Thursday, June 29, 2006
Reading Rainbow
I just got back from a wonderful and relaxing summer vacation. It was quite the family affair...the mom, the dad, the sister & brother-in-law, the niece, the nephew, and yours truly, of course. I actually haven't gone on the traditional Burns Family Vacation in quite a few years. But, the first half of this 2006 year has proven to be a little rocky for us, so it really seemed like the thing to do. We had great weather, safe travels, and just an all around superb time. I morphed into somewhat of a bookworm, reading three books I haven't had the chance to get to during the normal day to day. I enjoyed one such book that I mentioned in a previous post. I ended up having to purchase for myself, which was fine, and promptly didn't put it down until I reached the back cover. It wasn't anything profound, just an easy summer read...although, I did have to look up a few British terms I wasn't familiar with, like "spliff"...
Anyway, I'm now back at my boring job with nothing much to really look forward to, except for another forward of course! Ok well, I do have some old friends coming to visit from MI this weekend so that should be fun...
Here's another edition of the forward chronicles:
The email:
Subject: An Amber Alert
Please look at the picture, read what her father says, then forward his message on.
Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child. That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found by circulation of her picture on tv. The internet circulates even overseas, South America, and Canada etc. Thanks.
Please pass this to everyone in your address book. We have a store manager (Wal-Mart) from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daughter who has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving on. With luck on her side she will be found.
I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone any where knows anything, please contact me at: zicozicozico@hotmail.com. I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!!
It only takes 2 seconds to forward this. If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.
And the response:
I think this is old and has been circulating for awhile. I searched the Amberalert website: www.missingkids.com and didn't find her.
There's also a hoax alert issued on: http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/pennybrown.html.
Thankfully, this one appears to be a hoax; however, there are a tremendously large number of children missing nationally and internationally. So, this type of alert is best checked out because you never know for sure and it could make such a difference in whether a child is found or not (note several children in 2005 were located in and around our area by observant citizens).
I know, I know, two posts in one week...I MUST be rejuvenated!
Currently listening to: Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks
Anyway, I'm now back at my boring job with nothing much to really look forward to, except for another forward of course! Ok well, I do have some old friends coming to visit from MI this weekend so that should be fun...
Here's another edition of the forward chronicles:
The email:
Subject: An Amber Alert
Please look at the picture, read what her father says, then forward his message on.
Maybe if everyone passes this on, someone will see this child. That is how the girl from Stevens Point was found by circulation of her picture on tv. The internet circulates even overseas, South America, and Canada etc. Thanks.
Please pass this to everyone in your address book. We have a store manager (Wal-Mart) from Longs, SC who has a 9 year old daughter who has been missing for 2 weeks. Keep the picture moving on. With luck on her side she will be found.
I am asking you all, begging you to please forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing for now two weeks. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone any where knows anything, please contact me at: zicozicozico@hotmail.com. I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!!
It only takes 2 seconds to forward this. If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.
And the response:
I think this is old and has been circulating for awhile. I searched the Amberalert website: www.missingkids.com and didn't find her.
There's also a hoax alert issued on: http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/pennybrown.html.
Thankfully, this one appears to be a hoax; however, there are a tremendously large number of children missing nationally and internationally. So, this type of alert is best checked out because you never know for sure and it could make such a difference in whether a child is found or not (note several children in 2005 were located in and around our area by observant citizens).
I know, I know, two posts in one week...I MUST be rejuvenated!
Currently listening to: Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Pay it Forward
The Forwarder.
There's at least one person like this in all of our email lives. My mother now has enough sense to at least run whatever it is by me before she forwards the warning, antidote, or petition to her whole address book. And thus the student becomes the teacher.
