New Day!

I apologize for not being around for a while. I've been taking some time to work on other side projects as finally editing the book I wrote a year ago. Submitting a list to listverse to see if I could finally get paid for writing something. And working on a new manga comic strip. I am going to place out there a small excerpt of what I'm working on. I would love constructive criticism, but please make it constructive.

Let's get the comments going!

In front of him sat a pool of his own creation. He could sit and bathe until he felt settled enough to return. This was his private spot. Often you could find natural water here, but during the drought season it had dried up. It was a man dug hole that he and Hadad had dug when they were younger. During the hot rainy season it would fill with water and they could swim. Hantili had learned the water spell so they could bathe together even when the rains had not fallen. He quickly removed his furs and sank into the cool water.

"Good morning." A voice called to him from nearby. How had he not noticed someone else was here. It wasn't like him to be unaware of his surroundings. His hand reached instinctively toward his sword which remained near him at all times. "No need to be alarmed." Now he could hear the sound of hoof beats trotting forward. Coming out from beyond the trees was a creature with the body of horse with the chest and head of a man. Han had spent many hours in this forest yet he had never come across an animal quite like this before.

"Good morning." His hand had gripped his swords handle. "I would stand to shake your hand, but I'm afraid you may view more than you were hoping for. I hope you'll forgive me for not rising."

"Yes, that's quite alright. I appreciate the thought. I am sorry for startling you, however, you came and sat down in the pool I usually drink out of."

"I apologize, I did not realize anyone else used this pool."

"It's of little consequence." The man's features were sharp, but his voice was calming. It seemed to Han that the man's skin, fur, and hair were all the same color of light tan. His black eyes were eerie to look into and gave Han a chill. His body looked strong though he appeared to have no weapons. There was little Han feared, but something told him to remain on guard. The creature gracefully placed his legs behind himself and sat by the edge of the pool. "In truth I followed the party that arrived last night. I was curious about the girl who rode on the black winged horse."

"Forgive me, many women arrived last night, but I do not remember seeing one astride a winged horse." Han knew he was speaking of the Princess. He had not lied though. When the gates had opened she had no longer been on her horse. What had she done to get this creatures attention? "Perhaps you could be more specific."

"The one with the long, black hair and violet eyes. Her skin looks soft and glows as the sun." The creature smiled. "It seems I have struck a cord in you." Could his face have given him away?

Hantili stood holding his sword. He walked backwards out of the pool and reached slowly for his furs. He wrapped them back across his body without ever taking his eyes off his enemy. The creature remained seated as he dressed. Without a weapon it would be unlikely this animal could beat him. "Yes, there is no mistaking whom you are speaking of. She will be the next Queen, Tawannanna. What is the nature of your query? Do you have some relationship with her?"

"Ah, I came to see the girl who has a friend smitten. The Queen you say. I had heard previously that the djinn's Princess was lovely, but it seems none of the rumors did her justice.” He kept his eyes on Han as he slowly rose to his feet. “I did not come here to fight. Relax your sword. I shall take my leave of you. Enjoy the morning." He bowed low on his legs before disappearing into the forest. Perhaps Han would journey behind the group. Their Princess was attracting the attention of many people. Something big was coming and he now believed he would see it if he followed her.

Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to find my blog amusing!

Retail's End?

     I came across an article on LinkedIn this morning that posed the question are we nearing the death of desktop based retail? I thought to myself how are we nearing the end of desktop based retail? In my world we are just at the cusp of the consumer online experience. Perhaps I am bias. After having spent 10 years in a retail store with the monumental expectation of selling 1,000 dollars or more a day I can confidently say brick and mortar stores are becoming obsolete.

     Just last night I was having a conversation with a manager from another store. I asked how it was going and she replied not good, I am extremely stressed tonight. We had three customers walk in. I asked her, for the night? No. For the entire day.

     Forbes posted an article last year confirming my notion that people are not buying things when they walk into establishments. I have to admit I was worried I would not have a job if companies caught on, but while Forbes did suggest that people were not buying as much from the physical locations they confirmed that the brick and mortar stores still had a purpose. Hence I would still have a job.

      People who go into retail stores are looking for the experience of shopping. They want to touch and feel things even if they go home and then purchase them online. Looking back, I can understand that. I am guilty of it myself. How many times have I gone out to best buy to look at phones or computers, to interact with the product, only to go home and compare prices online and then have it shipped to me? Well I still only do this for major purchases. It seems people chose to do this for a lot of the smaller things today.

     So back to the article that first got my attention. Clicking on the link it seems they are talking about the death of the desktop based retail in India, because studies show people are moving to mobile only ordering systems. I, personally, can't imagine ordering everything on my phone, even though I have a fablat. I feel that the screen is still to tiny for me to make a proper assessment of images on the screen. The author did note that he believes this trendis specific only to India. Thank goodness for that. I need my big screen websites!

     With the downfall of physical stores I know that I will need to rely on web-based ordering in the near future. The idea that all ordering will be done through apps on a mobile only base is frightening. Everything is moving to apps. (I know I sound ancient I'm not even 30). I just find apps to be a real pain in the... you know. I hate searching for them on my phone. I must flip through the pages at least 20 times before spotting the app I'm searching for. I tried to combine them into categories, but that doesn't help much. 

     I know that it would take a lot of the stress off of retail associates to move to Forbes vision of stores where no retail item is expected to be sold. However, I am conflicted as one of the last members of a generation that remembers a time before phones and apps were a part of everyday life. I like buying at the brick and mortar establishments. I idealize the concept of human interaction. I love walking into say, autozone and knowing that the workers there have a knowledge and expertise I cannot get from a computer screen (minus youtube videos), This goes for every retail resource. Those workers work hard to deliver quality service and information to the consumer. 

     Then the thought of app only ordering. How would I ever shop again? It's an ever changing world, but does it have to evolve so quickly? Why do we keep moving away from interactions with others? We are a social creature right? Depression has become more prevalent in recent years and I can't help but wonder if it's because we are defying our nature with our reliance of hiding behind a computer screen. But that's just one persons opinion. The world, despite my objections, will keep on turning. I will wait for the day to come when it finally stops.

Donald Trump Vs Starbucks?

      Donald Trump, one of the GOP candidates for the Republican nomination, has weighed in on the Starbucks red cup crisis and it really grinds my gears. You would think that a GOP candidate would have better things to do with his time then comment on something as silly as a red cup. “If I get elected we'll all be saying Merry Christmas again, I can tell you that much.” “No more Christmas at Starbucks.” At least he's an honest candidate, albeit a bigoted and short sighted one.

     What was the original complaint? A video that went viral the day before. The complaint, “Starbucks removed Christmas from their cups because they hate Jesus.” ... Thinking about the designs of Starbucks' past I remember them being cluttered with snowflakes, ornaments, maybe trees, and that's a big maybe. General holiday/winter themes decorated the cups like garland. Let me make that clear. They erased snowflakes not a giant picture of the Messiah off their cups.

     So why has this become such a big deal? If you ask my father it's because Christmas is American. He's partially correct. Many of the traditions we associate with the Holiday started in America, but it wasn't always a prominent American holiday. In fact, when the Puritans came to this country, they banned Christmas. “The concept of holy days implies some days are not holy.”  It did not become a national holiday until 1870 long after the days of our fore fathers.

     Where to begin with the list of people who made Christmas the grand celebration it is today? Let's start with Washington Irving. In response to political and socio-economic turmoil that plagued the US in the early 19^th century, he wrote a work of fiction depicting Christmas as the joyous, warm hearted holiday we know today. Back in Europe there was the old carnival that took place each year where the wealthy would switch roles with the poor for a day back in Europe. They would have to serve their servants, lick their boots, it was a day of heathenism. This day was designed to keep the masses from revolting.
     Instead of keeping that tradition in America, Irving created the myth of a holiday that brought people together across all boundaries not by switching ranks, but by celebrating “ancient traditions.” These traditions brought together the rich and the poor. Christmas was a magical time where good will existed towards your fellow man. Peace, humility, and kindness prevailed. Christmas existed to quell the wave of mass discontent of poor working conditions and large social and fiscal gaps in America. Many believe that Irving actually created Christmas as we know it today with his piece.

     The second part of Christmas, the myth of Santa Clause. Well, I should say Sinterklass. We all know he is a depiction of St. Nick, the artistry behind his works looks a lot like the green man surrounded in wreaths and garlands though. Doesn't it? People would always take myths or iconic images and transform them to serve a purpose. In this case the familiar iconography helped people to feel comfortable putting a face that they recognized to the man who came into their homes once a year. Scientists believe that you remember every face you see, even those you only glance at in passing, so all those random faces you see in your dream you have glanced at them once before.
      Santa Claus himself was not brought to us by any of our fore fathers. He was given to us by the Dutch. The Dutch in America celebrated St. Nicholas' day each year. They would wait for gifts in stockings or shoes. America ran with the idea of St. Nicholas. Clement Clark Moore (1823) The Night Before Christmas, Santa Claus drawn by Thomas Nash (1862), and Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus by Francis Church to name a few. Christians would soon adopt these traditions to Christmas day on December 25^th, or as it was before that, the solstice.

     Everything we know about Christmas traditions today started in the 19^th century. They are new traditions and none, (minus moving all the other traditions to December 25^th) had anything to do with Jesus. They were just a way to calm the social unrest in early America. Alright, then let's bring it home.

      Starbucks released a statement about it's cups. Starbucks, “wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all our stories.” “Embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it.” Knowing the history of our current traditions I couldn't agree more with their vision. I find peace in the plain red cups uncluttered with winter paraphernalia. I believe there is a quiet sanctuary as I stare at my pure red cup that encompasses the the desire to bring people together from all walks of life. It, like Christmas, breaks the barriers of religion, class, and economic disparities if only for an hour. It truly embraces the reasons behind the tradition. So I completely support their decision to have pure red cups.

     Also as a last side note. Howard Schulz is Jewish… perhaps instead of throwing him to the lions for removing snow flakes, which clearly means he hates Jesus, you should thank him for the social correctness of including Christmas Blend and celebrating traditions that are not his own with all of us. Just a thought.

The New American Dream

     Like many millennials who have recently (or not so recently) graduated from a university with a bachelors and are seeking a first “real” job formatting resumes and cover letters have become an area of personal contempt. I am becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of response from corporations. No matter how proficient my cover letters appear or how I revitalize my CV I never seem able to get a first interview.

     So I have to ask, not only what I may be doing wrong, but how did scanning a one page paper become adequate to determine someone's value to a corporation over the next 20 years of their life? Also, are cover letters necessary and how do I prove my value through these limited means?

     So I went where you would imagine any millennial would go to seek answers to life's questions: The internet. It offered me a variety of options and I in turn attempted all of them. Each option yielded unsuccessful results.

     I re-examined my resume first. Many advise keeping your resume short, sweet and to the point. My resume when I first left college was approximately two pages long. I had gone with an antiquated model of resume building placing a headline, mission statement, education, experience, skills, and references in that order. I have come to realize how unprofessional my first resume looked. I was tried to to appear more experienced by over expanding about my few part time jobs. Like Shakespeare I have come to realize brevity is the soul of resume writing. I try to use more proficient words to help cut down on the length I am writing.

     Also, I no longer include every job I have ever had. In the last two years I have been with two companies, both in retail. The only other jobs I had were temp jobs through college. Unless it contains a specific, qualifying experience that would be applicable for the job I am applying for it seems unnecessary to list them all. List of resume updates accomplished. My next task cover letter writing.

     I have been given many opinions on the best ways to write a cover letter. Write it in your own voice was the first recommendation I was given. Well, my own voice speaks at an eighth grade level. This is because an eighth grade level of verbal and written communication is the standard that you can assume the majority of the public can comprehend. Teachers also deliver notes home with this concept in mind. Cover letters however, should be more ostentatious in nature, or so I am told. My fiance (who found a good “real” job in only four months of searching) would sit and laugh while writing his cover letters. He would work with the built in thesaurus and after a while stopped writing cover letters altogether. How did this man get ahead of me?

