Internet Exposures

Between sharing Photos on Flickr, Picasa, and Panoramio, and writing Wading into the Stream, Viewing and Views, and a few reviews for TripAdvisor as Clifton Jim, my work has been exposed to thousands.  So far, all of this has been done for free.  But I will talk about my current lack of income in another posting.  What is remarkable is that so many people who have never heard of me, were exposed to my creations because of the Internet.  After eighteen years online, I am still astounded by the power of it.

Obviously, these viewings are no big deal, but I am very gratified to know that there have been 2777 views of my photo of friend, Nancy Niehaus's bed & breakfast, The Clifton House, in Cincinnati.  I hope that some of these people gave her some business.  Then there is The Hotel Belvedere in Italy.  While I have no idea how many people read my TripAdvisor review, I hope at least one couple or family was influenced enough to stay there.  It is family owned, out on an island on Lago Maggiore, and you really have to want to go there.

Then there are my readers in Russia.  Привет хорошо образованных граждан России.  How did you find my blog?  Was it random or were you referred?  I am curious to know.  I know a couple of Russians who now live in the US, but they were co-workers or employees.  It is unconceivable that any of them would recommend my writing.  Please write a comment if you check back in.

Finally, the most flattering members of my audience are the ones that viewed my wife's 2005 photo of me that I entitled "Bearded Middle Aged Man on Cincinnati Porch"(www.flickr.com/photos/jf58/57183423/).  It has been viewed 130 times and I cannot imagine why.  It is not because I am good looking.  Perhaps the bearded men of Clifton have a reputation of which I am not aware.

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Also visit: http://viewingsandviews.blogspot.com

Telling the Truth: Struggling vs. Presenting Your Perspective

Telling the Truth: Struggling vs. Presenting Your Perspective

Sam Harris’s Google+ Blog, “The Straight Path, A Conversation with Ronald A. Howard (http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-path-of-honesty) gave rise to some thoughts of my own about the truth.  Below I’ve written a few of my own observations suggested to me by the article.  

• ·      The importance of telling the truth is a factor of either, how old you are, or, alternatively, how long you are going to have a relationship with the person to whom you are speaking.
• ·      If you, as the speaker of truth/or not, have a perception that you will live an indefinite amount of time, or will have an indefinitely long relationship with the person you are potentially lying to, you have a lower likelihood of telling the truth.  I think this is true even of people who usually intend to tell the truth. The key word is relationship.  There is some unknowable correlation between one being more likely to tell the truth to someone with whom you have a relationship and the potential for lying to someone in a one-off transaction.
• ·      There is such a thing as too much truth.  Like your favorite weather conditions, a sunny sky, a cool breeze, a refreshing shower, or a lovely snowfall, too much of any one or more of these conditions will produce undesired results.  Too much truth can work the same way.
• ·      Self-deception is just as potentially destructive to anyone involved, as telling lies.  Whether the people you are dealing with detect the truth about you or not, whatever you say regarding that self-deception, and particularly, any actions you take based on it are more likely to have adverse results. 

It is not enough to intend to speak the truth, most of the time.  Everyone is better off if we tell the truth, even if it can put us in awkward situations.  We might even find that we have fewer awkward situations if we tell the truth more often.  Even well intentioned lies can have adverse consequences.  Often these consequences follow later, when they are most inconvenient.

The Economic Compass Needle

     When an American is unemployed he is counted in the national "Unemployment Rate" which was reported, Friday, April 5th, as 7.6%.  NPR reported that rate along with the proviso that only job-seekers are counted as unemployed.  Those who choose to retire, whether formally or informally, or otherwise give-up on searching for a new job because they are frustrated by a general lack of response, are no longer counted as "unemployed" by the Labor Department.  Does this mean that those people don't count?  No, it just means that they are not included in that primary economic indicator, "the Unemployment Rate", one of the most significant indicators used by economists, and therefore, government officials and the media, to show whether the "Economy" is getting better or getting worse.
     Who cares if the "Economy" is getting better or getting worse?  The answer to this is more complicated than who is counted as unemployed.  In brief, banks, Wall St. traders, stock and bond holders, the government, and much of the mass media sometimes treat the economic direction like that is all that counts.  If the unemployment rate is declining, the economy is improving.  So when the "Unemployment Rate" calculation is adjusted by adding or removing whole groups of unemployed people, like who is looking for a job because they believe they can still find one versus those who are temporarily disheartened, the bean counters are playing with numbers that make a difference to a lot of people.
      This means take heart, fellow unemployed job seekers!  Those times when there is no HR assistant calling you to schedule an interview, nor any recruiter seeking to make money by connecting you to your next position, remember that you are still an important cog in the wheel of the national economy because you are still seeking a job.  You are vital as an economic indicator; monetary gauge to the most respected, influential, and powerful people in the world.

