Random Thoughts of Kurt Shinn

One of my first blogs was about men wearing leather Jesus sandals.  I won’t bore you again with how ugly I think they are and how stupid they look.  Apparently my blog did not change any fashion trends.  But the other day while waiting in line at Target, a man was in front of me wearing these  sandals.  Bad enough except for the fact that he had a huge red angry looking rash all over his foot.  There was pus discoloring his leather straps.  I even threw up a little bit into my mouth.  Did it not occur to him when he strapped those things on, that perhaps he should cover up his rash so others don’t have to look at it? Or to at least keep the oozy pus off the carpet? What was he thinking?

Did you ever notice how passionately geese yell at you when you drive past them?  Like they are mad that you are driving and they have to walk…  And shouldnt they be scared and not mad?

Justin Bieber was in Minneapolis recently for a concert, and for a short period of time thats all you heard about.  I can’t knock the guy because he is a  successful entertainer and I’m not.  The thing that I don’t understand is that he does not have any unusually spectacular talent.  He has maybe enough talent to win a middle school talent contest.  I am sure there are thousands of more successful singers his age.  But fortunately for him he is the front man of a highly successful marketing group.  A lot of people are making some money off of him, and I suppose if I did too, I wouldnt be complaining.

If a company relies on customers buying their product, isn’t customer service one of the most important functions of the company?  Why then do they take people who can’t get regualr jobs and are unmotivated and then pay them minimum wage and allow them to be their voice to their customers?  Why are customer service jobs the lowest paid and most poorly hired positions in the company? The worst thing is when they hire foreigners that not only don’t have a command of the English language, but also pronounce all the words wrong.    At least at McDonalds or at Walmart, if worst comes to worst, you can read lips, or draw a picture or act out what you are trying to communicate.  But when they are on the phone mumbling some strange voodoo chant, you have no options.

The Griswolds went to Walleyworld during their summer vacation.  So why would Roy Walley close Walleyworld for cleaning during the middle of the summer – the peak of the tourist season?   Wouldn’t you try to keep it clean while keeping the park open?  And since they were the only car in the parking lot, how did everyone else know it was closed and they didnt?

Knowing that carbonated soda explodes when it is shaken, why did the inventor of the pop machine think it was a good idea to drop the cans 2 or 3 feet into the bin?

Why do people think it is cool to put their cell phones on speaker and hold them out in front of them so that now they have to yell their conversation for everyone to hear?  Does that make you look more important?

On that note, bluetooth headsets are great for the car, but when you are walking around with nothing else in your hands using your headset makes you look really stupid.  Bluetooth headsets  were trendy for about a minute and quickly turned into uncool.  Unless you are driving of course.

There are some phrases that stay popular throughout time such as “Thats in the ball park” – meaning something is relatively close…. or saying someone is a”basket case” meaning they are crazy.  But some phrases lose their popularity and sometimes rather quickly.  For awhile, when someone made a mistake or did something wrong, they would say “My bad”.  But from my research, it seems like that phrase didnt even last for a year.  It just disappeared.  What made it suddenly unpopular?  Maybe I’m wrong and people still use it….  If I am, My bad.

At first I thought LeBron James was a disgrace to the city of Cleveland as well as the NBA.  He had made a mockery of a business transaction by turning it into a spectacle.  But then I realized something.  As a pro athlete you have about 10 years to make the majority of your money.  If you are smart you maximize that potential.  He not only signed a lucrative contract, but he did the most important thing – creating attention and creating an image.  People may be mad but you know that every arena will sell out when the Miami Heat come to town if nothing else to boo Lebron.  People that didnt know who he was, know his name now. He doesnt care if they hate him…he has created more attention around himself than any other NBA player did this year …Attention, even controversial sells.  Besides, if its true that members of his team dated his mom, I wouldnt have stuck around either.  If that story is true, Cleveland can than thank those guys.

Whenever I see people wearing their sunglasses indoors or at night it makes me laugh because those people must think that they look really, really good in their sunglasses.  And I think thats funny.