Richard Kimmell's Blog

Appeal: Employers Please Remember You Are Dealing With People

richardkimmell — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 02:14:29 +0000

NOTE: I am sending this letter to as many newspapers as I can with the hopes they will publish. I am not a part of any cause or group – this is a personal appeal for all of us who remain unemployed.

To the editor
I am writing as one who has been unemployed for over two-and-a-half years and wishes to address all those who are in a position to offer employment: from large corporations to family-owned small businesses; to those actively seeking employees, to those with an eye to hiring in the future.

I would ask you to remember that behind every application or resume, there is a face – a face of a person who is, basically, just like you. A person who needs to keep a roof over his head, food on her table and shoes on a child’s feet.

Technology has treated to us to a multitude of computerized tools, and the human resources applications with all of the key-word filtering and pre-determined identifications certainly provide a convenience.

And the fact that it is an employer’s market can lead to a type of carelessness when resumes are regarded as numbers, as opposed to real people with real needs who are just trying to live in this world we have created.

It is unrealistic to expect that every person who applies for employment should be hired. But it is not unrealistic to ask that every person seeking a job be treated with dignity and respect by prospective employers. To trust so much in technological tools to sort out applicants, to treat resumes as a numbers game, is akin to treating people as though they were built on assembly lines.

I only ask you to recognize that every applicant is a living human being, and that you treat each and every one as though you are the one who is unemployed.

Just a Quiz

richardkimmell — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:46:00 +0000

This is a quiz I came up with, off the top of my head, in about 20 minutes. This isn’t to brag – more than anything, I suppose it may qualify me for a Trivial Pursuit contest. My point in publishing this is that, I will bet many of my college educated friends (some teachers) will be stumped. (And no way can you look up any of these questions on any search engine until you complete the quiz – this is an honor thing, You’re not proving a thing to me.)

Are you ready?

1) How many Articles are there in the United States Constitution?

A) 3

B) 4

C) 5

D) 6

E) None of the Above

2) Who penned the majority of The Declaration of Independence?

A) Benjamin Franklyn

B) John Adams

C) John Hancock

D) Thomas Jefferson

3) How many 10-inch by 10-inch tiles would it take to cover a one-thousand square-foot area?

A) 10

B) 1000

C) 100

D) 20

E) None of the above

4) Who did not sign the Declaration of Independence?

A) Samuel Chase

B) Samuel Adams

C) John Adams

D) Benjamin Franklyn

E) George Washington

5) A basic sentence (in English) consists of the following

A) Noun, verb, adjective

B) Subject, verb, direct object

C) Noun, direct object, verb

D) Action, object

6) At the advent (beginning) of World War Two, the Axis consisted of:

A) Germany, Italy, Russia

B) Italy, France, Switzerland

C) Germany, Italy, Denmark

D) Japan, Germany, Italy

7) The War of 1812 was fought between:

A) The US and Mexico

B) The US and Spain

C) Germany and Spain

D) Great Britain and the US

E) The US and France

8) If you have five dollars, and the federal government taxes you 25% and your state taxes you 2%, how much of that five dollars do you keep?

A) $4.15

B) $2.25

C) $3.65

D) $1.00

9) Acetic acid is found in almost every household item in the form of:

A) Orange Juice

B) Baking soda

C) Milk

D) Vinegar

10) Lactic Acid is found in almost every household item in the form of:

A) Orange Juice

B) Baking Soda

C) Milk

D) Vinegar

The Growing Police State

richardkimmell — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 19:27:49 +0000

Department of Education Agents Storm Stockton Home

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110608/A_NEWS/110609880/-1/a_news

In a nutshell, armed agents from the Department of Education Office of Inspector General knocked in a door and raided a Stockton home early Tuesday morning in an “ongoing criminal investigation”. Mind you, the offense is seemingly for fraud (at least from what I could glean from the warrant – http://www.news10.net/news/pdf/Ed-dept-Wright-warrant-060711.pdf ) and no weapons or violence was expected.
For some reason, this story resonated with me and compelled my research side to kick in. I was astounded to find that there are Seventy-Three separate Offices of Inspector General as established by the Inspector General Act of 1978 with amendments. A full copy of the act is here: http://www.ignet.gov/pande/leg/igactasof0609.pdf. Each cabinet department has an assigned IG, as do several independent agencies.

