Undercover Boss, and I do so religiously. I know, I know. It is as lowest common denominator as you can get, and they attempt to play on the most base of emotions, but, sometimes, they actually hit someone who makes me happy. Such was this young lady from 1-800-Flowers
last night.
Nicole works in a chocolate factory, and runs the line that boxes the chocolate covered goodies that they put in flower arrangements or something. The COO/President wasn't getting the boxes done and the line was backing up, and she would just walk over, do a few things and bang!, line fixed. Quiet, effective management, no yelling, no screaming, no threatening, no dire warnings about productivity, just steady leadership by example. Competence. And when they got to the reveal, where the Boss tells the employee, "hey, remember me? I'm not Dipshit McJones after all, hahahaha, I'm the President of the company!" and the employee gets to have a heart attack while thinking "did I piss this guy off? was there a booger in my nose? what was wearing that day? WHAT DID I SAY?!?!!!!", this young lady merely looked serenely worried, if that is possible. And I got what I watch for, my payoff, the boss saying "You saw how hard I was working on the line and how crazy it was, but it was amazing. When you stepped in it went calm." Her reply? "Thank you. I take pride in it." She is so competent that her answer itself is the ultimate expression of competency. Straight to the point, she knows what he is talking about, and doesn't brag or put on airs, just accepts the praise of her boss, and let's him know that it is important to her. Her "reward"? An incentive program, company wide, based on performance, with her name on it, as well as an actual management position. Talk about never having to buy a beer when you go out with co-workers. This is compelling TV. It doesn't happen every week, but sometimes, there is a spark of hope. People are being rewarded not for kissing ass, or for who they know, or for what they look like, or for what they wear; but for the craziest of reasons, how they actually perform their job. Of course, the other 4 people are hardworking as well, and I'm sure handpicked for the show, but as with this young lady., once in a while, it feels like they really found someone they weren't expecting to find, who blows them away with just competence. And that fires my brain up.
What the hell happened? An brigade of Bulldozers? Huge Army ants? Nope, that's what that seemingly small amount of water did in the space of 5 minutes, shown in this cute video:
from the Lituya Bay shoreline in 1958, when a tsunami was created by a landslide, and rolled up a narrow bay, destroying everything up to a certain height. This is why I don't like swimming, people. At any second, danger can kill you from any direction.
s illustrating my point. Well, they will amuse me at any rate. I actually use 
to edit, which is free, but if you don't know anything about installing and using a high end photo editor, stick with photoshop for now. I'll start by way of introduction. Hi. I'm Howard. I'm 46, I'm Bipolar Type I, bordering on Schizophrenia, as well as Adult ADD. I have a wonderful and terrifying 11 year old daughter, Child, and a OCD Jack Russel/Mutt dog that 
on top of the couch, but do not be fooled. She is actually stalking something in the kitchen in slow-mo. Noodles is 12-0 v. wildlife in the yard/house, including 6 rats, 4 mice, a bird, and a possum. The possum was the best, She had him under the house, and wh3en I went to investigate, Mr. Possum figured, "aw hell, I better run for it". Bad mistake. Noddles got hold of him and was all whackwhackwhackwhackwhack for about 10 seconds, and Mr. Possum was no more, and he was not playing dead either. noodles then started to take him under the porch for a little feast, as she was a street dog, when found, but I intervened and she got a treat for whacking Mr. Possum. She treed a Barn Owl on top of a telephone pole one night, well, to be honest, the Owl was sitting on top and interestedly peering at her, as she barked wildly at it. I believe she would attempt to run a bear off if it got in the yard, if not try and kill and eat it. And that brings us to the photoshop of the day:
