Christmas - Pagan or Religious?

Christmas Part 1

This Christmas has been something different all around.  For the first time, I've started to consider (thanks Brian. . .) whether the religious holiday we have all been brought up to celebrate is really what we think it is at all.  The long story short: Christmas eve morning, Brian and I were discussing several things in the Bible.  He stated that he watched a documentary once that showed Christmas as being invented by the Romans (it was actually the Winter Solstice) and the day of Christmas actually falls on the 25th because that was the last day of the Winter Solstice.  During the Winter Solstice, people were permitted to commit any mortal sin they wished to, and on the 25th they had to remember Christ who died for their sins and repent.  I agree that Christmas today is not what it was meant to be originally, but really?  Am I supposed to believe that we are not supposed to celebrate the birth of Christ at all? 

The debate found its way to Facebook, where two other friends joined in.  My brother's high school English Teacher brought up the point (with a source, of course!) that according to "The Man Who Invented Christmas" by Chip Wood (I'm sure that's a made up name, by the way),  Christmas was made to be a "big deal" (more or less) by Charles Dickens who wrote A Christmas Carol. Before 1843, Christmas wasn't really a holiday.  After self-publishing the book, it was adapted to a play - and the rest is history!  Everyone knows the story, and it's been remade year after year.  I even participated in the play when I was in 6th grade.  (Not a main role, of course.)

About the same time, a friend from my Lon Morris College Days (Meghan) said: "It's not the fact that it's pagan, it's the fact that the early Christians adopted a lot of pagan traditions a). because that was all they knew and b). because they wanted people to convert. The date December 25th was actually the birthday of the god Mithras, who was the god of Mithraism, a competing monotheistic religion during the same time as early Christianity. The actual date of Jesus Christ's birthday has been known to be in the summer time. Therefore the Christians adopted the December 25th date to try and outshine Mithraism. Certainly the tradition of decorating a tree is pagan."

Personally, I do not disagree that we definitely have adopted some very materialistic traditions, but the fact remainst that every Christmas morning, my dad would wake my brother and I up, and after all the excitement of opening our presents was over, he would sit us down at the kitchen table and read us the Christmas story straight from the bible.  I think that maybe we should remember Christmas for the real reason for the season, whether we choose to celebrate it in December, or otherwise, and that is that God gave us his son, he was a gift to this world.  My point still remains: yes, the Roman Catholics may have invented Christmas to atone themselves for their dirty-rotten sinning, but remembering that God gave his son is still important.  If we remember that, it doesn't matter what silly pagan traditions we adopt - our hearts are in the right place.  You might call me silly, or ignorant, but I have faith!  And I wont call you silly or ignorant for what you believe in. 

http://www.personalliberty.com/straight-talk/the-man-who-invented-christmas/

http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/mithraism.html
http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm

Christmas Part 2

On Christmas Day, I ate dinner twice.  Something I don't normally do.  I ate with my family, and then that evening I ate with Brian's family (his dad's side).  He didn't tell me before we went that I was the first girl he'd ever brought to ANY family event, but his uncles told me.  I'm not sure exactly what to think about it, and he claims that he didn't tell me that because he didn't want it to go to my head.  But it did - not in a negative way, but in a "he actually really does care about me, enough to bring me around his family, and even if he doesn't always act like he cares" kind of way. 

People never cease to surprise me.

Reflections - Fall, 2011

Well, here it is - post grad. 

My father and I

I've been sitting back the past few days, reveling in the glory of not having to go back to school, of being "done." It's been nice to spend time doing things I just haven't had time to do lately - watching movies, sitting and talking with my dad, playing video games with my boyfriend, sleeping, and even cleaning the microwave!  But in that time I've been thinking also - about a few things the past semester has taught me.  My last semester of my B.B.A. taught me four things:

The Rising Phoenix Project logo.
By Cassandra Bartley

1. Never think you know exactly what you want to do.  My last semester in school taught me that.  I went in thinking, "all I have left is 4 months - then USAF and a career in HRD."  I joined SIFE and found that I definitely picked the right major.  I want to plan things, I want to coordinate things - I want to manage things.  I was given a project called The Harvey's Project - to reopen a restaurant on campus as an entrepreneurship project class (there were WAY more things involved in it than just the final decision - red tape, etc. . . The University is a bureaucracy - what more can you expect?)  Anyway, I was trusted by just one person to take over - and I was successful! 

