Tulip City Dispatch

Not pertinent to anything, but I don't have any other proper outlets to write this. I've been making a conscious effort to listen to my entire record collection lately - rough estimate, I own somewhere around 100 to 120 records, most of which were purchased over the years at thrift shops for $20 or less (my favorite era was the 2010-2020 era when records were as cheap as 3 or 4 for $1).  I've got them arranged alphabetically by artist, then title (or simply title in case of a compilation/anthology or soundtrack), and marked with a sticky note in the corner to show which ones have been played:  I'll remove the little sticky note flag when I play one.  As vinyl has had a recent resurgence, I have maybe a dozen new purchases from merch tables at my Year Of Concerts , or online from various podcasts about music . I started buying records right around 2013 or 2014, searching thrift shops for specific titles which I'd cut into guitar pickguards, as seen in this Etsy pos...

 By now, we've all seen the video of a McDonald's CEO timidly taking a bite of their Big Arch burger before telling us that "we're all going to love the product," in what appears to be a hostage video perpetrated by Linda At The Front Desk .  All publicity, they say, is good publicity, and what was originally a botched promo video did indeed inspire me to buy not one, but two, Big Arch combos from McDonald's.  I don't normally eat at McDonald's, since the ones around Holland seem to be more expensive than other local areas, plus if I'm grabbing junk food on Saturday, I'll often err towards Burger King or some sort of sub sandwich like Jimmy John's. The Big Arch "start[s] with the two juicy quarter-pound 100% beef patties, layered with three slices of melty white cheddar cheese. It’s then topped with both crispy and slivered onions, zesty pickles and crisp lettuce, but what truly sets it apart is the new BIG ARCH Sauce—tangy, creamy...

 As I was driving around West Michigan today, I got thinking about old - the concept of old, the abstract idea of the good ol' days , the stories and experiences of those who came before us, and just how the hell we all got here.  Hemingway said “Every man has two deaths, when he is buried in the ground and the last time someone says his name,” and when I consider my own path here, and the reasons why I made this blog, I want to uphold that idea as best as I can. Part of what draws me to thrift stores and antique stores is wondering about the stories of the items around me...part of why I did the $50 Thrift Store Golf Challenges was to take something I enjoy (golfing) and explore the experience of using old clubs that I'd find.  Let me tell ya, you really gain an appreciation for modern metallurgy and computer design after playing with some of those old stinkers...yet, those are the clubs I learned on back in the day at Rolling Hills Golf Course in Hudsonville; those are...

  Use this information how you see fit.  If you take a Burger King Double Stacker and pull the patties apart, they fit perfectly on top of a Burger King Long Chicken sandwich.  Pictured above, there's a Double Stacker on top of a Mexican Chicken Sandwich. It's a sodium bomb, which left me feeling swollen and sluggish.  For the remainder of the day, I smelled  greasy.  Between the cheese and spice of the Mexican Chicken, and the savory bacon of the Double Stacker, the flavors were...uh...interesting.  I wonder if there would be a way to modify the Chicken Sandwich to make it work better with the Double Stacker sandwich.  The overall experience was something that would've been cool when I was 17 or 18, but...man, eating this at 35 was a poor decision.

  Hey, it's pretty decent!  Hot and fresh, so it was a delight to eat...much better than the cold, slightly stale Big Mozz burger I had at Sheetz when I was out east.  Seriously, a burger like this must be served piping hot for maximum enjoyment, and the Wendy's on South Washington in Holland delivered!  The giant lump of mozzarella was a bit weird - I did expect something more like individual sticks, but whatever.  The sauce was a touch more creamy than I expected - it was something more like a Franco/American or Chef Boyardee sauce than a real, handmade Italian sauce, but c'mon, it's freakin' Wendys...temper your expectations.  It's a fast-food burger drivethru for cryin' out loud. It was a unique enough menu item that I was interested in trying it.  I'd definitely order it again!

Alternate titles: Judging Art In The Context Of Which It Was Made Cancel Culture Comes For Tulip City "I'm not saying you're racist, just everyone who enjoys the same things as you is racist."  This was told to me by a so-called "woke leftist" on a progressive Discord server a while back - I wound up leaving the server because it got incredibly toxic and inflammatory during the 6-9 months I was active on there.  The topic at hand was the TV show The Dukes Of Hazzard , and how the series is seen (in a post-George Floyd world) as "Confederate Propaganda," for a myriad of reasons:  There are no black main characters; it shows impoverished white folks having a good time and living a positive life in the South; it glorifies the image of simple/rural/farm living (and therefore is anti-progressivism).  When asked to show me a good, wholesome, approved TV sitcom from the early 1980s, the other person could not.  When I pointed out that the series depicted ...

 Recently, I encountered a situation wherein I was exposed to a person who tested positive for CoViD-19 Omicron Variant...the version that is more highly contagious because of an extended incubation time, as well as reduced initial symptoms.  This was on campus at Grand Rapids Community College.  Part of the requirements here were to report to the college, then isolate while awaiting instruction from health officials at the college. Meanwhile, I was at work in Allegan County while all this was going down.  I was receiving text messages and phone correspondence from GRCC.  Per Allegan County Health Department standards, which my employer followed, I was mandated (still am, TBH) to wear a mask while at work for 10 days after my exposure, but otherwise everything is as normal. Because I've gotten both initial doses of the vaccine, as well as the booster, GRCC sent me a flow chart based on the Kent County Health Department, the State of Michigan, and the federal CDC...

