Wal-Mart: The Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse

Wal-Mart: The Fifth Horseman Of The Apocalypse, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

It's been a year since Jdimytai Damour was killed by Black Friday Shoppers at the Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, NY. With the US still in the grip of it's worst recession in decades are the maddening crowds going to be worse or better. What has Wal-Mart done to prevent this from happening again? Who in their right mind would stampede a store for mundane material possesions like a 42 inch plasma screen TV?
The economists don't want to use the D word. Yes, that's right . Depression. If they ever dared to use that one maybe the governments of the world would have to be serious about doing something for the people rather than heaping billions of bailout money on the Corporations. The corporations continue to lay off millions of hard working human beings while lining the pockets of fat, rich executive higher ups. This has got to stop!
Meanwhile we have bread and circus events like Black Friday that turn people into animals because they're so desparate to have what their rich neighbors have for half the price. Wal-Mart encourages this animal behavior. I'll never forget the crazy lines that snaked around and outside of the Pottstown, PA Walmart when I worked there about 5 years ago. Most of those lines were for the Lay-Away windows. Wal-Mart apparently enjoys not only the attention that Black Friday crowds bring to its stores but the substantial boost in profits. They could care less about the welfare and safety of their employees. Wal-Mart goes out of its way to cheat and rob their associates of their dignity and their rights.
Who was the person who dealt the final blow to Mr. Damour? We've never found that out. But in the end it is Wal-Marts responsibility to bring a more civilized atmosphere to their Black Friday events. But I doubt this will happen as it is in the company's best financial interest to keep it crazy and keep people coming in with such hyperbolic expectations.

Snapfish Has Snapped Up Flickr

Snapfish Has Snapped Up Flickr, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Flickr, a so called "Photo Sharing Site" has now introduced an exclusive "service" to flickr members. Formerly, flickr Pro members could opt out of printing services and were not subject to advertising. Now we have it staring at us on all our pages. We have the stupid little shopping cart right next to our flickr mailbox. One of these days I'm going to click on that accidentally and "buy" a few of my photos.

Flickr has increasingly put forth so called features that only answer to a revenue generation goal. They have introduced such "sparkly goodness" as the App Garden, the Big Blue Button and now this horrible printing service from Snapfish. The Powers That Be (Petaybees, with attribution to Anne McCaffrey) have ignored flickr members requests for a lot of things. Flickr HQ has sought to demean flickr members by calling our work "items", "things" and "stuff".

Flickr does not allow its members to sell their photos prominently from their photo pages. I've been fortunate in having a few works considered by buyers but that's a hit or miss scenario. Yet, Flickr will allow service providers and commercial interests to invade flickr with subliminal advertising, drop down ads and other gimmickry. It has become another internet store where the members are nothing more than consumers and hobbyists to feed the maw of the big corporate "Fish".

In My Own Words...........

In My Own Words..........., originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Flickr is now trying so desperately to be Facebook. Yahoo! has indeed taken over the philosophy and attitude of flickr with it's silly marketing campaign surrounding so called "people". I don't need flickr to redesign my profile in line with Yahoo's corporate mentality. My works should speak for themselves. If you have any interest at comment on them from flickr if you have a notion to and a flickr account.

Horseshit 2.5 Logo

Horseshit 2.5 Logo, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

When was the last time a computer or software upgrade actually did what it promised to do. So many times one gets an upgrade to say, Firefox, where they tell you in great detail how many bugs, glitches, security holes etc that they've fixed only to get another upgrade two days later that explains exactly the same thing. Do the software engineers ever get it right?
No they don't. If they ever created a product that worked best the first time without any endless tweaks, aside from the numerous security breaches that need to be fixed as a matter of course, they would be out of a job! I personally believe it's a lot of Horse Shit.
Flickr just upgraded its logo. The upgrade is also a lot of horse shit. It's ugly, hideous and needs to be downgraded back to where it was before.

Sign the Twitition: http://twitition.com/7jntr

Caribbean Carnaval 2009

Caribbean Carnaval 2009 Aint Nuthin In The World Like Six Fine Feathered Girls Of The Morning, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

This is my all time favorite parade. The colors and the women are like no other in NYC!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paypaul/sets/72157622293121312/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paypaul/sets/72157622132431415/

Van Jones Needs More Balls!

Four Brown Balls, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

Van Jones quit in the middle of the night today. What a pussy! Are all the Democrites quitters? Eliott Spitzer quit over his prostitution peccadillos. Meanwhile South Carolina governor Mark Sandford is holding out against calls for his resignation. The only quitter amongst the current repukelican ilk is Sarah Palin but she doesn't even count because she has the mental aptitude of a duckbill platypus. I take that back. It's insulting to the duckbill platypuses to be compared to Sarah Palin in terms of anything.
Team Obama needs to stop acting like they're in the minority party and fight back against the fear mongering and ignorance of the conservative talk show hosts and the fools on the hill like Sessions and the slimeball from the last administration. What was his name? Oh yeah. Dick Cheney. Let's expose these self serving hypocritical slimebags for what they are. Let's see. Craig, the guy who likes to meet young men in Denver toilet stalls or Foley who played with the affections of male pages probably during the same time he was lambasting Bill Clinton for doing the same with some White House Intern. Give me a break and give these dumbocrats some Balls!!

Marvel-Disney Teamup: Spiderman And The Lion King

Marvel-Disney Teamup: Spiderman And The Lion King, originally uploaded by ⓅⒶⓎⓅⒶⓊⓁ.

It's apparent that I had an epiphany that day when I was scared down to my little boots when Spiderman showed up in Midtown probably hawking the cross marketing possibilities of a Marvel Disney Teamup. Mickey Mouse Marvel indeed. Why not I say. It could prove to be the best thing that could happen to Marvel and continue into perpetuity the many comic franchises we've come to know and love. Disney does have its own Comics line and I wonder if it will be folded into the Marvel Universe. Goofy meets the Inhumans? Goofy is about as an inhuman as you can get. I never did get Goofy anyway. What's next now that Archie has entered into wedded bliss with Veronica? What will DC Comics do to top this blockbuster to garner attention for it's own flagging franchises. The comics world is filled with reinventions of old favorites and DC comics is often notorious for it. The only Marvel comic that comes to mind is the Incredible Hulk for its constant revisions of the David Bruce Banner/Hulk origin. I miss Kirby and his magnificence and hope that the Disney square jawed animation style doesn't enter the Marvel realm. If Disney is smart they'll leave the creative end alone to the experts at Marvel Comics.