Why oh why Apple do you charge for service packs? You know one of my biggest pet peeves is that Apple says they come out w/ a new OS but in fact its just a service pack. After all isn’t it still OS X w/ a new build on it. Hmmm MS does that but they just call it a service pack and its free.
Haven’t they used Leopard already anyway? I mean isn’t there some other kitties out there that deserve respect. Where is OS Meerkat or Puma, dare I say Lion?
After reading a post about this ale on bgwillers.com and suspecting that we might have similar tastes I bought ye old six back at the local establishment. I thought that this ought to be a fine beverage seeing that Matt and I both enjoy Miller High Life and I do like Blue Moon. This however taste like beer and squash. *vomit*
I’m no squash fan, but I am a pumpkin pie person. I guess I expected more of a pumpkin spice sorta flavor, but not this. So If you’re wondering what its like, try Blue Moon and squash not Blue Moon and Pumpkin Spice.
image from justbeer.wordpress.com
I guess I saw the writing on the wall and left a year ahead of the Brooke layoffs.
Here’s a couple articles:
I have several opinions about the subject. I do know many of the people within the company both in Phillipsburg and Kansas City. I can’t say that I’d ever go back to work for them. The environment wasn’t suited for me in a number of ways. I’m glad I got out when I did.
I do know the people mentioned in both articles, aside from the Albert Riederer. There is a lot of infomation that is kept from the P-burg workforce, but I do believe that the folks in management were proud of the employment opportunities they created in P-burg.
However, jobs in Phillipsburg are cheaper for the company than ones in KC. So it’s kinda like outsourcing. I’m sure that if my job (when I worked there) was in KC I would have been making 10k more per year.
Jobs aside, I think the company structure was such a mess that some impending doom was on the horizon sooner or later. I’m a little shocked that almost exactly a year from my departure the proverbial doo-doo has forcefully contacted the air transfer device.
You see Brooke’s cash flow is circular. Their insurance branch(BXX) brings in franchisees who borrow money from Brooke’s lending branch(BCP). Since the insurance branch lacks a competitive advantage over almost every competitor coupled with many bad franchises, cash flow has been limited from A to B starting this auto-self-destruct. The credit crunch hasn’t helped the situation either. The life preserver that they were grasping was punctured when every bit of stock on the market tumbled, destroying any leftover income they had.
I’m sure like other intities in insurance and banking, Brooke’s holdings will be absorbed into much larger companies. I can see Allstate purchasing some of the business from them.
We will see. Its just too bad the small town of Phillipsburg got caught in the crossfire.
