WIXY's Gone Bananas

This is a post I originally wrote 0n June 17, 2008. I have probably seen these truth played time and again since I first posted it. Cliff Note:I am writing this post from a computer at the Wadsworth Library. I had this thought while driving to the library to return some books and thought it would be a good thought to blog on. I wanted to post it before the muse took it back. Sometimes I think the four words that cause the largest percentage of emotional abuse are "you can't do that." Sometimes I wonder why those words are spoken. I speak as one who has had a lifelong affliction of insecurity. I am not talking of a high school dropout wanting to perform brain surgery or anything like that. What I'm talking about are those who want to hold others back from achieving dreams. I wonder how much greatness has been stifled by those four words? I have been encouraged by several who read my blogs. Most have been fellow bloggers, others just readers. A couple of these(and you k...

Thank you for your patience while I've been away from this site. And thank you for checking in to see if I still write here! I was told by one of my teacher friends that my blog was being used in his classroom as an example of nonfiction. He also told me that his students informed him that I have a lot of hair. I had thought of putting up a classic post this evening, and I will be doing some of that in the not too distant future. I am going to go with the idea behind the post I was thinking of repeating: Most readers here know my love-hate relationship with Walmart. If it weren't for my blogging activity, and my Evil Big Box Store designation, I would probably have not unemployed as long as I was last year, as one of the store managers is a friend of mine. Not as many know that one of my favorite places to go for a few items is the Rittman IGA. The store was closed between November, 2006 and June, 2007. The current owners are very active in keeping the store the way they percei...

...And I've been getting some very interesting responses. Many of you follow me on Facebook, and you know I post a question everyday, called the Question of the Day. It was born from some musing I had about Velveeta, which was followed by 2 weeks worth of food questions. Some questions have good responses, where others have been duds. One time the question was hijacked by some middle aged ladies when they mentioned running naked through town. This week, the questions have become political. Now I have my own thoughts about politics. I lean slightly to the right and am very much a 3rd party advocate. And I think the government should be for the people and not special interest groups. Also after looking at the current and former president, I feel we need to have people more experienced in federal government occupying the Oval Office. Anyway, back to the Facebook questions, which I usually post then get out of the way. Like I said they have had political tones this week and have been a...

Before this period of unemployment, the longest I was without a job was 3 weeks. That was in 1988 when I was fired as a car salesman. I had a wife and three young children to feed and I felt my world crashing down around me. In 2010, I took it much more calmly, at least until I started getting the "thanks but no thanks" letters. As I had mentioned in my previous post, I had gotten quite a bit of support from many friends, including some of my high school classmates. More about that in a future pos t. The one friend who gave me some support and also much needed advice is a distant relative with a very cool name, Cliff Feightner. Cliff has both IT and management experience. He took a look at my resume and gave me some pointers to either aim it in one direction or another, since one couldn't tell if I was looking for a job in retail or manufacturing. When the opportunity for InfoCision came up, I sent emails to several friends asking for advice and prayer. One friend, Scott,...

2010 began with the classic good news-bad news scenario. Good news was I no longer had to drive 46 miles one way, early in the morning to go to work. The bad news was I was without a job. About 10:30 am on December 31, 2009, I was summoned to the outgoing company president's office. In front of three other members of management staff, he notified me that I had disqualified myself from my position, handed me some paperwork, and told I would be paid through the end of the day. After removing my personal effects and turning in my keys, my 17-1/2 years with that company was over. I took my last 46 mile drive home from work. Kathy took the news way harder than I did. I assured her that I would be back to work in no time. That evening, I got online and put in a couple of applications. I also started working on my resume. I messed up with my password when I applied for unemployment benefits and had to apply for my first week over the phone. When I finally got through, I was on hold for 5...