Month: May 2016

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Overtime rule updated to make it a middle class benefit

Before the update, the overtime rule only applied to salaried employees who made $23,660 or less. The new rule, with exceptions, covers people who make $47,476 or less. The rule had gone way too long without being updated and though businesses are crying the “sky will fall” it will benefit employees who have been being cheated out of overtime pay by their bosses calling them salaried. It may help the worker’s pocketbook or it may help stop them from being worked long hours that can be detrimental to their quality of life. Either way, it is to the benefit of the working class and Obama should be applauded for doing that which was long overdue.

Note that there are some exceptions such as medical where the primary source of money is medicare. (not verified)

There may be other case by case exceptions which will give certain businesses additional time to hire more workers so as to reduce the cost. I am not certain.

But for most the rule should be in place by by Dec. 1, 2016.

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James Deen Goes All Martial Arts As Porn Is Attacked

Okay, he is fighting mad, but he is using the law and not his fist to demand that his porn company not be discriminated against by California.  He has filed a complaint against mixed martial arts company Bellator and its owner Viacom, alleging that the companies have violated the same HIV regulations for which James Deen Productions was cited. His effort is not to cause Viacom problems–although it might seem that way–but is an effort to draw attention to what he described as the “unfair persecution of the adult industry”.

Deen’s complaint with California’s division of occupational safety and health (Cal/OSHA) alleges that the mixed martial arts company has failed to comply with state policies aimed at preventing exposure to blood borne pathogens, according to Deen’s announcement. Normally, workers file Cal/OSHA complaints against their employers. But the investigation into the condom practices of Deen’s company stemmed from a complaint by the Aids Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit that is critical of the porn industry and has advocated condom requirements. Cal/OSHA announced penalties of $77,875 to Deen’s film production company, also known as Third Rock Enterprises, based on what some consider a frivolous complaint because as far as is known, no workers were found to have contracted any disease.

Whether the porn industry should use condoms or not is an open question. Testing does generally prevent accidental spread of disease though not always. Still, that said, the adult industry should do more to encourage the use of condoms. HIV/AIDS is a costly epidemic that continues to devastate communities. Just because there are better treatments now than when it began does not mean that its spread is not a tragedy.

Remember, sexual fantasy can be fun but reality has consequences. Whether condoms are worn in porn or not, be kind to yourself and practice safe reality.

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Just read a thread where someone got a bad review

Over on the KDP community there is a thread where a writer was attacked not for anything in his book but because of a website he operates.

It is understood that a writer should never respond to a bad review either on amazon or anywhere else the reviewer might be trolling the writer.

As a side note it is wise not to be critical of amazon because they have employees who do have the power to kill your sales.  That is true for other platforms where you can self-publish your books as well.  But at times it is virtually impossible not to be critical of whatever platform.   Many of us have unwisely been overly critical in times of frustration.

Self-publishing in itself can be frustrating.  It is work. And after all that work, when someone is attacked, often they can feel their heart drop just a little bit.  Then they get angry.  It is understandable.  And the natural thing to want to do is scream back at the person who has hurt you.  But it is pointless.

Some people say you can learn from the reviews.  But you really can’t.  You should always work to improve your writing and most of us have a lot of room for improvement but the reviews aren’t really very helpful.  Pretty much the only thing bad reviews accomplish is to make you sad, hurt your confidence, and possibly make you angry.  It is generally best not to read reviews.

Now what I am about to say is really counter to the amazon ecosystem.  It is also best if readers ignore subjective reviews and generally they do.  The good reviews are often fake and the bad reviews are often  troll fodder.  Cover, blurb, and the part of the book you are allowed to read is the best way to judge whether you want to buy and read a book or not.  You know what you like in a book.  And what the reviewer thinks is written by someone who is trying to feel self-important for a second.   That is fine.  No problem with that.  That might can be said for most of us who are writing,  but the point is that often the validity of any review for anything subjective–such as writing–is questionable.  (Reviewing a book is not like reviewing a product that doesn’t work.) After you read the book you might agree with reviewers.  Or you might disagree with them.  Regardless, hopefully you have been entertained.

