One my biggest annoyances with Facebook are people who only post a fragment of the story.  So, you know that something happened but you don’t know just what.

For example, someone posted that they were really proud of their father for what he did.  And, others endorsed his actions.  But the posting never stated what it was that he did.

Another person posted that they were shocked by someones actions.  And, others responded.  But, again, no body stated what happened.

Now, whenever I read these posts, I can’t really respond since I don’t know what has happened.  Others apparently have the full story but it never makes it to my page.  So, all and all, most of the postings on my Facebook are worthless because there is not enough information.

Maybe some day Facebook will get it fixed.  But, in the mean time, I can only guess as to what has happened.

Facebook finally decided that it liked me I guess.  At least it seems to be working for me with out the login problems of before.

Unfortunately, some of my fellow bookies have discovered the games.  At first, it was comforting to know that these people were willing to share their crops and jewels with me.  But after awhile, receiving their constant blow by blow accounts of their successes became, well, annoying.  Short of praying for a crop failure or a mining disaster, I discovered that I could block these messages and save my sanity.

So, they can enjoy their achievements without having to share them with me.

I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook.  It began over a year ago. Someone listed me as their friend and I agreed. This was the beginning of the friction.

In order to be “your friend”, I needed to join Facebook. Fine. Email address and password, no big deal. But, when I gave them my email address and password, they told me that my account already existed and that I needed to login.

Fine. I didn’t remember registering with Facebook but what ever. I typed in my email address and password. It came back that my password was invalid and to please try again. After several attempts, I concluded that something was wrong with my password.

Then, I saw the “forgot your password” option and decided to give that a try. It asked for my email address and I entered it. It came back and told me that no such address existed and to please register.

Fine, I will register. I entered my email address and password. It came back saying that my account already existed and that I needed to login……….!!!!!!!

Well, this happy horse sh*t went on for over a year and a half. People would ask me to be their friend and each time that I accepted, I went through the same “not a member, are a member, not a member” routine. Then, suddenly, it started working. What ever.

I was now flooded with friend requests. No problem. Approve, approve, approve. It seems that Facebook now liked me.

But, the next day, I tried to login to my Facebook account and guess what? “Your account does not exist. Please register”. EEEERRRRRHHHH!!!!

Life is too short and I really don’t need this hassle. Sorry Farmville. I never had the opportunity to waste my time on you but I hope you have a total crop failure.

The other day, when I was in Walgreens, I noticed how they had the shelves laid out on one of the isles.

First, there were the feminine hygiene products.  Then, there were the pregnancy test kits.  Finally, there were the diapers.

I guess this all makes sense.  When you discover that you don’t seem to need the hygiene products, you might want to purchase a pregnancy test kit.  And, if the test kit comes back positive, you will need to purchase some diapers.

I guess you could call it the order of life.

I read an interesting article in the November issue of The Harvard Business Review. It talked about the mentality of the various members of the armed services.

People from the Army and Marines tended to be more independent and function well on their own. With these branches, high command issues the orders as what needs to be accomplished and the lower ranks figure out how to do it. Since these missions usually involve ground troops, the troops involved in the mission are briefed on the plan. And, because combat situations can change suddenly, decisions are often made on the front line.

People from the Air Force and the Navy are more process oriented. Since these folks are working with high tech equipment, they do everything by the books. There is no room for independent thinking. High command issues the orders and the lower ranks carry out the orders exactly as they have been trained. They do not know what the plan is, they just do their job.

This is all fine and dandy but they do respond differently in the work place. The Army and Marine folks tend to have what I call a “cowboy” mentality. They are more interested in getting the job done and to hell with the rules and regulations. They work well in a small organization with little or no structure. But, they reek havoc in highly structured organizations.

The Navy and Air Force folks work well in highly structured organization. They rely on the structure to tell them what their job is and how to do it. They are, generally speaking, not independent thinkers and rely on upper management for their direction.

Over the years, we have had a number of retired military types assume leadership roles in our organization. And I have to say, the Army/Marine types do their own thing with little or no regard for the rest of the organization. And, unfortunately, most of the staff consider them to be reckless nuts.

Now, the Air Force/Navy guys are at the other extreme. They expect that there are rules and regulations for everything. And, while the state has a lot of rules and regulations, some times things come up that require independent judgment and decision making.

When they have to make a decision, these folks go nuts. They feel backed into a corner and afraid. What if they make the wrong decision? After all, they shouldn’t have to make that decision. Someone else should have made that decision for them.

Unfortunately, both of these folks damage the organization.  The army/marine folks do their own thing with no regard for the consequences while the navy/air force folks can’t make a decision.  Fortunately, they usually don’t last very long.

Sugar, fat and salt seem to be the three things that taste good.  So, when one is reduced, the others are increased in processed foods.

Take veggie dip for example.  In order to make the low fat dip taste good, they increase the sugar in it.  So, you get less fat but more sugar.  Like wise with salad dressings.  The no fat kind often have a high sugar content.  So, even though you are trying to eat healthy, you have to read the labels.

Think that you are eating healthy because you ordered a salad at your fast food restaurant?  Guess again.  They may have gotten rid of the calories but they have made up for it with salt.  And, that turkey bacon may be lean but it is loaded with salt.

So, if you have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes, you have to decide on the lesser of the three evils.

Every years, Lowell puts up a huge Christmas tree along the river walk in down town.  And they did so again this year.

Only this year, instead of putting the lights around the tree, they decided to run them vertically from the bottom of the tree to the top and then back down.

Well, they got the lights on the tree all right, but when it is lit up, it looks like a cactus.  Oh well, I guess it is the thought that counts.

The other day, my wife sent me to the store to purchase some sweat pants for her.  And while I had never shopped for sweat pants before, I was fairly sure that they could be found in the clothing section and not the sporting goods isles.

After a little searching, I found them in the center of the clothing area right in between the men’s sections and the women’s section.  This made sense to me since sweat pants are sweat pants.  No flies, no zippers, just a waist band and draw strings.  At $7 a pair, I selected 5 pairs.  Great!

But, as I made my way to the check out, I noticed that there were also sweat pants in the women’s section as well.  So, I decided to check them out.

The women’s sweats were the same as the men’s except that the women’s had the draw sting in the out side instead of the inside.  But, they were the same fleecy pants made my the same manufacturer.  The only other difference that I could see was the price.  $15!!

I decided that at half the price, the men’s sweats would work just fine.

The other day in Lansing, I saw a car painted up with “shortdwarfs.com”. And, the license plate read “umidget”.

Well, OK, it got my attention. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would have their car painted up like that. So, I checked out their website.

As it turns out, shortdwarfs.com rents out dwarfs. And, right now, they are half off. Allrighty.

Now, I initially wondered why some one would want to rent a dwarf. But, after some thought, I decided that I didn’t really want to know!

My blood sugar test kit came with a $15 manufacturer rebate. Of course, I had to fill out the rebate form and submit the receipt with the amount circled. And then mail it all in.  So, that is what I did.

Now, I have not had much luck with mail in rebates. I fill out the forms and mail in the receipts but I seldom get the rebate.  I think that it is because the manufactures don’t actually handle the rebates.  They have an outside firm do it.

But, more to the point, why don’t they just discount the price in the first place?  Are they betting that you won’t fill out the rebate?  Or are they thinking that you will forget that you sent in your rebate?

Either way, my only risk with this one is the time spent filling out the form. The postage is free.  So, if I get it, I get it and if I don’t, I don’t.  Life goes on.