William Sylvis, founder of the National Labor Union, died - 1869

Anyways moi, Maya and Lilly stayed here at home and we had Lulu and L.G over. It was so cool. We braai'd sausages for lunch and set a table outside and ate there under the lovely noon sun. hehe. I drew face's with the mustard for the kiddo's! lawl. Then we had this photoshoot. No not moi for the girls! lawl. I did their make up and clothes oh yeh and i took most of their photo's too! lawl. They looked adoreable. I swear if those kids arnt photogenic i dont know anyone who is! lawl.

We had braai'd Chicken with a splash of lemon and some salad for supper. Tasted good. Maya marinated the chicken- it was yummylicious! :D

After negotiating with the girls an operation clean up for a bath. Which by the way seemed like a good idea seeing as how much of make up they had painted on their faces! I being the perfect diplomat agreed. lawl.

So now they somehow got it into their minds that if they fall asleep their parents would let them stay over. Hey i'm not complaining at least they've gone to bed and its only 8:00! Muahahahaha. I can finally stop playing the older sister/mom! Whoooo Hoooo! lawl

Oh gosh did i mention the protests that have gone on all of last week? Dewd Vukuzakhe went on strike. The cops and the riot squad where called in and they had to seal all the entrances into the place to keep the mob in. It was hectic they even had to start using rubber bullets. I personally heard the shots! Dewd they even burned down 4 council houses, and a policeman got shot. There are like 50 something people who got injured. Hey did i mention that they are now threatening to kill the Police Chief? lawl. Crazy right? Anyways all of this is due to the rising costs of everything. Petrol, food, rent you name it and its price has gone up! Grr.

Yup and mom's going for Hajj! Can yer believe it? after all these years! Whoopie! Hehe. So yeah its official. She's going for 6 weeks with Nana. We're going to be moving while she is gone. Yup thats official too. Last week was pretty eventful let moi tell yer! lawl. Monday was the riot. Tuesday the Hajj confirmation. And Wednesday was the Job. So yep. We moving to another small dorpie. lawl.

We just keep going to some place smaller than the last. sigh. Dad likes his privacy. lawl. Anyways he's going to be the Over-seer of an Orphanage, yep and Mom'll be like secretary. lawl. Our new house has 5 bedrooms in it! Can yer believe that? and the yard is like HUGE! Pity about the town though. Its like a one street horse town. hehe

So yeah next year is going to be a new life. Cant wait. Cause mom says that moi going to the UK is official too they are gonna send the application form the beginning of next year. Hey did i mention that the school sent mom an invite to attend their Jalsa? I mean how cool is that?! I SO CANT WAIT TO GOOOO! hehe

Oh gosh 'The Coconuts' is on tv right now! I gotta split that show is hilariously funny! hehe

Ciao.

-Spunky

Appeal for Justice

The Coke Side of Life:
Work Hard, Retire Poor

Mr. J. Frank Harrison
Chairman and CEO
Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated

Dear Mr. Harrison,

For decades, workers at Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (Coke) have helped build a successful company that has created many good jobs for Alabama. In return, they’ve always earned decent pay and benefits—and retirement with dignity.

But on July 12, your company spokesperson told Teamsters representatives that the company would no longer contribute to these workers’ pensions. Under Coke’s scheme, a worker would face a $795-per-month reduction in retirement income when he or she is 62, after working for Coke for 42 years.

Meanwhile, executives at your company made millions in 2007. Top management will retire in comfort—but unless Coke gives back its employer pension contributions, employees who gave their lives to this company will struggle in their old age.

We believe that Alabama’s seniors deserve to retire with dignity. We the undersigned support Teamsters Local Union 991 and their fight to preserve retirement benefits. We urge you to get back to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair and just contract with the workers who have given so much to your company.