My success in that role led to the SIFE team entrusting me with their "high-profile" project - the Rising Phoenix Project.  I loved reorganizing the project while still keeping its mission in sight.  It gave me a sense of purpose, of accomplishment.  And the fact that my advisers hand picked me for the project let me know that I am highly respected.  Something I have always struggled with - it's hard to know sometimes if you're just doing a good job.  I know I've found my calling.  One day, I told my adviser, Tammy Cowart, that I would love to purchase the project from SIFE one day - to ensure that it would be able to continue on.  Then, I jokingly said, "once I get rich!"

Dr. Barbara Wooldridge (left), Dr. Tammy Cowart (right), and I on my graduation day.  December 17, 2011.
Say "SIFE!"

2. Never, EVER, judge a book by its cover.  This semester I started dating Brian Zemer.  If there is one thing he taught me, even indirectly - never think that you know someone's whole story just off of first impressions.  Those people that you think are horrible people often surprise you - they might seem like they are out to take what is yours, or ruin everything, but end up being the only one who will help you with what you need to do.  It's a huge surprise.  I think I taught the very same lesson to someone too.  One of my professors gave me a graduation present, something that is nearly unheard of - because of my drive to make something that has nearly no benefit to me, a success. 

I have to work on not judging people, I don't want to be judged, so why should I do it to others?  I have been offered jobs on the basis of being "pretty," or tall, or white, or a woman.  I want to be offered something on my merit - I want to earn it.  I try hard to show people the real me - an intelligent, ambitious woman who is not afraid of failure but who learns from it. 

3. Keep your friends close-  You never know when you wont have them anymore.  Your true friends are a part of your family - keep a close eye on them, know when they need you to be there.  To listen, and give them comfort.  I lost a friend this semester to suicide.  It made me realize that I should never take those people I care about for granted.  I will miss him, he was always the person I could turn to when I needed someone that cared about me.  If only I had known just how he really felt.  Rest in Peace, Jon, until we meet again one day.

4. Don't forget traditions.  Brian and I have developed a tradition: to eat at Stanley's.  When he and I started dating, I didn't consider it a date to go out to Stanley's, it wasn't romantic, it wasn't all that "special."  But now that we've done it together enough, it is a tradition.  If I go in there without him, it feels off, wrong.  And they even ask me where he is.  That's when I realized that I should be content with the little things that make your relationship with someone special.  Whether that be your boyfriend or girlfriend, or your parents, or just a friend.  If you do something together, hold onto that, make it yours. 



My little brother and I - post graduation

 Don't get embarrassed when your little brother screams at the top of his lungs when you walk accross that stage, "THAT'S MY SISTER!"  Own it!  That's your little brother, and he's proud of you, just like he has been since he was old enough to be proud of anything.  So, don't cover your face, don't be embarrassed - raise your head high, and walk accross that stage, knowing that he single-handedly is the loudest cheering section for anyone graduating that day.  And carry on the tradition at the next opportunity - maybe next time it'll be my turn to yell, "THAT'S MY BROTHER!" though, I don't think my voice booms like his does.

Untitled - A poem

I was looking at things I wrote for creative writing in '06 and I found this.  It made me smile. 

I would like to eat a loaf of words.

And fill my stomach with wonderful poetry,

That is made of wonderful wordy rhy.

It's the food of the nerdiest nerds.



Marketing it would be a smart thing to do.

"Improve your poetry skills with just one bite,

And become a famous poet you just might

The loaf of words is the bread for you!"

Thoughts on Apple, Inc.

