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Start the Weekend Right Link Series – Volume #3, Edition #1

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It has been a long time since I posted one of these Start the Weekend Right Link Series entries. But I have too many posts building up behind the scenes on this blog and in my Feedly reader so I need to start clearing them out and getting them out there for you to consume. Before you check out of work and begin whatever celebrations you’ll be involved with this Easter weekend, take a look at some of these links – I think you might enjoy this content.

Before we get to the links this week I again recommend signing up for a free Feedly account. I get absolutely no kickback for promoting Feedly, but I’m so appreciative of their product being the best RSS reader on the internet that I encourage everyone to use it. If you’re using another RSS aggregator, please consider following JerseySmarts.com at http://www.jerseysmarts.com/feed/. If you’re already on Feedly, then you can follow us by clicking here. Thanks!

No, You Are Not “Running Late,” You Are Rude And Selfish, Vitamin T
The message of this article is, as the title alludes to, that all of those times you or a coworker comes to a meeting late are not driven by outside factors, but rather by the fact that you’re a rude person. And on top of that rudeness, you’re a selfish punk who only cares about themselves. Personally, I agree with the message here, but living in New Jersey drops more than a few grains of salt on this article. When I was in college, I knew a kid who showed up to all of his classes late – and always with a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee in his hand. He was a rude, selfish idiot. On the other hand, I’ve seen people arrive to work (and even meetings and appointments) over an hour late because of the completely ridiculous nature of the traffic and road construction in most of this state.

Death By Degrees, n+1
The best preview I can give for this article is this quote that is taken from it: “Like the market for skin care products, the market for credentials is inexhaustible: as the bachelor’s degree becomes democratized, the master’s degree becomes mandatory for advancement. Our elaborate, expensive system of higher education is first and foremost a system of stratification, and only secondly — and very dimly — a system for imparting knowledge.”

Manual Labor, All Night Long: The Reality of Paying for College, The Atlantic
Typically, the commentaries that The Atlantic publishes are too buried in far left talking points (and shoddy ones, no less) that I can’t find the usefulness of their content. This article is a little bit different, though I don’t take the same bleeding heart stance as some of the folks quoted in the article. In short, the article talks about how some students opt to work an overnight shift to get tuition reimbursement for their local college. I believe the writer’s stance is along the lines of how we could allow this type of near-torture for someone who wants to get a higher education. As someone with a deep history in student loans, I don’t often feel bad for others who have to go through difficulty to get a degree. My comment on this topic, though, is that we should be looking at the larger educational system and why we push nearly all high school students to pursue a college degree when many of them should be pushed towards vocational and technical schools instead.

An unusual victory for donor intent at Trinity College, The Pope Center
One of the topics that I love following is how a donor’s intent is followed – or completely ignored – by organizations that are the recipients of the donor’s financial contributions. Martin Morse Wooster details a recent victory for donors that took place at Trinity College. This is really fascinating stuff (or at least I think so). And if you’re an active donor to your church, college, or any other cause, then I encourage you to give this article a read.

Google rethinks Google+, spinning off several successful pieces, Christian Science Monitor
Goodbye, Google+! Several years ago I wrote about how I was shutting down several of my social media accounts (MySpace and LinkedIn) because it was just becoming too much to handle and all I really needed was Facebook. As the years went by and Google tried to shove Google+ down our throats, I had to open up one of their silly accounts and – like the majority of their users, apparently – I almost never used it. Now, hopefully, Google will retreat from social media and I can put that silly, useless Google+ profile to rest!

Homeless man of deep faith given funeral, burial in Vatican City, American Catholic
I just thought this was a touching story and a reminder that there are good people out there who will do good things for people of devotion. I’d like to believe that this homeless man’s soul was received into glory with the same reverence that his body was received by the Vatican.

A New Life for Dead Malls, The Atlantic
Alright, so The Atlantic gets two mentions this week because this story is just awesome. I’ve written on here in the past about how I can go nuts trying to use all of my “stuff” before buying new things. For me, it’s not a matter of frugality, but rather a matter of not generating the need to create additional products and/or waste to give me something that I already have possession of in one form or another. That’s the point of this article – that old, dead malls are actively being repurposed for a wide variety of uses – and it’s pretty cool!

