Assault

When is it quiet?

Never.

A year or so past, we had a power outage. I think I wrote about it in a ramble. I think it might have been the last time it was quiet.

Think about that. You know what you're doing? Thinking. Consider what we put ourselves through each day, almost every minute of each day. We are assaulted by noise; sounds such as our piped-in headphones and ear buds. Radio. Television. Background music when we visit a store. Nearly everyone walking down the street has something wired to their heads to listen to something. What that means is our senses are being assaulted, overloaded.

What have we become? A hundred years ago, there was none of this cacophony to dilute our brains. The sun went down, the lights came up and people went to sleep, or read a book, or talked among themselves. We do little of that now. We are tied to computers and devices to entertain ourselves. What is this need we feel to continually entertain ourselves?

In the past several days, I have begun to tune out some of this noise. It becomes nothing more than drivel. Long have I listened to sports-talk radio in my car as I drive to and from work. Even this has become tedious. It is the same thing over and over again. Know what I did? It turned it off. No music, no yapping. It was quiet with nothing more than the sounds of travel. I suppose the good thing is, I didn't hear any strange noises coming from my car.

In the dawn of the electronic era when radio and television began to invade our lives, it was original. It was unique. That was the entertainment value. To me, it has all lost its uniqueness. We should begin to choose our battles, choose what we allow to surround us. We take it all in and continue to take it in without a filter. When does it become an overload where we no longer think, where we no longer give thought to our surroundings, our world.

Music a half hour, television no more than two. Pick up a book. Go walking outside in the cold. Feel your senses again as you listen to nature and see the stars twinkling in the dark sky. Go buy a telescope and watch nature as you've never seen it before as your breath hovers in the darkness. It might make you think. Now, that's a unique proposition.

What's in a name?

As most who follow this rambling blog know, or at least should know, I am an author. I publish under the name of Robert Thomas. (So this is where you go off to the ebook websites and look for my books. It's okay. You can come back ... I'll wait).

Oh, you're back. Great. Hope you purchased something. I got bills to pay.

It is a major decision for an author to decide what name under which to write. There are various theories and reasons as to what to do. One could use their own name. One could also make up a really cool sounding name, like one you wish your parents would have named you. (I'm fine with mine, just so you know). Another consideration would be to just use initials and a last name. Again, an awesome chance to pick a cool name. Obviously, I didn't do any of those things.

Now, using your own name as I have done gives rise to other problems we now face in this world. It's a risk I have chosen to take. But there are other things to consider as well. Once one begins to write in a particular genre, expanding ones frontiers can become a problem. As Robert writes in the world of epic fantasy, any reader who is familiar with Robert would expect books with that name to also be fantasy. See the problem? So, if Robert wanted to write in a different genre he risks alienating his following.

So, what's a writer to do? You write under a different name. Or, at least a name that lets the reader know who the author is, but tells the reader this is something different. Don't expect flaming swords, dragons and wizards with the second name.

Sooooooo ...... coming in the next few months, a date still to be determined. Keep an eye peeled for a new work in a different genre.

Non-finalized working cover

Pay no attention ...

Pay no attention to the facts please...

We are now in a world of media saturation. The advent and proliferation of technology has placed news, sports and entertainment media in more places than people can watch. Take the recent college national championship game. The coverage during the day was on sports channels up and down the dial.

Now, before I go any further, I'd like to congratulate THE Ohio State Buckeyes on winning the national football championship. Truth be told, that's my team. I make no bones about it. I began following them as a young boy and gave cheered and suffered through the long years. I know when they are good, great, and not so good. I can take the comments of mediocrity when I know they are true.

Back to the original thought for this ramble:
Unfortunately, with the proliferation of media and channels, it seems organizations are so desperate to have coverage on topics, they will put a microphone in the hand of anyone who wants to offer an opinion and call themselves an expert or just knowledgeable about a topic. Such is the case with one commentator who appeared on Fox Sports channel.

The discussion, as routinely happens in college football turned to 'what happens next year'. Who will be the number one team in the country and who will be in the four team playoff? One such 'expert', Clay Travis from Fox Sports thought that even though Ohio State beat Alabama (the number 1 team in the nation), and thoroughly dominated Oregon (the number 2 team in the nation) in the championship game, that Alabama would beat Ohio State if the game was played tomorrow and that Oregon and Alabama are still the best teams in the country. This is what I'm talking about. This commentator has completely ignored the facts before him. He deems his opinion more worthy than what actually happened. In sports, that's why you play the games on the field. Hey idiot, the better team won. That's the fact you chose to ignore.

But it's not just in sports where these talking heads pop up. This opinion was just an example of what we are forced to listen to. So, how do we fight back? We don't argue with them, unless you want to get your blood boiling. We turn them off. Writing to Fox to say, this guy is a do-do bird does nothing but give exposure, although one might say 'as does mentioning him in this ramble', but I use it to make a point.

Facts are facts when you witness them. Many just choose to ignore what they've seen or make it up their own version of the facts. It happens in sports, it happens in the real world with real issues. Too much analysis become paralysis by volume. It's time to cut out the noise pollution.

What's it worth?

For the uninitiated, I run a business. I'm a retail manager. I've run small, local mom and pop stores and national corporation stores. For many years, I still get the same feeling when it comes to helping the public; the average customer doesn't actually seem to understand how a business works.

No matter where I have worked, I've routinely been told, that costs too much. Okay, that's your opinion, but, how in the heck could you know that? What's included in that price? You do understand, if I sell something for what it costs to make it, there is no business, there is no job. Part of the cost to the consumer of any item includes the costs of manufacturing and transportation to get it to you. It also includes a slice of the rent on the building, the lighting, the heat, the air conditioning, the cost of paying an employee to unpack it and put it on the shelf, the cost of the tag to mark it, the cost of paying benefits to employees such as medical and dental, (because we all know that's part of what everyone complains about, people working for companies that do not support their workers).
Oh, and there's more, but I won't go into those costs. So, that item you think that costs $7.99 should only cost $3.99, it's simply more than that.

The other thing retail stores must counter is each other. There are some items that are priced low because other stores price them low to draw in customers. Therefore, competing stores must lower those prices. Since you can't give it all away and stay in business, you need to raise the prices on other items to make up the difference. Again, no profit, no store, no job for your high school kid or the retired guy who can't make enough of social security.

So, where does that leave us? That still leaves us with a consumer base who wants everything for free and who blames the clerk for their perceived wrongs. Have you ever seen the videos of people who tear a store apart? If a group of customers went into any other business and acted like that, they would be arrested. But for some reason, it is expected for stores and restaurants to put up with bad behavior. Just for fun, go into your insurance agent's office and push everything off the shelves or off his or her desk and see if you don't end up in jail.

Yeah, good luck with that.