Steve Jobs stepped down from the position of CEO of Apple this week.  He named his successor as Tim Cook who was presently the COO of Apple; there are mixed feelings as to whether this was a good idea or not.  Jobs is one of the greatest minds of our time, I'm not a fan of Apple products for personal reasons, however I respect the man behind the products.  The question is: will Apple survive without Jobs' new ideas fueling it?

All the people I know that use Apple were always talking about Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs = Apple.  Perhaps that is because I'm a business student, and Apple has been one of the fastest growing companies since I started business school on the technology field.  Since Jobs took over as CEO in '97 there have been many new products that have been developed by Apple.  The iMac, the iPod, the iPhone (HUGE one!), the iPad (another big one..).  Even the MacBook Air was a huge development, at least I thought it was pretty awesome, and even with the position of Apple products in my mind I would probably still buy one.  I realize that Steve Jobs did not single-handedly create all of those products, but he is the face of Apple, anyone else is just not the same.

Thanks Jobs, for your legacy and life's work.

Please note:  I didn't quote specifically any of the above information, however I did read several articles on the subject mostly from the New York Times.

Is the US President overpaid?

The average pay of a CEO in the US is $11 million a year with base salary and other compensation (such as bonuses and stock options, etc.) Keeping this in mind, think about what a CEO has to do: meetings, travel, planning for the future of the company he/she works for, etc.  It's just like a presidency, except people don't generally care about what the CEO of some company has to say.  

Out of 44 presidents, 4 have been assassinated while still in office.  In other words: 1 out of every 11 presidents dies.  There have been 20 known attempted assassinations on US Presidents, bringing the risk of losing your life in the position to nearly half.  On any given day, about half  (usually more) of the people in the country has something negative to say about the way the country is run, and it usually ends up being the president's fault for whatever happens; he is the face of the Federal Government.  

Just like the CEO, the president travels, has meetings, press conferences, and helps plan for the future of our country.  Granted, I do not know any of the supplements to the president's pay, base salary for the US president is only $400,000 a year.  compared to the average $1,093,989 (2011 base salary average) of S&P 500 companies, it's not even half.  

So, with all this information in mind when I read the following:

"Salary of the US President. ..$400,000 Salary of retired US Presidents ...$180,000 Salary of House/Senate...$174,000 Salary of Speaker of the House.. .$223,500 Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders... $193,400 Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN COMBAT $38,000 I think we found where the cuts should be made! If you agree... repost" 

as a status that is meant to become viral as some sort of protest to how much the President and other "highly-paid" government elected officials make compared to a Soldier, and how they should cut their salary, I tend to disagree.  I do, agree that our soldiers are underpaid, but I do NOT think that the salaries of those in charge are what is causing our debt problem in this country.  Excess spending on unnecessary items country-wide, and unwise choices on the types of products our government chooses to purchase for its personnel are more of a problem in my eyes.  (For example: my brother was partially in charge of reorders on batteries for his cutter in the USCG, and he told me that they would replace the batteries in every flashlight on the boat every month, whether it was used or not.) 

I think before people start screaming for pay cuts for the President and Congress, etc, they should look at where the rest of the  money goes.  The US debt increases at a rate of $50,000 every 2 seconds. I think we've got bigger problems than paying our president $400,000 a year.  

_______________________________________________________________________

Sources: 

https://www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2008/2008-01-attach1.pdf   Salaries of government personnel. 2008.

http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/  CEO pay-watch. 2011.

http://www.usdebtclock.org/  US Debt clock. 18 July 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_assassination_attempts_and_plots  List of Presidential Assassination Attempts and Successes. 5 July 2011.

MONOPOLY

Just got an email saying that to continue my service with Netflix, I must pay 33% more per month.  I was literally JUST talking about how disappointed I was with what Netflix was releasing on streaming lately, i.e. nothing I want to watch.  And it's been taking 2 days instead of 1 to get my movies in the mail.  Now they're raising prices?

Here's what I think happened:  Netflix enters market.

Netflix is more convenient for lazy &%# people who don't want to leave home.

America = lazy ass people who don't want to leave home.

Blockbuster and other competitors hurt for business on top of already feeling the pinch of the recession.

Competitors go bankrupt.