     So my question becomes, what now? I am still struggling just as many millennials are. Its not a lack of desire for a well paying job that leads me to work retail. It is not laziness, peter pan syndrome, or a even a lack of opportunities, but something still isn't connecting. Not just for me, but for many in my generation. Can anyone tell me where we are going wrong? What part of the application process are we getting incorrect?

Is it the economy? Although economists say that unemployment is at it's lowest there are other studies that say America has the highest rate of low paying jobs across the globe. As Bernie Sanders pointed out the American public is paying for the healthcare of the Walton family. Ultimately, I believe it is a combination of factors that created this perfect storm; A lack of real world preparation, a recovering economy that forces older workers to work longer, and a bias against our generation as lazy and unmotivated workers. I have read many articles complaining about recent graduates and would like to set the record straight.

     Yes, I would like to have a job out of college that pay 40,000 dollars a year. I would like to leave my parents home, start a family, and live the American dream before my late 40's. I do wish to move into a more prestigious position not because I have a delusion of grandeur from being raised in the “everyone's a winner” America, but because it's what I need to earn a living wage. Many prestigious jobs are offered 40,000 dollars a year compensation, which is the minimum needed to live near my family. The family I will need to assist me when I have children and will have to continue being a working mom. There are some passionate youths out there being missed by recruiters and algorithms alike. I will keep hoping and improving. Maybe by my thirty-th I will have a “real” job.

Today's Topic: Poisons

     I find myself using research of the past for a variety of different things. I like natural medicines and learning about my genealogy. Today I am working on a book that I began a while ago. I am approximately 12000 words in or 22 pages. It's a book about the origins of man. I'll give a brief clip at the end if anyone is interested. In any case I have chosen in a very early time period (2500 BCE) to kill someone by means of poison.
     After decided this character's fate I realized I have no idea what sort of poison they'd have used back in the day. Would it leave any signs? What are the symptoms? How fast acting is it? And so my quests for ancient poisons begins!
     Where does any search start now a days? Wikipedia. Though some of the things written on the website are not credible there is actually a vast amount of useful knowledge collected on wikipedia that it could take days to search for otherwise. This search led to me someone that would have been close (or as close as I may have been able to find) to the time period and location of the book. Pliny the Elder.
       Pliny the Elder was recognized as one of the hardest workers in his time. He spent nearly every minute of his waking life working and collecting information on all known natural phenomenon from geography to plants to diseases. It's said he recorded over 7000 poisons and antidotes. At a time when there was no printers or computers that is an extremely impressive feat. Looking through his books though I'm afraid they were both dry and hard to scan. I believe that I shall go back and give them a good look when I am less pressed for time. Any one who is interested can find them all here.
      As I said earlier though I am pressed for time due to the fact that I am looking to finish part of the story for an event. Scanning through his complete work was not an option. So my next step pinterest. It seems to be a magical website that delivers a slew of information. Type in Ancient Poison and one of the first hits is hemlock water. It is said that Socrates died by drinking a hemlock potion, but what was in that potion? Could hemlock be mixed with wine as I am poisoning the character through wine? A could search for the terms "Can hemlock poison wine" revealed nothing except that hemlock apparently smells like wine, but swing the words around "wine poison hemlock." and I found this website which references the author up above about the death of Socrates. In the article she tells me that Socrates died from a mixture of hemlock juice, laudanum, and wine likely killed Socrates. This I think is the perfect poison combination for my book!
     If you want another fun list of ancient poisons listverse has a pretty fun one.

And as promised....

      Once the young one was out of sight the Pharaoh began to tell his wife of his misgivings. "I did not want to take another wife."

