Now What Did I Do To Create This?

When you buy a CD or a DVD and take it home it's your property. I have the sales receipt to prove it, as a matter of fact I often have to show it to a clerk at the door when the alarm goes off because the magnetic theft device inside hasn't been deactivated. But the fun starts when you try to open it later. First it's wrapped in a standard plastic wrap that you have to cut into without scaring the case, then as many as three strips of plastic adhesive film seal each edge. Sure they are labeled with the product name in a nice and neat but pain in the rear sort of way. These things always give me trouble when removing them. They tear off in small bits after you have to scratch them with your fingernails just to get a edge up to start the process and that alone gets me ticked. After you get them off you are lucky if the adhesive still isn't on the plastic case or you have not broken or left marks on the case all together. To make it more fun, try having to do this about five times in a row as I often do with music or DVDs.

What this comes down to is a fact that the public has been punished as a whole for the crimes committed by a percentage of the population. Everyone is considered a potential thief. Measures are taken by the manufacturers to prevent crime the best way they know how and the sad part is we have to pay for this two fold, first the cost of the item has this included and then we have to fight to get into what we purchased to start with.

But this type thing is everywhere, child proof cigarette lighters, child proof caps on medication bottles, seals on everything including a simple bottle of disinfectant cleaner! When our generation was growing up we were on our own for the most part. Nobody warned us in three languages that something was harmful. Did people all of the sudden get stupid or something? And I've never heard of a baby drowning in a two gallon pail, what's the deal with that? It's a conspiracy I say and I don't like where it's leading. I know coffee is hot, I know not to eat the little packet of candy included in most electronic items and I know it isn't right to hang kittens from the excess of string included on all mini blinds. Stop protecting me from myself.......

A Year Or A Day

Well today is an anniversary of sorts for me. One year ago on this date I had major by-pass surgery after the doctors warned me I would not live till Christmas. It took me six months to fully recover from all the problems and side effects, but now everything appears normal. Although thirty one pounds lighter I see no effects of problems I had before this date. I can do things that before that time I had figured had passed my life by.

With all of this came certain mental changes in life. The appreciation of what one has, what is real and matters most. I may not be wealthy but I'm a rich man inside. Although I will have to monitor certain health issues for the rest of my life, at least now I feel confident inside that the strength to do so is there. I have been told on several occassions by other physicians who read my records and the doctors notes how lucky I am just to be here.

So today is a celebration of sorts to me. Not openly or that others may understand, but rather what I found and wish to keep.

The Old Man On The Porch [part II]

Get a job. It seems that today's younger generation isn't as good as we we're on this. Or is just today it's harder to get that job? I don't think so, these jobs I speak of are out there. The current crop of drooping pants, video game expert, McDonald's fed, no singing music, "let's all look like a circus freak" generation has taken up the concept of wanting a paycheck without doing the work to get it.

For the youth that is, not for someone in my position. Close to 50 years old, white, male, the cards are against me finding another chance since I won't bend to certain basic society rules. I refuse to cut my hair [just imagine the drug test I have to face] and I speak my mind. Society rule number 1: "Shut up and listen to what we tell you". I failed that one right off.

The days are gone when a man could be a man. Before microwave ovens, before drive up windows fed the family. Hell, in a way I sound like a Merle Haggard song but it's true. We [and I speak of my generation here] are now just pawns. We live by the rules our generation helped to create [affirmative action, immigration laws.......so on] and we punish ourselves for the mistakes of our fathers, grandfathers and so on. Why? I feel as if I was a victim of something I didn't do, a crime I didn't commit. But yet I'm punished. Again, why?

Back to the job thing, I'm assigned temps to work under me on a constant basis. Each seem to present an agenda, a reason why they feel they should be treated different. An excuse to get away from the job requirements. Most last less then a week, some much longer but it's always the same story. Part of my position is to relieve them to give them breaks and lunch time. I make it a habit [out of boredom] to give extra breaks most nights. How do they repay me? They take extra time away and extend breaks for 5 to 10 minutes or more. On the lunch thing it can be up to half an hour more. So I cut them off from extra help, I don't like to be taken advantage of.

Not all of the individuals in this class are like this, there are many good ones. Ones raised to understand to make it you have to work. But the majority can be summed up in one word, "lazy". So now tell me, where does this leave the next generation?

Racist Commentary

The following comments were forwarded to me in an email. I edited the content and decided to post it. Just pushing a button here............

