Some people pay a lot to look cool....

So today I was at the local Academy Sports and Outdoors retailer, you know... the one that has the right stuff at the right price?
I was here a few days ago to visit the fishing department and the storefront looked normal, upon my return today it looked like a bomb of Dallas Mavericks Championship gear exploded in the entrance. I could not believe how quickly companies had produced these apparel items. Then I realized that these were probably made BEFORE the Dallas Mavericks even won the series which would lead me to believe that sitting somewhere in a warehouse is a huge lot of Oklahoma City Thunder apparel. What is going to happen to these shirts and hats? Probably they will be donated or sold dirt cheap to the poor in foreign countries. I remember when I was in youth group and we used to go down to Mexico every year to build houses, (Back when people were not scared of drug lords and machine guns), I would always see people wearing lots of sports clothing for teams in the USA. I now believe that most of this is donated. Maybe all those children in Juarez really do love the Denver Broncos but my guess goes with the corporate donation.
I know when civilians donate items they get to deduct so much from their taxes... well I would bet that corporations that donate shirts and hats for teams that didn't perform get to donate those as well.
At academy a basic Mavericks t-shirt will run you about 20 dollars.... lets say that it cost 6 dollars to manufacture and ship that shirt in bulk.
The company has to pay for an OKC Thunder shirt to be made too so that bumps up production costs to 12 dollars a shirt.
That 12 dollar shirt now gets sold for 20 which puts 8 dollars in profit into the store and/or manufacturer.
But now the producer has a bunch of OKC Thunder shirts that are wrong... what to do?
I would guess that they donate these shirts, write them off at a cost of production value and deduct that from their taxes.
Lets say the deduction rate is a dollar deducted for a dollar donated.
Now they have earned 14 dollars per shirt based on the 6 dollar production cost making it worthwhile to print shirts for both outcomes because no matter who wins you will make the money of the lost shirts back.

Lesson learned? I need to get into the sports apparel business.

Kayak + More!

Swifty Morgan became a seafaring captain yesterday.

I took two kayaks out to the lake yesterday evening. It was so much fun!
The super awesome girlfriend and I used to go to the lake all the time just to sit and watch the water. Last night we figured out the last time we went to go watch the water must have been about a year ago before I went to camp last summer. But the girlfriend and I had a great time just paddling around.
And if one of my coworkers is reading this: yesterday, I was captain of my ship.

Today I have a lot of cleaning and packing to do before I go to camp on Sunday.

-Swifty

First Page of the Last Chapter

So Swifty Morgan is now a senior in college.
3 years down, 1 to go!

This new blogger format is driving me nuts, for some reason it doesn't like the enter button. oh well.

This summer I will be working at Camp Tom Hale. A Boy Scout camp. <--- That IS the real name. Now you know where Swifty Morgan will be. I will be working in scoutcraft somewhere and teaching merit badges. Access to a computer will be limited so blog posts will be saved and posted mostly on the weekends.

I depart for camp on the 29th and will spend 9 weeks in the wilderness. The wilderness is a great time to write, I really like it out there. The middle of the Ouachita national forest is a great place to relax and write.

My RA job is done for the spring and I can't wait to get back to it in the fall, I already miss COLLEGE TOWN and my RA coworkers.

-Swifty

Time to start turning off the machine.

Some say it takes a fully loaded freight train a real long time to come to a complete stop. Think about it, the average freight train (90-120 cars) takes 18 football fields to come to a complete stop under emergency conditions. Under non-emergency conditions it takes a LONG TIME. Well that is how work and school is going now. We are still chugging along but slowly deaccelerating. Each week the throttle gets pulled back just a little bit.

This week quiet hours were extended to all but 1 hour per day. Yup 23 hour a day quiet hours... anyone want to guess where else in the world this system of 23 hour restraint takes place?

That's right!
Super-Max Prisons.

Only in my dorm I don't force you to stay in a tiny cell all day and eat food loafs. And you can always go outside for some rec time and take as many showers as you want.

Sounds like you're living the dream!


One other thing I do not think my students truly appreciate is a clean room. Many of them (despite my urgings) are waiting until the last day possible to clean their rooms.

Can it be done? Yes, Yes it can.
Can it be done in under an hour? Not to my standards!

If I check them out and the room is randomly selected to be checked for cleanliness AND part of it that I signed off on is dirty, guess who gets to go clean it? That's right! Swifty gets to put on the gloves and trade his gun for a bottle of 409 or Windex.

I have three more exams before I am done with school for my Junior year of college.
Thursday:
Honors Environmental Science
Correctional Systems

Friday:
Criminal Law

Lots of reading to do for Criminal Law, a little bit of reviewing for environmental science, and just looking at the index for correctional systems.

Sounds easy enough!


The super amazing girlfriend is already out of school for the semester, and I am really jealous because I wish I were back home with her instead of here cleaning and working on exams. But next week will be exciting because the two of us are going to take a road trip to Kansas for the week to visit my Grandparents. (Hmmmm, I think they need a blog name....) They will be referred to as the World Champion Grandparents. I am visiting my world champion grandparents in Kansas and cannot wait to get up there.

*Side note: As a little kid my world champion grandparents would always introduce us grandkids as world champion grandson or granddaughter. As a kid I always thought this was pretty cool to be thought of like that. Now that I am a criminal justice major I learn about this awesome thing called labeling theory. Basically it states that if you call someone something or label them as such eventually their attitudes and actions will work to fit that label. So I don't know if I am who I am because my grandparents said I was a world champion but I am sure it didn't hurt. I will have to remember that when/if I am a parent/grandparent/great-grandparent.... Mostly the first one.

Well that is all for tonight folks, remember May is Click it or Ticket Month. More officers are on the road looking for that magic seat belt. Have a great day!

-Swifty

Summer Camp

Just a few more days until I am out of school and off to my summer job.
I am working at a Boy Scout camp again this summer teaching merit badges. I am excited about working in the national forest all summer!

Last Summer I worked teaching the merit badges Indian Lore and Woodcarving.

In my Indian Lore classes I had students write papers about what they learned.
One of my favorite essays was about the trail of tears:

Student:
"I likes how we talked about the trail of tears. They had a long hard hike. Many died and now are gowverment is having to pay for it."

Needless to say I am looking forward to the summer.