George Clooney's Advice for Job Interviews or Auditions

     In January 2012, George Clooney appeared on Bravo's "Inside the Actor's Studio" Season 18. For two hours he talked about acting, directing, and producing movies.  I like George in all of these roles.  He is from my area of the country.  I grew up watching his Dad deliver the local news in Cincinnati.  But as an Operations Manager in transition (i.e. looking for a new job) I was particularly struck when George talked about how auditions used to make him nervous until he figured something out.
     Imagine this suave, Cary Grant-like actor being nervous about auditioning for acting roles.  Didn't he just get every role he auditioned for?  Apparently not.  George actually worried about what would happen if the casting director didn't like the way he interpreted a part or what he would do if he didn't get the role he really wanted.
      George said sometimes actors get in their own way.  He told himself, the worst thing that could happen at audition (or interview) is that he would walk out of there without the role (or job) that he didn't have when he walked in.  From there he gave other audition advice.
     This struck me as great interview advice.  If you didn't get the job, you would still be able to interview for other roles.  You would still have your skills.  What would happen if you got the job? You would still be the same guy.  The company would still be the same, except you would have one of the jobs.  There was very little difference between getting the job and not getting the job.  Oh sure, there is the money, but you are the same. The only difference is that somebody decided to take a chance on you, that you would be able to perform that job well.
     There is no point in being nervous about the outcome of auditions or interviews.  You are who you are.  What you need to do is present yourself in the best light that you can predict your interviewer will want to see you, and hope for the best outcome.

To the Families of All of Today'sGunshot Victims

     Sunday, February 3, 2013.  My heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of all of today's dozens of gunshot victims.  In most cases, the suicide victims could not have been saved and you should not accept their anger at yourselves.  As for those who were accidentally shot for whatever reason, I'm very sorry your loved one was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I don't mean to be cold, but that is the bottom line on what happened to them.  It is also part of why I write, today.  Preventative action must be taken by our leaders and ourselves to lessen the number of daily shooting victims.  Finally, to the families of the most tragically ironic shooting victims, Chad Littlefield and professional sniper, Chris Kyle, my sincere sympathies.
     The late Mr. Littlefield and Mr. Kyle may have been trying to help their murderer, himself, a possible victim of PTSD acquired in his own military service.  For Mr. Kyle, a man who credits himself  with over 150 gunshot kills in service to his country, it is an excruciating turnabout on himself to be shot to death in a Texas shooting range.  Unfortunately for his family, and himself, this kind of life-ending could not have been written.  It would not have worked in fiction or film.  It is mental health at its worst, and insane irony beyond belief.
     This tragic episode must be added to the nightmares of Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Ft. Hood, Aurora and Littleton Colorado, and thousands of less infamous shootings.  It is my suggestion to all American gun owners who justify their gun owning and use by pleading their second amendment rights, that you should come out from behind that document and look at what is happening.  You are shooting yourselves and your loved ones to death out of fear and ignorance.  That fear and ignorance is encouraged and inflamed by the NRA and its supporters and again, you are its victims.  You and all of the innocents who can be tragically labelled, collateral damage.
     The second amendment to the Constitution is not an issue.  It has been affirmed by the Supreme Court.  No legislation is pending to overturn it.  Gun owners must stop shooting each other and your innocent victims because it is immoral to do otherwise.  If you are afraid, or think someone is out to harm you, seek counseling.  Continuing on your current path will bring about the same results:  suicide, murder, and accidental shooting.  No one of any courage or intelligence is supporting those outcomes in the name of defense.

