The Panda Bear on Rousseau, Adsense, and Competition

The Panda Bear is starting this post during lunch in the office kitchen trying to look very important.   She is using her spiffy netbook which has impressed the IT department  at work.    As readers of the Panda Bear Blog already know, the Panda Bear is stalled in her daytime career.    Though she works for a large major organization, the Panda Bear now works in a small office of about thirty where she is one of the seven lowest level workers in a group of about thirty-five.  It is possible to tell who are the lower level workers by the red at lunch sign at their desks.

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about a lowly office worker.    It is a blog about being a confused humble bear who is in the lower percentages of human society.    At work Panda Bear keeps thinking  of Rousseau’s saying that “Man was bore free but everywhere he is in chains.”   The Panda Bear feels like shouting from her cubicle “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.”   Then she remembers that this was from the FRENCH revolution and the Panda Bear is an American (also the French revolution came with a lot of violence against innocents unfortunately).

However, the American Revolution was founded on the idea of liberty and equality.   Where is it in the work place?   Most big organizations the Panda Bear has worked it has been quite clear that the well being of some individuals is worth more to the organization than others.     Also the American Revolution was founded on the principles of free speech and due process.   Most people don’t have these rights while at work unless they are covered by a union.  Most nonunionized large organizations in the United States are run like feudal empires

The Panda Bear thinks employees should be able to freely discuss the terms of employment, pay, and working conditions without free of repercussion especially outside of work and on the social media,.   The Panda Bear thinks transparent working conditions and pay would result in much better treatment of workers.   Truth should be a defense to the accusation that an employee is being negative.   Employers should be held accountable for their treatment of workers; if employers were justified in their actions they have nothing to be afraid of in making information on how they treat workers public.

Of course, the simplest solution for employers is to give workers more time off where  they are able to enjoy the freedoms of the United States.     The Panda Bear does not think giving the workers letting go early once or twice would undermine the US economy and would make people much more relaxed and happy.

Since the Panda Bear Blog is a blog about a little humble Panda Bear dealing with the powers that be, the Panda Bear regrets to report that she was thrown of the Google Adsense program.    The reason they gave was invalid click activity (Adsense pays out per click).   The Panda Bear did not knowingly violate Adsense policy.   She suspects that one of readers may have made some invalid clicks and her blog did not attract enough visitors to make Google Adsense feel that her blog was worth keeping in their network.   However, now the Panda Bear Blog has  banned from Adsense forever (she is told Google never changes its mind).

It is fortunate for the Panda Bear that there are competing ad networks which the Panda Bear could join.   Choice and options are the advantages are being in an economy where there are competing companies.

However, the Panda Bear plans to stay away from pay-for-click advertising and she joins different networks to boost blog readership.    She thinks the pay for click advertising is too easily open for fraudulent activity and she does not plan to pursue pay for click advertising until the blog is more established.

 

The Panda Bear on the Existential Question and the People’s Uprising

The Panda Bear Blog is about a lowly Panda Bear who works full-time an office and dislikes the fast pace of modern life.   The Panda Bear Blog is a blog being part of the lower percent.

This time of year with the days short becoming short and the end of the year approaching, the Panda Bear muses on the meaning of life.   The end of the year signifies the time signifies the time that the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda work on home repairs something that which Panda Bear detests.     Mr. Panda has more vacation time towards the end of the year so they have more available to work on repairs.   So far they have had some electric work done on their apartment and have had their heating unit fixed.   Now they must work on getting their bathroom floor fixed so the wood underneath does not rot.

The Panda Bear tries to congratulate herself on getting these jobs done.    However, positive thinking only goes so far.   The Panda Bear feels there must be more to life than consumerism.   She feels the powers that be have put her on a capitalist treadmill of working long and hard so that she can buy the consumer goods and pay for home repairs which keep the economy growing.   The Panda Bear feels there must be more to life than producing and consuming.  

The one good piece of news for the Panda Bear is that she posted her resume online and some recruiters have contacted her.   Readers of the Panda Bear Blog know that the Panda Bear has gotten bored with her dead-end job where she works in the less important section of the office.   The workload has increased because of some additional work being taken on by her section.   For the upper management this extra work means a promotion and title change while for the workers these additional duties are covered under that catchall section of job descriptions (other responsibilities as needed) The Panda Bear thinks it may be a long job hunt but at least people are reading her resume.   She knows in some ways she should be glad she is working but recently she moved to a small office and she is tired sitting at the same desk all day and seeing the same faces all the time.   America the land of the longest work hours in the world-is it treason to say one wants to do more with one’s life than sit  at a desk and work on a computer all day?  Of course if you are like the Panda Bear you will spend a lot of your free time looking at the computer but it is a completely different matter because it is voluntary.

The Panda Bear wants to join the people’s protest.   Though she is terrified of home contractors she is not afraid to take on the powers that be and tell them that they mistreat the masses.   The Panda Bear wants to be a nineteen sixties rebel.   She thinks the average people need to confront those in power.     The Panda Bear wants to be a modern hippie.  Only she does not know where to go or what to do.

The Panda Bear on Home Chores, Short Daylights and the Lonely Office.

The Panda Bear is a humble office worker who lives in the Boston area;   she is the voice of those who want more from life than work and household chores.

The end of the year is when the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda focus on household repairs because at the end of the year Mr. Panda can take more time off from  his work to have people come in to do household repairs. .   After some very intense negotiations between the Panda Bear and Mr. Panda, the Pandas finally hired an electrician who changed some fixtures and replaced the outlets.   Tomorrow, someone will come in to fix their heater.   The Pandas will also be getting some estimates on some repairs to the bathroom and some furniture.    Though the Panda Bear is glad people will be coming in to do some estimates she is also in a panic about getting the apartment in order for the repair people.