Netflix holds market.

Monopoly pricing.

Some customers will be paying for the same (or like me, worse) service for up to 60% more per month!  If that's not a racket, I don't know what is!

Birds of a Feather

It's been a little over a week since my last post, and lately I've been thinking about how people are afraid to differentiate themselves from the rest of the crowd.  Personally I don't think being different is such a bad thing, when it comes to your ambitions, drive, and personality (as long as we're talking about "good" personality traits!)  What made me finally decide to write this was something my brother told me last night.  He posted the "she was finally starting to realize what she lost."  So I liked it, and said "you go little brother!"  Then he tells me that his ex-girlfriend who I considered to be someone that I trusted up until a few weeks ago, and especially until last night, said that I was to blame for their (my brother and her) breakup.  I had nothing to do with it, in fact my only advice to her was that she should only leave the relationship if she was unhappy, because my brother was a good guy and he wouldn't do anything wrong to her on purpose.  So suddenly it's my fault.

Anyway, the point is: I've been in New Orleans for about 8 weeks now, and I've noticed the attitudes and differences in people here compared to those of people in Texas.  I know it's a different type of "bird" here, but I've also noticed that the attitudes are catching.  I'm starting to wonder if maybe the reason my brother's ex-girlfriend is suddenly such a bad person is because she wants so desperately to fit in here that she is picking up the bad habits of disloyalty, and flat-out lying to try and get her way?  She didn't seem like a bad person when I first met her, but now that the truth has come out, I'm not so sure her breaking up with my brother was a bad thing.

The REAL point is:  be who you are, be honest with anyone you meet, because in my book, family comes first, and if you say something about someone I love, they come first.

In other news:  I'm working on my resume today, and making my "five year plan." It's time to get passionate about it.

Market Segmentation or Stereotype?

http://www.claritas.com/MyBestSegments/Default.jsp
http://www.esri.com/data/esri_data/tapestry.html#

In my Consumer Behavior course, my professor gave us the assignment to go to the above websites, enter our zip codes and make a summary of the information provided about the major market segments in that area.

I entered, obviously, the zip code from the town where I live in, and have lived in consistently for the past 15 years, in Texas.  What I found was in some ways disturbing.  There were comments on nearly every segment provided that the "people" that live there were, for lack of better terminology, technological retards.  I realize that my zip code also covers about half of the county in which my town is located, but there was NOTHING that was included in ANY of the 10+ segments I read that was about the college students who live in the area, or anything that I could personally identify with.

Is it possible that these segments are nothing but a generalized stereotype that was made up based on the population density of the area?  I know that there are definitely areas that are still untouched by technology still today, but there has to be at least 75% saturation of at least 1x coverage for cell phone service, if not more, when I was working for the US Census Bureau 3 years ago, I was consistently getting 3G coverage in the rural areas I visited.  So, how is it possible that the top two market segments listed on any of the settings contain information about how the population has NO cell phone usage?

I do, however, agree that the average income of the families living within my zip code is significantly lower than some of the surrounding areas, but I also know that in 2008 our local economy of mostly oil based industry, and retailing was hit extremely hard by the recession. Of course now the market is depressed compared to the "richness" it was used to before.

I don't know... if these market segments are the main way a new business decides to come to an area, maybe it's not good that our zip code is listed in such a... "back woods" kind of way that leaves out those of us who are environmentally aware, own 2+ computers, have college education, use cell phones, DO NOT drive huge gas-hog vehicles.

Working Man - Boost Mobile TV Commercial

I thought this commercial was ironically true to the way our consumption based society operates.  People work day and night just to have "stuff" like a cell phone, specific clothes, shoes, a car, almost anything.  If a cell phone provider is advertising that they "understand" that we work our asses off for this stuff, and they are marketing to those people that are tired of doing so, I think it's a sign that maybe we're living for the wrong thing in the US.

Think about what the guy in the commercial is doing.  And notice that when he tweets "How many jobs does it take to pay a cell phone bill?" that he is working as a janitor, one of the least respected jobs in our society.  But he HAS that cell phone that can complete things such as tweeting from anywhere, making it (obviously) worth doing a job that so many of us look down on.

