Life is Random

What ever happened to root for the home team?

2008-05-29T05:55:21Z

I just read an article on Forbes.com about the top ten cars that teens want most. It was to say the least, alarming. The ford Mustang was #1. I don't have a problem with that. It's an American made muscle car. The next four on the list though, were really concerning. The Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Toyota Corolla took the 2nd through 5th spots, respectively, with the VW Jetta rounding out the top 10. I'm not saying that American cars are great, and foreign cars suck, in fact I know VW, Honda, and Toyota make some very nice cars. But what it comes down to is, these are teens that are graduating in the coming years from high school and will be looking for jobs. If they admire foreign cars, what jobs are they going to be able to have. We live in a country that was built around the automobile, and it shows. 2 out of 3 jobs in the United States are directly tied to the automotive industry. To put it another way, if GM, Chrysler, and Ford ceased operations tomorrow, by the end of the the month nearly 200,000,000 jobs would be eliminated. That's not a typo, that's a 2 with 8 zeros after it. 200 million jobs would be lost. The US economy would collapse overnight. Now, I know a lot of people are probably thinking that GM, Ford, and Chrysler don't employ that many people. The truth is, no, they employ less than %1 of those jobs. The rest are suppliers, vendors, and the service industry that depend on the business of the Big 3 and their employees. For example, I work in computer repair, many of my customers work at manufacturing plants that make parts for the auto makers, or work directly for the auto manufacturers. If the big 3 go out of business, they are all out of jobs. Because no one can afford new things anymore, I am out of a job, as well as my 100 coworkers who work in the store that I work. As are all the people that work at wal mart, because no business means no jobs. If people don't have money, they cant go to the doctor, so health care begins to hemorrhage jobs. It adds up quick.

Buying a foreign car in the United States is kind of like going to Tigers Game, and rooting for the Yankees. You're not supporting your home team, and you stand out. The problem is more and more people are now rooting for the new york team. If everyone is going to root for new york, then why should they keep a team in detroit? Many may not realize it, but that is exactly what is happening with our auto industry. People keep buying more and more foreign cars, and the US companies are going, or in some cases, are bankrupt. Now, like everyone else in detroit, I have a second favorite team in almost every sport. In baseball, it's the cubs, in football, it's the bears. In basketball and hockey, well, you root for detroit or you're a traitor. But if it comes down to a world series between the tigers and the cubs, or a game between the Lions and Bears, I'll be rooting for detroit. We need people to start rooting for the home team again.

People, young or old, in China and Japan understand this, and it shows. The United States have a trade deficit of over $50 billion a month with China and Japan combined. We have a higher deficit with both countries than we do with all of the OPEC countries combined. Our massive trade deficit is also the reason that we have gasoline over $4 a gallon. Those countries have a large trade surplus, and they use it to subsidize gasoline in their countries. As a result they consume more, increasing demand, and increasing the price here in the United States.

We need to do a better job of teaching economics to students. We need to introduce them to economics in elementary school, not high school. They may not fully understand economics that young, but it gives them time to develop an understanding, as opposed to high school and college when ideas are already entrenched and harder to change. In China in Japan they do this. And it shows.

Jay Leno recently wrote an article talking about the problems in detroit. Well, I mean the problems with the auto industry in detroit. Detroit has a lot of problems, and the auto industry certainly is not helping. He said that the problem is young people have no brand loyalty. Leno is right. When half of the top 10 cars admired most by young people are made overseas, that is a huge problem. People don't think about the impact that buying a Honda, Toyota, BMW, VW, or any other foreign brand has on our economy. We need to change that.

The Idea is pretty simple: If you hate your job, keep buying foreign, and soon a foreigner will have your job.

It's spring in Michigan

2008-03-21T03:17:00Z

Today was the first day of spring.

Tonight I came out of class, and there was a nice big chunk of bird shit on my windshield. Lovely.

Yup, It's spring in Michigan.

Hillary Clinton Sucks

2008-02-26T05:55:04Z

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 2 months, you know that this is a national election year. We're barely past halfway through the primaries and already things are getting ugly.

