The Midwest

Honestly, I think the Midwest gets a bad rap. Just because we we aren't all caught up in the newest trends and believe we could find a better use for 1200 dollars than a new Coach handbag, doesn't mean we're dumb, deplorable, a hick/redneck, backwards, etc. But apparently it does mean that we love ranch dressing! Isn't that funny? I don't know, I like ranch dressing but whoa! I had no idea some people, and a lot of them, love it so much!! If you are one of those people, I bet this is a pretty good recipe!

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/homemade-ranch-dressing-recipe-1925765

....and speaking of ranch dressing...

https://www.grubstreet.com/2017/03/restaurant-with-27-ranch-dressings-swamped-with-3-hour-wait.html

Also, this was a fun list about Midwestern things;

https://www.insider.com/things-midwesterners-know-2017-9

Pandemic life...lingering

This is a good article about the 40 hr/5 day a week work week. How it started, where it's going.

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/04/1043145165/four-day-work-week

I'm not that person anymore, who works 40 hrs and comes home and does a second shift, but I can sure appreciate what that means and can remember how hard that was. I can certainly remember when just one extra day off during the week, to myself, was a godsend.  And practically yesterday, I was teleworking 2 days a week and it was awesome! In SO many ways. Less commuter stress; less commuter time - an hour and a half to two hours a day; less gas in the car - = more $$ for me and cleaner air for the world!; more sleep; less $$ on lunches, shoes, clothing; better working conditions - temperature control, clean bathroom, no idle chatter from people I don't care about; AND more time with the love of my life. I mean, even though we didn't interact so much while I was busy, I was there when he wanted to ask me something or just talk to me for a minute. There's a lot to be said for teleworking and/or a shorter workweek. The pandemic brought that to light.

Along those lines, here's another good article about workers not putting up with crappy jobs anymore!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/09/30/during-great-resignation-workers-refuse-accept-unacceptable/

Also brought about by the pandemic. Interesting to think that we're being forced into less consumerism - by worker shortages and inflation. Will that last? Will it ever be the same as it was in 2019? Or will we adjust to the "new normal?"

And this is a great article about the labor shortage;

https://www.wsj.com/articles/labor-shortage-missing-workers-jobs-pay-raises-economy-11634224519

4.3 million people quit their jobs las August. There were a myriad of reasons. In general, people should be talking about this and how it's going to affect all of us. I'm hopeful.

...speaking of Facebook

 Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not a newsy. But I see the headlines. I hear the news bites on the radio. Sometimes in the morning, I listen to talk radio - briefly. So I think I have the basics about the FB "whistle blower."

I agree that FB, or social media in general, is harmful to kids and a lot of adults. But most of that conversation is something different than what the whistle blower is talking about. She says, FB is dangerous....duh. She says that the FB mentality is all about the bottom line....duh, aren't all big businesses like that? Liquor is bad for minors but there are still ads on TV that would make a young person believe that in  order to be cool, you have to drink Bud Light, (or whatever). There are things I like about social media. There are things I don't. But I do believe that they should be held accountable in some way. FB is too big to be reigned in now. People can complain that ads are targeting young people. But how can FB possibly know if a 10 year didn't lie about their age? Please. I lied about my birthday. Be realistic. FB will say though, parents should pay more attention to what their kids are doing online. That's true. But even the best parents don't know everything their kids are doing online. And if you give a 10 year old a smart phone without parental controls, well....I guess everyone should be accountable?

I understand that some small changes could make a big difference though. But it would affect their revenue and bottom line. Mark Zuckerberg is the 5th richest person in the world. At the detriment of society, does he need to be? I don't believe in all censorship though. And social media is part of the global culture now. 

I guess we'll figure it out.

Social media

Were you affected by the Instagram/Facebook outage yesterday? Did you survive?!

Do you follow a lot of people/businesses on either of those? I don't have that many FB friends so it didn't really bother me too much. I sure didn't miss all the ads though! I did, however, miss my stuff on Instagram. Again, I don't have hardly any friends on Instagram but I follow a lot of quilling people, good news pages, animal/dogs pages, crafty stuff.  

Honestly, I had no idea it was so stressful to SO MANY people!! Wow. I mean, I know there are a lot of people that base their whole day on what's on social media, but really??? Holy smokes!

There should be more outages :-) Even if they're planned. You know, like when the kids were little, we had "no TV" nights. I loved those. Everyone always found other things to do. Imagine that. No, really, imagine. hahahaha

I see so much good in the internet. I also see much I don't want to see. How do you create a balance?