about mmog37

Husband, father, mentor, writer, and motivational speaker are the hats I wear, in a weird sort of way they all kind of fit together. I am learning all about life and God's Love through my everyday adventures & experiences as a parent. :) Wanna no more about me... Fun Facts about MMOG37 Twitter? Follow Me @mmog37

about this blog

This is my spot were I "think out loud." Often sarcastic sometimes humorous but always enlightening personal blog of mmog37. Enjoying this journey called life and writing about the things that influence my world the most...Faith, Family & Friends

Do You Know Brenda?

Today's post is for a good friend, who for the past 17+ years has always
been there for my family. She knows who she is and if she is reading
this at work everyone else probably will to when they hear her talking
out loud to her computer, which is probably not a good thing to be
doing when you work in a medical building. (ixnay on the alkingtay to the computer)

Although I have only been knowing her for the last 17 years, my wife
has had the privilege of growing up with her and they have been best
friends for most of their lives. I envy them sometimes the way they
have managed to stay so close over the years, even when their paths
seemed to go in different directions, when they reconnected, it was as
if they had never parted.

As I look back over the years there are a lot of faces that pop in and
out, but she has been there consistently through the good and the bad,
fortunately we have had more good than bad.

For those that know me well, you are probably aware that years ago I was struck by a car, ran over and left for dead at the side of the road. It took
a lot of hard work for me to recover. During that period it was a
challenge to not be depressed and feel sorry for myself. What you
(and this friend) probably don't know is that she treated my wife and I
to one of the best nights of my life, that ultimately gave me a boost and helped speed up my recovery.

It wasn't a fancy dinner or a night on the town...it was a late night
invite to a friendly game of badminton. Through one of her many
connections (she's got people) she managed to get us access to the gym
at the junior high school. Initially I went along to do something
different with the wife so I had no expectations one way or the other,
but I have to tell you that I had never had so much fun before in my
life. I had so much fun, even now I can't help but smile thinking
about how I was adding sound effects every time I returned a serve. It
was the most exercise I had engaged in since the accident.

I had so much fun that night that the wife and I ended up purchasing a
badminton set shortly afterwards and I am sure that we used to keep the neighbors on
the military base entertained with our weekly grudge matches. I truly
believe the exercise contributed to an even faster recovery...it
definitely helped keep me from being depressed.

We have since been on many adventures with this friend, like our trips
to Stinson Beach and Lake Tahoe, and my children wont let us forget
about their sophisticated mornings with her complete with their own
little cups of coffee or the Pokeno games and eggnog shots (non-alcohol of course). I'm
still trying to repair my videotape that actually managed to capture a
few of our summer trips together when all of our children were still
small.

Even after we moved and bought our first house in Missouri, she flew
from California and braved the cold weather, to spend the holiday with
us, and it was my pleasure to keep her up way past her bedtime telling
her and my wife stories making them laugh until their sides hurt.

So what does all this have to do with Brenda? No that is not her
name...it is however the name of some lady who we didn't quite meet on
one of our adventures with this friend. Let me explain...

The three of us were sitting in the car talking. We were picking up
her daughter from a friends house. While waiting, we were just sitting
and chatting enjoying each other's company. While we were trying to
talk to each other we couldn't help but overhear someone talking very
loud, which was odd because there was no one near us. We discovered
the loud voice coming from several houses away. There was a woman
sitting in a new truck talking to several people.

This woman was talking sooooo loud we weren't trying but we could hear
everything word she said. We knew where, when and why she got her new
truck and even how much she paid for it. For several minutes this
woman went on and on. Finally having ran out of things to tell she
began to pull away from the curb. The group of people she was talking
with all waved and said "Bye Brenda!"

From the backseat I could see "Brenda" driving in our direction, and
just as her truck was passing us, our friend said "Bye Brenda!"
prompting Brenda to come to a stop and then proceed to back up her
truck. I take it that one of the benefits of being friends for such a
long time is the ability to communicate telepathically (either that or
perhaps they have done this type of thing before) because before I knew
it both my wife and friend we down on the floor of the car, leaving me
to appear to be the only person in the car.

By now Brenda had backed up her truck and was leaning out of the window
trying to see into the car. "who Dat Know Brenda in there? she asked.
I pretended not to hear her and remained looking forward hoping that
she had vision like a T-rex, and that if I remained perfectly still she
would not see me and would then move on. "Is that somebody Brenda know
in there?" "Brenda heard somebody call her name!" She kept trying but
I was not moving nor responding, I just sat not moving doing my best
crash test dummy impersonation.

The entire time my wife and friend were down on the floor snickering as
they watched the show. Brenda was either a little bit slow or was
excited at the thought of someone knowing her, because she sat there
inquiring for several minutes...and I will never forget how our friend
just casually popped back up into her seat as is she had been
teleported there, but even more so she pulled a jedi mind trick on
Brenda and convinced her that she must have been hearing things.

