McLeesBogaert.com

Please note, I am experimenting the week of 02/15/09. So, who knows what will show here…..

Sometimes I just can’t make up my mind. I want it all or I don’t want any of it or I just want part of it. But I knew I wanted this blog url, but for now with this title.  I had info on it at one point, messed up an upgrade and decided to leave it for now - empty but this.

My banter, photos, and opinions can be found on:

Tumbled Words

Shh? No! Speak Up

The majority of my poetry is here:

MeeAugraphie

The majority of current thoughts are here, only a little poetry, but it really alludes to the fact that our lives are poetry in the making and in constant change - or could be. We have the ability to use thought and Recreational Vehicles (of all kinds) to ReVisit, ReValue, and Revize our lives, which ultimately will ReVitalize us and hopefully those around us:

RV Poetry

Have a great day, make sure you find time to force a smile, at least for a second, if you can’t find one willing to come. Do you realize that often there is a reason to smile we just don’t see?

I’m combining blogs so I can delete a few, after a year and then some of blogging, I have a better idea of what I want to do with my blogs. I had so many, and when Leon changed careers and I started doing some of his paperwork and helping him learn the way of the Apple Mac computers, I had less time to play with my blogs.

At heart, I am detail oriented and love organization, but I am also one who loves change and loses interest as I have a short attention span and love the act of learning. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on which point of view one wishes to take, I love going to the next thing and don’t always learn one thing thoroughly.

So, this blog sat here, virtually unused. One day I will decide what type template I really want that I can also understand how to use, but, for now, I have imported posts from Shh? No! Speakup, hopefully deleted most of the duplicates that showed up — and will delete that blog when the URL fees are due again. Yet, that is one of my favorites, in part, because I love the template I was using… sigh. I never like compromising in that way.

Several people have asked on their blogs how to combine two blogs. I never read the responses to it. I experimented by bringing one in to this one, but then this one really had no posts to confuse the issue. I tried adding Tumbled Words to it, but that file is too big, I have yet to split it. Even then, I have no idea what will happen when I do import it, I could put them all down, but I want to try. It is fun.

Will I be pulling my hair out when I try it? Hopefully, I will only be laughing hysterically. We will see.

Update: Between Shelly and I, the four people also matching our donations and all of you who commented on the two blogs, we were able to donate 720 cans of food! That does not even count the other bloggers who did the same project!!

Donating can of food for every comment received on RV Poetry today and tomorrow (12/12/08) - I know, I’m late starting this, BUT, if you go there to comment with even a word, you will see that I am also donating a can for every comment Shelly has received for the Cans for Comments. AND, our son and daughter-in-law are donating a can to our local food banks for every can I donate for both comments on my blog and Shelly’s.

Please comment at RV Poetry, we all need a push to donate more than we normally would, and this is the push I need to help more than I do.

Why is it necessary to use a real gun with blanks in a play, when sound effects can be done another way? Yes, the sound of a blank going off can be very effective, but in this day of digital recordings, are you going to tell me, as a parent, as a human being, that using a real gun with blanks that can injure or kill is worth the realism in a high school play? In any play?

Is there not enough negative realism in the real world without chancing bringing it to another family?

This was real life for one family. It should not have happened and it certainly should not happen again. It is up to each of us to educate those around us that it CAN happen. That is the first step.

It is bad enough that so many people get caught up in, “I’ll just pay it a week late”, even when they have the money. But to have a business owner not pay his or her employees on time, especially when they are a solvent business….

What happened to responsibility in finances?

Bail Out? Only if you are physically in a boat and it is sinking. Ok, perhaps, a couple of other situations might warrant it.  However, I feel the current bailout the government of America is working on, is not a good idea.

As much as individuals want to blame the lenders for their problems, it is the individual’s responsibility to not over extend themselves. We have all made poor decisions, I know I have, but it was my responsibility to do everything in my power to bail myself out. I have spent more than I should have, bought a house more expensive than I should have, and I have just had to do with less, go out less, buy less, for years, at times, to deal with it. It wasn’t fun, I wasn’t as overextended as many are, but the principle is the same.

It is not a good situation, it is not pleasant. But, it is no different than expecting a child or teenager to learn from their mistakes so as not to repeat history. There is only so much bailing out — there comes a time we have to stand on our own two feet.

MORE! (Yeah, I got carried away chanting as I wrote it.)

Shelly at This Eclectic Life is giving you a chance to make a memory for children, both ill and their well siblings, next summer. Cool, right? And, you do not have to be able to sew or knit or crochet - or even use a glue stick.

Now you may remember Shelly as the woman who spearheaded Share A Square this past year - successfully. If not, check it out, there were 140 children at Camp Sanguinity that had a reason to smile because normal every day people like you and I took a few minutes of their time (well, some took more).

This year, rather than afghans for the kids, we are making medicine bags (those that can, please offer to!) and filling them with three “good luck charms” each. I’m not doing the math, but it’s a lot of good luck charms, tokens, talismans, whatever you choose to label them. Now, the idea is that each little medicine bag has an item from three different people.

If, like me, you are at a loss as to what small item to donate (with a little note or poem attached), Shelly shares a few of the things she thought of. What makes you feel lucky or puts a smile on your face?

Leon carries around a tiny Guiness promotional bottle opener and knife blade that belonged to his grandmother in England. She used it to peel oranges. Obviously, that is not appropriate for the kids, but many of us have something we keep around us for luck, and who knows, maybe the kids will someday cherish something we have sent — or at least realize it is OK to keep a small something to bring back good memories or make them feel luckier than usual - and find something special to them.

Just click on this button to read the details:

Exceptions to rules are fine - and make sense - when those exceptions are thought out with care. When you just allow them when convenient to you or when you don’t wish to take the time to think, or for favorites, you undermine not only your authority, but your esteem in your employee’s eyes.

And, once esteem and respect are diminished, they are hard to win back.

People, in general, wonder why so many businesses go out of business. I wonder why as many stay in business as they do. 

I realize it is difficult at times for management to get their point across to employees, to train them, to help them learn to treat customers as though they have value.  

And for those who are in that position and still trying to work with new employees, I applaud your efforts.

- But it appears some management

- But it appears management in too many businesses either do not have the skills or just do not have any better attitude than the employees they hire.

- But it appears management is holding on to employees both not qualified to learn the job or with attitudes unsuited for customer service.

And to you, I will try your business once, twice, if it appears it is just one employee trying to learn, but after that, I will drive 25 miles if necessary to avoid your business. I refuse to reward another business that just doesn’t care.

But then, the USPS, over the years I have found two many uninformed or non caring employees. I’m apt to run out of places to go.

That said, I have found a few great employees there, I just hope I find more!
 

Advertising is a great tool, but advertising incorrectly, with more license than necessary, just shoves your product or service into the trash heap for many of us. You may trick me once, but if I have done my research and/or the second time you attempt, you are only playing tricks on yourself.700 is not the same as 640.  Large may be relative, but there is a distinct difference between a large piece of cake and a slither of cake. Freshly made is not the same as days old.  Excellent quality is not a synonym for falling apart. And so on.