At a moment like this, I can't help but wonder,
What would Jimmy Buffett do?

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:48 AM   0 comments

• The Declaration of Independence
• Letter from Birmingham Jail
• On the Beginning of Political Societies
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
• The Seneca Falls Declaration of 1848
• The Fundamental Principle of a Republic
• Civil Disobedience [sic]
• Selected Poems from Song of Myself
• The Case of Hillary Clinton [sic]

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:53 PM   0 comments

Well, I don't give a dang about nothing I'm singing and bling-blinging

- posted by Brian J. @ 2:59 PM   0 comments

I can throw a major fit
When my latte isn't just how I like it

- posted by Brian J. @ 10:02 PM   2 comments

Bonjour,

Je suis le webmaster de PageStart.fr et de Marche.fr. Je souhaiterai faire un échange de liens, avec votre site http://stlbrianj.blogspot.com/.

Si vous le souhaitez, vous pouvez faire un échange de liens avec nous, dès maintenant, en cliquant sur le lien ci-dessous : Faire un échange de liens avec PageStart.fr

Si vous n'êtes pas le webmaster du site, merci de nous en informer : Je ne suis pas le webmaster de ce site

Cordialement,
Eric

- posted by Brian J. @ 5:07 PM   2 comments

I don't know what sort of Birkenstock-wearing Seattlite would shush the commercial-driven sugar-craving mewlings of its larvae with EnviroKidz Organic Koala CrispTM breakfast cereal (Gluten Free! Organic Cocoa!), but apparently somewhere, someone is making money providing the product.

Look. When you put a box of “Cinnamon Toast” cereal on the table, the kid knows what he’s getting. “Gorilla Munch” doesn’t really nail it down. Particularly if the Gorilla appears to be gazing at the person holding forth the bowl, sizing him up for a game of poker. And I don’t get the part about “1% of sales donated to wildlife” – makes it sound like they send someone into the forest and throw wadded-up fifties at random animals.

- posted by Brian J. @ 5:54 AM   0 comments

To help introduce more people to "the magic of coin collecting," Scott A. Travers, a 44-year-old former vice president of the American Numismatic Association and author of The Coin Collector's Survival Manual, decided to mark National Coin Week in mid-April 2006 by deliberately spending three valuable old pennies as he made routine purchases around Manhattan. "I'm planting a seed, and I hope that a new generation of people will come to appreciate the history that coins represent," he said.

The three coins Scott Travers planned to spend were all relatively low-mintage U.S. one-cent pieces nearly one hundred years old: a 1908-S Indian Head cent, and 1909-S VDB and 1914-D Lincoln cents.

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:39 PM   0 comments

As recently as 1994, more than half of newspaper carriers 57 percent were under 18, often neighborhood kids, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:01 PM   0 comments

A 10-year-old girl has been charged with evidence tampering after authorities say she tossed small bags of crack cocaine out of a window during a drug raid.

District Attorney Andy Jarbola said the girl had a "bad attitude" during police questioning.

"What's so amazing about this investigation is how street-smart this 10-year-old child was," he said. "She knew what she was doing."

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:00 PM   1 comments

6. Hang art with tape.

Back then, walls were finished with three coats of plaster — like the ones in your home — that dried like rock. Hooks with nails won't go in easily. You might consider using hooks that attach with adhesive.

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:22 AM   2 comments

The North Korean Buffet.

- posted by Brian J. @ 7:51 PM   0 comments

"She felt threatened," says Lt. Lane Byers, Pickens County Sheriff's Office. "She felt she could not leave the home to get away from him. And she felt she had to defend herself. She used a firearm to do so."

City police officers shot a man twice with Tasers, then scuffled with him, a friend who witnessed the incident said Monday.

Hours after that Saturday scuffle, Nick Mamino Jr., 41, was dead.

- posted by Brian J. @ 5:58 AM   0 comments

Dr Andrew McCulloch, chief executive of the foundation, said: "The research confirms our worries that people are drinking to cope with emotions and situations they can't otherwise manage.

"Drinking alcohol is a very common and accepted way of coping - our culture allows us to use alcohol for 'medicinal purposes' or 'dutch courage' from an early age.

"But using alcohol to deal with anxiety and depression doesn't work."

- posted by Brian J. @ 6:24 PM   0 comments

They used to chase dead-beat dads. Now they're chasing dreams.

On Thursday, the Missouri Lottery announced the winners of the state's largest Powerball jackpot ever, $224.2 million. The big winners, dubbed the Lucky 13, are employees with the Missouri Department of Social Services.

