Indoors at the Post Office

My cousin asked me what I do in the post office. So I wrote this for him. Thought you might be interested.

Starting at 3am, I work inside the local post office as a shipping clerk. At all times of the day and night, mail arrives in large metal boxes on wheels or on pallets. We use a pallet jack to move the pallets around, like they do in a warehouse. Basically, I work in a government warehouse. I get paid more than double the minimum wage, because there is a lot of responsibility in handling the mail. Even if it does not require a lot of intelligence, it does require a lot of common sense and discipline, more than most people have.

At this post office, shipping clerks divide the incoming mail up between

We Are So Zucked

*FB IS BETTER THAN YOU*

Wow. https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/07/18/swisher-zuckerberg This is why Gruber has his own website. So he can call the plays his way. Swisher can't say what she's thinking because she's trying to seem impartial, though even she has a hard time with this one.

Because Zuck is trying to substitute fb for the rest of the Internet for so many people, he intends to remain impartial to content, unless that content could get him arrested. So until it is a crime to willfully allow falsehoods, fb will not interfere with content. Therefore, I can infer from that if it was not a crime to encourage suicide, fb would not interfere with that either. Wow.

Fb is just another website, one that aggregates content, just like the newspaper of yore. Fb is NOT the whole damn portal. It conceptually took over from AOL for many of its users. But that was an coincidence, not a sign (or mandate) that fb is therefore a portal. It's still just a website. The Internet changed

My Fourth-Dimensional Wake

*HOW I VIEW MYSELF*

I once had a lot of potential, a 2-year degree, a 4-year degree, and three masters degrees. By comparison, I'm nothing now. Just a USPS rural mail carrier, out in the middle of nowhere. I am specifically an "RCA": rapidly-yet-meticulously sorting and arranging nearly 500 families' mail bundles with care, driving my standard Honda Fit like a crazy person on fire instead of using a mail truck, invading people's privacy all day long with a smile and a wave, and getting paid for it. The sun is not in the sky during most of my commuting, and I barely have enough strength to drive home everyday, and barely enough income to cover my only expenses: food, phone, fuel, and vehicle maintenance.

Three decades ago, I was playing with Legos and Transformers, obsessing over Calvin and Hobbes, and eventually owning more than 21,000 comic books, most of which have since been sold. I was playing soccer (from 4-16 years of age), and was in the Boy Scouts (from 8-20 years of age), including an annual leadership position I was elected to at 18, by just under a thousand people.

Two decades ago, I designed websites, I played my guitars all of the time, and I collected books. I still have my guitars, and I currently have

Steel Panther - Rock-parody In Blue

Four enthusiastic fans of the 1980's Glam Metal scene begin to pretend to be a fictional band from that era. They extend their fantasy into press conferences and interviews by making shit up about their real lives. They release professional-grade albums of songs with ridiculous lyrics about sex, and 1980's views of masculinity. Numerous musicians (singers, drummers, guitarists, keyboard players, bass players, as well as actors and sports figures), both from that era and from today, often join them onstage to sing/play each guest's signature song, or other popular songs from the 1980's. They are Steel Panther.

Reason to Watch

Apple Watch? Apple, Why?

The iPad was a big iPod touch. But nobody had done that before (with any traction), so it was labelled as a New Apple Product. Apple watch is a small iPhone. But nobody has done that before (with any traction), so it was labelled as a New Apple Product. It looks like a watch, so I guess they called it the right name. A knob that rotates. A glass face and metal body. A strap separate from the body. Promoted as jewelry. In previous years, the iPhone Operating System (iPhone OS, now iOS) replaced many stand-alone portable objects for most people: still cameras, audio/video recorders, audio/video players, books, address books, notepads, calculators, simple gaming devices, e-readers, flashlights, watches, and notably, keyboard-laden cellphones. People stopped using them because

Sweating Inflammation

Everything that comes out of your body is something you don't need. When you sweat, all the stuff that comes out with the liquid is a waste product. Your body is taking the opportunity to get rid of it as that liquid passes out of your body to cool you off.

You wipe off urine and feces from your tail when you're done pushing some out of your bladder and alimentary canal. You brush your teeth when you're done dumping nutrients into the other end. You should wash off your body when you're done sweating, at least done sweating for now. The sediment that is in sweat causes inflammation, which is the secret ingredient to future heart conditions, strokes, heart attacks, and other circulatory issues, all of which kill more people than nearly anything. 

