The post office system has come a long way

The postal service has come a long way from being the most important service industry, to almost being obsolete due to emails, and the many ways people are able to communicate through the internet. In 1639 the very first post office was established in a Boston home of a man named Richard Fairbanks, this was also a tavern. Then on July 26, 1775, the US postal system was officially established. It has been an essential part of American society ever since. Because the us mail was the only official way to send money, harsh penalties were imposed on mail theft. First time offenders were punishable by a public whipping and a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Second offenders were subject to death. This was unchanged until 1872. Did you know the Postmaster General was once a semi-celebrity?   His next position after postmaster general was U.S. Supreme court justice, he was also viewed as a serious presidential candidate.

The civil war help change the way we get our mails today.  In early America everyone had to go to the post office to get their mails, this meant long wait in freezing, sunny, or rainy weather. A postal clerk in Ohio City is said to have come up with the free delivery system, when he saw so many women forced to wait in long lines at the post office, in hazardous weather conditions, fretting, since the only way to get news to their loved ones fighting in the war, was through the mail. His free delivery system was such a success that it quickly spread to other cities before becoming a national norm.

 
Even though mails get delivered to people’s homes, mail carriers were to hand it only to the recipients. This meant workers waited and waited or circled back repeatedly until their customer came home. On March 1, 1923, all U.S. homes had to have a mailbox or slot, this meant postal employees no longer had to worry about patrons, just their dogs. I felt it's important to share this article I read by Daryl Chen. https://www.rd.com/article/us-postal-service-facts/

Things I didn't know about roses

Did you know that roses are one of the oldest flowers in the world I have read that archeologist have found roses dated back to 35 million years, Roses are eatables, in the medieval days roses were use to decorate buildings, medicinal extracts, cooking ingredients and ornaments.

 
Their fragrance is used to make perfumes, specifically rose oil. Bulgaria is one of the largest producer of rose oil. The colors of roses have meaning in the western world, like red roses is associated to love and romance, pink, grace and elegance, and so on.  I didn't know that the rose is the US national flowers. President Ronald Reagan officially made the rose, the national flower emblem of the United States. Very interesting fun facts about roses.

Animation 6.9.1

Animation is an interesting feature. I enjoy learning about this feature because the text remain stationary on the slide by default, so when you apply an animation this make the presentation animated which is more fun. When animation is applied the text can appear one bullet point, or one picture at a time, there is a variety of options to choose from. You can use the timing to determine whether the selected animation begins on click, with previous, or after previous.

There are four types of animations, entrance, exit, emphasis and motion. you can apply any animation of your preference to your slide and the cool thing about that is you can preview the animation to see what it will look like during the presentation. I like this topic so much I think I previewed all or most of the effects. I especially liked to see the eclipse of the moon slide, with the motion effect.

Easter tradition in Jamaica

Lately I have been missing home, I haven't gone since the pandemic and I truly miss it. Easter was coming up soon.  So I went to the Jamaican store to buy some Easter bun and cheese. Because traditionally in Jamaica at Easter time we eat Easter bun and cheese, fried fish, make rice and red bean with steam fish and watched the crucifix all day on television. The Jamaican store I usually get it at, didn't have any. I was so disappointed, so I vented to my daughter. She went to the same store about a week later and they were closed, on a day they should be open, I know this because of their hours of operations posted on the door. "Makes no sense to me". I was over it but not my child.

Her and her husband went and found a Jamaican store all the way on East Flamingo Road. It was a little mom and pop eatery,  that also have a groceries section.  So they ate their and were able to get Jamaican bun and cheese, ackee, salted fish and yams. I was able to have a traditional Jamaican food I haven't had in years,  for a moment it felt like home and that makes my day. Ackee looks like scrambled eggs when it's cooked but it's delicious with salted fish. It was canned ackee of course but delicious anyway. These are pictures I found online because I didn't think to take pictures, and I didn't planned to write a blog about it either. I figured why not I can't think of anything else to write about anyway.

Observing how rude our society have become

Working in the service industry you get to see and observed a lot. The regulars who are like family, you address them by name, they address you by name. They share what's going on in their lives and even  gives you updates on past events, they've already told you about. And then you have the ones that are unhappy if they win, unhappy if they've lost, unhappy if nothing happens, they are unhappy no matter what. And then you have the high rollers who are so privileged, it doesn't matter how busy you are, they expect you to stop in the middle of what you are doing, or whoever you are helping to cater to them.

Let's face it, we all need the workers in the service industry to render services. During the pandemic everyone came to the realization that the people in the service industries are essential workers. So the next time you walk into an establishment and see someone doing the job no one else wants to do, be kind and know that, that might be someone else's mother, daughter, brother, uncle, or grandmother. Say something kind or say nothing. You never know what kind of day a person may be having and a kind word might brighten their day. We are all human and a little kindness goes a long way.

Reflecting on a particular Life decision

Never put off the things you want to do today for tomorrow, because tomorrow turns into next week, next week turns into next year, then twenty years later and you still have not accomplished what you wanted. There is never the right time to do important things such as getting married, starting a family, buying a house, or get a degree, but do it anyway, push through the struggles and get it done at all cost. I wish I had done that with my education, it is definitely harder now and I really regret not finishing years ago.

When you are young you don't think, or even know what it's like to be older. So take my advice, it's inevitable, everyone gets older eventually.  You are not as fast, your memory is not as sharp, patience wears thin easily, and everything hurts, "I am not there yet in the hurt department", but I know it's coming. I have to say in the beginning I didn't think I would finish this class, if it wasn't the encouragement of Professor Wu, I probably would have given up, but now I know  that I am not doing as bad has I thought I was, I will definitely take my own advice. If the school load gets too much drop down to one class but don't stop completely, it is easier to pick up a few more courses than to start from scratch many years later. That's my advice speaking from experience the struggle is real.