So, I was at the outlet mall here in Orlando tonight and I stumbled upon the Converse Factory Store. If you know me, you will know that I do now own a pair of Converse shoes. I do not have anything against them, just do not own a pair.

If you look closely at the history of the company, you can see some similarities of some major issues today. Foreshadowing?

Perhaps. The Converse shoes (or "Chucks") were widely popular in the 1950's and 60's. After that, the company hit some bumps along the way, because of the uprising of popularity of their competitors of Nike, Adidas and others. Finally, they were not known as the number one shoe used for basketball players. Reebok took that title.

I know you may be wondering "What is this guy getting at??" Ha. Hang tight. Almost there, a little bit more history. The company filed for bankruptcy on January 22, 2001. Their main factory which was in the United States closed, but they continued their production from the China, Indonesia and Italy factories. The company was bought by what was a competitor, Nike in 2003. The unique "converse" design looked the same, but some wearers of the shoes have complained about a change in the material the shoes were made with.

This is a little interesting scenario to show that things go through cycles. For instance, GM. What was an auto-giant was bailed out of bankruptcy by the Government. Does this mean that the company is going to be run by the Government? Changes in their line-up and design of automobiles? Well...according to the Governmental Administration, they "say" no, but I have said it many-MANY times, they have no intention of letting go. When they see how much funding and control they can get out of it, they will just pass excuses as to why they can't get out now. I also predict there will be a major change in their automobile design. I can kiss my little dream of owning a GMC Sierra out the window. The quality will more than likely be not up to the standards the old GM had.

If you look at the Presidents of the past, you will see that it goes through cycles. Conservative...then Liberal. Big Government back to Small Government. I would say it typically helps the general consensus to have that cycle in Governmental leadership, but I think there are limits. This current monsoon is out of control. By far. We have reached a 1-Trillion dollar deficit. That is something that is going to take years to get under control.

Look at the weather cycles. Some would say that "Gobal Warming is real! Go GREEN!" Calm down. If you look at the history of the weather, it goes through cycles, it takes about 100 years for a cycle to complete, in that you will see that it gets warmer...then cooler. It is all part of how God created the universe to function. Just as our bodies have the ability to take care of themselves when we get an injury, He has created the world with the same type of system. For goodness sake. It is mother nature! She is capable of making the most beautiful plants. She is a big girl. She can take care of herself.

Thanks for reading.

-Ken

Labels: bankrupcy, converse, cycles, foreshadowing, global warming, gmail, God, government, history, leaders, mall, Obama, presidents, rant, shopping, trends, universe

There are many types of people that rub my fur (if I was a cat) the wrong way. A person that has the know-it-all attitude. Believe me, I believe people can have much knowledge about topics . . . but when you mix arrogance with that knowledge, you are doing something wrong. I know many people that are experts at their craft and I highly respect those individuals. Being arrogant and a bully is no way to gain respect by anyone. You may think people have respect for you, but at the end of the day, things are much different that what you think.

Then, to add on top of that, when that person puts themselves in jokes that they are not a part of, that is just a formula for failure.

Through my experiences and heeding the advice of my father and many other influential people in my life, bullies are fed upon your emotion. The more attention you give them, the more fuel they will have for condemning you. The proper way to deal with bullies is to not. Let them be . . . walk away and be the bigger person. Obviously, they aren't going to because they are the bully! They have chosen the low road, so you as the better person should chose the high road.

What do we do from here?

Step 1 - You do not feed the fire by being abrasive toward the individual.

Step 2 - You do not allow the person to know that he effects you (where applicable)

Step 3 - Be professional and move on. Arrogant people will receive their judgment and will eventually find out the hard way what they have been doing and living is not an appropriate style.

In the heat of the moment, you can not let these people effect you. We should and Christ sets the example that we should be the bigger person. When this person effects you, just move on and continue doing what you know is right. They will learn on their own time. It is not your responsibility to justify anything.

-Ken

Labels: annoying, Bible, christ, different, disciplined, education, example, experiences, God, haters, rant, scripture, stubborn

So, I decided today that I am going to start occasionally doing polls on my Twitter to get some feedback from the world on topics I would like to blog about. But before doing that, I want to go on a rant here for a minute. People say many things, take those with a grain of salt. A guy that I know, attempts to rub it in my face that I am addicted to Facebook / or this new "stupid" (the exact word he used) thing called Twitter. Say what you want, social networking is what I do. It is a great way of keeping in touch with folks from past and present. It is the way of the future. Adjust, or get out.

Anyway, the question that I Tweeted today was "What was your initial thought of Twitter? Has that changed? What do you think now? Responses may be used in a blog post."

Thank you all for your responses! I would like to focus on two...first the irritated tweeter. Ashley (Orlando, FL): "ugh...twitter...theres a limit on how long your private messages are so when im trying to catch up with a friend i havent seen in awhile its a pain in the ass plus the whole user interface could be organized a little better.. im just in a mood to complain" Good point, is it a little irritating at times with having a 140 character limit. But...I am a firm believer that it makes you be concise in your messages. Suggestion if you would like to have a detailed conversation with a long-lost friend, send them a message through another medium. There are many other ways to connect to people. Even if they do not have a Facebook or the dreaded MySpace, surely they have an e-mail address. In fact you have to inorder to use Twitter!

The second response I would like to focus on is the positive tweeter. Michelle (Atlanta, GA): "My initial thought of twitter was "what in the world is that? And why do people love it?" Now I think it's pretty awesome! . . . I like connecting to others....and twitter is just one more way to do it. It gets word spread quickly too!" This response coincides more with my initial thought. I did not know much about it at first, but now, I am very fond of it. It has connected me with some new people and has given me a closer connection with people that I am friends with and some that I see everyday!

One thing that I enjoy knowing is what my friends are up to. Twitter uses the internet to bring that information to me and in a way, it is sorta like being with that person, but physically not. Does that make sense? Twitter has much potential. I think that it needs to stay the way it is, I would hate for someone to come along and reuin it, just like Facebook and other social networks. Facebook attempted to do the same thing Twitter does in their recent update, but I am not very fond of it. Facebook should be more non-status based.

If you are not a Twitter user, I would encourage you to try it out!

-Ken

Labels: facebook, poll, rant, social networking, twitter, twitter poll