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JerseySmarts.com

The Occupy Trenton Protests Get… Ummm, No Response At All

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Two weeks ago I was attending an event at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton. As I was walking down West State Street to get to the museum I passed by the capital building. Since the mainstream media was blowing up the various “occupy” protests all around the country, I thought that the Occupy Trenton protest would be something to see as I walked by the statehouse. Well, this is what I saw when I went by the capital building:

Alright, everyone calm down before we have to call in the National Guard

Can you see them over there? I know it’s a bad picture, but there are four protestors “occupying” Trenton across from the statehouse. Four.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

That’s it. That is it. Four protestors.

If there was ever an example of how completely blown out of proportion the mainstream media has made a story, it has to be these various “occupations” around the nation. Sure, there seems to be a solid 6,000 or so that are hunkered down in New York City by Wall Street itself and yeah, it does seem like there is something going on in Oakland. But outside of those two locations, there is absolutely no sustained “occupation” going on anywhere.

And that’s why I think this story has pretty much died down over the last few weeks. Thankfully, someone in the media took a step back from this fabricated frenzy and realized that on any given day there are more people protesting to end abortion than there are people “occupying” various places around the nation.

Four protestors in Trenton. FOUR! There have been protests in Trenton during the last year where tens of thousands of people clogged up every road in and out of the city and they only received a passing glance by the media. Yet, there are four protestors who think that they are “occupying” Trenton and this is written up as part of the mainstream media’s stories?

Give me a break.

Quick Recap of a Trenton Steel Home Game

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Hey everyone! Last month, my younger brother, his girlfriend, her daughter, and I went down to Trenton to watch a Trenton Steel home game. If you don’t know, the Trenton Steel is an arena football team that competes at the Sun National Bank Center (the former Sovereign Bank Arena). The Steel compete in the Northeast division of the Southern Indoor Football League.

I know, having a Trenton-based team play in a southern football league seems weird. However… why not? New Jersey is a densely populated state and we have a bunch of different semi-pro and minor league teams around the state. Why not have an arena football team playing out of Trenton in a southern football league? Lord knows we have some amazing football players in this state, so I’m all for having an arena football team in Trenton.

The game itself was very high scoring and very entertaining. And while I don’t remember the exact score at this point, I do remember thinking that there were an awful lot of touchdowns. But I think what surprised me the most was the fact that if the football made its way into the stands – the fans got to keep the ball! That’s crazy! There were a lot of fans that left the Sun National Bank Center that night with a game ball as a souvenir!

Overall, the game was a lot of fun and there was a lot of high impact action. And it’s almost needless to say, but I really enjoyed watching some football again. Here’s hoping that we can all enjoy some football in a few months…

Take a look at the pictures below to see some of the Trenton Steel game for yourself. And thanks to the team over at Prevention First for including these tickets as a part of a thank you package I received for sponsoring a basketball team in one of their recent charity tournaments. Enjoy the pictures!

Have I Mentioned That I Hate My Commute?

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Even though I’ve said it on here before, I have to repeat the fact that I absolutely hate my commute to work each morning. Driving from one side of New Jersey to the other is not appealing at all. Granted, the commute itself is relatively easy since I just jump on 195 and go all the way from Tinton Falls into Trenton. However, I hate my daily commute with a passion.

I work in community development and one of the big discussions when considering how to best develop a community always revolves around the idea of smart growth. In other words, how do you arrange a community such that the people who live there also work there or very nearby. As a related side note – everyone who works in Trenton for the state has a similar discussion, yet most state workers live far outside of Trenton. Weird. Anyway, nothing would make me happier than going to work within a 5 – 10 minute commute of where I live.

For starters, I don’t like this part of the state. I’m not sure what it is about Trenton or this part of Mercer County, but I’m not a big fan of the area. I couldn’t see myself ever living over here. I could live in Morris County because I have family up there and I could live in Monmouth County because it’s where I’ve been for ten years and I like it down there. But Mercer County? No thanks. So moving closer to my office isn’t an option to eliminate the commute.