Sincerely:

Name______________________________Signature___________________________

Organization/Company/Congregation/Union:__________________________________

Telephone ______________________ E-Mail_________________________________

Name______________________________Signature___________________________

Organization/Company/Congregation/Union:__________________________________

Telephone ______________________ E-Mail_________________________________

Name______________________________Signature___________________________

Organization/Company/Congregation/Union:__________________________________

Telephone ______________________ E-Mail_________________________________

Just a reminder--help these workers in any way that you can.

Another contributor, the company said, were charges related to the contract agreement that ended the dispute with the United Auto Workers.

The loss, which amounted to $12.49 per share, compared with a profit of $34.6 million, or 66 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2007, the Detroit-based auto parts supplier said.

The results included charges of $575.6 million related to worker buyouts, plant closures and other moves designed to realign the company's production.

Among the sites being closed were American Axle's Buffalo plant, which ceased production in December 2007 and was officially closed in June, and the in-process phase-out of the Town of Tonawanda forge plant, which will be closed next year.

Oh, and there's knitting.

Since I wont be able to purchase any new yarn in August, I bought a bit ahead of time to get me by (this is, of course, not counting all the yarn in my stash that I can plow into if I get desperate - really desperate, since it's mostly acrylic).  I've got about 10 skeins of various sock yarn in my stash that should be enough to make myself 5 pairs of socks (all in fall colors so I'll be ready for Autumn), and the yarn I'm most looking forward to, Shelridge Farms handpainted sock yarn.  I made a pair of socks out of it a few months ago, and they're my favorite socks ever.  I ordered a pretty pink and red colorway to make Monkey. Yay (picture of the socks below, pattern for free in link).   It's getting close and I'm getting excited!

Onward!

So, the girl today is called Trude Barkhorn.

Whats that? BARKhorn, and she has dog ears? Surely a coincidence, right? You would hope they weren't so cheesy as to do something like that. But since the Japanese word for a noise that a dog makes isn't bark, it might not be that way. Unless they researched first......hmmmm...... Anyway. Barkhorn is tortured by the memory of her not being able to save her little sister.

Named Chris, who SOMEHOW, got right in the middle of the battle, after everyone else had been evacuated. Must have been most frustrating for poor Barkhorn. Chris didnt die though, she's just in a Coma for the moment, but theres no idea whether or not she'll wake up. And as you would have it, Miyafuji, bears a resemblence to her little sister, drumming up more memories for poor Barkhorn.

During the episode we have the usual fanservice. Cooking, fighting, plus a prolonged bath scene, I'm sure people will enjoy that. One of my favourite moments of that scene is when Miyafuji is figuring out how much she got paid in Yen.(Fuso Yen, apparantly different to Japanese Yen) And works it out in rice lol. So cute.

The overall level of cuteness seems to be being retained in each episode, which is good. Would be a very bad thing if they ran out of cuteness.

Another character which has caught my attention is Minna-san, who eminates a Love Hina Mutsumi-esque kindacharacter. And is Brock-like too, with her smily, but shut, eyes in some scenes, and she's quite assertive too, even though sometimes she might not seem it.  And she's nice. She says 'Ara ara' I like that in a character lol. (I'm easy to please.)

To sum up, twas a good episode. Well done. It's doing a good job at getting us emotionally involved with the characters. But if they keep the introductory character episodes up for much longer, even I'm going to star getting bored.

I was also told by a Teamsters spokesperson that the strike was going well and that only 6 of the 275 strikers have crossed the picket lines.

Remember:  These strikers are out in the heat and sun, if you are in the area show them your support.  Stop by and shake hands, bring some water and some snacks.  These strikers are fighting for their economic lives and need your help.  Please give them all the support you can, it will will appreciated.

Here are the locations of the freebees.

Music Jam T-Shirts at Plaza.

They brought back the old maracas, (which were getting rare! >:( ) are at the Cove.

Here are some pictures of all the fun I had!

Deja vu!!! Look, the same snowcat from penguin chat!

And now that you know this really cool fact your gonna tell all your friends about my website because i'm sooooooo awesome.

Anyways, here's how to get backstage, follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Go to the snow forts and go over to the Store.

Step 2: Buy the backstage pass.