Of course on the way home there was comedy at my expense as they
laughed at me and my pretending not to be there, I had to laugh along
myself but now I know better so I stay prepared when I am in the car
with those two.

So this one is for you "Friend", my small way of saying thanks. Thanks for all of the fun adventures, thanks for my list of "firsts" First home made enchiladas...First trip to Stinson Beach...First Late night Badminton Game...First trip to the "Big Slide Park" to name a few. Thanks for the early morning cups of coffee and conversations and thanks for the "tough love" when I needed it. Thanks for treating my children as if they were your own...thanks for being there when we needed you..but most of all thanks for being there for my wife all these years...you should see her eyes light up as she talks fondly of how you looked out for her and kept her on the straight and narrow...I am blessed to enjoy her as the fine woman she has become and you were instrumental in that, and for that I will be eternally grateful.

So again Ta-Ta, Thanks for being such a good friend, and if you see Brenda...tell her I said hello. :)






My Sister Was Right All Along...


Looks like my sister was right all along. She has never liked Rachel Ray. She said it was something irritating and evil about her voice. She could not quite put her finger on it, but she knew there was something shady going on. Well now everyone knows her deep dark secret, she has ties to terrorism.

Yes you read that right...terrorism. Dunkin Donuts was forced to pull a commercial featuring Rachel Ray that was determined to have "terrorist symbolism" in it. Apparently Rachel Ray tried to send some subliminal messages by way of a "keffiyeh" disguised to look like an ordinary black and white paisley scarf.

Fortunately the ad was pulled before millions of gullible viewers were able to be hypnotized and tricked into going and buying mass quantities of Dunkin Donuts coffee and then becoming anti-patriotic terrorist, boy we really dodged the bullet this time.

Now I have to launch an investigation of my own to see which terrorist cell was really behind this e-card I received the other day.

Looks like we better start paying more attention huh? Check out my latest article on AC Content dealing with the same subject Rachel Ray Commercial Banned








Girls Can't Play With Boys...



Apparently when girls are around boys can't concentrate or they feel compelled to take it easy and hold back when they are playing against girls. At least that is what the geniuses behind the decision to ban a 12 year old girl from playing with the boys think.

Young Jaime Nared, is only 12 years old and is a whopping 6 feet and 1 inch tall. The league that banned her says her skill level and height has nothing to do with it (if you say so)

What do you think? Should she banned from playing with the boys her age, or she she just move up in age group and play with older taller girls?

Is There a Plumber in The House?

There is one thing I have come to learn about my house...there is no such thing as a quick repair. It would appear that even simple jobs like replacing a faucet always seem to turn into something major with several trips to the hardware store.

This weekend I tried to get a few of the honey-do's done. The list included switching out the basin faucets and drain spout, and replacing the tub and shower fixtures. My wife had found a lovely brushed nickel set and all I had to do was switch them out.

I began with the basin faucets which to my surprise went fairly easy, it was a bit awkward trying to get the old ones disconnected...but other than annoying it went fairly smooth. The ease of the first job, tricked me into forgetting that there are no easy jobs around here. I was all happy and feeling accomplished as I began to tackle the shower fixtures. My ego was quickly deflated once I began trying to remove the old fixtures.

Apparently the last person to work on the plumbing was so confident of his work that everything was sealed behind a fiberglass shower enclosure without access to the plumbing. I'll spare you the details of all the agony and brainstorming I had to go through, let's just say that by the time everything was done I ended up with new plumbing and am now in the process of remodeling the entire bathroom, which isn't a bad thing. While I was finishing up my wife and I were joking she had the spigot in her hand and said, "I want you to build me a bathroom around this" and it looks like I will be doing just that.

On the brighter side we now have a new window in the bathroom (I will have some pics available later)

As I was working on the pipes, it reminded me of something stupid I did as a kid. When I was about eight or nine I had a bad habit of waking up around 1:00 in the morning and going exploring around the house. I also had a bad habit of swinging on the exposed plumbing in the basement. One morning I was swinging on the pipes and the copper pipe bent under my weight and sprung a leak.

I saw the leak and panicked. I tried sticking things on it to patch it, I even tried the soap trick, rubbing a dry bar of soap over the hole in an attempt to clog the hole. Nothing I tried worked. They say that misery loves company, and they are right, not wanting to panic by myself I woke up my brothers and told them what happened. Somehow I managed to convince them to pray that the leak would stop, which I suspect that they half heartedly did because the leak didn't stop in fact it became worse.

Seeing that their prayers were useless I left the infidels and went looking for a different solution. While searching around I found my dad's tools, and among those tools were his propane torch and some flux and solder. I knew exactly what I needed to do, I had seen my dad do it hundreds of times.

