy for reorganization and we got a lost job and bedbugs.

Its not that I think god isn't responding to our thoughts and prayers....it has more to do with the way she gets my attention. So bedbugs are awithdrawal and a deposit into the bank of karma. Here's to hoping its a wash.