The act authorizes, among other things, broad police powers including each IG, Assistant IG and Special Agent to “carry a firearm…”, “make an arrest without warrant…for any offense against the United States committed in the presence of (IG, AIG, SA)…or for any felony if…has reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony…”, “seek warrants for arrest, search of a premises, or seizure of evidence…”

There is the caveat that the Attorney General is responsible for issuing such authority depending on criteria involved, although I find this of small comfort.

What amazed me more are some of the agencies with an OIG – they include the Architect of the Capitol, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the EPA, Farm Credit Administration, the Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, National Endowment for the Arts (there really is and Arts Police!), National Science Foundation and the Peace Corps! Full list here: http://www.ignet.gov/igs/homepage1.html Granted, I can’t presume that every OIG has armed agents – I have a request in to the Inspector General Council – but I am alarmed by the prospect that so many separate OIG’s exist in the first place!

While some of the IG’s have criminal investigation backgrounds, many are political appointees. This brings me the point: how are each of these IG’s equipped to evaluate and assess hiring and training of agents, and responsibly determine the protocols for serving warrants and entering premises? How much congressional oversight is attended to? (I’m willing to bet that many reps aren’t even aware that some of these agencies have armed agents). And what expense is incurred for what appears to be a gross duplication of investigative bodies?

How many of you knew this many separate agencies with police powers exist?

For me, this is a troubling situation that has the potential for great abuse.

Four Bachelors and a Chicken Lasagne – Complete

richardkimmell — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 10:32:44 +0000