Personally, I cannot believe hillary clinton can still call herself a democrat, let alone a candidate. Today she attacked Obama on well, being Obama. Her entire case was that he is too inexperienced a politician to serve in washington. Well, here is my response to you ms. Clinton:

The last thing we need in Washington is another 'experienced' politician. Clinton is a very experienced politician - she is experienced in taking bribes from lobbyists, experienced in lying to people about what she's going to accomplish, and very experienced at accomplishing her own agenda at the experience of others.

The thing that amazed me the most is that she slammed Obama on his foreign policy experience. Obama has lived countries that Clinton couldn't find on a map. He has a degree in international relations. He understands the cultures, and shares the cultures of many different races. Clinton's foreign policy experience consists of adopting a fake southern accent while living in New York.

Here is my message to hillary Clinton:

It is time to step aside. In the last two weeks you have proven that you are perfectly capable of being president of the school yard bullies union, but nothing that would resemble the president of the United States. Every word that comes out of your vial mouth further weakens the democratic part. Try to stop thinking about yourself for five minutes, and think about the United States 4 years from now after another term from a republican president. If you don't shut the fuck up and stop trying to cut Obama down, you are going to ruin both of your chances.

I hate mondays

2008-02-25T15:40:09Z

Monday sucks. It pisses me off that once a week there is a monday.

Anyways...

Lovett Cancelled class today, for only the second time this semester. That's a plus.

I had like 3 near misses on the road on my way here though, that's a minus. I have to sit around doing nothing until I get to go to work in 3 hours. That's another minus.

The story though behind the drive here - Well, all was well. I hit all the lights green on river road, all seemed to be going smoothly. Then I get to tenth street in port huron. Well, as im getting ready to turn I still was doing about 40. This dumb bitch in an old piece of shit car pulls out in front of me leaving me about 40 feet to stop. Thankfully my car was 4 wheel ABS. Somehow I manage to regain control and not hit a guardrail and continue on my way. Out of nowhere while im driving down the road I see this idiot walking in the middle of my lane. Okay, what person in their right mind, hell, if you're completely fucking stupid, what would posess you to walk down one of the busiest streets with pissed off people in Port Huron? IN AN ACTIVE TRAFFIC LANE!!! HELLO DUMBASS!!! In the battle of you vs. car, the average person is 200 pounds, the average car is about 5000 and traveling very fast. In the battle between you and a car I would bet on the car. I would also bet on the car continuing, and you winning a darwin award. Last near miss - I was at the end of my journey trying to turn onto Glenwood avenue from tenth street to get to the college parking lot. So I go over the tenth street bridge and the light on the other side of the bridge is green. The thing I didn't see was the light for the right turn was red and there were a lot of cars backed up. No big deal though - that just means stopping for a few minutes. Well, WRONG. If you've ever seen one of those signs that says "bridge may be icy" - yeah, it was solid ice. that was bad. I managed to miss the line of cars though, which is good. I like my car, I would hate to see it smashed.

So yeah, story of the day, I hate monday, and I hate Port Huron.

Blah

2008-02-23T05:54:16Z

I think I'm getting fired when I go to work tomorrow. I won't go into it in detail, because it's a long bullshit story, but I definitely think tomorrow will be the last day I ever go to work at that place...

Customers Suck

2008-02-22T03:46:09Z

The last several times that I logged into LJ prior to tonight I spent a lot of time reading posts in a group called Customers_Suck. It makes me hate working at Best Buy a lot less. It's a great group. I highly recommend taking a look at it. Warning though - you have to have an appreciation of customer service to really understand it.

I made a deal with Erin

2008-02-22T03:40:28Z

I made a deal with Erin - If she updated her LJ, I would update mine, so hear it goes....

LJ says it's been 15 weeks since my last post. I find that odd, because I don't think I've posted since, well, im not quite sure the last time I posted.

I stopped using this for a while because people have a tendancy get really really pissed off when they read what I have to say. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because I used to use this when I lived at home before I moved out the first time - a time when I was almost always really pissed off because I lived at home, went to SC4, hated my job with a passion, and my car was a piece of shit. Well, I'm back at SC4, I'm living at home again, my job blows balls, but at least i drive a nice car now.

Oh well I guess. 6 months and I go to Oakland Univsersity and I am done with SC4 forever. I can't go back - I'm out of classes to take and can't transfer any more credits. Four years at that place takes its toll.

