Recycle this! Post, consumer.

Its my turn to whine so get on the bandwagon or I might be throwing some nasty looks your way mister. (or ma'am) What? "It's Miss" No, "Miz" - Not married huh? Whoudah thought...

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A lot of this stuff out here in the blogosphere is just recycled, if it is on one blog it's probably on another. I know quite a bit on this blog can definitely be found somewhere else on the web. I think that in most cases though, it's good to repeat it - it gives weight to what is being talked about in real life. It clues the search engines in to what is news, what is a hot topic or trend and who is talking about this stuff. I repeat things I think are worth repeating, not because I just want to have that content on my site, but to let those of you who haven't heard the news know about this, that, or the other thing. So I guess I'm all for recycling. Then again...

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Maybe I'm not... When I first started my current job I started a recycling "thing" for all the pop cans at work. My company has a refrigerator on each floor, and they're always stocked with all kinds of pop and juice, free of charge to the employees. A nice little perk. For some reason I started thinking about all the pop cans that were being thrown away and I thought I should do something about it. So I did. When I was in college, all over campus were these cardboard boxes and I though we should have a couple in the office. A nice way to get people to recycle and for a good cause. So I called the fire department - no I didn't dial 911. That would have been fun...

911 Operator: 911 Akron. Me: Oh my, you have to help me... 911 Operator: What's your emergency sir? Me: Cans! They're all over the place. 911 Operator: Cans? What kind of cans sir? Me: You know like aluminum ones - 911 Operator: Are there explosives in the cans sir? Me: What? 911 Operator: Explosives, in the cans? Me: I supposed they could explode but, no - not the ones I'm worried about. 911 Operator: What is the situation then? Me: -- 911 Operator: Sir? Me: THERE'S NO RECYCLING PROGRAM AT MY OFFICE!!!

But no, I just called the non-emergency number and asked to speak with someone about the Aluminum Cans for Burned Children program. They transferred me to somebody and the next day, a guy shows up with 6 collection boxes and 12 bags. That was about 3 years ago. Since then I've come to realize that I don't care about recycling aluminum cans. At all. For some reason I still do it though.

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Smoking... Besides being an unhealthy habit, I think smoking labels you as a dirty person. Watch out - I'm using a broad brush here. Anyway, why do smokers think the world is their ashtray? Or my sidewalk, or right outside the doors of my office? And most recently I've come up with another question about smoking? Why is smoking allowed in places where food is sold, especially when the food is sitting out - more specifically donut shops? On Sunday morning, Jeff and I went out to get donuts a very normal thing to do on a Sunday. (Oh, I forgot to mention, we spent the weekend in Columbus.) So we jump in Ferguson and head down to Jelly Donuts - we should have turned around and left the moment we opened the door. The stench of probably about 20+ years of cigarette smoke rushed at us as we made our entry. We stepped up to the counter, placed our order and got the heck out of there. But Jelly Donuts came with us. You see, it was a cool morning and Jeff & I were both wearing warmer clothing that sucked up the smoke. We drove with the windows open and sprayed ourselves with Febreeze when we arrived at home. We smelled like chain smokers - but that isn't the bad part. It was the donuts - they tasted like cigarettes. I know for some smokers that seems like a tasty idea, but for those of us that aren't used to inhaling this stuff it really is pretty nasty. So we called up Jelly Donuts and told them the deal, they said bring them back and we could get our money back. No problem. Jeff made the call - he said the guy sounded like this happens all the time. I imagine it would. When we went back we went through the drive-thru. We pulled up to the window and sat the box down - they have one of those windows that spins around so it's never really "open." When they spun the window and pulled the box of donuts inside, the stench trapped in the window escaped - right into my face.

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Loud Singers in Church I honestly believe that you can't fall into this category without knowing it. I'm all for singing at a normal volume - it has taken me the better part of my life to become comfortable enough to sing at a level that I know others around me can hear. But singing during worship isn't a solo act - and some people sing so loud that I can't hear myself. And I'm not just talking about people with "bad" singing voices either - that I think you can honestly not know about yourself. Especially if you hang out with a lot of nice people who just don't want to be mean, or maybe they all are really mean and enjoy making fun of you behind your back about how you sound like a drowning goat when you rock out to N'Sync. I don't care if you're Amy Grant or Larnell Harris, when you're not in the front, sing with the congregation. If you want to be lead vocalist try out for the worship band - and no, the worship service is not a try out. If you want to sing all the "extra" stuff, do it quietly - from the back. I don't mind if you sing that stuff - I just prefer that you do that stuff in your car, with your windows up. And quit harmonizing - you're making the angels cry. Or at least they will after I think about what I'd like to do to get you to sing the right way.

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Old people... Not that there have been that many that have annoyed me lately but they use funny words or phrases. At least my wife thinks they do. And if I ever use one of them she gives me grief about it. One time I said "She's stirred up a hornets nest" Kirsten was like - Alright Old Man! One thing that did bug me the other day - I was at Target, I had to get like one thing and I got in the shortest line available. This old lady was just finishing up - at least it looked like it when I was looking around for a quick escape. I got in line, put my whatever it was on the conveyor and looked up when I heard the old lady ask if Target accepted personal checks. The cashier said yes and the woman began to write out her check. I swear it wasn't any less than 40 seconds later I look over to check the progress - she was just writing the last "t" in Target. Then she made a big sweeping line after that - as if someone in the course of the next 30 minutes it would take for her to finish the check, would run up and grab it hoping to add their last name and try and cash it in at the bank.

Honestly, my name is Target Jones, Target Reginald Jones.

Anyway, she finally finishes and tears it from the book, but it's one of those duplicate check books with the 1970's technology of carbon paper - she of course tore that out as well and before she hands the check to the cashier, has to figure out what to do with this unexpected turn of events. Finally she gets that squared away and 3 attempts on that check checker thing and the old bag is out of my way. I wish we could force them to adopt technology, we could give them options - like adapt or be fed to zoo animals. It is high time we did something about these old-fangled people.