keeping note

Yesterday I saw a commercial for a “hand stirred” fruit milkshake smoothie of some sort new at Wendy’s. As someone who’s worked at Starbucks (albeit happily) for much longer than intended, I’ve seen plenty of the “hand shaken” or “hand stirred” nonsense. Why do advertisers see it as such a great selling point at mass produced locations?

First off, it’s Wendy’s for goodness sake. While the company probably encourages excellence and performance, it’s still fast food. It’s still food that you can drive up to a window and receive in less than three minutes. It’s food that has been demographically selected and manufactured for the entire nation to enjoy at every Wendy’s location on every street corner from the ghetto to the suburbs. You aren’t getting personal or gourmet.

Second off, the people making these things don’t have the expertise and aren’t given enough money to care about shaking, stirring, or whatever is required of them. When it comes down to it, time is everything. The faster you get your food, the happier you are. Managers know it. Employees know it.

Third, and most relevantly, having worked in semi “fast food” and been given instructions on “hand shaken” beverages, I know that it means squat. Starbucks is higher quality than most places out there, but we still take quite a liberty with those personal touches to your drinks. If we ring 30 transactions a half an hour on an average day, that’s at the very least 30 drinks, more realistically beyond double that. Yes, your drink will be made well, I can promise you that, but those fancy personal touches that are advertised aren’t always part of the process.

Now step it down to real fast food like Wendy’s. Don’t even think that they are going to take the time out to do anything personal to your beverage, except spit in it if you piss them off.

Here’s the long and short of it: Unless you are paying top dollar from a restaurant or professional, “hand shaken” means nothing.

You can view Hillary Clinton’s speech and sign up for Barack Obama’s website at: hillaryclinton.com or go directly to Obama’s wesite: barackobama.com

I’m a Hillary Clinton supporter and I was sad to see her end her campaign. (But let’s face it, it was inevitable) She put up a great fight, ( a great Machiavellian fight!) but it saddens me to see what has become of her supporters.

I’ve read many comments left on blogs and news articles that upset me and have enraged others. Why is it that former Hillary supporters are willing to change sides rather quickly, just because the Democratic representative is now Barack Obama? If anything, he is the person CLOSEST to Hillary’s ideals and the Democratic Party’s ideals.

In Hillary Clinton’s speech, she understood the need for a UNITED party, not a broken one.

“The way to continue our fight, to accomplish the goals for which we stand, is to take our energy, our passion, our strength and do all we can to help elect Barack Obama, the next president of the United States….Today, as I suspend my campaign, I congratulate him on a vicotry he has won and the extrordinary race he has run. I ENDORSE HIM AND THROW MY FULL SUPPORT BEHIND HIM.”

All those urging others to switch to independent, to vote Republican, just because you hate Barak Obama for irrelevant reasons, I urge you to reconsider. In our system of government, there is no way a third party can win. It’s not built to support a third party. Majority of the populous will vote either Democrat (Obama) or Republican (McCain) and (in my opinion), a third party vote in this upcoming election, will be a waste. Those votes can go to the party you truly support. Have we forgotten the 2000 election when the Nader votes could have gone else where?

I have also read ridiculous reasons from various blogs and other sources, such as AOL’s straw pole, to not vote for Obama and ways to libel his name. I read a comment that said, “He’s not an American citizen. His father is from Africa. It’s being investigated.” Well, someone has not done their reading. Yes, his father is African, but his mother is an American citizen, which makes him an American citizen.

Another comment was a rant about how he never wore the American flag pin until now and how he’s never saluted when the national anthem was played. Are you serious?! This is your strongest reason not to vote for a leader? There are more important issues to follow when choosing a candidate. Also, a lot of people have been put of by his name, Barack Hussein Obama. Once again, this is the last thing you should focus on. If anything, this is a prejudicial judgement based on his name and not his leadership skills. Let me remind you of another point in Hillary Clinton’s speech,

“There are no acceptable limits, no acceptable prejudices, in the 21st century.”

Instead of spending your energy focusing on trifles, read about him and his ideas. Research what he supports, what he doesn’t support and what he plans for this country and then make your judgements. If you truly do not agree with him and find that you agree with other ideas, then fine. Just don’t take action based on shallow reasoning.

It is my hope that the Democratic party will stand together, rather than divided. In 40 years, there have been 10 presidential elections where only 3 terms were served by a Democrat. ( 2 terms belonged to Bill Clinton.) Let us try to put a Democrat back in office. If you are Hillary Clinton supporter then try to support her wishes and support Barack Obama.

Using Hillary Clinton’s words:

“The Democratic Party is a family and now it is time to restore the ties that bind us together and to come together around the ideals we share, the values we cherish and the country we love. We may have started on separate journeys, but today our paths have merged and we’re all heading towards the same destination, united and more ready than ever to win in November, and two turn our country around because so much is at stake.”

(Not all that write for KN follow the Democratic Party. Although, classified as a Moderate myself, I tend to lean towards the Democratic Party.)

It’s the Friday before finals and practically no one came to class.

I fucking HATE coming to school when no one shows up.

The professor now has the opportunity to “notice” you because the class isn’t there to camouflage you for safety.

GAH! As I’m typing this, my keyboard is sounding unusually louder than usual because there aren’t any whispers or random banter to mask it.

Blah, I could have gotten more sleep.