First of all, you have to imagine four men straddling both sides of that precipice known as 50.
FIFTY.
Five-oh.
The only thing that can suck out a man’s breath more than mentioning a 50th birthday is a violent blow to the nether regions that man holds dear – neither event any man would ever want to tarry.
No man wants to mark 50 years with dignity. We’d rather quaff a few beers, bounce our bellies over to the volleyball court on the beach, slap high-fives with the dudes and ogle the bikini-clad honeys just before we collapse from exertion,
NOT from digging out a wicked set – but from the mere effort of traipsing through the sand to get to the volleyball court in the first place.
And so we look inward, we men, and decide that we won’t take double salami on a Subway poor-boy. We will exercise, as long as we never, ever, have to leave our desk or couch.
We will eat well, as long as a double M&M-Chocolate Chip cookie doesn’t really count because, well – it’s just one!
And so I come to four bachelors, sharing a roof, and having a dinner on Monday, February 14th; a day that other insipid bastards (lucky guys) call Valentine’s Day.
We four, living in this house, represent the whole of man – one is a prick, one is a crybaby, one doesn’t listen and the other is clueless…put us all together, and we ARE MAN!
Actually, we are all fine men, each of us with our own strengths – I just figure, put the worst out first, and the rest goes a lot easier.
Anyway – here are the recipes – you need to set aside an entire afternoon for this recipe. Hey – I said it was good, I didn’t say it was fast: (I could rewrite this recipe listing all of the ingredients first. I THINK the following works better – but if it’s too confusing, let me know. This is one where you definitely have read the recipe first, then embark on this afternoon journey.
LASAGNE CON POLLO FLORENTINE
3 whole chicken legs, trimmed and skinned
1 chicken breast (with ribs) trimmed and skinned
Salt and pepper chicken pieces both sides and set aside.
In a heavy (cast iron dutch oven is best) heat 2 tbsp olive oil over med heat.
Place the chicken parts in pit and sear both sides. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Boil several lasagna strips to al-dente – drain and cool with running tap water
Finely chop one 9 oz bag of spinach.
Place spinach in microwave-safe bowl Heat on high for 2-3 minutes. Drain and strain
BRAISING LIQUID
While chicken is searing, prepare the braising liquid:
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken broth
1 lemon, cut into 8ths
2 Bay leaves
1 tbsp dry parsley flqakes
½ tsp Dry oregano
½ tsp dry basil
½ tsp dry rosemary
½ tsp dry thyme
5 cloves fresh garlic, crushed
Combine all ingredients in a microwave-safe bowl/pitcher and heat on highest power setting for 3-5 minutes until just boiling. Once chicken is seared, pour braising liquid content over chicken – place into 350 degree oven and cook for 45 minutes – turn chicken and reduce oven heat to 315 degrees. Braise for an additional hour. Once chicken is tender and easily pulls away from bone, pull from pot and cool. Set aside braising liquid and strain out fat.
Once chicken is cooled, pull meat away from bone then dice into small pieces.
Meanwhile-
WHITE SAUCE:
½ cup red onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 cup diced brown mushrooms
1 cup half and half
1 and ½ cup braising liquid
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flour
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
½ tsp fresh grated nutmeg
Heat oil in deep sauce pan over med heat. Add onions, garlic and mushrooms – season, add nutmeg and reduce heat to med low and cover to sweat vegetables (2-3 minutes). Stir in flour loosely, just so there is no white powder showing. Add braising liquid and cream. Stir in a flowing motion until all flour has been incorporated Add parm cheese and stir until until smooth and velvety. Turn off heat.
In a 9X12 grease/oil pan – pour 2 ladels sauce, add a layer of noodles, sauce, layer of chicken, layer of spinach, several small dollops of ricotta, Place a layer of pasta over this and repeat process topping off with a layer of pasta, cover a bit with Mozz/prov .
Place lasagna into oven for 35-40 in deep sauce pan in deep sauce pan minutes…
Once top cheese is just turning brown, pull from oven and set aside for 20 minutes. Then cut and serve. Yeah – it takes some time. But it’s good.

A Taxing Benefit

richardkimmell — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 03:29:14 +0000

I have long been critical of the regulation allowing the IRS to tax unemployment benefits. It has always seemed to me to be a double-whammy.
“You’re unemployed so we’re going to give you just enough money to sustain your life. BUT – we’re going to tax it.”
Hmmm…
The IRS does this because they have defined unemployment benefits as income. Yet few other benefits, especially life-sustaining ones, are treated as income.
We are in the midst of the most difficult economic and financial times this country has faced since the Great Depression. And still our government seems blind to the obvious while attending to the superficial.
So many people are struggling to simply maintain the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter – the added stresses of such federal liability is not only counter-productive, but cruel to those who face the most daunting challenges to provide for their lives.
And so I drafted letters to my congressional representative, senator and the president imploring them to draft and pass legislation for the following:
1) Retroactive to the tax year ending 2009, that up to $10,000 in unemployment benefits be exempt from taxes, in addition to the personal exemptions already in place.
2) That every individual who has and/or maintains a retirement account such as an IRA or 401k, and has exhausted all unemployment benefits and remains out of work, a one-time penalty-free withdrawal up to $15,000.
If you disagree with these proposals, I accept your position.
But for those who agree, I would urge you to take up pen (or, really, keyboard) and urge your federal representatives to craft legislation to enact these simple, fair and necessary proposals.

