As I walked down the hall to run an errand, I take a peek at the front and I see folks waiting for an interview for employment. I see a talk drink of water walking into the interview room who obviously has been listening to ZZ Tops. Clean shoes. New suit. Sharp dressed man. I turn to the left and I see a person wearing shorts, slippers, and a dirty old t-shirt to an interview. Now, I don’t care what type of job you are applying for, there is no excuse to dress like a bum to a job interview. Don’t tell me you can’t afford a nice shirt and shoes, they sell em cheap down at the thrift stores. As my dad, he goes all the time for the great deals. Ask Mackelmore, he gained popularity by singing a song about a thrift store! Dress more like you want a job and less like you are going to an Aerosmith concert. Seeing these guys in our office made me think of a scene from Lean on Me:

Am I becoming a grumpy old man? Has dressing to impress made a sharp and drastic change? Have people stopped caring about the image they are trying to portray to potential employers? I think it still matters. I’d like my future mini mes to think the every employer crazy about a sharp dressed man!

I’ve been around you know. Done a lot of growing personally and physically (I need to go to the gym more *sigh*). One of the best lessons I have ever learned has been by the great Will Wheaton, don’t be a dick.

I know when he said this famous line he was referring to sportsmanship in online gaming, but I’m sure it’s something that we can bring into our everyday lives. Don’t be a dick. In life, you will run into people who are rude, talk behind your back, lie, cheat, and steal. But, it doesn’t mean you have to. It doesn’t mean you have to lower yourself to their level and in fact “be a dick.”

It reminds me of this famous conversation from the Oscar Snub “Road House.”:

• Dalton: All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary. And three, be nice. If somebody gets in your face and calls you a cock sucker, I want you to be nice. Ask him to walk. Be nice. If he won’t walk, walk him. But be nice. If you can’t walk him, one of the others will help you, and you’ll both be nice. I want you to remember that it’s a job. It’s nothing personal.
• Steve: Being called a cocksucker isn’t personal?
• Dalton: No. It’s two nouns combined to elicit a prescribed response.
• Steve: What if somebody calls my mama a whore?
• Dalton: Is she? I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice.

I think this world would be a little bit nicer and a lot more pleasant to be apart of if other’s would just follow Wheaton’s Law. It’s only one damn law and it can make a lot of difference.

I’m not trying to get up on my soap box, but I am. This is my site, I can do whatever I want

“In the making of scotch, parts of it is burned, chopped, boiled, and pressured and with each stage gave the scotch character and appeal. Just like scotch, life is better with character. Win or lose, never ever stop fighting.” – A Redditor

I didn’t write that. I don’t think I could ever been as thoughtful and deep. But the above quote is true. Life is full of pains, heartache, and loss. But, when we endure these pains and find the strength to keep moving forward, we develop character. Think of yourself as a plant. Life shits on us, it’s a fact of life. Eventually the shit falls on the plant helps the plant grow bigger and stronger… See. I told you I couldn’t write anything deep. That’s all I got. Oh and as much as life shits on you, it also gives us some awesomeness. And the shitty parts makes the awesome parts a lot more awesome. The sweet is never sweet without the sour.

Never ever stop fighting.

A new years resolution. Seems like resolutions are made to be broken 2 weeks later. They are also encouraged to sucker folks to purchase over priced gym memberships, never to be used after the first 2 weeks, because it is crowded with other resolution suckers like yourself. We need something more than just a firm resolution to do something, we need to change the way we do everything this year. How about this:

rev·o·lu·tion [rev-uh-loo-shuh n] noun
1.A fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.

Sounds do radical doesn’t it? I’m hoping to change the structure and course of 2013 so it won’t be like 2012 or any other year. This is a year where we can take our lives in our own hands and change it for the better. I wish you all a happy new year and I hope we all have some sort of New Years Revolution for 2013.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It’s not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Viva La Resistance Bitches!

I’m going to my car and notice a piece of plastic on the ground next to my door. It looks like the fuse box cover. As I walk over to the piece of plastic, I look into my car and notice papers all over the ground. Frick. Someone broke into my car. Next, I glance at my door. It’s unlocked. Frick. Someone broke into my car because my dumb ass forgot to lock the door.

Technically, did they really break into my car? I suppose my negligence was an open invitation to come look for something valuable.

I open the car door and take a seat and think to myself, God, I really need to clean my car. That’s when I noticed that my stereo face was gone. Frick. They stole my stereo face. Now how am I going to listen to my Miley Cyrus CD?! How am I going to play my allegedly pirated NSYNC Christmas album? Oh what a cruel world!

I sat and thought about how this person went about violating my personal property. Did he/she try to see if all the cars on the streets doors were unlocked? Did they look into my window and smile like a fat kid stares at ice cream when he/she saw the door unlocked? I honestly hoped that it went down something like this…

But I doubt, that’s how it went down. It never goes down like that.

What went down was someone opened the doors, took my stereo face, left a mess, and was still nice enough to close my door on their way out. Write a police report? Nah, I ain’t even mad. This person must have been the most disappointed car thief on that night. He/she didn’t take anything. Why? Because there was nothing to take. I’m surprised the breaking and enteree didn’t leave me a bill for wasting their time on my car. All they did was make a mess of my already messy car. Sure, they took my stereo face plate, but those are a dime a dozen. The mess they made was just enough to motivate me to clean out my car. Perhaps I should thank this person. My car is clean and I am a better person for now checking to see if my doors are actually locked.

The jokes on you car breaker-inner-person. I ain’t even mad. And look, I can still play my Miley Cyrus…

Eat it Erkel!

We live in a different times. Everyone has somewhere to go. Barely anytime for community. Bills need to be paid. Jobs need to be done. I get it. Everyone is to busy to care about each other. So busy, that we have to rely on website, just to be “Social” and/ or keep some sort of connection to the people we care about. OK, not everyone is like this. But, a lot are.

And then I see the picture above. A girl gone missing in Hawaii. Posted on Facebook. Re-posted by people all through out the day. She’s been missing for a couple days and the family put her picture up. Everyone in my stream started sharing the post. Everyone wanted to help find this girl and bring her home safe. One day of constant re-posting and then… she was found. Safe and sound, going back home.

Now, I’m not sure if she was found because of Facebook and the constant re-posting of her picture found it’s way into the right hands. Maybe she was with another family member. She’s safe. But, seeing her picture go viral gave me a glimmer of hope. That people still care. That there is a sense of community with folks. That this community transcends town and city borders. The hope that we are all still looking out for each other despite our age, race, color, opinions. A hope that the communities we speak of in the past are still going strong today. A community that acts as a silent protector. A watchful guardian. A Dark Knight. Thank you to all who re-posted. My faith is restored.

You have so many relationships in this life
Only one or two will last
You go through all the pain and strife
Then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast
Oh yeah
And they’re gone so fast, yeah
Oh
So hold on the ones who really care
In the end they’ll be the only ones there
And when you get old and start losing your hair
Can you tell me who will still care?