I have not been able to see as much of the Republican Convention as I hoped. The little bit I've seen has some impressive words - from the speakers. However, why doesn't the national media go ahead and just come out and endorse the candidates they want? You really aren't fooling many people. One network I've watched sure doesn't seem unbiased. As this is the Republican Convention, none of the speakers - in the national media reports I've heard, has been good, properly informed, correct, dressed well enough, or presented themselves in the right way.
    With the exception of Fox - who I have not watched in months - we can guess that the next convention will be stunning, spectacular, and the speakers hit every issues correctly, in the eyes of the national media. I suspect if you gave two speakers of opposing political parties the same speech, the networks would swoon over their side, but the other guy was just short of being a loser.

I was just watching some Rachael Ray this afternoon. She was cooking up a modern day tuna surprise, or as she called it, a grown-up version that includes mushrooms, and wine and all kinds of stuff. I guess I haven't watched many cooking shows before, or maybe it just happens with heres, but as she was naming some of the ingredients - tarragon for example, the audience started applauding.
     Now was the crowd really that excited about tarragon? It's a fine spice and I've used it in some of my amateur cooking, but I never thought about applauding it. Maybe the crowd was still giddy about the use of wine (which as I recall also drew applause). MAybe they were just tickled to se RR in person
   And now a disconnected thought. RR is the same initials of the character played nby the late Gildna Radner Roseanne Roseanandanna.
   Is it right to applaud the mention of spices and ingredients at a food cooking show? Is it wrong? What am I missing. On by the way, I made homemade bread today, and one of the ingredients was brown sugar. Yes, thank you. I hear your applause.

Having been active in job searches for months, here are some of my general comments on job searches:
• Skills seem to be more impotent than where you worked in the past.
• However, if you are looking for a new job, you generally will need to have experience in the business to be considered. This makes career changes difficult, when people want to go a new way.
• There is a disturbing trend of pay by commission,without inclusion of a base salary. Even the best salesman doesn't sell to everyone and it can mess up a budget.
• In an effort to sound impressive, many job titles have been upscaled. This makes it difficult to find about the job responsibilities.
• Equally frustrating are companies that list 10-20 requirements and then add something like "other tasks as requested." It seems in this down-sizing mentality, companies want employees that can do everything in a company and be willing to work for minimum wage.
• There are so many applications that are time consuming - time wasting if you aren't hired.
• Government requires the W4-, I-9, and other forms, and many ask the same information. Isn't there a way these can be standardized and simplified?
• It's harder to keep the SS# private, since so many companies require it. One can only assume the reader of every application and form is legit and honest.
• For on-line applications, applicants generally have to impress the computer instead of the HR at the company with matching words in the job description. One can only guess some of those skilled at doing this that really aren't cut out for the work assigned, but have matched computer selected words.

Maybe it's just MacIntosh computers (Macs) or maybe it's other computers, too. I don't often use PCs so I can't judge. Sometimes I hit the back space and I get a message that says something to the effect of  "Are you sure you want to do this? If so another form will have to be sent." It almost makes me feel guilty, like I am inconveniencing someone. Surely a personal computer hasn't become that personal that  it takes it personally when I back space to a previous page. Anybody else have a comment on this (or the other blogs).

One more thing regarding most recent post. Many people seem to get caught up in nostalgia. We could all go silly remembering everything that was. SOme people still use/have the items other people only remember.

I like the concept of Facebook. However, it seems to me that a lot of people don't know how to communicate.
      Instead of talking about real events, happenings, we put trivial facts about our eating or hygienic habits, we allow pictures to be posted of people who are friends of a friend, we get people to play mind and time wasting internet games, trading points of products.we think every photo of family of which we are interested, will automatically be of interest to everyone else. Not always.
    Evaluate your friends posts, and evaluate yours. DOes it really matter to the world you are wearing your red shoes today?
    Instead of really communicating, we are electronically babbling.

Here is a political observation, and you can take it to reflect whomever you think it best fits. In political ads, it seems like a perfect plan is in the course of action of your past experience to cause blatant problems to which the public would negatively react,  - and rightly so. Then blame the opponent in the TV ads for doing those exact things of which your own hands caused similar problems. That's brash, that's wrong, and that's happening now. I hope America is paying attention to what is being said, and what has really happened. The Novemebr elections are much too important  - literally - for the future of the USA to dismiss this

After watching the Olympics, and in the never ending quest to find new events, here are some of the suggestions from family members, followed by perhaps an obvious comment. (Go ahead and blame the heat wave).

• The 10 meter dash - The key to this is literally all in the start
• The irregularly spaced 200 meter hurdles - good luck
• The uneven rings and the even parallel bars - Now that will mess with the mindset
• The synchronized unique diving - between a sumo diver and a pixie gymnast. Points are scored on how far the little pixie is tossed by the indoor tidal wave.
• Sumo short track bicycling. - MAy want to reinforce the tires.
• The shot put catch - Anyone can heave it, who can catch it?
• The church steeple chase - Even run only on Sundays, to see who can get to church the fastest.
• Javelin pin-the-tail-on the donkey. Becasue of animal rights activists, the target will be like at kids birthday parties - drawn, instead of a real donkey. Don't forget to attach your tail to the javelin before throwing it.
• Trampoline really high hurdles. The trick isn't in getting over the hurdles so much as it is advancing down the track.
• And in an effort to promote positive events, how about goodminton?

Coming in the next few months! Book about Steinbeck (and affiliated families) antics. Watch for details.

A pre-Halloween thought (Hey if the stores can go early on the holidays, so can I). If a certain social networking message is sent on Oct. 31, is it called a Twitter Tweet?

Why is it so many Olympic athletes want to bit on their medals? They don't even look like chocolate, unless it actually is chocolate and the "gold (or silver or bronze" is actually aluminum foil hiding something delicious.