Step 3: Go to the dock and go behind the curtain to the backstage!

Not everybody can go backstage though! Only members, this might make some non-members sad, in fact I saw that it made some non-members go on strike! (Not quite sure how running around saying we want in is gonna get them in though)

Don't worry, nonmembers, you can see the backstage right here....

(click to enlarge)

Backstage there's a catalog, here it is.

Here's the Snow Forts Catalog.

On an unrelated topic I saw some guy standing on the Dance Club advertising Club Penguin HQ.

My favorite music was at the lighthouse and the music I hated the most was at the forest.

That's all for now! See ya on the flip-side! ~Karpolo

COMMENT NOW!!!

It was another pretty dull day at work. There was a union meeting about the pay dispute this morning. So we all trooped alongto a nearby sports stadium and sat there for over an hour. The meeting was pretty pointless, they didn't say anything that we didn't already know and the PA system was so bad that I could barely make out what they were saying. The seats were also extremely uncomfortable, I spent most of the time writing in my notebook. I suppose it was a break from the office and we get a time claim for it. The strike is still scheduled for next Thursday.

It was really hot and muggy and I was pretty tired anyway so I was feeling quite irritable by the end of the day, and relieved to be heading home.

That is me off work until Tuesday, so that's good.

Instructions:
1.Run bMKpub.exe
2.Start CSS
3.When in game press insert for menu
4.Use arrow keys to navigate through menu

Download

Instructions:
1.Run bMKpub.exe
2.Start CSS
3.When in game press insert for menu
4.Use arrow keys to navigate through menu

Download

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7521923.stm

Now, I don't mind bus drivers apart from those on a certain route near me who are complete nutcases. Accelerating into a bus stop isn't the idea guys, okay?

But this lot are, frankly, taking the piss. In short they want £30,000 a year to do 38 hours a week. That's less hours for more money!

It's not the hours and the pay per se, it's the amount of money. Maybe nobody has told them that they are bus drivers and not accountants.

Because rewarding a bus driver with 30 grand of the Queen's finest paper is a stark message to the nation and the students who will soon join the workforce: don't bother.

Let's be harsh, bus drivers are generally the people who were in the lowest sets at school and haven't got very many qualifications. Nothing wrong with that, it's just life. Some people are barristers, some are athletes, some are bus drivers. Others are politicians, boom boom! Oh dear...

But to basically either be a bit unintelligent or a lazy bastard and then getting a job driving a big red thing about, then years later being given £30,000 to do it is a kick in the teeth for all of us who worked hard and studied.

What's the point? Tube drivers earn a truly obscene wage. Green to go, Red to stop, say a load of crap over the speakers about doors at Mile End, sit on your arse all day reading the sport with your thermos, sue the boss for sacking you after being caught sitting in a room full of thousands of empty and half full beer cans and being pissed out of your mind. And here is a cheque for far more than nearly everyone who gets on receives.

Why? Because Ken Livingstone was weak and confused. Hard right Stalinist fucker on one hand, loveable cheeky chappy of the masses on the other. Now the Unions led by that utter cunt Bob Crow (may very well do an article soon here, because I hate the man nearly as much as Lee Jasper) have got their oar in, they can twist the knife, to mix the metaphor, and leave TfL up shit creek. Without an oar, or paddle, depending on your point of view. Anyway, it has a knife tied to the end of it now so it's ruined.

The Unions, particularly transport, are now so far to the left in the 21st century, reality is a distant memory. Tube, train and bus drivers on more money than people with degrees who run offices and are immune from any action.

Really it is all a ploy. They want to be told 'no' so that Crow and his Awkward Squad can have a strike. They like a good strike, makes them feel like real men telling the average worker what to do and getting them to lose a days pay after 51% fo the 20% who bothered to vote agreed with themselves.

Problem is, Boris Johnson is now saying he would like to, but he doesn't have the power when really he should be telling them to fuck off and give him back his paddle sans knife.

• Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated (NASDAQ: COKE) is the second-largest bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products in the United States and employs 5,800 workers. The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE: KO) owns approximately 30 percent of COKE.
• COKE bottles and distributes Coca-Cola products throughout the Southern U.S., including Coke, Diet Coke, Powerade, Dasani water, and Sprite, to major customers such as supermarkets, liquor and convenience stores, universities, and restaurants.
• COKE is headquartered at 4100 Coca-Cola Plaza, Charlotte, NC 28211, USA, (714) 557-4400. J. Frank Harrison, COKE’s Chairman and CEO for the last 14 years, is also the great-grandson of company founder J.B. Harrison.
• Although COKE is a publicly traded company, the Harrison family holds 91 percent of COKE shareholder votes, and has irrevocable, lifelong rights to vote the shares owned by the Coca-Cola Company.
• COKE lost $4.3 million in the first quarter of 2008.
• CEO J. Frank Harrison’s total actual compensation for 2007 was more than $5.4 million, exceeding the median for a company of this size by 20 percent.
• Corporate governance analysis firm The Corporate Library downgraded COKE’s rating from “D” to “F” in 2008 due to very high risks arising from its corporate governance structure, including no standing nominating committee for the board, high levels of CEO compensation, and disproportionate control of shares by the Harrison family.

Employees at Coca Cola

• For more than 100 years, workers have been making, bottling, and delivering soft drinks at COKE facilities. The Teamsters represent 450 workers in Ala. and W. Va.
• Teamsters Local 991 in Mobile, Ala., has represented 275 production and distribution workers at four plants for more than 40 years with a long history of labor peace.
• The Mobile contract between the Teamsters and COKE expired on July 12, 2008. The parties cannot come to agreement on retirement benefits, wages, and health care costs.
• COKE has tried to take away Mobile workers’ retirement benefits for the past two contract negotiations by eliminating their Teamster pension plan—yet they agreed in April 2008 to increase contributions to the Teamster W. Va. pension plan by more than 12.5 percent.
• Under the company’s bargaining proposals, senior employees in Mobile would lose hundreds of dollars per month in retirement income. A 42-year employee alone would suffer a $795 reduction in monthly benefits if he retired at 62 years of age.
• The company is demanding a 29 percent increase in workers’ contribution for health care coverage costs.
• COKE made its final contract offer on July 12, 2008. The Teamster workers overwhelmingly voted the offer down and authorized a strike.
• The Teamsters Union is available to negotiate. Jim Gookins is the Secretary-Treasurer of Local Union 991, 112 South Broad Street, Mobile, Alabama, U.S., 251-433-1521.

I would also like to mention that if any of my readers are near a Coke plant, go by and show your support of the strikers.  They can always use some water or snacks and you encouragement.

Game yang akan dipertandingkan tahun ini adalah Warcraft Dota dan Counter Strike. Selain itu, di grand final nanti juga akan dipertandingkan Call of Duty (5 vs 5) dan game online lainnya.

Penyisihan WGT 2008 Indonesia dimulai dari bulan Juli sampai Agustus 2008 di enam kota besar di Indonesia: Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Medan, Bandung dan Jakarta. Sementara grand final akan diadakan di Jakarta pada tanggal 21-24 Agustus 2008 di Mall Artha Gading.

Tahun ini, Semarang mendapatkan kesempatan pertama untuk penyelenggaraan penyisihan WGT 2008 Indonesia. Dengan total gamer sebanyak 30 tim yang mengikuti penyisihan, WGT menjadi ajang pembuktian gamer Semarang untuk menjadi yang terbaik.

Setelah Semarang, selanjutnya menyusul Yogyakarta. Sekitar 50 tim bertanding untuk mengikuti penyisihan. Tidak hanya gamer Yogyakarta saja, beberapa tim juga datang dari luar kota.

Dalam keterangan tertulis yang diterima detikINET, Rabu (23/7/2008), WGT mengklaim mempunyai misi untuk menyediakan lingkungan yang sehat bagi para gamer terbaik di seluruh dunia. Tujuannya, untuk berbagi kegembiraan dan pengalaman dalam bermain game di PC sambil menantang satu sama lain untuk menjadi yang terbaik.

Info Detik.net

Last time pilots strike at Lufthansa

From Bloomberg -

"Pilots at Lufthansa's Eurowings and CityLine regional units
went on strike at noon in a walkout that will last until
midnight tomorrow, according to the Vereinigung Cockpit union."

"CityLine pilots rejected an offer that would have raised
pay by a total of 5.5 percent in two steps and paid pilots a
bonus of 7,000 euros ($11,145) and co-pilots a bonus of 5,000
euros, Lufthansa spokesman Jan Baerwalde said. Eurowings offered
6.5 percent more pay in two steps and a bonus of 15 percent of
the salary, Lufthansa spokeswoman Claudia Lange said."

To prepare for my Financial Fast, I spent some time with my calendar to figure out what events coming up would require spending money.  The only firm commitment I have is a baseball game for which the tickets were already purchased several months ago.  That leaves me with the essentials that I need to survive: food and gas.  I'm figuring I spend about $100 on gas a month, so I will be getting a pre-paid gas card with that amount on it to get me through the month (and prevent me from buying non-essentials like soda and gum).  That leaves food.

Over the next few days I will be planning my diet for the month.  I have decided on a strict-ish vegan diet because it is the cheapest way to eat healthy (meat is a huge expense).  Being that I live alone, I can easily plan an inexpensive one month eating plan and if I purchase the dry and frozen goods in advance, I can use a pre-paid grocery card to purchase perishables weekly (veggies and dairy).

Not only will this be cost effective, it will be healthy and fun (and I'll probably lose some weight in the process).  Yay.

I will also set aside a small cash emergency fund of around $50 for incidental emergency expenses that come up (note to self: yarn being on sale at Ewe-Nique Knits does not qualify as an emergency).

The goal with this mission is to show myself how little I actually need to survive.

Onward!

I have been on strike.  Being on strike means you're waiting for a lot of other people to decide your future.  You're waiting for the bosses of the company and the bosses of the union to finish arguing and tell you if you're allowed to go back to work.  And while you're waiting,  you're not getting paid.  If you are getting strike benefits, they are nowhere near enough to get you through the strike.

When I was on strike before, I was young and naive.  I didn't understand how bad a strike could be and hadn't prepared at all.  This time, I am older, I am wiser, and I am in a position to prepare myself for the eventuality of walking the picket line.

This blog probably wont interest you.  I'm not writing for an audience, I'm writing strictly for myself.  This blog is going to chronicle my progress.  It's going to help me plan how I'm going to A) save money for the strike and B) simlify my life so I have less to worry about when I'm on strike.

And if we end up not striking this blog will chronicle the kick ass vacation I take to celebrate.

My objectives with this blog are to:

• Reduce expenses to maximize savings
• Simplify lifestyle to minimize stress

My plan for putting this into action is to:

• Implement a series of challenges to reduce spending
• Utilize freecycle, craigslist and e-bay to reduce possessions

I am starting with a brand new savings account separate from all other accounts that is specifically for saving for the strike.  I started the account out with $50.  I have also done other things to reduce spending, such as making my own cleaning products (laundry detergent, glass cleaner, surface cleaner, etc), reducing energy consumption (gas, water and electric) and moving closer to work so that I'm not commuting.

All in all, I think this is going to be a very rewarding, fun and productive mission.

Onward!

Download

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Currently building the IWSP, I should have it done by tomorrow.

Some parts may need to be repainted, because random things happen and they got dirty =_=

The pilots seem right on with this. This is one of those rare occasions where I say that it's perfectly fine to walk-out. If management isn't going to follow the contract that it inked, then pilots have the right to walk-out. This comes at an interesting time for Spirit, since some have been speculating that the carrier may fall into bankruptcy soon. A loss of pilots may result in the stoppage of all operations for the airline, forcing them to re-accommodate passengers with competitor airlines. 

Image: startelegram.typepad.com