Oh my college troubles... I think a couple posts ago it was January of 07. My one New Years resolution was to not get dismissed from Grand Valley. I am back at SC4 which means that resolution well, didn't go so well. But that's not important.

I am nearly certain that my next college destination is Oakland University. It has taken me a long time to figure out what I want to do though. Grand Valley has its advantages - I know people there, and I am pretty familiar with the way the place works. The problem with GV though is - I know the way the place works. Going back there would mean a lot of extra work and that's assuming they let me back. Oakland is closer to home (that's a bad thing by the way), but I get to make a new start. So I think Oakland it is. On that note - If you know anyone looking for a roommate in the Rochester area - I need a place to live.

This is my first post in a while - so I'll save the rants for another day. I haven't posted since last spring so trust me - all the things that have happened with school, my job, and my friends, I have an awful lot of them. But I'll save them for another day.

At this point I think I have written enough statisfy my deal with Erin, so I'm going to go find something more productive. In all honesty, I'll probably just wind up watching TV.

On that note, for those of you who have forgotten what St. Clair is like:

IT IS FUCKING BORING!!!!!!!!

things I've learned in retail.

2007-11-05T01:25:32Z

It's the holiday season again. This will be my fifth holiday season working at the big blue box. The years of working in retail have taught me many, many things. Here are some of what I consider the important:

1.) The closer to Christmas, the less Christmas Spirit people seem to have. This can be seen on December 24th, and December 26th - the biggest return day of the year.

2.) If you work in customer service, or anywhere near a return counter, December 26th is a great day to come down with a mysterious illness that no one knows how to treat.

3.) People are utterly incapable of lying. I have never once had any person lie to me at work. It just does not happen.

4.) They later you're open, the more people bitch about how early you close.

5.) The day after thanksgiving is when everyone needs their crap fixed immediately.

6.) There is a sercret society of stupid people.

7.) The secret society of stupid people plans attacks at retailers everywhere the day after thanksgiving. These attacks fail miserably, because the people are stupid, but none the less are annoying to everyone else.

8.) People will wait outside in the cold for 12 hours in a huge line to save $10 on a $2000 TV

9.) Wal*Mart turns into a wrestling ring for the royal rumble on Black Friday

10.) Black Friday only comes once a year, but for some reason people seem to think you will honor the black friday ad in january. They then want to commit acts of physical violence upon you, because in your absolute power as a retail peon, you have chosen to ruin their day because you clearly get joy out of it.

I still have LJ?

2007-11-01T21:39:58Z

Wow, I haven't posted in this in a really long time. Time flies when you have better things to do.

Anyways, so I'm back at Shit4 again, Grand Valley = not a good choice for a school. Don't get me wrong, it was fun in all, but math professors suck at life. My fall semester prof was jealous that I had hair and he didn't, and my winter semester prof was jealous that I'm a guy, and she was clearly trying to be one.

Anyways, I still work at Best Buy and want to get the hell out of michigan.

So 2 years later, and still nothing is new.

The Sad Reality...

2007-04-10T06:14:15Z

Well, spring break is done and gone, Easter is over, and here I am back at Grand Valley for the final time this semester. Counting today (Tuesday), I have 17 days until I leave. That is 17 days until I am done with finals, 17 days I have to move out of my apartment, 17 days until I am done with Geek Squad. Possibly forever.

The sad reality is for the first time in six years I need to find a summer job. This is the first time I have ever had to actively search for a job. And really, it sucks. Whats worse is I am a college student who lives in West Michigan most of the year, so I cannot commit to full employment. That means that whatever I wind up doing for the summer is going to mean a pay cut. There is a possibility I may still be able to stay with Best Buy. That really is the best case scenario because it pays higher and it is work that I am used to. That would mean being a cashier though, and I can't keep my current rate of pay. In a nutshell, I would be looking at a 30% reduction in pay. That's the best scenario.

So yeah. It's finals season here at Grand Valley. It's going to be a long 17 days. See everone in St. Clair!.

yet another rant about fabulous Grand Valley...

2007-02-12T07:15:47Z

Okay...

Seriously...

This is aimed at one of my professors.

Look up weekend in the dictionary. One of the definitions should read as follows: any two-day period taken or given regularly as a weekly rest period from one's work.