- posted by Brian J. @ 4:30 PM   0 comments

1. Assertiveness short of aggressiveness.
   
   
   First, be assertive — not aggressive — when dealing with a jerk. A jerk may have doubts about his ability and status, so the last thing you want to do is challenge him on those grounds. Being aggressive with a jerk will play into his hands and give him an excuse to become a turbo-charged twit.
   
   
   Unfortunately, when you're trying to bully and badger one of your weaker co-workers, some of them will undoubtedly attempt to show some spine and resist. In most cases, they'll try to puff up through strong-sounding tones, hoping that merely by standing up to you, they will shock you into leaving them alone and not taking their Starbucks money. Don't fall for it! By merely remaining firm in your jerkishness, you'll show that you're not going to fold with a simple show of brazen assertiveness. Instead, you should repeat your jerkish assertions slowly and more loudly, as though your target is a child or a retard. Also, you might choose to bridge the distance in your points of view by closing the distance between you and your target. Remember, touching is a felony, but you can come within micrometers of striking your target's nose with your own proboscis without going to jail.
   
   To mix things up, break down in front of the target. Yes, I said break down. Tell the target, through tears if possible, some anecdote of hardship or tragedy that has recently or in your childhood struck you to make you the way you are. You can sometimes make your target feel guilty for his or her own assertive behavior and make that person question whether it is, in fact, he or she that is the jerk for misunderstanding you or pressing you in this hour of your hardship. Assertiveness and self-confidence is a blade best blunted on guilt.
   
   
2. Like Major, I will work harder.
   
   
   If so, don't play the game and assume your assigned role of wanderer in the wilderness. Ask questions. Demand answers. Seek challenging assignments. Show the jerk what you can do.
   When confronted with a productive and overachieving target, it's best to feed the beast what it will eat. When answering questions, give out false information with just enough truth to be dangerous. Of course, you'll want to avoid questions at all costs. Set up an e-mail rule so that the target's e-mails go right to your Junk box. That way, when the target presses you on the e-mails, you won't even risk the flicker of recognition or deception when you say you didn't see it. Lie convincingly in person, but in meetings obfuscate, stall, and tell the target that you'll "take it offline" to a more private forum where you can lie with more impunity.
   
   As for charging harder into the breach, well, make that a breech. Make sure the over-achiever gets the failing projects and doomed customer relationships. Sure, there's a chance the target is a real rockstar, but you can only juggle so many teacups before you spill some Earl Grey, or something. Challenging assignments will taint your target with the scent of failure; coupled with the assertive demanding of answers, and you can aikido your target right into the reputation if difficulty.
   
   
3. Just take it.
   
   
   Slough off his bad behavior as best you can, since his actions say a lot about him and nothing about you.
   
   
   The best offense is the fetal position. I mean, we know we're jerks, and we've made our peace with it. So if when you see someone who doesn't react to your jerk behavior, you have that person's permission to be a jerk!
   
   
4. The s-h-bomb.
   
   
   Jerk-like behavior between men and women can quickly become sexual harassment, opening the company to legal liability. A manager must stop it immediately. If you're in the middle of it, make your situation known to your manager or the personnel office.
   Beware this mindset, where normal jerkishness suddenly becomes about simple sexual innuendo. As such, it's important to employ preventive measures in your boorishness; that is, to avoid any appearance of any impropriety of the sexual sort whatsoever. As such, it's important that your conversations with the target avoid troublesome topics such as:
   
   
   • Sex.
   • The naughty bits.
   • The not quite naughty, but the sometimes naughty in certain corners of the Internet bits.
   • Furniture, as sex sometimes occurs on it.
   • Edifices, as sex sometimes occurs in them.
   • Cars, as sex sometimes occurs in them.
   • Gender roles, especially traditional gender roles.
   • Transgender roles, especially traditional transgender roles.
   • Things that are cylindrical, rectangular, or are longer than they are tall, as these can be construed of as phallic in many college English papers.
   • Things that fit into other things, such as keys, nuts and bolts, letters and envelopes.
   • Things that sound like the words for or slang words in any language for naughty bits, genders, edifices, and so on.
   • Things that rhyme with any slang in any language for naughty bits, genders, edifices, and so on.
   • Calendars, days of which can include the menstral cycle.
   • Food, since there's a lot of inappropriate slang usage for a lot of the words, like BLT.
   • Anything else an attorney anywhere might think of.
   
   
   Granted, this list pretty much eliminates all conversations, but sometimes you can be a jerk non-verbally. Through body language. Wait, that involves the body, so undoubtedly it's all prohibited. Never mind, carry on.

"There is no single cause for a jerk's behavior," Lloyd says. "You've got to tailor your response to each case. Some organizations reward the abusive behavior of jerks. That's not true in the best companies, but if it's true at your company, ask yourself, Is this an environment where I can thrive?"

- posted by Brian J. @ 8:18 PM   0 comments