My personal address is free from this nuisance, for the most part. There is the odd one here and there from an old high school friend or so but really nothing more. My work address, however, is quite a different story. I get them all. The Cracker Barrel gift certificate, the eagle head on the dollar bill, all of them. What's so great is a lady in my department is dedicated to educating the masses, as it were, and responds to every one of these to everyone that was copied with the information and link debunking whatever the forward said. But, she does it so much nicer and tactfully than I ever could. I love it! No seriously, I really love it. Here, you'll see what I mean...
The email:
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work
This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your consideration.
Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.
But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point....keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.
I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300)...and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!
I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you? Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.
I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.
THIS CAN REALLY WORK!
[Don't you just LOVE the you're not a mathmetician but I am line?!]
And the response:
I've seen this e-mail circulating for several years and, unfortunately, it isn't really on the up-and-up.
But, here's a link to some history about the e-mail and other real options that might work to lower the cost:
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/exxon.html
Let's all conserve together!
See how positive she is? It's great, really great. And absolutely cracks me up...when I get a forward, I get excited waiting for her response! Ok, so I have a boring job, so what?
Currently listening to: The Body Accoustic - Cyndi Lauper
There's at least one person like this in all of our email lives. My mother now has enough sense to at least run whatever it is by me before she forwards the warning, antidote, or petition to her whole address book. And thus the student becomes the teacher.
My personal address is free from this nuisance, for the most part. There is the odd one here and there from an old high school friend or so but really nothing more. My work address, however, is quite a different story. I get them all. The Cracker Barrel gift certificate, the eagle head on the dollar bill, all of them. What's so great is a lady in my department is dedicated to educating the masses, as it were, and responds to every one of these to everyone that was copied with the information and link debunking whatever the forward said. But, she does it so much nicer and tactfully than I ever could. I love it! No seriously, I really love it. Here, you'll see what I mean...
The email:
GAS WAR - an idea that WILL work
This was originally sent by a retired Coca Cola executive. It came from one of his engineer buddies who retired from Halliburton. It's worth your consideration.
Join the resistance!!!! I hear we are going to hit close to $4.00 a gallon by next summer and it might go higher!! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea.
This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the "don't buy gas on a certain day" campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn't continue to "hurt" ourselves by refusing to buy gas. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them.
BUT, whoever thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work. Please read on and join with us! By now you're probably thinking gasoline priced at about $1.50 is super cheap. Me too! It is currently $2.79 for regular unleaded in my town. Now that the oil companies and the OPEC nations have conditioned us to think that the cost of a gallon of gas is CHEAP at $1.50 - $1.75, we need to take aggressive action to teach them that BUYERS control the marketplace..... not sellers. With the price of gasoline going up more each day, we consumers need to take action. The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down is if we hit someone in the pocketbook by not purchasing their gas! And, we can do that WITHOUT hurting ourselves.
How? Since we all rely on our cars, we can't just stop buying gas. But we CAN have an impact on gas prices if we all act together to force a price war. Here's the idea: For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit.
But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do! Now, don't wimp out at this point....keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people.
I am sending this note to 30 people. If each of us sends it to at least ten more (30 x 10 =3D 300)...and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 =3D 3,000)...and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth group of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers. If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it.....THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE!!!
Again, all you have to do is send this to 10 people. That's all. (If you don't understand how we can reach 300 million and all you have to do is send this to 10 people....Well, let's face it, you just aren't a mathematician. But I am, so trust me on this one.)
How long would all that take? If each of us sends this e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, all 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!!
I'll bet you didn't think you and I had that much potential, did you? Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on.
I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN.
THIS CAN REALLY WORK!
[Don't you just LOVE the you're not a mathmetician but I am line?!]
And the response:
I've seen this e-mail circulating for several years and, unfortunately, it isn't really on the up-and-up.
But, here's a link to some history about the e-mail and other real options that might work to lower the cost:
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/exxon.html
Let's all conserve together!
See how positive she is? It's great, really great. And absolutely cracks me up...when I get a forward, I get excited waiting for her response! Ok, so I have a boring job, so what?
Currently listening to: The Body Accoustic - Cyndi Lauper
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