That having been said, my weekends start on thursday nights, and run through monday. If you cancel a thursday night class, the weekend starts even earlier that day. Please do not send me an email on friday morning stating that we have to have an assignment turned in that day. This is bad for several reasons. Number one being that I probably won't check my school email until sunday at the earliest. the second reason being that I usually don't get around to actually doing homework until about sunday night or possibly monday. So please don't send another email to me on sunday asking where all of my assignment is, as I haven't read the first one you sent out. Seriously. I don't know about your crazy ass, but to me the weekends are a time to get away from grand valley (well, as far away as I can get considering i live here).

Anways: Updated list of classes I hate with a passion(in order by how much I hate them:

WRT 350
MTH 225

Classes I am neutral about:

CS 163
BUS 201

Classes I actually like:

CJ 405

Because CS 163 isn't making me be productive enough...

2007-01-25T13:24:21Z

I remember back when I first got a live journal, I didn't really update it constantly, but I did a lot more than once every six months. But hey, that's what happens when you go to college and your free time is spent passed out. Ok, not all my free time, just the free time that makes me depressed or pissed off, or both (Saturday after the best blow morning meeting).

This being my first post of 2007 I feel i should post my (public) new year's resolutions:

1.) Don't get expelled from Grand Valley.

That's about it.

I figured I'd set my standards low this year. Hopefully I won't forget this resolution before the end of January :-p.

So the story behind this... Last semester was not a good semester. The whole retaking calc idea sort of blew up in my face. I got an F. That's the first time that's happened since my sophomore year of High School. I didn't do so hot in CS 162 either, because they make it ridiculously hard to weed people out of the CS program. I did well in International Relations and Stats though. Needless to say though, My GPA wasn't my best. In fact, it's the worst I've ever done in college. Sadly, it not only didn't meet my standards, it didn't meet Grand Valley's standards for upperclassmen either.

Anyways, new semester, on to better things. I'm doing good in my classes so far, which brings me to now. I'm sitting here in my CS 163 class, which is the second java programming/intro to linux class at Grand Valley. It amazes me that there are 3 people in this class this morning, and that is a majority of the people that are taking the course. Seriously, on a normal day I go from a class of 5 to a class of 100 in my next course. Pretty screwed up huh?

Anyways, on to other interesting things.

I have had the minivan for about 6 months now. I called home last week and found out my Concorde died. The transmission is gone, which makes me suspicious of what happened to it, but it didn't really surprise me. Not that concordes are bad cars, mine just has over 150,000 miles. I knew that was going to happen soon after the 150,000 mark his last November. Needless to say, I had a good laugh.

On to my job. Back in September I transferred to store 406 in Grand Rapids, MI. Since then my career at Best Buy has been on the slide downhill. As of today, I hate my fucking job and can't wait until April when I can get the hell out of there. Seriously. I can't really post on here what is going on there, because of who may read it, so if you want to know ask. Seriously though, it is ridiculous.

Anyways I need to get back to learning.

I'm pretty sure the concorde could withstand a nuclear attack

2006-10-28T06:51:54Z

Seriously

As much as I bitch about my car, That thing can seriously go through anything.

A little background info:

In September when I came home I left the car to and took the mini Van due to reliablility issues. Well, the concorde is a nice car, it's just having a lot of problems lately, and died at GV twice this year so far. By far though, it beats driving that van. So when I came home this weekend I decided to drive my car while I'm home. Well, I go to pick Kristen and Katie up at Kristen's house to go bowling. It's raining and very very dark. Not wanting to back into the ditch, I decide to try to turn around. So I back into her front yard. Turns out, she has a few trees in her front yard. Not very big trees, smaller ones that still have a ways to grow, but trees none the less. Well, I back up slowly, turn, and as soon as I'm off her driveway we hear a thud. Yup, backed into a tree. Thankfully, it was a small one, no damage to the tree or the car. So all is well.

That's one of my entertaining stories from tonight.

Hail to thee Grand Valley

2006-10-26T03:49:07Z

Ok, I'm going to post a serious post here.

Well, as serious as my posts are.

I'm sitting here in the computer lab*, doing my CS homework. My, what fun it is to write method after method of Java Source code.

