The Panda Bear on Washington's Birthday, Henri the Chat Noir, and Mindfullness

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about the musings of an average office worker who wants more from life than sitting at an office desk and doing(hated) household chores.

The Panda Bear''a last weekend was a three day weekend in the US.   To the Panda Bear, the Monday holiday in February will always be George Washington's birthday not President's day. George Washington deserves his own day; he was our first president and the father of our country. He set the tone for the other presidents to follow including Abraham Lincoln. In the Panda Bear's opinion he is the greatest President of the United States.

The Panda Bear believes that George Washington has lost some of his status as  greatest President of the United States because he owned slaves. The Panda Bear does not wish to minimize this serious flaw but she thinks Washington should be judged by the standards of the time. A very interesting book on the subject is An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek.

The Panda Bear received this call for a slow weekend  from a meditation web site:

"This year, I am determined to be more unproductive. My goal is to do less and less – to move slower and slower until everything stops. I and the whole world will come to a sweet and silent stillness. And in this stillness, a great shout of joy will arise. We will all be free..."

From the Ox and Window, by 17th century Zen master Hakuin Ekaku

The Panda Bear feels it is worth noting that Zen comes from a very busy culture.

The Panda Bear shared this quote with some of her friends where they all said it was hard to slow down.

The Panda Bear has read alot of about being mindful(living in the present moment) which is a part of the philosophybehind meditation.    However, right now the Panda Bear has some respectful disagreements with the philosophy during the winter.   The short days make the Panda Bear tired at night.   It has been snowing heavily for the past couple of weekends and the Panda Bear has been shut in her apartment doing her hated household chores.    She has tried to be positive about these chores but at times her body rebels.   Practically everyone the Panda Bear knows has had the cold or the flu.   The bad weather and illnesses has interrupted the Panda Bear's limited social life making her feel lonely.   How bad can it be for the Panda Bear's spiritual development to yearn for spring and the long days that make one feel there is life after work?   In the spring, summer and early fall the Panda Bear admits that at times it is easy to live in the present moment-during the winter she finds it hard.

At work, the Panda Bear resolves to have an upbeat attitude.   It is hard to do-the office is stuffy and the Panda Bear does not have easy access to a window.    She and a coworker created a wall of plants to give themselves something pleasant to look at during the day.    The Panda Bear has held the same type of job for over eighteen years and it has gotten old.   She tries to tell herself the numerous disappointments in her job in the past don't predict the future disappointment.

The Panda Bear feels she needs political skills.   Everything the Panda Bear reads about office politics says she should be making her boss look good.    The Panda Bear thinks she does make her boss look good in that the Panda Bear does a good job.    However, the Panda Bear has a hard time flattering bosses particularly since the Panda Bear often feels overworked and under appreciated.

The Panda Bear has found a cat on the Internet that shares some of her ennui. It is Henri Le Chat Noir a melancholy French cat. The videos on the site are funny. The first two are the funniest and are located at the bottom of the page.

 

The Panda Bear on Improving Working Conditions and Bathroomn Remolding

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog about the a stressed out average office worker and her observations on life.

The Panda Bear has not forgotten her dear and valued readers.   Her New Years resolution was to cultivate her inner hippie and embrace change and social improvements.    Therefore she has gotten involved in workplace reform.   She has volunteered to help with some groups that want to make laws to change some employment practices.

Though the Panda Bear is on a bottom level job in her office at meeting she very tactfully confronted the heads of her organization regarding improving health conditions where she works and making the office more exercise and diet friendly.    The heads said they would listen to her ideas.

All through this whirlwind of reform activity, the Panda Bear has continued with her hated household chores.    The Panda Bear and Mr. Panda have done some needed repairs.   There is still much work needed to be done.

The Panda Bear plans to start regularly blogging again.

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.