Do the Banks Run the US Government?

This is not 2008, but the Obama Administration excusing the illegal behavior of the world's largest banks in the last couple of months because the world banks would become unstable if we over fined or significantly disrupted their banking activities tells me that our government no longer runs much, if they ever have.

The activities of UBS, Wachovia and HSBC were egregiously illegal and against the interests of the government and the people of this country.  The idea that our federal prosecutors are unable to act against them means those banks, and by extension, all major banks, can act with impunity.  As Steven Colbert's interview with Rolling Stone Magazine writer Matt Taibbi, as well as his article in the same magazine, when a business or a person is able to scoff at the law in a nation that runs on the rule of law, it no longer runs on the rule of law.  We are all in major trouble.

I am not the first or last to write about this phenomenon, but since there are no popular uprisings of people pulling all of their money out of the worst banks, they have nothing to worry about.  Stay tuned.

Maybe Not the End of the World

How many people, how many civilizations, how many cultures have predicted the end of the world.  The answer is, more than we can say.  What is it about predicting the end, either the end of the world, or, at least, the end of mankind?  Does it bring a feeling of power to the people who are doing the predicting.  That is the least of the phenomenon.  In some cultures, in some situations, predicting the end, elaborating on the end of the world, stringing out the end as long as possible, has brought status, if not actual power to those predicting the apocalypse.  Many were priests, or people who served that function in their culture.  Predicting the end gave their positions validity.  They knew what nobody could know.
There is a reason for that.  Why do they know the unknowable?  How is it that they came by that ultimate information?  The answer is not so profound:  they wanted to know.  More to the point, the information they reveal is not real.  Nobody can know when the end of the world will take place, until the actual end of the world is occurring.
There were the Mayans, and several other prehistoric cultures.  In the last couple of thousand years, there were the Christians.  Yes, the Christians began predicting the end of the world was going to take place at the millenium, or year 1000 A.D.  Check me on this.  Then, and many will remember this, some predicted the end would come in the year 2000.  That did not turn out to be true, either, but George W. Bush was elected President of the United States.  His administration was as close to the end of the world as I want to come.
I am no scientist, and I am certainly no priest or any kind of religious spokesman.  If I am then automatically disqualified from addressing the subject of the end of the world, please forgive me for going on.  What am I saying, then?  Am I saying, "Do not listen to these charlatans."  Yes, I am saying that.  Furthermore, it is my unsolicited recommendation that you should not listen to anyone like them.  Anyone who claims to have knowledge of the end of the world is lying to you and has an agenda.  They are claiming any and all power you are prepared to surrender to them.  Run the other way.
Although I am taking a facetious tone in this piece, I am completely serious.  Do not believe people who claim the unknowable.  Learn as much as you can on your own.  I am referring to conventional learning.  Math, science, literature, history, anthropology and any other conventional subject.  Learn as much as you can stand.  Then start on the unconventional learning.  Go ahead and learn about religion, mythology, mysticism and all other types of storytelling.  At a certain point, you will begin to discern what is bull and what is solid information.  Some would say that is the entire point of all learning.  On that point, who am I to disagree.
There is not much left to say about the subject.  After you learn as much as you can, find your own way as best you can.  Get along with as many people as you can.  Love everyone who will let you do so.  Take care of your family.   Give away as much as you can afford and still do the aforementioned actions.
What if I am wrong?  As laughable a concept as that is, let us explore it for a moment. What are the implications of the opposite of what I have been saying.  Just reverse it all, except those end-of-times predictions that have expired.  We cannot be ridiculous about it.  Would it be nice if priests had an inside track to explaining the end of the world?  Some people think so.  It might be good to imagine there was a unified force, a god controlling things to the extent that he can tell a few folks to be good, follow his rules, have a little fun until the end.  Maybe folks who buy the story will stay in line and behave themselves for just a little bit longer.  It has always been a struggle.
Where do we go from here?  See above.  Keep learning, getting along with people, take care of your family, and sharing with those who are falling behind.  The world is neither a good place, nor a bad one.  It is the only place. Take care of yourself and your people, and don't take any wooden nickels.