      "I know, but it is expected of you. She will not be a queen. I hope it is enough. Our daughter can never be your heir. You must have many more children. We have not been blessed since she was born. I have no son yet to offer you." The child's mother was a beautiful, Babylonian woman. Adam thought she must have been born a princess. She had an air of grace and understanding that only royalty held. When she walked through the palace halls it was as if she was gliding over the stones. Yet as glamorous as she appeared she wore little to denote her station. It appeared that her hand maidens had to force her each day to put on appropriate make up and attire. She was lovely inside and out..

      Adam watched as Mentuhotep gently cupped her cheek with his hand. "But how can I ever be with another when my heart and body aches for you." He leaned in close to her. It looked as though his body surrounded her. Adam could see their aura glowed as one. The Pharaoh was a man who was truly in love. Adam chose to leave them for the moment. He was not looking to invade their privacy. Plus whatever God was planning would not happen until the Pharaoh chose to take Sarai as his wife, in the biblical sense.

      Instead Adam wafted over to the little princess' room. There was a large golden table that had water and breakfast set across it. "What a beautiful room." Adam heard a familiar voice next to him. His eyes swept towards the sound. Sarai entering the princess' chamber. Right now, she could not see Adam. No one could.

      "Thank you." Her soft little, voice was happy.

      "Sarai." The Queen walked in. "I am so happy you are going to be with us. Can I offer you some wine?"

      "Please allow me to get the wine for you." It was not like Sarai to be eager to serve. Something was not right. Adam had been forced to watch them since they came to live in Egypt. Sarai would have done anything to be waited on… Anything. "Your kindness towards me has humbled me. I would not feel right having you serve me." The Queen smiled openly.

      "I hope we can be good friends. I cannot wait until you have your first child. I will be here to help every step of the way if you need. And I'm sure Naterifari would love to spend time with you as well."

       Sarai brought over two glasses of wine and one glass of water. "I'm sure I will be very fond of her." All three raised their glasses.

      Sarai took a very gentle sip as did the princess. The Queen took a larger one. Perhaps under the stress of the situation the wine would calm her nerves.

      "Where did you come from?" The princess smiled at Sarai.

      "I come from Ur of the Chaldean's." Sarai pretended to take another sip as the Queen moved to get another glass. Adam watched Sarai's eyes close. Something was very wrong. He turned toward the queen who swooned and fell to the ground. Sarai soon followed. Adam rushed to the queen's side. This had to be Sarai's doing. Kneeling down he looked at her. Fast acting poison? The Princess was screaming behind Adam. He leaned to the queen's mouth to listen for breath. There was nothing. He could no longer hear her heart beat. She was gone.

      He stood up slowly and walked over to Sarai. She had passed out, but her heart was still beating. She must have made sure to drink only enough to knock her out. He should kill her. She's defenseless now. The crying Princess was shaking the queen desperate for her to wake up. The world slowed down around him and time itself ceased to exist. He walked over to the bottle of wine and took it. He could see roots through the container... many roots. Those roots belonged to a deadly plant. With a high enough dosage can kill in the span of a conversation. He turned back to the others.

      The King was there holding his daughters as the physician's tried to revive the women. There was nothing that could be done for the Queen now and Adam knew he could not stay. Eve would be here soon to collect her soul. If he saw Eve, something terrible would happen to her. She would be permanently taken from this world. At least he could take the wine to protect the others. As he fled he couldn't help but think about the irony of the situation. The people being hurt most by the righteous god were the moral "heathens." God backed Sarai who would poison a kind, charming mother. He should have killed her.

      Adam knew he had lost his chance. He could feel his wife's presence behind him. She was there and now he could no longer turn back.