What Do You Want?

richardkimmell — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:51:50 +0000

I will never forget how I was on the down-side of progressivism. My friend Roger and I pooled our allowances, walked to school together passing by the newly-opened 7-11, bought up a bunch of licorice whips, bubble gum strings, pop-rocks, comic books and candy bars. We set up shop in the playground – our markup was between 50 and 75 percent, depending what the market would bear. This lasted for about six weeks.
And we made some money. My partner Roger and I were in the fourth grade – running a business – and we kept books. Some cash-flow we would put back into stock, the profits we enjoyed. Our customers were the student body of the school who wanted our products and were willing to pay our price (either they were too lazy or ignorant to walk to the 7-11 and purchase our products at the lower price, or they enjoyed the convenience of how we offered the product…).
Until the principal of our school put a stop to it, called my mom in for a conference on how I was “taking advantage” of my fellow students.
The big thing I remember about this was that my Mom was angry with me – but when my Dad got home and she told him about it – he was very mild. In fact, I don’t think my Dad punished me more than taking away a weeks’ allowance.
What I think about to this day is why did the principal put a stop to this enterprise, rather than encouraging my partner and me to develop this business with the General Manager-ship of the school? Why not encourage us to find a vendor to make T-Shirts? Why not encourage us to start a school-store? GM gets 70 percent, we get 30 percent into a protected college fund?…
We were entrepreneurs, and we got our butts closed down.
And we did nothing wrong.
In fact, we did everything right.
But the lesson I learned was, don’t try to earn money – you’ll get kicked in the butt from somewhere – and that’s the bad thing I took away from my “public school education”…

And the “lesson” I was taught (not learned, thankfully) has grown exponentially into the disdain I have today for “public” education.

This is winter?

richardkimmell — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 04:32:51 +0000

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in the SF Bay Area. Took BART into Berkeley to meet up with an old friend (known her since Kindergarten) and do some shopping at Berkeley Bowl.

I’d heard about this market for ages, but had never been there. Even somewhat prepared, i was still floored by the variety of items in such a limited space, particularly with regards to the deli, butcher counter and produce. While I didn’t purchase everything I wanted (I could envision spending hundreds there – provided storage and a lot of hungry appetites) I did load a couple of large paper bags and got out of there under $80 – with a few days meals on hand.

It was also great to see my old friend Gina again. She’s such a person of cheery disposition that she could tell you your house is flooded, your dog died and your wife left you – and you would still walk away with a smile on your face. She’s just one of those people – glad we met up again and renewed one of those age-old friendships.

Nothing vital in this post – just a happy day recorded!

The Lost Game of Kickball – and How it May Teach

richardkimmell — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 04:59:15 +0000

I was enrolled in an elementary school that was brand new. And I mean brand new – it was the 70’s and such things as cafeterias and grassy fields were passe’. And so we had expansive concrete pads with a couple of baskets on aluminum poles, a dirt field filled with rocks (one corner had a hastily added chain-link backstop when baseball could not be taken out of the kids), and an area of concrete-topped-with-asphalt-what-the-fuck-areas, painted with field hockey stripes, wherein we invented our own style of kickball.
And we did invent our own style of kickball.
The game of kickball was played fundamentally like baseball. The bases were the same, the positions were the same. The difference was that your leg was the bat, and the ball was one of those red/maroonish, textured rubber thingies we used for dodge-ball.
The different rules from baseball were simple:
1) The pitch had to bounce at least once before crossing home plate.
2) The pitcher could not throw above his/her shoulder – in other words underhand or side-arm.
3) Base runner had to stay on base until the ball was kicked – no steals.
4) Strike range was waste to heel – everything else was a ball.

The game was simple – the pitcher would “throw” a pitch – it could be one-handed or two handed, spin on the ball was fine – the kicker (batter) would kick. Foul balls were foul balls. Line drives were line drives. Double plays were double plays.
So – here’s my thing.

Our game of Kickball is a game lost. So why not revive it, with education in mind?
If the bases are 45 feet apart, in a square shape; and the pitcher’s mound is the midpoint between 2nd base and home plate – what is the distance from the pitcher’s mound to home plate? This is math (geometry) that WILL be absolute for a future home buyer.
And since the rules were lost since I was a kid – why not present the outline of the rules, as I have done, and challenge the kids to write new rules, clearly and concisely – and with guidance from educators. Instruction in language and government (and maybe even history) could be taught from a simple game.
And before any one says it – I am not “qualified” to teach.

I’m someone who challenges the way we do things – in order that we might find a better way.

5 Ways to Kick the Post-Holiday Blues

richardkimmell — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:09:59 +0000

So we’ve entered the post-holiday season – that time where the weeks might seem to drag on until the fresh breath of spring again warms our souls. But you don’t have to feel blue! Here are a few ideas to keep heart, mind and spirit light and airy .

1) Connect with Old Friends: Any time you get together with friends can be a great time. But maybe you were at a holiday gathering and bumped into someone you haven’t seen in awhile. Or maybe you wanted to get together with people over the holidays, but ran out of time. Now is the perfect chance to plan a simple, fun get-together. Maybe a cocktail and some appetizers. Or host a weekend brunch. Old friends are a great way to renew the spirit of the holidays, regardless of the season.

2) Take a Short ‘Adventure’: Chances are, there are many places near your home that you have driven by and thought, “I’d like to stop by there one day.” Why not make it a destination? Just to go there and take a walk, maybe have breakfast or lunch – or even take in a local attraction or movie at the local theater – can be a great way to rejuvenate. Not to mention cross off something from that pesky “I’d-like-to-do-this-someday” list!

3) Try Something New: I’m betting your community has a number of ways to try something new. Whether through adult education classes, offerings from the local community college, Toastmasters, community emergency preparedness certifications – you get the idea. Check out listings from your local newspaper or library bulletin board. Or another avenue – find a way to volunteer your time and efforts; listings for those are available from the same sources. Bottom line – trying something new gives in to our “explorer selves” – and may allow us to become kids-at-Christmas again as we unwrap something new!

4) Pick Up a “New Year’s Resolution”: So you resolved to go on a diet. Or exercise more. Or be nicer to people. Or…

Whatever it was, chances are you already dropped it (for those who kept your resolution, kudos!). One of the reasons why we may drop our New Year’s resolutions is because they are too general. It’s better to be specific – instead of the general “exercise more”, how about “I’m going to take a 30 minute walk every Tuesday and Thursday before getting ready for work?” Or maybe,” I’m going to have salad for lunch every Monday and Wednesday?” Whatever the resolution, making it specific gives each of us a better chance at keeping it. And by achieving at least one goal – we’ve kicked-off the New Year in a great way!

5) Turn Off for a Day: This can be tough in today’s world where no one can hide and everyone expects an immediate response. But I think it is vitally important to shut off the equipment once in awhile so that our brains can recharge. You might feel more comfortable doing this by announcing ahead of time: “I will not be reachable on (this date). Please rest-assured that your message is important, and I will address it at_____” This “shut-down” can be done singly or with your partner. By shutting off the phones, TV’s and radios, putting the paper aside until tomorrow, we allow our brains to reset and recharge. You might want to go to your favorite park, hike your favorite trail, tune up your bicycle(s) and go for a ride, stretch out on the couch and pick up that book you’ve been meaning to read, get the family together for a game day or night – whatever. It’s important to remember that what brings you peace and rejuvenation is necessary.

The holidays are truly a wonderful time of year – but the end of the holi-”days” doesn’t mean that we have to dread any of the days ahead. Go out and keep the spirit in your own way – just keep it!

Happy Post-Holidays!

Notes and Themes on Fear…

richardkimmell — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:33:53 +0000

I look at this case in front of me. It seems alien somehow – the lower wide body, narrowing to a head…
I know its interior well – the siren calls to me.
Yet – I’m afraid to open the case. Afraid of what’s inside.
I remember stringing and strumming joy from the contents of this coffin – and yet…
I’m afraid.
Do my fingers remember the notes?
Does my heart still spell out melodies?
Do I even remember I have a heart?
The guitar coffin stares at me…do I have the courage to open it?