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You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction. You call me "whiteboy", "cracker", "honkey", "whitey" and you think it's OK. But if dare to I call you kike, towelhead, camel jockey, beaner, spear chucker, gook or chink you call me a racist. Not to mention using the "n" word, that is a reason for ejection from society as a whole and is proven to have murder charges dropped. So I can't respond to you in public the way you respond to me and I can't even have these thoughts far as that goes.

You say that whites commit violence against you, so why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live? Read the police blotter in the local newspaper each day, watch the local news on TV, what do you see? The majority of crime isn't committed by whites.

Spend some time at the local Drivers License Bureau and observe the immigrants who can't speak English applying for license. Try the local Social Services and see who gets the assistance for food stamps, welfare, job placement or funding to help during hard times. Many are not even US citizens. Yet if the average person applies they are told they make too much money and don't qualify.

Each time you make a purchase have you noticed the instructions are in multiple languages, ever notice the street signs being bi-lingual, the warning signs in most companies, the local school systems are almost impossible to get a job in unless you can speak Spanish. This is the United States of America if I remember right, the native language is English [even though the majority of native born users have no clue how to use it]. I often wonder who would want to live in country to start with when they can't communicate in a proper manner with society as a whole. So why do we have to change for them? Is this right?

Watch as someone is advanced above you or hired by your employer because of their race due to government regulations. Equal Opportunity Employer isn't quite the right phrase for the practices we observe. Yet we can't say anything or we are racist. You have the United Negro College Fund. You have Martin Luther King Day. You have Black History Month. You have Cesar Chavez Day. You have Yom Hashonah. You have Ma'uled Al-Nabi. You have the NAACP. You have BET. Numerous Spanish channels and radio stations.

If we had WET(white entertainment television) we'd be racists. If we had a White Pride Day you would call us racists. If we had White History Month, we'd be racists. If we had an organization for only whites to "advance" our lives, we'd be racists. If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships, you know we'd be racists. What about a Ms. White America beauty pageant? We can't even think of that. There are over 60 openly proclaimed black colleges in the US, yet if there were "white colleges" that would be a racist college. In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights. If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists. You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and red, and you're not afraid to announce it. But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

You rob us, carjack us, and shoot at us. But, when a white police officer shoots a gang member or beats up a drug-dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist. Why are hate crimes only committed against the minority?

I am proud. But, you call me a racist. Why is it that only whites can be racists?

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OK, last word. Last time I checked my skin was not white. I've never seen a real black man for that matter, nor a person who is yellow, red or the other multiple colors used to describe people. I think I need my eyes checked.

The Power Ball Upside The Head

What would we do if we won the lottery? How many have never given this a serious thought? Even if you never buy a ticket these things do pop into our minds from time to time. 100 million, 200 million, more? How much does it really take to be happy? Let's play the numbers game here, how much [seriously] do you need to be happy? I've always told my wife, "If we can't be happy living in a two room shack then chances are we won't be happy living in a mansion".

A good portion of lottery winners end up filing bankruptcy in just a few short years. Others end up cursed, family issues to deal with, major issues that led to deaths of love-ones and themselves. All due to dealings relating to one thing, money. Some see it as power, that power is greater then their minds in the long run and using it only brings the problems. Sort of like the old saying, "money can't buy happiness but it can rent it for 30 minutes". First thing anyone should do when winning any amount of money is make it clear that your name should never be published with amount you won. I don't care if it's $10,000 or ten million, you have the right to keep it out of the press. If you have a need to brag about the good, then you have lost already.

OK, here is my answer to the numbers game. The actual figure to win to set you up for life would be around $500,000.00 A cool half million after taxes, yeah that should do it for anybody. If your figure is higher then I think you should stop reading. The greed you have or personal needs are above my dreams and if it evolves helping others, well that can be accomplished with my plan but not make anyone rich.

First you need to know the rules. This is your money alone. Nobody should come into play with the plans to use it. Don't pay to have the church parking lot paved, don't donate a certain figure to a well known charity and for God's sake don't answer the countless phone calls from lost friends and relatives until you are clear in your mind how you plan the money out. So I repeat myself here, "don't let your mouth write a check that your ass can't cash". Take a minimum of a month to decide this with input from your immediate family and close chosen relatives and friends. Still remember, it's your money. You don't owe anything if it isn't in writing.

My mind has simple ways to plan this. How many of the lost friends and family knocked on my door, called me or even emailed me two years or more ago when I was facing losing everything I had due to illness and unemployment? I know the answer and those will be remembered. The rest are fare weather, my weather is rarely fare. You have to figure this portion into the plan, making friends isn't hard during the good times, it's the bad times that define this.