  Free beer, free beer, that's my favorite brand,  sing Da yoopers, if I didn't have to buy it, it's the best beer in the land.   So, too, says Your Favorite Uncle At Thanksgiving.  Warm, flat, funky, it don't matter to me, the greatest beer in this whole world is the one you buy for me. But then, the side comments set in: "Sam Adams?  That tastes like shit." "Founders?  Yeah, I worked there when they were brewing.  The hops smelled like sewage - they smelled like sewage!  I called my guys off because I thought we broke a sewer line!" "Want a Bud?  No?  You brought your own?  You're a beer snob now." "I don't drink that yuppy beer." "I like Busch because Busch Light is too redneck for me" I'd like to posit the idea that Baby Boomers don't really even like beer. By 1910, before Prohibition, there were 1,498 breweries in the United States.  By 1979, that number dwindled to fewer than 50.  While the quantity...

 Somewhere along the line, I've mentioned my "diverse" background of work experiences - across a vast swath of industries , and a proven track record of reliability against many challenges.  I've worked a lot of jobs, filed a lot of 1040 and W2 forms, have taken a lot of interviews, and have been the fucking new guy more times than I care to count.  As a result, I've collected lots of bits of information and advice; some good, most terrible.  So, let's take a little deep dive into the poor, bad, unworkable, or downright shitty advice I've gotten through the years: Just Leave Your College Years Off Of Your Resume  The premise here is that if you're applying for a job that doesn't require a college degree, don't put your college on there.  I've had tons of interviewers tell me that they won't hire a project manager without boots-on-the-ground experience...but, contractors and tradesmen won't hire a guy with a degree to swing a hamme...

 The time is nigh - AskReddit has begun asking questions like " What advice would you give to an incoming college freshman ?"  Since life ebbs and flows like it does, I find myself returning to academia this fall - and with a decade of struggles under my belt , I've been contemplating these questions myself:  Compared to last go-round, what am I going to do differently this time?  What would I tell myself when I was 18?  Would 18 year old me even listen? I went from Dean's List to Academic Probation within 2 school years - I got cocky and developed a piss-poor attitude, plain and simple.  What I'm doing differently this time is what led to that dean's list success in my first semesters:  Arranging study groups and outside class activities to build rapport among my classmates and further our mutual understanding of the course content.  My success as a freshman can be directly correlated to external study groups and being social among my classm...

I've had a lot of jobs.  I've been the new guy at work more than I care to admit.  It was losing a job that inspired me to start writing this blog.  It's bleak, but I've learned that nothing is permanent, and that companies expect absolute loyalty from their employees while giving nothing back.  In 2014, when I was let go with an injury, I spent a lot of time in my own head - introspecting, praying, and trying to work out a new plan.  It was then that I came to realize that life is a series of moments.  I was at a crossroads of every single moment in my life - if any of those previous moments hadn't happened, I wouldn't be where I was that day.  I was (still am, TBH) the result of every single moment in my life; every single decision I'd ever made.  And, I was exactly where God wanted me at that moment. The first job I was forcibly removed from was a job at a factory producing plastic wrap.  When I got a call from a temp agency, I thought tha...

A third edit...yet more feedback: If you can justify the statement that "Trump made me rich enough to retire" by being born in 1950, reaching actual retirement age in 2015, then waiting out the last year of Obama's presidency (and the economic recovery from the 2008-2010 Great Recession) before retiring in June 2017, then I can justify the statement that "Donald Trump's economic policies cost me 2 jobs." The person who said this reentered the workforce in 2019 to get out and get some fresh air, taking the job I was being prepped for at a fraction of the cost (because he had a fully-funded union pension to retire on), and his hire was the reason I left that place of employment to take the job at the cabinetmaker.  When he reentered the workforce, he took the job I was slated to move into. Yet another edit to this one, to address more feedback: This was shared to illustrate my experience with certain controversial federal political concepts, and how they impac...

 Chatting with a friend-of-a-friend in the Before Times (before March 2020 when a national State of Emergency was declared for the CoVid-19 pandemic, and before mask mandates and stay-home-stay-safe orders were on the books), I asked her opinion on current events from the point of view of someone a few years younger than myself.  While I'm quite firmly in the Millennial age group, her point of view was from someone who straddles that gap between "Millennial" and "Gen Z".  Her response was "Every day I wake up is the worst day in history." That gave me chills. Every day during the Trump presidency, there was a new scandal, or a new major event.  That was generally Trump's playbook:  Do or say something extreme to distract from other current events.  These past 4 years have been exhausting to live through, trying to stay on top of the news, and being an active consumer by filtering out the bad sources and digging through the fluff and biases to deter...

It's not my aim with this blog to make any political statements.  It's my aim to showcase unique bits of history around Holland and West Michigan.  Fact is, we're living through tremendously historical times.  While I'm feeling conflicted over covering current events and news, I also feel like it's important to address events that have happened over the past week: -On May 25, George Floyd was detained by Minneapolis, MN police and was held down with an officer kneeling on his neck until he died.  The officer and his 3 colleagues have been fired, and at least the offending officer has been charged.  This has led to protests and riots across the country, including right here in Grand Rapids, MI.  Most of the people arrested in Grand Rapids were non-residents, which lends credence to the rumor/theories that these protests across the nation were infiltrated by alt-right agent provocateurs with the explicit purpose of stirring up shit.  Journalistic note:...

Another week without a historical, informative post.  There's been a lot on my mind, as I'm still looking for work and coming up short.  It's frustrating, seeing lists like this, and reading how in-demand people with my background supposedly are.  The jobs clearly aren't within 25 miles of Holland. I'm still struggling to get this blog into search engines, but getting stymied by a lack of connectivity between this site and my Google account.  I think I figured it out, but it takes a day or two to get Google's analytics tool to respond properly. Take care!