But if you allow a bad review to prevent you from buying a book you might have otherwise liked is to deny yourself that entertainment.

At one point in my bio, I intentionally discouraged people from leaving reviews.  Amazon thinks they are a key part of their system but they really aren’t–especially for books and movies and music where entertainment value is highly subjective to individual preference.  Given those subjective preferences,  often the reviews become an embarrassment for the person leaving the review, which is why a lot of real people don’t leave reviews.

Now I wasn’t always of that mind.  As someone who promoted products I thought those reviews were helpful in what to promote.  Then for a period I used a feed that put reviews on my site.  And I got an email from a real nice lady who asked me to pull her review from my website.  She had written the review when she was in college and she had become a teacher and some of her students had found the review and were teasing her because of it.  I pulled the feed from that product to make sure her review did not somehow pop back up on my website.

Writers know that responding to reviews is a bad idea.  Generally it makes them look bad.  The truth is, the reviewer often also looks bad. Getting drunk and writing a bunch of stupid reviews on amazon is a bad idea.  Especially if the review is going to show up where a person’s students / coworkers / whoever might can figure out it is them. 🙂

Now my saying that is probably going to make some writers angry at me.  Unlike me, they feel those reviews are important.  And the truth is reviews do impact how a book may or may not show up in some list.   That is why some writers beg for reviews.  Unlike them though, I figure any sales I make is going to be from the traffic I drive.  Amazon is not going to give me any breaks.  My books are long buried in their system.

And no Amazon employee, I am not being critical, it just is what it is.

But when I do manage to drive traffic I would rather the book show no reviews than to show a bunch of BS reviews.  I am happy my books are lacking in reviews.  It would be cool if  that one review would vanish so there would be no reviews to be seen.   But then again, I don’t really care.

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In The News 5/15/2016 – Opinion

Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Anthony Kiedis Hospitalized, Band Cancels KROQ Weenie Roast Headlining Slot

He suffered stomach pain.  On a scale of 1 to 10 the pain level was “get me a damned ambulance.”  The show at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre didn’t go on for the Hot Chili Peppers to the disappointment of fans but the the fans did get to enjoy listening to Weezer. Other bands  included Panic! at the Disco, Empire of the Sun, Garbage, Lumineers, Fitz and the Tantrums and Miike Snow. Blink-182 also performed a surprise set.

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Steven Spielberg Reacts to BFG Author Roald Dahl’s Anti-Semitism: ‘This Is a Story About Embracing Our Differences’

People who go around calling people racist and anti-Semitic are generally just trying to justify their own prejudices against the people they are attacking.  From what I read it appears Ronald Dahl had a general feeling against all religions because of his life experiences; though he wasn’t consumed by any dislike or hatred.  It just was what it was.

The wiki on him is pretty interesting

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl

But the part of the criticism comes from:

In 1983 he told a reporter: “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it’s a kind of lack of generosity toward non-Jews. I mean, there’s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.”

And also supposedly: In 1990, shortly before his death, he said in an interview that he was “certainly anti-Israel” and that he had become anti-Semitic.

But if Jewish groups want to use that against his legacy and to stop children from enjoying his stories, it kind of would prove his point.  That Steven Spielberg would do a movie based on one of his stories kind of disproves his point.

The truth is that there is good and evil in all groups.  And a person shouldn’t stereotype either to say they are all wonderful or that they are all evil.  If you can’t see each individual tree for looking at the forest, then it is easy to get lost and scared and never find your way back from where you came.

____________________

That Office Depot and Staples were not allowed to merge was a good decision.  There was no benefit to the merger except to hurt customers and to hurt suppliers and to potentially hurt ma & pa stores that might be bought by either.

Both Office supply chains need to roll up their sleeves and figure out how they can make money in today’s economy.  Being distracted by Wall St. games in trying to build a monopoly was of no benefit to either company.  A lot of companies like these two need to understand that bigger is not always better.

__________

 

 

 

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Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne Are Having Marital Problems

After 33 years of marriage Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne are on a hiatus that some believe began because of Ozzy allegedly fooling around.  Sources say that Ozzy has remained sober for the last 3 years and that he has NOT fallen off the wagon.

The couple had also suffered a bit of a bumpy road in 2013 when Ozzy had returned to some bad habits.  That is not believed to be the case this time.

source:  http://www.people.com/article/sharon-ozzy-osbourne-split

 

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Someone in New Jersey was LUCKY and won the Powerball

The winning numbers were 25 66 44 5 26 with the Powerball 9.My mother’s birthday was the 9th and so why I didn’t bet 9 as the powerball is beyond me.  I didn’t though.  I could have at least got $4 but no.

Lottery officials said one ticket, purchased in New Jersey, had the winning numbers.  They won the 9th (there is that 9 again) highest US lottery prize in history; $429.6 million.

 

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Former President Vicente Fox Insulting Latino Citizens of USA

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox complained that Mexico buys billions of dollars of items from the United States that create 10 million American jobs, but Trump supporters still “don’t respect us.”

Fact: The United States ran a $58 million deficit with Mexico in 2015.  In 2016 our deficit with Mexico is already $14 million, poised to be even greater that what it was last year as last year was even greater than what it was in 2014.  Mexico is our third largest trading partner with trade being $531 billion or so.

Fact: Just by 2010 NAFTA had displaced 682,900 jobs.  It is difficult to get a hard number, but a large part of US exports to Mexico actually come back to the United States as finished products.  Those exports are NOT consumed by the Mexican people.

America’s exports to Mexico amounted to
$236.4 billion or 15.7% of overall exports.

1. Machinery: $42.1 billion
2. Electronic equipment: $41.1 billion
3. Vehicles: $22.4 billion
4. Oil: $18.6 billion
5. Plastics: $16.5 billion
6. Medical, technical equipment: $6.7 billion
7. Iron or steel products: $5.2 billion
8. Organic chemicals: $4.8 billion
9. Aircraft, spacecraft: $4.3 billion
10. Iron and steel: $4.1 billion

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox, talking like an ignorant bigot,  said of Trump voters, “They are lazy, uneducated, TV watching drunks.”  It is not clear to whether he was talking about Anglo Americans or Latino Americans who came to the US legally and who oppose their neighborhoods being turned into shit squalor by illegals.  Regardless, he insulted US Americans while meeting with Vatican Operative Nancy Pelosi to discuss how the Vatican might convince proud Latino Citizens of the US to betray their love for the US and support the treasonous criminal, Hillary Clinton, who he nonsensically compared to Margaret Thatcher.

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Silhouette Cameo Bundle with Multiple Color Vinyl Sheets, Transfer Paper & Bonus Tools

cutting machine

Silhouette Cameo Bundle with Multiple Color Vinyl Sheets, Transfer Paper & Bonus Tools

Silhouette Cameo V2 is a cutting machine from Silhouette America, which plugs into your computer with a USB cable. The Cameo is user-friendly out of the box within minutes by using the included software when connecting to your computer. You can begin creating your own designs, use a font already installed on your computer or find thousands of premade designs on the Silhouette Online Store. The Silhouette Cameo uses a small blade to cut multiple kinds of medium, including paper, cardstock, vinyl, fabric, magnetic media and other material from as small as ¼” wide up to 12 inches wide and 10 feet long. Vinyl décor is a popular way to decorate homes. Easy to cut, self-adhesive, and removable, vinyl is the perfect way to add your favorite quotes and designs directly to the walls of your home, car windows, and projects. The machine also has the ability to Register and cut printed materials and is pixscan compatible.

Cameo bundle includes machine, Silhouette America 4 tools, 8 colors of vinyl (colors will vary),12 inch premium transfer paper, 4 sketch pens (colors vary) and 12 Exlusive Digital Designs (emailed).
Silhouette CAMEO machine can cut a variety of materials (from vinyl to fabric) up to 12 inches wide and 10 feet long
Silhouette CAMEO a DIY electronic cutting machine, with digital color touch screen that displays your options for scanning, printing or cutting.
Create your own design cut files with silhouette design studio software for decals, home decoration and banners.

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