I grabbed the torch and the other tools I needed and proceed to repair the pipe. I turned off the water, prepared the pipes lit the torch added the flux and began trying to sweat the solder into the small hole...again I was unsuccessful. I think it might have worked if I had remembered to drain the water out of the pipe first.

Looking back I'm kind of glad it didn't work. If it had, I think I would have ended up doing even more stupid things and trying to cover them up. Eventually my dad heard all of the commotion and came to investigate and I received a physical reminder of why I should not swing from the pipes...although I must admit it wasn't as brutal as I thought it would be...I think he might have actually been impressed with the fact that I almost fixed the leak LOL

Fortunately my plumbing skills are better and my days of wandering around early in the morning have long since passed. :)




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Now playing: Flame, FUTURE & Iz-Real - It’s All Gon’ Pass
via FoxyTunes

A Busy Week...

There were a lot of things going on this week, but fortunately I was able to stop and take a break with the family. I finally ended my strike against Regal Theaters. They have been on my hit list for a good minute. I'm all for businesses making a profit, but sometimes people get downright greedy!

Awhile back we had some major storms hit the area, the power was out for days. To make matters worse, something happened to the water during the power outage so it wasn't safe to drink the water from the faucet. As a result restaurants were not able to sell any soda or beverages that were not in bottles, this included the movie theater.

The movie theater was one of the few places that had it's power restored, so we decided to go and take in a movie. We didn't find out about the ban on beverages until after we had ordered a bunch of popcorn and other snacks. The attendant told us that they had soda machines in the vending area.

Now you would think that the Theater would look out for it's patrons, but that is not what happened here. I didn't even think to look at the price of the sodas, and I immediately began putting money in the machine, and that's when I discovered that the sodas were almost 3.00 for a small can of soda. Now normally I don't even trip off of prices, but this was extortion of the evil kind...they knew that there was nowhere else to find any beverages. So Regal Theaters fell off that day! I was so upset about it I didn't go back until this week, breaking my two year protest of their theater.

I took the family to go see Prince Caspian, which was a really good movie. Having read the books as a child I was really looking forward to seeing how close they would stick to the original story. I really enjoyed it!



*****************************************************

Back Again, Latarian Milton still on a Hood Rat Mission

I seriously hope that they really get this kid some help. Grandma finally said what most of us have already concluded...that Latarian is merely acting out what he has observed his parents do. I pray the next time we hear from him it will be something good.








Kids Are Like Trouble Magnets...




Lately, I have been working on some articles that I need to get published. A few of those articles deal with some of the latest incidents involving young kids doing "bad things", young boys in particular.

For a moment there I was about to make the same mistake that many adults do and react to these incidents like "Oh My God! What is this world coming to?!" "What's Wrong With Kids These Days?!" However the more I have been researching and writing I don't think these recent occurrences are that much different than any other generation, with the exception that these kids seem to be more creative when it comes to getting in trouble.

Don't get me wrong...I think that there is a problem and something really needs to be done...but it isn't bleak and there is hope...and trust me I know. When I wrote about Latarian Milton, and how he stole his grandmother's car so he could go do hood rat stuff with a friend, I ended up changing and re-writing it. My first piece was kind of hard on the kid, but I kept feeling convicted as I was writing.

I mean it was easy for me to sit in the comfort of my chair in my home, all grown up (not) and be judgmental...After all I'm a responsible adult, registered voter, pay my taxes on time and drive the speed limit...but that is now, what about back then when I was a little Latarian, looking for hood rat stuff to do? Well actually I wasn't trying to do hood rat stuff, the only hood rats I knew were the ones that kept trying to burrow in my backyard. Although I wasn't trying to do hood rat stuff, I do remember some of the stupid things I did as a kid...fortunately for me those things never made it to the media back then. I shared a few of those stupid things, in my article, 40 Random (but true) Facts About MMOG37.


I mentioned earlier that I think the kids of today are probably more creative when it comes to finding trouble to get into, and I am willing to bet that this is mostly due to the kinds of images they are exposed to like movies, videos and video games.

Unlike Latarian and today's kids, we didn't have to worry about the negative influences of video games like Grand Theft Auto, no we were safe watching things like Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry. In fact we loved Bugs Bunny so much that we often paid homage to him in our daily activities, like the time when my little brother, who was tired of being picked on took a coal shovel to the back of the head of another brother...it was kind of disappointing not to see the little stars or birdies floating around his head...thinking that maybe he didn't hit him hard enough he took another whack at it...BANG! still no stars or birdies...oh well that myth was busted.

Then there was the time we wanted to test the theory of the traveling flame. Bugs Bunny was always blowing someone or something up...it was amazing to watch him leave a trail of gunpowder and then light it and watch the sparks travel along the trail he had left, then reach it's destination, blowing up his intended victim. We looked everywhere but we could never seem to find any gunpowder...so we settled for the next best thing...gasoline.

We decided to conduct a few experiments, we selected one of the garbage cans, poured some gas into it, and then made a trail of gas a safe distance away, and then lit it. Nothing happened, so we started back at the beginning and added some more gas to the garbage can and re-poured the gas on the trail. We tried to light it again and still nothing happened.

We figured out that since the trail was so long, the gas on the trail was drying up before we could get a chance to set it on fire, so we came up with a solution, the trail became a trench, we dug the trench several inches deep, so that we could pour enough gas into it to give us time to be able to light it before it dried up.

It took us a few minutes, but once we were done we couldn't wait, we anxiously poured some more gas into the trash can and even more into the trench. We were now ready to test our theory. We hid behind a tree as we prepared to light the trail...we lit a match, tossed it into the gasoline trench and success!

The flame traveled quickly along the long trench we had built, we braced ourselves in preparation for a big explosion as the flames raced toward the garbage can, and once reaching the garbage can, the flames raced up the side. The flames appeared to go down inside the garbage can and just when we we ready to hear a loud bang...Nothing! Nothing at all! Nothing happened...we paused, waited a few moments...still nothing...not a single sound.

We waited for what seemed like a really long time and it appeared that nothing at all was going to happen. Figuring that our plan failed we decided to go and investigate.

We walked slowly toward the garbage can, I keep calling it a garbage can, but it was more like a fifty gallon barrel, we had to stand on a crate to look inside of it. My brothers and I were all perched on tops of buckets and crates, peering down inside a potentially loaded barrel. We began moving things around inside the garbage can, we could smell smoke, and even saw what appeared to be a little trail of smoke coming up from the middle of the garbage can.

Just as each of us had our little heads stuck inside that barrel, we reached down to grab a smoking piece of cardboard, and just as we lifted it up...we heard and felt a loud bang and flame like that of the exhaust from a jet plane came rushing past all of our faces!

The heat was intense but lasted a second, the blast knocked all of us backward off of our little perches. After the ringing stopped and we weren't dizzy anymore we managed to get up and checked to see if we were all okay...after passing the finger and facial feature checks, we returned to the scene of the crime to figure out what just happened.

As it turns out, every time we poured gas into the trash can, (which actually had trash in it by the way,) the gas was trickling down into the bottom of the trash can and collecting inside a jar. When we lit the gas trench, the flame did make it inside the garbage can, but the trash was packed so tight that the initial flame was smothered, leaving only a few smoldering pieces of cardboard in the middle of the garbage can, when we began lifting things up out of the garbage can, the oxygen in the air ignited the flames which then reached the fumes from the gas collected in the jar at the bottom and WHOOSH! there you have it...an instant Pillar of Fire!

Fortunately, for us the extent our injuries were, the loss of our eyebrows, the tips of our afros singed and turned grey and minor burns on our faces causing them to feel extremely tight and shiny. The real injuries, however, came after my dad came home, as this was back in those days when a parent could still measure out a dose "butt whipping" without worrying about going to jail...and although as a kid I was against it...I have to admit in that case we really needed it...who knows what other kinds of stuff we would have been trying to blow up.

These days the closest I come to trouble is when I tell my own children of the bad things I did as a kid. Most of the time they think that I am making this stuff up to amuse them...until their grandmother confirms that I actually did those things.

I share those stories with my children for several reasons. One of those reasons is because I want them to know that I don't just make arbitrary rules for the sake of making them...I make them because I have been there and I know the kinds of trouble kids can find to get into...especially when they have a lot of idle time, no direction and no one there to tell them where the line is and when they are crossing it.

Looking back at my own experiences, there is one conclusion I have come to, regardless of generation or even culture and ethnicity; kids and trouble are like strong magnets being attracted and pulled toward each other, the more distance and/or obstacles you put between the two of them...the lesser the pull will be.

Ironically you can also cause a magnet to lose it's magnetic properties by banging it with a hammer...however it is not recommended that you try this with kids as it could be very messy and earn you a vacation in prison. What I do recommend is that you put as many things as you can between kids and trouble, especially when dealing with boys.

Keep em busy, give them some sort of creative outlet, but most of all spend some time with them even if it's only a little bit..and lastly don't be a superhero...enlist the help of friends and family or people who also want to see your children do well, to help serve as that cushion between your kids and trouble.


...but you don't have to pay any attention to me...I was just thinking.






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Now playing: ShadowFacts - Maternal Instinct ft. Keandra Ayers
via FoxyTunes



Go Fly a Kite.


Literally! :-)

I took a little break from writing and work last week to get outside in the fresh air. I had some much needed work that had to be done on my yard. I also had to clean out my gutters...a tasks that I had procrastinated on for far too long.

My timing couldn't have been more perfect , because shortly after I had finished the rain and the storms hit.

While we were out enjoying the weather, my family and I were discussing all of the things we miss about California. Obviously we miss our family and friends who are still there...but between the internet and phone, and the few trips we have made back there; we at least get to keep in touch with them.

The things we really miss our the adventures we used to have. One of those adventures was going down to the waterfront in Vallejo and rollerskating and flying kites.

I don't quite know why but I haven't been kite flying at all since we have been here in the midwest, but I really do miss it. There is something therapeutic about flying a kite, watching it soar in the air. I also enjoyed doing it because it was time that I got to spend with my children laughing and playing together.

I remember on one occasion, we had went to the beach in San Francisco, one of my nephews tagged along with us. Leave it to me and my nephew to find some kind of way to turn kite flying into a competitive sport.

I had just purchased two of the trick kites with and was getting the hang of controlling them and doing new tricks, somehow my nephew and I began playing a game of kite attack, making our kites swoop and dive into each other's kite. Whoever managed to knock the other person's kite out of the sky was declared the winner.

My children were being thoroughly entertained as they watched my nephew and I struggle to keep the kites under control in the heavy wind. I was pretty confident that I was going to win, and I was about to until the twine on my kite gave way and snapped...sending my kite flying off helplessly toward the city.

I wasn't ready to part with my kite just yet so we quickly packed up everything and went chasing after it in the van. Just when I was about to give up, we located the kite. The remaining piece of twine on it had gotten caught on the power line of an apartment complex.

It was too high for me to reach, so I backed the van up and climbed on top. I almost had it, but then I realized that it was tangled up in a power line and that it was sparking. The wind was still pushing the kite and making it pull on the power line. I decided that I could let the kite go and that I wanted to be far away from there in the case that there was a power outage.

I hated that I lost my kite but we had fun as we drove home, laughing and talking about how I lost the kite in the first place, and debating about who would have really won the kite fight had it continued. I still say that I was the clear winner :)

To some people that wouldn't seem like much of an adventure, but to us it was time that we had together...to enjoy each other's company...and most of those times we would end up meeting new people and making new friends.

I'm not quite sure why I haven't gone kite flying since I have moved, but this year I think it's time that I unpack my old kites and maybe even buy a few new ones, and get back out there an have some fun.


How about you...ever been kite flying?


p.s. I recently published an article about how boys learn through observing the male role models around them, and how this knowledge has influence me in raising my own son. I think you will enjoy reading it. Read it and let me know what you think as i would love to hear from you. It's called Me and My Shadow.

Solid As A Rock...

Nature never ceases to amaze and wonder me. Most people probably go about the busy schedules and never really take a look around, or stop to "smell the flowers."

I have to admit that for a period in my life I was the same way. That changed after my wife and I began homeschooling our children, when we began to look for more creative ways to teach them about the world around them, I began to pay more attention.

We didn't want to just bore the children with "sit down and learn this "kind of classes, so we opted on learning through interaction and the use of teachable moments. As a result we have gone on countless adventures exploring nature and discovering how things work.

Our children are much older now but the habit of paying attention to nature has stuck with me. Especially since we have moved back to the midwest. There is always something new going on in my back yard. Whether it's the rabbits showing up every morning to eat my new grass seed...or the bird that follows me around trying to take a shower as I water the lawn or the squirrel that likes to come up to my back door and look through the glass as if to see what's going on inside...whatever the case it's always interesting.

So in the tradition of looking around and taking it all in I was out working in my yard last week and I noticed a new bird nest in one of my trees. It caught my eye because I saw something shining and glimmering from one of the branches. The bird had built it's nest with a piece of shiny ribbon which was blowing in the breeze. My wife and I were joking that the poppa bird had added a little extra decoration for Mother's Day.

A few days later when all of the bad weather hit I wondered about the cute little nest. The winds were really ripping through the trees in our yard and even caused a few of the branches to break


(a few of the broken branches)

The entire time the wind was blowing I was thinking about that bird's nest, so when the weather cleared up and I was back out in the yard I went to check on it. I was surprised to see that the bird nest was perfectly in tact.

My wife asked me why I was surprised, and after talking with her I realized that it is rare that you see a bird nest get destroyed, in fact you can often see branches that have been ripped from trees and you will see the bird nest still attached to the detached limb perfectly fine.

The whole thing had us joking and wondering why little birds and animals can produce sturdy, solid construction and people can't after all we are supposed to be smarter than animals right. Since our conversation I have not only wondered about that but also why is it that animals seem to at least try to scout out the best or safest spot to build..and people will build in danger zones and then act shocked when something happens and there home is destroyed...for example your house gets destroyed by a tornado 5 times and each time you rebuild it the same way in the exact same spot, tornado number six comes along and guess what your house gets destroyed again...what do you think the person does...does he rebuild in the same spot or does he find a location that tornadoes are allergic to? If you guessed that he found a different spot you are wrong, the guy builds in the same spot and for the 7th time plays a game of twister with the tornado and loses...and now he is surprised when the insurance companies don't want to offer him any insurance on his home...yep we are definitely smarter than the animals (pause) not!



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Now playing: Grits - People Noticin' Me
via FoxyTunes

A Donut a Day...

I was checking my emails and found this, my daughter sent it to me...she's the devil!


Bad Boys...Bad Boys

Some of the recent projects that I have been working on have had me focusing a lot on my childhood. I had started traveling down memory lane a lot after being interviewed by Donald Pennington over at AC Content. (You can read the Interview here)

During the interview process and for some time afterward I began thinking a lot about my childhood, some of the things I had experienced good and bad and some of the stupid things I did as a kid.

My trip down memory lane was prolonged and intensified as I began approaching my 40th birthday. I shared some of those memories in a lighthearted article titled 40 Random (but true)Facts about MMOG37. Most of those memories were funny as I looked back on them.

The recent news stories involving kids as young as 6 and 7 years old stealing cars found my memories going in a different direction. Initially I was shocked and surprised to see such young kids doing bad things, however after the shock wore off, I began looking back at some of things I did myself as a kid and I came to realize that little boys are trouble magnets and if left alone long enough they will find all kinds of trouble to get into.

The old folks used to have a saying, "An Idle mind is the devil's workshop," and I have done my fair share of proving this old cliche to be true. This week I plan on sharing some of those stories with you, for two reasons; one as a sort of therapy for myself, and two, to prove that there still is hope for some of these little kids we see doing outrageous things, provided that there are at least a few people around them who love them enough to redirect their curiosity and help them stay and the right path.

So stay tuned...



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Now playing: Nicolaus Esterhazy Sinfonia - Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, "Eroica" - Scherzo: Allegro Vivace
via FoxyTunes

Is Customer Service Dead?



Once upon a time it seemed that customer service was a businesses main priority. Back then business owner's realized that the only thing that really separated them from their competition was the way they treated their customers.

Customer service used to be king. Every job I have ever held in the corporate world placed an emphasis on Customer service. Even the jobs I performed as a teen insisted that I treat the customer well, so well that they would always be motivated to come back again.

These days it would appear that the notion of customer service no longer exist. It used to be a rare occasion when I went into an establishment or business to be treated rudely and as if I was an inconvenience, but now it is the norm. I often find myself puzzled when I go into a service oriented business and the employees are offended when it comes time to serve.

Recently my family and I visited one of our local Walmarts. Knowing that we had a busy day ahead of us, we decided to get something to eat at the Subway Restaurant located inside Walmart. It seemed like a pretty good idea, there were only a few people in line, so we could get our food quickly and then finish shopping and running the rest of our errands. Unfortunately that's not what happened.

When it came time to place our order, my wife went first. She ordered a Turkey Wrap, something she has ordered several times before. We watched in amazement as the young lady who was preparing the Turkey Wrap gathered the ingredients she needed. She picked up each item one at a time in slow motion, then she began to assemble them, and as interesting as that was it wasn't the best part...that came when she attempted to wrap the ingredients.

Instead of folding the ends and then wrapping the ingredients, she attempted an obviously new process, she began rolling it up like a big fat joint, my wife and I were trying to contain our laughter, as the young lady looked at the wrap and realized that it didn't look right.

The young lady realized that there was something wrong with the way that the wrap looked, however before we could breathe a sigh of relief, the young lady grabbed the wrap, folded it halfway from the middle and then tried to roll it even smaller and tighter that before.

By the time she was done, it was no longer a turkey wrap, but more like a fat meat roll. After all of her hard work she realized that she couldn't let the thing go or it would just un-roll itself, so she kept one hand on it and managed to get it wrapped up in paper and then taped the paper closed to contain her Frankenstein creation.

Most sane people would have just called it quits and left, but my curiosity got the better of me so I stayed and watched the show as she tried to prepare my Foot Long Grilled Turkey Sub. It was hilarious, and by the time she was done I basically had a salad sandwich.

My son stood next to me laughing and elbowing me as the young lady prepared my sandwich, but his laughing stopped when it was his turn, as the young ladies creativity really reached it's peak. It was amazing to watch!

By the time she was done my entire family had been thoroughly entertained, if you are wondering yes I did pay for the sandwiches, I figured that the show was worth the price of admission and I knew that in the future I would be writing about it. I received tons of material from that experience.


I have not eaten at Subway since then. Shortly after that my family and I were watching T.V. when we saw a commercial for KFC, they were introducing a new special, where you could get three different styles of Chicken, a something for everybody type deal, we had just been debating about what to get for dinner and that seemed like a good ideal.

So I hopped in the truck and made my way to the local KFC. Already tasting those 3 different types of chicken, I smiled and walked up to the counter to place my order. I was waiting to hear a response like "Your total is____ and that will be ready in just a few minutes..." but that is not what I heard I heard this "I'm sorry sir, I can not sell you that item at this time."

Thinking that the young lady was trying to play a trick on me I smiled and asked what my total was, and again she said "I'm sorry sir I can not sell you that item at this time." which led to the following conversation;

me: Why Not?

her: Cause we don't have the dividers that go inside the bucket to separate the chicken.

me: What you ran out of them?

her: Naw they never sent them to us.

me: I'm not picky you can just throw them all in the bucket, I don't mind if the different chicken types touch each other.

her: I can't do that

me: why not?

her: Cause...the special shows the chicken in the bucket with the divider and I can't put them in a regular bucket.

me: Well can you charge me for the special and then put the chicken in different containers?

her: No Sir I can not do that.

me: So let me get this straight, you have the three different types of chicken in the special...

her: yes sir

me: ...and you have the ability to ring up the special on your cash register...

her:...yes sir

me: but you wont ring up the special for me because of a missing piece of cardboard?

her: that is correct sir.

me: *speechless*

Ironically during that whole conversation, the young lady behind the counter was looking at me like I was the stupid one. I turned and walked away, waiting for that Kutcher kid to jump out from behind something and tell me that I was getting punked...but that didn't happen, so I drove down the street and got Sonic Burgers for everyone.

Fortunately we were all able to laugh at the lack of customer service in those cases, but most of the times the lack of customer service leaves you feeling irritated, and wondering why individuals who do not like working with or serving people always seem to find jobs where that is what they have to do.

I wish I had my camera ready for each time I was walking toward the entrance of an establishment, and the workers were standing there looking toward the door like please don't come in here, please don't ask us any questions. I even wish sometimes that I had my voice recorder ready to capture the tone and the attitude some of these employees have when they talk to you.

In any case, one thing is clear to me...Customer Service is on Life Support and breathing it's last breath. Say bye bye to custom orders because if it doesn't have a picture to match it on the register then it's not gonna happen, and I won't even go there about phone Customer Service...

What about you...are you receiving good customer service these days?

Iron Man Rules the Box Office



I have always been a fan of Marvel Comics since I was just a little kid. When they began turning those comic book characters into movies I was more than happy. So far I have seen everyone that they have produced...usually on opening day weekend.

I have especially waiting for Iron Man to debut, as this was Marvel's first attempt at making the movie themselves. After debuting over the weekend the results are in Iron Man rules at the Box Office! Taking in more that 100 Million dollars stateside and over 100 million dollars overseas, Marvel has already made back the 184 million spent to make the movie.

My love for the comics has passed on to my children, in fact they even did a few first person perspective Squidoo Lenses featuring Characters from Marvel Comic Books. You can check out the one they did for Iron Man...if you haven't seen the movie don't worry they don't have any spoilers LOL Check it out here "I Am Iron Man"

High Gas Prices = Gas Thieves




The soaring gas prices are producing a new type of thief...the gas thief. Reports are coming in from several states where thieves are targeting cars in parking lots and driveways and removing gas from them. Feel safe because you have a lock on your fuel tank...don't, in some cases the thieves have either cut the fuel lines or even drilled holes in the fuel tank and drained the gas.

Until the prices go down it would probably be a smart thing to be mindful of where you park you vehicle, and if you have a garage you might want to park your car in it.

Thoughts 4 Thursday...




Early Morning Weirdness...

Sometimes I think that I am a glutton for punishment! I was well aware that I had a Dental Appointment this morning, and yet I managed to stay up until 2:am. Normally I can get by on just 5 hours of sleep, but my appointment was at 8:30 and I needed to leave the house by 7:30, meaning I had to wake up at least by 6 am, in order to be ready on time, leaving me with barely 4 hours of sleep.

As fate would have it, as soon as I had just landed into the best part of sleep, the blasted alarm went off. I drug myself out of bed and hit the shower hoping that it would wake me up...it didn't. I thought about having a cup of coffee, but I decided against it since I was on my way to see the Dentist.

Somehow I managed to get myself ready, and convinced my wife to tag along with me. After a few stimulating encounters with some AWD's we arrived safely at my Dental Appt, which happened to be a the Veterans Hospital. I signed myself in and waited to see the dentist.

I was trying to my best to keep from falling asleep while I was waiting, so I kept trying to pay attention to what was going on in the morning news, which was showing on the television in the waiting room. It was hard to concentrate because I kept having this weird sense that someone was looking at me. I looked to my left and there it was, this weird looking face that had a smirk on it like the person knew something that I didn't.

I looked around, and then looked back, and the creepy person was still staring at me. His gaze began to make me uncomfortable, and I began to squirm in my seat. After a few minutes of watching me move around and squirm in my seat my wife asked me what was wrong...I looked back to see if the guy was still staring at me...and he was. "What's the matter? she asked. So I told her what the problem was...

Dick Cheney Keeps Staring At Me!

scarey huh! Now imagine a 3 foot version of this picture right next to your half sleepy face... from now on, I'm going to bed on time!

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A Double Standard?


Maybe it's just me thinking again...but is there some sort of Double Standard going on? I find it very ironic that while we have high profile cases involving Several political figures who are being bounced out of office as a result of their extra martial affairs, while at the same time we have Barbara Walters coming out in the open about her own illicit relationship. On the one hand these men are on the hot seat, and some are even facing prosecution...but it almost appears that Barbara is being given the atta boy and a pat on the back for her infidelity....I don't know...I was just thinking

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Bad Boys Bad Boys....Watcha Gonna Do...

Last post I blogged about young Latarian Milton, a 7 year old who decided he wanted to do "hood rat stuff" with his friend, so he stole his grandmother's SUV and went on a destructive joy ride. I also published an article about it that you can read here (7 Year Old Steals SUV and Does Hood Rat Stuff!) I mentioned in both the article and the blog that I was not surprised at the fact that the 7 year old took the car, because I had heard of that happening before, I was mostly surprised and shocked by his reasons for doing so. He wanted to have some fun by doing bad things, in one of the other cases where a young kid took the car involved a 6 year old...who just had to have some Applebees, and decided to drive himself there to get it...don't believe me...see for yourself






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Now playing: Ayiesha Woods - The Only One
via FoxyTunes

Boys Will Be Boys...I guess

Okay after taking a few days to think about it I think I finally can put my finger on what bothered me so much about the little boy who stole his grandmother's SUV and then went on a joyride with a friend.

I wasn't bothered so much by the fact that he stole the car, after all this isn't the first time that I have heard of a young kid doing that. In fact I recall a story from last year where an even younger kid was pulled over while driving in the early morning hours. The difference is in the intentions of the young drivers. The kid in this case first stole the car because he was mad at his mother, and second he expressed that he thought that it would be fun to do "hood rat stuff" with his friend.

As a child I did some pretty stupid things myself...but they were just that stupid. I can't recall ever doing anything where I actually knew before hand that someone would get hurt, nor have I ever thought that such things would be fun.

Ummm, now that I think about it that last statement isn't completely accurate. I do recall conducting an experiment with my brothers (but I'll save that for the next post) The point is that at 7 years of age children are extremely impressionable, I can't help but wonder what this kid has been seeing and hearing that has him convinced that being destructive and inconsiderate is the way to go...and it is even more troubling to hear him say that he knew that people could have been hurt or killed...but it's fun to do bad things.

I hope that this story doesn't just fade away...I am hoping that people are paying close attention because if the children are the future...we might just be in trouble.



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Now playing: Kirk Franklin Feat. Donovan Owens - A Whole Nation
via FoxyTunes

Little Boys

I have been thinking about this story all weekend. A little boy, 7 years old took his grandmother's SUV and went on a destructive joyride with a friend. Even now I am still unsure of how I feel about this incident. In case you haven't seen it, you can view it here "7 Year old takes car..."

I guess I am having a hard time trying to categorize it. I realize that boys will be boys, and this is not the first time that a little kid has went joyriding before. I think what is bothering me is that the boy in this instance expressed that he thought that it was fun to do bad things. The notion that he could have killed someone (in addition to the thousands of dollars of damage he caused) seemed like a small inconvenience to him.

Maybe it's bothering me because he was a young African American kid, and he was on television expressing that he wanted to do "Hood Rat" stuff with his friends. Whatever the case once I sort it all out I will definitely be writing about it.

How about you, what are thoughts on the matter?

Tangled In a Twitter Twist...


It would seem that Twitter was having a bit of a tech crisis yesterday evening. Apparently one of their servers went down and the systems began acting a little funny.

Their little hiccup caused me to be on the hot seat. The post before last I admitted to being a Tech Junkie, during my day I am plugged into to who knows how many social network. As a writer I I am always doing research, responding to comments and inquiries and sending out proposals and submissions so my Tech addition is partially justified.

When I am in the office I run a program like Digsby, that maintains all of my email, instant messaging, and social networking so that I can keep my work flow going without being too distracted, when I am out of the office I usually have everything sent to my phone.

Ironically, yesterday, with the Tech Junkie post still in my head, I decided to be unplugged while I was out with my family, so while we were out at dinner I sent a tweet to Twitter, telling it to turn of all tweets (translation: I told the twitter message center not to send me any updates or messages) I was expecting one text to come through signaling that twitter had received my tweet and that tweets were indeed turned off.

Unfortunately that is not what happened, my phone began ringing off the hook, literally it seemed like every few seconds there was a new tweet! I tried sending the "off " message again but it still didn't work. I didn't find out till later that evening that there was a technical problem with Twitter, but by then I was already in trouble. I didn't even think to turn off the alert tone...oh well another lesson learned.

This morning seems like everything is back to normal with Twitter...so far. Now all I have to do is something really nice for the misses...take her out to dinner or something...this time I'll turn the phone off! :-)