Also, there is a strong possibility that my office is going to move to New Brunswick in the next few months. I couldn’t live in New Brunswick, either. It’s too congested and the places where a guy like me could afford to live aren’t nearly as safe and secure as where I live now. At almost 30 years old and having rented in a variety of arrangements over the past 10 years, I can’t see myself downgrading my living quarters just to be closer to my 9-to-5. That would be completely ridiculous and a sure way to increase the misery level.

I like my job. My only issue with my job is that they unknowingly hold down young talent so I (nor anyone else my age or younger) have not been able to advance professionally at this place. However, the pay is good and the benefits aren’t bad. Plus, the flexibility at this place is phenomenal. It’s just the miserable commute that gets me – and it’s “getting” me in an increasing frequency it seems.

I’ll figure something out. I’m not sure what I’m going to do at this point, but with less than 6 months left to my 30th birthday and having just “celebrated” 4 years working for this company, I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to keep this silly commute up each day…

I Absolutely Hate My Daily Commute

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Each day I drive an hour to Trenton and then an hour (or sometimes longer) back home to Tinton Falls. Once a week, I go from Trenton right to West Long Branch for the class that I take in communication. Some people who make a similar commute may suggest that it really isn’t an hour from Tinton Falls to Trenton and back, but rather that it’s more like 45 minutes – which is true, assuming that there is no traffic and you’re going 75mph the entire time. However, like all morning and rush hour commutes, it is rare that you don’t hit traffic on the road.

In particular, there are three things that I hate about my commute. First, I hate the length of time that I’m in the car because it really is wasted time. Second, I hate the additional expenses in fuel and maintenance costs for traveling so much. And third, I hate the fact that the commute completely exhausts me every morning and every afternoon.

It would be great if I could find a job that was similar to the one that I have now, but located in Monmouth County. However, that’s very unlikely to happen any time soon so I’m out of luck. I’ve always been taught that you typically change careers several times in your adult life and there is a possibility that I could be ready to change careers. Yet, I’m making okay money where I’m at and doing a job that I somewhat enjoy, so I don’t see the need to switch careers at this point. Plus, the only other occupation that I’d rather have right now is to be a college professor. In order to do that, though, I’d need to go back to school and get a doctorate degree and I’m not overly interested in going through that at this point in my life.

My job is somewhat flexible in terms of the commute in that they let me work from home each Friday. This is a great feature because I can run errands in the morning and do tasks in my home in the afternoon, but it still means that I’m wasting more than 8 hours each week by sitting in a car. And it’s not like I can even be productive during those 8 hours because the cell phone that I currently have has a broken 3.5mm ear jack port. Sure, I could use a Bluetooth connection, but it seems to me that no one can ever hear you clearly on the other end of those things.

So, if you have any tips on how to hate my commute less, I’m all ears…

Second Snow Day in a Row

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Call it being extra conservative, but I’ve taken a second snow day in a row. I’m not sure about all of Monmouth County, but in the development where I live the main roads are still not drivable. Oh sure, our cul-de-sac is fine and I could drive circles around it all day. However, the main road of our development which the cul-de-sac feeds in to is abysmal. I don’t understand why the maintenance team would be sure that the cul-de-sacs are okay to drive on, but the main roads are not. Isn’t that some type of useless?

As if this wasn’t bad enough, last night’s deep freeze has rendered those snow covered roads to be ice covered. Great…

When you put all of this together with the fact that I’m now driving a Honda Civic instead of a Chevrolet Blazer, you can see why I’m more restrained about making the hour long trek across New Jersey from Tinton Falls to Trenton. Ain’t happening today.

And let’s be real – I definitely do not get paid enough to put my safety on the line to get to an office where my work is more “appreciated” than valued. Seriously. If I had a dollar for every time someone said thank you or that they appreciated my work, I’d double my salary! I don’t want to start down that path right now, though…

So I’ll be working from home again today while the folks in this development try to dislodge their heads from their asses and figure out how to make the main road drivable!