/***********************************************************************
Why did I have to be a CS major?
***********************************************************************/
public void continuePost(){

//Ok, I don't think anyone will get that joke that hasn't had CS 162,
//but yeah.
}

For those of you whom I haven't talked to, or the random person that may be reading this journal, it is a little past the half way point for the fall semester here at Grand Valley. only 6 long more weeks to go. This fall has been -- well, it's had its ups and downs. Mostly downs, I have to admit. My advice to anyone ever considering attending college anywhere: Never take calculus two. It is a bullshit class that is impossible to pass. By impossible to pass, I mean the instructor gave about a 50 point curve on the last exam, and half the class did not place into the D range. For those of you who are counting, have the class scored below a 10% on the exam. In college you want the average test score to be in the 70-80 range, depending on how much of a hardass the prof is trying to be. So yeah, that's not good. It is looking very favorably that I am going to fail Calc 2 for the second time this year.

Other than that, things haven't gone quite as planned this fall. It seemed September brought one disaster after another. There was my job, my car dying, the classes from hell, and my mess of a social life all crashing down at once.

Anyways, I'll finish this post a little later, I need to finish my source code before the labs close for the night.

*I just reallized that there is a link to this form myspace and facebook, so I was afraid who could read it, so I edited this post slightly.

Wow, It's been a long time since I've updated.

2006-10-26T03:30:39Z

Welp, this is at least a start

Im not sure how to describe this..

2006-09-16T03:53:49Z

From AP.org:

How to dumb down a country in 17 minutes

2006-09-12T01:22:44Z

In today's lesson, we learn how to dumb down the most powerful country in the world in 17 mintues. Under normal circumstances, it seems like a daunting task. But when your name is George W. Bush, it is very easily. Simply give a 17 minutes speech to the nation. At no point in this speech should you express one logical, factual, or original though. Rather, spew off fragments of your old speeches such as "Weapons of Mass Destruction," "Hard Work" "The war on terror," and my favorite, "Nukular weapons." Undoubtedly, the entire country if not the entire world is now dumber having listened to it.

Blah

2006-08-27T04:00:05Z

It is fucking saturday night. This totally blows. Bored as hell. I just walked around the campus -- well, the southern part of campus, and there is no one out. Like, I went from my building, out, around Krikhof, back through Great Lakes Plaza, back to my apartment, and only saw like one person, and that was in the stairwell on the way up.

But yeah. Another one of my rommates moved in yesterday. The other two will be back tomorrow. Hopefully things liven up around here.

I am not looking forward to monday and tuesday though. Monday is the start of classes. Up at 7:00, cass at 8:00. Last class ends at an early 12:50 though, which isn't too bad, then it's off my first day of work at Best Buy 406. I am incredibly nervous about it though. I mean, sure it's still the same company, but it's a different store, completely different people, and a totally different area to work in. Especially since we all know how good of an area SouthEast Grand Rapids is..... (Reference one of my earlier posts if you don't know).

Anyways, I'm off to hopefully do something constructive, possibly meet some new people, because this is getting really old really fast.

I'm out, peace.

boredom....

2006-08-26T00:43:13Z

So yeah.

It's a friday night. I know absolutely no one within 200 miles of here. Yup, great times at Grand Valley.

Anyways...

Move-in was monday. That was a lot of fun. The drive here really sucked. It was solid traffic from Port Huron to Grand Rapids. At one point just west of flint a utility truck drove off the side of I-69, creating a huge mess, and a massive traffic jam. I didn't see the traffic jam until I was a part of it, so I had to hit my brakes really hard. Everything in my car went everywhere. That made move-in even more fun.

So I have an apartment on campus. It's in Murray (formerly South A),and is actually pretty nice. I have met 2 of my 3 roommates so far and they all seem pretty cool so far.

There really hasn't been much going on at GV lately. I have been alone in my apartment for 2 days, which got really boring to be quite honest.

Oh well though, I'm off to hopefully do something constructive. I'll post more later.

31 hours....

2006-08-20T06:06:21Z

Wow, so the entire summer has come down to this. Today is going to be my last day in St. Clair.

From WZZM 13 Grand Rapids

2006-08-09T03:00:58Z

Police Search for Robbery Suspect
Increase Type Size
Decrease Type Size

Created: 8/6/2006 7:51:21 PM
Updated: 8/6/2006 7:55:14 PM

Grand Rapids Police are looking for a suspect in the robbery of a Best Buy.