While some people say the American dream is to own one’s own home, the Panda Bear’s dream is to be free of all home responsibilities.     She finds home chores very stressful.  The Panda Bear feels home repairs an unwanted intrusion into her free time.    When the Panda Bear bought her condo it was a big surprise and disappointment to find out how much more time consuming owning was than renting.   Sometimes several of Panda Bear’s limited vacation days in a year had to be spent on home repairs that were needed to be done because of home ownership.   

The Panda Bear feels very fortunate that Mr.  Panda has more vacation time available to him and he can take off time for repairs.   The Panda Bear would find it very hard to be single, work and own property because of the maintenance time demands.   
The US government has pushed homeownership on its citizens which has contributed to the US housing bubble.      The Panda Bear feels it is wrong for the US government to push homeownership for these reasons:

1.       The decision to own versus to rent is a personal decision.   The US government should not get involved in its citizen’s personal decisions.

2.       The US government encouraging people to buy housing (or other products) increases the price of the product because of the increased demand.   The US government  playing in encouraging people to go college is playing a similar role in driving up the cost of higher education.

3.       They are probably many busy working people who don’t have the time available for home maintenance.   For some people who are very busy with work, there probably are advantages to having a landlord who handles repairs.

The short days are depressing the Panda Bear.    When she goes to work it is dark and when she leaves work it is dark.  She feels that between home repairs and work she is not getting much recreation.    While the Panda Bear and Mr.  Pandas are getting some needed repairs done, it is at the expense of some social activity.

The Panda Bear has noticed that she is feeling more isolated at work.   About a year ago, the Panda Bear moved to a smaller office.   Right now even though the Panda Bear works for a large organization, it feels to the Panda Bear as though it is a very small organization.   Her social interaction is really limited to about three or four people a day.    The Panda Bear thinks that probably many people who work for organization nowadays may feel l that modern organizations offer very little social benefit and support.

The Panda Bear is looking forward to the end of home repair seasoning ending and being able to socialize more with her friends.

The Panda Bear on Home Repairs and the Ecologicial Superiority of Cats

Above is a picture of the Panda Bear's cat Suzie.    She was recruited a year ago on the Panda Bear's War on Mice and Clutter(WOMAC).   WOMAC has been a success in that the Panda Bear has seen no mice since the Panda Bear adopted her cat from a shelter. .  Furthermore, it just seems that Suzie's presence in the apartment scared the mice away;  WOMAC appears to have had no mouse casualties.    Would all wars have such a bloodless victory.   The Panda Bear thinks the mice were smart enough to leave the apartment when the Panda Bear got the cat ( mice are much smarter then most people think in avoiding getting caught).

The Panda Bear has been stressed out about home repairs.   She and Mr. Panda are having an electrician come over tomorrow which involved intense negotiations between the Panda Bear, Mr. Panda and the electrician(subject for future posts).   The Panda Bear tells her cat Suzie how lucky she is that she does not have to do home repairs; the cat gets someone else to do it.   At work, the Panda Bear told her coworkers she wants to be reincarnated as a cat in the next life.

Perhaps, the Panda Bear has been reading to many books about cats who think they are superior to humans.   However, the Panda Bear thinks cats are ecologically superior than humans in terms of their impact on the environment.    Even for some very basic animal functions, humans are much more resource demanding in comparison to cats.

Granted, the Panda Bear thinks that cats do like having the shelter, food and medical  care that humans provide cats.   However, if humans used enough just enough resources take care of cats there would be significantly fewer environmental problems.

For example, cats don't need to bath; cats can groom themselves.   If you look closely at the picture, you can see that Suzie's hair is very neatly combed.   She does this herself using cat spit,   While it does look funny to see cats groom the private parts, it does not seem to harm the cat and the cats are clean.   Suzie's behind is always very clean and she does not smell.

In contrast humans need to bath in order not to smell which gets more water dirty and requires creating an infrastructure to obtain water; humans needs to bath creates a demand for plumbers.   Furthermore, humans need clothes which also need to be washed which causes more water to become dirty.

The cats' fur provide adequate warmth and decoration for them and they don't need to take some of the earth's resources to cover themselves.   Just think of all the materials, time and effort even the most primitive people's clothes require.   The Panda Bear thinks the cat's way of grooming and clothing is much dimplier, less stressful and more ecological than human personal care.

Cats have good night vision.   Just think how much energy human consume because they have poor night vision.   If humans could see at night they would not need artificial lighting.  Humans pride themselves on all their inventions but the reason humans need all these inventions is because they are physically inferior to cats.   Humans need tools to hunt, while cats are excellent hunters without tools.

Thus, for even their most basic needs such as grooming, hunting and seeing at night humans are physically inferior to cats and put more strain on the environment.      Humans are forced to create social institutions to meet these needs because of their poor physical design.   Humans put strain on the environment because of their poor ability to take care of their basic needs.

In terms of their amusements, cats are much more environmentally friendly than humans.   The Panda Bear's cat Suzie for fun likes such low carbon footprint and ecological activities such as looking out the window, sitting on a perch,  and swatting at sticks and at other things humans regard as trash.     In contrast think how much of the earth's resources are used in human recreation.   Most cats don't like to travel for fun; humans do which uses the earth's  resources.

Thus cats are indeed superior to humans in terms of the impact to the environment in terms of their basic survival needs and in terms of their recreational wants.   As Mark Twain said  " If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.".  Certainally this is true when it comes when when compares humans to cats in regards to their impact on the environment.