I find it very interesting that Apple is re-tuning some of their practices only after a Chinese employee commits suicide.  The suicide came about after the individual had been scrutinized and harassed by security personnel over a missing iPhone prototype.  Shortly after Apple released a statement saying all employees and contractors “must be treated with dignity and respect.”  Is this really true personification the idea “Think different,” that founder Steve Jobs promotes in the advertisements his company is so well known for? 

     The article from the Associated Press, mentions seventeen different violations including three where workers were hired underage,  eight infractions wherein workers paying “recruitment” fees were above the legal limits in those countries; three cases in which suppliers used non-certified vendors to dispose of hazardous waste; and three others where the companies gave falsified records during the audits.

     You might guess that now “Think Different” may take on some new connotations,  in my case it is yet another shade in the smorgasbord of issues with Apple products.

I was sitting in my Economics 1010 class today, when briefly after watching a video I saw this link.  I said to myself, “I have to watch this as soon as I can.” So to succinctly describe communism in a nutshell is this video from Dr. Clifton L. Ganus, Jr.

Aren’t you glad I go to class?

There is something about staying up all night.  I don’t know if it all the creativity that to keeps you up or the thoughts that run through your head.  In this case I would say it was a little of both.

While I was patiently waiting the 6:30 a.m. tic to toc on the clock, I was diligently working on a piece of design soon to be seen.  The tedious monotony of tutorials and code are such sweet company on an early Monday morning, after all code is poetry.  I also managed to finish building my handout for today’s Introductory Computer Class at the Halls Senior Center.  Not much else was going through my head at the time.

It all changed as I began to cook at the turn of six.  I began to reminisce how my Mammaw and Pappaw must have done the same things day in and day out as they prepared breakfast for all of the boys in the painting crew.  God I miss that breakfast… To this day I can’t make white gravy that is anywhere close to that.  Moreover, the main thing I miss of that is the camaraderie, that my quiet breakfasts, with my wife or couple of friends, just aren’t the same. The atmosphere just can’t be replicated. I have fond memories of eating my portion and part of my uncle’s within a period of two or so hours.  Those were the days… just waking up to food prepared to eat as soon as your feet hit the floor.

That reminder quickly moved to a scene in Sam’s Restaurant and Deli for more breakfast than the average human should eat in one sitting.  Again, it was more the camaraderie than the food although it is excellent as well.  Heck, Mark and I would order one of the specials our friend would most likely order the Western Omelet. We would drink out fair share of coffee and smoke. Yes, I said smoke. You see that was prior to the unrealistic and unforgiving anti-tobacco lobby ruined that pastime for those of us who have no wish to kill the ignorant people we encountered during a day.

So, it is with that I leave you to go puff on bowl of tobacco and reminisce something else positive.  After all around 1964 the surgeon general determined pipe smoker’s outlive non-smokers and are relatively innocent of causing lung cancer.

Normally I try to not watch the news, but my NetFlix movies are on thier way.  Television over the last two days hasn’t been much fun either, so I turned on WBIR.  You can sum up the two hours of newscast to three phrases:  It’s cold drive carefully, The UT basketball made a piss poor decision and there’s an Italian restaurant in the vicinity of Seymour called Willie’s.  If this is the all real news out there why even have a local newscast?  Even the commercials sucked, there has to be more out there…

Since I had to get up this morning to bake a German Chocolate Cake and the first thing I had to do was empty out the garbage I give you this as you allow your family and friends over for lunch and/or dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving!