Sunday, March 28, 2010
2 Examples of Graffiti Alphabet : Letter A-Z in Graffiti Design Books
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Ghost Graffiti Alphabet Canvas : Letters A-Z Red and White Color
MAYBE IT’S JUST ME… BUT I DOUBT IT VERY MUCH
A short digression from my two-part piece on the company-individual relationship – but one that is entirely apropos.
As I stated previously, I work for the world’s largest gambling company, Harrah's Inc. This is not something I’m proud of but, like most people, I need a job. I don’t plan to stay long.
Here’s the thing. During the current depression, the lords of Harrah’s have been crying poor. Telling their workforce that they’ll have to tighten their belts, cutting out all sick leave (and doing a thimble-and-pea trick with “PTO” or paid time off), freezing raises, laying people off, and so on and so forth. The usual “belt tightening” that generally applies to the belts of the many who can least afford it and not so much to the fat cats with the longest belts.
Pretty much standard operating procedure for most companies who are experiencing "tough times" – which doesn’t make it right, of course. Although I must say, that of all the companies I’ve worked for, Harrah’s is the most ruthless.
For all the talk from phonies like president Gary Loveman (pictured) about pulling together, being a family, care for the workers (the usual BS that they must be teaching in MBA programs), I’ve seen a lot of suffering and meanness at Harrah’s.
I’ll cover more of this ground in Part 2 of WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR COMPANY?, but a recent turn of events at Harrah’s warranted special mention. You see, for all their cutting back and laying off and lying and propagandizing, the struggling Harrah’s recently found enough coin in the coffers to purchase the 2,500-room Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino: a prime Las Vegas Strip property.
As miracles go, this must surely rank right up there with “Take up thy mat and walk.”
Maximum-profit-driven companies like Harrah’s often seem to enjoy adding insult to injury. There have been many insults doled out by this paragon of greed. They have insulted their workers’ rights, dignity, dependents and more.
But perhaps the greatest insult is that the elitists with their hands on the levers believe that their more than 80,000 employees* are nothing better than a bunch of simpletons.
*FOOTNOTE: This passage is verbatim Harrah’s corporation propaganda from the About Us section of the company website:
“Our Employees
At Harrah´s Entertainment, over 80,000 employees each make a unique contribution to your experiences, and to our ultimate success. From nurturing a sense of team with co-workers ... to improving the quality of life in their communities, Harrah's Entertainment sets the standard of excellence in the gaming industry with employees who are devoted to delivering truly great service. Our employees are critical to our success.
Our company truly is distinguished by its talented and dedicated employees. We recognize and reward superior contributions and outstanding achievements.”
Take care,
Adrian Zupp
Thursday, March 25, 2010
WOULD YOU GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR YOUR COMPANY? -- PART 1
I asked for the meeting. I wanted to know a bit more about the company, the department I worked in, what the future might hold for the department, and while I was at it I thought I’d throw a few ideological questions up and see if they got volleyed. After all, this was an intelligent, decent person who is completely sold on corporate life.
The most telling part of the discussion related to work hours – and at one point it got into Abbott and Costello’s Who’s-on-first territory. But it did bear fruit.
The dichotomy at the heart of the issue is the divide between what are fair and reasonable working hours (and compensation) on the one hand, and what many companies have come to expect on the other. At this point, it’s useful to mention one of the handy tools that corporations use to prevent debate about these opposing forces: the notion of hourly or wage employment versus salaried employment.
I am not certain why we even need two ways of paying people (although the corporations obviously have their reasons) but the way it boils down is this: hourly people are generally severely underpaid but, big wow, can claim compensation for overtime; salaried employees get a fixed annual level of pay that is generally significantly higher than wage employees, but they may be called on to work any number of hours in a given week.
So, frankly, whichever rubric you fall under, you’re probably being screwed. (I’m only talking within the context of a pseudo-capitalist economy here. If we were to consider competing systems of wealth distribution then we would see that capitalism hinges on screwing the vast majority of the population.) If you’re hourly, your budget is likely very tight. If you’re salaried, your budget may or may not still be tight but there’s every chance you’re being worked to borderline exhaustion – at the very least the potential for that exists.
So, the executive and I bounced all this around for a while and we agreed that the implicit flexibility of the salaried life – work back when work needs to be done, go early when things are slow – was a preferable way to live. Good for getting to doctor’s appointments, your kid’s school play, or just taking it easy when you need to. In other words, having some kind of a life.