Food for thought today.

Expectations... and Reality

This summer I am taking courses at the University of New Orleans, and I love it.  The people are nicer than I expected, classes are exciting and actually require you to do something more than sit there and listen to the professor drone on and on for hours. 

I'll be honest, when I signed up for two classes that are 2.5 hours long back-to-back two times a week, I expected to want to shoot myself by the end of the second class.  However, I barely notice the time going by.  Dad says it's because they "feel bad" for those of us that chose to take summer classes. I see it as a huge value, I'm taking 9 hours, which could easily be a regular semester (or about 15 weeks) in 7 weeks.  That's less than half the amount of time for the same number of hours.  And I get to graduate a semester earlier than I would if I had taken them in the Spring or Fall.

Repost of my Very Brief History on Mazda Motor Corporation

Last Thursday in my C.B. class we had a discussion about the evolution of logos, and as I drive a Mazda3, I thought I'd share a little history of the company and why the logo looks the way it does.  I borrowed a lot of this information from various websites, and talks with my dad on the subject.  I'll give proper notation at the end of the note.

Before I continue with what most people will consider the "boring stuff," I'll give a link to the website with the evolution of the logo, just like what we viewed in class the other day; this site includes an explanation of why the company chose each logo, and what each one "means." (http://worldsbestlogos.blogspot.com/2008/02/mazda-logo-evolution.html) Most importantly the last emblem that Mazda uses today represents the following according to the site: "Capturing the spirit of Mazda, the stylised "M" evokes an image of wings in flight and symbolises the Mazda’s flight toward the future. The "V" in the centre of the "M" spreads out like an opening fan, representing the creativity, vitalty, flexibilty and passion that is Mazda. The symbol as a whole expresses the sharp, solid feeling that Mazda will be seeking in all of its products. The dynamic circle symbolises our readiness to spread our wings as we enter the 21st century."

Now that the air has been cleared about what the logo actually is, here's the (brief) history of why there are wings in the logo, and what Mazda went through to get to the point it's at today.

Mazda was formed in Hiroshima, Japan in 1920 and was originally named Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd. In1921, a man named Jujiro Matsuda became the president of the company. 

In 1927, Mr. Matsuda reformed the company naming it Toyo Kogyo Kaisha. Come 1929, the company made machine tools, and their first motor vehicle. A test run of 30 tri-cycle trucks were made. By 1931 these same tri-cycle trucks were being exported to China. It was called the “Mazda-Go-a.” The first “Mazda’s”, if you will, were out and about in the world. 

In 1934, Toyo Kogyo changed its name to Mazda, although it was unofficial. Some say it was in honor of the founder (the “t” is silent in his name) and others say it is also in reference to the Zoroastrian (this is the Old Iranian religion) god, “Ahura-Mazda”. However, according to Ford’s Brand web site on the subject of Mazda’s history, it says that Mr. Matsuda changed the name in 1931, and he specifically wanted the company to associate its image with the god Ahura Mazda. It also says that Mr. Matsuda had trouble deciding between naming the company after his family name or the god. However, he finally chose the god’s name because as the site says, “This was characteristic of the company’s founder, who was humble and idealistic and wished the brand name to be symbolic of a broader positive meaning.” 

(Some production happens, Mazda spreads worldwide, and they entered into a technical cooperation with NSU/Wankel [Germany] to develop the rotary engine. Fast forward to the 1970s.)

1970 Kouhei Matsuda becomes president, and in 1971 forms MMA (Mazda Motor of America.)

In 1979 Mazda partners with Ford Motor Company.  

In 1984 the company is renamed Mazda Motor Corporation. It is now the Corporation we know today.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Mazda Company Website. History. http://www.mazda.com/profile/history/

History of the Mazda Motor Company. Stutters, Chris. 2003, October 29.http://www.triplezoom.com/news/publish/printer_56.shtml

Ahura Mazda wiki. Various Authors. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahura_Mazda