7 Basic Life Hacks Men Shouldn’t Ignore, Return of Kings
Simply put – if you’re a guy and you’re reading this, then you should stop and click over to Return of Kings to read this article. It’s excellent, direct, and gives you good advice on what you should be doing to improve yourself. Some of the advice that the writer offers includes reading daily, working out, eating right, and not watching porn. Each of these “life hacks” have intensely positive outcomes for you as a man and when combined they can lead to a dramatically improved life. Take five minutes and give it a read.

Before you go, I want to recommend one more time that you consider opening a free Feedly account. You can follow JerseySmarts.com on Feedly or you can add us to your existing RSS aggregator. Enjoy!

Black Friday 2013 Review

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Not too long ago I would wake up early to fully engage in the Black Friday chaos. During the years when I was a graduate student and wasn’t burdened by the repayment of my then-growing student loans, I would take the time to review different Black Friday-themed ads and plot a course for the day. I’d scope out electronics deals, major DVD sales, and I’d always be sure to include a stop at the Walmart that is local to my family’s house because the store manager there would do his own, half-hour sales which were never advertised. It’s remarkable that I used to enjoy going to these stores on Black Friday because today I have zero interest in the mayhem.

Even though I was never in a store that was this bad, I used to go out and shop on Black Friday.

Even though I was never in a store that was this bad, I used to go out and shop on Black Friday.

In fact, I was so wrapped up in Black Friday that I used to write about it right here on the blog. I wrote reviews of Black Friday dating back to 2008, 2006, 2005, and even way back in 2004. After 2008, I stopped going out on Black Friday. It was around that time when I really started planning to kick my student loan repayment into high gear. Plus, some time around 2008 is when the insanity of Black Friday shopping was reaching an apex. And if there were ever two good reasons to stay away from the big box stores and malls on Black Friday, then those are two really good reasons to stay at home.

Fast forward to 2013 and things are a little bit different. First, I no longer have the albatross of student loans weighing me down. Second, stores are now opening on Thanksgiving night to accommodate a portion of the traditional Black Friday crowd. And finally, so many consumers out there are struggling financially that the idea of spending all day shopping on Black Friday just doesn’t make good financial sense any more. It’s certainly a different world than back in 2008 when I last wrote a review of what I encountered on Black Friday. And since the world is a little bit different now than it was back in 2008 I decided to brave the stores on Thanksgiving weekend for the first time in years. This is what I found…

Thanksgiving Night Shopping
Around 11:00pm I decided to go shopping for two specific items. The items weren’t for my family since I finished Christmas shopping for them well before Thanksgiving. Instead, the items I was looking to purchase were for my church’s Christmas giving tree. If you’re not familiar with a giving tree, it’s where the less fortunate folks in a parish ask the church for help in providing their kids with a merry Christmas morning by helping them buy a few gifts. Within the program, though, there are restrictions. For example, at my church you need to be an active parishioner in order to participate in the program. In other words, you can’t just show up in November and say, “Hey, I need help buying gifts again this year.” Nope – ain’t going to happen.

I also have some personal rules that I follow for the Christmas giving tree program. One of those rules is that I don’t buy gift cards. Over the years, the number of tags on the giving tree that are asking for gift cards to Walmart, Target, Shoprite, and other retailers has grown exponentially. And if the purpose of the giving tree is to ensure that young kids wake up on Christmas morning with a few toys to play with under the tree, then I don’t see how a gift card gets a 6 year old boy or a 7 year old girl to that end. One of my other rules is that I tend to gravitate towards buying gifts for boys instead of girls. Something about going into a toy store and buying a Barbie or a princess play set doesn’t work for me. I couldn’t tell you why – it just doesn’t work. Perhaps my most important rule, though, is that I try to pick giving tree tags for younger kids. I understand that teenagers have as much need for a merry Christmas morning as the young ones, but the young ones have stronger memories of the “good times” during the Christmas season. Plus, at some point if you’re a parent and you’re asking for help getting your 15 or 16 year old kid some gifts for Christmas (and you’ve done so for the last 15 or 16 years), then you failed at some aspect of your life. And I know that is a presumptuous statement, but if you have a 15+ year track record of not being able to save a few buck each year so you can buy 3 or 4 nice things for your 15+ year old kids during Christmas, then I’m not interested in advancing your inability to plan ahead and live an irresponsible lifestyle.

So I stick with getting gifts for the little ones. Now back to the story…

This year, I picked two gift tags – one for a 7 year old boy and one for a 9 year old boy. They both wanted wrestling toys. One wanted a wrestling figure and the other wanted a wrestling ring: two very easy toys to pick up on Thanksgiving night after I left my family’s house. At some point around 11:00pm I went to the local K-Mart and they had all of the toys right there. Most importantly, though, they didn’t have an excessive amount of people in the parking lot or in the store. In fact, it looked like any other Thursday night in the store. I grabbed a few wrestling figures and the ring and headed for the checkout (I go a little bit above any beyond so when a kid asks for a wrestling ring, he gets a ring and two wrestling figures and when a kid asks for a single wrestling figure, he gets three). And the checkout is what stopped me in my tracks. After very publicly promoting that they’d be open all Thanksgiving Day and night, my local K-Mart had two cashiers working. TWO! Look, if you’re only going to put two cashiers on duty on what could have been one of the heaviest shopping nights of the year, then you’re better off not opening the store at all.

Each of the two checkout lines was about 15 people deep and everyone was pissed that the store decided to open without adequate coverage in the checkout lanes. After spending some time observing (I observe a lot when I’m in these stores), I realized that people with only a few items were checking out quicker at the courtesy desk. I quickly moved over to the courtesy desk, checked out, and left the K-Mart with my Christmas giving tree toys in hand (actually, they were in a bag). My next stop was JCPenney at the Monmouth Mall. Admittedly, this stop wasn’t for the giving tree, but rather JCPenney is one of the few stores where you can find really high quality big and tall clothing, so I stopped there to see what was on sale. I wound up buying a quarter zip sweater that was actually too big (I returned it the next day for the right size). Some of my observations about JCPenney include the fact that a lot of the Thursday night shoppers – and by “a lot” I mean at least 90% of the entire population that I saw in my area that night – were of specific ethnic or cultural descent. I’m not suggesting that 90% of the people in the stores were a single ethnicity or cultural identity – not at all. Instead, I’m saying that 90% of the entire population consisted of a diversity of people including first generation Mexican immigrants, Orthodox Jewish people, first and second generation Indian families, etc. If I had to suggest a single ethnicity that was more prevalent than the rest, then I’d say that the Hispanic population outpaced everyone else by leaps and bounds. Anyway, just a random observation that occurred to me while I was at JCPenney.

After my quick stop at JCPenney (I was in the store for a total of about 10 minutes), I headed to one of the habitually worst places to shop in Monmouth County – the Neptune Township Walmart. Honestly, folks, if you ever want to have a horrendous shopping experience, then go to the Neptune Walmart at any time of the day and try to order anything from the deli counter. If you get away from that deli counter in under 15 – 20 minutes, it would be record-breaking. Anyway, my purpose of going to this disaster area on Thanksgiving Night was to purchase the gift bags that my church requires you place your giving tree gifts in before you bring them to the church. And I have to admit – this wasn’t a big ordeal for me on Thanksgiving Night. I went into the store, grabbed the two gift bags, walked to the register and waited a split second while the person in front of my checked out, and then I checked out myself and left the store. As I left the store I was asked to show my receipt and my purchases (which were in my hand because I refused to take a plastic bag to put two paper gift bags in). My entire experience at the Neptune Walmart was not aggravating at all and that is pretty shocking considering that store’s atrocious history. I should comment, though, that I didn’t venture to the back of the store where the electronics department is located. I looked back there and it looked like Armageddon on earth, but I didn’t dare take a walk to that part of the store. No reason to ruin my shopping experience, you know?

And that was my Thanksgiving Night experience.

Black Friday
The only thing I did on Black Friday was head back to JCPenney to return and switch out the quarter-zip sweater that I purchased a few days earlier. There was a small line in the store, but it was fully acceptable. In fact, I have to salute the young woman who handled my switch request at the checkout counter. She ran into a series of problems trying to make the switch in the system and she kept asking for my patience, which I always give to a cashier (I always remember that the last thing they need is an angry me staring at them). And because I was so patient with this woman, she took an additional $10 off of my purchase which brought the item down from its original price of $45 to the sale price of $25 to the additional reduced price of $15. Not bad for a nice piece of winter clothing.

And that’s the whole of my shopping experience this Black Friday. The lessons learned include that shopping on Thanksgiving Night means less crowds and higher diversity of shoppers while the big department stores make returning items a very easy and even thankful process. Another lesson learned is that I’m thankful to have completed my shopping before Thanksgiving and via all-online stores. Overall, I was very pleased with this year’s shopping experience, though not pleased enough to make it a regular occurrence each year.

