Just a meme before I go

Next week, unless something spectacular happens, I'll be taking a week off from blogging.  I know this isn't necessarily earth-shattering news, but I've been religiously blogging weekly since September 2013.  If you've been following since then, you know a couple of things: I'm obsessive about my coffee, I believe in common sense gun control, I'm in love with our National Parks and photographing them, music is the best, and I'm not a fan of the bombastic, loud-mouthed stylings of the NJ's governor.

It's that last point that I'll quickly touch upon.  If you're following NJ politics, even remotely, you'll know that our Governor was slated to be the resident 'loud-mouth' of the Republican candidates for President before Agent Orange tossed his hate into the ring (not a typo).  Trump took Christie's rhetoric to epically insane proportion, and out Christie'd Christie.  The result: a bitter (mentally) deflated governor who immediately took it out on a populace that hates him.  Currently, he enjoys a 15% approval rating, according to Politico, and "doesn't care."

“You guys care much more about that stuff than I do. I’ve said to you over and over and over again: Poll numbers matter when you’re running for something. When you’re not running for something, they don’t matter a bit. And I don’t care.”

Fine.  

What does he care about?  His kids, and he's claiming that they are terribly hurt by the criticisms that have erupted by his insistence of using a State beach when he closed them off to everyone else during the government's early July shut-down.  According to NJ.Com, he is quoted as saying: "They [the kids] came to me and said, 'It's our fault [the criticism], we should have just told you that we would have just told all of our friends to go away.' And I said to them, no, this was my decision. You're not the adult. I am."

Can't someone please think of the children???

I call bullshit.  It's much easier to say "I'm not offended at all by the criticism, but my kids..." than it is to take ownership of a really bad execution of a worse idea.  Governor, have you never been to the beach before?  Did you not realize that advertisers/people/photographers can charter a plane?  Are you so stupid and unaware that telephoto lenses exist?

And, so, with that, here is a small collection of my favorite Christie Beach Memes.  Is it fair to keep making fun of the Love Gov?  Yes.  His political career is defined by his bombastic loud speaking style where he not only talks over constituents with opposing views, but engages in name-calling and taunting rhetoric.  He's been dishing it out to the State's citizens since day one in office, it's time for him to grow a thick skin, stop throwing his kids under the bus, and take it, like an adult.

Dude, you're gonna need a bigger boat.

Noro Reason to Bail?

This week, it was widely reported that 13 customers of the Sterling, VA Chipotle store exhibited symptoms of food poisoning.  And, in fact, one tested positively for norovirus.  What is norovirus?

"Norovirus is a stomach bug that causes inflammation of the stomach or intestines. As a result, symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain and fever. According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms usually come on between 12 and 48 hours after exposure to the virus and last between one and three days. While contagion is low after a couple of days, you could continue to shed the virus for up to eight weeks."

Thanks Time Magazine.  That sounds great!  In short, it's bad...really bad food poisoning.  You may need medical attention, if for no other reason than to rehydrate yourself.  As you could probably imagine, it would likely be most dangerous to those in our population with compromised or under-developed immune systems: young children and our senior population.  And, what's worse is that it's easily transmitted.  In addition to eating tainted foods, you can also catch it by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your eyes, mouth or nose.  Frequent hand-washing, with soap, is the answer, as it is for many of these preventable diseases.  In the case of the Sterling location, it's extremely likely that a carrier for the virus (employee?) touched something that 13 people ordered and it just spread.  


That doesn't mean that you should stop eating at Chipotle restaurants all across the United States.  Actually, they're one of the better "fast food" chains as they have made it a mission to use locally sourced ingredients.  CNBC reported in December of 2015 that locally sourced produce accounts for around 10% of the total produce used at Chipotle locations.  That's hard to do.  Why?  Because in order to run a successful national chain, you need to provide customers with identical dining experiences between franchises.  Introduce a variable like multiple local suppliers and then you have a massive added cost in order to maintain consistency and safety practices.  In turn, it increases prices somewhat for these added steps, but customers seem to have embraced it.  The Harvard Business Review describes it this way:

"Number one: If you are doing local sourcing, you have to bake into your cost structure a higher percentage of sales allowance for food safety and ingredient testing than if you are sourcing nationally from a few big suppliers.  Obviously, that can have a bearing on your retail price, but, in general, consumers expect to pay more for locally-sourced products, particularly if they have other attributes, such as being organic or natural."
While not specifically noted, this may be one of the reasons McDonald's parted ways with their holdings in Chipotle.  Business Insider reported in 2015 "The chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, said Chipotle was a distraction."  It's also the reason why Taco Bell's 2006 e coli outbreak was far, far worse.  It led to 71 cases in 5 states.  The distribution of contaminated lettuce from a single supplier located in the "western United States" (read: California) was the culprit.

The lesson, eat more locally.  The other take-away, this outbreak at Chipotle was very well geographically contained.  Your favorite Chipotle wasn't affected.  So, go, order a burrito today with confidence.  Actually, the reason not to eat Chipotle was never because of what you could catch, but more about watching what you eat.  A ton of "healthy" ingredients in obscene portions still makes for bad habits.  Examples of single 2,000 calorie meals at fast food chains can be found here and here.  And, yes, Chipotle makes the list.  

Bon Appétit

Fuji-sized bargains

The wife and me were having a conversation last week.  As you may know, my passion is wildlife photography, specifically in our National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges.  I try to train myself to see things other people might miss.  Countless times, while hiking with my "full rig," I encounter other photogs, and when asked "anything good today?" they respond with "nothing special."  Those are usually my most productive days.  I don't know if it's because they're only looking for large meaningful animals or if they're only interested in shooting wildflowers.  But, I take that answer and transform it into a challenge: what am I going to see today that most will not.  I'm rarely disappointed.

It has become obvious in my house that Daddy likes to go to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge quite a bit.  On more than one occasion, I've taken the kids.  In its most popular part of the refuge, trails are extremely limited, quite typical of a place that is supposed to be an unmanaged, unspoilt preserve.  Keep people on the paths.  To do so, they've constructed a series of boardwalks and trails that lead to bird blinds at their ends meant to keep you on the path.  I know firsthand that waterfowl spook easily, so this makes sense in a swamp.  What's most difficult is explaining to my kids, when we go, why they can't just take my camera and take pictures.  The answer is an economic one: it would be economically challenging replacing components of my camera system if all were simultaneously lost, damaged, dumped into the swamp, etc.  The solution is simple: why don't we buy the kids a camera they can use while I'm doing my thing.

The wife agreed and hello Amazon.  I looked and used keywords "child's camera" and was extremely dissatisfied with their suggested results.  It was largely the Fisher Price line (and their imitators) which are meant for abuse from toddlers.  Arguably, the included 2-megapixel sensor isn't taking "real" photos.  So, those were out.  I changed the criteria.  What did I really want the camera to do?  Like the Fisher Price options, I wanted it to be sturdy enough to take a drop, possibly water resistant, and if it does get dropped, not to be forever damaged from dust or cold.  Enter the category of Tough Point-And-Shoot Cameras.

I admit that I wasn't surprised at the number of available cameras.  Every major photography company has an offering that fits our perceived needs: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and Fuji (and others).  But, I'm looking for a bargain.  I'm not willing to drop $200 on a camera destined to be lost in a lake or buried under 3 feet of sand at the beach.  A quick search of last year's, now price-reduced, models and I found what I was looking for: the Fuji FinePix XP90.  It's got a 16Mp sensor, USB rechargeable battery so I won't have to constantly buy AAs, it will take underwater shots to a depth of 50 feet and is drop-proof to about 6 feet.  It's freeze proof and dust proof and...it's out of stock.  However, it says that I can buy one from Amazon Warehouse (Amazon's home for misfit toys), certified to work and comes with its own dented box, for only $14.80.

Wait, what?

Right, it was listed as an Amazon-approved device at less than $15.  Prime.  I think you know what happened next.  It then said it was on back-order, which I took to mean, we've got it in our Siberia warehouse and it'll just take a bit to get to you.  Four days later, it's on my doorstep.  I opened it up.  Battery was charged.  No scratches or marks on the camera.  It came complete with manuals and registration information, power cords and wrist strap.  And, it took pictures, could be dropped into a tub/lake/river, and generally take a beating.

The cons?  There are none.  Hello, $15 camera!  Go buy one new and you're spending $220 for last year's model?  Hells no.

The moral is, I don't know what the moral is.  I bought a $200+ camera for $15 and you need to know that those deals are out there.  Buy from Amazon Warehouse and you may stand to save a bundle.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go fill my tub so I can take some creative underwater shots of my rubber duckie.  Right, camera is for the kids.  Right.

Nothing to lose

The Governor of the State of New Jersey has played a very vindictive card.  If you have been following his majesty's hijinx, last week, based on a disagreement about a perceived surplus designated to the State's not-for-profit healthcare company, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, the State of NJ shuttered it's non-essential offices and furloughed its employees.  Sure, it's budget time, and any surpluses need to be used for the forces of good: increased public services, pension contribution, or, as the Governor wanted, maybe increased medical programs for opioid addicts.

However, because of squabbles between the legislature's views of how the money should be spent, and the Governor's, no budget was passed on June 30th, thereby forcing the LoveGov to shut down the state.  Most recently, this happened in 2006 over another petty dispute.  Similarly, the Governor then (Corzine) closed State offices for a period of time.  After all was agreed upon, that governor reimbursed state employees for the missed days.  After all, then, like now, the dispute wasn't over the salary line-item...but of other petty projects within the budget.

This governor said over the weekend, "Don't count on getting paid."  And, man, did he come through. NJ State employees who were scheduled to work between July 1 and 3 of this year (including yours truly for one day) were instructed to code the day as "leave without pay."  OK, that makes sense.  My family was already bracing for a reduced paycheck and thankful that it was ONLY one day of my time (as I don't work the weekends).  But today, in addition to confirmation that I wasn't going to get paid, the Governor's office released instructions for those staff-people who intended on using their benefits, i.e. vacation, sick, administrative leave for a long holiday weekend, must now code their time as "leave without pay."

You can't go to State beaches and you can't get paid.  Go twiddle your thumbs people of NJ (and tourists...go spend your money elsewhere; the LoveGov hates you too).

What?  You're telling salaried employees with benefits that you're not going to pay them for wanting to take the Monday before a holiday off???  I know there wasn't a budget in place during that time, but as I've already mentioned, employee salaries and benefits were not the point of contention, AND they will be fully funded in this approved State budget, resulting in an unallocated surplus for the Governor's pet programs!  Also, while the State budget goes from July 1 to June 30 every year, employee benefits reset every year on January 1...meaning that NJ State employees have earned the right for paid time off.

Why would he be this vindictive?  Ah, that answer comes in what was left out of the budget: the Governor's pet opioid program.  That's right, the Governor signed a budget that didn't include his opioid program...but now, with this extra salary cash floating around, he's likely to scoop it up and use it any way he wants.  The fat man now has his cake and gets to eat it too.

But, I guess, when you're a small-minded man, like this Governor is, being vindictive against a populace who increasingly hates you makes sense.  He's on his way out and doesn't care about this State's citizens.  He's going to do what he wants as he auditions his opioid program for a potential up-scaling at the National level.  Yes, watch him grovel to Trump, begging to be the next U.S. drug czar (a russian term that only gets more and more appropriate to use in this political climate).  What does he have to lose?  His approval rating is the lowest in the State's history.  He can't get reelected.  He's been demonized for hitching his horse to the Washington D.C. shitshow which is the Trump White House.  He's destroyed the NJ pension system.  He's increased health insurance premiums for State Employees.  His policies have resulted in 10...10 credit downgrades for the state.  His actions have not just impacted teachers unions, but police and firefighters, our State's first responders.

The November election can't happen soon enough.

I know they say that "better the devil you know than the devil you don't"...but I think I speak for all of NJ when I say, we'll happily take that chance.

Think I'm overreacting about the Governor phoning it in?  Check this out.