That might kill you, too, so be sure to banish early that oily bacteria, unless of course you just don't care. Valuing one's own longevity, and that of any other life, is a choice every individual gets to make, much to the chagrin of the downtrodden, those who are allowed few major choices in life and, as an egotistical reaction, deify supernatural selection.

Thus, to preserve the health of your circulatory system, keep your skin clean, inside and outside. Outside, keep your fleshy surfaces clean, including your scalp, armpits, mouth, and all crotch exits and accessories. Inside, keep your throat clean by avoiding excessive digestion, where stomach acid splatters up into your esophagus and lungs. This "heartburn" is often caused by spicy foods and/or foods your stomach is not used to digesting. 

Also inside, keep your ear, nose, and throat passages clean, free of mucus and irritation. Those with allergies are at a disadvantage, as allergic responses are the front face of inflammation itself. You don't have to run around washing constantly. But when the liquid schtuff evaporates, the remaining schtuff is no good, it's no good, it's no good... baby, it's no good. Don't make me say it again.

The human heart is the clock of our lives, the heartbeat ticking away the seconds we have left. Inflammation makes it tick faster, harder, and louder. Unfamiliar stress is whole-body inflammation. So, get used to stress levels before you add additional stress. Walk before you run, in all things. And wash all that sweat off when you're done.

Consider 4 Things When Choosing Your iPad Case

A fairy tale case, "Bookbook"
is from twelvesouth.com

The appearance of your iPad case will affect your interest in learning to use your iPad. That will be the first thing you must consider. Many cases are designed to make your iPad look like Your iPad, be it unique or pretty or special or simply customized for you. You will notice the appearances of various cases right away while you shop for one, and that will affect your final selection on some subconscious level. I have no comment on that cosmetic point, so the other three considerations are what I discuss below. They are: environmental protection, functional limitations, and practical advantages. You must decide which of the 4 are important for you to consider, and buy a case with those in mind.

*ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION*

Your iPad is very robust. It is not easy to scratch the back, and even harder to scratch the display. The glass display is nearly as strong as glass used in automotive windshields. Its metal housing is very sturdy, and it will absorb and evenly distribute the impact from most types of falls (unless it lands flat with the display facing down). And as easy as it is to imagine dropping it, in reality it rarely happens (unless you really do drop lots of things every day). Now, if you want to sell your iPad

My Six Favorite Music Albums

I still have this player. It still works. (And so does the zither.)

I wasn't exposed to very much music as a child, except for a toy record player, TV theme songs, and a Zippy Zither. My parents didn't listen to music on the radio. However, around the holidays, dad would pull out a large record player and we'd get to hear music. This included some of the early Beatles albums, a Perry Como Christmas album, and a Bing Crosby Christmas album. In third grade, a friend played Poison's first album for me in his house one time, and I can remember hearing the choruses of both Born To Run and Living On A Prayer a few years after. But other than the songs we sang in choir at school,

Solar Walk and I have a relationship

Earth in the original version of Solar Walk

I'm not sure why I love "Solar Walk", which is an app for Apple devices/computers. With most of the things that I really love in this world, I have no idea why I feel that way. I just know that I do. If I ever catch myself getting very annoyed and angry when people don't agree with me regarding something relatively inconsequential, I suddenly realize that I am in love with it. I also realize that I should apologize for seeming bossy, though all I'm really guilty of is loving something so much that I act and feel silly, and if I can get others to feel the way I feel, maybe it won't seem as silly. (The way I see it, loyalty, devotion, and obsession are all symptoms of love.)

"The Gift" by Carl Erik Rinsch

"The Gift" is a 5-minute short film directed by Carl Erik Rinsch in 2010, created for the "Parallel Lines" advertising campaign by Philips, promoting some of their televisions. Unfortunately, Philips has removed their own website for the campaign and Wikipedia does not yet have a page for it. Therefore, I thought it would be prudent to assemble some information (current as of November 2011) and links regarding both Mr. Rinsch and the campaign for which "The Gift" was created.

* * Here are some places to find Carl Erik Rinsch...

An interview Carl Erik Rinsch gave about his Parallel Lines project, "The Gift" www.pocket-lint.com/news/32585/interview-with-carl-erik-rinsch

This website (for a company he works with, run by Ridley Scott) contains videos for "The Gift" and 13 commercials of his rsafilms.com/company/rsa-usa/director/carl-erik-rinsch

This website (for a company he works with, run by J.J. Palomo) contains stills and videos for 4 commercials of his: E300L Chinese Edition, Saturn Evolution, The Gift, and Exploit Yourself biglazyrobot.com

This YouTube channel (set up by an RSA associate, Cedric Mazzara) contains