Raising money for cancer research

My grandfather died of cancer. At the age of 80. Lung cancer took his life. He never smoke one day in his life.

Cancer can affect anyone and at anytime. It's a scary disease and on that we are learning more and more about. There needs to be more invest and money put into curing cancers, instead of just managing it.

As most of you know, I've been getting in on this running thing, mainly because I want to make my friend do 50 burpees while saying "I'm your bitch", but also I don't want to be a fat ass. The first half marathon I did was the Rock n Roll half. The time was shitty...2.5 hours. I need to improve on that pretty majorly. So I decided to take on the Maryland Half Marathon.

I'm trying to raise a modest $500 for the UMD Cancer Center and for any one reading this, please donate. There's been a lot of bad press about NGOs and non-profits having HUGE overhead, but the one thing I have come to notice is that donating directly to a hospital is always worth it.

Please go to this webpage: http://www.ummsfoundation.org/redpanda#.UUisAhesiSp and donate. Any small amount helps.

Thank you.

Why the system is stacked against the working man

So, I can officially say I hate my job. Not because of the work hours. Not because I hate my boss. Not because I travel too much. It's because it has definitively shown me that this capitalist system has been stacked against the working man.

First, I am not the working man. I do not write this to complain about my treatment. I've done really well for myself. I can honestly say that through my hard work, my ability to con employers in believing I will champion their profit margins, and a good deal of luck, I have been able to almost double my income during one of the worst recessions. I am not complaining about myself.

What I do have a beef with is how our capitalist system has been stacked against the working family, meaning no college education, making maybe not minimum wage, but still an hourly worker that's making less than $20/hour, who has a family and/or paying child support. These people are getting fucked by the system.

Corporate greed is nothing new. We will do anything to better our bottom line, which corporation will then deliver to their shareholders. Great. Whatever. Capital investments generate more capital and this wheel perpetually spins. I have not a huge problem with that. Investment bankers irritate me and all, but I don't hate them. They are greedy and have taken unnecessary risk against our own economy, but at the end of the day, they reap the fruits of their labor and make money with money. Super. Not what I want to do, but for this, to each their own.

What I have a HUGE gripe over is any company that makes a profit off of other people's labor. Let's take my company as an example, which for my job security will remain nameless. If you don't know already, I manage glorified janitors, our whole company is a bunch of glorified janitors or gophers, we're a "soft business services" company. Our profit is directly linked to how much work we do, might it be shipping and receiving, or in my case, janitorial work. We pay people shit. The highest paid person I have is about $18 and the lowest is $11. Not horrible, but considering they are all living in urban places, it's barely enough to get by and your bound living paycheck to paycheck.