Hilarious Planet Fitness “I Lift Things Up and Put Them Down” Commercial

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Sometimes, I come across a commercial that makes me do a double take to the television screen. Planet Fitness hit the jackpot the other day with their hilarious “I lift things up and put them down” commercial which has aired over the last few weeks. This commercial is hysterical! Here’s the commercial for your viewing pleasure and then a few of my comments below.

I love it!

Look, I’m a big (overweight) guy these days, but back in high school I was bench pressing 385 pounds, squatting 660 pounds (on a yoke), and leg pressing over 900 pounds. So there was some serious power in this body and I think my performance on the wrestling mat and football field proved that fact. However, once I graduated from high school and began working out at the gym at my college I began to encounter people like the one you saw in the video above. Frankly, I found them to be bizarre people.

Seriously, who goes around grunting and flexing in a weight room? For a former high school weightlifting powerhouse, I was always taken aback by the 150 pound guys who were strutting around the college weight room looking at themselves in the mirror. Weirdos.

Then I graduated from college and joined the local gym and found a whole bunch of meatheads like the one in this video. They didn’t bother me as much after I graduated college because, well, I was a little bit older and didn’t really care. Yet, I find myself wanting to seriously get back into the gym these days. At the same time, I’m somewhat reverting back to a high school state of mind where I don’t want to be aggravated by the presence of wannabes and false meatheads at the gym!

So I saw this commercial again and again over the last few weeks and it prompted me to go online to check out this Planet Fitness gym. Wouldn’t you know it, but they just opened one up at the Monmouth Mall?! Something about working out at the mall didn’t sit right with me, so I didn’t consider joining this place. Then I did some more research and found out that there was also one in an old Walgreens building in Succasunna (my family’s hometown) and that they had amazingly-priced membership deals.

Having one in my family’s hometown makes working out easier and the membership deals make affording a new gym much less impactful on my personal budget. On top of that, my office is moving to New Brunswick and there’s a Planet Fitness near our new office and I can use my membership there, too.

You put all of this together and I had to seriously consider joining this gym. Ultimately, I did decide to join this gym where I won’t find a bunch of meatheads walking around lifting things up and putting them down!

Are You Getting Into the Holiday Spirit?

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So, are you getting into the holiday spirit? Christmas is only a few weeks away with New Year’s Eve coming in close behind and we’ve already passed both Halloween and Thanksgiving. This is the time of the year that most people absolutely love with all of the holiday parties and the family gatherings, etc. But I wonder if you’re getting into the holiday spirit this year.

I think that for the first time in a long time, I’m not really “into it” yet. For me, I think there are three specific reasons why I’m not so much into the spirit yet this year. First, the weather! Maybe it’s because I’m thinking back 20+ years, but I always remembered December through March as being a vicious time of the year with respect to snowfall. Nowadays, though, if we get two major storms and a few flurries in between, that’s a lot. I think that there’s something about the snow and watching a snowstorm that makes this time of the year special. When it’s t-shirt and shorts weather, though, it’s pretty tough to get into the spirit of the season.

Second, the stores aren’t doing it for me this year. If I recall correctly, last year I would walk into the Wal-Mart and the Target and even the Monmouth Mall and everything was draped with “Merry Christmas” signs or “Happy Holidays” banners and you’d see Christmas trees set up around the store, etc. It was a very festive scene! However, this year the local stores seemed to have toned it down a bit which might be a result of cost cutting measures, who knows. I always think that the Christmas season, though way too commercialized these days, is always augmented in a positive way when commercial outlets dress themselves up in the season. On a related note, the Christmas music on Sirius XM’s channels has been so-so at best this year. They’re mixing in a lot of different stuff and I believe that the diversity in generations of musicians takes away from the overall impact.

And finally, I’ve been really busy over the last three months so I admit that I haven’t really had a chance to stop and think about presents or decorating or attending any Christmas parties, etc. Of my three reasons, this is the only one that I think I have an ability to change, but I really don’t think a change on my part is necessary since in about a week’s time all of the things that are taking up most of my free time will be over (teaching and taking a course).

Maybe next week it’ll be a little colder, the stores will put out more of their Christmas decorations, and I’ll have more free time to take it all in. Until then, though, the days seem to keep on flying by just like any other time of the year!