Chicken New Orleans

    Everyone who knows me knows that food is one of my favorite topics. More specifically healthy foods and food allergies, because my as my friends have told me, I can't eat anything and they will draw me a map to the nearest bridge. They are very supportive. There is a terrible disconnect in this day and age between what people think they are eating and what they are actually eating.
   My own father didn't realize that Aunt Jemima's pancake mix contained milk. They're literally labelled, "Buttermilk" pancakes. Did he think that was for show? He explained to me no you just add water. Again, another sigh. The water re-activates the evaporated milk to give you buttermilk or at the very least milk pancakes. It does other things too of course, but nothing else that affects any of the big 8.
     I can go on and on about the subject of allergies and will do so in another post. This post is going to be short since it's past midnight and I'm quite tired from the long hours I've been putting in at work this week. I decided to try my hand at one of my mother's favorite dishes. Chicken Fricassee. I promptly went to work measuring ingredients only to discover I'd forgotten to get half of them.        
    Quickly I turned my vision to another path. What better than chicken and gravy? My chicken thighs were cooking, she told me later I had not cooked them right anyway, I cooked them first to make sure they were cooked through. I was supposed to cook them in the broth till they fell apart. Oh well, I added the chicken broth once I was sure my thighs were cooked through. *Note to self, look for thighs without bones.*

    I quickly added 1/4 cup of butter, something around 2 1/3 broth, 1/3 cup of gluten free flour, spinach, onions, 1/3 cup of heavy cream, and a splash of white wine. I also threw in Italian Spice (just whatever was in the bottle oregano, thyme, ect), Cayenne, Pepper, tons of Garlic, and Adobo. What I came up with was a dish less like my mother used to eat, and more like a dish I loved as a child. It was called Chicken New Orleans and the Outback Steakhouse stopped making it years ago. So, success? It was a good dinner, and next time I'll make sure I have everything to make a real dish from the past.

Man with No Country

     I feel inspired when I look through my family tree. I have only managed to trace back one block of relatives past great-great grandparents, however, looking through that list elates me and keeps me going on my journey. However, I have come to face a very personal problem along the way. The more I learn about the places my ancestors came from the more I feel like a man without a country.
     Growing up in the US is both a blessing and a curse. It is truly the great equalizer. Three generations after coming here and it no longer matters if your family were peasants or noblemen... French or English. My family in recent times consists of my mother's parents (Irish, Scottish, and French) and my father's parents (Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian) which eventually led to me. Looking at the countries I am sure you notice they are all very separate cultures. So for some the search for their ancestry helps them to pin down a cultural heritage, for me it has just expanded the already large tree of known places my family has come from.
     Looking through that one added section of family tree I can add, England, Spain, Egypt, different parts of the Middle East, Switzerland, Belgium, Norwegian, and the list continues to grow.I think it's all very cool to see the different places people merged from to make me, but it also makes me feel less and less connected to any culture. My family comes from a merging of people across the globe which is probably why we don't do anything that displays a heritage. We're American in the broadest sense of the word, I think being part of the new American Culture (which I find to be hysterical, because America itself doesn't have much of a "Culture"...) means distancing yourself from everything your family once knew or did in order to fit in. I realize they could not keep the exact same lifestyle an ocean away, but when America began to become a melting pot and people from all different nations began to arrive two things happened.

      At first people lived only with people from their respective countries. We had a section for Italians, Russians, Irish men, etc. Slowly but surely things began to change. I wasn't alive for this, so I'm not sure when the change took place, but I can guess it was the second or third generation that did it. If you'd have asked my great-great grandfather he'd tell you. He told my mother that ancestry did not matter when his family came to this country. Everyone interbred with everyone. I'm not quoting, because I don't remember his exact words, but they were to that effect. So from the beginning of time you had folks from many different backgrounds combining into one family unit out of love? Necessity? Survival? That meant being respectful of the others backgrounds or sometimes, as in my parents case, just ignoring that you are both from different backgrounds and celebrate neither heritage.
     Any one else experiencing this same phenomenon? I know they elude to it in the ancestry.com commercial. Though the man in the commercial found he was mostly Irish and was happier with those traditions. I've found I'm just to much of everything and not enough of one thing. This feeling sometimes leads to feelings of being alone. I want a community to be a part of and in America that doesn't happen. I feel like all I might have is a cultural community, because I left the church due to a personal disagreement on their stance pertaining to certain subjects. So I lost that community. No one talks to neighbors anymore. I feel like my world has become smaller as people began to hide behind smart phones and we have more long distance relationships. A cultural community may have been all I had and I don't even have that in America? So what am I left with? Who is there to back me? Does anyone else have these feelings?