Cowboy Bob Sorensen

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Having had experience on both sides of the retail world — worker and consumer — and being observant, I have seen many disconcerting things in human behavior. One example was a boy running around with merchandise and hearing his mother tell the father, "I just gave it to him to play with while we are here." Great, Bratley ruins merchandise because feckless parents cannot keep him under control. There are people who just drop stuff anywhere, whether trying to be funny or having changed their minds. That is bad enough, but they also waste food; a frozen pizza does not belong in sporting goods! There is a video of a guy trying to show his "badness" while being recorded in the drinks section. He would open bottles, take a drink, and put them back . Sick jerk.  Grocery shopping, Pexels / Hobi industri , modified at FotoSketcher On the other side of the coin, you have lackadaisical employees who simply don't care about working to earn their pay.

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Some time ago, I wrote about being professional in the workplace , and that I got to know a worker at a big box store. He will be called Aaron from now on. Aaron sent me a telegram the other day, so I saddled up and rode into his town so we could talk about the item of concern. He had the day off so we met at an eatery for a leisurely lunch. While having coffee, he described the situation. Aaron's place of employment has a prairie schooner-full of folks in supervisory roles. While not all are necessarily his supervisors, they have superior roles and can give orders. Businessman, Pixabay / Goumbik There is a chain of command, as expected. One person is second in authority to the store manager, and was giving instructions at a store meeting. (You've probably seen meetings like this in various stores where employees are gathered for a few minutes in a large opening.) At the very end, "Chop! Chop!" was uttered. Aaron seems to be level-headed and no

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Here is a stylized picture of the White-Breasted Nuthatch that I (hopefully) rescued a few weeks ago. He* was being harassed by another of his kind, and when trying to fly away, smacked into the plate glass window on our porch. I was oh so careful picking him up and setting him on the grass below. These woodpecker cousins are so cute . It was extremely difficult for me to picture these 6.1 inch (15.5 cm. for those who do millimetrics) delicate birds trying to be big and bad. My Nuthatch photo modified with FotoSketcher When one is on the patio floor looking for suet crumbs, seeds, and nuts, he moves in short bursts. I took to calling him Scooter. My wife told me that I had just missed the thing she had told me about. A few seconds later, I saw it. Scooter didn't want to share the seeds on the floor with a catbird, so he spread his wings and rocked slightly back and forth. When my wife first told me about this action, he was trying to intimidate a much large

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Those of us who know about responsible firearm use cringe when we see displays of stupidity — one of which is firing into the air. Yee haw, bang bang bang! Maybe it is human nature to make noise when celebrating, but is it human nature to put the brain in neutral as well? Ammunition may be hard to come by, so that is one reason shooting guns in the air is stupid. Worse, though, is a simple thing called gravity. What goes up must come down. Old Hank Longfellow shot an arrow into the air and eventually found it in a tree. Stupid poem . Recovered al-Shabaab AK-47s, Flickr / AMISOM Public Information ( CC0 1.0 ). On an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation , a man was under suspicion of murder for supposedly shooting his wife — outside. However, the damage and the angle of the wound were all wrong, and other facts didn't jibe. It was determined that she was killed because someone nearby fired a bullet into the air. Watching news reports or movies with idiot

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen You know the game, most of us played it when we were kids. Someone is selected to be the leader and everyone falls in behind for whatever journey happens. When it becomes hazardous, people follow at their own peril or wise up and drop out. Many of us play variations on it later in life. There may be a persuasive leader in a clique or someone in authority at the workplace. Sometimes it is friends, or mayhaps jumping in on teh interwebs. Follow the Leader, Wikimedia Commons / Doug Coldwell ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) We easily see how professing atheists are control freaks, especially on social(ist) media. I have had several times when I posted on a biblical creation science topic, and a misotheist feels the need to disrupt things and hijack the discussion thread with demands for "proof" (mostly on a different subject altogether). There are Christians who think they are rising to the challenge and try to persuade the atheist that God exists or something similar, bu

Most professing Christians around the world are celebrating the bodily Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! If it had not happened, our faith is in vain (1 Cor. 15:12-19). But it did  happen and is the best-attested fact of ancient history. Those who are in Christ are forgiven and adopted as children of God (1 John 1:12-13.)  Like last year, no full post today but I am going to link to my other posts on the subject: Doubt Creation, so Doubt the Resurrection? The Trail of the Resurrection from Genesis (which I had written about a year ago in case I was not around to post something for this year) Resurrection or Evolution as a Basis for Hope Bible with Resurrection account and flowers, Unsplash / Anuja Mary Tilj As a bonus, here is a short post from Jimmy, " This Sunday at Church: Being Grateful for the Resurrection of Christ ." Please pray that God blesses his missions trip and for safe travels. Also, Why?Outreach has reposted a link to a collection of links regarding

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen A spell back, I wrote about an employee  showing professionalism in a big box store . A customer was ranting about how he was supposedly insulted by another employee, and this one had to hear about it. After a few subsequent visits, I got to know the guy at the store and we had some discussions. One day over lunch, the employee that I will call Aaron gave me some surprising insights into that company and its policies. Those are quite a distance from the vision of the company founder! Image information below This company used to believe in people and listen to employees and customers alike, but I see quality sacrificed for profit. Aaron told me of a revolving door of employees that come in, work for a while, then quit or get fired. While they have some real gems that have worked in this company for many years, many of the younger workers just don't care. You can't find that plaid sheet set that the app says is on the shelf? Try looking behind the boxes of

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Here is how it happened. After several years of being a desk  jockey and working data entry jobs with little physical activity, I was unemployed for a long period of time. With a great deal of reluctance, I took a job that required almost continual standing and walking. Because of going from little activity to doing a great deal (which included sitting cross-legged on the floor), plus my previous lifestyle, I developed knee pain. Eventually, it got so bad I went to urgent care immediately after work one day. They took X-rays and told me to stay away from working for a few days, put ice on it several times a day (cold packs, really), keep my leg elevated. The picture on the right shows me using my wife's laptop, a cold pack, and the seldom-used cane is visible. Doctor's note didn't matter, I got in trouble with the workplace.  This first picture is from before the surgery. I took the doctor's recommendation and followed up with a specialist, and he

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Way back on 4 May 2011, Don Batten of Creation Ministries International wrote about a "Question Evolution" campaign. It seemed strange to me, calling it a "grassroots" because it was not initiated at the popular level. Pay attention here. I had a wrong opinion based on conjecture, which is something people do far too often. I did not act on it. Instead, I learned that essentially a grassroots movement/campaign is a way of having the people take action, not a political party or other organization. Those others may initiate the action, however. Grass background for Question Evolution Day from Hippopx CMI seems to have edited down the original, but at the Wayback Machine, you can see an article about the "Question Evolution" campaign plus the comments . Two months later, I added my comment, suggesting a coordinated Question Evolution Day. Nothing happened. If y'all are interested in my comment, click for larger After spearheading

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen As much as I dislike titles that are in the form of a question (there always seems to be some jasper who has an "answer" and feels no need to read the material before commenting), this is vague enough to cause curiosity. Every once in a while, I notice people who are fond of keeping with the latest trends, many of those are related to fashion. Many people feel compelled to follow the trends. This may involve investing a great deal of time and money, but trends change frequently. Some slang terms only lasted a few years and will cause a user to be scorned by the trendy. (I use some to be humorous or individual.) Who are they dressing, getting hairstyles, speaking, listening to certain music, etc., for ? Paris Fashions in Peterson's Magazine , February 1871 — these were being sold about the time Charles Darwin's The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex was published It is my view that people seek attention and approval when they do th