Now to the plans to spend my fortune [that even I know is a false dream]. Put $200,000.00 into a house, a nice one, in a rural area that gives you room to grow, yet doesn't exceed this amount [if you need more then you also have too much greed for one person to bear]. Put $35,000.00 into paying off the average household debts, credit cards, car loans, personal debts. A good bit of mine is medical but each has there own prison. Another $50,000.00 to help family, friends, donations or whatever [you figure this one out] but keep this a basic rule, the 10% thing! Where I did I get that?

At this point you are dept free, your have nothing to pay. Buy a new car? Sure, but does that car need to cost $55,000.00? I think not, pay cash for a good one around $10,000.00 and it serves the same purpose. Seriously it does. So are we stupid or what? Or am I the stupid one? I still have a new car, a new house, I'm dept free and still have the same income I had before since nobody has quit their job yet. But now we have options. I can look for something that makes me more happy or even invest part of the $200,000.00 I have left over after a nice family vacation which cut $5,000.00 out of the picture.

But the basic plan is invest the $200,000.00 into nice nest egg fund. One that will pay me up to say the rate of 12% per year or more. Never touch the remainder of your money [unless you change your mind] and that is a guaranteed $2,000.00 a month to live on. Take out around half for normal things [utilities, food, etc.] and it still leaves a one thousand a month to play with. $250 a week to play with. Do you have more now? Seriously if you do then I'll swap with you now.........if you actually need more then I have to pass, I wouldn't won't to be you.

The Old Man On The Porch [part I]

Certain things seem to get under my skin, they always have. Today's youth and the car stereo thump, thump drives me crazy. You never hear music, just the thump. Is it necessary to have someone two blocks away know you are coming? Do these young people have any idea the damage they are doing to their hearing? The Ipod age will face a much more severe problem then our generation did in terms of hearing loss.

So did we play our music loud in the during the 70s? Yes we did. As loud as we could during those times. So many memories do I recall of riding in friends cars listening to 8-track tapes blaring through busted speakers. Most speaker systems then could handle around 2 watts, now even the stock Detroit autos have outstanding sounding stereos that can handle up to 100 watts with ease. My how that has changed from the times when our first autos had only a AM radio with one mono speaker and we could pick up three stations that were worth listening to. Well I guess not that much has changed, I still have trouble finding three stations worth listening to. We do have the CD players to fall back on if it weren't for the fact I'm too lazy to grab one each day to take with me.

But this isn't about the type music they listen too, that is another topic all together, but the way they evade others privacy doing it. Yes I love my music and I like it pretty loud at times, but I don't recall going into convenience stores and leaving it playing to drive others out of their mind. I would always turn it down when I pulled into the parking lot and turn it off when I got out of the vehicle. Shouldn't there be laws enforced a bit better on this stuff? I know it was like that when we were growing up or maybe we just knew better.

And another thing, who thought up that stupid slang saying "24-7". I'd like to a chance to slap who is responsible. What a waste of breath it is for someone to say that. That is nearly as bad as "you go girl".

Bird Cage Liners

When my wife came in from work today she brought home the local Sunday newspaper. As I looked through it I thought of how much less importance they are now, newspapers in general of course. How much longer can this form of media stay vital or even necessary to the public? I remember when I was a young lad, maybe 11 to 12 years old I would wait eagerly for the paper to arrive each day, especially in the summer. I would run to the front yard, grab it so I would be the first to read it. All just to look at the baseball box-scores.

The average home which still subscribes to one or two newspapers daily generates much more waste in this area. Recycling has yet to catch on for most of the rural areas, so that translates into waste. I can't remember the last time I clipped an article from a paper to save and the excitement is long past to read the sports page. We have 24 hour cable channels to keep up on anything we need to know at a click of a remote as well, just too much competition in the long run.

I do keep up with local news by way of the Internet. All local newspapers have their own websites, not all the daily content is available but the most important things are. I would be happy to pay a small fee each month for access to more this way rather then pay to subscribe to have one be delivered to my home. Most of the sites have limited data bases but that could easily change, add better search engines and the ability to trace back old editions for vital research articles. Anything of interest for that matter and you now have a vital tool to use from your home as you wish. I could see myself paying the $12 a month it cost for subscription.

The cost of printing and delivery alone is staggering compared to the cost of maintaining a proper website. In the future I see this being the outcome as few homes now aren't online, as the next generation takes hold of the system a lot of changes along these lines are inevitable. Sometimes progress is a good thing. Notice I write "sometimes", I don't agree with all progress.

So save a tree, surf the net!