But that’s as close as we got to agreement. For as I listened to the executive, I realized that her math was skewed. She was all for people having flexibility, but she clearly thought that, all up, they should be working more than 40 hours per week. (e.g. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with someone taking 1 ½ hours for lunch twice a week to go to the gym, as long as they spend the other three lunches at their desk.”)
I don’t know what they call that in the world of corporate doublespeak but it sounds like exploitation to me.
Many people fought very hard and very long for things like the 40 hour week and the right to unionize. The right to have a safe work environment and the opportunity to have a life outside of work. But we’re going backwards.
Approximately 12 percent of Americans are in a union. Now, unions have their problems too, and certainly a different global economic structure based on egalitarianism is the ideal. But let’s work with what we have right now. What we’ve got is 88 percent of the American workforce basically going it alone. Going it alone against the might of a corporation, or any organization for that matter, is pretty daunting. So most people, myself included, end up working longer hours, feeling unfulfilled, and choking on the voodoo math of career executives.
And the working person’s mantra in this time of depression (nobody can convince me this is merely a recession) is “At least I have a job.” And there you have it. The hook the private sector has through our collars. This is called “negative motivation.” It works okay on certain levels but it’s hell on morale, marriages, physical and mental health and a bunch of other things that most of us little people think are, well, kind of important.
This thing is getting too long and I worked til almost 9:30 tonight (yeah, case in point). Let me get back to this tomorrow.
Take care,
Adrian Zupp
Can YOU Guess the Identity of the Mystery Author???
Attention NCBLA Exquisite Corpse Adventure Readers:
THE NCBLA MYSTERY AUTHOR
and Win BOOKS for Your Classroom or Library!
A new author will soon be joining Team Corpse, and The National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance invites young people in classrooms across America to make their best guess at the Mystery Author’s identity by playing a game of Twenty Questions with other Exquisite Corpse Adventure readers.
Beginning Wednesday, March 31, 2010, the NCBLA will launch the Twenty Questions Exquisite Corpse Adventure Mystery Author Contest by posting the first of twenty clues here on the NCBLA’s blog. Subsequent clues will be posted three times a week throughout the contest. You can find clues every Monday and Wednesday on the NCBLA’s blog and every Friday at AdLit.org. The final clue will be posted Wednesday, April 21, 2010.
Be sure to check this blog next Wednesday to discover the first clues! We invite classrooms across the country to play along by reading The Exquisite Corpse Adventure on Read.Gov and keeping up with the clues to help them identify the Mystery Author!
Every class that solves the mystery and emails in the correct guess will be entered into a drawing to win a collection of books valued at over $500 for their classroom or school library, PLUS a phone conversation with The Mystery Author! One classroom winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries received.
The NCBLA can accept entries only from teachers and librarians who are submitting a guess on behalf of a class or group of students. Classes from pre-school through Grade 12 are eligible to enter. Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles—please share this information with your young people’s teachers!
Remember to read The Exquisite Corpse Adventure on Read.Gov. And don't forget to check out the NCBLA's coordinating educational materials and the Reading Rockets/AdLit.org writing contest The Exquisite Prompt Challenge.
Sneak Peek: Episode 14 Goes Live Friday, March 26
Visit James' website for a full list of his fabulous books!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
USA National "Report Card" Released
From The New York Times: “The nation has done a really good job improving math skills,” said Mark Schneider, a former official with the Department of Education that oversees the congressionally-mandated test, known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the nation’s report card. “In contrast, we have made only marginal improvements in reading skills.”
For example, Susan Pimentel, an expert on English and reading standards who is a member of the governing board that oversees the test, said that American schools were fairly efficient at teaching basic reading skills in the early grades, but that as students matured they need to be consistently challenged to broaden those skills by reading not only complex literature but also sophisticated nonfiction in subjects like history and science.
'We’re not asking them to read nearly enough, and we’re especially not asking them to read enough complex materials,' Ms. Pimentel said."
From the Washington Post: The report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that fourth-grade reading scores stalled after the law took effect in 2002, rose modestly in 2007, then stalled again in 2009. Eighth-grade scores showed a slight uptick since 2007 -- 1 point on a scale of 500 -- but no gain over the seven-year span when President George Bush's program for school reform was in high gear.
From Education News: Reading scores stayed flat for 4th graders and rose only slightly for 8th graders on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, results that some find disappointing after many years of intensive attention to improving the reading skills of American students.
Read more about the "NATIONAL REPORT CARD" at: http://nationsreportcard.gov/
Read more news articles at: