Why donate when you can just throw it away?

Why donate when you can just throw it away? Yeah, you read correctly, don't donate to the poor or to homeless shelters. Forget them.. just throw the junk away so they don't mess up our image.

Sounds ridiculous but that's what companies such as Wal-Mart, H&M, and Kmart are doing.

A discovery of brand new clothing with tags still attached was found outside an H&M in New York and the same near a Walmart in New York was also found. The employees are instructed to tear the clothing to the point of being unusable and to discard it.

The economy is going through the worst downturn since the Great Depression and in a city where one third of the citizens are poor. Retail is a world that is governed by shrink (theft and loss projections) and once damaged or non sellable items have been written off and marked down repeatedly the company begins to lose money to keep the merchandise on its shelves. But instead of donating the items to one of the hundreds of homeless shelters in NY they would rather throw the items away.

Looking at things from the retailer's point of view I still don't see the logic. They have already written off the merchandise as a loss and if they donate the clothing to a charity they would get a tax break. So who loses in this situation if they donate their items? I'm not sure but I don't like it. I'm beginning to grow tired of hearing about Wal-Mart and their unfavorable practices. I guess I have to add Kmart and H&M to the list.

"Of course we can't have a homeless person running around in such designer attire. It would certainly hurt our image" said the Wal-Mart executive that thought of this stupidity

Yeah Right!!!

I doubt I'll see anyone walking down a runway in a Wal-Mart exclusive any time soon.

Keep up the work guys… sweat shops, bad employee benefits, and ignoring those in need is certainly the way to success!

Read it for yourself

http://www.myfoxillinois.com/dpps/news/dpgo-hm-walmart-seen-throwing-clothes-away-lwf-20100106_5443651

or

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/06/nyregion/06about.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Who's Screaming for a Big Mac?

The Cardinals announced they were bringing back the Big Mac. Not the burger but the man, with his two all beef biceps, special juice, cheese, pickles, onions, on a controversial bun. Mark McGwire is back as the Cardinals hitting coach for the 2010 season. A huge surprise since McGwire has been in utter seclusion since the steroid issue surfaced in 2005. McGwire decided to not respond to the Senate’s questions about alleged steroid use. We have since forgotten about Big Mac until this recent menu change by the Cardinals. McGwire may not want to talk about the past but what’s not in the past is his shaky hitting numbers. Yes, McGwire hit a lot of homeruns but is he good enough to be a hitting coach?

The only way we can determine McGwire’s true numbers is by putting them against other perennial all-stars and bringing the facts. I have chosen Willie McGee and Larry Walker, two great hitters that ended their careers with the Cardinals.

At first glance, McGwire looks like a great candidate for Hitting Coach. He hails a career total of 583 HR’s and 1414 RBI’s. While Larry Walker had 383 HR’s with 1311 RBI’s. McGee bringing up the rear with a career total of 79 HR’s and 856 RBI’s (I will explain his low numbers later). While this paints McGwire in a favorable light it would also send red flags to a seasoned baseball enthusiast. You see, McGwire’s RBI’s are like his arms, falsely inflated because of his 583 homeruns. If you subtract his homeruns from his RBI’s Big Mac comes out a small fry at only 831 RBI’s, placing Larry Walker in the lead at 928 RBI’s and McGee still pushing third with 777. Your probably saying “How the hell did Willie McGee have such low numbers”? One of the reasons that Willie McGee has lower numbers than McGwire and Walker is because he hit in the number 2 or 1 spot which means less opportunities to drive in runs. I’m sure that changes your perception about Willie and his “low” numbers. All this shows is that McGwire is a good power hitter which is something that can’t be taught. Either you have it or you don’t and being a good power hitter does not qualify one to be a hitting coach.

Nevertheless let’s move on to their at bats to strikeouts ratio. Willie McGee struck out every 10 at bats (.1015), Larry Walker struck out every 6 at bats (.1782), and Mark McGwire struck out at a horrible every 4 at bats (.2579). WOW and that’s gonna be the hitting coach. What the worst part is Mark McGwire played in fewer games than McGee and Walker and struck out more than they did. McGwire’s job will be to teach hitting and fundamentals of the swing. I have come to find that the best teachers are the best students and know the task inside and out. How can McGwire be an effective teacher with stats like that?

He can’t be an effective teacher because McGwire is not a good candidate for Hitting Coach. Out of the three players that I have talked about I see Larry Walker being the best candidate because of his great hitting stats and swinging technique. The only reason I didn’t pick McGee is that his swing is a tab bit unorthodox and it might be harder for him to instruct others. I don’t think that McGwire coming back to STL is about helping the Cardinals but about getting his good name back. More specifically, this is about McGwire dredging up some votes for the Hall of Fame which he has been unable to obtain since he has been up for voting. He knows that Cardinals fans are the best in baseball and it would be great for his image to use them as his personal PR firm. We shall see this season when the Big Mac turns into a Big Trouble!

Sidelined

At 3:13am central time I was up watching the rerun of the BCS Championship. I watched Colt come back on the field with his pads on and start cheering his team on and motivating them to keep playing. For those of you that don't know Colt McCoy, the Texas
star quarterback, got knocked out of the game early with a shoulder injury.

What he went through seems very familiar. I know he prepared for this moment for his whole life and one hit changed everything. Wait, this happens in life sometimes…all the time… right? We prepare for something, get it, then an event out of our control happens that "sidelines" us from the very thing we have been waiting for. I personally would have sat in the locker room crying if I were Colt. But he put his jersey back on (even though he wasn't playing) and cheered his team on. He was smacking helmets, clapping, and even put on a headset.

His team probably loss because he couldn't play and I'm sure he was hurt more mentally than physically that night. But he wasn't moping and wallowing in self pity. I can admire that.

Whoever said sports aren't an imitation of life
didn't know what they were talking about.

No matter what pads….I mean safeguards we put in place, things still happen to change "our" plans. In 2010, what will you do when your plan takes an unexpected hit? Will you stay in the locker room crying or will you get back on the field?

Staying Consistent

As I think about this year and all of the things I want to do I find that everything begins and ends with hard work. And in between the hard work comes a lot of repetition.

Many years after trying to cut corners this is what I've come up with. There really are no short cuts in life. Just work hard, be consistent, and keep repeating.

Repetition is the father of learning.. and I'm trying to learn EVERYTHING!

Do you ever feel like the world is closing in on you and the harder you work the harder things get? I feel that way more often than not,but through trials I still have to keep working.

What are you pressing towards this year?

Life Resolution

Happy New Year!!!

The big question everyone is asking right now is what your New Year's Resolution is. New Year's Resolutions to me are stupid. I rather come to a resolve of something I need to do all the time despite what time of year it is. I just think waiting is over rated and we need to do what we want and dream..NOW!!!!

As I had this thought a question popped into my head.

What lasting impression are you going to have on the world once you're gone?

Living our lives just for us isn't fulfilling and doesn't help anyone so I feel it's essential to leave my mark on the world and be greatly remembered. I asked myself this question and if I died today there wouldn't be much there. Just a bunch of ideas I had but to this point haven't completed. That question made me decide that I have to be more than the "average" person.

That's when I found an e-book called "How To Be Remarkable" by Colin Wright and a light bulb went on over my head (imaginary of course). I need to get a move on in living my life.

The book is a collection of tips, suggestions, and articles about "remarkable" people.

Tips like Kill Limitations, Seek Knowledge, and You First are just a few to help one become remarkable. When you read things like this it really makes you "Think" as much as I hate to say it (since of course thinking is essential to living so we are always thinking.. duh). We all "Think" all the time but in the course of Living you get in sort of a rut and sweep improvement under a rug. "How to Be Remarkable" gets self improvement from under the rug and puts it on the coffee table of our brains next to the remote control of our lives and provokes you to simply.. do something REMARKABLE.

So this year instead of picking a New Year's resolution I think I'll pick a LIFE resolution and that is to be the most REMARKABLE person I can be. I'll start by using this book and go from there. So I ask you.. what's your life resolution?

CB