It happened at the store on the East Beltline near Center Pointe Mall.

Police say the suspect took eight computers out of the back of the store just after ten Saturday night.

Officers say the suspect indicated he had a gun. If you have any information in this case, call Grand Rapids Police or Silent Observer.

cmitchell2004 @ 2006-07-26T23:49:00

2006-07-27T03:50:55Z

So I deleted my last entry. Apparently people can't take sarcasm. Welcome to my livejournal. Read at your own risk.

Reply from a republican senator

2006-07-21T04:49:56Z

Earlier this week in a brief moment of freetime/boredom, I decided to visit the democrat's site trash-o-meter.com. It's a site aimed at banning candadian garbage, and getting rid of those fucking trucks that keep making me late for work, running people off the highways (especially the whadams road bridge over pine river) not to mention destroying every road they drive on as well as littering the crap out of our great state. So on this site there was a forum to send a letter to a senator to try to get the canadian garbage banned. Needless to say, how could I resist. It was sort of the automated one from the site, but none the less I recently received a reply.

Dear Mr. Mitchell,

Thank you for your letter regarding the import of waste from areas
outside of Michigan. I appreciate receiving all comments and concerns on the various issues of interest to you and others in the 22nd Senate district. I, too, have been concerned with the amount of trash that is being sent to our state.

We have struggled over the years as to how to legally limit the use of our landfills exclusively for Michigan trash. Unfortunately, significant court decisions, including a United States Supreme Court's ruling, have long held that Michigan and other states do not have the statutory authority to restrict out-of-state waste --holding that waste is an item of commerce and under the Interstate Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), individual states do not have the authority to unduly restrict out-of-state waste.

Recently, I and my fellow Senate colleagues passed sweeping
restrictions on the importation of Canadian and out-of-state waste, set a two year moratorium on new landfills, and gave broader authority to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to enforce these tougher garbage standards. The legislative package represents a bi-partisan effort to limit the importation of trash by requiring all Canadian and out-of-state waste to meet the same stringent standards Michigan has for its own waste. The Governor has now signed these bills into law thereby requiring landfills to refuse any out-of state waste that do not meet our state's standards.

Should you wish to review the various bills in this package and their analyses, you can check Senate Bills 57, 497, 498, 499, 500, 502, 506, 557, and 715 of 2004 on www.michiganlegislature.org. You may also wish to look up House Bills 5234 and 5235. All of these bills have been signed by the Governor. If you have questions or concerns regarding House Bills 4758, 4759, 4760, 4761, and 4762 I would encourage you to contact your local state representative for these bills are in the House Chamber. Only when these bills arrive to the Senate floor will I then commit to a final decision either for or against.

Again, thank you for your correspondence on this very important matter. If you have any additional questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me at my office.

Sincerely,

Valde Garcia
State Senator
22nd District

Needless to say, I found it rather humorous when I found this in my inbox.

Moral of the story:

Vote democrat. Keep Michigan the great lakes state, and keep michigan blue in '06.

I got kicked out of a bar in St. Clair.

2006-05-27T06:07:42Z

True Story...

I got kicked out of a local bar tonight. I know my entry says something like 2 A.M., which is a little after last call, but this happened a few hours ago. Honestly.

I wasn't drunk or anything, or drinking. This was after all on the American side of the river.

So about 8:15 I go in to visit one of my friends at the local pub. He works there, as a bus boy / something in the kitchen. I just wanted to give him an update on the plans for the night (which were foiled by a few of our fine sheriff's deputies by the way.... jk). Well, someone says they need something, so because he is working he says "I'll be right back" and goes to help out. Knowing he was sort of busy, I decided I was just going to say bye and call him a little later. Well, then in walks his lesbo manager. She comes up to me and in a bitchy tone says "are you here for carry-out, or are you just here to talk to mike, because I don't want my employees socializing, so you need to leave now."

so yeah, that's pretty much the story

I got kicked out of a bar tonight :-D.

Calc blows

2006-05-18T22:55:46Z

Wow it has seriously been a long time since I updated.

I'm up at SC4 right now and there is a huge wad of gum on this keyboard and a creepy guy just sat down next to me.

So it has still been a while since I've updated.